Our 16 week early gender scan is tomorrow! I'm really excited, both about seeing the baby again for the first time in a month, and about hopefully finding out whether my instinct was right or oh-so-wrong!

Now... I'm going to be very logical up front, reminding myself that there is a very good chance that our little one will be bashful & keep his/her legs closed - that's what most of my 12 week 3D pictures showed!

But, on the odd chance that we DO find out tomorrow in our quickie ultrasound, how about a little guessing game?

• Baby's heartbeat has been consistently over 140bpm at every scan so far. {It was even 139 at just 7 weeks!}
• Even though it's early days with the bump yet, baby is still sitting very low, down near the pubic bone.
• My hair has gotten thinner, and my face is dry and splodgy - pregnancy glow, ha!
• I've had no morning sickness with this pregnancy.
• I prefer salty foods over sweet foods, and spent my first trimester obsessed with dairy products.
• All the tests I do come out with 50/50 odds, except for the Chinese Gender test

I had my second OB appointment today. It was scheduled for 9am, but I left early because I was nervous about driving & parking at the busy hospital on my own - thankfully, all was good on both fronts. There were two things I was nervous about for this appointment - my weight and my blood pressure.

Since I arrived early, I'd brought my handy dandy urine sample cup & a bottle of water, thinking I'd fill 'er up while I was waiting. Peeing at will is NOT a problem I've been having lately - not since the first positive pregnancy test, actually - but wouldn't you know it? All liquids and running water aside, I could barely fill up a quarter of a cup.

I felt like the least pregnant woman in the OB's waiting room today - seriously, little porker belly had nothing on some of the gorgeous mamas there today. Once I was in with the doctor, we went over blood pressure {slightly lower this week, but still borderline at 130/90} and how I'd been feeling - he's all for me getting some cough suppressants to help me sleep, thank heavens! Otherwise, he said that I seemed well - should we try for the heartbeat?

YES, PLEASE.

Baby Jag was there immediately - a nice, loud heartbeat at 156bpm. I've been hearing him at home, but it's nice to have the medical professional comment on how all sounded very well. Dr. P then measured my uterus, giving my belly a good old squish in the process, and my fundal height is measuring at 16 weeks - not bad, since I'm 15+4.

No more visits for a few more weeks, but I'm armed with my 19 week referral scan for the BIG ultrasound, and I'm looking forward to our sneaky 16 week early gender scan next week.

As for irony... remember my shy bladder? Well, his midwife was off sick today, and so they skipped urine checks & weight checks to avoid a backlog. No need for pee! And if you want even MORE irony? The urge to pee was so strong on the drive home that I had to pull into a McDonalds to use their restroom. Ah, the joys of pregnancy...

How Far Along: 15 weeks along, with a few days to spare.

Size of baby: Some say apples, some say oranges. Either way, we're getting bigger & heavier! :)

Well folks, I am officially a single lady - for a few weeks, at least. Hubby is safely in Germany and I'm trying to keep myself busy here at home.

Luckily, I have been booked up this week by lovely people keeping me company and keeping me occupied.  Unluckily, school dramas have been making me completely exhausted, so I'm tired in not-so-positive ways too.

I know a lot of people have a love/hate relationship with/about the use of at-home dopplers, but can I tell you... ever since I actually FOUND the baby's heartbeat, that thing has been a saving grace for me. Going so long between appointments, ever since the high risk scare, has been hard - so just having a quick listen every now and again to hear baby pounding away is awesome, especially seeing as I'm too early for movements yet. I have a feeling that wee baby & I are going to be touching base with one another more frequently now that it's just us. :)

My belly seems to have shrunk back in this week, though it's still bigger at nights. I hung out with a friend who's a few weeks ahead of me, and her gorgeous {and perfectly round} bump is definitely making itself known. Mine still just looks like regular me, just a little poochier. I'm still itching to have people notice that it's a baby belly, rather than an 'I just ate too much chicken schnitzel' belly.

I'll touch base in a few days to share the weekly update, though it'll be a selfy mirror shot from now on, since my photographer is in a whole other continent - hopefully you'll bear with me over the next few weeks!

All is going very well on the baby front. My tummy feels huge, and I've had several comments on how much I've 'popped out' in the last few days. Today's comments were all asking how far along I was - wasn't 14.5 weeks a little early to be so big? Honestly, pregnancy is bizarre. First people ask why you're not showing - then when you do start showing, the opinions start! I, for one, am embracing the tummy, and happy that I'm finally starting to look as pregnant as I feel.

