It's a ........

We had our big ultrasound Thursday. It was pretty freaking cool, even though the u/s tech couldn't let us record any video of our crazy kicking kid. (There's something totally different about seeing it move on screen that is just not captured in the fuzzy black and white pictures they print for you.)

That little kicker turns out to be a girl. The very first picture was of her giving us a thumbs up, like, "See, Mom and Dad, I'm doing fine in here." It took a while for the tech to get her to show us her goods (I hope she stays modest!) but after quite a bit of bouncing, she finally jiggled up enough, and next thing we know, "It's a girl!" flashed on the the monitor. Good thing they label it, because we had no idea what we were looking at.

The tech said she can usually get some cool feet pictures, but our kid wouldn't hold still long enough. Her feet just kept fluttering back and forth. Like a swimmer with nowhere to go.

A cool thing I learned is that the hard parts that sometimes poke out of my belly are actually her feet or butt or even head. But mostly feet. Apparently, when she stretches out, so do I. For a couple of weeks, I actually thought I might be having Braxton Hicks contractions (I even called the nurse to see if that was normal). Then last weekend, I was pushing on a lump and felt a corresponding pressure on the opposite side of my uterus. And that's when I realized, those lumps were baby parts! Of course, when I relayed that to Chris, he freaked out that I was pushing anything on my belly ('cause you know, I might give the baby a concussion).

What's really kind of freaky is that one of my earliest pregnant dreams was of feet pushing out of my belly. It was totally alien and grossed me out at the time, and I guess it has sort of come true.

I forgot to ask the tech where the placenta was located. I only feel the baby on my right side, which makes me wonder if it's normal to hang out on one side of the uterus, or if maybe the placenta's on the left side and I just can't feel her through it.

As far as being pregnant goes, I'm feeling better but still exhausted ("The new normal," my best friend termed it). At least now, if I start to feel sick, it's because I'm tired or hungry, and I can actually do something about it. So I'm accepting that this is probably as good as it's going to get, and I need to enjoy it while I can.