It's a...

BOY!!!!!!

Ultrasound went great, the tech was really good about not referring to the baby by "he," and she said our baby is really cute :-D We got the cupcakes, took them home, and did the big Skype reveal! Adam's dad, step-mom, and Joe came down, my mom was there, and we got my dad, Julie, Sean, Siobhan, Grandma and Grandpa, Kathryn, and Rowan all on Skype. First I did the "string test," just to see if it was right, and the string test said boy! Then we opened the cupcakes and saw BLUE frosting!!! :-D

So excited, can't wait to meet our little guy! Here's one picture from the ultrasound (they gave us a CD with a bunch of pictures on it):

This is my favorite one :-) Looks like we got ourselves a thumb-sucker!!

Baby Dream

No, I didn't have a tiny dream :) I had another dream about the baby!

In my dream, on Wednesday night, I had had the baby Wednesday night. He was a boy, and he wasn't early, they were just way off on the due date. He was healthy and weighed 8 lb 3 ounces, and I remember telling my mom, in the dream, "I guess we don't need that ultrasound!" I had a really easy and fast labor (I really hope that part comes true!), and the weird part was that he could talk. We took him to church and some friends saw him, and I asked one of them, "Isn't it weird that he can talk already?" And no one else seemed to think it was weird. Either that or they were just being nice to me! haha...

So... Ultrasound today! I told Baby Wednesday that I would get to see them, but they wouldn't get to see me for a few more months! :-D

More information to come!!! Stay tuned!!

20 Weeks

I just thought that recently, it seems like the name of my blog should be "Excessively Baby" instead of "Excessively Megan!" The baby is mostly what's going on in my life right now, so that's why (pretty much) all posts are baby-related :-)

Officially halfway! Although as I was talking it over with Adam last night, we might, of course, be just over halfway or not quite halfway - we just won't know until Baby arrives! And speaking of arrivals, my mom is coming to Wisconsin today! Her flight gets in tonight!

I think that's all I have for now! Stay tuned for ultrasound updates sometime after Friday :-D

It's working!

So I've been looking online for natural acne treatments, and I read that tea tree oil may be effective. I confirmed that it's safe with my chiropractor/natural wellness resource, and... it's working! I definitely still have acne and redness, but it's gotten a lot better already, after only a few days of using it. I have diluted it with water to about 3.5%, so it's not as strong as the 5% some recommend using for acne. But... I can see improvement!! Yay!!!

What else... not too much to update. Still feeling some things that might be movement, but I'm not convinced. I guess it's because it feels like it's too strong for it to be Baby (yet). I think some of the things I'm feeling are just little spasms or muscle tics. It might be Baby, who knows!

I also think it's interesting when people comment on my belly. Some people have said, "You're not showing very much," and others have said, "Are you having twins? Showing that much already?" I don't put much stock in what they say, one way or the other, I just think it's interesting because I'm one me, and everyone seems to have an idea of what is "normal." From all I've read, there's not really a "normal" size to be, because everyone is different! So I just find it amusing to go from one observation to the opposite from one day to the next! And either way, I like showing :-D

Last update for today: a woman from church told me on Sunday that she has a maternity dress that she thinks will fit me that she would like me to have. She is probably in her 70s... and this is one she wore when she was pregnant! So I'm thinking this dress is at least 40 years old, give or take! Of course, I said, "That would be awesome!" and I picked it up at her house yesterday. It does, indeed, fit, although it's a little short for me (I'm more torso and she's got longer legs) and I think it needs some kind of gathering (maybe a ribbon or small belt) under the bust, because it just kind of goes out from the top. But it's cute! I sent a picture to Adam, who's working out of town, and he likes it! I think once I get a ribbon, and maybe leggings, I will be able to wear it :) How cool is that??

Symptoms

Let me start off again by saying that I am so grateful to have had an easy pregnancy so far! No real serious/bothersome symptoms, aside from acne which is just frustrating and annoying, and occasional heartburn if I'm not careful.

This morning, I got strong leg cramps in each of my legs, separately, while I was still in bed. WOW the right one still hurts!! I have had very slight leg cramps every once in a while before I get up in the morning, maybe like three or four times so far, but I just flex my leg really quick and it goes away and I'm fine. This morning, whatever I did wasn't helping. It did go away after a minute or two, but all day my leg has been sore. Not good!!! A friend of mine said that breathing deeply and trying to relax can get rid of the cramp. I think I tried that, but I don't know how well I did at relaxing... hopefully this doesn't happen again, although if it does, I will try to do a better job at relaxing... and flex or massage my leg as necessary. Thankfully it's always happened while I'm still in bed, so at least I'm not going to fall over or anything!!

