25 and 26 weeks

Here are some updated belly shots. This one is at 25 weeks. I'm still feeling bigger by the day.25 weeks. I think my belly looks smaller in pictures OR I when I look at it I just see something different than everyone else does.

More at 25 weeks. It was at this week that all of my normal shirts stopped fitting.

Top two are still 25 week front shots. The bottom two are at 26 weeks. This week we found out that the girl at church who lent me her maternity clothes is also preggo! We are so thrilled for her family, it is such a blessing! Actually, now the women in our bible study consist of three pregnant women, a woman who just had a baby 7 weeks ago and two others. So the majority of us are either getting ready to have babies or have just had a baby...must be in the water, don't drink it if you come visit unless you want a little surprise. ;)

All that to say that she needs her maternity clothes back because she's already starting to show. :( We're sad to see the clothes go because they were such a huge blessing. They really blessed us at a time when we needed it and now we're in a much better financial position where we can afford to get me some of my own clothes. I've been hunting ebay and sales online and am hoping that I'll come up with a good starter wardrobe.

Other news-

1. I have my glucose test tomorrow morning and then a normal checkup. This is the first appointment that I'm not nervous to go to, God is good!

2. We're preparing for the arrival of our doodlebug by getting the nursery ready. We're cleaning out the closet and have put the furniture we have in position. Hopefully, I'll have pictures of it soemtime this week once the clutter is off of the floor and we can move around a bit better in there.

3. We have LESS THAN 100 DAYS LEFT until my due date!!!!! :)

I'll update after the appointment tomorrow. Until then!

The time is getting near...

Only 15 weeks left!  That's 3 1/2 months or 105 days!!!  I get more excited about having her with us every single day.  Here are some new things going on in the pregnancy:

- I'm getting larger (I know, not super new but I've been told by several people that I have finally "popped")

- Baby can now kick one side of me and hit/head butt the other side of me at the same time so I can now definitely TELL she's bigger and FEEL her getting bigger.

- My stomach has started to ripple every time she kicks and when she rolls it's a sight to be seen because it looks like I've got an alien inside of me.

- She's starting to play games, when I feel her kick I press down on where she is kicking and she'll start kicking/hitting the other side of me until I put my hand there and then she goes back to the other side.

- Baby has proven to be a night owl/early morning bird.  During the day she's pretty quiet and I'm lucky to get a flutter from her but after 8:30pm she goes to town with her acrobatics.  When Mike wakes up (at 4am most mornings) she wakes right up with him and I have to BEG her to let me go back to sleep for a couple of hours.  :)  

- Kids seem to gravitate toward my belly.  I have kids in the hallway at school (mostly kindergartners) who have no idea who I am but reach out and touch my belly when they're passing me.  Strange...but interesting.

So, I think that's it as far as pregnancy updates go.  I have a Dr.'s appointment. next Monday (Oct. 20).  It's my glucose screening to test for gestational diabetes which I don't show symptoms of, so it shouldn't be an issue.  I think I mentioned it before but essentially I'll be drinking a bottle of non-carbonated orange soda with about an extra half cup of sugar in it...yum yum.  It's already in our fridge waiting for me.  I think (and will double check) that I have this appointment and then one more four weeks later and after that I start going every two weeks.  It's all surreal to me but so exciting!

That's all for now.  I'll update as soon as I can with the 25 week picture.

Growing Baby!

22 weeks and growing! When this was taken Mike and I were getting ready to go out on a date to celebrate being OVER halfway through this pregnancy! It has not been an easy one by any stretch, but I wouldn't change any of it because God has truly shown his blessing on us through it all.

The only together shot that we have together so far during this pregnancy. Mike usually is the one behind the camera so that we can get the right angle for the pictures (I usually make him take 5 pictures to every one that I post) so we'll have to find a new photographer so we can get some pictures together. We're headed to Disney for our anniversary trip and we're going with some good friends of ours so I expect we'll get quite a few of the two of us then! :)

24 weeks. We have 16 weeks left until our due date, sometimes it feels like the time is FLYING and others it just drags and drags. We are so looking forward to bringing our little one home!

Another 24 week picture.

I'm going to try to make it a point to take at least one picture a week until the end of it all from now on so that we have more of a record of how quickly I'm growing. I literally will wake up from one day to the next and notice that I've gotten progressively larger.

22 week appointment

We're over halfway there!  Only about 18 more weeks to go until # 3 is here with us!  It's crazy to think that we've come this far, we feel so blessed and so elated.  We're still working on names but will not be revealing the final decision until the day of her birth.  We've got very special names in mind for her and we'll be very excited to let everyone know what her name is when she's here.  It'll be something fun for Mike to be able to tell everyone once she's born and is named.  

Anyway, in other news, baby and I had our 5th (?) appointment with Dr. Kellogg yesterday.  Mike couldn't make it as he was reffing a volleyball game so my dad took me.  It was a pretty routine exam, just heartbeat, measurements and weight.  So far I've only gained 6lbs which they seem to think is a little unusual but I eat pretty healthy and the baby's size is on track so they aren't concerned.  Baby is measuring right on track and the heartbeat is healthy and LOUD.  

