A Great Christmas Gift

So this lovely picture is to alert you to the fact that we are having a girl! (Note the arrow). Don't worry, I've posted some more attractive sono pictures as well.

I was embarrassed to admit that I really, really wanted a girl. Even more than I did last time. But I'm such a believer of Murphy's law that I just knew it was going to be a boy (yes, I'm pathetic). So I was pretty surprised that it is a girl!

I've been thinking about how this is such a great gift for me this Christmas. Not only did I really want a girl, but I think this will be a healing experience. If it had been a boy, of course I would have loved him and been excited, but there would have been something eery about the fact that we were right back where we started - talking about boy names and boy themes for the nursery, etc etc. I'm thinking that would have been really hard. Now that we know we are having a girl, we can begin to create a difference experience from last time. I think I need that. No, I KNOW I need that.

In other news, the baby weighs 6 oz and it sitting pretty low, right on my bladder. The sono tech did a full anatomy scan, but will need to do another one because the baby is still too small for her to check out the heart. But everything that she (the tech) examined looked normal. Baby was also very active, and I think I am to the point where I can feel the movement. It's still a little "iffy" ("Was that me or was that the baby?") but I think I can feel it.

The thing that has me a little bit on edge is that they're going to be monitoring my cervix real closely over the next month or so. I will be going in weekly for sonograms with the big machine to measure my cervix. Yesterday the measurement was in what my doctor called a "gray zone"... he said that the meaurement does not indicate preterm labor, but if it gets any thinner, we may need to talk about options like doing a cerclage or (heaven forbid) bedrest for the rest of the pregnancy. So, I'm really hoping that my cervix does not thin out!! While I'm glad there are some options we can do if needed, neither of them are desirable.

Anyway, that's the update. Here's a few more pictures:














The first picture is baby's profile, and the next picture on the right shows baby's foot...

Another profile picture...

More sono pictures to come, probably, for awhile...