We found out that we are having a baby boy at this week's ultrasound appointment. It's likely the last time we'll see our precious baby's image before we welcome him into the world this fall, so we definitely treasured every minute of it. He was very active the whole time; it's a wonder I can't feel him moving around yet! (I hear first time moms don't feel the kicks til the 20th-22nd weeks.) Neither S. nor I were particularly surprised by the news since our ultrasound technician at the 12th week mark told us she thought that the baby would be a boy. She seemed to have years of experience, so I'm sure she knew what she was talking about. :) We've been agonizing over it somewhat because, although we've always had a solid baby girl's name in mind for a daughter, we're still uncertain about what we want to name our son. I guess now we have to figure it out! We do have a front runner in mind, so I guess we'll start addressing our baby more frequently by the name and see how we like it. Feel free to suggest some names, though I won't hold it against you if you're trying to keep the perfect name to yourself for your future son!
Again, for the sake of remembering this time period, I am going to make a quick list of easy/hard things about the pregnancy over the last month:
Easy:
1. Drinking more water - I'm usually not much of a water drinker, and when I found out that I had to consistently down 8-10 8-oz. glasses of water everyday, I was pretty sure that this was never going to happen. My body seems to know that I need more water though - I feel thirsty if I don't have a gulp of water every 15 minutes or so. The 64-80 ounces of water per day was easy, even without me keeping track of it too hard.
2. Fooding - I'm not craving anything unusual, and there aren't any smells that are putting me off.
3. Staying stress-free - I guess it's a combination of work being more stress-free these days as well as my general philosophy of life keeping me stress-free, but whatever it is, it's working. I am feeling good - very content, happy, and thrilled with life. :)
Hard:
1. In-taking 1200 mg of calcium a day - I'm just not used to having the equivalent of 4 8-oz. glasses of milk a day to get this much calcium digested! It's a lot of calcium! Luckily, I've picked up some calcium gummies that give me 500 mg when I take two. That helps a ton.
2. Gaining an appropriate amount of weight - In my case, I've gained way too much weight already, and I was told I needed to NOT gain any weight between the last check-in and next week's check-in. So hard! But I know it's better for me in the long run; I don't want to be that woman in FL that delivered an 18-pound baby.
3. Figuring out what baby needs - With the huge and ever burgeoning baby industry the way it is, it really is little wonder that first-time parents are overwhelmed with what they need to get for their baby. I'm starting up a list of items and researching whether it's a necessity or a want, the various brands, the price... There's so much to look into! We went into a baby store recently to check out strollers and car seats, and we were completely out of our element. As soon as we saw the rows of strollers, our eyes kind of glazed over. It took a seasoned sales clerk to show us how everything worked, what parents typically look for in a stroller/car seat combo, etc. We were so thankful to get that walk-through. Honestly, you can read up all you want, but until you touch and play with it yourself, you have no idea what will work for you. Don't even get me started on the daycare search...yikes.
Anyway, overall we are still super happy and excited to be doing all this prep for Baby Chong. Can't wait to meet the little guy in the fall. Until then, I'm giving him loving belly rubs and telling him all the reasons why he should love me more than Dad. ;)
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| Mommy at the end of 18 weeks! |
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