It's a GIRL!

Now that I'm well into my 2nd trimester, I am feeling much better and my appetite is increasing. I have gained a whole 5 pounds now. I know, not much, but I'm sure I will catch up in no time. I had my 20 week checkup on December 22nd, and found out we are expecting another beautiful baby girl! We are so excited. The baby looks healthy and is measuring well.

We decided to keep the baby's gender a secret until Christmas morning, which was lots of fun. MOST of my friends and family thought for sure I was going to have a boy. As soon as people hear that I didn't feel well this pregnancy, but I was fine with Keira, they were like, "Oh it's definitely a boy." I don't believe in such old wive's tales. Every pregnancy is different and the baby's gender has nothing to do with it. So I wasn't surprised to find out we're having another girl, but lots of other people were. I bought a pink onesie and stenciled a bib to say, "It's a GIRL!" and put them on one of Keira's teddy bears. I brought it to church with me Christmas morning to show my family.

I'm amazed how much earlier I have been able to feel the baby's kicks. I know that when I was pregnant with Keira, I didn't feel solid kicks until after 20 weeks. This time, I have been able to SEE my belly moving and every day around 8 PM, she's in there performing a dance routine of some kind. Art has been able to feel several kicks. I don't believe that it's just that I'm more aware of the kicks. I'm pretty sure if my belly was visibly poking out during kicks that I would have been able to tell there was something going on in there. Keira was an EXTREMELY active baby. My theory is that you either a) grow more nerves in your uterus after the first pregnancy or b) your uterus is thinner from being stretched out from the first pregnancy. There has to be a physiological reason why you have more feeling in subsequent pregnancies.

So now begins the task of choosing a name. The number of hours in labor is minimal compared to the number of hours spent agonizing over a name. I'm undecided as to which process is more painful. Art and I don't easily agree on names, which is why we didn't even bother to start thinking about names until we knew what direction to go. I'm in the process of forming the "long list" then I will hand it over to Art to cross out and add to. This will probably be going on until after the baby is born, with the nurse coming in every hour to ask if we have a name yet. Technically you don't have to have a name picked out when you leave the hospital, but I fear what might happen if we did that. We'd have a 3 year old daughter running around answering to "Baby." Oh wait, we already do. :)