It's A...

GIRL!!!!

I was right! I told Peter that it is going to be a source of pride that I have known what both of my children were before the ultrasound.

So, we had our ultrasound today... The first thing she did was to ask if we wanted to find out the gender and then go looking for it. It's a good thing she did it right away too because she had her legs crossed tight toward the end. Actually when she was first looking, Peter and I both saw something we thought might be BOY, but it turned out to be the umbilical cord or something because once she got her little wand in the right position it showed girl!

Of course she went through the rest of the important stuff too to make sure everything was functioning properly. The first thing she looked at was her kidneys to make sure she doesn't have any problems like Nate. The kidneys were empty, but the bladder had fluid, so they appear to be perfect! She went through everything else too like the heart, brain, spine... and they are all perfect as well. No markers for down syndrome, spots on the heart or any other defects. She said, unlike with Nate, that we wouldn't need a follow-up appointment to this ultrasound since everything looks just as it should. This was the best thing I could have heard - girl or boy!

Looking at the shots it seems to us like her legs are long and feet are big... just like Nate and Peter. She also seems to have a nice pointy chin just like Nate had, which definitely comes from Peter as well. I was really hoping this one would like like me, but I'm not so sure it will happen. :( I made sure to drink OJ before I went so she would be active and boy did that work! She was dancing in there... All the measurements indicate she's growing right on time with an actual due date of 12/20, which I think I've said before is what I think it is, but they just use the same formula for everyone.

When I got back to work I made the ladies wait a little while (which they really didn't like) before I told them with a fun reveal. Last night I baked a pink cake and a friend baked a blue one, and we cut into the appropriate cake to tell everyone what Cranberry was. They had taken a poll yesterday that was pretty evenly split, but when they saw the pink cake they all let out a great cheer! 

Of course now we're starting to think about how we are going to decorate her nursery and what we're going to name her... Now the fun begins!

Congratulations to the 11 of you who voted in the poll and were correct! I'm glad you all trusted my instincts. :)

18 week Drs appointment

So, we had our 18 week check-up and it was as boring as the first few months usually are. Of course, our doctor was almost an hour late, which was kinda annoying because that means I had to use extra sick time, but also broke up my 10 hour day a little more. But he still answered our questions and listened for Cranberry's heartbeat. It was coming in at a healthy 145-150bpm. This still points to girl, but a lot less than the 160s from the previous appointment. But, we don't have too much longer to wait to find out as we were able to schedule our ultrasound for this Tuesday! Since I'm still only feeling movement every once in awhile it will be nice to see little Cranberry again and, of course, start planning for the nursery! Check back Tuesday for more big news... assuming Cranberry plays along. :)

Almost time to find out!

So, I am 17 weeks pregnant today! As I explained in my last post, I really have no idea when we will be finding out little Cranberry's gender. My next appointment is next Wednesday, July 20, so I figure why not start a poll? On the off chance that I actually get the ultrasound that day there will be a week for people to put in their votes. You can ask questions of me if you like, and I will answer them to the best of my ability. I will tell you this: my instinct says girl. Why do I think Cranberry will be a girl? A few reasons:

1. I have been incredibly clumsy. If you recall, with Nate I caught a piece of chicken (in my mouth) at Hibachi and got a hole in one at mini-golf all in the same night! This never happened pre-Nate and made me sure he was a boy. Now, I'm not normally the most athletic person in the world, but since being pregnant this time around I have been an absolute klutz. I've spilled pitchers of tea, bowls full of dog food, not even gotten over 100 at bowling, stepped on dog tails, the list goes on.
2. Chinese Gender Chart - With Nate it said boy, with Cranberry it's saying girl.
3. Baking Soda Test - I didn't do it with Nate, but according to legend, it's saying girl.
4. Heartbeat test - Now, this one I don't put too much stock in because based on Nate's heartbeat, he should be a girl... but at the last appointment Cranberry's heart rate was in the high 160's, and anything over 140 supposedly points to girl. 
5. Just a gut feeling. I know that gut feelings totally don't mean anything because many a pregnant lady has had her heart set on Jack and ended up with a Jill. But you have to go with something...

Of course I could be totally wrong. And based on the way that this pregnancy has been going (pretty much exactly like it was with Nate's, no morning sickness, extreme fatigue even into 2nd trimester ) it could mean boy! Either way, we will be happy!

So get your vote on!

The happs

So, nothing really major exciting has been going on here, but I'll give you the run down...

First, we had our 14 week check-up a couple weeks ago (I'm 16 weeks tomorrow!). All they did was check my size, listen for Cranberry's heartbeat (they found it this time -it was in the high 160s) and answer any questions I had. I didn't really have any, and always feel like I'm being a bad pregnant lady for not having more questions, but I do my research... Plus I've done this before, and so far haven't really had anything new pop up. We were hoping that we would be able to schedule our ultrasound with our next appointment, at 18 weeks, but for some reason they did not do that. I'm still wondering if that was a mistake because we got it with our 18 week appt with Nate, and even the OB Consultant seemed to think it should have been scheduled for that day. So, I'm not exactly sure when it will happen. Some people think I should call and try to "ask" if my ultrasound is going to be on that day. We will see, but I doubt I will do that. But it's good to know that everything is progressing as expected as far as we can tell.

Nate is definitely in the throws of Toddlerhood. He's still mostly good, but definitely has his moments. Lately he has not been wanting to go to sleep and always wants to sleep in Mommy's bed. We have not ever really let him sleep with us except for a few minutes when he wakes up before we want to in the morning, so I'm not exactly sure what brought this on, with one exception. A few weeks ago a tree fell down in Peter's parent's yard. Actually it was from a neighbor's yard into Jack and Dianne's yard. It fell right on top of a mound of mulch where Nate had been playing just 5 minutes before. Luckily, Nate was not there and was out walking the dogs with Jack. I'm not exactly sure (I've gotten a couple of different impressions), but I don't think he saw the tree fall, just heard it, then saw the aftermath. Since then he has been talking about and been afraid of anything tall, and any kind of tree falling. The start of the bad sleeping seems to have coincided with this tree falling down. I keep trying to reassure him that no trees or poles or ... whatever is falling down, but he will have nothing of it. Hopefully he will get over it soon.

This past weekend (4th of July) our friends Jacque, Drew and their dog Charlie (who we just went to see in Florida) came to stay with us. We weren't really all that exciting what with two pregnant ladies, a toddler and 3 dogs to worry about, but we had a nice visit and a very relaxing weekend. It's always nice to get to hang out with friends (hint, hint), since I don't really have any here.

Of course, today I had to get back to the daily grind of 10 hour work days. Luckily this week we only have 3 of them... And now I'm going to check on Nate for the 3rd time (plus Peter's two) in the hour since we put him to bed.