baby has a name

We first starting talking about baby names back in May. At the time I was still feeling like we were going to have a boy. The only trouble was, we could not come up with a name! We knew what the middle name would be (hubby's dad and grandpa's name, and hubby's middle name.) But everything we came up with for a first name either was already taken by a family member, didn't work for initials, or we just didn't agree on.

But a girls name? That was a different story.

Over a year ago, before we had even started to think about trying to have a baby, I mentioned a name to hubby and - to my surprise - he really liked it! So when we started talking about names back in May, I mentioned the name again. Hubby still really liked it - even though he didn't remember liking it a year ago! We decided at that point that we were about 90% sure that would be her name - if she was a girl!

Then the week before the ultrasound we started talking about names again. Still the same trouble with boys names. When we talked about girls' names, I mentioned another name I really liked. Hubby said it was ok. Then I mentioned THE name again. Hubby got a big old grin on his face - and I knew that was her name.

So when the ultrasound technician announced, "It's a Girl!", we instantly knew what her name was going to be.

Created with Collections from Three Paper Peonies

Read more...

wordless wednesday: 23 week bump

Read more...

23 weeks

I have so many updates, but no time to get them posted! Hopefully soon I'll be able to catch up. Summer is flying by faster than I can imagine. Our next appointment with Dr. B is next week already!

How far along: 23 weeks

Baby's size: A Papaya

Baby's little face is fully formed ... minus the baby fat, of course. This week marks the beginning of some serious weight gain. Her weight in the next four weeks alone should double! We've been hearing her heartbeat through a Doppler all along, but now it can also be heard through a standard stethoscope. The next task at hand for baby: sprouting two teeny-tiny nipples!

Symptoms: Still getting a daily side-ache on the right side ache, feeling like my ribs are pulling apart, and getting back pain. Other than that, feeling pretty good!

Sleep: Sleeping is starting to get more challenging. It's tough sleeping on your side all night, especially with sore back and ribs. I've started sleeping with a pillow between my legs, which helps a little. Side-sleeping also isn't very kind on the shoulder - I tend to wake up with an arm that has fallen asleep. The tempurpedic pad we have on top of our mattress is literally saving my life these days, or at least my sleep! It takes so much of the pressure off of my shoulder.

Total Weight Gain: 2 more pounds this week, 17 total

Maternity clothes: I'm finding maternity clothes, especially pants, increasing appealing! I've got my eye on a couple pairs of maternity jeans. Just wish the good ones weren't so expensive!

Best moment this week: I just love feeling her move all the time. She especially seems to move more when I'm laying down or when there is music playing!

Movement: Feel her moving all the time! I can tell she's growing too. I used to only feel her down by my waist line, but now I'm starting to feel her move all over my stomach.

Food cravings: I have yet to experience the stop-everything-gotta-have-it food cravings!

Gender: Girl!

Labor signs:

What I miss: Buttoning - or even zipping - my pants. Sleeping on my stomach. Sitting with my legs scrunched up to my stomach. Slouching, or even just leaning forward in my chair without feeling like I'm going to suffocate. Bending over without at least a little discomfort. Lifting heavy things ...

What I'm looking forward to: Starting our baby registry!

Weekly Wisdom (aka what I learned this week): 

Milestones: 5 months! How crazy is that!?

Emotions: I am feeling like there is SO MUCH TO DO! Need to research and pick a car seat, stroller, crib ... need to lineup a daycare ... need to figure out my maternity leave ... need to start a baby registry ... and the list goes on and on!

Read more...

22 weeks

I've been traveling for work the past two days, so I'm a little late in getting this update out. But better late then never, right?

How far along: 22 weeks

Baby's size: A Papaya

Baby's settling into sleep cycles, snoozing about 12 to 14 hours a day. It's not hard to figure out when! All I have to do is pay attention to when all her kicks and somersaults start and stop. This weeks she is starting to make more sense of the world as she develops the sense of touch. In fact, her grip is quite developed by now too - but the umbilical cord is probably the only thing she has to grab onto in utero. The sense of sight is also getting more developed. She can now perceive light and dark much better than before (even though her eyelids are still fused shut.) Her eyelashes and eyebrows are well formed now too, and even more hair is sprouting atop her cute little head - but at this point it has no pigment, so it's bright white!

