Week 19

Mango! Mango! Mango! Very exotic. Or at least it sounds exotic. Makes me want to go on vacation - of course everything makes me want to go on vacation these days. What do you say, baby? You chill in my belly and just keep growing the way you're doing and I'll go relax somewhere by a pool or an ocean or just somewhere that's not here. I think it sounds like a plan. You don't have that much going on this week anyway. You have this greasy, white protective substance (called Vernix caseosa) that covers your skin to protect it from the amniotic fluid. Every thing I read is talking about greasy cheese, but you are not greasy cheese. On a less greasy cheese note, you are developing your nerve cells for your five senses.

Apparently I have no idea what week I am. I thought I was only in my 18th week. Your dad is on top of things and kept telling me that this was my 19th week. Have I mentioned I feel like I'm losing my mind? I feel like I'm always forgetting...what was I saying? Kidding. So this week has been a pretty good week overall. Had some of that morning sickness/dry heaving over the weekend but otherwise I was actually feeling better. There has even been some mornings where I haven't felt queasy at all, so yay! My baby bump is really growing - I seem to have popped overnight. Kinda cool. I really wish you would have worked with us and let us see if for sure if you were a boy or girl. You are going to be a meat eater. I have been wanting steaks and other meats. Yum, a steak sounds really good right now!

I like to read up on the community boards on The Bump website. It's nice to read about other women who are going through the same thing that I am. Well, lately the big thing on the boards have been about pets. So many women have been talking about how they are planning to get rid of their pets because the baby is coming. I can understand worrying about how the pet is going to handle the addition of a baby. I worry sometimes about how Stella will handle the baby.

The old wivestales involving cats are that the cat can smell the milk on the baby's breath and will try to get close to the baby and thereby will suffocate the baby. It sounds crazy to me. So in order to get the pet, namely, a cat to stay out of the crib you are supposed to put tin foil down on the bottom of the crib. Apparently cats don't like the feel of tin foil on their paws. So they will jump in there once, feel the tin foil and not want to jump in again because they don't want to feel the tin foil again.

I wanted to see if that was true about cats not liking tin foil, so seeing as that was one of those few things I haven't packed yet I pulled out some tin foil to test it out. Stella was laying on the back of the couch, so I put her paw on the tin foil. She then looked at me like I was crazy and pulled her paw away. I tried putting it in her path but she just walked around it. So I couldn't prove nor disprove the tin foil theory. I balled it up and Stella has been playing with it ever since. She likes the shiny.

We recently took Stella into the vet and while we were there I decided to ask the vet about how we could prepare Stella for the arrival of the baby. He gave us a couple handouts and recommend we find some baby crying and other noises the baby makes on youtube and play them at different times and for lengths of time, so Stella can adjust to the noises. The other thing is just to keep Stella out of the baby's room all together. I can find some baby crying noises and she's likely to just ignore them. As far as keeping the door closed is  concerned I'm not sure how well that will work. Stella and I used to play this game (not on purpose) that I would try to keep her out of the master bedroom closet and she would try to get in. It will become the same game with the baby's room, so I have to let her figure out what's in the room at least once.

I am no experts on animals and babies. I am an expert on Stella. And I have no idea how exactly she'll react but she hates small spaces where she could get herself trapped so I'm not worried about her jumping in the crib. And she hates noises and strangers so honestly I think she'll want nothing to do with the munchkin. But of course we are going to air on the side of caution and take the necessary precautions The baby becomes most important but Stella is still an important member of our family, so we will do what we have to do to keep both safe and happy.

(Monday, June 11 - Sunday, June 17)