We're having a baby!

Allow us to introduce you to "Peanut"!

This picture was from our first ultrasound at 8 weeks, 6 days where Peanut measured right on track. His/her heartrate was 176 bpm and the tech said it was nice and strong. We got to see that beautiful little flicker, but they didn't have sound hooked up to recreate the heartbeat so we didn't get to "hear" it so we rented a doppler for at home since we were anxious to hear that thump, thump, thump and sure enough, we've been able to listen this week. It sounds almost like a tiny galloping horse!

I'm going to add a ticker to the blog, but as of today, I'm 11 weeks, 6 days so tomorrow I'm officially in the 2nd trimester--woohoo! Peanut is due to arrive somewhere around March 3rd so thankfully it'll be beautiful Arizona weather for the 2nd and 3rd trimesters.

I am holding out hope that 2nd tri will be a little nicer to me. All-day queasiness and fatigue started right away and the morning sickness really kicked in around 7 weeks, intensified by the fact that I now have "dog nose," meaning I smell everything with the sensitivity of a bloodhound. (My sense of taste also seems to have been kicked up several notches so basically I taste dimensions and details in food I never noticed before. This isn't always a good thing.) It's definitely worth it and I said at the beginning I was thankful for the symptoms because it made it all feel more "real" and it's supposed to be a good sign, but it really is exhausting. I will say that Brady has been wonderful and done more than his fair share around the house when all I want to do is sleep. I'm definitely a lucky girl.

Because we've been asked, I'll answer here that yes, we are going to find out if we're having a boy or girl, as long as Peanut cooperates. My OB office does the "big" ultrasound between 18-20 weeks, which would be early October more than likely. We have to do more research, but we've been told that some of the 3D/4D ultrasound facilities will do a gender determination at 15 weeks for a lot less than a regular session. I guess it just depends on how anxious we are to find out! (We'll definitely be doing a 3D/4D ultrasound in 3rd trimester regardless.)

We're so excited about Peanut and can hardly wait for all the milestones later on in the pregnancy and then getting to meet him/her next March!