21 and Loving Life Again!

Our baby boy is more than half baked! 

Dan got to feel him kick a few times this week!

He tends to kick more at night than any other time of the day!

Now that I've kicked my head cold to the curb, I've developed spring fever! 

On Wednesday, Dan and I ran 5 miles. It felt great to stretch my legs in the 50 degree weather! 

But the next day, it snowed and we were reminded that it is not yet spring. : (

Yesterday, my baby fever got hotter when Dan and I took dinner over to our neighbor who recently had her second baby boy! He melted my heart! I could have held him all day long!

Dan and I celebrated Valentine's Day twice!

Wednesday evening, we went to Brik's for Creighton's Residency Intern plug. We enjoyed appetizers and catching up with our friends! It was fun to dress up! 

Thursday I had to work. DRAG! 

But Dan surprised me with a delicious home made Italian dinner, sparkling juice & chocolate covered strawberries! What a lucky girl (and baby boy, who really enjoyed every bite!).

Somehow I managed to chip my tooth while eating..... lettuce???? : (

As a result, I'm bound for the dentist this week.

This week our baby:

-Weighs 13 ounces!

-Can now digest water from the amniotic fluid!

-Is growing, growing, growing! 

 

20 Weeks!

This weekend was a tough one. 

I ended up having to work the weekend and got sick from one of my sweet patients.

--The joys of being a nurse--

Otherwise, Dan and I have been busy, busy, busy with work.

Dan loves the NICU, but when a delivery lands late in the day, he ends up having a LONG day, too. Sometimes his day can last 4 hours or it can last 12. It just depends on mother nature. 

I have had Dan on special assignment while working in the NICU. It's been his job to find out what causes these NICU mommas to go into labor early.  

Dan has been glad to report that many of the mothers have STDs, are in their later 30s, or have a lot of health problems themselves. Rarely, is it something wrong with the baby! 

Relief!

Last night, I was laying on my right side on the couch and I felt our little boy roll over to my right side!! It was the best feeling I have ever felt. I got really emotional and started to cry! Dan just held me and tried his hardest to feel the baby. He was pretty sure he could palpate his heart beat! 

This little memory pretty much sums up this past week: 

Emotional! 

In fact, we were looking at boy clothes, while the pharmacy was filling my prescriptions, and out of the blue I started to cry when I picked up a newborn baby boy outfit. 

Never in a million years would I have ever thought I would cry just looking at a tiny piece of clothing. Just thinking about holding my precious baby boy in such a short while pulled at the strings of my heart. 

Dan wrapped me in his arms and kissed my forehead and I lost it. 

Alligator tears started flowing just thinking about how blessed we are. 

Here's to trying to be less emotional this next week!

This week our baby is:

-Developing his senses: taste, smell, hearing, seeing, & touch

-Able to hear & recognize my voice

-Likes to stretch his legs

-The size of a Barbie doll and weighs 9-10 ounces

-Covered with vernix (a thick creamlike material covering his skin)

Airplanes, Dragons, Cars, Tractors, Dinosaurs, Monkeys!!

Right after our baby's ultrasound, Dan called his mom and told her our exciting news! I couldn't call my folk since they live in Germany, so we ran around town trying to find the perfect prop to help announce our baby's gender!

While shopping I noticed I had missed a few calls from Maggie! Right when I started to call her back with the news, she called me and her exact words were, "You don't even have to tell me if it's a boy or girl, just tell me pink or blue."

I responded with:

We're going BLUE!

I can't wait to start planning for this little guy to join our family!

 Thanks Justine for the awesome photo shoot!!

It's a BOY!

We finally found out we are expecting the cutest little baby BOY in June!

He is already so incredibly handsome. His nose is my absolute favorite! I can't wait to give it little Eskimo kisses! I'm such a proud momma already and I haven't even met him! If he is anything like his daddy, he will be perfect!

Once we walked into to the ultrasound room, our ultrasound tech introduced herself, then I was prepped and the very second the light went out and the prob hit my tummy, she knew we were having a boy! There would have been absolutely NO WAY we would not have been able to notice he was a boy. He was very willing to let us look anywhere we wanted. He was very patient and did some really cute things!

We saw him drinking the amniotic fluid! It was so adorable!

