July

This blog is overdue! A few weeks ago, after I took the 23 week picture I decided to wait to post because nothing eventful was going on. Plus, I had my 24 week check-up the following week that included the diabetes test, so I thought that I would post both the 23 and 24 week pictures at the same time and include how the check-up went. However, there was some confusion about when I'd find out the results of the test. The lab nurses told me I'd hear from them the next day, which was a Friday. But my doctor then told me that no news is good news. She said that if I failed the test and needed to go in for the three hour test, I'd hear from them early the next week. So I decided to wait to post until after I knew the results, which would be after I hit 25 weeks. I never heard from them, so I assumed I passed the glucose test! Anyways, that is why I waited so long to write this blog.

The little guy is moving around more and more. The really fun part is that Jason can finally feel his kicks and punches! It's weird watching my stomach move around. During week 23, Laurie, Natalie, Tara and I went to the New Kids on the Block/Backstreet Boys concert and the baby really kicked a lot when the loud music started! I've noticed that he is very active around 11pm to midnight. I read in my pregnancy books that the baby's sleep patterns start in the womb...I'm afraid we might have a night owl on our hands!

His heartbeat was still 155 at the 24 week appointment and I was measuring right on at 24 weeks. I made my last 4 week appointment for the middle of August when I'm 28 weeks and just entering the third trimester. After that I will go in every 2 weeks until I reach the last month of pregnancy. It's crazy how fast this is going! There have been talks of some baby showers so Jason and I are going to register soon. We've been to Babies R Us and decided what we want to register for (with a lot of help from Jason's online subscription to Consumer Reports), so now we just need to go in and register.

Here are the last three weeks of baby bumps:

 week 23

week 24

week 25

One week from today, next Saturday, my family leaves for Miami for a week of fun. I probably won't post again until after our trip. Look for a blog in a couple weeks with baby bump shots of weeks 26-28!

4 months until my due date!

It's exactly four months until my due date! Only 5% of babies are actually born on their due dates though....We'll see what happens with this little guy!

While my fingers aren't really swollen, my ring hasn't been fitting well and I started to get nervous that it would get stuck. I'm kind of annoyed with myself because I wasn't happy with how the ring fit before I got pregnant (I thought it was too tight) and I should've had it resized back then, but I never did. The jeweler doesn't want to resize it now that I'm pregnant, of course. So we'll see how it fits after the baby is born my body goes back to normal. I didn't like the thought of not wearing a ring (when people notice I'm pregnant, especially older women, their eyes automatically glance at my ring finger) so Jason helped me pick out a pretty cubic zirconia ring. It actually looks a lot like my engagement ring, though not quite as pretty. :) 

After this hot 4th of July weekend my ankles did swell up quite a bit. I was on my feet a lot, outside in the heat/hot sun, and probably didn't hydrate myself as well as I should have. On Monday night after the fireworks I noticed my ankles felt tight and I had cankles. I immediately downed 2 glasses of water and sat down to elevate my feet. When I woke up the next morning my ankles looked like ankles again, not like cankles. My mom the nurse urged me to call my OB and report my swollen ankles, so I did. She told me just to rest, elevate my legs, and to drink water and if my ankles weren't normal by the end of the week to come in for an ultrasound. But they've been back to normal since Tuesday morning so no worries! Now I know to drink extra water when I'm in the sun.

Here's a 22 week picture of the bump:


Jason surprised me one night with a bottle of Fre Wine, an non-alcoholic wine that tastes pretty similar to real wine. It was fun to have a glass with dinner again!

                                                      mmmmm, wine

21 weeks

There isn't too much to report this week since our big ultrasound last week. I have gone out and bought a lot of adorable boy clothes, though! The good thing is that there are a lot of sales going on so I haven't spent too much money.

Here is the 21 week shot of the baby bump. Keegan couldn't resist staying out of the photo!

Girl or Boy? Phoebe or Phoebo?

It's a BOY!!!!!!!!  :)   (I just had to throw that FRIENDS reference in the title...)

Our little guy is developing very nicely. All the measurements looked good and the markers they look for for Down's Syndrome looked normal! We were incredibly happy to hear that he is developing well. The ultrasound technician said that he seemed very "content." He wasn't turning somersaults or rolling over, but we saw him moving his arms and kicking his legs.

