Second 1/2 here we come...

We are officially in our 22nd week of pregnancy and things are moving along just wonderfully! Recently, the baby has started to kick and not only can mom feel it, but so can everyone else. It is both amazing and weird all in the same :) (Kind of feels like a muscle twitch.) As of our last OB appt (Aug 26) mama has gained a total of 7 lbs (looks like much more :).) We inquired about being able to feel the baby so soon (as most of the articles, advice, and books read tell us that mom can feel baby around 18-20 weeks and everyone else around 26-28 weeks) and the doc said we must just have a strong baby (wonder who baby takes after??) After listening to the heart beat, she actually called baby a "thrasher" hehehe. We are feeling great (though still very strongly opinionated) and have started prenatal yoga.



As for baby preparation, we have most of the dates for the showers, started our registry at Baby's R Us, and taken on the baby room/office conversion. Oct will be in Williamsport for the Foster side, early Nov will be in Easton for the Amadore side, and mid Nov for Baltimorons...Keep an eye out for invites! When you take a look at the registry, you will notice that there isn't too much there. Chuck and I are very lucky for our wonderful family, friends, and everything god has blessed us with, but it is coming very quickly to our attention that space is exceptionally limited here in MD. Our condo has little room for storage, soooo it is looking like most of the necessities you would register for when the baby is 6 months and older (ie high chair) we are going to need to add as needs come along. Also, it is hard to trek larger items back to MD. For these reasons (and a few more), we are encouraging gift cards. We are so excited for everyone sharing this time with us and appreciate all your love and support.



The color we are looking to paint the baby's room is from the Home Depot, Ralph Lauren color - Tuloumme http://www.ralphlaurenhome.com/rlhome/products/paint/items.asp?haid=49. As for furnature, we going with IKEA Leksvik line and the Fabler line for textiles http://www.ikea.com/. Gramma Amadore will be coming down September 26th to help get the room together! So exciting!!

Can you tell if it's a boy or a girl?

Neither can we! As a quick update, last week we went for the 18 week ultra sound. At this point, you can see a lot of things with the baby, the heart, liver, stomach, finger/toes, gender, etc. It was so exciting to see how big the baby has gotten (check out the difference from the 7 to 18 weeks). We have to give props to the tech; the baby was moving around like crazy since I had a glass of OJ prior to the ultrasound so she was trying to keep up. After they did a photo shot (she took like 30 pics of the baby) she moved on for the big reveal on the gender of the baby. Turns out, the baby sat on his/her feet the whole time and we couldn't tell! After 20 mins of me turning on each side, talking a walk, doing a back flip (j/k,) the baby still wouldn't move!

This morning we got verdict on the final results of what the doc can see from the photos and....the baby is HEALTHY!! Yea!! When we had the ultra sound, the tech was able to get all the photo shots needed to check for everything, but since Chuck and I wanted to know the gender, she wrote that she couldn't see the feet clear enough, sooooo we thought we were getting another ultra sound at my next appt (next Thursday 8/20). Well apparently, the doc didn't think we needed another one, so no ultra sound next week. I then asked when the next one would be (the tech said 32 weeks) and she said not necc. If everything is progressing along awesome, we might not even need one then!! ahhhhhh!! To make a long story very long, it truly looks like this baby, no matter what we or anyone else wants, is not going to show itself!! We are going to make the final decision tonight, but I am sure if we wait until 30 something weeks, we may as well hold off :) Just as long as the baby is healthy, that is really all the matters :)!