26 and counting

when i jumped on the scale at the doctors office and saw i had gained 10 lbs since my last visit, i couldn't believe it... someone should have just shown me this picture! i feel like every morning that i wake up i have grown a little more.

new doctor:

on tuesday, we met with our new doc here in morgantown. we really liked her. her office is attached to where david works, so i think this will be a great benefit for us. it will be so much easier for us to both be at all of the appointments, as i start going to the doc every 2 weeks now. on Wednesday i met david for lunch before our appt in the infamous hospital cafeteria that i've heard so much about. all i can say is no wonder he eats whatever i cook at home : )

i liked the staff and doctor of our new place. she spent time to get to know us personally--why we were in wv, where we were from, how i was feeling, etc. I have been very sore the past couple weeks where my legs meet my belly. often it will hurt to just to stand, walk up stairs, or even lie in bed. so this was the main thing i wanted to talk with her about. the good news is that its "normal" and nothing to be concerned about. the bad news is it will go away, but not until after delivery : ( oh well, my little baby boy is totally worth it.

food and cravings:

it has definitely started. a few weeks ago, i was just hungry all the time. now i'm hungry all the time for SPECIFIC foods. david is awesome. the other night i asked him to bring home either oranges or grapes for me to snack on. he came home with blackberries, oranges, bananas, apples, strawberries, grapes, and fruit dip to dip it in. ha! i made a huge plate and ate it all. this boy loves fruit!!!!

birthing plan:

the planner in me is coming out. i researched online how to make a birthing plan and found good information and templates. we are going to sit down and do this before our next doc visit and go over it with her in details. i'm not going to be an anal or difficult patient, but i do want to try to have a plan and try to stick with it if possible.

here's the link for my preggie friends: http://www.babycenter.com/calculators-birthplan

etc:

nursery furniture is on its way. my mom is coming down in a few weeks to start painting. my patient and more baby knowledgeable sisters susan and julie were nice enough to go with me to register (the right way) so we can now check that off the to-do list. baby boy is moving like crazy all the time. he's a kicker, but i love him.

we can't wait to meet him!!!!!

24 week update

every day i feel more and more pregnant. at the end of this month, i will be in my 3rd trimester which is hard to believe!

my appetite is picking up tremendously. i mean, seriously, there have been a few days where i eat maybe 12 times a day. its usually healthy stuff... fruit, granola bars, oatmeal, etc... but it is all the time!! no more giving david my leftovers at dinner. momma eats it all!

i am in maternity clothes mostly, unless im wearing extra large pjs or something lose. i was having trouble finding maternity clothes so i ordered some online from gap and old navy. i was skeptical, b/c obviously you cant see it or try anything on first and you could only return by mail. but i was happy with almost everything i purchased. i recommend this to other pregnant people... shipping was very inexpensive and there was a lot on sale.

we have found a doc here in morgantown. our first appt with her is in a few weeks on the 26th. with her as our doctor, we will be delivering at ruby memorial (there's only one other hospital choice here!) we have heard good things about both hospitals so we feel comfortable with our decision.

names..... oh geez!! we discussed how nice it would be if the kid came with a name the same way it comes with a sex. "Surprise! You're having a... Billy!" But that is not how it works. David and I have been through this baby name book about a hundred times. David finally had the idea that he create a top ten list, I create a top ten list and we work from there. we have narrowed it down to 5 names. David said I could chose from there and he'd be happy with any of them. But I keep changing my mind!!

the baby loves to move! i feel him all the time. even when i'm trying to fall asleep : ) david can finally feel him too, so that is pretty cool. he is an active little boy.

we tried to register, but we didn't really know what we were doing!! it was overwhelming to say the least. i mean, i knew we would need a little kid's potty, but then you go to register for one and there are like 5 to chose from! What's the difference?! we don't know these things, so i've decided i'm going to go back with grandma cathy and let her help :)

we are traveling this weekend to a wedding. i will post some pics from it when we get back.

this blog could now be titled, "mommy's lil baby BOY blog." we are excited to have found out that we are having a precious little baby boy!! i am so relieved to know the sex. not only can i now plan better--thinking of names, planning for the nursery, shopping, etc--but i also feel more emotionally connected to the baby now that it is no longer an "it" but can be imagined as a little boy!

kind of a big deal...

so we kind of went over board in making the sex unveiling a really big deal. but it was fun! david and i took a trip to louisville for the doctor's appointment last week. david took his first two days of vacation since he started in june... so that itself was a treat. our trip to louisville was fun, but busy. there were lots of people we wanted to see and were thrilled to be able to do so!

after a weekend of anticipation, we went to the doctor on monday for the big ultrasound. we immediately told the ultrasound tech that we did want to know the sex, but not right away. we asked her to write down the baby's sex on a post it and put it in an envelope so we could open it later. lots of people apparently do this, so the u/s tech was familiar with the process.

