My 27th birthday + 16 weeks

As usual, I'm pretty late posting my 16 week pregnancy post, but again, work has been crazy. Before I get to baby stuff though, I wanted to share some pics from my 27th birthday last weekend!

One of my BFF's happens to have a birthday the day after mine & we have a lot of friends in common (from college & what not), so we decided to have a joint birthday weekend celebration. The event on my birthday was a BBQ at my house & the "event" the next day was a low-key lunch with a bunch of friends at this Mexican place in DC! There was  A LOT of food & drinks and lots of our friends came out:

The Birthday girls!! <3

 Me & my co-worker friends :o)

 Me & my line sisters (we pledged our sorority together & remain close friends/sister today :o)

The hubbs & I...he wanted to put his hand really spread out on my belleh, lol.

 I couldn't leave this baby out - my friend Sarah brought my this cutie from Coldstone b/c I LOVE ice cream cake! It's my new lover favorite cake, ahhhh-mazing! And I still have one little piece left waiting for me in the freezer. :o)

And from lunch the next day - me & one of my other BFF's

All in all, it was a great weekend....with lots of good friends & family. And the weather was perfect on my birthday (Friday) for the BBQ, but it was a little crappy the rest of the weekend - raining & stuff.So I had fun, but I was happy when it ended & so was my poor husband. He had been hard at work trying to finish up getting the nursery painted, cleared out & the crib put together so all my friends could see it. He knew I was excited to show it off, so even though I told him it was no rush to get the crib together, he did for me. :o) And I'll have those pics for you guys soon too. We were literally pooped though because after we got home from lunch on Saturday, we both fell asleep from about 6PM until 9AM'ish the next morning, lol.

As far as Baby J goes - I'm 16 weeks 5 days today, but I never updated when I officially hit 16 weeks. It has been a good week baby-wise. We have actually started looking into a lot of the stuff we need to think about - like day care, strollers, bedding, etc. etc. I also had my 16 week appointment with my OB. There are 3 different doctors (2 women, 1 man) at my practice & pregnant patients are required to see all three throughout their pregnancies in order to get to know them all b/c whoever is on-call when you go into labor - that's who's delivering you. We met the guy doctor this week - Dr. W & I really like him! He's cool, very laid back & funny. He asked me if I had any questions & I had two - one about childbirth classes & the other about when I could schedule my BIG ultrasound (to find out the baby's sex & for the Dr.'s to make sure baby is doing good & growing normally in there). My OB allows patients to get it done between 18-20 weeks & I asked if I could do it at 17 weeks 6 days since I turned exactly 18 weeks on Saturdays & he said yeah! I was sooo excited. We also heard Baby J's sweet heartbeat for the first time, woot! It was a strong 155 bpm (greatest birthday present ever) & based on that, Dr. W says he thinks it's a girl, lol. He said, "hey, I have a 50% chance of being right." My hubby looked worried when he said that, lol - he wants a boy first - I think he's just nervous about having a girl & dealing with boys later on in her life, tee hee. 

So back to my ultrasound - I called on Monday to schedule the appointment, but the u/s scheduling lady tried talking me out of doing it at 18 weeks. She basically didn't even give me the option - annoying!  She said she'd compromise with me at 19 weeks, but I just went ahead and did 20 since I'm off the day before I officially hit 20 weeks. Buuuuuuuuut, since I'm extremely impatient, I am going to one of those 3D/4D ultrasound places to find out what the babe is this Saturday!! Please pray that Baby J cooperates for his momma...I'm soooo excited to find what s/he is so I can start buying stuff. :oP

According to The Bump, this week our little one is the size of an avocado. Tiny bones are forming in his/her ears now, so s/he can definitely hear the two of us talking to him/her all the time! His eyebrows lashes & hair are all also starting to fill in & his taste buds are forming. I think there's definitely some sorta growth going on in my uterus this week because I can definitely feel it. I am still feeling good overall though - just random aches & pains here & there, sore boobs, going to sleep much earlier than normal, but besides that I'm feeling great. I think my shirts are getting a little shorter, so I may need to look into maternity shirts soon. 

Here are this week's bump shots, taken at 16 weeks exactly on Saturday, May 22, 2010:

 Clothed Belly

Bare Belly

The first of my Project Nursery series coming later this week (likely Saturday or Sunday, but perhaps tomorrow)!!! I am so looking forward to this holiday weekend - we are having another BBQ with family with all the food we had left oevr from my Brithday BBQ! I heart BBQs....they are definitely one of my favorite things about the summer.