Last Ultrasound

We got to see Baby Dean today... for the last time until his birth! He was "much more defined," as Nolan said - it is amazing to see how much more of a little person he has become in just 3 weeks!

They were running about 35 minutes late again; Monday and ultrasounds must just be that way for the Naval Hospital... Oh well, except for that fact that he was very active while we were in the waiting room... and once we got back to the ultrasound he had relaxed a bit. He was still somewhat active; it was wild to see him moving on the monitor, yet I wasn't able to feel him moving. So I have to agree with what Nolan said, that it shows that he is a lot more active that we think; I just feel him kick when he bumps or kicks into the sides of my uterus! haha He currently has a lot of great amniotic fluid to flip around in. I have been drinking a lot more water this past 3 weeks, as supposedly he is drinking the fluid which is helping to develop his lungs, and the better hydrated I am, the better it is for him. :-) And of course I have to mention; he is still a boy! haha

They were able to see just enough of his face (the reason for the appt), although he was using his hands to cover a lot of the time. We could see his nostrils and his mouth; he was taking in amniotic fluid and had his thumb quite close to his lips/mouth. The tech also took a few more pictures of his heart; she said it was such a beautiful heart that she couldn't pass it up! That's always good to hear!

Because it had been 3 weeks since our last ultrasound, the tech remeasured various body parts again and he is roughly measuring at 22 weeks and 5 days... about 3 days behind his due date, at least at this point in time! :-)
She also said he currently weighs 1 pound and 2 ounces and his heart rate was 141 bpm.

This is the only picture we got, but I think it is great because you can see a foot a his eyebrows and his two fists hiding his face! I am so in awe! I can't wait to meet him!


You may be wondering if we have a name yet... We are working diligently to find the perfect name for him, but we haven't found it yet! We have two books that we peruse every few days... We are looking forward to naming him, so that we can begin to call him by his name, but there is no need to rush, so in time, Nolan assures me we will find a great name for him.

Lastly, a few random things:

I still can not stand the smell or thought of Domino's Pizza, sorry Domino's.
I love (maybe even crave) Raisin Bran Crunch cereal for breakfast and for a while there a before bedtime snack. I just realized the other day that it has quite a bit of sugar in it, so maybe I should slow down a bit! haha
Dr. Pepper, which this time last year I was drinking 3 to 4 a day, has become quite the problem maker. I had cut back to one every other day when we started trying to have a baby, and more recently I have cut back even more; it is weird that I don't even crave it anymore... When I do try to indulge, I pay severely! Oh well, it is better for the both of us...
Sleeping on my sides isn't quite as much fun as sleeping on my stomach and my back; my hips are adjusting I suppose and I often times wake up in pain! I won't be sleeping as much when Baby Dean is born, but I am still looking forward to my old sleeping positions!

Last week, I took a girlfriend of mine, Erika, to Babies R Us and had her help me register for baby things and this weekend Nolan and I registered at Target together. It was in some ways like when we registered 4 years ago for wedding stuff, fun times! If you check out the Target registry we added a few things that Nolan could/would still enjoy when Baby Dean comes too! ;-) (just like old times - ie wedding registry!)

22 week appt.

Today was our 22 week appointment, which Nolan was able to go with me to. It was a pretty quick visit: vitals, answer a few questions, ask any questions, listen to the heartbeat, measure my belly and sent us on our way...
Great news! My blood pressure was 120/81, after sitting for a few minutes after they called me back to do vitals. And my pulse this time was only around 80 (still super high compared to what it is at home), which was great because at my 18 week appointment my pulse was over 100!!!! Can you say white coat syndrome!? haha

Edited to add - How could I forget!? My weight gain!! haha I am up to 150 pounds, so from 6 weeks to 22 weeks I have gained roughly 8 pounds... I haven't been walking as much, although I plan to get back on track this week (Sandi and baby will appreciate that). My goal is 25 pounds total, since 25-35 pounds is recommended for a healthy baby, if you started at a healthy weight, however I feel like I started with about 10 extra pounds of body weight, so 25 seems fitting! Of course though if I end up a little bit above that, it is what it is! We shall see... :-)

As mentioned, they measured my belly for the first time and they tell me I am measuring 24 weeks, although they are thinking I'm 22 weeks pregnant. Seems to not be a big deal, since you can measure +/- 2 weeks and that is good... so measuring ahead maybe just means Baby Dean is growing well or has a bit of extra room to practice his flips! ;-) I/We have really been able to feel him moving often!

Baby Kicks!

Nolan has spent the past week on the West Coast... California for work related stuff, and home to Seattle for a few days... and of course my belly and our baby have continued to grow! :-)

During week 21 (which was this past week) I have really started to feel the baby kicking. I may have been feeling it sooner, but I became 100% sure it was him this past week.

And the best part.... Nolan was able to feel him kick after I ate lunch today! :-)
It is kinda weird to both of us, but very cool and fascinating at the same time! Thankfully his kicking isn't cutting into my sleep... yet, mainly just the many trips to the bathroom, as I really am trying to stay hydrated throughout the night. There were a handful of days where I woke up very dizzy, so my friend Stephanie suggested that I drink more water when I got up to go to the bathroom during the night, and I do think that has helped with my dizziness. :-)

Our 22 week appointment is on Wednesday; I'll post of anything interesting from that visit...

