Friday afternoon, I headed north to visit a couple friends. My first stop was to have dinner and visit with Janell. The last time I saw her and Hudson, he wasn't walking yet and now he is walking all over the place! Such a cute boy!! After dinner, I finished my trek to Wisconsin. My friend, Jackie, had her son's 2nd birthday party on Saturday. The weather was a little chilly, but the party was very nice!

I think he liked the Lightning McQueen car that was on the cake more than the cupcake, what do you think?

The birthday boy playing!

Me and Jackie

I didn't get a good picture of Carter's shirt, but the front said "I have a secret..." and the back said "I'm going to be a big brother!". I AM SO EXCITED FOR JACKIE AND JONATHAN! What can be better than going through pregnancy with one of your best girlfriends?!?!? Their second baby is due in March! Congratulations, Jackie!!!

Finally!!

We had another OB appointment (16 weeks 3 days) this morning - pretty uneventful, but we FINALLY heard the heartbeat!! I think this little one likes to keep us guessing...147bpm today.

Now, if I could just start feeling some movement...

Belly Shots!

I've had a couple requests for some belly shots. We have been taking them every two weeks since 8 weeks. I'm still not taking them of a bare belly! :-) But, I think you can see the difference. It's pretty crazy to look at 8 weeks compared to today at 16 weeks. Each picture was taken about the same time every day except the 12 week one...Jason was out of town so I took it in the morning compared to just before dinner.

8 weeks

10 weeks
12 weeks

14 weeks

16 weeks - TODAY!

I am almost exclusively in maternity clothes. Some regular tops still look okay, but I don't want to ruin them for after this pregnancy. The second trimester is treating me well. I am feeling completely normal, except that sleeping is becoming more difficult. Who knew it is so hard to sleep on your side!? I am typically a stomach sleeper and end up on my back by the morning, but I know that is not good. So, we've filled the bed with pillows to hopefully keep me from doing that. I am so glad I bought that body pillow years ago! Our next appointment is on Friday, and we should finally hear the heartbeat!

My first baby dream!

I know this may sound a little strange, but last night I had my first dream about this baby!

Of course, the dream was a little strange, too! I was at my doctor's office getting an ultrasound done after hours. I assume it was after hours because there didn't appear to be anyone else around except our crew. I'm not even sure who was doing the ultrasound, but it was a female. Another strange thing is who was with us...it was me, Jason, my mom, and Jason's dad! I also remember that they ran out of ultrasound gel and were having a hard time finding more. Once we actually got to the ultrasound, we found out it was a girl and she was weighing 5lbs 11oz! I couldn't tell how far along I was, but I sure hope I was much closer to the end of this pregnancy than I am now! :-)

I took another one of the gender prediction tests here. This one says girl, too!! Guess we'll find out!

To find out or not to find out?

Jason and I are still trying to decide if we are going to find out the sex of this baby. I think it will be a surprise either way, but I just don't know what I want to do. I love to plan and have things organized so that is one good thing to finding out, but I also want to have something be a bit of a surprise to everyone (besides what he/she looks like) when the baby is born. I also think it would be hard to keep the name quiet once we decide if we find out the sex.

I have done the typical "tests" and here are the results:

Chinese calendar says girl.

http://www.babybpm.com/ said girl twice and boy twice! :-)

I haven't done the new IntelliGender test - personally, I think it is a waste of money and we haven't done the one where you hang something over your belly.

As for my guess - I was really feeling like it was a girl for quite a while, but I am just not sure now. We don't have any names picked out yet, but we seem to be finding more girl names that we agree on than boy names.

One idea I saw is to find out and announce the sex at your baby shower! I think this is a really cute idea, but that would mean that I have to hold it in for almost nine weeks before the first shower. I guess that is better than trying to hold it in for 20 weeks, right? And, I am having more than one shower so some people will find out before others. It should work since they will be in different cities, but who knows. There are so many decisions to make!

Good thing we still have 5 weeks to decide what we are going to do!

Family Time!

This weekend, our family celebrated the summer birthdays (my mom in June and Jason in July). Everyone got to our house on Friday night then on Saturday morning, the guys went golfing while the ladies went to a few garage sales. I didn't get much...a couple books (The Girlfriends Guide to Pregnancy and Baby Bargains). I also got a pair of maternity jeans that actually fit at a consignment shop! It is the first maternity clothing item I have purchased thanks to my friend, Heather, and my sister-in-law, Karen, who have shared their clothes. I'm sure I'll have to purchase more as time goes on (especially tops), but I am really trying to hold out since I know there are plenty of other things I can spend that money on (like the nursery furniture I was talking about!).

