Hearing the heartbeat, learning the gender.

Yesterday, we had our 3rd visit with the midwife, and heard our baby's heartbeat. I'm telling you, it never gets old (or any more real!). So crazy each and every time to think there is a tiny, heart-driven baby growing inside of me...already along for the ride with me and my hero husband on all of our fun adventures. Very cool. We didn't get an ultrasound yesterday--we were actually hoping for one and a guess on the sex of the baby (we are at week 16) but alas, we have to wait about 3 more weeks for that. No sweat...but we are dying to know!

I originally thought, actually my whole life, that I would not find out the sex of my baby. It was my mom's original plan when she was pregnant with me--until her jerk of a doc spilled the beans and made her cry for spoiling the surprise--so I sorta felt like I wanted to give it a re-do. But my sweet husband reeeeeally wanted to know the gender of our babe-to-be, and I felt like anything that he's excited about, I only want to encourage, so let's just get surprised now, instead of in 5 months, eh?!

As far as the gender guessing game...it sorta goes like this: I have had dreams that we are having a boy, the majority of my friends & fam say it's a boy (partly because I breezed by without morning sickness), my husband has a $300 bet with my wealthy Uncle Danny that it's a boy, and we have only 2 solid boy names thus far. So my mind says we are having a boy. But my gut says never trust the mind, that we are having a girl. Ha, does that even make sense? Basically, it says something about trusting myself--I am usually wrong about stuff like this, so I'm gonna say girl. But if my instincts are spot on, then we are having a boy. There ya go. We will be grateful if we have a normal, non-cholic-y baby, who doesn't drive us bonkers--that's the way I look at it.

Here's shot of yours truly, The Maternal Goddess, in her GAP striped top and quick-get-ready curly hair, at week 16:

More hope for a cute wardrobe!

Guess what?!!!! I found more cute maternity clothes online--I'm telling you, it just takes a little digging. Now, I know I am only going to be wearing these threads for about 5-6 more months, but if I have gain 20+ lbs on this little 5'5" bod, I'm darned right gonna look stylish! I am drooling over Pink Blush Maternity's new arrivals list (and more).

I'm also digging the edgy styles from Unbuttoned Maternity, another online shop that carries studded shirts, cut-out tops, rocker mama and AC/DC baseball tees. So cute.

There is hipster-chic stuff out there! Hoooooray! This pregnancy thing isn't so bad after all...

Sick and pregnant.

So I have almost overdone it on priding myself in the fact that I survived my first trimester without any morning sickness. I know, I'm kinda superwoman. All part of the goddess thing I'm trying to bring out here. Anyhow, I feel like I'm making up for it now, at week 16...I have come down with a cold (dun dun dunnnnn!). It's pretty terrible. I don't know what I can and can't take because of baby, and I'm hesitant to take my midwife-approved Tylenol, just at the thought of a drug entering my poor fetuses lemon-sized body. So, here I am suffering through it. I guess I couldn't escape this pregnancy thing without a little something miserable entering my life!

But I have to say, having this cold has shown me what an awesome husband I have. I am suuuuper lucky--last night he made me dinner (which I managed not to eat because it had fennel in it, and I read all kindsa weird stuff about fennel, haha), got me continuous glasses of water, warmed up some tea, and even helped me de-louse the house of germs today on his day off. Pretty rad.

Oh, and here's another thing for the books--my husband saved a baby yesterday. Yep! I mean, I'm sure I won't soon forget this, but here's the full story: my hubs went to work yesterday, pulled up in the parking lot, and opened his car door to find a nearby mom looking right at him, standing outside her car, screaming "please help me save my baby!" Uhhhh, what?! Yeah. So he ran over, and asked what was wrong, and the sweet mom, on her way to yoga, had accidentally locked her baby in her car, keys inside and all. Even though it's February, this was an 80-degree day in Southern CA. Yikes. He asked if he could call a tow truck for her, and she said "no, I need you to break in this window!" so he bravely ran inside the nearest business, grabbed a wrench, ran back inside and smashed the drivers side window open (Smash, Smash, SMASH!). The baby was peacefully inside, totally fine, but mom was crying, and forever grateful. When my husband told me this story later in the afternoon, I could do nothing but cry. Sheesh!

What an awesome man I have to do this whole parenthood thing with. Someone to make me tea, save a stranger's baby, and take care of me when I'm sick and pregnant.

Determined to be the cute one.

There's so much lame maternity fashion out there. I feel like I should start a new clothing line to spite it all...maybe I will! I feel like the first thing us pregnant goddesses need is some floral skinnies, some cute collared shirts, and some great colorful accents. This is where Gap Maternity comes in. I'm sorta obsessed. These 3 outfits give me hope for a cute future...

The Luxlight Cardi & 1969 Floral Legging Skimmer:

The Twill Parka & Striped Sweater:

 The Oxford Shirt & 1969 Always Skinny Cord:

Here goes nothin'.

When I first started telling people I was pregnant, you wouldn't believe the number of journals that I received. It was like my friends were telling me "all of a sudden you're going to be a very thoughtful person--better write it down!" All the while I was thinking, "ummm, journaling? Really? Not my sorta thing." I suppose it seems very romantic, very Jane Eyre, to light a candle, brew some tea, and sit in a dark, quiet room and jot down your thoughts. But when I was 10 weeks pregnant, the first thing I wanted to do after work was throw off my heels and stick my toes through my pajama pants for some couch time and then sleep. I had no mental energy to journal. The gesture was appreciated, but I almost felt guilty, because I just wasn't journaling.

And now that I'm through my first trimester (and can actually stay awake past 7pm), I was thinking it might be a good idea to somehow record all of this stuff that's spilling over in my preggo brain. I guess the Carrie Bradshaw in me came out, and I decided that instead of journaling, I'd blog. The modern-day journal, if you will. For some reason, the tapping of the keys gets me more excited than the line of the pen, a true millennial, eh? Either way, I figure when my kid is about 13 and thinks I'm the lamest person on the planet, I can at least tell them that I BLOGGED when they were a growing fetus inside of me...and I may just have a shot of still being cool.

So here goes nothin'! I may not be the quintessential mama-to-be, but I'm trying to be me through this whole process. Blogging instead of journaling. Gap Maternity instead of Motherhood. Reading granola books like 'Birthing from Within' instead of 'What to Expect When You're Expecting' (boring!). Basically, trying to find the maternal goddess that I know I am, instead of the same ol' surrendering so-and-so. You ready?