Ahhhh....

....I think the fog is lifting!! I can actually stay up past 8:30 at night now!! The entire past few months have been pretty rough ~ extreme exhaustion, colds, stomach bugs, you name it...I had it. I honestly never thought I'd be up for more than an hour after Ben went to bed ever! But, it seems like things have turned a corner :) I'm finally sickness-free (thank you, God!) and have a little bit of energy in the evenings and it's so nice for a change! Last week, I had a week-long bought with morning sickness (the kind that comes and goes all day) that was a bit unexpected since at 16 weeks, I'm in the second trimester. Today and yesterday have been a little better (I even felt the baby move for the first time today!!), and I'm really hoping that nausea will be a thing of the past VERY soon.

Since I never once felt sick while pregnant with Ben, Mark and I are wondering if this little one might be a girl?? Everytime I ask Mark what he wants it to be, he gives me a different answer (very funny). So I don't know about him, but for me, I can honestly say it really doesn't matter. I can see great sides to both possibilities! Of course, I want more than anything for the baby to be 100% healthy with no complications. We won't have to wait long to find out what we're having, though ~ our next appointment will be the "big" ultrasound in only two weeks!! Yay!

Another Real Baby!!!

Wow! We just had our NT scan done again, and this is the first time we've seen any evidence of a "real baby" in there...we saw legs, arms, and hands flying everywhere! It was amazing to see our little baby in there, looking like a tiny person :)

And an answered prayer ~ the test came back fine. The baby was MUCH more cooperative than Ben was for his test, and they were able to measure the back of the neck several times really well, and the number was great. They also saw a nasal bone, which is a very good sign of a healthy baby. The heartbeat was 152 bpm and the baby was 5.8 cm long (not including the legs!). Already growing so fast!! Here are some pictures...

10 Weeks Along

Hi Little Baby! This weekend, we reached 10 weeks ~ you’re now an fetus instead of an embryo! Lately, you’ve been making Mama very tired, hungry, and giving me lots of stomach pains. I haven’t felt you move yet, but probably will in the next few weeks! This weekend, we heard your heartbeat twice with a home fetal Doppler machine. I’m so excited to be able to hear it this early!! The first time, we heard it right away, but after that, it was a little tricky to find again. You should have seen the smile on Daddy’s face when we heard it, though!!

I can’t believe you’re only 1.2 inches at this point. So tiny, but I know you’ll grow fast. We have been giving thanks and praying for you every day, Little One. Can’t wait to meet you…Love, Mama

Big as a Blueberry

January 3, 2011
Today I went to the OB to have bloodwork done to confirm the pregnancy. It was VERY uneventful....just waiting now until January 26 to go back to see the heartbeat!!

January 26, 2011
Well, today was a big day!! My follow-up appointment to see a doctor about my bloodwork and to get an ultrasound was today. I tried not to think about it too much by keeping busy with other things, but yesterday I got so anxious about whether or not the baby would be OK (i.e. Would we see a heartbeat?), I could hardly stand it. I even called and got my appointment moved from 4:00 to earlier in the day 11:00.

Thank goodness everything was just fine. God sure is good to me. The baby had a heartbeat of 136 and measured 1.1 cm...about the size of a blueberry! They estimated me to be about 7 weeks and 4 days along, making our due date (GET THIS...)

9 - 10 -11 !

How cool is that!??

I'm not sure why (maybe the size of the baby is still so small?) but it was very hard to see him/her. Here are the ultrasound pics we got, though...the baby is laying in the bottom of the black "bubble".




Afterwards, Mark and I stopped for lunch at Chick-fil-A to celebrate ~ what a wonderful day!

Shhhh! *happy new year's*

December 31, 2010

Today we found out we're so blessed to be expecting another baby! We had no big plans for New Year's Eve this year except to just eat take-out, drink champagne and enjoy some yummy chocolate-covered strawberries. So when I was out picking up dinner, I made sure to pick up some sparkling cider for me, too!

We decided to ring in the new year at 10:00 rather than midnight because honestly, a good night's sleep was more appealing than watching the ball drop on TV! So, I waited until Mark popped the bubbly and then gave him the good news :) He really couldn't believe it and was so incredibly happy ~ and surprised!!

I think that was my best New Year's Eve EVER!

Unfortunately, we won't be telling anyone for a while....I'm not even 4 weeks along yet!!

My Baby is Growing Up!

Oh, Ben...you're looking and acting like SUCH a big boy these days!! Mama's no longer rocking you to sleep (just standing by your crib until you lay down :), and Daddy and I are amazed at all the cute new things you're saying every day! Just today, you had your first "real" phone conversation....this morning, I talked to you on the phone and you said Hello, I love you Mama, and Bye Bye!! The wheels are turning in your head, my smart little boy, and it's so fun to watch you grow each day!

Speaking of growing, here's Ben at 19 months ~ wow!

19 Months in the Making!

Well, Ben's had an eventful past couple of months. He went for his 18 month check-up in January and got that last set of shots until he's almost school age ~ whoo hoo! He was still in the 75% for height at 33 inches and up to the 30% in weight at 24.5 pounds.

He's saying so many new words every day - it's so fun to hear! Some here lately have been apple, ball, bowl, orange, downstairs, upstairs, more, No, Yes, sock, Mimi, Bop ("Pop"), ice (that's a favorite!), berry, baby, Ben (sounds like "men"), mommy (still calls me Mama 99% of the time) , and please. He can also put them together in little short sentences, and has said bye bye dada, bye bye mama, bye bye bubba, hello dada, I la la dada, let's go!, and more please. He even made a sentence in sign language the other day by signing "more" then "bath"...it was the cutest thing EVER (as he's sitting in the empty bathtub that all the water has drained out)!!!

Ben had a fun time at Grandmama's for the Superbowl. We made a game board where you put your initials in a block and you win if that block has the score for the end of any of the quarters in the game. He enjoyed picking his own squares, and ended up beating all of us because he had the winning score for two different quarters - that means he won $10!! Ha!!

Here we are on a warm January day playing on the neighbor's cool tree swing.

So what else is new? Lately Ben likes carrying around a pair of his old cotton pajamas, or one of my soft pajama t-shirts. So, I got out a bunch of little baby blankies we call "lovies" and he takes one to bed every night now and seems to really find a lot of comfort in it.

Ben's also trying LOTS more foods these days....WHEW! He will eat anything with ketchup (green beans dipped in ketchup, anyone?!). One of his newest foods is shreds of carrot. Mark and I are so, so glad that he's eating more with the family now rather than us feeding him the few certain foods he liked.

Lastly, he's starting to mind a tiny bit, but is still generally unfazed by "time out". Sometimes when he does something he knows he's not supposed to do, like drop food on the floor from his highchair, or throw a toy, he looks at me and says, "Noooooooo" with the cutest little point of the finger - it's all I can do not to scoop him up and laugh!!

Ben attended his first "big boy" birthday party last month, too....here he is at Appalachian Gymnastics, having a BALL on the slide (climbing up all by himself!!), and loving the trampoline floor!