10 fingers, 10 toes and 1 flexible baby

At 21 1/2 weeks or 22 weeks (depending on what due date you go by), we were able to have our next ultrasound. This one was the biggie, where they look at and measure all of the important parts of Baby and make sure everything is looking good for how old it is and developing properly. Everything checked out! There is one thing, a little extra fluid in the colon, that they're going to maybe do another ultrasound to check on in a few weeks, but the doctor didn't seem too concerned about it when going over the results.

We saw 10 fingers, 10 toes, a pumping heart, parts of the brain, leg and arm bones, kidneys, bladder and face. All was where it was supposed to be and looking good.

And we managed to restrain ourselves and stick with our plan of not finding out the gender, so it remains a mystery!!

Baby cooperated for the most part, but it was in an odd position for a few of the pictures so I had to move around a bit to get it to move around. It was laying on it's back with it's legs up above it's head! What a flexible child...or that means it has it's Dad's long legs!!

Can you see the funny position I'm in? You can see my head and then my leg extending up to where the ultrasound tech marked my foot. I'm one flexible kiddo!

We also got a few nice shots of Baby's pretty little face. According to the ultrasound tech, it spent most of it's time facing Dad. Hope that doesn't mean it's playing favorites already!!

If you can see that white line above the mouth, right by the nose, those are Baby's teeth starting to form! Amazing what they can see on ultrasounds these days!!

Here's one with part of the whole body.

In checking to make sure it had all it's fingers and toes, we had the chance to see Baby's cute little hands and feet. We didn't get a picture of the hands because it was clenching it's fists and moving around too much. But it did have its right index finger pointing up (pretty cute if you ask me, but I'm biased of course).

Here's my foot!

As always, it was an amazing experience for the both of us to see our baby flipping around in there. We saw Baby do a couple of kicks (one of which I really felt, strong baby!), opening and closing it's mouth and moving it's hands up and down. The best part though is just knowing that Baby is doing well in there and growing like it's supposed to. And in just four-and-a-half more months, we'll be able to see and hold those cute fingers and toes!!



Flutter, flutter, tap, tap

At 21 weeks, I am pretty sure that I'm feeling the baby a little bit. Having never been pregnant before, I'm never 100 percent sure that's what it is, but it feels different than anything else, so I would just have to assume it's the kiddo.

I have been trying to describe the feeling to people, but it's very hard to put into words. Everyone always says it feels like a little "flutter," which I would agree with, but I also think it feels like someone lightly tapping or poking your skin. It's very light right now, but hopefully Baby will just continue to get stronger and the movements will be more apparent. Because Baby's Dad is very anxious to get to feel it now that I can!

At 21 weeks is also when Baby has decided to hit a major growth spurt. I swear I woke up on Wednesday and was sticking out two inches more! Maybe it's just all in my head, but I really notice a difference. But of course, this is a good thing because it means Baby's growing like it's supposed to!

I took this picture on Monday morning (pre-growth spurt in my opinion):

A helpful tip...

If anyone is looking for a way to not have to spend a lot of money on baby stuff, one way is to have your sibling have a couple of kids first and then take all of their stuff! Not that this was my plan all along, but my older brother and sister-in-law are parents to my adorable niece and nephew and generously passed on a lot of baby items to us this weekend. We are so very grateful!

Thanks to them we don't have to buy a tub, Boppy pillow, swing, bouncy chair, Bumbo chair, bassinet, ExerSaucer or activity station (where the lay underneath it). 

**Note - yes, the ribbon on the bassinet is pink, but we do not know the baby's gender and are not planning on finding out. The bassinet is from when my niece was born. My nephew slept in it too and is showing no signs of being tramatized, so we'll just leave it too. :)

It really does help a lot, though there's still plenty of stuff to get for this kiddo! We're off to register for more stuff this afternoon. This is another reason (besides him liking "projects") that Chris is looking to finish the basement - so we can have more room for all this stuff!!

Again, we are extremely thankful for having family that is willing to share their things with us. Another friend/family member of mine has already said we could have a few of her things as well. We are so blessed!

More updates to Baby's room

We're getting more and more prepared for Baby to arrive. While we had most of the basics for the nursery in place, we were (and still are) missing a few pieces. We recently were able to pick up the glider we had ordered and also bought a bedding set.

Here's the new view when you come in the door. We set up the glider and bought an end table and lamp to go with it (for all those late-night feedings!). Due to the bright sun outside, you can't see the nice valance that came with the bedding set, but it's a nice light green with some polka dots on it. Chris put up a curtain rod a couple weeks ago (but now he's running out of "projects" in the baby's room, so he's already started looking into finishing the basement!). We haven't found much to put up on the shelves yet, but I think that will come with time. So far, there's just a book about the ocean, which was a gift from Baby's Grandma Sell, who just couldn't resist. :)

Here's the view from the other corner of the room. The bedding set also came with a diaper bag which is hanging on the closet. The cute turtle on the dresser is a nightlight, and was Baby's Valentine's Day present from its Daddy.

Belated Dr. appt recap

My apologies for my absence! I would love to have some kind of excuse, but the last couple weeks have just gotten away from me and blogging got shoved to the back of my mind. Sorry! We've both been busy at work and then in the evenings, one of us stays up working late and the other falls asleep in front of the TV around 8:30 (I'll let you try and figure out who is who).

But we did have our monthly check-up with the doctor on the 20th. It was a pretty quick appointment, mostly just to check all my vitals and of course, hear the baby's heartbeat.

Here are the stats:
Heartbeat: 150 beats per minute, heard loud and clear by Mom, Dad and the Dr.
Blood pressure: I never remember the specific numbers, but it was in the normal range
Mom's weight gain: 10 pounds, right on track for 17 1/2 weeks (Meaning I'm in full-on maternity pants now!)

Our next appointment will be the biggie! Even though we'll be 20 weeks this week, we're not going to do the next ultrasound until March 21, because we both want to be there for it and one of us is starting to travel for work. So we'll have to postpone it a bit, but it will be well-worth the wait - a 70-minute ultrasound, followed up by a check-up with the doctor, who will also go over the ultrasound results.