98 more days....

Yes, we have passed the 100 day mark! I can barely believe it. I remember when we passed the 100 day mark when we were planning for the wedding and the next thing I knew we were in Hawaii....

My appointment last week went well. Everything seemed normal, I gained 4 pounds. My weight gain hasn't been too bad, but I have to admit seeing it creep up and up is very scary. I'm already motivated to get to the gym. The gym we go to has babysitting facilities, $1.50 an hour! How great is that? So once the baby is 3 months, I'll be able to go there in the mornings or John and I can both go after work. At least I can talk a good game now, we'll see how I feel when we actually get there :).

Here is a picture of the crib (or at least one similar) we hope to get. There are so many decisions to make about furniture and baby gear, but I think we are almost done. Maybe. Now we just need to empty the guest room and turn it into a nursery! We'll be working on that a little bit tonight. We have the dumpster for one more day and then the roofer is taking it away, does that mean he will actually be done with the roof? I'm not holding my breath.

My next appointment will be my sugar test to check me for gestational diabetes. Hopefully that goes well, I am going next Wednesday, the 9th. Then we head to New Hampshire for a few days, and get to go to Story Land with Avery and Sadie! I can't wait :).

Sorry I have been MIA lately. The week just flew by! Here is the picture of my latest belly shot at 25 weeks. I've been having some trouble uploading photos, but finally got this one up here. I can't even believe I only have 14 1/2 weeks left to go! There is still so much to do.

But we are making progress. The closet in what will soon be a nursery is almost all cleaned out, well other than my clothes of course, they need to go somewhere! But all the shelves are cleared off and all the stuff is off the floor so there is actually room to put baby stuff. Yeah :)! I've been researching cribs for the past week or two and think I've limited it down to 3 choices. John and I will go to USA Baby over the weekend to see what he thinks. The ones I like will take 8-10 weeks for delivery, so we need to order it soon!

I have my monthly appointment today, so we'll see how everything is going. I don't expect much of a change from last month. I think I've gained another 3 or 4 pounds, which I think is normal. Hopefully :).

And we are getting our new refrigerator today! I am very excited about that. It's going to have so much room in it! Now we just need a new stove, dishwasher and dryer and we'll be all set :).

Aches and pains

By the end of the day today my legs and my back were killing me! I couldn't wait to get home and lay on the couch. I didn't do anything overly strenuous, so I guess this is just one of those pregnancy things. I took a tylenol a while ago but it doesn't seem to be helping. It seems like my cough might finally be going away, I only woke up once or twice last night coughing. The past few nights I was up non-stop coughing and had to attempt sleeping sitting up. I am the only person who can catch bronchitis in the middle of the summer.

I am still in search of furniture for the nursery that I like. I found what I am looking for, but from what I've read the brand isn't very reliable. I like the look of it, but it has bad reviews as far as quality. I guess that is why it was somewhat affordable. I can understand it not lasting forever, but if its going to arrive with missing parts or already looking used or damaged, that doesn't work for me.

It seems like the heat wave has ended for now, it's actually pleasant in the house tonight. It was so nice to come home from work yesterday and jump in the pool. It cooled John and I down and we weren't forced into the bedroom at 7:30 pm like we were Monday night.

Ok, time to find something for dinner. Not really hungry considering I'm all achy.

Summer is here

Oh yeah, it's hot. I have some sort of cough/sore throat thing going on, aggrevated by my asthma which has been flaring up with all this humidity. Not so much fun. I am going to the doctor this afternoon though, so hopefully I will get a refill on my inhaler and I'll be good to go. I'd like to be home right now either sleeping in the air conditioning or in my King Kool Lounger.

Last night I went to register at Babies R Us with Vicky, it was fun but it took up a lot of energy! It was nice to have someone who already knows what is going on tell me what I need :). You would be amazed how difficult it is to decide on some of these things...who would think picking out a stroller would be more difficult than choosing a name for the baby?

