Look!

After our ultrasound, we received some cute outfits from family and friends. When we got home Sunday night I felt the need to take pictures of them and post them! :-) I'm just so excited I have to share! I sure wish we could get a nursery set up, but it's just not going to happen right now...I'll come to terms with that sooner or later! Meanwhile, we have "baby drawers" in the dress in our spare bedroom that are reserved for "Squirt." (That's what Josh has been calling our little guy!)

Outfits from Christmas when I was only a few weeks along! Packers outfits from my parents, Pooh outfit from my Aunt Kathy, slippers from Josh's mom, and the giraffe is a little something my mom picked up for him a few weeks ago. It's so cute!

These are the outfits and Squirt's very first little toy that mommy bought him. I picked them up the day we had our first ultrasound and found out he was doing well!

This little outfit is the one Josh and I picked up on clearance at Walmart...the one with the kahki overalls and #72 on the onesie and hoodie!

Our friends Mindy & Ron picked up this outfit the night we called them to tell them we are having a boy...more overalls and they are just adorable! The shirt has a scooter on it and there is a little puff of smoke on the back too!

Last, but not least, this is the outfit my mom and dad gave us. My mom had picked up a boy and a girl outfit so she had this picked out to give us before we even had our ultrasound! :-) We just love it...it's adorable and Josh's mom told us Josh had that was similar to it when he was a little guy!

Soccer Player?!

I think I got kicked in the bladder for the first time this morning! I was driving to work and all of a sudden I felt like I could pee my pants! There was a ton of pressure...and then…NOTHING. LoL…Gotta get used to that I guess!

When Josh left for work this morning he said, “You have got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night for four days in a row now!” LoL…I had been very lucky and still been sleeping through the night up until Monday night. When I get up I have to turn on the lamp on my nightstand so I can see where I’m going so I always wake him up. I think we need to find out nightlight and plug that in on my side of the bed…then again, he can wake up with me! ;-) Monday through Wednesday I made it until 4:00 am, but last night I had to get up at 1:00 am! Oh well…I really don’t mind except because of taking the Unisom I’m a zombie and have to do all I can not to fall asleep on the toilet! I won’t be surprised if it happens!

In not so good news, I’ve started to retain water again. I got rid of it last time it happened about two weeks ago, so I’m hoping I’ll be able to do it again. I think it is around two pounds, unless I actually gained some weight from this pregnancy. I really don’t think that’s it though since my fingers look like sausages and my feet hurt in the shower! I’ll just keep pushing my water and stay away from those yummy, salty foods! :-)

Ultrasound results!

Josh and I had our 20 week ultrasound yesterday! My gut feeling was right...our little Peanut is a BOY!!!!!!

The whole ultrasound experience was very interesting, to say the least! I didn’t have to have a full bladder and I’m SOOOOO thankful for that because our stubborn little boy wouldn’t move so the tech was doing all she could to get him to! When she first started she told us that the baby had his head down and was facing my spine. Not very easy to get at the head to get measurements, so there was a lot of poking, prodding and pushing on my belly. She said, “Sorry if this hurts!” and I said, “Well, do what you have to do cuz I’m sure the birth will be worse than this!” LoL. At one point she pushed on my belly and we heard a little thud on the ultrasound thing...I felt a kick at the same time! I think he was telling her to get out of his space! She took a few measurements and then we tried a few other things to get him to move. She laid me back on the table so I felt like I was standing on my head – didn’t work! Turned on my right side – didn’t work! Turned on my left side facing away from her – still didn’t move! As I’m facing away from her she said she was getting a better angle and I kept an eye on Josh’s face to see if his expression changed. Slowly a little smirk spread across his face and I knew something was up. When I rolled back over she had a picture on the screen and she showed us the two legs and then she pointed an arrow between his legs and said, “IT’S A BOY!” Since he wasn’t cooperating very well we didn’t get too many good pics, but we got the important one! This isn't very good since I just took a picture of it with my camera phone. Our scanner isn't hooked up yet, so that's all we have for now! :-) His butt is facing up and his legs are spread apart. If you look close enough you can see where she typed the word leg and the little arrow she put on there pointing to his boy parts !

