Pregnancy update

Well guys, I went today for my "Just shy of 18 weeks" appointment. Everything was good and the heartbeat was just under 150. I tried to finagle my doctor into letting me do the anatomy ultrasound before I go with some girlfriends on a shopping trip to Dallas on Labor Day weekend, and he said if I was willing to take the gamble of having an ultrasound before 20 weeks (chancing that baby would be uncooperative because it was earlier than you're "supposed" to find out the sex) then that would be okay. Considering I would be about 19 weeks and 4 days and it would have allowed me to shop for the baby that weekend, I was willing to take that gamble. My doctor said, "You know, we don't do ultrasounds to find out the sex of the baby, we do them to check all the anatomy and make sure everything looks good." He also informed me that if we weren't able to find out the baby's sex at this pre-20 week appointment, then he would not schedule an ultrasound two weeks later just to determine the sex. What a stick in the mud! :) Anyway, nothing was going to deter me. Except when my nurse called to schedule the appointment, the ultrasound office said that they would not schedule an anatomy appointment for pre-20 weeks. My nurse said that that was the first time they had ever told her that. Anyway, I ended up scheduling for September 6, the weekend after my trip. So look for an announcement soon after that. I'm still thinking it's a boy, but it's nice to truly not care whether we have a boy or a girl. Here in just a couple weeks, we'll know for sure...hopefully. I have some names I've been mulling over in my head, but Chad and I haven't seriously discussed names really at all.

We have also been continuing to meet with contractors and sub-contractors to get work done on the house. We went to a granite yard this afternoon and picked out our countertops for the kitchen and bathrooms. I made a decision pretty quickly--granite yards aren't my favorite place to hang out at 4:00 in the afternoon on a hot August day, and there were just a few choices in our price range (read: the lowest price available). I picked out the same granite for all three counters. I think it is going to look really pretty. I have a sample that I'll take a picture of and post at some point. Now, all we have to pick out is backsplash for the kitchen, all the tile and fixtures for both bathrooms, and every other little detail. Decisions, decisions. I am excited about getting started but I am much more excited about it all being finished. Right now, the plan is to re-do pretty much everything in both bathrooms and just the counters and backsplash in the kitchen. I'm hoping we'll have enough in our budget to put a double oven in the kitchen. We also plan to paint the outside of the house, replace all the bedroom and bathroom windows, and put new blinds and shutters on all the windows. It should look very nice and updated when all is said and done. And hopefully all will be said and done before this baby comes.

I'll try to take another belly picture soon and post it...it's been a while.