It's a______!!!

I'm sorry to everyone who clicked on this post thinking it would be a gender reveal. That was a cruel prank and I apologize, but read on..... :)

5 Reasons Why We Are Not Finding Out the Gender (and why you should wait, too!)

#1. Because baby is healthy, and that's what really matters

At the end of our 20-week ultrasound, Zach and I were on cloud 9. We just got to see our completely healthy baby! We got to see his/her heart, growing brain, stomach, lungs, liver, kidneys, cute little fingers & toes, face, kicking and squirmy arms & legs. We found out that we are having a beautiful, healthy baby. And honestly, that's all that matters to us. If we had gone to the ultrasound and found out the gender, we would probably be going crazy over that instead, and honestly, it just doesn't matter. I just feel so grateful that I am carrying, a beautiful, healthy, 20-week baby right now, and that's the only thing I want to focus on.

Some baby Wagner pics!!

Those little feet!! I die.

And no, this doesn't mean it's a boy. That's the umbilical cord hahaha

#2. I really just like surprises.

I've always loved surprises! Can you imagine Christmas morning and knowing exactly what you're going to open before you do? It wouldn't be as fun! And honestly, finding out the gender of this baby before s/he's born just seems wrong! It's like opening a present before Christmas morning, and I'm willing to wait if it means the delivery will be that much more exciting :)

Much like this kid: (hahahaha)

#3. I actually LOVE gender neutral things!

The first thing people say to me when I tell them we're waiting to find out the sex, is, "How are you going to buy anything for your baby?? You can't prepare at ALL!" and I just have to laugh at how funny this statement is. Do you think my baby really cares if she has all pink clothes and girly nursery decorations? Or will he care that he doesn't have every single sports team jersey onesie to wear? Nope. I promise you, your baby is not a Broncos fan. 

This onesie is one of the most accurate I've seen. haha.

Also, gender-neutral doesn't mean only yellow and green! There are a TON of adorable gender-neutral clothes if you just know where to look (BabyGap, H&M, Etsy). 

And in a few (or more) years when we have another baby, we won't have to buy all new clothes, nursery decorations, carseat, stroller, etc. I will be SO glad I did this. Now I can use all of the baby things I buy now for all of my kids!

#4. We don't have a boy or a girl, so there's really no way we could be disappointed

If I really felt like we would be disappointed if we had a boy, or disappointed if we had a girl, I wouldn't be waiting to find out the sex. We will be so thrilled to have either one!! Really. And whenever someone asks Zach, "Do you want a boy or a girl?" he answers, "One. I just want one." Haha. That pretty much sums of both of our feelings.

#5. I want that whole "It's a ___!" moment in the delivery room, in the moment.

I can't wait for the moment when my husband gets to tell me if it's a boy or a girl, and we can just bask in that moment of happiness as we hold our baby for the first time. I think it will make the delivery that much more special :) 

I work on the mom/baby unit at the hospital, so I get to be with a lot of new parents every day. And every single patient I've talked to who waited to find out the gender of their baby says it was the best decision ever. It has already made the pregnancy more fun, and I know in the end it will definitely pay off when we get to hold our sweet little boy/girl for the first time 

:)

Half-baked ice cream because our baby is 'half-baked' (20 weeks) :)

P.S.-For anyone wondering, no it wasn't hard to not find out the gender during the ultrasound scan. We just told the ultrasound tech right away when we came in that we did NOT want to know the gender, and she laughed and gave us a hard time (mostly out of disbelief), but we still got to watch everything! When she went to do the gender scan in between the legs, she just had us close our eyes. (longest minute of my life!) And then she made sure to not include those pictures on our take-home disk. Easy as that!

20 weeks!! (HALFWAY!!!)

my view now-a-days.

I know, I missed week 18. Turns out "pregnancy brain" is real because I just completely forgot ;)

How big is baby:  Mango! 

Total weight gain/loss: +7lbs so far (I'm starting to hate how this asks me my weight gain/LOSS every time....who on earth loses weight at 20 weeks?!?!)

Maternity clothes: Yes! I've been going buck-wild over maternity clothes. I even bought some jeans from some random lady I found on a Facebook group. (you would have too if you'd seen they were only $2!)

Clearly maternity jeans are completely flattering and sexy

Best moment this week: We just got our 20 week ultrasound, which means we got to see the anatomy of the baby, the heart chambers, the parts of the brain, the amount of amniotic fluid, the (lack of) cleft palate, all the fingers and toes, the kidneys, stomach, and yes, the gender!! But more about that on the next post ;)

Food cravings: Gyros and greek food in general. I woke up Tuesday morning just thinking about gyros. SO I looked up greek food in Provo (which there is an extreme lack of, by the way..) and found a little food truck nearby, so I took the girls on a little adventure as we walked all the way to the food truck so I could get my $4 gyro. And it was soooooo worth it. Best craving ever.