Food pt 2/Symptoms

So I know I'm not a perfect eater. I think I do pretty good, and even though I do indulge every so often, I usually can limit myself and not go overboard. Most of the time :-) So it's really frustrating to have this hormonal pregnancy acne. I know it's, if not caused by, at least heavily influenced by, hormones, but you would think that eating smart/healthy would also help with the acne... but I'm serious - my acne is the worst it's ever been. Probably TMI, but it's true, and it's frustrating. I know I've actually been pretty fortunate as far as not having a lot of other painful or uncomfortable symptoms, so I shouldn't complain...

Also, I realized I haven't put one of my symptoms/discomforts on here yet: heartburn! It took me a while to realize what it was, because I've never suffered from it before. And thankfully, it's been pretty mild when it has struck, but I have had some infrequent heartburn. Now I sit up after I eat and try not to lay down for a while afterward...

I've had a few moments the past couple of days (especially today) when I thought I might be feeling Baby move. I'm not really sure though, and I'm not convinced it was really Baby, so I'm not counting today.

Unless it happens later today! In which case, today would totally count :-D

Food

So I was doing a lot of pregnancy research before we were officially "trying," because I wanted to be really prepared, and I figured, you only have 40 weeks DURING the pregnancy, so you should be as prepared as possible beforehand. (I had a similar approach to choosing baby names - this is a name the child is going to have for the rest of their LIFE, so you should make sure you take the time necessary to pick a good one, even if that means picking names before you are even trying to get pregnant... which I used to think was a little silly but it turns out to be what we did!).

Anyway, during my pre-pregnancy research, I saw a lot of information about foods you should avoid or limit. And luckily for me, it's like I was born to be pregnant! Or, at least, that I naturally don't eat most of the things you are supposed to avoid:
lunch/deli meats - I don't eat
raw/undercooked eggs - I actually prefer to overcook my eggs
fish with high mercury content - I don't eat any fish
caffeine - I do drink some tea, but cutting out/cutting back on caffeine has been easy. I do miss my occasional Pepsi (and I did have about 6 ounces of Pepsi when I was in Hawaii, but that's it), but for the most part, I've been good on really limiting my caffeine. I will still have an iced or hot black tea every now and then, but other than that, I am mostly sticking with herbal tea, juice, or water
unpasteurized cheeses - I'm sure I like some of these, but I rarely purchase/eat them
unpasteurized juices - can you even buy these anywhere?

The two things I do miss eating that I am supposed to avoid are hot dogs and bean/alfalfa sprouts. I don't eat either of those very often, but there have been a few times since getting pregnant that I could have had them... totally worth it to avoid, but I do miss them!

Pictures... finally!

Bump!

I like this one because you can see the shadow under the bump!!

Also because I liked my outfit yesterday :-D

4 months

According to my calculations/method, I am 4 months along today!

Also, I must say that the BeBand/Bella Band thing is the BEST thing ever!!! It is definitely my favorite maternity-related item so far.

 I was trying to put a couple of pictures in here, but apparently my browser is not up-to-date enough to add photos... guess I'll try again later!

18 Weeks Update

Today is 18 weeks for me and my little one! Not a lot to update since last week - I still haven't felt Baby move (at least, not that I have recognized). There have been a few times when I thought I might have felt something, but I'm pretty sure I haven't felt the "real thing" yet.

I realized that pretty much all day I am tensing my stomach muscles - not consciously or intentionally, but when I think about it, I can "relax" my abdomen and my tummy sticks out a little more. It's not painful or uncomfortable, and I don't think it's bad or a problem to be dealt with, I just think it's odd. I've also had some more round ligament pain (still pretty infrequent). For the most part, I still feel the same as I did pre-pregnancy, except that I get tired more often/easily and now when I bend over to get things, there's something in the way :)

Two weeks until we get to find out if we're having a boy or a girl, if Baby cooperates! I may have mentioned this before, but we are going to do a mini-reveal of the gender while my mom is out visiting. We will have my in-laws and mom with us, and we will get my dad, step-mom, Sean and Siobhan, and possibly my grandparents and Ian and Kathryn on Skype, and all find out together :-D It should be fun. It might be a little tricky working out everyone's schedules, but hopefully we can make it happen!!

Also, by my calculations/method, I'll be 4 months tomorrow!! Exciting!! :-D