It's a Girl!

Well, yesterday was the big day. We had our 20 week sonogram that checked the baby's development and of great excitement to us, we were able to find out the gender. We're happy to announce that we're having a baby girl and everything is normal and on schedule according to all the developmental markers. Below's a couple pictures from the sonogram, not that I expect everyone to be able to decipher them but I wanted to share them with you anyway.

In the picture on the left, the white straight line on the left side is her femur developing. Her profile is in the middle and just to the left of her profile, slightly below her chin is her heart. You can somewhat see her spine, which is the top light line that runs from under her heart to the left side of the image. The right picture is a close up of her profile, which shows a bit more detail, such as the eyes, which are closed, and a better image of her heart. What we weren't able to capture was her little arms and hands, which she kept waving around. Justin and I did get to see her little fingers a few times but she was too quick for us to capture it on film. The most important thing was that all the developmental markers show she's right on schedule for being at 20 weeks.

I have to say that we had a bit of a mixed reaction to the news. Justin's first reaction was "well, there goes playing with trucks and tools...guess I'll have to learn how to have tea parties now". All the pre-planning I had done regarding the nursery was for a boy as well so when we picked out furniture and bedding, we were somewhat back to square one. Of course, we're thrilled regardless but we were more prepared for a boy. I have to say, finding bedding or a nursery theme we like that's not pink, purple or pastels is proving to be a bit of a challenge!

In addition to all the news from yesterday, I've started feeling her move consistently during the day. Friday was the first time I felt anything more than a slight nudge. I swear she was doing flip-flops! Now, I feel her moving around off and on all day long. She's pretty active in the mornings but seems to slow down in the afternoons. The evenings are a bit hit or miss but I've woken up a few times in the middle of the night to find she's pretty active. I'm hoping that isn't a foreshadowing of things to come!

Overall, we're very happy that she's healthy and developing on schedule. We're in the process now of finding nursery themes, decor and the all important decision of picking out a name. As for me, I'm doing well. I gained 8 pounds this month (gasp!) but given I hadn't gained any weight at all until now, they assured me this was fine. By this point, according to several pregnancy sites, normal weight gain is 10 pounds so that made me feel much better. I think that's about all the updates for now. Thanks for taking time to read through the latest in our journey!

Love you all,

Lucretia