The artwork was hung by the Huband with care....

With hopes that soon, a Baby would be here....

We are now at the 38th week! That just seems insane that I am with in my due date and this little lady could be here any day! We are finally all settled and we are adding more to our already busy plates! Since Jared and I stayed here for the Holidays instead of visiting family due to my largeness and closeness to my due date:), We decided to have Christmas Dinnner at our place. So for this occasion I requested that I finally get my table that seats more than 10! So here it is below I just love it and it is all decorated for the big event.

Later this week Jared and some helpers will be moving our furniture for the carpet people to install our new carpet. They will hopefully get everything installed in the three days that we are moving furniture. I just hope everything goes back as it should because I finally have our house in order for baby T's Arrival and now we are going to go and turn our place upside down right around her due date! I am doing a pretty good job keeping my cool, I think...Oh the joys...I just think oregon trail would have been a lot worse:)

Anyway Christmas was wonderful dispite being away from our families, even chopper had a blast as you can see him running around with his stocking and him and Bull fighting over their christmas Toys. (We are house sitting a friends dog for a week or so. )

We just are so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends. I am so excited for what 2010 has to bring. Just hoping that health and happiness continues from our home to yours for the years to come.

37 weeks can I get any bigger

Can I possibly get any bigger? I was holding out to go late but with all the fluid I have on board I am not so sure her coming late is all that great of an idea. I had my 37 week appt today and all is well. I keep running into people from my labor class that Jared and I went to. One at ikea and one at my appt today. Kind of weird since it was a class not sponsored by the army. We went to the class last week and Jared experienced an Ice journey one that will hopefully help him to be more understanding of what labor may be like for me. You can ask him about what he thought of it. The picture above it from Jared's command Christmas Party. We are just getting ready for the Holidays, New carpet, I got my new table so we are having a big group for Christmas dinner. Sorry my house may not be clean with two dogs running the place a muck with wet paws and with the new carpet install it is likely to be a mess in fact. But we will make due and hopefully it will all get done and put back into place for Baby Girl T's Big arrival. I am still working full time up till the 3rd of January and then my work is not putting me on the schedule but I can come in and fill in as needed. Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

End of week 35! 29 days till I am officially DUE!

Our little lady is running out of room! I already think she is going to be a dancer because when I have a minute to sit and watch "So You Think You Can Dance," she goes crazy! The other day I felt a big movement and lifted my shirt to show Jared and she moved again like a ripple her arm or leg swept my entire belly. I screamed like a little girl because it is such a weird feeling and then to see you body just do the weirdest things is so bizarre to me. I told Jared that I really have no issues with people touching my belly because it doesn't feel like it is my space. When I look in the mirror it like I have a shopping cart in front of me at all times, hard to navigate, bump into things and it just out there for everyone to see and touch as they need to get by! If I put my arms up it really does look like a shopping cart, I swear! I am finally getting to the I am ready to not be pregnant stage. I really want her to stay in my belly till my due date or later as I want her b-day far from the Holidays as possible but with such little space to move all the pressure is causing some actual pregnancy side effects now that I am not a big fan of. Let me just whine for a moment...My arms are so tingly all the time, I can barely hold on to things and I have a numb spot on my right shoulder, she must be on some nerves and My Ankles, if you can call them that look like elephant trunks. So there, I am getting ready to not be pregnant any longer! But overall I am so lucky to be having these symptoms at all. I am reminded each day how worried I was that this might not happen and I am just hoping that I am making a healthy little lady in there and she comes out just fine! If that happens any thing bad will be sooo worth it!

34 weeks! So much to be Thankful for!

Jared and I traveled to California for Thanksgiving, It was a last minute trip that was planned because we were supposed to spend Christmas with his side of the family this year but I will be too far along to travel for the Xmas holiday. It was really nice to see Jared's family, they truly out did themselves. We flew on Thanksgiving at dinnertime, which I highly recommend for those that hate airport hassles, it was great no lines maybe 20 people on our plane. We got in early because we were so light I am guessing and we got to Jared's family's house and had left overs as they had already done a smaller turkey that day. Then we got to do Turkey day all over with the family on Friday. It was great and the food was amazing.

