I've got a feeling & a Stroller Coaster

Baby W, you are now 19 weeks old! We're getting closer and closer to that official half way point!

You keep growing, and so does your Mom's belly! This week you're the size of a Mango!

Seeing as how you're really climbing up the produce food chain, and that you're moving like crazy in your Mom's belly, it's no wonder that she's been feeling you kick and turn and move for just about a full week.

But, what was a wonder to me, was that I felt you move too! We were on the couch watching a movie (oddly enough, a movie about an expectant couple called "Away We Go"). During the movie, I had my hand on your Mother's belly and...POP!...I swear I felt you move below and to the right of her belly button.

Was that you in there?

Holly said that she "wasn't paying attention" to know if what I felt was, indeed, you moving...but I'm pretty convinced that was you! It felt almost like being gently flicked, but very quick and abrupt. Was that your foot? Your hand? Did you hit your head?

No matter what it was, it made my night! No, it made my whole week! Maybe you could hit your head against her belly again tonight?

Speaking of moving, you'll be happy to know that your Mother and have moved forward in a particularly difficult arena: registering.

As you'll recall, we were both incredibly overwhelmed by Babies R Us and hightailed it out of there with our tails between our legs. I was happy with never going back to that store again, and figured you'd do just fine in hand-me-downs and old cardboard boxes taped together to create a crib. Little did I know, though, that your Mom found her comfort zone for registering and basically went through every category of everything you'll ever need by registering online. It was way easier!

But, when I got filled back in on the loop, there were still two items that were vexing your mother: your crib and your stroller. So, I figured we should take it up a notch. Biting the bullet, we headed to another baby superstore: Buy Buy Baby.

They even let me park right up front!

This store was A LOT better: each employee is an expert on baby things, and the store is laid out to not induce hyperventilation and vertigo. So that's a plus. On our first trip there, we learned a heck of a lot and saw about 15 million strollers and cribs.

Stroller Over-Load! We felt like this couple, except that I still have my lucious head of hair! (as of this writing)

We definitely still felt overwhelmed...but not as badly as before. I guess going to these baby stores and registering is like being bludgened: the more you experience it, the less pain you feel! But we ironed out a lot of ideas and brainstormed and discussed and talked and thought and thought some more and sought advice and turned inward and...we made a decision on both fronts!

So yesterday, we decided that we needed to go back to Buy Buy Baby to see if our idea would even work! In order to make ourselves feel better about being bright-eyed and deer-in-the-headlights at these baby stores, we decided to bring some folks who would make us feel like old pros: enter the Nodelands! So, with BJ and Kari in tow, and confidence artifically heightened, we went back to Buy Buy Baby to register for more amazing junk for you and test our stroller idea.

Registering can stink. Is that a fake burger patty in your hands or are we in a PetSmart?

After a hands-on demonstration from three different associates, encountering an even-more bewildered couple than us, and test driving (and test lifting) about 10 carrier and stroller combinations, you might have thought we'd high-tailed it out of there again. But no! Consider your stroller and infant carrier registered-for! You're gonna be so comfortable (and safe (and stylish))).

I've got a good feeling about this!

Your new ride! We don't look too scared, do we? Plus, check out your Mom's 19 week bump!

Holy Guacamole!

I can't believe it! You're already 16 weeks old! According to the ever-increasing fruit-scale, you are the size of an Avocado! Whoa!

That doesn't surprise me too much because your Mom's tummy is REALLY starting to show now. Forget all that stuff I said before about her showing; comparatively, that was just a little Root Beer Belly. Now she's legitimately beginning to show!

In fact, her belly has grown so much that your Mom is constantly marveling about the changing (read "shrinking") depth of her belly button.

"Aaron, look, I can see the bottom of my belly button!"

The belly button is definitely becoming more and more shallow. Without a flashlight or anything, we can see the bottom of that little button. And when your Mom's about ready to pop, just like a pop-up turkey thermometer, her belly button may unceremoniously turn from an inny into an outie.

You may have also noticed that this week your eyelashes, eyebrows and hair are starting to fill in. On an even cooler note, your taste buds are forming! That means, for the first time, you might actually care which fruit you are equatable to in size. And it's a good week for that. Avocados are among your Mom's favorite foods!

But, what I think is the coolest, is that teeny tiny versions of the teeniest tinyest bones in the human body are now forming...creating the inner workings of your ears!



That means that you can probably pick up your Mother's voice this week, and possibly mine too. I'll try to sing on key!

Hopefully you didn't hear us on Sunday. In an attempt to get a coupon at Babies R Us so that we could get a discount on your Mom's body pillow, we signed up to register at that superstore.

It was overwhelming to say the least. How does one chose items to buy for a challenge they've never faced before? We didn't know what was what...what kind of breast pump, diaper genie, stroller or anything to get! Holy Guacamole, talk about shopping for someone else being difficult! This was downright stressful! AND they didn't even have the right body pillow in the store anyway, so your Mom wound up ordering it off Amazon today.

A good visual representation of how I felt in Babies R Us. Minus the Latina baby Girl, of course. They made me give her back.

But about 2o minutes in to the registering, you would have heard me whine and basically throw in the towel on the whole deal. Not the pregnancy; just the registering. It was not my finest moment, so I'm glad your ear bones weren't fully developed yet to hear that miserable excuse for a power shopper.

We did see lots of cool stuff that we want to get for you (and for us for you); but most of it seemed foreign. Stacks and stacks of stuff that we didn't know if we needed or absolutely didn't need.

We've never done this before, so we're gonna have to seek some advice from some of your Uncles and Aunts and some other key advisors.

Maybe by the time you CAN hear me from inside your Mom's tummy, we'll be better prepared to make a decent show of registering for Baby gear. And then you'll hear that cash register ding and be a little less stressed about the whole deal.

But for now, you've got all the gear you need: umbilical cord, amniotic fluid, a growing womb in which to play less cluttered by an intrusive belly button and (this is news) a likely candidate for your Name!

That's right...we may have decided on your name! More on this later though!