It's (Officially) a Girl!!

Sara had an OB appointment on Friday morning.  My OBs wanted me to take the glucose test early as a pre-caution (and yes, I still have to take it at 28wks, too... so not fair!), so I had to be there at 8:50 for the first blood draw and to drink the grossly sweet fruit punch drink.  Kevin and Carson came along for the appointment, too, since I was having an ultrasound and I didn't think I'd be feeling too well by 11:00 when I was done with the glucose test.  We ended up getting hit by a winter storm early on Friday morning, so it actually worked out quite well to have my appointment that day so Kevin and I didn't have to make our work commutes.  Kevin's sister, Julie, had an appointment on Friday morning, too, and her whole family joined her since Jason didn't trust her to drive on the bad roads, I guess.  It had been awhile since we'd seen them, so it was a fun little reunion in the waiting room.  :) 

The glucose test went ok.  Better than I expected, actually.  I'm still having a good deal of morning sickness, especially when my stomach is empty.  I did have to fight quite a few urges to puke, but I was able to, thankfully (else I'd have to start all over another day).  I was starving by the time we got out of there at 11:00, though.  And the baby wasn't too happy with it, either.  If she's anything like she is now when she is born, I expect her to be very impatient when she is hungry.  She sure beats me up when I'm feeling hungry now.  Its usually the only time I can feel her moving when I'm not lying down quietly, due to my placenta position. 

Everything on the ultrasound checked out very well - she is looking very healthy.  And it was confirmed that she is, in deed, a baby girl!  I had an ultrasound at the end of January after having a little scare, which showed a baby girl, but Kevin has been skeptical since he wasn't there with me to see it.  Plus, that ultrasound was at 18 weeks, which is a little early to tell.  I was 21w4d on Friday, which is exactly what baby girl was measuring.  So it looks like we are right on for the July 2nd due date still.  Her heartbeat was 145 bpm and she was quite active.  And she's weighing just over a pound right now.  Carson thought it was pretty neat to see her moving on the tv screen and to get such clear looks at her different body parts.  He was quite excited by it all and kept saying "oh she is just so cute!" 

I have an anterior placenta this time, which means the placenta is on the outside of my uterus.  Most of the time, women have a posterior placenta - that is what I had with Carson.  I do feel some movement, but not nearly as much as I felt with Carson at this point.  She has to really be kicking hard (like when she is hungry) for me to feel it.  The doctors say it'll probably be like that throughout the pregnancy.  The anterior placenta also makes it a little more challenging to get decent ultrasound pictures, especially the 4-D pictures.  Since the pictures have to be taken through the placenta, they just show the bone structure, rather than the features.  So it looks like we'll be really surprised when she is born since we won't likely get any sneak peeks like we did with Carson.  :)  That's ok, though. 

For those that have been wondering about names, we don't have a first name picked out yet.  And we probably won't until after she was born, considering Carson wasn't named until he was a day and a half old.  We'll probably do what we did with Carson and go in with two or three names that we like, then choose one once we see what she looks like and what her personality is like.  We have known the middle name since about a week after we found out I was pregnant.  Middle names are always easy for us because they have meaning behind them.  Baby girl's middle name will be Esther-Marie.  Esther after my grandma that passed away a couple of years ago.  Marie is my and my mom's middle name - and it is after my Auntie Marie, who was my mom's godmother and my grandma's sister.  But you'll have to wait on the first name until after she is born, probably.  :)