My Nineteenth Week

I'm now 20 weeks!  Halfway there, wow!

Next time we take indoor photos I need to watch the contrast between what I'm wearing and the fireplace!

So let's recap the 19th week.  

I left off my last recap by letting you know that we're having a baby girl!  The rest of the anatomy scan went fairly well except for one thing- there were some cysts seen on the brain area.  This was kind of hard news to take for both of us, even though our doctor spent most of the time expressing that he wasn't really worried, because we show no other reasons for concern (our Downs tests were low/normal, and the baby looks really normal everywhere else).  He said this is fairly common and they usually disappear by a later ultrasound.  So, we're going back at 28 weeks to check on it.  My placenta is also blocking my cervix slightly, so we're going to see if that eventually moves, but I'm less concerned about that as long as the baby is healthy.  Anyway, the cyst news kind of ruined the news that we're having a girl for a little while til we Googled more about it.  Google actually helped for once when we saw that forum thread after forum thread had mothers telling story after story of this happening, the cysts clearing by a later ultrasound, and they went on to have healthy kids.  We're hoping that's where our story goes too.  It just kind of sucks to reach a major milestone, like finding out the sex, and have it sort of spoiled by bad news, especially since I still need all the reassurance I can get with my history.

After a few days we seemed to think less about the cysts and more about the fact that we are having a girl.  I finally started thinking more about the nursery and I think we sort of have a general direction we are going in now.  We are going with dark wood furniture, neutral tan/white bedding (and probably curtains too), and we are planning to paint the nursery a peach color.  We actually bought our crib, bedding, and a paint sample, so we're well on our way.  I'll post more when we get further along with this, promise!

One cool thing that happened this week was that Victoria came to town and we were able to meet for the first time!   We went to breakfast on Saturday and I had so much fun talking with her.  We've been following each other since before we both got pregnant, routing for each other during our struggles, and now have been following each other's pregnancies for months.  And we're both having girls!  So much to talk about!  After breakfast we had a little photo op, and her Dad's girlfriend got this funny picture of us while we got ready to have our picture taken.

Let's try that again...

Anyway, she is awesome and I wish she lived closer so we could hang out more, but it's nice that her Dad lives close to me so hopefully we'll get to hang out again in the future- with our baby girls!

My parents also came to visit this weekend and they saw the bump for the first time since it popped out.  It was fun to show them :)

 We did a lot of walking on Sunday when they were here, visiting two Charlotte museums and running around in Costco for a while, and I could definitely feel it more when I walk a lot now, probably because I have about 7-8 extra pounds to carry now.

I didn't have any nausea this week, so that was kinda nice, although, I haven't really minded having it that much, since any indication of things going well is welcomed, even if it's barfing ;)

The appetite is still pretty normal, but I did notice sort of an increase in hunger this week.  I had a couple days at work when I was hungry like every other hour and constantly snacking!

I THINK I felt movement this week for the first time!  I'm fairly certain because I've felt it almost every day since, usually anytime after 4pm.  I'm not really sure how to describe what it feels like, because it's not really what I expected.  I guess it's like a light thump or swirl?  It's usually when I'm sitting pretty still, either at my desk at work or in my TV watching chair at home.  I'm hoping that it gets more distinct so I can really tell it's kicking if that's what it is.

That about sums up week 19!  Looking forward to the second half of this pregnancy!