Update!

I thought I'd go ahead and do an update because I finally feel like a human again! After 2 months of feeling nauseous and 3 weeks of a lung infection/IV's, I finally feel great. I'm ready to eat, gain some weight, and most importantly- shop for baby stuff! So if you haven't heard from me in a while I apologize, but I am finally ready to re-enter the world :).

I will include a couple of belly shots, but as you can see I am still pretty small! I can definitely tell, but I think it's still too risky for strangers to ask if I'm pregnant. I stick it out as far as I can though, especially after a big meal when I really look pregnant, so I'm hopeful that people will start noticing soon! I'll be 17 weeks on Sunday.

The whole family is coming up Easter weekend to celebrate my birthday with me, and I'm ready to put them to work. We are moving the guest room into the office, so my mom and I will be painting that and the nursery, and I'll update with pictures as soon as I can! I'm in the process of picking out cribs/dressers/changing tables and will probably order those soon, so I'm really excited about that. And Mike will be excited to have it ordered too- he just loooves shopping for baby furniture :P.

I think I felt the baby kick for the first time last night. For the past couple of weeks, I've been lying in bed trying to feel something before sleep every night, and I felt something last night that was definitely new. I felt it about 3 times in 10 minutes, it was really cool!

Last but not least, since a lot of people have been asking about names, we are *pretty* sure that her name will be Madeline Grace, and we'll call her Maddie. That's been our favorite name for a while, so unless we hear a name that we like more, that will be it!

GO HEELS!

Drumroll please.....

IT'S A GIRL!
Here are some pics! We got 30 wonderful pictures today, but a lot of them are kind of creepy looking (they look like a melting alien baby) so I tried to put the most normal ones in here!!! It was so cool to see her on screen for 20 minutes. She is little wiggle worm and wouldn't sit still for a second. I'm in for lots of kicks and punches in a few weeks!

Regular 2-D profile shot

Working hard towards washboard abs

Oops! Kicked herself in the eye!

Sucking her thumb

Already posing for pictures, haha

Bring on the pink paint!!!!

Weekend Warrior

So, I caught a little bug and got sick, so the powers that be in Chapel Hill decided it was time for me to do 2 weeks of IV's. Fun! At least I have yet to get that nasty flu that's going around. Anyway, since I'm sick my mom, aka Mary Poppins, decided to pack up her bag of magical remedies (which of course included lots of beef and cheese) and fly on up to Raleigh to take care of me for a few days. The magical bag must've worked, because my house is now clean, I'm feeling better and I think I even gained a couple of pounds!

But since my mom is the energizer bunny and can never sit still (unless of course there's an ACC basketball game on), she also decided to paint our hallway and guest bathroom, so our house got a mini-makeover too! Here's a pic of the "before" bathroom:

You can't really see it, but the walls were a tan color with kind of a greenish tint, and weren't painted well at all. Very streaky. And my pink/white stuff didn't really match the walls at all.

But noooow ::drumroll please:: here's the new bathroom!So those that come visit, be prepared for a much sexier bathroom.

Screening results are in!

The genetic counselor called me today with our official results. Since I'm 25 (well, almost), my risk starts out at about 1/750 for our child to have Downs or Trisomy 13. With the results of the ultrasound and blood test, that risk was lowered to 1/1000+. So good news!

On an unrelated note, let me tell you about our very romantic Valentine's day. I made steaks and twice baked potatoes, and riiight before we were finished with dinner I got nauseous and threw it all up. Guess we won't soon forget that one :). Good thing we decided not to go out and do an expensive meal!

Pictures!

Mike and I went yesterday to have first trimester screening for chromosomal abnormalities like Downs Syndrom and Trisomy13. They just do an ultrasound and bloodwork to determine if you are at a higher risk for these, and if you are then you can do further testing. We went to the Raleigh UNC office, which is at Rex Hospital, and liked it sooo much better than the Chapel Hill UNC office. Just a lot newer, nicer, and so much easier to get in and out of- not to mention it's 30 minutes closer to our house. Since it is the same group, we are thinking that I might switch permanently to Rex.

