Another milestone!

So, today was my first day of truly acquiescing and wearing a straight up maternity blouse. It was not one of the flowy type things - it was a very structured button up blouse with french cuffs and....tah dah...an empire waist neatly stitched under the chest. Wow. It's just bizarre I felt so comfortable. All of my fitted button up blouses were starting to pull at the belly - all I have needed was a beer/sweat stain around my gut and would totally be that slobby guy with a beer and a gaping shirt. So, I felt very at home in this shirt, but at the same time I felt like I didn't have the license just yet. It's so odd to explain -- it's like there's a secret club of REALLY pregnant women who get to wear the blatantly "maternity" type clothes and I don't quite qualify. However, today I just decided --- dammit! I DO QUALIFY! So there.

Also, our little peach is growing like crazy (according to the books). Last week we heard the heartbeat again -- and this time it was with one of those standard handheld monitors. Prior to this it was through this vaginal microphone thing. Frankly, it looked like a sex toy more than anything --- and trust me, it wasn't, uh, pleasurable. So getting the first sonogram - I have to explain this to illustrate the marvel of this latest sonogram - was very ambiguous. Sure, we heard a heartbeat up on a monitor and it was neat and all... But for all we knew the sonographer could have been playing a VCR tape with a little thump on it. In other words, there was no stomach area-baby heartbeat connection. We never saw anything happen in my tummy region to associate with baby. Okay -- so anyway, the other day we heard the heart beat and it was with the little dealie actually touching my belly. It was so cool. It was cool because after it was all over I could put my fingers exactly where the monitor had been and know that this is precisely where this baby was swimming around! Now I feel a little more connected to my stomach area now - it's like I can actually point the spot where this baby is! Josh and I both lit up when she showed us that and we agreed it was so much cooler than the "magic wand and tv monitor" version we had originally seen.

Okay, so yeah, a lot of chatter to capture the essence of our heartbeat experience, but it was really really neat. I can't wait to feel the "quickening" or the little swimming around/butterfly feeling I'm supposed to feel in the next week or so. Again, it will make everything seem so much more real. And I'll be dressed like one of the "club" members too, so that's good......

Next week, NESTING!! I'm DYING to start nesting!!!