Then on Sunday his family threw us a shower and spoiled us with more cake and tons of appetizers and goodies. Jared's Aunt made me an adorable diaper cake, we were able to catch up with some of Jared's California buddies. It was a nice getaway but I am feeling a bit of a time crunch with less than 6 weeks to go, every weekend we have been gone and now I am going back to work for 5 day shifts all 12 hours. I think my legs are going to look like the Michelin tire man by the end of the week. Still feeling pretty good but sleeping is becoming less and less with the pee trips.

33 weeks less than 50 days to go, Really?

My mom finished up her visit with a surprise ( for her) Baby Shower I took her to. She thought we were going to bunco. My work had a really nice shower for us at my friend Andi's house and they have continued to shower me all week long with gifts for Baby Girl T for those that could not be there. I got the most adorable clothes, blankets and lady bug decor items for her and feel so lucky to have so many nice things for her arrival. I have enough creams and lotions for mom and baby to get us through the first 6 months for sure!

Whats new with baby this week: big news this week is lung development—baby's respiratory system is almost completely mature. That means if your baby was born this week, odds are she'd be a healthy bouncing baby with a just a little help from her friends (aka, the NICU). Some of the specifics are: Your baby can now detect light and tell the difference between night and day His pupils will constrict and dilate in response to light. If you shine a flashlight on your belly, your baby may shy away from the light. The bones in your baby's skull are soft and are not yet fused together. This pliability allows the bones to overlap; making that trip down the tight birth canal possible (and resulting in that surprising cone head look your baby will sport for the first few days post-birth. Your baby will continue to pack on the pounds gaining around ½ pound a week from here on out.Your baby weighs about 4½ pounds, and is approximately 17.5 inches long, about the same as a collarbone-length necklace. (Did somebody say push present?)

Wrapping up this week was my Midwife appt. I am sick this week with a head cold, so not getting any sleep already with getting up to pee every 2-3 hours and now not being able to breath has not made this week go buy quickly. I did pass my 3 hour glucose screen, what a relief as I was concerned that I might not. Nothing exciting at my appointment once again I waited till 1050 am to see my midwife for my 9:45am appointment and she hung out with me for maybe 15 minutes. She thinks baby is head down and told me my cold will probably last 3 weeks. Somehow, I doubt that! There is no way I am doing three weeks like this. I am sure I will be better after the Holiday, hopefully I can avoid any bugs on the airplane since Jared and I are flying to Sacramento for Thanksgiving.

So with Thanksgiving around the corner we are so blessed and have much to be thankful for so far this year. I have had a pretty uneventful pregnancy, we have had so many friends that have blessed us with kindness and way too many baby gifts and our family has been a big help as well. Of course there is our adorable Dog Chopper that we are the most thankful for since he was born on Turkey Day! I should have known he had a little turkey in him. I am just sad that we are being bad parents and will not be here for his big day.

32 weeks

Whats going on in there: This week your baby weighs almost four pounds and could be up to 19 inches long. And though that's a head-to-toe length, your baby is actually back to a curled-up position (you try standing up in those cramped quarters!). At 32 weeks pregnant, you're likely feeling tapping and squirming instead of your baby's signature rocking and rolling. That's because, while comfy, your baby is a bit tight for exercise space right now. Your baby has also probably settled into the head-down, bottoms-up position in your pelvis in preparation for birth. That's because the fetus's head fits better at the bottom of your inverted, pear-shaped uterus. It also makes it easier during childbirth if your baby comes out head first. Fewer than five percent of babies prefer the bottom-down (or breech) position by full-term. Don't worry if your baby hasn't assumed the head-down position yet. There's still a good chance he or she will flip head-side-down before birth — even in the tight confines of your uterus.

We are at thirty two weeks now and baby is getting bigger than ever as you will see from my Pictures. My Mom came into town to help me set up the nursery and it was a crazy week of none stop stuff to do. I am really happy with how it turned out and you will be able to get an idea from the pics I will post soon. I still have to get the crib bedding and mattress and a few odds and ends, as well as the shelf and art work up but the big stuff it in and outta the way. If Jared HAD to do it himself at this point it could get done and I would be fine with everything. My mom was a huge help in getting the clothes organized and under wraps. We had all the piles of clothes that I have collected over the months and from friends who sent boxes spread all over the den and finally my house is put back together.

