16 Week Pictures

I am 16 weeks along now and we decided we'd take some pictures to share. We'll take pictures once every 4 weeks so you can all watch our baby and I grow. My belly is starting to pop and get a little bigger now. I am still in my regular clothes but I am going to have to go shopping soon.

Guess about Baby Spins

A lot of people now are starting to tell us their feelings on whether they think our baby will be a boy or girl. So we thought it would be fun to play a little game with this. Our friends Ryan and Abby did this and we thought it was a good idea - thanks guys. If you go to www.expectnet.com/games/BabySpins you can enter in your guess for the baby's gender, weight, length, and birth date. Once the baby is born, the game will tally up a winner. We don't exactly have a prize for the winner...you'll just have bragging rights for being the best guesser. Make sure you enter in your guess before March 22nd because that is the day of our next ultrasound and hopefully we'll be able to find out the sex then. Have fun! I know we'll have fun checking to see what everyone thinks!

Baby Mayra has arrived!

Noah Jeffrey Mayra was born February 14th at 2:57 PM. The Valentine's Day baby is 2 weeks early! He is a healthy baby and weighed in at 6 lbs. 15 oz. and is 20 inches long. Lesley is also doing good. They are all leaving the hospital and going home today. I got to talk to her for a few minutes yesterday but then the Dr. came in and cut our conversation short. They are obviously really busy right now, but I am hoping to get to talk to Lesley again sometime soon. I want to see pictures too! As soon as I get some pics I will post them. Congratulations Mayra's!!!

Noah Jeffrey

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! We had our Week 14 Dr.'s appointment today. We made it there in plenty of time and there were no breakdowns so that was good. It was a very short appointment (under 15 minutes). I weighed in, did the urine test, had my blood pressure taken, and then Dr. Cline came in. She talked to us for a few minutes and then she used the Doppler to find the heartbeat. She found it right away. It is still fast but it has slowed down a little since the last time. It was 158 beat/min. I asked her what she thought about the relationship between the heartbeat and the gender and she said it's a myth. She said we all have a 50/50 chance of guessing it. By the way, Brad thinks we are having a girl and I think we are having a boy. Only time will tell! She scheduled our next appointment and an ultrasound in 5 weeks (March 22nd). We told her that we would like to find out the sex of our baby so she said that hopefully at that appointment we will be able to tell. We can't wait...we are so excited! It's crazy that in 5 weeks we could already know if we are having a boy or girl! It would be great to have it be a surprise at birth but we decided for our first baby that we would really like to find out early. That way we'll know for when we do the nursery and for the baby shower. Also, our friend Jason told Brad that it was easier for him to bond once he knew what he was having so Brad thought that was special. But really, we just can't wait!
So our appointment was short but sweet. It was such a wonderful feeling to hear our baby's heartbeat again! Later we went out to dinner at Bravo's (my favorite Italian restaurant) and celebrated our appointment and Valentine's Day.

2nd Trimester Begins

Today marks the beginning of my 2nd trimester. I can't believe the 1st trimester is already over! You hear all these stories about how terrible the 1st trimester can be but I have to admit, that I was definitely one of the lucky ones. I felt nauseous at times (especially when I was really hungry or if I ate too much) but I didn't throw up all the time like some people. I also went through my phase of being really tired but nothing too bad. I did have my moody days, but that is normal, at least that is what I told Brad. My pants are starting to get a little tighter on me now. I have a feeling I will have to go shopping for some maternity clothes pretty soon. Overall, we are very thankful for such a wonderful 1st trimester! We look forward to this 2nd trimester and each step of this miraculous journey!