It Nudges

I finally started to feel something when I put my hand on Katrina's stomach. After weeks of botched attempts of poking, pressing, and prodding I actually felt a push back! I couldn't tell you what body part it was, but I'm guessing a shoulder or butt cheek. I'm still waiting for the day when I see the movement by looking at her tummy. Alien! It feels like she has a parasite, which technically is true. It is feeding off of her.

Katrina keeps asking me to talk to the baby. I do it a little, but I should probably attempt it more. Everything I read says it's good so the baby can recognize your voice. One thing said, "Speak to your baby no more than two hours a day. Don't sound bored, the baby will sense this in your voice." She's already judging me?! Not even out of the womb yet, and I'm a bad parent. And two hours?! That's a lot of monologuing. I find it hard enough to do this for more than 5 minutes. I guess when I read that Week by Week pregnancy book with Katrina I can speak to the wee one then. Although I suppose the content isn't as important. I could read stereo instructions or Senate confirmation transcripts.

We're getting a lot of advice about what kind of things to register for. At this point Babies R Us is our only registry but I'd like to change that seeing that almost half of the content is not available for online purchase and shipping. Mostly the furniture but simple things too like rattles and DVDs. So we may do a BabyCenter.com or some other type of registry to go along with the first one. Brick and mortar be damned. They're all dim-witted twits at Babies R Us anyway. You'd think the employees there would have some kind of useful advice or a mildly clued-up sales staff would be present. But I swear, they'd walk into the glass doors if there weren't stickers on them. And then there's the new parents' advice from people who had babies in the last few years. I find this to be the most helpful, of course, but it varies from pragmatic to ridiculous. Like people telling Katrina not to breast feed because her boobs will never be the same again. I have strong opinions on this and I'll keep this short. People who don't breast feed for cosmetic reasons should be brought up on charges of abuse. There are so many health benefits for the baby like receiving the mother's antibodies to fight infection, for example. I just don't get it. Maybe because I don't have breasts. Well, not ones that have the capacity for lactation anyway.

So, the Top Names so far are: Alina, Zoe, Autumn, & Vivian. We haven't officially chosen any of them yet. Some people say we should wait until she's born and see what kind of name she looks like. I hesitate on that, because then she may end up with a name like Screamy or Gooey. I think it'd be hard to see past the guts and gloop and havoc make an informed decision like, "Yep, that's a Zoe, all right."