Talking about wiggling her tongue for the doctor reminds me of something else I wanted to mention. For the last few days when she sings her ABC's, she doesn't just sing all D's anymore. Now she sings most of the letters, except at the "fast" parts, you know, like the "l-m-n-o". When she gets to that part, she sticks out her tongue and wiggles it back and forth (I just realized as I tried it that my tongue doesn't even go back and forth like that! I can only wiggle it up and down!) instead of saying the letters. It sort of makes this sound - "lubba-lubba". So, she sings the song "A, B, C, D, E, F, D, ah, ah, day, k, 'lubba lubba' P..." It does sound almost right, I have to admit! She's also singing Row Row Row Your Boat now, and once last week, after watching a Sesame Street video where Ernie and Hoots the owl sang the song "Put Down the Ducky" (a really catchy tune, actually), we were driving in the car and suddenly Natalie started singing "down, ducky...dowwwwn, ducky".

Natalie is insisting on writing a little "me-mail" (as she calls it) today. So have at it, kid:

 ggg       omb b cccx   n        mo            vvvvv gc   cc b     bkinnn,ifggbczob ,nmv    mm/mb ;0ppp0+

jkkkop55555511

I think she likes the space bar key the best.

April 15, 2004
I had my doctor appointment today, and I didn't get another ultrasound, just as I had expected. They're pretty insistent about the "one ultrasound only unless medically needed". I doubt I'm going to convince anyone this time just to do one. Even when I'm already there and the machine is up and humming right next to me. When I went in there today, the nurse set me up in a room with an ultrasound machine and told me they were going to do one. Apparently this was just because she hadn't read through my charts to find I had already had one at the other doctor. She just knew that I was a new patient, so she put me down for a full new patient exam and ultrasound. Over an hour later, completely unclothed except for the lovely sheet, the doctor -yes, a woman- came in and said the nurse had read my chart wrong, and I would "not be needing an ultrasound today." Drat! I did get the pleasure of having an internal exam though, because since I was already unclothed, she wanted to check my cervix since I had pre-term labor with Natalie. Good to report, everything is tightly closed up and firm.  I had gotten so excited about getting to have another ultrasound though! I went in there with no expectation whatsoever, but when they told me I'd be getting one I was so happy and right away began thinking about how I would tell Phil and my mom the news that afternoon. (Natalie came with me to the appointment; Phil had a trial today so as usual he couldn't make it to the appointment. Natalie did SO good though, she stayed quietly with me the whole time, even though it took a LONG time! I had told her we were going to see a picture of the baby on the "computer"; which she seemed excited about.) So going home I felt a bit of a let down, though I kept telling myself I shouldn't, since I hadn't expected to get an ultrasound today anyway. Other than that, otherwise the appointment went well. I gained two pounds this time. (Inching ever upward...) Natalie got to hear the baby's heartbeat, though by her face I know she didn't know what the heck was going on. I measured right at 21 weeks today, about an inch above my belly button. 

Last thing to note today, yesterday afternoon I was sitting on the couch reading to Natalie, and the baby started kicking around again. I saw my belly move for the first time!

April 9, 2004
First, congrats to Allie! She had her baby very early in the morning on April 5. (She labored all day on the fourth - I wonder if she will be like me and have a hard time remembering that the whole day she was in labor actually isn't the baby's birthday!) She had a boy, and his name is Gavin Dean. We haven't gone to see them yet, but hopefully we will soon. From the pictures I've seen, I think he looks just like his daddy, Jason. I think it's so amazing how so many newborns look like their fathers. Then they start changing so fast, and it starts to even out a little. Though I'm just now starting to get comments that Natalie looks like me, and it's usually when she's making a funny face.

Natalie and I colored Easter eggs this afternoon. This was Natalie's first time at this, and she loved it. She really loves doing all kinds of craft things. (Runs in the family.) Of course, she liked making the purple ones the best. When we got out the box for the egg coloring, Natalie saw one of the pictures (of a sticker that was included in the set) was a sort of stained glass picture of Jesus. She pointed to it and said "Jesus!" and from that point on (at least until she finished making a purple egg, which blocked out all other ideas) whenever I asked her if she liked coloring her Easter eggs, she said "Jesus eggs." Cute cute cute. She's now singing Jesus Loves Me as one of her favorite songs, which is neat to hear. Of course only a few of the words come out as understandable to anyone but Phil and me, but at least we know what she's singing. She sings it sort of like this: "Jesus laaa laaa this know. Laaa bible la la oh." Oh, and I put a couple pictures from egg coloring down in the picture of the day. The first one was when she was intently adding a sticker to an egg. The second picture was when Phil asked her to show him an egg.

