the 3d/4d ultrasound

i'm not sure why i'm even bothering to post this, but i figure i should document the womb-life of baby z how it comes...

so we went to meet the baby on saturday and it was pretty anticlimactic, in my opinion. bottom line, it was too soon to tell for sure (again, my opinion). the guy doing the ultrasound said "90% boy" after a LOT of looking and with much hesitation. i think the guy's "gender diagnosis" was premature--that he couldn't completely rule out boy so he couldn't say girl. based on other gender sonograms that i've searched google images for, i think that there's a good chance that baby z is a girl. there has been some talk however, that the dots in the form of a triangle eventually develop into a boy. here's what we got, you be the judge...




i expected there to be a clear "turtle" if baby z was indeed a boy, but it just didn't work out that way. kenny thinks i might be a little earlier than originally thought, as in i'm actually 16wks today (instead of 17wks) and thus the genitalia aren't ready to be determined yet.

it's just hard b/c we told some people and everyone was SO EXCITED that baby z was a boy, but i don't feel that we have conclusive evidence just yet to say so. i'm sure everyone's reactions would've been the same if we'd said that baby z was a she, but i HATE when expectations are not met. i think im truly at the point where either boy OR girl will be great, but it doesn't change the fact that if i'm thinking it's gonna be one thing and then we find out it's the other, im gonna have PROBLEMS with that!! basically, i've decided to pretend that saturday did NOT happen and that it's still 50/50. i have my "big ultrasound" on wed, nov 11th, so i guess we'll just have to wait until then, when a truly trained individual is performing the ultrasound. so i guess no shopping for baby z while im in north carolina and atlanta next week. bummer!

now, moving on to the fun stuff, we did get some good photos of baby z in 3d. here's my fav...

after a closer look...

i think that the "bump" i thought i saw might've been a figment of my imagination. oh well...it's not the end of the world. after all, i should be happy that i am four months pregnant and don't really look it. maybe that will pay off in the long run?

in other news...

in preparation of the 3d ultrasound on saturday, i took a few quizzes that tell the gender based on old wives tales. here are the results...

chinese gender predictor = girl
i'm carrying the "extra weight" out front = boy
the hair on my legs is growing faster during pregnancy = boy
i sleep with my pillow to the north = boy
my feet are colder than they were before pregnancy = boy
i refuse to eat the heel of a loaf of bread = girl
dad-to-be is gaining weight right along with me = boy (sorry kenny)
my mom doesn't have gray hair (because she dyes it) = girl
i didn't have much morning sickness early in pregnancy = boy
i'm looking particularly good during pregnancy (if i do say so myself) = boy (because girls steal their mother's looks)
my chest development has not been very dramatic during pregnancy (sorry again kenny) = boy
the sum of my age at conception and the number of the month of conception are both even = boy
my urine is a bright neon yellow color = boy (sorry if tmi)
my nose hasn't changed during pregnancy = girl
i have been craving fruits = girl
baby z's heart rate is 140 or more beats per minute = girl
i like my orange juice = girl
i'm not having headaches = girl
when asked to show my hands, i show my palms = girl
i typically use the handle of a mug = boy

57% chance of a BOY
42% chance of a GIRL

i'm still hoping for a boy, but my intuition still says girl. only 24 hours until we find out! yay!

FINALLY--some photos worth posting!

ladies and gentlemen, look very closely! i think there very well may be the beginnings of a bump!

{{182 days to go.}}
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{{168 days to go.}}

we're gonna see our baby again!

i just booked our first 3d ultrasound for baby z! we should find out baby z's gender this saturday at 3pm! i can hardly wait!!

so i've been thinking...

maybe a baby boy wouldn't be so bad afterall.

let me back up.

reason #1:
last thursday i spent a day in the life of chenelle. it was awesome!! and exhausting, i must admit. chenelle basically gave me a crash course in babies. she taught me various ways to hold a baby (traditional, football, in front, baby baby), how to change a diaper, how to feed a baby a bottle and "solid" food, and how to put a baby down in his/her crib. she was able to do such things with the twin eight month old boys she nannies for every week day. the keyword in the previous sentence being "boys".

the boys were so cute and so darn reinforcing (obviously they're much older than a newborn so they were smiling and one of the boys is babbling)! it's like you walk in the room and they light up. you talk and they light up. you laugh and they light up. and these are babies that i've only met one other time for thirty minutes! maybe i'm just not used to being around babies or even typical children for that matter. who knows...

