april 16- get ready for pink!

today we found out you're a girl!

we've already transitioned in our minds to being the parents of a girl, and how that will be different. (although i'm sure there will be more adjusting mentally to be done over time.) we were really in the mindset of parenting a boy. just because that's what we'd always hoped to have first... and then knowing that max was a boy... it's just different to think "we're having a girl!
but it is also exciting. it comes with so many different opportunities and challenges. we can't wait to get started.

here's the overview:

-everything's PERFECT! literally every aspect of the ultrasound was 100% normal. as though i didn't have APS at all! we couldn't have asked for a better result.
-the quad screen came back negative. (it's not that trustworthy anyway... but good news nonetheless)
-the only thing that didn't measure over 20 weeks was the femur. when i asked if that was ok, the lady doing the ultrasound laughed and mentioned that neither one of us are very tall anyway. hehe.. so it makes sense that our kids would be shorter.
-all the organs were good. spinal cord good. brain good. placenta good. cord good.
- she weighs a pound now. how exciting! she weighs already more than max did when he was born. it's hard for me to think about... but... it makes me happy too. just to know that she's so much healthier than poor max was.

she spent the majority of the time doing flips and putting her hand to her face. she also had her mouth open almost the whole time! i guess she'll be like me someday! (or maybe like her daddy- singing all the time.)

we have some really cute pictures that i hope to have up by mid-next week. thadd says she looks like me already. (her feet definitely do! i have long skinny toes.. thadd's feet are...well... a bit more hobbit-ish. :) which is funny because max, even at 21 weeks really did look like a morris. we both think he looked a bit more like thadd's brother, titus, than thadd... but still, he looked a lot like his dad. (and he had hobbit feet and connected earlobes just like his dad for sure!) so i guess, time will tell. she would look a little weird if she came out looking just like her male relatives... i think there's some sort of general rule about that... hopefully the girls will look like girls, and the boys boys. :)

after the ultrasound we went to borders to pick out a book. for max we picked out "where the wild things are". (this was one of my favorites!) for this little girl we got "oh the places you'll go".... another favorite of ours. (though thadd is a little worried about gender ambiguity. it says "guy" a few times. i think it's probably ok for a girl too.)



thanks so much for all of your prayers and well wishes. i know that they truly made a difference. now i'm just taking it 4 weeks at a time from here. i'll have my next ultrasounds at 4 weeks apart. then after 30 weeks, i'll have non-stress tests twice weekly and ultrasounds weekly. they'll induce me if any clots show up to save the baby...or, on the terrible off chance i get eclampsia again, to save me. full term for me will be about 38-39 weeks... which will change my delivery date to somewhere close to the august 23.