The baby has been kicking like crazy lately, especially right before I go to bed. Two nights ago it was moving around a lot, so I had John try to feel again and he finally did. He was excited, I don't think he believed the kick last week was real. But it can get going for 5 or 10 minutes now, which is much more than before. It used to just be 2 or 3 movements and then gone...it still catches me off guard though, especially if I'm in a meeting and all a sudden I feel the squirming. I just hope I'm not making funny faces!

Hopefully I feel better tomorrow so I can get some stuff done around the house and then head out to the pool!

The fun and not so fun never ends

Since I've been back from the beach, I still haven't been able to swim in our pool. Fortunately, it hasn't been TOO hot after work, so I haven't been too upset about it. We've had a nice breeze the past few afternoons. I am really hoping the pool guys came today, I meant to call to make sure we were on the schedule and forgot.

Yesterday I ended up going back to the doctor, I woke up with some spotting. I haven't had any since week 10 or 11, so I figured I should call to find out what was going on. The doctor had me come in right away to make sure the cervix wasn't starting to dilate or there was a separation of the placenta from the uterus, but all is well. Cervix is still tight and no separation, so the cervix was irritated some how. Maybe it was from that crazy game of croquet and all the dancing over the weekend.

Speaking of the weekend, Lisa's wedding was fabulous! And I am so jealous that they are in France right now. I would so love to take another real vacation before the baby comes, but I'm just not sure where to or when we would fit it in. John is trying to save up his time for maternity leave, which is more important but vacation sounds so lovely.

Other than that, baby is doing well. Lots of movement these days. We had our first class at the hospital last night, it was pretty good although I wish we had introduced ourselves to some of the other couples. As it turns out, the couple next to us lives in Hamden, we followed each other home. All I know is their names are Abby and Rudy...not much to go on. Maybe we'll run into them somewhere else.

Week at the Beach

I am finally home after spending the past 6 days at the beach, what a nice break! It was the usual fun, along with a Girls Beach Day to celebrate Lisa's last week as a single chick. Yup, she's getting married on Sunday! Woohoo. And, we got to meet Nolan in person! That was quite a treat. He was so well behaved, and it was nice to see Amy as well :).

John also felt movement for the first time while we were down there, it was nice to be able to just relax and have nothing to do so we were able to lay in bed and one morning little peanut was pretty active. Movement has become much more regular over the past week, and John finally felt it. He thought it was me pushing, but it wasn't :).

It is so nice that it is summer, I just wish I could go in the pool! The filter is broken again, and the stupid pool people never get it right. They are supposed to come back tomorrow to fix it, but that means we have to wait another day to shock and vacuum. Maybe we can swim Sunday morning before the wedding?

Tigger went to camp while we were at the beach and was so happy I was home. He slept next to me all night which is rare, he usually can't be bothered. I guess he does love me after all.

Oh, and I had my monthly appointment last week, I've only gained 13 pounds which isn't too bad. We have our first class at the hospital next Tuesday night, I hope we get a tour at that one. And I finally started registering a little bit, and Vicky has agreed to go with me to register for all the little stuff....I figured someone with a little bit of experience might be useful!

Belly shots

Ya know, belly shots has such a different meaning these days. Still fun but in a much different sort of way......

Here is the latest. One on its own and the progression, 12 weeks, 17 weeks and 21 weeks. Yup, it's growing!

Everything is Good

We just got back from our Level II ultrasound at the hospital. Here are the pictures of the ultrasound, the baby wouldn't look at us but we have a nice shot of its arm and hand. The doctor was very nice, and it was comforting to know that a doctor was taking all the measurements. Not that the tech doesn't know what is going on, but at least the doctor can determine if there is a problem or not rather than passing on information to someone else to look at. The baby's kidneys are measuring perfect today, each about 4.5 millimeters. He said anything above 5 millimeters is when they start to be concerned, so we are excellent. And all of the other measurements are also on target for my due date, they all looked between 20 w 3 days and 21 w 5 days. I am 21 weeks and 2 days today. He is having us come back in 8 weeks just to make sure everything is still looking good. He said if this were my first ultrasound and he got those results, he wouldn't think anything of it but since they were a little big at the first one he thought it would be best to check on them in 8 weeks.

