Another measurement appointment...

We had another ultrasound today! This one was a follow up to our first appointment when they couldn’t get all the measurements they needed because she was still a little small. We went into the ultrasound room, and, once again, she was moving like crazy as soon as she came up on the screen. You could see instantly that she had gotten bigger. I was hoping to see her face a lot, but the ultrasound tech was focused on getting the measurements she needed for the doctor to see, so we didn’t get to see a lot of her close up. I asked the ultrasound tech to make sure that Elizabeth was in fact still a girl, because ever since we found out the sex, women had told me MULTIPLE stories about how they were told that their baby was one gender and then popped out the other. She chuckled, and was happy to double check for us. Elizabeth is definitely still a girl!



The tech did some 3D pictures as well. While I was watching on the screen, I really had no idea what we were looking at. But every time the tech moved the little wand thingy, she kept saying, “Oh how cute! Oh my gosh that’s adorable! Awww, look at that!” Seriously, I saw nothing. Just blobs. I just kinda smiled and nodded like I knew what the hell she was seeing. When she printed out the pictures for us, I finally saw what she was talking about. I still think Elizabeth looks like a gummy bear, but that’s just because she doesn’t have any fat on her yet. It’s still all clinging to me, which is sarcastically awesome. Although we didn’t see a lot of her face, we did see a lot of her body. They took really great pictures of her legs and her hand. And by the one picture she took of her face, you can tell that she has Mike’s chin and nose. Mikey thinks she has my ears, which is cool, but I don’t think Mike has big ears at all, so either is fine by me.







This one she really looks like a little gummy bear.





This is the one that she really looks like Mike. That is totally his nose.

The Most Lamest Doctor's Appointment...

Today we had another checkup appointment. After our last appointment, which was awesome (see “The Most Awesome Doctor’s Appointment”), we thought that we were going to have another great appointment. Wrong. This appointment was your classic Lame-O.

First, we found out that our regular cool doctor (Sarah) doesn’t work on Thursdays, which when we made our appointment and requested her, you would think that the scheduler would’ve told us that she has Thursdays off. So we had LeAnn, the first lady that met with us. This time she was very rushy-rushy. She came in, was very formal and straight to the point, listened to the baby’s heartbeat for like 2 seconds, measured my stomach, and asked if there were any problems. I mentioned that I had been having really bad cramps, and she asked how much water I had been drinking. I said around 4 glasses a day, and she made a disappointing sound. She told me that I need to be drinking a gallon of water a day. That’s right, a GALLON.

After getting over the initial shock of the amount of water I was now required to drink a day, I asked her some other questions I had, like when to make the birthing plan, when to do the testing for spinal bifida/down syndrome, etc. Because of that last question, she then sent me to the hospital to have blood drawn. Oh joy. There are few things I hate more than to have a huge needle stuck in me. And this one hurt a lot. We have to wait for our next doctor’s appointment to hear the results, so of course, my mind has been racing. But Mike says no news is good news, which I hope is the case.

Overall, this appointment was way lame. We were rushed through, it was really impersonal, I now have to drink a butt load of water every day, no surprise ultrasound, AND I had to get blood drawn. Dumb dumb dumb.

No More Nickel!...

Today we had our appointment to see if our little baby was a boy or a girl. After the ultrasound tech looked for quite awhile (our baby’s a mover), we found out that it’s a girl! She is officially Elizabeth Katie Marie Roberts.

While the ultrasound tech was looking around, she had to take some measurements and make sure all the internal organs were in order. She took a TON of pictures (which is always great!).

















This one is my favorite. You can really tell she has Mike's chin and nose, and you can see her little eyelashes.



She went to show the doctor her findings, but he said that our baby was still a little too small to make any judgments, so we have to go back on October 1st, which is fine by me since that just means we get to see our little girl again :)

Halfway There...

Today I have hit the halfway point! 4 1/2 months down, 4 1/2 months (hopefully) to go.

