Boy or Girl?

Yesterday we finally got to find out the gender of our little baby! I was so excited! I know everyone says they don't care if its a boy or a girl but I honestly did not care one bit. After everything we had to do to get this far a healthy, happy baby boy or girl is all I want in this world. Mike and I both felt like it would be a boy....I mean hello its an Epperson....and so we were just excited to see if we were right.

Most people guessed that we would be having a girl and I think 4 or 5 people guessed boy. So who was right???

It's a....

BOY!!!!

We could not be more excited to be having a boy. I loved watching Mike's reaction, he is so excited! Now we just have to figure out the name. We had a name ready for a girl but for a boy we have a lot of names and nursery ideas that we like. The choices just make it more fun though I think. Once we found out we celebrated by going shopping and we bought him a cute little outfit and Mike and I went to Ruby Tuesday for dessert. I'm so excited right now! I just know he is the perfect addition to our family!

20 Weeks: Halfway!

I can't believe I am halfway through this pregnancy already! It has gone by so fast! I am finally starting to look and feel pregnant. I felt the baby move for the first time (at least that I recognized) a little less than a week ago :) Now I notice it all the time and I love the feeling! Every now and then it hits me how soon baby E will be here!

So now for an update on me and little baby Epperson:

Let's start with baby E:

He or she is 11oz right now, with a heartbeat of 141 BPM. We have a very excited baby in there. We had our anatomy/gender ultrasound today and it took forever to do because little E would not hold still. Finally baby E calmed down so we could see everything :) The baby is doing great as far as we can tell. He or she is healthy and looks great so far!

We have a very active baby :)

 

So how am I doing at 20 weeks?

1. I can still wear my regular clothes. My jeans still fit but aren't too much tighter which has been nice. I can also still wear my normal shirts. I'm sure this won't last too much longer but I'm enjoying it while I can.

*As a side note: A HUGE thank you to Amber for lending me her maternity clothes! They are so cute and I'm excited to really start using them! We appreciate it so much :)

2. I can still eat anything and I still haven't had any sickness! Yippee!

3. Sleeping is still going pretty well. I have always slept on my side so no problems there. Baby definitely likes left side best. Some nights I get up to go to the bathroom a lot but I can usually get back to sleep just fine.

4. I'm still exercising 5 to 6 days a week. I love being able to exercise, its really helping me to be able to relax. I know I probably won't be able to do it for the entire last 20 weeks so I'm enjoying it while I can. 

Overall, I'm feeling wonderful and doing great. I'm measuring exactly where I should be and its wonderful that I haven't been sick. I am constantly thinking about baby E and planning for the big day! 

The first trimester

Now that we have announced that we are pregnant I feel like I can talk about how the first bit of it went. Since we waited til we were 15 weeks to tell people, we knew for about 13 of those weeks that we were expecting. Sometimes it was hard to keep it a secret and sometimes it was so easy that I never wanted to tell anyone.

One of the reasons I didn't want to tell was because I wasn't showing at all. I had no belly until about 14 weeks and even then you could only tell if I wore a couple things. It was kind of fun to see how long I could go without anyone being able to notice :) I don't know if its noticeable now. I feel like it is but maybe you still can't tell.  So because of this, I have no pictures of me at all during this time but we'll start doing it soon. I feel like right now I just look like I ate too much over the holidays.

So, here is what I experienced during my first trimester:

-Extreme tiredness: I don't think that I have ever been as tired as I was for the first 12 weeks or so. I was having to force myself to stay up until 9 but honestly I think I could have gone to bed at 5 and been just fine. However, I'm positive that I will experience much more exhaustion once the baby gets here :) Thankfully though I'm not as tired anymore. 

-Temperature sensitivity: This one surprised me a lot. I had always heard that women were always hot when they were pregnant but I have been freezing constantly since day 1. Seriously, I am always cold. I am always wearing multiple layers and wrapped up in blankets. Even if its warm in the apartment, I will still be cold. 

-Cravings: I think my biggest craving has been for fruit. I LOVE fruit right now! Any kind of fruit will do: apples, grapes, berries, plums, oranges (although for a while I couldn't really eat citrus stuff), melon....you name it. On the flip side another craving I had during the first 12 weeks was pizza. I wanted pizza all the time! I could have eaten it all day and been just fine. I have also made sure we always have pickles in the house...I really like to snack on those too :)
-No morning sickness: I have been so lucky to not have been sick and I know I've had it a lot easier than a lot of women have it. Its made going through my day so much easier. Its also allowed me to continue exercising like I love. The only time I've experienced any nausea at all is if I've eaten too much. Since I've been able to eat anything, sometimes I'll eat too much for dinner but its nothing bad.
I only hope I can experience this with any future pregnancies as well :)

Honestly we have also been so excited! We have been so excited that I didn't want to tell anyone for a while. I just wanted to be excited with Mike and our families. I had a hard time sharing our news. I just think, is this really happening to me?! It is finally my turn?! I want to protect myself and the baby, and while I know its silly I almost felt like if we told everyone and then something were to happen we would disappoint so many people and so I was scared to let my secret out. What people may or may not realize is that we are more excited and happier than we could ever find words to explain. Now we are just waiting, slightly impatiently, to find out if its a boy or a girl!?



 

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