Four More Weeks or Less

Good Day to all! It is such a yucky day outside today, but we won't let that bring "us" down. Brock and I decided that usually the days following Christmas are usually hard on us, because "Christmas Day" is over for the year--when we should be celebrating Christmas all year.
Anyway,we decided that this year that wasn't going to be an issue for "us." We have something to look forward to, not long after "Christmas Day" is over. We get to look forward to all sorts of new beginnings. A new year will be starting, and of course the best thing is we get a new baby very soon!!!!!!

We are 36 weeks pregnant, and counting down the days to "birthday." I went back to work today and Brock went in to get a few things done for Sunday. Before going in to work we had an appointment scheduled with the doctor. Our appointment was at 9:05am. We knew going in today that our appointment was going to be a bit different than the past few. The doctor checked the baby's heartbeat and measurement of my lovely stomach-which seems to keep getting bigger every day (oh, that is what is supposed to happen). All is great there.

Then the doctor checked my cervix, and found that I am dilated 1cm. I know it could stay dialated to 1 for a long time, but it is exciting to know that the process has started.

Talk to you all next week, if not sooner.

The Final Stretch

We have made it to 35 weeks. Wow what a ride it has been. We were scheduled to visit the doctor yesterday. We both left work, grabbed a "quick" bite to eat, and headed to the doctor's office. We sat in the car for a little while and scarfed our food down (which we both know isn't the healthiest thing to do, but we did it). We then walked into the office, I signed my name, the lady asked for my name (just like they do for every appointment). When I gave it to her, she informed us that the doctor was in surgery, so we were going to need to reschedule. We were both a little sad, but our appointment was changed to today at 8:45. So it all worked out.

We saw the nurse practitioner today. She was very friendly and very informative you might say. She shared some information with us that we can't exactly share on the blog. The baby's heartbeat was 144bpm. I didn't ask about my measurement this week, I will have to do that next week when we go (I have gained 31lbs). I did on the other hand ask about the positioning of the baby. Before she checked she was sure to inform me that it might hurt a little, but it wasn't bad. She pushed around on my stomach and found that the baby's head is down, and in the correct position. That made me very happy! She was great to talk to, we enjoyed our visit.

We go back next Friday, and have weekly appointments from here on out. Wow! Time is still flying by.

On a separate note the nursery is ready for the baby. I am so thrilled! There are a few things left to do, that I know of, but it is ready for when he decides to come. Well I guess we will talk to everyone later. Have a Merry Christmas!!!!!!!

It is Going So Fast

Brock and I went to the doctor on Thursday, the 6th. We had a 1:00 appointment, but didn't see the doctor until 1:50. They were extremely busy. I started to get a little impatient, but all is well. It was worth the wait to here our precious boy's heartbeat. This appointment was like the past few (blood pressure check, measure my stomache, check the heartbeat, and of course my weight). All of these looked and sounded great!!!

That same evening when we were sitting and relaxing the baby decided it wanted to move all over the place. It was something else, because not only could we feel him move, we could SEE him move as well. Brock and I really enjoyed that moment and look forward to other moments like this one to come.

Well it seems to all be going extremely fast, but yet things still aren't completely ready for the arrival of the baby (as far as the nursery goes). It is almost there, and looking extremely well. Brock has done a fascinating job!!! Thank you goes to Uncle Kyle as well!! We appreciate him coming down to help get the nursery painted.

Talk to you all in a couple of weeks!

31 Weeks and Counting

Time is approaching quickly. Brock, Baby, And I had an appointment on the 20th, a couple days before Thanksgiving. We had a morning appointment, so we sat in the lobby for a longer period of time, but that is okay. It is all worth it to hear the beautiful sound of the baby's heartbeat. Once we got back to the room we found out that my blood pressure is still in good shape, and I have gained a total of 23 pounds.

We were able to see the other doctor this week, which was a change. There is a chance he could deliver the baby, so they make sure that you get a chance to meet both doctors, which I am thankful for.