I also expressed some concern because Sunday afternoon I got a nasty pain that started in at the bottom of my shoulder blades and went all the way through my jaw.  It was killer and NOTHING helped with it.  I got to the point where I was in so much pain that it made me sick.  This went on for over 12 hours until I finally was able to fall asleep.  After explaining what the pain felt like he looked at me with a small smile and said that it sounded like I was experiencing really bad gas....are you kidding me?  :)  I also have had some bad pain in my right side that heads on through my back.  The nurse told me that the baby is finding it comfortable hang out on my sciatic nerve and it will be causing me pain throughout the pregnancy.  She actually said that because of how consistent the pain is and because of how long it lasts when it happens that it sounds like the baby is actually sleeping on the nerve.  Thank goodness all of this will bring us a sweet baby in the end!

So that was the extent of it.  My next appt. is on October 27 and it is my big glucose test to see if I have developed gestational diabetes.  It's actually kind of a nasty test.  I basically will be drinking a bottle of flat orange soda with essentially an extra half cup of sugar in it to see if my body can process sugar correctly.  Yuuuuuum.  

Until next time!

She's getting bigger!

This was me at 19 weeks.  I started to notice a little bump at about 15 weeks but it was at 19 weeks that I seem to have "popped" and people started to ask if I was pregnant.

This is me at 21 weeks.  A co-worker of mine is expecting on November 15 and this is her baby shower at work.  I know you have to look closer at this one to see my bump but you'll notice it is a bit bigger than the first.  In fact, the phrase I hear most at work is, "you're getting bigger!"  (at least 3 times a day)  Will post more soon!

Out with the old...in with new...

It came time to transition my wardrobe this week.  I am realizing that less and less of my pre-pregnancy clothes are fitting me.  Even my bigger shirts are starting to get a little snug.  Mike has been bugging me for a couple of weeks to go through our closet and put my pre-preggo clothes into storage so that there is room for my maternity stuff (it has just been sitting on the floor in the closet making it hard to get around).  I was hesitant for a while to do it because I just kept convincing myself that there was no way I'd stop fitting into some of my clothes.  When I went to put on some of my old shirts last night, after going through 4 or 5 of them, I realized it was time to transition.

It's a fun time because I get to explore all of the new clothes so graciously lent to me (it's like going shopping without spending money :) ) and they now occupy the drawers in my closet.  It's also exciting because I know that my baby girl is getting closer and closer to being home with us (about 4 months!).  Every little step we take in the pregnancy gets us closer and closer which is extremely exciting!

This week our project is to clean out the guest room closet.  It has been our little storage unit here in the house and now we need the room for our new addition.  Our goal right now is to throw away/give away most of the stuff in there because as of now, the stuff has sat in there for a year and hasn't even been looked at.  We'll see how that goes.  :)  

We bought a crib last week.  It's a beautiful white, hand crafted sleigh crib (well, it says it's sleigh, I don't think it looks a lot like one).  It retails for $800 dollars normally, plus it's got an added storage drawer on the bottom that would add an extra $100, AND it came with a $150 dollar mattress (yes, we researched each part of it to make sure we weren't being scammed) and we got it for well under $200 so we are elated!  The family that we bought it from is done having kids and they wanted to get it off of their hands and had been trying to sell it for several months.  When we were interested they were happy to bargain.  We'll probably buy their changing table also as it matches the crib, is of good quality and is a great price ($20!).  God really blessed us with this purchase.  We knew it would be hard to afford a brand new crib but we wanted something nice and this one is better quality craftsmanship than any of the new ones that we would have been able to afford.  Mike set it up and I find myself regularly walking into the room just to imagine having the little one around.  :)  (I'll post pictures of it when the room is cleaner)

My next appointment is Sept. 29 for just the routine stuff.  It will be the first one that I go to by myself so I'm praying nothing out of the ordinary happens.

On another note...the baby must LOVE college football because any time I have it on or have something related to it on she kicks up a storm.  Must take after Carolyn.  ;)

The Results From The Gender Scan Say...........

We are thrilled to announce that we are expecting a baby girl in February!  It comes as kind of a surprise.  I actually suspected that it was a girl early on, but had convinced myself that it must be a boy because my suspicions certainly could not have been correct.  :)

We got to our appt. about 15 minutes early and the tech honored that by pulling us in after about 5 minutes.  He started off by letting me know that I wouldn't be able to see most of the ultrasound because the monitor would be facing him, but that Mike could watch the whole thing.  I was incredibly nervous (as usual) and as soon as he sensed this, he turned on the audio from the ultrasound so I could listen to the heartbeat.  At that point I relaxed and let the man do his job.  About 5 minutes in, he made a comment along the lines of, "I wish I could get her to stop moving for a minute so I can get some of these measurements!"  At that point, I knew it was a girl.  Mike swears he didn't hear him say it, but I know what I heard ;).    The scan went on for another 15 minutes or so before he turned the screen to me.  He explained that he had, in passing, noticed that it looked like it was probably a girl but he wanted to make sure.  He showed us the proof and kept it there for a minute  or so to make sure there was nothing hiding and sure enough, it is a girl!  Her little feet were actually crossed at the ankle and were swinging back and forth the entire time we were looking at the shot.  

She is a "textbook" baby.  Her measurements were all right on target and everything looks beautiful.  GOD IS SO FAITHFUL!