20ish Week Appointment

We had our almost-20-week appointment this morning with our OB. Twenty weeks is somewhat significant because it does mark the halfway point of the pregnancy. She is happy with how we're doing and was even happier to hear that I am feeling lots of movement every day now. In fact, John was able to feel movement from the outside for the first time yesterday. This is about a month before he could feel anything with William, so we're all excited about that!

Everything continues to go well and there aren't any concerns on the doctors part. I had a largish weight gain this month which means the rest of the left over Halloween candy is now going with John to work. I have made it my mission to gain less weight with this one than with William's pregnancy. Although I was able to loose most of it, a 60 pound weight gain isn't pretty. Unfortunately, as with William's pregnancy, I have to some holidays make it through which will make it more challenging. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, our 7th anniversary, Valentine's Day and my 30th birthday all will happen before this baby is born - and there is a lot of food in there that I'm going to want to eat.

So, on to the theories about the gender of this baby.

My Theory & Rational

I am fairly certain this baby is a boy. Very early on, I didn't really have any "feelings" about the baby's gender. At roughly 15 weeks, I started "feeling" like this baby was a boy. Now for the logical explanation. Hah! I fooled you! What are you thinking? Logical and rational? Not words you would find to describe me ever! However, for the record, I felt very strongly that William was a boy when I was pregnant with him. I was sure of it. When the ultrasound revealed that he was a "he", I wasn't even really surprised. I just knew he was a boy.

I am fairly certain this baby is another boy and out of all my pregancies so far my track record is 100%. I've been right about the gender 100% of the time. So there.

My Interpretation of John's Theory & Rational

Now, I have to warn you that John is not writing this. This is totally, 100% my interpretation of what I think he thinks. So, it really isn't that accurate. But, you can keep reading if you don't have anything better to do.

I knew you would keep reading.

In general, John has learned not to argue with my intuitions about things, because I am right about things a lot of the time. Random things like which lane is faster on the highway, which neighbor is experiencing marriage problems, and what he actually wants to eat for dinner. Oh, and that William was a boy. So, John is mostly going along with my "feeling" that it is a boy even though there is no basis in fact or scientific proof either way. He has come a long way.

However, John has always wanted a daughter. And at the ultrasound, John spied something that gave him hope that Daddy's Little Girl might be coming. When the technician performing the ultrasound was looking at the baby's feet, he noticed that the second toe on the baby's foot was longer than the big toe. My second toe is also longer than my big toe. William's big toe is his longest as is John's (this was pointed out during the ultrasound we had during William's pregnancy). So, John has also entered a guess into the pool based on the length of toes. John is again, hoping for his Little Girl.

**I feel the need to include this disclaimer. We are thrilled to be pregnant and will be thankful and happy about a healthy baby of either gender. In fact, the gender of this baby was so unimportant to the big picture of things here, we didn't even bother to find out which flavor it is.**

Some Comparisons

Here are two pictures I took a long time ago to show you, but just haven't yet. Because I am lame.

Because the last picture I took didn't show the new TV we purchased to scale...here is what we were watching TV on before compared to our new TV. It was a little scary at first, all the big faces in our bedroom.
And because I am nerd who gets excited about these kinds of things. William and Newbaby now have matching PJ's. I plan on dressing these kids identically until they start to complain regardless of gender. Maybe even if they complain - it is good to be in charge.

Election Day

John and I both voted. Did you?

PS I have our maps printed and colored pencils sharpened so we can track the states as they come in...weeeee fun times at the Heidt House tonight! Hopefully we don't need the erasable colored pencils this year. We used up all ours during the last election...

It's a......

Surprise! John and I were so excited this morning to go to our "big" ultrasound and really get a good look at NewBaby. We were not planning on finding out the gender of NewBaby during the appointment. However, we were not planning on finding out with William either and curiosity got the best of me that day. Today I held it together and managed very well through the appointment. The ultrasound tech even told me to look away while she examined an area that would have given the gender away....and I didn't peek. John says he didn't either.

While it was fun and exciting to actually get to see NewBaby for more than a minute at a time, the ultrasound technician made the experience totally different. This one was all business. She explained what she was doing and what she was looking at without stopping for any extras. Bummer.

We left William's ultrasound 2 years ago with roughly 15 pictures. Today we left with 2 - NewBaby is already neglected! Here are the only pictures we got:

Baby's head is on the right side of the screen, the spine and lower body is on the left.
The face is in the center of the picture and the body (with ribs) is on the left side of the frame.


