Baba feels baby's kicks

Kingsuk just felt his first kicks of Baby Brahma-- finally! Baby had really started kicking in the last 1.5 weeks -- not just like gas bubbles that I could internally feel, but real thumps. But every time King would put his hand on my tummy, Baby would stop. Even Kutu felt the baby kick earlier this week but Baba was just SOL :(

But tonight we finally succeeded in having him feel the kicks! I love the kicking... Its such a fun reminder that Baby's around ... Not that you ever forget. Esp now that I'm getting bigger by the day (no exaggeration), it's hard to forget that you're pregnant. I'm putting on a pound a week and I can't fathom how much larger I'm going to get... Puchku's only 1 lbs right now ... How huge will I have to be to fit a 6-7 pounder?? I guess we'll find out soon enough...

Sleep issues

Been having serious sleep issues for the past week .... last night I couldn't fall asleep till about 5:30 am, and it's been like that a lot lately. After lying awake for hours in bed, I finally have to come to the family room, read a book, shake out my leg for a million hours, eat a snack, and then pass out. After having passed out for an hour or so, I move back to our bedroom at like 6am or something like that.

I also threw up dinner last night, and last Thursday night as well :-(

Anyway, just thought I would update on the joys of pregnancy!

Gender Scan

This morning we had our 20 week gender scan ultrasound. Both King and I were super-excited – we had decided to keep it a surprise from everyone, including Vaishali, so we could do the ‘Baby Gender Cake’ at the cousin reunion this weekend – which starts tomorrow. But him and I were going to find out the sex and just keep it in for 1 day.

Our ultrasound tech lady is really nice, and I asked her if we could try to guess looking at the parts to identify when we got to it, and she said she would. She had to take a lot of measurements – heart, kidneys, arms, legs, brain, lips, nose, etc. etc. This ultrasound was so different from the 12 week one, where it was clearly obvious that what you were seeing was a baby – this time around we saw specific areas. Frankly, all I saw were a bunch of blurs and told the tech that I’ll take her word for it when she tells me that ‘these are the lips….’ But amidst all this blur, the tech identified the sex of the baby, but said she’d wait to get a better angle of it to make sure.

At first baby was sound asleep (I barely got any sleep last night; I’ve been having a hard time sleeping the last few nights, too much anxiety/heart racing … it’s really frustrating). But once he woke up, he was non-stop. I can’t believe how much he’s kicking around all this time, bc I hardly feel the majority of the kicks! I saw him do some seriously HARD kicking, and I still couldn’t feel it! It’s going to be crazy once he’s big enough for me to feel all the kicks.

So then we got to the gender part … she showed us the butt, and the thighs, and then me and King saw it… there was no doubt about it‘It’s a boy!’ we both said. I was soooo excited … I mean, I know I would be excited either way … but I’ve been saying that it’s a boy since the beginning, and aside from that one dream I had that it was a girl, my guess had always been for a boy :-) I got emotional too, and shed a few tears of happiness … I’m so excited at the thought of a Baby Kingsuk!

The rest of the drive home I was just on cloud nine. I can’t imagine people who don’t want to find out the sex of the baby, because it’s just such a great feeling having this time to imagine the baby, and getting one step closer for it to be real – to go from just ‘baby’ to ‘baby boy’ !!

I went to Whole Foods to get my ‘Baby Gender Cake’ made. Part of the reason I decided that King and I should find out the sex of the baby ahead of time is that I’ve been having a hard time finding a place that will make such a cake for me. Draegers’ told me it would take a week (just to put food coloring in a cake mix, they must be on crack), and this one Whole Foods was the one place that I found where they would make it in 24 hrs and seemed to understand what I was going for.

Not so when I got there. The lady basically told me it was not possible, even though I had clearly spoken to someone the day before who said it was possible. I compromised with them in the end, that if they couldn’t make the cake part blue, then they would at least make the buttercream in the middle layer blue. The lady was nice, and understood my concept, and she said she would tell the baker personally tomorrow morning what to do, so hopefully they won’t mess it up. I couldn’t imagine explaining this whole cake to her, without telling her what color to make it, and expecting her to keep the thing a secret, etc. It would have just been too complicated.

Anyway, both Kingsuk and I are really excited about Baby Boy Brahma. I can’t believe I’m having a son … that’s really crazy when you put it in those terms!

First Pre-Natal Yoga Class

So I finally got around to making it to pre-natal yoga. This has been on my 'to-do' list since 2 trimester started 4 weeks ago, but considering I was out of town for 3 of those weeks, I really wasn't that behind. I yelped and found a place in SoMa that wasn't too expensive and had classes 3 times a week at a time that suited my schedule, so I figured I'd try it out.

