30 Weeks- 3/4 Cooked!

HOLY MOLY-- I'm 30 weeks today! I can't believe that Miss Emily will be here in 10 weeks or less... it's so incredible.

She also has a new trick, which I have learned during my last two days sitting through teacher inservice training (BTW, I got a second grade job-13 kids! woo!) Anyway, I've been crossing my arms over what used to be my chest, but now is a shelf, and she kind of "surfaces" and come up and rubs against my arms. It feels amazing! Then, today, we were talking about sexual harassment and the grievance policy, and I swear, she must have been standing up in there, because I felt her body parts in my crotch, ribs, and both sides, all at once!! I was sitting there with this ridiculous grin on my face (I'm pretty sure my new principal thinks I'm immature or something and can't handle sexual harassment policy...LOL) but I couldn't help it. It took everything I had to not burst into giggles- she was like an octopus in there!!!

Also, she gets hiccups 4-5 times per week now. She had them today during the meeting, too (I couldn't tell you one thing I was supposed to learn today. I was waaaaay too distracted by the circus in my belly!!)

Eek- next week I'll be down to single digits!! : O

My Baby Shower!

So yesterday we had my baby shower and it was terrific! We had it at our house, so I spent all day Friday and Saturday AM cleaning like a mad woman. I think it might have actually qualified as "nesting" in some regards (like refolding everything in the linen closets and polishing my kitchen cabinets....neither of those were probably necessary for hosting a baby shower-LOL!) Anyway, my friends Katie and Terri were the actual "hostesses" and they came through with flying colors. We had enough food for an ARMY (sandwiches, veggie trays, fruit trays, banana split salad, cream puffs, chips, custom M&Ms that were pink and white and said, "It's a Girl" and "Emily Claire" on them-so cute!- and probably some other dishes I'm forgetting). Also, the cake, which was beautiful AND amazingly delicious, came from the place where I ordered our anniversary cake-- I think his business is going to pick up A LOT after my shower b/c everyone was asking who made it!! :)

As far as gifts go, we fared very well- we are so lucky! We got two Diaper Genies (we are returning one and buying her swing instead), two bouncers (we're keeping both- one for the bottom two floors of our house and one for the upstairs), lots of diapers and wipes, a tummy time mat, some mirror-plaything that can be strapped to a car seat or crib and plays songs, the travel system (stroller and car seat), a little dishes set with a baby plate, cup, and bowl with little baby animals on it, a ton of little girl clothes, bibs, burp cloths, socks, booties (WVU booties-- woo hoo!), gift cards, AND we had the Great Unveiling of the cradle Paul's dad made for her- which is incredible!! I had no idea he was so talented (apparently, neither did he- he had never built any furniture for anyone--only the step stools he made for all the women in the family!) but the cradle is amazing. We already put it in our room and set up the bedding for it (which he also picked out). Also, my friend Katie made the most adorable blanket EVER for Emily- Paul and I agreed that it was our favorite gift (well, with the cradle).

We played a funny game at the shower too- kind of a spin off of "The Newlywed Game" but I thought I'd share it with you. Paul and I filled out questions about each other, the baby, parenting styles, etc. and then the hosts read the questions aloud during the shower. The guests wrote down what they thought our responses were. The questions we used ranged from simple things like "What is the baby's name?" and "When is Allison due?" to harder ones like "Emily just left for her first date. What do Paul and Allison do?" and "How old will Emily be when she's old enough to wear makeup?" to sentimental ones like, "Why does Allison think Paul will be a good dad, and why does Paul think Allison will be a good mom?" Paul and I filled the questions out separately and gave them to my friend, so I hadn't heard the answers until yesterday. Some of them were hysterical! I've copied and pasted a little snippet so you can see what I mean (this is from my friend's answer sheet which had our responses):

Who will be the "strict" parent?

Allison: Probably me. I think Paul’s going to turn to mush when he sees her. She’ll totally be able to work him!
Paul: Allison. <--- EVERYONE at the shower picked ME to be the strict parent!! How old will she be when she is allowed to wear makeup? Allison:Probably about 13-14/junior high time. But not too much! Paul: When she’s 12, or whenever they transition to middle school b/c the other girls will be wearing it. Princesses need makeup. <---hahhahaha...oh, Paul. Too funny. Why does Allison think Paul will be a good dad? Why does Paul think Allison will be a good mom? Allison: I think Paul will be an incredible daddy because he’s such a great husband. I know he will be an active part of Emmy’s life and will take an equal role in parenting her as well. He will be eager to watch her grow up but hopefully she won’t grow too quickly! He will be so sweet and loving to her. Paul: I think Allison will be a good mom because she doesn’t like to work and will probably talk me into letting her stay home. She did a great job with her kids at school and babysitting so I think she’ll do fun things with Emily. I don’t think that she’ll be a really great mom because I think she’ll give in to Emily too much. (can you believe the first part? I get such a bad rap, ya know?!) LOL. After everyone left yesterday I mentioned to Paul that I'd been having frequent contractions all day. We pretty much just chalked it up to overdoing it (I did work very hard to get things ready and to clean the house) but last night as we were lying in bed I kept getting them- first, about every 20 minutes, but then we had an hour of every 10 minutes. The were not extremely painful but more uncomfortable than usual and were waking me up. He is on call today and I did NOT want to go to the hospital last night and be there all night long, only for him to have to work for 30 hours straight today/tomorrow, so I wouldn't let us go. We paged the on-call doc in OB and it turned out to be a close friend who said if they got any more frequent than every 10 minutes I was to come in immediately. Thankfully, after about 2.5 hours of watching the clock and waiting them out, we both fell asleep and I suppose they ended b/c the next time I woke up it was to the alarm at 6am. I was so relieved but have been given strict orders from Paul today to not do ANYTHING....we got really scared last night. It's like, every week I get a little more secure, because her survival chances go up (our hospital's NICU has a 99% survival rate at 29 weeks) but at the same time, she is NOT ready to come out yet. We both were very nervous last night- he was pushing to go to the hospital but I'm glad I didn't. I am going to take it easy today and relax- in addition to all the physical work I did to prep for the shower it has also been a stressful week-- so I'm hoping that is why they started. Stay cooking, Miss Emily!!

