24 Week Update

Everything is going great! I passed my glucose test with flying colors! Yay! London is just active enough. She doesn't move around too much, but just enough to let me know she's still there. Here's some pictures of my 24 week belly....

It's a .... GIRL!!! London Maggie is due Sept. 28!!

Wow... according to my unofficial poll on this site, only 36% of you all guessed right! The rest of you need to stay away from Vegas!

Besides the obvious joy of being able to call the baby by a name, it's just so nice to finally know if it's a boy or girl. In some ways though I was a little sad to know it wasn't a boy. I guess for 5 months I've been planning in my mind all the cool things the next several years would bring about each gender... and now that's cut in half. But don't get me wrong, I am beyond overjoyed that we're having a girl. I was overcome by emotion when the technician told us. I really thought it would be a boy, mostly because I wanted a girl so badly. Over the last couple of weeks I did start noticing the difference in bellies from my co-workers who are carrying boys and how my belly looked. I had started to wonder if I had a girl on board.... guess my observations were correct! Check out the latest belly shots below.

So for those of you who haven't heard our ultrasound story (or seen the VHS video)... I'll bore you with my version of it.... For those who haven't had an ultrasound, in the 2nd trimester you have to drink a boatload of water 30 mins before. So right about the time the technician starts the u/s, you're ready to excuse yourself to the bathroom... but of course you can't b/c that would defeat the purpose. (this part will make sense later... read on) The technician first asked Ian and I for our last predictions on gender. We both said boy, though I did mention some hesitation that lately I had thought it could be a girl. Ian said I was just covering my bases, so maybe I was, but I really did think there could be a possibility... I mean see my paragraph above.... so anyhoo she starts the u/s and says that she's going to make sure the baby is healthy and do all those checks and then she'll check the gender. So she's pressing all over my belly measuring various parts of the baby. She starts trying to measure the head, but apparently this kid is super low and the head is almost out of the u/s zone. The technician decides to move on to gender and hope the baby moves and allows us a better shot at the head. So she's zooming on the gender region... and it all looks like a grey blur on the screen to be, but miraculously she's able to tell it's a GIRL! I asked her are you sure?? She laughed and said yes. I cried, I guess overjoyed to know and "tickled pink" it was a girl. She went back to the head issue... at this point the baby now has a name since we knew it was a girl... so London's head was still very low. The technician started pressing on my lower abdomen rapidly to try to make her move... it wasn't happening. Apparently London gets her stubborness from one of her parents! ;) So this goes on for several minutes with no resolve. Suddenly the technician laughs and says, your baby just pee'd. And sure enough... there was a little stream of something on the screen. She turned the thermo-sensor-whatever-thing on to see a red little trail off to the side. I thought it was particularly humorous since I myself wanted to pee on the lady for pressing on my belly like that. In any case, I thought it was kinda cute in a weird way.

Other than the obvious stress of Ian losing his job, we're doing great. London isn't real active. I feel her in there, but she's quite nice to her mom and only moves slightly every now and then to let me know she's there without kickboxing my innerds (is that a word?). I'm sure that could change later on, but for now it's great. I feel pretty good most of the time. I get a little tired in the evening and I lose my breath pretty regularly... like talking on the phone, walking and talking, walking up the stairs, public speaking - which really shouldn't be allowed from now on - that was a disaster!

Anyway, check out the latest pics below....

Mother's Day with the Drake's

20 Week Belly Picture

Mount Juliet Antique Car Show - 19 week belly

16 week update

Wow 16 weeks already! We had our 16 week Dr appointment today. Everything seems to be going well. Heartbeat is strong around 150-ish. Our next appointment is our big gender ultrasound! I can't wait! Next appointment is may 9th at 9am. I just can't wait to see the little one again.

I've been feeling great lately and actually feel better now than I have since being pregnant. I'm still pretty tired, but I don't see that part going away any time soon :)

Check out the next belly picture...

Serena's Baby Shower

Today was my good friend Serena's baby shower. She's having a girl. Serena and I have been friends since college and been through a lot together over the years. She was also my maid of honor at my wedding. It's exciting that we are both pregnant with our first babies together! I've attached a couple of pictures from her shower. She's 32 weeks here and I'm 13 weeks. Boy do I have a long way to go! :)

12 week Dr appt

We went in today for our 12 week appointment and everything is going perfectly so far! The baby's heartbeat is very strong at 150-160 beats per minute. I have lost 3 lbs since my 8 week appointment! YAY! That's mostly b/c I had just come back from vacation right before by 8 week appointment so I think I had some extra vaca weight that I've since lost.

We made our 16 week appointment for April 11th. We aren't scheduled to get another ultrasound until 20 weeks, which would be May 9th. So for now, the boy/ girl guessing game continues! (that might not be a bad thing, since Ian and I can't seem to agree on a boy name anyway :)

The first trimester is over!!!

We've reached our first big milestone... the end of the first trimester! So far everything seems to be going well. I'm feeling better, with the exception of a few pesky headaches. The belly is starting to pooch out now.

I have my 12 week appointment tomorrow. I think he's just going to listen to the heartbeat. I don't think I'll get an ultrasound for a few more weeks :( ... but the next one I do get, should let us see the gender!

10 week update...

When I had my 8 week appointment, I had mentioned to my Dr about having some heart palpitations and just wanted to make sure it wasn't anything that was something to be concerned about. He thought it was worth getting checked out, so he referred me to a heart specialist. They did a bunch of tests and did an ultrasound of my heart. Everything looked good structurally and the Dr felt that my rapid heartbeats were most likely due to the pregnancy. He said that all is ok, unless it gets to the point where it's really bothering me. He recommended I come back around my 6th to 7th month to get checked out again. .... So when I had the heart ultrasound, I talked the technician into taking a quick peek at the baby. It was so cute. The baby was just playing in there, pulling up its feet with his/her hands and then flopping them back down again. Cute to watch, but I have a feeling in a few weeks that trick will probably not be nearly as cute in my ribcage :) In any case, it was so cool to see the baby being so active and playful.