24 week appt update

Well, I have found out why my ribs are killing me. I asked the doctor how far up baby was, and she said that at 20 weeks, he would be right at my belly button and moves up from there. She was checking the baby's heartbeat at the time, so she just touched where he should be.

I was a bit puzzled by that and told her I could have sworn I felt movement way up by my ribs and that they have been pretty sore the last couple weeks, so she felt around and sure enough, he's all the way up there already. Doctor was very surprised he was so far up. If he is that high at 24 weeks, I don't know where else he can go, or how he is going to fit! Darn me and my short torso!

Aside from that, everything is going great. My vitals are all normal, I have gained a total of about 7lbs so far and baby has a good strong heartbeat.

Next appt I am going to take the gestational diabetes test, so hopefully that turns out okay! I made the appt for Friday, Feb 13th. After how horrible the last Friday the 13th was, I am hoping it will relieve some of my stress to have an appt that day. I just hope I didn't jinx my gd test!

Reflections

So today is a strange day for me. It is January 16th. The estimated due date for the baby I could have had...

I am surprisingly not as shaken as I thought I would be, but still feeling a little blue. I am so unbelievably grateful for my little boy, Levi, who is growing away inside me now. I love him so much and can't wait to meet him :)

I wouldn't go back and change things, even if I could. Yet, at the same time I cannot help but wonder what things might have been like.

So I am going through this day, putting my faith in Him, and knowing that my little Levi is the reason everything happened the way it did. Appreciating the knowledge that I know I will never take this pregnancy foregranted and that I am thankful for my growing family every passing day.

To my angel baby - You will always be remembered and cherished. Even though you never had the chance to grow, there was plenty of time for my love for you to blossom.

Levi - Mommy & Daddy love you sooooo much and can not wait to see you. To find out who's eyes you have, and if you will get Daddy's curly hair. We are very excited for this May and we just know you are going to steal our hearts away!

Hubby SAW baby kick!!!

I saw my belly twicthing for the first time Sunday, but hubby wasn't home at the time, and the little guy hasn't kicked at an opportune time since.

Until last night that is! I was laying in bed light out, ready to fall asleep when all the sudden I got a couple really good mid-belly kicks. Right at the same time I heard dh come down the stairs and head towards the shower, so I called him into the bedroom, and told him to turn on the light and come watch his son kick!

He saw the little twitches right away. His eyes lit up and he pointed to the spot on my belly that moved and was all excited saying "Right here? It looked like your belly was having a spasm!" lol

So much fun! I just love all this 2nd tri excitement!

Big U/S update!

Yay!

We had our 20-week ultrasound on Christmas Eve morning, and got some cute new photos to share with the family at all the get-to-gethers the next couple days.


We have a thumb-sucker!


Little feet :)

The ultrasound went great! Everything is just as it should be, no red flags. Baby weighs approx. 11 oz. and was measuring 2 days ahead of schedule. We were able to see the little one start sucking his thumb, and watched as he pulled it out of his mouth. That was so cute, because you could actually see his little upper lip flip upwards as he pulled his thumb out.

And he is a BOY!

Hubby is so proud!

We are very happy to know the gender because neither dh or I liked calling our baby "it" so now we can refer to him as a he, or by his name, which we are pretty sure will be: Levi Carter :)

Made announcement at the office!

We had our company Christmas party on Friday and I was in charge of decorating. I asked one of my co-workers to help and we came up with some great ideas. The party was being held in part of the warehouse so we were going to be in a large dingy room with florescent lights, high ceilings and white scuffed up walls. In order to make the setting a little warmer and more inviting, we strung up white Christmas lights in green gossimer. Then to decorate the walls we hung up stockings for each person there.

Here is where the fun part comes in... I sent out an email survey to gather some "fun facts" about each employee, and we wrote one fact for each person on the stockings hanging on the wall - everyone had to guess what fact belonged to which co-worker! We even had prizes for the people who got the most right answers.

Can you guess what my fun fact was? :) My stocking read " I am pregnant and due 5/14/09!

Let me tell you, that was the talk of the party! There were only 3 or 4 people that could apply to, and we were all interrogated and watched like hawks, lol. One of my co-workers who already knew, grabbed me an empty beer bottle and whispered for me to go fill it up with water so I could fool others. It worked great!

When the time came to share the answers to the questions, I gave a sealed envelope to the "announcer" and had him read them aloud. It was so much fun to hear every laugh as they found out who played the trumpet in high school, and who once had a pierced tongue! My name was towards the end of the list, and as the announcer came close to it, I could tell he had been reading ahead. All of the sudden he looked up at me and made eye contact, giving me this awesome surprised look and warm smile! I loved it! Then when it was time to read my name, he skipped it! You should have heard all the shouts!!! After just a couple more answers, he finished with my announcement, and the entire office stood up and clapped!

No one ever suspected it, and I was just showered with congrats :) It was so much fun!

Apparently, I have a belly :)

When I was out shopping on Saturday, I got my first comment from a stranger :)

Hubby and I were making small talk with a cashier at Camp World while another clerk went to look in the shop for some sort of part he needs for the gas line on the ice fish house.

We were talking about how busy Cabela's (just down the street from their store) was because Santa was there and people were taking their kids in for photos. The lady said "Looks like you'll be doing that next year!"

Yay!

Appt. Update

Had a regular OB check-up today.

It went well, my total weight gain so far has only been 1lb - I just keep fluxuating right around the same weight.

I got scolded for being dehydrated, but to my defense this appt was first thing in the AM and I try not to drink water after about 8pm so I don't have to get up at night to pee more than 2x. I am much more hydrated later in the day :)

Got some blood drawn to test for nueral tube defects. The lab tech didn't know what he was doing and totally dug around in my arm.

And then I got to schedule the big ultrasound! December 24th at 8:30 AM! Hubby and I are super excited to see this little one again!