16 week picture

We took our 16 week picture tonight. Its definitely becoming more apparent to others that I am pregnant now, but looking at this picture and my 12 week picture, I'm not seeing a lot of difference. I feel much bigger though. I'm thinking I must have been having a bloat night when I took the 12 week one.

Its still a week and a half until our next appointment. I will be having the quad screen at that point, which will determine how detailed an ultrasound we'll have. At that point, we'll go ahead and schedule the big day when we get to find out the gender!

My most recent weekly newsletter said I may start feeling the baby soon. I've had the occasional unidentified feeling that I hope is the baby, but there hasn't been that moment where I thought 'that was definitely the baby' yet. I can't wait, though! Adan is looking forward to feeling the baby kick, so I'm even more excited to get to the point where we can feel him/her from the outside. I'm sure that's still several weeks away though.

Nothing else new here, so I'll leave you with the latest pic!

I love having the doppler!

So, my next appointment is still over 2 weeks away. Since we found out we were pregnant, we haven't gone more than 2 weeks without an appointment. I know it is normal to only go once a month at this stage of pregnancy, but I'm a nervous person as it is. You add in my history and a month feels like an eternity!

So, I believe I mentioned in an earlier post we rented a doppler so we can listen to the heartbeat every now and then. We've gotten very good at finding it quickly, which is always a nice feeling. We find it and listen for a couple minutes, to get our fix, and then we wait another few days before listening in again.

Our 3 year old, Adan, likes to come listen to the heartbeat as well. I'm not sure he really gets what he's hearing. He at times seems much more fascinated with the ultrasound gel on my tummy than what he's hearing. The first time he asked if it was blood (its white, so I'm not sure where he got that idea). Again tonight he was asking about that gel. The last time we listened, Daron decided to point out to Adan where in my tummy we think the baby is based on where we found the heartbeat. Adan put his hand on my tummy, looked at Daron and said 'Open it up'. So, we explained that the baby had to stay there until it was big enough to come out. At that point, he cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled at my stomach, 'Hello in there!'. It was very cute. I look forward to when he can actually feel the baby kicking. I think he'll get a real 'kick' out of that.

Oh, and I'm starting to get more of a tummy these days. I still don't think its probably noticeable if someone didn't know I was pregnant, but a few people who do know have told me recently they are starting to see it. I went shopping with a couple friends this weekend, and they had a heyday bringing me clothes to try on. I don't think I left the fitting room until I came out to pay, and I'm pretty sure I must have tried on just about everything in the store! I bought a few pairs of pants, which are already needed, and summer tops, which will likely be needed around the time its getting hot out.

Almost 14 weeks and a late picture

I took a picture at 12 weeks (well, near 12 weeks anyway), but it took me until now to finally upload it off the computer. So, you'll see that picture at the end of the post.

I had a regular checkup appointment today. All continues to go well. The doctor commented on the fact that I am getting a tummy - I think my 16 week picture is going to be quite a bit different from my 12 week! My weight was good, the baby's heartbeat was around 155bpm, so that was perfect, and my blood pressure remained consistently low. It has been 100/60 or 100/64 every single time I've been there.

I'll have my next visit on Feb. 10th at which point they'll also draw blood for the quad screen. I'll post more about that test when I have it done, but it is essentially a test to assess my risk level for down's syndrome and a couple other chromosonal abnormalities. It is just a screening, but it can help determine if any further tests should be done. The only further test I would consent to is a detailed ultrasound, but it would be nice to know if our risk level is low just to have that worry behind us. And if it turns out there is a significant risk of anything, well then we can prepare for that possibility.

I don't have much else for news, so here's the belly pic (oh, by the way, I decided my full length profile shot was not the best way to show the growth of my tummy, so from now on we'll just do belly pics!

2nd trimester and some fun stuff!

So today was the last day of my first trimester. Yay! To top it off, the doppler we decided to rent arrived in the mail today and we were able to find the h/b nearly right away! We got the cheaper kind that doesn't give you a readout, but we could count for a few seconds and calculate what it was approximately per minute and think it was around 150bpm. Normal is 120-160, so that was just perfect!

Just for fun, I surfed around for some gender prediction tools this weekend. According to the Chinese Lunar calendar, we will be having a boy. Then I found a site for Madame Zaritzka, which is a totally random prediction tool, but still fun. Here is what she had to say...

The day you deliver, outside will be sunny. Your baby will arrive at night.

After a labor lasting approximately 21 hours, your child, a boy, will be born. Your baby will weigh about 8 pounds, 10 ounces, and will be 21 inches long. This child will have hazel eyes and some very fine hair.

But there is more. I get the impression that you have some questions -- unresolved concerns you have been too shy to address with your caregiver. This is quite typical. You might appreciate some of the advice to some of these seemingly embarassing pregnancy questions.

So, I don't know, its looking like there is some pretty strong evidence this is going to be a boy. :-) A lot of the other sites I found required me to be a little further along (questions like is the baby sitting high/low, etc), so I guess I'll have to wait to find out what they have to say. Daron and I do plan to find out the gender at our 20 week ultrasound, so I guess we'll then know how accurate these are!