Gender fun, redux

Last night I had my first really vivid dream about the baby, and it was once again a boy. It looked normal and healthy and I recall noting it had eye color like mine, only a lighter, more aqua color.
The midwife today asked me what I thought it was and I mentioned the dream, and she said she thought it was a boy too. I told her lots of people said that because of how I was carrying it, but she said she thinks dreams are even better indicators.
Do with that information what you will. :)

Baby Shower!

Dig that beautiful cake! On Saturday my mom hosted a baby shower for us and invited future colleagues, quite the variety of friends (some going as far back as 6th grade and some we'd only met months ago), and family. My friend Leslie and Steve's parents George and Sue win the "longest travel distance" award, having come out all the way from California just to be here, and our friend Yook even consented to come up from Brooklyn as a surprise guest for Steve (what party is complete without at least one surprise guest? Or at least that appears to be my family's motto!).

As you can see from this photo (which doesn't show the two strollers, the "exercise jungle," the bouncer, or the car seats we also received), we got a *ton* of things off our registry, which we are so excited about, as well as some really sweet surprises -- apparently we invited a handful of crafty people, so we got two hand-made blankets, and a hand made sweater, hat, and quilt that were just beautiful. We still have a few things left to pick up but the guests were more than generous in helping contribute!
Several guests also brought babies so we got to see the range of development:

In this photo, the boy on the chair is 2 years old, the baby in the bouncer is 3 months old, the baby in Allie's lap is 10 months old, and there was another4 week old baby who slept quietly for its entire stay in the one air-conditioned room (let's hope we're that lucky!). All the babies were really well behaved and happy, giving us some welcome confirmation that we are in for as much fun and love as we are sleepless nights and poopy diapers. Speaking of which, we're going to use cloth diapers, and Allie and Pete were kind enough to give us some lessons in how to use them, so we got a practical education as well (thanks guys!).
These are two very happy campers (shown with our gift-distributing helper):

Thanks again everyone!

Latest bump photo plus gender gossip

This photo was taken at the Bushiribana ruins in Aruba, and you need to be ready for it, because it is pure, undiluted, unabridged BUMP:

For those of you who take your bump neat.
Also, as far as everyone who decided to share an opinion was concerned, this baby is a boy.
It all started with my mom, Nancy, in February: "If by the second trimester you can still get your pants up over your butt and button them, it's a boy." (21 weeks in and I am still able to wear my jeans, though they are a little pinchy-pinchy right under the bump.)
Aruba did nothing but verify her opinion:
Taxi-driver from airport to hotel: "Girl-babies fight their mothers all the way, they make them really sick and fat all over. You must be carrying a boy."
Waitress at resort restaurant (after making me stand up): "It's a boy. It's pointy."
Divemaster for Steve's first night dive: "They say in Columbia that girl-babies steal their mothers' beauty. (Realizes she's treading VERY dangerous water.) SO you MUST be carrying a boy! (Big smile.)"
When we first found out I was pregnant, Steve and I both had the instinct that it was a girl; so far we have little folk-loric evidence to support the claim except that instinct. Since we have decided to keep the gender a surprise, only time will tell. We have our next ultrasound this Thursday; expect more photos soon!

The belly stare and the mortification impulse

I walked into my internship yesterday morning and my supervisor exclaimed "you've popped!" Indeed, even though I posted about it a few weeks ago, it still felt like the genuine emergence of my "bump" happened overnight. A few weeks ago I could feel it and sorta see it but if I sucked my stomach in its presence was negotiable; now I can't not feel it and if I suck my stomach in, well, very little happens. (I will take and email photos soon; let me know if you'd like to be on that list.) It's not that it's huge; it's just that it's there.

While it's obvious to me what's going on, I'm starting to get the first onslaught of the "is she or isn't she?" stares. Well, that's not entirely accurate because the first onslaught has been by people who know I'm pregnant, so they're really "is it or isn't it showing?" stares. Women are used to being stared at for a variety of reasons, and I'm no exception, but I have to say the new locale for the stares is taking some adjustment. Women are also trained to be very, very sensitive to perceptions of our weight and if I were not pregnant and caught three or four people trying to discretely stare at my belly despite wide eyes and furrowed brows, I'd be mortified. That mortification impulse is still present with the pregnancy belly, like it or not, and has to be grappled with despite the fact that there's no reason to be even slightly embarrassed about one's belly size. (A note here that really -- really -- no one should be made to be embarrassed about their belly size, no matter its cause, by society or anyone, but let's face it, it happens pervasively.) Having a belly has called into high relief how much I do have that mortification impulse despite my beliefs that no one should have it; just another facet of day to day living of which pregnancy has made me hyper-aware.

What are the other things? How accustomed I'd grown to ignoring hunger and bathroom urges for the sake of convenience, for one. Training myself to eat when I'm hungry -- the moment I'm hungry -- and to use the facilities when I first have even the faintest awareness that I have to go -- has been just that, training. Then there's the infrequency with which I was paying attention to vegetables and protein amounts in my diet until now. There's the absolutely cerebral way I operated before pregnancy, rarely paying attention to the nuances of my physical existence like I do now. I have never before inhabited my body the way I so completely do now.

And lastly, there's the omnipresence of Easter candy in the world -- is Easter over yet? Please?