16 week checkup and ultrasound

well i guess i have to start off with an embarrassing confession--i apparently cannot count. :( as it turns out, i have been off on my count this entire time by one week. i'm not really sure how or when this happened, but it looks like i'm 16 weeks now, not 17. that's ok, i guess. just one more week to prepare, right?
so anyway, we had another checkup this morning, and everything was looking STELLAR in there. :) the placenta seems to have moved up some since a month ago, when it looked like the area it attached to might be covering the cervix a little. so, it seems to be correcting itself, as they most often do. good news. :) little bean was looking great, as well. lots of powerful kicks and punches going on in there. it's amazing i can't feel any of them yet. he was also a lot more substantial looking since we last saw him, when he was so skinny and jumpy he looked like a little tree frog. now he looks like a big fat baby, just miniaturized. his heart looked and sounded fantastic, and he looked like he really enjoyed stretching his legs out as far as he could. we got a few good pictures, but i think a video would be the only way you could be as impressed with him as i am. to see him moving around is really something else. and besides, he was so active it was difficult to get a clear picture of all his limbs. but when we were watching him, we got to see hands, legs, arms and everything, and they were pretty amazing. maybe next time i'll try to get a little bit of video to post.

in this one he's sort of facing us, but i think looking down toward his feet a little. his brain is so awesome looking! you can see the two halves so clearly. neat :)

these next to are both a side view with him on his back. you can really see all his bones.

and in this one, i forgot to put it in the caption, but that little black area just above his spine is his big strong heart. pretty awesome. and look at his big old baby belly! :)

and this last picture has a bit of information that some of you may want to see, and some of you may want to avert your eyes from: the crotch shot.

it appears we may have a real monster on our hands. :) (if you click on it, it gets bigger and you can see it a little more clearly.) i have to say i'm a little psyched about the toy situation that would result from such a thing being true--boy toys are just so much cooler than girl toys. sure, my heart would break a little if he NEVER wanted to have a pretend picnic with me, but i think playing with GI joes and cars and pretending to be dragons and daring knights would more than make up for it. but nothing's for sure, and we remain strongly opposed to pink and blue color-coding, anyway. so, a bean's a bean, beanpole or no. (and yes, i did use the following site to come up with that euphemism: http://www.gregology.net/Reference/Dicktionary) *snicker, snicker*

and lastly, here are the missing pictures in the growing belly chronicles:








first lying down picture


my cute little over the pants bump






we painted these blue, and the walls are going to be green and yellow. we can't change the drawer handles, so we're going to paint them. not sure what color, though. i wanted to just use the same green or yellow as the walls, but the handles are very ornate and antique looking, so i feel like maybe they should just be silver. anybody have any opinions on that?

well thanks for reading my ridiculously long update. :) hope you're all doing great.

ps
if anybody has any name suggestions for a boy, we would love to hear them. we're not doing too well in that department...