23 Weeks

There is not much new to report as far as the pregnancy goes. Everything is still going good. Our baby is definitely growing as evidenced by my ever expanding belly. And she is definitely an acrobat as evidenced by her nearly continuous kicks and moves. Sometime last week I looked at my belly when she was moving and I could see her moving from the outside. Sometimes I really do wonder what she is doing in there. I can't really feel her moving a lot throughout the day because I don't really sit still much during the day since I am chasing a toddler around and doing mommy things all day. But as soon as I sit or especially when I lay down I can feel our little girl moving around. Sometimes when I get a chance I like to take a break during the day and stop so that I can feel her moving around. It's so nice to be able to be able to spend time with both of girls each day. I have fabric picked out for the nursery so now I just need to start sewing. I still need to finish decorating Raegan's room so I have a lot of projects to do. And I think we have a name chosen out but I think we are going to wait until she is born to announce it. We thought it would be nice to keep it as a surprise plus given my indecisiveness, I don't want to commit to anything yet in case I change my mind. So overall we are both doing good!

Saying "hello" to Daddy

Last night I got home from my small group where I had a conversation about how early you start to feel the baby kick and how long it would take before someone else could feel the kicks. We were talking about how it seems like someone would be able to feel it but really it's just us who is feeling it inside our "belly". I got home and I was laying in bed I could really feel the baby moving a lot. I told Josh she was really moving and so he put his hand on my belly where I told him I could feel her. He kept it there for about 30 seconds and after I felt her I asked if he felt that and he said "yeah". He pointed to where he felt the movement and sure enough that was the same place I had felt her. He was able to feel her move about 3 or 4 more times after that. It was funny that I had just had a conversation about it but I guess she is pretty active because Josh was definitely able to feel her moving or kicking or whatever she is doing in there. It was really an amazing time for both of us. I think the pregnancy is becoming more and more of a reality for us. I find it's still hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that I am pregnant. It has been such a journey for us and for about 3 years now I thought that I would never be pregnant. This process is no more special or less special than our adoption with Raegan, it is just neat to have a different experience. We are really blessed to be able to experience a growing family in so many ways.

Another Girl!

I never had a sister and growing up although I have always loved my big brothers, I still always wanted a sister. But for our family we found out yesterday that Raegan will have a sister! We had an ultrasound (19 weeks). It was a long level 2 ultrasound. They looked at every part of the baby. She wasn't being very cooperative. She kept putting her head down and curling up so it was hard for the Tech to get all of the measurements she needed. Towards the end of the ultrasound she asked if we wanted to find out the gender to which we responded yes. I was convinced it was a boy. At the 12 week ultrasound the doctor told us he thought it was a boy although it was too early to tell for sure. And all along my inclination told me it was a boy. I guess I don't have very good inclination. It was hard for the Tech to decide at first because the baby wouldn't open up her legs- being modest I guess. But she thought it looked like a girl. A little later she was able to get a better shot and sure enough she is a girl! We just kind of laughed because we always have a hard time deciding names and we had narrowed down some boy names but absolutely have no girl names picked out. So we have some work to do. We were shocked to find out that we have a second daughter on the way but we are thrilled. We are first of all just still in awe that God has chosen to bless us with another child and with a chance to experience adoption via a pregnancy. We are so excited to be on this journey. And we can't wait to meet our little girl in person. I look forward to seeing Raegan meet her new sister and see them grow up together. We are so excited to be on this journey as a family! I go for another ultrasound next week ( they need to check the stomach b/c they weren't able to check that on monday) and then I go for an appointment with the doctor next week as well. We'll keep everyone posted. And now I need to get to work on preparing for another little girl to arrive and hopefully have a name for it when she does! And we'll get some pictures up soon, I promise!

