So, how are you feeling?

I get this question a lot, so I thought I should update you all on how the baby making is going! I did not have the kind of first trimester you see in movies. There was no camping in the bathroom with debilitating nausea while living on crackers and ginger ale. Thank goodness. In fact, I felt sick only in the evenings and typically because I had not eaten in a while. So far, the only physical evidence of Baby is an ever expanding chest that, at this rate, seems intent on going through the first half of the alphabet before Baby arrives and a digestive system that's on pre-maternity leave. If you were to ask Jason, he might also say that I've had a few, mild mood swings. Barely noticeable :) Thankfully, Jason has the patience of a saint, a trait that I'm certain will come in handy over the next eighteen years.

Our next appointment is in a couple of weeks, Wednesday the 28th, and we will be able to hear the heartbeat at this time. ♥ I'm so excited. It's incredible to me that it's even possible to be so involved in the creation of new life. Although this will be the first time we are able to hear it, Baby's heartbeat has been going strong since week six. At that point, the heart was the size of a sesame seed and had only two chambers; it has since fully developed into four chambers. I try to imagine how that little heart must have began with it's first amazing beat.

Very soon, we will also find out if Baby is a boy or girl. This happens next month, around the end of May. But don't get too excited, Jason and I have not yet decided if we would like to share that news. We're leaning toward keeping it quiet. Names will certainly be a surprise. We have two picked out, one for a boy and one for a girl, and for a few different reasons, they're not negotiable so we will be calling Baby by his (or her) name by June. You, dear reader, will have to wait until October. We've decided not to tell anyone the name for a couple of reasons, firstly, everyone always has an opinion on the name and we're pretty set on the names we've chosen. We'd rather not solicit opinions that we can't use anyway. And secondly, I think it's more fun to introduce Baby by his name, "Grandma, Granddad, meet your grandchild, Who Dat* Juneau!"

But don't feel too left out of the fun. We are hoping to video tape our visit in a few weeks so you will be able to hear the heartbeat too. And this week we will also be taking our first "belly pictures" so you can watch us progress over these next several months. Already, I have a bit of a bump. Baby is still rather low, so a lot of the bump is that elusive digestive system that is being relocated by the cantaloupe setting up camp in my uterus. But I like it. It all means the same thing, there's no stopping him now, Baby is on the way!

* I have to note here that Jason desperately wanted me to change this previously blank line to "Who Dat Juneau". This is his loving contribution to the blog :)