I'm just a vessel...

So as I'm driving home today I begin to have the same thoughts that I've had this whole week...I'm just an incubator. My body has been invaded by a foreign being that feeds off of me. I am just an safe haven- growing, stretching, itching, and conforming to whatever shape makes the baby happy. And just to think....24 weeks ago this baby was nothing but a micro organism that has completely expanded into something that moves- yes- it moves and I can see it! Not only do I get beat up from time to time (only on Sundays in church), but I can feel him moving all across my tummy...sometimes really low, sometimes high where if I look down I see the wave. This whole idea of childbirth and child bearing is such an amazing thing. Just the whole concept of conception and all the stages up until childbirth. I really appreciate that I can now feel and see him moving though. It makes me happy and I feel a sense of joy just knowing that I am going to be the mother of a beautiful baby boy really soon. This is my little parasite (that's how the midwife once described the baby...because if I didn't give him the nutrients he needed, he would feed off of my bones, etc, to get what was necessary). Let's just say...life from here on out is going to be interesting...

Baby Abuse

22 weeks

A previous post reminded me of this past Sunday. So we are in church, and Baby Lopez (yes, he is still Baby Lopez...we will talk about that in a minute) is moving around. Now, when he kicks its usually really low and just feels kinda weird, nothing major. Today in church pastor was getting good into his message and so was the baby. The louder the pastor got, the harder I got kicked. Every time he finished a sentence on a high (loud note), bam! I got kicked. I was sitting in my seat jumping like I had sever hiccups or something! I even put Francis hand on my belly for him to feel. It was non-stop action. I don't know if he was trying to tell me something or he just got excited by pastor's voice, but whatever the case may be, it was quite the different experience. Now he's back to his regular light kicks that just feel weird. I'ma test this theory out next Sunday that he just has a thing for pastor getting all loud, but at the same token, I don't wanna get beat up from the inside every Sunday!

Oh, and the name game.... so after we found out it was a boy, Francis decides to make a compromise with me ( this was, of course, a few days later). He says " if the baby looks like me, we will name him Francis Jr, if it looks like you, you can name him, and if it looks like my brother, we will name his Samuel. Now, Francis really wants to name the baby Samuel regardless...I think we should make Samuel the middle name and choose a first name that we both agree on. I don't even have a problem with naming him Francis Samuel...that's my compromise. I am really a fan of calling the baby Baby Eli for some reason too though. I like Elisha as a first name...last night Francis told me he likes Elijah better than Elisha...cause Elisha sounds like a girl. Anyone who I say Elisha to automatically thinks I said Elijah...which could pose a problem for the baby growing up. So yeah...we still don't have a name. I asked him if we could go back over our list that we had back when we first found out we were expecting and see if anything jumps out. I fear, however, that the baby will not be named until he is in this world. On a lighter side...Francis says to me the other day, I really need to figure out what I'm going to name this baby. I said, oh really. You need to figure out what to name our baby that is coming out of my vagina? He said, yeah, that's my fatherly duty. Hmp...I don't think so!

The XY factor

So on January 2nd, Francis and I went for our possibly last ultrasound. As soon as we get in the room the tech asks us if we want to know the sex of the baby. Francis is like " Yeah, that's what we're here for! lol). Needless to say, within five minutes of us having the gel on the belly, she pronounces, "It's a boy!" and types XY with an arrow next to his pee pee. Francis smiled for the whole hour after that :) Our little man likes to move his hands alot. Francis asked the tech if he was throwing up gang signs, lol. The tech also showed us the baby in 3D....and I was like, whoa, that looks like an alien baby, not cute at all...needeless to say, I don't have those pictures. He wouldn't get into a position where she could take better pictures either...sounds like a stubborn Taurus man to me.

