Twenty weeks down!

Well friends, what do you think? Am I carrying a boy or another girl?? That's the question everyone wants answered now that we've made it to 20 weeks. But guess what, we've known what we're having since December! ::gasp!::

20 weeks, 5 days pregnant

Seeing that I'm 35 this time around, it apparently moves you into the "advanced maternal age" high risk group. I am THIRTY FIVE. 3-5.  I'm pretty sure that's not old. But nonetheless, I'm subject to the all the bells and whistles that come with the helicoptering OB team. So this time around at 12 weeks, we had blood drawn for the NIPT MaterniT21 test, which checks the baby's DNA in the maternal bloodstream for fetal chromosomal anomalies and can tell you the gender of the baby (if you choose). It takes about a week to get the results back, so for a week Kevin kept bugging me every day to see if I had heard anything yet.

We had been discussing back and forth whether we'd want another girl or were hoping for a boy. I think Kevin was the most indecisive out of the two of us. A girl - he already knew what to do, and we were already equipped for one. A boy - he'd finally have some testosterone around the house! But either way, we'd be happy. When you go through all the hoops of IVF like we do to conceive, it really just doesn't matter if it's a boy or girl; you just want that baby to be happy and healthy and HERE.

Now, one of the things I really like about my OB practice is that the doctors are really good about getting back to you quickly with results - usually through their online messaging system. So much so that I actually got emailed the results on Sunday, December 20th. Dr. Lin messaged that everything was normal, and that we were having a healthy baby....just kidding, not going to tell you yet. And guess what, I did the same thing to Kevin. I don't know why I didn't rush off and tell him right away, but I think I just wanted some me time with the baby first, knowing what it was. I did tell him on Tuesday though, and once again he could have shaken me for not telling him right away, but loved me too much to do so! We decided we wanted to tell our parents at Christmas, but we were going to wait to tell everyone else until we got to see everything via the Level 2 ultrasound that I was scheduled for in January (another 35+ perk). Our families were definitely excited, especially since they didn't expect to find out so soon! But we swore them to secrecy, and it's been killing my dad, not to shout it from the rooftops.

I have to say this pregnancy has been a lot different than when I was pregnant with Emma (maybe it's because I'm 35). This time I was pretty much sick the whole first trimester with tons of nausea and dry heaving at all hours of the day. The medicine they gave me to alleviate the symptoms was something I could only stand taking at night because it made me too zoned out during the day to deal with Emma. This kept up until week 17 when my OB finally put me on Pepcid AC thinking that maybe now it was stomach acid production that was making me feel out of sorts - and what a blessing that was! Within 24 hours, 90% of the nausea was gone. All in all, I ended up losing 12 lbs. from that craziness. But no worries, it didn't hurt the baby for me to lose any of the weight, and I've been slowly starting to put a little back on.

At 17 weeks, I also had a bit of a scare when at my OB appointment they couldn't find the baby's heart beat using the Doppler. I wasn't originally scheduled to have an ultrasound that day, but since two different nurses couldn't find the heart beat they whisked me into ultrasound to check on things. To say I was a mess would be an understatement. Of course, it would happen on my first OB appointment with Kevin out of town in Corpus. As soon as the baby appeared on the screen, it waved hello, and I felt a huge rush of relief. The ultrasound tech was able to find the heartbeat easily, and everything was just fine. It just turns out that the little booger just had too much swimming space and was taking advantage of it to take a turn about the womb.

Baby #2 at 17 weeks, 3 days

Scary looking face view

Profile View

My other challenge with this pregnancy has been dealing with dizziness and feeling faint. I'm not on any blood pressure medicine yet, but I have been having episodes where I just have to stop and sit down before I pass out, which suggests that my blood pressure might be low. In fact, I was shopping in Walmart last week when I just suddenly felt warm and fuzzy and needed to take a break and sit down. I was okay, but it's kind of annoying since there's no real rhyme or reason as to when or why it's been happening. When checked, all my blood pressure readings are normal. Still, I'm being closely monitored and after my next OB appointment at 24 weeks, I'll switch to going every 2 weeks.

I've been feeling the baby move since 18 weeks, and it's really picked up in speed and force here in the past few days. If this one is anything like Emma, I will have a party going on in my belly for the next 19 weeks. I swear Emma was practicing to be a ninja in the womb. Or river-dancing. Either way, it was never a dull moment!

So now that you've seen a picture of me and read about my symptoms...here's a picture of the baby at 19 weeks, 3 days...
What do you think? Boy or Girl??

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It's our pleasure to introduce you to

Mr. Henry Thomas Banes!

Like Emma, his name is special to us. His first name is for Kevin's maternal grandfather - Henry Gaas - a strong, hardworking man who fiercely loved his family. The baby's middle name, Thomas, is the same as Kevin's. So now we've got to start preparing for all things boy! We've already picked out his bedding - it's lodge/moose themed - but we've still got to get furniture, paint, and of course, clothes! We're super excited about our little man and can't wait until he gets here (especially Emma)!

We love him to pieces already!!