Since Halloween Jared and I attended one of the Madigan Prenatal classes provided by the army. It was horrible. As a nurse I was so saddened by the disservice this class offered to new parents. It was so abrupt and none informative and the only education thing about it was the video that they showed which resembled one I had seen in the 80's in my health class in High school. Anyway it was a disappointment to say the least. It was slow at work the past two weeks so I was able to go to the Madigan Breast feeding class and the Birth plan class. A lot of the info is repeat for me since I work with mom's and in the maternal child heath division but it gave me a chance to ask some questions that I may not have otherwise known the answer to. Both of these classes were good, the breast feeding class was pretty thorough and as weird as it was to go to a class with some of our units nursing students it was good information. I kind of wish Jared had come because they gave you a doll to practice with and it was quit humorous, I thought it was so fitting that they had African breast feeding babies and Caucasian BF babies how politically correct! As a nurse I remember being on OB rotation and reading some mom's birth plans, most nurses honestly just kinda laugh at them and say whatever. So I didn't think too much of this class. My only real "Plan" is to not have a C- section and hopefully get an epidural and have a healthy baby. But I too will probably fill one out and hope not to get snickered at.

Last thing about this week was I did not pass my one hour glucose, go figure with all the Halloween candy and working the night shift it just wasn't a good match. The midwife said it shouldn't matter but I had a feeling it might. So I have to fast and do my three hour glucose and hope I pass this time.

The BIG 30!

I am finally thirty weeks well into my third trimester, that is so crazy! My count down clock says 65 days to go! This pregnancy has been so nice for me it went so fast so far and I just hope it continues that way. I love being pregnant. I don't feel too horrible and the few negative effects I have had, swollen ankles, Weight gain, just not looking so cute and being tired all seem relatively minor to some of my friends who have had major symptoms. The trade off for carrying this lively little person inside is well worth any of the negatives I have experienced thus far. Hopefully I will feel the same during and after birth:) I just hope that I am doing everything right to make her strong and healthy! That being said I have to say that Halloween time was really a rough time for me, I really don't have any cravings but I just want to eat lots of candy, I could eat it all. This has been an issue for me when I am not pregnant but if I embellish I can spend a good week of working it off hard core at the gym but not so being pregnant. So the other issue is that I am a week late or so on my 1 hour glucose screen from my 28 week appt that I had to schedule this week because I was out of town and of course I need to do it now during Halloween when I am on nights, eating way more sugar than I should. Hopefully I will pass but I have to quit procrastinating!
The big topic as of late is the Flu shot, I did get my regular flu shot and I am waiting for the H1n1 to come out to the military to get it. To all my pregnant friends who are in limbo I would say yes go get both and protect you and baby, we have so many kids coming into the hospital with symptoms it really is everywhere and it will continue past the winter.
I haven't been very good about blogging as of late I missed all of October somehow. However the picture above is from Halloween I am a cat with a fishbowl in my tummy and J is a cereal Killer. We are getting closer to being baby ready. My mom comes in Novemeber to help decorate the Nursery. I am set with closthes, hopefully I have all the right things, I have been buying baby clothes like crazy, the outfits are so cute but really between the friends that have sent boxes and the baby clothes sales I am not going to have any space for all this stuff. It's all so fun, but I feel like the time is starting to go quicker as her due date arrives, With working every other weekend I really just want to be at home and get things done. I think this is called Nesting:)

Oregon dunes 7 months- 28 weeks

Things have been pretty uneventful we spent time in Oregon in October with friends camping on the Coast near the Sand Dunes. Jared talked me into renting an RV vs. a cabin it was actually worked really well. We brought the Dog, Jared had his new motorcycle/dirt bike even though he only rode his old one once last year in the dunes, I wonder what the big purchase will be next year? I brought my sewing machine and some books and my camera to get into my new photography hobby. It worked out much better than I thought the weather was nice about half the time so it was nice to enjoy the coast, the views, just have downtime with no distractions. Chopper had the best time, running the campground, chasing cats and hanging out by the fire. He ran all the way out to the dunes about 7-8 miles round trip out to the ocean played in the waves and ran back, that dog has never slept so good.

