Pregnancy Journal: Week 23

I am growing like a weed! Or, more accurately, a pumpkin :) There are times when I wake up and I am certain that my belly has grown overnight! My friends at work have even started commenting that they feel like I didn't really look pregnant one day, and then all of the sudden I had a belly.

I really feel pretty good, all things considering. I'm having a hard time with eating, I feel full all of the time and I get heartburn like nobody's business. I've started carrying around tums because I can never predict when it is going to hit. It doesn't even matter if I have eaten recently, sometimes it just comes! I'm trying to change my eating habits and eat smaller amounts more frequently and make sure to sit up as much as I can, but it isn't helping too much. Hopefully we can figure out a solution soon.

We haven't gotten very far in the name department. We just can't seem to find anything that feels right or that we agree on. The names that I like the most, Anthony doesn't like and vice versa. I also have this feeling that somehow I need to find his name, that there is a name that is perfect for who he will be and his personality and that maybe we just haven't found it yet. Or, I could be worrying way too much about it :) Either way, we are definitely open to any and all suggestions. I've even told some of my friends to not tell me any names they plan on using for their future children, because if we find the perfect name we agree on, at this point we will use it regardless of where it came from :)

It's a......

BOY! We are so excited and super thrilled to be having a boy. I truly didn't have a preference, but Anthony was really wanting a little fishing buddy and he got his wish! We had an awesome time at the doctor's office today (how often do you get to say that??). Our sonographer was really great and really patient. It felt like we got so much time to just look (or in my case stare in amazement) at our little guy and watch her measure and point out all of his organs, bones, and general features that they check to make sure everything looks healthy. Once she did all of her measurements, she flipped the ultrasound machine to 3D so that we could get some good pictures. I was so excited that she did this, we didn't even have to ask and we didn't pay anything for it!

At first the little guy had his hands in front of his face so we couldn't get a good shot of him, then he started moving his feet around too. The sonographer good naturedly kept commenting about how wiggly he was and about how he seemed to have arms and legs everywhere! She patiently kept trying until she could get some good face pictures for us. In the beginning of the appointment, Anthony told her that he wanted to try to see if he could tell from the ultrasound if it was a boy or a girl so she waited until the end to tell us. She repositioned the wand so that it was right over his bum, he spread his legs and BAM. Even I was pretty sure it looked like a boy :) She said, "What do you think Dad?" Anthony's classmate told him to look for a turtle (boy) or a hamburger (girl) so he told her, "It looks like a turtle". She said, "Yep, its a boy alright and he is not shy at all!!" I guess he had been flashing her throughout the sonogram, but she wanted to wait until the end to see if we could guess it :) Here are some of the pictures that we got: I think this front shot looks just like Anthony:

I also got a chance to take some belly pictures last night, so here is my 20 1/2 weeks photo:

Yay for babies and yay for little boys!!!

More from my photo shoot :)

Vacation

This morning my mom and I got home from spending the last 3 days in Ohio visiting my sister. It was so much fun!! The first night we stayed up until 5am just talking. We did a serious amount of shopping and I bought a good amount of maternity clothes. I finally found some that actually fit me, they just had an expandable waistband. I'm not sure that I will fit into them towards the end, but I will at least get a good few months out of them. Of course, we had to do some shopping for the baby! I think we hit our limit for gender neutral clothing :) Luckily we get to find out if we are having a boy or a girl in a little over a week!

We ate so much good food, shopped around, watched movies, and spent quality time together. My nephew is seriously the cutest thing ever! He decided that we were best friends and almost every time he would come into the room and see me, he would start playing and think look up and casually say, "Love you, Ginia!" and go back to playing. It makes your heart melt! My sister did an impromptu photo shoot with me and school photos for my niece and the first two she's edited have turned out so well! It is nice to feel so beautiful at 5 months pregnant :)

This isn't technically a belly shot, but you can take a look at the belly in it, so I am counting it!