Letter to Baby

Dear Elle,

Apparently, we've done well choosing your name, because I've used it a lot lately on Facebook and people have given their approval. You currently weigh about a pound and are resting and waking about as much as you will when you're born. You've got some distinctive patterns now, too. I think you have step aerobics at 5:30 p.m. and then go for a swim around 1 a.m. You usually do some stretches while I'm eating breakfast, too. Your taste buds are forming, which means what I'm eating can affect whether you're a picky eater for life. (Trust me, you'll be quite fond of cupcakes, ice cream, and I'm making sure I get lots of fruits, vegetables and some Mexican food in there for you, too.) Since you're a girl, your ovaries are packed with all of the eggs you'll have for a lifetime. You're doing somersaults and working on your kicking and punching techniques in there. You've got fingerprints and can open your eyes.

Speaking of your movement, every day I take a little bit of "quiet time" and just feel your movement. It's usually at night, because that's when you're super active/I'm not as busy, and I have my tricks to get you to move. Sometimes your dad feels you and asks if it hurts because you're getting really strong! Even in the five weeks since he first felt you kick, he's noticed that you're clearly lifting weights in there and now feel like every workout has to be kickboxing. (Dear daughter, please try yoga sometimes, too.) Even when your kicks and punches startle me, I'm glad to feel them - as I progress further in to this pregnancy, I'm reminded every day of friends of mine who lost their babies way too soon and would give anything to be kicked.

Apparently twice during the last week you weren't feeling very accepting. I didn't feel well during or after our doctor's appointment last week (where we got to hear your heartbeat again - and it was so much easier to find this time and so much more confident!), and I honestly thought I was going to be sick in your dad's car. (He would NOT have liked that.) It passed, and the rest of the day went pretty well, until around 10 p.m. I didn't feel well again, so I had some toast. About an hour later, you evicted the toast and everything else I'd eaten in the last few hours. It was pretty rough, and your dad had never been home when I've been sick, so I think it startled him, too. I have since discovered that you are not a fan of strawberry cream cheese, but it was a rough journey to that discovery. I know you want to reassure me that you're in there, but I can feel you now, so we don't need to be messing with this vomit business, OK? I still didn't feel well the next day, but I think I'm back to about 100 percent.

At our next doctor's appointment, I have to take the one-hour glucose test. Not too thrilled about that, but I'll deal. Then it'll be nearly time for our appointments to move to every two weeks, and around the 30th or 32nd week, we get another ultrasound of you!

You seem to be telling me to consider leaving my part-time job. I've been moving slower, aching a little more and feeling more frustrated as there is less and less that they'll let me do at the store in terms of stocking. I'm not sure how much longer my uniform will fit, either. I think my weeks there are numbered. But wherever will I go then for my dose of annoying questions and screaming children?!

We registered for you a few weeks ago, and it was a lot more stressful than you might think. When we registered for our wedding, we basically picked stuff we wanted and needed. But for a baby, you have to consider how safe it is. How well-constructed it is. And it was stressful because this isn't just our set of dishes or our throw pillows - this is your crib, your bouncy seat, your swing. Every thing we looked at, I wondered if your little fingers would get stuck in that slat, or caught under that piece. I took a list with me after doing a lot of research online, and I still went back and changed things. I read recommendations, went over review after review, solicited opinions, Google'd my brains out. I'm pretty happy with what we ended up registering for, but I guess time will tell how well it works out.

We registered because you're going to have a shower next week! Grams is throwing us a shower, and it will be the first chance for a lot of people to "meet" you in your bump form. I'm excited to see a lot of our family and friends and celebrate your pending arrival with them :) While I'm in Ohio, Daddy will be working on getting some stuff taken care of in the condo so we can transition it in your room. We don't want to do it too soon and have a half-naked room, but I think in the next month or two we'll start making the switch and filling it with the piles of stuff you've already received (most of those piles currently reside in a corner of our living room). I've been slowly going through our stuff to make room for you and your stuff - it's been a complicated move/consolidate/trash process, but I even managed to make some room for bottles in the kitchen.

We'll start childbirth education classes in about two months, and I've started signing you up for every discount program I can find (FYI: Your mom likes coupons). We've gotten some recommendations for a pediatrician, and preregistering at the hospital and calling the anesthesiology department are two things that are on my mile-long to-do list. Slowly but surely, we getting things ready.

It seems like just yesterday that I first wrote to you, and now we're much, much closer to meeting you. We have a lot to do before you arrive, so stick in there, kicking away, and keep growing.

Love,
Mom