24 weeks and a belly progression

24 weeks as of yesterday, CRAZY CRAZY stuff! According to crazy pregnancy math I'm 6 months pregnant. A little belly progression...


Month 1 - just found out we were pregnant at the end of the first month... again crazy pregnancy math...

Month 2 - not much to show. Just felt hung over all the time and super tired.

Month 3 - things are starting to shift around a bit.

Month 4 - hello beer gut! Minus the pleasure of drinking all the beer :) But still not too noticeable of a belly in everyday clothes.

Month 5 - hello I'm pregnant!

Month 6 - yep, it's real now! I open doors into this big belly, I haven't adjusted for its size yet!

22 weeks

It's official, we have a stubborn baby that doesn't like to do what the tech would like him to do! I wonder where he gets that from...... :) Anyway, today was our 22 week appointment - which included the rest of our anatomy scan. During our initial anatomy scan (done just before I was 17 weeks) Carter wouldn't face forward so the tech couldn't get a picture of his face. Today the little bugger did the same thing. He was either facing my back or laying on his belly face down. The tech had me rolling around on the table and she was pressing pretty hard with the ultrasound wand trying to get him to flip over and show us his face! Finally, quite some time later, we got a very very very brief view of his face.

Remember this really nice profile picture that we got during our 12 week ultrasound?

Now we get pictures mostly like this - little bugger :) What are we even looking at here?! I have no idea.

We did get a few decent pictures:

He had one of his arms up and we saw him moving his little hand around and punching. So cute to be able to see that. Here's the hand

His heart rate was 158 and they said everything looked good! He now weights about 1.5 lbs. Him facing my back a lot does explain the randomness in the kicks I'm feeling.

Speaking of kicks Joe tried to feel him kicking this weekend. He's a pretty sporadic kicker so you have to be pretty patient to feel him kick. While Joe was waiting to feel him kick, I felt a few pretty good kicks but Joe couldn't feel it from the outside yet. Maybe next weekend.

My next appointment will be in December and during that appointment I will have the glucose test done. I get to drink some yucky orange drink and then wait an hour to have my blood drawn. That will be my last appointment at my Gilbert doctors. Then, in January, I'll start seeing the Flagstaff doctors. At that time I will be 30 weeks. 3. 0. Three. Zero. 30! 30 plus 10 equals 40 which is full term! How did I get so close so fast????

PS Can you tell I'm really excited about my rocker/recliner? A whole entire blog post dedicated to recliners - with tons of pictures.

What will Carter look like???

Have you seen that movie How To Loose A Guy In 10 Days? In that movie the girl takes her photo and a photo of the guy she just started dating and uses some technology to see what their babies would look like. So I googled what will our baby look like and here are the results


this one is creepy!






at least this one looks like a baby

Rocker Recliner

We have been having the rocker debate for some time now. We were originally going to buy one of the really ugly and extremely expensive Dutailer Gliders - similar to this one:

Then we decided we were CRAZY to spend that much money on an ugly glider. It was comfy but not super comfy and neither of us were crazy on how it looked.

Then we looked at this rocker at Babies R Us:

It was comfy and much more reasonable as far as price was concerned. Only negatives where that it didn't recline and the back of the chair didn't go up super high so we couldn't rest our heads on it very comfortably. Joe thought it was ugly, I thought it was cute.

We debated going to JC Penny to look (I had heard they had good chairs) but we were so sick of looking at chairs we decided not to. We were about to purchase the chair at Babies R Us but then Joe received a JC Penny coupon and suggested that we might as well go check out what JC Penny had to offer. Which is exactly what we did today.

We originally fell in LOVE with these chairs.

If we had a media room I know we would be the very proud owners of two of these chairs. Seriously the most comfortable chair I've ever sat in in my life time. But they aren't practical for a baby and are spendy.

Once we finally got our butts out of the movie style chairs we tested out others and really liked this one (but in a nice dark brown color). But it too was pretty spendy.

Then we saw this one - much more affordable and still pretty comfy but definitely not a looker as far as chairs are concerned.

We decided to go grab some lunch and think about it. When we went back to the store we sat in this one again - which I didn't like originally because of the stitching on the arms. It reminded me of the Michillen mans legs.

It was comfy but I wasn't thrilled with the arms, but Joe pointed out that the fabric was identical to the couches in our front room. (obviously the chair in the picture isn't like our couches but you get the idea of the style) When we saw the price tag on this chair my opinion of the chair changed dramatically. It was super comfy and did match our couches and it was a good price - not cheap but not super spendy either. So we went ahead and purchased this chair.

