Hello, Mr. Mango

So this November baby is a boy after all! A very obvious boy ... I could say I'll scan and post ultrasound pictures, but I've already made two such empty promises on this blog, so I'll hold off.

I should have posted a final call before yesterday's ultrasound, but Matt and others who have been around me will vouch that I had come to strongly feel that it was a boy. It's really nice to know for sure, though -- now we can seriously think about names and find some more manly crib sheets.

I have NO IDEA how people who don't find out the sex can stand the suspense. Even if they don't have a preference, which we haven't either time. I have nowhere near that much self-discipline. Five months of waiting and wondering is plenty for both me and Matt.

Apparently this is one active kid. The ultrasound tech kept commenting on how all-over-the-place he was, and it's true -- I don't remember feeling Claire's movements so obviously until several weeks later in the pregnancy, although the difference may just be that now I know what it feels like for a baby to do somersaults in my stomach. He weighs about 9 ounces and everything looks perfect.

Hope to have a name announcement soon!

Lime time

I'm 11 weeks today (the baby's about the size of a lime) and I had my second doctor's visit. I had a pap smear and the doctor listened for the baby's heartbeat. He couldn't find it. He told me not to worry, it was because I'm only 11 weeks. (Looking back at Claire's blog, my other doctor heard her heartbeat with no problem at this point -- glad I didn't know that this morning.) Then he pulled in the portable ultrasound machine. Still couldn't find a heartbeat. He blamed it on my not having a full bladder. Next option: transvaginal ultrasound.

Finally! What looked like a blob three weeks ago is clearly a baby now, with waving arms and a heartbeat of 150 beats per minute.

So all's well that ends well, but I do not like that kind of suspense. Ninety-nine percent of the time I'm thankful not to have any pregnancy symptoms to speak of, but for a few minutes this morning, it would have been nice to tell myself, "Hey, I puked my guts out this morning -- I'm sure everything's fine."

My tiredness is gone. Really, I've been pretty much back to normal ever since the night I slept 14 straight hours a few weeks ago. It looks like I never wrote about that on this blog, but I mentioned it here.

I'm still having some food aversions, mainly to meat. Everything fresh and light sounds good. I'm also drinking caffeine, but trying not to overdo it. Usually I skip the morning coffee so I can enjoy Coke without guilt later in the day.

I have ultrasound pictures from this morning as well as the last appointment that I still intend to scan and post, but at the moment I'm out on the porch and it's just too nice to go inside until I have to.

The next appointment is on May 10, when I'll be 15 weeks, and after that we get to find out the sex! I still think it's a boy, but my confidence was badly shaken by the news that Meg and Drew are having a boy. I know it sounds dumb, but I was POSITIVE they were having a girl.

There are these drug-store tests now that you can take anytime after six weeks to find out the baby's sex, and supposedly they're like 85 percent accurate, but I think we're going to hold out. It's not much longer! Although, if anyone wants to donate $3o to the cause, I could be persuaded to pee on one more stick.

Another baby!

I think I'm about 7.5 weeks pregnant, so I guess it's time to start another baby blog. I doubt this one will be as detailed as Claire's, and it's mostly her fault. Not so much time for blogging anymore!

My first doctor's appointment is Thursday so I should have an official due date then, but based on when I think I ovulated, I should be due around Nov. 5. That means Claire and this baby will be only 16 months apart, but because of how the birthdays fall, they'll be two grades apart. With the kindergarten cutoff date being Aug. 31 now, and Claire's birthday July 2, that was almost inevitable.

I'm feeling fine so far, but not as great as I did with Claire. Mainly, I'm beyond exhausted most days. I don't know if that's a sign of this pregnancy being "different" or just a sign that I'm taking care of an 8-month-old day, including still breastfeeding her, this time around. I definitely had a phase of extreme tiredness while pregnant with Claire -- I would come home from work and sleep on the couch for several hours before going to bed -- but it didn't hit this early or this hard.

This is a very long shot, but I have to note it for the record just in case I'm right. Maybe my tiredness is exacerbated by being pregnant with twins. Probably not, but when I was charting my temperatures I did have what could have been a second implantation dip. I'm not giving it much credibility at all because a) I wasn't charting very meticulously and b) my temperatures weren't that reliable because they were taken just an hour or two after Claire's early morning feeding (she usually sleeps through the night until eating around 5:30 a.m., then sleeps a couple more hours).

While we're making calls, I'll go ahead and predict that this is a boy, too. That's just my gut feeling and I know it's basically just a guess. All I know is that from the beginning of my Claire pregnancy, every time I thought of the baby or prayed for it I automatically referred to it as "she" and "her." And now it's "he" and "him."

My food aversions didn't hit until the beginning of the second trimester with Claire, but they're here in full force now. So many foods don't sound good -- it's not that the thought of them makes me feel sick or anything, but they just sound unappealing. I'm liking a lot of fresh stuff, and relatively bland stuff. I am so ready for the farmers markets to open again.

I also almost had my first-ever bout of morning sickness last weekend. Friday night Claire and I spent the night at Sallie's house, along with Maegan and her babies. Saturday morning Sallie had to go to work early, and Maegan had to get on the road because her dad was coming into town for a visit, so there was about a 15-minute interval before the babysitter arrived when I was watching Claire and both of Sallie's kids. We were playing on the floor when all of the sudden I thought, "I am going to puke." I headed straight for the toilet and stayed there for a minute, but it passed. Then I ate a bunch of saltines.

I know that's not much of a story as far as morning sickness goes, but I never had even a touch of queasiness with Claire. There's basically nothing I dislike as much as throwing up, so I will be ever so grateful if Saturday's almost-episode was just a fluke.