Getting ready for a GIRL!

I can honestly say I had no preference what gender this baby was going to be, especially after my miscarriage.  All I ever wanted and still want is for the baby to have all its working parts and to be healthy and happy.  Aaron and I both knew that we wanted to find out the gender at the 20-week anatomy scan, mostly because I am a planner and Aaron is terrible with surprises (we almost always have to open Christmas gifts a few days before...the anticipation just kills him).

When we went in to find out the gender we were both staring intently as the tech moved the little wand all over my belly.  I had seen several ultrasound photos of my friends' babies so I kind of knew what I was looking for.  I saw it before the tech said anything - the 3 little white lines instead of a kickstand.  Aaron wasn't so ultrasound-savvy so he was staring at my eyes welling up with tears like "WHAT?! Tell me what you know!"

I was probably most excited to share the news with the grandmas.  There are no girls on Aaron's side (he only has brothers and nephews).  My mom has five grandsons on my stepdad's side - no girls.  Suffice it to say this little girl is going to be super girly whether she likes it or not.  The clothes are just too irresistible.  Case in point, the gifts we just received from my stepmom and youngest sister:

How cute are these shoes?  She is going to look so sassy at Vikings games whenever she can fit into these.

We also received a little tutu!  No words.

Karma is SO not girly.  She is much more interested in chewing up her rubber duck.

She will win over her daddy's heart when she wears this one at TCF this fall. So cute!!!

Our next step is to figure out how to decorate her room.  We bought a painting from her auntie Cambria to hang in the nursery.  It's a circus elephant so we're thinking a circus animal theme or something like that.  I'll post pictures as the room is in production...probably sometime in the next month or two.

Knocked Up

I've been meaning to start my pregnancy blog for a long time but honestly the biggest hang-up was coming up with a name. They make you do that first and it wasn't entirely clear if it could be changed later so I just put it off until I thought of a suitable name. Still not sure i'm in love with it, but I think it fits.

I've known that I'm pregnant for about 4.5 months now. We got our positive test on September 8th, 2010. My period was due that day so I was sort of planning to test the following morning if it didn't arrive. On my way home from work that day I was craving McDonald's hamburgers which I don't eat very much normally, thank god. I gave in to my craving, swung through the drive-thru and ordered 2 hamburgers and fries, went home and chowed down, and then promptly fell asleep on the couch. Could not keep my eyes open. Aaron got home from work later that night and politely suggested that I take a test that night since I was exhibiting pretty obvious preggo behavior. I obliged - and that beautiful pink line showed up RIGHT AWAY, dark and bold and unimstakeable. I'm trying to remember our reactions. I'm pretty sure we high-fived in the bathroom or something. :)

We didn't have the easiest path to pregnancy but we didn't have the most difficult one either. We had a miscarriage in April, 2010 after going in for an ultrasound at 10 weeks only to see an empty black sac on the screen...no baby. I had a few friends that had miscarried before and of course when I heard their news at the time I was sad for them, but until it happened to us I never realized just how truly awful of an experience that loss really is. I just remember not knowing what to do with myself now that I wasn't pregnant anymore - I had identified with that label for 6 weeks and was growing used to the idea.

I don't want to dwell on the miscarriage in this post too much. The bottom line is that we got pregnant on the 3rd try the first time and on the 4th try the second time. We feel very fortunate to have had that level of success so quickly.

I'm going to consider this a kind of intro post and get into more detail on various topics in future posts. For now though, the basics:

• I am almost 24 weeks pregnant with a baby girl due around May 18, 2011.
• Being pregnant is OK, but I am definitely not one of those moms that is "in love" with this experience. I just want to meet my baby already.
• I had pretty decent nausea from about Week 5 to Week 11. It didn't suddenly stop like you hear about so often, but it gradually faded over probably a week or so. I never threw up but I felt like it a lot. My worst symptom was probably the fatigue. SO tired. ALL the time.
• My boobs are ginormous and I am afraid of them and how much bigger they will get. I can't wait for my belly to get bigger and bigger so I will look more proportional.
• I am hungry all the time. My funniest craving so far has been blueberry frozen waffles. Any time there are food commercials on TV I almost always comment "Wow that looks good". I will eat anything right now, not very picky.
• We are keeping our baby's name a secret until she is born but she does have a name and my husband & I call her by her name all the time.

Here she is at 19 weeks...we are getting more pictures at 27 weeks and I will post one then too:

I am very in love with this baby and can't wait to meet her!!