Update: Week 19

I’m 19 weeks pregnant today, which means I haven’t posted on here for quite a while! I thought about waiting until next week to update, when I’ll have more to say (you’ll find out why below), but then I might forget to tell some of the less exciting things. So, here’s a quick bullet-point update for now (not in any particular order):

• The pregnancy has been pretty smooth sailing so far. I never had any morning sickness, which is a HUGE blessing. The worst thing I’ve dealt with is trouble sleeping well at night. I dream pretty much all the time, and sometimes my dreams are really wacky. Other than that, I really have nothing to complain about.
• On second thought, I might add that I’m not exactly thrilled with the way my skin is holding up these days. It’s so dry that I seem to be itching somewhere all the time, yet my face is breaking out like it did when I was a teenager. Then there are those rapidly-appearing stretch marks that make me look like I’m morphing into a blonde zebra, and…well, you get the idea.
• On the bright side…I’ve felt the baby move a few times! The first time was last Saturday night (January 31). Taras and I were sitting on the couch watching October Sky, when I felt the first unmistakable little kick. It felt kind of like someone flicking me from the inside. The baby kicked like that several times, and if I was very still, I could feel it from the outside, too! After a few tries, Taras even felt it! We were so excited!
• We bought our first piece of furniture for the baby’s room, which is still a study/storage/guest bedroom at this point. For now, it’s going in our bedroom, because we still need to make space in the soon-to-be baby room. It’s a nice, slightly-used changing table/dresser with a hutch on top with extra shelves. We found it on Craigslist and managed to jump on it before anyone else got to it (which has happened to us more than once with Craigslist). I can just picture little books and stuffed toys and photos on those shelves and cute baby outfits in the drawers…
• Next Monday (February 9) I will go for my 20-week appointment and super-exam. My midwife will check out everything there is to check, and hopefully it will all be good!
  
• On Tuesday, February 10, I will go for an ultrasound and we will finally get to find out whether we have a little boy or a little girl! We can’t wait! Once we find out, we’ll let everyone know and finally introduce you to our son or daughter by name! (By the way, you can vote on what you think we’re having in the poll on the right-hand side of the blog!)
  

That’s about it for now. Check back on Tuesday to find out the answer to the two big questions: Are we having a boy or girl? and What is his or her name? We should have some fun photos and video from the ultrasound to show off, too!