Hiccups!

Today at my real estate meeting I felt Emily having hiccups!! I noticed that she was really active and then realized that the movements were very rhythmic, so I started timing them. Sure enough, every 3-5 seconds I felt a little flutter!! I sent Paul a message that said, "Reason number 1 million why I love Emily-- she has hiccups in my belly!" It was sooo cute- and it made her seem so real!

20 Weeks- Halfway Cooked!

We had my normal OB appt last week (for 20 weeks). As usual, I am a member of the Walking Dead with a BP of 88/56. Yep, barely standing..lol. I still haven't made it back to my pre-pg weight (still 3lbs under where I started) and my doc said he's giving me until next month (24 weeks) to gain weight or we'll be having "serious talks". I am eating, people! :)

Then we got some GREAT news- he wasn't satisfied with some of the u/s shots from my 18 week u/s, so he wrote for another one!! We went back the same day and got good pics of her heart, spine, profile, foot, and double-checked that she's still a lady- and she is!
Her nursery will be completely done by the end of the summer. Paul and I have already bought her crib and changing table and are looking for a dresser (we didn't like the one that matched her set). Look for pics of the nursery sometime before school starts again.

Other than that, no news. She is moving like a wild woman every day and Paul can feel her on the outside now...yay!

The Big Reveal- Who's Inside?!

Today at 3pm we had our ultrasound to find out our baby's gender. I will start out by saying that I was very close to driving to my perinatal center last night and sleeping on their doorstep because I was so excited to see our little one today! All day at school I was so distracted- thinking about the baby, who it would be, what it would mean for us when we found out, my usual nervousness about something being wrong, etc. I started drinking a bottle of Mountain Dew at 2 pm (*interesting fact- I found out the other day that it takes about 1 hour for nutrients to reach the baby) so I began 1 hour prior to the appt and ate a couple small pieces of candy too. Apparently caffeine and sugar make my baby extremely wild, because we had an AWFUL time trying to get pictures!! The baby was moving so much it was almost impossible to get decent pictures-- the tech even commented several times that it was the MOST difficult scan she's ever done! Haha!

We got all the major anatomy done- everything EXCEPT gender- and the tech tried to explain to me that she was going to do a vag u/s to try to get that picture (the baby was completely breech, with genitalia facing down). The conversation went something like this:

Tech: "Allison, I don't think I'm going to be able to get the gender--"

Me, with HUGE tears in my eyes: "B-but, I can't LEAVE without knowing!! You have to try again!"

Tech, laughing at my interruption: "What I was going to say was that I don't think I can get the gender without doing a trans-vag on you. "

Me, leaping off the table: "OMG- I'm sorry! Let me go take off my pants!"

So then I run and use the bathroom (this makes the THIRD trip during the u/s!) and lost my pants. As soon as she "wanded me", you could see ALL of baby's genitalia.........and we are new members of the P-I-N-K team!! There was no denying it, once we were in the right position. Paul and I are so excited and I was personally so relieved to know-- Paul even commented to the tech that he was so thankful she tried hard for us, and that he "didn't want to go home with her [me] if we didn't know because of all the tears that would follow!" He knows his wife, that's for sure.

I am thrilled to know for certain and so excited to begin looking for things for a little lady. We will call her Emily Claire (Claire is my middle name). We have had her name since we were dating- which is nice, since we didn't have to think about it at all. It was so nice to finally know "who's inside"!! Woo hoo!

PS- Sorry for the suspense in getting to the final answer. I figured after how hard she was on me I had to build up to it, know what I mean? :) So there you have it...our little girl! :) Yippee!!