6 Months

I know its been so long since I've updated my blog but I honestly haven't had much to write about!! My belly is getting a lot bigger (as you'll see from the pictures) and our baby boy is kicking CONSTANTLY! I have a theory that he kicks more on days that I work out, and also when I eat chocolate (which is probably too much). So this weekend I took a break from my morning work out and I barely felt him, which started to worry me. He came back full force on Monday though and I really realized how much I missed him! I love sitting down and just feeling him kick and one of my new favorite past times is actually seeing his kicks move my stomach! Usually before we go to bed, Brian and I will sit watching my tummy moving and each little kick is so reassuring and so fun. It was about a week ago that I first noticed that I was able to actually see the kick moving my stomach and I really can't get enough of it now. He's my little buddy throughout the day!

I've been having dreams about him almost every night, probably because he kicks me throughout the night and even wakes me up sometimes (good practice I guess!) A couple have been scary, like when I had one that he didn't like me and I felt so underqualified for having a child! But most of them have been fun and I wake up feeling like I had just been holding him. One in particular sticks out because I just sat there holding him and smiling at him and he was looking up and laughing at me.

As I'm getting closer to my third trimester I'm noticing a few new things with my body. I'm getting a lot more tired, even on days that I get a good nights sleep. Also, I've noticed that I can't eat as much as I used to, but I need to eat every couple hours. Whenever Brian asks me if I'm hungry I'll say "Always!"

Here are some pictures that my sister-in-law Lynn took of us last weekend while we were visiting her and her family in Orange County. My family has been telling me for weeks to put up pictures of my growing belly and I have to admit I feel like I look even bigger now than I did when we took these pictures a week and a half ago.

We're having a BOY!!!

It's official we're having a boy!!

My uncle Steve's brother Greg Devore was so nice to come in on a Saturday and give us an ultrasound. We made the trip to Pasadena to see him, first spending the night at my uncle Danny's house in Santa Monica. I have to be honest I was convinced that I was having a girl and REALLY wanted one because on my side of the family there are soon to be 6 grandkids, 5 of which will now be boys! On Brian's side there are 7 grandkids and 6 of them are boys! Brian thought I was having a boy and when it turned out he was right he was so sweet and tried to not make me feel bad, I even had to tell him to let his excitement show. I think he thought I would be a lot more upset when finding out but I was just so excited to finally know for sure what we are having! I'm getting more and more excited and even though I really wanted a girl I've always said I wanted a boy first so that our kids can always have an older brother, even though I did want a girl right now. My dad came with us and that was a really fun experience to have him there too.

This is the 4D ultrasound, we were just amazed at the clarity! You can see he's smiling a little and his arms are tucked beneath his head. We were so surprised at the difference between 2D, 3D and 4D.

This is pretty much the same picture but in 3D.

And the 2D silhouette of the baby. You can tell where his eyes, nose and mouth are in this one and even though its not as clear I still love it so much!

I believe this one is 3D and the reason I like this one so much is because you can see his crossed arms in front of his face and even make out each individual finger and knuckle.

This one you can see how he's grabbing his shoulder a little better. It looks like that bulge is his shoulder but its actually his hand and if you look close you can see the fingers again.

When Greg told us it was a boy he would use the term "little rocket" a lot which we thought was hilarious!!

I know there's so many of these but I love how you can see his little feet in this one!

I was really grateful to Greg because while doing the ultrasound he found 2 things: One was a cyst on the brain that occurs in about 1% of pregnancies. He was really great at explaining to us that there was a time when people thought that that was a sign of Down Syndrome, but that currently there is no medical proof of that and there was no further evidence that our boy would have it. The other was that he had a calcium deposit in the heart. Once again this happens in about 1% of pregnancies, and while it used to cause alarm they now know that while it will be there for the rest of the pregnancy, it will stay the exact same size even as the baby grows and will soon disappear. We were so happy to see him because we really felt that he knew what he was talking about and maybe if we had seen another doctor and he'd have found that he might have made us panic about it. I asked if it was just a coincidence that our baby had both those things and he said yes and that he had often seen babies with that and they almost always turned out healthy. He said that he checked for numerous other signs of birth defect and found none and that our baby was perfectly healthy! He also said that our baby had long arms and legs, something that made Brian very happy and proud because I know he immediately thought of the little athlete he'll turn out to be, and that based on his development the due date will be between June 10th-16th.

