23 Weeks

At exactly 23 weeks we had another scare when the spotting returned. I went in to my OB immediately and this time she's concerned. She said that spotting at this stage is "not normal" and I am completely restricted from any exercise at all. That means no walking the dogs, no vacumming the house or any of that stuff. Everything on my exam looked fine and by looking at baby girl on the ultrasound she wasn't phased a bit. She is all balled up in there just as happy as can be kicking her legs and flailing her arms. My doc says as long as I can sit at my desk most of the day at work I can still come to work. I go back this Thursday for a follow up visit. Of course I cried in my car all the way home. It's so scary and to be at the this stage and have any kind of issues just breaks my heart. Luckily just like last time the spotting stopped as soon as it started. So because I'm restricted Steve had a VERY busy weekend.

Friday night he shampooed the carpet in the babies room. He went and picked up our nursery furniture on saturday, brought it in by himself (not that I would have helped anyway), and then put the crib together. The furniture looks amazing and it felt so good thinking that we bought this for a little person that's going to be living with us in just 3-4 months! Then he removed all of the mounts (ie. animal heads) he had hanging in the room. My father in law graciously agreed to take a few of them to his house (thanks Irene for allowing him to do so! haha) Steve and I agreed he could keep two of his favorites mounted in the house and the other two he mounted in closets.

So our little munchkin's room is in progress! I'm so excited to start decorating it. We've picked out the bedding and we still need to get our glider. I've already recruited Sara to help with the decorating since that is her all time favorite thing to do.

Last night I thought it would be fun to see the pups reactions to a baby cry so I found a wav file on the internet and played it. Biscuit was laying on the couch and Magnum was on the floor playing with a toy. As soon as the baby cry started Magnum jumped up dropped his toy on the floor and ran to the sound tilting his head back and forth. Then Biscuit jumped off the couch ran to the sound barking and tilting her head back and forth. They had no idea what to make of this sound! It was too cute.

22 weeks

Well I've just entered my 6th month and still feel great. Despite a little back pain and some minor swelling in my feet all is well. Steve said my feet looked like two loaves of bread baking in my shoes the other night. Today wasn't much better but I guess that comes with the territory. Good thing the warm weather is here and I can get away with flip flops.

We purchased our nursery furniture on Saturday. What a stressful event that was. After 3 stores and hours of debate over espresso or antique white we finally decided on a set and made the purchase. It should be delivered this weekend so I've got to shampoo the carpets sometime this week before it arrives. No pictures until the nursery is complete! I can't wait to get started in there.

As requested here is my 22 week belly shot:

21 Weeks

First I want to say thank you to everyone for all of your thoughts, prayers, flowers and support with my Memaw's passing. The services were beautiful and we all feel good knowing she is where she wants to be despite our sadness and loss. I take comfort in knowing that Memaw is watching over me. I'm sure she is laughing her head off just waiting for me to have a little girl to cause me as much trouble as I probably caused her at times. I just hope I can bring as much joy and happines to our little girls life as Memaw brought to mine.

21 weeks now and I finally had my first premature deformed baby nightmare. I dreamed that she was born a few months early but that she was the size of a 2 month old already. She had blonde hair, blue eyes and a dimple in her chin, but the rest of her body had skin deformities covering her and we had no idea what to do! The doctors told us they were cosmetic and could be taken care of when she got older, but nothing could be done now. Also she was born so early that we had no crib, clothes or baby essentials and I was freaking out and totally unprepared. Then Steve and I ran out to buy baby stuff and forgot the baby at home! It was so nice to wake up and realize it was all just a dream!

Steve and I have been taking the dogs on daily walks around the neighborhood and Magnum still needs a little bit of leash training. He darts at cars that drive by and other dogs he sees. Monday we were walking and a lady ran by with her two dogs so naturally Magnum freaked out and had to run over and check them out immediately. When he did he wrapped his leash around my ankles and tripped me so I ended up eating pavement and laid out in the middle of the street (of course it happened in front of 4 other people standing in their yard). I don't know how I landed but both knees are bruised, one hand, one elbow is scraped up and my lower back and right foot are both sore. The good news is that baby is fine and didn't seem to have a clue what had just happened. Steve was positive I'd just "flattened" the baby and that something terrible was going to happen. She's been kicking me all week and it gets stronger as time goes by so I know she's doing just fine in there.

In other news, we sold our guest room furniture yesterday so the babies room will soon be under way...

p.s. Little Munchkin wants to thank Memaw Carlile, GiGi & Gramps, Aunt Melissa and Uncle Justin for her wonderful new clothes. She can't wait to get here and be big enough to wow everyone with her cuteness and great sense of style.

My Memaw

My Memaw passed away early this morning. She went just like she would have wanted, peacefully and in her sleep. Thank you all for all of your prayers.

20 Weeks - Definitely a GIRL!

Friday Steve and I went in for our big ultrasound and it was so exciting! Steve got a kick out of seeing her kick me on the ultrasound. It was so fun because he would see it and I would feel it at the same time. All is perfect so far, I had no blood clots to be seen, the baby was doing great and moving around so much. She had the hiccups too so her head kept jerking up and down. Most of the pictures came out fuzzy because she was such a little dancer in there.

The technician had a tough time getting to see her lips (to check for cleft palate) because she had her arm covering her face for the longest time. They checked her heart and we got to see all 4 chambers. They checked her brain, spinal cord, kidneys, stomach and umbilical cord and all checked out perfectly. Then they checked her limbs and measured everything. The technician commented on how long the baby's legs were (wonder where she gets that from?) Then she showed us the little girl parts and we were not at all surprised!

I have been feeling lots of movement especially after I eat. Steve got to feel one of her kicks last night for the first time. Usually she stops when I call him over to feel it. We can not believe we are already half way through! She is measuring right on target with her due date.

Here is her little head and you might be able to see her arm laying on top of her face:


Here you can see the bottom of her legs, her bum (on the left) and it's a girl!


A very fuzzy shot of the bottoms of her feet:

19 Weeks

I've been feeling the baby (who is still nameless) move over the past week. Last week was more active than the last few days. Today was more active than Saturday or Sunday. Friday she must have been doing aerobics in there because she was poking and kicking me all afternoon! She must have been pretty tired because she didn't hardly budge on Saturday. We are just sitting tight waiting very patiently for Friday at noon to get here so we can see that she is A-Okay in there.

Other than that I feel good and have started moving old stuff out of the baby's room so that we can get to work in there. We are putting the furniture that is in there up on craigs list this week. Hopefully it'll sell so we can get it moved out of there soon. We would keep it but it really isn't our taste and we really don't feel like hassling with a storage unit.

Here is a cute picture I took of of my babies today:

Baby needed a new pair of shoes...

I couldn't resist buying my little munchkin these shoes at target today: