20 week ultrasound.

Wow. I cannot believe I'm already over 20 weeks. When I first found out I was pregnant and they told me they would send me to a Maternal Fetal Specialist for a special anatomy sonogram at 20 weeks, it seemed so far away and like it would never get here. But now it's come and gone and I can't believe how fast time is flying. I just need the next 18 weeks to keep going by this quickly. 

Since we had to do the sonogram on a week day, Derek didn't want to have to take another day off, so I invited my mom to go with me. She's been dying to go with me to an ultrasound and I sometimes have small panic attacks when I go to new doctors and don't know where to go. And this one was at Children's Medical Center in Plano, so I was already kind of freaking out about it. Derek is a, follow along and never ask questions because that makes us look stupid, kind of person, so if I don't know where I'm going, he's absolutely no help. My mom is the opposite of that, so it was an obvious choice. 

So far, every doctor I've seen during this pregnancy has been awesome and so laid back. My OB is awesome, the women in her office that does the sonograms is so sweet, my endocrinologist has finally grown on me after almost 5 years,  and this new doctor was no different. She wasn't sure if I would have to come back and see her, but I wouldn't mind it if I did. The office was very quiet and the nurses were all really nice. 

I wasn't nervous about the ultrasound until the morning of, and I'm not even sure why I got nervous all of the sudden. She got very active at very certain times of the day starting on Monday the 14th and then on Wednesday and Thursday this week, suddenly, she was extremely still. Both days I tried not to panic, and of course, at the end of every day she would give me one little kick so I could sleep peacefully. I'm not one to overreact, thankfully, and she's been very active the last two days. 

I wasn't really sure what to expect at the this ultrasound, I was just excited to see her again. The sonographer came in first and measured everything. Her head, her legs, her arms, and all internal organs. She checked blood flow through her heart and in the umbilical cord. She checked her brain and made sure everything was where it was supposed to be. She was trying to measure her face, but of course she's my baby and doesn't want her picture taken so she had her face buried in my cervix the whole time. Stubborn little peanut. Gave us a great view of her butt and spine though. But she's growing perfectly. She's in the 68th percentile and measuring at 13ozs, right on track. When the sonographer was done she said the doctor would come in and look at her again, so I should get up and move around to see if I could get her to flip over. I was more than happy to, so I walked around the room and drank a little bit of juice to get her moving. Thankfully when the doctor came in she had turned over so we could actually get a picture of her profile (something we couldn't get at the 16 week gender ultrasound because she was being stubborn then, too) and they could measure her facial bones and make sure everything was in the right place. The doctor tried flipping over to the 4D so we could maybe see what she was starting to look like, but the little bugger had her hands up in front of her face (also something she was doing at 16 weeks) the whole freaking time. It was entertaining and I don't blame her one bit. What little bit we did finally see showed a little girl who looks just like her daddy. 

Overall, the doctor was extremely happy. They were thoroughly happy with my last a1C of 5.2 (which is an overall average blood sugar of 96) and said that my awesome control from day of diagnosis is what is contributing to an extremely healthy baby. I haven't done any research because I just don't want to know, but I think it's pretty normal to have a baby that's already measuring too big at 20 weeks. Baby girl was measuring a couple of days ahead, but that's normal for everyone. We'll see how she does from now on. She should start producing her own insulin in the next few weeks, and that's really when she'll start to grow (since she's having to overproduce insulin to compensate for my lack of insulin production, she'll start growing more quickly than a non-diabetic baby) and I'll have to be even more careful than I already am. This is something that I've been aware of for many years, even before we decided to start trying to have a baby. 

I'm not sure when my next ultrasound will be, but the specialist said she wasn't sure if Dr.Walsh would have me come back to her or not since I'm in such tight control. She said sometimes she'll have people back one or more times just to confirm everything still looks good, but those are usually people who are having trouble. She said Dr.Walsh may choose to just do those tests in her office since I'm not having any complications and don't seem to be heading in that direction. Hopefully I don't have to go back to her, even though she was so great. 

It's a GIRL!!

I guess it's time I update, huh? I'm not even sure how many people read this, but since my memory is getting so bad right now, I still feel the need to update in case I forget anything down the road.

I'm feeling a TON better already, but I'm still pretty tired and get tired really easily. Some energy has returned, but not so much that it's like it was before I got pregnant. And as long as I don't get too hungry or too sleepy, then I'm not nauseous. So that has been a blessing. I'm not having any food cravings, per say, but I'm having way less food aversions. I will never figure out how my sister could eat for 4 people when she was pregnant, but my appetite is definitely increasing some. Sometimes it's hard to eat more because I'm also having to watch my blood sugar, and some days my blood sugar does NOT like me eating. And right now my blood sugar is more important than eating more food. I'm eating 3 meals a day, and usually a snack before bed. That's an extra meal a day and an extra snack, so I'm pretty sure I'll be alright.

Last week we got to find out the gender of our little miracle. And it's a girl! At this point, I'm still a little disappointed. I know that this will change with time, so don't give me a hard time about it. I've never thought of having a girl. I'm 100% tom boy, and I don't seem to be growing out of it. I've never, never,  been a girly girl. When given the choice between ballet and softball, I chose softball. I own 3 pairs of men's cargo shorts because I cannot stand short shorts and that seems to be all anyone is selling anymore. 99% of the shirts I own are tshirts because I cannot stand anything tight around my belly. I know God will give me the tools to raise a girl, but at this point, I'm not really sure if I can do it. I really thought it was a boy. I was so shocked when she came up on the screen and we could see she was a girl. I've bought some girl clothes to try and help, and it has some. It'll just take a little while to get used to. I'm also not a fan of pink, and I know that with having a girl it means everything everyone will buy us will be pink. I put it on Facebook so hopefully some people won't buy us pink. If she grows up and pink is her favorite color, she can have pink. But until she can make that decision, the colors will be a sage green and a light yellow. I've always loved these two colors together, they were my wedding colors, and they work really well for a baby girl. I won't be dressing her like a boy by any means, but if I can put her in as little pink as possible, my world will be much happier.

Right now, we're keeping her name off the internet, just in case we change our minds. Her name comes from a great aunt of mine and Derek's grandmother, so it means something to both of us. I don't see it changing, but you never know. And I would like to keep at least one thing this special just within the family for the time being.