His heartbeat was still high - 155 beats per minute. He weighs 13 oz, which is a tad bigger than what the books say the average baby is at 20 weeks, which is 10.5 oz. The doctor we spoke with after the ultrasound said that with that weight they would normally change my due date from November 8 to November 5, but since I had an early ultrasound at 9 weeks (to determine the due date) they are going to stick with the November 8 date. He explained that early ultrasounds are more accurate due date predictors. But if this little guy stays bigger than the average baby, I'll need to start talking to the doctors about the possibility of me actually delivering a huge baby...Especially since Jason was over 9 lbs and 23 inches long!! I don't know if that is physically possible for me to deliver.

Here are a few still pictures from the ultrasound.

Here is a video of our little guy!



My next scheduled doctor's appointment is at 24 weeks and I'll get tested for diabetes. I've been craving sweets, so I'll have to try to cut down on those closer to the test. Check back next week for a 21 week baby bump picture!

Halfway to Baby!

I hit 20 weeks on Tuesday, so I am officially halfway through my pregnancy! We have an ultrasound at the end of the week, so look for a blog update sometime this weekend to see how the ultrasound went and if we were able to determine the sex.

My mom and dad love estate sales. They especially LOVE to buy books at estate sales (from children's books to novels). After one of my students declared that we should name the baby Winky, my mom found an old, old book that she had gotten recently at an estate sale, appropriately titled Winky. The best part of the book is that it centers around a monkey named Winky! haha :) Here is a picture of the book.

This last week was busy with the end of the school year. Since I'm job sharing this coming school year, I had to move my stuff into the classroom I'll be sharing and had to bring some stuff home. I'm restricted to lifting/carrying 20 lbs or less, but I had a ton of help from awesome coworkers and managed to get everything done in a short amount of time. Once Jason helped me carry the rest of my teaching things into our house, I got busy organizing it all. I've found I'm somewhat in a nesting stage right now. All I want to do is keep the house very clean and organized...I guess that's not such a bad thing! But that did keep me busy last week and I never got a chance to post the 19 week picture, which I did take when I made it to 19 weeks. So here's the 19 week pic:

I've been feeling the baby kicking and moving since I was 16 weeks. I've only felt one really strong kick so far, right after eating at BDubbs. Maybe this means the baby really enjoys boneless chicken wings?!? :) The movements I feel are still sporadic, which is to be expected since the baby isn't very big yet. According to baby books and the babycenter.com website, the baby is about 10 inches from head to toe right now (6.5 inches crown to rump), about the size of a banana.



Jason received a few cards for Father's Day, sicne he's a daddy to be. He got a couple Dad-to-be cards and since he already is a daddy to Keegan, Keegan decided to give him a card. Wasn't that nice of Keegan?!

We took the 20 week pictures last night, and Keegan couldn't resist staying out of the pictures. Here a few of the two (three counting the baby) of us.

We're excited to find out the sex of the baby, but of course more than anything we're hoping the ultrasound shows the baby is developing nicely and is healthy. Look for a new post this weekend!

18 weeks

Since my last post I had a prenatal check-up. You usually go at 8, 12, 16, 20 weeks, etc, but I was thrown off a week because of our trip to the Dominican Republic. I went to the doctor at 9, 13 and 17 weeks, but now I'll get back on track and go for our 20 week ultrasound.

The visits in the first trimester and up until the ultrasound are very quick and short, as long as there aren't any complications. I waited in the room for 20 minutes, and saw my nurse practioner for about five minutes. The best part of these visits is hearing the baby's heartbeat. It is nice and strong, about 160 beats per minute!

Here is a picture of the 18 week baby bump. I'm carrying kind of high...but I'm not believing any of those old wives tales about what that means. I've had friends who carried high and some were boys, some were girls. We'll find out in a few weeks if it is a boy girl, as long as the baby cooperates!

Baby Bump Picture

Hi Everyone! Thanks for reading our baby blog. I hope to keep this up-to-date as things progress with my pregnancy. :)

Here is the first picture I've taken of my baby bump. I'm exactly 17 weeks today! The plan is to take weekly pictures from here on out...

Out of curiousity I asked my students what they thought I should name the baby. I got a wide variety of responses. So far, my favorites are "Mrs. McCabe" and "Winky." :)