4 months (week 17)

Sean and I have been confussed about the weeks, months etc of my pregnancy. So I found this website where you can enter your due date and it tells you all the info. So right now I am 4 months pregnant, but I am in my 5th pregnancy month. Do you get it?

Dates and numbers:
There are 158 days until your due date on June 24, 2008.
You are 122 days pregnant.
You are 17 weeks, 2 days pregnant.
You are 4 months pregnant.
You are in your 5th month of pregnancy. (huh?)
Your 1st trimester: September 18, 2007 to December 17, 2007. (0 - 12 weeks)
Your 2nd trimester: December 18, 2007 to March 31, 2008. (13 - 27 weeks)
Your 3rd trimester: April 01, 2008 to June 24, 2008. (28 - 40 weeks)

Baby activity?

I think I might have felt junior kick twice now. Sunday while I was reading on my stomach in bed and yesterday while sitting on the couch. I am not sure if the feeling was indeed junior, but I am pretty sure it was. Like little bubbles in my belly..... in a couple of weeks when I recognize the feeling more I will know for sure. How cool!

Baby furniture

During our last week off after New Year's Sandra was looking on Marktplaats (the Dutch eBay) for baby furniture and found a nice set. For a few weeks now we were looking for baby furniture in white wash that wasn't only for an infant, but stuff that could be used a little later. Sandra saw the ad about 10 minutes after it was placed and sent an email. Within 30 min San talked to the woman and it sounded good, so we had an appointment for to pick it up the next day. Since it couldn't be taken apart we borrowed our neighbor's car and went with both cars down to Delft (about 50 min drive). It was neat, sturdy, and of good quality. Maybe a quick lick of paint and a new mattress cover, and it's good to go. All for €175! The people were very nice and quite well-to-do, but they were very hospitable and offered us some tea before helping us pack it up. San was a champ helping carry everything upstairs, which we did very slowly (it was lightweight and not having a big belly yet helped). What a difference- that really helped make the baby atmosphere stronger! We both open the door and look in and get warm feelings each time we walk by the room.

Belly pictures (16 weeks)

So here are some more belly pictures, 4 weeks after the previous ones posted.

79 cm this time at the belly button. I think I have gone up from a size 6 to a size 8 by now.


Still not much of a belly, even though I think it is slightly more than 4 weeks ago (or wishful thinking?). Every time I look at these pictures I dislike my arched back... and here is when I even try to hide it by standing up extra strait.

Changes

First of all Happy New Year to everybody. I hope it will as much of an exciting year for you as it will be for us!

So yesterday I decided to switch from the gynecologist to a midwife. I was allowed to because of my lack of a medical indication (see a previous entry). But still I was debating, because I do want to deliver in the hospital, so was changing really worth it?

I called the hospital first to see what I would have to do to switch. Once again I got treated unpleasant and by yet another person, so I decided to call the midwife. There secretary was super nice, took all my info, made an appointment and right away it felt more personal. The midwife will also look at my 20 week ultrasound, so I canceled the ultrasound at the hospital, where I would not even see my gynecologist, but a technician (who I am sure will do a good job as well). I just didn't think there was a point in staying with him if I wasn't going to see him anyway. Besides this the gyno is really only interested in the medical stuff and not in my questions regarding the best diapers etc to use....which are starting to pop up in my head as we move further into the pregnancy. The midwife will be more cozy and helpful that way.

So this coming Tuesday I have my intake talk at the midwife, I am curious to see the difference, but after the couple of unpleasant phone calls with the hospital I am already relieved I made this change.

Junior's new wheels

Yesterday we went to a big baby store nearby to pick out a stroller. Since we had no idea how long the ordering time would be we decided to go nice and early and also because we are having vacation together and enough time to pick out such items.

Good thing we had enough time, because it wasn't easy. Soooo many choices, and we even did some research up front. We knew that we wanted something very practical for when we travel, wheels that can handle off-paved paths and not to ridiculously priced.

We felt like complete dummies (which we technically are), but luckily we weren't the only new parents and we were all driving the strollers, hitting the corners, being clumsy trying to fold the stroller and getting our fingers stuck in the process of this.

Eventually (2 hours later) we decided on this stroller: The Mutsaerts (hihi, what a coincidence) Combi Style.

The stroller can be rebuild into a buggy when the baby is about 6 months and to big to lay in the stroller. We got all the accessories (like bags, blankets, rain cover) for free because of a Christmas discount. And on top we got a car seat with it that can also be mounted on the frame. Not bad...
The one downside of these strollers is that the frames don't fold very small, not even if you buy one that is twice the price. So we bought another buggy with it, that has a frame that folds super small and can be taken as hand luggage for traveling. The car seat clicks onto this frame, so again for traveling, or doing a quick shopping you don't have to take the whole stroller but just the car seat and the small frame. Besides that the buggy can be used up to the age where junior starts walking....
Here is the picture of our very modern and stylish buggy.

The baby's heartbeat!

Ok, Sean here this time. 

Technology is wonderful. I was able to record the experience of hearing our baby's heartbeat for the first time in both audio and video with a cell phone. Not exactly groundbreaking by today's standards, but I have to think of our parents generation which did not even get to have echos and ultrasounds, or even our just 40+ friends who had to bring in a tape recorder to capture their kid's heartbeats. 

A colleague of mine asked whether it will be a soul/jazz baby or a techno baby. I think his/her heartbeat is pretty strong and sounds like a soul baby to me. That would be great, because, as most of you out there know, my taste in music does not include techno.