22 Weeks Belly Photo

She's growing! And I am, too!! I weighed myself at one of my offices today...I'm 140lbs! I started out at 127lbs, then lost 4 lbs in the first trimester (super sick), and have gained that plus 13lbs back. So I have 18 weeks to go...wonder what I'll end up at? Needless to say, Paul promised me a few training sessions to get the muscle tone back after we have our baby girl. For now, I keep eating all that I love...unless they tell me on my glucose test at 24 weeks that I have gestational diabetes. Let's hope not, though!

Message from Paul

Well, well, well….where to start! How about from where we are now cause reality has finally met visual perception…aka my wife’s belly! The experience has truly been absolutely amazing.

To start with, I was totally ready for this experience, but to say it wasn’t a little surreal, I’d be lying to you. From a guys perspective, you really don’t believe things are going on outside of your wife telling you.

The Day and The way my wife told me was an absolute “Dre Day” style and that is where the initial excitement started, however, reality has set in lately as I’ve seen my wife’s belly grow! My wife is such a beautiful “preggo” woman and has been a true hero to me as I know this experience hasn’t been the easiest for her, but the High’s totally outweigh the lows. Thus far, I didn’t expect the impact that our baby girl would have on me as a person, husband, or father to be. I will update more as the experiences come, but my wife is the much better story teller…

-Paul

Forgot a few things...seems to happen a lot lately

I'm nesting like CRAZY! Before I started tonights blog, I just cleaned out and rearranged the kitchen cupboards so that they make sense for the baby bottles to fit in them. AND so that I can stock it with more food. (I've been one hungry lady as of late) We don't have a pantry so I need to be extremely precise where I put everything. I think I have it figured out but I may change it again. ;-) Next task? The baby room closet. I'm going to need Paul's help on that one so maybe during one of the next weekends coming up we can tackle that.

AND we ordered the baby furniture! We ordered it last Thursday so it should be arriving in about 8 weeks or so. We are having it delivered, thank goodness. It's a dark espresso color made of solid wood. We ordered a crib that turns into a toddler and childs bed, as well as a dresser with a spot on top for a changing pad. The bed came with a mattress and toddler bed kit. Also, I've decided to wait on getting a glider chair. I hear that you should wait to see if you would really use it before investing the money in it. I really don't know if I would or if it would just be a cute piece of furniture in the room -- we shall see what we decide! Who knows, Paul may end up wanting one!

21.5 Week Update

It's been an amazing whirlwind of 2 weeks since my last blog. I think the biggest thing that has happened is that my stomach has pretty much popped. Strangers are noticing that I have a belly, and even at the grocery store, I was asked when I'm due. :) Made me smile for sure. I'm starting to talk to our little girl and when I do I get all teared up. I started crying randomly (one of many times) on the couch last night because I thought of how much fun it's going to be taking her to the park. It's the little daydreams and thoughts like that that get me all choked up. She's still kicking up a storm -- I cheer her on, "Kick, baby girl, kick!" I'm a dorky mom-to-be, I know. I bought a lullaby album on iTunes (it's Disney music) and I play it to her via my iPhone. I think she digs it. I read somewhere that once the baby is born, they respond well to the songs they were used to hearing in utero. Paul said that I should be realistic and play her some Black Eyed Peas right now cause that's what will be on in the house once she's born anyway. He's got a point there. :)

I ordered a baby book and baby's 1st year calendar today off of Amazon. I've been on the hunt for the perfect book that has everything and I pretty sure I've found it. I'm having fun filling out the pregnancy book so the baby book should be even more awesome. The downside is I just really hope I have the time to fill it out. I know I love looking at mine (thanks Mom!) so I need to be committed to completing it.

This past weekend we went to San Diego for Joey's wedding - it was so much fun! Not only did we get to see our Joe-Joe marry his lovely bride Suzanne, we got to spend a long weekend with family and friends. The top questions we were asked this weekend were: "Do you have a name yet?" (Nope, we have a list of probably our top 10 favorite names and will be naming her officially once we see her cute little face), "How are you feeling?" (I'm feeling great! By the nighttime, I definitely have stiffness in my upper legs and inner hips. But no more nausea, I can take anything but nausea again!), and "How's it been not drinking all this time?" (Haha, it's just as difficult as it sounds. If I weren't a social drinker than it wouldn't be hard at all. But I surely appreciate a few beers now and again. Truthfully, I'm so in love with our daughter already that the thought of her and talking about her with others is more than amazing enough.). It was fun being in the wedding, for sure! When we got the dresses measured awhile ago, I wasn't pregnant. Since then, my rib cage has expanded a few inches so it was definitely tight BUT I had the alterations person remove the wires so it felt much more comfortable. (BTW, Pauly killed his speech! Great job Dad!)

This friday marks our 22 week milestone! Wowza! According to all of the pregnancy books, she is a little over 1lb now! I can't believe it, is it weird that I'm proud of her? LOL Anyway, so we will be taking our next set of belly pics this weekend and I'll post them on the blog.

Love you all,

Momma Dre

20 Week Ultrasound & Doctor Visit

Well look how far we've come already! And as I am typing this, baby girl is kicking away in my tummy. She is one active little girl, I tell ya! I can see her kicks from the outside already. It's pretty amazing!

Yesterday, we had our 20 week appointment (although I am 19 weeks 4 days) and it went great! They did the scan of each of her organs and everything checked out great as far as size is concerned. We saw her full bladder and her full tummy, pretty amazing that we could see all of that. I wasn't expecting it! Joni came along with us on this visit which was a nice treat! And we got the "best" ultrasound tech who only works Monday mornings -- woohoo! We watched her scan through everything for what felt like awhile (maybe 20 minutes) although I could have watched our baby forever. The tech said she is a squirmy one and we have a mover on our hands. She wouldn't sit still at all and even kicked the scanner when the tech turned on the dopler noises. Guess she didn't like that?! The only time she calmed down was when she soothed herself by sucking on her thumb. That's when I lost it and started crying -- she's got a personality and it's so amazing to see. She even stuck her tongue out at us a couple of times. The second trimester blood tests also came back great so everything is healthy on that front, too. Next appointment is scheduled for Monday, August 3rd at 8:30am.

Since this was our last ultrasound at the doctors office unless something goes wrong, I'm really looking forward to the 4D ultrasound appointment where everyone can come watch her wiggle on the big screen and we even get photos and a video to take home. I need to find a really good place so the date is TBD. Probably the end of August or beginning of September.

We will be going to register at Baby's R Us on July 25th with the help of some experienced Mommy's - Barb, Debbie, and Joni. It's going to be a bear of an activity so we are super grateful to get a lot of help!

Belly update: My skin is definitely hit its maximum stretching point...it's super tight most of the time so I am putting lotion on it as much as I can to help the stretching process. Sometimes it aches a little bit but the pregnancy yoga is helping out with the expansion.

So that's about it for now! Baby girl is doing great and Mommy & Daddy are doing fabulously ... getting super super excited to meet her. Officially, watching her suck her thumb yesterday rocked both of our worlds. We found it very hard to concentrate at work yesterday. :-)