Synagogue Singing and Holiday Cheer

We hope people are enjoying their holidays, especially if it includes a little time off work - Dave and I are visiting my Grandma Joan in Colorado, but the internet connection is spotty, so this might be our only post until after the New Year. We're excited for 2008; 2007 was a spectacular year for the Cumbie Reckess house, and so far 2008 is on tap to be even better!

Last Friday evening, Dave, Azzy, Paula and I attended synagogue services at Temple Beth Shalom, where Dave and I are members. It was the first time we've been to synagogue since the baby can "hear" outside noises - and wow! As soon as we began singing, the baby had a party. Approximately 50 people were in attendance, and some of us are louder singers than others (Azzy and I seem to have cornered that market), and with each song, the baby rolled. Dave had read in the baby book that sometimes fetuses are startled by sudden sounds, but the baby didn't seem to be startled at all - more like lulled. Of course, there is quite a difference between a synagogue service and an Ozzy Ozbourne concert, so perhaps lullabyes at services don't startle as much as Crazy Train. Regardless, I couldn't help but feel very pleased that the baby enjoyed my Hebrew, even if I always seem to be a couple of syllables behind everyone else.

I do have to add a second part to this story, though, which was that earlier on Friday I was driving alone, and the song Hey Ya by Outkast came on, to which the baby also responded very postitively. So it appears that our fetus enjoys both a beautiful Friday night service AND hip hop. Maybe we should try an opera?

Our First Foray into Baby Land

Dave and I made our move yesterday, walking back through Target to the scary area where large strollers rise up to the ceiling and infant car seats fall off the shelves at any false move. We weren't there to buy anything, just to get a handle on all this information and get a sense of what's what.

What's what? Dave battled a stroller and still couldn't figure out how it folds up in one motion. I was unable to unhook an infant car seat from its car base. Neither of us knew why the infant area is filled with all the baby princess gear (you can even buy a car seat in hot pink that says, "I'm a princess" all over it. Scary.). Most of the car seats are too heavy for me to pick up (now imagine a 12 pound child in it at the same time). I suddenly wished we didn't live on the second floor of an apartment with no elevator (I told Dave that baby and I will only be going on stroller outings if Dave helps me carry the stroller down the stairs every morning before he leaves for school next summer).

In a word we were: overwhelmed.

So we came home and I took a nap and Dave did chores and then we spent the night going through the baby name book instead, coming up with a list of potentially catastrophic names for baby:

Llewelyn
Dickran
Rainbow
Avril Lavigne

Picking out names for a child is still overwhelming (Do I want to say the name Simone for the rest of my life?), but somehow it feels more manageable at this stage than looking at a crib and wondering if baby's head will somehow get stuck in there or if baby's fingers will be crushed by the infant car seat mobile that you wind up and it plays "It's a Small World After All."

Xray vision?

I am standing at one end of the house, ironing clothing that has been patiently waiting to be ironed for 6 weeks. Dave is at the other end, paying bills. We are having a quiet morning of chores (welcome to vacation!). Then Dave walks through the house toward the kitchen, I smile at him, and the baby kicks! Pow! It's like the baby has Xray vision. Here comes Dad!

Baby Loves Ovaltine

And we have a winner... the food/liquid that makes baby do flips and twirls and spins in utero is Ovaltine. I can feel little feet against my stomach, then a whole body flip, then feet, then a whole body flip, around and around like a Merry-Go-Round. All because baby loves Ovaltine. Yum. More Ovaltine, please! I think we'll buy stock.

Dave gets kicked by his own child

So I wrote yesterday that the first time the baby kicked was during our 20-week sonogram, but since then, the kicks have been more frequent and more pronounced. It's great fun, especially when we're sitting at the dinner table and suddenly I say something profound like, "Whoa!"

