Is it just me or is this
pregnancy flying by? I am already
halfway (over halfway, really) to my due date.
Today marks 20w6d. It’s amazing
to me. It seems like only last week I
was coming out of my bathroom on my birthday holding a (very) positive pee stick
and saying “good morning, daddy” to my husband.
I am relishing every single day of this pregnancy. Even now, as the evening heartburn is getting
worse, I’m just so happy to be carrying this child. Every movement (and there are LOTS now!) and
every kick (there have been some doozies) just makes me smile and makes my
heart swell with love. I never knew just
how happy being pregnant would make me.
It’s one of those things that you build up in your mind and sometimes it
just doesn’t live up to the hype. Not
this. This has far surpassed all the
hype I have built up over the years. I
know that there are complications that could still arise but for the time being
everything is better than I ever imagined.
I could not have asked for a more picture perfect pregnancy so far. Even the queasies, the migraines, the
heartburn, the fatigue and the new tendonitis/carpal tunnel have not put a
damper on this experience for me. I know
of so many women that have had terrible pregnancies with complication after
complication and I feared that it would be like for me (like I said, I’m only
halfway so anything can still happen). I
feared that since this was going to be my only pregnancy and getting here was
such a fight that I would have to suffer through 9 months of hell. So far (fingers crossed) it has been just the
opposite. I’m more than thankful and
grateful for this opportunity and I hope the good fortune keeps up.
Now for the griping:
Ever since my husband made
the funny comment of “if it’s a girl I’m going to send it back” to our
neighbors, they have done nothing but pick on him about it. Every time they see us it’s “oh, how’s the
baby girl doing?” And “when do you find
out that it’s a girl?” And “see what you
have to look forward to when your baby girl is born”. They are not nice about it. Their tone and their facial expressions are
very snide and sarcastic. The way they
say these things makes it seem like having a girl is the end of the world for
my husband. It’s like they can’t wait
to see my husband disappointed with his child before it’s even born. And the kicker is…they have 2 girls! It’s not my fault that your 18 month old girl
cries and fusses and won’t let you eat at a restaurant without screaming her
head off. It’s not my fault that you
told my husband weeks ago that if you knew she would act that way you wouldn’t
have had her. Yes, my husband wants a
boy. HE’S a boy and he already has a boy
so he knows what to do with a boy. He’s
not into pink and dresses and dolls.
However, my husband’s first concern is that we have a healthy child and
that our dream comes true to parent a child together. The day before our anatomy scan they were on
their porch and we had been outside.
They called over to us with a “so what time tomorrow do you find out it’s
a girl?” We tell them and we walk over
to talk to them. The husband said something
else to my husband and I about lost it.
BJ started talking to the wife and I looked dead at the husband and
said, (in a not nice voice with a not nice look on my face) “you know, he’s
still going to love it if it’s a girl.”
And he smiled strangely and said, “I know.” And then I continued with “and he’s NOT going
to be disappointed if it’s a girl.” And
he said, “he’s not?” I said, “no” and I
looked away. I couldn’t look at him in
the face anymore for fear of punching him in it. Just then another neighbor was driving by and
she stopped briefly to talk to me so I was able to remove myself from the
volatile situation that was brewing. I
like these people and I think they are good people but for the love of God,
stop trying to diminish my child’s life.
Later BJ told me that the husband told him that he made me mad. BJ told him that I was tired of getting such
a hard time about the possibility of it being a girl (and to set the record
straight, it’s not about it being a girl it’s about THEM hounding us about how
awful it would be to have a girl). Then
BJ told me that I needed to chill because they were just kidding around. I said, “I will not chill about this. Having a girl is not bad. They are making me feel like you will be
disappointed in your child and no mother EVER wants to feel like the father of
her baby is upset because of the gender which is completely out of our control.” He sort of understood where I was coming from
when I explained it that way. I probably
am over reacting but in their kidding of my husband they were making me feel
like crap. I was almost in tears a couple
of times because of things they said that were negative about girls. Maybe it was done just to get a rise out of
BJ but it really hurt MY feeling to hear it all. Anyway, have any of you mamas out there ever
encountered something like that?
Now for the fun stuff:
Our anatomy scan was Friday
morning. We drove up separately because
we each had to work afterward. I was
nervous, of course. Mainly for the
health of our baby. I had felt it move
here and there so I knew it was alive but that’s all I knew at this point. I hopped up on the table and the wand was on
my stomach and in no time we heard the beating heart. It was 149bpm which concerned me because a
week ago it had been 157. The tech said
it was fine. There on the screen was a
HUGE (compared to 12 weeks) baby’s head.
I fell in love all over again.
Measurements were taken and everything looked good. We got a really good picture of the feet side
by side and some good profile pictures, too.
And then it was switched over to 4D and oh my gosh…the baby was
beautiful. The hands were by its face
and it looked like it was posing for the picture. The tech had a hard time getting the arm and
hand measurements because the baby wouldn’t move its hands away from its
face. Then we saw the baby holding its own
hand…I melted again. Then came the
gender reveal. Now let me say this; I’ve
always thought it was going to be a girl.
Anyone that has ventured a guess has guessed a girl. I’ve told BJ numerous times that he better be
prepared to hear that it’s a girl. When
the money shot came up on the screen I didn’t even need the tech to tell me
because I saw the 3 white lines myself.
We are having a baby girl. I
couldn’t stop smiling. The tech handed
us the pictures and went to get the doctor.
I started crying as I looked at the pictures. I said to BJ, “I hope I’m a better mom to my
girl than my mom was to her girls.” And
he said, “Uh, you are not dancing on a pole, doing drugs and getting involved
with men that treat you like crap.” And
I said (through happy tears), “I meant emotionally”. And he said, “you are way better off
emotionally than you mother.” I couldn’t
stop crying. I am going to write a whole
post on my thoughts about having a girl but for right now I just have to say
how excited I am. The doctor came in and
took a look and in those few short minutes baby girl decided to show us that
she wants to be a gymnast. Up on the
screen was a picture of her legs bent all the way forward until her toes were
tickling her forehead! We all busted out
laughing. The doctor was trying to coax
her into putting her toes in her mouth.
It was hysterical. My baby girl
is quite the character already. As we looked
at the 4D picture again I told BJ that she has his mouth. He doesn’t see it but he did say that the way
she was posing means that she’s already prissy.
We laughed about that, too. It
was a great appointment that ended with me feeling very emotionally overwhelmed
but extremely happy and grateful. She’s
healthy (as far as anyone can tell) and she’s measuring exactly with our due
date and she’s funny and she’s the light of my life. Now if we could only find a name for her.
