Baby update

I'm 19 weeks today, and can't believe how fast it's flying by.

I feel like we haven't stopped for a good couple of months, there's always something happening.

So I'm just starting to feel little movements, but nothing too obvious yet. I've had all my screenings done now for down syndrome and other such conditions, and everything looks fine. I get a fetal echo next week where they check the baby's heart - I think this is a bit of a waste of time, because even if the baby has the same condition as me, it won't be obvious until late teens, early 20s most likely. But at least we can make sure the heart looks structurally fine otherwise.

Then early January we have the big anatomy scan where we will hopefully find out the sex of the baby, so that will be good.

Otherwise, things are just pottering along. I'm excited about this pregnancy, and not as nervous as I thought I'd be (yet), but still have that little nagging fear. I know all the bad things that can happen during a pregnancy now - not just cord accident like we had, but so many other things that can cause "fetal demise". While our odds for having a healthy baby are incredibly good, I can't help but be... I'm trying to find the right word... not quite worried, maybe just "less excited". I've lost the naivety we had the first time around, and I know that nothing is certain until you have a screaming baby in your arms.

I never quite know how to answer when people ask if it's my first child. I hate saying yes, because it makes me feel like I'm "forgetting" Joshua, and I hate when people tell me how wonderful pregnancy is, and tell me how I should be feeling, when they have no idea, but if I say no, they ask how old my other children are. I have no problem telling them Joshua was stillborn, but the other person generally gets quite uncomfortable - it's a great way to stop a conversation... So it's just depending on the person and the situation, but it's still proving to be an awkward question.

House update

Everything is coming along!

We signed the loan docs this morning, the money should all go through tomorrow, and the official transfer of the title (or whatever happens...) will happen Wednesday morning with any luck, and we get the keys on Wednesday afternoon! Woo!

Buying a townhouse!

It's been a crazy week or so. We were looking at renting another place with 3 bedrooms and preferably a washer and dryer which would both be useful for when junior comes along.

Then we saw a house on Redfin which was a reasonable price and had a new looking kitchen and decent sized living areas. Turns out it was essentially condemned due to not having any building permits, and no inspections for any of the electrical, sewerage, or building they had done, and it would be a lot more effort than it was worth pursuing the place.

We had been accepted for a townhouse that we'd looked at renting days before that, so were tossing up what to do. I happened to have another look at Redfin last Sunday night and found an even cheaper townhouse (to buy) in a nice area which is close to us that looked really nice. We had the pre-approvals done for finance that day just in case we did decide to buy the previous house, so we knew what we could afford. We looked at the townhouse on Monday, decided we really liked it, signed a heap of paperwork and put in an offer on Tuesday morning, got it accepted as is on Tuesday afternoon, got all the finance stuff in order the next couple of days, and now we're just waiting for the finance to be approved! It's all happened incredibly fast, and we're booked in to sign over the title paperwork next Monday, and we're hoping to take ownership on December 23. We're still waiting for a more comprehensive termite inspection, and a few little things, but so far things are looking good!

The townhouse is 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, has a resonable sized kitchen with a little "breakfast nook" off to the side, nice bay windows, a nice little backyard, washer and dryer, garage, and a fabulous park out the back. It's in great condition, so we're keeping our fingers crossed!