Inventory

I am 20 weeks pregnant , which is officially halfway through, although of course the pregnancy could be longer or shorter than 40 weeks. We have been very excited since the ultrasound, and spent a lot of time this weekend reading our baby name book. Some names we had been considering were decided against, and some new ones were added to the list. I don't want to post the list yet, but I'll say that Dean and I both seem to like names that sound somewhat old-fashioned, as well as names that end in "a."

I am super excited that the baby is a girl, although I suspect I would be very excited about a boy, albeit in a totally different way. I had been leaning toward wanting a girl, but the night before the ultrasound I kept waking up hearing "it's a boy," and I was still very happy. In fact right before the ultrasound technician told us it was a girl I thought I could see that it was a boy, if you know what I mean--I guess I was looking at the umbilical cord? Anyway, maybe it's just the 20-week ultrasound, but since Friday I have been much more excited about the part where we HAVE A BABY, as in when the baby comes home and we get to have it, oops, HER, around. This is an extreme relief since I have been pretty nervous so far. I'm still nervous, but I am also enchanted by our lovely daughter's first baby pictures and I can't wait to see her in person!

She is moving around a lot more in her snug little space. Or I guess she is moving the same amount, but I can feel it more. The flutters and kicks are interesting, but there is also one very odd type of movement. It's odd because of where I feel it, which is sort of down low, just over the cervix area. It makes sense that you would feel movement there, but it's strange because, as Meg put it, "you didn't think anyone could ever touch you there." I'm excited for when Dean can feel her kicking. On Friday afternoon, she kicked strongly enough for me to feel with my hand on my belly, but that's all so far and of course there is no way of predicting when that will happen again.

We are collecting more and more baby items, so I thought it would be fun to take a baby stuff inventory. So far, my daughter-to-be owns:

1 crib, bought Saturday with Meg and Sophie, to be delivered in 7-14 business days. It looks like this one except it's brown, not black. (Don't cribs look like jail cells?)

1 beautiful quilt, handmade by Dean's great aunt for him when he was born, seen below

1 doll, handmade by Dean's grandmother, also seen below



5 finger puppets: I bought these at Eastern Market with Laura a month or two ago. (Note the baby llama, baby monkey and baby kangaroo!)



3 books: Goodnight Moon and Pat the Bunny, sent by Liz; Freedom on the Menu and Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope, sent by Linda; and Hippos Go Beserk!, bought by me on the day I first heard the baby's heartbeat




2 gowns: pink, one polka dot and one with tiny flowers and a little lamb applique



(See the little lamb?)



1 towel. It has a little lamb hood on it. (I seem to have a weakness for lambs.)

1 pajama set: pink, with matching hat, bib (again with a lamb), and socks.

1 rattle: a cow, with udders, sent by Corrie

24 pairs of socks that look like shoes, sent by my mother in both boys and girls versions in two sizes, seen below in green.

and

1 soft blanket with baby animals on it. (This, the towel, the pajama set and the gowns, not to mention the crib, were bought this weekend by sweet Aunt Meg, who visited with precious baby Sophie--and I forgot my camera so I have no picture of them!)



It's all very exciting and almost exhaustingly cute!