Tminus 4 days until The Ultrasound

The week is here :) On Friday we have our 20 week ultrasound, and I could not be more excited! I can't wait to see how much baby has grown in 8 weeks since our last glimpse.  I am not really feeling anxious about anything being wrong with development, but if it is I'm glad we'll have the opportunity to know now.  I'm excited for the chance to find out if this baby is a girl or a boy, to put a little more detail into the dreams I'm already creating for this first child of mine.  Of course I know that just because a baby has specific parts between its legs doesn't mean it will be a "girly girl" or "all boy" or whatever.  My little girl may want to play hockey, and my little boy may want to be a gymnast (or insert whatever other gender-specific activity here), but none of that matters to me.  I know that people say "as long as it's healthy, I don't care what it is" and to some extent that is true for me.  But I guess I would say, I hope with all my heart that my child is healthy so that he/she never has to know that pain that I see every day, and so that our family doesn't have to make the choices and certain sacrifices I see families make in order to care for their sick children, but if he/she isn't perfectly healthy, I will still love every ounce of their being, boy or girl.  That said, I really don't care if our baby is a boy or a girl, and I really do hope he/she is healthy as can be! And I hope we get confirmation of both on Friday (well, confirmation of one sex or the other, that is).

I think baby's movements are getting strong enough to feel from the outside! I spent some time on Saturday morning just me and the baby getting to know each other, and I could see little twitches every now and then ripple across my belly corresponding to the same sensations inside.  I hope that this is the week when Matt gets to feel his baby move, too.  I hope that makes it feel more real to him.  I've been the one experiencing everything, pleasant and not so, and of course it feels real to me.   But he's been an observer so far, and I think that this week might be the one that starts to turn that switch for him - seeing the baby growing and thriving on ultrasound, and hopefully feeling its first little movements for himself.   C'mon baby, kick it up!