Thursday, May 20, 2010

It's a girl!





The ultrasound yesterday went very well. I hate to admit it, but both my husband and I actually got kind of bored. It was exciting at first, but it's hard when half the time you don't know what you're looking at. Our techs (we had an intern with another tech supervising her) were very good about telling us what was going on and pointing out, "these are the feet," or "here are baby's legs," but after awhile when you're sitting in a dark room with soft music playing, you get kind of sleepy.
The baby was quite active early on, wiggling her arms and legs. At the end, when it was time for the potty shot, however, she wasn't so cooperative. She curled up into a little ball—facing down with her legs tucked underneath her and her tush sticking up in the air—and fell asleep. I can't blame her. She refused to wake up and open her legs, so the tech had to look from behind, between her little butt cheeks. The tech was kind of wishy washy about telling us what the gender was (the other tech had taken over from the intern at this point because the other one was having trouble getting a good look at the baby's heart). From what I've heard and read about the "three lines" that are indicative of a girl, it was pretty obvious. The three lines were definitely there. I brought the sonograms in to work with me and my co-worker who's expecting a girl any day agreed.
So it seems we've got a baby girl on the way! Now, this doesn't mean I'm about to go crazy with pink. Don't get me wrong. I'm happy that we're having a girl. There are so many nice things about girls (boys, too, of course). But I'm not a big fan of pink. Pink T-shirt? Sure. Pink undies? Absolutely! Pink walls? Not so much. I've picked out some items for the baby's room already—not going to waste money on one of those expensive bedding sets with comforters and bumper pads you can't even use, but I found a set that has items that are sold separately. There are sheets, valances, a bed ruffle, wall decorations, a hamper ... you name it. And none of it costs more than $20. It's also yellow, green, and blue. I don't see a problem with that. I don't think boys always have to wear blue or girls always have to wear pink. When she gets older she can choose that if she wants, but for now I prefer yellow.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

As the wedding ring turns ...

Today is the big day. This afternoon I go in for an ultrasound/anatomy scan where they'll check for parts and hopefully we'll get to find out if the baby is a boy or a girl.
Last night my husband said, "Do you want to know if it's a boy or a girl tonight?" He'd been told about the "ring test" which supposedly can accurately predict your baby's gender. It sounded like fun to me, so we gave it a try.
He took my wedding ring and put it on a string. First he dangled it over my wrist. The ring sat there and then began to move back and forth. He did some searching online and then we decided to try it over my stomach. Again, it began to move back and forth, but it was much stronger this time. He tried it over his own belly (ha) and even over the cat and the ring just sat there. The minute he would put it back over me, it began to move. We agreed that it was pretty weird.
So what does it mean? That's the problem. It seems that this old wives' tale varies. Some say that if it moves in a circle it's a girl and if it swings back and forth like it did for me, it's a boy. Other sources say exactly the opposite. Most that I could find, however, said circle=girl and straight=boy. Very interesting.
There are many ways to supposedly predict gender. The Chinese gender chart says I'll be having a boy. Another site I went to with a guy who supposedly has a 94% accuracy rating, says I'll be having a girl.
I guess we will just have to wait until this afternoon to find out for sure! I just hope baby cooperates and doesn't disappoint us.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

More garage sale finds, and an emotional roller coaster

I hit garage sales again last weekend, this time with my family. It's tradition for us to have a mother/daughter garage sale outing on Mother's Day weekend, and it's gotten to the point the just about the whole family goes along. It's great fun, and I look forward to it every year. Some of the great finds of the day included a high chair for $15, Bumbo chair for $5, musical crib toy, and some various unisex clothing. Basically I got a ton of nice stuff for not much money. Oh, and my sister and niece bought me a few books, "to start our library." It all started with a book called "What Bounces?" (Spoiler: guinea pigs do NOT bounce.)
One of the worst parts about pregnancy so far has been the hormonally induced emotional breakdowns. One minute I'm fine and the next minute I'm sobbing. I try to hide it as much as I can from others, but sometimes it's hard. That damn Pedigree "Shelter Dogs" commercial can send me into a major tizzy. I especially try to hide it from my husband because I don't want him to think that: A) something is wrong with the baby; or B) that he's done something to upset me. Granted, he's sometimes clueless (find me a man who isn't and I'll give you a bright, shiny quarter), but I try to remember that, unlike me, not everyone in the world has constant baby brain. This weekend my husband is going out of town so we'll see just how many breakdowns I can have while he's gone. In all honestly I'm kind of ticked that I'm home alone all weekend and can't even go out for a couple of beers, so it might not be pretty. Yesterday my husband called to tell me that he'd bought me a "consolation prize" since he was leaving for the weekend. I got two boxes of candy (Dots and Jujyfruits. Warning: stay away from the purple Jujyfruits—they are not grape. I repeat: they are not grape. They taste like black licorice. Ewww!); a box of mini-muffins; a bag of Milano cookies; and a new pair of slippers. So, even though I can't drink, I can send myself into a sugar coma and be 10 pounds heavier when he comes home. It was sweet of him to think of me, and I couldn't possibly feel luckier to be married to a man like him.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

The months are flying by!

Unbelievably, it's already been a month since my last appointment. I had my most recent check-up yesterday. The monthly check-ups are pretty dull. I did get to hear the heartbeat again which is reassuring. It's amazing how, as the days go by between appointments, it's so easy to become paranoid that something is wrong. Even though there's obviously SOMETHING growing down there and I can feel movement. It's just one of those things. The doctor also did my first measurement. He said I'm measuring right on track—not too big and not too small. The heartbeat was 148, which he said was not too fast and not too slow. This leads me to the obvious conclusion that my baby is perfect. Naturally. I also got to schedule my 20-week ultrasound. In just two loooooong weeks, we should be able to find out if we're having a boy or a girl.

Monday, May 3, 2010

Garage sale finds

One great part about having a fall baby is that I have all summer to hit garage sales for deals. I've always been a bargain hunter and love garage sales (or yard sales or rummage sales, depending on where you're from). There's always a ton of baby and kid stuff at these sales, and often it's in really good shape and cheap. So why buy new when I can get really nice baby stuff for really cheap? The baby won't notice anyway. In fact, I believe babies actually require very little. A hundred years ago babies survived just fine without expensive swings, play yards, and all that jazz. We just live in a society that sees that there's a lot of emphasis on children and takes advantage of that by coming out with products that we really don't need and charge us a bunch of money for them. So that's me on my soapbox.
Summer is a huge time for garage sales in Minnesota. Every weekend there's a garage sale somewhere. This past weekend alone three different communities had city-wide garage sales. Those are the best because there's one on almost every block. My husband and I headed out early Saturday morning to find some deals.The previous day his mom had already found a swing and a johnny-jump-up for us. On Saturday we bought an activity gym for the floor, a diaper pail, and a mobile that matches the theme we're thinking of using (turtles; the mobile has a turtle, frog, lady bug, and bumble bee). We also got two baby books, one on baby sign language and another on keeping your baby from crying or some such thing. We saw lots of clothes but since we don't know what we're having yet, we couldn't really buy any of that. (Whatever happened to unisex clothing, by the way? It's hard to come by these days.) There were a few other things we passed on as well. We have all summer to shop so we can afford to be picky. It's pretty exciting to finally get some baby items in the house, though!
I have my next doctor's appointment on Wednesday. I should be able to schedule my 20-week ultrasound so we can find out the sex. Just a couple more weeks to wait!