Christmas Eve

We sure did start our Christmas holiday off with a bang!

On Sunday morning I woke up with the stomach flu. We ended up spending 7 hours in the hospital because I couldn't keep anything down and I got very dehydrated. So they gave me an IV of fluids which I had no idea how difficult an IV could be when you are dehydrated. But I have the bruises to show how many times the nurse gave it a try before calling anesthesia.

The funniest part of the day was when the doctor was doing the ultrasound to make sure everything was ok with Baby G and James asked, "Is it a boy?" The doctor looked for a little while and said, "It is for sure a girl or either a very unfortunate boy." We both died laughing. (If Baby G reads this blog one day, I promise your dad is not disappointed you are not a boy. He is very excited to be having a daughter. It has just taken him some time to get over the shock factor of having a little girl.)

So now that I am feeling better, James has gotten sick and we are headed to New Orleans tomorrow night to see the fam. Let's just hope that James is not the one throwing up in the airplane bag this time.

We will be spending Christmas day with the pups tomorrow before heading out of town. Toby is ready for Xmas and to open some gifts!

Boy or Girl???

James wanted me to title this post Karma. So take a guess what we are having....

If you still aren't positively sure than you will be after I tell you this: I wish I had a camera, when the sonographer told us the big news, to capture James's face. It was priceless! He literally just sat there blank for five minutes. All I could do was laugh. If only I could have been inside that head to know what he was thinking. I guess he was just shocked because he said he just stopped thinking for a little while.
So that is right....

We are having a GIRL!

While this ultrasound was very much anticipated and exciting to find out the sex, it was also important to have Baby G's anatomy scan. She is all good! She has two legs, two feet, two arms, two hands and many more important parts.

Isn't she adorable.

 

Here she is opening her mouth. James said she is probably already talking back.
 

Doulas

James and I have had a very busy week!

After making the decision to have a doula help us through and attend the birth of Baby G, we got busy emailing doulas that we were interested in interviewing. We had several interviews last weekend and still a couple more to go.

Before I talk about the meetings with our potential doulas, I may need to tell you what a doula does just in case some of you may not know. A doula is a labor coach, someone who is present during the birth to support both the mom and dad. In case you want to read more about doulas, here is a couple links:
http://www.childbirthinternational.com/faq/birth_doula.htm

Here is a link to Doulas of North America, talking about what doulas do.
http://www.dona.org/mothers/index.php

So after meeting with the first doula, James and I agreed that we both really liked her and thought she would be a great fit. James said he did not want to meet anymore doulas, that she was the one. I told James we can't just go with the first one without meeting the other doulas. I told him that it is like a girl shopping for her wedding dress. The first one you put on, may be the perfect one that you end up buying but you have to try on others to make sure. So we met with two other doulas and James was right, they were not as great of a fit for us as the first doula we met.

We have one more doula to meet before we make the very important decision of who will support us through the birth and help welcome Baby G into the world! We will keep you posted.

Let's Compare

Let's compare and see how much the baby bump has grown since the last time we took a belly shot.

16 Weeks

Almost 19 Weeks

18 Weeks

At five and a half inches long and five ounces in weight, Baby G now may be large enough for me to feel him/her twisting, rolling, kicking, and punching his/her way around the womb. But while at the doctor the Monday before Thanksgiving, she told me that my placenta is in the front of my belly so I may not be able to feel Baby G until 20 weeks or after.

As for my body: joint-loosening pregnancy hormones are wreaking havoc on my muscles and ligaments, adding up to me feeling like an old lady every day saying, "Oh, my hip!" Oh and the heartburn is horrible. I swear I just think about food and get heartburn.

This is what Baby G should be starting to look like at 18 weeks.

Thanksgiving Day Traditions

On Wednesday, Nov. 21st we drove in to Michigan just in time for our annual Thanksgiving day traditions.

