It's starting to feel like a nursery!

I want to start off by saying Thank You a million times to Scott's dad Joe, and his step-mom Denise. They came to visit with us this weekend and while they were here we went crib shopping. Baby now has a crib in the nursery thanks to Joe and Denise, and Scott and I cannot say thank you enough for them generously buying us a safe and beautiful place for our baby to rest it's head at night.

They also brought us the first baby clothes. :-) Of course, they had to get the little munchkin Steelers gear, and also got us a nice pack of bibs and a sweet little romper set and some socks. Their visit was so wonderful. They got to meet Hailey as well as Stray, and Dolce and Bit got plenty of loving too. We had a fantastic dinner at Dave's and brunch at Clementines before they had to head back home.

Putting together the crib for me is such a surreal thing, and is just one more thing that makes the amazing fact that we are having a baby sink in. The room is looking less like a office/general purpose/junk room, and more like it really has a purpose. Yup, you guessed it, I teared up once I stepped back and took it all in. :-) The cats have been curious (naturally!) of the new digs in "their" room, but seem to be more interested in hiding underneath it and watching it from thier spots on the futon than they are in getting into it. We will see how long that last though.

We have our next appt with the midwife on Friday, and are hoping we can schedule an ultrasound soon to find out the baby's gender once and for all. I still really believe we have a little boy coming, as do a number of the family, and have been leaning that way a bit with purchases, but have really been trying to hold off on getting anything till we know for sure. While Denise was visiting though, we did finally look through Target's baby bedding collections, and I picked out my favorites for both a boy and girl and added them to the baby registry. For a boy I think we are going to go with jungle animals, and for a girl, something a bit more luxurious and princess-ish, without being crazy over the top. No crowns, etc. but pink and chocolate colors and silky fabrics.

I know some of it is hormones, but I have been tearing up at least once daily over various things, but mostly all at the wonderment of it all, and how lucky I am. Work is fantastic. I love the people I work with and they have all been so supportive. I recieved a thank-you eCard from a co-worker on Friday for helping him with a SharePoint site for his reports, and lost it finally when one of my bosses, Jodi, said I was doing a great job. I feel so fortunate to have so much support from all around. Scott is amazing, and loving and caring, and my mom and his family have all been so supportive and excited for us. There is so much that is wonderful in our life that somedays it's overwhelming. I can honestly say I have never felt this much love and caring from all those around me, and so much support at work ever in my life.

Ok, I'll stop with the mushy stuff now. I just hope everyone knows just how appreciative I am for everything. :-)

On other notes... we got 2 inches of snow this weekend which melted the same day, and Hailey has learned how to climb on the bed. Hahaha. As much as we said "no Hailey on the bed", once she was up there and snuggling between us, it was really really hard to make her get down. She's growing like a weed but is such a personable dog who you can tell absolutely adores her family. We love her and all of our "furry children" so much. They certainly keep us on our toes!

I hope all is well for you all and I'll update again after our mid-wife appointment!

Nic

16 week belly pic!

Early nesting, memories, and random crying

Well, we are 15.5 weeks along and feeling great! Laying on my stomach is just starting to get uncomfortable, but other than that, baby and I have been doing well. We have a couple more weeks before our next check up, but I feel like I'm getting bigger every day, and have had a good amount more energy lately as I have hit my second trimester. I also have gotten my appetite for meat back (yay!) which is good as supposedly, from here on out I should be gaining about a pound a week. 

Of course, every one tells you to be ready for the random weepies when you are pregnant. Well, they have started. Hahaha. I look over at Scott and just get so happy I start to tear up. I rub the baby's new blanket I got him/her, and go figure, I start crying. All good tears, but still, for not being a crier, I seem to be crying an awful lot lately!

The "nesting" urge is already starting to hit me. The hard part is that Scott and I still haven't fully decided if we are going to stay put where we are when our lease is up in July, or try to get into a bit larger of a townhouse, with a yard and a third room. I finally decided though that either way, getting all of baby's stuff into one room wouldn't be a bad idea. If we stay, well, it's already there. If we move, well it's all together, and since we would be moving in my 3rd trimester, the easier I can make a move at that time, the better we would be.

It is driving me nuts not knowing if baby is a girl or boy yet, though, I personally have the feeling that we will be having a little boy. I know that wive's tales are only just that, tales, but the number of them that fit just make me think we will be having a little boy. Not having any morning sickness (my mom said she was sick with all 4 of us girls, but not sick at all with my brother), showing very front heavy, etc. all make me think we have a little boy on the way. We still have to wait a month though to find out, so here I sit impatiently waiting. Until then, I have tried to put "buying" mostly on hold, not wanting to get something and have it be the wrong gender. This though also hasn't kept me from picking up a few gender neutral items that were just too cute to pass up.

I came across this monkey fuzzy-blanket at TJ Maxx the other day and simply couldn't pass it up. :-) I have to pass my obsession with fuzzy blankies onto the baby early!! It is soooo soft. The "nesting" urge also got me to start pulling out what I already had for the baby. My niece Sophia visited with my mom last September, so I had gotten some items then for her to play with, such as board-books and a high chair that attaches to the kitchen chairs, knowing that I wanted kids sooner than later, and figuring that the items wouldn't go to waste, even if they sat for a couple years.

