19 weeks and counting!
The "belly":
I can feel my uterus especially when I'm laying on my back. They say baby is the size of a mango now, 9 ounces!
More excitingly we had our anatomy ultrasound last week! My parents were out of town so we brought Doug's parents. I had never even thought to bring anyone besides Doug, but the slip said "please don't bring more than 2 guests". And so I decided to bring a guest! So we brought his mom and his dad just came to wait in the waiting room and go out for lunch afterwards, but they let him in too. How nice!
It was so exciting to see baby!!
He grew from this (at 8 wks):
to this:
Oh my gosh I'm in love with his sweet little profile.
And yes,
it's a boy!
Doug and I actually have known for awhile now. Since I will be 35 at delivery, my insurance offered some kind of testing at 12wks where they could tell from my blood. They tested for genetic abnormalities and could also find out the gender.
After I got the test done I had real second thoughts. I read later about how they designed this test to be done so early so if something was wrong with baby, the mom could abort and no one would ever know she was pregnant :( and that there had been instances of false positives and at least 3 cases of women aborting perfectly healthy babies. I cried when I read that. But by then I had already had the test by then and had to wait 10 days for the results. Doug and I would not have done anything differently if our baby had any issues, but I definitely wanted to know and prepare my heart if that was the baby that God had for me. And I'd be lying if I said knowing the gender early wasn't a bonus for the test!
The day we got the results, the nurse called me to say everything looked healthy. Then she asked if I wanted to know the gender. I said I did, but asked her to leave it in a voicemail so Doug and I could find out together.
After Doug got home from work we went to baby Gap and picked out 2 hats (I wanted to find a cute bring-home outfit, but everything was too springy for our fall baby, and $25 for a onesie?? I couldn't do it!) So we picked out a pink and blue hat. We had the cashier listen to the voicemail and gave her the cash first while we waited in another part of the store. Then we immediately went out to dinner and taped ourselves while we opened the bag. I wish I knew how to upload video, alas, anyway, blue hat!! Doug was so excited.
I was too actually. I had wanted a girl for years, but after taking to long to get pregnant I was at a point where I just wanted to finally see the 2 lines!! And Doug had been praying for 'our son' for weeks by then, mostly as a joke I think, but sure enough it was a boy. So I was excited too.
the blue hat
We have told most of our friends and family already. I keep wanting to do a pinterest-y gender reveal picture on FB but I just don't have the bump for it yet! So I keep waiting.
A couple weeks ago Doug had some of his friends over and we decided to do an impromtu gender reveal party of low-key sorts. We got pink and blue leis and had people wear what color they thought, we had a BBQ and bonfire, and later in the evening we cut a cake.
People started screaming as soon as Doug lifted the knife after his first cut because the blue frosting was on the knife. It was pretty fun to celebrate that a little.
Otherwise pregnancy is going pretty smooth. I actually threw up for the first time at 18 weeks (
nu-uh nausea, you had your chance first trimester!!) but I think it may have been related to jet lag and some weird indian hot pocket thing I ate on the plane. Feeling pretty normal now.
Weeks: 19.5
Pounds gained: 3? I'm still in my normal clothes, but feel worn out a bit easier now. Not needing 9-10 hours sleep anymore, back to 7-8. I do involuntarily make a little grunt when bending down, but otherwise feeling pretty normal.
Baby names: Still not telling, but I think we agree on a middle name. We both have a first name we like and so might just wait till we meet him to decide.
Cravings: nothing crazy, probably still fruit. I read you are supposed to gain 10lbs by 20 weeks, I don't think I'll gain 7 more pounds in the next few days, but I'm pretty certain I'll be on track pretty soon. Come on, no one
wants to gain weight, but I do want my baby to be healthy and weight gain is important for him. I'm just eating when hungry and trying to make healthy choices for the most part.
Gifts received: a girl from my Bible study dropped off some swaddling blankets she had made, that was nice. And Liz brought me a bag of salvation army clothes, yeah! I can't remember if I said this already but another girl from Bible study gave me a huge box of clothes from her twins, my baby is all set until at least 6 months! People are very generous.
Baby items purchased: we picked up the Chicco keyfit stroller caddy on CL for $40, score! (new is $100) My sister-in-law loves hers so I'm sure it will get us through the first 6 months. After that we'll probably just find something else on craigslist, I can't believe some of the prices on this stuff! We also bought him this sweet little mushroom bank from Austria. In the castle we toured they had 'tradesmen' like old timey blacksmiths and woodcarvers making stuff and we picked it out. I actually hate mushrooms, but seem to like them for decor. We are planning a woodland themed nursery and it will be a cute little accessory.
That's about it! That's the last ultrasound, so won't see him again until October! Thanking God for a healthy baby and almost halfway there :)
laid out the black fabric to prevent weeds
jungle kitty
On my next day off I laid all the mulch down. Even that was exhausting! But it's done!!
and I got a couple hanging petunia baskets for my shepherd's hooks on the back deck
aaahh, this one's tipping for some reason!
The other side of the house, the side that needs new siding, is lined with peonies and right in the middle this crazy overgrown rhododendron. I really wanted to rip it out earlier this spring but mom made me wait till it had blossomed.
and now I'm not sure I want to lose it, it's so pretty! But so pretty for 1 week out of the year and ugly the rest. I was reading about them and it said you can cut them back pretty severely in the winter if they are overgrown and shapeless, and then the next year they send out new shoots and in a few years will look nice again, so maybe I'll try it. Can't hurt!
As far as outdoors goes I'm done planting. My garden is planted too. We need to finish the lattice around the decks, hang our shutters, get new siding on that North wall, and finish the firepit and then we'll be totally done. But it looks so much nicer already. Doug even said a neighbor came by to compliment it :) job well done!
