Gender scan yesterday! It's a......

BOY!!!!

We are so excited!  Hubby especially is ecstatic:))  We have started looking at baby names - disagreeing on most ideas that we have thrown out.  Glad we found out this early because this is gonna take a loooonnng time!  Probably right up to delivery!  We do know the middle name at least: O’Brien, mother-in-law’s maiden name.  We’ve gone through a lot of baby name lists and have laughed at most of them.  There are some pretty unfortunate names out there! 

 

We are starting to think about décor too.  Hubby threw out the first idea of decorating with a theme of puppy dogs and machine guns.  LOL!  No way!  He was kidding anyway.  There is so much cute stuff online though so I’m not worried about coming up with ideas.  I think a jungle or woodland animal theme would be really cute.  Hubby wants to incorporate sports somehow of course – which is fine, just don’t want a sports-centric nursery.  Our son will have plenty of time to develop an obsession with sports – doesn’t have to be right away though!  When he is 5 and he wants a football field mural painted on his wall, I will not stand in the way.  From now until then, he can be my sweet baby boy who loves his stuffed monkeys & elephants, or rabbits & owls.  LOL! 

 

The scan went really well though.  I was freaking out because there was an un-announced triathlon that closed down a bunch of streets by our house so it took a lot longer to get to the expressway and were running late as a result.  I didn’t have reason to worry though because when we got there, no one was even in the waiting room to check us in or anything.  There was a sign that said an ultrasound was being conducted and to please have a seat and fill out a form.  So we did that and ended up waiting for a good 20 minutes.  There was a TV in the room that kept replaying this 3D ultrasound video with this really annoying song in the background.  It was sort of sweet the first time we saw it, but as it came to the 6^th time that it was gearing up to replay, I had enough.  I tried to at least turn down the volume but that didn’t work.  So I just ended up turning the damn monitor off.  I was generally irritated with rushing to get there and then having to wait anyway, had to pee really bad (had to have a full bladder for the u/s), and was anxious for the u/s too!  So I didn’t care about taking it upon myself to turn off the TV.  Patience is not something I have had a lot of lately! 

 

Finally, an u/s tech and couple emerge from one of the rooms, the couple checks out and it is our turn!  The tech looks over our form and then notices the TV was off.  He gets really confused, tries to turn it back on with the remote but it doesn’t work.  LOL.  After a couple seconds I said “Well, we were waiting for quite some time and that song was really annoying.  So I shut it off at the source.”  Hubby goes to turn on the TV while I’m talking.  The tech didn’t really say anything and I thought “oh great, I was overly snippy and we’re being difficult even before the u/s has started - messing with his machines and such - so he’s not going to try very hard to see the sex for us or he will lie to us.”  Ha ha!  

Well the u/s finally got under way and we saw baby right away.  He went over the basic stuff – looked at some features like the feet, hands, spine, profile of the face, and heartbeat of course.  Baby was moving it’s jaw around like it was chewing on something!  That was funny.  But for the most part I was thinking “yea, yea, yea, yea – have seen this stuff before.  Let’s get to the goods!!  We can come back to this later!”  It was nice to see of course but that lack of patience was getting me again!   It wasn’t moving around much besides for its jaw and an occasional swat.  It was probably resting.  And of course it decided to rest with its legs crossed!  Oh noooo!!  The tech proceeded to nudge and poke my belly to get the baby to switch positions which felt awesome against my full bladder.  Baby seemed annoyed at that but didn’t move it’s legs – just did some more swatting.  The tech asked me to roll to my right side.  Seemed like that did it!  Baby scurried around, repositioning itself and then I flipped back over to my back where the tech was able to see the goods now.  After a couple seconds…“You’re having a boy!!”  Awwwww – so cute!  Look at the lil’ guy!  It was unmistakable – even my hubby and I could see the goods.  After more ohhhs and ahhhhs, the tech went back over everything before ending the u/s.  Phew!  I was instantly on cloud 9 and was finally able to go pee! 

I really didn’t have a preference but after awhile, hubby admitted that he was leaning towards a boy.  This is great though.  I can now call my belly “my son” and refer to it a “he” or “him”.  I can visualize the baby easier too and it makes it all seem somewhat more real.  So now I get to make another announcement on facebook and got to tell my coworkers today.  They all cheered and are so excited for us.  I said that I was scared of getting peed on and one mother of 2 sons said not to worry.  That doesn’t happen right away – I have time to practice my ‘duck and cover’ skills!  LOL! 

 

So now we wait for our next ultrasound which is another big one.  It’s the anatomy scan and will check for structural abnormalities.  It’ll be on June 11th and hopefully we’ll get further confirmation that we are indeed having a healthy baby boy.  This week I have my 2^nd blood test for my 2^nd trimester screening.  The test is tomorrow.  I don’t know when we’ll get the results but it will give more precise odds of the baby having chromosomal issues.  I also have my 16 week OB appointment on Wednesday.  Should be pretty basic, go over concerns/issues, listen to the heartbeat, measure my belly, etc.

