We're Halfway There!

I am officially at the halfway point in pregnancy (well, technically I hit that point on Sunday). I'm 20 weeks now and things are still great. I hate that some women have to go through such miserable pregnancies because for me, it's been a great experience! I really feel no different than usual, minus the fact that there's a little person who moves around inside me!! :) So far, I've only put on about 5 pounds, which makes me happy.

Today's doctor's appointment was supposed to include a sonogram (this was scheduled back in January). But since I just had a sonogram a couple of weeks ago, my doctor is having me wait until my next appointment in April because she said that in two weeks time, there will have been so significant growth to see. So I have no new baby pictures yet, but it will be cool to see her again that much later and see how much she's grown. The main reason I wanted to have a sonogram today was because I wanted to be reassured that she really is a girl! I told this to my doctor and she said that she knows this doctor I went to see in Dallas and that his pictures are so clear that if he says it's a girl, it's pretty much guaranteed that we're really having a girl. (FYI..when I bring up the whole, "what if it's really a boy?" thing, Ryan tells me I'm being stupid and just rolls his eyes! :)

I have posted a picture of something that I made for her room. And now anyone that doesn't know can know the name we have chosen for her. Her name is going to be Karys Elizabeth (the name Karys rhymes with Paris, in case you're wondering about pronounciation). If you're wondering how we picked that, basically I came up with it and Ryan eventually came around to my way of thinking! But I first heard of the name Karys a few years ago in a magazine. It's the name of Catherine Zeta-Jones's daughter (only spelled with a "c") and I have remembered it because it's so pretty. Then I found it again on a baby name website and saw that it means "to love." And Elizabeth is a family name. It's the first name of one of my aunts and the middle name of my sister and grandma. This frame that I made with her name on it is intended to hang over her bed. I'm doing the nursery in black, white, and red with ladybug accents...sure to be cute! :)

She Looks Great!

If you are reading the titles of my postings, then you are already aware that today we learned the gender for the baby...we are having a baby girl! I am over-the-moon ecstatic. :) The doctor we saw in Dallas today said that through his scans on the ultrasound there were no signs of Down's syndrome. There is still a chance that she could be born with Down's because sometimes babies with Down's syndrome appear normal on ultrasounds. That is really not a concern of mine though. I am going with the optimistic view that everything looked fine.

Okay, on to what happened at the actual appointment. And I found out that a Level 2 ultrasound doesn't use any type of specialized machine; it's called that because of the level of training the sonographer has completed. The doctor performing the sonogram is very highly trained. He started by measuring the circumference of her head and looked at different parts of her brain. Then he measured the circumference of her abdomen and showed us where her stomach is. It was also very clear where her spine was as well. WE got to see each of her arms and her hands. One hand was closed up into a fist, which was very cool to see because it was obvious what her fingers were doing! He showed us both of the legs and at one point when he scanned over the legs, they were kicking, which was very cool to see as well. He is very confident that he is not making a mistake in calling her a girl. He got a really good shot of the legs and there was no umbilical cord in the way so he was able to tell what wasn't there!! :)

I have 3 pictures that he gave us. The first two show her laying on her back and it is a side profile view. If you look at the head, you can see facial features like her nose and mouth. The bottom picture shows what helped him determine she is a girl!

Thank you so much for your prayers. You will never know how special you have made me feel. I will always remember this. And now you can join me in rejoicing over a healthy baby girl! :)

Important News

I found out the results of my Quad Test that I had last week. The test came back showing that I was positive for Down's syndrome. Now, before you start saying "Aww" and feeling sorry for me, let me tell you what I know:

*First of all, we are going to Dallas on Tuesday where I will be having a Level 2 sonogram so they can get a better look at the baby and hopefully tell us if they think the baby really does have Down's or if everything looks fine.
*In getting to go to Dallas Tuesday, two cool things will be accomplished: I will get to see my sister on her birthday, and if all goes well, we will learn the sex of the baby a couple of weeks early.
*From what I'm reading online, out of 40 women who test positive for Down's, only 1 or 2 of them will actually have a baby with Down's syndrome.