Symptoms: By the end of the day my back and rib pain is pretty much driving me crazy. I constantly feel like there is not enough room inside of me for all my organs AND a baby! One positive is that it is forcing me to have better posture. It's extremely uncomfortable to slouch over; feels like my ribs are digging into my stomach. Problem is sitting up straight, or even leaned back, all the time is more work for my aching back! I pretty much daily get a side-ache on the right side of my ribs - I'm guessing it must have something to do with the way she is positioned in there - but that seems strange with how much she moves around!

Sleep: Mostly sleeping on my left sides these days because of the pain on my right side. Makes cuddling with hubby pretty tough ...

Total Weight Gain: I've hit the 15 pound mark!

Maternity clothes: Went shopping with my mom over the weekend and came home with a bunch of goodies - both maternity, and some that will just work as maternity. Found a dress to wear to the wedding hubby is in in two weeks!

Best moment this week: My baby bump is really starting to show! I was at a work conference this week and everyone was just oohing and awing over how cute I was! I'm loving this stage of pregnancy.

Movement: Still feeling her move off and on every day. They are still mostly pretty small movements, and come and go so quickly that it is hard to let others feel her. I tried to have my dad feel her last weekend, but as soon as I got him to come over she stopped moving. Hubby has been able to feel her several times though, just takes patience sometimes!

Food cravings: I have yet to experience the stop-everything-gotta-have-it food cravings!

Gender: Girl!

Labor signs:

What I miss: Buttoning - or even zipping - my pants. Sleeping on my stomach. Sitting with my legs scrunched up to my stomach. Slouching, or even just leaning forward in my chair without feeling like I'm going to suffocate. Bending over without at least a little discomfort. Lifting heavy things ...

What I'm looking forward to: Starting our baby registry!

Weekly Wisdom (aka what I learned this week): 

Milestones: 5 months! How crazy is that!?

Emotions: I am feeling like there is SO MUCH TO DO! Need to research and pick a car seat, stroller, crib ... need to lineup a daycare ... need to figure out my maternity leave ... need to start a baby registry ... and the list goes on and on!

Read more...

21 weeks

How far along: 21 weeks

Baby's size: A Banana

Baby swallows at least several ounces of amniotic fluid each day - the taste of which differs from day to day depending on what I've eaten. She has very developed taste buds already. In fact, researchers have noted that babies who were exposed to certain tastes in utero were more eager to eat foods with that same taste after birth. Better start eating my veggies! Baby's digestive system is busy creating meconium (a tarry black substance made of swallowed amniotic fluid, digestive secretion, and dead cells), which will fill the first diaper after birth. Ahh, something to look forward to! And, since baby is a girl, her womb is now stocked up with her lifetime supply of six million eggs (the number will drop around one million by birth.)

Symptoms: Not feeling the round ligament pains anymore. But I think I'd prefer to have that back over the side aches and back pain! I think my abs are starting to separate to make more room for the baby. The ultrasound showed that she weighs 13 oz already, putting her in the 59th percentile.

Sleep: Primarily sleeping on my side these days. And just this past week I've been getting side aches on my right side almost every day, so I've been sleeping on my left side a lot. Sleeping on my back is still comfortable, but Dr. B said to keep that to a minimum if possible.

Total Weight Gain: 14 pounds

Maternity clothes: Found a great pair of black shorts on sale at Motherhood Maternity. They fall just above my knee, so they'll be great to wear at work all summer. Also found a great top at a boutique that isn't maternity, but has a band around the bottom and plenty of room for me to grow!

Best moment this week: Without questions, seeing our baby in the ultrasound and finding out she is a girl! But there have been so many little moments since then that hubby and I have had as the realization sinks in that we are going to have a baby girl soon! His excitement just melts my heart. Last night he told me that he couldn't wait until his little girl runs into daddy's arms.

Movement: She still has a great deal of room in the womb, and I've certainly been feeling the result of all the space she has for gymnastics practice!

Food cravings: No earth-stopping-gotta-have-it-know cravings. But definitely still craving sweets more ... I definitely had a lot of ice cream cones this past weekend!

Gender: Girl!

Labor signs:

What I miss: Buttoning my pants.

What I'm looking forward to: Now that we know we're having a girl, I can't wait to get start on our registry and nursery planning!

Weekly Wisdom (aka what I learned this week): 

Milestones: Ultrasound and finding out that we're having a girl!

Emotions: Overwhelmed at the idea of having a baby girl! Also overwhelmed at the fact that I'm over half way through this pregnancy, and I have SO MUCH planning and preparing left to do!

Read more...

ultrasound

Finally. Finally the day of our ultrasound came! It's hard for me to even find the words to explain. Such a strange and wonderful day.

