It's Baby Season!

Lately, it seems like it's Baby Season for all of our friends and many of our co-workers. We found out a few weeks ago that another couple in our friends circle is expecting a baby and are due in April! At Bre's workplace, there are 8 babies who will be born between February and April. Tyler has a few co-workers who are expecting about the same time. In our friends' group, there was a baby girl born in July. We have friends who are expecting a boy just a few days after our daughter is born, Bre's cousin had a baby boy about a month ago AND now there will be another baby born in April.
It's just so exciting that so many people we know are having children around the same time. That means that our daughter will have playmates her age wherever we go! It's exciting to talk to our friends about how our children will play together and graduate the same year and all of the fun things that go along with growing up together!
It's amazing to think how our lives will look in the next year. When we hang out with friends, it will mostly be at someone's house with our kids playing together. So much different than when we used to gather for dinner and go out to a bar for the night. We are excited about how life is changing and how our next adventure will look with our daughter in our lives. And to think we'll have many friends along the same path with us makes it even more exciting!

The Nursery

A few weekends ago some of our family came down to help us work on things for the house and get the nursery painted and furniture built.
I should have taken a before picture, but the room was completely white. It was one of the only ones that we hadn't changed since we moved in. We painted it two soft shades of pink with a cute black and white border in the middle.

We got the room done a little early, but with the holidays coming up, we wanted it done so that we had a place to put her things as we are getting them and that it would be done if she decides to come a little early.

We love how it turned out. It's a room she can grow in and it doesn't scream "baby". (Well expept for the crib and changing table, but you know what I meant). I like to go in there and sit and imagine what it will be like when she's here. Tyler says that I'm like a kid who lays under the Christmas tree and can't wait for the presents... and he's right.

The other day I was doing laundry and couldn't find Ryder (our dog). I went in the nursery and he was under her crib playing with one of his toys. It just made me smile because he's spending time in there too and I hope that once she's here they'll be best friends and they'll play in her room together.

We still have things to add, like a rocker and a book shelf, but it's perfect for now and I can't wait to see it grow as we get more of her things.

Movement

For about the last 2 weeks, I have felt our baby moving. At first I wasn’t sure that it was her because it was just light little flutters. Over the past week or so, she has really started moving and there’s no doubt that it’s her causing the movement.

Tyler got to feel her last week. We had had Mexican for dinner and I had some spicy salsa. I’m not sure if she enjoyed it or hated it, but it REALLY got her moving. Enough that both of us could sit on the couch and Tyler had his hand on my stomach and could feel her movements. Ever since then, I have felt her moving about every day.

It's the strangest thing to be sitting in a meeting and feeling her doing flips or dancing or whatever it is that she's doing in there. It feels like I'm riding on a rollercoaster and no one can tell that anything is happening. It is pretty neat though. I get to feel her all the time and we're already bonding. I just love her so much already.

PINK

From the day we found out that we are having a girl, our house has begun to fill up with all things pink. Buying the little outfits has been fun for all of our family and friends. In fact, I think this girl has more clothes than I do… and I’m not kidding. Many things have been bought ahead for next summer on great clearance and there’s lots that has come from garage sales, so our little girl is already a bargainista!

We decided on nursery bedding and the plan is to find paint and border this weekend so that we can decorate next weekend. We’ve had boxes in our garage for weeks for the crib and changing table. It will be great to see them built and in place so that we can start getting all things baby settled in that room.

It seems like the wait until this point has been so long, but now that we know her gender and I’m getting further along in my pregnancy, things are picking up! We need to decorate the nursery, we have signed up for all of our baby classes and have scheduled our appointments through the end of the pregnancy. When we look at the calendar, it’s filling up fast. And we can’t forget that we have Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years’ during the 3^rd Trimester… we are going to be busy! That is wonderful though because time will just tick away and before we know it, we’ll get to meet our sweet baby and we can’t wait!!

The Past 11 Weeks

So maybe I’m not near as good at this blogging thing as I had imagined. Maybe, too, it’s the fact that many of the last weeks haven’t been very “news-worthy.” Don’t get me wrong, many things are changing during this pregnancy, but everything has been going right along schedule and we haven’t had any issues, so it’s been smooth sailing.

