18 weeks

Well..it's been a month since I last posted!  Oops!  With the hectic-ness of the holidays and now prepping to start up the spring semester (my last one! woo too!) and study for both my board exam and my program comps, the poor blog has been neglected!  So this will be a bit of a catch up!  Where to even begin?  We are settled into our lovely house, although the "nursery" is still full of boxes and pictures that need to be hung.  That is our next project, because I feel like I can't really start thinking about baby stuff until there's a room to put baby stuff in!

Speaking of baby, we decided to pay for an elective gender ultrasound to see what we were having.  We went in on the 21st pretty sure we were having a girl, based on the previous nuchal translucency scan at 12 weeks and the tech's best guess then.  Our little babiest (that's what Jiggs calls it) was NOT having it.  Legs were crossed, thumb was sucked, and babiest was just chilling.  The tech had me roll from side to side, bend over, and shake my belly to try to get some movement.  After about 15 minutes we finally got some cooperation, and imagine our surprise when the tech said.."girl, huh?  Well, there's a penis there, so I'm thinking it's a boy!"  I was in shock, as I was just sure I was having a girl.  All the old wive's tales, Chinese gender chart, symptoms, everything, along with the first tech's guess, had made me think girl!  You've got this whole life planned out in your head, and it's hard at first to rearrange your thoughts.  However, I'm really excited now, and it's helped talking to my friends Erin and Leah, who both had been told at one point they were having girls, and then found out later they were boys (Leah already had two boys and was told her third was a girl up until later scans!).  My mom sent us a box full of little boy clothes and goodies, which really got me excited as well.  We had a definite girl name picked out but couldn't really agree on a boy name.  Right now it's looking like this little guy is going to be named Andrew.  We've been calling him Andrew/Andy/Drew throughout the day to see how we like it, and at this point can't really picture him as anything else!  Here's a cute little picture from the gender ultrasound (I'll spare him the embarrassment of having his boy parts out on the internets).  We go in this Wednesday for the full anatomy scan that's done between 18-20 weeks, so hopefully the doctor doesn't have another shock for us then, since I'm pretty attached to the idea of our little guy now!

Andy sucking his thumb, just chillin'.

The same day, we had a Christmas party at our house with a bunch of our friends, plus two adorable little babies.  Definitely different than Christmas parties of the past, but it was great.  We also got to use our fire pit in the backyard, which Adam was very excited about.  It was FREEZING (we must have caught the 2 weeks of Arizona winter), but fun to make s'mores around the fire.  Some pics from the party:

Adam was the chef..I found the recipes on pinterest.  Homemade mac and cheese, roast beef, sautéed peas with onions, and chimichurri sauce and horseradish cream sauce.  Yum!!

All the girls plus Jiggs (before Kelsey arrived).

All the boys (before Travis and Davide arrived).

Other than that, Christmas was fun.  We participated in the annual Turner family tradition of going out for Chinese food on New Year's Eve at Abacus Inn, a tiny little hole in the wall in Glendale by our old house.  It's exciting to think that next year we'll have a 6 month old joining us for dinner!

We get a calendar from them every year, and never use it. ;)

New Year's Eve was very low-key.  We went over to Megan and Greg's along with our other pregnant friends the Lloyds (who just had their ADORABLE baby Jack!).  We had appetizers and the girls went and picked up Chinese food takeout…and we were all home by 11.  We watched the ball drop from bed.  Maybe in a few years when all our kids are older we'll be able to welcome the new year in style, but for now, this was pretty nice!

Jiggs has been VERY cuddly and protective of me.  I'm pretty sure he knows his little brother is cooking.  He is ALWAYS by my side, cuddling me, or touching me.  It's pretty cute.  Hopefully he'll feel the same way when Andy gets here, and love him just as much as we will!

He looks huge in this picture.  Sitting on the belly.

Almost 18 week bump.  It gets much bigger by the end of the day!

How far along: 18 weeks (4.5 months!)

Maternity clothes:  Yep - all my old pants are too tight, and shirts are too short.  I'll have to invest in some more work clothes…luckily my internship this spring is only twice a week, and I can dress like a lazy college kid the other days!

What I miss:  Being able to brush my teeth!  My only puke trigger now is brushing my teeth.  I don't even have to touch my tongue…it's something about the toothpaste or toothbrush or ????  I've been using mouthwash and floss, but every couple days I give brushing a try, and it never fails to trigger a nice vomit session!

Exercise:  I took a Karve class with Megan last week (a combo of barre method/yoga/pilates) and felt pretty good.  I ended up signing up for a class package, as it's a really good low-intensity workout.  I've also been taking Jiggs on 1.5 mile walks through our hilly neighborhood.  It's nice to be getting back into it, but I can definitely tell 4 months of not working out has taken its toll!

Cravings:  Still change from day to day.  I've eaten chicken noodle soup almost every day for lunch, along with vanilla yogurt with chocolate chips.  Yum.  

Aversions:  Beef/red meat.  There's a box of Velveeta mac and cheese in the pantry I may have to toss.  I ate it at the height of my sickness, and don't know if I'll ever be able to eat it again! :(

Symptoms:  Growing belly!  Above-mentioned nausea.  I'm getting really bad migraine headaches every couple weeks as well which are not fun.

Labor signs:  Around 16 weeks I was apparently having mild contractions.  My stomach would get really tight and I'd feel nauseous for a few minutes, then it would go away.  I mentioned it to my doctor and she said I needed to take it easy and make sure to stay hydrated.  I'm sure finals and moving didn't help.  Since I've been on break though, they stopped.

Best moments of the week:  Checking things off the to-do list to make the house come together!  I also think I felt the baby move for the first time a few days ago.  It didn't feel like  a "flutter" that everyone mentions, but more like something rolling against the inside of my stomach.  It was a weird feeling that I haven't felt before, so I'm pretty sure it was baby!  I've felt it a couple times since then, but nothing consistent.  I can't wait to feel it on a more regular basis!