wee babe... boy???

i just want to start by saying i am totally stealing this idea from an old roommate of mine.  she took weekly prego photos and i thought it was such a cute idea that i'm doing the same... sorry to the roommate in advance... just really liked the idea... i also want to apologize for the quality and angles of the pictures... we are still trying to figure out this big fancy camera we got for chris to use at school and figuring out how we want the pictures to look... but i'm impressed chris does so well having no idea how the camera really works!

this week i am 17 weeks... but the baby is still measuring a week ahead.  today was really fun.  we had gone with the intent to see if we could see what the gender of the baby is.  this was also the first appointment chris was able to come to since he is on break from school.  my mom came with us so we had a little party at the doctors office.  i have to just say that my doctor is hilarious! dr. swainston... i love him as my doctor! he makes everything fun and exciting because he's a little sarcastic and makes jokes the whole time.  he started with the ultra sound and showed us a zoomed in view of the baby's alien face which was facing right at us.  and then he zoomed in on the heart and turned on the sound... of course its in surround sound and up really loud... he made some joke about needing an excuse to go into best buy and get speakers... "makes you really feel the heart beat"  no kidding!! but still very cool to her that very fast heart beat.  after all that he started looking between the legs and right off said he saw something... but couldn't tell for sure because the umbilical was bunched up between the legs... so he turned on this other view that shows blood flow of umbilical cord and one part wasn't lighting up... so he said it could be boy stuff or still just cord... he's leaning toward boy but can only be 50% sure (another joke) he did one more test where he said "lets ask the baby" and started saying words like shopping... clothes... boys... barbies.  and the baby didn't move. so he said words like... football... sports... eating lots of food... and the baby moved his head. haha! i thought i was going to die laughing...  at this point the baby started moving his mouth open and closed and that was really fun to watch... like a little fish going for food... i asked my doctor if it was ok how i slept and he said it doesn't matter as long as you sleep comfortably.. and then he told chris "but she should NOT be doing any cleaning, laundry, dishes, or cooking... she should only be shopping... its for exercise"  haha i love my doctor... always looking out for me.

at this point we are saying its tentatively a boy... but we will know for sure september 30th when we go for our 20 week appointment where they do the big ultra sound and measure everything.  that will be really fun.  it would have been nice to know for sure now but i'm also just glad everything looks good and all my tests and everything looks really good.  

i thought from the beginning that this was a boy... for a few reasons: 

- my sister saved everything from her daughter so i have 3 bins full of baby clothes for a little girl... very prepared in girl department...

- when looking at baby names there haven't been too many girl names that really stand out and i love, but when looking at boy names we have had a 2 or 3 that we both really like...

- we have too many girls in our family and it was time for a boy... the only one on both sides is william and he's already 2... its time for a boy.

of course... if we go back on the 30th and the baby turns out to be a girl we will be thrilled and excited and i will be shocked and TOTALLY wrong... but as of now... i feel good thinking my gut feeling was boy...

here are some of my pregnancy symptoms happening now:

- my stomach is really starting to stick out.  i think because i have such a short torso... there is nowhere for anything to move except straight out.
- i am feeling a lot better... not so nauseous.
- i have lost my mind... i can't remember anything.  i have a thought of something i need to do the next day or later and if i don't write it down or do it right then... its lost.... i have also lost the ability to talk coherently because i forget words... can't think of what i'm trying to say.
- i am sleeping much better with only one bathroom break during the night....
- i am drinking a lot more water (i'm craving ice water badly) so my bathroom use during the day had gone up exponentially.
- my nails are crazy long and hard... i have never had nails before so it blows my mind to have such long nails.
- my face is still breaking out all the time, but i think that will be the case the whole 9 months.
- i think i felt the baby move for the first time!!! but i'll share more on that when i report on our trip to reno.
- the only really bad thing that happens now is that if i sit for too long in one position i get a really bad pain on my lower lower back...

i really like being pregnant and being able to tell people i'm pregnant... (even though my brother sam teases me about it) i'm just so excited that i can't help but tell people...