This is his little foot, if you can make it out!

When we met with the doctor for the results, he said everything looked really good and he is ahead of the size schedule by 4 days! With the level two ultrasound it even shows the flow of blood in red and blue coming into and leaving the baby’s body from the umbilical cord. That’s the only place there was a little issue. They are going to have me back for an ultrasound every 6 weeks not only because of my pre-hypertension, but because instead of having two arteries and one vein in his umbilical cord he only has one of each. Normally this hinders the growth of the baby, but the doctor said he's growing just fine! :-) The doctor assured us there is nothing to worry about at this point and he was very happy with what he saw. Even though he is ahead of his growth schedule they aren't changing my due date since I had an early ultrasound and those are very accurate in determining the due date. Big babies run in my mom's side of the family, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised! :-)

When we were done we had dinner at Friday’s and spent a lot of time on the phone. Everyone was excited...we're very excited too! Then we ran to Walmart and had to stroll through the baby department to pick up something boy-ish! We picked up a little outfit that was on clearance… khaki bib overalls that have cute little patches on the knees. It came with a blue onesie with the number 72 on the sleeve and a grey zip up hoodie with the number 72 on the front of it. We had to have it since 72 was Josh's racing number when he raced snowmobiles! :-) And my dad’s old football number!

When we got home we made the cupcakes to take to our offices today…with cute blue frosting on them! The cupcakes are going over well...I put them on my desk and made everyone come over to me to get one so I could share the ultrasound pics! Mindy and Ron gave us an outfit (she went and bought it after we called them last night!). It's a blue polo shirt that has a scooter on it and a pair of jean bib overalls! SO CUTE! And my mom said when we go there this weekend she left a present for us on the table!

All-in-all, it was a great visit with lots of awesome news! Again, we are so blessed! :-)

Today is the big day!

I’m SOOOO tired today even though we were in bed by 10:45 last night! The hockey game was a really good and we WON 3-1! We had a blast…maybe I’ll post some pictures. On our way back to I-94 we took a different route than we usually do and drove through an AWESOME old neighborhood with huge, beautiful, old mansions…I know some of my family (mom and AJ for sure!) would have loved to see them. LoL…Josh was asking the street names so he could figure out where we were and I said, “I can’t look right now, I’m busy!” Hahaha…

This week the baby is 6.5 inches from head to rump. After this week the measurements will change…instead of measuring head to rump it will be head to toe. This changed because the baby’s legs are able to stretch out more now than it was able to in the first 20 weeks when they were curled against the body and hard to measure. (He/she must know I’m writing about him/her because I’m getting some kicks!) SO…after that explanation, this week the baby is actually 10 inches from head to heel!! WOW!!!!! That’s way bigger than my hand now! :-) The baby’s weight is now 10.5 ounces, quite a size change from my last ultrasound when the baby was the size of a small grape! Speaking of food, I’m a little bummed because BabyCenter.com didn’t give a fruit/vegetable this week!

There’s some other gross stuff happening that I’ll just briefly mention – a greasy white substance is coating the body to protect the skin from being in the amniotic fluid so long and will also help during delivery. The baby is also producing a black, sticky substance from swallowing amniotic fluid that will show up in the first messy diapers. GROSS! ;-)

My uterus is now at the same level as my belly button and I can definitely feel it. My belly button hurts! (Again, I’m sure this is nothing compared to what it’ll be feeling like in 2-3 months!) When I put my finger in my belly button I can feel the top of my uterus…last Friday we really had to push to feel it, but yesterday it wasn’t difficult to find cuz it’s so hard!

In this week’s info they also mentioned childbirth education classes and I just don’t know what to do about it. I don’t know if I should sign up now or if I should wait until we know more about moving. Advice anyone?