reason #2:
friday night, kenny and i were at babies r us and there was another eight month old boy in the portrait area and he was just in love with me! smiles and coos and tons of eye contact! i think im in love with baby boys.

reason #3:
lately all i've been hearing is that boys LOVE their mommys and that little girls really gravitate toward their daddys. i want my baby to LOVE me. hopefully our little one will. scratch that, i know s/he will.

reason #4:
this isn't really a reason, but on saturday, while we were waiting to get our flu shot at target, the man helping us fill out the paperwork predicted that the fetus in my belly was a boy. he seemed like an interesting fellow. he claimed that he's ALWAYS been right in predicting the sex of babies (with the exception of his own offspring). i only added this in the list because he is the FIRST person to say that i am having a BOY! everyone else i know declares baby z is a girl! hell, i think it's a girl. even right now, as im talking dreamily of having a baby boy, i just don't believe it is possible (at least not with this pregnancy). it's just not what we're having. i guess we'll know for sure soon enough. kenny says we can go to "meet the baby" and do the gender determination 3d scan as early as the end of next week! yay!

more "good" news!

i called "meet the baby" today to find out how early they do gender determination ultrasounds and the good news is........

they do them at 16 weeks! yes, that means we could know for sure that baby z is a she in as little as five days! i could barely contain myself when i found out. i SO want to know if we're having a boy or a girl so i can plan baby z's room (and figure out if the hutch in the previous post will be coming to our home soon). :)

so...things have slowed down a little here. everything is still going well with the pregnancy, but i feel like we're just stuck, waiting for time to pass to find out the gender for sure. while most everyone i know, myself included, am positive baby z is a girl, oh-so-logical kenny insists we not purchase anything else gender-specific until after the fetal anatomy scan at 18-20wks (still at least one month away).

it's T.O.R.T.U.R.E. waiting so long to find out! i told kenny he'd better pray REALLY HARD for a boy b/c everything i've seen that i like for a baby girl is EXPENSIVE (at least furniture-wise). i REALLY want this piece for addie's room! although i might have to get a job just to pay for it. lol. but it's a piece that will last a LONG time and it's so functional and it would fit PERFECTLY in the nursery--yes, i've made him help me measure the wall that would be it's home!


enough about nursery stuff...

great news...i got a phone call on monday letting us know that everything looked normal from the nt scan we had a few weeks ago! yay! i wasn't really worried honestly, but it's still nice to get the confirmation that baby z doesn't appear to have an increased risk for trisomy 13, 18 or 21.

and i've decided to hold off on uploading belly pics for now as there is NO change. in fact, i'm actually smaller now that most of the baby bloat has gone away compared to previous weeks! i guess i shouldn't complain, i still fit in almost all of my clothes, but it's weird to not look or feel pregnant but still be pregnant. whatev.

some other things

i was so excited about posting the photos of baby z yesterday that i forgot to add some other little random facts we learned at the appointment.

so, baby z is (was yesterday) measuring 7cm which is right on track for 13 wks, which means that baby z's due date is still 4.5.10 (our 2 yr anniversary). i hope that she either comes way early or way late. but if neither way early nor way late is the case, it would be SUPER CUTE if she's born on april 4th (this year's easter). she'd be our little easter bunny and maybe she'd get bunny ears from the hosptial or something. how cute would that be??

did i mention that her heartrate was 159bpm yesterday? according to the old wives tale, that heartrate confirms my "intuition" that baby z is indeed a girl. :) yay! also, a friend of mine told me yesterday that there have been some studies done that say that the mother's "intuition" regarding the fetus's sex is 70% right. i know that 70% isn't that super great, but i figure if i'm right on the "intuition" and the heartrate, my chances are higher of being right overall.

that's all from the appointment, but on tuesday night, kenny had an idea. he decided that the best way for us to measure my belly growth over the weeks is by measuring it with a measuring tape. he thought that this number would be more telling in my weekly update w/the belly pics as to how much bigger i've actually gotten. of course we didn't have a measuring tape at home, so we went out to cvs and got one. on tuesday night, i was 31 inches around! now i know that there has been some growth---i didn't start out this size, but there's no way of knowing really. i guess we'll just have to use wk 13's measurement as the baseline! i have a feeling that this measurement might not be as much fun to take or share as i get further along.