It's a...

So we went to the doctor today for our anatomy scan. My sister, Ashley, came along and was super excited. She's jealous and is trying to live vicariously through me... even though she already has three beautiful little girls. :) The technician was very thorough and explained everything that she was looking at. It was so fascinating to see the baby move and feel it move at the same time. It was also really cool to see the heart beating, the brain, the diaphragm, watch her measure the arms and legs, see the nose and lips. What a cute little, chubby cheeked baby we have.

Look at my baby. Isn't that just the cutest 20 week old face you've ever seen! :)

The baby was being quite stubborn and wouldn't turn over- so she had a hard time getting a good look at a couple of things. Suddenly, I got so nervous, because I knew at some point we would see what we were having. And... it would be real. But it seemed like it took forever! I really did enjoy the ultrasound though. The tech was super nice. Finally, before I even realized it, she had a picture on screen and told us what we were looking at. I immediately teared up. Tears of joy, tears of "this is real", tears of "holy cow, we're having a baby?" For some reason, knowing the gender just put things into perspective for me. Just knowing what our little baby is gave it more of an identity. This is our child. I can't believe it. I'm gonna be a mom! Wow. Okay, okay, get to it already, right? I'm sure that's what you're all thinking. So....

And just in case you can't get it from that picture... here are a couple of others- my attempts at taking self-portraits. :)

The bow isn't super elaborate... I didn't feel like working that hard on it- plus I kinda like simplicity. But, I wanted to take a picture of my pregnant belly wrapped up in a bow, just like the wonderful gift that it is. Of course, my belly doesn't look very big in the pictures.

Okay for some stats- my health looks great. My cervix is wonderful. (Italicized because that's how the doctor said it). Which by the way, I had no idea that they were going to check that. My urine looked great. My uterus looks good, my placenta is perfect. So far so good. I have gained 11 pounds so far (hard for me to believe, but I guess it must be true). And the baby weighs a perfect 12 oz.- the size of a soda can. So, so far, things are going super well for mom and baby. I really could not be more blessed with this whole pregnancy. I feel like I say that often, but it's so true and I'm so grateful.

By the way, we saw the doctor (the same one as before) and she was soooo much nicer and more pleasant. I actually really enjoyed talking with her today, though I was a bit nervous about how the appointment would go. We just talked about my health and the baby's health. I asked her a couple of questions- like how I don't wake up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and is that a bad thing (which she answered that I soon would), and what if my diet pretty much consists of not much protein? I eat cereal, yogurt, fresh fruit and juice a lot. She said that's fine. Asked if I ate peanut butter, which I do, and said that's good. I also asked about my prenatal vitamins, because I forget to take them everyday. She said it's most important that I get iron and to take them when I remember. Other than that, we didn't talk about much else. It was really good.

I did also try getting in touch with two midwives today. Neither were available at the time and both called me back while I was at the doctor- so I'll have to try talking to them again tomorrow hopefully. Both midwives were recommended and I am anxious to get to talk to them and see if I can have one of them as my midwife. I think it will be a great compromise to have a certified midwife working with a doctor and that I deliver in a hospital, though I still sometimes think it would be really cool to have a home birth. Wish me luck with getting one of them!

Well, I suppose that's all for now! :)