So we especially loved going to Greg because he was nice enough to make a movie out of the ultrasound so we have the whole thing on DVD. The real one is about 15 minutes long so we shortened it down to the highlights so now its only about 4 minutes. Here's the breakdown of whats going on because I know its hard to understand ultrasounds, so I'll let you know whats going on between each "cut":

First it shows the brain (theres a dark spot that you might be able to see thats the cyst).

Then the legs and you can especially see the leg bones.

Then if you can make out the face, you can see his hands are in front of his face.

The next cut you can see his beating heart.

Then there's his feet, and he even kind of kicks them at one point. There's a still photo of it up at the top so this is just before he printed out the picture of the feet.

Then it shows his silhouette.

The next cut you can see his skeleton, and throughout the video you might find his ribcage and spine a couple times.

Again you can see his skeleton, and you can see his arms are crossed in front of his face, almost like their tucked in under his head.

Next is the 4D part of the video, and you see the still shot of his face that is up at the top.

The next cut is my favorite because you can see him rubbing his eye, and it looks like he waving to you!

Then you can see his "little rocket" and the mouse is rolling over it.

Next you can see his heart beating again and there's a little white dot you might be able to see where the calcium deposit is.

The last cut you can really see his ribcage and spine, his head starts out on the left.

17 Weeks & My Mom

I'm 17 weeks this week which means I'll be finding out the sex of the baby here in a few weeks. I recently felt the baby kick for the first time while driving home with Brian from my in-laws house in Paso Robles. We were talking about different ways we want to parent our kids and I felt a definite little punch! It was so exciting because all I had felt before then were tiny little flutterings in the bottom of my utereus but this time there was no denying the tiny punch our baby gave me! Since then I've felt the baby kicking quite a few times, most of the time it seems like he/she will move 3-4 times in a row, most of the time I won't just feel it once. Brian's getting anxious because he wants to feel the baby kick SO bad and I swear he's more excited to find out the sex than I am! He is so good to me and is so good at feeding me (even though I've been getting so cranky when I get too hungry he still will jump up and take my abuse).

My sister Michelle was so nice to take all these pregnancy pictures for us she's just getting into photography and I think she's doing such a great job!!

Brian's always competing with me he thinks he's still bigger than I am! Maybe we're both pushing out a little bit.....

I usually really hate pictures where people show their bellies but we thought we'd give it a try!

This one's my favorite because my tummy looks so big!!

Brian making fun of me a little bit!

Talking to Baby Welty!

My mom was diagnosed with non-smoking lung cancer 5 years ago and was given 4-6 months to live at that time. She is still as beautiful as ever and is so strong because even after everything she's been through she still wants to get up everyday to take a shower and wash her hair and do her makeup which I think is so admirable because she can barely even walk to her wheelchair but she won't give up. I love how she never gives up and is fighting so hard to see her 3 grandchildren expected in 2010. She is the most selfless person I know and has so much strength and the will to live I know she will never give up.

13 Week Appointment

Today I had my 13 week appointment and the highlight was definitely being able to hear the heartbeat! At my 8 week ultrasound I was able to see the baby and the heartbeat but for some reason we weren't able to hear it so it was a very special experience being able to hear that tiny heartbeat! I had been worried because my pregnancy had just been too easy so far that surely something must be wrong because people just don't go through the first trimester without throwing up once! My sister Michelle even admitted to wondering if something was going wrong because her pregnancies were very tough on her but of course she didn't tell me that till after this appointment when we found out that everything was going fine.

