It's a . . . .

Girl!

So we got to find out last week that we are having a little girl!  And I've finally been feeling her move consistently, which is a HUGE blessing.  Each little bubble like movement is like a reminder that she is safe and fine.  And to answer the question that always follows "it's a girl:" no, we don't have a name yet.  We've got a list that we've been looking at, but haven't done an exhaustive search or hashed out things we like or don't like about the current list.

Monday night we had a cake "reveal" of the gender.  I made a very bright (neon) pink cake, but then frosted it completely in chocolate.  I even added a line of white frosting around the bottom to seal off the prying eyes looking for crumbs of pink or blue.  We had our moms cut it open to reveal that it was a girl.

Here's the cake.  Technically, it should be "cut to see," but it didn't seem to flow as nicely.

Here's the inside

The original plan had been to tell the worship team Thursday, but I had forgotten Stephen had class and I wasn't playing this week, so neither one of us was there.  Stephen still played the drums and I told him he could tell everyone, but he apparently held the information hostage so I could be there when we told them.  Our pastor was ready to meet any ransom demands and actually ran out after us at church because he wasn't around when we told the team after church.  

Friday night we told our small group with a cake as well.  You can't see the cake that well, but it's pink frosting.  I told them I would bring either a pink or blue dessert.  So far, there are 2 boys and 1 girl on the way with two more who don't know yet.  Here's us with the cake (and the lid that took off a bunch of the frosting).

No word on the heart issues yet.  The EKG in the hospital was normal and I only had 3 minor episodes while I was wearing the halter monitor.  Which is what I thought would happen because I had taken the day off.  The monitor went off at 10am on Tuesday.  At 11:04am, I had a normal episode.  They seem to get worse through the week and then taper off on the weekend.  There's only 7 weeks of school left (including this one), and next week's all minimum days for STAR testing.  So hopefully I can stay as unstressed as possible.  Although I am STAR testing 40 14 year olds in a portable...all day on those minimum days.  But they're a pretty good (albeit chatty) class.

Other than the heart pounding (not racing, just pounding), I've been feeling pretty good.  Definitely looking pregnant and people have started touching my stomach.  So far it's been people I'm fine with, so that's good.  I can see how it could get pretty awkward, though.

Irregular heartbeat

Once again, my body has decided to not take the easy road.  For the last month or so I've been having heart episodes where my heart starts to pound harder than normal for 15 - 30 seconds.  I asked my doctor about it at week 15, and she said we'd keep an eye on it but she wasn't concerned because the increased blood flow during pregnancy can make the heart do weird things.

At our 20 week appointment, she asked me about them and they were still happening.  My heart rate isn't really speeding up, but the beat of my heart (which is the opposite as the beat of the pulse) gets really intense.  It feels like it echoes in my chest and makes it hard to get a deep breath.  I do one of those pathetic coughs that doesn't actually do anything but you can't help doing.  The cough doesn't seem to help, but it's usually over within a minute.  My doctor told me to start keeping track of when they happened, what I was doing, and what I had eaten to look for a cause.

Through the week last week, they got worse and worse.  Thursday during school they started happening a lot, and got more intense.  At one point it gave me mild tunnel vision, which freaked me out a little.  I emailed my doctor about it and then left work early (although according to my contract, it would've been on time) and came home and laid down.  They stopped happening so frequently, but I called the advice nurse.  She asked me some questions that made me more worried, like was I alone, was there someone who could come over (Stephen was on his way home), what number they could call if they lost contact with me, etc.  Real reassuring.

She asked if I was feeling the baby moving.  I've felt a little bit, but not a lot.  My OB said it may be another couple of weeks because of the placement of the placenta (the baby is kicking the placenta instead of me).  She wasn't concerned, but this advice nurse was.  She said they would send me to labor and delivery, which made no sense to me.  I guess once you're past 20 weeks pregnant, they always send you there.  I made an appointment for the next day since the episodes hadn't really been happening anyway.

At the appointment they checked my blood pressure (which is always low), watched my heart rate for a little while (stayed steady), and checked the baby by ultrasound.  It was moving a lot and his/her heartbeat looked steady and strong.  My OB said we could go do the EKG right then or do it on Monday.  Since they seemed to be happening more during the week (possibly stress related?), we thought I'd be more likely to have an episode during the EKG if we did it during the week.  So we have an appointment tomorrow at 9:30 for an hour long EKG and then they'll send me home with a portable heart monitor.

The doctor said it's possible that my blood pressure is dropping too low and my heart is working to bring it back up.  Or I could have a heart defect I didn't know about (apparently it's common for them to manifest during pregnancy).  I'm just hoping something shows up on the EKG so I don't seem crazy.

In happier news, we get to do our gender reveal ultrasound tomorrow at 2:00!  And hopefully the baby cooperates!  We will be telling our families with a pink or blue cake Monday night, the worship team Thursday, and our small group Friday.  THEN, I'll post on here :-).  Other than the weird heart stuff, I've been feeling pretty good.  A little bit of round ligament pain and I wish I could feel movement more, but the doctor's explanation made sense.

Also good news, my brother and sister in law had their baby on Friday morning, a beautiful baby girl.  It will be nice to have cousins close in age :-).

Stephen and our new niece

Me and my sister in law last week, on Easter