Jeff's First Kick

Jeff got to feel little Taylor's kick for the first time last night (Halloween night in Korea)! She was being extremely active, so I asked him to come and feel, and I kept talking to her and responding to every movement she made. She continued to kick in that one location, and when Jeff placed his hand on my belly, she paused for a second, and then gave a swift kick, which startled Jeff! :) His response made me burst out laughing, which in turn, must have surprised the little one so she stopped moving for a little bit, but as Jeff and I continued to laugh, she started moving around again, happy as can be.

It's amazing that she's already responding to stimuli from inside the womb...I'm just so excited to meet her!

Belly girth is now at a whopping 36.5 inches! Yes, oh my...

Growing belly...

Little Taylor must be going through a growth spurt because in the last few days, my belly has grown quite a bit. See photo.

She has also been very very active...as usual...but she has not taken to not only kicking outward, but downward as well - yes, she pushes happily on my bladder. I'm sure you all wanted to know that.

Also, Jeff has taken a delight in getting me silly (and cute) pregnant belly shirts - like the one I'm wearing in the picture. He also got me a shirt that says "Don't touch my belly!" because I have thus far had some quite random people come up and try to pat my belly. I really don't know why people think they have the right to pat or touch any pregnant woman's belly...

Well, we must get back to settling our new apartment...:)

Little Karate Kid

Assuming for the time being that our little one is going to be our little princess, we've gone ahead and named her Shingil Taylor Ryals - Shingil after our late Halmuni (Grandmother).

Little Taylor, or "Kong-al" ("Little Bean" as Umma is calling her now), is a very active little baby in my belly. She might as well be the next karate kid. She usually wakes up about an hour after I've been awake and moving around, but once she wakes up, she is practicing her kicks and tumbles for about 30 minutes before she decides to calm down and take a nap. She makes me extremely hungry by mid-morning, and I think it's because she gets all of her working out done as soon as she wakes up. After she gets about an hour rest, she is back to her tumbles again...:) She has also taken to stretching out her living space by pushing on one side for a period of time...and then pushing on the other side for a period of time. I guess she's a little more cramped than she'd like to be...as we saw in the ultrasound. :)

Jeff is eagerly awaiting for the moment when he can feel little Taylor kicking with his hand on my belly. Everytime I feel her moving, I tell him to try feeling, but it's like she knows someone else's hand is there, so she stops until the hand is gone. Also, because she is actually moving inside of me, it might be that an outside person may not be able to feel from the outside yet. Either way, we're excited to share that moment when it happens! :)

OK. Time for more organizing for our move...until next time...

Drum roll, please...

We THINK it's a girl! :)

Jeff and I are 95% sure...but the tech wasn't too helpful. It wasn't because she didn't want to tell us or anything, but she was like...oh, I think it might be a girl. Yeah, it kinda looks like a girl. Very unexcited. Kinda disappointing, but before we went in for the ultrasound (a few days before), Jeff studied a bunch of ultrasound images on-line and he's pretty certain it's a little girl! It's a good thing, too, 'cause the only names we really had picked out were girl names! hehehe...

It was amazing to see our little girl's spine, heart pumping away (151 bpm!), little belly, arms and legs, and you could even see tiny facial features! I think she's going to have some high cheek bones! hehehehe...actually her facial shot looked like a little alien head, but she's adorable, nonetheless. The doc said she's already 11 ounces! Once Jeff gets the images scanned, I'll post them here. Don't know how they'll turn out, but it's worth a shot. She looked awful crowded in there, though...I guess that's why she moves around so much...:) Trying to stretch out her living space...

WE'RE SO EXCITED!!! Our little baby girl...Jeff's going to spoil her rotten...I can see it now...;)

Anticipating the Ultrasound

Jeff and I are very eagerly awaiting tomorrow morning's appointment with the ultrasound technician. We are hoping that the little one will cooperate and let us know if the squirminess is a he or a she. :) My belly has grown an inch since last month's measurement...it looks much bigger than just an inch, but who knows.

We will let you know the technician's guess as soon as we find out!

Definitely Belly Movement!!!

Yesterday's sensations were definitely little Ryals making him/herself known. This morning, about an hour after I woke up and wandered around the house getting ready for work, I felt the same sensation so I stopped moving around and placed my hands on my belly...and I could feel the little one's movements with my hands! It went on for about another five minutes or so while stood there just holding my belly...:)

Throughout the day today, too, the flutters continued on and off...what a beautiful and odd feeling!

I also had my first back muscle cramp today. While I was sitting at work, a tiny little area on the left-middle of my back got all knotted up and was a little painful, but after I stood up and walked around a little bit, it was much better. I guess it's about that time when I need to start moving around every hour or so to keep the blood flowing properly instead of sitting at my desk the majority of the day. Lesson learned. :)

First Movement?

I think I felt the little one move today!!! I was sitting at work around 3pm and suddenly I felt a little flutter in my tummy. At first I thought maybe I had some gas bubbles (I know, disturbing), but then I didn't feel any pressure in my intestines as I normally would if I had gas bubbles. So, out of curiosity, I sat really still land thought about the baby swimming around...and then I felt it again!!! The little flutters...like a little foot or arm was stretching out to touch the walls around it...it continued a few more times and then it stopped. I haven't felt any more since the afternoon, but could this have been the first fetal movement??? How wonderful...:)