Cravings: then and now

People have been asking if I have any cravings. Yes, a a matter of fact, I do! Cookies, cake, chocolate, candy, ice cream, pizza, movie-theater popcorn and other tastes from life's most tempting delicacies.

And we've all heard it before--when you're pregnant, follow your cravings! They will tell you what the baby needs for healthy growth! If you crave it, you should eat it--your baby needs you to!

Even better, I wasn't gaining any weight for a while--and I'm supposed to gain weight! Baby Girl needs me to be nicely padded, with plenty stored up for long, snackless work meetings, nights, and the days ahead when my stomach will be squished to the size of an m&m (how convenient!). So really, these are the ideal foods for me to be eating for maximum weight gain! How perfect! This baby and I are going to get along great.

But then, the coincidence hit me like a ton of salad. Maybe this is too perfect. After all, what are the chances that my favorite foods are also the exact ones Baby Girl needs for optimum growth?

Before I did too much damage, the rationale side of me kicked in, much to my dismay.

Sadly, I've slowly come to the realization that these cravings aren't sparked by my pregnancy. They might be some of the baby's favorite foods as well as mine, but they're not providing the essential cancer-preventing, health-strengthening trace minerals I hoped for one ecstatic moment they were. I don't crave them for any good reason. They're simply woven into my psyche and habits. They're who I am, pregnant or not.

In short, I can't blame these on the baby, no matter how hard I try. And believe me, I tried.

Baby's got elbows!

At this stage of pregnancy, some women are still feeling butterfly flutters, swimming goldfish and popcorn in their bellies. Others aren't feeling much of anything at all. Baby Girl Odegaard, on the other hand, has decided to reassure me that she has elbows, knees and a relatively large, blunt head by already sticking them into my belly at various times. It's okay, Little One, we saw the ultrasound! We know you're all there! I must admit, though, I love it! She's endlessly entertaining. I can already tell she's very cute, and will probably be somewhat athletic.

Is it because she's getting cramped? Judging by the size of my belly (not that big) and her estimated size (as one website poetically put, about the length of a carrot), she is. One thing she doesn't appreciate is anything that takes up her space--Matt's hand when he's trying too hard to feel her kicks, me bending over, dinner, you name it. Should we find a bigger crib? A bigger house??

If I can already feel her this well now, what's in store for weeks 22-40? Will we be able to tell whose nose she has, just by the outline on my belly? What if she grows fingernails? Ouch! Should I strap a teddy bear to my belly so she has something to play with?

Regardless, I hope she keeps it up.

How our cats are training us for kids (or not)

If at any given time you ask our bad cat whether she's hungry, she'll reply with a meow that clearly means "you bet I'm hungry--I haven't ever eaten in my entire life and I'm famished." If it's anywhere near dinnertime, the meow will be repeated until feeding actually occurs, each time more emphatically than the next. She also does this unprompted. Needless to say, we're now experts at ignoring our whiny cat, who we do, in fact, feed three times a day. (Our good cat, by the way, will at most squeak if she's very hungry.)

We've noticed when hanging out with our friends' babies that the bad cat has, in this way, trained us to ignore cries of all kinds. We can carry on entire conversations (or play games of chess, in Matt's case) while holding whimpering babies. That's not to say we don't help remedy the situation, it's just that we're starting to recognize that we're at risk for neglecting our own child. Of course, this doesn't exactly make us comfortable with ourselves!

We're hoping our instincts will prompt us to react differently--and better--to Baby Girl than to our cats (although we know there are times when our ability to ignore will come in handy). We're pretty sure they will. Fortunately, in other matters, our cats (or at least our bad one) have been a bit more helpful:

-We've mastered the ability to play simple, silly games time after time ("string game" is a favorite in our house).

-Out house is already half child-proofed, and we've already numbed ourselves to the possibility that our things can get destroyed if we don't keep them out of reach.

-We no longer fool ourselves that we can reason with irrational beings (this will serve us well through both the terrible twos and the teenage years).

-A trouble-making cat's cute, wide-eyed stare rarely stop us in our tracks.

-We have a head-start in fine-tuning discipline regimes (this is still a work in progress, though, seeing as we still have one misbehaving cat).

-We're already used to doing extra cleaning around the house.

-We'll be extra grateful when our child says her first words (something our cats have almost achieved, but not quite). As an added bonus, we've learned to interpret a variety of non-human noises--most of them mean "I'm hungry."

So we're ready for kids, right? Please don't everyone comment at once.

Meet Baby Odegaard!

Hi all! I'm starting this post for those of you who want to keep up with the pregnancy and Baby Girl's first months of life. Read as much or as little as you like! To catch up, I'll give you an overview of the past few weeks.

First, just to clarify, Baby Odegaard is most likely a baby girl. We didn't get a great look, but the tech was quite sure, and she's never been wrong when she's written it down according to our doctor (and she wrote it down!). I'm shopping for pink, as are some of you (thank you!!!), but I'm simply hoping for a healthy baby at the end of all of this. I like to think of it as a best-case scenario--I have every reason to shop for the cutest baby products imaginable, but we still could be in for a fun surprise!

She looks to be perfectly healthy and all her measurements are just where they should be. She's in the 40th percentile for size.

Baby has been fairly active, and I've been feeling movement since week 16 1/2. Matt's even felt a few kicks! She's most active in the late evenings and sometimes early to mid-afternoon. I'm hoping this means she'll let us sleep in (yeah, right).

Last weekend we set up our registries. What an ordeal! Even though it only took less than 3 hours, we were both exhausted afterward. (Matt would argue with me on the "only!") I can't believe how many decisions there were to make, and this was after I'd already done a lot of research. We were truly amazed, but I guess also glad that there will be so many products to help us out. We're still wondering how in the world you'd raise a child without Babies R Us.

I'm feeling good for the most part although my morning sickness has been returning in the evenings. As you can see in the picture, I'm not showing much. I've managed to get some great deals on a few maternity clothes, though, and am enjoying my new, albeit sparse, wardrobe.

That's all for now. Check back occasionally for updates!