Halloween Bean

The Bean enjoyed his first Halloween tonight. There are two pumpkins in this picture - the one Julie's holding and the one she appears to have swallowed.

Ian and Julie were visited by a procession of (not very) scary fairies, witches, cats, astronauts and superheroes so they could judge the costume competition for neighbour Kelli's annual Halloween party. But next year the Bean will be attending the party too, and Julie and Kelli have already chosen his costume.

Empirical research

The Bean made an early start on a possible research career today by accompanying his mummy to the Pregnancy Biobank research project. He didn't say a lot, but he did kick a few times which probably means, "That would be an epistemological matter." (Apologies to Father Ted for that joke.)

Julie will be giving blood and urine samples at least once a month for the rest of the pregnancy to help researchers investigate further the causes of pre-eclampsia. This is about the fifth or sixth medical research project Ian and Julie have volunteered for.

Bergfest!

Bergfest is the German for a halfway party; it's the celebration you have at the top of the mountain. Today marks the start of the 20th week, exactly halfway through the pregnancy. Hurray! Ian took Julie out for an ice-cream at G & D's to celebrate.

Earlier this week we had the 20-week anomaly scan, and everything was fine. In the top two pictures you can see The Bean's head on the right, with his face in profile looking upwards, and a hand. He had his hand balled into a little fist, but it wasn't clear enough to see if he had his thumb locked across his fingers, crane kung-fu style.

In the bottom photo he's the other way round facing away. After the sonographer had completed the long, very detailed scan a trainee doctor did the same thing all over again, so we think The Bean got fed up with posing for photos.

Parental development:

People keep asking Julie what her cravings are. Food, just food. And plenty of it, please.

Several times a day Ian tries to feel The Bean move. He waits until Julie feels a little kick, then sits her on his lap with his hand clamped to her bump. They sit there for about 20 minutes and The Bean moves not a jot. Eventually they both get bored and give up, and The Bean moves again as soon as Ian removes his hand.

It's a ...

Today marks the beginning of the fifth month.

If you don't want to know the sex of the baby, look away now! It's a boy!!!!!!! (Julie's acupuncturist was right.) So the Bean should probably now be called Mr Bean. Or Heinz.

We had our second appointment at the Silver Star unit today, and we got excellent care again. The consultant happens to be young, female and good-looking, so the Bean did not waste the opportunity to wave his private parts in her general direction. Like father, like son.

In the top photo, the Bean is partly looking away from the camera, and we think that's an arm on the right. In the bottom photo he's facing down, and he has one hand in front of his face. You can clearly see his spine and the thickness of his skull. His movements look much more definite and intentional now, rather than jerky.


Parental development:
Julie has had indigestion three days running. Hardly surprising because her first thought when she saw herself in the mirror this morning was that she had indeed eaten all the pies.

Ian: "That's my boy!"