It's a...

GIRL!

We went for our anatomy ultrasound yesterday morning, at 19 weeks and 4 days into pregnancy.  It was a lot of fun.  The technician was really friendly, and knowledgeable, and Jeff and I really liked her. 

The baby slept through a lot of the ultrasound; just like in the past couple ultrasounds with my midwife, the baby likes to keep her hands up by her face.  She was cross-legged for a while.  A few times she stretched, and we really got to see her long legs.  Then she settled into an acrobatic position where her feet were up by her head and she fell asleep again, just like that.

The ultrasound was great!  The baby's heart has four chambers, her spine looks good, she has a nasal bone (so probably no Down's Syndrome), and she doesn't have a cleft palate.  I think we determined that she has all of her fingers and toes.  She was measuring at 19 weeks exactly, and she weighs 10 ounces.

The technician gave us a DVD of the whole ultrasound, a CD with 17 pictures from the ultrasound, and she printed out two pictures for us to take with us. 

One of the pictures she printed is a 3D one.  My honest opinion is that most of the 3D ultrasound pictures make babies look like Pompeii victims.  (Usually when I see them, I want to say, "Oh, I'm so sorry your baby got covered by a volcano."  Instead I say, "Awww... How cute!")  The exception is 3D pictures of babies that are about ready to be born.  If you check Google Images, there are a lot of pictures that show the 3D ultrasound picture next to the picture of the newborn baby, and those are kind of cool, because you actually get to see what the kid is going to look like before it is born.

But at 19.5 weeks, all babies still look like Pompeii victims, and our child is no exception.  It's all right.  I still love looking at the picture anyway.  She has a little nose!  And a mouth!  And a chin!  And eye sockets!  And her hands are up by her face, just like they usually are during ultrasounds.  So that's neat.

Our other printed picture is a potty shot that says GIRL and has an arrow pointing at very obvious girl parts.  I won't be posting that one online, because it seems indiscreet to post pictures of someone's genitals on the Internet.  So, you'll have to take my word for it.

Our CD of images has some great stuff, including pictures of hands, feet, limbs, and all of that great stuff.

Over the past week and a half I've been feeling the baby move more.  Still not a ton, though.  It turns out the placenta is on the front of my uterus, so it acts as a buffer when she moves around, and that's why I'm not feeling her much yet.  As she gets bigger and stronger I'll feel more.

After we found out that she's a girl, we called all of my family to let them know.  My dad didn't want to know--he jokes about how it's cheating to find out before the baby is born but actually he kind of isn't really joking.  So, I didn't tell him, even though I talked to him right after the ultrasound, because I asked if he wanted to know and he said he didn't.  It can be a surprise for him later.  The thing is, though, once we come up with a name for her, we'll start calling her that.  And sometime someone will be talking to him about the baby and they'll slip and say "she" or something.  So, I doubt he will actually make it until June without finding out.  But, whatever.

I think I'm looking more pregnant now.  I still fit into pre-pregnancy clothes, sort of, but the pants are very uncomfortable, and t-shirts make me look especially pregnant.  My mother-in-law got me my first maternity outfit (a shirt and some black pants), and when I realized I was wearing the pants every day I went out and bought some maternity jeans.  So, now I switch back and forth.  I haven't bought any other maternity shirts, because so far I'm doing all right wearing loose non-maternity shirts.  This picture is from a few days ago (19 weeks 2 days).  I'm not big enough for strangers to comment yet, but my clothes definitely fit differently.

 Our other fun baby news is that we're starting birth classes.  Last week my midwife talked to us about the different options and we decided to do Brio.  Brio is pretty much a modern version of Bradley classes.   I keep hearing about HypnoBabies, and I am interested in trying that, but at $300+ per type of class that we do, we're not spending $650 on childbirth prep classes, and I wanted more of a logical and practical foundation before I try something like HypnoBabies, so Brio it is.  Maybe I can buy used HypnoBabies materials online or something; otherwise, I'll probably do one of those classes when we have our next baby.  We're excited about the Brio classes, though.  They go for 12 weeks, and start next Monday.