And the Waiting Ends...

So week 20 sort of sneaked up on me.  And for the most part I was so distracted with the idea of purchasing a dining room suite, maternity shorts and an inflatable pool that I barely paid any attention at all to week 19.

Since being pregnant and feeling very sick almost everyone supportively told me that during the 2nd trimester I'd experince the "Honeymoon" phase of being pregnant.  I half-heartedly believed them... being as sick feeling as I was, I didn't think I'd ever start to feel normal again.  I remember my friend, who is about 10 weeks ahead of me, telling me that if she didn't have the ever-present baby bump, she'd not even feel pregnant.

I remember thinking, while she told me this too-good-to-be-true news, "Liar."  It seemed to me at the time, she had had it much better than me, so at best I'd probably start to feel mildly better--if at all.  But sometime around week 13 or so, things started to get better.  And I'm pleased to say that in the last three weeks I've not thrown up or been nausous or anything... and I feel so much better physically.  And sometimes, I even forget that there is a baby growing in my belly.

But yesterday we got confirmation and a rather visual reminder, that there is indeed a baby in there.  Yesterday was the anatomy ultrasound that would among other things, determine our baby's gender.  We are not the variety that wanted to wait to find out if we are having a boy or a girl.  After going through infertility, I don't think we are much on suspense.  I guess for normal couples that get pregnant easily and "I can get pregnant?" is never a question, then waiting just might be their cup of tea.  For us, those of us that spend months and years wondering... we learn to dislike the waiting and therefore when the ultrasound technician waved her wand to just the right spot, we wanted to know.

There would be no silly gender reveal party.  There would be no waiting.  So at 20 weeks and 1 day of being pregnant, yesterday we found out that we are having a... Girl! 

We both thought that we'd be having a boy.  Not that we were sold on a boy... again, after going through infertility, the goal is to have a healthy baby regardless of the gender.  But from the moment we embarked on the IVF journey, everything has been a boy.  The nurse and I would joke about the little guys on the monitoring screen when referring to my eggs.  When the embryos were replaced, again they were boys.... at least in my mind.  And from the moment we found out we were pregnant, the only thing that made sense to me was that we were going to have a boy.

All my stuffed animals were boys... Mr. Pillow, my oldest object and most important object that I'm unnaturally attached to, is a boy... 

So boy, was I wrong.

The girl is about 16 oz. in weight and is 19 weeks and 6 days along according to the technician.  We saw the right amount of toes and fingers and everything seems to be in working order, which is good to know...

In the meantime, besides waiting for my dining room suite to arrive, figuring out my new maternity "look" and trying to tan the baby bump in the blow-up pool I now get to start pulling together my nursery for the baby girl.