Halfway to Diaper-Changing: Prego Update

Another month, another doctor’s appointment.  I’m officially at the halfway point in my pregnancy now, and everything seems to be going really well.  There’s no reason why it shouldn’t be, but somehow it seems foolhardy to assume the best.

This appointment, like the last one, was short and trouble-free.  We listened to the baby’s heartbeat (~145 bpm), and Dr. K said both my weight gain and the baby’s measurements look good.

I did have to get my blood drawn again this time, and the next hurdle is going to be waiting for the lab to tell us whether the baby is likely to have any developmental abnormalities (Down’s Syndrome, etc.).  We’ll have those results by next week.  I’m going to try not to think too much about birth defects until then.

Tomorrow I’m going to call the hospital (not the same as the clinic I’ve been going to) to schedule our next ultrasound.  Hopefully in the next week or two we will also be finding out the sex of our baby!  J and I have had names picked out for quite some time now, and it will be so nice to be able to refer to the baby as something other than “it.”

As a side note, I brought up the forthcoming ultrasound in our last transgender group meeting, and had one of those really weird “mouth out of sync with brain” moments as I told the group how much we were looking forward to finding out whether we were having a boy or a girl.  As the words were coming out of my mouth, it occurred to me that this particular audience probably didn’t want to hear this stuff… You know.  Considering they had all spent their lives trying to separate themselves from the gender they had been assigned at birth and all.

Whoops.  Anyway, a person has to start somewhere, right?  We’ll support our child if he/she turns out to be transgender, or homosexual, or bisexual, or asexual, or whatever.  And I think that anybody who knows me and J will realize this.

In other news, I’ve been feeling the baby’s movements for a few weeks now.  They’re fairly distinctive at this point, although it’s hard to describe the feeling.  Not like “gas bubbles” anyway.  More like little taps just above my pelvic region.  At my most recent appointment I asked Dr. K about it, and she said it almost certainly was the baby.  So, that’s pretty exciting.

Although it still seems early to be purchasing a lot of baby gear, we ended up bringing home a lot of stuff after visiting family over the holidays.  It is certainly in our favor that my sister has a one year-old who has just recently outgrown a lot of infant things.  It also helps that my parents (actually, mainly my mom) are really into saving stuff for us that may be useful later.  This is usually a trait that irritates me, because I am always trying to get rid of clutter, and my mom always seems to be trying to get us to take on more clutter.  But sometimes this trait of hers is beneficial.  (Thanks, Ma.  Love you.)

More updates to come as the blood work results come in and the next ultrasound appointment is solidified.  Maybe when we get past these things I’ll really feel like I’m on my way to becoming a parent?  Because despite my growing stomach, the new pile of baby gear, and the new tapping sensation on my lower abdomen, this still doesn’t feel completely real.