baby girl easter

Well if the new look on the blog hasn't given it away already...it's a girl! As of about noon Thursday, the technician told us she was 100% certain that it was girl parts, and no one has come back to tell her she's wrong in twenty years. We'd had a hint at gender four weeks ago, but it was still pretty exciting to get it confirmed. As soon as we knew, it seemed so much easier to start imagining this little person and who she is going to be.

Also, the baby was awake, and we finally got all the measurements we needed. Everything looked good -- brain, spine, heart. She said that the baby has really long legs for someone her age. I'm not sure if that's a good thing for me or not! I am still measuring about a week earlier than my due date, but they probably won't officially change it at this point. I'll be doing my glucose test in four weeks, but she said they probably won't do another ultrasound until 34 weeks or so in late June.

So now it's off to start picking paint colors and bedding and all those fun things. I think we're both pretty excited to finally know. We went out to lunch after the appointment, and Steve was pretty funny. Every so often a look of sheer panic would cross his face. I'd ask him what was wrong, and it was always something different...usually relating to the thought of having a teenage girl. We'd better start shopping for modest clothes now! There won't be any older brothers, so I'm going to have to chase all the boys away! What if she wants to play club sports, and we have to travel all the time? Plenty of time to worry about that later, but we're excited to finally know which questions to ask!

On a related note, Baby Girl Easter did NOT like our little wake-up call Friday morning. I woke up first at 4:37ish thinking that Steve's leg was twitching. I woke him up, and then we realized the whole bed was shaking back and forth horizontally. I think it lasted for 20-30 seconds. Then after that, non-stop baby kicking started and lasted for about 25 minutes. I think the aftershocks scared her a bit too, because she was really active all day. Maybe babies are like dogs and are more sensitive to these things than we are? Who knows!

Waiting for Thursday

It's been a few weeks, so I figured it was time for an update. Nothing new to report really -- much more of the same. We've had a busy few weeks it seems. We spent most of last weekend in Peoria, as I was co-hosting a shower for my friend Dana, whose little guy is due in a few weeks. This weekend, Steve and I journeyed up to Schaumburg to find me a few work maternity clothes I could stand (love Ann Taylor Loft maternity), work on the registries at a bigger Babies R Us and Target, and exchange our under-warranty digital camera at Sharper Image. Success on all counts. We missed our friend Krems who was out of town for work, but we did get to have a nice lunch with his wife Jess.

Now, it's just back to Normal and counting the days until the ultrasound Thursday...at which hopefully baby's sex and brain measurements will be revealed. I think we've decided that if nothing definitive shows up Thursday, we are just going to go gender-neutral on the bedding and let ourselves be a bit surprised. We could change our minds though.

It's kind of interesting to see how other people act when you're pregnant. At first all the questions are "When are you due?" and "Are you going to find out the gender?". Then once it becomes obvious you are really pregnant (which it has for me the past few weeks), the question changes to "How are you feeling?". It's kind of like asking someone "How are you?" when you pass in the hall. Do you want the real answer? Or the stereotypically positive answer that generally follows in polite conversation. ("Good" follows that question 100% of the time on The Hills, even if those kids are supposedly having the worst day in the world and it may be grammatically incorrect. Yes, it's one of my guilty pleasures. Hopefully that doesn't disqualify me from being mom material).

But to answer the question honestly, I am doing pretty well. My only problems have really been mild hip pain and difficulty going back to sleep after waking up at night. I'm starting to grown out of some of the early petite maternity clothes and look like I've swallowed a cantaloupe. (23 weeks in this picture). But it's all part of the deal, right? Kicking has been a bit erratic. It's nothing one day, and then the next day I swear we've got a future soccer player. But we are enjoying it all and feeling very blessed that things have been going well so far.