Update on Jellybean

I haven't posted much about the newest addition-to-be other than brief doctor updates... so here's a catch-up post with some answers to questions I've been asked recently...

How far along are you again?
I'm about 18 weeks right now. I keep track by knowing whether my appointment was in the past 2 weeks or the coming 2 weeks LOL. If you ask me when we're out and about I'm likely to be off a week or two if I haven't thought about it in a while! (oops!)

Do you plan to find out the baby's gender?
Yes, if baby cooperates we'll find out the gender. And if not, it's really not a big deal to us to know ahead of time.

When is your next ultrasound?
We expect it to be around 22 weeks, so 4 weeks from now... or so. We'll have it done at a different hospital than our local one by a perinatologist (well, it'll be read by him/her anyway) and it will include a fetal echo just so we can be prepared if there are any issues.

Since you have a child with Ds, is there an increased risk that there might be an issue with this baby too?
Let's see... increased risk, yes. High risk? NOPE! There is still a 99% chance that this baby has no health or other issues at all. With Brianna and Kristopher (since I hadn't had a previous pregnancy with any complications) it was more like 99.95% chance that they had nothing. So... yes, there's an increased risk. But it's still VERY minimal!

Did you save things from your other babies or did you think that with the adoption you'd be finished with babies?
Honestly, we weren't sure if we were finished with babies or not. We did save things from Brianna's infancy because at that time we hadn't decided to adopt. We used a lot of the things from Kristopher for Micah, but never touched the newborn and 0-3 months things with Micah so we still have a lot of that. But whatever we used with Micah and then what Brianna's outgrown in the last year has mostly been passed on to other families. We did save some things, though, and will be fine just "filling in the gaps" when the time comes for whichever gender child we have.

Do you still have your baby gear that the kids have outgrown?
Yep! We saved things like the bouncy seat, Bumbo seat, jumperoo, and the bassinet, but most are currently loaned out to other people that will return them when their kids outgrow them. I hate having things go unused in a box in our garage when someone else could get good use out of them in the meantime! Especially since babies tend to use those type of things only for a short time. We will, however, have to replace our infant carseat since it has expired and there are a few other things that just didn't last so well that we'll replace if we want it this time around. Not much, though, which we're thankful for :)

Are you still sick??
Not as much... Thank God :)! I'm still having 'good days and bad' and my energy level is definitely pretty low, but I'm keeping on keeping on and I'm glad to have more good days than bad now!

Any belly shots or weight updates? C'mon, you've GOT to share...
Hmm... I'm not thinking I'll post my actual weight on here LOL. But as far as weight gain, I'm about -1 or -2 at this point. I lost about 7 or 8 lbs from my pre-pregnancy weight to the lowest weight I was. But I've gained a little then lost a little here and there and I'm almost back up to what I weighed before I was pregnant. Now that I'm able to eat better I doubt there will be difficulty gaining weight. I never had issues with my first two... but I wasn't trying to keep up with 4 preschool/toddlers at that time either. So who knows! Belly shots- don't have any, sorry! :)

Are you showing? Can you feel the baby move yet?
Showing, YEP, but if I'm wearing a t-shirt (my clothing of choice many times...) it's harder to tell still. Weird thing is that although my shape has definitely changed, I can still wear almost all of my regular clothes because they don't come up over my belly. Baby is definitely very active! I've felt "little here and there" movements for a long time, but the last few weeks I've felt a lot more movement- in fact right now I can feel little kicks and nudges :) I love that feeling!

Have you picked out names for the baby yet? Potentials anyway?
Nope, but if you have suggestions go for it! Seriously, other than talking with Kristopher to ask what he'd name the baby (he's brought it up several times), we haven't had any real conversations about it tho!