25 Weeks Down...15 To Go!!

I know it has been a while since I have updated our blog! I have thought about it and have had plenty of time to do it, there just hasn't been much to report!! As far as my pregnancy goes, I still feel great! No nausea at all and I'm not any more tired than the non-pregnant full-time night shift nurse :) I did catch a cold from Chad a couple weeks ago, but I never felt that bad, so I started to think it was just sinuses. Well this was 3 weeks ago and the constant coughing has not let up, in fact in the last 2 days it seems to have gotten worse. I worked all night on Saturday night and came home Sunday morning and slept until about 2:30 pm. When I woke up, I felt really funny, almost like I couldn't catch my breath. I ignored it for a while, but the more time went by, the worse it got. So of course I started to panic, which in turn, made it worse! I called my doctor and she told me to drink fluids, take robitussin, and go to the ER if it got any worse. Well the shortness of breath seemed to improve, but I felt weird all night. I woke up today and felt better, but still have this horrid dry cough. I am not due to go to the doctor until Tuesday of next week, but when my doctor called me today to check on me, she heard my cough and told me she wanted me to come in this week instead. Her concern is that it could be walking pneumonia and doesn't want me to sit on it all week. So, I will go in this Weds and see what is going on. I was scheduled to do my glucose test text week, so she bumped that up to Weds as well. I PRAY that I pass this test, because I think I will pass out if I have to do the 3 hour glucose tolerance test!!

So now it is time to brag a little bit... I think that I might be the luckiest girl in the entire world. Maybe I am biased, but I think I have the most amazing husband, brother, and dad in the world. I will tell you why I think so...My amazing brother has been more excited than anyone since the moment he found out I was pregnant. He texts me several times a week with baby name ideas and to tell me about all of the baby dreams he is having! Last week, I woke up to a package at my front door. It was from Uncle Matty of course. The package was full of healthy pregnancy food, tea, PICKLES, aden & anis burp cloths for the baby, and the best part...a letter from Matty! It was the most thoughtful package and I just know that he is going to be the most smitten uncle in the entire world. All of you single ladies out there don't even know what you are missing out on, but that's ok because that means I don't have to share him! He already loves my mom more than me, I don't think I can share him with anyone else!

Now on to my husband...Chad has done more for me than I can even begin to share in a short blog post. What I admire the most about him is his extreme dedication. Chad was approached with a new job opportunity a couple weeks ago. This opportunity was one that he could not turn down and while he was so excited for the opportunity to grow professionally, he was literally tortured at the thought of letting his boss and other co-workers down. For almost an entire week I had to listen to him talk about how he feels like he is letting someone down, but wants to do what's best for his family. While I knew everything was going to work out fine, it broke my heart to see him struggle. He is the hardest worker of anyone I have ever met and I am not just saying that because he is my husband. I am so proud of him and can't wait to see him further his career. I can sometimes be annoyed at his "I have to be the best at everything" mentality, but it is also one of the reasons I love him so much. There is one thing I know he will be the best at...and that is being a daddy!!

And last but definitely not least...my daddy. My dad has spoiled me rotten my whole life. Even though I am a married women, I pretty much don't make any decisions without consulting my dad. He always says to me, "what will you do when I'm not around," and I truly have no clue! He knows everything about everything and I would be lost without his knowledge, experience, and ability to fix EVERYTHING!!! We had our baby furniture delivered on Fri. It has been sitting in the dining room in boxes, because we still had some touch up painting to do. Well he came over today, and in a matter of 3 hours, he finished all the painting and put the whole crib together! While I do love my husband...he is nowhere close to being this handy!! Thank goodness my parents live a mile away :) Told ya I was a lucky girl!!

I will be sure to post a quick update after my appointment on Weds. Keep your fingers crossed for no pneumonia and a passing score on my glucose test!!

New Tricks!

Let's see what the little one has been doing since I last updated...

* Not only do I kick my mommy all the time, but now I kick my Daddy too!
* I have learned where my mommy's bladder is and I like to kick it to get a reaction out of her!
* I can throw a punch and a kick all at the same time!
* I am so strong now, that if you stare at my mommy's belly, you can see my spastic karate moves!
* I weigh almost ONE WHOLE POUND!
* I made my mommy gain 6 lbs in 4 short weeks!
* I like to kick people who talk to me! I learned to do this in the middle of the night when mommy was at work :)
* I already have my days and nights mixed up...good thing my mommy is a night shifter...poor daddy!!
* And last but not least, I am no longer hiding, I have made it very apparent that I am taking residence in my mommy's belly!

Today we had our 22 week appointment with Dr, Valido. It was a very short appointment, I think we were in and out of there in 15 minutes! I am happy to say that I have FINALLY gained weight! 6 whole pounds to be exact! The nurse said she was going to have a talk with me if the scale read what it had for the past 2 months. Haha. The doc said all my vitals were good and the baby's heart rate was in the mid-140's. I told him about some cramping that I have been experiencing for a while now and he said it was more than likely what they call round ligament pain. He says the pain is coming from the stretching of my uterus. I assumed that is what it was, but I was starting to get paranoid, because it seems like I always have some degree of cramping everyday. He said unless it gets very painful or is timeable, then there is no reason to be concerned.

