Kidney Update

We had our ultrasound today and everything looks great with Will's kidneys! The specialist that was in there to look at them didn't even have to measure them to tell that there was no dilation. Thank you so much for all your prayers! They definitely worked :)

Will slept for pretty much the entire ultrasound, but he's looking fantastic. They estimated his weight to be about 3 pounds 11 ounces (although that can be off in either direction by about 10 ounces). All of his measurements are right on target at around 30 weeks, however his femur is measuring ahead by nearly two weeks! Sounds like someone inherited his daddy's long legs!! ;)

We got to see his heart beating away (and it definitely still has four chambers!). Since he was sleeping, his heart rate was about 131 beats per minute. It was so fun to watch him on the screen again...I couldn't believe how big he had gotten, though! They could no longer get his head and his body on the screen at the same time. We could tell he's got some chubby cheeks and he's definitely still 100% boy :)

Here are some of the pictures from today...



Profile shot...still has the same sweet little nose!




A shot looking down at his face. His eyes are labeled "E" and there is an arrow pointing to him smiling!




The four chambers of his heart

It was definitely a good day! :)

30 Weeks!

Sorry for the lack of updates this week...it's been a rather crazy/hectic week! I took (and passed!) my certification exam on Tuesday and then there was some 'drama' that went on at work for the rest of the week. Luckily, all that was taken care of and hopefully this week will be much, much less stressful.

Tomorrow I'll be 30 weeks pregnant! For some reason that seems like a really big milestone...I guess probably because 3/4 of my pregnancy is over. Time is flying by - it seems like yesterday that we were having our 20 week ultrasound to find out if Will is a girl or a boy! This week, he weighs about 3 pounds and about 16 inches long. His eyesight is improving, but it's still pretty bad. When he's born, he'll have 20/400 vision...meaning he can see at 20 feet what most people can see at 400! That's worse than both mommy and daddy's vision combined! Luckily, though, that won't last and it'll improve as he gets older and his eyes get stronger.

He definitely likes music! We had staff development at school on Friday and they played some loud music while everyone was gathering together. Will thought it was time to party and promptly started drumming on my insides! He did the same thing at church on Sunday morning...who knows, we may have a little musician on our hands. :) He also has quite the little attitude. He definitely does not like any type of pressure at all. When I'm getting ready in the morning, I lean over the counter to get close to the mirror to put on eyeliner and mascara. The edge of the counter presses against my belly. Will goes absolutely crazy punching or kicking at the counter until I stand back up. He definitely likes having his space.

This afternoon I have a doctor's appointment with another one of the OB/GYNs at the clinic. I'm on a rotation for the next several weeks to meet all of them, in case my doctor isn't available when I go into labor. Tomorrow is our ultrasound to see how Will's kidney is doing. I've actually been doing really well with not worrying about it. God has given me lots of things to keep my mind occupied ;) Please continue to pray for him before tomorrow, though!

Here's what I'm looking like at 30 weeks pregnant:


And here's what Will is looking like! I found this awesome picture online of a 30 week old baby boy in the womb...looks like it's a little crammed in there!


I'll update tomorrow after the ultrasound :) Have a great Martin Luther King day!

Bedding Ordered!

This afternoon, Greg and I ordered Will's bedding from JCPenney! I had actually picked out a few weeks before we found out that he was a boy...and in the meantime changed my mind and decided to keep looking. Well, I kept looking and kept looking, just sure I'd find something else I liked better. I think I've looked at every single baby bedding available on the internet! After talking to my mom for a long time this afternoon, we decided to order it! It's on back order until December 5th, but I'm very excited to have it picked out (finally!)

Yesterday, I had my last wedding until after Will gets here...and boy am I thankful it was my last one! I've been in tons of pain all day today. I think being on my feet for 10 hours combined with the weight of my camera, lenses, and bag caused something in my lower back to get strained. I've spent most of the day laying on the couch with a heating pad on my back. I also took a hot bath. Everything helps temporarily, but the pain is still lingering. I'm planning to go to bed early (read: after I write this post!), take some Tylenol and hope that a good night's sleep fixes the problem.

He better be a kicker for a pro football team...