So that was a big relief. I go to my obgyn on Friday for my monthly check up to see how much weight I've gained...eeks.

Madge Rocked!

Amazing amazing amazing! Wonderful show! We were in for a little bit of a surprise when we found out that there was NO AIR CONDITIONING!!!!! Apparently it "affects her voice" and doesn't have air at any of her concerts, and despite the fact that we were watching the show from the rafters, we still had a wonderful time. We certainly weren't disappointed. Though I'm laughing as I'm reading some of the reviews from people on the courant.com website. People complaining because she didn't do an encore...she does the SAME show at every concert...and although I had thought Holiday was on that list and it hadn't been played yet, I was wrong and we got the whole show. And people complaining because she was controversial, she sang Live to Tell from a big silver cross and had foul language. Um, SHE'S MADONNA!!! What do you expect??? I wouldn't expect any less :). Here is the set list:

Future Lovers / I Feel Love (Medley)
Get Together
Like A Virgin
Jump
Live To Tell
Forbidden Love
Issac
Sorry
Like It Or Not
Sorry Remix (Video Interlude)
I Love New York
Let It Will Be
Ray Of Light
Drowned World/Substitute For Love
Paradise (Not For Me)
Music / Disco Inferno (Medley)
La Isla Bonita
Erotica/You Thrill Me
ucky Star
Hung Up

The Biggest Star

I thought a change in music was appropriate to prepare for the big concert Sunday night! That's right, I was recipient of the "Best Sister of the Year" award after buying tickets for Melissa and I to go see Madonna in Hartford. Can't wait for the show!

Here is a much better picture of the baby. The first one came out very dark, and I added in some features! Yup, this is the baby's first headshot. So cute! John thinks this picture is a little scary, and the baby looks like a skeleton. Maybe it will be born on Halloween?

Everything is going pretty well, I read some more about the kidneys and I'm hoping it isn't anything to worry about. I'm wondering if they just wanted to send us for Level II ultrasound because we didn't have any of the other tests done. Amy and a few other people told me they know other people who have been told this at their ultrasound and everything turned out fine.

I am starting to make some progress in the organization area. Saturday I plan to do a lot more. I don't want to buy any baby stuff until the room is ready. We are holding off at registering for now, Babies R Us is in the process of cutting its ties with Amazon.com so a lot of the major items (including almost every decent car seat) is listed as "unavailable." I guess they aren't really out of stock, but they don't want anyone ordering them through Amazon since it is so close to the conversion. Hopefully after July 1 everything will be back to normal and the registry will be better than it has been in the past.

20 Week Ultrasound

We had our 20 week ultrasound this morning, baby has grown a lot! I will add a picture tonight when I am home. Most things were normal, although the kidneys appear to be on the "high end of normal" so we are going back for a Level 2 ultrasound next Wednesday. The ultrasound tech said it could be nothing, and that they looked normal when she first saw them but then as she kept looking they appeared larger. I guess if they still appear large next week they will continue to monitor them through the pregnancy and at birth they can do a procedure to make sure they are working properly. But she also said that the amniotic fluid level is normal, which means that the kidneys must be working. So that is good. Everything else is measuring normal, baby weights 11 ounces and all of the measurements I saw on the chart had us between 19 and 20 weeks so that is just about perfect. We saw 4 fingers and a thumb on each hand, one of which appeared to be in the mouth. It wasn't straight on, but it looks like we have a thumbsucker already!

I couldn't help but look to see if I could figure out the gender...I'll have to look at some others online and compare them to what I saw...it's just so hard not to speculate. We definitely would have been able to tell though, its legs were wide open when she was measuring the femur, but after that she focused mostly on the heart, brain and the kidneys, probably because they are most important but I also told her we didn't want to know so maybe she stayed away from that area? Who knows.

As for the belly, my belly button decided it wanted to start popping out this morning I guess. We got to the doctor's office and I laid down on the table and John says, "Look at your belly button!" Yikes, it was half way out! It wasn't even like that last night. But I was able to push it back in for now :).