We decided to ask him if he had an estimate on how big the baby will be, and he wasn't able to tell us. He was able to tell us that I am measuring on the low side of normal (when he measured my stomach), which isn't a bad thing for those of you that are concerned. So just maybe he will not be as big as we thought he would be. I guess we will just have to wait and see. Whatever his size we love him to pieces.

Talk to you all soon, our next appointment is the 6th of December.

29 Weeks!!!!

It is hard to believe that we are in our third trimester. It really doesn't seem like it was that long ago when we announced our pregnancy. Time is creeping up on us, before we know it our precious baby boy will be here.

Brock and I are loving our evenings with the baby. That is our special time, when Baby P. decides to move more frequently. Brock even mentioned waking up at 3:00 one morning, wrapping his arm around me, and the baby moving like crazy (funny thing is I didn't feel any of it). I realize that will stop soon. Soon enough I will feel every movement, when I am trying to sleep (I can live with that).

We went to the doctor yesterday. It was a quick appointment, which was nice. All the routine things were checked (weight, blood pressure, measuring my stomach, and the best part-hearing the baby's heartbeat). The doctor said all looked and sounded great. I will be sure to ask about the size of the baby next appointment, I have a lot of people asking if the baby is measuring at a the right weight (size).

The baby's heartbeat is at 150 bpm, and it is the coolest thing to listen to. Well I think that is about it for this time. We will continue with our updates, we have appointments every two weeks now--so there will be more to read.

Sugar Test

We recently had our 4th appointment with Dr. Davis. We were neither one quite sure what to expect at this one. They gave us a paper that somewhat explains what to expect each time we go, but we didn't get a chance to look at it. We were sitting in the lobby, and another gal had to take a sugar test. Brock asked me if I was going to have to do that this time. I told him I wasn't sure. The next thing we knew I was being called to the desk by the same lady. "Drink this liquid and call me in the morning." Just kidding! I was to drink a bottle of liquid (fruit punch flavor) in the next five minutes. Ask Brock, I was trying my best to gulp it down in five minutes, during which we were called back to see the doctor. I had to get weighed (I have gained 17 pounds, yikes!), and give a urine sample. When I was finished with those two things, I still had to finish my drink, but I guess those two things really didn't take as long as I thought they did.

We got back to the room, and the nurse took my blood pressure (doing great!) and said the doctor will be right in. And he was (we had made our appointment right after lunch time). He measured my stomach and said I was measuring where I am supposed to. He then put the goo on my stomach and checked the baby's heartbeat, which is the coolest thing. His heartbeat was measuring at 155 beats per minute. After that we were done with the doctor part of the visit (10 minutes tops).

Then we had to wait about an hour in the lobby before I could have my blood drawn. You see after the drink was finished we started the timer (60minutes). We both felt like taking naps, but we didn't. When the hour was over I had blood drawn and was told that if I didn't hear anything by Tuesday, my hemoglobin and sugar levels were good. Well today is Tuesday, and I haven't heard anything yet. Those of you who know me well, know that I will probably call later, just to check.

Wow that is a lot of typing. All in all our baby boy is doing great! I feel him move more every day. And Brock was able to feel him move the other day (he was so thrilled, it was awesome). We were both so very excited!!!!

Ultrasound video

Here is the video recording of the ultrasound from Sept. 13. It is about three minutes long and in it you can see the doctor measuring the top of the head, looking at the heartbeat, measuring the baby's torso, measuring the leg bone. He also stops to point out some of the parts of our baby to us. It was an almost surreal experience.

21 weeks....we've waited long enough

Well...here we are...starting our 21st week. The big decision facing
us these last few weeks has been whether or not to find out the sex of the baby. We had started the pregnancy certain that we would find out, but since then we have changed our minds back and forth more than a few times. Today was D-day. It was time for our ultrasound and time to make the decision. After a lot of thinking, we both decided that 21 weeks was long enough. We had to know...so off to the doctor we went.

