Pig: The Profile

Pig at 20 Weeks

Random Thoughts

• This is indeed a fertile year. I have one in-law who had her pig, two cousins expecting and 6 friends who are either expecting or have had Pigs. A grand total of 10 piglets (one friend had twins)! And mostly girls so far...looks like the force is strong with the X chromosome this year of the Golden Pig.
• Pig's palate is evolving, today I had some spicy salmon curry and chickpeas. Afterwards I guzzled some water and waited to see what would happen...nothing so far! So happy. Only a month ago, even eating anything with an innocuous dash of pepper would have me hanging over the toilet like it was a wishing well.
• Our dogs, Anoki and Kirby, have been very good around me. I mean they still sexually harass me when I come home and when I come out wearing a new outfit (they do that to K too so no biggie) and run around with my underwear (they also run around with K's socks so again no biggie) but otherwise they haven't tried to challenge my authority. I expected a little bit of attitude especially from Anoki. I mean he must know that I intend to bring another lifeform into the house. The last time I did that he got Kirb and I'm not sure if he's ever forgiven us for that. They must finally see me as the Alpha Female...now if only we could train them to serve drinks and snacks.

Petunia Pig!

It's a girl! K and I went in for our Level II ultrasound last Wednesday. You have not lived until you've seen what this contraption can do. The sonographer, Sandy, slathered heated gel onto my belly (oh yes, heated, very posh). First thing we saw was the Vegas strip that is our daughter's spine, each vertebrae was lit up brightly and for a second K and I thought, "Alien." We went through all of the vital organs getting a good detailed view of the 4 chambers of the heart pumping away like crazy, her heart rate was good but high, probably the excitement of poking and proding and the banana that I had consumed earlier. Her belly measured just perfectly and we got a really cool, colorful view of the umbilical cord. We then went through her skeletal system and saw her cranium and eye sockets and limbs.

She was bouncing so much and evading the proding that it was difficult to get a good view of her. Finally the sonographer was able to get a good profile shot of her and it looks like she has inherited my lips and K's nose. We saw her smacking her little lips when Sandy was checking her mouth for a cleft palate.

So now we were ready to find out baby's gender. Of course she stopped bouncing and crouched, legs together right under my navel. Sandy patted the area around Pig's butt to try to get her to shift over...nothing. Suddenly, she just flipped over and boo-yah, it's a girl. K was hugging himself in delight. Not that we had a preference but the reality of it all hit us. We weren't having a pig, we were having a little girl. Still weirds me out. K has had random moments of gooey-ness and he'll start cooing and babytalking at my bump. It must look strange to aliens observing us from outer space. "Look, Zork, we were mistaken, the speaking orifice for the female earthling is actually located at her center."

Pig's Half Time Show

Nearly 20 weeks, yee-ha! I'm feeling pretty good. Nausea hasn't been a problem in weeks...neither has constipation so I guess I am going through the honeymoon period of the pregnancy. My growing belly continues to amaze me. Occasionally I'll catch a glimpse of myself lumbering about and do a doubletake, despite the fact that I'm turning 30 this year, I just don't feel old enough to have a kid. K as father is pretty weird too. I mean he loves kids to death but this is the guy that likes to ride the grocery cart like a chariot...I just hope he's ready to relinquish it to the kid. Myself, I still like to chase the dogs around with compressed air cans so I'm not sure what kind of role model I'll be.

Pig's been twirling like crazy. I'm assuming that it's twirling because that's what it feels like...could actually be little baby burps. Poor K really wants to feel Pig move but it seems to happen more in the afternoon when he's not around. So he admitted that he has "pouch-envy." I was amused for two reasons, first, I knew he'd want to be part of that and second, he sees the belly as a pouch, a kind of fanny pack, if you will, housing our child. Every night as I roll around in bed trying to find a comfy spot, K pokes my belly like he's testing for ripeness. Pig doesn't budge. I'm sure he/she is in there scowling as the roof of his/her home is being pushed in for the umpteenth time. I suggested that we put Kirby under his shirt and he could experience it on a very large scale. The suggestion didn't go over very well.

So next week we will hopefully find out we've got a Petunia or a Porky. Very excited.