Hubby and I were both coming from work, so we were in separate vehicles. I arrived first. Hubby was on his way, but had to stop at the mechanics shop because he was having car issues again. He said it would just take a minute and he'd be right there.

No big deal, I needed to get registered first anyway. I was headed to the lab first, and then up to see Dr. B afterward. I wasn't sure whether I should go to the lab right away, in case there was a long wait - or stall a little bit, in case there wasn't a wait at all! I waited in the lobby for five minutes, and then headed in. Hubby still wasn't there.

I sat another five minutes in the waiting room, then they called my name. Crap. I was hoping it would take a while once I got in the room. I always have to sit int he room and wait for Dr. B after talking to the nurse, so I was hoping it would be similar down in the lab. Not the case.

The ultrasound technician brought me right in the room and told me to hop up on the table, no fan fair of any sort. I let her know I was concerned my hubby wouldn't make it on time. I didn't have any idea what to expect; I'd never had ultrasound before! For all I knew it would only take five minutes and hubby would miss the whole thing! She was very sweet and said not to worry - that we'd be in there for a while.

Luckily, just as she got started I got a phone call from hubby that he was walking in. He got there just a few seconds after she started.

Let me just say, ultrasounds.are.amazing! I've seen plenty of ultrasound photos in the past, and I'll be honest, I never really understood what the big deal was. It's just a little blob that kinda looks like it could possibly be a baby, or sometimes even a tadpole!

But when it's your own it's completely different! I suppose it's quite different too since I'm 20 weeks and having my first ultrasound. So MY ultrasound photos actually look like a real little baby!

A real baby that's a GIRL!

That's right. We are going to have a little baby girl!

I was surprised. Hubby not so much, he had a feeling it was going to be a girl. We both secretly wanted a girl ... but both felt like we wanted a boy first. But I guess God had other plans!

Back to the ultrasound, we ended up being in there for 40 minutes! Our little baby girl is a little gymnast! She did not stop moving once the entire time! So the ultrasound tech had a difficult time getting all the photos she needed - the heart and the spine were the hardest. She kept having me roll onto my side, then to my back again, then to my other side - just to try to coerce the little girl to stay in the positions she needed her to.

She did finally get all the shots she needed. And I wasn't complaining one bit because it meant that I got to see my little girl for that much longer! I thought the most amazing thing yet was just feeling her move and kick inside of me. Well I was wrong. It is so much cooler to SEE and FEEL her kick at the same time!

It was such an amazing experience laying on that bed, holding hubby's hand the whole time, and watching our little baby girl kick and squirm around inside of me. Inside of me. Such a strange thing to think about a real live person living inside of me!

After the tech got all the shots she needed, we headed up to see Dr. B. She was running behind schedule, so we ended up waiting 45 minutes to see her! But it was a good appointment, she said everything on the ultrasound looked good! She listened for the heartbeat again with the doppler, 145 bpm. (The ultrasound said it was 158 bpm.) She answered a few questions for me, and then we were off!

Pictures are coming soon!

Read more...

quad marker screen

Yesterday afternoon I got a call from Dr. B's nurse. She said she had a favor to ask me. For a split second I got really nervous. My ultrasound and 20 week OB visit are scheduled for Friday afternoon. Was she going to ask me to postpone my ultrasound? I didn't think I could handle waiting any longer! But I worried for nothing. I was also scheduled to get the quad marker screen blood test on Friday.

The quad test is a voluntary test. It measures for four substances: alpha-fetoprotein, unconjugated estriol, human chorionic gonadotropin, and  inhibin-A. Basically, it's looking for the likelihood of certain birth defects and chromosomal abnormalities, like neural tube defects and Down syndrome. It does not tell you whether your baby has a defect or not, only tells you if there is a greater risk. And it only predicts about 75% of cases. There is also a great chance that the test would tell you there is a risk of a birth defect, and then have a perfectly healthy baby.

I originally didn't think it was necessary. The test isn't 100% accurate, and doesn't really give you any definitive results. If there is something different about our baby it won't change anything for us, since terminating the pregnancy is not an option we would consider. But after talking it over with Dr. B and hubby I changed my mind. She said that if they did find that there was a risk of a major birth defect, they may consider having me deliver at a larger hospital. And as hubby said, why wouldn't we want to find out everything there is to know about our baby? So we scheduled it for this appointment.

The quad test is supposed to be done between 16 and 20 weeks. According to their records, I was 20 weeks yesterday. The nurse said she knew it sounded crazy, that two days probably wouldn't make a difference, but she'd hate to send my blood sample in to Mayo only to have it rejected because it was two days late. So she was simply wondering if I could come in that afternoon to get the blood test done. No problem.