we wanted to see the baby during the u/s though, and we were able to do so. omg, it was absolutely amazing!! it was so much different than seeing the baby at the last u/s at 8 weeks. at that point, we couldn't see much, but this time our baby was SO developed. it was incredible!

the first thing i saw on the ultrasound was his feet. i teared up. i mean, they were like REAL baby feet!! it looked just like a human foot, only tiny. i couldn't believe it. then we got to see how our baby is developing. we identified two kidneys, two arms, two legs, and a four chambered heart. it was so amazing! we also saw his spine. it's incredible how you can see bones. we were relieved and ecstatic to hear and see that he was healthy!! he was moving around and kicking a lot!

once the u/s tech was ready to identify the sex, she told us we might want to look away from the screen, which we did. neither one of us cheated or peeked!! david then asked her, "can you tell what it is?" and she said, "Yep, I got it." she then took some great pictures, put the sex in an envelope and let us meet with the doctor.

the big announcement...

my mom made a special dinner that night, and with our family, we opened the envelope and discovered the sex. the post it said "congrats! it's a boy!" and the ultrasound picture gave such evidence~~ i don't think either one of us were too surprised it was a boy. david is thrilled!!

my family made both pink and blue desserts and of course, the boy treats were served. it was a great night! after dinner, we drove from louisville to david's parents house to share the news with them. we talked about names in the car, but we still are not having much luck in that area : )

our favorite ultrasound pictures...

his profile...

his ADORABLE foot!!



one of his hands!!

planning...

i've now started to think about the nursery decor. we should be ordering nursery furniture this week, which is exciting! im trying not to go overboard with it, but its hard to do :) i told david that the baby's nursery is very important to its development!! i think a well designed nursery makes the baby feel loved and secured, and that's the best learning environment :) in other words, how cute the room is matters! im planning on grandma cathy and papa gary to come in town and help.

thanks to everyone for their excitement and congratulations. we are very excited to see that our baby is a boy and more importantly, HEALTHY!!

yay for half way!

whew. today i am officially half way!! the past 20 weeks have been quite the journey and i can only imagine what the next 20 will be like. in some ways i feel like i've been pregnant for a lot longer, and other days i feel like it was just yesterday we found out the news. 20 more weeks seems like a long way to go until we get to meet our precious little baby!!

i've enjoyed being pregnant, but what i will really enjoy is being a mom. i'm already getting impatient for that time! it is a very special feeling to have a human growing inside you. it's amazing how the body provides the baby and the mother everything they need naturally. it's really a miracle. but it still doesn't seem to compare to what comes after the pregnancy... meeting the baby, holding it, playing with it, and watching it grow (outside my belly!)

enough with the "its"!!

i am tired of calling our baby it. we cannot wait to find out the gender and give "it" a name. david and i will be making a trip to louisville next week for a doctor's appointment where we will receive such news. i did have a dream that it was a girl. if it is a boy we have a lot of work to do to come up with a name. i mean... a lot of work! (suggestions welcome!)

the search for day care:

at the advice of some of the mommies in my yoga class, i decided we better plan ahead and get on some waiting list for day cares. apparently, waiting until you are 20 weeks pregnant to get on waiting lists is NOT planning ahead! for part time care, here in lil ol morgantown, wv, we were told the waiting list was 1 to 1.5 years. geez!

there is a great day care which is actually attached to the hospital. this excited me! it made me feel good to know that daddy would just be around the corner if our little one needed anything. so, we went to go view it. as i stood outside of the day care center waiting on david to meet me, i started tearing up just thinking about leaving our baby with anyone but me. i don't want the baby to be in day care all day every day, but i also want it to get the social benefits of interacting with other kids and people besides me and david. so we are hoping to do some kind of part time day care 2 days a week or so. many of these placess don't have part time day care though, so we are not sure what our plan will be. im just praying and trusting that, like always, God will take care of me and figure it out : )

etc...

we are still enjoying morgantown. i joined a mom's group and met some really nice people that way. david and i went to our first WVU game (see evidence below.) it was a perfect day for football. however, we were a little disappointed by how tame the WVU fans were! we saw no burning couches or no one get arrested : ( not what i expected.

my mom came in town and we started painting the house. we finished a few rooms but still have a lot more to do. pictures to come soon!

i will post again as soon as we know the gender. 10 more days!

