Ultrasound!

On Wednesday, Ben and I went to have our 2nd trimester ultrasound to make sure that the baby is healthy and growing. We had a great ultrasonographer, which definitely made the experience a lot of fun. Baby is doing great, is growing right on schedule, and is a girl! So I guess we are continuing the trend of little girls everywhere (see previous post).

I will attach a few ultrasound pics with their appropriate descriptions below.

A 2D pic with her arm up by her head. Maybe she is scratching her head because she's trying to figure out a science problem ?!

A 3D pic from the front. The pillow-like thing on her left is the placenta, and the twisty thing in front of her is the umbilical cord.

Another 3D pic from the front, where she has her left hand in a fist.

Little girls everywhere

In the last couple years, several of our friends have had babies, and we currently have several more friends who are pregnant. I guess subconsciously we all decided to go through this together! Anyway, it seems like the vast majority of the babies turned out to be girls. It started 2 years ago with two couples in our small group having girls a couple weeks apart. Two more couples in our current small group have recently had girls. One of Ben's former labmates and his wife had a girl in October. My friend Karla had triplets this past summer, two of which are girls. Andy and Michelle just had their 2nd trimester ultrasound today, and they are having a girl.

There are several other pregnant people that we know who have yet to have their 2nd trimester ultrasounds. My sister-in-law is due the same week as me, so she should be having her ultrasound soon. My cousin and his wife are due in May, so theirs will be coming up in the next month. Also, my college friend Karyn is about 8 weeks pregnant, so hopefully she will have hers in a couple months or so.

However, all is not lost on little boys. My PhD advisor and his wife are due in February and they are having a boy, as is another exercise physiology faculty member in my department. Our friends John and Ashley (another former small group couple) are due in March and also having a boy. Ben and I are having our 2nd trimester ultrasound next Wednesday, and assuming that our baby has not yet learned modesty, we are hoping to find out if it is a boy or a girl. Both my PhD advisor and Ben's mom think it's going to be a boy. If I had to pick, I'd say it's a girl. However, none of us are really working off any scientific information here; it's mostly a mixture of old wives tales, and comparing current and past pregnancies. Well, hopefully we'll know for sure next week!

New favorite dog breed

Ben and I like to watch America's Heartland on PBS on Sunday mornings. Yesterday, they did a spot about a couple that raises goats, and to guard them, they have 2 Great Pyrenees dogs. I think that I must add the Great Pyrenees to my list of favorite dog breeds. They are these enormous fluffy white dogs, and I'm sure that cuddling up with one of them would certainly satisfy my craving for furry animal bonding. I found some cool Google images, so I'll post them here.

Belly Progression, Part 2

And now, for the latest installment of my expanding shape. Since 5 weeks have elapsed since my last belly pic, you are going to notice a difference. I have 1 pair of jeans that won't zip all the way up, and I'm sure the rest of my pants aren't far behind.

7 weeks

11 weeks (total weight gain: 0.7 lbs)

16 weeks (total weight gain: ~6 lbs)

Doctor's appointment this morning

Ben and I had our second doctor's appointment this morning to check up on me and Baby. It was a pretty short visit this time, and everything went fine. We heard the heartbeat again, which was pretty cool. When we heard the heartbeat at our first appointment, I was about 10.5 weeks along, and it took the doctor a while to find it, and when she did, it was a very soft "click, click, click." Today, I'm about 15.5 weeks along, and pretty much the second the doctor put the transducer on my abdomen, we heard a very strong "whoosh, whoosh, whoosh." It was pretty cool. The doctor said that the baby's heart rate was around 140-15o bpm, which is normal for this stage of development.

I will be posting a new belly progression pic later tonight or tomorrow.