It's a GIRL!!

We went in yesterday for a "sneak peek" at our little one. Okay, it wasn't just a sneak peek. We were really hoping to find out whether we would be meeting our little girl or little boy in a few months. We were so excited to hear, "I think it's a girl!" She then looked again for a long time, and I watched on the screen. I saw the "hamburger" and then a few minutes later she pointed out the three lines that indicated that we do, in fact, have a baby girl in there!

Zach was very disappointed at first. He was really wanting a little brother, since he already has two sisters (Brittany, as well as Rylee, who is his dad's precious little one year old). We had a good talk, though, and I think he is okay with it now. Brittany is super excited! She wanted another little sister. Clay is also as happy about it as I am, since we were both secretly wanting a little girl. :)

Now we can really start thinking about decorating that bedroom upstairs! Clay is giving up his "man den" upstairs, so I am getting rid of the dark green walls. I will definitely take before and after pictures, as this is going to be a huge transition!

Several people have asked us if we have a name. We do already have one chosen, but we're not telling anyone until she is here. :)

Here are the pictures from yesterday:




We will have a big ultrasound on January 13 (only 3 weeks away!), and we will have more pictures then.

God's blessings

There are times in my life when I am reminded of just how blessed I am. I mean, I know all the time that God takes care of me, but there are those times when I am just struck by the awe that God gave this life to me. This has happened several times lately, as I realize just how blessed I am to have been given Clay as a husband. We have always had a special relationship. Even from the beginning, we just seemed to “get” each other. There have been times in the past when he has shown me just how far he’ll go to be there for me (my colonoscopy comes to mind), but I have been amazed at the way he has taken care of things over the past few months. From the moment we decided to have a baby, he has been there 100%. I mean, I knew that he was excited about it, since he was the one who brought it up first. Still, I didn’t realize just how much he meant it when he said he would help take care of things when I was feeling bad.

During my morning sickness, he went to the store countless times just to try to find something that appealed to me. He brought home such a variety of food every time, and if nothing worked, he kept trying until he found something. He has run so many errands for me, left work to bring me lunch when I finally thought of something that sounded good, and he even started getting up early and taking Brittany and Zach to school every day.

The morning sickness is gone, but he is still helping out so much. He continues to take the kids to school every day, so that I can move more slowly in the mornings and take my time getting ready. The past few weeks, I’ve had a pain that has gotten progressively worse. It turns out the baby is on my sciatic nerve. This causes extreme pain at times, and makes it hard for me to walk until it kind of relaxes and eases up. The other night, he had already gotten into bed and I was heading that way. As I stood up from the couch, I started hurting. It hurt to the point that I couldn’t walk, but I couldn’t sit back down, either. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. I stood there rubbing it, hoping it would ease up like it usually does, but it didn’t. I finally called for Clay, who came in to help. He helped me take baby steps all the way to bed, and then kept trying different things to make it ease up until I could finally relax and fall asleep. By this point, it was late and he had a long day coming up, but he never hesitated to do whatever it took for me to be comfortable.

Clay really has been more supportive than I ever imagined anyone could be, and I appreciate it so much. I feel truly loved and cared about, and that is such a wonderful feeling. I know without a doubt that God has blessed me with this wonderful man, and I can’t wait to see this love extend to our baby in the next few months.

15 week OB appointment

Just a quick update! We went to the doctor this afternoon for my regular appointment. We heard a nice, strong heartbeat right away and I had managed to slow my weight gain down (woohooo!) Since I'm feeling better, I've been going to the gym and doing 30 minutes on the elliptical every day. If I can't control the eating, I'd better increase the exercise, right? :) Anyway, everything was great today. They took a tube of blood for my quad-screen, and I go back on January 13 for the big ultrasound! We will take Brittany and Zach with us that day, since he will look at everything. He also will have a brand new ultrasound machine, so I'm sure he will be wanting to play with it, and we'll have a lot of fun!

Kind of a short post for today, but I am sleepy and heading to bed early.

Weekend fun

We had a great weekend! Friday afternoon, Clay closed the office early and we headed to school and picked up Zach, Brittany, and three of her friends. Then we were off to Hot Springs for ice skating and food! Brittany has been planning this trip for months. Her birthday is in October, but she wanted to wait to have a party until the rink opened. It usually opens in November, but this year they decided to wait until December. The kids had a great time, and we had a lot of fun watching them. We took Brittany and Zach on New Year's Day last year, and we both skated, too (I can happily say that I did not fall down.) This year, we watched and took pictures while they skated (and fell). After we had all nearly frozen, we went to On the Border and proceeded to eat ourselves silly. Here are pictures of the fun!

Brittany and her best friend, Olivia.


Zach, Brittany, and me


Klaire, Kaycee, Brittany, and Olivia


Zach, ready to skate!

It really was a lot of fun, and the kids are really excited about going skating again in Dallas while we are there in a couple of weeks for Christmas with Clay's family. Brittany actually did really well for it only being the second attempt in her life at ice skating! So, happy belated 11th birthday to Brittany!

Our first big baby purchase!

We've made our first big baby purchase! On the Monday after Thanksgiving, one of my friends (Thank you, Shannon!) pointed me in the direction of Babies R Us online, where the carseat/stroller system that I had been looking at was on sale for $100 off of the regular price. The offer was too good to pass up, and the colors work for a boy or a girl, so I bought it. It arrived a couple of nights ago, but we got home late and didn't have time to take it out of the box. So, as soon as Clay walked through the door yesterday after work, he took it out of the box and put it together. It was fun watching him do this. Several of the girls in his office have had babies over the past few years, and we have given them swings and baby gifts that had to be put together. The last one was a couple of years ago, and he said it was going to be the last time that he ever put together "one of these things." So, there he sat in the living room floor last night, instructions in one hand and a wheel for "one of these things" in the other. He did a great job and had it together fairly quickly. He then did a "test drive" up and down the hall. Two-handed, one-handed, around corners. He started to take Chloe (our Yorkie) for a ride, but then decided against that.

