Just 3 more days....

Can you tell I'm just a LITTLE excited for Friday to arrive??? Just three more LONG days until we have our little gender discovery ultrasound!!! I can hardly wait! Not only do I get to learn of this baby's sex, but I am also thrilled to death to be able to see him/her so close up and in depth! The ultrasounds I have had to date have just been in my OB's office and haven't been the greatest of quality, so this 3D and 4D ultrasound on Friday will be pretty awesome!

I was thinking about dates and my pregnancy while I was in the shower this morning and it occurred to me that at this point in my pregnancy with Luke I was, unbeknowst to me, already over half way through. I was at my half-way point with Luke at exactly 15 weeksand 1.5 days! I am 17 weeks, 4 days today. Hopefully I won't hit my half-way point with this little one until 19 weeks....that is assuming we get to schedule my c-section for the date we are hoping for...August 17th. Strange to think of it like that.

More of the baby front...I had an OB appointment yesterday. All is well. My pressures were 'normal', although still a little high for me, (124/68) but the dingy nurse decided to take it right after I hopped up onto the exam table, then had to hop down to lift Luke onto his chair, and then I hopped back up onto the table. :( No time to rest. I'm sure had she taken it at the end of my appointment, it would have been a bit lower. Oh well. I think I'm the only one who's really concerned about the precise numbers. I had to see the Nurse Practionner yesterday, since Dr. Hage had a funeral to attend. I was bummed about that, but whatcha gonna do? My weight gain is good...I've packed on 8 lbs in 17 1/2 weeks. Pretty normal. And my uterus measured at 16 cm, which to me, seems small for my weeks, but the NP said it was normal. (You would think with this belly of mine I'd be measuring ahead! Geez!) I got side-tracked and didn't have a chance to ask her 'bout it though. We have our 20 week fetal anatomy ultrasound next Friday, so I'm comforted in knowing that any discrepancies in the baby's growth or my exact dates will be confirmed then. Hmm...what else??? No protein in my urine either. Yay! (Not that I would expect any, since Pre-E usually onsets after 20 weeks, but its still good to know). The only little concern I had to report to her was some visual 'flutteries' that I am getting occasionally. They don't seem to be associated with a change in position, which one would expect. And they are eerily familiar from my pregnancy with Luke. I began getting these little silvery flutteries around 18-20 weeks with him and although I reported them to my OB at the time, there were still no other pre-e symptoms to speak of (aside from my BP increasing 10 points every visit after 20 weeks). In retrospect, I've always thought of those flutteries as one of my early warning signs of my impending pre-eclampsia. But truth be told, they may or may not have been. We will never know. But the sheer fact that I have them again makes me just a teeny bit worried. Again, we just have to keep a keen eye out for other symptoms and hope (PRAY!) for the best. My pressures are staying normal AND I have gained less weight by this point, so those are good differences from my last pregnancy. So....I'm going to stay positive and look at the good. Oh yeah! And the baby's heart rate was in the 160's...same as last visit, which, if you are going by the old wives tales, that indicated a girl. :) (Luke's were always in the 148-150 range).

So what are YOUR guesses??? Girl or boy? I think we need to take an Internet poll here, people? You tell me what you think it is and we'll see who's right come Friday. Want a quick overview of the similarities and differences between these two pregnancies???

With Luke, I felt nauseous, carsick and had terrible headaches for the entire first trimester. This time, none of those! :) (How lucky am I!) With Luke, I had regularly bouts of insomnia from 6 weeks on....this time around...just one or two times. With Luke, his heartbeat was always in the 148-150 range. This time around, it's always been in the 160's. With Luke, I craved anything greasy and fattening, especially Mexican food. This time I around, I crave fresh fruit, salads, veggies and the occasional burger. With Luke, we had an easy time picking out a boy's name, but struggled with the girl's. This time around, we have the girl's name all set, but are debating the boys'. And lastly, with Luke, I could NEVER tell his gender when I had pregnancy dreams, although I always tried. This time, I've only had one dream and it was most definately a girl in that one! :) Sooo......that's my list. You all have fun guessing and we'll see who's right! :)

And before I go to go get started on dinner, I thought I'd finally leave you with picture of Luke's new 'do'

He absolutely refused to allow me to take a 'real' picture of him, so I had to catch him when he wasn't looking!

And here are just a few silly shots of him playing in our weeds...err... flowers on the hill in our backyard. We still haven't been able to landscape yet, so the hill is covered in wild-flower-weed-looking things. Luke picked a few for me! :)



You wouldn't know it from the flip-flops and sunny weather in the picture, but it actually snowed here again today for the third time this season. Weird weather! It didn't stick, but it was still cool to look out the window and see it fallin!

Oh yeah....and THANK YOU to all of you who have graciously left comments for me, letting me know you're out there reading! It makes all the difference! Thank you!

Thats it for me today. Now let the voting begin! :)