The great news is that Stella and the baby are both doing fine...great, actually. Stella has been feeling better the last week or so. She is eating well and clothes are fitting tighter all the time. It seems that every day she gets a little bigger. The baby is growing too. We found out today that the weight is 13 ounces, right at or a little above average. The ultrasound was amazing. It was incredible to watch our child moving and to see the head, heart, spine, feet, etc. I have included the pictures we received and hopefully the video soon as well. The first picture is of the baby's face, looking at you. The second is a whole body shot with the head on the left side. The third is another whole body shot with the femur (leg bone) showing clearly as a white line on the right. The thing next to the head is a foot.

When we first got pregnant, I told people (jokingly) not to even use female words to describe the baby. You could only say 'he'. 'He or she' was out of the question. I had to have positive, male energy going toward the baby, 'cause a girl was out of the question. That lasted about a minute. Then I thought about how much fun a girl would be. I know people say that they don't care what they have as long as its healthy. I used to think that was a load of hooey. Now I know what all those people meant.

So what is it? Well, it looks like all that positive, male energy worked. We are going to have a son. We're so excited we can hardly stand it.

Second Dr.'s Visit

Well we are now 15 weeks pregnant, going on 16 this Thursday. My regular clothes still fit, but I know it won't be long before they are too tight. Then I can go shopping!!! Usually I wouldn't get so excited about shopping, but this is a little different.
We had our second doctor's visit this morning at 9:30. My blood pressure was great, the doctor measured the uterus, which I know is normal, but it seemed a bit strange (when your not use to someone measuring your stomach). The nurse drew some blood to be tested, which usually doesn't bother me, but it hurt more today, but I think I will survive.
The most exciting part of the appointment today, was when we got to hear the baby's heartbeat. It was amazing how quickly the doctor found the heartbeat, as well as how fast the heartbeat was. Brock said that the device, the doctor used to measure the heartbeat, looked like a fisher price toy. I really didn't pay much attention to it.
It is becoming more realistic for both of us, we are soooo thrilled!

Baby's first picture

July 10 was the date of our first appointment with the OB/GYN. We went hoping to have an ultrasound, and - at 11 weeks along - we really thought we would. But we had heard from some of our friends that at the first appointment, they don't always do an ultrasound. We went in and Stella and I were very happy that the receptionist had Stella sign a consent form to have an ultrasound done that day.

When the doctor started the scan, it did not take long before we saw our beautiful baby jumping all over the place. He (or she) was extremely active just moving all over the place. It was the most incredible thing I have ever seen. We both just started laughing. The appointment went very well. Everything checks out and we are on schedule for our January 24th due date.

Breaking the news

From the moment we had found out that we were pregnant, we thought the Fourth of July would be a great time to have everyone get together to share the news. We could plan the party for the fourth to celebrate and to show off the new homestead, and no one would have any idea of the real reason.

So the next plan had to be how we were going to break the news. We poured over tons of ideas and finally came up with custom printed Yankee Candles. We put them in red, white, and blue bags and handed them out as 'door prizes' to all of our guests.

We had two big moments that day. The first was with our parents and one of our brothers (the other two couldn't come). We had them come earlier than everyone else so we could tell them first. We started acting like we were getting annoyed that the other party guests weren't there yet, so we would pass out the gifts to kill time until they arrived. One thing I learned is that you shouldn't give old people something small to read. It took them all a minute to figure out what the candles said. But when they did, they were all very excited.

Once our other friends got there, we shared with them the same way and everyone was extremely happy for us. We had a great day of eating, watching fireworks, and chilling.

Well...we're having a baby

Our journey began the morning of the Indy 500 (the day before Memorial Day). We were between houses during a move to Columbus. We were staying at a friend's house and my wife and I planned to take the pregnancy test that morning. My wife woke me up and said she had taken it and it was time to check the result. We went in to the bathroom, looked at the plus sign and just freaked out. We were so incredibly happy, but we had to resist our urge to run through the house yelling.

The rest of the day was a little euphoric as we thought about what is to come and tried to hide our excitement from family as we spent the whole day with them.