The funniest part of the trip was when we went to our friend's boat house to cook the crab and poor Chopper as curious as he is stuck his nose into the box with the live crabs and one grabbed onto his lip. The poor dog was squealing and swinging that crab all around and then when it let go he had his hair all raised and was barking at it. He stayed clear of the crabs the rest of the day, it probably hurt pretty bad but it was really funny to see.

I am really pregnancy now, my belly is so large I get a sad look from strangers when I tell them I have a few more months to go. I am feeling pretty good but dreading returning to work because I will be on nights for two weeks. Hoping this will go OK and my lil lady will let me get some zzz's during the day! She is kicking and moving a lot lately and she has figured out that being upside down isn't very fun so she is head up. Jared can see her moving a lot more and so that is nice because I think it is becoming more "real" for him now. We were supposed to come up with our top names this week in Oregon but that really did not happen. We never really got the list out. She better not come early because we will be at a loss for deciding on a name if we had to pick now. I am pretty happy though that she is getting stronger and moving so much, each week is one week closer to a safer delivery even if she were to come early which she won't because it would be right at Christmas. I am really pushing for a mid January birthday. The holidays are so hectic with all our nieces and nephew having b-days in Late Nov, Dec and then with Xmas I just would like her to have her day apart from all the hassle and bussle.

Week 24

I had my 24 week appointment and Ultrasound this past week and everything looked really good. Her Echo of her heart showed everything as it should be and she is now about 1 pound 9oz. "The Bump" email I get weekly says that she is growing branches off her lungs and her skin is thickening so it is not so translucent and her eyes are forming, so I guess I should eat my carrots this week too! We were relieved to know everything looked reassuring again.

I am so lucky to have such nice friends here in Washington and afar. Above is a picture of a cake that my friend Kimberly made for my shower. It was amazing and I still have not cut into the top, I am debating how sanitary it is to keep it and put it in the baby room with little fondant babies :) I spose I don't want ants crawling on my little one but it is so adorable it is hard to imagine eating it and then having nothing to show for her hard work! Katie's husband is going to a class for 4 months so she wanted to host a shower for me even though it was a little early in my pregnancy. It was so nice and after having so many good friends move away I truly felt honored that so many people were able to take part. It really meant a lot to both Jared and I.

The only glitch we have this week is Jared's job is a position that requires renewing at the fiscal year( Oct 1st). I found out at my 24 week appointment, which I could have waiting till my 28 week appt to schedule and not have known any of this...but our Military Tricare coverage ends at the end of this month. Yep, September 30th unless we get the new orders processed, which we better there will be a gap in service. So I am freaking a bit, I am sure it will all work out fine but had I not made this appointment at 24 weeks, It would be too late and I would not have known the importance of these orders. This is one thing I hate about the Military...where was our end of coverage notice. Why did no one even tell us that this would need to be renewed so at least we would have been expecting the news. Oh my, I was not happy...I am not giving birth at home or planned parenthood for that matter! What's Next! Here is our little one posing for us this time it is her profile upright.

6 months and counting

Things are going pretty good. Jared has now redeemed himself, from the last blog entry, spending all of yesterday dealing with our crib and dresser furniture we got from Babies R Us. They had a buy one get one half off and we got a dresser and crib. He picked it up while I was at work. When we bought it last week we were not in 100% agreement about the furniture. I was very happy with the color but Jared really wanted to keep looking and preferred white for our little lady. I was stuck on brown because I have some other cherry brown pieces like a shelf and end table that I wanted to use in the baby room that do not work in our other rooms. The dresser had a few scratches on it I wanted him to take a good look at everything before he left the store because there had been problems with the bottom drawer in the reviews. Well some how that got missed and low and behold he got it home and there was a very large crack in the bottom left side of the dresser near the drawer. I was at work so Jared called to tell me of all of this and I told him he would have to take it back to Baby's R US. He was not so happy about this but he did and worked out a great deal with the manager. So hopefully our new dresser will arrive without any issues because we got a really good deal on it.

