What We're Having....?!?!

That's right.... today at 18w2d, we found out we will (Lord willing) be welcoming a beautiful little girl into our lives in January. A girl!!! We are so happy, so grateful, so amazed. I feel like it's something of a dream - can this all be a reality someday? It was so beautiful to see her on screen, moving about, cooperating perfectly. We got this scheduled just 4 days before J was deploying, and then afterward picked up a crib we'd found at Baby Depot for a great deal the other day on the way home that we've now put together - our first baby purchase!

It was weird. Neither of us really had a "feeling" but we kept referring to the baby as a "he". I guess because my husband thinks boys should come first. :) He's firstborn in his family, my older sister is our firstborn so I naturally thought girl were pretty good too! So while I really wanted to give him a son, we are so thrilled to be welcoming a daughter!

I am all done with morning sickness (whoo-hoo), and the nausea just comes and goes every now and then. I can eat whatever I want that I did not develop an aversion to. At my 16 week appointment they told me my hemoglobin had gotten worse (from a 10.4 at 11 weeks to 9.3 at 16 weeks). They told me to really try hard to research and eat iron rich foods (I'd been on an iron Rx since 11 weeks). I hadn't felt any symptoms of anemia, but then at 18 weeks it just hit. Rolling over on the couch at night seemed like too much effort. Unfortunately, decreased appetite is a side-effect of anemia, so it doesn't help when you Really need to eat and just don't have any interest. But J and I researched it out, and went to the store and he spared no expense putting things into the cart that were iron rich. Lots of red meat, lots of dark green leafy veggies, lots of o.j. and citrus to help the iron absorbtion, and lots of cereal fortified with 100% RDA of iron. In just 10 days of this my iron was at 10.2! It took longer for me to really feel strong, but I am now! So I've got to keep it up, along with the liquid chlorophyll I've been drinking. I was ready to ask for the injectable iron the doctor spoke of, but it looks like I might not need it (yet). Anything to stay healthy!

I have steadily gained 2lb every 4 weeks since my initial 7wk appointment, which puts me at a 6 lb weight gain so far. I am showing, but just not a lot (picture in next post, perhaps). When I mention I'm expecting, everyone looks so shocked at how "far" I am (to them). It's all new to me, but I feel healthy so I feel good! For now, I'm going to just post pictures of little girl!

And to close off, please stick around because as of yesterday at 2:30pm, my precious husband and I are separated for another agonizing 70 days... He has deployed to the middle east once more. We were so distraughtand devastated... Those last 24 hours were hard, were precious, and were just heartwrenching. I love him SOOOOOOO desperately, I don't know how I'll een survive to the halfway point without him. We HATE this.... It is rough! So please.... stick around because there'll be a lot of deployment stuff to post about and I need all the support I can get....