Centering group #2

Today we had our second centering group with the midwives. It was fun to hear baby's heartbeat, and to discuss the pregnancy stuff going on with all the group members. We have a pretty fun bunch, so it was humorous and light and easy to talk.
My belly is measuring right on track at 21 weeks, which was nice to hear because I have been getting a lot of comments from people about how I am "so small". People love to comment... and probably think they are giving me a compliment, but I wanted to be sure baby is growing and of course everything is just fine. I'll just chalk it up to my long torso. Besides, I don't feel small at all!
Also, we have to go back for another ultrasound in the next few weeks because the radiologist didn't get a good enough look at blood flow out of baby's heart due to position. So, hopefully she'll cooperate the second time around. It will be fun to sneak another peak at her, and if the tech is feeling generous I may get another peek between the legs to be *sure* our peanut is a girl.
This weekend we are headed to Portland for some quality family time, and then next week it's off the Whistler for a 4 day vacation with Katie and Kevin, so we'll be busy for the next few weeks!

Project: Baby

This weekend we are going to start getting baby STUFF ready.
We have gotten some fabulous hand-me down clothes from the kids Maria nannies, borrowed a co-sleeper from Julie, and just ordered an on-sale stroller this week, and Ang sent us some of the cutest little baby socks in the world. Chris and Lucy have offered a crib that is actually a double hand me down: it started out with Olivia, Chloe and Teddy, then the twins, now our baby. That's the ultimate green contribution to baby's room. Just seeing a few baby things sitting in our office is making me antsy to start getting ready!
Last weekend Eric moved our TV set up out of the office to the living room, so there is a little extra space. I bought some big rubbermaid tubs to sort through and store office and closet stuff in the garage, which will be a big project. Today we'll get a dresser at IKEA and start putting things away. My goal is to get all the furniture moving before the belly gets to much more in the way :-). The good news is that with a little organizational effort, our garage storage holds more than we thought, and we will be fine for space for a while.

20 weeks

Did you notice that the "count down" and the "days to go" on the widget are the SAME today?!? Halfway! Sort of... although since I didn't know I was pregnant until 4 weeks or so, it doesn't really feel like halfway yet. Baby girl weighs about 10-11 ounces now, and is 10 inches long!
I have been feeling lots of activity every day, which is really fun. Eric has spent a lot of time with his hands on my belly waiting to feel one of the kicks that feel quite strong to me, and last night finally felt a small tap. Hopefully they will get stronger and stronger so that he can really feel the reality of this as much as I am! Another reality check... I went and bought a few very cute baby outfits the day after we found out our baby is a girl, so now we have some girl clothes sitting on the couch in our office along with several great gender neutral hand me downs we already had. Looking at those makes things seem very real!
The girl name game has now finally begun in earnest. I think it is going to be a difficult choice, girl names are so much harder than boys. We want a strong name with some history or meaning, pronounable in german, not too frilly but still feminine, and not too popular but still not too unrecognizable or difficult to pronounce. We have a long list but agreeing on names that fit is a challenge. Anyone have suggestions?

Drum roll, please...

Today was our big anatomy ultrasound. Everything looks great anatomically and growth wise. We saw heart, spine, kidneys, stomach, and lots of little bones. And, it's a ... GIRL!!! You could have knocked me over with a feather, I am totally surprised! Yay! Of course, they never promise 100% accuracy, but both the tech and the radiologist said they thought it looked like a girl. That means the heated debates about circumcision are over for now:-)
The pictures are great, too. She's bigger, but the same cute little peanut we saw several weeks ago. She was laying sideways with her feet on the left side, which explains why most of the movement I have felt is over on that side. The sweetest thing we got to see was when she was grabbing at her feet and had them both pulled up all the way to her mouth. It looked like she was trying very hard to get a hand or foot to suck on! A couple of the pictures are actually videos that show a quick bit of movement.

Look what I made!!

This weekend I ended up flying home to Portland for Aunt Betty's funeral on Friday. Flooding had closed I-5... the second weather related travel problem for me in a few short weeks! So this time I gave up waiting early on and just flew. It was fun to see all the extended family and I got lots of "congratulations" and sweet questions and stories from all kinds of relatives.
And... I finally finished my first knitting project for our baby: a lovely, soft, gender neutral sweater. I had it mostly knit up at Thanksgiving and had abandoned it to work on a couple of Christmas presents, and now I finally got it all sewed together and the buttons on. Cute, eh?

18 week belly shot

My belly is bigger by the day! The belly button is well on it's way to being stretched into an outtie by the time all is said and done. Here are a couple new belly shots as requested by Maria...