We officially reached the halfway point on Christmas Eve! Let the countdown begin!! This week baby is the size of a...

Almost half way there!!! Yay!!! :) Baby Girl is as big as a......

What's Baby Up To? 

• Developing a protective coating over her skin, called vernix caseosa. It's greasy and white...lovely, but it helps protect baby's skin from her amniotic fluid. 
  
• Working on her five senses. Nerve cells for her sense of taste, hearing, sight and smell are developing in her brain. 
  
• She is now able to make more intricate facial gestures, such as frowning or smiling! :) 
• **New Milestone: Mommy has been able to feel baby's little kicks for a couple of weeks now, but Daddy was finally able to feel a few of them the other night! So exciting! :) 
  

How's Mama? 
Same ol' same! Just working on my baby bump! Definitely beginning to see more of a round belly and less of a poochy stomach! 

Symptoms: Occasional headache or back pain, but not often. 

Weight gain: Up about 7 pounds. In my week by week pregnancy book it gives a break down of where most of my weight has come from, thus far. Approximately 8 ounces of baby girl, 6 ounces of placenta, 11 ounces of amniotic fluid, 11 ounces of uterus, 12 ounces in bigger boobs - yikes!, and the rest is increased blood volume and maybe a little Taco Bueno! ;) 

Cravings: This week it was Taco Bueno - but I only allowed myself to go once! Hey...what my baby wants, my baby gets! :)

I am telling my students tomorrow that I am having a baby girl! I think a few of them might be getting suspicious! Today in third period, two sweet little girls, were whispering, "Ask her, ask her!" back and forth and one finally asked, "Mrs. Guinn, do you have any kids?" I replied, "No, not yet."..... Then a continued, "Ask her! Ask her!" But the bell was about to ring so I quickly stepped into the hallway - not wanting to spoil the class surprise for tomorrow! :) 

Other than that not too much to report, except that I have finally started shopping for our little princess! It is quite daunting to think about the fact that my future fashionista is starting from scratch, without a single item in her closet! Mommy has been busy with Christmas shopping, but I have started buying a few things here and there to kick start her wardrobe: 

And that's all her little collection contains so far! Don't worry Baby Girl...Mama's got this! ;) Can't wait to dress you like a little doll! Meanwhile, Daddy's hair is turning grayer by the day! :)

21 more weeks to go!!!

Happy 18 weeks to our sweet Baby Girl! She is now as big as a...

Actually, probably a little bigger. At the doctor's appointment last week, she was weighing in at approximately 7 ounces and was about 7 inches long. 

What's Baby Up To? 

• She's yawning, hiccuping, sucking and swallowing.
  
• She's twisting, rolling, punching and kicking. (This is beginning to sound like a Dr. Seuss book!)
  
• Her soft cartilage-like bones are starting to harden. 
  
• She has developed unique fingertips on her fingers and toes. 
  

Also during our ultrasound last week, she was a little wiggle worm! We could see her kick, kick, kicking those strong little legs of hers (a future member of the drill team kick line?). She also kept opening and closing her little hands and moving them up by her face. It was adorable! We have it on dvd if you're interested! :) 

Aside from the sonogram images of her dancing around my tummy, I can finally FEEL her move! It's not often, and it's not a strong feeling, but every now and then I can feel her tapping against my lower abdomen. One day she did it after I raised my voice at my noisy 2nd period! Perhaps I was disturbing her beauty sleep! 

Here are a few snapshots of our little princess (some images are a little blurry due to her movement): 

How's Mama?
Symptoms: Feeling pretty good! Occasionally I get bad headaches - which is supposedly common during the second trimester. I feel more bloated and crampy than I have in previous weeks. Mason says it's because I am full of fluids, which is probably true (he must have been reading up on his daddy-to-be book)!

Weight Gain: Up about 5 or 6 pounds from pre-pregnancy weight, which is still pretty low I guess. Just read in a book I should have gained 10-13 pounds by now. My doctor said I'm fine though! In other news, the baby bump has finally made it's appearance this week! My teacher friends are now commenting on it. Although none of my students have said anything to me so it must not be  overly obvious yet. Plus, I mainly wear flowy tops, so I guess it makes it harder to tell. I plan to tell them next week before we get out for Christmas! 