We are having so much fun getting ready for this baby! I know the fun is just going to continue, as we look for all kinds of baby gear in the coming months. We are going to Little Rock to Babies R Us over the Christmas holidays. I am excited about this, because I've never been inside one, and I am ready to do some shopping! Okay, and some eating while we're in Little Rock, because we can't make the trip up there without going to our favorite restaurant! That is another source of excitement for me. Food! It has been a while since I've really wanted to eat. Now that I'm feeling good again, we've been planning to go up to Little Rock and have a great dinner. I can't wait!

"Do you know what you're having?"

It's so funny how there is a standard question that I seem to get from everyone, depending on the stage of pregnancy that I am in at that particular moment. At the very beginning, I seemed to get a lot of, "Congratulations! Were you trying?" Then during the next couple of weeks, "How are you feeling?" After another month or so, "Are you feeling better?" (The last two questions are always answered by Clay with an, "I'm feeling great, thanks!" haha)

So, at almost 15 weeks, the question has now become, "Do you know what you're having?" A baby! :) However, we still don't know whether that baby will be a little boy or a little girl. Going by feelings, I say it is a girl. I have felt like it was a girl since the very beginning. Clay feels like it is a girl. Brittany and Zach both say it is a girl. In fact, I've only had one person tell me that they think it is a boy.

Symptoms tell me it is a girl. Morning sickness was closer to being the way it was with Brittany, rather than the way it was with Zach. My skin is breaking out, and I now have skin that would make a teenager feel happy with their own.

I've had mixed dreams. One where I was having twin boys. Another where I had a cute little baby boy. Then one a couple of nights ago where I had a Chinese baby girl.

I also took a test called Intelligender. A blurb from their website (http://www.intelligender.com):

IntelliGender's G.P.T. is a simple in-home urine analysis similar to an in-home pregnancy test which identifies whether an expectant mom is having a boy or a girl.

First morning urine is collected in the collection cup provided in the G.P.T. kit. A measured amount is added to the test cup and the result is read within minutes. A yellow to orange color represents girl and a "smoky green" color represents boy (see examples below).

Laboratory tests have an accuracy rate of 90% (in-home results of 82%), depending on the stage of pregnancy.

The test can be performed as early as eight weeks of gestation (10 weeks of pregnancy). A simple instruction sheet is provided with the test as well as a toll free number should you have any questions.

Congratulations on your pregnancy! We hope that you will be blessed with a happy, healthy baby and you have great fun along the journey to delivery!

I took it at 10 weeks, and got an unmistakable girl result. I know that this test definitely isn't 100% accurate, but it is fun, anyway. I've done the wedding ring on a string test. Girl result there, too.

Everything really points to girl. So, it is probably a boy! We will try to find out the week of Christmas, but my actual ultrasound with my OB won't be until mid-January. So, for now, we'll keep guessing and having fun with it!

Baby names

Naming a baby... wow! It is such a responsibility, and so much fun all at the same time. I've been sitting here with Brittany and Clay discussing possibilities, and it seems kind of overwhelming when I consider just how many names are out there. Girl names are easy for me. They always have been. I knew what Brittany's name would be long before I ever imagined my actual Brittany. With Zach, it was a little harder. I had a couple of names picked out, but I had to actually see him before I decided which it was. I knew the second I laid eyes on him that he was a Zachary. This time, it seems to be the same. Clay and I both have such an easy time with girl names, but boy names are harder. We actually have narrowed it down and are almost positive about what we'll be naming our little girl (if it turns out to be one!), but it is harder to choose a boy name. We both want one that sounds solid without projecting too much testosterone. :)

We should be finding out the gender within the next few weeks, so that may make things a lot easier!

It's been a while!

Well, I had good intentions when I started this blog. I was going to keep up with all of the little things that go along with pregnancy... I just forgot to factor in the morning sickness! So, here I am a couple of months down the road, feeling more like looking at the computer screen. Other than feeling sick (Zofran became my best friend), this has been a relatively normal pregnancy, so far. We've had a couple of ultrasounds, and everything looks great. This is our u/s at 7w4d. Just a little bean with arms and a great heartbeat!










Our next u/s was at 10w3d, and we got some great shots! To get an idea of the first picture, pretend the baby is upside down in the upper right corner. Its little arms are thrown back over its head (just like Brittany and I both sleep). The second picture shows a front view with the arms and knees pulled up.






Everyone is really excited about the baby. Brittany and Zach talk about it a lot. Zach wants it to be a little boy (he says he has "too many sisters"), and Brittany wants it to be a little girl. Both of them think it is a little girl. Clay thinks the same thing. They have all been great throughout the past couple of months. Clay has gotten the kids up and ready for school, dropped them off (on time!), and has cooked whatever I thought I could eat. He is going to be a wonderful daddy to this little baby. Not that I had any doubts... he is great with Brittany and Zach!


So, that brings me up to date. I will be 13 weeks pregnant tomorrow, and I'm feeling quite a bit better. The worst now is the heartburn. Nothing seems to take it away, and everything I eat is pretty much going to cause it to get worse. Dr. S says it will go away before long and then come back in the 3rd trimester. I will take any break I can get for now!

Exciting news!

We're pregnant! We just found out this morning, and have spent the day feeling very excited! It is still very early, but we are very excited that we will be meeting our baby at the beginning of next summer!