22 Weeks/22 Months

This week begins the "monthly produce" instead of the weekly...

"It's a Papaya!  Watch what you say -- baby is now able to hear outside noise from down in the womb. Studies show that baby finds gentle music and your own voice most soothing. Nipples are starting to sprout, and that little face is fully formed. And, baby's starting to settle into sleep cycles, snoozing about 12 to 14 hours a day. It shouldn't be hard to figure out when -- just pay attention to those kicks as they start and stop." 

Week 22 Belly Picture - taken Friday

Regan is also 22 Months old today!  Where does the time go?  In just two more months I will be the mother of a two year old!


Regan has been developing in leaps and bounds, with her words, letters and now colors too.  Somehow she has managed to memorize the word lists at the back of her Elmo books, and loves to show off her skills of "reading" them.  She loves to play with her little laptop that she got for Christmas from Aunt LuAnn and Uncle  Mark.  She will say the name of the letter, and the sound it makes before she pushes the letter on the keyboard.  This in turn makes her want to play with out laptop too, and match the letters from her keyboard to ours. 

She also loves to do her ABC flashcards, and can almost correctly identify all of the words, and some of the letters.  The next big hurdle has been colors.  These seem to be a little trickier for her to figure out, and she seems to get attached to a color for the day, so when I ask her to name the color of something, its always the same.  For example, yesterday she liked green, so everything she pointed to was "green", whether it was for real or not.


This morning Regan was coloring at her table, and she came over to me and said "I drew a sun!".  Usually she takes the yellow crayon and asks me to draw a sun, so when I went over to look, lo and behold:

I'm not sure if you can tell on here, but she drew a yellow circle with yellow & green rays.  This is one of the most convincing things I've seen her draw!  She was very proud, and then asked me to draw a moon next to it.

Here are some other pictures from this morning - she grabbed my camera and asked me to take a picture of her:

 I asked her to smile so I could see her teeth and I got this:

21 Weeks

"It's a Banana!  Baby gulps down several ounces every day of the amniotic fluid for hydration and nutrition and to practice swallowing and digesting. And, these days, those taste buds actually work! Studies show that after birth, babies are most interested in tastes they've already experienced through amniotic fluid. Meaning, think about what you want your future child to eat as you prepare your own lunch."


I had a doctors appointment last week Tuesday, and everything went well.  Baby's heartbeat was about 140, and I have officially gained 9 pounds.  They expect me to gain about a pound a week from here on out, which is just about exactly the same as I gained with Regan.

"Big Girl" Status

Yesterday was a big day for Regan.  We had plans to move her into her big girl room, and we were planning on moving the crib in there so she could be comfortable while she got used to the room.  On a whim I asked her if she wanted to take a nap in the "big-girl" bed, and she said yes.  Without so much as a whimper, she crawled into bed and took a 2 hour nap in her new bed, in a new room.  I cried.  It was both joy and sadness.  When did my little baby get to be so big?

 So last night was her first night in that room and that bed.  She did just fine, barely even walked into her old room today.

 Also lately, she's been loving her leapfrog Tag pen.  She sits on the couch and "reads" for long periods of time.  Usually she wants us to read her a book, but now that she can do it "herself" she prefers this.

 Another favorite toy lately was her tea set from Grandma and Papa

 Minnie and Mickey were enjoying their experience at "Cafe Regan"

Of course she still likes her time before bed when Mommy and Daddy read to her.  When this ritual goes, then it will really be time to mourn the loss of my "baby girl".

Half Way There!

"It's a Cantaloupe! Baby's digestive system is busy creating meconium (a tarry black substance made of swallowed amniotic fluid, digestive secretion and dead cells), which will fill the first diaper after birth. And, speaking of the diaper situation... baby's genitals are now fully formed!"

Baby boy is halfway cooked as of today!  140 days down, less than 140 days to go!  It seems to be going by so fast this time.  I remember that after 30 weeks with Regan, the pregnancy just flew by.

I know I have been slaking with the belly pictures this time around, so here is one that I took last week:

Big Day - In More Ways Than One

Well today was a big day, and we had our big ultrasound.  Regan also had a big milestone today, first haircut.

Let me start by saying that this was an unplanned haircut.  She was happily eating her pancakes smothered in syrup this morning, when she put a big gob in her hair and smeared it all around...creating a giant sticky knot of curls and syrup.  After numerous attempts to clean and brush it out, it was still a giant knot, and Regan was screaming for me to stop trying to brush her hair.

So I had to cut it out of her hair.  She was really excited to get her hair cut, because she sees me cut Kevin and my Dads hair all the time.  She got out the stool that Kevin sits on and put it in the middle of the kitchen.  I cut about an inch off the bottom of her hair in the back, so it falls even with the hair on the side now.

I was sad that this is the way she got her first haircut - but I did save the little curls for her baby book, and she doesn't look "chopped" up, so I think it went as well as it could.  Here are some "after" shots:

So after work Kevin met me at the doctors office for our anatomy scan.  We were both really excited to see if the prediction from out 12 week scan was going be to true.  We had both been feeling girl from the beginning.  The tech asked us if we wanted to know, and we said yes.  We got our answer fairly quickly because the first shot she took we saw this:

 It's a BOY!  We were both shocked!  Even though we both knew that there was a good chance it could still be a boy, to actually hear those words was really surprising.  We are so excited at the prospect of a son, and I am excited to go shopping for baby clothes!  Here are some other shots of the baby:

 He was moving around like crazy, and at one point was all balled up in this picture

What a crazy day!  On Monday this baby boy will be half way cooked!

19 Weeks

"It's a Mango! Vernix caseosa, a greasy white substance made of lanugo, oil and dead skin cells (yum) now coats baby's skin, shielding it from the amniotic fluid. (Picture yourself after a nine-month bath, and the need for protection makes sense.) You might actually get to see the vernix at birth, especially if baby is premature."

We had an exciting weekend this past week to ring in the new year.  On Friday Kevin and I headed to Syracuse for his college roommate Rocky's wedding.  We stayed with his other roommate Kyle and his wife Sharon, who is also pregnant (about 6 weeks ahead of me).  It was so great to visit with everyone and we had a great time at the wedding.  It was hard to be "bean free" for the overnight, but we all survived, and Regan had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa Gannon.

We also took down the Christmas tree so that we could put up a very exciting gift from Santa... 

Her new tree tent!

 Even Daddy and Mommy can fit in there too!

Crazy Hair

We also had a nice visit from Rachel, Mike, Giulianna, and baby Rhyon.  I forgot to take any pictures, but I think Rachel managed to take a few, so hopefully I can post those soon!

Less than three days till our ultrasound!!