I’m leaving work today at 2:00 to go to the ultrasound! I’m all set…have our directions and just called the hospital to confirm my appointment. It’s at 3:00 in Minneapolis, which is why we are leaving so early. There is NO PREP at all, which means I don’t have to chug all that water and have my bladder pushed on! Sounds like good news to me! :-) I told her I just wanted to be sure and she said that the view on their machines is so clear that they don’t need to do that anymore…WAHOO! I’ll post again in the morning unless I have time tonight. But if all goes well and we find out the sex, Josh and I are planning on making cupcakes with corresponding colored frosting for us to take to work tomorrow! :-)

Interview Update

Another busy week at work! Too bad I don’t have a computer at home…oh, wait…we do! Uhm, I just don’t get paid to use that one! :-)

Josh’s job interview went great on the 11th…it was TWO HOURS LONG! Everything they said was good and they really seemed to like Josh. They are impressed with his qualifications and he said the company seems to be very good to its employees. The bad part…Josh was pretty disappointed in the equipment that they use because it is very outdated. However, he is still going to consider employment there if they offer it to him. He should be hearing from someone soon, they are supposed to mail an information packet about their insurance and other benefits. Oh – dad talked to the guy from this company on Monday and he said he hasn’t heard anything about the details, just that the interview went good and they liked Josh. He also told dad he thought they would lay Josh off in the winter. That really put a different spin on things, which sucks. But I guess it will all work out.

As for the house, until we hear something on employment, it’s not up for sale.

CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT THE ULTRASOUND IS TOMORROW!?!?!! The time has just FLOWN by! We are so excited we can hardly stand it! Tonight will go by fast cuz we’re going to the MN Wild hockey game. Hopefully tomorrow morning will fly! I’m picking Josh up at work at 2:00 and we’re headed to the hospital!! Eeeek! I’m sticking with my prediction - I think it’s a boy. I sure hope we’ll be able to find out after all this excitement! :-)

Another beautiful baby!

Kim (Josh's cousin Zach's wife) went into labor around 8:00 last night and had their baby girl at 2:16 this morning, ON her due date! She is 6 pounds, 8 ounces and 20.5 inches long. Everything went great and mom and baby are both doing fine. Of course, Zach is tired, poor guy, huh?! :-)

Today I am 19 weeks!

I can’t believe how fast the time has gone…our ultrasound is next week already. The 22nd will be here before we know it. Seems like I just made the appointment and that was almost two months ago! We’re hoping and praying that we can find out the sex that day, but even if we can’t, it’ll be great just to see the little one on screen again!

This little baby has been moving SO MUCH lately! It is just unreal how much difference a week has made! I feel him/her more than ever and much, much stronger. It’s still so amazing to me and still makes me stop whatever I am doing so I can enjoy it. I know Josh is just waiting until the kicks and moves get stronger so he can feel them too!

I’m a little bummed right now. After my last dr. appointment with Dr. B on the March 1st, she let me know that she wouldn’t be in the week that my next appointment was to be scheduled. At the time I didn’t think it was that big of a deal. But this weekend I decided I’d rather see Dr. B again in case we are moved by the end of April. I called her office this morning and she has NO openings at the office I go to until April 18th! What a bummer…so I’m keeping my appointment with Dr. F on the 29th and hoping that we will still be living in MN for my next appointment on April 26th. If not, I guess someone will have to take a road trip with me! :-)

So this week, at 8.5 ounces and 6 inches from head to rump, our little one is now the size of a small zucchini! (Again, so close Ash! She guessed an eggplant.) I got out my ruler so I could see just how big 6 inches is and it’s amazing! When Rayn and Meghan asked last weekend how big the baby was I cupped my hands together to show them, like someone was going to put something in my hands. But now 6 inches is from the tip of my middle finger almost to the bottom of my palm! What a difference! This week the little one is starting to grow more hair on his/her head…I wonder what color it is!
(Has anyone else noticed the difference between my BabyCenter info and the info on my baby ticker?!)

Josh’s job interview update coming soon!

Radio DJ has made a guess at the sex of our baby!