Fast forward a few hours and we're home and I'm going online to look at our chair purchase - I was very excited about this chair and thrilled with the deal that we got and wanted to send our chair to my parents and post it here on the blog. I was very impressed with our purchase! So I'm looking online and I notice that the chair we ruled out because of price was the SAME price as the chair we just purchased. (not the movie chairs, but the rocker/recliner we loved but was spendy) I called the store and spoke to the woman who helped us and walllaahh we got our number 1 choice chair for 200 under the store price tag! We are now the proud owners of this chair - to be delivered next Wednesday - but in a dark chocolate brown color. I cannot wait to get it!

Or so I've been told...

.... that I have popped. Girls at the hotel told me today "You can tell you're pregnant now! You've popped. Last week we couldn't really tell, now we can!"

I agree that my belly is definitely bigger this week. It feels bigger and fuller. I swear I could have a 10 lb baby in there right now with how my belly feels. You know after you eat way too much food and your belly feels SOOOO full? I feel like that. And I swear my belly gets bigger as the day progresses. I don't know why or how but I've heard other preggo people say the same thing, so I guess I'm not totally off my rocker. I'm a little alarmed at how huge I feel. I know it's only going to get worse/bigger!

One other thing to note, my cravings have changed... and not in a good way! I used to crave fruit and string cheese and healthy cereal. The past two weeks I've craved powdered donuts and cupcakes. I don't even really like cupcakes. Anyway, I ate my share of them and now I'm done with it. I'm back to fruit and healthy stuff again.

Here's a belly pic - taken at night/at its biggest. (if you're curious about the arm weight in front of the door - that is so Kody stops shutting herself in the bedroom - that girl has an obsession with shutting doors. Also I don't think my butt is really that big, the shadow makes it look bigger)

1 year!

One year ago today we were married and had the most awesome wedding ever! From start to finish it was exactly what we envisioned when we pictured our wedding. If I could do it all over again I would and I wouldn't change a thing.

bare feet, in the ocean, and just married!

Then we went and "trashed the dress" Something so many people didn't understand at the time... but I think they do now.

I love this one - it's perfect. The two of us relaxed and looking out at our future.

bedding & furniture

We had a pretty productive baby day on Saturday. We finally decided on crib bedding (yeay!) and we went out to order our crib and dresser. We expected to wait for the furniture to come in but someone ordered exactly what we wanted and then picked it up at a different store so they had both the crib and dresser in stock!

We set them up in our 3rd bedroom - the bedroom we planned to use for Carter before we found out we were moving. Our 3rd bedroom isn't that large - the crib and dresser do a pretty good job of filling most of the room up. It will be nice in Flagstaff because the bedrooms are a lot larger.

I'm in love with the zoo animals bedding! It's so soft and cozy and has a lot of different textures and the colors are so great. Plus it has lots of cute room accessories - little nightlight, wall hangings, lamps, stuffed tigers, etc. So cute!

Some pictures:

drum roll please....

It's a boy!!! Carter David Troness - we're pretty set on that name so unless he comes out looking like a Jim Bob I think it's safe to say his name will be Carter David.

My next appt is November 16th. This will be my last appointment with my Gilbert doctors :( I am sad to be leaving them as I really love my doctors office. At least my last appointment with them will have another ultra sound on their cool huge plasma tv. (Carter was too small when they did the original anatomy scan so they will finish it at my next appointment) I have gotten pretty spoiled with ultra sounds at every appointment and am glad that the rest of the anatomy scan will be done in Gilbert where we can watch it on the big screen. Plus I'll be 22 weeks at that time - WOW time flies! - so Carter should look totally different by then!

In other news I felt Carter kick for the first time last night! I was laying in bed reading and all of a sudden felt this thud from the inside. It totally startled me! So far I haven't felt anything that I could for sure say was him moving around. But last night there was no mistaking this - it was for sure a kick. Happened again about 20 minutes later on the other side. Very cool!

