22 Weeks and counting

Hello Baby Girl!  It is now July 8, and we only have about 4 months until we meet you!  Your daddy and I went and picked up your crib yesterday, decided on your stroller, and are now wrapping our heads around the biggest task we face this month. . . . registering for all of your baby needs.  But this entire process just makes us more and more excited because it means we are getting closer and closer to holding you in our arms!  Your Nana and Auntie Sara came and helped me at Storkland the other day to start narrowing down some of the bigger items we will need for you.  I just can't wait for you to meet all of the people who already love you :).

You have been moving around like cRaZy lately!  It is so fun to be able to feel you kicking (or I guess you could be punching, too :) from the outside as well as the inside.  You are quite the little mover.  Your daddy thinks he might have felt you on the 4th of July, while we were laying in bed after an entire day of celebrating!  But you seem to get a little shy once he places his hand on my belly to feel you, so he is antsy to be able to feel you consistently.  I have a feeling it won't be much longer.  Last night, Sara and I went to see Spiderman and I got a white cherry Icee.  You LOVED it.  You were bouncing all over the place in my belly!  It made me giggle throughout the entire movie.  I don't know that you loved the fireworks, though, earlier this week.  On July 3rd, we went out to Lake Hiwassee to the Schnebel's lake house.  The entire lake is pretty small, and every 4th of a July it is like they have a competition to see who shoots off the most fireworks.  We were posted up on the Schnebel's dock, which was out over the water, and there were people shooting off HUGE fireworks all around us, even right over our heads!  Then, out of nowhere, Bailey's husband, Jacob, started shooting fireworks off of the dock we were sitting on!!! The sound was incredible, I thought your Nana was going to have a nervous breakdown (you will learn that even though she loves America, she is not a fan of fireworks :).  I just kept laughing, partly at your Nana and partly because it scared me every time a huge 'BOOM' would go off.  But you, lady baby, did not seem to be a fan of loud noises, you did not kick the entire time we were there out on that dock with explosives going off all around us!  I guess we will see if that is true next summer ;).

 21 weeks

22 weeks 1 day

Willow, 20 weeks

Baby Love, I forgot to tell you about our new addition to the family that you're going to fall in love with!  Her name is Willow, and right now she is a 10 week old Goldendoodle puppy.  Your daddy has always wanted a big, sweet dog that he could take to the river to go fishing with him.  Before we knew you were on the way, we decided back in January that maybe now was a good time to take the plunge and reserve his dream dog.  And then, at the beginning of March, we found out you were on the way!  We brought home Willow on June 5th.  Although it has been a little bit of a struggle being pregnant with you in the summer heat and having a VERY active puppy to raise, we are hoping that she ends up being your best friend.  Blaise, our other dog, is not the most social little dog, so we have our fingers crossed that Willow will be your go to cuddle buddy :).  Here are some pictures of her over the past month.

The day we met Willow

The day we brought Willow home!

Laying in our backyard.

Willow, 10 weeks old

 20 weeks 1 day

Welllllllll, who is in there???

Drumroll. . . . . . . . . Yooooou are a . . . . . . . . . . .






GIRL!!!!!!
100% a girl, and we are so so excited! We had our ultrasound with the Stork Vision lady, so we got to see lots of angles/views of your teensy, perfect body. Before this appointment, I decided to drink a glass of orange juice, and it got you moving and bouncing around in my belly! You still had your feet crossed at the ankle, but we definitely saw the three lines that mean you are a girl. We also saw that your second toe is longer than your big toe, we saw the chambers of your heart, your perfect hands and long sweet fingers, your stomach, your cute belly and round little bottom . It was just so surreal, now know that you are a girl. This little tiny being I've been carrying the past 4 1/2 months is going to be our sweet baby girl. And we can't wait. Now, the challenge is going to be compromising on your name :). Daddy has his favorite and I have mine. We will see what we ultimately decide on. Until next time, my Baby Love.

17 Weeks

18 Weeks

16 weeks, boy or girl??

Well I actually should have posted this last Tuesday, May 22nd, but the last week of school was so crazy I never got around to it. But, 1 week late is better than never, right?
We went to our appointment last week, and as Dr. Strebel was nearing the end of all of her main questions, she turned and asked us if we wanted to find out your gender. We both said, "yes!" very quickly, without hesitation :). She told us that since we were the only patients there that she thought the room was open and that we could go ahead and take a peak to see if we could figure anything out! We headed down the hall and I got all situated on the bed. This time when we saw you on the screen, you weren't moving and bouncing about like last time, I'm pretty sure you were sleeping! You had your right arm tucked up by your head and your tiny feetsies were crossed pretty tightly (ironically, this is how your mama sleeps too :). Dr. Strebel started pushing up and down on my belly to see if she could get you to move, but you were pretty stubborn on your chosen position (looks like you may have gotten daddy's hard headed ness :). We couldn't get a great shot of the determining factor, but Dr. Strebel told us she could tell us what she thought you are. . . . A GIRL! She would only give us a 70% positivity rating, and told us not to buy anything just yet, but that was her official guess. I had to just take her word because I couldn't really tell what was what this time in the pictures haha. We go back Tuesday, June 12th to confirm yay or nay. We are just so excited that you were healthy and that we are one step closer to finding out who has been rolling around in my belly these past 4 months. Exciting exciting :)

