It's a... (and other pregnancy updates)

I'm a day away from being 21 weeks. When I last wrote about my pregnancy I was 12 weeks and very sick. Now I am doing much better! I got better in between 14 and 16 weeks. It was really great to be better, not just because feeling better feels great, but I'm able to live a normal day again. When I was sick, my wonderful mother took over cooking and cleaning. We came over to her house and ate dinner with my parents Monday-Thursday, and once a week my mom would clean my apartment (vacuum, sweep, mop, clean the bathroom). She was my personal savior for a few weeks. As much as I love and appreciate my mom cooking and cleaning for me, being able to clean my home, and cook my own food again has been incredibly rewarding.

I am also able to exercise again. I can't do as much as before, since my growing belly gets in the way and my shortness of breath tires me quickly. But being active in any way is what counts.

I've gained more weight that I wanted to at this point. Part of it is being so sick I couldn't exercise. The other part is my diet. When I was sick all I could eat was rice and pasta - carbs and starch. I also have days where I know I snack too much. I just have to be better, like I did during my pregnancy with Luna. Anyway, two days ago I tried to put on my wedding ring, and it wouldn't fit! So I wore a fake one to church. But today my wedding ring did fit, so I guess my fingers are fluctuating.

Well, yesterday was the day! My 20 week ultrasound! I asked my family and friends to vote and the final tally was 14 votes for girl, 21 for boy, and 8 for twins. (If you didn't notice, Luna got two votes. It's because when I asked her "Do you want the baby to be a boy or a girl?" She said, "girl." Then I asked, "Do you want the baby to be a girl or a boy?" She said, "boy." So she was just saying the last word I said. When I did the same thing to Benjamin, he said boy both times.)

Before the ultrasound, I made cupcakes and had both pink and blue frosting ready. After the ultra sound, I put the color of frosting in the middle of each cupcake that represents the gender of our baby, then put pink frosting on half of the cupcakes and blue on the other half. We stopped by our neighbors on the way to my parents' (where Benjamin and Luna were), and they got to bite into a cupcake. My parents had prepared Benjamin and Luna because when we walked into their house Benjamin said, "Mommy! Did you bring cupcakes?!"

Benjamin, Luna, and my dad all picked a blue frosted cupcake, and my mom and my brother Michael picked pink. They all bit into their cupcakes and...

PINK CENTER! WE ARE HAVING A GIRL!!!

That was definitely a surprise, since Gerson and I both thought we were having a boy. Out in the parking lot of the OBGYN office I asked Gerson if he was sad, because I knew that he would love for Benjamin to have a brother since Gerson grew up as the only son. He said, "No. I am a little sad for Benjamin. But on the bright side for him, he gets his own room!" This is true. Whenever we upgrade from the two bedroom we are currently living in, Benjamin will get his own room and Luna and Baby Girl will be sharing as sisters!

After the cupcakes were bitten into, Benjamin wanted to change to pink, but I'm a mean mom and told him  that he had to finish his first cupcake. I told him that the baby in my tummy was a girl like Luna. He smiled, and seemed to understand. A couple hours later I asked him if he knew what the baby was, he said, "A girl, like Luna!"

Now I get to go through my storage and pull out all of Luna's baby clothes!