32 weeks... wow!

I can't believe we're at 32 weeks already. London is getting big in there! Dr. B. says she's about 4 lbs. now and should be 4 1/2 by our next visit in 2 weeks. She gets the hiccups about 5 times a day. I feel so bad for her... every time I eat and every time I have a lot of water to drink, she gets them. Most of the time it doesn't seem to bother her, but sometimes by dinner she's had enough of them and starts getting wrestless. I don't blame her. She's still head down and really only moves around trying to get comfortable. I could watch her for hours though. She makes my belly bulge out in all these weird configurations when she moves. It's facinating.

I'm on a plan to have the nursery completely ready by my birthday, Sept. 1st. We've bought most of the big items we didn't get from the shower (with some help from Dad and Barbara - Thank you guys!! :) and just have to put things away and get a few little things here and there. Our Sunday school class is having a diaper shower for us on the 24th. That will be great to stock up on some much needed diapers before Miss London arrives.

I'm still planning to work right up until the end. Ian hasn't had any luck with a job yet, so we're still praying something comes through soon. He's working hard on it and it's really in God's hands right now. I have been blessed with an amazing job, boss and coworkers, so it makes working a lot more enjoyable with all the recent stress.

I'm attaching some pictures below from 30 weeks and 32 weeks. I'm getting big!

32 Week Belly...

30 Week Belly...

28 week update!! Lots of Pictures... :)

Hola! So we've made it to another big milestone... 28 weeks! I managed to sweet talk my way into a 28 week ultrasound (I wasn't supposed to have another one) so I could see my precious little girl again. She's doing great. Her heartbeat is strong in the 140s and she weighs approximately 2lbs 14oz. I'm measuring in the 28-29 week range, which is exactly where I should be. YAY. I managed to get a couple of 3D pictures of baby girl... see below. The uterine wall and umbilical cord are a little in the way on the left side of her face, so disregard that part. You can see a good view of her nose and mouth though.

I also had my baby shower this week. The girls did an amazing job! (Thank you so much Amy, Erin & Serena!!!) The shower went great and we got lots of cool stuff. London is going to be very well dressed! We got TONS of clothes and some other thoughtful items too. We're still missing some of our bigger items, but I have a work shower later this week and hope to get some then. Here are some pictures from the shower, including my 28 week belly picture.

Girl's who threw the shower for me: Serena, Erin, (me), Amy

Ian and Erin were in town this week and Erin helped me paint London's nursery... SO cute! I still need to get some things (like the changing thing for the changing table, rocking chair and some storage items). I also need to hang some things on the wall, but here's what we've got so far... I think it turned out great. I love it!

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 :)