Life is good!

Everything has been ticking along really well. Other than heartburn I've been feeling really good. Slowly getting bigger. Slowly buying more maternity clothes! I went shopping for a bikini recently for our upcoming holiday which was a bit challenging as my boobs have got so big that the styles that I would usually go for were off the list! On the 16th it was Father's Day, which is usually a tough day for me as I lost my Dad ten years ago. A work colleague suggested that I could buy my OH a gift which sounded like a lovely idea. So I bought a book for us to read to the baby and a card. He was really touched.

On Wednesday we had the 20 week scan! We were so excited for it. Desperate to find out the sex so that we can start visualising the baby more and for the practical reasons like choosing names and buying stuff! The scan went really well. The nurse was a grumpy so-and-so but she told us what she was looking at as she moved around the baby and confirmed that everything was fine :) The detail of the spine, and in particular the details of the heart, were amazing. We could see the four chambers and the valves moving. Incredible. And then the exciting bit - finding out the sex. We got a clear shot between the legs from underneath and there were three little lines and no bulge indicating a girl! The nurse wouldn't confirm 100% but said it was 90%. It's weird, I thought there would be a big "Aaah, it's girl" or "Aaah, it's a boy" moment, but I guess as we both completely didn't mind either way it was just really nice to know :) Despite drinking a bottle of Coke before hand she was feeling pretty lazy! She was lying with her back to us and didn't want to cooperate with having her picture taken! The nurse kept nudging her to try and make her move but she wasn't interested. So it was a little tricky to get a clear profile shot. The two that we got look so different. In the first she definitely has my OH's nose, but in the second she looks like a sea creature!

We saw the doctor after the scan and she was lovely. She said that as it's an IVF baby we can have two more scans if we like. There is no clinical reason why they are needed as everything is normal but if we would like the reassurance then the offer is there. They would be at 28 weeks and 34 weeks. We said yes, as why not?? It'll be lovely to see her continue to grow and to be sure that everything is going well in there. I feel like we've earned it :) It was a beautiful day and we walked home eating ice cream on a high. We had already previously discussed having a 4d scan done as well if the sex was unclear but even though it's pretty clear we've decided to go for a 4d scan anyway. It's quite expensive (£119) but this may well be our only baby and so why the hell not! It'll be incredible to see her in even more detail. We have to wait a little while as apparently it's better when the baby has put on a bit of fat, so we're booked in for the 4th August. The 20th was my 39th birthday - so it was lovely to still be buzzing from the scan. I had lunch with my Mum and then we went shopping. She bought us a moses basket and stand and I bought a couple of cute girly clothes :)

Unfortunately I got some really sad news though. I heard that a former colleague had passed away. She was still young (late 40's I think), a truly lovely person, happily married with a close family. She had a heart attack. Such sad news. I also heard that a friend was has just started IVF has had an unsuccessful first attempt. The eggs that were collected didn't fertilise. She must be really devastated to have got that far and not have an embryo. Both events made me feel so lucky that we are all well and that we have got this far.