Date night! As you can see from the picture above Jared and I attempted to go out for date night since people keep telling us to do it now because it may be few and far between when the little one arrives. I also have a lot of cute maternity clothes, some donated from friends as well but never get to wear them since I work in scrubs. So, this was a great way to get some use out of them. We headed for Asado, it is supposed to be a nice steak restaurant. I have been there but Jared had not. Anyway we ordered steak and mine was supposed to be Med Well, I am usually not a picky red meat person and enjoy some pink in my steak but being pregnant I am little more cautious. Well Jared got medium and mine basically came Med Rare, the center looked totally uncooked, it was a round steak. I ate a bite or two on the end but when the waitress came by I had her take it back. I always feel bad doing that but the waitress even thought it looked a little too uncooked to eat. So while I waited I ate bread and potatoes I am not sure what it was but by the time it came back and I took a few more bites I had the worst heart burn, indigestion ever, and I could barely sit still in my seat I was so uncomfortable. So I never enjoyed my expensive meal, only had a few bites of my actual meal and home we went so I could recover and curl up with some pepto-bismol. So much for date night... welcome to reflux and no room for food in my belly.

The Baby Registery

Finally half way there! I am at the ends of my 20th week and had my regular OB appt. today. Nothing too exciting just checked the heartbeat, still 144, like clockwork, are you sure this is a girl? Usually girls aren't so predictable! Starting to feel the baby move, but still not 100% sure and Jared still has not felt it. We attempted to register on Sunday at Baby's R Us we went to Burlington to check out a few things that place is a disaster. Then later that night we headed to Baby's R Us.
It is one of those things that as a girl who has been a nanny to many and wanting to be a Mom since I first held a baby that you kind of get excited about. I suppose it is like your wedding day you just have expectations of what it will be like and what you partner will be be like. Well not that things were bad but it did not go quite as I had imagined. Not that I thought J would hold up ten different infant dresses and say, " Oh these are so cute! We need to get them all!" But I thought maybe I would get a more excited other half than the one telling me, "We don't need a stroller, we are just going to be carrying the thing around all the time anyway!" Yes, he really did say this:) Gotta love the guy. I have left reading material in the bathroom for him to thumb through all the must haves for babies but I guess that did not help. A few nights before, I knew he was going to be clueless when I told him I wanted to get a play yard for sure instead of a bassinet. OK well I will give the guy a break he is imagining a fenced in area for the yard for the kid to run in and he says, "why would we need that it's not even going to be walking for a year!" After that comment, I went through the book to describe what each item was so he might be a bit more prepared and talked about some things that I thought would be helpful. I guess nothing really works to prepare your man for babyville because he still made the stroller comment after being at Baby's R Us for only a few minutes. Resulting in me saying, OK "why don't I just tell you what we need and you not question it, your job can be to look up which one is the best product to get. This seemed to work better and I put him to work on Baby monitors. We were lent this wonderful book called Baby Bargins, that reviews everything you would ever want to buy for your child and rates it for price and quality. It is the best must half advice I have been given so far! Thanks Ryan and Emily Flanagan! Anyway that was our registering experience. Not really what I had dreamed of or imagined for my first baby but that is what I got, I am going back today... by myself to try to recreate the scenario...Only kidding!

IT'S A GIRL!!! 19 weeks

Well it is as official as it is going to get till my due date! I had my Ultrasound on Monday and we are happy to report we are blessed with a healthy little girl! I had waited to share the news about some blood work on here till we had the results of the ultrasound but if it will help anyone else get reassurance then I will just make a quick reference on here. Jared and I were a little nervous that we may hear some not so great news with this ultrasound as my Quad Screen had come back positive with a higher than expected AFP (Alpha Feto Protein). I was not planning on doing this blood test because it comes back incorrectly positive, a not good thing. After asking a few other people what they did I decided to do the blood test and hope for good results. Well I was one of several that had a false positive result. My ultrasound confirmed everything as far as they can see with ultrasound is on track and Little Girl Toppenberg is growing as she should. I was a bit relieved to be in the Medical knowledge know, because I knew what to ask for to verify all the important parts are working. Obviously I can not read the Ultrasound... wouldn't that be nice, but it made me feel better that all the markers of kids with abnormalities that you see after birth were shown to be normal. So now we are going to be picking out pink and girl names for our little heart breaker! Let the fun begin!