As you read above, this baby is a moving machine. It cracks me up every time. You would think that I am used to it by now, but every time he/she moves, I stop what I am doing and wonder what the heck the little nut is doing in there! I love every second! Chad had his face by my belly last night and every time he talked to the baby it would kick near his face. I was cracking up at how deliberate the movements were!

Well as it turns out, I have won the battle with paint colors! Not that Chad stood a chance anyway :) We bought four paint samples, and I put them all on the wall last week. We had a green, blue, yellow, and beige to choose from. I really thought we would want to do green, but the green that matched the bedding made the room too dark. I was between the yellow and the beige and Chad liked the blue. It is a pretty blue/teal color, but my argument was there is a good deal of blue in the bedding, and I wanted to pick a less dominant color so it would bring out that color in the bedding. The yellow and green aren't as prominent colors in the bedding, and with the green being too dark, that left us with yellow...so that was my choice! Our photographers told Chad on our wedding day "a happy life is a happy wife," I think this quote is very appropriate for this situation and many others for that matter!

I just couldn't help myself...

Either way...we are good to go! June can't get here soon enough!!!!!!!

21 Weeks and We Have Maternity Pants!!

As of this week not only am I halfway there, but I am MORE than halfway there!!! Not a whole lot has changed, I am still feeling great and I am happy to say that if I wear a tighter shirt, people who don't know me...can tell that I am pregnant!! Chad and I went to register at BuyBuy Baby this past Saturday and as we were going around the store, a girl, her husband, and her dad walked beside us. Her dad looks at me and says "so how far along are you?" When I said almost 21 weeks the girl said she had to walk around in front of me to see if I was even pregnant. I said with the registry gun in my hand, "well I hope I am since I am registering for all of this baby stuff." She opened up her coat and showed me her belly and said "this is what happens between 21 and 28 weeks." It was too funny! We had a lot of fun registering, but Chad was ready to go after being there for two hours!

On Friday, I finally decided it was time to give in and buy some maternity pants. Chad's adorable Grammy gave me a gift card to Destination Maternity for Christmas, so I made Chad meet me there after work so I could find some maternity jeans! I can still fit into almost all of my clothes, but when I sit down in my pre-pregnancy jeans, they eventually have to be unbuttoned :) I found a pair of jeans and a couple cute tops that show that I DO have a belly!! I am proud of myself for making it this far, but it was about time I gave in to the elastic waste bands!

The rest of the weekend was spent being very productive! We had a good friend come over on Sunday to help move furniture out of the "guest room" so we can start transforming it into the nursery. Last week I ordered the bedding and the furniture. The bedding came right away, and the furniture should be here in 3-4 weeks. I was happy that we got the bedding so fast, because I didn't want to start picking out paint colors until we knew what shades were in the bedding. We got four different paint samples to work with, so now it is time to make a decision! All I have to say is, it is a lot harder to make these decisions when you don't know your baby's gender!

We have our next appointment with our OB on Feb. 8th. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I have gained weight...which I am pretty sure I have! The baby is definitely a moving machine...especially after I eat! It is the best feeling in the world and I am sure I will regret saying this, but I only wish I could feel it 24/7! I will update after our appointment next week!

Until then here I am 21 weeks and growing!

Halfway There!!

I can't believe I have made it to the 20 week mark!! While 20 weeks feels like such an accomplishment, I still can't believe we have to wait 20 MORE weeks to meet this little boy/girl. It is well worth the wait, but I sure can't wait for June to get here!!! I have been feeling great the past couple weeks, which is such a nice change from the first trimester!! People have been asking me for a while now if I have felt the baby move. I would say around 15 weeks I felt bubbles and a few jabs, but I could never tell if it was the baby or not. The day I turned 19 weeks I felt a punch that was like nothing I have ever felt before. I sat there for HOURS waiting for it to happen again and of course it didn't :) But as the week went along, I have felt it more and more. Mostly when I am laying in bed at night. It is the best feeling in the world and I only wish it happened multiple times in a row so Chad could feel it too! I am sure in the coming weeks it will become even more frequent!

This week we got our FIRST baby item!! It is the most beautiful baby stroller I have ever seen!! My absolute favorite part about this stroller is the bassinet it comes with! My dad knew I had been eyeing this stroller, but never in a million years did I think I would actually own one myself! My dad has always been the best gift giver, so I am not surprised that this perfect gift showed up on my doorstep! While a part of me likes to think he bought this gift for me because he knew I loved it, the rest of me knows that he just wants his first grandbaby to have the most stylish ride in town :) We are so grateful to have family that is so generous and thoughtful, I don't know what we would do without all of them!!