16 Weeks 1 Day

15 weeks

I have been m.i.a. the past 3 weeks, I've been super busy but school is almost out (baby love, did you know I taught Middle School Special Ed? But I am not going back in the fall so that I can stay at home with you. . . One adventure to the next!) only 4 more days!
You have definitely gotten bigger, I read yesterday that you are now 4 inches long, the size of a navel orange. I've been feeling you every now and then over the past few weeks. On April 28th (1 day before my 26th birthday) I felt tiny baby flutters while laying in bed (felt like popcorn) and then on May 12th (1day before Daddy's birthday and Mother's day) I was sitting on the couch waiting for Sara and Laci to come over, and I felt 2 sudden kicks/movements down low! It surprised me so much that I yelped out loud (not because it hurt, but it is a very strange feeling at first to know someone is in there moving around!). I've noticed that whenever I eat pretty spicy things, that's when I feel you the most right now. Your Daddy is getting very impatient and is ready to be able to feel your kicks too :).
Today is Friday, May 18th, and on Tuesday, May 22nd (our 2nd wedding anniversary) we go back to the doctor and could possible find out who you are in there! I am hoping you are going to be in the right spot so we can tell if you or a boy or a girl. Your Daddy and I still don't have any guesses, but the growing consensus seems to be that you're a girl! We will just have to wait and see :)

12 Weeks 3 days

13 Weeks 5 days

15 Weeks

Dear Little Love

Well, Little Love, we had our 3rd ultrasound yesterday, April 26th.  I think your Daddy and I would both say that it was our most favorite ultrasound to date :).  When we got to Dr. Strebel's office, we checked in and we were taken to a lady's office where we ran through our family history.  Then we were escorted to the ultrasound room.

Both Dr. Strebel and her nurse came in, and first used a Doppler to try and find your heartbeat.  She had to press pretty hard on my belly to find anything, because as she said, you are a "little fish in a big pond" right now :).  Also, it took awhile to find your heartbeat because you were so busy moving and wriggling around in there!  We kept hearing swishes and my heartbeat, but the few times you were still long enough to where we were able to hear your little heartbeat, it was the best sound I've ever heard in my life.

Then, she pulled the ultrasound screen around and we were able to WATCH you PLAY on the screen!  You were moving your arms and flopping/bouncing up and down in there!  Your daddy and I burst out laughing, you just seemed so happy!  This ultrasound definitely made things much more "real", being able to see your precious profile and your joyful spirit at just 12 weeks old.  Dr. Strebel told us that we would be coming back in 4 weeks (May 22nd, our 2nd wedding anniversary) for our routine checkup, but if the ultrasound room/machine was free that she would take us in to try and see if you are a boy or a girl!  If we aren't able to get a scan done, she will set us up for an official gender scan 2 weeks later, when you are 18 weeks.  And of course, your Dad thinks you are a boy since you were so active in my belly :), but we shall see!  I am still trying to decide if I want to have your gender be kept a secret from us until we have a party for our family and friends so everyone can find out at the same time, or if we want to know right when the doctor finds out what you are. I honestly do not have a preference for boy or girl, I always thought I would have a definite thought of one or the other, but I don't.  All I care about is that you are safe, happy, and healthy, and from this week's appointment, I think you are :).  We love you so much already, sweet Little Love.  xoxo.

Here you are at 12 weeks:

11 weeks

My belly is definitely larger this week.  We go in this Thursday (2 days from now) for our 3rd dr's appointment, and I am hoping to get new pictures of our little love and to hear the heartbeat.  I might resort to going to one of those independent 3d ultrasound places if we don't get to hear it.  I am very anxious (once again) before our appointment.  This is also the financial planning appointment and complete OB workup (since the baby is officially a fetus. . . . even though it has always been official to us).

11 weeks
- still emotional over silly things.  Ward told me last Sunday that we should probably just eat lunch at home instead of going out and I burst into tears.  It did not go over well.  But I ended up eating some lunch and taking a 2 hour nap, then felt much better (emotionally) after that.
- Allergies have been crazy this week.  But it is also the week before my birthday and I always end up getting sick around this time.  I have a sinus infection and have been waiting on a call from Dr. Strebel to see if there is anything I can take besides mucinex and benadryl. (got the call from the nurse, said she called in a Zpack for me.  Ward picked it up on his way home from work, but I still haven't taken it.  Even though my Dr. prescribed it for me, I'm still nervous to be taking so much medicine with little love inside of me.  Thinking I'm going to wait until I'm practically dying before I resort to taking it.  But at least now we have it in the house!)
- Still loving spicy things and red meat.  Haven't been craving sour things as much this week.
- Trying to drink more water.  When I am at school I always forget to drink consistently, so I am trying to be much more conscious of my intake.
- Trying to not eat as much at one time, even if I am starving.  There's just not a lot of room in there for everything!
- Trying to make myself nap after school.  I feel so much better when I do.
- started to have sharp pains whenever I stand up really quickly or sneeze/cough while lying down.  Read that it is just your ligaments stretching to accommodate everything growing down there.  

Here is the belly at 11 weeks 4 days