Maybe Kick-boxing (Sport of the Future)

I'd been starting to wonder a bit if it was normal that I wasn't feeling the baby move. I had had a couple of moments over the last few weeks (and really just a couple) when I thought maybe I was feeling movement. But when it happens once and then not again for a week, it's really hard to say!

Yesterday, I was working at my computer and, in the back of my mind, I noticed a muscle twitch near my belly button. Then it occurred to me that maybe that wasn't a muscle twitch after all! I looked down, just in time to see a little tiny bit of my sweater jump! Now that I can identify that feeling, that baby's really going to town in there! Mr. X is still on his business trip, so I called and told him, and we're trying to figure out what this baby's up to. He, of course, believes we have a future soccer player on our hands, but I think we may have a swimmer practicing flip turns.

Just a few more days till the ultrasound! Once we know the sex of this baby, I think we'll need to really get serious about names. We've tossed a few around, and we generally have the same sort of taste in names (generally good, solid names with family connections). Mr. X has a lot of great suggestions, and some I'm . . . not as crazy about (Melchizedek? Really?), but I have plenty that he's not crazy about (but, of course, all of my suggestions are lovely and completely reasonable :-> ). We're both fairly convinced that the in-utero baby is a girl. I'm not entirely sure why, but it was confirmed by an expert last week--the saleslady at T.J.M.a.x.x.

So, before I left for my business trip, we made an emergency shopping trip to said store, because I read in Baby Bargains that they're a good choice for maternity clothes. I had exactly one hour to shop, and, never having shopped for maternity clothes before, I never realized that our local T.J.M.a.x.x doesn't have a maternity section. Great. I asked the lady behind the jewelry counter, and she said, no, they didn't carry maternity clothes, but I should be able to find something that works. So. Mr. X and I started looking and found some dresses and tops in styles that might conceivably work. I tried on a cute red knit dress. It fit really well, had an empire waist, and was gathered in the front, so it would have worked . . . except for the plunging neckline that made it totally inappropriate for work or church, the two main places I might need to wear a dress.

I came out of the dressing room to show him anyway (hey, at least my husband can appreciate the low neckline, right?), and ended up standing right in front of the jewelry counter. The same lady was standing there and said she liked the dress. Then, she said "So, you're having a girl." I said "Really." She turned to Mr. X and said, "Oh, yes, because she has a derriere! Look! See how it sticks out?" Uh-huh. OK . . . so, we talked about the dress a little more, and whether we could do anything about the neckline to make it more appropriate. The lady said, "Turn around!" And, silly me, thinking she wanted to see the back of the dress, I did. She pointed. "There! See? See her derriere?" Oh my goodness, lady, this is not how to sell clothes! Don't point at a woman's behind in the middle of T.J.M.a.x.x!

We did not buy the dress, but, just as panic was setting in, Mr. X found me two very nice tops in the blouse section, and I had something decent to wear on my business trip.

(By the way, I haven't been writing about adoption stuff really at all. It's not because I'm not excited about it or because it's not going well. Actually, things are going quite well, but I'm so nervous that it won't work out! I'm writing everything down both so that I can post it here later and so that I can share it with our baby once he's old enough to hear about it, but I just can't bring myself to write about it publicly right now because it feels too risky. So, I decided that, for the time being, I'll write about what's going on with our other baby and anything else I feel the urge to write about! Any further public discussions with strangers regarding my rear end will probably be on that list.)

One more week . . .

Well, after all that, the ultrasound was cancelled! And Mr. X is on a business trip this week, so we have rescheduled for next week. The day of the appointment was very odd. We had appointments all afternoon, and Mr. X's car broke down! So we had to reschedule the first appointment (which was about the adoption) while I ran to get the parts he needed and then bring them to him, then he made it to the second appointment while I ran a couple of errands, and then we were on our way to meet at the ultrasound when the doctor's office called to cancel (he had to perform an emergency C-section). It was just really weird. So, the upshot of it all is that we have one more week till the ultrasound!

I'm feeling a little lonesome with Mr. X gone. I usually do miss him, but today's just been a particularly off day. It seems like everyone's annoyed with me, and I missed Mr. X's goodnight call because I was at choir practice (a day early because of Ash Wednesday) and had my phone turned off. I'm going to do a couple of things around the house, eat some more vegetables (I promised I would eat my vegetables while he's gone--the major aversion to vegetables I had during the first trimester is pretty much gone, but it's left me a bit reluctant), do a short exercise video, and go to sleep. Hmm. Well, if I can do all of those in a reasonable amount of time.

Should we or shouldn't we?

My 20-week ultrasound is next week--hard to believe we're almost halfway there! I've always thought that I wouldn't want to know the sex of the baby before birth. But now I'm wavering. Mr. X has always leaned toward finding out at the ultrasound. I talked to a friend who said that he didn't understand people who say they want to be surprised (this is just after I told him I wanted to be surprised). "Isn't it a surprise whenever you find out? What you're really saying is that you want a surprise that's inconvenient."

And now that it's looking more and more like we'll be having two (and we know that we're adopting a boy--our agency required us to choose), I'm thinking that there are some advantages to knowing in advance.

What do you think?

Great article

Things are going well around here. I had a good doctor's appointment yesterday--the baby has a strong heartbeat, my weight gain is on target, and everything's looking good! We are waiting for one last piece of paper before we'll be able to accept a referral for the adoption, too. I haven't been posting about personal stuff lately for two reasons--I've been crazy busy with adoption stuff and opera rehearsals, and I'll be on pins and needles until everything's set for the adoption.

So, in the meantime, here's a great article on Archbishop Chaput's talk to the Irish chapter of Human Life International about the dos and don'ts of the prolife movement.

Sick, Sick, Sick

OK, I don't normally rant about or post graphic news items on this blog, but I just have to this time. If you don't want to read graphic information about infanticide, don't read further!

I just read this article, which describes an instance in which a baby was born alive at an abortion clinic (as verified by autopsy) and then killed. It sounds like the mother was given drugs to induce labor, but the doctor didn't arrive in time (more than two hours after he was paged) to perform the abortion, and the woman delivered her baby alive at 23 weeks. Two accounts of the baby's death differ. It appears that the clinic employee cut the umbilical cord, but did not clamp it, so that the baby bled out and died. What isn't clear from the two reports is whether the baby died before or after the employee put the baby in a plastic bag and left her in a trash can.

Kind of underlines the significance of the controversy about the president and the Born Alive Infants Protection Act, doesn't it?

What amazes me further about this article are the following comments:

"The case has riled the anti-abortion community, which contends the clinic's actions constitute murder."

Really? Is it really a contention when a person is living and breathing and another person causes her to bleed and/or suffocate to death?

And, after stating that the Department of Health determined in an autopsy that the baby was born alive, the article quotes a lawyer saying that prosecuting this case as murder would necessitate proving that the baby was born alive. As though that point is at issue.

Wouldn't you think most people could agree that infanticide is wrong?