Doctor Visit Update

We went back to the doctor on Wednesday and everything looked great! The baby's heart rate was in the 140's this time, and my doctor made PERFECTLY clear that heart rate and gender are NOT connected! It was funny...I got about five words out of that question, and she already started rolling her eyes and saying "no, no, no..." I guess she's heard that before! :) She said that the heart rate changes with the baby's activities, so depending what he's doing, his heart rate may be higher or lower.

We scheduled the ultra sound day - October 4! It will be nice to know whether it's a boy or girl, but I really just want to know if everything looks okay. So....just a week and a half. And the best part is, we get to leave work early! 2:45 is the latest they could schedule it (unfortunately, it's less than a mile from my school, so I really only get to leave 5 minutes before the bell rings).

I forgot to blog this important happening...
I felt the baby move! It happened for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I read that starting around 16 weeks, it was possible, but it's usually more like 20 weeks before you can really start to feel anything, especially if it's your first child. So, right at 16 weeks, I started trying to pay attention to it. I learned that if I lay down, with no noise what so ever, and concentrate, then I could feel the baby moving around. It's so amazing - there really is a person in there! Lonnie was hoping he could put his hand on my belly and feel it, but I'm afraid it'll be several more weeks before we get a kick that strong!

I guess that's all that's happening for now....

We'll be sure and post next Thursday and let you know if we have a little princess or a football player!

I've got a belly!

Okay, I absolutely hate this picture, but I just knew you'd want to see my belly! We're amateurs at this picture thing, and still trying to figure out how to get the best "belly" picture. Now, I do NOT think that I look as pregnant as I do in this picture, but as Lonnie so kindly put it, "The picture doesn't lie!"

I've still been feeling pretty good. Just tired, but that's to be expected. I've only gained 2 pounds, which I worry is not enough, but everyone says it's not that big a deal. I guess I just figured to be a fat cow by now, especially after 5 months!

We head to the doctor tomorrow for our regular check-up, so I'll post an update tomorrow. Then we go back in two weeks to find out if it's a boy or girl!!!!

I've had several people ask me if I've started to look at baby stuff yet - clothes, bedding, decorations for the nursery, etc. I really haven't - I figure since we don't know if it's a boy or a girl yet, there's no point in looking. But yesterday the decorator in me starting getting ansy, so I got online and looked at bedding. I fell in love with a crib set from Walmart (who knew?). I just had to share it with you all...

It's just perfect! Trendy and not too girly. Anyways, I'm ready to start decorating! I guess I should probably wait til we know for sure if it's a girl or boy, though.

We are officially predicting...

A girl! Of course, we won't know for sure for at least 4 more weeks, but Lonnie and I have decided that we think it's a girl. Here is our reasoning:

• Even though we know it's more likely that we'll have a boy, thanks to the Lamp genes, there's always been a little part of me that really thinks it's going to be a girl.
• We cannot find ANY boy names that we like. And believe me, I've read the entire baby name book, but came up with nothing. We already have a girl named picked out (and have had it picked out since about week 7). That's gotta be a sign, right?
• The Chinese Lunar Calendar predicts a girl.
• We did a few of the "old wives tales" this weekend to predict the sex of the baby. They all pointed to a girl:

-The ring on a string test: It swung back and forth, which means it's supposed to be a girl

-Cravings: Now, I wouldn't say I've had any cravings yet, but for the whole pregnancy, even during the yucky nausea weeks, fruit has always sounded good to me. That's the only type of food that I've enjoyed eating the whole time. Supposedly sweet cravings means it's a girl, salty means a boy.

-Heartbeat: As I mentioned in the last post, the baby's heartbeat is in the 150's. A high heartrate supposedly means a girl, a low heartrate supposedly means a boy.

So, we're hoping to give you all a sweet little baby girl to love on! And don't worry, she will be extra sweet because Lonnie has put in his order for a non-crying, non-pooping, non-puking baby, so we'll only get the fun stuff - smiling, cooing, giggling, and so on. A man can dream, can't he?