20 Weeks

It's a GIRL! We had planned to keep it a secret, but I just couldn't bear to not share our good news.  So Evan called his family and I called mine, then we made the facebook post that makes everything official. 

Baby girl doesn't have a name yet, so we'll continue to call her Bebe. And Bebe was most uncooperative during the ultrasound.  She kept her legs crossed most of the time which made it almost like a treasure hunt, trying to find a good position to view her girlie parts.  She also wouldn't let the technician see her cord insertion point (not a big deal, but she wanted to make sure everything was okay with that as well).  Bebe is sitting breech and has a beautiful heart and brain and strong little legs and feet.  We didn't get a great shot of her face, but that's okay because we'll be staring at her soon enough.  She's measuring right on target at 20 weeks and her estimated weight it 1lb 11oz.

Oakes has been a little terror all day today (happy birthday, Daddy!) and was incredibly hyper in the doctor's office, but overall he was pretty well behaved during the ultrasound.  I still don't think he is too aware of what is going on though.  In the car on the way to the appointment, Evan asked him whether he wanted the baby to be a girl or a boy and he did say "girl" (in his own understandable language).  So he at least knew what to expect there. :)

Blood Pressure: 130/80 (a bit higher, but my nerves were all crazy with just finding out the gender)
Weight: +6 (total weight gain = 0 pounds)
Heartrate: 162bpm

We have our glucose test next month, and other than that things are smoothly sailing for us and Bebe!  Here is our required belly shot (it's getting bigggggerrrrr...):

Happy Birthday, Evan!

Tomorrow is Evan's birthday and to kick his year off with a bang, we have our exciting gender ultrasound tomorrow at 2:30!  Unfortunately for you all, I won't be posting/sharing the results just yet.  We want to share them with family first; we're going to call Evan's parents with the news and then when we see my entire family at the beach next week, we'll share the news with them in person.  I have to say, I am kind of excited about keeping it a secret for a bit.  It seems like we share so much with our pregnancies (by choice, I know) that it's nice to have something to ourselves for a few days. 

In Other News...
As for names, we sat outside by the fire again tonight and continued making our list of potential baby names.  We decided we couldn't pull out the brackets we did for Oakes' name as we wanted to start fresh for Bebe.  No decisions on names have been made yet, though; we have a long plane ride and a layover in Charlotte to debate names this week and over the next 20 weeks if need be.  Who knows, we may even decide to keep the name a secret until birth day. ;)

I spent this past Tuesday morning at the dentists for an emergency filling.  About a week and a half ago I was driving in the car and felt something funky on my back molar.  When I looked in the mirror, I realized with horror that I had a huge hole at the base of my tooth.  Gross.  Since I hadn't been to the dentist since we moved here in 2006 (I know, I know...) I called one recommended by many friends and they fit me right in.  I was so nervous about what could be the problem - there are so many relationships with gum disease/high risk pregancies that I wrung my hands the entire appointment, even after the dentist told me it was a simple cavity and would be fixed in all of 20 minutes.  I also had a teeth cleaning performed and the hygienist told me I had great looking teeth and didn't have the feared pregnancy gingivitis which is great.  I know Dr. Cuellar will be happy to hear that.  :)

With Bebe doing some crazy kicks lately, I tried to get Oakes to feel the movement.  Of course, homeboy doesn't sit still for more than 5 seconds so that was a bust.  Bebe actually kicked when his hand was on me, but he didn't notice.  Oh well.  Maybe after he sees a picture of Bebe at the ultrasound tomorrow, he'll realize what's actually in my tummy.

dress shopping

We head to Louisiana next week for a wedding so I went shopping today for a maternity dress to wear to this hot hot hot hot hot hot hot locale.  A few things I'd like to share that I learned on my shopping trip today:

1. It's good that Evan declined to go.  I went to the Gap, then Motherhood, then back to the Gap, and I now have to go back to both locations sometime this week in order to return items.  He would have shot me if he had tagged along.
2. Shopping for a maternity dress at 19weeks is stupid.  And it puts you in a bad mood.  The normal dresses are too tight and the maternity dresses are too baggy.  My goal was to find a dress that made sure everyone knew I was preggo and not just eating too much (I may know about 3% of the people who will be at this wedding, but no matter...).  Luckily, I actually found one but I had to go a size smaller as my chest and belly don't fill it up.  So I'm not sure if this dress will fit me much beyond this summer but at least I'll look somewhat cute and hopefully more "preggo" than "hungry hungry hippo" for the wedding.  It does have an elastic band under the chest and another one on the back, so hopefully that elastic will expand!

So anyway, here's the dress I bought, in this color (equinox blue) - and it was 50% off!

Happy to be finished dress shopping, I am now concentrating on getting ready for our trip.  And I'm super-excited about this.  We're flying into New Orleans on a Friday and flying out on a Monday, which will leave all day Sunday (and Saturday morning and Friday night!) to putz about NOLA and -- to boot -- Oakes will be with Mom and Dad while we are out of town.  I'm kind of considering this my "baby moon" for bebe. :)

Daycare

We signed Oakes up for daycare today (we're affectionately calling it "school") and he seems pretty excited about it.  He was a bit apprehensive in the classroom at first, but after a few minutes of watching the other kids play while I talked to the teacher, he was right in his zone and we had to go pick him up from the play area he was in when it was time to go. 

