Happy Hump Day

Here it is, Wednesday again. I don't know about you, but this summer is flying by for me. I can't believe it's almost August....and yet I am excited for August to be here. August will be a great month.... my birthday is August 9, we have our 20 week ultrasound for Baby 2.0 on August 12, reach our halfway through this pregnancy milestone.... the state fair starts this month which we always LOVE taking Bella too (she asks to go to it year round;)) AND... this is a big August for us too because at the end of the month Bella starts pre-school. Hard to believe, huh? We are starting her in a montessori school and are very excited about. Those that don't know much about the montessori programing-- they take kids at their own pace, and while there is a curriculum, it is a little different from your standard school day. I am excited to see how she grows and learns from the experience when she starts on August 30th :) We have back to school night and parents night in the coming weeks too-- so that is exciting:)

Yesterday, I finally heard back from the Castleton Ultrasound technician. She admitted she wasn't sure on my previous ultrasound guess (kinda annoyed me that she would have guessed at all at that point...) but that I could come back in yesterday, a whole week later in my pregnancy to try again. So on short notice, off Bella and I went to see the baby again. He has definitely grown in a week, it was crazy to see! My placenta is anterior :(. What this means, is that baby implanted on my tummy side of my uterus--so the placenta acts as a cushion between baby and my belly...which may make it take longer for me to feel those large noticeable thumps. I am still feeling flutters, and have been for awhile now-- but I don't feel huge large kicks yet..and thought I might. I first started feeling Bella around now, and REALLY felt her for sure by 18.5 weeks...Jerry felt her shortly thereafter. So, I hope having this placenta doesn't take that fun away for us--because it is truly the best part of being pregnant for me!!





As for gender guess--she said she was much more confident in a boy guess. Not 100%, but about 85% sure. Those are pretty good odds-- but I am still not painting any walls blue. We'll refer to this baby as a "he" for now and we have picked out a boy name for him-- Seth David Leonards. We chose Seth simply because we both like it-- no real reason to it. David is my father in law's first name-- and Jerry really wanted to follow the tradition of using the paternal grandfather's name in the first son's name. (Jerry is named after hid grandfather on his Dad's side). We like it though :) I still can't wait for my 20 week scan on August 12. Not only will we get gender confirmation for sure, but we'll be able to see him for a longer period of time...estimate his growth and make sure everything is healthy at this point. I am really looking forward to that day.




In other news this week so far.... I made it to the gym on Monday and was able to jog 3 miles in about 33 minutes-- soooo much slower than my normal pace but I'm still happy I can still do this comfortably 17 weeks pregnant. Yesterday I took a rest day because I was really pretty sore. Instead of hitting the gym, I took Bella downtown to the Childrens Museum and she had a blast. She played hard for 2 hours and it was really fun to spend some time together doing something fun--just Mommy and Bella :) We need more times like that and I need to make it happen. She is growing up too fast and it's easy to let life and work get in the way.

We are still working on the house and getting it ready for the market. I've now taken photos of the kitchen for the listing (nice and clean), as well as Bella's room since those room needed the least amount of painting done. Jerry filled in the holes in the walls in the living/dining room and entry way Sunday night and I started taping off trim and then last night he started painting. He painted for like 4 hours straight and got a lot done-- but there is still so much to do! We've decided to pay the guy who helped with my studio space to come and paint the 4 bathrooms in the house as well as the laundry room. Although those 5 rooms are the smallest in the house-- they are tedious, so I think this will be helpful in speeding up the process, and we're still saving money by doing most of the work ourselves. Poor Jerry was really tired last night but I can already tell a difference with the fresh paint even though it's not done. We are both very determined to make this move happen before the holidays if possible!

Excessive Heat, Workotus and Hopes for House

I am chatty this week and had some news to share...

