24 Week Update

Merry Belated Christmas! Yesterday, we spent the morning with Mark's family in Atlanta and then drove down to Orlando for dinner with my family. Lots of driving! But it was a good day. We had fun with our nephew Wesley's first Christmas. He was very festive!

It was also a good opportunity for the dogs to get some baby time in, Tella was disinterested but Pepper was very curious:

24 weeks marks the 6 month mark for me! Time is passing quickly though it still feels like he won't be here for a long time. And here is a nice scenic bump pic for the week, though it was a bit windy here:

23 Week Update

Things are still going well with the pregnancy! His movements are getting stronger and feeling more like distinct kicks and jabs. I haven't been able to discern any kind of pattern to his movements though, they seem to just happen randomly. Mark has been able to feel a few kicks, but it's hard for others to feel them still.

Many of you know I have a serious love of knitting. So naturally after I found out I was pregnant I immediately started shopping for yarn and baby patterns! I decided to tackle a baby blanket first and I finished it last week:

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. This is one of my favorite types of patterns, easy to knit but looks complicated :) I'm now knocking out a baby hat and possible some matching booties if I have enough yarn left over. We still have a long way to go, but that just gives me more time to knit cute things!

We had fun today decorating cookies with our friend Teresa. We had LOTS of cookies to decorate:

Mark had a good sense of humor with his. Here we have one gingerbread cookie that got smooshed when we put it on the cookie sheet that he called "Grandma got run over by a reindeer" and a pizza cookie:

And of course, here is the 23 week bump picture:

I feel like it's getting higher and more round versus getting bigger. Though I'm probably due for a growth spurt here in the next week or so.

Next week we'll be on the road for the holidays, travelling from Atlanta to Orlando so the post might be a bit late!

22 Week Update

22 down, "only" 18 more to go! Not much to report here. The bump is getting bigger and the baby's movements are getting stronger. Here's the bump:

Don't let the tank top fool you, it's chilly here. Been overcast, windy, and in the 40s. Pretty dreary. So much so that we got a fire going tonight, which apparently the dogs enjoyed:

They're worn out tonight because we took them for a nice walk today. We were cold but they loved it!

21 Week Update

It's been a busy week around here! We had 2 doctor's appointments this week. One was a 20 week anatomy scan where they looked closely at all the major organs (especially the heart) and took more precise measurements than you can with a regular ultrasound. Everything looked good except that there was some fluid in his kidneys, which is apparently very common in boys. But they want me to go back in 10 weeks to see if everything cleared up okay. But we were happy to see all the vitals looking strong. He's measuring slightly big for how far along things are and they estimated his weight was 13 oz. Getting close to a whole pound! My 2nd appointment was just my regular monthly check up with the ob/gyn and all was well there. So at the halfway mark everything looks healthy!

Last night we went to a Christmas party for Mark's work. They always throw a good party. An all you can eat buffet is pretty fantastic when you are a hungry pregnant chick :) They had some butternut squash risotto that was pretty amazing. It was fun and not only did we get a $40 gift card to Bonefish (they do a raffle every year for some pretty nice prizes) but Mark got a 2 week bonus! Good timing for us. Here we are dressed up for the party with our then undecorated Christmas tree we picked up:

And here is the official 21 week bump pic with the decorated tree:

It's finals week for me, which I love. I need a break from teaching for a couple weeks!

20 Week Update

It's hard to believe but I'm now halfway through the baking! Sure seems like things are moving fast. This week my parents were in town for Thanksgiving. I have to say, being pregnant for Thanksgiving was one of my better ideas :) As usual everything was delicious and we've had a fun few days in Pensacola. It involved a lot of eating, which may partially explain the belly expansion this week:

We have a couple doctor's appointments coming up this week, so we'll have more to share next post!

19 Week Update

This week I actually have exciting news to share: It's a boy! We really enjoyed the ultrasound on Thursday and got to see Mark Jr. (temporary name) squirming around a lot. He gave us a good wave and yawn. It's amazing what they can see on ultrasounds these days. Everything looked great, everything measured exactly where it needed to be and we had a strong heartbeat. Here are the pics:

Profile

Face (the face is on the right, and is sideways; the two dark spots on the right are the eyes)

Feet! They are right under my belly button so that explains why I've felt so much movement in that area.

It's definitely a boy :) He almost didn't cooperate but the ultrasound technician was able to get him in the right position.

We're looking forward to Thanksgiving this week, my parents are coming up for the annual Mom feast. I'm very excited about Thanksgiving this year, especially since my early nausea has turned into a large appetite :)

And here is the bump pic (Tella wanted to make an appearance this week). I think it's getting rounder, which is hard to get in a picture. It might get bigger next week after all that turkey!

18 Week Update

Not much news to report this week on the baby front. I've had a lot more movements today, which is a fun game. They are getting easier to distinguish from random other things going on in my gut, ha. Here's the latest bump pic:

I feel like I'm working up to a big expansion since I've been pretty hungry the last few days and my belly button really itches. But I can't tell a huge difference between last week and this week.

A few weeks ago, we hit up a big consignment sale where people bring in all their old baby/kid stuff and sell it in a big warehouse. We did pretty good. We didn't get tons of things (waiting to find out the gender before we go crazy), but we did score some mega deals on some of the more expensive items. Here's the haul:

That's a car seat (a nice one too), some swaddling blankets, a set of crib sheets, some bottles, a breast pump, and a high chair that attaches to a regular chair. So it was worth the trip up to Pace, it saved us several hundred dollars!

Coming up next week, the 18 week ultrasound. Just for fun, I thought I'd throw up a poll to see what people thought we were having:

Are we having a girl or a boy?
	Girl
	Boy
pollcode.com free polls

17 Week Update

Coming up on 17 weeks, which is scarily close to halfway! I had a doctor's appointment on Thursday and everything is going smoothly. What's more exciting is that I scheduled my appointment for the big 18 week ultrasound where we'll get another look at the bean and know if it's a girl or boy! So in a couple weeks we'll have more exciting news.

As promised, here is the weekly bump picture:

Think it got bigger? Still feeling well. It's nice to feel more normal, even if it's hard to find clothes that fit :)

In other news, Mark and I have been working on some house projects one of which involved moving the washer and dryer out of the kitchen into the hall and making a sweet pantry. We finished the pantry today so now I have lots of room to fill up with stuff:

I'm pretty excited about this. So we were productive with our extra hour today. Back in a week!

16 Week Update

Welcome! Since we're far away from most family and friends (and not everyone is on Facebook), we decided to keep everyone posted on the baby progress in a blog. The goal is to update weekly with pics and progress.

Just about 16 weeks along now and I officially have a bump going:

And today after lunch I felt my first movements! That was really exciting. It's reassuring to know that the baby is still in there;)

I have been feeling better lately, only occasional nausea. I'm glad that phase seems to be over, it was getting pretty old. My next doctor's appointment is on Thursday, but the big ultrasound when we'll find out the gender won't be for another couple weeks. But if you haven't seen it, here is the most recent pic of the baby at 8 weeks:

Here the bean is about .6 inches long, but according to my baby book the bean is now 4-4.5 inches. Lots of growing going on!

Keep checking back for updates and Happy Early Halloween!