This brings me to bebe, and what we'll be doing with him/her once my maternity leave is over.  First off, I have to look at our finances but I think I'll be able to take a bit more time off with bebe (maybe even until March 1st -- almost 11 weeks!!!!) eventhough most of that will be unpaid.  However, when I return to school, Cheryl and Laura have graciously opened their doors to bebe so we will again be putting our precious child with our two wonderful cousins.  It really worked out beautifully with Oakes and it will make me feel much more at peace knowing my little infant is receiving one-on-one care. 

Oakes will start "school" on August 8th, the Monday after we return from our beach trip and while I'm on maternity leave, we may just keep him in daycare only part-time.  Again, we'll have to see about all of this.  So that's our childcare situation, in a nutshell.

Bursts of baby :)

So my "not sure if it's gas or a baby I'm feeling" feeling is most definitely a baby.  He/she has been extremely active lately and I've really enjoyed these little bursts of baby.  It's so funny how similar the kicking pattern is to Oakes when he was in utero: late nights, car rides, etc. 

So yesterday morning I'm laying on my back in bed as Oakes was just starting to babble in his room.  Evan rolls over and puts his hand on my belly and leaves it there a minute and sweet Bebe who is never active in the morning gave a little kick.  So Papa Bear got to feel little Bebe kick for the first time! 

I can't remember the "kick timeline" for Oakes, but I want to say I was just realizing it was him kicking when I was this far in the pregnancy (18.5 weeks) and I am pretty sure it was a bit later when Evan finally got to experience a baby burst.  Needless to say, it's a pretty exciting time when Papa Bear gets to experience sweet Bebe a bit!

Growing Belly and Not Sure of the Gender

Yesterday I had to wear a maternity shirt; it was the first time in this pregnancy that I was actually required to wear it.  I originally was going to wear my black tank top (yes, it's a bit form-fitting, but that's okay) and I put it on about an hour before we headed to the Big Crafty downtown.  I spent 20 minutes pulling it down everytime I moved and needless to say, I changed into a maternity shirt. 

This is a pretty momentous point in the pregnancy for me as it meant that my "normal" clothes were no longer going to do the job.  I have to admit, I was a bit sad.  Not because I'm getting a belly -- I love that part, actually -- but because it means that soon enough, I'll be switching out wardrobes completely.  I went ahead and hung all of my maternity clothes in Bebe's closet but I think this means that I'll need to start weeding through my normal stuff and packing things away to make room in my own closet for my maternity wardrobe.  On a side note (yet still on the topic of wardrobes), we're headed to New Orleans for Neil and Kelly's wedding in two weeks and I'm super-stoked to buy a new maternity dress for that. :)

Now for the topic of gender...
We had a friend's son over to play today and we had to take him with us to the grocery store and I have to say that it was pretty cool to see how Oakes and the other little boy interacted.  This makes me very much at peace with having a little boy in my belly, if that is the case.  Which is good, as I was getting all gung-ho on thinking it is a girl in there and I don't really want to go into the gender ultrasound with any preconceptions. 

Oh, and don't forget to "vote" for the gender on the right side bar.  You have until the day of the ultrasound (July 25th).

Kicks!

Beginning about mid-week last week, I began to feel the little flutters that baby is making in my womb. I always seem to attribute it to gas at first but after 3 nights in a row of it happening, Evan told me to stop thinking it was gas and to go ahead and get excited about it being the baby.  It's funny how much I missed this feeling from when Oakes was in the womb. It's almost like I'm experiencing it for the first time as I get super-excited every night when I feel baby moving around. 

On a side note, Oakes keeps getting our set of spare keys out of the bowl and saying "bye-bye" - when we ask him where he's going he says "baby. doctor."  Too cute...  We are going to take him to our next appointment as we feel like he'll enjoy seeing the ultrasound and it's kind of an important family appointment.

Guess what? I'm Pregnant!

So maybe I'm a little late on this, but I just discovered the other day (Wednesday, to be exact) that yes, I'm pregnant!  It's funny -- even the second time around you still don't really feel pregnant until you can feel that hard little lump in your belly.  And on Wednesday morning, when I was giving Ev a hug and kiss before he left for his class, I realized there was a hard little lump on my belly that was keeping me from giving the normally close hugs I'm used to.  I looked at Evan and said "Wow.  My stomach is finally getting bigger!" (Let's be honest, I'm sure he's noticed the enlarging belly for a while!)  And then last night, I went to bend down to get a toy from under a chair and realized that my bending ability is already becoming hampered. 

So yes, I'm finally starting to "feel" pregnant.  I still fit into my jeans and other skirts/pants, though my shirts are a bit snug on the belly.  This morning I brought up my tub of pregnancy clothes from the laundry room to go through and wash.  We're going to the cabin for the 4th of July weekend and I need comfy, sleeveless shirts to wear as it'll be in the nineties.  This means I get to spend the day washing and hanging pregnancy clothes and boxing up my cute tanktops and t-shirts that no longer do me any favors in the looks department. 

It's kinda exciting, really.  I didn't get to wear pregnancy clothes until I was about 22 weeks along with Oakes and I think I'm ready to begin getting into my new wardrobe. :)