23 weeks

Here I am at 23 weeks. And a Happy Father's Day to my baby daddy as well as my daddy and dad-in-law!

Well folks, it looks like we have a protester on our hands

Kerry's mom and dad gave us a book that they had stashed in their library entitled "A Child is Born The Drama of Life Before Birth" by A. Ingelman-Sundberg - a book they bought when they were expecting Auntie Krista. It has all sorts of details about what baby is doing down there in the 9 months proceeding birth and to be honest, I avoided looking at it for a little while because some of the photos gave me the heebie geebies. I like envisioning our baby as a cute little chubby-cheeked sweetie-pie - not a shrimp. However, I picked it back up again the other day and opened to this passage which I found to be most amusing:

"The parents will soon learn what sort of temperament their child has. Some babies are calm and [this is my favorite part] 'reasonable' in the womb, and react only occasionally with a delayed movement of the hand or foot, as though to remind the outside world of their existence. Others are easily upset and protest with vigorous kicks as soon as they are not softly rocked by their mother or if absolute quietness does not prevail. The little being there in the womb is no longer anonymous. It has personality."

First of all, I love how the picture of the first child is painted - "calm" and "reasonable." In the second scenario - if your baby likes to move about a lot, as BH has made very clear, then the baby is "upset" and/or "protesting." How about your baby will be a world renowned gymnast or an all-star athlete? But no, we're going to have a drama queen, apparently. I don't mean to make it sound like the book offends me because really I take pure joy in knowing that even before I know this child, he/she has a fiercely strong personality. Look out world - here comes Baby Hutch!

5 1/2 months/22 weeks

Music to Baby Hutch's ears

Last night I went to see Kerry's band, Exebelle and the Rusted Cavalcade, play at a place in town called the Camel. This was the first time that Baby Hutch got to hear Exebelle live in concert (Exebelle has practiced a couple of times in our place). By the last song, there was a little bit of movement going on. Dancing, perhaps?


Another treat was that our friends the Lindblooms (Ethan & Shannon) also attended the show. Shannon's due date is just 4 days behind mine - October 22nd. So we had to get a picture of the two pregnant ladies together (I'm sure there will be more of these). Ethan likes to say that when Shannon and I are belly-to-belly that our babies can talk to each other :)



That big stripe across my stomach is the "waist" of my new Old Navy maternity jeans that are already getting to be too tight! Pregnancy is fun! :)

21 weeks

Well, we didn't take a picture last week and what a difference a week makes! I look so much bigger in this photo than in the one below at 19 weeks.

The last two weeks, Baby Hutch has been extremely active! Kerry was sitting next to me on the couch yesterday when I prompted him to "look!" Baby Hutch was kicking so hard that my tummy was actually jumping with each kick. Kerry's mom mentioned today that perhaps this baby is going to be a dancer. No pressure, Baby Hutch, but I really like that idea!

On another note, for those of you that are curious, we have indeed picked out a couple of names that we're pretty sure we're going to use (one for a girl and one for a boy). This was a really hard task for me - I feel like I've liked and then grown to dislike so many names over the years that the pressure to pick out the "right" one was just too great. I always thought I would have a really easy time picking a name but even now, I'm not completely sure. What helps to make me more sure is that we've told both sets of parents and Auntie Krista the names and no one seemed to dislike our picks. Also, Kerry is very sure - and the fact that we were able to agree on 2 names seems to be a pretty good sign as well. I apologize for teasing you, but we are going to keep the names relatively secret - only telling family for the time-being. The reason for this is because a few weeks ago while getting my nails done, the manicurist asked about our names. I told her our pick for a girl and her reaction? "Well, it's not my favorite..." Well, certainly not! It's not your child! (that's what I was thinking - however, instead of saying anything I think I just sat there because I was in shock) So, of course none of you would blurt out such an insult (really, it could've been worse) but for sanity's sake, we're going to keep them on the DL for now. Sadly, that manicurist ruined it for everyone else but October will be here soon enough for those of you that are sitting on the edge of your seats with suspense :)

Tomorrow we have another appointment with our midwives! We'll let you know if there is any news to report after that meeting. Until then, thanks for reading!