Scans, Showers, and Swelling

The past few weeks have gone by so fast!  I have so many updates, and fortunately, most of them are good. First, we had our anatomy scan earlier this month, and everything looked normal.  I was so incredibly relieved.  It also confirmed that we have one little boy and one little girl in there!  I still struggle to believe that these are our babies.  On the way home from that appointment, I told Matt that every time we have an ultrasound, it feels like I'm looking at someone else's babies.  It's just so hard to believe.  He said that seeing them on the anatomy scan was the first time he really thought of them as people.  Our children.   I've started to feel movement multiple times a day, which is reassuring and pretty cool.  I'd felt movement a week or two before the anatomy scan, but I wasn't sure I was actually feeling babies.  It felt like fish flopping around in my belly, so I didn't know what else it would be, but I guess it seemed unreal that I'd actually be feeling them move.

Here are a few pictures from the scan!

Baby B (boy)

Baby A (girl)

We left the day after our anatomy scan to head home to Mississippi for a visit and two baby showers that were thrown for us.  I know it's early for baby showers, but we knew I wouldn't be able to travel for much longer, and our sweet families were excited to throw them for us anyway.  I'm glad we didn't wait!  It was not a very comfortable ride, but it was so worth it to see our families and friends for a couple of weeks before we buckle down and start working on getting the nursery ready.  One unpleasant and unexpected surprise on our trip was that I had major foot and ankle swelling.  I hadn't had that problem until we got to Mississippi, and it made me a little nervous, but I felt find otherwise, and my blood pressure was normal.  So much for wearing my cute little sandals, though!  Now that we're back at our house, my feet are back to normal.  We had a lot of fun despite the swelling, though.  Our showers were so awesome, and I can't believe how lucky we were to have so many people helping with it all and sharing it with us.

Shower #1

                               

Shower #2

Spending our last night at dinner with this beautiful view.

The baby kicks and rolls and punches have become stronger, and Matt got to feel them for the first time.  He said it felt like goldfish in a bag.  Haha!   It's still somewhat subtle, but it's picking up!  I'm starting to feel the nesting phase coming on, which is great, but a tad late for me.  I think a lot of people with singletons feel good at this point in their pregnancies, but I started vomiting and dry heaving again this past week, and my back pain is nothing to mess with.  So, I do a little at a time and feel like I'm not making a dent in anything.  Hopefully once our downstairs is all put back together and we can clear out the room that will become the nursery, it won't feel so overwhelming.

Last week with my swollen legs/feet and looking sweaty and tired at 21 weeks.

And an update for my last post:  I was wondering how my uterus was measuring.  At 18w4d, it was measuring 24.5 weeks.  OB says that's normal, and now I don't feel so bad for being so big.