So we go to my grandmother's house to show her the new pictures...and pronounce the sex of the baby. When she see's the pic of his pee pee, she like, "Wow that baby has alot down there"! Francis is like..."Yeah boy, that's Lopez right there". She gives him the crazy look and we go about our business. But then other people have had the same reaction as well...in church, work, chapter, with whoever I show the picture....I'ma ask the doctor if there is something unusual about my baby's pee pee...if she says he's fine, then I guess he will just be a well endowed man ;)

Daddy's Joy

So Wednesday, the official 19th week of my pregnancy, I was laying down with my hand on my belly when I felt a thump...I was like, omg....that was the baby, lol. So when Francis got home from work I told him about it and showed him what it felt like, and he immediately put his hands on my belly and started talking to the baby. He's like, hey chi chi...you wanna move for daddy? huh? don't you wanna move for daddy? And sure enough, the baby moved! Francis had the purest smile on his face that I've ever seen :) Definitely a day for the record books :)

In other news, my flank pain is not as severe as last week, now I think that baby likes to rest its head in the area of my right kidney/bladder, because sure enough, when I have Francis massage that area, the baby moves. So yes, baby is ok, mommy is just the one in pain. I also had to take out my belly ring for good. I figure, if I plan on giving Baby Lopez a sibling in the near future, I might as well just take it out since my belly button is already popping out, instead of risking a tear, and I can always re-pierce it later.

Lastly, I leave you with this: I can officially stand straight up, look downward, and not see my feet...yes..the belly is that large, lol!

My baby's a dancer

So Friday morning I ended up in the E.R. with the worst flank pain ever! I could barely walk, I couldn't hold food down. I started vomiting from about 3 or 4 a.m. and didn't finish til that evening. I went into the hospital feeling horrible....and left feeling the same way. The couldn't tell me much and I still have to wait for some test results to come back for a final word. The radiologist informed me that my kidneys were dilated and suggested that it may be hydronephrosis, but he did not see any kidney stones or anything. So we shall see... The radiologist did tell me that my baby is a moving machine. He was like wow, he sure is moving a lot. Everything checked out ok with Baby Lopez and the radiologist gave us some films that we could take to show progress. He also said that it is a possibility that Baby Lopez is gonna be a junior...but he couldn't be 100% positive because the umbilical cord was between its legs. However, he said that from some views it did look like a boy...( Francis was estatic!!! ) In the upcoming weeks we should be able to tell for sure. Also, the baby sits super low...like almost under my belly! And (s)he was moving alot during the sonogram. One minute sucking its thumb, the next kicking its legs out, the next moving its arms...just working it all out....and yet I still don't really feel anyting definitive...but I'm hopeful that in the upcoming weeks I will be able to feel something.

Lastly, I have never seen the doctor so much until I got pregnant. Especially the E.R. But its all worth it when they tell you that the baby is just fine. HOWEVER, I have also never experienced a pain like the one I experienced Thursday night/Friday morning/day, and it make me question natural childbirth. I might have to go with the drugs afterall :/

Belly Pictures Galore :)

Week 16

Ok...so I wasn't able to download pics from both my camera and phone...but here are weeks 11, 12, and 16....when I can figure out how to get the pics from my phone I can post week 13, 14, and 15. Enjoy! Oh, don't hate on the pj's... and I know that they aren't posted in order, I haven't figured out everything with the blog site :/

Week 12 in the light pj's
Week 11 in the green pj's

Nope...Just Gas...

So we are at 17weeks and according to the baby books some mother may start feeling the baby's movements. So between that and everyone at church looking at me and saying, wow, do you feel the baby moving yet...I figure, maybe its gonna happen soon. Everyone keeps telling me that it will feel like flutters, or like bubbles, or gas... So I'm like, ok. The other night, I laid in the bed at like 5am feeling rumbling in my stomach...I'm like, ohhh, this might be it, but nope, it was just gas. Gas, gas, gas...it's always just gas. Every bubble I ever feel turns out to be gas! My mom asked me this morning, " Do you feel the baby moving???" I'm like, nope... just gas, lol.

And speaking of my mom...last Sunday I saw her. As I'm standing, talking to my grandmother, she's making fun of me saying I look like a fat frog! She even called my house the next day asking if this was the fat girl residence, lol. And yes...I have pics to post...from week 16 on down...I haven't taken my 17 week picture yet.

There's still not complaints really...I do have the occasional hip pain and sciatic nerve pain, but Baby Lopez and I are groovy. We bought one of those baby monitors to hear the heartbeat, just to read that we probably won't be able to hear anything until the third trimester :/ However, I do think I heard the baby kicking :)