I do feel a little guilty that I get to feel all this wonder inside, and Dave gets to listen to my explanations, especially when the explanations are as interesting and varied as, "Whoa." It doesn't seem very fair...

until two nights ago, when we were lying on the floor watching TV, Dave's hand on my belly, and BOOM! Baby kicked Dave right in the hand. Dave asked, "Did you do that, or did the baby?" I told him the baby, and then we celebrated like it was New Year's Eve. Ah, the pleasures of experiencing all this stuff for the first time. It's like it's my birthday every single day.

A Recap of our 20 week sonogram

Last Friday you'd have thought Dave and I were sharing a birthday. I couldn't sleep, I was so excited to meet our little one visually again. We even arrived at the doctor's office 15 minutes early, then sat there and perused all the baby magazines, which we generally make fun of, but this time, we were just a tad more serious.

The tech led us back to the sonogram room, and lo and behold, the very first thing that happened was the tech put her wand up to my belly and the baby kicked for the very first time - kicked the wand, that is. The tech jumped back and said, "Whoa! I guess this baby doesn't want to be disturbed today!" Too bad, little one. We were coming in.

First image we saw: the thumbs up sign. (See bottom photo - the tech labeled it) Click on pictures to make them bigger.

The photo on the top is a profile, baby's head at the right-side and baby's belly on the left. All the black space is amniotic fluid.

Based on all the calculations she added up (length of the baby's femur, circumference of the head, etc) the baby weighed in at 15 oz (almost a whole pound of baby inside me!) and 7 inches long. In fact, baby's size is equal to an average 21.5 week-old, not a 20 week old. Dave and I have thought for some time that we were a little ahead of the due date, and this just proved it. This doesn't mean that the doctors will change the due date, however; we'll have to wait until we're farther into the 3rd trimester for that.

Some highlights of the sonogram: measuring the four chambers of the heart, which are almost evenly divided by a cross, seeing that the baby's stomach was full from our breakfast, observing the baby flex his/her fingers and pulling on his/her ear, observing the baby open his/her mouth VERY wide (like a yawn, only bigger), and while measuring the foot, seeing five perfectly square toes. The tech asked who in our family has square toes, and the answer is, my mom! The first family-likeness comes in the form of square toes; how funny is that?

Our Hanukah Tshirts

Thanks to Paula and Azzy Reckess, this year's Hanukah gifts included two funny t-shirts acknowledging our incoming bundle of joy. I wore mine to an end-of-the-semester brunch at my professor's house yesterday, effectively announcing the pregnancy to a few classmates who hadn't caught on yet. Dave is promising to wear his t-shirt when we fly to Denver, to inform everyone flying Delta that he is the baby daddy.

ps - You can click on the photos to enlarge them, if necessary.

Our 20-Week Sonogram

Tomorrow morning, Dave and I have our 20-week anatomy sonogram. The baby's body will be mapped - the direction of the blood vessels, the stomach, the chambers of the heart, toes and fingers, width of the spine, length from head to toe... it's like our own little biology lesson growing inside my body! We're excited to visually meet the baby again, to hear the heartbeat, to see the face. At our 12-week sonogram, the baby was waving arms and running in place - what will tomorrow have in store???

Pregnant Lady Powersuits

Today I had to be in court at 11am, and last night after I had worked on some notes and talked to my supervisor on the phone, I suddenly realized...

What do pregnant ladies wear to court?

The answer is... pregnant lady powersuits. I don't know if I looked silly or adorable or formidable. Or none of the above.

But then I came home and immediately changed into fleece. Because despite looking silly or adorable or formidable, mostly I was uncomfortable.

My Breyers' Ice Cream Commercial

Here I am studying hard and consuming ice cream from the tub. Yum!

When I haven't felt the baby move in a couple of hours, I like to eat or drink something sugary, because it's like an on-off switch. It'll be quiet (maybe baby is sleeping?) and suddenly, it's a party! Yay! Welcome to my sweet-tooth, baby. I hope you're not one of those kids who doesn't like ice cream, or else we're sending you back to the baby factory.