So far, so good on the baby homefront. Not TOO many things to complain about, but there are some:

Cramps - still going strong. But they are much more painful at this point. I had to actually call my doctor this week just so I wouldn't freak out more than I already was. She asked if I had been bleeding or had any fever or chills. I said no, and she said that it was more than likely something called Round Ligament Pain. It's from the baby growing and my stomach 'muscles' (c'mon...we all know I barely have any of those) stretching out to make room for him/her. But it's ridiculously painful. Sometimes 'make me hunch over and make a noise' pain. And my back isn't any better. It feels as if the baby stretches as far as it can from hip to hip, then shifts around and stretches from front to back, just to make sure it's covering all areas.

Emotions - ask Mike about this one. He LOVES it. (Sarcasm font) Seriously, anything slightly sad/emotional/tug at my heart strings makes me cry like crazy. The other day at work, I was reading something on Yahoo! about this documentary called The Cove (so good. Watch it) and about how all these dolphins are getting slaughtered. Could not stop crying. And I sit right in front of the office, so no matter who comes in, they see me, and whenever anyone needs to walk to anything in the office, they walk past me as well. So all they can see is this blubbering pregnant lady. I literally had to think about baseball to make myself stop. It was like I was a 12 year old boy in English class with a boner.

Boob Pain - This is almost as bad as the cramps. Sometimes the pain in my boobs doubles me over and I'm left clutching them, begging them to stop throbbing. Then I stand up straight and realize I'm in public, looking like I'm molesting myself. Ca-lassy.

Lack of Energy - This only happens near the end of the day. At work, I'm 'Go-Get-Em' and ready to take on the day. Then I get home and just want to sit and do nothing. Maybe paint a bit, but ulgh. Exhausting.

Weirdo Dreams - These are insane. Sometimes they will be awesome, where I'm rich and can fly and can be invisible. But most of the time, they are indescribable and a bit scary. Like I'll dream that Mike got hurt, or like one time, I dreamt that I was trying to hold the baby, but couldn't because my fingers were made of forks, so I was doomed to a life of never getting to hold it. Horrible. And very odd.

But with the bad, come the very good:

Baby Movements - Whenever I have a bit of caffiene, or milk, or lay down in bed at night, I can feel the baby moving around. I love that feeling. It makes me feel like such a mom, but Nickel's not even here yet. I try every time to see if I can feel it on the outside, but my doctor said that probably won't happen until 23 weeks. I feel bad mentioning it to Mike, because he is a little jealous that I can feel Nickel and he can't, so I'm counting down the weeks to when we can both feel the baby.

Hard Belly - This last week, I felt like my belly grew overnight. And not just from the enchiladas I had. My lower stomach had definitely hardened up a bit from the baby, and I love it. I can't stop pushing on it. I was laying on my stomach on my bed the other day and it felt like I had a rock in my belly. And at night, it now kinda hurts to sleep on it, so I have to adjust and learn to sleep on my side (which I hate). I had my dad feel how hard my stomach was getting, and he said, "Maybe that's just some muscles that you didn't know about." I proceeded to laugh for 20 minutes, and then high-five my dad for being such a comedian. But Mike likes to put his hand on my stomach when we're laying in bed about to fall asleep. There are few things I love more in the world then when he does that.

Although it seems that the bad outweigh the good, I absolutely love being pregnant. We have our appointment this Wednesday to find out the sex of the baby and we are both extremely excited for that. We are also moving into a house mid-October, so we can actually decorate a nursery for the baby :) I can't wait to decorate and get everything ready to welcome our little baby into the world.

The Most Awesome Doctor's Appointment...

Today we had another doctor's appointment. It was supposed to be just a regular check up, but it turned into something much more awesome. We got called back, and I got weighed. I had lost 3 pounds. The fat girl part of me was STOKED, because that is how I react any time I lose any amount of weight. But the pregnant girl part of me was nervous if that was bad or not. We got back to the room and waited a few minutes. Sarah, our RN, peaked her head in and said, "I've had a bunch of no-shows today and want to see a baby. You guys want an ultrasound?" Uh, hell yes. We got moved to a room with an ultrasound machine and Mike and I got super excited. Any time we get to see the baby is great! She came in and started the ultrasound. As soon as the baby came up on the screen, it was dancing and moving around like crazy! She took a bunch of pictures for us:







This one, the baby is looking right at the camera. I love my baby, but it's kinda creepy in this picture. Very alien-ish.



