Battle of the Sexes

I only have a few more days of mystery before we find out the sex of the baby, so I thought I'd better write this out while I still have the chance.  I've been meaning to include this great debate in one of my weekly updates, but I find I have so many other things to share!  So here it is, it's own separate post.

Ever since I found out and shared that I was pregnant we've been asked whether we want a boy or a girl, as if we had a choice.  I think it's a funny question because we definitely have opinions on which we'd prefer, and yet we have no control over it.  The default, pc answer has been "healthy", but here's the real scoop:  Bryann wants a girl, and I want a boy first and then a girl.  (Kid: if you ever read this, Daddy loves you and is thrilled with whatever sex you are!)

We've been guessing and discussing the pros and cons for each for a few months now, and our chat today is a pretty good summary of the many conversations we've had so far:  

Kristi: so give me the pros and cons of having a boy

Bryann: pros: baseball and sports, cons: penis

good enough?

:)

Kristi: why is a penis a con?

Bryann: pee in your face :)

Kristi: LOL

wow

Bryann: pro: making forts!

Kristi: girls make forts, too!

Bryann: pro: friend for Isaac

Kristi: con: boys are weird

Bryann: pro: easier teenager

Kristi: pro/con: boyfriend for Clara :-P

we don't want aaron shooting our child

Bryann: hahhaha

i think he'd make an exception :)

Kristi: pros and cons of a girl?

Bryann: pro: the most adorable thing ever

con: may have to go to prison

Kristi: why would our daughter have to go to prison?

Bryann: i'd have to, for killing someone

Kristi: lol we don't own a gun

Bryann: con: tramp stamp potential

Kristi: LOL!!

Bryann: pro: adorable princess outfits!

pro: sports!

con: ballet!

Kristi: WHAT?! Ballet is a pro!

Bryann: well, semi-con

haha

Bryann: con: paying for a wedding :D

Bryann: pro: father-daughter day at school

Kristi: they have father son days too, you know

Bryann: yeah i know

question: if we end up with 2 boys or 2 girls would you want to try to get the other sex?

Kristi: probably

we'll see how full our hands are after 2 kids

Bryann: :)

Kristi: maybe one will be gay and they'll be like having a boy/girl anyway

Bryann: haha

Bryann: pro for boy and girl: board games!

pro for girl: tea parties!

Kristi: YEAH! Tea parties!!!!!

Bryann: :)

I think it's pretty obvious Bryann just wants a kid he can play with and shower with love.  Hopefully we'll be able to have 2 kids and will get one of each.  But we have a pretty good mix of experience between the two of us.  I'm the oldest with a younger brother.  Bryann is the oldest with a younger sister.  And we're both interested in an array of different things, and have lots of family and friends with various interests to, so what ever sex our kid is, or whatever our kid is into, I think we've got it covered.

Looking forward to find out on Monday!!  Stay tuned...

Week 18

I felt the baby move a few times this week!!!  The first time I felt anything was last Saturday at the movies during a really loud preview.  I felt a few bloop-bloop-bloops that were different from normal tummy rumblings.  I whispered to Elizabeth that I thought I felt the baby move, but I didn't share with anyone else until a few days later.  Then on Tuesday, I thought I felt a few little bloops here and there throughout the day.  Kind of like someone lightly flicked the inside of my uterus with their thump and middle finger.  I've been feeling them pretty consistently ever day this week.  John came over on Thursday and I felt baby kick while we were watching a movie, which John thought was a little weird that there was a tiny alien lifeform in my belly moving around and kicking.  Then I did a demo dance of what I imagined Baby T doing inside my uterus.  It was pretty awesome, and I'd be glad to demo-dance for anyone that wants to see what Baby T is doing.  :-)

Bryann is a little bummed that he has been gone all week for a business trip and missed Baby T moving for the first time - well, I guess Baby T has been moving all along, but I've just noticed it this week - but I keep reassuring him that I can't feel anything with my hand on the outside yet so he's not really missing anything.  Just my excited smiles when I feel it.  But I've been texting him every time I feel the baby move, and I think that's been a good second to actually being here.

