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.

15 weeks

I am not sure when a pregnant woman is "supposed" to start taking pictures of her growing belly, but since I have gotten large enough to not fit into my normal clothes, I figure there must be enough belly there to warrant a photo.

Mike took a few this afternoon; ignore my pimples and poor hair style in the last one. Just focus on how cute the baby is :)

First Baby Purchase

On our way to Raystown Lake, we passed through a very small town called Orbisonia (one of those 'don't blink or you might miss it' kind of places). As we were driving, I spotted a furniture store with some highchairs out front. We decided that if they were open on our way home, we would stop and see how much they cost.

So today, on our way back to New Jersey, we found the furniture shop open so we went in to look at the highchairs. They had solid wood chairs made in Tennessee and we decided that they would be perfect for us. We picked out an oak chair and loaded it into our already overpacked car. We are so excited to have a nice highchair, neither of us wanted a plastic one. I was hoping to have a wooden one very similar to the one my parents had, and we found one!

It is a little silly that we bought something that we cannot use for at least another year, but at least now we are prepared. And we have started the baby shopping!

We used Mocha (our pseudo-baby) as a test model for the chair. Shortly after the shutter clicked for this picture, she bailed. She wasn't a good sport.

Raystown Lake, PA

Somehow Michael and I got lucky enough to have MLK weekend totally off, so we decided to make a trip to Raystown Lake, PA. We picked this random (and likely unheard of) location because it is halfway between our house and Mike's Dad's house in Cleveland. We were able to meet them in a great cabin in the woods for some quality family time and relaxation.

Mike and I got in late Friday afternoon. We went and had some pizza and did a little grocery shopping while we waited for his family to arrive. They ended up getting in almost 2 hours later than we were expecting them because their GPS took them on a very scenic detour! Once they arrived, we spent the evening eating and talking.

Saturday we got up and went to breakfast and then did some exploring. We drove down to Raystown Lake to get a view and to see what everyone was talking about. The lake is beautiful. It is 32 miles long and surrounded by mountains. It is very easy to see why this town is popular in the summertime. After seeing the lake, we went for a hike. It was a trail that was labeled 4.5 miles and we decided we were all okay to do the whole thing. Well, halfway into it we passed a couple people who said, "Wow, you guys are just getting started!" We all looked at each other and the dogs and decided that we needed to cut our hike short; we were getting tired and hungry and it was already 3:30. Mike and I said how blessed we were to have those people come along the trail, otherwise, we might have kept going and been stuck walking around a dark trail.

Saturday night we went to a little dive restaurant for dinner and then went home to play some games before bed. Sunday was a lazy football and pasta kind of day, with more games and plenty of naps. And finally, Monday morning we all loaded the cars and headed home.

I am sorry to say that I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked. The property that the cabin was on was beautiful, with a creek running in front of the house and plenty of trees and hills around. I guess I was just lazy and only took a few, which I am kicking myself for now. Here are some from what I did take: