Let's play...Guess the Gender!

My Mom had NO CLUE what the arrow was pointing too.

She may still be working on the pink blanket.

Foot prints!

All hale skelator

I swear he has TB's nose.

So yes, we are having a boy. My fathers check book is safe from my mother. I guess every one will have to wait for my nephews to get married and procreate (hopefully in that order). Which shouldn't be for at least another ten or fifteen years.

It took me a while to post this for two reasons. One, I had to deal with this little one not being a girl as I had really started to believe it was (wishful thinking). I'm not really supposed to admit that I had a preference am I? I'm supposed to say that "Oh, all we wanted was a healthy baby" blah, blah, blah.

But honestly, I was disappointed. Although perhaps not the most rational of reasons, part of hoping for a girl was because raising TB has been such a challenge, and, he is in fact, a boy! And then there's the desire to be able to buy all the cute girly clothes and accessories. And the fact we wouldn't have to repaint the guest room. And, the hope that perhaps I could stop the terrible cycle of poor mother-daughter relationships in our family. And, I really want to share all the girly things I love to do, with another girl!

Ah well, as the money shot shows, we are having a boy. And I am adjusting to it. We'll be getting a quote to have the room painted this week. And since most of my coworkers have boys, I'll be getting some nice hand me downs. And, we definitely know what to do with boys.

The other reason I was slow to post this was we did have a bit of a surprise during the level II ultrasound. Apparently there is excess fluid in baby boys kidneys, which is a marker for Downs Syndrome. It is a very small amount of excess fluid, and we will have it rechecked in four weeks (2 1/2 weeks from now). I had a little discussion with Dr. Google and it told me that this is what many consider a soft marker, and some perinatologists don't even consider it a marker for Downs at all.

Our Dr. said that 95% of the time it ends up being nothing, and if it is something it most likely has nothing to do with Downs. Basically, our chances of having a baby with Downs is now 1 in 200, or 0.5%. Amazing Daddy doesn't think that is worth getting concerned over. But then last weekend I found he did some consulting with Dr. Google as well. We were offered an amnio, because now the chance of miscarriage from an amnio is 0.5% which is equal to the chance of the baby having Downs. We said no and the Dr. seemed to think that was a good decision, considering the hell we went through just to get pregnant.

Basically, I have mixed feelings. Mostly I put the worry out of my mind, and hope that in a little over two weeks I'll be reassured. At this point, I guess there isn't anything I can do about it since even if we did confirm it was an issue, we would not terminate the pregnancy. So, I try not to obsess.

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In general, I am feeling pretty good. I'm finally showing, and when I wear the right clothes its fairly obvious I'm pregnant, and not just getting fatter. I have more energy, although I find that climbing more than two flights of stairs has me pretty out of breath these days. I can tell I haven't been exercising. I can't remember if I mentioned this before, but I have been throwing up most mornings for the last month or so. I'm not so much nauseous as I have this gunk in my throat early in the morning that starts to gag me, and then results in me heaving. Sometimes it's just once, sometimes its several times. I have to be careful when I cough because that too has set of my gag reflex.

My sense of smell has become hyper acute as well. AD grilled salmon for dinner the other night and as soon as he brought it in the house and I got a good whiff I ended up in the bathroom. I couldn't even eat dinner with him and TB. Poor TB was very concerned. He kept telling AD to get the fish out of the house so mommy couldn't smell it. So sweet.

I've started to be a bit hungrier than I was before, and I think I may have finally gained a couple pounds. Still no major cravings. In fact, kind of the opposite. Not much really excites me. It has been a struggle some days to get enough protein in me.

I'm starting to think about how I want to decorate the nursery. I'm a bit overwhelmed at the thought of getting everything out of the room, but once I do that and decide on a theme/color, I will have fun.

Starting to think of boys names too. We have one that we both like, but I would like to keep thinking. TB still wants to name a baby brother Hero. He and I both like the name Fin too, but AD wants nothing to do with that.