Red Sox vs. Yankees

Here they are! Dan, Dawn, Avery and Sadie...stars of this month's Hoffman Honda Decades Magazine! Don't ask how this happened, something about Dan entering a contest to get free gas or service or something....next thing they know the photographer is on the way to the house to take a picture of them in all their "gear." Don't expect to see them wearing these outfits again anytime soon, they were promptly returned to the local sports shop :). Oh, and just so everyone knows...John and I have already converted Avery to a Sox fan, we're still working on Sadie. For those of you who don't know, Avery (5) and Sadie (almost 2!) are our nephew and niece, Dan is John's brother and Dawn is our sister-in-law.

Well it was a lovely weekend here. A little on the warm side, but it's nice that summer has finally arrived. We bought an air conditioner for the bedroom and that was a nice treat last night. Made sleeping very comfortable.

Saturday was Jenny's shower, my cousin Nate's fiance. It was very nice and she received lots of beautiful presents. Can't wait for their wedding in October, when I will be about 36 weeks! Hopefully we don't have a Staten Island baby!

My 20 week ultrasound is tomorrow. I am very excited to see the little peanut again! It's been so long, even though I've been listening quite often. And its moving around a lot more now, movement has definitely settled in. Hopefully in a week or two John will actually be able to feel it too. The othe day when it was moving around already and I pushed and felt a little a push back...but since the movements don't last that long its hard for him to catch anything yet.

Ok, time to get to work.

The Pool Is Open!

Woohoo! The pool is finally open. Still not swimmable, but the filter is running and we'll shock it on Saturday. Maybe by next weekend we can swim? Let's hope! Now I just need to learn some water aerobic exercises so I can attempt to stay in a little bit of shape over the summer. My legs could use a good work out. I am very impressed with Amy being back into a size 6 already! Way to go :).

We are going to the US Open tomorrow at Winged Foot. I am very excited, this will be my third US Open. Weather should be beautiful. My first open at Bethpage it rained and rained and rained some more, thank goodness we had those nice corporate row seats so we could sit and drink beer and watch it on tv and only come out when we wanted to see someone live. Shinnecock was hot hot hot. Tomorrow should be perfect.

Oh and yes, this is Tigger, our crossed eyed baby. Cute isn't he :)?

Anniversary Dinner and the New Baby

Today we celebrated John's parents 40th anniversary! We realized that we are exactly 40 years apart in our anniversaries...so when we are celebrating our 10th they will be on the 50th. They renewed their vows and then we went to a nice dinner, it was fun seeing everyone. Especially our new nephew Nicholas who will be 3 months on Friday. He is sooo adorable, and so well behaved, which leaves me to believe that our baby will be a screamer. We'll see :). Hopefully someone will send us a picture of Nicholas and I can share it.

It's been a busy weekend, yesterday we went to my cousin Leah's college graduation up in Massachusetts and then stopped at our friend Lisa's bachelorette/going away party in Hartford. I some how managed to stay awake until after 11 pm and we didn't get home until after 11:30. It was fun to see everyone though, seems like no one goes out much anymore. We're all getting old and responsible.

A quick update on the belly, it feels like it is growing. A lot. I just have these weird stretching pains which don't always feel so good.

I am adding a beautiful picture of one of the sunsets from our honeymoon. It's an old photo, but pictures make the blog look better.

Ok, time to go relax.

Flutters???

I think maybe I felt it...I am sitting at my desk and all of a sudden I realize that I am having a weird feeling in my stomach. Very much the fluttering feeling people talk about...of course not followed by any type of kick or anything so it's hard to tell but I think it might have been the baby! I just had some orange juice too, which they say can get the baby moving for some reason...it must like the sugars. So we'll see if it continues :)!