My cousin Brooke emailed me yesterday from WI and said, “You should call WIFC now to see what Dave Calloway says your having. All he needs to know is how old you'll be when you have the baby and the official month of conception.” I said it sounds a lot like the info you need for the Chinese Birth Chart, but I’ll give it a shot. I tried calling shortly after and no one answered. I emailed her back and said she should do it for me today! SO…she did! This is the email I, and a bunch of family and friends, got from her this morning:

Ok, so Alissa talked me into doing a baby check for her on WIFC cuz she couldn't get through. Dr Dave said that she is going to have a boy!! When Alissa has the baby, she or I need to call back to the radio station and let them know what she had. If Dr. Dave was right, they will send her a bib that says, “Dr Dave said I was going to be a boy!” If he was wrong they will send her a bib that says, “OOOPS!!!” He also said that since he's been doing this, Greece is the farthest they've sent a bib. Now I'm listening to the station to see if I'll be on the radio or not, I know....what a dork!! The things you do for the ones you love!! :O)

Now isn’t that cool?! So it’ll be fun to see if Dr. Dave and the Chinese birth chart are both right! :-) Only 12 days until the ultrasound!

Job update!

Just wanted to let everyone know that Josh’s informal interview (“meet and eat” as AJ called it!) was changed from last weekend to tomorrow. Please keep poor Josh in your thoughts and prayers…he’s a bit nervous! As I am too! :-) Things sound pretty promising, so I’m sure everything will go just fine. Depending on how things go on Saturday, our house might be for sale some time next week! I’ll update as soon as I can!

If, for some reason, things don’t go as planned, he has a back-up. Another company in Stevens Point also called. Josh talked to them and they basically said they aren’t hiring right now, but if the right person came along they wouldn’t hesitate to hire. SO…if things don’t look as promising as we’d like after tomorrow morning Josh will call and set up and interview there! I’m glad we have options, but I hope we don’t have to use them. :-) I’d rather live around the Wausau area and one of Josh’s “unruly” classmates from high school and college works there and he’s a bad influence! I’m just kidding, if that’s the way things work out, that will be fine. Josh is more responsible and mature anyway!

Shameless Plug!

Jacki (Josh’s mom) called Josh last night to let him know that Dan’s band, 4th Floor, is going to be at Coral Lanes Saturday night! They’re playing from 9pm-1am, no cover charge!

SO…go check them out if you don’t have plans! Mom, dad, Josh and I are going after Mom and I go with a friend of hers to see Bye, Bye Birdie at one of the high schools.

Let me know if you want to meet us!

No more adoption updates…IT’S DONE!

I had a very exciting email from Ronda waiting for me when I got to work today. It's finally over!!! *tears* The court hearing is done, papers are signed, and Aliya Mae is home for good! She attached some cute pictures, all taken in their home last night! I think these are the best pictures that I've seen through the past 5 weeks.

Thanks for everyone’s thoughts and prayers and for letting me share this story with you all! We’re going to Aliya’s welcome home party on Saturday and I’ll ask then if I can post a pic!

I’m 18 Weeks!

Every morning when Josh leaves for work he wakes me up to kiss me goodbye and usually touches or kisses my belly too. (I know, awwww!) Well, yesterday morning he said in a little sing-song voice, “You’re starting to get a belly!” LoL…I’d have slapped him if it wasn’t a baby! :-) But it’s true…my abdomen is starting to really show some changes and we can feel the top of my uterus almost at the bottom of my belly button. Just in the last week I’ve been noticing my belly button starting to get sore as my uterus keeps growing! I’m sure that uncomfortablness (lol…I don’t think that’s a word, but just go with it) will be nothing in comparison to what will be happening, but still! I’ve also quit wearing my pants at my waistline for that very reason…and now they’re hiked up damn near to my chest…it’s HOT! I’ve noticed more heartburn so my Tums are close by my side and my appetite seems to be growing, but I’m keeping it to small and frequent meals so I don’t get an upset stomach. At the moment I feel like I have these few things under control! :-)

The comparison food of the week from BabyCenter.com is..........drumroll please..........a large sweet potato! (I was so tempted to put a picture of sweet potato pie here...yum!) Baby is now 5.5 inches long and weighs almost 7 ounces. I’ve been feeling a lot more movement and that’s due to him/her being able to flex his/her arms and legs! Again, welcomed movement! Also, the reproductive parts are now formed if the baby is a boy or a girl…which hopefully we will see in 14 days at our ultrasound!

