I’m 23 weeks as I write this. Let’s see what I can even remember from the month of December, other than Christmas preparations!

18 weeks

nesting

I’d like to think that I’ve been mostly reserved in the nesting area (other than moving rugs around a lot). This week I organized the shelves in the kitchen, but in my defense, they had been in a state of disorganization ever since the island was built in the summer. I had a ton of empty jars that needed to be moved out, construction pieces-parts that needed to be put away, and various plates, cups, and utensils that had migrated to the house from the Ham House and needed to be sent back home again.

The whole process actually took several nights, since I work very slowly, apparently.

blood pressure

I got a blood pressure cuff and periodically monitored my blood pressure at home. It’s never been high. On the contrary, sometimes it’s slightly on the low side. The episodes of my heart racing continued to be sporadic and somewhat unpredictable, and as time went on they became quite rare.

sickness

Not for me, but for some of the kids. The day we decorated the Christmas tree, Beatrice was not feeling very well. I thought she had just napped poorly (because she had). We brought the tree inside, hung its lights and ornaments, hung our stockings, arranged the little village set my great-grandfather made, improvised some garland, lights, and ornaments to hang around the doorway to the colloquium, and then I sat all the kids on the couch to take a picture. Beatrice would not sit–she just wanted to sit on me. I took the picture, and Beatrice threw up on me.

Fortunately everything landed on Beatrice and myself, and not so much on the chair and rug where we were sitting. I hurried to clean her up and then get her to bed, as she seemed truly miserable.

The sickness had a neat little pattern of one vomiting episode, followed by a day of fever and fatigue with no appetite, then a couple of days of diarrhea. Elvie, Aurick, and Beatrice got it (though Aurick never threw up, though did everything else to the letter.) It’s funny that 1) this is the second year we’ve had stomach bugs when we decorate the Christmas tree, and 2) just like the last stomach bug, only some of the kids get it. Jeremy and I never caught it. The other boys never caught it. I assume those three all had it because they share a room.

20 weeks

Our anatomy scan was scheduled for 20w 1d, but the tornados that hit our state knocked out the doctor’s phone and internet, and we had to be rescheduled. Thankfully, they were still able to get us in at the end of that same week. What a stressful week that must have been for them.

Everything looked good at the anatomy scan–that they could see, anyway. The tech didn’t get the exact look at the heart and feet that she wanted, so I’ll be having another ultrasound at my next appointment.

Big news!

We did find out, though, that Eighth Kransling is a girl! This means I have managed to be right in my hunches about symptoms and symptom onset timing, etc. etc. So of the last six pregnancies, three boys and three girls, the boys have all followed one pattern, and the girls another. The kids are all very excited. Eldore, who had told me several times that he hoped baby is a girl, decided at the very last minute to hope it was a boy instead. He came back around quickly, though. Elvie is very excited baby is a girl, as this means there will be three girls sharing her room and that means that they get bunk beds like the boys have.

Baby’s first name is Flannery, but we had some doubts over her middle name, so we continued to search for one that felt right.