Correction

Ever since we decided to name our our baby after Kevin's grandmother's I have been spelling Statia wrong. For some reason, I keep wanting to spell it "Stasia" instead of "Statia." I guess I am thinking Anastasia when I spell it. So, I must apologize to my readers as well as my unborn daughter for misspelling her name. I hope that this doesn't make me a bad mother. The other dilemma we are facing with her name is how to spell Lily. We plan to give her a nickname like Sammy has. Kevin likes Lilli (just drop the -an), I prefer Lily, and if I were going with Kevin's logic, I would either spell it Lilly or Lillie not Lilli...so we are having a bit of a discussion on how we should handle that. At this rate, we may just drop the nickname altogether and just call her Lillian. We shall see.

It's A Girl!!!

Wow....what a day! We had our detailed ultrasound today and we are pleased to report that we are going to be the proud parents of Lillian Ella-Stasia Atchley!! I have suspected that she was a girl the whole time, but I also thought that Sammy was a girl up until I was proven wrong at his ultrasound so I wanted to have definitive proof before getting my hopes up too much. I will say that everything I did prior to the ultrasound supported my gut feeling of girl....I will name a few...

1) Old Wives Tales - there are a bazillion out there on the internet and most of the ones that leaned toward girl held true for me and this pregnancy such as...heart rate greater than 140, sweet cravings, husband's weight gain (don't tell Kevin that I told you he was gaining a few pounds along with me), round and full face on me, pregnancy acne, etc.

2) Chinese Birth Chart - This is a chart that allegedly determines the sex of your baby based on the mother's age at conception and the month of conception. In my case, this also said girl.
http://parenting.ivillage.com/ttc/ttcsigns/0,,j736,00.html

3)The Needle/Necklace tests - You're supposed to dangle a needle from a piece of thread over your palm. If it goes back and forth, it's a boy and if it goes in a circle it's a girl. This test is also supposed to show you the kids you had before the one you're carrying now. So I did it and it went back and forth, stopped, and then went in a circle. So, according to the test, I had a boy first and then a girl. The necklace test is similar. You dangle a necklace over your belly and if it goes in a circle, it's a boy and if it goes back and forth it's a girl. Sure enough, mine went back and forth which meant girl.

4)Intelligender - This is a test you can take at home that allegedly with something like 90% accuracy predicts the gender of your baby after 10 weeks. You pee in a cup and then put it in a test kit. It changes color in 10 minutes - green if it's a boy and stays the same or turns orange if it's a girl. Mine indicated girl. I know it was silly of me to pay money for something that wasn't guaranteed, but it was still fun. :)
www.intelligender.com

So back to today. The ultrasound technician found out her gender first thing for us...Lillian was very cooperative as you will be able to tell from the pictures. She wiggled around the whole time for us. The sweetest moments were looking at her profile with her mouth open and watching her curled up in a ball with her hands on her knees. The ultrasound technician told us that she has really long arms, legs, fingers and feet. We also looked at her brain, spine, heart, kidneys, bladder, and stomach and everything appears to be developing just like it should be. There were no red flags so thank God for a healthy report on our little one! Kevin, Sammy, and I are super excited about our little girl. We cannot wait for her arrival in February. Here are some pictures in the meantime...

Profile shot with mouth closed


Profile shot with mouth open


Leg


Leg again


Girl Parts


Foot


Fingers and Legs


Face


Arm on Knee


Arm on Knee again

Preggo Pics

Here are some preggo pics of me. The first ones are from week 7....



The next ones are from week 18 (Sammy was the photographer - I think he did a good job)




I am starting to get a baby bump. Although, I mostly feel like I have put the weight on in my face, butt and thighs. That's where I tell most of the difference. :)

Sick/Update

I have had the crud this week, and I am hoping that I am over the worst part of it. I started out with laryngitis which then traveled to my sinuses and into my upper chest. Fortunately, I developed this in my second trimester instead of the first which made my medication choices a little bit better....SUDAFED!!! Sudafed normally clears this junk up for me (or at least lets me tolerate things while the sickness runs its course). I had something similar when I was pregnant with Sammy except that I was in my first trimester, miserable, and ended up losing several pounds because I had this on top of morning sickness (or as I used to affectionately call it...all day sickness).

Other than being sick this week, the pregnancy is going well. We are 18 weeks along and we find out what we are having in one week(assuming peanut cooperates)! I cannot believe that this pregnancy is almost halfway done. I still don't look overly pregnant...if you didn't know, you would probably just think I had put on a few pounds (6 to be exact). My butt and thighs appear to be blossoming and I have a small baby bump. I need to take some pictures and post them, but Kevin is not home to do that for me at the moment so that will have to come a little bit later. I have started wearing some maternity clothes, mainly for comfort. I am at that awkward stage where my normal clothes just don't quite fit right anymore, but the maternity clothes look a little silly. I am still having cravings that seem to change by the week...the one and only craving that has remained consistent throughout pregnancy has been ice cream! In addition to ice cream, I have also had cravings for Hardees' gravy biscuits, McDonald's fries, juice (apple and cranberry grape) and ketchup. I think that I have been able to feel the baby move a few times...it's just a little fluttering still. I am looking forward to the movement being more pronounced so that Kevin and Sammy can share in it with me. My doctor's appointments have been going well. The heartbeat has been ranging from the 150's to the 160's and all of my labwork has turned out good (my hemoglobin is a little bit low, but that is normal for me...if it is still low at 28 weeks, I will probably have to take some iron supplements).

On a slightly different note, Sammy is doing well in second grade. He has not gotten written up in his behavior folder all year long (we are almost halfway through the first nine weeks). All I can say is PRAISE THE LORD!!! I think that he has matured some and I also think that the way his teacher handles discipline gives him enough incentives throughout the week to do the right thing. I just hope and pray that this trend continues. He really likes his teacher too. He also starts soccer tonight assuming the weather holds out.

Kevin is still wonderful as usual. He has been really busy getting our new computer desk situated so that we can get Sammy moved into our old computer room. Hopefully, when things settle down, he'll be able to edit the videos of us telling our parents so I can get them posted on here. I still have the blog written and ready, just need the video.

I will try to get some baby bump pictures on here in the next couple of days while I am off work. Sorry it's been a while since I posted. I really need to get back into the swing of things.