Whale, whale, whale....(16 weeks)

First of all, I have to apologize for being MIA for a week.  Bad little blogger, bad!  I've been swamped with grad school, work, and looking for houses (but I'll save that for a later post).  While I haven't been blogging, I've also been busy growing a real bump. 

I'll tell you what we have here: a baby bump that appeared overnight.  One that maybe looks more like a baby than an extra helping of spaghetti. I wore yoga pants and a tight tank top for this picture so that you could see what I am talking about, since you can't really tell when I'm in any other clothes. Soon I'll be the size of a whale.  I cannot wait.

How far along? 16 weeks!  The coveted 16 weeks, when mom can finally stop shopping (or in my case, window shopping) in the sea of gender neutral clothes (which are, in my opinion, extremely boring).
What's happening with  baby?  Baby is the size of an avocado (mmm guacamole).  Ears and eyes are starting to move into their final positions. And my favorite - baby is growing toenails. Tim told his sister when the boys came out, the first thing he saw was feet with little toenails.  What he wouldn't do to save those little feet.
Total weight gain: Two pounds. Uterus is measuring perfect at 16 weeks. Doctor is happy with that, but he did make a joke about how I shouldn't be afraid to eat and that it doesn't look like I eat much.  Tim said I like I eat a lot of expensive things.  What I didn't tell the doctor was that last night between 11 pm and midnight, I ate a peanut butter sandwhich, a grilled cheese, and a piece of pizza. And three bottles of water.
Maternity clothes?  Just a belly band for now
Stretch marks? Nada, but I'm not really paying attention either.
Sleep: Still staying up late and waking up late.
Miss Anything?  Eating dinner without barfing.  I've been sick almost everyday this past week.
Differences between Baby C and Conner and Ben at this point: Big one - a few days ago, I started feeling Baby C move!  I have been feeling little kicks and tumbles ever since.  With the twins, I was 17 weeks and 6 days before I realized what I was feeling were the babies moving and not gas. They say when you are pregnant the second time around, you are more attune to what those movements are.  I knew what to look for this time, and little baby is moving as I type this (probably because I am also eating pineapple pizza).
Best moment this week:  Debating between the gender scan or feeling this little one move for the first time! OB appointment went really well.  Cervix is high and closed and my OB is really happy that the 17p shots start tomorrow.  He said once I got to 28 weeks, he could start to relax a little bit.  It was kind of nice to hear a doctor so concerned about this baby. Also, even though we are not done with prenatal screening yet (second blood test is next week), our chances of genetic abnormalities are extremely low - everything came back at less than 1%.  I can't remember all the numbers except that Trisomy 18 was 1 in 8,100.  I hope that with the next (and last) screening, we have great news as well.
Emotions:  Is anxiety an emotion?
Difficulties this week:  I'm afraid once we announce this pregnancy, people will forget about Benjamin and Conner even more than they already have.  We invited close friends and family to a memorial at the hospital that happens in a couple weeks, and no one is going.  Some people didn't even bother to respond back to me about it. Those boys deserve better.
Movement:  See above. Hell yeah!
Food cravings/aversions: Not really discriminating anymore.  Depending on the time of day, everything is good or everything make me want to barf.
Symptoms: Still haven't been called for that Proactiv/Noxema/Clearisil commercial yet.
Happy or Moody most of the time:  Moody.  Poor husband.
Looking forward to: Our pregnancy announcement... maybe this weekend?

OK.... I know you have all been waiting for this gender announcement.  Please don't hate me, but I have decided that we're going to keep that a secret until we tell our family and friends that we are pregnant.  I think the guilt of keeping this baby a secret from them is catching up to me.  I hope to tell you all soon!  I will say this though - this little baby WOULD NOT STOP MOVING.  I was pretty sure we weren't going to get a read and we would have to wait until next week.  I kept trying to guess the gender while this little baby kept bouncing around.  But finally, we saw what we had finally been waiting for.  I even let Tim take me to Babies R Us afterwards.  AND I finally took that Babies R Us catalog from the OB's office home today.

Hey, thanks for pressing your legs together during the gender scan.