My first interaction with Buddha
A couple of days ago, I had my first real interation with Buddha. Just about every night since Claire first felt the baby move, I put my hand on her belly and wait for him to kick. Usually, Claire tells me when he is kicking and I place my hand there. Sometimes I feel him kick and other times I don't. A few days ago I decided I was going to take matters in my own hands. I didn't want to wait for Claire to feel him kick. So, I got real close to her belly and spoke through my hand like a megaphone... "Daddy to Buddha.. Come in please." Sure enough he kicked my hand. "Say again Buddha. Over." Another kick. This went on for a couple of minutes with him kicking back after I said something. It was one of the coolest things to happen so far. Of course, this is nothing new for Claire. She feels Buddha moving around and kicking her all day and all night. But for me, it was an unreal experience.
Claire is in the 24th week of her pregnancy this week. Click here to see all the belly pictures.
This past weekend we got our Christmas tree. I know it's not even Thanksgiving yet. Since we are going to be away forThanksgiving and two weeks for Christmas this year, we wanted to be able to enjoy our tree. Tonight we got the lights and ornament up and the house smells great.
Some of you already know that we already have a name for the baby while it's growing inside Claire. We refer to the baby as Buddha (for obvious reasons). Yesterday, we breathed a sigh of relief when we found out at our 20 week ultrasound that Buddha was a boy. We didn't consider that if Buddha was a girl, she probably would not be pleased that we referred to her as Buddha while she was growing. My experience with the opposite sex is that they don't like being called fat or anything that might imply that they are fat.
This was a big week on the belly front. Claire felt the baby move for the first time this weekend. We have two theories on why this is.... 1) After dressing up like a pregnant nun this weekend and having to pad the belly to make it look bigger, the baby was afraid it was in danger of being replaced if it didn't start moving more. 2) Claire felt the baby move all night after having Coke with pizza for dinner. She has not been drinking much caffeine during the pregnancy and the baby could have been all hopped up on caffeine. Here is this week's belly picture... Week 19. This week we go in for the 20 week ultrasound. We can't wait.
It's official. Claire has taken the lead in the belly contest. Her belly is officially bigger than my beer/pasta baby that I've been growing the past couple of years. Even when I stick my belly out as far as it can go, I don't stand a chance. In case you couldn't figure it out, Claire's week 18 belly picture is on the left..
I guess there are a lot of you out there who check every week for these pictures. Several people have inquired about this week's picture. So here it is... week 17 belly picture.
Here's week 16 belly picture.
Here's week 15 belly picture. Claire is hardly showing at all. We are not too surprised. Her mother said she didn't start showing until about the 5th month or so. 
We are going to start posting weekly pictures of Claire's belly. Watch it grow! 