Josh and I did something very exciting on Saturday! We decided on and made our fist big purchase for the baby…BEDDING! It doesn’t have the ark on it, but has all the elements, even an olive branch above the little birdie! The colors are very gender neutral…green with light stripes and a yellow gingham in the backrounds. The animals all have different textures on them…the lion has corduroy on his mane and the elephant has denim on his ears. SO CUTE! There is a possibility that if we find out it’s a girl we might go with a simple pink bedding set, but just a small possibility. You know me and my indecisiveness!

Here are some snapshots I took of it in Target. Josh is such a good sport! LoL…and while I was taking pics with my camera phone a worker walked up to us and said, “Can I help you with something?” I nonchalantly replied, “No!” We got a good laugh from that one!

This crib also happens to be very close to the one we have picked out!

I’m 17 Weeks!

The baby is around 5 ounces, 5 inches now, about the size of a large onion! (Ash guessed a green pepper…SO CLOSE!)



I picked this picture cuz of the blue background! Man, if this kid is a girl, I hope I haven't given her a complex!


My doctor appointment yesterday afternoon went great. In and out in no time, with all my answers answered, just how I like it!

First topic of conversation, “How have you been feeling?” So I go into this big thing how I tried going off the Unisom and B6, got really sick, so I’m back on it. My doctor, who is awesome by the way, told me to QUIT feeling guilty about taking it and just be happy that I feel good and we’ve found something that can fix it! Ok, that’s doable. Then I told her that I can’t keep down the prenatal vitamins that she gave me. NO PROB! Keep taking the Flinstones, my iron is fine and that’s basically why you take special prenatal vitamins, so I’m good to go.

Second topic - blood pressure. It’s GREAT! 130/76! She’s very happy with that so I will continue to take 3 – 250 mg doses a day. I ask for a new prescription, which she almost forgot to give me before I left! We get to talking and both forget little things! (Last time it was prenatal vitamin samples)

Third topic – ultrasound! She made sure I had made an appointment at the hospital to have a Level 2 ultrasound done. YUP! March 22nd! It’s cool when you are so excited about something you can get the doctor excited too! I commented that we were hoping to find out the sex and she said, “Oh yeah, that won’t be a problem.” Of course I didn’t think about it until after I left, but I wonder why she said that! Are the Level 2’s that much more detailed or do they just make you walk around until the baby is facing the right direction?! Oh well, guess we’ll find out in 3 weeks! She said the tech doing the u/s will walk us through it, explaining everything, and then we will meet with a doctor for results the same day. My next appointment with Dr. B will be March 29th, four weeks from yesterday, but she won’t be in the office. I don’t mind seeing a different doctor, but with a possible move getting more real I kinda want to make sure I see HER again. So I might change it to the following Wednesday, but I’ll update on that. At that appointment they will measure my uterus to make sure it’s where it’s supposed to be, but yesterday she told me it is just below my belly button. Right where it should be! :-)

Fourth topic – weight. Another “Quit worrying about it!” This time I was worrying I wasn’t gaining enough weight. She told me between the 1st – 2nd – 3rd appointments I lost weight (from being sick) and between the 3rd and this appointment I stayed the same. She’s very happy with that and said as long as I’m eating and drinking I’m doing just fine! Since I’m eating smaller meals that is helping my metabolism, as well as just being pregnant, which could be why I’m not gaining any weight. She said she has had overweight patients that actually come back for their check-up after the baby is born 10-15 pounds lighted than when they got pregnant! WORKS FOR ME! :-)

After all the talking I got to hear the heartbeat again! It was 150 BPM, which is down from 170 last time. Apparently it goes down as the baby gets older/bigger. How cool! SO…according to the wives tale, it could qualify to be a girl! Am I wrong about my prediction?! We’ll see on the 22nd! (Hopefully!)

Animals!

I just had to post this picture of the stuffed animals we bought for baby while we were on vacation in San Diego. Josh laughed at me, but I wanted everyone to see! Especially since my discription of the giraffe from the zoo wasn't that great and I think it's just adorable!! :-) I can picture it hanging off the dresser or side of the crib...or our little one running around with it! Awww...