18 weeks and It's a Boy!

(Photo at 17 weeks)

We've made it to the 18 week mark already and little baby Martryce (just kidding) is doing great. We went for an amnio and ultrasound yesterday and got lots of new pictures of the little GUY. Yep, it's a boy. The doctor is 99% sure. He said girl when he saw this view during the ultrasound:

If you look at the top and turn your head to the left, you'll see two skinny legs extended and what looks like nothing in between. However the baby flipped over several times during the ultrasound and we soon saw a lil' bobbing thing that stayed present for the rest of the ultrasound. So he recanted and told us 99% - this is a boy. So now the name negotiations begin. I've been rooting for Miles, but we'll see what Mark does and doesn't veto.

Morning sickness is pretty much a thing of the past. I've started getting tired again though. And Mark got a little preview of the vegetablized wife who can't do anything yesterday after amnio because you can't lift anything heavy or do much standing for at least the next 24 hours. So he got to cook and walk the dogs. Max pulls like a sled dog, so I think that qualifies as heavy lifting. The healing seems pretty close to done. I could only sleep on the opposite side that the needle went through yesterday, but most site tenderness is gone and I feel some muscular pain every now and then. I'll be good as new by Wednesday. Within a week, we get back 100% accurate test results of the baby's gender. Mark already took a blood test, so the baby's not in danger of sickle cell anemia, which my family carries the trait for. My aunt has the full-blown disease, but only me and another of my sibs carries the trait. Coulda sworn my mom said that Pam and Damone carried it, but I guess she was wrong because I got a positive when it came back. But Mark's free of all of it. Yippee - good choice of mates. I guess I'll keep him.

Ultrasound pics look pretty creepy, but I think I can make out a decent amount of the baby's face and some body traits to think that he already looks somewhat like his father and he's only half done. The forehead shape, the leg shape look like Mark. That's all I could make out so far. This pic has the baby lying on its side, face turned towards us with a hand over its ear. Mark said that he's listening to his ipod in utero already.