18 weeks and it's a...

First of all, two days ago my belly suddenly popped out...it seemed to happen overnight! I'm still trying to squeeze into my low-rider jeans, but when I sit down I'm worried I may be causing head trauma to the little kiddo. Have you heard of "belly bands?" They're fantastic! It's a big wide stretchy belt type thing that you can use to cover the waist of pants that no longer look good or don't button...or hold up maternity pants that don't quite fit yet. I'm sad to say, I am now in stage two. I don't think I wore maternity clothes (or even really "showed") until I was 6 months the first pregnancy...it may have been a bit earlier the second time...but 18 weeks???!

I broke down and paid the money to have an ultrasound strictly to find out the gender. I guess it doesn't really matter either way, as we already have one of each, but we're going to visit TONS of family for Thanksgiving this week and they're all salivating to know. Plus, if we were having a girl, I was eager to purge Owen's outgrown clothes to his cousin, Brodie.

The place was soooooo nice...there was a huge room with a cushy sectional and a nice big fat flat screen on the wall so family could sit in comfort and watch. In the back against the wall were containers of toys for all ages- perfect because PR was still out of town and I was wondering what the heck I was going to do to keep the kids busy while I was laying on my back out of arms' reach. In no time, the technician said she was certain she knew- it was a boy! We looked at the 3D (I guess it's considered 4D because it's in motion.) I was actually not too crazy about it. I think the 2D profiles look much cuter and the bones, spine, heart, etc are more easily recognizable. At this point, my baby doesn't have much fat, so that may have been why the kid looked a little creepy to me. But we did get to see him yawn, and he was even lying in the same position I was, with his left arm up over his head.

I have to say, I'm a bit disappointed...but only because I had envisioned Caroline to have a little sister close in age they could be best friends and I could dress them in matching attire. As an only child, I have no idea about the whole sibling thing...so maybe the girls would be tearing each other's baby dolls by the limbs and fighting over clothes or something. Anyway, I was completely positive we were done with the whole baby business after this...but as I was going through Caroline's old clothes, I was not ready to part quite yet. Who knows, maybe chaos will suit me?!

Week 16: Foot loose!

This kid is kickin'!!!! Last weekend we had my husband's Marine Corps ball and while the DJ played his music, I felt a kick for the first time during this pregnancy. It was very cool. Especially since I've been paranoid about my belly not growing the last few weeks.

I am wishing I had done a better job taking belly pictures, though. My first pregnancy, PR and I diligently took frontal and silhouette pictures of my belly nearly every other month. Unfortunately, we had used our new "super cool" video camera to take snapshots. We didn't realize until 7 months into our bright idea that the snapshots were stored as video because we hadn't switched the "function" button to "still camera." Brilliant! With Caroline's pregnancy (#2) we slacked off a bit, but I'd say we have enough snapshots to piece together the evolution of my somewhat in shape abs to a larger than life basketball belly. The poor kid is not even born, and already missing out because of his pecking order! (However, I suspect he will reap the benefits of having worn out parents when it comes to discipline during his teen years, so we'll call it a wash.)