This also got me to getting out my childhood items that I had kept, such as my baby blankets and childhood stuffed animals. Obviously, there I was tearing up again as I was pulling them all out, knowing that soon our baby would be able to enjoy and play with the things that had meant the most to me growing up.

The baby blanket my mom made for me, along with blue bear which has a rattle in his butt :-), and Lion. I had to brush out Lion's mane a bit as it was matting from being in storage for so long. It's amazing to me that these are all in such good condition for being almost 30 years old!

The baby afghan that my Grandma Jan made for me and one of the dolls that my Grandma Joan had given me as a little girl. I wish they could be here to meet their first great-grandchild, but I'm sure they will be watching over us in spirit!

I also decided to start personalizing the room a bit. The second room was our office/my craft room, so I started packing up that stuff today to put it up in the attic and make room for baby. I did leave behind some cork-board and decided to use it as a canvas for the baby.

Pictures of Baby on the cork-boards as you walk into the room. The little banner over the left panel says "Baby's Room"

I also did one for me and the pregnancy and our belly pictures.

Well, back to some more packing up for me. Scott has been working a ton lately, and is on his way home, so it will be nice to spend a little time with him. I think Hailey needs a walk again too. Thank goodness babies poop in diapers! Hahaha. I hope all is well for all of you!

~Nic

14 weeks, Puppy, and Ultrasound

First off, I want to say sorry for not posting recently. There has been a lot going on. Most of it good, some of it not so good, but I think I'll stick with the good on here. All is good with Scott and I and the baby, so no worries there, just some other stuff going on that I won't get into right now.

So, for the good stuff:

1) We got a puppy. :-) Meet Hailey.

This is our Hailey-bug as I like to call her!

We got our yellow lab puppy Hailey almost 2 weeks ago now. She'll be 3 months old on the 12th. She is our latest addition, and I have to say, is great parenting practice. Hahahaha.

Potty-training has it's good days and bad days at the moment, but we are making progress. She loves her toys, and will get to be about 70lbs when all is said and done. We might be masochists, but we thought the timing was actually really good with getting her, because we wanted a dog that would grow up with the baby, and figure we have 6 months to train her before our little one comes. She is a really good dog, and we wanted a bigger dog, seeing as how we know Dolce, my chihuahua would not be nearly as tolerant of a toddler "petting" her aggressively.

Labs are known for their loyalty and gentleness, as well as their intelligence and trainability. Hailey has already learned to "sit" and we are having less and less accidents in the house. As with a child though, we know it will take time. She is a great exercise in learning patience! Overall though, she has been a wonderful and welcome addition to the family!

2) Doctors Appointments and Ultrasound:

We had our first mid-wife appointment last Monday. My bloodwork came back that I am B-Neg bloodtype, which means that I will have to get a shot of Rohgam at about 27 weeks to prevent my blood potentially mistaking the baby's blood (if the baby has positive blood) as an intruder. As usual (and to the surprise of few) I am one of the few "weird" ones, with only about 2% of the population being B-Neg. Nothing with me can be normal, can it!? hahaha

Everything is going well with the baby (despite it's weird mother and her rare blood type), and we got to hear the heart-beat during the visit. Little one has a strong ticker! Low and behold, only 1 heart beat! (whew, dodged a bullet with that one!) The Midwife also confirmed that I was measuring tight on track for only having one in there, so that was a big worry lifted.

We then asked about ultrasounds, because, ultimately, I'm impatient and don't want to wait another 2 months to see our baby. hahaha. The way to get the ultrasounds, and also get insurance to cover it, was through genetic testing, which would test for Down's Syndrome risk level. Completely non-invasive, just needing blood work from me and 2 ultrasounds where they measure the fluid between the baby's spine and skin. Though we hadn't planned on doing the testing, knowing we will love this baby no matter what, if it got me to get to see our little one sooner, I figured, why not! :-) We made an appointment for last Friday to have the ultrasound.

Friday was AMAZING. There is nothing quite like seeing your baby for the first time. Baby was very active, and very healthy! We got to see the baby have hiccups, all 5 fingers on both hands, the face, etc... You can see also below! Ultimately, everything is perfectly normal and healthy, and they assess the risk for Down's syndrome a very very low 1 in 7,600. As much as we didn't plan on knowing if anything was wrong, it was also nice to hear that everything was normal and healthy.

A number of you have probably already gotten text messages of the ultrasound pictures, but here are all of them. :-)

Meet our Baby!! We still won't know the gender for a month or two, but it was wonderful seeing an active, healthy little one in there. I can't wait till I can feel the movements of him or her! :-)

3) 14 Weeks:

Well, as of today, I am 14 weeks. I finally broke down last weekend and picked up maternity clothes. I never knew maternity pants could be so comfortable!!! Ross had a great selection for really reasonable prices. I have been feeling great lately. Some of the back pain I have been experiencing has lessened, at least a bit. Work has been great, and as usual, Scott has been soooo supporting. I don't know what I would do without him. He's my rock!

Well, that's about it for now. I'll try to get on here more often, and hopefully the "other things" that are going on will be resolved soon. I hope all is well for all of you!

~Nic