19 weeks ... It's a ...

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BOY!

I'm totally flabbergasted.  Now, I had a feeling right from the start this was a boy.  I think my IUI timing was perfect for a boy so much so I thought this one was horribly mistimed.  I had a feeling that since I had girl names all sorted it would, of course, be a boy.  lol  And when I started feeling kicks, albeit intermittently, 3 weeks ago I was sure it had to be a boy as I've heard that boys kick harder than girls so you might notice their movements earlier.

I told the tech at the scan yesterday that I was interested in finding out if the little bean was cooperative.  I even had a glass of orange juice before hand to try to get the bean to move but to no avail.  I think the bean was snoozing or in deep rest ... or something else that equaled chilling out.  lol  He was on his side with the knees tucked up to his chest and his hands tucked behind his head.  His butt is literally sitting right on my cervix in perfect breech position so that would explain the cervical pressure and pain I've been feeling.  He was content to sit like that the entire time even when she moved the probe around.  The tech showed me his developing brain which is developing on both sides, his 2 kidneys, bladder, etc. and he has everything they look for at this stage.  The heart was working well and the heartbeat came in at 147 beats per minute so nice and strong again.

Halfway through the scan she was covering the nether regions and couldn't get a good look so she zoomed in and pointed out the protrusion to me on the screen.  She said that was a boy.  She continued on with the scan and at the end tried to get a better look but he would NOT cooperate.  She did point out the bottom of the butt and all I saw was baby butt.  However, she is trained and pointed out something that must be a scrotum.  She told me that had she not seen that and the protrusion she wouldn't even have guessed.  So, I'm going to trust her and believe this is a boy.  Girls don't come with protrusions between their legs.  LOL  Although if she is wrong my mom is going to have an awful lot of boy clothing she purchased today to return.

I'm sort of at a loss about this.  I'm not disappointed.  That is definitely the wrong word for it.  I think I'm just really surprised because I've never imagined myself as a mom to a boy.  Never.  I always thought that if I had one or more kids it would be all girl.  I'm used to being around little girls even though I have a bunch of nephews.  Three of those nephews are overseas and I've only met the oldest one.  Most of my cousins are girls and they are a lot younger than me and my sister.  I asked my mom today, "What do you do with a boy?".  Really, I just don't know once they get past baby stage.  My mom was like that too but the complete opposite.  My mom had a younger sister and brother but 2 nephews so she was used to boys and didn't quite know what to do with a girl.  And my mom isn't super girly either so I can only imagine being surrounded by pink. 

There are positives to both girls and boys.  I was thinking it would be easier to have a girl in a very practical sense ... when out in public I never have to worry about her being too old to use the same washroom as me.  I'm not quite sure when I can trust my son to do that and be safe.  My job makes me slightly paranoid.  I'd also love to be able to give my niece's wardrobe another turn as would my sister.  She had so many lovely girl things and as the first grandchild on both sides she had a LOT of really cute stuff.  But I've asked my mom to tell my sister not to get rid of anything yet.  Just in case ...

Boys?  I've heard they're actually a lot easier in many ways after you get past the hard spots when they are young.  The massive appetite as teenager does scare me a bit but maybe that is because I lived with a family with 3 teenage boys who are all now 6'2" and over.  lol  One great thing is that since boys don't have ovaries they can't get PCOS.  That is a huge relief.  I did have a bit of a breakdown last night and started crying because I got sad over the fact that my son won't have a father in the house to be a role model.  But I know that this will affect a little girl as well just in different ways perhaps.  No matter what, any child of mine is definitely wanted and will be loved and he will know that.  I just wish I lived nearer to my family.  My dad is great: he's respectful of everyone, especially women, smart and incredibly funny and great with little kids.  We'll just have to make due with visits and hopefully quite a few business trips home from age 13 months to 2 years when he can fly free on my lap. 

I still have no intentions on going all blue with the baby room or with the clothes.  My mom said she found lots of really cute non-blue 'boys' clothes at Cos.tco today and I'm happy with that.  I'm leaning towards primary colours since I found some really cute vegetable garden theme curtains at Ik.ea. 

I'm a bit stuck on a name and will have to spend some time researching that one to find just the right one.

Other than that I'm feeling fine.  I've had a headache for 3 days now and nothing helps so I think this is just a hormonal shift thing that I've had before with this pregnancy and just have to wait for it to go away.  Hopefully sooner rather than later because I've done nothing all day except sit on the couch.  Kitty may be happy but I'm not.  I've got way too much to do to be sitting around all day on a Saturday. 

Anyway, if you've made it this far and you don't already know Shannon please head over to her blog Chasing Rainbows to give her some support.  Her little guy was born in May and she just received very difficult news about a tumor found with an MRI scan.  I just can't imagine going through what she did only to get this diagnosis.  She has a good support system but I think there is no such thing as too big a support system.  It sounds like this was caught very early so I'm hoping for a good prognosis.

