Thursdays appointment - April 22nd

This was just a routine checkup with the Dr. He tried listening to the baby using the Doppler and this time it worked, though it did take a few minutes to find a heartbeat. This was really all we had come to do. It was so great hearing the heartbeat as I had not heard it for 4 weeks, and Josh 5 weeks.

I asked him about different stretching pains and also whether I had to start sleeping in a certain position. Apparently after 24 weeks I have to avoid sleeping on my back, and start favouring my right hand side.

I mentioned to him how at 12 weeks the U/S technician had said if she was available she would do a quick gender U/S scan to see if the baby was cooperating and we could tell the sex. Off he went to find out and luckily she was free!!

She was able to tell us almost immediately (good cooperative baby!). The babys heartbeat was 150bpm. I'm not going to post the sex here as there are some people who follow this who I know do not want to find out!!

We had already been looking at bedding for the nursery so that night we went to make our final choice!!

First round of test results

During my last few appointments I had a ton of tests done. The first was for my thyroid and the result came back today as "Your TSH, thyroid-stimulating-hormone, was in normal range." Yippee!!

The second lot of bloodwork done was relating to the Nuchal Translucency test. Todays results was "Your first trimester blood test done with the nuchal thickness ultrasound was normal".

On Thursday I have my final part of the screening. They will measure my blood level of four pregnancy-associated substances, alpha-fetoprotein, estriol, HCG, and inhibin A.

Also on Thursday we hope to find out the sex of the baby!! For a long time I thought it was a girl, now I'm not so sure. We truly don't mind; we just want a healthy and happy baby.

Next Thursday, 29th, we are meant to be traveling to England. Hopefully the clouds of volcanic ash will have all cleared by then as after 24 weeks I'm not allowed to travel. As it stands right now, if we do go, then when I return I will be just over 19 weeks so we really can't leave it too much later. Fingers crossed all will be ok.

Starting the 2nd Trimester

I am now at the point of starting my 2nd trimester. It seemed like it was going to take forever to get here.

The baby is now mainly developed, it just needs to do alot of growing.

My next appointment is April 22nd, when we meet with the Dr for a checkup. I will be almost 17 weeks at this point. We are hoping to go to England the following week and would like to know the sex of the baby before we travel so we can go baby clothes shopping there!! Hopefully the Dr can do a quick scan and tell us.

I found this Day by Day guide of the stages of pregnancy online. It has a countdown of how many days have gone by and how many left!! - Day by Day guide. It seems unbelievable the amount of time which has already passed by.