After I got off the phone with her, I called hubby just to let him know what was going on. He was ready to drop everything and meet me there! I assured him that wasn't necessary. I was just going in to give a blood sample and urine sample (they did that at the same time so I didn't have to bother with it on Friday when the lab would be busier.) He wasn't so sure. After telling him a few more times that, really, I was just going to run in there, have a test done and then leave, he finally said ok. Just told me that if I needed him, he'd be there in a heartbeat.

It really was as uneventful as I thought. I went up to see the nurse first. She weighed me, jotted a few things in my records, then sent me down to the lab. Then I left.

It took me a while to get a hold of hubby after I left, and he was going crazy! He wanted to make sure everything was ok. He told me I can't "keep him away from appointments anymore!" Really, how lucky am I to have a hubby that even wants to come with to get a blood sample taken!

It'll take about a week to get the results back. Tomorrow is the ultrasound!

Read more...

wordless wednesday: 20 week bump

I realize now that this shirt doesn't exactly show off the bump very well.

But when you lift up the shirt it's a totally different story! I feel like the bump has really popped recently. I look at my side profile in the mirror and it just seems strange, seeing this bulge sticking out! And look at how much my belly button has popped out! And yes, I finally decided to take out my piercing. Hubby thought it looked weird, since he's never seen me with out it - and it does! Especially with my belly button like it is!

Read more...

20 weeks ... half way!

How far along: 20 weeks - I can't hardly believe that I've made it to the half way mark already. It really seems like just a couple weeks ago that I was sitting in the bathroom looking at the 2 pink lines!

Baby's size: A Cantaloupe

Baby gulps down several ounces of amniotic fluid every day, both for nutrition and to practice swallowing and digesting. And these days, those taste buds actually work! Studies show that after birth, babies respond best to tastes they've already had via amniotic fluid. So I need to start thinking about that when I'm packing my lunch in the morning! If baby is a girl, her uterus is fully formed already and her vaginal canal is starting its development. If baby is a boy, his testicles have begun their descent, though they're still located in the abdomen, waiting for the scrotum to finish growing so they'll have a place to drop into in a few weeks. Either way, we should be able to see the sex of they baby on Friday at our ultrasound!

Symptoms: Not feeling the round ligament pains as much this week, but feeling a different sort of pain up more by my ribs. Definitely getting more back pain too - especially after jet skiing yesterday!

Sleep: Not sleeping on my stomach much anymore, which has been my primary sleeping position my entire life (except for the two months I was in traction and then a cast from breaking my femur when I was 8.) I'm sleeping mostly on my back and side. Not sure if it's ok to sleep on my back, but so far it has been comfortable. Side sleeping is my primary position, which is very comfortable at home with my tempurpedic mattress pad - but anywhere else my arm tends to fall asleep after being in that position for too long!

Total Weight Gain: 13 pounds

Maternity clothes: Finally some success with maternity jeans! After trying on about 20 pairs at Motherhood Maternity, I finally found ONE pair of cropped jeans that not only fit, but look good too! I also got a cute tank that still has a lot of room for me to grown into. (Pictures to come later this week!) My lovely sister-in-law also gave me a couple pairs of regular jeans - that are a couple sizes larger than I normally wear - that she wore while trying to lose the baby weight from her 2 year old. It's nice to button my pants again!

Best moment this week: Hubby felt baby move on Thursday!

Movement: Since the first time last Sunday night, I've been feeling the baby move all week! It is by far the coolest part of pregnancy so far! Nothing compares to it. Nothing. Even better, hubby finally felt the baby move on Thursday evening too!

Food cravings: No specific cravings, but I've been finding myself wanting sweets more. This is strange because I've never had much of a sweet tooth! When I was a kid I used to give up dessert in order to have extra bread at dinner!

Gender: We find out (hopefully) on July 9th! Looks like you guys are with me thinking it's a boy. But team girl is gaining strength! Place YOUR vote in the sidebar! Only three more days until we find out!

Labor signs:

What I miss: Buttoning my pants.

What I'm looking forward to: Finding out if we're having a boy or a girl.

Weekly Wisdom (aka what I learned this week): 

Milestones: Hubby feeling the baby move and making it half way in the pregnancy.

Emotions: I'm loving the 2nd trimester of pregnancy. I feel great, people are starting to notice my growing baby bump, and every week seems to bring something new! There are still so many things to look forward to, but I'm just really enjoying everything as it comes.

Read more...