So I tell you all of that to say that I have chosen not to freak out or panic until I know the results Tuesday. And even if we find out this baby has Down's syndrome, I chose to take this test so that if something was wrong, I would have time to prepare for it and that will be my next step. What I am praying is that God would prepare me if He has decided that we will be given a baby with Down's syndrome. But I refuse to get negative until I know something for sure. And if I get an answer that is not what I'm hoping for, I will be upset and give myself time to be like that, but then I will move past that and do what I was chosen to do.

If I pop into your head in the next few days, I would love it if you said a little prayer for me as well, and hopefully I will be posting again in a few days to tell you "It's a _____" and everything's great! :)

Latest Dr.'s Appointment

Today's appointment wasn't too terribly exciting. But we did get to hear the heartbeat! :) The doctor says it sounds really good. I think she said it was like 158 beats/minute. I THINK that's what I remember...but I'm not very good with the memory! :) But I do know for sure she said it sounded really good. She actually said that several times.

I also had a test done today called a Quad Test. It was an optional test and Ryan let me decide if I wanted it. It tests for Down's Syndrome and a few other things. I decided I wanted it because if there's something that's going on, I'd like to know about it ahead of time to give myself time to wrap my brain around whatever it may be.

Only a month until we find out the baby's gender is revealed!!

Tummy Pics

People at work are starting to come up to me and say, "Ooh, you're starting to show!" So that tells me it's time to post a picture for everyone to see. I will be 15 weeks this Sunday and things are still great. I'm going to post 2 pictures...I'm not sure which one's more accurate. Somehow I'm able to make myself look bigger or smaller, so I'm not sure which one I look like most often!

Little side story: Today was our 100th day of school. We always have a celebration and do fun activities (for anyone that didn't realize this was a big deal!). This afternoon, two students from one of the first grade classrooms brought me a book their class had made: "100 Names for Mrs. Magan's Baby." They had a pink page with 50 girls' names and a blue page with 50 boys' names. I thought that was the sweetest thing ever and definitely something to treasure forever!

I've Finally Seen the Doctor :)

This first part is for my "favorite" brother-in-law, Jason (and anyone else that doesn't like details): Dr. officially choosing 7/27 as due date; everything looks good; we'll find out what the gender is March 12. :)

As you've just read, my doctor is officially choosing July 27 as the due date because it was over a week off of the other date. She says that everything looks good, and all of the blood tests that I had last time came back fine. Unfortunately for Ryan, I'm not immune to toxoplasmosis so cleaning the kitty litter is officially his job until the end of July (he's been having to do it since I found out at my last appt. that I definitely shouldn't be exposed to it and he doesn't like it!).

I have set up the date for my next sonogram (the one where I get to find out what it is!!) on March 12. I might explode with anticipation before then, but at least I have a real date!! Also, we got to have an impromtu sonogram today in the doctor's office, on sort of a "mini" sonogram machine (it sorta looked like a laptop!). She was using whatever the thing is to listen to the baby's heartbeat. She tried for a few minutes, and then said she'd do it again after she finished the rest of the examination. So, she tries again and still couldn't get the heartbeat (apparently we have a stubborn child!!) so she had the nurse go get their sonogram machine. The cool thing about having this sonogram was that the baby actually looks like a baby now!! It's progressed from a grain of rice! She was able to show us the head and body (and where the heart was beating...so everything's fine!) which was so neat!!

I'm now 12 weeks along and things are still going great! :) Next appointment is February 13. :)

No news yet :(

In case you're keeping up with my blog, I had said that I would be having a doctor's appointment yesterday. However, I got a phone call from my doctor's office and the appointment was canceled because my doctor had a family emergency. But I've been rescheduled for January 15. :)