Mystery Baby

I just realized that with all the hustle of this last minute trip south, I completely forgot to mention that I had the big 20 Week Ultrasound last Friday….

And we found out that we are having…. A Baby!   That’s right, at the last minute, Casey and I agreed that we wanted to be surprised again, so we asked the sonogram tech not to tell us the sex of this little mystery kid.   We are at peace, though most of our friends are sorely disappointed that we are not only not spilling the beans, but we don’t even know whether or not this bean even has beans.   If that makes any sense.

But the important part of the sonogram went terrific… all looks well so far.   “Baboo” – which is what we call this little goat – is kicking more every day and I am settling into the “comfortable” part of the pregnancy.   I’m still as tired as if I were running ten miles every day, but for now, the nausea is completely gone, the indigestion is at bay, the headaches and metallic taste on my tongue have disappeared, and I’m looking pregnant enough that I’ve passed the just-looking-a-little-fat phase.

As for our drive to Florida, we did fairly well.   Dudley loves car rides and was a dream passenger.   Kenny was so thrilled to be allowed to watch as many DVDs as he wanted, that he was pretty chipper, up until those last twenty minutes or so.   Casey insisted on chivalry ruling the day, so he drove the whole time, and I survived by shifting around as much as possible, and holding my prego-bladder for record-breaking stretches of time.   I only had about an hour last night, right before we stopped to sleep, where I was having some bad pains – not unlike Braxton-Hicks contractions, though I know it’s still too early for that.   I think is was the lack of circulation and the inability to stretch that did it.

Last night’s hotel stop is it’s own story.   By the time we put in 600 miles and hit the Savannah area, pickins’ were slim.   Most every place we stopped at was booked, or wouldn’t take Dudley (it’s hard to fib that he’s a 20-pounder when the guy at the reception desk can clearly see his enormous head popping out of the back window), and our only option was a dinky motel with a tiny room and a single king-sized bed.   Casey and Kenny and I have shared big beds before, but Dudley wasn’t about to lay his canine hiney on that musty floor, and insisted on spooning with the rest of us.   For awhile, it was Casey spooning Kenny, spooning Dudley, spooning me.   Then we shifted to Kenny with his entire body wrapped around Casey’s head and Dudley with his torso on my legs, his legs hanging off the bed, and his head tucked into my thighs.   Needless to say, when the sun came up, we were eager to get back on the road.   We arrived in southern Florida at about 4 today – all in all the driving took about 16 hours.  

Once we broke through the Florida state line, the sun finally came out and the temperature hit 76 degrees.   We called our house-sitter and learned that the mercury at home had only hit 37.   I think we may stay awhile…