16 weeks

Just a Quick update, I had my 16 week appt. Nothing new to share, My wait time for my appt took twice as long as the appointment time. Finally got to hear the heartbeat with an official doppler, instead of the home version I had and the foot Doppler at work. The heartbeat was 141 to 146. So it is about the same as it has been. That was about the most medical thing I did today in my appointment.

This week in Washington has been record breaking weather up to 103 or so in some places, My car read 107 and my house was 99 inside, no fun. To make it more enjoyable for us pregnant ladies the power went out from all the people that had 10 fans and portable AC units going in my neighborhood. The things that Army wives have to endure while their husbands are away... I tell you there needs to be a book on this stuff. It's not that other woman don't have to do this or that single mom's don't have their own share of stories but when you plan on having a partnership and the partner is gone for things that you plan on counting on your spouse to do it really gets to be a bummer.

I went to put our unborn baby on the Army Childcare wait list. I though what a great way to escape the heat in my house and outside. I will just go sit and register in their air conditioned office. Well, to my disappointment I was number 17 in line, they were on number 3 or 4 and there was no AC in this room filled with hot bodies and screaming kids. What a bummer. I sat there and melted into the chair debating on coming back a different day. The temp in the office said 103. I am so glad I had my Little Abanico fan from Spain with me. What a pain in the butt, And we will probably move before our name actually comes up on the wait list.

Jared bought this generator a few years back when the power went out on us a few times one rainy winter. But he deployed and has never had to use it. I think this is my third time hauling the thing out and it never fails that there is some major mishap. So I got it out the other day right when the power went out because I had just been to Costco and Safeway, There was no way I was letting my half defrosted groceries spoil. So this thing weighs a ton and is in our Garage on a shelf. I have never been able to pull the pull cord hard enough to get it started. I have the same problem with the mower we have and the weed whacker. Jared thinks that this is my excuse on purpose so I can't do the yard work but really I have tried when I am in shape and fit so being pregnant I knew I had no luck. So I got my neighbor over to start it. After assembling a bunch of cords I was able to jiggy rig the 2 fridges, the fans and a table light and my portable DVD player. I got the huge gas tank out of Jared's truck, hanging off the ladder to get it out of his truck, It was a good 30- 40 pounds or so, Either way it was way to heavy to be pulling out while hanging on a ladder... pregnant! Hello, where are my bon bons that I am supposed to have fed to me. So I sat in my steaming house and felt pretty proud of myself for getting it all organized about 2 hours later. I asked Jared, who is gone for the month is in a hotel with AC; how convenient... to leave when it is the hottest month around here! Anyway I asked him how long he thought the generator would last and he thought about 3 hours. The Power was "supposed" to come back at midnight. Well it was past midnight and I heard the generator start to sputter and hurried to get more gas in it, Well I poured gasoline all over the place. The garage was pitch back except for my flashlight that I had angled at the nozzle and mosquitoes that seemed to love pregnant blood were feasting on me. I finally got some more gas in it but the generator had long since died. I made three really hard attempts at pulling the starter cord and the third one I had the worst cramp along my torso I just figured this is not worth it. It was too late to get a neighbor to do it and there was no one one the street. Covered in sweat and bug bites I put myself in the cold shower to cool off, literally and emotionally and I prayed for power, and a breeze. Neither of these things came in a timely manner. The power came back on the next day at Noon not 12am. My groceries were still cool and besides not getting any sleep and being bitten in my stale warm house it was over with. Thank goodness. I spent the entire next day in the sound Soaking up the sun while standing in really cold water! I almost was excited to go back to work in the AC.

