16(ish) weeks

16 week ultrasound, Freeze frame on my parent's TV from the video that was recorded. Baby is snuggled up facing downwards, head is on the left with a very cute little ear easy to see (I think it looks like my sister Lindsey's ears :)) and arms and knees are tucked in.

16 week baby bump picture in a maternity dress, definitely easy to disguise.

16 week baby bump picture taken right after the above one in a "normal" shirt. Bump is a lot easier to notice! Although it still just looks like post-Thanksgiving to me. :)

This week has been a big week for baby. We were in San Antonio to get some of Daddy's (as in Brian, not my Daddy :)) things and see some friends & family, and then we took baby to Houston and did lots and lots of "touring" while house-sitting for our friends Brad & Lauren, as well as went to Kristy's baby shower (for Baby Kendall's friend Madeleine!), and finally went to Jordan (friend from med school!) & Emily's wedding.

My yucky nausea continued into about 15 weeks but has gently tapered off once we left San Antonio & got to Houston, woo hoo! We're now into the phase of pregnancy where Baby wants WHAT it wants WHEN it wants it! I go from feeling great to SOLID HUNGER in literally 3-5 seconds. This has made things a little bit difficult :) but I think we (Brian and I, haha, because we all know Baby won't give!) are adjusting to it. I'm just a little nervous about starting on rotations soon in the hospital because I know it will be very long hours and there will be less than zero concern for my hunger issues. So I'm really trying to think of things that will pack on the protein and easily stay in my white coat pocket, while catering to my picky eating. :) So far all I've got is mini-Luna bars & cheese crackers (I don't like peanut butter which is very limiting!). If anyone has any ideas feel free to pass them our way! :)

At this ultrasound it was a very mixed set of emotions because we were excited to see the baby, but really just very focused on making sure the doctor could determine the gender because the party is this Saturday! At the beginning the doctor took all the measurements and the baby was measuring right on track and even a little older than my official due date says. It's little head circumference, biparietal diameter, femur length, and abdomen circumference were perfect! As the doctor got to trying to determine the gender the umbilical cord was in the way and the baby would NOT cooperate. Every time we go in Dr. New is always a little frustrated because of how much this baby likes to move around :) and this time was no exception! And of course like I said, to make matters worse the umbilical cord was in just the absolute worst spot possible! So the doctor stopped and said he would go and see another patient and wanted me to try to walk around and get the baby sloshed around enough to kick the cord out of the way so we'd at least have a shot for him to see the gender! So he left the room and I grabbed a diet coke (YUCK!) & a brownie I had brought (I had already had both but thought more couldn't hurt) and walked out in the hallway and walked very fast! I also prodded at my stomach the whole time, trying to get little one to get that cord out of the way. Then I came back and my Mom suggested trying to safely turn upside down, haha!, so I did a bear-crawl like maneuver in the ultrasound room which I am sure was very attractive. :) Brian tried to ask the baby nicely to do what we were asking but I reminded him that this little stinker tends to do what it wants and we more so have to TELL it what to do. :) So the doctor came back in and looked for a while and even tried to prod around himself but really just couldn't get the baby to cooperate. So finally at the end the doctor said, "Well maybe we can schedule you guys for later this week... Wait turn your head!!" and literally at that moment, baby cooperated. :) We couldn't believe it... so typical of this offspring of ours!! So we all turned our head and the doctor took a good look and took a freeze frame picture and wrote either "Boy" or "Girl" on the ultrasound, printed it, and put it in an envelope we brought! I made sure that we talked to each other loudly while he was typing so that we wouldn't be able to make out three keyboard clicks for boy and four keyboard clicks for girl :) We asked the doctor if he was mostly sure and he said, "Oh yeah, I'm sure" so that was fun to hear! On the way home from the appointment was a lot of mixed emotion because it would have been SO easy to just open the envelope and know :( but we know it would have taken away from the Gender Reveal party this Saturday and finding out that way we had already intended. We all were trying to "read" the doctor's words :) later on... and Brian and Tristan (my sister) got a "boy" vibe, while Mom and I got a "girl" vibe, and Dad just wasn't really sure. So let that go to show everyone- we had no extra help having been at that ultrasound!

The next time we update the blog we will know what you are, kid! We will look forward to your arrival either way- sports and camping trips and mud... or bows and cheerleading and clothes. :) Either way we are so excited to know just a little more about you. :)