20 Weeks

It's lunchtime on Saturday and I'm still in my PJ's. Matt's playing golf and I slept until 10. Life is good!

We had the 2nd Trimester Ultrasound on Wednesday and according to one of the pictures, my baby is the love-child from the rock group KISS. The ultra sound technician was most impressed with the image that screened so well we could see the baby's eye lenses even through the closed lids - she printed it out quickly and we tried not to look astonished! We are having an alien!

The other images she printed were great. One is a gorgeous sleeping baby. The other image shows the feet. You can count the ten toes! Everything measured in correctly at 19 weeks except for the legs which measure at 21 weeks! (I have long legs and both Matt and I are near to 6 ft).

We saw the heart, kidneys, stomach, lips, ears, eyes, legs, arms, spine etc. She took lots of measurements and assured us that the kidneys and bladder appeared to be working and that things seemed ok. The technicians are always pretty guarded though, I guess they're not doctors and can't tell you too much. I wished she would tell me my child was 100% perfect and healthy and would grow to solve the challenge of world peace, cure cancer and bring back into balance the environmental disasters we are facing. (I don't want much!!)

It was exciting to see the baby on screen but it felt surreal. It was like I was watching 60 minutes and they were showing an ultrasound. It didn't feel like my ultrasound, like our baby we were seeing!

So back to the doctor on Monday and he will have looked at the images and no doubt assure me that I have a world changing young person in-utero.

I told the kids at school this week. Here are two of my favourite responses:

From a 5 year old boy "You should name the baby Princess"
From a 5 year old girl "You know that baby's drinking your blood right now."

All the kids and parents were really happy for me and for Matt. I've been given plenty of hugs, some cards and gifts and lots of well-wishes already. There's much excitement and speculation about the name, gender and due date. Most touching are the Mums who ask if I'll return to work at this school and I've been told "We'd hate to lose you" many times.

This week we test drove a second hand Honda CRV. We are looking for something to replace Matt's ute that only seats two. I drive a little zippy Holden Astra Hatchback which we'll keep for me and the bub, but now we need a family car. The same day I drove home the Honda (a big SUV), a friend gave me her baby car seat and a baby bassinet. I drove home and nearly ran off the road when I looked in the rear vision mirror and saw a car seat and all the baby stuff. I thought "Holy Crap - I'm a soccer mum!"

I'm very tired this week. Kindergarten is a busy place - swimming carnival on Tuesday, Pirate Party on Thursday, Major Assembly on next Monday, Cross Country Carnival next week. Being pregnant has put a bit of a handbrake on my energy levels and by 3:30pm I'm ready for bed.

On Thursday, we visited a friend who has a five week old baby (her first). She was sitting on the lounge, breast feeding with the remote in her hand. And whilst I'm sure she'd had a tough day I was a little peeved when she looked at me, slumped on the lounge and said - "You seem a little stressed, are you worried about how it's all going to go?" And whilst I know she was well-intentioned, I felt like saying: "I have just dealt with 25 kids - helped them make pirate hats and pirate parrots and hosted a pirate party to celebrate the letter P. I did playground duty, tied up shoelaces, dealt with parents and searched through lost property for a hat with no name. This is not stress on my face, it's fatigue. How was Oprah today?" Hmmm - yes and maybe a touch hormonal as I reflect on it now!!

I hope you're all having a great weekend. If not, put your PJ's on. It helps.