Preparing the Nursery

We spent the weekend starting to paint the nursery (not quite finished). Don't worry, I was using zero-VOC paint and took frequent breaks. However, this is our first redecorating project since we got Rajah, and he is simply too dependent to stay out of things like a normal cat. For example, he did NOT understand the following things:

• why we were home on a weekday (we both had President's Day off and we both took Tuesday off)
• why, since we were home on a weekday, we were not getting up at 6 am, which led to scratching and meowing at our door
• why he couldn't come in the room when he's always been allowed in there before
• why he couldn't attack the mysterious white stuff sticking out from under the closed door (the drop cloth)
• why he should not eat the crumbly white stuff on the floor (spackling)
• why he could not run across the room and jump in anything in the room (i.e., wet paint)
• why we were smart enough to catch him when he tried to sneak up on the wet paint by only moving a few feet at a time

Thus, it was a very interesting weekend and will continue to be interesting until we're done. I'll post pictures when we're done. A question for everyone: what is your opinion on nursery must-haves? I'm referring to the actual furniture pieces rather than supplies like diapers, etc. Crib or just use a pack 'n play? Dresser? Changing table? Recliner vs. glider? I'd love to get everyone's opinion!

Baby Pictures

We had our 20-week ultrasound today (half-way, yipee!). This was our fourth ultrasound. Here are all the pictures we have of our baby:

Picture of the embryos we transferred on day 3. The embryo on the left is more advanced than the one on the right and, personally, we believe it is our baby.

After the blood test was positive, we had one ultrasound with our RE. This was 5 weeks after the embryos were transferred, so at 7 weeks pregnant. See the little white dot in the bottom right of the black sac? That's the baby. We could even see its heart fluttering. In the top photo, on the top right hand side, you can see the other sac (containing the embryo that stopped growing a week before).

This was the first ultrasound done with my OB. This was 2 weeks after the RE ultrasound, so at 9 weeks pregnant (7 weeks since transfer). Since one embryo had stopped growing, we had to make sure it was going away as it should. These pictures don't show it, but you could see the other sac had started disappearing. The baby in these photos is the white blur at the bottom of the sac. The bottom photo alos shows the heartbeat. At Christmas, my awesome brother-in-law, Jason (who's a radiologist), did an ultrasound when I was 15 weeks along. The baby was very cooperative and we were about 80% sure of its gender. Today, we were able to confirm it.

Here is our beautiful little GIRL. The above picture is a profile and you can see her spine, eye sockets, nose, and upper lip. I think it looks like she's blowing bubbles!

I think this is cool because it shows her femur bone. It's amazing that things develop so fast, and all without me even realizing what's happening. You can also see her hand and one arm.

So there you have it! Jason is right and we're having a GIRL!