Weeks 16 and 17 - Gender time!!

Since my last post, we've been to Vancouver, Alaska, and back home to Florida.  We flew to Vancouver, spent the night there and then boarded our ship for our seven night northbound Alaskan cruise.  It was beautiful but very cold!  I'm a wimp when it comes to cold weather.  I ate way too much delicious food and took lots of naps (since my body didn't like the 4 hour time difference very much). It was nice to get away from the world for a while.  My favorite part of the trip was our helicopter tour which took us to a glacier that we hiked on for 2 hours.  Here is a picture of us on the glacier in our lovely glacier gear:

Today I had my gender determination ultrasound at Little Life Imaging.  I don't know why, but I still get so nervous everytime I go to the doctor or have an ultrasound. I'm terrified that I'm going to go and get bad news or that there will no longer be a baby in there.  My mom, Michael's mom, and Michael's sister came with me.  Michael wasn't able to go because of work stuff, but I thought it would be fun to do it with just the girls in the family anyway. 

The baby was moving all over the place and the sonographer had a hard time getting the baby to sit still long enough for her to see the goods to determine the gender.  Once she was finally able to get a good look, she said without any hesitation "It's a girl!".  She pointed out the three little dots to indicate a girl, but to me it just looked like three little dots.  Thankfully she does this every day so I'm sure she knows what she's looking for better than I do.  After that was finished she let us watch the little munchkin move all around, took some measurements, let us listen to the heartbeat (158 this time around), and did a 3D preview for us.  We got to see her hiccupping, making sucking movements with her mouth, and she was a fiesty little thing punching me (I don't think she liked when the lady pressed on my tummy with the wand).  According to the measurements today, she is measuring a little bigger so maybe she will come early and not be a December baby after all *fingers crossed for that!*.

Introducing Elizabeth Grace:

And here she is looking like a little alien baby (in 3D) with her hand covering her face:

15 weeks check up

Things have been (thankfully) very uneventful since my last doctor's appointment. The midwife had me come in a little earlier than usual since we will be on our cruise through Alaska when I should have my normal appointment.  At my visit today they went over my blood test and NT scan results from my last appointment.  Everything came back normal so far, but I still have one more blood test to finish up the NT test. I've only gained one pound since my last visit which the nurse was happy about and my blood pressure was perfect, as usual (hopefully it stays like that). The midwife checked the baby's heartrate on the doppler and it was nice and strong and the heartrate was 150.  She gave me copies of all my medical info to take with me on our trip and scheduled my next two appointments. 

Life has been pretty busy lately with the end of the school year and trying to get things ready for our big trip.  I need to start doing belly pictures to document the pregnancy, but just haven't gotten around to it yet even though I have a nice little bump going on now. Maybe I can get Michael to take one tonight. 

My next appointment is just to finish up my lab work for the NT test the first week of July.  I go back the second week of July for my normal monthly check up.  I'm dying to know the sex of the baby and I don't deal very well with waiting so I scheduled an appointment at an independent ultrasound place for when we return from our cruise.  Michael thinks it is a little silly and would rather that I just wait til my 20 week ultrasound appointment, but part of the reason that I want to do it is just so I know that things are fine with the baby once we return from our trip.  I want to be able to get the baby's room ready soon, so I need to know if we are having a boy or a girl. 

We leave tomorrow to fly to Vancouver and on Friday we board the ship for our Alaskan cruise.  I'm excited for our last big trip before our little one arrives!!