Now it's time to focus on more important things...furniture, painting, and emptying out the "guest room," so it can be transformed into the nursery!! Something tells me I will be doing all of the delegating for this task! We will see how my control freak personality handles that one. I tried to tell my dad and Chad that pregnant women are allowed to paint and put things together, but something tells me they didn't buy it and will not allow me to help! It was worth a try!

Here I am 2 days shy of 20 weeks!! Definitely a baby belly, although I don't think it was this big when I woke up this morning, so maybe it is half food and half baby :)

Happy 18 Weeks!

At the very beginning of my pregnancy I felt like the days could not go by any slower. It took FOREVER for a week to roll around! I suppose that is in part due to how miserable I was from weeks 5-13. But now that the holidays are over, and I am finally feeling better, I am finding it hard to believe that I am 18 weeks! Two weeks shy of being half way there! Besides being sick for eight weeks straight, I had a hard time believing this pregnancy was real. Even after hearing the heartbeat at my 13 week appointment, I still didn't believe there was a tiny peanut growing inside of me. Until yesterday...1/11/11. Chad and I got to see this little 9 oz being moving around inside of me. I thought I would cry, but instead every time it moved, I laughed. I think Chad may have blinked twice in a 30 minute period. I don't even think he looked at me once because he was so mesmerized by what was on the screen. When the ultrasound began, the baby had one foot up by it's head as if it were to say "ARE YOU SURE YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW MY GENDER??" We of course couldn't tell, but the ultrasound tech said she "had a pretty good idea." For those of you who don't know, we decided to keep the gender a surprise! We went back and forth for awhile and decided that the sound of "it's a ______" in the delivery room, is well worth waiting 40 weeks! To be totally honest...I thought it would be so hard to not ask or not look for that "third leg," but I don't think I thought about it once in the whole 30 minute ultrasound. I was so fixated on what I was seeing that gender was the last thing to cross my mind. When we were sitting in the room waiting for the doc to come in, Chad, once again, said "now I really think it's a boy." I said "and why is that?" And his reasoning was "I don't know, just the way it was moving it's arms and legs..." Really Chad?? I love you, but that is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. Next to him saying that he thinks that the baby occupies its time in the womb by doing curls with the umbilical cord. Do you think he wants a lacrosse player?? He is nuts!

The doc finally entered the room and that is when my nervous nurse mode kicked in. All I wanted to hear him say is "everything is perfect! See you in four weeks!" He DID say that everything with the baby looked PERFECT! What a relief!!!!! They were unable to see a portion of the baby's spine due to it laying transverse, so he said "unfortunately" with sarcasm in his voice, we will need to get another ultrasound in about eight weeks. The only other thing that he said was a slight concern, was the placement of my placenta. They diagnosed me with a marginal placenta previa. Again, this whole being a nurse and knowing too much thing is not good at times like this!!! All I heard was placental previa and thought about all the deliveries I have been to for babies who were born to mom's with placental previas. SCARY STUFF! A placental previa can be marginal/partial or complete. Complete is obviously the worse of the two. Many women with complete placental previas end up on bed rest at some point during their pregnancy and all deliver via c-section. The concern is that the placenta has implanted too close to the cervix and if it does not move toward the end of pregnancy, the fear is that as you begin to dilate, the placenta will tear away causing both mom and baby to hemorrhage. It turns out that a large percentage of women have a marginal placenta previa in the early part of the second trimester. The hope is that as the uterus grows, the placenta will shift away from the cervix. So they will be monitoring that at our next ultrasound as well. He did say however, that if it does not shift, which he is confident it will, but if it does not, we may be looking at a c-section. I told him that I did not have my heart set on anything but a healthy baby, so whatever has to happen to get this baby here safe at the end of 40 weeks I am more than okay with. The only other instructions he gave were to avoid any "trauma" for the next eight weeks...aka intercourse. Haha. Poor Chad. Although I think the doctor scared him enough that even if we were cleared, he would avoid me until the baby is walking! Haha. So, all in all, a very good appointment! He did tell me that my weight has stayed the same, so the goal for our next appointment in four weeks is...WEIGHT GAIN! You don't have to tell me twice!

I don't have a belly pic for this week yet, but these are even better...our little alien baby :) The last one is my favorite, Chad loves the foot prints, and well the first one...is a little scary looking!!

16.5 Week Baby Bump!

None of my friends believe that this is a real baby bump! Ever since I can remember I have been able to blow out my belly to look like I was 9 months pregnant. My mom said when I was a kid, I looked malnourished because I had this scrawny body and this giant belly. Well through the years, especially when I had one too many to drink, I liked to show off this special talent of mine. So now no one believes that this is a real baby bump! They all think I am just pushing my belly out! While this might be partially true, I have to say that my "fake pregnant belly" is WAY bigger than my REAL pregnant belly! :)