18 Week Check up

I had my 18 week check up this morning, everything is going well. She said my uterus is touching my belly button now, which is right where it should be. And I've only gained 7 pounds so far. Yeah :). Baby's heartbeat was 155 today, a little bit slower but again, she said right where it should be. I go back in two weeks to have my ultrasound, yeah! She asked if we were going to find out the sex and she said almost everyone ISN'T finding out these days. Isn't that strange? Seems like such a reversal of what has been happening in the past few years. Maybe everyone is deciding it is nice to have a surprise.

I stayed home sick yesterday, I felt yucky all day for some reason but I am back to normal today. Felt like some sort of stomach bug, the thought of food made me really nauseous for a good part of the day. Although the cupcake I had tasted pretty good :). Now I am back to work and need to get going on reports and all these fundraisers. Whether I come back to work or not, I am NOT going to miss fundraisers. They are such a pain. I think the legislators are doing us all a big favor.

Sharing the Belly

You may notice the title of our blog has changed. There was some concern expressed about showing my belly on the internet, so I figured I might as well be as forth coming as possible and let people know what to expect. Feel free to share yours :). Just kidding, really we don't want to see it, unless of course it is a nice pregnant belly. Which we encourage.

It has been a relatively quiet, rainy weekend here in CT. Which is good, I cleaned and organized my "closet", some people call it the guest room. This will soon become the nursery. What we will do with three dressers and a bed I haven't quiet figured out yet, but we'll get there. At least I finally have all of my non-pregnancy clothes in storage and only maternity clothes left. Makes things much nicer and I don't have to fumble through clothes, having wishful thoughts that they might actually fit.

Ok, time to get ready to go to church. I'm already late.

Vacation Pictures and more

I hope some of you are actually checking out my blog :). Like I said, knowing that some people might actually take a look is going to motivate me to update it more frequently. And I think I should add some more pictures, even if they aren't baby related. This is a picture of the view from our hotel window at Disney's Hilton Head Resort. Very nice. And here is a dolphin we saw on a boat tour I took with my mom and step-dad while John was golfing. Now I just need to figure out how to put two pictures on the Left side. Hmmm.....

Now that I am almost 18 weeks, I have become obsessed with feeling the baby. I know I probably have another week or two before I feel anything since this is my first, but I keep reading how all these other women are feeling kicking and moving already at this stage and it's driving me crazy! I did rent the Baby Beat Doppler ($25 a month!) though, which is wonderful. For the time between my 14 and 18 week appointments and without having any movement yet, it has definitely given me peace of mind more than once. Even though I keep getting fatter, which should be a sign by itself that everything is ok, it is so nice to just pop that doppler on and find the heartbeat beating away. The baby has a fairly fast heartbeat, it doesn't have an automatic read (an extra $20 a month) but it was 165 when I went to the doctor at 14 weeks and I would say that is still pretty consistent. Maybe a slight bit slower, but still in the 150s. Some people say that is a girls heartbeat, I guess we'll find out in about 22 weeks :).

Belly shots

Ok, so it's been a while since I posted. Time just goes by so fast! I am now 17w 3 days, and my belly is getting big. Here is a picture of me at 12 weeks on the left and 17 weeks on the right. The right side is a little dark, but it is definitely bigger!

Other than that, things are going well. After my spotting at the end of week 10, I haven't had anymore since then which has been great. The second trimester has been pretty easy, a lot more energy for the most part. Although I've been pretty tired this week. We went on vacation last week which was wonderful, but I think I got accustomed to relaxing and taking a nap every afternoon. Now it's back to work and for some reason they don't want me napping between 2:30 and 4. Go figure. We don't have much planned for this weekend though, so hopefully I will catch up on sleep and be back to normal next week.

I have an 18 week appt next Tuesday, and another ultrasound scheduled for June 20th, which will be my 20 week u/s. Yes, we could find out the sex then if we wanted but we are planning to keep it a surprise! There is a little bit of temptation, but I think it will be good to wait. A friend told me it will cut down on the number of clothes we receive ahead of time...which will be good...but mostly I want to cut down on my own spending. If I know the sex, I'll be buying every cute outfit I see. I have no self control.

Ok, I'm going to try to do at least weekly posts from now on...