I have to admit, I was hesitant to go. Not because my yoga skills suck (they're not that bad; I think it comes with being a dancer and being Indian, lol), but because I was afraid of all the new-age pregnant moms who would be doing everything so by-the-book that it would make me feel like I'm not doing a good job being pregnant (even though I think I'm doing fine). I was especially concerned about my plastic water bottle, because I know I'm supposed to be drinking out of those metal bottles, but I just haven't gotten around to buying one -- again, on my to-do-list.

But it was actually a really good class. There were only 4 students and the other moms (18 weeks, 29 weeks, and 31 weeks) and I'm hoping it will start helping me with my lower back pains, right rib pain, and all the other random pains that I keep getting.

One of the things that I did learn from the teacher, that I didn't know about is that there are more birthing positions than just the one you see in movies (lying down in bed). I didn't know that. Is that something that normal hospitals even offer? Anyway, I haven't started thinking about labor yet ...I'll worry about that closer to the time.

So I'm going to try to make it to the yoga class twice a week. I've also been 'spring cleaning.' I did my pantry the other day (it's amazingly organized!) ... today I cleared off my dining table and emptied out a suitcase of unpacked clothes (I have plenty of those, with all my traveling). There's still so much to go, but I'll eventually get there...

Baby Dreams

Had a very vivid dream last night ... this took place after the baby had already been born (I wasn't sure how much after) ... I was on a cruise with Labonee ... which makes me think it was Kathak related and we were on tour or something. I had left baby home with Kingsuk for the week, and they would be joining us at the end of the week at the end of the tour.

When they arrived, I remember I was so excited to see the baby, I didn't even give Kingsuk a hug, but immediately reached for baby ... and it was a baby girl! She was about 8 months old, really, really cute and pretty ... and I could see a resemblance of myself in her! It was such a strange dream, because it felt very real, and it was the first time I had such a detailed dream about the baby. Perhaps the dream was inspired by the fact that King told me the other night that he thinks it's a girl. Up until now he's never had a feeling about what it is ... I've been saying it's a boy ... but honestly, I don't have a gut feeling or anything about it, I'm just saying that ... and neither of us really have a preference, so either way we'll be thrilled.


But the baby was really shaitaan ... she couldn't sit still and kept kicking and climbing on top of me when I was holding her godi.

:-)

Back Home

Ughhh ... I don't wanna be back to reality!! At least Kutu was here so it's been a little more exciting. I just spent 3 hours getting my email box down from 200+ messages to 32 that I need to work on this week. And I'm already feeling stressed out.

I hadn't scheduled my 16 week appt with the doctor, but she took me in yesterday at the last minute. Brahma didn't go with me, which is a shame bc she let us look at the baby through her crappy ultrasound machine (Vaish was with me, so I wanted her to see the baby) and she would have been able to tell us the sex, but I told her to hold off, since Brahma wasn't there with us. Oh well! Will just have to wait it out another couple of weeks I guess.

Baby's totally grown in size -- he's 5.5-6 inches big. My tummy has really grown too ... apparently my uterus is the size of a canteloupe right now ... I definitely feel super-pregnant. You're supposed to gain 25-35 lbs in the duration of the pregnancy -- I've gained 12 so far ... hopefully that means I'm on track??

Anyway, back to the reality of the real world .. I've been out of town for the entire month ... this is going to be rough ....

Off to Venice

Despite free wi-fii the last three days in Positano, I never blogged abt this trip! Well, to put it shortly, despite the disastrous bus ride here, where I had an emotional meltdown and couldn't stop crying in the middle of the streets of Positano, and arrived HATING this forsaken town ... it's beautiful, and of course I loved it. Our first day of food was rather mediocre, but yesterday was stellar (Saraceno d'oro and Il Ritrovo). Didn't do much shopping; it's too hot here in the daytime ... spent a lot of time hanging out at the Hotel Sirenuse, drinking fresh lemonade, eating olives and marcona almonds, admiring the view ... even had a celebrity sighting, lol! The lead actor from 'American Pie' was staying at that hotel and we saw him hanging out poolside both days we went there.

Ok, gg now .. checking out now :( Excited about Venice, but sad that it means our vacation is 2/3 over!! I don't wanna come back to real life. Being out here has been such an escape from reality ... no watches, no email, no idea what day or time it is, nowhere to be, but to hang with my hubby.

Btw, Baby is kicking a lot more! I've decided it feels like mild pins & needles -- like not a whole lot of them at once, but as if you had a couple happening at a time. So, rather uncomfortable, but nice knowing it's there.