I'd like the roast duck with the mango salsa...

So Brian reminded me of one of my favorite quotes from the Geico commercials, and it was perfect for this week's post!!! So this week I haven't had many changes that I have noticed other than my allergies being OUT OF CONTROL!!!!!! If any of you have been suffering with sinus/allergy symptoms as of late, then stop and think for a second what it would be like if there wasn't anything that you could take to give you any kind of relief. I can only take Mucinex, which does nothing for me, and Flonase, which really doesn't help either. So I just suffer with my allergies day in and day out with these miserable allergies! You have NO idea how ready I am for a really good frost to hit Lexington, so that hopefully it will kill everything that I am allergic to! I feel sorry for the little one because I'm sure I shake it to death everytime I sneeze, and trust me, that's quite often! But enough about that.

I still haven't felt any kind of flutters or anything. So many people have told me that it feels like different things (flutters, muscle spasms, gas, etc) and I'm always wondering how you would know the difference between the baby moving and something else....so to my knowledge, I haven't felt anything yet, but I am very anxious to! I still think its weird that I can't feel him/her in there, so I'm ready to be able to do that!

Only 2 more weeks until the big reveal about what we are having!! I hope you all are getting as excited as we are!!!!!!

Here's what's happening this week: Vernix caseosa, a greasy white substance made of lanugo, oil and dead skin cells (yum) now coats baby's skin, shielding it from the amniotic fluid. (Picture yourself after a nine-month bath, and the need for protection makes sense.) You might actually get to see the vernix at birth, especially if baby is premature.

18 weeks and counting

Your fetus has become amazingly mobile (at least compared to you), passing the hours yawning, hiccuping, rolling, twisting, kicking, punching, sucking and swallowing. And, baby's finally big enough that you'll be able to feel those movements soon.

I thought that a sweet potato was an interesting size reference...had it not said that it was a sweet potato on the site where I get these from, then I wouldn't have had a clue what it was! hahaha. Things have been going really well as far as how I'm doing! I have been staying busy with work as always, so I know that I will just continue to get busier and busier as the holiday season gets closer. We are about 2 weeks away from finding out the sex of the baby, so the closer that gets, the more excited and anxious I get about it! We are just so excited to know what we are having! There are so many things to do: pick out a crib, stroller, get the nursery together, set up our registry, etc!! Things that we wanted to wait to do until we knew what we were having!!

Everything is normal!!

I got a call from my doctor's office this morning and they informed me that my blood work from last week for the AFP test came back normal!! Brian and I are so thankful that everything is normal for our little onion!!! Thank you so much for the prayers about this!! We are relieved to know that everything seems to be on the up and up in there! It was something I wanted to know given that Brian's cousin has Down's Syndrome, and it is a relief to know that we are in the clear!! Now we are just waiting until the big day (9/9/09) to find out what we are having!!!!! Then it's time to get the nursery set up!!!

We have decided to just stay where we are housewise for now....we will be having to get a new car when Brian's lease runs out, and with that and me being off work for 3 months with no pay, we decided that we would just wait a while and see what happens after the baby is born! So now we are ready to start getting everything in this house up and running for the little baby because we know that January will be here before we know it!!!

I do love our onion, but not really the food onion!

Baby's skeleton is hardening, changing from rubbery cartilage to bone, and fat is finally accumulating around it. The umbilical cord is getting thicker and stronger, and those little fingers and toes are now topped by one-of-a-kind prints.

So another week has passed and I still haven't felt any movements, so who knows when that will come!! The nurse at my doctors appointment this week said that it was still early to feel anything and that a lot of people don't feel it until 22 or so weeks, so that makes me feel better. Brian and I are really looking forward to the day that we can find out what we are having!! I'm going to take that day off work for that appointment, and then I can go shopping for boy or girl things that afternoon!!!! haha! I'm a nerd I know!! I am just so anxious to find out. Brian and I were at the mall for a bit this morning returning a couple of things, and we saw some cute boy clothes, and some cute girl things, so we are just ready to know what we have in there!

Still no word yet on our blood test results, but they did say 7-10 days, so it hasn't been that long yet! We are obviously saying our prayers that the test comes back negative!!

I got a call from my mom today who is up at Camp Perry with my dad this week, and is crocheting my first baby blanket!!! She called me today and said that while she was sitting there while my dad was shooting, working on my blanket, that it hit her that 27 years ago, she was doing the same thing at Camp Perry...but that time, she was making me a baby blanket!!!! Isn't that funny?! hahaha. I thought it was really cute! She is making me a white, lavender, green, and yellow baby blanket!! I think it will be beautiful!!! I know that between her and Nana making us blankets our little one will never get cold!! :)

Let the countdown begin!!