Cravings: Today it was french fries! :) But daddy just got us some for dinner, so we're good now! :)

Well that's all for this week! I'll work on a belly pic for next week's update! :)


22 weeks to go! 

Aside from our wedding and engagement, Friday had to be the BEST day of our lives! I know I tried to play neutral about wanting either a  boy or a girl, but my heart has always longed for a daughter. I just never thought it would actually happen. I always figured I was destined to be a mother of three boys (not that that would be a bad thing), but God is so good and has answered my prayers and I am beyond humbled with this huge blessing! 

After a long day of surviving work with jumbled nerves, we made it to our 2:30 appointment at the hospital. Once we got all settled in the exam room, our ultrasound technician asked us if we wanted to find out the sex, which of course we did! As she moved the wand around my stomach, it was a little hard to tell what we were looking at with the baby moving around so much, but I could tell at one point we were looking at the bottom and legs. She quickly informed us that it was a GIRL! 

I made her confirm about 5 times before tears of pure joy began streaming down my face! I don't think I have ever been so happy in my entire life! I still can not even believe it. At this moment, I feel like my life could not possibly get any better and I know that it will when she arrives, which means my heart might explode!

Mason is equally overjoyed and the thought of him being a father to our little girl makes me just melt inside! We were additionally blessed to learn that our baby girl is growing right on track and weighs in at a whopping 7 ounces. She has 10 fingers, 10 toes and the doctor described her as "perfect" which made me cry all over again! 

Prayers of thanks won't ever be enough for my gratitude over our little girl! In a way it feels like our lives are just beginning and I look forward to this new season of life as a mother to our sweet baby girl. 

And now.... let the shopping begin! :) 

Tomorrow is the DAY I've been waiting for practically my whole life! Tomorrow we have our doctor's appointment to do an anatomy sonogram and I will finally get to find out if I am going to be a boy mom or a girl mom! Eeeekkk! I can't believe it is finally here! 

Obviously, our number one prayer is for a healthy baby! I hope to one day have a boy and a girl, so that I can experience both worlds. My girly side craves a little girl to dress up, take to go see the Nutcracker ballet, go on shopping trips with, and be my life long bestie! On the other hand I would love to raise the perfect little gentleman, who I can joke around with, watch play sports, and go visit on parents weekend at his UT fraternity. ;) 

Either will be a true blessing, I know. 

But...just for fun I decided to consult a few  old wives tales so that we can look back and see which ones turned out to be true. For the record, I put no real faith in any of these tests, but it's exciting to speculate for now. Let's see what the "experts" have to say...

If you are carrying high, it's a girl. If you are carrying low it's a boy. I'm not "carrying" much at all quite yet, but a friend at work told me she thought it looked like I was carrying high, so we'll go with that which means..... girl! 

According to legend, a heartbeat of 140+ beats per minute indicates girl, and below 140 means boy. At our last doctor's appointment the heartbeat was 154 bpm. Another point for team pink. 

If your hair is long and lustrous and your skin is pimple free and glowing it is said to be a boy. If your hair is thin and dull and your skin is breaking out it is a girl. Girls supposedly "steal" their mother's beauty during pregnancy. Well my hair does not seem to be growing at all and feels thinner and I have been getting breakouts on my face here and there and I usually never get pimples. So looks like another check on the list for a baby girl! 

If you experienced morning sickness then it's a girl, if you didn't then it's a boy! I know this is definitely not true as I know plenty of people who have been sick with a boy or a girl. Regardless, I have not been sick once, so that's one for team blue! 

The Chinese Gender Predictor is said to be 90% accurate in predicting boy or girl. However, each chart I have consulted is different. The variations have to do with whether or not you are calculating using your Chinese Lunar Age and Conception month or Western Age and Conception.  I've looked at about 10 different versions this evening and it is pretty split. So no conclusive evidence. 

There are lots of other tests out there, but most are ridiculous or are not applicable. So, moral of the story? Only God knows for sure, but so will Mason and I.... TOMORROW (fingers crossed)! :) At this point, nearly all of our friends and family think it's a girl, so I'm going to go ahead and guess BOY! 

Even though we will know the results in less than 24 hours we plan to wait until Christmas to share the exciting news with our families! We'll see if we can make it that long! :) So excited!!!