pregnancy 3.0 update--20 week ultrasound

sorry these pics are a little blurry, i was trying to take them on the tripod haha whoops 

 here we are at the halfway point of this pregnancy.  that went fast.  well, the first 14 weeks or so did not go fast, but the past 6 weeks have.  i am feeling quite large already but i know i am going to get much much bigger.  i'm just dealing with the uncomfortable-ness of having a big belly and not being able to bend.  and the heartburn.  and the nighttime nausea.  and the shortness of breath.  and the emotions and crazy hormones.  and a bunch of other stuff.  but i am feeling the baby move more and more, and it makes me remember what the whole point of this is.  like, sometimes i am so busy throughout the day that i forget why i feel so tired or yucky.  it's hard to connect with the baby in my belly when i am running after the other kids and trying to get stuff done around the house.  i felt the same way when i was pregnant with ava.  but i have been trying to do some things to be more connected and to take a little time here and there.  for example, because i can feel the baby more, i start to think about what this baby may look like, what it will be like when baby is here, what the personality will be like.  i talk to the baby more often.  i am doing some second trimester affirmations, and meditation and started doing some prenatal yoga at home.  i'm just trying to do some things.  it seems helpful, and it's lowering my stress it feels like.

anyway, things are going well and i continue to be thankful for that.

so, around week 11 i took a cell free dna test.  i didn't do this with either z or ava, but with this one i wanted to since it was a surprise and i felt like having this test done would make me feel more calm.  everything turned out to be just fine, but we also got to find out the gender of the baby.  so we have known for quit awhile.  for some reason, i didn't really want to make a big announcement of it until we had the ultra sound.  i'm not sure why because the dna test is quite accurate.  but anyway, we had the ultra sound and everything looks great and we got to confirm the gender.

we are having another...GIRL!

i'm pretty excited.  honestly, either way i did not have a preference.  i am happy that i have one of each already so whatever else we have is just an added bonus, haha.  but, it does seem easier resource-wise, since we gave some of ava's baby clothes to some friends that will just give them back to us since they are done using them, and we have other friends that have a baby girl that is about 4 months old so we will get some hand-me-downs, and then we will just keep ava's old clothes and reuse for this baby.  which i'm excited about because she had some super cute clothes that i was a tiny bit sad to see go.

and now that we know the gender we can put the nursery/guest room stuff together.  not that it makes a huge difference anyway because most of what i have planned is pretty neutral, just a few things that are a little more girly.

but, the kids are excited.  well, zabih probably more than ava.  i don't think ava still quite gets it, but zabih does and he is very happy to have a baby girl.  it's really sweet.  i think both of the kids will be great helpers.  but z will be old enough at that time, he will be 6, that he can be really helpful.  and he is really sweet with babies.  ava loves babies, too, but her attention span and patience for babies is small.  but, she will be almost 4 when this baby is born, so we will see, i'm sure she will be great.

it's always fun to take a peek at what your baby is up to insure the womb.  she was opening and closing her mouth, moving around a lot, her legs were curled up underneath her, and she kept stretching her head back.  i just love watching the baby move around.  the sonographer got some good shots of the baby's profile and the front of her face, and this baby has a lot of the same facial structures as zabih and ava, so i think she is going to look a lot like them.  i am so interested to see what she will look like, maybe she will look like ava, or she will look just a little the same but have different features.  it's going to be fun to see when she is born because i've never had the same gender babies before.  z and ava obviously look alike, but ava definitely looks more feminine and has some different features than z.  anyway, i'm excited!

we have a list of names, we haven't made a final decision yet, but we both really like one in particular so unless something else really amazing comes up i think we have a name for now.

next up, i'll post about my initial ideas for the guest room/nursery.



my little helper