And this one you can see it's little hand



After looking around for about 20 minutes, she said, "well, you know, don't put money on this, but this looks like a girl." At first, we were a little disappointed, because we would both like a boy, but we are both getting perfectly ok with having a little girl run around.

She got me cleaned up, and asked me if I was still throwing up. I said no and that I was feeling fine. She said she was wondering since I had lost some weight, and that I need to eat more. Ah, music to a fat girl's ears. Then we talked about the headaches I had been getting, and she suggested that I drink more caffiene. Ah, music to a Starbucks junkie's ears. She then told us that we could make our next appointment, which will be to find out the sex of the baby! It's on September 8th and we can't wait.

All in all, this was a great appointment. We got to see our little baby, I get to eat more, and drink more caffiene. Totally awesome!

14 weeks...The End of a Trimester...

This last Saturday marked the 14th week of my pregnancy, and the end of the first trimester. And I honestly couldn't be happier about it. I have no more nausea, except when I see, hear, or think of chicken. Also, I have most of my energy left. Not all of it though. I'm still pretty exhausted by the end of the day. We have another doctor's appointment on the 12th, and I'm excited to hear the heartbeat. Plus, it means that we are only one month away from finding out the sex of the baby, and both Mike and I are BEYOND excited for that!!

But I need to enjoy the energy and the 'normal' feeling while I can. I have heard that it all comes back during the third trimester. The only bad thing is that now that my nausea is gone, I feel like I could eat a horse. I'm trying to keep that under control, but I do love my chocolate.

**SIDENOTE**
Do not be confused by the picture. The bottom bump is the actual baby bump. The top "bump", however, is just fat. Before getting pregnant, I was a fat girl, so it makes me look further along than I am. But alas, it's just the cookies that I enjoy so much.

The best vacation ever...

This weekend, we had our last vacation without baby. We decided to go to the lake for a long weekend of sun and relaxation. We headed out to the lake on Thursday night, and after stopping by the store for supplies, we got there around 8pm. There was a big thunderstorm building up, so we sat on the dock with our feet in the water and watched the lightning show. It wasn't as spectacular as the clouds made it look before it got dark, but there were a couple good ones. We went back to the cabin and sat on the deck for a few hours and just talked and looked at the stars.

The next day, Mike woke up early and went fishing. He caught a couple big fishes and a lot of smaller ones. After realizing that we were on vacation and could enjoy some coffee (Mike gave it up since I can't have a lot of caffiene), we headed into town (Newport) and saw that they had a Starbucks! It was awesome. We sat on the deck all morning, enjoying our coffee, reading, and enjoying the morning sunshine. After awhile, we went down to the beach, where Mike continued fishing and I read with my feet in the water. Mike's parents came out around 1pm and we took turns fishing off the dock. His mom actually caught a little baby fish



and Mike got to swim with Rosco



That night, we had the best dinner ever. Huge steaks, sauteed mushrooms, broccoli salad, and garlic bread. For dessert, it was banana splits :) Mike, me, and his dad took the boat out in the evening and did some swimming and fishing. Mike caught a pretty big fish



The next morning, Mike and his dad woke up really early and went fishing...again. Mike caught a big brown fish



I, once again, spent the day with my feet in the water and reading. Mike's parents were leaving that afternoon, so Mike and I took the boat out to do some swimming in the middle of the lake. Mike decided to try to do a flip off the boat



look how cute he is :)




and we took some pictures before they left





On Sunday, we went fishing again and I caught a few fish! One big one (notice how I'm actually holding it in it's mouth)



and a little one



The rest of the weekend went perfectly. We spent our days in the sun and our nights under the stars. It was very romantic and the perfect last vacation. Plus I finished two books!