Prenatal Yoga

Ohmygosh, every pregnant woman should consider prenatal yoga. i went to my first class last night and i loved it! if they offered the class on a daily basis, i would go every day.

i did some yoga before i was pregnant but hadn't done it in awhile. prenatal yoga is the perfect exercise for preggies. class was an hour and a half long and ended with meditation. it is supposed to prepare you for childbirth by teaching calming and breathing techniques and also by strengthening your mind and body for delivery. the class also teaches certain posses and stretches that help throughout the pregnancy and even on to motherhood.

the instructor was from france and had a neat accent. the best part is the camaraderie of the group. it was great being with other pregnant women who are experiencing the same thing as me. it was a neat bonding experience with the baby too.

they also offer partner yoga (yeah, i'll have to run that one by david) where they teach the partner how to help the mom during delivery. 6 weeks before your due date they offer Birthing Bootcamp. that one sounds scary, so we'll see : ) after the baby is born they offer a class called "mommy and me baby yoga" which sounds fun!

i recommend it to all the pregnant ladies...worth a try! i was skeptical because it is somewhat an expensive hobby but it was entirely worth the cost. looking forward to my next class!

bumpity bump

not much of a bump, but at 16 weeks we can now see that our little one is making itself at home in my belly! every day it is growing rapidly and--according to my baby books--is now about the size of an avacado (yum, that sounds good!!)

i'm still in my normal clothes, but the more loose fitting ones. soon enough it will be time to pull out the maternity clothes :(

another doc appt, another good report:

i drove in this past week from WV to KY for another doctor's appointment. david couldn't make it with his work schedule, but the appointment was fast and routine. the doctor was having trouble finding a heartbeat at first because the baby would NOT stay still!! it was moving around like crazy. we heard the heartbeat for a few seconds, then lost it again as the baby kept moving. the doc said this is very normal at this age because the baby is still so small relative to the space it has to "play" in. Although it's moving around, i can't feel it moving yet. That should be in the next few weeks.

It's a boy!

Ok, i'm lying, we don't know what it is yet. But after my doctors appt i told david i would text him while he was at work to let him know how it went. i decided to tease him and tell him we found out the sex and that it was a boy. that was one of the first times he has ever called me during the middle of the day while at work! that got his attention. it was a mean trick.

at our next appt, we will find out the sex. i am starting to get very anxious! originally, i wanted to wait until the baby was born, but now i can hardly wait three weeks. we are not sure if this appt will be in WV or KY yet, but either way we will schedule it so we can both be at the appointment. since it is like, the most common question at this stage of pregnancy, i will go ahead and answer that david wants a boy and i want a girl... shocker. of course, we will be happy no matter what. i think its natural that you want your own sex for the first kid because it's what you are most familiar with.

other news:

our house is coming together a little more each day. there are still things we need...like....a couch to sit on... but we are getting there a little at a time. ill try to post some pictures soon. we are both enjoying morgantown. we have already met some really great people to hang out with. we are looking forward to trying to get to a football game or two this fall!

movin' on up...

This (long) week, i made the (tiring) move to West Virginia. David and i are excited to finally be in the same place again!

pregnancy and packing:

i was definitely "that girl" when it came to packing up my apartment for the big move. my poor parents boxed, cleaned and moved while i sat helplessly watching. i hated not being able to help with my own move. i tried to carry blankets and pillows to the car but my dad said "absolutely not! put them down, i'll get them." i wasnt even allowed to carry pillows. the purse i carry each day is heavier than that. but papa gary is too nice. my mom gave me the "special job" of labeling boxes. that's about all i was good for. at first it was fun, but toward the end i started getting annoyed...see exhibit 1 below :)



hormones and professional movers:

i hired movers to load my stuff from the apartment to the moving van. they were paid by the hour and working like it!!! i could hardly stand there and watch a grown, strong man carry one, light box down at a time. my parents told me to chill, but it was driving me crazy. i proceeded to watch them take a smoke break which i "refused to pay for." i might have over reacted a little, but im blaming it on the hormones.

its my party, and ill cry if i want to:

on thursday, i had a nice dinner with my high school friends to say goodbye. i was a good girl and didnt cry! then on friday my mom had a cookout for me, my family, and a few friends (see exhibit 2.) it was a nice way to say goodbye. i didnt cry at all until i said goodbye to baby jack and baby reese. i'm going to miss seeing them grow up each day!!





to wv:

my (favorite) brother in law (for the day) took a "road trip" with my dad and drove the Penske truck to WV. i was so appreciative of his help. david was working so it was just john, my dad, my mom and me to unload. since then i have been organizing and cleaning one box at a time. this place is a wreck, so no pictures to post yet!

the new place:

david and i love our new home!! from our bedroom, we have a very beautiful and mountainess (word?) view of west virginia. for the first few days we had no hot water... it was awful taking cold, cold showers!! david handled it better than me and i eventually went the avoidance route. we probably smelled.

baby news:

once again, its crazy how your mindset changes once a baby is on the way! so many of the decisions we are making with the house have to do with the baby-- already thinking of play rooms, nursery, safety issues, etc. Right now the nursery is purple (yuck) but we will change it as soon as we find out if it's a Phoebe or Phoebo.

jobs:

for now, i am working from home and i am enjoying it so far. it's allowing me to do other things around the house we need to get done. it will be even nicer when i'm too fat to move. david is on his second month of trauma. its been tough. next month he does radiology, and we are hoping his schedule will be a little easier.

visitors:

we welcome any and all visitors!! we have a guest bedroom and i make great chocolate chip pancakes!!