20 Week Update & Ultrasound

Monday night I barely slept at all. I felt like a kid waking up on Christmas morning!! My 20 week ultrasound was scheduled for Tuesday morning. Not only was I excited to see what we were having, but I was also anxious to find out whether the baby was growing properly and that all the organs were normal.

The kids stayed the night at my sister's house, so Shawn and I went to the doctor appointment solo. It's not that I didn't want them to go, but this appointment can be very long with the ultrasound first and then a follow-up visit with my doctor. I think we ended up being there over 2 hours, and that could have possibly been disastrous with the little ones. Alisha sent me this video of the kids...they were telling me what they wanted: a boy or a girl. It is too cute!

We arrived at the appointment and I got changed into the latest fashion! Don't be jealous now!

During the scan, the baby was referred to as stubborn, wiggly, and feisty. I hope this is not a tell-tale sign of things to come!! It was actually a relief to hear how much the baby was moving, because to be honest I have not felt the baby a ton. Usually at night or when I wake up I can feel the baby, but that has been very recent. I know every pregnancy is different; however, with the other 3 I started to feel movement a couple weeks earlier and more often. Anyhow, it was nice to know that this baby is a shaker and a mover even though I am now feeling all the movements.

The doctor came in and checked all the measurements and organs to make sure all looked ok. He did not see anything that stood out in the ultrasound that would indicate that something was wrong. Praise God! For most of the ultrasound the baby was head down and face down as well. The technician had to go back and get additional pictures of the brain because the baby was hiding behind my pelvic bone. This is where the reference to stubborn came into play!

Ok, I know you're waiting for me to spill the beans already on what we are having! The technician was able to get a clear view of the gender!

It's a baby girl!! We were so excited to hear that our next little one would be a girl. A boy would have been just as great too, don't get me wrong. But I am excited that Allyson will have a little sister. The boys are 5 years apart and the girls will be 5 years apart as well. And besides the boy-girl-boy-girl pattern, there is another pattern as well. Before both Ally and this baby girl, I had a miscarriage just a few months before I conceived them. While those were times of sorrow and loss, I know that God's plans are higher than mine and I will praise Him in the valleys and on the mountain tops. God is good all the time, all the time God is good.

After the ultrasound I went into the boutique located in the building and had to take a picture with something girly!! So fun! 

Next, we headed upstairs for my normal monthly visit with my doctor. He is great. If you live in the Houston area and are in need of an OBGYN, I highly recommend Dr. Robert Anding with OGA. He is superb. My blood pressure was normal {125/62 I believe} which was good. The only concern my doctor had was that I had lost 3 lbs since last month. He said since I started this pregnancy at a moderate weight, that I needed to gain some weight, so he does not want to see this happen again next month. This was not on purpose, but we have cut out all the processed food, refined sugar, beans, and grains for the month of June and apparently I have some excess weight to trim {nah, not me!!}. I explained my eating to him and told him it was short term, but hope to keep most of these eating habits up the best I can, especially cutting out processed foods. He agreed that was a good idea. He then said that the guy who made the big push against gluten about 10 years ago has backed off of his claim recently. {And I was not eating grains because of the gluten, but because I've read that some people have trouble processing grains.} My doctor said that in the process of people cutting out gluten, that they cut out all the junk {processed, packaged food}, so at this point it is hard to pin-point if it was the gluten they cut out or the processed food. Good point. We are going to finish up our Whole30, but will probably add some grains back in our diet in July and see how we feel.

As far as the baby, all looked great. Her heart beat was 161 during the ultrasound and she currently weighs 11 ounces. She is measuring 19.9 weeks and I am currently 20.3 weeks. My due date is still 11/2/2014. The name. Well, we have discussed a few names, but it hasn't been a huge topic of discussion. A few weeks ago we had narrowed it down to a boy name and a girl name that we both liked. It it was a boy, his first name would be Lake. We both really liked it and it fit the outdoor theme with the rest of our boys and it was 4 letters. Ha! Not a prerequisite, but it worked. Since we are having a girl, we decided on Maebry {pronounced May-bree}. I came across this when I was pregnant with Finn and we both loved it then, so we saved it! And it's unique, we currently do not know another Maebry, but give it a year or so and I'm sure we will. We almost used Mae in Ally's name, but we opted for Kate, which I love as well. Mae was my Nana's middle name, who was so dear to me, so it is fitting. And for the middle name we decided on Leigh, which is my middle name. Finn Michael is named after Shawn and Maebry Leigh is after me. Can't wait until she is with us in four months or so!

Since the kids were not with us to find out, we decided to go ahead and tell them when I picked them up from my sister's house.

I was a little nervous about how Jase would respond since he was over the top on BOY, BOY, BOY! But he did great. And even later when we got home we talked about it and he is excited on the arrival on his baby sister. I think he told me something along the lines that he will definitely be the top boy now, the big brother! I just love him!