Of course it wasn't all smooth sailing because from 6-8 1/2 weeks I was nautious all day (the term "morning-sickness" is very misleading) and it was very hard to eat food especially because I had some sensitivity to certain smells and meats especially were very hard to force down. All in all though I find myself very blessed because I work 40+ hours a week at a job that I am primarily standing at a computer working with customers and I was dreading the day when I would be working with someone and would have to run to the bathroom to throw up! But I am pretty much over the worst of it and the only times I feel nautious are when I don't eat enough.

Our baby is about 3 inches long and weighs about an ounce. There are fingerprints on the little fingers and he/she has reflexes and is just swimming around right now! The head is about 1/3 of the size of the body which is better than a week or so ago when it was 1/2 the size of the body! The heart was beating at 154 beats per minute which sounded pretty strong to us! I don't think I've started showing yet in fact I actually lost 3 pounds since my last appointment which my sister pointed out that that was even before Thanksgiving! I am so excited to start showing though I already have some maternity clothes that are just sitting in my room but I can't wear them yet! My sister Kim (this is her second pregnancy) is 6 weeks farther along than I am and has the cutest little baby bump on her tummy and I can't wait to catch up to her! My next appointment is in 6 weeks which means I'll be 19 weeks and I'll have the ultrasound that tells us the sex of the baby which we are both dying to find out!

Thanksgiving

I was so lucky to have been able to go back home to California for Thanksgiving this year. Because of my job I wasn't going to be able to take Thanksgiving or Christmas off because they put a hold on any personal or vacation time during the holidays but because of my mom's circumstances I was able to fly home thanks to my amazing in-laws and be with my family for Thanksgiving. (I was also able to get Christmas off but I have to work Christmas Eve, get off early to drive 4 hours to Salt Lake, fly from Salt Lake to San Jose then drive 3 1/2 hours to Atascadero at 10 at night, not that I'm complaining!!) It was so fun to have my entire family home for Thanksgiving because with 6 kids, 3 spouses and 4 grandkids its really hard to get an entire family home for the holidays!

Brian and I were able to help my parents put up some Christmas decorations and decorate the tree!

My mother is so wonderful you would honestly not be able to tell she has been struggling with cancer just by looking at her. She is the most wonderful person I've ever met and I love her so much. She is expecting 3 grandkids in 2010 and I know she doesn't take anything in life for granted.

My dad

8 weeks!!

So I went and got my first ultrasound today! It was so fun and so cool to see the little flutter of our baby's heart! Our baby is 7 weeks 5 days and is 1.48 centimeters long (the size of a kidney bean) and my due date is June 16th, 2010. The nurse doing the ultrasound came in and was getting things ready and as she's doing that she's telling us how she's never used that machine before and she didn't really know how to work it. Needless to say she was NOT building much confidence haha everything ended up being fine though and she was able to find the baby and the heartbeat. She didn't know how to print out the picture so when Dr. Meridith came in I got a second ultrasound so he could print it out which was really fun and exciting! Right now our baby has little arms and legs and little paddles for hands and feet, indentations where the eyes, nose, and ears will be, and the upper lip is developing. My mother-in-law was so sweet and sent me this necklace and said to let her know when the baby gets as big as the necklace, which he's about half that size. Here are the 3 pictures from the ultrasound I know its not much and that its hard to tell what everything is but the little dark spot is the amniotic fluid, and the thing in the middle is the baby! On the left is the head and the right is the bum! You can't see it but in the first ultrasound you could see the yolk sac perfectly which is what supplies the baby with nutrients during the pregnancy and its a perfect little ball which was even smaller than the actual baby!!

California

Since Brians out of school and I dont start my job till the 10th we decided to go to California for a week and a half to surprise both our parents.

Bubblegum Alley in SLO

Elephant seals in San Simeon

Brian and I went on top of this rock on our first date

Pismo Beach

Avila Beach

Brians 1 year anniversary present. He treated me to my first ever 1 hour full body massage, an hour and a half in our own private hot springs hot tub, and lots of sushi! It was so much fun plus we went wakeboarding earlier that day.

Oh just my husband being a stud

Sylvesters!!