Week 18: Our Hippy Baby Is A GIRL!!!

YAY for girls!!!  We had our 'big' ultrasound on the 21st and suspicions of our hippy baby being a girl were confirmed - I am *so* excited.  I wanted to have my daughter first - and son second - so this is totally playing into my 'ultimate plan' hahahaha..  but seriously - we can't wait to meet our daughter.

I'm still not feeling much movement but the u/s tech told me that I have an anterior placenta - which doesn't mean much except that's the side that the little brat implanted on.  It shouldn't cause any problems for delivery like a full placental previa would - where it covers the cervix.  Right now it just means that instetad of feeling little movements and kicks, the placenta acts essentially as a pillow between me and baby and cushions her movements from the nerve-filled uterine wall.  I'll still feel her eventually though - just later than I was hoping. 

So getting down to it - here are some good shots from the anatomy scan at 17 weeks 6 days.  There's a whole slew of pictures/measurements etc that the tech is supposed to get at this scan and there are a few she wasn't able to get because baby wasn't in a good position, so I'm going back for a repeat ultrasound on Jan 6th to try again.  Yay for seeing our little girl again so soon though!

When we started the ultrasound she was sitting essentially indian style with her legs crossed under her bum.  DEFINITELY didn't seem to want to play along with our 'hey show us the goods' game one bit!!

  hahaha..  It took some doing but she did eventually turn and move so that we were able to get a good look at her bum (second picture here).  I was holding my breath because the tech wanted to look multiple times and get the baby to move some while she looked to make sure nothing 'popped out' while the legs were kicking around that wasn't visible before..  But sure enough nothing did and you can see the three little lines that they look for in girls at this stage.  Eventually those lines will actually turn into totally recognizable girl parts, but for now just look like lines.

This third picture I refer to as 'baby raptor' because it's taken head-on.  It's really amazing to see the difference between the profile shots where baby looks like a 'normal' baby and then you get straight-on and they turn into little skeletors..  hahaha..  My mom pointed out that in this picture it looks like she has a little leaf stamped on her forehead.  Probably sinus cavities - but I like to think of it as a leaf.  A tree-hugger from fetus-hood.  lol.

The last picture shows how, even though I can't feel it so much yet, that this little girl's definitely a mover and a shaker!  She was kicking her arms and legs up and

down like crazy - the tech was like oh do you feel that??  And I'm like - uhhhh, no???  Oh well.  Soon enough I'm sure she'll be keeping me up at night with all her moving!

So it was fun to be able to tell everyone for Christmas that we were having a girl.  We got some cute baby books from people - "mommy" books and "daddy" books and other little things for baby.  And now that we know gender, we can truly start planning out the nursery and thinking about various baby gear that we'll want and finally start our registries.  I know some people can't believe we haven't started them yet!

As far as appointments, I have the repeat ultrasound now on Jan 6th and then the next midwife appointment is 2 weeks after that on I think the 14th.  I'll be past the halfway point by then.  It's already so soon - I can't believe how quickly time flies!!

17 Weeks - First Stranger Comment!

17 weeks and baby is about 5 inches from head to bum now.  About the size of my stretched out hand.  I'm definitely showing now and even had my first 'stranger' comment - one of the guys down in the shipping department at work that I see from time to time asked me how I was feeling.  And since I wasn't sick nor have been sick - it was pretty obvious that he was referring to my growing tum.  :-)  I got a big ol' goofy smile on my face after that.  I guess I like knowing that other people can tell.  Granted the recruiting agency *still* hadn't gotten in touch with HR to officially 'tell' them at that point so it also let me know that people were obviously figuring it out on their own.  Which is fine - I have many doubts that they'll wind up hiring me in the end anyway so what difference does it make?  I'm not a real 'employee' there so technically don't really owe them any explanation or anything anyway.

One of the best things I have to report is that I haven't gotten sick once since my last update.  It's been more than 2 weeks at this point which is fantastic.  I almost don't even struggle with it at all in the mornings now - just once in a great while I'll feel a bit icky but have been able to get past it even then.  Other mornings I don't even think about it anymore.  WOO!!  hahaha.

One thing that I've noticed though is other people's insistence on telling you their horror stories when they find out you're pregnant.  Apparently a lot of people hate being pregnant.  Despite getting sick for a while - and also knowing I was not as sick as many others are for sure - I have to say that so far, I love being pregnant.  I miss things (like a glass of wine after a frustrating day at work!!) that I don't have anymore - but really it's not a big deal.  And then there are all the people that tell you how they wound up being induced and/or wound up with emergency c-sections etc etc or were in labor for like 30+ hours.. The stories go on and on.  My mom always likes to tell pregnant women how she gave birth 2 hours after getting to the hospital - and only that long because they had to turn me - because she knows that people like to share the horror stories.  Now THAT is a story I like to hear!

Updates on what's going on with baby right now are pretty slim.  Baby starts developing fat stores this week - which means that baby will start getting cuter to the outside world and less skeletal.  Always nice.  :-)  I had my AFP blood draw as planned - it was totally just a come in, get on the scale, and let us stick you with a needle type appt so nothing exciting to report there.  We find out genders on Monday 12/21 at the 18 week scan.  Can.Not.Wait!!!!  Sooooo excited for the big gender reveal.  Then we'll really be able to start planning things like the nursery and bedding and I'll be able to stop buying gender neutral diapers (WOOO!! hahaha) and actually pick up things now and again when I see a good deal or something too cute to pass up.  :-)

So next week's update should have u/s pictures and more interesting things to reveal.  Sit tight till then and I'll be over here incubating.  :-)

16 Weeks Already!

16 weeks and Christmas is coming sooner than I can comprehend.  We got our Christmas tree last weekend - which was an ordeal as the tree farms we use are all hilly and I get out of breath a lot faster these days.  But we have a beautiful tree and even though baby won't see it, I'm hoping she gets the warm fuzzies that mommy gets when looking at it.

