I waited to post this until after my doctor’s visit yesterday so that I could include that here also. I saw the nurse practitioner, who is usually in and out very quickly. Which is great, especially when the appointments start to become all the same. She came in after the nurse had asked me questions and done my vitals, quickly checked for the heartbeat, which I had to direct her to, baby sits so low and she was searching for it higher based on how high my fundus is. She was telling me that she would be faxing over my paperwork to the hospital for them to schedule the anatomy ultrasound and asked if I would be finding out the gender. Of course I said yes. She then asked me how old Ivan was, recalling that it wasn’t too long ago that I was pregnant with him and that I had two boys. She perked up and asked if we should take a quick peek and see if we could find out that day! Of course I said yes, so we did. I think that the general consensus was that its a boy. I found it hard to see on the tiny ancient screen that their machine has, but I do think that I saw it too. She said it was merely a guess and that I shouldn’t “paint the nursery” until my scan at the hospital. But I left feeling relieved to finally know. I was a little bit surprised, then again, not at all. I’m glad that we had already picked out a name that seems such a perfect fit for the family. I was worried that boy names would get harder and harder to find, but somehow, it found us. I had a nursery theme thought up already too, which I wanted to do if we had a boy, because there is simply not much else to buy, and that’s the fun part, right? I haven’t told anyone but immediate family and a couple friends yet, because there is always that small chance that it could change, though I feel certain it won’t. Anyway, on to this weeks update!

This week baby is getting much stronger. I feel kicks all the time, but still very very low in my pelvis. I have felt movement from the outside a couple times, but baby gets stage fright when there is a hand there. This part is so reassuring and it is my most favorite part about being pregnant. I LOVE IT! Headaches are still the same. The nurse told me to try taking magnesium twice a day to see if that helps. So I think I might do that for a few days and skip caffeine to test it out. Cravings are stronger this week. We went to the grocery store Monday afternoon and I got two different kinds of popsicles! I still crave Subway but I don’t have it often from the health risks that it can pose. Its actually been a while. But even with all these cravings, that’s not to say that I still don’t have aversions. It isn’t really anything in particular. My sciatica has seemed to alleviate this week but I know it will come back in waves. I have noticed that a couple nights this week, while stretching and turning over, I almost got those nasty pregnancy charlie horses. I get them every pregnancy but I was hoping that I could skip out on them.

I think that’s all for this week!