20 Weeks: Half Way Today!

Yea I have made it half way through the pregnancy! Wow I can honestly say these past 4 1/2 months have... absolutely dragged by! (bet you thought I was going to say "flew by"-unless of course you have had a baby then you are probably not that surprised) I stop and think, "wow, it has only been 4 1/2 months? It feels like freaking forever!" And when I think about it even more I realize that I have only known I was pregnant for 3 1/2 months, now that makes looking ahead to the next 4 1/2 more months that much more daunting.

Oh well. I haven't been too miserable for the most part. I got sick about 3 weeks ago and realized that all doctors want pregnant women to be miserable because they don't want lawsuits. Every single cough syrup said to see a doctor before taking- and of course no doctor wants to tell you its okay. Actually my nurse did recommended a few that were okay to take, but said to only take the smallest dose before bed to try and limit the amount I took, and to just take a few Tylenol throughout the day. Needless to say I was downright miserable for a week- no NyQuil! But I recovered, I am resilient, imagine that.

Also I have discovered that nobody wants you to have fun when you are pregnant. We went on a cruise last week (that will be my next post... stay tuned for more on that later) and almost every activity was "no pregnant women" allowed. No para-sailing, horseback riding, scooter riding, hot tub, water slide, bobsled roller coaster, or pretty much anything exciting. (By the way the hot tub was only luke warm so I got in for a little bit, and I did the water slide 4 or 5 times just to show that sign next to the slide telling me- the pregnant lady- to keep off, that I don't give a rat's furry tush about it or it's lame warning). All the other stuff we really couldn't do, there were people involved and they could all tell that I was clearly pregnant and so they said, "no way." Whatever. Everyone tells you the fun stops when you have a kid, apparently it stops before the kid even gets here. But really- we did other things, and we still had a ton of fun!

Anyway for those of you out there who may have secretly longed for the day I would truly look fat, you are in luck, that day has come. For your viewing pleasure I give you: I think I have now officially reached that point where people stop wondering, "Is she? or isn't she?" As you know I am a substitute teacher in high school and you can always count on teenagers to tell you what they think. About 4 weeks ago I got a tentative question or two beating around the bush to ask if I was pregnant. Now kids I have never seen before come up to me and ask, "how far along are you?" or my favorite as I'm passing out papers, "oh! Your belly is so cute!" And both of these statements are posed before anyone has asked to make sure I am actually pregnant. However the best is when a 10th grader asks me how far along I am, then tells me she is 6 months, and asks if I know what I am having yet. So far this year I have seen at least 5 pregnant girls all in 10th grade and all 5 months or further along. All I can say is, "Wow."

Anyway, I have put on about 7 pounds which means I no longer fit into any of my pants. Yippee! So I have now gone up a bra size as well as a pant size. Fun! The doctor said normal weight gain should be about a pound a month for the first 20 weeks then a pound a week for the next 20, which would put you at about the recommended 25 pounds. Well at 7 I guess that puts me 3 pounds over what I should be at, but I'm going to say that's still normal so I don't damage my self esteem too much.

Well enough of me and my fat self, here are some pictures of the baby:

The head is off to the right, and in the middle that is either a hand or a foot, I personally think it looks more like a foot, but its where the hand should be, so take your pick. By the way our baby does have all the normal parts and they are all in their proper place, I assure you this is just an odd picture. By the way, that is the leg on the left. I think the baby looks pretty squished in this picture, but the ultra sound tech said there should still be plenty of room in there. Next, for those of you who have not heard the news yet, and are still wondering as to the gender of our baby; this picture has a handy little arrow pointing right between the legs from the bottom up, and if you look very closely you will probably see... nothing. So yes after a few very good looks, with the baby was cooperating perfectly, the ultrasound tech was fairly convinced by the lack of any obvious male genitalia to pronounce with confidence (although he refused to assign an actual % number to his confidence) that we are having a girl. We are both happy and excited- although we had mostly boy names picked out if that gives you any indication as to what we were originally hoping for. However, as Zac points out to me on occasion (more so when we were first dating) that I know nothing about boys and how they work because I don't have any brothers. And I won't lie, that is absolutely true, I won't dispute it, I would have absolutely no idea what to do with a boy. I am the Sunbeams teacher and I have one little boy in my class, and he needed to go to the bathroom one day, and I will have to say I was very little help, I have no idea what to do. Alas, I would probably tell our little boy (if we ever have one) to wipe after he pees, which Zac tells me is a big, NO. Guys just don't do that! Well for now we are happy to have a girl and hopefully someday we will have a boy and I will learn the full extent of my ignorance when it comes to the male gender.

This picture is actually somewhat creepy (and yes I do feel guilty saying my daughter looks creepy) but it is just due to the nature of ultra sounds obviously that this picture looks more like an alien than a human being. That is her head on the right hand side and I believe she is facing the camera (again what a cooperative baby! she obviously takes after me :) ) Also if you look carefully on the left side you can see her very healthy little heart. The doctors have never had a problem finding her heartbeat, even from 8 weeks old, and they say it sounds very healthy.

The next question we get after, "do you know what you are having?" is, "do you have a name picked out?" Short answer, no. We have some names that we are considering, but we aren't completely sold on any name we have found yet. Here is our list so far of names we are considering. We would love input or suggestions- not that we will honor all advice or suggestions :) -but we would love it none the less- seriously!

Addison

Boston

Brooklyn

Chloe

Isabel/ Isabella

Kennedy

Kenley/ Makenley

Kinley/ Mckinley

London

Mackenzie

Madison

Mckenna

Siena

Vienna

So that's the update. If you skipped all the other writing and just looked at the pictures, here it is in a nutshell. I am fat, I now look pregnant, we are having a girl, she appears to be very healthy and we don't have a name picked out yet.