Our little footballer. . .

So last night I am pretty sure I felt the baby for the first time. Yippee! I was not expecting anything so early--17 weeks--but I'm pretty sure that's what it was.

I laid down in the bed and John and I were talking and I felt a little thump from the inside out. Like a 5-inch, 5-ounce person was trying to score a field goal through my lower abdomen. My body kind of freaked out in response--I did an involuntary fish-out-of-water flop for about 1/2 a second, thoroughly confusing John. He was talking to me, and I was really, really trying to listen and pay attention, but this trumped all. After he surmised that I was not suffering from demonic possession, he was as thrilled as I was to have felt the kiddo.

A lot of people have been asking if I've felt the baby and I really haven't had much to offer. Sure, there's been plenty of stretching and some weird, popcorn popping feeling, but mostly I chalk that up to something I ate and, well, stretching out of things. And, if things had felt differently and my body had not gone all spastic, I would have attributed the "baby movement" to some kickin' leftover Chinese takeout we had for dinner.

So I'm not spending the whole day sitting around trying to feel the baby again--too much pressure on the little nipper--but I am looking forward to it. Hopefully my body won't get all involuntarily freaked out again!

Anyway. . . one last thing. I felt it was important to let you know that the ex-pat chicas and I did a very scientific experiment and we now know that I am having a boy. Chica #1 did the wedding ring test over my belly the last time I was over at her house and we all agreed that it did swing in a circular motion, thus indicating "boy". And, also, out of the 10 children here on the assignment, 9 of them are girls, so someone is due a boy just out of those odds.

Pretty exciting stuff, if you ask me.
Well, I have a tourist-related post to put up from yesterday so I need to get to that, too. More to come!