A few odds and ends

1.) I just noticed something when looking at the ultrasound pictures...you can already see that our baby has really long, skinny fingers. I've seen those fingers before: they're typing out this post right now. :o) I thought that was pretty cool.

2.) I am feeling her kick frequently now, and I love it! Enjoying it while I can because I'm sure when she gets bigger and aims a good kick right at the ribs or bladder, I'm not going to be so happy.

3.) When people talk about crazy pregnancy hormones, they are NOT kidding. I thought it was a myth, until I spent the last 18 weeks bouncing between delirious happiness and hating everything on the planet. (No offense to anyone in particular, it's just a general hate. I even hate plants and inanimate objects sometimes.) I have no tolerance for crap from students, so it kind of stinks to be them right now. And I'm attempting to read the last Harry Potter book but have to put it down every time something sad happens (that would be about every seven pages) because I start to cry. Hormones suck.

That's about it...there won't be much else to say I guess, for awhile...I'm looking forward to registering for the baby stuff (okay, maybe not really looking forward to doing it, but to getting it done) and for the day when Craig can actually feel the baby kicking too. She's too little right now for anyone on the outside to feel it.

Ava Catherine Haynor

As you can see...we have finally settled on bean sprout's official name! We chose the first name because it sounds very pretty and classic...the middle name was Craig's doing. We had a few other choices on the table and when we found out we were having a girl, I let Craig make the decision about a middle name since he didn't get his boy this time. He decided on Catherine because it uses my mom's name, Cathy, and he wanted the baby to have a name with meaning, not just "some random middle name." So that's that! Of course, I'm going to fret constantly from now until her birth about whether or not that's the right name for her, etc....but that's just my nature. I do love the name.

So, now that you know her name....here she is! The first two sets of pictures are the 4-D ones: we couldn't get any clear shots because she kept rubbing her eyes with her hands (and yawning!) but they're pretty cool. She looks like a bony little alien right now, but that's the stage of development, she will fill out more in the next 22 weeks! The last set of pictures are the regular ultrasound pictures, showing a clear shot of the proof that she's a girl (yeah, I don't get it either, but the ultrasound technician said that the picture proves that she's definitely female. Whatever!) and then a side view of her. Anyhow...enjoy! God bless modern technology!

Drumroll please.......

Well, folks....the results are in. The pictures have been taken (they're the really cool 4-D ones!) and will be up when Craig takes a study break and scans them for me...so I guess now you're wondering about Haynor Spawn's gender...well, wonder no more...


IT'S A GIRL!!!!!! :o)

I am completely, utterly THRILLED. I would have been happy with a boy too, mind you...but this is pretty awesome.

Anyhow, I'm going to ask you all for another round of prayers, as we did encounter one small thing on the fetal scan: our baby has some cysts on her brain. This is probably nothing--the doctor said it isn't a concern unless there are other problems, like with the heart or spine, and the rest of the baby was just fine. In fact, these cysts are common and usually go away anyhow. (Plus, our little bean sprout was VERY active, which is good....she was turning and flipping and bouncing all over the place! The technician was like, "WOW. Good luck keeping up with this one!") Anyhow, like I said it's probably not a problem, but prayers and positive thoughts would be appreciated nonetheless. I think we've settled on the name for sure (first and middle) so that will be in a later post, along with the pictures.

WOOHOO!

25 HOURS

I'm going absolutely crazy. I may not make it that long.

In other news, there's good and bad:

BAD--the middle name we wanted for a girl is already being used by someone else

GOOD--The first name we like is officially ours! Nobody else is using it! Plus, that particular middle name that we liked, paired with the first name we're definitely using, was coincidentally the name of an adult film star. (I only know this because I Googled the name...I'm not a porn aficionado or anything. Gross.) We had a few other middle names in reserve so now we just have to decide between them and we're set! Who knows? In 25 hours, the girls name may not even be an issue... ;o)

Change of heart?

