House Guests, Thanksgiving & 22 Week Update

My mom and sister visited for Thanksgiving and we had a nice time. It snowed the first night my mom was here, but my sister missed it because she flew in a day later. We spent most of the week hanging out at home by the fire, watching movies, baking, painting our toenails, and playing with Copper. We did venture out to Cabela's to sample fudge, try out my sister's aim, and pose next to the animal exhibits. And of course, I couldn't let them leave without a trip to Dockside for a Gooey, which my sister (nearly) devoured by herself! We had a very nice Thanksgiving dinner. The turkey and pumpkin pie both came out exceptionally better than I anticipated! I have some pretty funny pictures of my mom prepping the turkey.

She was saying that it's going to be just like this when the doctor delivers the baby. I think my facial expression says it all... "God I hope not!"

Dinner turned out great! Poor Greg has been working nights for the last week and a half and had to be woken up for dinner.

On the pregnancy front, Greg and I went to the doctor yesterday for a routine check up. They seem to be a bigger waste of time than anything. We waited in the waiting room for 20-30 minutes. The nurse took my weight, blood pressure and urine sample before putting us in an exam room where we waited for another 15-20 minutes for the doctor to arrive. He asked how I was feeling, if I had any questions, poked around in my belly, and listened to Abby's heartbeat with the Doppler - 156bmp. "Everything looks good. See you in four weeks." And he was gone. I'm very grateful to be healthy and have a healthy baby, but it seems like they could maybe stretch them to every 6 weeks for low-risk pregnancies.

My belly is getting noticeably bigger, finally. Greg knows how much I hate it when people call me Prego (I'm not a spaghetti sauce, thank you very much, nor am I "knocked up"), so he's taken to calling me "saucy". This morning he said I am looking very saucy today, so I'll have to take a picture later and post that. For now, here's a picture of me at 20 weeks:

It's a ....

Last night we were joined by a houseful of friends and family members to reveal the sex of our baby. Super1 made a beautiful cake for us and did an excellent job of keeping the secret, despite our friends' best efforts to get the info early!


Greg wasn't able to get the night off work, but was able to come home for an extended lunch break. First, we had to get the Grandma's in California on the phone so they could hear the news with everyone else.


Then, we cut open the cake and it was PINK! (I knew it all along!)


Our pastor was on hand and scolded us for not praying before serving the cake.


So we invited him to offer a blessing. He led us in a beautiful and heartfelt prayer for our family that brought tears to my eyes. We are so truly blessed to have been led by God to our church. The genuine fellowship is like none other I have ever experienced before and thought not possible outside of the gates of Heaven.


The cake was delicious and we have more than enough leftover! If you'd like a slice of baby girl cake come on over!


For those of you wondering - her name is Abigail (or Abigayle, we haven't decided on a spelling yet) Mae after two courageous and faithful Christian women - Abigail (1 Samuel 25) and my great-grandmother, Ethel Mae. I pray that our Abby will have even a sliver of the greatness that was in each of these inspiring women.

Thank you to all of you that were able to join us in celebrating! We look forward to sharing many more happy moments with you in the months and years to come!

18 Weeks

We had our ultrasound today. I have attached a few of the better pictures. The baby was being a wiggle worm and wouldn't hold still, making the ultrasound tech's job a lot harder. Every time the baby would move I'd start laughing, which would make the baby move more. It was very cool and I'm so glad that Greg was able to be there to share in such a wonderful experience.

3d shot of the baby's face
Baby's Profile
The baby was sucking his/her thumb.
Let's hope this doesn't become a habit! :)

The doctor said that the baby looks great! He/she is in the 56th percentile right now, weighing in at a whopping 8 ounces and a heart rate of 167 beats per minute. He said he/she is right on target for our April 6th due date. He said that I am in excellent health - all of my labs and blood work came back perfect (duh) and he seemed pleased with my weight gain. I lost quite a bit of weight in the first few months, but I've gained all that back plus four pounds.

The ultrasound tech was able to tell the gender of the baby, but we still don't know what it is! She sealed the photos in one envelope and wrote the sex on a slip of paper and sealed it in an another envelope. After the appointment, Greg and I took the envelope with the note in it to a bakery. They are baking us a cake with either pink or blue filling in it. On Saturday our friends and family will all come over and we'll cut the cake open to reveal the sex of the baby! It will be a short and sweet party, but it's a fun way for us to share the joy with the people will love.