15 Weeks and Counting

I am just in my 15th week and there really isn't much news to report. Jared and I have been crazy busy traveling from Minnesota on the 4th, then he went to training in Pennsylvania and I came home and met up with his Sister and her 4 kids that drove up from California to WA. Between work and family events there has been little down time. Jared left yesterday for his busy season for Anti-Drug spotting on the other side of the state for about 4-5 weeks. So now I am here with the dog just winding down and catching up. This is my 14th week picture. I haven't taken one every week but I really wasn't showing much till a few weeks ago. I don't have another appointment till the middle of my 16th week but I can report that we can finally hear the heartbeat with our doppler and the heartbeat is about 140-144 last I checked. Still pointing to a boy as far as wise tales go. I am starting to look a little pregant, It is so strange because I will go to sleep and look very pregnant and I wake up and my belly is almost flat. I guess gravity takes hold and my Abs relax and then it all hangs out by night time. Still feeling good despite a few aches and pains. I have bought a few key maternity items, still need to get a bella band but I found really cute Seven's maternity jeans when I was home and finally cut the elastic band inside of the belly band out and now I no longer hate them! Just hope they stay up when I really need them to.

10 weeks and 4 days

Today Jared and I had our first official ultrasound! One of our cardiology doctors was kind enough a week ago when I was 9 weeks to do an ultrasound on me and I was able to see the heartbeat. It was nice and reassuring to see. I actually got to spend more time getting an ultrasound from him than from the one today I also was given a vcr copy of the images. Unfortunatly I had to sneak Jared into work to view it since we don't have a VCR at home. Today was a bit more normal as far as appointments go. We were just supposed to hear the heartbeat on doppler but unfortunatly, our Nurse midwife could not find the baby's heartbeat, I heard mine but that was all. I was a bit nervous having flashbacks of watching "Marley and Me" and Jennifer Anistan's 10 week appt with no heartbeat. So she quickly went to get the ultrasound machine and low and behold this is what we saw. The heartbeat was still going strong and the little guy was moving around arching and flapping his little flippers. Looks like Dennis the Menace doesn't he :) Anyway it was a blessing to know everything looks good. Its is so hard at this point at least for me to feel that anything is really different. I really have not been sick, a little nausea here and there and loss of appetite more than anything. And other than feeling like a tired 90 year old not much has changed. As long as there is still a little guy in there doing well I am happy. One of the patients parents I had this week began puking in the sink, yes I know the sink ...really! And in the process was explaining that she was 8 weeks pregnant, I didn't have the heart to tell her that I am pregant too and have no morning sickness.

It's official! We are having a Baby!

Jared and I are so excited to finally share the news with everyone. I found out on Mother's day that I was pregnant and we have been waiting to share the news till everyone in our family was aware of the news. Thanks to one of our wonder doctors where I work I was able to see the heartbeat before my first appointment. It is kind of strange to think that something so small only 2cm at the time can cause so much havoc on your body. Actually I can't complain because other than some indigestion, tiredness and natural but painful chest enhancements I really have not had too much trouble. So Jared and I are just feeling blessed because we were starting to wonder if this was ever going to happen for us, since we are on the later end of 9 or 10 pregnancies that have occured since the guys have come back from Iraq and at work.



On a lighter note Mother's day was a wonderful day to discover the news but it didn't go without some typical Becky mishap that can only happen to someone like myself. I always wondered about those people that can't read pregancy tests correctly. Was it that they were just so emotional they couldn't think straight or just not smart enough to read the directions. Well I have to admit I found myself in this same predicament.

The story went like this...




I had had some spotting during the week that I was supposed to get my Period and so I kinda thought I might be pregnant but wasn't 100% sure so I took at test on Our anniversary....it was negative kind of a big bummer. So Went out and celebrated Cinco De Mayo in style. Still spotting waited till the end of the week when I was off the night shift as maybe that was just messing up my cycle. I had two tests left one from the dollar store that came with my OPK (ovulation predictor kit) tests and one that was also Free in a regular expensive OPK package. So on Mothers day when I took the test I no longer had the directions for the expensive one. After doing the test the line was in both places but then I took the dollar store one and it was very faint on the second line...oh no I couldn't remember was the expensive one supposed to have a line or a plus sign...are you kidding me am I really that person that can't read this stupid thing....where are the directions....hmm nope don't have those. So at 6am on Sunday morning I took myself to Walmart to get the pregnant/not pregant test and Vola! It said Pregnant. Also followed the next day by a blood test that also confirmed it, so I was relieved:)

Our tenative Due date is January 9th, 2010... We are happy for a Boy or a Girl but Becky thinks 85% that we are having a boy....what do you think?