Monday, March 19, 2012

It's A Girl!!!!!!

We found out last week at our 20 week ultrasound that our little bean is a GIRL!  Kolt was a little shocked at first, I think mostly because we were certain that based on his family history that we would have a boy.  I however, was not as shocked since I have thought it was a girl from the beginning.  But it was nice having the confirmation & being able to now refer to "it" as a "her" & to start getting more serious about picking out a name.  Since before we got pregnant we always liked the name Savannah for a girl, but we recently decided it was more common than we wanted.  After looking through the baby name book & only making it to the F names, we decided on the name Brinlee & then changed the spelling to Brinleigh since my middle name is Leighann.  It is a name Kolt & I both fell in love with & have never heard before & it means "sweetheart".  The middle name we really like is Dilan (Dylan) & as of right now that is her name, Brinleigh Dilan, unless we decide to change it in the next 4 months.  
During the ultrasound the baby was quite active, moving around & looking right at us on the monitor.  She kept putting her hands together & then placing them next to her face & she also smiled a lot giving us some great ultrasound pictures.  Today at our monthly check up the Dr went over the radiology report & informed us that everything looked great.  They found nothing to be concerned about or any abnormalities.  We also had a quad screening done last month which came back negative as well.  (The quad screen testing is a maternal blood screening which checks for 4 specific substances produced by or affecting the fetus, placenta, & ovaries.  These specific substances can indicate a possibility of down syndrome, neural tube defect, mental retardation, or other birth defects.)   
I have gained 4 pounds which the doctor is very pleased with & my belly is measuring at 21 weeks ( I am 21 weeks & 4 days).  My own personal measurements that I do at home show that my belly is currently 36 inches all the way around.  At the ultrasound last week the baby was measuring at the correct gestational age & weighed 12 ounces.  I am officially wearing mostly all maternity clothes now & I have also started to feel the baby move a lot more & have even felt some kicking.  It is some times hard enough to surprise me & make me jump but still not hard enough for Kolt to be able to feel.  The guest bedroom is now completely cleared of anything not related to the baby except the guest bed & we have all of the baby furniture set up, including our new changing table that Kolt's mom bought for us.  Now it is all ready to be decorated & set up with all of her stuff.  We have decided on a girly jungle/ safari theme called Cocalo jacana: