Pigtails on Day One

When contemplating whether I wanted to have a baby girl or a baby boy this time around, I finally decided I wanted a baby girl. My kids have beautiful, thick, long hair when they are born, and I want to put my new little baby girl's hair in pigtails when she is born:). We all went to see the ultrasound this morning, and saw our baby girl:). Having a little sister won't help Lucy to be a tomboy, and Isaac will be surrounded by girls most of the time, but we're happy about our chunky, perfectly healthy little girl. She is expected some time around May 26th-June 1st:). I'm 20 weeks, or four and a half months along.

About the pregnancy: I am one of those women who felt really great throughout my boy pregnancy, and planned my own funeral--requesting that Doug bury my alive--when I was pregnant with my little girl. So with this latest pregnancy, when October and November tempted me to plan my own funeral again, I suspected I was going to have a little girl. I still felt lousy at night time during a lot of December, but I feel great now--sometimes tires, forgetful, and clumsy, but I don't foresee planning my own funeral again any time soon.

Looks: I've spent too much time comparing how I look pregnant to how my friends and family look pregnant. Comparisons are never a good thing, and staring at womens' bellies, calculating exactly how far along they were at the time the picture was taken, is NOT what I consider healthy, productive time. But it has been done. And it is only fair that I provide that potential waste of time with the rest of the world by sharing pregnant belly shots, and talking about weight gain. I have gained about 11-12 pounds, which is a little bit less than I had gained at this point in the Lucy pregnancy, and probably about the same as I gained during the Isaac pregnancy. My scale has a generous heart (read: is jacked up)--so it shows that I weigh considerably less than I weigh on the scales at my doctor's visits. But I've been using my scale since before my pregnancy so at least I have an accurate idea of how much I am gaining.

As my friend Bekah said, I can't "control" my weight gain healthily during pregnancy. But I can watch what I eat and exercise often, and know I'm doing my part to be able to fit into my normal clothes after giving birth. I know I'm blessed to be able to work out, and I am SO thankful for the endorphins. Currently, I'm in the habit of doing elliptical while I read, lifting weights, running, or swimming. I usually pick two or three of those activities during a work out. If anyone has any suggestions about how to avoid lots of weight gain in the second half of pregnancy (like avoiding white bread and sugar, or anything else that's healthy and helpful) I am all ears.

I'm still in my normal clothes, but that's because my jeans are super low-rise, and my shirts are all Downeast Outfitter types. I like wearing a big puffy vest a lot of the time, or sweatshirts. This is my first time being pregnant throughout the winter, and I like that it allows me to hide my belly. Not very many people know that I'm pregnant, which makes me feel like "myself," rather than "the pregnant lady." There will definitely be time enough for me to become "the pregnant lady." I do not look hot pregnant. Doug says I do, and I guess that matters the most:). I try to wear makeup and look pretty so, again, my belly isn't the central focus.

Also: I haven't yet documented Lucy's first time on roller skates (she skated for about 30 feet before begging me to take her skates off), or her amazing trike-riding skills (evidenced at the stroll-n-ride at our local roller skating rink on Tuesday), so that gets to be a part of this post as well. I hope everyone likes our surprise, and I'm excited that all of the girls of Austin were pregnant at the same time...for like a week:). It has also been so fun to be pregnant with my blogging buddies, and see how we are all going through similar things! I'm just straight-up blessed:).