Baby Pictures

The picture above is how we announced on Facebook that Dan was going to be a big brother. He normally loves reading books, but when we took this picture it was later at night and he was getting ready for bed. The look on his face was perfect though! (Side note: that is my Dad's - Dan's grandpa's - sweater. I'm pretty sure my Grandma knitted that, but I could easily be wrong on that. She did know how to knit so I have that going for me!)

When we were expecting Dan, we were much better at getting those early weeks documented by taking belly pictures. With this pregnancy, I decided that I wanted to compare the two with one another. We didn't take our first belly picture until a few weeks ago when I was 18 weeks pregnant.

My pregnancy with Dan is on the left and the current pregnancy is on the right. It does seem like I'm carrying a little different. Not sure if it's a baby gender thing (myth of carrying girls high and boys low), me knowing how to use my core muscles more efficiently, or if there's something else at play. I will say that this pregnancy is different than Dan's in regards to aches and pains. With the two pregnancies being so close (and my body knowing how to BE pregnant), the relaxin hormone is in full force already. This is making my hips ache and creating challenges when teaching and practicing yoga. Thankfully I am very in tune with my body and how to properly practice yoga that the hip aches are tolerable.

Just a few days ago we went and got my mid-pregnancy ultrasound to check the fetal anatomy. I'm happy to report that baby looks healthy! Yes, I said baby. We did get the gender information, but it is sealed in an envelope. We do NOT yet know if we are having a boy or a girl. We do plan on finding out with a gender reveal party with family. I have a guess as to whether Dan will have a baby brother or sister, and I have a 50% chance I'm right!

Profile

Feet

Arm

One big difference between the two ultrasounds (the one with Dan and this one) is that we actually got good 3D pictures! With Dan, he was snuggled into my placenta when we tried we only got one good side of his face. When one side looked good, the other was hidden by the placenta. When we moved further down and got past the placenta, the other side then looked like a skeleton. Definitely not cute. It is so neat how technology has advanced so we can not only check to see that everything is developing normally with baby, the umbilical cord, and placenta, but now we can even get 3-dimentional pictures as you would with a normal camera!

I think they're a keeper :)

I really enjoy being pregnant. I enjoyed Dan's pregnancy and I'm enjoying this one, too - achy hips and all! Coming into the second trimester makes it even more fun as baby is getting bigger and you can start feeling them move. With Dan, I felt him move for the first time around 15 weeks. This baby, my first flutter was around 12 weeks! Yes, crazy! At this point I'm feeling movement almost daily, especially when I take a few moments and focus on baby.

Elsewhere with the family, Jason's basketball team came in 2nd place in a tournament last week! This was the first year he was in the winners bracket. I'm so proud of him for coming in 2nd place! He will grumble about it as the kids weren't playing the best they had been, but this is the first time in 6 years that he made it to the winners bracket. That is something to be proud of.

Dan is still doing his thing. I'm really hoping that he'll start getting words out. He's babbling quite a lot, and does know some sign language, but he is getting frustrated that he can't communicate well enough what he wants without me having to guess what he wants. He has been so physical - crawling at 6 months, walking at 10 months - that the language has been a little slow to develop. Nothing to really worry about, just would be nice if it would come in soon so we both can reduce our frustration in our communication!

That's all for now. I hope everyone is doing well! Take care.