First of all we are in this mega heat wave in Indiana and it sucks as much as the dead of winter. We have to keep the shades drawn in our house or it quickly gets up to like 80 degrees upstairs and you start sweating sitting in your own house. Nothing fun about this. I much prefer sunshine and warmth, but I also prefer to not feel like I am going to breathe in poisonous gas when I walk outdoors. It's even been too hot to take Bella to the pool--mostly because I don't trust either one of us to know when are needing water or a break ... not to mention how freakishly crowded the pools are in weather like this so I am sure germs are everywhere. So needless to say, I think we are all ready for a bit of relief in the temperature department. Mid-80s would be nice.

I'm asked a lot about my workouts when I'm pregnant so I thought I'd write out what I typically do during a week. Here is what my workouts look like most weeks when I'm not stuck at home with a sick kid. If I am stuck at home with a sick kid, I won't take her to the gym child care-- so I'll improvise by doing a workout video at home. I have some Turbojam, Turbokick, TaeBO, and Cathe DVDs that still get my heart pumping, keep my sweating and I can do them all during pregnancy. Here goes my schedule these days:

Monday: Turbokick or cardio DVD at home (depending on work schedule)
Tuesday: Full body weights and 30-40 mins on either treadmill or elliptical
Wednesday: Usually a rest day
Thursday: Turbokick (best class of the week;))
Friday: Full body weights and 30-40 minutes on either treadmill or elliptical
Sat: Rest or Turbokick (depends on work schedule--I only take one rest day on the weekend, so if I don't make it Saturday, I go Sunday)
Sun: Rest or Weights & 30 min cardio workout on elliptical


My work schedule makes it tough sometimes but I always make time. Sometimes that means working out at home or going at a different time of the day then I prefer-- but making the time always makes me feel so much better :)


HOUSE UPDATES: We got some good news yesterday in terms of financing, so we are keeping our fingers crossed it works out. If it does, as long as we find renters for our home, we could potentially move before the baby is born!! This would be so awesome. So please keep your fingers crossed for us :) IN preparation, we are packing and de-cluttering majorly. We have taken 2 truckloads of stuff to my in-laws house for storage and still have more to go, as well as some trash and then cleaning/organizing. Poor Jerry is stuck doing most of the grunt work since I'm pregnant and when it comes time to do paint touch ups, I feel bad I can't help much-- but we are determined to get it done!

No Wrong Answers

One my friends posted on my FB wall after I announced our gender of baby 2.0 on Monday... "Isn't it nice when there are no wrong answers??".. and that is so true!! What a great phrase :)

However, I've been stricken with doubt and uncertainty since then. I have shown my ultrasound photos to several ultrasound technicians.... and *all* of them have said they either couldn't tell one way or the other, and that they would actually sway girl with the pictures we have. They all said, of course they weren't there... but I'll be honest, I was watching the screen very carefully the whole time we were there and I never saw an obvious penis like I have seen on other ultrasound photos. I know 16 weeks may be a tad early, but I have seen MANY MANY ultrasound photos at 16 weeks with very obvious genders seen. This has left me extremely frustrated. I paid to have this scan done, and I expected to know. I feel like the tech rushed me in and out because I was the last appointment of the day and gave me a guess to give me a guess, but really did not get a good look. She could very well be right, but I can't help the uncertainty I have been left with ... and it's honestly worse than not knowing.

Nothing is going to change the fact that we are having a baby -- and that itself is a blessing. It won't change the fact that this baby will be loved and have an AWESOME big sister :) I just got super excited to *know* a little more about the baby and start planning names etc. It has played with my already sensitive pregnant emotions a bit.

I put a call into the ultrasound place I went-- but she is closed for the rest of the week. I was nice, but just explained my issue and asked if there was any way they would let me come in for a clearer shot. If they say no, we will just wait until the OB anatomy scan on Aug 12-- which I'm looking forward to anyway because it's a much longer and more detailed look at our baby :)

So for now--I am not 100% sure we are having a boy. But I am 100% sure we are having a baby... and that my friends is definitely not a wrong answer ;)