Baby Barnes!

Our little gummy bear at about 9 weeks:

Our little human at about 19 weeks:

Answers to Frequently Asked Questions:

*We found out we were parents-to-be on the day we left Raleigh for Lori's wedding (August 29, 2013), which made for an unexpectedly giddy car ride south. In those six, captive hours we planned - but not too much, contemplated - but not too hard, and got excited - but stayed self-preservingly pragmatic, and then put it all safely on the back burner while we celebrated Lori's wedding. We weren't ready to spread the news yet, and the festivities provided the perfect distraction (although, with everyone under one roof and Christie ever eager to know when we are going to provide a cousin for her kiddos, there were certainly times when it was tempting to spill the very under-cooked beans). We carried our little secret around for another month, until after my first doctor's appointment (September 30), and then, with professional confirmation, started telling our families. The news is just now slowly leaking to friends and acquaintances, primarily because our little secret isn't so little anymore...

*I think I have been amazingly lucky with most of the major cons of pregnancy. I was seasick for some of the first trimester, but it wasn't severe and it's long gone now. Meat and the CrockPot were my primary culinary enemies, and both aversions, I think, were due to smell more than anything else. The smell of cooking meat has never been among my favorite things, and lingering CrockPot odors in our apartment, even normally pleasant ones, turned my tummy in a hurry. At the time, I was just tutoring at Huntington in the afternoons and evenings, so I was home during the day and could exercise, snack, and nap my way through the worst of it. On the other side of typical pregnancy-induced food oddities, I haven't had any cravings, aside from an enhanced affinity for strawberries, clementines, homemade pickles, and ice cream (each thing on its own, one at a time...), but none of that is the least bit new.

*Perhaps the most painful and annoying aspect of living in a pregnant body so far has been the Charley horses. Those nasty little leg cramps always present themselves in the wee hours of the night and are sometimes so excruciating that I'm surprised I still have functioning calf muscles in the morning. I've been eating more bananas (potassium!), drinking more water (hydration!), and exercising more regularly (stretching!), in hopes than any or all of those rumored fixes will ward off the pesky and uncomfortable muscle spasms.

*In an effort to stop calling our offspring "it", we decided early on to call him or her Bebe, short for Baby Barnes (B.B.) and French for baby (bébé). It stuck and spread, so much so that it's on its way to becoming this little one's nickname.

*We found out at about 19 weeks that Bebe is a girl. Most predictions from family and friends said boy, primarily because of the (clearly false) wives-tales that 1) little morning sickness means little boy and 2) boys tend to be carried lower (I guess I'm carrying low?). Coming from a family of two girls with negligible experience with little boys, I think I was relieved to hear "girl", but I know I would have been really excited to hear "boy", too.

*We live in a small, one-bedroom apartment, with a lease that ends two months after Bebe's scheduled arrival, and we've decided to stay put. We figure she'll stay in our room at least that long anyway, so there's no real need for a second bedroom, aside from a place to store all of the stuff she's already starting to accumulate. Hopefully, being confined to a small space will keep us from getting engulfed by the sea of baby products out there, help us make smart choices about the essentials, and allow us to keep living simply in spite of the big addition of a little person to our household.

*The fact that my body has been commandeered by a little person has become so much more apparent in the last few weeks, as she's started hosting daily dance parties in my belly. She's such an active baby (perhaps all 2nd trimester babies are...), often visibly so, although she rarely performs on demand. Feeling her dance around, especially during her larger, more powerful moves, always makes me grin and usually makes me laugh - partly because it does kind of tickle, but also because it's all just so strangely amazing, this growing another living, moving person inside of yourself.

*I was 20 weeks on December 20th, so we're just over halfway there! I have a feeling that the first 4 months have gone by much faster than the next four will. Until now, I've been so preoccupied with teaching that there wasn't a whole lot of time to sit around and count the days until Bebe's arrival. With my "retirement" (as Drew likes to call it) from 8th grade complete, I'm afraid the days and weeks may linger a little longer. Although Drew and I are already prone to baby-on-the-outside envy, we still have plenty to do to get as ready as we can be for little miss to join us in this big, big world, so bake on little one; we'll wait.