Happy birthday to me, it's a....

boy!

As if you didn't know. Had the ultrasound on Friday and everything went really well. It was really cool to see more stuff since the one at 12 weeks. She could even point out that he was drinking and peeing by the liquid (a black spot on the screen) in his stomach and bladder. Yes, he's drinking and peeing out of the same fluid but apparently it's ok and gets recycled every 20 minutes. At one point he turned and looked at us - which was kind of freaky and cool at the same time. We could see my placenta was in a good spot (at the top, and not covering the cervix) and we could see his little feet kicking. At this point he weighs about 9 ounces (not really sure how she determines this) and I have gained about 1 pound total (remember I had some loss followed by gain). By next appointment (at 24 weeks) he'll be 50 percent viable if he were to be born.

So being that it was my birthday weekend and my mom was in town, we did some shopping. At first I was thinking that this would not be too much fun given my state of things at 20 weeks now (whoo hoo - half way through!) but surprisingly so many "normal people" clothing looks just like maternity wear. Seriously. I've been in maternity stores and you cannot tell the difference (with a lot of tops anyway...the elastic band pants kind of give it away) except for the price and less cuteness. I never got around to writing a blog dedicated to maternity wear shopping but I can sum it all up for you here - someone must think people who are pregnant are about 40 years old and want to blend into the background. All of the regular stores that carry maternity wear (i.e., target, kohls, jc penny) have the most plain, boring, and generally age-inappropriate clothing. And I figure I'm at the older end of having a baby. At least in my town (where we actually have the high school with the highest teen pregnancy rate in the country. Yes, that's right. We're number one!). I did eventually go to a higher end maternity store (including designs by Heidi Klum) which is much more cute but you pay the price. And all I was willing to pay for was a good pair of jeans, a super soft green tank top, and two tops I can wear to work (one is actually a nursing top although I haven't figured out what makes it good for nursing). Aside from these pieces, I learned that I'm set to shop in regular clothing stores. Shopping with my mom I found some really good finds at Marshalls (some ridculously long tank tops that are guarenteed to last the whole pregnancy) and Nordstrom's rack. So I saved a few bucks and can also feel good about wearing these after the pregancy is over (because really, who will wear maternity clothes when they're not pregnancy even if they do look normal). Now some people have told me that they can't even look at clothes they wore while they were pregnant - maternity or not - but it makes me feel better to buy clothes that I don't think have an expiry tag on them.

My birthday was actually on Sunday - but I had my pool party on Saturday (I did manage to find a cute black maternity bathing suit at Target. A good investment considering I'll be pregnant all summer long and discovered that swimming is great exercise for back pain). It was the exact same party as last year except everyone was sober. So in other words, it was completely different. Still fun mind you (the volley ball game actually stepped up a bit and moved into "keeping score" which was new) but nothing got broken, no one hit on underage girls at the corner store, and no new names for shots were made (Mexican banana cream pie anyone?). Next year, I'll have to put my DH on baby duty because it's just not a party unless someone's keys get put in the toilet or Senor Bob ends up on the bottom of the pool.

I decided to cut off my hair. Not really short but it does feel pretty short to me - you'll see it at my next photo update which is actually today. I like it better straight than curly so I'm imagining my hair will be worn straight a lot this summer but currently it is curly so stay tuned. Thanks to everyone for the birthday cards/wishes!