(Now April 10)
It was getting late last night. So anyway, yesterday I completed my 20th week (the fifth month) so there's a new belly picture today. I decided to put all the pictures on one page so it is easier to see how I'm growing every month, and it also takes up less room on the left column. :-) Here's the direct link to this month's belly pic though. Natalie is starting to get really fascinated with my belly. She likes to lift up my shirt and put her hands on my belly, then she pretends that she picks the baby up from my belly and then walks around with the "baby" in her hand. Yesterday she lifted up my shirt and laid her head against my belly to give the baby a hug. She had both hands on my belly and her cheek up against me, and then said "awwww...hug".  Not all is so much cuteness though. This recent fascination with my growing belly is manifesting itself in an irritating way too: she's become more interested in her own belly, especially her belly button. It's driving me nuts; she has stopped the habit of biting her nails, but now she is constantly pick, pick, picking at her belly button. She lifts her shirt up constantly and picks at her belly button until it gets all red and irritated. Every time I tell her to put her shirt down or stop picking at her belly button, she says "thank you" (probably because that's what I would tell her after she stopped) and briefly puts her shirt down, but the next moment is back at it again. One time last week I resorted to getting out the biggest sized of her old Onesies I could find (it didn't fit but I could get it to stay on by snapping only one of the snaps) just so that she couldn't access her belly button. That seemed to work, but it only works as long as she can't get to her belly. (Either that Onesie or pajamas that zipper down to her feet.) I don't know what else to do, because all her clothes are pants/shirts that give her easy access to her belly. I don't even know if they MAKE Onesies in size 3T to 4T, but I'm doubting it! While I'm talking about other -ahem- interesting habits that Natalie has picked up, I have to mention one that she got straight from me.  I can blame her telling people "beep beep", instead of "excuse me" when she wants them to move, right squarely on Phil's shoulders, but this new one is all mine. She's now telling me, her daddy, the cats, her baby dolls, and whatever else she has a disagreement with, "No-no-no-no-noooo." And I think this is something I picked up from my mom, so I guess I can shift the blame up another level, it's one of those things I've heard coming out of my mouth that sound like my mom. Natalie is using the same cadence and inflection and everything. 

I've started having pretty frequent Braxton-Hicks contractions lately. At least this time I wasn't as surprised by them, but it's still a little disconcerting, especially when you are woken in the middle of the night with several in a row, like I was the other night. It's definitely not too early to start feeling them happen though. I have my next doctor's appointment on Thursday morning, by the way. It's not been a full month since my last doctor's visit, but they wanted to get me in before we went on our trip to Florida. I went to my first initial, nurse's appointment last Thursday, and I think this is going to be all around SO much better than where I was going. For one thing, ALL the doctors at this place are women!! YAY!!! Everyone just in general seems much less stressed and busy too; the nurses that I spoke to spent a lot of time with me and finding out what I was wanting for this pregnancy and labor. They actually act like they might care about me as a patient. I don't think I'll be getting another ultrasound though. They said unless I start having preterm labor again or some other complication, they don't schedule a second ultrasound. Of course, that's what the nurses at Dr. Teague's office said too, and she decided to do another one for me anyway. In my 21st week. So, maybe when I meet my doctor this week...and if not, well, this one might be a surprise. Though I hope not - Phil and I just can't seem to pick out any real options for names, let alone a set for a girl and a boy. Oh, and yesterday I got my first feeling at all about what this baby is. I had girl thoughts, which goes against what everyone except my sister Nan has thought. Of course, I had all thoughts that Natalie was going to be a boy, so that just shows my intuition on that.

April 1, 2004
The baby is just kicking up a storm right now. In fact, he/she has been doing a lot of dancing the past few days. I don't remember Natalie being quite this active at 19 weeks, but I may just forget. There have been a couple times in the past few days where the baby has kicked so hard that it caused me to jump. Once when I was driving; a good kick was lodged right into my bladder and I yelled out in surprise. Not that I'm complaining, it's that unique feeling that is one of the best parts of being pregnant. Last week at my appointment, I went into it just a little concerned, because though I had felt little "flutters" at around 14 weeks, it had been a few weeks since I had felt anything at all. After hearing the heartbeat so quickly and strong though, I knew everything was probably okay. Well, the baby has now made up for that time because these aren't at all flutters anymore. Last night I was really surprised to not be able to see the baby move from the outside, because it felt like my entire belly was being kicked around. I can't believe it's just one more week until I'm at the halfway point. ("Halfway" assuming that I'll get to 40 weeks this time!)

My friend from church had her baby right on her due date, on Tuesday at 10:00. She had a boy (her third boy) and his name is Jonathan Lee. He is really cute. (So far as I've heard, my other friend Allie, who had the same due date, is still great with child.) We went to go see Jillaine and Jonathan at St. Ann's that evening. She was feeling up to visitors; I asked before we came. I held the baby for a long time, and Natalie just pretty much watched him and didn't say a word. I don't think she knew quite what to think. After a little while, I sat down on the bed and put Natalie right next to me. Jillaine said Natalie could hold him if she wanted, so I sort of put the baby half in my lap and half in hers, with her arm around the baby. She just sat there for a long time and watched him, and a couple times touched his cheek with her hand. She didn't say much the whole time we were in the room, but as soon as we left, for the rest of the night she couldn't stop saying "Hold baby. Natalie!" 

Speaking of Natalie saying that, the last two days suddenly Natalie has started putting words together! The first time we really noticed it was when we were in a shopping center parking lot after going to the hospital. A truck was parked, perpendicular to the lane, and I said "oh, nice, truck!" after which Natalie instantly parroted back, "Nice, truck. Nice, truck." We really gotta watch what we say!! She said a couple other things that evening (including the "hold baby"), but then she said the cutest thing last night when Phil got home from work. She ran up to him and gave him an around the neck hug, as usual, and then as she was hugging him, said "miss you"!!! Talk about making your daddy's heart break, Natalie is getting good at that these days! Almost every day as he leaves for work, she cries with big tears and emotion. 

One more pregnancy-related thing I wanted to record today - I have had really bad lower back pain the past few days, particularly in the evening. Phil has helped by rubbing my back, around my hips and tailbone, which was something he learned about in our childbirth classes last time. I'm thinking that when we go to Florida at the end of this month, that I'll be taking a whole suitcase just for my Snoogle pillow, because otherwise I'm not sure I'll be getting much sleep!