20-week Photo

This is the mother-to-be at 20-weeks, the 1/2-way point! She is standing next to the flowers she received to mark the occasion.

I made the mistake of waiting until too late in the evening to take a photo, so I was lucky Heather even let me get this shot. But notice the UW shirt that she's wearing. Little BW is well on the way to becoming a Husky fan!

Half-way Exam

It was celebration time today at the Lilac House, as Heather reached the 1/2-way point in the pregnancy!!! The baby is officially 20-weeks along. It was also time for a check-up with Dr. Zawacki.

This time, the exam was at the Family Medical Center in downtown Vancouver, where the doctor's office is located. The nurse who called us in measured several things, including Heather's blood pressure ... which, surprisingly, was at normal levels (her work was a little stressful that day). This was followed by many, many questions.

Soon after, Dr. Zawacki arrived, and immediately gave us the good news that the blood testing from the previous visit looked good, and that the results from the ultrasound examination looked good as well. So, that was a great start! She then probed around Heather's tummy, trying to find the top of her uterus. She pushed around a while, and said that it wasn't easy to find, perhaps due to the uterus being "tipped"; she did say that would change soon when the baby starts pushing outwards. Eventually, she found the top at about 2-3 inches above the belly button. Next up was the baby's heartbeat, which again took some time to find, maybe because BW was racing around inside again. Heather mentioned baby's dislike of being poked might be making things difficult. The monitor showed about 140 bpm, and Dr. Zawacki said the baby was "active".

At the end of the exam, Heather asked the doctor if she could recommend a pediatrician for BW. Dr. Zawacki said that she also examined children, and that she would love to be our baby's doctor. Good news yet again! Our next checkup will be in 4 weeks (and in the meantime, the doctor is taking a three-week vacation to Nepal to practice medicine there.)

More Symptoms

As if Heather needed any more confirmation that she's pregnant, along comes some more symptoms typical of pregnancy (according to the pregnancy websites and books). One that has been bothering her a lot lately is a constant itchiness ... mostly her across her back. There's been lots of backscratching by yours truly. The latest symptom that she experienced last night was she was having a hard time sleeping, which is not like her at all! We're not sure what the cause of that was, though it's always possible that little BW did some late-night exercises.

19-week Photo

Here's the 19-week photo, with Heather standing in front of a store that is probably going to be very familiar to us as time goes on.

This weekend, we decided it was time to make our first trip to a Babies 'R Us store! We went ahead and began a registry for little BW ... and it ended up being a pretty exhausting exercise. Strollers, car seats, baby monitors, bouncers, high chairs, bed sheets, blankets, bottles, bath tubs, and on and on! Not only were there lots of things, but there were so many options (there were dozens of different styles of diaper bags!), and now we were having to make some decisions already. Still, there were things we weren't sure about, so we delayed those decisions 'til later. But it was good to get some ideas.

One milestone was that Heather found a color scheme to work with! She happened to find a brown, green and cream-colored baby blanket that she really liked, so we went ahead and bought it. Her idea is to go to the fabric store, looking for similar colors. Eventually, BW's half of the spare bedroom (the other half is the office) will be decorated with these colors in mind.

Staying Active

Baby Woodruff is still on the move, especially on busy or active days. Heather says that when her work is keeping her going at full speed (like it has the last two nights), it seems that the baby is also on the go, bouncing and spinning around inside her. The good news is that when it's Heather's bedtime, BW settles down and gets some shut-eye as well.

18-week Photo

Heather is looking beautiful at 18-weeks! She's got that mommy-to-be glow about her.

Another sign that Heather is pregnant: she went to bed at 9:00 pm tonight! For those of you that know her well, that's pretty unusual. It looks like little BW is borrowing some of mommy's energy for the daily gymnastic routines.

Baby's Second Photo

We got another look at Baby Woodruff again, this time at the 18-week mark!

This ultrasound photo is a frontal view, so you can see the baby's head, eyes and mouth. And you can also see a really big tummy ... when the ultrasound technician saw that, she said "healthy baby". It's a little hard to see, but you can kind of make out some hands, too.

We went to Southwest Washington Medical Center (where Heather works) for this ultrasound, and the technician was a very nice lady. The first thing that she said to Heather when she got a picture of the baby was: "Have you had coffee today? This baby's all over the place!" The technician chased BW all over inside Heather trying to get a good view, but the baby was having none of it ... the first 5 minutes or so was just a game of hide and seek.

After a while, BW settled down, and that's when the first of many measurements began: stomach, head, brain, neck, femur, humerus, kidneys, bladder, heart and body length. Once again, the baby had a good heartbeat, and the closeup of the heart showed everything in it's place, as was all of the other parts. Lots of technical stuff that was hard to keep up with! The baby did weigh in at 11 ounces, and the projected age was 19 weeks, based on the measurements. So, either the baby's a little bigger than expected, or just a little older than expected ... either way, the due date is now estimated at February 7, 2008.

Towards the end of the exam, as the technician was panning out away from BW, we saw a little hand reach out and wave at us. Must have been baby saying good-bye to Mommy and Daddy, until the next ultrasound!

Heather and I are happy to know that we have a healthy baby, even if it turns out to be 10+ pounder!

Surprise

When I went to the Castle Rock Middle School today for the girls' volleyball match against Kalama, I caught up with Jennifer Amren, a coach with the Cowlitz Volleyball Club. (She witnessed the first meeting of Heather and I at a volleyball practice.) She surprised me with a wonderful little gift for Baby Woodruff ... a little blanket, that she had knitted. BW is definitely feeling the love these days. Thanks Jennifer and family!

17-week Photo

One week closer, so only 23-weeks more! Here's the latest photo of mommy and baby, while celebrating Tierney and Papa Woodruff's birthdays at the firepit.

Another first today ... Heather was watching the US Open tennis match, and expressing her feelings to the TV, when baby gave her pretty good kick. She nearly jumped out of the couch! She said, "Settle down, baby," and then got one more hard kick. If BW can belt out a kick that hard now, what's it going to be like later?

Another Check Up

Heather made another trip to see Dr. Zawacki this week. They listened again to the baby's heartbeat, and the doctor said "It sounds like a pretty active baby." Heather then had blood drawn for pre-natal screening (but not as much taken this time ... yahooo!) She'll probably get results in about 4 weeks.

On the Move

Little BW is getting plenty of exercise inside Heather. She mentioned yesterday that on her drive home from work, she felt several small twinges or "jabs" in her tummy ... like the baby was poking her with some quick footwork. Sounds like BW is just itching to get out and start running around already!

16-week Photo

Baby Woodruff is now 4 months along, and Heather's "bump" is proof of that!

Mommy Heather is standing in front of the fence that she and Grandpa Peterson worked on all weekend.