IT'S A....

GIRL!!!! (Most likely) Lol. We had our NT scan yesterday and the tech told us she's about 75% sure we have a baby girl in there. The way that they can tell at this point is called "the angle of the dangle." All bubs at this stage have a nub with either turns into the penis or clitoris. Boy babies stick straight up and girl nubs stick outwards or facing down. You can see the arrow pointing to hers in the picture below.

The NT scan went very well...our baby's chances of having Down Syndrome is 1:9,200 and Trisomy 18 is 1:25,000. But of course nothing is without a little complication...the ultrasound tech did the ultrasound and afterwards she said the doctor would come in after and explain our results and sometimes she might want to take a look herself. The doctor comes in very serious and gets right down to business, taking the ultrasound wand out again and taking a look at baby girl. I could tell something was wrong by the way she kept looking at a certain "something." She finally turned off the machine and said our baby looked perfectly healthy and everything looked great but she wanted to talk to us about a small finding she saw. She said it's probably nothing significant but we have a two vessel umbilical cord. Normally, its a 3-vessel cord with two arteries and one vein but in our case there is only one artery and one vein. She said its not too uncommon and she said complications from it are very rare. They do want to monitor it and make sure baby is getting everything she needs so we have another level 2 ultrasound scheduled for late April. I did some research of my own when I got home and of course read the worst case scenarios which are really scary. But I did find tons of women who had this and everything came out perfectly healthy. So we just have to have faith that it's all in God's hands and pray everyday for our baby girl. I also read that in most cases of 2 vessel cords, the mom is induced a couple of weeks early and is very closely monitored during the last couple months of pregnancy.

Ok here are more pics of the ultrasound! Here is baby just pulling her thumb out of her mouth...we just missed it!

Then her beautiful little hand waving at us

Both of our moms were able to be at the ultrasound so they knew it was a girl. But we wanted to tell someone at least in a cute way so we surprised Tony's dad and brother with this...

Anyways, thats all thats going on on the baby front! I did make those peanut butter brownies and they were SO GOOD! I used the big muffin pans which worked great. The only issue I had is after they had been in the oven for 15 minutes like the recipe said, they were super batter-y still in the middle so I put them in a few minutes extra and they were perfect. Tony ate them up like they were going to run away. :)

The Official 12 Week Mark

How far along? 12 weeks 
Total weight gain/loss: 6 lbs up from pre-pregnancy weight
Maternity clothes? Nope
Sleep: I fall asleep really easily but I get up to pee about 3 times during the night.  
Best moment this week: Seeing the bub on the ultrasound :) 
Movement? Not yet
Food cravings: Sushi, crab sandwiches, deli sandwiches
Gender prediction: I think its a girl and lots of people have told me girl. Except my Aunt Joss who thinks its a boy and she is very intuitive so we'll see! Hoping to find out at the NT scan next wednesday 
Belly button in or out? In
What I miss: Sushi and deli meat 
What I am looking forward to: NT scan and completing our first trimester (13 weeks)
Milestones: Making it to 12 weeks! 
Things I've been experiencing this week: A little more sleepy than usual and headaches
Showing? Just bloating still. My bloat bump always looks the same! 
Size of baby: Large plum 


12 weeks today!!! We woke up this morning and got the doppler out and sure enough there was Baby O with a fast heartrate 162-170. According to our baby go-to website, the baby is about the size of a large plum today. I am a little confused by this because last week it said baby was the size of a lime and isn't a lime bigger than a plum?? Oh well :) It also said baby is opening and closing his/her fist, curling toes, sucking, and can hiccup. All the major organs are developed, just needing now to grow.

In other parts of our lives, we have officially started our 4 day weekend. YAY. I think we are going to see The Vow tonight, family party tomorrow, then just relaxing. We have been dying to get the dogs out of the house to run around but our dog park has been closed since January. It's supposed to open back up March 2nd so we are really looking forward to that.
Also, I found these brownies last week on Pinterest and ever since Tony has been drooling over this picture. So I will be attempting to make these this weekend. We don't have mini muffin pans so hopefully our regular pans will work. You can find the recipe here http://www.bakedperfection.com/2009/07/peanut-butter-cup-brownies.html

Almost 12 weeks!

So here is my excuse for not posting for a few weeks...I haven't told anyone about my blog yet! I started it as a journal-type so I can remember everything about this pregnancy without the intention of ever telling anyone about it. But I decided now I want to share this journey we are on! So here goes...I last left with being unsure about how my 9 week appointment (first OB appt) would go because the baby was measuring behind and I thought the heartbeat was too low. Turns out I had nothing to worry about! Baby was measuring perfect although he/she kept her back to us the whole time and wouldn't turn around and the heartbeat was 176-185. Perfect! I ordered a home doppler so I can listen to the heartbeat whenever I want. SO so worth it. Anytime I have any doubts about this pregnancy I whip it out and listen to my new favorite sound in the world.
On Sunday I was having some brown spotting so I sent an email to my midwife to mention it. I wasn't really worried because i had read that that's pretty normal in pregnancy. But they called me on monday to come in for an ultrasound just to be sure. Baby was perfect measuring a day ahead at 11weeks and 4 days. He/she was even moving around a bit. I did have to get the Rhogam shot because my blood type is O-negative. Anytime there is a chance the baby's blood could mix with mine, I have to get that shot. Also it will be given automatically around 28 weeks and after birth.
Let's see what else....I am so close to 12 weeks! That means no more progesterone shots, no more estrogen patches, and no more estrogen pills. I also stopped the baby aspirin yesterday after Dr. Lovely (IVF doc) and my midwife, AND the doctor who saw me for that quickie ultrasound all said it was ok to stop. Hope they are right! I am 11w5d today and take the last doses of everything tomorrow! I'm excited to finally be a normal pregnant person. We have our NT scan on the 22nd of this month. That's the scan they do combined with bloodwork to test for Down Syndrome and other Trisomies. To be honest we really just want the ultrasound because the midwife told me they like to tell you the gender at that scan! Here are the ultrasound pics from the quickie ultrasound on monday..

Tony and I celebrated Valentine's Day last night by going to Fenton's which was the BEST dinner ever. Crab sandwiches and onion rings and a huge sundae to share. He also got me roses and tulips for V-day :)