Feeling much better today

After giving it some thought I think I figured out what the problem was.  I ate a nice bowl of freshly popped hot air popcorn Tuesday night ... at 8:30 which apparently is too late for me.  It seemed to sit in my stomach overnight because when I woke up I certainly wasn't hungry.  It felt like I had a full stomach from the get go.  So now, I'm going to make an effort to eat supper a little earlier and if I want a snack or treat I must eat it right after supper.  Although I'm not quite sure how much more I can add to my diet.  I already eat 5 times a day and I eat full, balanced meals and snacks each time.  I'm going to continue eating this way and see what happens with my weight.  If it looks like it is going to be a problem then I can always adjust.

Tonight, I couldn't find anything appetizing in the fridge.  I'd been giving thought to some pizza the past few night so I ordered some.  My tummy is happy!

And now ... introducing my nephew Callum.  Seeing these pictures from 1 week, he definitely looks like our family. 

Callum - 1 week old

And another one:

Mmmm, fingers are tasty.  Nom, nom.

And one of big sister and little brother.  She's certainly proud but she's holding him a bit awkwardly.  lol

Can my smile get any bigger?  Are you squishing me?

I am really looking forward to having my own ... soon!  Hopefully my niece will get over her fear that I will stop being her auntie when I become a mom.

The nephew has arrived

A few days early but he's here. A full 8 pounds, 2 ounces and 20 inches long. No name yet, although my niece thinks his name should be Herb.

A couple days before I last went out west for work my BIL posted something on FB about the u/s showing that he was likely 8 pounds already and could be 9 pounds at birth. That was the first status update I saw that morning and my heart just sank. And then I remembered that I was pregnant. No matter how many kids I have I don't think I'm ever going to get over that feeling when other people post their pregnancy announcements or updates on FB.

Anyway, I was about to take a bite of my sandwich tonight (which I normally hate but I can tolerate eating for supper) when the phone rang. I could tell it was a long distance call by the ring and cursed whoever was calling me thinking it was a telemarketer. I got to the phone and noticed it was my parents. Except when I picked up no one was there ... until finally my niece got on the phone and said something about having a baby. Apparently mommy had nothing to do with it. She was so excited that she was difficult to understand on the phone. And she was a wing nut the entire conversation. She tried to dump over the cat stand with her cat on it. Yes, my SIL and BIL are still not moved in to their renovated house. I'm just going to choose to ignore that part of the situation.

They are going to head up to visit after supper and my niece was planning on bringing him bubble gum. She's been told he looks like her but has lighter hair, maybe a light brown or blonde but my BIL isn't a good judge of anything involving colour or design so we're not sure what colour his hair is. My BIL thinks the men in his family are tall and he is the tallest at barely 5'10". My mom and I scoff at that considering the men in our family run 6'2"+ and we consider that normal, not tall. She was hoping my nephew would be longer than 20 inches.

My niece has been asking lots of questions lately. When I was out a couple weeks ago she asked my mom if I was married. My mom said, no. My niece asked why not. My mom said 'well, if you are going to live with someone you want to like them, right?' My niece thought about that for a while and agreed that was a good idea. So my mom said that I hadn't yet found anyone that I liked enough to live with. She was satisfied with that explanation.

And apparently when she asked about cousins today my mom explained how that would work if I had a baby. My niece got so upset and said that I could NOT have a baby, ever, because that would mean I couldn't be an auntie to her anymore. OMG! That's hilarious. So we explained that to her on the phone, that you can be a mommy, an auntie, a grandma and a cousin all at the same time.

They come up with the funniest stuff ...

In other news, I had my first prenatal appointment with my NP today. We got all the paperwork and requisitions out of the way and we'll do the physical stuff next month. My bp was fine at 116/80 which is within the norm for me. I've been having blood pressure issues the past few days and I'm sure that it is part of the reason why I had 4 straight days of migraines starting last Thursday. I think I'm at that point where the blood vessels dilate but the blood supply hasn't quite caught up yet. I'm feeling better now but I can feel my body is off.

I get to make an appointment for my dating scan. The NP said just to pretend that I've never had one for this pregnancy as they'll use the dating scan to determine when I need to do the NT scan and start the screening bloodwork. So I should get to see the bean again soon. I'm not feeling pregnant (as the NP said, if you're feeling pregnant that usually means you're vomiting) and I really want to see the bean to make sure it is still in there and doing fine. I'm going to call tomorrow morning and line up an appointment asap.

The not so fun part of all the bloodwork is that they have to do all the STD screening again. I just had this done last year and since I haven't become an IV drug user and a penis hasn't been anywhere near this vagina in quite some time, despite my pregnant status, I think it is a waste of financial resources to test again. But it is required. Same with blood type. I've been the same since my mom typed my sister and I as kids and nothing has yet shown she did a crappy job resulting in the wrong blood typing. Again, it is required.

And I have my first appointment with an OB tomorrow. I'm not impressed with what I've heard so far but my mom said to go with an open mind. I'm still really hoping to get in with the midwives practice so I don't have to think about it.