Baby pictures!

We had our appointment with the specialist on Friday. The doctor was looking to see if the baby still had the small spot of fluid around its heart and it does. The doctor still doesn't seem too concerned about it and wants to continue to monitor the heart. He's hoping that it will just absorb itself before the baby is born. If it doesn't, then he will monitor the heart after the baby is born. The fluid is only 2.4 cm which is 4 mm more than normal. He told me that if gets over 5 cm., they become more concerned about it. I will go back in 6 weeks for another appointment with him to check it. The other piece of information we found out is that the baby is measuring on the rather large size again (86%) so I now have to go back in for another ultrasound in 3 weeks to monitor the size. The bonus to all of this is that we get to see the baby a lot! We still don't know what we're having but we're finding it awfully tempting to find out since we've been given so many opportunities! Here are a few pictures from the appointment. Can you guess what the black and white picture is? Yep, that's the feet. I was asking the doctor about what keeps pushing up on my ribs; he put the monitor in that spot and this is what we saw. :)

The other pictures are of the really cute curtains my mom made this weekend to cover the filing cabinets in the built-in shelves in the baby room. I really love them and they match the blanket she made for the baby! Thanks, Mom!

The beginning of the nursery...

Here are a few more recent belly and nursery pictures. I'm officially 27 weeks today. The baby is due 3 months from tomorrow! I can't believe it- I know it's going to go so fast. It's feeling really real now that we've started putting the nursery together. We have the crib set up and a few things on the wall. The room still has extra stuff like a bed and random odds and ends, but we're making progress!

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry (early) Christmas!

Jared and I were in Appleton for Thanksgiving. We started the weekend by having Jared's family (11 adults + 2 babies) over for lasagna on Wednesday night. On Thursday, we enjoyed a yummy meal at his aunt's house. Jared then worked on Friday and Saturday at a friend's Christmas tree lot selling trees. This of course means that we also got a tree and put it up on Saturday night. Here are a few pictures.



Baby update: We had an appointment almost 2 weeks ago where we had another ultrasound to check on the baby's heart and size. The baby is still a little big, but was only in the 70th percentile. The fluid is still around the heart. The good thing is that fluid hasn't changed in size, but it's still there. So, we're going to see a periantologist (not sure if I spelled that correctly) at our next appointment. I think it's just a specialty doctor that really examines babies while they're in the womb. Our doctor still feels pretty sure that this is not going to be a big deal but feels that it should get a double check by the specialist. She also said that this doctor would then maybe decide what to do when the baby's born (possibly an echocardiogram or something to check that the heart is functioning properly). We feel pretty confident that this is not going to be a big deal (we even checked with our heart surgeon-neighbor and he seemed to think it wasn't anything to be worried about). The great thing is that we get to have another ultrasound! I love getting to see our baby. He/she was very active at the last appointment- kicking and flipping all over the place. I love it!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

p.s. did you notice? We got a new camera!!

21 Weeks!

I'm over the halfway hump! Here are some updated pics! Again, I apologize for the really poor quality. We're planning on buying ourselves an actual camera for Christmas. :)

Ultrasound

We had our "big" ultrasound appointment yesterday. We didn't find out the sex of the baby but we were still so happy and excited to see her/him moving around like crazy. The doctor said everything looked good. There is a small spot of fluid by the baby's heart so the doctor wants to do another ultrasound at my next appointment in a month. She said the she's never seen it not clear itself up, but wants to keep an eye on it. She also wants to keep an eye on the baby's size. Right now the baby's in the 85% for weight and if it continues to grow at this rate, they may have to induce me before my due date. We will see what happens! So far, I still feel great and I am growing! Here are pictures from the ultrasound- Jared's kind of creeped out by the pictures- they do look a little "alien-like." Ha...our baby has a lot more developing to do!

Almost 18 weeks (4 months)...

As requested...here are some new pics of the baby belly. (I apologize for the poor quality of the photos). I think I'm feeling the baby! This is very exciting and I usually try to sit at night and feel it moving. It's just a little faint feeling that I'm not totally sure it's the baby-but I'm going to keep telling myself that it is. :) We go to the doctor next Thursday for our big ultrasound appointment. I can't wait to see pictures of her/him!

Going on 16 weeks pregnant...

Here's the latest picture. I broke down and bought some maternity clothes this week. My pants were getting really uncomfy and I am pretty sick of wearing them unbuttoned. I'm feeling great so far! I heard the heartbeat last week-152. The doctor said the baby was "very active." It's definitely becoming more real every day especially as my body is starting to change!

Entering Trimester 2!

Questions people often ask us:
Are we going to find out what we're having?
- Nope. Some friends/family are encouraging us to find out. But, we've made the decision to wait and I don't think it will change. Jared would like to find out however, I reminded him that I would for sure spend more money on cute boy or girl clothes if we knew. He quickly changed his mind.

Do you have a "feeling" of boy or girl?
-I'm feeling boy- I have no idea why. From the start, it's just what I thought we were having.

What will the nursery look like?
-The nursery is blue. We painted it that color last summer before we moved in and I really like the color. We can add pink if if it's a girl. I bought bedding which I think I'll probably keep. It's bright colorful dots and swirls- very gender neutral.

Am I showing?
-I think I am, not a ton though. At night, my stomach especially feels large! It's still kind of unreal to me that I'm going to keep getting bigger and eventually, huge! I'm not quite sure how my body will do that.

Do we have names picked out?
- A while ago we picked names that we both really like and we haven't really discussed or changed our minds since then, but we still have a long time for that to change.

Have you told your students?
-I haven't told my 4th graders yet. I'm thinking I probably will after my appointment this week. They will undoubtedly be really excited and probably funny about it. Jared hasn't addressed this with his 7th graders yet either. HIs plan is to let them know right before he goes on paternity leave. I guess it's a little different for him, since his body isn't changing right before their eyes!


I go in again this week for a regular checkup and then I'll have my ultrasound at the end of October. I can't wait to have more pictures of our baby and to see what he/she's really starting to look like!

Just about 3 months pregnant....

I figured I should take some pre-big belly photos. So, here I am...sometimes I feel like I have a little belly and then sometimes I don't. This will be changing soon!

First BABY Picture!!!

Here it is...see if you can try to decipher our 6 week old baby! We had our first ultrasound appointment on July 23rd. It was truly miraculous to see its heart beating like crazy! We go back in a couple weeks and will hopefully hear the heart beat!

Sometime next March....

WE WILL BE HAVING A BABY!


On Tuesday, July 6th, Jared and I were so excited to see the "plus" sign on the EPT test. We feel very blessed and are so excited to be parents.

So far, I feel a little tired but other than that, I feel great. We will go in for our first doctor appointment on Friday, the 23rd. We are really excited about meeting our doctor and having our first ultrasound!