19 Weeks

Baby has been much more active the past couple days, which I'm loving (I am sure I will feel differently when Baby is active on my ribs or something).  Yesterday, I counted how many times I felt baby kicking in a span of 5 minutes.  I had just had my breakfast and a glass of juice so I'm sure the juice woke the baby up and got her/him moving.  I counted 13 kicks in those 5 minutes.  That's the most active I've felt baby!  Ian is anxiously waiting for when he can feel the baby.  When were you able to start feeling the baby move from the outside?

Cravings the past week: pastries, sweets, basically all bad food!  But as part of Lent, I am trying to incorporate more veggies into my diet for the baby.  So far, I've been very good about it, trying to focus one meal around a salad or veggies.  I also need to try to cut down on sugary things.

Symptoms: baby moving more.  Still having heartburn, but some of you ladies who suggested trying Tums were right on the money.  Tums have become my new friend.

Baby is now the size of a mango, about 6 inches from crown to rump, and weighs in at about 8.5 ounces.  This week, baby is growing a thin coating of white stuff all over to protect itself from becoming all wrinkly from bathing in amniotic fluid for the next 21 weeks. 

I wanted to try taking our pictures during the day time to help with the light issue - but unfortunately it was super cloudy this morning so we still needed the flash.  Oh, and I have sopping wet hair because I'm not normally ready before Ian leaves but I hurried up and got up and got somewhat ready before he left.  I think we need to invest in a different flash for our camera!  Here are our 19 week pictures:

Tired of hearing me refer to baby as him/her and even "it"?  Well, in 6 days, we will know whether baby is a boy or girl.  In preparation for our BIG ultrasound, I thought I'd create a little poll to see what you think we're having. Do you think we are having a girl, or boy? Here is some information for you:

• I've been thinking it's a girl since I was about 7 weeks pregnant
• Ian has gone back and forth between the two - he thought for a long time it was a girl, but the past couple weeks he's been thinking (probably secretly hoping) that it's a boy
• I've had girl baby dreams. But one dream I had recently was that I had just given birth, and the doctor announced that it was a boy. My response (in the dream) was "but it was supposed to be a girl!"
• It looks to me like I am carrying kind of wide - I have extra chub on my sides
• Almost all of our friends think it's a girl
• Chinese Gender Predictor says boy

So tell us, what do YOU think we're having? Go to the box on the right hand side and vote!