Hello Bello

Overnight my beer belly has turned into a baby belly. I wasn't quite ready to except there was an actual baby in the round mound on my tummy... I just thought... "That's my belly". BUT after a few days of "Nick, did my tummy always look like that?" and "Did I always have a beer gut?" I finally excepted that YES I am starting to look pregnant.

For a pregnant women this is a huge milestone. You start out your pregnancy feeling like crap, nauseous, and exhausted and as far as anyone knows you might have just spent the last few nights drinking heavily and partying your ass off. Little do they know that all you've been doing is praying for a little down time at work to put your head down on the desk or hoping your husband has read your mind and ordered take out for dinner (so you can sleep as soon as you get home). Other than these tell tale signs you don't really "look" or "feel" pregnant.

There were two moments for Nick and I that made us stand up and say "OH FUCK we are really having a baby". The first was the heartbeat. It happened at my second doctor's appointment (I was 10 weeks). During our first appointment the midwife wasn't able to find it, which was a bit aggravating. She said not to worry, that the baby was way down in my uterus. At my next appointment she just lightly touch the microphone like device to my stomach and there is was, beating double the time of my own heartbeat. AMAZING.

The next week Nick and I had our first ultrasound and if hearing the heartbeat is a smack with the reality stick than the ultrasound is like getting shot in the heart with it. I'm not sure what I expected; I think I just had a little blob pictured in my head, not realizing all we'd be able to see.

When you are only 11 weeks along you need to have a full bladder to do the ultrasound. There I am lying on a exam table shirt pulled up to my bra, pants and underwear pulled way down past my pelvic bone, lots of "hospital" paper covering my clothes (what is that stuff called?), warm (thank god it was warm) goo all over my belly and dying to go pee. As soon as she started moving the probe over my stomach and the image came up on the screen I forgot all about my bladder and we saw our baby.

The little life inside of my was wiggling and moving around so much it was like watching baby tv in my belly. We saw it sucking it's thumb, kicking it tiny little legs, rolling around and just being incredibly cute. I was just in awe. I didn't realize how much it would actually look like a baby. It measured about 2 inches in length (this was at 11 weeks, now it's about doubled in size to 4.5 inches) and it rocked my world.