So I've been obsessed with Wendy Bellissimo's Honey Bee collection ever since we decided to have kids...up until recently. I think I might actually be in love with a different nursery....same designer, still gender-neutral, but with a jungle/safari theme. Check it out: Petite Safari

(Feel free to comment and let me know your opinion on Honey Bee vs. Safari! Not that it's going to change my mind either way, but whatever! ;o)

I like it because it's earth tones (like our whole house), and it's not cartoonish like so much baby stuff...the bees were adorable and everything, but I started thinking that maybe they were a little more on the cutesy/feminine side of neutral...the safari theme might suit us and bean sprout a little better. :o) I don' t know though...I really do like the designer and that her gender-neutral rooms aren't boring, and that a lot of the collection pieces are interchangeable, so we'll see. But I'm leaning towards safari. Guess when it's time to register I'll see which one looks better in person. Sometimes January seems so far away, and sometimes I can't believe I only have 23 weeks to get all of this done!

On the con side of changing my mind about the room theme....it's probably going to require a new paint color. Grrrrrr. I am so sick of painting! (But we can either paint it the same color as our bedroom which is a soft, pale sage; or paint it a warm honey color. It's currently a pale yellow that's almost off-white, so it will be easy to cover.)

That's it here. I'm going to bed, because when I wake up again the wait will be down to two days! (Plus, I like to lay in bed and hold really still to see if I can feel it kicking.)

By popular demand...

Here's the 17-week photo! I should have had Craig just take a normal picture because I'm quite fond of that outfit, it's really cute and I was dressed up to go out to a movie. (The Bourne Ultimatum, which I could distinguish from neither of the other two Bourne movies, and I spent the majority of it trying to feel the baby kick before I finally just fell asleep.) Speaking of the kicking, I think it's pretty unmistakable now....it feels like gentle pokes about an inch or two under my belly button, usually in the evening. Hard to believe there's actually a live human being in there, kicking and elbowing at my guts. Feels something like muscle twitches...probably after I see it in the ultrasound later this week, my brain will make the connection a little better.

In other news, Craig has said he really has no intention of posting here and in fact, hardly even reads this (so much for the family blog....oh well), which is disappointing but also pretty amusing, because now I can use this site as yet another part of my ultimate plot to ensure that this baby is a future Bears fan. So I present to you, exhibit one: the bean sprout's first Bears jersey!


Thanks, Christie! :o)

And this is a chart I have devised to calculate the likelihood of producing a Bears fan. (Okay, I didn't devise it personally, I found it online and have interpreted it to suit my purposes.) Please note: the father is listed as "unaffected," which clearly refers to his sad state of being a non-Bears fan. The mother is the carrier of the Bears gene in this case. It appears as though the probability of producing a Bears fan is as high as 3 in 4, or as low as 1 in 4. Only one of the offspring in the chart is entirely unaffected like the father, out of the other three one is definitely a fan, one will carry the gene but not necessarily be a fan, and the last one will be a fan but not necessarily carry the gene to pass it on to his or her offspring. It makes perfect sense.






In all seriousness though--we DO have an important doctor appointment coming up and as excited as I am about Bears jerseys and finding out the gender, the main purpose of the ultrasound is going to be to check the baby for abnormalities. So if you would, please pray that whatever gender child we've been given is a healthy one. :o)

Closer every day....

Well, since I can't do anything else at the moment, here's a we-almost-know-the-gender ticker. Yes, I tend to get obsessed and I have to know EVERYTHING all the time. It's like nature is keeping a big secret from me, and I don't like it much. Last night I had a very vivid dream about having an ultrasound and finding out that it was a girl (I high-fived Craig, which was funny, because he wants a boy) so of course that means it will be a boy. But everyone else on the planet seems to think it's a boy, so maybe it's actually a girl. (And if I hear one more old wives tale about how this or that means it's one or the other, I'm going to hurt someone....ARGH! "If your left eye twitches before midnight on a Tuesday, it's a girl...") At least it's almost the weekend, and weekends go by way too quickly, so it will be here before we know it.

I'm still waiting for bean sprout to kick me...it's early yet but every night before I fall asleep I lay very still and concentrate so that I don't miss anything if it IS moving around. The other night I could've sworn I felt something--it felt like a finger jabbed me twice from the inside--but I've not felt anything since, so it was probably just a twitchy muscle. That happens.

Anyhow that is all for now, I promise I'll put a few pictures up, including that of the ridiculous 17-week baby gut, this weekend.