Last weekend I went to South Carolina to visit my friends Shannon and Todd, who just had their baby Will on 11/28.  It was a bit of an impromptu trip, decided upon just a couple of weeks before, but ended up being really good timing, as I also got to surprise my friend Christina who came to visit Shannon that weekend as well.  It was very good parent-to-be training!  He's at a really cute stage, just figuring out his smile, and was fun to play with.  It was also good to learn about feeding (who knew babies don't eat the same way everytime?), crying (all cries are not created equal), and the piece de resistance...diapering.  They use cloth diapers, which we are eager to try out as well. 

Now for all you skeptics out there who cringe at the thought of gouging babies with diaper pins and spending endless hours scraping poo and soaking diapers in the toilet, check out this website before you judge: http://www.softclothbunz.com/.  Then we'll talk.  I think you'll find, like everything else, 30 years does a lot for diaper technology.  And in any case, I cringe at the thought of throwing doody in the garbage and of driving by a landfill one day seeing my baby's diaper at the tippy-top of the pile.

We're thinking of trying out either the bum Genius (what Shannon uses) or the Fuzzi Bunz brands.  And really, who doesn't want a Genius baby with Fuzzi Bunz?

I also passed the 20-week point on that visit - we're halfway there!  See the new pic I posted in my photo album to marvel and how the belly has grown.  Actually people tell me I don't look very big, for being at the halfway point.  How nice, then, that I feel like an elephant already! 

So when I first thought about writing this journal entry, I wasn't actually sure if what I'd felt one Sunday morning was true baby action, or just some energetic gas.  Now, however, I am entirely certain that what I felt was definitely Baby H. in motion.  Either that, or Baby H. has some serious gas.

I should backtrack to Week 19, and send some belated thanks out to "Aunt" Annemarie, whom I do believe helped to get the ball rolling.  Our friends Annemarie and Jeff came to visit us that weekend to run in the Phoenix Rock-n-Roll Half Marathon (and finished fabulously by the way).  Well, once Annemarie found out the baby would likely be poking around any day now, she was bound and determined to get Baby H. to move.  Every day she urged Baby to get a move on, and either she's a fabulous coach, or Baby is a fabulous listener, or both, but don't you know, as we were waiting to see her in the race on Sunday Baby H. decided to give me a good poke! 

At first I wasn't sure if I'd felt it correctly, hence the flatulence comment, but later that evening I felt it again.  Baby took a break for a few days, but has since been back in full force.  I feel it at least a couple times a day, with increasing frequency lately, mainly when I'm sitting down -ooh, like right now! Pow, pow, kick.  And we're not talking little butterflies winging around or bubbles popping here, we're talking some serious poking going on.  Perhaps Baby Horne will one day be a Rockette.  Or a punter.  Or Chuck Norris.  We shall see, eh?

Last entry for today...

We also had our second Dr's appointment on January 8th as well.  I met Dr. Ray, another doctor in the practice, who has marginally better bedside manor than Dr. James.  I'm still waiting for that warm and fuzzy doctor to come along. But, he answered all our questions in full and basically reassured me that I'm totally normal and on the right track and all that, so I suppose that's about all I could ask for.  I go back on Feb. 4th for my next visit. 

And...people at work are starting to notice the baby bump!  I have a mini baby bump at this stage, and have happily graduated into maternity clothes (ah, the magic of elastic waistbands.  Seriously.  They're grossly under-rated. Everyone shoud jump on board - I think the world would be a happier place).  I don't believe I've quite "popped" yet, as the men are still sort of looking at me like I likely over-indulged on the eggnog and cookies at Christmas time, but the women are starting to notice that this is not just a classic case of no-willpower overeating.  Hooray for that.

In other news, we had our latest, greatest, and likely last Ultrasound yesterday.  It's kind of a bummer that we won't get to see our baby anymore until it greets the world, but I guess that's what we should hope for, because that'll mean that all is going well.  In any case, all did go well during the US, aside from the US lady who was marginally too peppy for us, and kept informing us in a sing-songy voice "...and that's normal...and that's normal...and that's normal...and that's normal..."  It was a bit over the top, since we do not appear to be parents-to-be who overly worry about such things.  We will get what we get, though we did leave actually wondering what the lady says to people who don't have normal babies.  I mean really, does she actually say to people "...oh, now that's a strange one there..." 

But suffice it to say we very likely do not have a child with Down Syndrome, or Spina Bifida, and yes baby has a nasal bone, and yes, baby does not have abnormally short arms or legs, though baby does, on occasion, still sort of look like an alien...that, or Charlie Brown.  I'll attach an US picture so you see what I mean.

It was also interesting to see the US in color so we could see the blood pumping through the heart, and to see the ventricles in the brain.  And, when the lady scrolled down the spine, we saw baby's bottom!  Baby has butt cheeks!  I decided they look like Dave's.

And the one thing notable missing from this US sound is...drumroll please...we STILL have no idea what we're having.  We don't want to find out.  And that's how we're aggravating the masses.  Enquiring minds want to know!  We actually find it pretty fun to keep the guesses going.  All we know is our baby is weighs .6 lbs, and is just over 8" long.  I'm measuring about 4 days ahead as of now.  My book says I have a bell pepper right now, but I've never seen an 8" pepper, so I shall have to think of some other suitable edible to describe Baby H. 

Until then, check out the latest US pics in the photo album...