His arms crossed over his face!

His head was on the right side of my abdomen and he was laying transverse. We looked at his profile first! He passed the test, no cleft lip in sight and that's when I saw the cutest little nose I have ever seen! That's when I started to cry. It was just a little tear at first, but then the magnitude of how blessed we are that the Lord would trust Dan and I enough to care for one of His sweet spirits, that my eyes turned into faucets. He trusts use enough to raise one of His son's in such a way that he will one day return to live with Him again. I was overcome with absolute peace. I cry just thinking about that precious moment that I will surely never forget!

Next, we looked at his skull and the tech measured his head circumference. His head was 20w 6d. We next looked at all the parts of his brain: the ventricles, the corpus callosum, the cerebellum, etc. Next we looked at his tiny beating heart. He has all four chambers, a patent formamen ovale and ductus arteriosus. His aorta is arched like it should be and his cardiac vessels are where they should be! His heart rate was 140-150s. Next, we looked at this stomach which is super tiny! We looked at the top of his abdomen. It looks like all of his bowels are inside of him which rules out gastroschisis and omphalocele. Next, we looked at his umbilical cord. It has toe arteries and one vein just as is should! My placenta is on the front of my uterus, which is probably the reason I haven't been able to feel our sweet boy move. Then, we saw that his bladder had urine in it, which means his kidneys are working. His ureters were the right size, 2mm. Sometimes baby boys have dilated ureters due to their outdoor pluming, which can be a normal abnormal, but our babies' were just perfect, which also indicates that his kidneys are working!

His little hand up by his face!

Next, we looked at his spine and yet again, he passed the test. All vertebra are there and accounted for. No indication of spina bifida that we could tell. Plus, he can move his legs, which is also a good sign that his spine works! Next, we looked at this legs and toes. His femur measured 19w 5d, which is exactly how far I am. He has the cutest little baby thighs, which means he'll probably be a runner like his momma! He also has all his finger and toes. To Dan and me it looked like his feet were pointed inward kinda like club feet, which worried us, but the ultrasound tech reassured us that with time, they should straighten out. It's also too early to diagnose club feet. What we were seeing was typical for our babies' age.

Runner Legs!!

That's about the time when our ultrasound tech started laughing. Now our tech was older and very experienced. She was probably 55 years old. I wouldn't say she was serious, she joked on occasion, but she definitely made us feel like she was there to do her job and make sure our baby was developing as it should. So when she started laughing, it caught us a little off guard. She apologized for laughing and explained herself. She said that what we had just seen was our little guy try to reach for his toes but caught a hold of his manhood on accident. We all laughed. Good thing our baby has no clue what he's doing! Another moment I'll never forget!

(The blackmail proof!)

At the end of the ultrasound, Dan got to drive for awhile. He did an excellent job! I was so impressed! On the way home, I thought I could feel out little guy kick by left ribs! Time will tell if what I feel is our little guy!

Just a Few More Days!

I am 19 weeks along with our growing baby! Just a few days and we'll find out what we're having! 

Eeeeeek! 

After being married to be for more than four and a half years, Dan knows very well how much I love surprises! I find it very exciting to wonder and guess at what might be. So then, wouldn't you think I'd want to wait all 40 weeks to find out what we're having? 

No way!

There most definitely comes a time when a surprise needs to be revealed! 

After 5 months of waiting for this surprise, I am very much ready to have the best surprise thus far in my life!

At this ultrasound on Wednesday, we'll finally get the opportunity to see very organ in our developing baby. Like every momma, out there, I am very hopeful that everything is growing perfectly and according to Our Heavenly Father's Plan. 

Dan and I have been very prayerful and are ready for Wednesday!

Since Valentines Day falls on a week day this year and since we both have to work that day, Dan and I chose to begin our celebration early, by attending another elegant performance by our very own Omaha Symphony! 

It was a fantastic night filled with music from the very famous James Bond films. We started the night off with a delicious dinner of chicken fajitas & guacamole! 

FYI: Our baby & Mexican Food doesn't mix too well. :( My tummy was very rumbly. 

Our seats were fantastic! 

(Flash photography is not prohibited, so I turned of my flash, and took a picture :) Dan only allowed me to take one during their warm up!