We found out on September 23^rd that we are having a GIRL! That appointment was our second attempt to find out if our little one was going to be a boy or a girl. She is breech and reverse, so seeing the important parts for the scan was a bit difficult. At our second appointment, the nurse wasn’t even sure if we would find out, but luckily she cooperated and showed us just what we wanted to see. In fact, the technician said it was one of the most clear pictures she has ever seen, so that was great to hear!

As we were watching the screen, I saw the picture pop up and instantly knew what it meant. The tech started typing, “It’s a…” and I looked at Tyler to ask him if he knew. I told him it was a girl and the tech looked at me and said I was right. Tears just started streaming down my face because I was so happy to finally know what our baby will be. I think in that instant millions of thoughts ran through my mind of what our future family would look like and the things that we would get to do. I could “see” the bows and the tutus and all of the girly things. I could picture having a little girl whose parents loved her more than the world and I instantly fell in love. Tyler looked over at me and smiled and just held my hand while I cried for the rest of the appointment. It was real. We are having a daughter. This little person growing inside of me just revealed more about herself and it made us so excited that we just couldn’t stop talking about her.

I, honest to God, think the situation would have been just the same had they said it was a boy. Just knowing what our little baby will be gave us so much happiness and we were able to bond with our child and envision the future. We are both completely excited and happy that our first child will be a little girl.

Week 12 Begins

How your baby's growing:

The most dramatic development this week: reflexes. Your baby's fingers will soon begin to open and close, his toes will curl, his eye muscles will clench, and his mouth will make sucking movements. In fact, if you prod your abdomen, your baby will squirm in response, although you won't be able to feel it. His intestines, which have grown so fast that they protrude into the umbilical cord, will start to move into his abdominal cavity about now, and his kidneys will begin excreting urine into his bladder.
Meanwhile, nerve cells are multiplying rapidly, and in your baby's brain, synapses are forming furiously. His face looks unquestionably human: His eyes have moved from the sides to the front of his head, and his ears are right where they should be. From crown to rump, your baby-to-be is just over 2 inches long (about theh size of a lime) and weighs half an ounce.

How your life's changing:

Your uterus has grown to the point where your healthcare provider can now feel the top of it (the fundus) low in your abdomen, just above your pubic bone. You may already be into maternity clothes, especially if this isn't your first pregnancy. If you're still fairly small and not yet ready for maternity clothes, you've no doubt noticed that your waist is thickening and that you're more comfortable in loose, less restrictive clothing.
You may begin to feel heartburn (also called acid indigestion), a burning sensation that often extends from the bottom of your breastbone to your lower throat. Many women get heartburn for the first time during pregnancy, and those who've previously had bouts of heartburn may find that it gets worse. During pregnancy, the placenta produces a lot of the hormone progesterone, which relaxes the valve that separates the esophagus from the stomach. Particularly when you're lying down, gastric acid can seep back up the pipe, which causes the uncomfortable burning sensation. For many women the problem doesn't begin (or get worse) until later in pregnancy, when your growing uterus starts to push up on your stomach. The discomfort may range from mildly annoying to intense and distracting.

Week 10 Ultrasound

Tyler wasn't able to get off of work for our last appointment, but my mom was MORE than willing to go with me. It was just our normal monthly appointment and an early one hour glucose tolerance test. Luckily I passed the glucose test, but let's just say that I won't be drinking anything orange flavored for a long time. Ick!
The Dr wasn't able to find the baby's heartbeat using a Fetal Doppler during the check up, so she sent us to ultrasound just to make sure things were ok. While it was a little alarming that she didn't find it, I wasn't too worried and my mom was excstatic that she would get to see the baby via ultrasound. We got in to the ultrasound room and it was amazing to see how much the baby has changed in the last 4 weeks. It actually looked like a baby! Our first ultrasound was just a little blob with a hearbeat, so to actually be able to see the form of a baby was very exciting!