We woke up bright and early on Thursday morning to get to downtown Detroit for the Thanksgiving Day Parade. Everyone was out because the weather was so great! Great meaning 60 degrees instead of 20 degrees. While all the kiddos stood in the back of a truck and watched the parade, the adults spent time catching up and enjoying some delicious beverages that I was not able to partake in this year. Even though I spent most of the parade chatting and sharing the great news about Baby G, I was able to get a shot of the gigantic Mr. Turkey.

 

I can't wait for Baby G to go to his/her first Thanksgiving Day Parade next year in Detroit.

 

To keep the traditions going we stopped by the Town Pump before heading to the Lions game. It is a tradition that every year I take a picture with the Firefighters who are dressed like clowns and a picture in their clown car. The only thing missing this year was my wonderful friend Kelly. This was the first year she was not bartending at the Town Pump.

 

 

 

After this awesome photo, that is for sure going to have to go in the baby book, we headed to the long Lions game where of course it did not end in their favor. Then we headed back to James's moms house after the game so James could deep fry the turkey. After spending time with the family and a delicious Thanksgiving meal we were off to bed. It was a very exhausting and fun day!

 

 

 



Thanksgiving Extravaganza

The start of Thanksgiving Break: Monday Nov. 19

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted but Baby G, James and I have been very busy traveling back to the great Midwest. Even though it was a wonderful trip, which was spent spending time with family and friends, it started off a little rocky.

We were running late because of bad traffic and we got to the terminal just in time to board the plane. I played the pregnancy card for the first time right when we got on the plane and asked the flight attendant if I could please use the bathroom and have a glass of water. She was much nicer than she would have been if I wasn't pregnant.

The flight took off and there was horrible turbulence. It was so bad for the first two hours of the flight that no one, not even the flight attendants, could get out of their seats. From the very beginning of the flight I felt so nauseous and I was freaking out just a little bit because I was trying my hardest not to throw up. James being the wonderful, supportive husband that he is was telling me to get it together and how could I give birth if I can't even deal with this. Well I showed him! I could not hold it anymore. I threw up all that water that the flight attendant gave me right into the little white bag. I was not only embarrassed but very impressed that I had such good aim and I did not make a mess at all.

Even though the flight to Chicago was the worst flight I have ever had, it was all worth it when I got to hang out the next day with my best friend Kevin and great friend Sara.

To end the wonderful day in Chicago, we had dinner at Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba with one of our favorite couples, Brandon and Rita, and one of the best little boys we know Danny.

16 Weeks

 

Matilda is helping mommy out!

Our First Purchase For Baby G

No we are not having twins! But we couldn't pass up a great deal. So we ended up with his and hers BOB strollers.

 

 

James and I went to an awesome mall that we recently discovered thanks to my friend Jill. I wanted to go there strictly to go to H&M to check out their maternity clothes. While exploring the mall, we found REI, which we can never pass up a look around. We had no intentions of looking at their strollers but they were right by the front door. We happen to see two strollers behind the rock climbing area and made our way back there to see why they were stuck in the corner. We saw that they were used and had a written price tag of $150 on each stroller. James immediately said that we should purchase both of them. We couldn't pass this deal up, they were practically brand new. We were getting two strollers for not even the price of one. 

So we asked the first sales associate and she told us we could not purchase them until the ding and dent sale. After some persuasion from James, she decided to ask another sales associate who said of course you can purchase them. So we took them straight to the register before they could change their mind. 

 

Change Has Come

 

 

So James comes home a couple days ago with this disgusting box of crackers from Costco. I know the only reason he bought them was for the name. But I truly think that lately this is how he feels about me. That I have absolutely gone crackers! I wouldn't say 100% of the time, maybe just 30% of the time. But I don't think that has changed much from before I was pregnant.

 

However what has changed is my appetite and my memory. For many of you who know me, you already know that I am one of the most indecisive people when it comes to food. Well, ladies and gentlemen, let me just tell you it has gotten worse. I finally have a good appetite but man I can not decide what I want to eat to save my life. It drives James absolutely crackers!

