Lloyd is a...

a Lloyd!! That's right, our little baby is a boy! Now we have the fun job of picking out a name :-)

We had my regular 20 week ultrasound this morning. The technician said everything looked good, but our doctor will go over the specifics of all the measurements she took at our next appointment. We are still scheduled for the genetic screening and follow-up ultrasound next Wednesday, but I know we both feel really good after the preliminary comments from today's scan. One thing I forgot to ask - how big is he?

Here are some of the shots from today's ultrasound:

Full side view of Lloyd on his back

Full side view on his tummy
(you can see his spine in the top middle and his legs tucked under on the left)

Frog legs :)
I LOVE this photo, we could see him stretching out and kicking around

One little foot

We have about 6 minutes of video of the ultrasound that we are in the process of loading and shrinking so that we can either email it out or upload it here. But in the meantime, I am off to Hawaii tomorrow morning! Talk to everyone soon!

Ugh

Today I'm sick. It sucks because I haven't been sick in a long, long time. And the worst is that its because someone came to work sick. I could hear her coughing last week and avoided her. I took my Emergen-C, but I still managed to get stuck in the break room with her on Thursday for about 10 minutes. Unfortunately, that is apparently all I needed. Ugh.

Yesterday, I just felt stuffy but functional, today I feel crappy. I am however super glad that I came down with this sickness this weekend, since I am flying to Hawaii for Shan's wedding on Thursday. I'm sure if I take care of myself, I will be just fine by then, but it sucks that I will have to make the call of going in or staying home tomorrow (since I am already scheduled to be out for a week for the wedding and I'll need to take some time for the ultrasound appointment once I get back) because I sure as heck don't want to give this to anyone else...

I also wanted to share that I finished my first knitting project for Lloyd. You can see photos here. I'm almost done with another sweater as well, but my cold has slowed the progress on that one as well...plus all the sewing I had planned for this weekend.

Boy or Girl?

In anticipation of our ultrasound...that now looks like it won't happen until October 1st...I added a little pole to the side bar at the right. Please make your best guess! I'm curious if it will be biased more than the 50:50 odds it should have.

Kinda Scary

I got a call from my OB today (which honestly was at first very shocking in and of itself - I kept thinking that she doesn't exactly seem like the kind of doctor who calls her patients). Then she told me that they received back my AFP results. She said that normally someone my age should have a 1/4% risk for Down Syndrome. My results said my risk was 1%. Still low, but enough that she has referred me to a specialist. So next week instead of my regularly scheduled 20 week ultrasound, we will instead be meeting with the specialist. I will have some sort of genetic screening and then the ultrasound. Ugh.

The good thing is that apparently these tests have a high rate of false positives. And not only the nurse, but also the doctor said that there was no reason to 'freak out'. That most of the time, everything is just fine, we just have to go through the hoops of double checking - hoops I have no problem going through!

No Hurricane in San Diego

In the wake of Hurricane Ike, its amazing that our part of the country can be so radically different. Here are a couple photos from last Sunday's trip to the park.

fallen yellow blossoms under a tree

Jenny's tongue

Brad's parents and his aunt and uncle were able to ride out the hurricane with only minor plant life casualties. Very fortunate indeed!

17 weeks

We went to our 17 week OB appointment today and things are on track and where they should be. Besides giving some blood for the AFP screening, it was pretty routine. I'm up 5 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight, which is actually a little more than I was expecting...although I don't know why, given all the ice cream I've been eating lately :P

We also got to hear the heartbeat again and Brad got a little video to share:

Here's also a little tummy status photo I took this morning as well:

17 weeks

One thing we did realize with this doctor visit, is that we don't really care for the OB I've been seeing. I don't feel comfortable asking her questions because I feel like she's bored hearing them and answering them. And she just stares at me like I'm stupid while I'm talking...which is not exactly the relationship I'm looking for during all this! I'm scheduled to see the other OB in the office next month (the woman I actually originally selected as my OB) and so hopefully we'll mesh with her better. She's younger and I'm hoping not as jaded. And if that doesn't work, we'll have to start looking because I'm sure as heck not comfortable talking about a birth plan with an OB that got defensive and strange after my question about the success rates of natural child birth at the hospital where we are currently supposed to go for the birth.

After seeing the documentary Business of Being Born and playing on feelings I've had for a long time about current birthing in the U.S., I'm very concerned about not getting railroaded into making choices that are unnecessary or not what we really want. The problem is that my insurance is both good and bad. Great if you want a 'normal' hospital birth (the entire pregnancy and birth would cost $300), but my options appear to be pretty limited for other alternatives. I did find out that the insurance covers midwives within my network, so the next step is to find out if there are midwives in my group and then whether the insurance also covers any portion of a home birth. So we'll see! I'll let you know what I find out and what we decide to do!

Food

I've been planning a food post for awhile to talk about what I've been eating (as well as the things I probably shouldn't be), but food has taken a turn in the last week. I'm now at 17 weeks and while I missed the serious food aversion stage associated with morning sickness, its settling in really good now.

The problem is Brad and I are food planners. We generally go to the store on Sundays and get our groceries for the week. The problem I'm facing now is that what I want to eat (and what sounds really gross) changes day to day. Its impossible to plan anything beyond a day or so for fear that it will end up sitting in the fridge untouched. The only really solid thing I can count on in my desire for ice cream. So, we've started shopping for just the basics and nothing more, then deciding each night what sounds good. It means many more trips to the store and not as much from our local co-op, but its the only option right now.

I've also had random cravings for comfort foods; grilled cheese and tomato soup, chili and corn bread, just to name a few. And boy have they hit the spot! I thought I was going to explode from happiness when we had chili the other night - so good! (This may be the best side effect of pregnancy! I mean, I'm a food person, but man, it has NEVER tasted this good...at least when I'm getting what I want, otherwise, its quite a challenge to keep from gagging when I have to eat something that I don't want.)

Now what makes this food issue more of an issue right now, is that in my latest email from Baby Center, it mentioned that Lloyd's going to be doing a whole lot of growing in the next few weeks - doubling in size! So, I'm more concerned about making sure I'm eating the best I can nutritionally for the next few weeks. I know my body is making sure that Lloyd is getting everything 'he' needs from what I am eating, but I'm pretty sure a Happy Meal is not a wise choice at this time (which sucks because they have really good toys right now!).

15 Week Photo Update

I know I've owed an update for a while and I still have another post I'm drafting about food, but before this photo is painfully old (I'm already at 17 weeks tomorrow), I thought I better get this up now!

This is a belly progress shot from the Sunday of my 15th week.

15 weeks

Nothing too dramatic, but you can see the difference when you compare my tummy to my bust line with my 9 week picture below.

9 weeks

I think last weekend was also my last weekend wearing my casual pants 'normal'. I have a Bella Band and was resistant to try it out because I thought it would just be too tight and I really didn't want another layer of something around my middle in summer weather. But by Monday evening my belly hurt from my pants so much that I put it on. All I can say is - wow! It wasn't constricting at all and actually felt good after being pinched all day with my pants fastened. I was able to wear these same pants with the zipper up, the buttons undone and the Bella Band on top folded in half. I can already see this is going to be a wardrobe staple, so I should probably get more than the one black one I currently own. I also found a tutorial on-line where you can make a similar thing, but it just doesn't look like it would hold things up as well and it looks unfinished to me (I don't have a serger, so the edges would be zig-zag stitch, which I think it kinda rough looking). Either way, I'm already looking forward to wearing my jeans on Friday with my Bella Band. I know it will be way more comfortable than last week!