20 Weeks - It's a.......

 Week 20 Complete

How far along? 20 Weeks and 1 day

Baby is the size of: A banana, around 10 inches long, and last Monday weighed in at 11 oz!

What did the baby develop: Under the vernix caseosa (a protective, waxy coating), squishy's skin is thickening and developing layers. Hair and nail growth continue. Squishy is producing meconium, a black, sticky by-product of digestion. This gooey substance will accumulate in the bowels, and we'll see it in the first soiled diaper!

Gender: Announce below! Also, Thomas and I did not have a preference or a clue.

How many:1 little squishy

Showing a bump: Yep. Although in some clothes, way more then other clothes.

Maternity clothes: I have some, but 90% are still my old clothes.

Stretch marks: Nope.

Sleep: Still going strong! The rental condo was the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in.

Movement: YEP! I was sitting at work at 9:16 on Tuesday May 17th. How is that for exact? :) And then I promptly had to go to the bathroom. Kiddo was hanging out on my bladder. I have felt squishy move multiple times a day now that I know it isn't just gas. For those of you who said it feels like gas in the wrong place and also a flutter, you win. That is how it feels for me.

Best moment this week: Finding out the sex! Everyone's reactions. My sister Stevi's wedding. And seeing all my family! So many good things this week.

Miss anything: We are officially half way there!
Medical Help:  Daily Vitamins - Prenatal, fish oil, Vitamin D, and Probiotic. And this week I need to up my salt, and add in Calcium/Magnesium for leg cramps as well as electrolytes as my blood starts to double in the next weeks.
Emotionally Feeling: Good

Belly button in or out: In

Food cravings: Nope. Totally back to normal.

Anything making you queasy or sick: Sweet in the morning.

Symptoms/Side effects: Linea Negra, I have to sit up straight because my abs and uterus are now vying for the same spot. Leg cramps.

Wedding ring off or on: On

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy

Looking forward to: All of your reactions when you hear the sex!
Things they don't tell you about pregnancy: I got nothing this week.

We had the follow up appointment from our ultrasound last week. Nothing more then what I share below. I do have to start eating more protein daily. So either some almond butter on my apples or a protein shake daily. She did actually say I could have a bowl of ice cream per night instead, but sadly that will be very uncomfortable for me. So almond butter and a shake it is!

20 Weeks! Exactly half way there! I really need to wear clothing that actually shows off my bump for these pics.

 Anatomy Ultrasound Appointment

What an awesome appointment! After getting my vitals taken by the nurse, she had me go to the ultrasound room where Kayla the ultrasound tech did the full anatomy ultrasound. I asked her if I could ask tons of questions because I was so curious about everything, and she said she can tell me where things are, but not if things are wrong. She is not a Dr, she can not diagnose. :) Like I haven't heard that before!

After she started measuring the heart and all that includes, I remembered that I wanted to tell her that we did want to know the gender! A few moments later after she finished measuring and capturing the heart, she found the anatomy and told us. I kept asking her questions through out the whole scan and wrote down measurements. Finally she finished up and then Dr Olson who is a Neonatal OB came in to share the results. She did a quick ultrasound to see a few things for herself and then we chatted.

This wee one's anatomy is 100%. Everything looks amazing and the umbilical cord and amniotic fluid are also perfect. Of course I can't do anything normal, so I have a placenta that is a wee bit different. It is called a circumvallate placenta. Basically it means that y placenta plateau's instead of being a gentle sloped mountain.

This happens in 1% of pregnancies (remember all the other 1% odds I have had?) The Neaonatal OB told me that rarely do people leave without a second appointment from the Maternal Fetal Medicine office, but because she is so not concerned about it, we do not need a second appointment. The 2 things it could affect are a higher incidence of placental abruption and an increased risk of intrauterine growth restriction (the baby not growing at the normal rate). I talked to my midwife after the appointment and her comment was, normally they don't know people have a circumvallate placenta until birth. So any of the above happening is SO SO rare. And none of us are worrying about it.

The second thing she found was little lakes on the placenta. She said there was no blood flow to them and basically they were just there. And again no reason to worry. I asked if my subchorionic hemorrhage earlier in the pregnancy had anything to do with either of those things. She said no, but she did see debris in the amniotic fluid that was most likely from that.

And... my placenta is in the front (anterior)! Which explains why it has taken me so long to feel this wee one move. And it is no where near the cervix, which was a concern at my 12 week appointment, so I have no worry about having placenta previa, which is when the placenta covers the cervix and you have to have a cesarean because the placenta is literally blocking the cervical opening for the baby to come out. And did you know that the placenta only moves up in pregnancy?  

We chatted a bit more and then left! I saw my midwife right after that, and she was so excited that they did not want to monitor me more. She was sure they were going to micromanage the rest of my pregnancy, and she was just thrilled that they gave me such a clean bill of health that they were trusting me to her care. YAY!! Home free!

The most important measurements that were recorded were:
Heart Rate - 147
Head Circumference - 16.52
Weight - 11 oz
Percentile - 69%, perfect range!!

All that to say,  

It's a boy! Meet Adler James Kucera.

Sweet baby boy of ours.

You can see his little leg sticking up on top!

All 10 toes!

And his little skeleton face.

When Thomas and I heard that and saw the scan, we just looked at each other and grinned. Since neither of us were hard core about one or the other, I think we were just excited to know who this little one was. And the fact that we had 1 boys name, but 3 girls names to choose from, I think we were both just relieved that we didn't have to make a quick decision between the 3. We have both wanted to tell people the sex of the baby and the name right away, so this just made it very easy.

The Reveals

We actually had this ultrasound on Monday May 16th, but since we were seeing all of our family last weekend for my sister's wedding, we thought it would be so fun to share it in person since we have not been able to share anything else in person. It was so much fun to tell everyone, because they were all thinking that they would have to wait until the following week to find out too.

 

 

I baked these cookies and Thomas just handed them to his mom in front of his whole family. She had no idea. She opened the box and read the name. When she still didn't fully understand, Thomas told her to open the box all the way up. When she read the top, she squealed so loud! 

Nephew Kai stomped the eggs and niece Kara got in on the aftermath.

We then revealed it to my family too, with my nephew stomping on eggs that were filled with colored sand. We tried to prep him ahead of time and he finally said it was a boy, but he was having too much fun stomping on all the eggs initially!

I also had a few people who weren't at the other 2 reveals, crack open an egg that said, "It's a..." and then on the inside it was a blue piece of paper that said, "boy! And his name is Adler James!". 

His Name Meaning

We really wanted a first name that was unique, but not weird. And for the middle name, we wanted something that was in the family. 

Thomas found his first name, Adler when he was looking through some vintage posters from the 30's and 40's. He loved the name and when he shared it with me, so did I. It was the name of a bicycle company in the 30's-40's.

Adler is literally the german word for Eagle. 

This was one of their posters! Definitely going up in his room.

James was a name that originally I found because it was my maternal grandfathers name. As I started looking into our family trees though, it is also connected to cousins and uncles on both Thomas and the biological families sides! 

I cannot tell you how much I love that this sweet boy has a name that spans all 3 families. 

Mine, Thomas', and his biological family. 

Just beautiful. 

And EEKKK!!!! We are having a boy!!!