Baby Update

I'm now just about 17 weeks along in this pregnancy, and so far all is going well. We had an appointment last Tuesday, and we heard the heart beat at 156 beats per minute. (It was 160 last month.) So, good news! I've been feeling the baby for 9 weeks now, which I know sounds a little crazy, but it's true. The movements are definitely getting stronger but still aren't strong enough for Ted to feel. Soon, though, I'm sure.

I had to break down and get the maternity clothes out once I hit 14 weeks, 3 days. Thankfully I still have most of my collection. I can't seem to find my nice black dress pants, a pair of khaki pants, or one of my pairs of jeans. That's a bummer, because I still have all of the summer clothing, which won't be needed for very long. Ah, well. I do have some winter things that will hopefully get me through without going crazy from maternity clothes boredom.

Next month we get our 20-week ultrasound. It will be nice because my parents will be here visiting; however, we have learned that the base technicians (and doctors) will NOT, under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, tell us the gender of the baby. Nor, it seems, will they tell us anything at all! Apparently a gender guess was incorrect, and the mother raised a huge stink about it, thereby ruining things for the rest of us who enjoy actually conversing with our ultrasound tech. So now not only do we not get to find out the gender of our baby during the 20-week ultrasound, but apparently we get to sit there for almost an hour watching a screen and having very little idea what is actually being looked at, because the techs won't talk to the patients at all. Strange! We've had a number of ultrasounds with the other three children, and we enjoyed the running commentary as a part of the experience. "Here's the heart...you can see the four chambers...everything looks good. Here are the kidneys...here's an arm, there's a leg, etc."

I know, I know, way back in the olden days people didn't GET ultrasounds at all. I'm not going to whine about it, other than the fact that I think it is ridiculous that one mother--who should have KNOWN that nothing is 100% guaranteed--affected base policy in such a drastic way.

Ted and I DO plan to just go pay and have a 4-D ultrasound done, probably in December. (That's during the window when they say you get the best results in the pictures.) At least those places guarantee knowing what the gender is...if you don't get a good look at it the first time, you can come back for free!

We enjoy knowing in advance whether we're having a boy or a girl. We prayerfully choose baby names and begin praying for the baby in very specific ways. Additionally, since Charis prayed for a baby sister for well over a year and a half, we'd like the opportunity to tell her that A) her prayers were answered according to how she asked or B) God chose to give us a boy this time instead!