I Like to Move it Move it

That must be this little boy's motto because that is exactly what he does for about 90% of his time. I'm actually shocked at how much movement I feel this early. I think the fact that this is my 5th pregnancy helps a bit there. Every time I eat he starts moving around almost immediately. I'm not complaining, it's very reassuring really. I wonder what he'll do when as his space to dance around shrinks over time.

Along with feeling more movement I have also been feeling swollen lately. My legs and hands especially. I had preeclampsia with Chiggie and I would never want to repeat that experience again. So far I have no symptoms. My face and feet haven't swelled up at all. This has been a great week. No issues what so ever. I am really hoping things stay that way!

19 Weeks

We're almost to the top of the hill now. This is a great time of year to be pregnant. It's such a busy, fun, season that I don't have much time at all to dwell on the small issues. Things are going well. I continue to have spotting, but am trying to stay off of my feet as much as possible. My heartburn is mild and is controlled entirely by Tums. I'm never nauseated, even while riding in the car. I am sleeping well at night. At least nothing pregnancy related is keeping me up. My only real complaint remains daytime fatigue. I don't remember being this tired at this point in past pregnancies, but I suppose I could be forgetting. I enjoy the kicks and bumps and keep reminding myself of what's to come.

Dreams

Every time that I have been pregnant I have considered waiting until the birth to find out the baby's gender. Each time I've come up with some random excuse to find out. I need to buy clothes, get the room ready, prepare siblings, etc. In the end I've never regretted knowing. I'm sure it's a wonderful experience to be surprised, but the birth itself has always been quite enough excitement in one day for me. Something about knowing the gender of the baby changes things for me. All of the sudden I know something so very important and special about this new little being.

Since my Thursday ultrasound I have had the most vivid dreams about the baby. I am holding him wrapped snuggly in blankets. I see him and he's gorgeous. He looks so much like all of the girls. I feel a new connection. I did this with all 4 girls as well. I have dreams for him as well. The baby, boy, and man he will be. It's such a responsibility. One I've never taken lightly as a parent. Right now I'm content to have him snuggly in my belly where he's safe from the world.

18 3/4 Week Belly Shot

Now that I'm definitely showing I thought I'd start posting weekly belly shots. As huge as I look at this point I haven't gained any weight. In fact I'm still 3 pounds under my pre-pregnancy weight. I'm growing though. It will be interesting to watch the progression over the next 20 weeks or so.

Relief and Surprise!

I had my ultrasound today. Since I am already over 18 weeks they went ahead and did a full anatomy scan. After the last week and a half it was fantastic to actually see the baby. We had the best ultrasound technician ever and she was very informative. She told us everything she was doing. To answer a few of the questions that the bleeding caused, my placenta is great and right where it's supposed to be. The amniotic fluid levels are perfect as well. Baby is measuring almost a week bigger than our dates, but our dates are accurate so no due date changes. The bleeding is most likely caused by a cervical abrasion and doesn't affect our little one at all. I have to stay off my feet when I'm spotting, but things look really good. I was so relieved I cried.

We weren't really sure if we'd leave today knowing what we're having. Mostly we just wanted everything to be okay, so either way we would've left happy. The tech was great though and she knew very early on. She showed us and another tech confirmed out thoughts. So as promised I can now tell everyone how the intelligender test went. I took the test exactly as instructed. I even held my bladder all night long. First thing in the morning I took the test and it said:

The color code is right there on the bottle. Orange is for girl and the green color indicates boy. We got a very clear BOY result. I've never tried this before and we did it just for fun. We never bought anything or told anyone we knew what we were having.

Well today we know. The test was RIGHT! Yep we are having a little boy. Of course we're all elated that things look so great and he's growing perfectly!

Appointment

I finally got in to see my elusive OB today and the appointment went well. I am right on track with growth and the heart beat was strong at 152bpm. It was very relieving. Even though I've been feeling lots of movement the heartbeat was nice to hear. I'll have an ultrasound soon to attempt to determine the cause of some of the issues I've been having. At that time we should also find out the gender!

18 Weeks

I am almost half way there. A while back in an attempt to scientifically guestimate our newest baby's birthday the King and I came up with a formula.

Chiggie-15 days early
Tea-20 days early
Midge-3 days early
Boo-12 days early

15+20+3+12= 50/4=12.5

So we're predicting the baby will come about 12.5 days early. With a due date of March 23rd that puts the arrival date right at March 10th at noon. Sounds good to me. As far as new symptoms this week there haven't been many. My heartburn has gone from slight to regular. Breathing seems to give me heartburn at this time. I should have very healthy bones with the amount of Tums I've been popping.

I wish I could say that the issues I'd been having disappeared but they haven't. They've picked up if anything. I'll be interested to see if I have a low lying placenta or something of that nature. I've had to resort to self diagnosis as getting in to actually see the doctor is next to impossible. The nurse assured me that even if I was to get in sooner than my scheduled appointment I would probably only get "temporary reassurance" anyway. She's a real sweetheart I tell ya.

Thankfully my appointment is tomorrow and I will hopefully get some answers. In the meantime we have finally picked out two names that we really like. Keeping with tradition we will wait until the birth to make the announcement, but I feel relieved just to have that part out of the way. I will be sure to update tomorrow when I know more.