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!!

we got an A+ at the doctor today!

today was doctor appointment number two for me and baby and we got a great report!! (i love getting A's!!)


i am still six pounds under my pre pregnancy weight but the nurse said that was okay. she also said next time i will probably NOT be underweight...i believe her :) the weight loss is completely attributable to my healthier eating choices. it's amazing how you'll change your whole diet once someone else is relying on you for everything. my fast food days are dying down (sad) because of the little voice in my head that feels guilty feeding my child mcnuggets. its one thing to put whatever i want in my own body, its another to put it in our baby's. however, i have definitely still enjoyed a few bad treats. for instance, natalie just TWISTED my arm one day and FORCED me to eat skyline : ) my dad suggested the 80/20 diet meaning that if i try my best to eat well 80% of the time, i can fill a sugar craving every now and then guilt free.

im hoping my healthier choices will stay with me after the baby is born. i'm sure they will for the time i am breastfeeding, but it will be up to me after that.

the appointment today was very fast. i heard the heartbeat for a few seconds, which was so cute! when i got to the office, a nurse mistakenly told me i would have an ultrasound. so i got my hopes up and was looking forward to seeing our baby, which did not happen. but the heartbeat was comforting enough.

the doctor also asked if we wanted to do any of the pre-screening tests. we opted out of both, knowing that we wouldn't want to change anything about the pregnancy regardless of any test results. it is pretty neat though that technology and medicine have advanced that far.

mommy and baby are happy we received a good report today!! next check up is 4 weeks away.

my visit to morgantown!

this week i went to morgantown to visit david and go on a few interviews. pregnancy and airline travel do not mix : ( pittsburgh airport was like, the most amazing airport i have seen. if you ever have to be stuck at any airport, this is the one you want to be stuck at! it was more like a huge mall that just so happens to have an airport on the side.

we were lucky that david got off work early on monday so we spent the afternoon together. tuesday i had my first interview at a local bank. while i was downtown for the interview i checked out downtown morgantown and was surprisingly impressed. lots of stores, restaurants, and lots of people populating the area. it was much larger than i thought. i also had an interview in pennsylvania and made the drive up there. i accidently found the outlet mall on the way home!! :)

wednesday david was on a call so i entertained myself for the day. his place was messy (silly boy!!) so i spent some time helping out a poor soul and cleaned the place for him. i also met with the realtor, who was awesome and showed me a lot of great places. we are hoping to find and settle in a place a few months before the baby comes.

thursday i had another interview. that night david and i went out to eat with some of his collegues...all very, very nice people.

david's schedule was changed in the middle of the week and he ended up having friday off. so we spent the day and visited pittsburgh. it's a great city!! pittsburgh is on three connecting rivers and downtown kind of makes a triangle.

we really enjoyed spending the week together and were sad to see it end. david has been working so hard and being down there i formed a new appreciation for how hard it really is on him. when he would come home from the hospital his eyes were just blood shot red from being so tired. but he has a great attitude about it and is learning a lot. we are hoping it gets a little easier with time.

the rest of this month i will be packing up my stuff and will be making the move in august!

other pregnancy stuff:

i am just now starting to have a little belly, though i'm still a few pounds down from my pre-pregnancy weight. i am attributing this to the healthier foods and proportions i've been trying to eat.

dr. rubin gave me the best advice ever: she said if my vitamins were making me feel bad I could substitute them for a bowl of total cereal each morning. i've been doing that and already feel better! she also suggested to put lemon slices in my water to encourage me to drink more, which has also worked. i love dr. rubin's advice so far!! :) she is also sending down maternity clothes, which i'll be wearing before i know it!

with each day we are getting more and more excited!! i am starting to feel like myself again with more energy and less i'm-on-a-boat kind of feeling. tomorrow we have another doctor's appointment. i'm anxious to hear our progress!