Hiccups!

Today at my real estate meeting I felt Emily having hiccups!! I noticed that she was really active and then realized that the movements were very rhythmic, so I started timing them. Sure enough, every 3-5 seconds I felt a little flutter!! I sent Paul a message that said, "Reason number 1 million why I love Emily-- she has hiccups in my belly!" It was sooo cute- and it made her seem so real!

20 Weeks- Halfway Cooked!

We had my normal OB appt last week (for 20 weeks). As usual, I am a member of the Walking Dead with a BP of 88/56. Yep, barely standing..lol. I still haven't made it back to my pre-pg weight (still 3lbs under where I started) and my doc said he's giving me until next month (24 weeks) to gain weight or we'll be having "serious talks". I am eating, people! :)

Then we got some GREAT news- he wasn't satisfied with some of the u/s shots from my 18 week u/s, so he wrote for another one!! We went back the same day and got good pics of her heart, spine, profile, foot, and double-checked that she's still a lady- and she is!
Her nursery will be completely done by the end of the summer. Paul and I have already bought her crib and changing table and are looking for a dresser (we didn't like the one that matched her set). Look for pics of the nursery sometime before school starts again.

Other than that, no news. She is moving like a wild woman every day and Paul can feel her on the outside now...yay!

The Big Reveal- Who's Inside?!

Today at 3pm we had our ultrasound to find out our baby's gender. I will start out by saying that I was very close to driving to my perinatal center last night and sleeping on their doorstep because I was so excited to see our little one today! All day at school I was so distracted- thinking about the baby, who it would be, what it would mean for us when we found out, my usual nervousness about something being wrong, etc. I started drinking a bottle of Mountain Dew at 2 pm (*interesting fact- I found out the other day that it takes about 1 hour for nutrients to reach the baby) so I began 1 hour prior to the appt and ate a couple small pieces of candy too. Apparently caffeine and sugar make my baby extremely wild, because we had an AWFUL time trying to get pictures!! The baby was moving so much it was almost impossible to get decent pictures-- the tech even commented several times that it was the MOST difficult scan she's ever done! Haha!

We got all the major anatomy done- everything EXCEPT gender- and the tech tried to explain to me that she was going to do a vag u/s to try to get that picture (the baby was completely breech, with genitalia facing down). The conversation went something like this:

Tech: "Allison, I don't think I'm going to be able to get the gender--"

Me, with HUGE tears in my eyes: "B-but, I can't LEAVE without knowing!! You have to try again!"

Tech, laughing at my interruption: "What I was going to say was that I don't think I can get the gender without doing a trans-vag on you. "

Me, leaping off the table: "OMG- I'm sorry! Let me go take off my pants!"

So then I run and use the bathroom (this makes the THIRD trip during the u/s!) and lost my pants. As soon as she "wanded me", you could see ALL of baby's genitalia.........and we are new members of the P-I-N-K team!! There was no denying it, once we were in the right position. Paul and I are so excited and I was personally so relieved to know-- Paul even commented to the tech that he was so thankful she tried hard for us, and that he "didn't want to go home with her [me] if we didn't know because of all the tears that would follow!" He knows his wife, that's for sure.

I am thrilled to know for certain and so excited to begin looking for things for a little lady. We will call her Emily Claire (Claire is my middle name). We have had her name since we were dating- which is nice, since we didn't have to think about it at all. It was so nice to finally know "who's inside"!! Woo hoo!

PS- Sorry for the suspense in getting to the final answer. I figured after how hard she was on me I had to build up to it, know what I mean? :) So there you have it...our little girl! :) Yippee!!

Hooray! As of yesterday I am entering the second trimester! I weighed myself yesterday and I am holding steady at 2lbs under where I was when I found out I was pregnant. Paul is starting to turn up the heat on me eating more- hopefully my appetite will come back soon- I miss food! All I want is cold cereal or buttered noodles. I am able to eat a good breakfast and a full lunch, but dinner is so-so. Some nights I just can't stand the thought of it!

My next OB appts are on Friday- I meet with a doc in the AM and then go back at 3:30 for the nuchal translucency u/s and blood work. I'm so excited to see the little one! I haven't had any vomiting at all and only am experiencing nausea occasionally. I can't believe I'm 1/3 done!

Heard the Heartbeat!

Today Paul and I headed to the perinatal center with high hopes of seeing/ hearing the heartbeat. After everything we've been through, we were looking for something to let us know that our baby was snuggled in tight and doing well. As soon as the technician got the wand in place we could see a flickering!!! She turned the sound on so we could hear it- it sounded like a galloping horse! She said it was 176 beats per minute-- which, according to the old wives' tales, means we have a little girl. Who knows? We'll probably have to wait until about 20 weeks to know for sure. The baby was measuring right on schedule and our estimated due date is November 1, 2007-- we might have a Halloween baby!
We ran to Macy's as soon as the appt was over and bought an adorable onesie we have had our eyes on- it's white with green letters on the front which say, "Worth the Wait". We think it's fitting for our situation!

Wow-- we're having a baby!!