We met with a genetic counselor, then went in for the ultrasound (my first abdominal one, yay!). They had the fancy shmancy machine that does the 3-D (or is it 4-D? I can never remember) pictures, so that was awesome!!! I'm so glad that Mike decided to come b/c it was definitely the best appointment yet. The ultrasound took about 30 minutes, b/c the technician kept trying to get the baby to roll over, and the baby refused. Already stubborn! Lots of kicking and waving of the fists though, in protest to all the jiggling. We'll get official results in about a week, but the ultrasound looked really good and way below the higher risk category.

So here are my pictures!!! I carry them around everywhere with me, I can't stop looking at them! I wasn't sure if I wanted to see the 3-D pics, b/c it's so detailed that you can really see what the baby looks like, and I didn't want to ruin any surprises. But I'm SO glad they did it, I love them :). If the baby had flipped over or stretched a bit, we might have gotten a guess at the gender yesterday, but since it was stubborn we'll have to wait until next month.



Sorry for the bad quality, we don't have a scanner so I just took pictures of the pictures. Oh, and the updated due date is August 23rd...Mike's birthday, LOL!

Appointment Numero Dos

Second appointment today! It was a quickie, they basically just checked on how I was feeling and used the doppler to listen to the baby's heartbeat. It was in the 150's and sounded great! I was excited to get to hear it again. My weight is down a bit, I've been losing weight since I still hate pretty much all food. But the doctor said that food aversion is fairly common and it should go away in the next couple of weeks. I sure hope so! I mean, not that I don't love force feeding myself at every meal. Mike and I did decide to forgo the traditional nice Valentine's meal out, since I will most likely only take 3 bites and not really enjoy those. Maybe next year (ha!).

So that was it for this week! I swear I'll add in pictures of myself once I start to show, but right now I only look a tiny bit chubby, and really only after I eat a meal. I can't wait for the baby bump to start, b/c I am ready to start maternity clothes shopping! To be honest, I've already bought a few things and wear them on a regular basis. Jeans with stretchy panels are a fabulous idea, pregnant or not.

I have an appointment to in Raleigh on Feb 11th to get screened for Down's syndrome and other chromosomal abnormalities. Just an ultrasound and some bloodwork. And then we will do another ultrasound at my next appointment, on March 3rd, and will hopefully be able to determine the sex then! I am SO excited to find out. I am trying to do equal opportunity gender shopping when I'm browsing online for baby stuff :).

Bun in the oven

Time for the official blog announcement I guess- I am pregnant! I am 8 weeks along as of yesterday. So far being pregnant has been pretty great. I am one of the lucky few who doesn't seem to be getting any morning sickness, so I'm really happy about that. Now, I've never been more tired in my life and (TMI alert) my boobs are killing me, but I'm not throwing up, so I can't complain.

I took 5 pregnancy tests the morning of December 14th, and I was thrilled to find them all positive! I think my count is up to 11 tests right now. Still all positive :). Here's a picture of the dinner I made Mike that night:

Get it? Baby carrots, baby back ribs, baby peas, baby corn....any Full House fan will of course get the Becky/Jesse reference. Mike did not get it (not surprisingly, I didn't marry him for his observational abilities), but was very happy when I explained what it meant!

We told all of the grandparents over Christmas/New Years visits. All are excited, and I'm currently trying to convince my mom that she needs to move in with us for about a year. That's not asking too much, right?

Here's a picture of the first ultrasound taken at 6.5 weeks. We were able to hear the heartbeat then too, which was awesome! We had another ultrasound done at 8 weeks, but the quality wasn't great and I don't have it scanned in. The good news is the baby looks slightly less like an alien in the 8 week picture. There are two sacs in the ultrasound, meaning I probably started out with twins, but the doctors don't know for sure.

So that's that! I'll try and update every few weeks, especially when I start getting a cute little belly :). Right now it's just fat I think!