Pop! goes the baby

I took this with my cell phone, so it isn't the greatest quality, but WOW! I really feel like our baby boy has really popped out this past week! (my friends who see me on a pretty regular basis even agree ;-) )

Nolan left this past Sunday for California (USMC pilot stuff), is spending a few days in Seattle and will be back late Sunday evening... I can't wait for him to see how much I/we have grown!
On a side note, with today being my 28th birthday, my good friend Laura (a fellow Aggie) called and asked to meet me at DQ for mini blizzards to celebrate! YUM! They are truly the perfect size!
Also, I feel truly blessed to have such a great church family here in Jacksonville... they are truly wonderful people to be around and more specifically this evening there was a Youth Council planning meeting at the Chapel that I was asked to attend and the Chaplain's wife, Natalie baked me a cake! and they all sang happy birthday to me :-) What a great way to end my birthday that Nolan couldn't be here for!

Lastly, we are proud new owners of a Dyson Animal!!


What an amazing vacuum cleaner! I have shared my desire to get one for a year or so now (since we have a dog whom we love dearly, but sheds like a machine), but have never really wanted to spend the money! Well, before Nolan left, he said we are going to the Exchange and getting you one! I tried to balk at the last minute, but they had one in stock, so he wasn't going to let me leave empty handed! We have all wood floors right now and it works great on them and even better on a large rug that we have... can't wait to have a carpeted house come February 2011-ish! It also saves me a huge amount of time when I go to clean off Sandi's couch - LOVE it! :-)

Crib!

On August 4th, we drove down to Wilmington to order a crib we had found about a month ago.

Picture of the crib
(If for some reason the link doesn't work, Google, Bonavita Hudson Classic Crib)

The color is Chocolate... now to find other pieces that go with/match it! :)

We decided not to go with a convertible crib, as we hope to be blessed with at least one more child, and we hope that baby will use this crib also, when their older brother moves up to a "big boy" bed!

We really haven't bought any other nursery stuff yet... we will keep ya posted!

It's a.....

on our way to THE ultrasound.. which will it be?
Boy or Girl?
(notice Sandi's snout, she is very curious about those tiny clothes!)

BOY!

At an on-base garage sale last weekend, I bought one boy and one girl onesie ($1 each)...
This is the boy one, notice the train, for Nolan, who was a fan of trains as a child...

Boy parts...
(1 of 3 pictures we have) ;-)

We are both just THRILLED! :-) And the best part is that he looks like he is developing well; his due date is still December 26th.

The ultrasound was so amazing! The tech was so very knowledgeable and more than happy to answer all of our "what's that?" questions, as well as explain what and why she was looking for/at certain parts. It was crazy that pretty much the first swipe across my belly and there were his boy parts! ;-) You could see the chambers of his little heart going, which was especially cool because our first ultrasound, at 7 weeks 4 days, the heart beating blob was pretty much all we could see. If I recall correctly, his heart rate today was 144 bpm. We also saw his kidneys, spine, umbilical cord, bladder, fingers and toes... The tech did a lot of measuring of body parts; his femur, his head, etc. and he was measuring right around his due date for them all... :-) Grow Baby Grow!

Here are a few of the ultrasound pictures that we got today and because he was using both hands to cover his face (a part of the body they like to look at for possible cleft palate and such) we get to see him again on the 30th of August! :-) After 40 minutes of being looked at he was quite squirmy and was not letting us see his face, but it was fun to see him moving all of his limbs at one time in response to all of the attention he was getting... I think he was getting a bit frustrated by it all... haha

He is a flexible little guy, that is his foot above his forehead!

Profile
(that's the best she could get; he was quite squirmy)

Doing his best to keep us from seeing his face... both hands! and you can see his little femur and knee

I wish I could say we have a named picked out for our little guy, but unfortunately we don't, yet. We will start working on that! ;-) haha For now he has gone from "it" / "the baby" to "he."

Once again, Nolan's squadron made it possible for him to go to the ultrasound with me - Whoop to that! He has worked 13 of the past 14 days, so the whole squadron is running in high gear, but to be able to move him to a late work day makes it possible for him to go with me!

The Naval Hospital continues to exceed our expectations; even though they were running an hour behind today (the first time yet!). We are truly blessed to have such great medical care that comes with Nolan being in the military.

As for me personally, my morning sickness has been gone for the past 6 weeks! Thankful for that!
Physically, pregnancy has been easy on my body so far, I have missed a good night's sleep on my stomach and back lately, and the round ligament pains from everything stretching out are slowing down, so all in all I hope the last 5 months of the pregnancy are as good as the first 5!

Until next time...

20 weeks!

We are halfway there to meeting Baby Dean! :-)

As you can see, I/we have done a bit of growing the past 20 weeks! :-) More so here recently, like the past 2 weeks!! haha

Tomorrow is the big day! Hopefully our little one cooperates and shows us if it is a he or a she! ;-)

Our appointment is at 10am and is expected to last 45 minutes or so... I'll be sure to let everyone know once we get back! Less than 24 hours! Whoop! :-)

1 more day to vote on the right-hand side - 50/50 chance of being right! :-)