So far this pregnancy has been so easy that most of the time I totally forget I'm pregnant. (Although not so much when I was the only sober person at the wedding the other weekend!) Feeling the kick last night was the biggest thing for me so far - bigger than seeing and hearing the heartbeat, bigger than seeing him during the ultrasound. All of that seemed so unreal. But feeling the thud... indescribable. I think it might have finally set in that I am, in fact, pregnant :)

Oct 9th Ultrasound

All looked good! They couldn't complete the anatomy scan though because the baby was too small. I'll go back in in a monthish for another ultrasound so they can finish the anatomy scan. Dr said that will probably be my last ultrasound :(

Anyway, during today's ultra sound the tech started off by looking at the brain. She spent a decent amount of time looking at the baby's head and it didn't seem to be moving and I started getting a little concerned. Thank god the next thing she did was measure the heartbeat. There was a sigh of relief when I heard/saw the heart beating. Baby's heart rate was 146. Which according to babybpm is:

This was the first ultrasound where we could actually see the baby moving around - kicking it's little legs, squirming around, etc. It was so cool, but so weird because I can see it moving on the screen but can't feel it. (They asked if I'd felt the baby move yet.... I don't think so. Apparently it feels like butterflies in your stomach. Psh whatever that means!)

Flagstaff

This is the house we will be living in in Flagstaff....given the owner approves our rental application!

The neighborhood is awesome with lots of younger families. Only downsides to this house are the crazy steep driveway and the master bedroom is on the main floor. But given our rental options in Flagstaff this place is a castle. Other rental options were DUMPY, DUMPY, DUMPY. If we had known about the project a few months ago we would have had more options, but the construction industry doesn't follow the easy path it seems :)

growing

Holy smokes. Over night I feel like my belly has grown huge! I was getting ready to take Kody for a walk this morning and I did a double take in the bathroom mirror. Check it out.

5 weeks and then today 14 weeks 3 days

But what's funny is my belly doesn't look as big in my work clothes... although the girls at work that know made a comment today that they are starting to be able to tell.

Melt my heart

Tonight, after work, Joe and I talked about going out to get happy hour appetizers. So we decide on Applebee's and I get ready to go - grab my purse and get my flip flops. But before we leave Joe keeps insisting that I go over by him, by the fridge.

I walk over there and see:

He typed up and printed out our top names and put them up by our most recent ultra sound picture. A part of my heart melted. Even though he may not always have the right things to say and he may not always pick up after himself there are the times like this that I am reminded what a wonderful and sweet person he is (and why I married him!) and what a wonderful dad I think he's going to be.

Baby BMP Update

The nurse called me yesterday to tell me the heartrate from our ultra sound. She calls and says "so you called to get the heartrate from your ultrasound and I'm calling you back with the answer" Me, laughing "yes I did call just to get the heartrate" Nurse "haa, it's ok! Are you doing a study?" Me "Nope, just wanted to know so I can write it in my pregnancy book" While I was thinking and check baby bmp to get a gender guess, just for fun!

Anyway here are the results.

I guess we can safely say we have a 100% chance of having a girl OR a boy!

NT Scan

The blob no longer looks like a blob! It's crazy how much can change in 4 short weeks. We had the NT scan done today - test for trisomys and downs. The DR said that everything looked great from the ultra sound and that it would take a week or so to get my blood results back.

I am 12 weeks 5 days today, but the baby measured slightly ahead at 13 weeks 2 days. Joe then asks the DR if this is bad and if I'm growing a 12lb baby. Next time I'll leave Joe at home!

Now we need a new nickname for this baby.... since it actually looks like a baby now!

And a video of the heartbeat - sorry for the shakiness.... Joe really needs to learn how to use the camera! I missed when she told us what the heartbeat was... so I called to find out but haven't heard yet.

Next appointment is at 17 weeks... and they are hopeful we will be able to tell if it's a boy or a girl at that time! I have a feeling this pregnancy is going to fly by. Already 12 weeks and finding out the gender next month! Geesh!

I'll leave with a funny story. While I haven't gained weight I can definitely tell a difference in my stomach area - especially from a side view. The other night I complained to Joe that I just look like my belly is getting really fat. What does Joe say "ehh, what can you do" Thanks husband. Which is better than suggesting I wear a tent I guess :)

PS I can go back to eating sandwiches! This is great news since sandwiches were my lunch staple.

Misc.

We scheduled our NT Scan (for genetic disorders, downs, trisomy, etc.) for Sept 11 at 1:50pm. We debated doing this scan, but our insurance covers it so we figured why not!

Also someone pointed me to this website that takes the baby's heartbeat and predicts the gender.....

First Ultrasound

Saw our little blob today! Measuring 8weeks 3days, which is basically right on track with our estimated due date. The new due date is March 21, 2010. The heartbeat was 176.

Here is our blob - we're going to have to come up with a better name than blob :) We've been calling it the blueberry lately (it was the size of a blueberry, hence the name)

The picture isn't the best - I forgot the camera, so this is a picture of the tiny print out they gave us. Joe has a video of the heartbeat on his phone. Next time I'll bring the camera so the pictures will be better and we can get video too!