We've had some crazy news over the last few days, and I can hardly believe that some of it hits us from next week - Jase is heading overseas to Germany! He'll be doing some training and development with his firm's Europe branch, and he'll be away for just over four weeks. Can you believe it? We found out on Tuesday... and he leaves on Monday. As in, Monday FOUR DAYS AWAY. Crazypants. I'm ridiculously excited for him - it's a great opportunity, and he's been desperately missing Europe, so I was encouraging him to go along if it was offered. He'll also get to catch up with his brother & old colleagues/friends, since he'll likely pop over to London every now and again for visits.

(Jealous!)

So that means it's just me, the kitties, the puppy & the wee one for a little while. I'm not fussed about being alone - I've done it before, and besides.. I feel oddly calm and content right now. It'll make the time go by, and that's a positive thing! :) I'm going to give him a whopping great list of baby clothes and stores I want him to visit {mostly Primark for cheap and cheerful bebe bits & pieces} so hopefully we'll have a nice few surprises when he comes home in early December. I'll be 15 weeks when he leaves & 20 weeks when he gets home!

As for our upcoming scans, he's happy for me to go ahead with them, so I'm taking my next best thing: my mum! She was great to have with me at the NT scan, and since we had to deal with scary news then, I'm preparing already for future scans. {Preparing - not worrying.} Hubby still wants to know the gender as soon as possible, so hopefully if baby co-operates, we'll have a good idea at the 16 week scan. If not, we'll be trying our best to find out at the 19 week one! I'm under strict instructions to ring/message/email/all of the above, as SOON as I know the gender.. even with the crazy Australia-Germany time difference. :)

I also had to make a decision about what I was planning on doing with work for next year. Our teaching year runs from January to December, so I'm finishing out this contract and having a break over Christmas. I've decided to stop working then, since I'd only realistically be available to teach several weeks of February/March before I'd be stopping closer to the due date. If I feel up to it, I'll do some casual teaching cover days at my current school - they've been nothing but supportive, and I definitely feel as though I've made the right decision there. It's a weight off my shoulders, knowing that I have just under a term to go.

So, that's life right now. I'm spending as much time with the husband-man as I can this weekend, we're stockpiling heavy grocery items before he goes {cat litter, dog food, etc} and enjoying each other's company before he flies out next week. I'm also trying hard to fight a head cold that my students have been passing around, but I have a feeling I'm fighting a losing battle with this one. My immune system is focussed on the baby - just as it should be.

How Far Along: 14 weeks + 2 days along! Speed up, time. I want to hit some more milestones. :)

Size of baby: Baby is a lemon this week. And still sitting so, so low in my pelvis. Move up, little one!

Greetings, ICLW friends - and all my lovely bloggy friends. If you're new around these parts, here's our history:

• TTC with PCOS since December 2010
• Anovulatory cycles for months on end, super long waits between TTC
• Several rounds of Clomid - ovulated twice, all BFN
• Hubby's results came back concerning - low morph & average count
• IVF #1 - 5 eggs, 3 mature, only 1 successful 3-day embryo to transfer. BFN.
• IVF #2 - 3 eggs, 3 mature, all 3 made it to blastocysts! We transferred 1@5 days - BFP.

Weird title for a blog post, right? It probably seems even weirder when I tell you that it's a post about stomachs.

It seems there are two types of bellies in pregnancy. There's the 'D' belly - the one that pops out gradually {and then NOT so gradually!} and forms a lovely round basketball. And there's the 'B' belly, the one that is divided into two - a part above the belly, and a section underneath. I've had that belly for the longest of times.

I'm sure it's no surprise, but I really, and I mean reallyreallyreallyreally REALLY want to eventually have a 'D'.

Sometimes I get envious of baby bump pictures and threads, as there are so many beautiful bumps out there that stand out all on their own. When we've been taking our weekly shots, I cup my stomach with my hands, so that the 'B' is less noticeable, because it feels more like my regular belly size than it does a pregnant mama tum.

It's still early days for us now at 13 weeks + 4 days, but I do see the lower part of my belly starting to swell a wee bit. When I use our doppler, I find baby way down low underneath my tummy & still near my pelvis - so there's still a lot of room to move up. My hope is that as things to start to rise and shift, the 'B' will become a 'D'.

Whatever happens, I'm ready to embrace the belly. It suddenly feels as though time has slowed down again, since we're slow on appointments and scans for a good few weeks yet... so this is something that I can look forward to!

How Far Along: 13.5 weeks and ridiculously chuffed to be heading into the second trimester.

Size of baby: Baby is the size of a peach! Mmmm, peaches. Now I kind of want to eat a peach. Is that weird?