 

Also, everybody that knows me knows that I usually can't go through a story without at least saying one time, "What was I saying? I can't remember." Well, I say it so much more now that nobody probably wants to have conversations with me. I have got serious pregnant brain. But what is sad is that I had it before I got pregnant. Now it is just so much worse!!

It's Never Too Early To Start Looking

James and I decided you can never start too early checking out our options on car seats and strollers. First we went to a local high end store called Kids Club that only sales UPPAbaby (expensive) strollers. Debbie the sales lady was really pushing this stroller hard by saying it could fit up to three children. I think Debbie knew exactly how to sale this one to James considering he wants a whole army of children.

 

 

But James ended up leaving with this....

So James and I then ventured to the suburbs to Babies R Us to look at the more reasonable strollers and car seats. Until this point, I really haven't done much research on strollers and car seats so you can imagine how overwhelming this was for me. These are a couple strollers that we checked out.

 

 

 

 

But James ended up leaving with a video game. So the moral to this story is that James is a big kid. I can never take him to a toy store without him leaving with a toy. As for me, I am still as confused as before about which stroller to purchase and I am going to have two kids on my hands when Baby G arrives.

Happy Halloween

Baby G's furry four legged big brother and sister are enjoying the attention while they can. Actually Toby would really love it if he never had to dress up again. He just freezes when you put a costume on him but it's great for picture taking.


Toby the Squirrel! It is very fitting since Matilda loves to chase squirrels.

 

Matilda the Bull! She looks so happy, doesn't she?

 

THIS IS HALLOWEEN!!!

 

 

NT Screening

James and I decided to have the NT screening done which happen to be 12 weeks and 2 days. NT is better none as Nuchal Translucency screening test which for some of you who may be as confused as I was, it measures the clear (translucent) space in the tissue at the back of your developing baby's neck. Because babies with abnormalities tend to accumulate more fluid at the back of their neck during the first trimester, causing this clear space to be larger than average. So along with some blood test and the NT screening, doctors can give us results in the form of a ratio that expresses your baby's chances of having a chromosomal defect.

So enough of the serious talk......

While the sonographer was trying to get Baby G to turn over, so she could see the back of his/her neck, she printed out a lot of pictures for me to take home. Which by the way, this screening took over an hour, but the sonographer told me to feel lucky that they got what they needed and I didn't have to come back next week.

Baby G also got his/her first compliment! The sonographer said that our baby was so cute. I may be a little bias but I think he/she is pretty darn cute myself. Check out the pics.

 

 

Baby G is covering it's eyes. "Stop taking pictures of me."

 

 

I'm not sure how cute this pic is. It's a bit of a blur and I can't really figure out the face.

 

 

Baby G's hand. It is so cool how you can see every bone in his/her hand.

 

 

Baby G's hand is headed towards it's mouth.....

 

 

And we might just have a thumb sucker on our hands. How cute!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12 Weeks and Starting to Show

 

 

 

 

 

8 Week Ultrasound

James was able to join me at this doctor's appointment to see Baby G for the first time. He was so excited when he heard the heart beat. I think that was the moment it became real for both of us.

 

Not much difference from the 6 week ultrasound. Baby G just looks like a bigger peanut.

 

 

 

Welcome To Our Baby Blog!

We are so happy to anounce that we are having a baby! Expected due date is May 7, 2013.

Since we live so far away from our family friends, we wanted to make sure that you all have a way of staying up to date with the pregnancy. So to start the blog off right, here are the pics of our first ultrasound at 6 weeks. James was not able to make it to this ultrasound because he was traveling for work. But I got to hear the heart beat due to the amazing technology of the doppler. It was the most amazing sound I have ever heard in my life thus far. It brought lots of tears to my eyes.

Here is our little peanut....

 

 

 

 

Measuring the heart beat