I've been trying to stay in shape.  Annie and I went to water aerobics on Monday, and we did her prenatal yoga video on Wednesday.  I continue to take the stairs whenever possible and walk a lot.  I went for a walk with Sam yesterday and was really tired after like 5 blocks, which I'm blaming on my super low blood pressure and not me being out of shape.  :-P

A slightly funny, yet maddening story, about my increasing size... I was co-teaching with a co-worker, Shayn. who hadn't seen me for a few weeks, and my other co-worker, Linda asked how the pregnancy was going.  Shayn exclaimed "Oh, I didn't know you were pregnant!  No wonder you've been gaining weight.  I didn't remember you being so thick!"  I laughed, but really I wanted to cry and punch him in the face.  I'm looking forward to LOOKING pregnant and not getting THAT reaction anymore.

We heard back from Sue about the house in Tigard, and the seller accepted our initial offer!  So we potentially have a new house, as long as our house sells, and as long as the seller of the new house doesn't sell it to someone else before we sell our house and remove the contingency from our offer.  It's definitely too early to get TOO terribly excited, but it's a good first step!  We may be listing our house for sale next Friday, so hopefully things move quickly and easily.

What Baby T has been up to this week:

• Baby T is the size of a bell pepper at 5.5 inches and 6 ounces.  
• Baby is practicing yawning and hiccuping, and flexing its arms and legs.
• Baby is now strong enough that I can feel its movements!!  :-D
• Baby now has fingerprints, and ears are fully in place, and myelin sheaths are forming a protective later around nerves throughout the body.

Pregnancy symptoms include:

• AM nausea
• Headaches - still need to schedule that massage....
• Fatigue in the evenings and breathlessness when walking up stairs

Food cravings/aversions

• The usual likes:  fruit, oatmeal, crackers & cheese, cheese, french fries
• I'm ok with salads for the most part
• Still not sure about chicken.  Bryann is really hoping this goes away soon...
• Had a weird episode with Pad Thai.  I had some last Friday, but then when I tried to eat the leftovers, the smell made me gag.  

What I miss:

• Having energy and motivation to do things like clean, or stay awake past 8:00 at night
• Beer

What I'm looking forward to:

• My ultrasound on Monday!!!  And my OB appointment next week.  
• Being able to feel the baby move from the outside of my belly so Bryann can experience what I can.  
• Wine & dine on Saturday - Annie is plotting to have tasty drinks for us non-pregnant people
• Book club on Wednesday. Hanging out with the girls, and revealing the sex of the baby!

Week 17

I had my first weird pregnancy dream this week.  My stomach had all of a sudden started inflating like there was a balloon in it, and I asked my mom what was wrong.  She was like "don't worry, that's totally normal.  Just don't pop it."  So I smooshed it around so it was laying on it's side rather than stick straight out.  But then a cat head-like shape started forming and I bit it and it popped.  Then I woke up.  Not sure what that means....

Last week was pretty busy with house hunting.  We went out on Sunday to look at houses in Happy Valley and Milwaukie and saw a few that would work ok for us.  Then we went out again on Tuesday to see houses in Tigard and Tualatin.  We found a house we REALLY liked in Tigard that had been on the market for awhile, so we asked Sue, our real estate agent, to inquire about a contingency offer (contingent on the sale of our home).  She called us Wednesday night and said she'd talked to the listing agent who said the seller would be open to it.  So we went back on Thursday afternoon with my aunt to get a good second look and an extra opinion, but we decided to go ahead with the offer.  We'll hear back early next week sometime.

What Baby T has been up to this week:

• Baby is the size of  a turnip (that's not a cute fruit/veg...) or the size of my palm at 5 inches and 5 oz.  
• Baby's skeletal make up began the change from soft cartilage to bone.  
• Body fat is beginning to form and this week marks the start of the growth spurt.  
• Baby is still moving about (even though I can't feel anything yet) and is practicing sucking and swallowing to prepare for feeding after the birth.  My baby is so smart, putting in all that prep work!  

