Sugar and Spice . . .

. . . And everything nice.

The results are in - it's a GIRL!!!
 
 

21+ weeks

At least that's what the good doctors are telling us. We had our anatomy scan on November 22nd. It was definitely one of the coolest ultrasounds to date. They were able to zoom in on all parts of our developing little human including chambers of the heart and gallbladder. The little nugget was wiggling around quite a bit so they had some difficulty getting all necessary angles. And those little legs were clamped together pretty tightly (Atta girl!) but she finally shifted and both the technician and the doctor were able to confirm that she was indeed a girl.

I was surprised but thrilled. All throughout the ultrasound I kept waiting for them to announce that it was a boy. I thought I even saw balls at one point. Must of just been some other body part flailing about. But talk about a game changer. Everything seems a little bit more real now. Especially since we no longer have to call her 'it'. Instead words like "she", "her" and "daughter" are being used. And now that we know her gender I feel like there's more of a personality down there. For instance, she loves sugar. That's usually when she's at her most active and I can feel her moving about. Yes, I can FEEL her now! It's the coolest thing. I'm pretty sure I was able to first feel her around 18 weeks. It was like little butterfly wings fluttering around in my lower belly. And now at 22 weeks it's getting stronger and changing positions. She was having a field day using my bladder as a trampoline on my way to work the other morning. The little stinker.

The doctor told me it could be anywhere from 24-28 weeks along before the outside world would be able to feel her but apparently we have an overachiever on our hands. On Thanksgiving Nik got to feel her for the first time himself. He said it felt like a little heartbeat. She's somewhat shied away from him since though. She likes to play coy.

As far as names go, we haven't really talked about it yet. I have a name in mind that I love but nothing has been decided. And if we do decide, I'm not so sure I want to share it with the world. Sorry, but there are some judgmental people out there. I have a close friend of mine whose mother actually told her son that it wasn't too late to change her grandson's name shortly after he was born. I'm pretty sure my friends and family know well enough not to even try that shit with me. But still.

So now that we know it's a girl, I'm trying not to freak out. I'm a planner and there is so much left to do. Figure out maternity leave, look into daycare, decide on a name, start designing the nursery, etcetera. Speaking of the nursery, we are making progress on the new apartment and I spent last weekend clearing out the baby's room. Just to give you a visual, here's what I was dealing with.

Fun, huh?

But after an entire afternoon I was finally able to see the floor again. And now I can start on the fun hobby of decorating the nursery.

One thing I'm not looking forward to? The baby registry. Actually, dreading might be a more accurate description. How can such a little person need so much crap?! One of my best friends is also pregnant with a baby girl right now. She's due two months before me and thank god I have her to go through this with. Pregnancy is like a little club that no one can relate to unless you've been through it yourself. The good, the bad and the downright ugly.

She's already forwarded me a list of must have baby items and I've been using her registry as my guide. Because right now, our child has nothing. Well, that's not exactly true. I found a random bottle of baby powder when organizing the guest bathroom. So there's that. And I received a complimentary baby bottle when I purchased some maternity clothes last month. Oh, and our dear friends gave us an L.A. Galaxy onesie. They're huge soccer fans. Other than that, we got nothing. Although I did do some online shopping on Black Friday and managed to score some pretty cute outfits for 50% off. As much as we want to support our LA soccer team, our baby needs something else to get her swagger on in.

Speaking of getting her swagger on, we got some pretty cool 3D ultrasound pics during the anatomy scan. Here's the thing though. As much as I think our daughter is the most beautiful thing ever I'm not sure how I feel about ultrasound pictures. Especially the 3D ones. First of all, I don't really want everyone knowing what the inside of my uterus looks like. I'm willing to share some of the fun details of my life on here but when it comes to the inside of my body? Meh, not so much. Also, the 3D pictures look weird. And that's not how she really looks. In fact, during the ultrasound everything Nik and I saw was in black and white. But when they went to print out a picture for us they changed it to the 3D setting which shaded everything in. Or most of everything at least. I think that's why you sometimes get those gnarly alien looking pictures. But, if you REALLY want to see a picture I suppose I can post just one. FYI, the doctor was sure to tell us that the umbilical cord is not wrapped around her neck, it just looks that way. It's in front of her instead. 

 Anyway, here is our baby girl, totally flipping the camera off. ; )