I am feeling better every day! I was able to go back to my normal 3-day/week work schedule. I'm back at the gym three times a week, just not pushing myself quite as hard as I was before. I have been keeping my heart rate between 145-155. I usually have to use the bathroom one or two times during my 30-minute workout, which is kind of a pain but I'm grateful to be there at all! I have been cooking again! I didn't realize how much I missed it. In the last week I've made spaghetti squash from our garden, chicken fried steak, turkey burgers and sweet potato fries, and veggie fritata to name a few. It seems as though I am finally able to eat what I like without getting sick. I have a nearly insatiable appetite, to the extent that I wake up in the middle of the night and need to eat a bowl of cereal. I've been taking Flintstone vitamins and successfully keeping them down for several days now, so tonight I took one of my prenatal vitamins. So far, so good!

Let's hope these blessings and positive progress continue!

2nd Trimester

According to some of my books, today marks the first day of the 2nd trimester for me. I'm pretty excited and hope to see some of the relief that all of the experts promise come with this milestone.

For those that have been out of the loop, I have had pretty miserable morning sickness for the last 7 weeks of this pregnancy. I'd lost some weight, but not enough to concern the doctors and am glad to have been spared from having to take any medication for it. I did try every homeopathic remedy known to man: ginger in every form, crackers of all sorts, motion sickness bands, B12, peppermint, seriously you name it and I tried it. Some things worked for a short while and others didn't work at all. I have been feeling nauseous much less the last few days and haven't actually gotten sick since last week. I am still exhausted, but find that I can push myself a little more than I used to be able to.

Yesterday was a pretty big day for me. The start of "pregnancy brain" came when after brushing my teeth I spit my toothpaste into the bathroom drawer rather than into the sink. I then proceeded to laugh at myself so hard I nearly peed my pants! I went to the gym again for the first time in about 6 or 7 weeks and felt pretty good about it. My heart rate gets going a lot faster with a lot less effort which I'm sure is a combination of the increased blood volume and not having worked out in so long. I don't feel sore today and plan to go again this afternoon if I'm feeling up to it. It's very important to me that I stay as active as possible throughout the pregnancy. I hope to be able to start walking Copper again soon now that the smell of everyone in the neighborhood cooking dinner hopefully won't make me quite so sick. I intend to get a prenatal yoga video to do at home when the road and weather conditions prevent me from walking outside.

I have been very blessed in that my job could not be more understanding or supportive of the situation. I have been working from home when I need to and have the ability to make my own hours. With the exception of a few events and meetings, I can take long naps and do what I need to do when I need to do it. All that they care about is that the work gets done and that I put my hours in. When, how and where don't concern them.

Greg has been very busy. He's back in school full time. This will be his last semester at NIC before moving on to LCSC in January. He's been working two part time jobs which keep him out late into the nights. I appreciate the sacrifices he's making for us, I really do, but it's been hard on me because of having so many interruptions in my sleep. I try to go to bed around 10. Greg gets home from work anywhere between 10:45 and midnight depending on the day, so I wake up when he gets home. He usually needs time to wind down and do homework, so he doesn't come to bed until 1:30 or 2:00 am and I wake up then too because it takes him forever to get comfortable. Then we fight over the bed and the covers, his snoring wakes me up at least once more. Oh, and then I wake up again at 5am because I have to use the bathroom. I really would enjoy 6 or more hours of uninterrupted sleep, but I guess this is God's way of preparing me for motherhood.

Mother's Day Surprise

Several months ago Greg and I decided that we would surprise our moms, who live in California, with a visit for Mother's Day. We landed on the 7th and this was the look on my mother in law's face when we pulled up to the house...

She was completely shocked! She and dad were both absolutely speechless! We stayed with them for almost a week and enjoyed visiting lots of friends and family. We crammed a lot into a short visit. On Saturday we surprised my mom and sister at a family brunch. My mom screamed and ran away before embracing us.



We also found time for some laughs with old friends, laying out on the beach, and doing some sightseeing. Here are a few snapshots from our visit to the San Diego Zoo:

Sunscreen Application: a daily ritual. I dream of the day that someone will make a sunscreen that is not greasy and doesn't smell like sunscreen.

Love: Sharing a $12 lobster quesadilla that I'm pretty sure was made with imitation crab meat.

Modeling for mom...some things never change. :)

We enjoyed our trip, but...

we're very glad to be home!