IT'S A.....

After our first ultrasound, I decided to try out a couple of the old wives tales to start predicting Baby Lindsay's gender. The heart-rate (174 bpm at 8 weeks and 167 bpm at 12 weeks) said Girl. Then the Chinese Birth Chart said Boy, but the Moon Phase method said Girl. Our dreams have said Boy (Jay dreamed he was holding his newborn son when I was at 10 weeks, then I dreamed about chasing a crawling baby boy around the house when I was at 12 weeks), but the Penny Test said Girl (5 out of 7 tries, anyway). Morning sickness (or lack thereof) said Boy, but acne (plenty, unfortunately) said Girl.

Obviously, we knew we'd have to wait until the 20 week "anatomy scan" to figure this one out, but it was fun trying to guess in the meantime. I even polled all the mommies I know to estimate an accuracy rate for the Chinese Birth Chart, which is suppose to be over 95% accurate, and it turned out to be only 77% accurate in my circle. Then I polled all of you loyal blog readers to see what your instincts said, and 60% of you guessed Boy, while 40% guessed Girl. Interesting, eh? We didn't feel like we had any intuition one way or the other, and you guys didn't help! And neither did the old wives tales!!

Well, it turns out we didn't have to wait until week 20 to find out Baby Lindsay's gender! Because the doctor has been monitoring a possible cyst or "vanishing twin" (which is fine by the way, still only at 1 cm, and nothing to worry about), we had another sonogram at 16 weeks 3 days, and the technician was able to tell us with obvious certainty...

Baby Lindsay is a BOY and we are having our first SON!
(That's his booty in the photo, with his legs tucked back behind... boy parts obviously in the middle!)

We are so very thrilled! We purchased our first gender-specific baby clothes right after the appointment!! I guess maybe we did have a little intuition, since we both had dreamed that the baby was a boy. Oh, and by the way, we were both able to tell the gender of Baby Lindsay before the technician even said anything! He was only being half-shy... although he was covering his face with his hands the whole time, his legs were wide open! Here are a couple full-body views of Baby Lindsay at 16 weeks 3 days, 2D and 4D (he's come a long way from that gecko-looking baby at 8 weeks, eh?):

Doesn't he look like he's relaxing in a hammock?

And here's our shy little baby boy, hiding his face. Looks like he has a mohawk growing in...

In other appointment news, Baby Lindsay's heartrate was at 153 bpm this week and he is still measuring on schedule. I'm doing well too. I've gained a few pounds (OK, more than a few, but not more than I'm suppose to), but there's no real "baby belly" to show for it yet. I can feel it in there though, so it won't be long! I woke up at 16 weeks 5 days and all of a sudden, WHAM!, there it was! A hard, little, round ball just sitting there below my belly button. So exciting!! Now that I can feel the weight of the uterus and baby, I'm definitely "feeling pregnant"! And I'm feeling good too - much less tired and almost no nausea at all anymore. I'm anxious to start feeling our little lucky charm move "for real". I noticed a few "knockings" (like popcorn popping) at around 12 weeks, which is supposedly way too early to feel anything, especially if it's your first pregnancy. It was probably just gas, though it was REAL low in my abdomen, right where the uterus was at the time. Then, at around 15 weeks, I felt what seemed like 2 "kicks" in a row as I was falling asleep. Honestly, I was cuddling Jay and I swear my belly pooched out and touched his twice. Indigestion just wouldn't do that, would it? I know, impossible to feel kicks that eary, and I was probably dreaming anyway, but it's still fun to think about it... Anytime between now and 22 weeks I should start feeling those "first flutters" (and maybe some soccer kicks) and I promise to blog about it as soon as I do!

We now have an online baby pool going with ExpectNet.com (click on the box in the upper right-hand corner of this page to enter your vote), but lots of you sent us your gender votes before we even asked (although some of you mentioned it after we started that original poll)! To give props where they are earned, those of you who guessed correctly include Taryn, Robyn, John, Amber, Jeremiah, Amy, Kelly C, Dianna, Angela, Giri and Sharmila. But don't worry, even if you guessed the wrong gender, you still have a chance at winning the game - there is still weight, length, and birth date to come, none of which we'll know for 5 months!

On a final note... all you family members out there with baby boy hand-me-downs that you'll never use again, you now know where to send them (if they haven't been consigned yet)!