Pregnancy symptoms include:

• Still nauseous in the mornings.  I haven't thrown anything up this week, which is progress.  
• Headaches
• Back pain/sore muscles.  I'm going to schedule a pre-natal massage.  
• My clothes are definitely getting tighter.  I've reached the point where I can no longer button my pants, but luckily my friend Mary had an extra Bella Band that's been my new favorite outfit saver!  

Food cravings/aversions

• Still loving fruit and smoothies, oatmeal, pizza
• Not quite loving chicken still.  I was able to eat a McChicken last week, but I haven't tried anything with chicken in it since then

(I'm stealing these two new sections from Tamara)  :-)  

What I miss:

• Beer.  I will probably be repeating this every week for the next 23 weeks.  But I really really really miss beer.  
• Drugs.  I haven't been able to take anything for my cold last month, or my ongoing stuffiness. 

What I'm looking forward to:

• My ultrasound and finding out the sex of the baby on March 25th!
• Weekly workouts with Annie.  We've been doing yoga and water aerobics.
• Friends marathons with Tamara.  We're watching the season where Rachel is pregnant.  

Week 17

My pants still fit!  As long as I don't have to button them...  

Week 16

This past week has been a so crazy, that I haven't even had time to think about being pregnant or having a baby in a few months!  The hospital that I've been training made the switch over to Epic last Saturday, so I've been working 10 hr days, 6 days a week helping with Go-Live on the surgical floors.  I've been able to go into the OR during open-heart surgeries and help docs chart!  On top of the intense work schedule, I had choir rehearsal Tuesday, dress rehearsal Wednesday, and a concert on Saturday.  So I'm slightly exhausted.

My work schedule this week is back down to 8-hr days, and choir will be chill on Tuesday so hopefully the craziness will let up a little bit.  In the midst of it all, I only threw up once last week, and the nausea has been a little better in the mornings, so hopefully I'm coming out of the sick phase. 

We started our house hunt last Sunday and we went again this Sunday.  We've only seen 2 houses so far that we would want to purchase.  Our wish list is pretty big though - not so much with a house being new and updated, just wanting lots of space, a big yard, and a larger master bedroom/bathroom/closet - so it may be a struggle to find us what we want.  We've been looking at stuff in Milwaukie and Happy Valley, so we're going out again tomorrow afternoon to check out what Tigard and West Linn have to offer. 

I did manage to squeeze in some time for myself this week.  I went over to Annie's on Wednesday before rehearsal and did her prenatal yoga video with her.  I'm going to meet up with her and Tamara this Wednesday to go to an actually class, so I'm pretty excited about that.  I also went to a deep water aerobics class at my neighborhood community center.  It was nice to be in the water again.  I keep thinking about going in and doing laps, but I'm always so tired when I get off work, all I want to do is lay on the couch and doze with the TV on in the background.  I hear that my energy will pick back up soon and that second trimester is supposed to be easy and amazing, so I'm looking forward to that stage. 

What Baby T has been up to this week:

• Baby is the size of an avocado at 4.5 inches long and 3.5 ounces.  Apparently the next few weeks will be a growth spurt.
• Head is erect, legs are growing, eyes are moving closer together, and ears are in place
• Baby can probably now hear me talk and sing, and will soon start to recognize other familiar voices (like Daddy, Sam barking, and kitty purring on my stomach)
• Baby can probably also percieve light
• Toenails are starting to grow

Pregnancy symptoms include:

• Headaches
• Lightheadedness/dizzines (I almost passed out at my concert on Saturday)
• Nausea
• Acne
• Fatigue

This week, I love to eat:

• Oatmeal
• Sweetie tangerines
• Pizza

This week, I feel nauseated at the thought of:

• I've gotten over most of the food aversions (I was able to eat a McChicken sandwhich this week!)  I don't get sick over food smells, it's just that most food doesn't appeal to me unless it's something I'm specifically craving (like pizza!)

Doppler Video Fixed!

Or at least I hope it is!  That was my first time posting anything to YouTube, so apparently I had the privacy setting on too high.  Check it out here!

Future Baby Picture

Not NEARLY as creepy as I was expecting it to turn out!  I didn't ask it to And if the baby-morpher says my baby will have blue eyes, then it MUST BE TRUE!!!!!  