Not a huge change in the belly picture from last week.  Still definitely a baby belly.  And I'm definitely feeling some kind of movement from baby.  I can't make it happen (though I keep trying) and it's still totally sporadic and only a quick second or two at a time but there has definitely been something going on in there.  At 16 weeks baby can somersault in there, maybe that's what I'm feeling!  Mommy's little acrobatic fetus.  hahaha..

The cats still think it's a good time to jump on mommy and knead mommy's growing belly which depending on the state of my bladder is not always a good thing for sure!  I wonder what they'll think as I get ginormous.  I can hear the cat gossip (wow mommy's really letting herself go, huh?  lol!).  It's funny - the last two weeks as we take my weekly pictures Jeff keeps saying how pregnant I look in the pictures but swears I don't look 'that big' in life.  Uh huh.  He's just hoping work has somehow not noticed my growing belly!

Speaking of work - it's snowing to beat the band today so I'm waiting it out and basically doing a half-day today.  It's not that my faith in the 'big green monster' is waning, I just would rather my first car accident ever not be when I'm carrying a child so am just staying out of it.  Hence an update way earlier than usual for you!

Can anyone believe I have this inside me right now?  I see these pictures and despite having the morning sickness (which has definitely taken its leave thankfully!) and the ultrasounds and hearing the heartbeat and even feeling the little flutters and twitches in my belly - I still have a hard time looking at those pictures and believing that's inside me right now.  Crazy.  You can see that the baby is now holding its head more erect now - less and less bean-like and more and more baby-like each week!  And I believe the fruit correlation this week is an avocado.  :-)  4.5-5" long.  Still so tiny.

AFP test is Friday - not sure how long it takes to get results back from that.  I'm definitely interested in seeing what my weight is at now though because I'm definitely showing more than I was at my last appointment 2 weeks ago at which point I was only up 2lbs from my first appt, so I'm expecting more of a weight gain this time around.  But who knows.  :-D

Week 15: First Full Week Without Morning Sickness!

Week 15.  Hello baby bump.  How do people at work not know yet?  Don't ask me!  Hahahaha..  It's funny - when I was younger I used to worry about having to get a "big fat belly" when I got pregnant.  But I love my growing tummy.  And I'm not fat, I'm growing a baby, and each little change is so awesome.

I've also begun feeling itty bitty twitches and flutters from the baby.  I think I've been feeling them for over a week now and didn't believe they could be the baby yet, but have been assured that they can and probably are.  Nothing consistent yet, and not even every day.  But I've definitely felt little 'somethings' that are not normal going on down there.  :-)

So to get to the post title - I've officially gone 7 whole days IN A ROW without getting sick.  It's some kind of miracle.  But (jumping ahead slightly because this was yesterday so halfway through week 15 already) on day 8 the trend was broken so I guess I'm not out of the woods entirely yet.  Too bad, but I'm sure that would have been too good to be true.  Oh well, hahaha..

I've also finished knitting my first baby project!  These are newborn sized knitted wool longies - essentially wool pants.  Longies, shorties (shorts), and soakers (covers) can be used as a diaper cover because of the properties of wool.  When properly lanolized wool is essentially waterproof and can hold up to 30% of its weight before feeling wet.  Wool is pretty miraculous when you think about it.  It's also a breathable natural fiber as opposed to PUL which is what most diaper covers are.  The contrast is like wrapping your baby's bum in saran wrap - doesn't sound all that comfy, right?  So one of the benefits of wool is also aiding in the prevention of diaper rash.  Used in both winter and summer months in the seasonally appropriate lengths, wool is a great aid to cloth diaper users!  The added bonus?  It's sooooo cute!  Look at the little bum!!  :-D  They are definitely far from being perfect - but for a first attempt they are more than functional and I definitely learned some things to do (and not to do!) for the next pair.  I will be making a variety of lengths since we'll have a late May/early June baby.  And here in New England - who knows what the weather will be!!

We also got our results from the ERA testing we had done a week and change ago.  This wasn't a diagnostic testing so you don't get a 'yes/no' answer - it's a risk assessment.  They base the initial risk level off the mother's age, then use the data gathered from the measurements at the ultrasound with the results of the bloodwork to make a final risk determination.  For Down's Syndrome, our risk was assessed at 1 in >10,000 and so was our risk for the two Trisomy chromosomal defects they're assessing for.  This brought my risk down from what it was based purely on my age and she said was a result they'd see in a 20 year old woman so it was very excellent news!  Next Friday I'm having MORE blood drawn at my regular midwife office where they check a protein level - alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) - and depending on the level of the protein they can gather information that points to possible chromosomal or neural tube defects.  Then our next regular appointment will include the 'big' ultrasound on the 21st!  Woohoo!!  Can't wait to find out gender 'for sure'!

Baby is getting bigger!  The size of a naval orange or softball now.  Fingernails and toenails are growing, and baby is now able to make a fist!  Mommy hopes that baby doesn't use this new-found ability on her insides too often!!  hahaha..  The middle-ear is also developing this week, but the auditory sensors in the brain are not yet, so baby won't really 'understand' what its hearing, but the hearing capabilities are growing.  Soon baby will be able to hear all the crazy little songs I sing to the cats and hear mommy and daddy planning our lives once baby arrives.  :-)  We still have plenty to do to prepare for baby's arrival, but still have plenty of time to do it.  Once we're sure on gender we'll begin looking at nursery furniture and bedding, thinking about nursery colors and paint, and planning out how the room will actually look.  Fun stuff!!