The Coolest Thing EVER!

I think I have been feeling the baby move for the past 3 days or so. I had been feeling the occasional tap-tap here and there for a few weeks, but it was very sporadic and intermintent. But since I hit the 16-week mark I have been feeling these definite little taps/flutters/rumbles/tickles. I am 95% sure that this is the baby. It usually occurs around the same time each day. Mid-morning around 9-10 and I usually feel it if I am sitting down and kind of leaning forward. It's as if baby is getting kind of squished in that position and s/he is trying to let me know.

If this is the baby moving, then it is the coolest thing I have ever experienced. It makes me smile just to think about it.

I sent my rented Doppler back about 2 weeks ago but couldn't stand not being able to hear the heartbeat. So, I rented another one (it's only $24 a month!) and got it today. Sure enough, the heart is beating away and now you can even hear the different chambers beating. Also, the baby was definitely moving. It sounds like a little blip on the Doppler when that happens. So I know for a fact that baby is alive and moving. That peace of mind means a lot.

I am so excited!! I can't wait for the kicks and punches to get stronger and I can't wait for my husband to be able to feel it.

In other baby news, we find out baby's sex on December 16. It seems like a lifetime away. I really want to know NOW. My instinct is telling me boy. Probably because that ultrasound tech already said it was a boy (ugh, I wish she would have kept her mouth shut on that speculation since it was way too early to tell!). But I also have other reasons to think it's a boy. Stupid reasons not based in science.

#1: I didn't have bad morning sickness. The old wive's tale is that the worse the m/s, the more likely it is to be a girl (proven wrong to me by countless women before, but....)
#2: This baby is already moving quite a bit. One person just recently told me that she was able to feel her first moving quite early in the pregnancy too. He was a boy. (But come to think of it, my mom thought my sister Kelly was a boy for the same reason.)
#3: Whenever I hear the heartbeat via Doppler I always say to myself, "he's still in there."

So, yes, my reasons are dumb and I am aware of that. But I am a little bit afraid that I will be DISAPPOINTED if it turns out to be a girl. I need to prepare myself for girl, but I really don't know how to do that.

If you saw the look on my husband's face when I told him the ultrasound tech thought it was a boy at 12 weeks, you would understand why I am hoping for a boy. (Not that he wouldn't love and be excited about a girl too, but...)

Obama is our next President!

I'm not going to write anything hugely profound here. I just want to say that I am extremely happy that Obama won the election. I think it is a great thing that my first born child is going to be born into an Obama Presidency. Although McCain won by a landslide in my state, I am terribly happy that the other states were able to carry us to victory.

Hooray!!!!!!!

-from a liberal white girl living in rural Kentucky and often quite out of her element 'round these parts ;)