Week 15

Yay!  I'm writing a post on time!! 

Today marks the end of week 15 of my pregnancy.  It's been a busy, stressful, emotional week for me.  On top of which, I've been sick with a cold/cough for the past two weeks.  My mom came to visit last weekend and was super duper helpful around the house.  She took over cleaning the dishes for me because I couldn't handle the smell and had to go vomit in the trash can.  She took me shopping and bought me a few maternity outfits.  She came to look at some open houses with Bryann and me and gave some good pointers and things to consider in our next home.  And she sat and cuddled with me on the couch while watching TV.  Yay for moms!  I hope I'm as great a mom as she is. 

Life went downhill Mon-Wed.  On Monday I was working from home when the internet crapped out.  I tried unplugging and re-plugging in things and had to call Comcast to get further suggestions.  Comcast was, per usual, completely unhelpful and tranferred me to a third-party self-paid service and I was on the phone yelling at them about how I wasn't going to pay $55 to fix a Comcast service issue.  Then I started crying hysterically and hung up the phone to call Bryann and have him talk me down.  The phone call to Comcast was absolutely too stressful, and I hate them, and I am making it my new mission in life to never have to use their services again. 

On Tuesday, I had to leave choir 3 times to go throw up outside.  I couldn't handle the people smells all around me.  Not that they all smelled bad.  Just too many unique smells stuffed into our rehearsal space.  But I found out my Alto friend is pregnant and she has that disorder where she can't keep anything down and had just come from the emergency room.  We were outside a lot together...  But I didn't feel so bad for myself after hearing her story.  :-) 

On Wednesday, I had to skip Book Club with my friends because I was still feeling so crumby from my cold.  Annie came over beforehand and we went for a walk.  She commented that I'm having all of her 8-12 week symptoms during my 12-16 week phase.  Hopefully I'll feel better after next week... 

Yesterday was our 2nd OB appointment.  I got to feel the top of my uterus, and we heard the baby's heartbeat again.  It took a little while to find it, and I got a bit freaked out at first.  I've been having paranoid visions that there's a dead baby inside me (apparently a completely normal thing to think) so the waiting didn't go over well.  But baby was camera shy (Bryann was recording it) and was hiding down in the lower left portion of my uterus.  Apparently it was moving a lot bc when we finally did hear the hearbeat again, it came with blips every few seconds.  My OB said I should feel movement around 18 weeks, so I still have a bit of waiting (and dead baby envisioning) to do before I feel anything. 

Check out Doppler video here.

We opted to get the Quad screen blood work down, rather than an amniocentisis.  Our risk of genetic diseases is pretty low, so we're hoping everything comes out ok.  And we're going to be making the appointment for the ultrasound for about 3 weeks from now, so we should know by the end of March whether we're having a boy or girl!

What Baby T has been up to this week:

• Baby is 4 inches or the length of an apple, and weighs 2.5 ounces
• Baby has been breathing in amniotic fluid to help the lung sacks develop
• Eyes are sealed shut but Baby can sense light and may move away if I shine a flashlight towards it
• Baby's legs are growing longer than the arms and are becoming more proportional

Pregnancy symptoms include:

• Nausea and vomiting
• Stomach pains - the stretching uterus feels like something is being pulled on
• Constant trips to the bathroom - our water bill was $70 higher than it's ever been!! 
• Rhinitis of pregnancy - apparently my cold/cough may actually be a pregnancy symptom due to increase of blood flow to my mucous membranes
• Tired - not tired as in I want to go to sleep, but tired as in I want to lay horizontal on the couch and not do anything at all for the rest of the day.  I'll lay down and doze now and then while watching tv, but I don't usually go to bed until 9 or so, which is pretty normal for me.  

This week, I love to eat:

• Anything covered in cheese
• Chips
• Smoothies

This week, I feel nauseated at the thought of:

• Chicken
• Sandwiches
• Mexican food

15 weeks

Doppler Video

It takes awhile to find the heartbeat.  The original pulse you hear faint, and in the background, is mine.  My OB has to move around a lot to try to find Baby.  Hang in there, though!  Baby is alive and kicking!