16 week belly pic

2nd trimester update

I have not posted much except for my weekly belly pics so figured I’d give an update!  I am well in to the 2^nd trimester and so far so good.  I have been feeling less fatigued and more alert.  The fog of the 1^st trimester has lifted and I feel like I can be productive again.  I still have “pregnancy brain” from time to time though.  But for the most part, I’m back to my old self - except I can’t do some of the things I usually do and have to take it easy.  No home remodeling, hauling dirt around, dealing with chemicals, etc.  Physically, I feel fine.  I do not really “feel” pregnant yet – just feel fat.  So my hubby has to remind me to take it easy, not to lift too much, or get up on ladders/stools and such where I might fall.  I do feel my lower back and feet aching more than usual though and my boobs still hurt and get in the way A LOT… LOL.  I have to constantly have a bra on because I cannot stand feeling my boobs moving at all.  Oh how I loathe bras though!  Thankfully, I’ve been able to find some comfy nursing bras at Target that I am finding tolerable.  What else… I get heartburn now after I eat and my eating has slowed down quite a bit in the last 2 weeks or so.  I’m finding that I just can’t fit much in there anymore!  As a result, my weight gain has slowed.  I did put on about 8 lbs during the first 13 weeks (over the recommended 1-5 lbs) but now that I’m in the 2^nd trimester, I need to gain 1 lb per week regardless of how much I gained in the first trimester.  So far in weeks 14 & 15 I’ve gained 0 lbs.  So I need to pick up the pace!  This week I’m trying to eat smaller meals more often so I can still get in enough calories and nutrients for baby and we’ll see how much weight I gain at the end of this week.

 

We have been doing quite a bit around the house lately and it’s been frustrating to not be able to help in the capacity that I usually would.  I can still supervise and provide suggestions I suppose.  But I just feel like I’m playing the pregnancy card a lot lately – well, hubby has been playing it for me I guess and not letting me do too much:)  Springtime is always busy for us.  We are busy planting, getting ready for summer, dealing with all the weeds and the grass the needs mowing 3 times/week.  Plus inside I like to do deep cleaning inside and spruce up various things that have been bugging me all winter but was too lazy to finish.  With the extra daylight and nicer weather I always get a spark of motivation to get moving!  This year is no exception – especially with baby on the way, we have even more motivation to get the house in order.  We had some pressing landscaping issues that we needed to fix – tore out some old, dead bushes and replaced them with new ones, sodded/seeded various areas in our yard, repaired the rusty nails sticking out of our fence and gates that were literally falling off their hinges.  Also we realized that now we have to reorganize the whole house since it is going to soon be full of baby stuff in a couple months.  That included going through all the junk that has accumulated in the basement over the past 6 years that we’ve been living at our house.  Ugh!  Hubby to the rescue!  He went through everything down there, took care of organizing the stuff we need to keep and dragged the rest up to our garage where he’s been getting rid of it bit by bit with each weekly garbage pick-up.  Hubby also cleared out the baby’s room (used to be a guest room) and added a 2^ndshelf in the closet for more storage.  He did the same for his closet and next up is my closet.  The rest of the closets are my responsibility to reorganize. This weekend we are redoing our mud/laundry room.  We are kicking our old washer and dryer to the curb and getting new machines that will be able to handle the increase in laundry and that won’t try to run away during each spin cycle!  We are also updating the gross linoleum floor in there to a basic peel & stick vinyl tile, repainting the walls, and revamping some of the storage that is inefficient.  So it’s been busy busy busy!  We’ve got a lot done already but our to-do list is enormous and we only have a couple months until I am huge and probably won’t feel like doing much.  So the race is on to see how much we can get done before then.

 

Shopping for baby and getting the nursery together will start after we know what the sex will be - which is this Saturday!  That will be so exciting.  I really hope baby decides to show off!  Typically you find out gender at 20 weeks but I couldn't wait and they say that you can find out gender as early as 15 weeks - sometimes earlier.  So we are going to a private clinic to get it done. If baby doesn't cooperate, we can get a repeat scan done for free.  I have not felt any kicks yet, but anytime between now and 22 weeks is when I should start to feel them.  Even though I can’t feel it moving yet, I still know that it is.  I have been using the Doppler daily to check in with baby and I can now hear the movement that baby does.  It’s so cool!  Sounds like it’s splashing around in there having a great time.  Can’t wait till I can feel it.  Thought I felt a couple weird things the other day, but I’m assuming it was just gas.  Also I am finally off of the progesterone shots!  That has been soooooo nice!  My butt is still sore but at least I’m in recovery mode now.  Also do not miss the weekly blood draws.  Those were really starting to get terrible.  I guess I’m one of the pregnant ladies who likes to hide her veins so there were times where they had to poke me in both arms and after not getting anything, had to poke me in my hand:((  That does NOT feel good!      

Well, I think that’s about it for today! 

15 week belly pic

14 week belly pic

Okay, it's official.  I'm getting fat!  I feel like my boobs are growing faster than my belly though - Ugh!  Hope they will stop growing soon.  It's starting to look ridiculous on my petite frame.  Again, not complaining - just sort of amazed by the subtle changes each week that amount to big changes from 4 weeks ago.  Also - why is my back so curved like that?  Never realized it was so concave.  LOL!