IT'S A GIRL!!!!

Woohoo!!! We are SO excited that we're having a little girl!! I am already imagining decorating themes and thinking about teaching her how to scrapbook, cook, etc, etc... I can't wait! We spent most of our lunch talking about what kind of instruments and sports she might play, and of course we're thinking more about names, but we're not feeling a rush on that!

Today's anatomical ultrasound was amazing. I can not believe how much her body has developed already! She has a heart beat around 135 bpm and weighed about 12 oz, so everything is looking good for her so far! We got to watch all the different parts of her body being measured, everything from her head to her feet, and even got to watch the chambers in her heart pumping blood. It was so cool to see how much her spine has developed with all her ribs, and I loved seeing her little feet and her little nose!

Here's a couple of my favorite 3D pics from today! (They are kind of blurry in some areas where she was moving while the pictures were being taken, but you get the idea of what she looks like!)

Isn't is amazing that she already has fingers and facial features? (And don't worry, her ears are still forming and will keep moving up the side of her head until they're in the right place!)


I love how she looks like she is smiling in this one! I think she is just adorable already!

Stephen is so funny, he said he hopes she favors me instead of him-- I think he's afraid she might be born with a full beard! I think a girl favoring him would be beautiful, and I think she already has Stephen's adorable cheeks, they are poofing out in the second picture just like his do when he smiles!

So many people are stoked that we're having a girl, especially my mom, Stephen's mom, my sisters, my stepmom, my aunts, my girl friends... basically everyone who's a girl! Mom was ecstatic when I told her and she revealed that she'd been hoping it was a girl all along, and I get the feeling Stephen's mom was too, especially since she never got to have a daughter of her own. We are just so happy to know we have a little girl in there, and seeing those pictures of her today gives me new inspiration to eat well, exercise, and all those other things you're supposed to be doing during pregnancy. It's so great to be able to imagine her and to think about nourishing something as precious as her.

Anticipation: Is it a Boy or a Girl?

If the baby cooperates, we'll be finding out if it's a girl or a boy on Wednesday, and we are so excited! For whatever reason, Stephen and I both got the feeling it's a boy a couple of months ago, and almost everyone who has an opinion on it also thinks it's a boy. My friend Inna had a dream that it was a boy, and I had a dream myself a few days ago that it was a boy, but none of that really means anything. Either way, we're going to be thrilled!

19 weeks

A Special Girls' Night Out

While we were in Alabama for Thanksgiving, I had fun getting together with two of my best friends from high school, Jenny and Inna. The three of us have been friends since we were 15 years old, and have been there for each other through thick and thin all these years. This was a really special time to hang out because we knew Jenny was going to become a mother a few days later, and that everything was about to change. All three of us are going through transitional periods in life-- Inna just married a military man and will be moving to Portugal next month, and Jenny and I are becoming mommies. It was wonderful to have this one last night out, in the calm before the storm, to support each other and to celebrate the changes happening in our lives... and to eat at our favorite Greek restaurant, Nabeel's, one last time before we're toting diaper bags!



Our last bump picture together... at least for this round! Jenny was 38 weeks here, I was 17. Jenny gave birth to a beautiful 8 and 1/2 lb. baby boy three days later!

Thanksgiving

Now that I'm getting over this nasty cold, I'd better post my Thanksgiving blog before it becomes ridiculously old news! UGA was closed for the week of Thanksgiving, so Stephen and I got to spend almost the whole week visiting with friends and family in Alabama, which was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, Stephen was not really "off of work" because he had to grade 84 essays while we were gone that week! Poor thing!

My mom hosted a big Thanksgiving for my brothers, their girlfriends, Mom's boyfriend and his mother, Stephen's parents, and Stephen and me. This was special for us because it was the first time since 2001 that mom, my brothers, and me have all been together for Thanksgiving.

My cute little brothers and their cute little girlfriends. And my cute hubby!


My sweet in-laws, Donnie and Jo Ann.


After being in the kitchen with mom all day at 17 weeks.


A Pie to Remember

Since Mom was hosting a big meal, and I'm her only daughter, I felt like it was my duty to provide some substantial kitchen help, so I was a little offended when I asked her what I could make and all she said was the rolls-- a 10-year-old can do the FROZEN rolls! Then she said I could get the tables ready, which wasn't much better-- I've been doing the tables since I was 12! (In all fairness to mom, I should mention that I did not let her lift a finger when she stayed with us last Thanksgiving, but still...!) A more honorable task was finally assigned to me when she started craving her mother's chocolate pie. So I got to make Meme's famous chocolate pie for the first time ever, with mom on one side of the stove and me on the other, and mom interpreting the notes on the recipe card for me. It was one of those cheesy moments when you realize that's what Thanksgiving is all about, with my mom assisting me in making my grandmother's pie, while the next generation is incubating inside me... super sappy stuff, I know, but this was the most meaningful pie I've ever made. It was more than a pie. No one ever makes special dishes for Mom, but she's always making them for other people, so I really enjoyed making something special for her, even though I couldn't eat a piece of it myself because of the raw egg whites in the meringue!



