Sniffed out by a 7 year old

The school year started this week and I decided not to mention my pregnancy until someone brought it up.

That day was today!

This tiny, cabbage patch-esqe little darling with a very cute lisp came up and addressed the subject very discreetly. She quietly asked me, "Are you going to have a baby?" I asked her why she thought so and she told me my belly looks like it has a baby inside! When I told her I was she was SO excited! She responded, "So you're pregnant?!" and was smiling from ear to ear.

She proceeded to ask me 100 questions, like most 7 year olds do, including when the baby will be here, whether it's a girl or a boy and if she can help name him! It was too stinking cute.

Oh, and apparently I rub my belly while I walk around because she pointed that out, too!

Smart little whipper snapper!

Baby E is a....

BOY!
I guess my intuition was right after all! Yesterday I had an appointment to check my cervical length, so of course I asked the ultrasound tech to take a peek at the baby as well. I got to watch him spinning around and waving his arms. When I asked her to take a look at the "goods" she turned the screen away from me. Since my husband couldn't be there the tech snapped some photos and sealed them in an envelope for us to open together at home. That envelope was so hard to resist for 2 hours!

When we were together we opened the envelope which revealed two detailed "money" shots labeled MALE! We both were thrilled beyond belief! I felt like it was confirmation to what I felt all along and was so excited to know there's a little dude growing inside me. He looks great and is measuring perfectly.

Here is our son at 16 weeks 1 day:

Now, what to name our little dude?!

Angle of the Dangle...

After inspecting one of our ultrasound pictures from yesterday, I am now convinced that our little one is a girl! I had been predicting boy all along, but now with this picture, my mind has changed.
The "angle of the dangle" deals with the protruding genitalia that are evident in both boy and girl babies at this stage. The protrusions look almost identical, except that a girls points in the same direction as the spine, like a parallel, and a boy's points on an upward angle.
Take a look for yourself in this picture... What I see is the dangle in line with the spine, so maybe this babe is a girl after all! On the other hand, it could be something else and not the genitalia...
We'll find out on August 29th, until then, it's anyone's guess!

12 week ultrasound

Yesterday we had our third ultrasound for the NT scan. The baby was resting, but we got to see him/her wave a hand at us! The heart rate was 156 and everything looked great. They also checked my cervix, which is looking perfect so far.
Here are the pictures from the scan:

I go back on August 16th for another cervix check via ultrasound and then again on August 29th for the anatomy scan! There's a lot of excitement coming up in the next month.

Orange juice= Acrobat baby!

This morning after a bowl of cereal and a glass of orange juice I decided to listen to the babe's heart beat on the doppler.

The little nudger would let me hear the heart beat for about 10 seconds before making me chase him/her around hearing bumps, bubbles and splashing sounds before getting the heart beat again for another few seconds. I couldn't help but giggle the whole time! 

I can imagine the baby in my ute flipping around and playing hide and seek with mama. I recorded the entire session and sent it to my husband since he wasn't home to hear it.

Tomorrow can't come soon enough, so we can see our babe again at the NT scan! It's been four long weeks since we've gotten a glimpse at our precious little one and I'm sure the changes are incredible.

The Sweetest Sound On Earth

Today the Fetal Heart Doppler came in the mail! (One of the two I ordered because I started to panic that the first one wasn't going to come... Stupid crazy hormones!)

It took just a couple of minutes to locate the little nudger, but I knew I had found the babe as soon as that sound came from the speaker. I just sat listening with a huge smile on my face while Max watched suspiciously tilting his head from side to side. The average rate was between 120-136 beats per minute. It's hard to get a good reading because baby moves around a lot right now.

My husband and I have never heard the baby's heart until today, so we were both amazed at how sweet the sound is! It also put our minds at ease a little bit since it's been a few weeks since we last saw the baby and the heartbeat.

Old Wives Tales

There are countless Old Wives Tales to predict the sex of a baby, so I decided to try one.

The ring test involves tying a ring to the end of a string and hanging it over a pregnant woman's belly or wrist. If the ring moves back and forth like a pendulum it predicts a boy, and if it moves in a circular motion it predicts a girl.

First I tried it over my belly. Result= Pendulum/boy
Next I tried it over my wrist. Result= Pendulum/boy
Then I tried it on Max (just for kicks). Result= Circular/girl
My hubby even let me try it on him! Result= Circular/girl

Just for good measure, I had my husband hold the string and do it over my belly again. Result= Pendulum/boy!

I don't put very much faith in this OWT, but it goes along with my original inkling that this bambino may be a boy. The Chinese Gender Chart on The Bump also has me slated to have a boy.
We'll likely find out the end of August/beginning of September! I can't wait! :)