So, this week is week #23. According to Babycenter.com, "Your baby now weighs about a pound. Her skin is red and wrinkled. Blood vessels in the lungs are developing to prepare for breathing. Your baby can swallow."

We're in the Laundry
After a year or so of trying to get the college to put a washer and dryer in our house, we finally got them yesterday. The washer is on wheels and hooks up to the sink, and we have to open the window and drop the vent out of it. It is not the best set up, but it is much better than fighting with students and dropping a $1.75 a load. I think having a baby on the way was what sealed the deal. Today we are heading over the hill to do some window shopping at BabiesRus and play with the scanning gun and add stuff to our registry. That place is so overwhelming... so wish us luck on our shopping adventure.

Soothing Sounds for Baby
I saw a post a couple of weeks about a newly rereleased album by Raymond Scott. In the announcement they talked about a series of albums he made in the 60's called Soothing Sounds For Baby: Electronic Music By Raymond Scott, Vol. 1, 1 To 6 Months. It looks like a very interesting album that wasn't very well received in its time because it is a series of repeating simple patterns that babies appear to respond to, but it is supposedly pretty annoying to adults. The Amazon reviews are pretty positive for the most part, and at least anecdotally support the claim that it soothes babies. People are also impressed by it as a historical piece. It is an entirely electronic music album released in 1962. I plan getting it, because I have a pretty high tolerance for annoying music, and if it calms down babies... I am sure it will be very useful.

So, the "game" that Greg and I have been playing lately is to see if Greg can feel the baby move. I've been feeling the baby move sporadically for a few weeks now, but the kicks have finally gotten sort of strong so I thought Greg may be able to feel them. So, here I am sitting in the chair and I feel the baby move around, so I call Greg over and put his hand where I feel the movement, but of course the baby stops moving then. It has been almost comical. We finally choreographed it so he felt his first kick yesterday! I'm sure that soon there will be plenty of strong kicking for Greg to feel, but until then, we'll continue this "game".

Beer for the Baby
Just a few days after we found out for sure that we were going to have a baby. I brewed up a beer to celebrate the coming baby. I can't find the original page where I first read about it, but back in the day "ale wives" would make a special high gravity ale upon finding out a woman was expecting. The beer would take the whole pregnancy to age, and would be consumed by the mother and midwife during labor to help keep up their strength, and the baby would be bathed in the beer since it was sterile... because the available water couldn't be guaranteed to be safe. The beer was called a "groaning ale". The recipe is up on my beer page if you are interested.

So, today we are at 22 weeks. Babycenter.com says that at 22 weeks, "Your baby now looks like a miniature newborn. He's 11 inches long and weighs about 15 ounces. His lips are becoming more distinct and his eyes are developed, though the iris (the colored part of the eye) still lacks pigment. Eyebrows and eyelids are in place. His pancreas, essential for hormone production, is developing steadily. The first signs of teeth appear as buds beneath the gum line."

Hey everybody. We put up this blog to give updates about our pregnancy. While there isn't really too much to say right now, we will post our thoughts on baby stuff, and anything remotely baby related. Here is the story so far. The baby is due in June. One doctor says the 18th, the charts all say the 25th... so you decide (we'll have a betting pool later). We decided not to find out the sex of the baby and we haven't decided on a name for either sex yet. So if anyone has suggestions for names, feel free to post them. Thanks for visiting, hopefully we'll get some pictures up soon.