Food aversions: Chick-fil-A & all burgers in general. This one is really sad for Zach, who had just jumped on the whole Chick-fil-A bandwagon after I convinced him for so long. I'm hoping this doesn't mean baby doesn't like Chick-fil-A, because it might be hard for him/her to fit into our family if that's the case.... just kidding ;)

Gender: I really do think it's a girl, for a lot of reasons. Mostly mother's intuition, but we'll see :)

Names: Anders Michael Wagner

Everly "to be decided" Wagner

Pregnancy symptoms: So these past few weeks I've started having a lot of "round ligament" pain. Pretty much, when you get pregnant (especially the first time) your uterus has to grow and stretch a lot, which means the ligaments on the side of the uterus stretch a lot, which, as it turns out, is really painful. It happens most often when I get in and out of the car, or when I work out or right after I've done a really intense workout. But the other week it started hurting a lot, especially when I walked. It even got to the point where I thought I was going into early labor, so I was about ready to go to the hospital to have it checked out, but I decided to wait it out and rest and everything turned out to be okay.

What I am looking forward to: I can't wait to finish the nursery! I've been debating a lot about this one, since the baby will be due in June and we move in August, so will it really be worth it to set up the whole nursery? But it's like a deep-seeded desire in me, to set up my baby's nursery. So even if we have to move a few months later, it will be worth it!

Funny Moment: Crying over this commercial. Have you seen it? Watch it now. No, really, watch it. I watch it over and over, and I cry every. single. time.

Milestones: I now feel baby kicks!! They feel like little bubbles, but stronger. I can only feel them when I sit down or lay down. It's the best feeling in the world. And when we saw the ultrasound and saw they baby kicking, I could feel them! It gives me such a peace of mind to feel baby kicking throughout my whole day at work, just to remind me that baby is healthy and doing great!

Half baked because baby is "half baked"....heh heh heh. punny.

16 Weeks

How big is baby:  Avocado :)

Total weight gain/loss: +4lbs so far

Maternity clothes: Yes! I think this week I finally "popped". Not that normal shirts are too tight around my belly now, but they're getting way too short on me. I feel like a chubby kid with my belly hanging out, so I love how long maternity shirts are.

This shirt was not a maternity shirt

Best moment this week: We got to have an ultrasound done by Zach's dad over Christmas break! He also found out the gender :) 

Food cravings: Baby got a healthy kick this week. I've been eating tons of fruits and veggies, usually just by themselves. And this has helped me out a TON with the not-so-fun side effects of pregnancy, like constipation, acid reflux (it's no joke), and overall bloaty-ness. Guess it's goodbye to queso and ramen (for now)!

Food aversions: Okay this is really funny, right as I clicked on this title to start writing about how I was so over food aversions because I was currently eating eggs now for the first time, I just threw up my entire breakfast into Rue & Harper's water bowl that happened to be on the ground next to me (thank goodness for that!) HA! Guess that's that. Baby hates eggs. I won't be trying those again.

Gender: I have a theory now that it's a girl, based on our last ultrasound pictures we got from Zach's dad. There's this picture of the little baby bum and the two legs sticking out, and I swear it looks like a girl. But everyone in Zach's family has a theory that if Zach's dad was able to find out the sex so early, he must have seen boy parts. Haha. And of course Zach's dad is keeping quiet. So who knows!

Finally got my stroller in the mail! Phil & Teds. I love it (and so does Harp)

Names: Anders Michael Wagner (Michael is Zach's dad's name and Zach's middle name. And it's surprisingly really difficult to find a middle name that sounds good with Anders!)

Everly "to be decided" Wagner

Labor signs: No! They say you can't even feel Braxton Hicks contractions until after 20 weeks, so I'll enjoy my contraction-free life very much while I can ;)

Pregnancy symptoms: Overall, besides this little incident, ahem, just now.... I really haven't been that nauseous. I've really been feeling round ligament pain though. Sometimes if I stand up too quickly I get such a sharp pain that I have to sit back down right away because I'll just get a sharp pain. Or when I turn over in bed sometimes, or take a big stride when I'm walking. It definitely makes me feel pregnant. It feels like a rubber band stretching to it's max.

Harper got featured on the official Phil & Ted's Instagram. Not surprising, though. Look at that stance.

What I am looking forward to: Next week we get the anatomy scan of the baby! I'm excited to see the baby better and to (not) find out the gender! I'm also really really scared that the doctor or ultrasound tech will mess up and accidentally tell us the gender!

Funny Moment:  Zach's been assuming that everything I eat now is because of a "crazy pregnancy craving".  I'll say, "Let's have quesadillas for lunch" and he'll say, "I can't argue with that, you and your crazy pregnancy cravings!!" haha. I don't even know if the whole 'pregnancy cravings' thing is real. I mean, I've heard of PICA and stuff, but if I feel like eating an apple, is that really a pregnancy craving, or do I just feel like eating an apple? Who knows, but I'll take advantage of eating whatever I feel like while I can ;)

Milestones: It's really fun for me to think about how someone already knows the sex of our baby. I don't find myself obsessing over wondering if it's a boy or a girl, because in all honesty it doesn't reallllly matter to me, but it's still exciting to think about :) I'm loving all the gender neutral clothes and things I've gotten too!