it's a...

...GIRL! Due to a recent change in health insurance our original anatomy ultrasound last week had to be canceled, but - bless the good folks at Kaiser - I was able to get in pretty quickly once our new coverage started on September 1st and all of my records were transferred over.  We found out yesterday that not only are all systems go and looking delightfully "normal", but baby G version 2.0 is a girl! We're pretty excited. I won't lie - I had a slight preference that I was blaming my "hunch" on that this one would be a girl. That said, I'd made my peace with the idea of a little brother for Elias well before we even started trying.  I really struggled with that about a year or so ago - feeling such a strong preference for a girl that I wasn't sure I even wanted to try because the thought of being disappointed for even a second if #2 was a boy made me unbelievably sad for the theoretical little guy who didn't even exist yet! And as soon as I felt that way I realized, of course, I'd be happy - and our family would be complete - either way. Boy or girl, baby #2 would surely be an entirely different little personality and bundle of joyful moments and frustrating challenges. And indeed, there was a part of me that was a little sad yesterday that Elias won't have a little brother.  The bottom line is there are surely pros and cons either way and not admitting to myself that I may have had a slight preference wouldn't change the fact that I did, even if very slight. But enough tell, how about a little show?

Her cute little skeletal face. Our ultrasound tech told us about how most couples see the abdominal area and exclaim, "oh, look, how cute - the face!" But see there in the top right corner? She even labeled the images for us, including a "GIRL!!!" image with an arrow to the evidence that we'll leave off the internets.

Her profile. It's interesting to look back at Eli's ultrasound images and see how they compare.  His images are a lot fuzzier (as I've said before, what a difference 4 1/2 years makes - I was amazed at the resolution of the images on the screen) but his forehead and nose look a lot different to me - rounder with a little dip and then a total mama's-side-of-the-family-somewhat pig-like little button nose.  I wonder if baby G v 2.0 will have Neal's nose?

Profile again, close-up. Fingers! Four of 'em and a thumb, perhaps in the mouth?

Baby feet!

Anyway, backing up a bit, yes, we have health insurance! It's a beautiful thing when you've gone without for even a month (we never did make it through the MediCal application process - man, what a run-around that is but that's for another post entirely. Dear MediCal social worker - "self employed" does not equal independently wealthy. Trust me.). Neal got a job offer in early August and adjusting to having my co-parent work outside the home with an hour commute each way is another topic for another post altogether (and really, how spoiled have we been all of Eli's life - both parents working from home is overall not all it's cracked up to be but I do miss the extra time and flexibility - and both of us being present - in our morning and afternoon/evening routines). But we have health insurance and we were able to switch to Kaiser, which we had when we lived here 8 years ago.  In fact, they still had us in their records (I even had to update my maiden name to my married name reminding me what a drag that whole thing was!) and had me assigned to the ob/gyn I had before.  I looked up reviews on her obstetrics skills (since I was more of a gyn-only gal back then) and they were good so I was relieved to not have to look for a new doctor.  I met with her last week and she essentially "put the kibosh", as a friend suggested a new doctor might, on the whole gestational diabetes incident.  She gave me the option of continuing to monitor my blood sugar from time to time or enjoying the glucose drink at my next, 24 week, appointment in early October. It's funny because that was the one pro my previous ob/gyn and nurse practitioner kept pointing out - that at least now I wouldn't have to do that nasty sugar drink. As if that's worse than pricking yourself up to four times per day and writing down absolutely everything you eat. Oh, and avoiding carbohydrates when maybe you don't need to. Thanks, but I'll take a little flat orange soda over all that any day. So we'll see if I pass that test and go from there. In a word, my old/new doc thinks that the early test and sending me to the "sweet success" program based on a borderline result was "overkill." 

Otherwise, I'm feeling pretty good these days, smack dab in the middle of the second trimester.  I started feeling definite little kicks and squirms at 19 weeks on the dot (which, it turns out after looking back at previous blog posts, is almost exactly when I felt definite movement with Elias - I thought he was earlier but I guess not!). Occasionally I'll have some discomfort sleeping, partly because my hips will begin hurting early in the morning and partly because our bed is just not well-suited for side sleepers. Occasionally this over the top pregnancy pillow makes for a good night but when it doesn't I put a pillow on either side, one between my knees and under my belly and one behind my back to keep me from rolling over. I continue to wake up on my back but I figure at least I'm angled a bit toward my left side by that pillow. Poor Neal.

And how is Elias taking this news? Pretty well. He was pretty excited when we told him yesterday and has been saying all along that he wanted a baby sister. When we'd tell him it might be a baby brother he seemed keen on that too and had a simple solution: let's have one of each! Sorry, my friend, but mama is of the "two and through" school of thought. Anyway, here's a picture I just came across from a trip to Habitot months ago.

That's right, big brother. Get ready to be mama's little helper!

In other big news, Eli and I enjoyed a mama-son road trip during the latter part of his preschool closure last month and a little into the following week.  I'm still waiting for Neal to upload my pics to our Picasa account so I'll write about that later. Earlier in his week off, before we hit the road, we enjoyed a "transportation extravaganza" to and through San Francisco, taking BART to the city, the cable car to Ghirardelli Square, the street car back to the Embarcardero, and BARTing back home with Neal after dinner downtown. That reminded me of the time we took the ferry to San Francisco during his winter break last year and how I never blogged about that. So I leave you with a few images from that adventure until I have time to write again about our more recent excursions.

Here he is waiting for the ferry at Oakland's Jack London Square. I'm trying to remember just what he packed in his backpack...

Cheese! (Kind of.)

Have snacks, will ferry.

A toddler's view of San Francisco.

Chairs that spin!

And, after snacking our way through the ferry building, our return trip home. I'll be bugging Neal to upload all my road trip pics this weekend so stay tuned for another update next week or so!