The Simple Things

Although it is mid September the weather is still absolutely beautiful. It has been cool in the mornings and evenings, and in the mid to high 70's during the day. This is the weather that my Pacific North West soul lives for! Isabel has been loving it too! She had a blast playing with a pot of water in the back yard. A little

 H2O + some little containers from the kitchen = almost an hour of entertainment! I loved watching her intent little face focus on pouring the water in the big bowl, out of the bowl and eventually onto my plants. This age is so much fun because its is just the simple things that can be so hugely entertaining. 

Visible Movement

This little guy is moving around in a visible way now! I've had an inkling the last few days that I could probably see this little one moving around, but he is the most active at night when I just want to go to sleep (of course!). This evening though, I got to see him wiggling around for the first time! Its a pretty big feat considering that he has 3cm of extra padding to kick through as the placenta is right in front. I'm excited to see my little man grow and get stronger even though I knew it is going to mean more sleepless nights! Just like his big sister, he is already turning out to be a little night owl (its the Fraley in him!).

And the gender is...

We decided to find out this baby's gender instead of doing the ultimate surprise like we did with Isabel. While I would totally have gone for The Big Surprise again, Dave really wanted to find out. We agreed that since we did it my way last time we would do it his way this time!

When we were at our ultrasound we had the ultrasound tech write the gender on a piece of paper. She also had us look away from the screen so she could get a couple of good genitalia pictures which she put in an envelope with the gender written down.With a wrapped box in hand, I then went to Target and picked out an adorable girl outfit and a cute little boy outfit. At the cash register I gave the clerk instructions to open the envelope, read the gender, then ring up the coordinating outfit and put it in the box with the receipt. The whole time my back was turned and Isabel and I had a nice conversation about nothing much. I made sure to ask him if he put the ultrasound pictures in the box too and he said that they should be there!

That night we had the Spositos, Awes and Frankie over for dinner (homemade pesto with basil from my garden, homemade pasta, caesar salad and french bread), to witness the Big Reveal. After a bit of battling with technology we finally got the Fraley's, Brinkers and Luc on Skype and Jenna on speakerphone so that they could participate in the Big Surprise too!

I've got to say that I was totally surprised to open up the present and find the cute little boy's outfit inside! The whole day since we had had the ultrasound that morning, I just knew my baby was a boy. Before that I had no inclination. Even with that strong gut feeling all day, I was still blown away and thrilled!

20 Weeks

20 weeks of pregnancy means that we are half way there! This pregnancy seems like it has gone by way faster than Isabel's did. Now that I'm (finally!) feeling better and starting to feel our little one move around, I'm realizing that I need to take time each and every day to savor this time while I have it. I truly do love being pregnant - well this stage of pregnancy! I wasn't exactly loving life for a couple months there... I'm just coming to the realization that this precious time with my baby inside my belly is going by so swiftly! Yet at the same time I am so excited to meet this new little Brinker Baby!

Today we had our 20 week appointment which started out with an ultrasound! It was our first, and probably only ultrasound we'll have for this baby. This little one moves around way more than I can feel! I was thinking that maybe this baby is just really mellow. I also had the inkling that my placenta might be in the front, because I first felt the baby move a week or so after I first felt Isabel, and they say that you feel your second baby earlier than the first. Also unlike Isabel, I never felt little flutters first, but actual kicks instead! Dave told me that I was crazy and that there was no way that I could know where my placenta was. Sure enough, the ultrasound confirmed my prediction!  This little one is pretty active, I just have an extra layer of protection for the little kicks and jabs! Probably a good thing!

The ultrasound showed a healthy and active little baby in the 23rd percentile. That is well within the average range, so our midwife wasn't worried. With babies its probably better to be on the lower end of average than the higher end anyway! I have a feeling this one might be a little smaller than Isabel. Perhaps because it was so hard for me to gain weight for the first 18 weeks.

The best profile shot we could get!

A little foot!