Happy Halloween!

This year Ana has been very excited for Halloween. No more forcing her crying into costumes :) She's been doing activities at school all week, like decorating pumpkins and making a witch's brew, and counting down to the main event.

Pumpkin Carving

The spooky snacks I've been making Ana this week!

Playing silly games - so much fun!

Trick or Treat!!

My peeps

Out and about with Ana!

Chomping on ice lollies with McKenzie

This Batgirl is fierce :)

Meeting the Springfield College mascot

At school

21 weeks

How to get pregnant in 656 easy steps

Try the old fashioned way for a few months
Go for tests and discover you have a multitude of problems
Consult a fertility specialist and try drugs and IUI procedure with no success
Discover the odds of you getting pregnant without IVF are slim to none
Decide not to sit around waiting for a baby and land your dream job 3000 miles away
Quit your easy job across the street from your beautiful home. Ditto for James.
Collapse while running a triathlon
Discover you are pregnant!!!!!!
Pack your possessions in 104 degree heat and humidity (ok so James did most of this)
Fail to sell your house, despite working on it like crazy and the stress of multiple showings
Travel 3000 miles while feeling sick and tired
Move into shithole of a house where nothing works and everything smells of pee
Have hubby land a job 45 min from home, as opposed to the one he had that was 45 seconds away, also meaning we have to spend all our savings on a second car
Send Ana to pre-K that costs $7000 a year as opposed to the FREE one she was enrolled in in GA
Discover you are one of the lucky few who are ill all day every day of your pregnancy
Find out that teaching advanced exercise science courses is a little more time consuming than teaching kids to run around a field

Just had to get that out there so I know I’m not crazy for feeling a little stressed and overwhelmed these days.

Reasons all the above will be worth it eventually…

We are having a baby boy :)
We live in New England :)
We have much better jobs
I won’t be pregnant forever (or ever again!)

Ana's art work

Ana is quite the budding artist these days!! :)

This is a "monster masher" about to mash Mum

And here is Ana coming to rescue her...

This is Ana in Mum's bed

And a very gay fire truck

This is a witch and she has Ana's brother locked in her tower

And my favourite!! A family portrait!

The girls of Manchester Terrace

Ana and her gang!

20 weeks

Behold the stretch panel jeans. I'm bringing sexy back!

More Ana says..

Ana has been telling people "Guess what, my baby sister is a BROTHER"

Today was her first field trip, going on a bus without me (sniff). I had big plans to drop her off and take photos and such but I started throwing up just as we were about to leave the house. Came from nowhere, all over the stairs! Nice! If it wasn't so gross I'd take a picture of what I did to the bathroom sink. It looks like someone put raisin bran in a blender and forgot to put the lid on! I am SO sick of this! Anyway, back to the field trip. Luckily James had not left for work yet so her took her, they arrived just as they were loading the bus!! I was so desperate to see her I followed a few mins later to wave her off. She got the back seat of the bus and looked very proud of herself! She called out "don't worry Mum, the teachers will look after me". Awwww. The trip was to a farm. Ana tells me "If you pet a cow, milk comes out of its butt and if the farmer puts it in a glass you can drink it".

Ana was asking me about my "food coughs", that is her word for puke. She remembers the one time she had a bout of gastroentiritis and was sick in the night as the time "rice came out of my mouth". She asked why I had food coughs and I said "because of the baby". She said "the baby doesn't like cereal?" I laughed and said "I guess not!" She also remembers the time from weeks ago when I threw up an apple and started telling me "I think the baby didn't like the apple because you left the peel on. Next time you need to peel your apple and you will not have food coughs. Babies don't like peel"

Ana says...

"Ok, I will push my brother in a stroller and change his diaper, but I'm not holding him because he will have rough skin." Rough skin? "Yes, boys have a scratchy face like daddy so I'm not going to pick him up"

It's a boy!!!

We are over the MOON!!! I thought I wanted another girl (since Ana is so perfect and all) but when I saw that little boy I melted. Plus, Ana is such a Daddy's girl I need to balance things out! James is very excited, especially about the toys he gets to buy and the games they get to play. He has always had boy toy envy when we visit houses where there are tanks and action figures all over the place!


Everything with the scan was perfect. We got to see a lot of detail, including some 3D images.


So, now we wait......


I probably should not post pictures of my son's junk on the internet (he can do that for himself soon enough) but just so you know there is NO doubt!!

Votes

GIRL
Mummy
Ana
Grandad
Mel (on the fence a bit)
Warren
Bonnie

BOY
Daddy
Nana (also on the fence)
Debbie
Deanna
Judgey
Deb

All tied up! Although among facebook and other friends girl definately has the most votes.

Bones

Ana: "Mom, do you know what this bone is called?" (points to lower leg)
Me: "That is actually two bones, the tibia and fibula"
Ana: "Oh" pause "My gym teacher said it was a shin bone"

Ha ha ha!

Ana also asked me what "berdebrain" were. Huh?

"BERDEBRAIN bones"
"Oh you mean vertebrae?"
"Yes"
"They are lots of little bones in your neck that make up your spine"
"Oh ok. When daddy gets home I'm going to ask him what bertebrain bones are"
"Kid, I just told you! And when you want to know about bones you come to Mommy ok? I know all about bones"
"Ok"

About ten minutes later...

"Mommy, how do you know about bones? Are you a gym teacher too?"
"Erm, yeah. I'm a gym teacher"
"Wowwww" (like this is the coolest thing she has ever heard about me)

Then this morning around about 7am I am dead alseep and she yells from her room"

"MOM, what are the bones in my face called"
"Um, your skull" (I'm not getting into facial bones at 7am)

She must have sat and thought about this for quite a while because she didn't actually get up and come in my room until 9am!! Sweeet!!

Boy or Girl????

This time next week we will (hopefully) know if we are having a boy or a girl!! Eeeek!! Time to place your final bets people!! Comment with your guess and I'll keep a running tally :)

In case it influences your decision, I am feeling like ass, as I did with Ana. The ass feeling went away at 13 weeks with Ana but did not this time! I think I am carrying about the same as I did with Ana. See here and here. I have not gained as much weight this time and the belly is smaller, I was smaller to start with though. Even in my current condition I still do not weigh as much as I did when I conceived Ana. Shame on my fat 29 year old self! (or whoop to my active 34 year old self - your call!) Lastly, I am far hungrier and eating more than I was with Ana. No real cravings to speak of though, just FOOD!

18 weeks

Slowly, slowly starting to feel better. I have resigned myself to the fact that I have to eat every 2-3 hours and that is helping. I actually took a brisk walk today, woo hoo! The headaches rage on though.