2nd Trimester!

Hi Little One,

Today is a big day for us! Today officially marks the start of the 2nd trimester - I am exactly 14 weeks gestation today.

In some ways, it felt like this day would never come, and now that it's here, it feels like it came so fast!

I can't believe I'm in the 2nd trimester; it is such a wonderful, wonderful feeling.

I'm just feeling very, very blessed today - because of you :)

In other news, we had prenatal appointment #3 yesterday.

The doctor said that everything is looking really good, and she allowed us to listen to your heartbeat for a good long time, which was so nice.

Your heartbeat was strong and loud and sitting right at 143 bpm.

When the doctor saw your heart rate, she said, "Well, according to the old wives' tales, it looks like you're having a boy."

To which I replied, "Actually, we both think it's a boy."

And then she said, with eyebrow raised, "Oh really."

She seemed much less convinced that you are a boy after that...I guess she's just seen parents be wrong about their baby's gender one too many times to believe that the parents might be right and therefore she assumes that they're all wrong - even if that means she has to fly in the face of the conclusion of old wives' tales.

We also scheduled our ultrasound yesterday.

The practice we've been going to has a firm "you must be at LEAST 18 weeks to get an ultrasound, but we'd rather that you're even farther along than that" policy.

So, the doctor made us schedule the ultrasound for when I'll be just about 19 weeks (Nov 29).

Which is after our next prenatal appointment (Nov 24)...I'm really bummed because last time, the ultrasound technician was less than pleasant, so we were hoping to have the ultrasound a few days before our next appointment so we could talk to our doctor about it then. Now it looks like we'll have to wait a full three weeks after the ultrasound before talking with our doctor about it :(

Also, we were hoping to find out your gender before Thanksgiving.

The main reason for this is that I'm one of those crazy "get-up-at-3-am-and-wait-outside-the-store-for-two-hours-until-it-opens-at-5-am-on-Black-Friday" kinda chicks (as you will someday learn)...so I score amazing deals on Black Friday (actually, Black Friday is usually when I get all of my Christmas shopping done because the deals are so great). And I know that I could get some really fantastic deals on baby stuff. But we're not buying anything for you until we know your gender. And right now, we're not scheduled to find out your gender until three days after Black Friday.

"Aye, there's the rub."

It seems to me that that three days can't make that much of a difference, but what do I know?

But tonight we will be touring the birthing center that we are considering using for your birth. If we decide to go to them, we will be transferring all future appointments to their practice, so we're hoping we can convince them to let us have the ultrasound before Thanksgiving.

Anyway, so that's where we're at. Hopefully, if we do switch practices, one of the midwives will be a fellow Black Friday shopper and will understand my conundrum :)

So, happy 2nd Trimester, Little One - I love you so, so much!

Love,

Mom