22 weeks and counting!

Tomorrow, I will officially be 22 weeks along. I'm excited to be past the halfway mark! I just had a doctor's appointment today. Everything looked good! The doctor said the results from my ultrasound 10 days ago were "boringly normal," which sounds good to me. I asked about the size of the baby, which was 12 oz and the ultrasound tech said was right on track, and the doctor said it was "average" - 43 percentile. I hope this is good and means that come late September/early October I won't have a gigantic baby! :)

I had my first Braxton Hicks contractions yesterday - an interesting experience. My whole lower abdomen got really tight and rock hard for a minute or two and of course, I was a little concerned. I was pretty sure it was Braxton Hicks thanks to having listened to all the pregnancy stories of my friends who've already had babies, but I did a little online research and confirmed my diagnosis. Everything I read said they could be brought on by dehydration, which I'm sure was the culprit because I know I don't drink enough water. I am going to try to get much better about that.

We picked up the crib and dresser this weekend (can't even begin to tell you what a crazy hassle it turned out to be) and since the bedding had arrived earlier in the week, we started to decorate the nursery. It's definitely not done yet, but it's looking good. I had a great shower at work and got tons of blankets, towels, and clothes, which I now have a place to store.  Check out the pictures below.

Only eight more days of school until it's officially summer! I have a lot to look forward to this summer. Yusaku and I are taking one more "last hurrah" to the beach (Topsail Island) for a week in the middle of June and we've got tickets to Phantom of the Opera and childbirth preparation classes at the end of June. In between all that, we'll celebrate our 4th anniversary...hard to believe! In July, I'm looking forward to seeing family and friends for my baby shower. The rest of the summer and during the remainder of my pregnancy, I look forward to relaxing and preparing for the arrival of the baby!

It's a Girl!

We had our 20 week ultrasound today and as the title of the post points out, IT'S A GIRL!  We are very excited! The ultrasound tech looked at everything - the head, the stomach, the arms, the legs - all the while keeping us in suspense. Clearly I didn't know what I was looking at because at one point I said, "Oh, is that the head?" and she said "No, that's the stomach."  Finally we got a nice little butt and leg shot and she announced that it was a girl!  (See the picture below.) Now we can start deciding on a name and decorating the nursery. Lots of fun to come!

Enjoy the rest of the pictures!

18 week update

It's been about two weeks since I last updated the blog so I thought I would write something and post another picture of my bigger bump. I was 18 weeks on Tuesday and had a doctor's appointment on Friday. It was just a regular checkup. We got to hear the baby's heartbeat, which was in the high 150's - always fun to hear! Just two more weeks until the ultrasound...we are both really excited for that!  

I've started registering online at Babies R' Us for at least the basics. Today Yusaku and I went to Babies R' Us and looked at car seats, strollers, cribs, etc. We found stuff we liked but aren't ready to buy it just yet. We need to clear the existing furniture out of the soon-to-be baby's room and would like to paint before bringing home the crib and any other furniture. Hopefully next month sometime, once we find out the sex, we will get started on painting and setting up the nursery.

Our current project is making the basement a more finished space that we can use it as a place to hang out as well as a play room/ guest room. We had the basement re-carpeted a few weeks ago and got bookshelves, a storage cubby, and a sofa bed at Ikea yesterday. It's starting to look good. Yusaku built everything pretty much by himself and did a great job!  All we have left to do is to fill up the shelves with everything that got pushed into the laundry and boiler rooms when we had the carpeting done. So, whenever you want to come visit, you'll have a nice place to stay!  Who wants to be the first guest? :)