My Baby...

Yet to be named Baby Sommer, the first child of Ethan and I, is expected on November 5th, 2007. We are very excited to be making this move from a couple to a family. This site will fill out slowly over the course of the pregnancy, and then hopefully be a place where I can share many of Baby's life stories as he or she grows up. In the mean time we are getting as prepared as we can. We can't wait to meet our little baby and share or live with him/her.

Baby was conceived in February, 2007. We had been trying for several months, so when we took the test and saw that we had indeed gotten pregnant we were over-joyed! The restrictions on my diet and exercise during pregnancy were hard to get used to though. I had to miss my hockey state tournament, which was very hard for me, but at the same time the tiny baby inside me was much more precious to me than any WHAM state title! For about the first two months I did have to continue to remind myself how much I really wanted this baby, as I went through morning sickness, and other unpleasant symptoms of early pregnancy. It felt more like a bad stomach flu than a pregnancy to me! Once I began to near the end of the first trimester, I started feeling relief from much of the physical discomforts and the pregnancy became much more enjoyable.

I had my first ultra-sound at 11 weeks, and it was an amazing experience. The OB/Gyn clinic I am going to has great in-house machines, and it was really easy for the doctor to just take us over, and in seconds we could see our little baby squirming on the screen! Baby measured 5 cm (just under 2 inches) from head to butt. And the heartbeat was 160 bpm. So fast and strong! Baby moved around a lot and gave us views of all his/her fingers and toes, and even faced the "camera" for the picture! The doctor said that if the baby is this cooperative at the next appointment (at 16 weeks) then we will easily be able to find out the gender! I could have sat and watched the baby all day. It was amazing to see that there really was a little person inside of me. And I was amazing how much like a baby the picture looked, even so early on!

Our friends and family have been extremely supportive. We have already received several adorable baby gifts from our friends, including a music playing Pooh bear, a baby Darth Vader costume, and several "one-sies" with various sci-fi related phrases on them. The gifts are all adorable and very much appreciated. It's great to know that there are so many people who will care about this little child. At first I didn't get any feeling as to whether the baby would be a boy or girl, but right now I feel as though it will be a boy. (although I would be very happy to have either, and we already have names picked out for both possibilities) We already have plans for the nursery. Boy or girl we are planning on putting in light blue curtains and a light green rug. We also plan to paint the walls and put up a new boarder, one more baby-specific than the old pink flowers in there right now. We are leaning towards a dinosaur theme. We plan to start a baby registry at Babies-R-Us as soon as we find out the gender, which will hopefully be at the 16 week appointment.

Being pregnant is one of the stratgest and most facinating things in the world. It's amazing to me what the human body is capable of. The first trimester was a rockey road of sickness, soreness and generally unpleasant symptoms. But as soon as I hit the second trimester the sickness went away, my energy went back up, and I started to grow. It is so strange to watch my own body change and grow, and it is hard to imagine that my generally small frame will really stretch to accomidate a full-term baby! Without being able to actually see the baby, sometimes it's hard to believe that there really is a little person inside me. The whole preocess is so strange, sometimes it seems like something out of science fiction! Grow a person inside my body? That just sounds crazy! But it's happening! And it is quite an interesting experience. Starting at 14 weeks, Ethan and I began to talk to the baby and even play a little Mozart for it. Mozart has always been my favorite composer, so I'm really happy his music is so highly recomended for the baby. Being pregnant is fun in the second trimester! But it is distracting, it's hard to think about much other than the baby!