Dear Blob,

I felt you move for the first time this past Thursday night.

I was in class and you took my breath away with a kick or a punch or something. Twice you did this. Then you merely fluttered for a bit. Since then I have felt tiny little movements, mainly at night when I'm sitting still. The feeling is something akin to a bunch of little butterflies rustling around inside of my abdomen. I've been poking at you to see if I can get you to poke back the way you did on Thursday, but I've not gotten anything out of you yet. It's such a neat feeling to finally have you move around and announce your presence in such a tangible way. I am looking forward towards more of same, and especially when it becomes strong enough to share with your father.

It's been a long weekend for me: Your brother turned 17 on Friday and between his birthday and his prom that was held Saturday, it was quite a stressful time--the whole weekend as well as the week leading up to it all. Stressful for him because of the anxiety associated with the two events. Stressful for me because of the changes in his demeanor and behavior caused from all the anxiety. But it's finally Sunday and the two events have passed (we had the family over to celebrate today) and so maybe now I'll be able to get some rest.

Not this coming Tuesday, but the next Tuesday I'll go back to have one last ultrasound. I'm really looking forward to that, particularly because at that point we should be able to tell beyond a doubt what sex you are. As I believe I mentioned before, the doctor was fairly certain last time that you were a girl, but I have held off on buying any clothes or doing any decorating until I could know for sure. Lizzie keeps calling you her brother, despite what the doctor said! I believe that she is feeling a slight twinge of jealousy at the thought of having to surrender her status as the baby girl. I am not worried though--I know that no matter which sex you turn out to be, when you two finally meet you're going to love her so her so much, and she you, that she'll forget all about how worried she was at the thought of your arrival.

Much love,
Mommy