My two nephews...Mitchell (9) and Reid (5 1/2 months)

My niece, Nicole (14) and Reid

My little sister, Aireol (11)

Reid's first time in the pool!!

Saturday night, we had a great dinner - steak, shrimp and potatoes on the grill, corn on the cob, beer bread from Tastefully Simple, and of course, cupcakes! Everyone left on Sunday morning which meant Jason and I both got a nice nap during the rain on Sunday afternoon.

Nursery Furniture

I've started looking at nursery furniture - how in the world does anyone pick? There are so many out there that I like. I think I want black (or a really dark wood), a lifetime or 4-in-1 crib (goes from crib to toddler bed to daybed to full-size bed), and something that is sturdy and going to last through all of those stages. I also want to get a matching dresser and possibly a bookcase. I have only looked online so far since we don't have much for stores in our area - BRU, Bassett Baby, Young America, JC Penney, and Munire Furniture. If you have any recommendations, let me know. This is big purchase so I want to make it wisely! We probably won't order anything until our 20-week ultrasound, but I think it will also depend on how long it takes to get in.

Pool Parties!!

We were home this weekend and it was finally warm enough to get in the pool!! I can't believe this is the first weekend we have been in it all year. On Saturday, Jason's family was here and had a great time, but, unfortunately, my camera battery died so I don't have any pictures! I was so bummed about that. Caden actually loved the pool this year and didn't want to get out which is different from last year.

Today was the friend party!

Schneringer kids - Mason, Dylan, Kylee

Nick

Beckett & Mande

Even Kahlua got to swim after everyone was done! Twice in one weekend... I don't think she knew what to think!

So I'm wondering...

who left the anonymous comment on my last post? It was very sweet and wonderful, but I have no clue who wrote it.

Looks like we are going to have a busy weekend at our house again! It is supposed to be in the 90's with a heat index at 100+ so we'll be spending the days poolside. I'm sure I'll have pictures to post when the weekend is done. Have a great one, everybody, and enjoy!

13 weeks

Wow! I can't believe we are really here...the 2nd trimester! I know there is some question about when the 2nd trimester starts, but I'm going with 13 weeks! This is such a huge milestone, in my opinion. I can't believe I am already one-third done with this pregnancy. The pregnancy is finally feeling real, and I can't believe we'll be bringing our baby home in February!

We had our first appointment with the doctor this afternoon and it was much quicker than the last appointment. We got right in and the doctor came in pretty quickly, too. The first thing she did was try to find the baby's heartbeat...I think we have a stubborn one on our hands because she couldn't find it! She said the baby is still pretty small and moving around a lot so that is probably why. We headed to get an ultrasound to confirm that things were okay and there the baby was moving around like crazy! No wonder she couldn't track down the heartbeat! She didn't do any measurements, but baby appeared to be normal size for 13 weeks and the heartrate was 155! And, this was my first abdominal ultrasound!! What a nice change from the vaginal type! We didn't get too great of ultrasound pictures because he/she was moving so much, but here they are:

Our next appointment isn't for 4 weeks! I haven't gone that long between appointments yet, but I know that everything will be okay. We should definitely hear the heartbeat then!

And, we have our big 20 week ultrasound scheduled, too! It will be pretty amazing to see how much he/she changes between now and then. We will be able to find out the sex at this appointment, but Jason and I are still undecided if we want to. It also depends if he/she will cooperate, and I'm just not so sure on that one! :-) I'm such a planner so I'm not sure I could hold out, but I think it might be neat to wait until he/she is born, too!

A Weekend Full of Parties!!

Jason arrived home safely on Friday night from his work trip before our busy weekend of parties. Saturday afternoon, we were invited to celebrate Beckett's 1st Birthday! The weather didn't seem to cooperate so a party that was originally planned to be outside in the park ended up in the garage of their house. He still had a great celebration!Later that night, we headed to one of our neighbor's house to hang out with the Colvert family who were visiting. They moved out of our neighborhood almost a year ago and it was so good to see them!!The guys playing a game of 3-on-3....boy were they sweaty!!

Some of the kids enjoyed the Wii!

Me & Cara

We spent this morning at church and then went to Jason's nephew, Cody's graduation party! It was a beautiful day today!

Congratulations, Cody!!