Mom was so proud of that pie that she carried it around the house to show off to everybody, then she surprised us by unashamedly eating two pieces of it after eating the big Thanksgiving meal (Mom NEVER gets seconds on dessert!). Over the next two days, she finished off the entire pie by herself, eating a total of six pieces all together! WOW! (Mom never eats like that, so I know she must have really loved it, and that makes me happy!)

Our Little Mover

Stephen got to feel the baby moving last night! Very exciting. It is moving frequently and especially likes to move when I'm trying to go to sleep. Now I have two people to keep me awake at night! Stephen snoring, baby moving, me counting sheep... (More like me counting all the things that need to be done before this bambino moves on out of its cocoon!)

It's Moving!!!

I felt the baby moving for the first time last night! Just as I was trying to go to sleep, I started feeling the sensations of it moving around, and it kept moving on and off for a couple of hours-- I think it's going to be an athlete! It was pretty hard to go to sleep after realizing that my body is really the host to another body. It's one thing to see the pictures of it, another thing entirely to actually feel it! I've been very curious about what it would be like-- the books say it feels like "butterfly wings" or like "gas rumbles." To me, it's feeling more like little gas rumbles, except they're noiseless and they keep happening over and over again in a location that is definitely within my super-sized uterus. I keep wondering what part of the baby's body I'm feeling and trying to imagine what it looks like moving around in there (is that a foot? Or an arm? Or the head?). Last night I told Stephen as I was feeling the first sensations of it, but by the time I was sure it was really moving, he was already snoring. This morning he was very happy and excited to hear about it. I can't wait until Stephen can feel the baby, too!

On a different note, the baby's ears have now formed enough for it to be able to hear! Time to start the music!

Sicko Preggo

If I thought going out on the town pregnant was a new experience, that was nothing compared to being sick! We had a great Thanksgiving visit with friends and family, but I managed to pick something up along the way and have been in bed for days now. At first I thought it was the flu, and actually cried to Stephen about it because the flu can be so dangerous for pregnant women and I don't want anything to hurt the baby. Yes, cried. Since when was the flu something to cry over? Apparently it is now.

The next morning, I called my obgyn's office and asked them what to do. They said to go to my primary physician, which of course I don't have because I just moved here four months ago, so they suggested an urgent care center that's affiliated with a local hospital. I can't even remember the last time I went to a doctor for having flu symptoms, I always just deal with it on my own. But an hour later, I was at the best urgent care center I've ever been to and they found that it isn't the flu, it's a really bad strain of a cold, and of course there's really nothing that can be done about a viral infection like a cold anyways. The doc recommended Tylenol and since my head had been on the brink of explosion for hours, my throat hurt so bad that it was painful to swallow my own saliva, and my body was so sore that I felt like I'd just run a marathon, I broke down and took some pain killer for the first time since I got pregnant. I am now Tylenol's newest fan.

Normally, I would pull out my bag of vitamins and herbal supplements and create an arsenal of goodies to boost my immune system at this point. That's what I've been doing for years (we couldn't afford health insurance the first five years we were married, until we graduated from college, so I learned how to do this out of necessity). But no one knows what doses of vitamins and herbs are safe during pregnancy, so my stand-by arsenal is now a no-no. Pregnant women aren't even supposed to drink herbal tea! And everyone knows to stay away from solid foods while they're sick, but I don't want to starve the baby, so what's a sick pregnant lady to do? I bought some Ensure drinks as a compromise (350 calories of fortified nutrition that tastes like a chocolate shake!) and am snacking, but still don't feel confident about this whole thing.

I'm at a total loss on how to heal myself, which I never could have imagined a year ago. It's weird how pregnancy makes you rethink everything that you thought you already knew how to deal with. How it reminds you that your illusion of being in control of your life is really just a very thin illusion. And that's before the baby even gets here!

(The bright side of this is that I've had an excuse to dig into Stephen's reading pile, and am halfway through my first piece of non-pregnancy literature in months, The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean. I'm cherishing this time to read while it lasts!)