It's a...

Boy! Just as I thought.

Anatomy scan went well yesterday. Everything looked completely normal and on track for 18w2d. Baby is currently breech, placenta is anterior. They weren't able to fully visualize all of the spine (baby was lying on his back) so when I have my next appointment in a month I'll have another scan (yay! says u/s-addicted me) to check it out. My doc also had my blood drawn for an AFP test just to be on the safe side and if there's anything concerning about those results they'll have me back for a scan sooner.

I also got the cootercam for a cervix check. Cervix measured a whopping 5.37 cm, so doc is pretty unconcerned about preterm labor at this point, though I will get another cervix check at the next appointment. They even had me bear down during the scan to see if there was any change in my cervix, and everything held firm, so all looks good.

I'm a little freaked out by the prospect of having a boy, to be honest, even though I kind of knew it all along. I know girls! I love girls! Boys have penises and totally unfun clothes! But I know I'll get to know and love my son just like I did my daughter.

Now the challenge: to come up with a boy's name. Bat Girl is voting to name the baby Poopiehead or Peepeehead (yes, we are at the delightful potty humor stage), but I don't think that's going to work.

17 weeks

Actually, 16w6d, but close enough.

The problem with having a relatively uneventful pregnancy so far is that it leaves me with little to blog about. I did start having contractions right around 14 weeks, the same time I started when I was pregnant with Bat Girl, but they've been much less intense and much less frequent than in my first pregnancy--one every few hours, as opposed to a few every hour.

I started leaking colostrum around the same time, which is much earlier than I started with Bat Girl (I think I noticed it late in the third trimester last time). I doubt this says anything about my ability to breastfeed this time around--as I now know, I just have really fast letdown and leaky boobs--but it's nice to know that the girls kind of remember what they're doing.

Oh, and there were the sharp stabbing pains in my abdomen a few days ago. I got all panicked and called my doctor and readied myself to have to go in for an ultrasound. She diagnosed me over the phone with...constipation. Yeah.

So, again, normal. A week from Monday is the big anatomy scan. We hope to find out the sex then, especially because it seems like being all NORMAL and all might mean I don't get very many more ultrasounds this pregnancy. Also, Bat Girl's baby hand-me-downs are overwhelmingly pink and girly and I am not quite modern enough to put my baby boy in a pink frilly dress. (Onesies and receiving blankets, sure, but I do draw the line at a certain point.)

*****

The bigger news around here is that last week Bat Girl turned 5. My baby is FIVE. I guess it really deserved a post of its own but I can barely muster up the energy to post once a month so this is what happens.

She is overflowing with imagination, creating elaborate lives for her hordes of imaginary siblings and friends, "writing" a new picture book practically every day (currently dragons, T.rex, princesses, and her planned future farm figure heavily in these stories, not necessarily all at once). She intends to marry one of the boys in her pre-K class and together have a farm where she will care for the animals and he will drive the tractor. She puts together insanely colorful outfits, generally featuring a patterned shirt, patterned skirt, and patterned leggings, ideally paired with mismatched patterned socks. She is cautious but rarely shy, making new friends on the playground or at the farmer's market in a heartbeat.

She complained to me the other day about how a friend of hers wanted to play with her all the time and kept following her around all day at school. I have to tell you, I am so not equipped to assist my child through the problems of being popular.

She takes violin lessons and just started piano (because we're THOSE parents and also insane, yes, I know). She loves to sing, and she loves making up plays and performing them. Sometimes she ropes us into one of her plays or some of her imaginative play; thank goodness she's going to get a sibling soon because I really can't stand playing the stupid prince in one of her fairy tale reenactments. She never met a stick she didn't want to bring home. She can write all her letters and is starting to read. "Pizza" is one of her sight words.

We complain to each other sometimes about her stubbornness or her distractibility but the truth is that she's an incredibly easygoing, responsible, charming kid. We got super lucky with this one.

Lately every morning when my alarm goes off she's been coming into our bedroom and crawling into bed on my side for a snuggle. I should get my ass up and get our day started but the truth is those 15 minutes are the best part of my day, and I'd rather be late for work than give them up. I hope there's always room for her to come in and snuggle, even when my belly gets huge and later when she gets even huger.