Weeks 19 and 20

Sorry for the later post this week, life has been a bit crazy.  I'm happy to report that our first baby, Buddy, is doing much better this week.  We have had several good days with him and he seems to have some of his normal spark back.  I'm not sure if it was the cocktail of meds he has been on for several weeks, the acupuncture, or good old time that has helped the most.  I'm sure if was a combination of all three.  While we aren't in the clear completely, we take his improvements this week as a good sign.  I'm glad he wasn't ready to give up on us just as we weren't ready to give up on him!

Week 19 was rather uneventful.  I spent most of the week trying to distract myself from thinking about the gender of the little one happily growing away inside me.  Again, I'm noticing more discomfort with normal activities.  Standing for longer periods of time causes some back pain and ankle swelling.  Both thing I know are only going to increase as I go along.  On Friday, I went with a good friend of mine who is due any day now with her baby girl to get a pedicure!  We took one last belly photo before her baby makes her debut into the world.  I'm so excited for our little ones to grow up together!

Monday morning finally came around; time for us to find out if this bean is a boy or a girl.  We honestly had no guesses.  Last week, I had a dream about it being a boy, but I wasn't counting on that for anything.  I wasn't being pulled one way or the other.  I surprised myself with how calm I was going into the ultrasound.  I have an anxious stomach for things like this, but I think I realized getting worked up wasn't going to change the outcome.  Of course, isn't that true with most things?  They didn't make it easy on us in the ultrasound.  I thought we would get straight down to it and find out the gender as soon as we got in the room.  Nope!  I didn't realize they were going to measure EVERYTHING.  I'm happy to report everything looked good.  Baby has all 10 fingers and all 10 toes.  The heart looks excellent, and we even got to see the heart pumping and blood flowing through.  What an amazing thing to see this beautiful thing happily growing away. 

Finally, the moment came for us to find out what this bean is.  We are happy to announce we are having a baby GIRL!  For the second time during an ultrasound, I cried.  It wasn't because I wanted a girl more than a boy, it was more that this tiny creation now has an identity rather than being called it. 

Baby girl was actually measuring about 20 weeks and 5 days on Monday, but I'm not going to put too much stock in that.  She will come when it is time and not a minute sooner.  In the meantime, I'm enjoying feeling her move around quite a bit more these days.  It was awesome to feel her move while watching on the ultrasound! 

Since finding out on Monday, I have picked up a few cute clothing items I found on end of season sales.  My favorite?  This adorable Christmas dress.  It's crazy to think we will have a new family member joining us for Christmas this year. 

On our agenda now?  Working on the nursery.  Andrew took the doors off the closet last weekend, and we have taken the existing storage out to prepare for painting in the coming months.  Never a dull moment in our house when it comes to home improvement projects!