PS Sometime this week I'll update you on our gender theories. You won't want to miss it!

There was a Farmer...

Who had a dog and Bingo was his name-o!

For some reason this year, we are super popular and have been invited to at least 6 different Halloween/Fall type parties over the last few weeks. We weren't able to go to all of them, but I think I am officially Halloweened out. This weekend was a party that were we able to attend schedule wise - although we considered staying home because the invite threatened if we didn't arrive in our own costume, one would be provided. So, here is what we came up with:

The farmer and his dog

Mama and her pumpkin - very unoriginal as I was a pumpkin when I was pregnant with William also. (PS If you tried out the link- WOW what a difference ten weeks and about twenty extra pounds makes!)

William was fascinated with the pumpkin on my belly. He could not be distracted away from the eyes, nose and mouth - followed by an exclamation "Mama pumpkin!"
When we got home, I finally let William have some fun with the pumpkin face. I think he would have sat here all night rearranging the nose, eyes and mouth.
And just because it is funny....running away from Daddy.

This Halloween party was worth the effort though. Very cool decorations and food. Marinara sauce in a fountain is very...red and bubbly. Quite the sight.

Ghosts from the Past

Ugh. John and I have spent close to 5 hours so far this weekend dealing with the Ghosts of our Past. We have now been working on finishing the basement for over 2 years and there are some boxes that have sat in our basement for a very long time. We've been so focused on the basement that dealing with the stuff piling up hasn't been a priority. Now we have so much stuff, we don't know what we have or even worse we can't find what we do have and buy the same thing over again because we can't find it. We both agree now time and I think both of us have a headache from it. Poor us. Here are a few things we have learned:


1. We never need to purchase file folders, hanging file folders or plastic page protectors again in our lifetime - even if we're careful.

2. The same thing is true of binders

3. It is way easier to tell John to go through his stuff and reduce it than to actually do it to my own stuff. My stuff is "special". (it isn't really - it is just hard to figure out what is really important to keep).

4. I need to start dealing with paper items right away in the future. I have SO many papers in boxes downstairs that I'm not sure why I'm keeping. Yet, many of them have been in boxes and moved from place to place across the country for the last 7 years (! Eeeee! 7 years!). I've kept them for this long - I guess they must be important?

5. Gift wrap is also not an item we should ever buy again. Same goes for bows.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Can you believe he has all parts of his costume on AND is smiling all at once? We had a pretty fun Halloween which kicked off on last weekend. We were invited to three different Halloween parties last weekend along with a big garage sale I've been working on and a work picnic for John. Busy! But fun! We carved pumpkins and ate lots of candy (I'm sure my Dr. appointment is not going to be good this year with all the candy I've eaten this week). We don't have any pictures because it really isn't safe to have one person working with a sharp knife and the other adult have their hands busy with a camera with the very curious two year old in between.

Tuesday night was the school district event called Safe Halloween. The bigger kids put together games and fun stuff inside for the littler ones to play with in a safe environment. We got their a little later than we would have liked and it was CRAZY. I think last year the attendance for the event was somewhere in the thousands and I would believe it. It is a lot of fun - but WAY too many people for us. It was fun to get William all dressed up and do a trial run with the costume - even if we were only there for about 12 minutes total.

Walking in with Daddy - what a cute puppy...even if he isn't house trained yet.
Playing Candyland with the Builders Club from West Middle School -Mama is trying to help and all William is tryin' to do is get to the pretty girl at the end with the piece of candy!
With Mama, but checking out all the other kids in crazy costumes.

Tonight was a GORGEOUS night for Halloween. The temperatures were in the 70's with a little breeze. Absolutely perfect! Time got away from us so we didn't get the afternoon pictures outside that I wanted with better light, but we still managed to get a few good ones of William.

William is in love with pumpkins. He got this one earlier in the week at the Child watch area at the gym and has been carrying it around ever since. I'm not sure how he is going to take it when the pumpkin has to go away...
Still carrying around the pumpkin

Look - another picture with a smile!
It is getting a little more challenging to be carrying William around now due to our other little pumpkin I'm carrying around (I know, I know. It is only going to get worse). I like to give John a hard time about this when we are out running errands: Why do I have to carry BOTH kids? Can't he carry one?


HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

PS I was going to paint his nose black to complete the costume - I think it would have been cuter. However, two important factors were holding me back. 1) He hates have stuff on his face and it would have been a huge mess. 2) I am L-A-Z-Y and didn't ever go to the store to pick up any face paint.