Moving and Shaking

I am now 18.5 weeks along. We had our 16 week appointment a couple of weeks ago and everything was fine. They didn't do much at that appointment except listen to the heartbeat with a Doppler and the heart beat sounded great. It seems like right after my appointment, I really popped. I have had a little baby belly for a while but right around 17 weeks I really popped. I guess that was the point where I really started "showing". Some people say I still look really small for how far along I look but I feel huge. I have never had a belly before so it was kind of shocking when my belly really started to grow outwards! I am really excited to be showing though. I have always wanted a baby belly and now I have one. I will post a picture as soon as I have Josh take one. I haven't been real into taking belly pictures and posting them but I have had a couple of requests so I will put one up soon. Everyone keeps asking me how I am feeling. I definitely feel better than I did during the first trimester. I still have some small bouts of nausea and some food aversions but overall I feel pretty good. I still have a hard time eating leftovers but it's gotten better. And today was the first day that I was really sure I felt the baby! I think I have felt the baby move before but I have also had a lot of gas bubbles lately so I wasn't sure if it was the baby or if it was something else. But today I was sitting on the couch and I could defintely tell it was baby flutters. So that's really exciting too. We have an ultrasound on monday. It's our long level 2 ultrasound where they do a lot of screening tests and where we find out if our baby is a him or a her. I am pretty sure we are having a boy but we'll find out for sure on monday! We'll keep you posted!

12 Weeks!

I am about 12.5 weeks pregnant at this point. So I am officially past my first trimester! We had our 12 week appointment and ultrasound on tuesday. The baby was moving a lot when they were doing the ultrasound which is always amazing to see. For this ultrasound they wanted to measure the skinfold on the back of the neck and look for the presence of a nasal bone. It was a screening ultrasound and the doctor said everything looked great. I am measuring a couple of days ahead but that doesn't really mean anything at this stage. I am starting to feel more like my normal self as far as my nausea, tiredness and food aversions starting to subside. Although I am feeling more and more pregnant as my clothes keep getting tighter and I have started having really, really strange dreams. I told Josh I need to keep a dream journal because I think I could probably write some sci-fi scripts with some of my dreams. I have had weird dreams before but nothing like what I have been experiencing the past week. And I still have a ways to go! But everything is going well. We are in the process of moving Raegan into her new room so that we have plenty of time to transition her to her new big girl bed before the baby comes. We do have pictures from the ultrasound but we haven't scanned them yet so once we do we'll post them.

Ultrasound Pictures

Our Little Bean at 6 weeks, 3 days

I finally figured out how to add the scanned pictures! ( Josh put them on the network and I didn't know how to get to it) The picture above is from our first ultrasound in December. And below are the pictures from our ultrasound on Tuesday. It's amazing to see how much has changed in 3 weeks. At 6 weeks you can barely see the embryo but at 9 weeks you can actually see the baby's arms and face ( especially in the 3D images).

Baby at 9 weeks, 3 days

9 Week Appointment

Today I went to my regular OB/Gyn for my 9 week appointment. This was my first appointment with my regular doctor. I took Raegan along with me and she was really excited when Daddy walked into the waiting room. Josh came from work and met us there so that he could be there for the ultrasound and to watch Raegan. They took me back right away and set me up for the ultrasound. The ultrasound was really amazing this time. The baby looked so much different from just 3 weeks ago. It actually looks like a baby! We could see it moving and the doctor did a 3 D ultrasound for us and you could see it's little face with it's hands up to it. It was a really cool experience. It was neat to have Raegan there with us too. I am sure she is too young to really understand what's going on but it was neat to have her there. We pointed to the screen and asked her if she could see the baby and she said "yeah!". But then later we asked her where the baby was and she pointed to the wall of baby pictures that was hanging in the office. She must have been wondering, "why do mommy and daddy think that there is baby on that screen? they are obviously on the wall". We got to hear the heartbeat again which was beating very strong at 185 bpm. The doctor said everything looked great. We met with him after the ultrasound and we discussed when future appointments would be, what hospital I would deliver at, etc. It's all starting to feel very "real" now. So it was a really good appointment. I have my next appointment and ultrasound scheduled for Jan 26th. They printed out some pictures but Josh put them in his planner for safe keeping so I will post them sometime after he gets home from work and scans them. I still need to post the 6 week ultrasound as well.