Will seems to be quite proud of his new-found ability to kick me right as I'm about to fall asleep. He then proceeds to wiggle around for awhile, making it impossible for his mommy to go to sleep. I'm hoping that all that kicking inside there is practice for when he becomes the kicker for a professional football team. Then he can repay me for lost sleep ;) He also enjoys wiggling around for me right after I get home from school. I usually have a little glass of orange juice and lay down on the couch for a few minutes. The orange juice really seems to get him going! It feels like pieces of popcorn popping all inside my tummy. It's very fun!

Our good friends Aaron and Veronica had their baby boy, Bryce, last night. We went to see them at the hospital tonight and it was so fun! It definitely made me want April to come fast - and I know it will be here before we know it! I know that before long, Bryce and Will are going to be causing chaos at church! It's really fun to have friends who are having kids around the same time we are - it will be neat to watch the boys grow up together.

Here's a 20 week belly picture. Will's getting bigger by the day :)

(On a side note: I hate the fact that my bellybutton is growing with my tummy. It is stretching and getting shallower, and I fear that soon it'll no longer be an innie. And I hate the fact that despite it being covered by TWO shirts in this picture, you can still see the indentation of it!)

What's in a name?

After going back and forth for a few days, Greg and I finally made a decision on a name! We will be naming the little peanut William Matthew and calling him Will for short. We really wanted something classic, but not too popular for a first name. William Graham was a close runner up, but we really liked that Matthew was a biblical name, and the meaning of Matthew is much better than the meaning of Graham! :) William means "protector" and Matthew means "gift of God." He certainly is a gift from God, so the name seems fitting :)

Greg and I went to Babies R Us yesterday and completed our baby registry. It was very fun, but also a little overwhelming at the same time. I had done tons of research on the safest (and affordable) carseats, strollers, bottles, etc. So it was more a matter of finding the items we wanted and scanning them with the little gun. Will also got his first real baby items - a onesie, a Kenneth Cole leather jacket, jeans, and white waffle-weave shirt, and then a UT pacifier (courtesy of Greg!) :)

Tomorrow, I will be 20 weeks pregnant! My pregnancy is officially halfway finished. How crazy is that? Time is going so fast! This week, Will is about the length of a banana and weighs about 12 ounces. He has begun to hear sounds, which was very evident at church this Sunday! He began wiggling around every time the music would start and would settle down when it stopped. Very cute! Sunday was also the first time that I'd really felt him move - I think the ultrasound helped a lot! I was able to see him moving on the screen and then put the butterfly-like feelings together with his movements. His eyebrows, different skin layers, and fingernails/toenails are also beginning to grow in this week. All of his organs are completely formed and will just continue to grow with him until he is born. He'll be growing much bigger in the coming weeks!

It's a...

...boy!! I'm not sure there's many people reading this who don't already know, but the little person who has taken up residence in me for the last twenty weeks is a boy! It's so nice to know for sure and to be able to say "him" instead of "it."

We had our very long anatomy ultrasound today and it was amazing! We got to see him squirming and kicking and sticking his feet in his mouth (yes, he did that a lot!)...and he wasn't afraid to show off his boy parts ;) We had two technicians in our room first who measured everything for about an hour. Then they left and cardio-thorasic specialist came in and did another entire ultrasound to capture some of the pictures that hadn't come out clearly the first time. He spent about 30 minutes studying the little heart (160 bmp this time - he was so active he got his heart rate up!) and he said everything looks perfect! We got to see all four chambers of his heart, his brain, his kidneys, stomach, bladder, hands, and feet. The second technician that came in said that he was opening and closing his hands, which is great because it means that he more than likely will not have Downs Syndrome.

Here are some pictures from the fun day!

His face (looking straight on) and his foot...getting ready to stick it in his mouth!


His precious tiny feet!


His legs (crossed at the ankles)


His hands (up above his head - he was lounging!)


Yup, he's a boy ;) He made sure we got several good peeks!


The technician who came in last definitely had a sense of humor ;)


This picture of his profile amazes me...you can totally tell that this is the same baby from the 12 weeks profile picture! I can't wait to kiss that sweet little nose :)


We do have a first name picked out, but we're still deciding a middle name. I'll let you know once we have the whole name picked out (hopefully by tomorrow!)

Less than a week!

In less than a week, we will (hopefully) know if the peanut is a he or a she! I cannot wait...I usually am a pretty patient person. Heck, I can deal with sixth graders who throw binders and pencils at me and still be patient ;) But ever since I found out I was pregnant, I've wanted to know if our baby was a boy or a girl. I hate saying "it" all the time. And I want "it" to have a name! So I've been counting down the days until November 7th and hoping and praying that the peanut will be cooperative.

