It's a Boy!

The headline says it all - the ultrasound showed that we're having a son! He's got a big head (visible here, along with both arms) and long limbs. That's gonna be fun coming out...
He was very active during the ultrasound, squirming and dancing around the whole time, and even flipped himself over completely. He's got all his parts, including the male parts which the ultrasound tech was happy to point out repeatedly. Apparently our boy is not shy. Surpise? :)
We even got to see all four chambers of his heart, and could see the blood beating though it, which was super cool. Overall it's pretty hard to interpret much of what you see on the screen, but you could clearly see his spine, and the bones in his hands and feet. Also, the tech said he looked big enough to move up my due date by a week, so the current estimate is now May 6th.

The whole ultrasound was pretty cool, seeing him moving around was quite surreal. It all feels so real now. In fact I've finally starting picturing what life will be like with him here, and realized that maybe we should start setting up for his arrival! So it's time to start researching cribs.

(pause for getting kicked)

He sure is active! Though, happily, he has not kicked me in the middle of the night yet. Yet. :)

Kicks and Beaches

Last week, we enjoyed a balmy 6 days down in Florida, soaking up the delicious beach sun while Chicago enjoyed -6 degree weather. So here is my 19 weeks photo, on the beach. Hee hee. Note the lovely tent effect of my swim top. But alas, the lovely weather did not follow us back to Chicago. Welcome back - here's 6 inches of snow! And arctic wind! Hooray!

In other fun developments, the Mixed Martial Artist currently in residence in my middle area started showing off his/her moves last Friday. We were enjoying our standard wild-and-crazy Friday night schedule (What Not To Wear, Numbers) when I felt a real, honest to god *whack* in the lower abdominal area. I made what Byron described as a 'panicked laughing sound' then felt three more whacks in the same place. It was a surreal experience that I have a hard time describing. I'll admit, it made me tear up a bit. Since then I've felt kick/punches/elbows a couple times each day, usually at night when lounging on the couch.
On a different note, we've been very entertained at the way all of our parents very solemnly tell me to take care of myself. With the clear implication that they really just want me to take care of the grandkid. Me, I'm expendable. But the kid must be protected. I'm just a carrier. Then again, that makes the kid sound like a virus.

Tomorrow we have my 20 week midwife appointment and then *drumroll please* the ultrasound! (Merry Christmas to us!) So we'll see what we can see, if you know what I mean. After some back and forth, we've decided to find out the sex, makes life easier on those poor grandparents who are dying to purchase baby paraphernalia. Don't worry loyal readers, I'll let you know what it is. We might even show off a video or something....

Catching my breath again.

So last week was pretty busy, what with family visiting for Thanksgiving (hi Mom!) and my 16 week appointment with the midwives. I popped that video up there but didn't have time to say anything about. But here I find myself, late in the workday on a Thursday, with nothing left to work on but waiting for a (really exciting) report to generate before I can leave work.... so it's blog time!
The appointment last week was the day before Thanksgiving, which was perhaps not the best time for such things. Everybody else in a 10 mile radius with a growing fruit in their belly was also there to be seen before the holiday, so I had to wait almost 45 minutes for my appointment. Which was a real joy, I must say. Actually it wasn't that bad, a few people had little kids there with them, and you could see the expressions playing across the rest of the womens' faces as the kids alternated between good behavior and utter terrorism. The visible reactions of "awe that's sooo cute I can't wait until I have mine" were then followed by "Oh my God if my child ever does that they are going to a Swiss boarding school."
But once I made it past the patience test, I got to hear his/her heartbeat again, and right away. No hiding this time - as you can hear the beats came through loud and clear. The midwife even said it sounded happy. Yeah, sure....
In other misadventures, I bought a body pillow for extra comfiness when sleeping on my side. And then, as Byron said, wielded it like an American Gladiator as I was struggling to get it into bed with me. That sucker is huge. Luckily nothing broke. And despite the fact that it now seems like there's a third body in bed with us, it helps me sleep better and only wake up a half dozen times each night, instead of a full dozen. And as an added bonus, allows the cat to think he is walking on top of one of us while we are lying down, without inflicting the annoyance of his 15 pound weight balanced on two paws on our chests. It's a real win-win I think.