Picture update

I have seriously been lagging behind in updates on this pregnancy. Here is a picture from 32 weeks. I am now 35 weeks and I cannot believe I am already at this point. I have started having contractions, so I am trying to take it easy. As much as I want to meet this little girl, I do not want her to get here earlier than she needs to be. I am hoping to get at least 2 more weeks out of her. I still have things to do in the nursery and stuff to buy! I will try to get a more recent picture up this weekend, but don't hold your breath :)

26 weeks

This picture is outdated because it was taken two weeks ago, but I am just now getting around to posting it. I would like to take a new picture this weekend (I will be 28 weeks on Saturday) and hopefully I will get it posted before too long.

Everything is going great. I had a doctor's appointment last night and she said everything is perfect. I am growing the right amount and the baby is healthy. She continues to move around and make her presence known, especially at night. I am still relatively comfortable, but did have to buy compression stockings to wear at work to keep my feet from swelling to the size of basketballs. Now I have something is common with my patients!

I am having an ultrasound on Monday so I will post those pictures too. I am hoping to get better shots of her this time.

Week 23

Spring has sprung!

And so have I!

It seems in the past week I have gone from looking a little pudgy to looking un-deniably pregnant. People at work have begun to notice and I am getting asked by random strangers what I am craving (lots of salty foods, carbs, and especially chips and salsa; sorry no weird ones, yet).

In the past week I have also started to feel our little girl moving about and she seems to like to exercise around 11 o'clock at night (I blame our call schedule for this one). I am generally feeling good and can't complain. Although it is starting to get difficult to put on socks or to get up from sitting on the floor and I am worried about how I am going to shave my legs in the coming months.

This past week Mike and I have been on vacation. We used this time off to get the nursery in order. He put together the crib and changing table for me. My mom came up for a few days and we did some shopping for the room and were able to get it set up. I still need to find some things to hang on the walls, but I love the way it is looking so far.

We have had such a nice and relaxing week at home, it will be very hard to go back to work. The good news is we only have 3 1/2 months to go until this internship is officially behind us. This also means only 18 calls, with 6 being weekend shifts! Can you tell we are in countdown mode?

Our Baby Girl

The much anticipated 20 week ultrasound happened last Friday. Here she is:

The pictures don't do her justice, she is beautiful! She weighs 9 oz and is growing right on schedule. The ultrasound tech kept saying she was a very good baby because she kept "showing her parts"-meaning she showed us her heart, her feet, her kidneys, umbilical cord, etc whenever the tech was looking for them. She was a little more bashful about her hands and her face. She is positioned so that her head is nestled at the base of my uterus, making it very hard to get a good look at her head. She also kept turning her face away, so we really had to work to get the profile shot. As always, she is a very active baby; stretching and kicking her little heart out. I am getting worried about my comfort level once she gets big enough for me to feel all these movements on a regular basis.

I think that this positioning may explain why I have had some minor cramps and discomfort so low in my pelvis. The plus is she is already in the proper position for birth, I just need her to stay that way for at least 18 more weeks.

Mike and I are so excited to have a baby girl! We have already bought some very sweet little outfits with flowers and ruffles. I picked out a girly crib set with flowers. My Mom and Dad were here for the weekend and got to help with all the shopping, which was so much fun!

I will post another picture of me soon. I have not changed much and can't say that I look very pregnant. Most people at work have said that I am too tiny to be 5 months along. I think this just has to do with my build and the fact that she sits so low in my pelvis. My doctor said that I am growing just fine and meeting all the appropriate milestones.

Week 19

I can't believe I am almost to 20 weeks along, almost to the half-way mark of this pregnancy! It has passed quicker than I thought it would. I remember being 6 weeks pregnant and thinking it would take FOREVER to get to 20 weeks and be able to find out the sex of the baby. Now I only have to wait 6 more days. It's amazing.

Over the past month I have started to feel better. I am not as sick, I can eat a more varied diet, and I don't feel quite as nauseous all the time. I also have a little bit more energy and generally can say I feel as close to normal as I possibly can. In the past couple of weeks I have started to have some back aches, but luckily I have a husband who is willing to rub my back when I ask. I am still having the emotional ups and downs, but overall, things are looking up.

We are so excited to see our baby again next week. I can't wait to find out if it's a boy or a girl. I am going to run out afterwards and either buy a very frilly dress or very cute sports outfit (stereotypical, I know).

Blizzard 2010 - part 2

We got another snow storm last night, giving us another couple feet of snow. The storm was so bad that the governor declared a state of emergency. Snow was falling so fast and blowing around that it created a white-out. I (lucky lucky) got to work last night. It actually ended up being a great night on call. Very few people were dumb enough to try and drive in the storm, leaving little work for us to take care of in the hospital. I actually got to lay in bed from 1:00 am until 7:00 am (unheard of)!

Mike and I are down to one car since our little car is rear-wheel drive and is stuck in the garage right now. He drove me to work yesterday and picked me up this morning. We went out to breakfast (diners don't close because of a little bit of snow) and then came home to walk the girls in the winter wonderland. We also did a little shoveling of the front walk and steps. I shoveled our neighbor's steps and path because every storm she comes out and tries to do it and I worry that she is going to fall or have a heart attack (we see so many elderly people who have broken bones or heart attacks because of shoveling snow).

After all this activity, this pregnant woman came inside, showered and slept for 4 hours. The sun is out now and makes the snow look so beautiful!

Blizzard 2010

The first two years that we lived in Philadelphia, we saw very little snow and at the time I thought that was a lot of snow. Those wimpy snow storms were nothing compared to what we have seen this year. The first bad storm was in December and occurred the weekend that we flew to Florida to celebrate my sister's graduation. The second storm came this past weekend, while we were working.

Because we were stuck at the hospital throughout the storm, we missed watching it come down and missed being able to enjoy it right away. But as soon as we got home (and after we slept for 6 hours) we got the girls ready and went out for a walk in the snow. I think we got at least 24 inches and it was piled higher than I have ever seen it. Here are some pictures from our walk.