Greg and I both think that "it" is actually a he...although the poll says otherwise! No reason why, really...it's just something I've thought since the beginning! I've played around with some Old Wives Tales just for fun...There is a Chinese Gender Predictor calendar...according to that we are having a girl. Another one says that if you prefer sleeping on your right side at night (I do), then you're having a boy. I've totally craved salty foods my entire pregnancy...I was pretty turned off by sweets in my first trimester, and if you know me well at all, you know that that is weird! I love my ice cream! According to the wives tale, craving salty foods means you're having a boy. Lately though, I've been craving grapefruit. Wives tale says that craving citrus fruits means you're having a girl. One last tale says that if the heartbeat is above 140 you're having a girl; if it's below 140, you're having a boy. The baby's heartbeat was 150 at the first appointment and in the upper-140s at the second. So if we go by that, "it" should be a she! It'll be very interesting to see which tales proved true for us :)

If forgetfulness was a predictor of gender, we'd know for sure by now. Yesterday marked the THIRD time in THREE weeks that I've locked my keys in my car! Poor Greg had to drive them to me at school before he went to work so I could get my stuff out of my car. How do you lock your keys in your car with all your things in it too, you ask? Well, it's easy. I left all my bags in the passenger seat, planning to go around to open the door and get them out that way. I put my keys in my purse and set my purse on the seat too. Then I pressed the unlock button on the door...however, for some reason, that didn't unlock all my doors. Perhaps I pressed the wrong direction? Anyway, I walked around to the other side and the door was locked...Needless to say, the driver's side door was shut and locked too. I think I need to start wearing a car key on a necklace or something!

I've been battling a nasty cold all week long. And it wouldn't be half as bad if I could take something (anything!) that would drain everything out of my head. But I can't...so instead I've been complaining and sniffling and coughing and complaining some more. I even had to stay home on Thursday from school. I was feeling a little bit better yesterday, but after a late Halloween night, it's back in full force :(

Here is a tummy picture from last week. It was taken at exactly 18 weeks. Sorry for the awkwardness of the picture...I was trying to hold the black shirt out of the way so you could actually see how big the peanut is getting! I'll have to take another (better one) this week.

We have a crib!

Greg and I spent the afternoon putting together the baby's new crib! I'm very excited about it - we love it and we got a great deal on it...always a good thing! Hopefully we can find a dresser and rocking chair or glider that match to go in the room for just as good of a price. We'll see!

It wasn't too complicated to put together. Greg did most of the work while I held pieces up. Riley and Sammy oversaw the entire project and checked out all the pars to make sure they didn't have anything scary hiding inside!

Greg working hard while I take pictures...hey, it's what I'm good at!

Sammy and Riley making sure we're doing a good job.

The finished product! I can't wait to get cute bedding to go inside :)


The "babies" get to try it out! :)

Rough couple of days!

I know that God has a purpose when we go through valleys and that all of our time on Earth can't be spent on the mountain top, but I feel like it's been a long, hard struggle to get up the mountain for us!

First of all, I apparently hit something (without knowing it!) in our Mustang and came out to a gigantic oil leak. Basically every bit of oil that was in my car had leaked out onto the ground. We had to have it towed to Leif Johnson...and then, since it wasn't a manufacturer defect, we have to pay for all of it. And it's not cheap! We pick up the car tomorrow, and I'm seriously considering giving up driving...I mean, all the bad things in that car happen while I'm driving! Like the rock that cracked the windshield three days after we bought...Who was driving? Me! Or the time that the key wouldn't turn in the ignition and I was stranded at the apartment. Or the time that I was trying to fill up with gas and the gasoline came shooting back out all over me? Yep. Me driving. And then if we go back further in my driving history (before the Mustang) there was the incident in the Explorer where the passenger side mirror randomly shattered. I swear I'm a careful driver. Bad luck while driving just seems to follow me.

