Sienna Marie

I found out today that IT'S A GIRL!!!! The doctor didn't have the easiest time coming to that conclusion, but after 45 minutes he finally said he believes it to be a girl. I was beginning to get disappointed because a co-worker, Cynthia, who is 8 weeks further along than me (I'm at 20 weeks) brought me to her clinic specifically because they have better equipment to make a determination. When the ultrasound tech was taking a long time and continuing to say, "Que difícil," I was starting to wonder if today would be the day I'd find out. Thankfully, Cynthia asked how sure he was and he said 90% - that's good enough for me! He said with girls he waits to see three lines to make a positive determination and he wasn't able to see that, but he also couldn't see a male organ, so it's most likely a girl. It'll be interesting to go to my regular doctor and see what he determines - I won't tell him that I already know, but when the guy says 90%,...

During Semana Santa, Easter Week, I took off on a road trip to the Caribbean coast of Guatemala to connect with five friends from school. It was about a five hour drive to Puerto Barrios where I left my car for two nights in a parking lot for $10 and hopped a 30 minute ferry to Livingston. The ferry brought me right up to the dock of La Casa Rosada , where I saw Amanda and Roxy sunbathing. Our place was beautiful and all for $8/person! The following day we took off for one of the cayos (keys) of Belize. It was gorgeous - crystal blue waters, checking out sting rays while snorkeling and a small island to ourselves. The ride over there was a bit insane - just over two hours of bone-crunching wave surfing where I got quite the squat workout to protect my unborn child, but the return trip was better. After a few days in Livingstone, I headed back to my car and drove another 3 hours to meet my former co-worker Danna in Flores. The roads all the way were paved and smoo th sailing, for the ...

My appointment yesterday went really well. It was fun seeing the baby again. S/he's grown a lot since my last ultrasound. I thought the baby was about the size of an avocado, but it turns out s/he's closer to the size of a 20 oz water bottle (19 cm = 7.5 inches). S/he's floating around and fairly active, moving from one side to the next and flipping from front to back. It's so amazing seeing all of the bones of the hands and spinal column, ribs, etc. It's such a miracle that it's all going on inside of me and I can't feel a thing yet! I'm looking forward to feeling him/her kick, but I think it'll take another week or two. I'm around week 17-18; some of the measurements were putting the baby at 18 weeks and the doc bumped my due date up three days to August 10. I'm showing more and more each week, but I still can't believe that a water bottle could be curled up inside of my stomach. I'm almost halfway done and have plenty of time to po...