So I found out yesterday that Brian and I will get to find out the sex of our little one on 9/9/09!!! We are really excited about finding out what it is!!! I feel like I can start getting things done and ready for the arrival once I know what it is!! Yesterday at the doctors appointment I got to hear the baby's heartbeat on the dopplar, and it was really nice!!! She found the heartbeat really quickly, and that was nice since she told me that sometimes this early, it takes a little bit to find the heartbeat. The heartbeat was between 145 and 150, and she said it was a really strong heartbeat!! I was very pleased to hear that!! So let the countdown begin until the day when we find out if we are going to have a little boy or a little girl!!!

I also had the AFP blood test done yesterday. It is a blood test that they do to check for abnormal levels of a specific protein that the baby would make if there were signs of some kind of genetic abnormality. They took some blood from me, and I will get the results in 7-10 days they said. They will let me know our results either way, so that is good, but now I have to just sit and wait, and pray that everything is ok. There is a chance that we could get a false positive on the results, so that is something that we have to be prepared for. If it does come back positive, we would start seeing another OB who specializes in those type of pregnancies in addition to Dr. Karon so that it would be a sort of joint effort. Brian and I are obviously praying for a negative test result, but I also wanted to be prepared in the event that something might be wrong with our little one. I'm not a big fan of surprises, so I have found that I would rather be prepared. I will put up a post whenever we do get the test results to let everyone know where things stand! So we would really appreciate all the prayers for a negative test result on this test!!

4 months and counting

Watch what you say... tiny bones forming in baby's ears mean the little one can now pick up your voice. Eyebrows, lashes and hair are starting to fill in, and taste buds are forming. And, if you're interested, an ultrasound might be able to determine gender.

So we have now hit the 4 month mark, and I still feel like it is passing really slowly. I know that a lot of people feel like time is flying by, but for me, not so much. I still haven't felt the baby move, so I'm just hoping that everything is ok in there! I know that I am just now in the time when people start to feel the movements, so it's not a big worry, but I can't wait to feel it!

My next appointment is on Tuesday, and they are doing that AFP blood test, and I think that is all they are doing. If I remember tomorrow, then I'm going call the office and see if they said they were doing an ultrasound at my appointment or not. I know this is one of the earlier times that they can tell the sex, but if they are doing one, then I want Brian to be there so that he can see it too! It was really cool seeing it the last appointment when I could see it kicking at the ultrasound wand as I call it! I don't really know the proper name for it!

I have been feeling really really tired as of late, and I don't know if its because things have been getting a little busier at work with the back to school time being in full force, or what, but last night I was asleep for the night at 8:30. I'm getting ready to go to sleep tonight, but I wanted to get this post on so that everyone could see where we stand! I know some of you look at this all the time to see what's going on that's new, so I didn't want you all to wait too long!! :)

I'll put up a new post sometime after my appointment. If they just do the blood test, then I'm sure we wil have to wait a while to get the results, but you never know I guess. Just please say a prayer that everything is fine there with our little avacado!! Brian and I are both anxious to find out what we are having. Brian is really really hoping for a boy, and I don't care either way as long as it's healthy. But I think I'm probably having a boy too. I would be really excited if it was a girl though! We do have names for both, so that's something we don't have to worry about!! :)

15 weeks pictures

In case you couldn't see them very well on the side of the blog, I thought I would put them in a post thinking they would be a little bigger.

Vitamin C

Continuing the march towards normal proportions, baby's legs now outmeasure the arms. And, finally, all four limbs have functional joints. Your fetus is squirming and wiggling like crazy down in the womb, though you probably still can't feel the movements.

So I am really happy that I'm 15 weeks now!!! Just one more week until 4 months!! Yay for that!! I feel like time is passing so slowly, but I feel like when we can finally find out what we are having that the time will start to go faster for me. It's hard for me right now because I feel like I can't really pick anything out! hahaha. If its a girl, I want a white crib, but not if its a boy....I want different paint depending on if its a girl or a boy...so I feel like I'm just on hold for now! But hopefully everything is going smoothly with its development in there! I still haven't felt it move yet, or if I have, then I don't know it! But they say that it might be another week or so before I really feel it!

I thought we would post more pictures of the new belly size....I feel like it looks much bigger, but I'm not sure if you all will agree! hahaha. My jeans are definitely much tighter, and most of them I have to use the little rubberband trick instead of buttoning them! I'm in the process of getting some Guess jeans turned into maternity jeans so that I will still be able to wear jeans to work, but the first try proved that there are a few tweaks that need to be made, so I'm working on that!!! Take 2 will come this week!

My next appointment is next week, and they are doing the AFP bloodtest on me. It looks for a certain kind of protein in my blood that would have come from the baby and abnormal levels of that protein could mean there could be something going on with the baby such as Downs Syndrome, etc. I don't know if they will do another ultrasound at this visit or not. I don't think they are, so I am expecting to find out the sex of the baby at the visit after this one, so sometime in September is my guess! Don't worry, we'll let everyone know!!!