Then this morning, I had a scary moment where I thought I was going to pass out. I got really shakey, dizzy, and broke out in a cold sweat with a horrible headache. Since I've had moments of low blood sugar before I got pregnant, I thought that could've been what was causing everything. So I got my snack out of the fridge at school (crackers and a cheese stick) and ate that. Thirty minutes later I still felt horrible, so I went down to our school nurse's office. My blood pressure was on the "low side of normal" (101/70). She had me drink a juice box and then we took my blood sugar. Normal sugars range from 70-120...After eating crackers and drinking the juice, mine was only 84, which is pretty low for having sugar in my system. She had me drink another juice and we waited about 15 minutes and tested it again. It had gone up to 99...I felt a little bit better, but definitely not great! My doctor said to watch it and to mention it at my next appointment. Unfortunately, this puts me at a higher risk of having gestational diabetes - which I do not want to have! Although, if this is the only real complication I have with my pregnancy, I'll be glad. So many other things can go wrong and this is relatively minor.

It's really hard to stay positive when it seems like so many things are going wrong...but I'm trying so hard to trust in God and really put my faith in Him. I know he will provide for us and take care of us.

On a happy note, here's a tummy picture from last week. You can't really tell from this picture, but the little peanut is definitely growing! I'll try to take a better one this weekend.

Healthy baby

I had my monthly appointment with my doctor this afternoon...after locking my keys in my car at school, having to call Greg and have him leave work to pick me up, and then getting to the doctor's office only to find out that they had my appointment scheduled for tomorrow, not today! Thank goodness everything worked out alright!

My doctor measured my tummy - I think she said it was around 16 inches, which she said was "tiny" for being 17 weeks. Nothing to worry about though - either it means that I'm actually due later than April 1st or I just have some catching up to do. I also got to listen to the heart beat on the doppler...it's so fun to hear the little wa-wa-wa-ing from our baby's heart! It was right around 146-149 beats per minute. Last time it was in the 150s, and she said it sounded strong and great.

She asked me if I wanted to have any genetic testing done, but I declined...it's wouldn't change anything with the way we viewed the baby, so there's really no point. Plus, there's a high rate of having false positives, which would cause me unnecessary stress and worry. I feel good about that decision!

I also scheduled our "big" ultrasound to find out the baby's gender...The big day is November 7th! Pray that the baby is cooperative so s/he can get a name, clothing, bedding and all that fun stuff! I'm putting up a poll so you can vote on whether you think the baby is a boy or a girl...I'll tell you what I think after a few days!

17 weeks

Today, our baby is 17 weeks old! I get an email every Tuesday telling me about all the growth and development that will be happening that week. This week's email said that our baby's skeleton is hardening into bone and that sweat glands are beginning to develop this week. The baby is now the size of a turnip and weighs about 5 ounces. Last week's email said that the baby would be doubling in weight approximately every week for the next few weeks...Crazy, isn't it?!

I have my second doctor's appointment tomorrow. I'm not really sure what is supposed to go on at this appointment, but I will be scheduling our "big" ultrasound...the one where we get to find out the sex of the baby! I am praying that s/he is cooperative during this ultrasound so we can find out...I don't know how much longer I can last not knowing. Unfortunately, my insurance only pays for two ultrasounds, unless more are medically necessary. So if our little peanut isn't being especially cooperative, we could potentially not know until the delivery!

Greg and I are looking into paying to have a 3D/4D ultrasound done. There are some various centers in Austin that do them...it would be so fun to have "real" pictures of the baby, but we'll see!

New baby, new blog

I figured it was time to start a blog to keep everyone up to date on what's going on with me and the surprise baby in the next coming months and years. I hate living far away from family and friends, but at least the internet makes it a little easier to keep in touch!

For those of you who need to get caught up on things, here's some background information. I'm in my second trimester, 15 weeks 5 days pregnant (or about 4 1/2 months) with a surprise baby! Greg and I definitely weren't expecting this, but the Lord knows better than we do what He has planned for us. We are only along for the ride, and what a fantastic one it is turning out to be! Our baby is very wiggly and active, although I have yet to feel anything. I hear that will come in the next week or two and I'm very excited for it! I am due on April 1st, 2009 - April Fool's Day. Hopefully there will be no more big surprises to come! I've had my first doctor's appointment so far and have the next on October 23rd. We should find out if it's a boy or a girl sometime around Thanksgiving and I couldn't be more excited!

Here are a few pictures of the baby:







I will try to update this every few days or so to keep everyone informed! I'm definitely looking forward to the coming weeks and months...everything is going by so fast and I'm really trying to savor every moment of it (good and bad!). A blog seems like the perfect way to do that!