Thankful Thursday

There are more pictures to come, but I couldn't resist sharing these tonight. I had the privilege of spending a few hours with my sweet niece (and her mom & dad) today. It's hard to believe that she's already 16 months old. Even more amazing to me is that I'm now 23 weeks along. Our little man will be here before we know it!

I couldn't resist sharing some of her unabashed joy. She loves the outdoors, in case you hadn't noticed. :)

In case you missed that expression...

We're having a....

BOY!

My apologies for the lack of pictures this evening. The combination of excitement of getting to look for baby boy items on Amazon.com & having an observation (of my teaching) in the morning have kept me from getting my latest pregnancy picture uploaded and my ultrasound pictures scanned in to the computer.

Our appointment for the ultrasound went well. Everything about my pregnancy is nice and healthy right now. The baby is about 1 pound right now, and everything in his body...organs, limbs, growth, etc. looks great! His heartbeat was 159 the other day, and it was 154 today.

We don't have any ideas for names right now, but we will get there soon enough I'm sure. I'm looking forward to being able to focus my energies towards nursery preparation and registering next week during Spring Break.

That's all I'll write for now. I've got to put some finishing touches on my lesson plan for tomorrow. To God be the glory for our healthy baby! Thank you for all of your well wishing and prayers. :)

Signs of Spring

Some of my hard work this winter paid off. I have some early signs of spring starting down by our mailbox. Makes that afternoon in my 1st trimester struggling with the bulb planter, bag of topsoil, and digging 30 or so holes completely worth it.Strangely enough, they're not miniature tulips. It's the first year for them to bloom from bulbs. I don't know if it is just early for them to be blooming, or if the soil has stunted them. lol
Either way, they're beautiful. Can't wait until the other ones come up. ;) There may be a few other colors to bloom. Looks like all but maybe one bulb decided to produce a plant.
And in other news, I do believe I'm officially showing. I've started feeling the baby move. It is both weird and wonderful. I look forward to the little one getting big enough for Josh to feel him/her through my belly. We are eagerly awaiting the ultrasound on Monday to find out if Baby is a girl or a boy!

20 weeks and counting

Growing Pains: Check
Ravenous Hunger: Check
Feeling the baby move...Maybe? ;)

20 weeks pregnant. Halfway there!

It's hard to believe I'm already this far along. I go back for a routine monthly checkup on Monday. The following Monday (the 19th) is the ultrasound. I'm not placing any guesses. I 'm just going to be happy if baby is healthy. And yes, we'll be telling people once we know if we're having a girl or boy. ;)

Now, I'm off to go eat again. Apparently the baby needs about 4 meals and 3 snacks each day. I can't believe I'm already hungry again. Can you say growth spurt?

Quick update

A growing belly...And some visitors down by our gate!

Pregnancy Update

I'm 17 weeks now (18 weeks on Friday). My last doctor's appointment went well. All of my tests have come back showing a healthy me and a healthy baby. I'm looking forward to mid-March when we get to have another peek at our little one...and find out the baby's sex.

My only issue the past month or so was a stubborn sinus infection that didn't want to go away. I'm on my second round of antibiotics now (which is actually a double Z-Pack). It seems to be doing the trick. I'm happy to have the next two days off of school to help me get in a little extra rest. Josh is needing it too since he now has the same sinus yuck that I have battled for about 3 or more weeks.

I thought I would share a few pictures to chronicle my "growth" over the past few months. I'm looking forward to having a little more baby belly so that I don't feel quite as fat so much as maternal. lol

December 18, 2011

January 29, 2012

February 14, 2012

I have a feeling that if I take another picture in just a few weeks from now that my beginning baby belly will be even bigger. I can tell that baby is growing, and I'm hoping that in the next few weeks that I can start feeling his or her little movements.

I hope everyone enjoys President's Day tomorrow! :)

Introducing...

Introducing our sweet little bundle.

The ultrasound went very well today. The baby's growth is right on target, my body seems to be doing just what it is supposed to, and my due date is still July 28th. They took the typical blood work as normal for this first diagnostic ultrasound as well.

Baby's profile...The arrow is pointing at a little upturned nose.

Baby's knee...Foot sticking out towards the right. Arrow is at the knee itself.
Fist...I really have issues seeing this one. I think it is the fist on the side of the body away from the ultrasound.
I would write more, but it is late, and I need to go to bed. I had to finish up some work this evening to meet a deadline. Next ultrasound is March 19th; that's when we'll find out the sex of the baby. To answer the question, "What do you want?" I honestly just want to have a healthy baby. I'm not going to try to guess what I'm having; I think that God will let us all know when the time comes. I will be happy with a boy or a girl, and I am content switch between referring to the baby as him or her for the next few months. I'm not quite at the point of calling it "Baby Holder"...For some reason it just sounds like a baby carrier or strange job title. lol. Ahhh, picking a name that goes with our last name will be fun. ;)