Rubber ducky, you're the one.

According to the newsletter, the baby is now about the size of a rubber ducky.

Had my 16 week check-up today and everything seems to be going well. I am back to what I weighed at my 8 week appointment, so that's good. Now, I need to shoot for gaining a lb./week. It's so odd to me that I *need* to gain weight. The only times in our life that we are encouraged to grow & get bigger are when we are children or when we are pregnant (for us women, at least). It's weird for me to be able to quiet that little voice that says, "You really shouldn't have another spoonful of those mashed potatoes." Not that I'm planning to eat to my heart's content or to eat a bunch of junk food. I'm trying to consciously choose healthy foods.

Anywho...back to my appointment. The nurse had the little doppler, trying to find the babies heartbeat. We could hear the placenta (it makes a whooshy heartbeat-like noise at the same rate as my heart - from the blood being pumped through it to the baby - pretty cool, huh?) & we could hear the baby moving (which sounds almost like when you have the earpieces of a stethoscope in your ears and you tap on the end of it), but it wouldn't stay still long enough for her to get the heartbeat. I jokingly said, "Looks like we may have to do an ultrasound." She said, "We just might." After a few more minutes of trying to get it, she gave up and took me to the ultrasound room.

So, we got to see the baby. The picture was much clearer than on the machine at work. We could see the baby was all curled up on my right side again. The heart rate was 161 (which is good). I asked very sweetly, "While we're here, would you mind taking a peek to see if you can tell whether it's a boy or a girl?" She said, "You want to know?" I said, "Yes, if you don't mind." So she moved the wand around trying to get a good look, then said, "Well, the baby is still pretty small, but I would say it's probably a *****************, because ******************," (while pointing at the screen). You didn't think I was actually going to tell, did you?! :) Seriously, they usually don't try to figure out the gender this early so she wouldn't say for sure, but after today I'm pretty sure of what it is. And, in a little less than four weeks we should know for certain. Then, I'll definitely let you know. *Insert devilish little grin*