After the concert, one of Dan's friends from Medical school took our picture! It was a very windy, freezing cold night! In fact, we received some freezing rain!

In the warmth of our home!

This week our baby:

-Can hear my beating heart, my lungs fill with air, my blood moving throughout my body, and our food digesting

-Vernix is now secreted from the babies skin

-Myelin (similar to insulation) is covering our babies nerves so it's movements will be more purposeful later in life

-Is producing gastric juices to digest amniotic fluid, which is then filtered through it's tiny little kidneys

-Is developing its baby teeth this week!

18 Weeks & Loving Every Minute!

This past Saturday, I entered into my 18th week of pregnancy! 

I have to admit, when we first got pregnant, I was so grouchy. Poor Dan! My stomach was constantly upset. Nothing sounded good to eat & took two naps on my days off from work. I was SO tired. I didn't feel like doing anything except for reading books & watching movies, while laying on the couch. As a result, Dan was able to get a lot of quality study time in. Dan was so good to me. He made me breakfast in bed, gave me the best massages, and made me laugh when all I wanted to do was cry. In a way, I miss those days already.

Once I started taking prilosec and my endocrinologist put me on the right dose of levothyroxin, our lives went back to normal! In fact, once I hit my second trimester, life has gotten so much better than it has ever been. It's so exciting to daydream with Dan about our sweet new bundle of joy, which will be arriving in June! Awe, June will be an exciting time :) 

I often wish time would slow down a bit, so Dan and I could enjoy this spot in our lives just a little longer. I see my friends in their third trimester, and I do not envy them one bit. They just look so uncomfortable carrying a watermelon on their little tiny frames. In the same sense, I'm looking forward to enjoying every minute of that uncomfortable third trimester.

But for now, I'm absolutely loving every minute of my 18th week of pregnancy. 

This past week, Dan and I put together the baby's crib and changing table. The crib was a piece of cake, but that changing table was a beast. Too bad those things don't come already set up. But where would the frustration be in that? Ha! 

This week, our little baby:

-Weighs somewhere between 5.5 and 7 ounces (my 3 pregnancy books are conflicting)! Either way, it's growing!

-Is developing the whirls & swirls of fingerprints!

-Is developing alveoli (air pockets in the lungs)!

-Is also forming meconium in the bowel (a babies' first bowel movement)

17 Weeks!

This week I went to my OB appointment with one of my best friends from nursing school, Maggie! Dan was unable to make it to the appointment due to a residency interview at the Nebraska Medical Center here in Omaha. I am such a lucky girl to have such amazing friends who are willing to take the time to support me and my growing family! Thank you Maggie for being there for me! You are going to be such an amazing "aunt" to our sweet baby!

At the appointment, we got to listen to the heart beat, which was high 140s, low 150s beats per minute. According to my OB, this is a perfect heart rate!! Unfortunately, we weren't able to see an ultrasound of the baby, despite our hopes, but our big ultrasound appointment will be February 6th! At that same appointment, we will find out what we're having! It's probably a good thing that we didn't have an ultrasound of the baby this week. I'm afraid if we had had one, I would have been too tempted to ask what the sex of the baby was, which would have been exciting to find out, but without Dan present, wouldn't have made it as special. Otherwise, the appointment was rather straight forward. I asked my questions and the OB eased all the worries I had. A girl I work with, who is due about 5 days after me, felt she was having back labor this past week and ended up going to the ER. I was rather worried for her and her baby and that worry started to make me worried for my own baby. Like I said, all my fears were set at ease!

Today marks the beginning of my 17th week of pregnancy! 

Every once in a while, I think that perhaps I can feel our sweet baby nudge me, but only time will tell if what I'm feeling is actually the baby or something else! ;) My OB mentioned that since I'm such a tiny girl and my baby is growing like it should, I could potentially feel the baby move this week!!! 

At this point our baby:

--Now has finger & toe nails

--Can smile and frown (although it doesn't do so on purpose)

--Is storing lots of fat to keep it warm at birth

--Can hear sounds outside of my body

--Is practicing breathing (it's chest rises & falls)

--Exhales amniotic fluid

I LOVE reading my pregnancy books! Just thinking about our baby brightens my day!