My sweet baby...

Is a sweet baby GIRL!!! Yay!!!! I about fell off the table when the tech said it. In fact, I didn't even catch a view of the gender shots because I was too busy with my hands over my face crying! (These pregnancy hormones are killer this go 'round!)  But the tech did print me out a picture of it, so no worries.  I made sure I asked her if she was sure, and then if she was serious. She was!  The doc looked at the pics and said everything looks perfect with baby.  They took a cervical length on me and said it was nice and long but wanted to see me back in 2 weeks for another cervical length check.  The doc also said they might look into a cerclage for my cervix if need be. (I'm not really a fan of that)


Now comes names. I am so lost in this department for a girl! Any suggestions would be appreciated! We like uncommon names, nothing too childish (she has to be able to grow into the name as an adult), and something feminine. Wow, that's not complicated now is it?

When I go back for my next ultrasound, I'm definitely going shopping! I can't wait!! I also can't wait to raise a little girl with my sister! I am so excited!!

Happenings

I took a 17 week pic but I haven't had the chance to upload it yet. I'm almost 18 weeks now so it may be pointless at this stage in the game.  I took my second shot on Saturday and it gave me hives around the injection site. Strange.  I called and spoke with the nurse and she instructed me to call the pharmacy and see what kind of oil they are mixing it with and if it happened again they would switch pharmacies for my prescription. 

My ultrasound is Monday morning at 9:20am. I am really excited but nervous at the same time.  Every. single. person that I know that is pregnant right now is having a girl. I'm sure I'll have a boy. Not that I will be disappointed, but I think right now I have hope and on Monday I will be forced to face reality of having 3 boys. It'll be fine, right?

We are getting ready for Peytonn's birthday party on Saturday. I can't believe he is going to be 4 next week! Where did the time go??  I'm excited for him to see what we got him for his birthday. We got him a John Deere Gator powerwheels. He will probably scream like a little girl and say "AWESOME!"  lol

16 weeks

Well, its here. I took my first shot this week. I made my mom give it to me because I'm just not ready to go back to this yet. It hurt and my hip is bruised and sore and has been for 2 days. The good news, things have calmed down. I haven't felt a contraction since starting.

I have my next doc appointment on Wednesday and our ultrasound is 2 weeks from today.  I haven't gained any weight according to my scale. (Thankfully!!!) I thought I felt a kick on Saturday while driving home. It was on my left side down low. I can feel the baby squirm around at times when I am laying still, but this was the first kick that I felt. It's such an amazing feeling!

I feel like I have more energy, but with 2 boys I am so exhausted by the end of the day. Hubby had drill all weekend and then got forced into overtime today. :( This mama needs a break!!! We've been in and out most of the weekend so the house needs some cleaning and laundry done. I have the day off today so I am thinking of taking the kids to the sitter and getting some stuff done and having a quiet house while they play with their friends. Sounds like a plan to me!! :)

Stroller and carseat

I thought that this time we would get the Chicco travel system, however, I'm really not a fan of the canopy on the infant seat. And with a baby due in the hottest month of the year, I figured a canopy is an important element.  Also, I could never imagine a 30lb child or a 1 year old in the Chicco infant seat. It just doesn't look big enough.

My friend Julie and I made the trip down to Indy on Friday to Babies R Us to look around and just have a girls day with her new little bundle.  I spent a lot of time messing around with the Chicco travel system and the stroller. A big con is that the stroller has to be fully reclined to get the infant seat to snap into it which makes getting to the basket a lot harder.  It did have some nice features: child tray for snacks and drinks, a nice large seating area in the stroller, and it folded somewhat easily.

I've been researching things online and I was really interested in the Britax infant seat and the B-Ready stroller from Britax.  I absolutely love our Britax Marathon for the safety features and the ease of installation.  The only problem was, I couldn't find them in the stores anywhere to look at them and try them out.

The boys and I went to visit my mom yesterday and we made the adventure (yes, with 2 boys everything is an adventure!) down to Greenwood to the Buy Buy Baby store.  There are building one in Castleton but it isn't open yet.  The boys fell asleep in the van so my mom let me go in and shop while she sat in the car with them.  (insert happy dance!) This place is amazing!!!! It's like a pregnant girls dream come true! They had just about every single stroller and carseat imaginable! Even the higher end brands like Orbit, Uppa, BOB, etc. They actually had both the Britax stroller and carseat available at the store! Woot!

I messed around with the car seat, I wanted to see how heavy it was and how big the base was. I also wanted to make sure it would go small enough for a 4lb preemie baby (just in case!).  Here is the one I picked out (which matches our Britax Marathon pattern!):

I love that it has the anti-rebound bar and also true side impact protections for the baby's head.  I also like that it has a lever on the back that moves the straps up and down according to the height of baby's shoulders.  You never have to rethread the straps! I love the cowmooflage pattern as well. I think it will be fine for either a boy or a girl.


Here is the stroller that I got:

I absolutely LOVE it!! The seat faces forward or backwards, it has a large canopy, it folds compact and it pretty light weight, and the seat removes and allows the infant seat to attach to the stroller frame.  Plus, the storage basket it HUGE! And easily accessible without disturbing the child.  The seat also reclines fully. Here is a good pic to show how the car seat attaches and just how big the storage area is:

I just love it! I tried Bennett in the actual stroller seat and he fits great! I think we will use the stroller now until the baby comes. It drives so smooth. This stroller also has the option of becoming a double stroller. You can buy an extra seat that fits behind and below the stroller seat. You can also fit 2 infant seats in the stroller. I love the possibilities!

The best part of this purchase: If you buy the stroller, you get the infant seat for free!!! And, Buy Buy Baby accepts coupons from Babies R Us, so I used a 20% off coupon as well. I saved $329!!!! Woot! Over half of the entire purchase price had I paid full price for everything. Can you tell I am excited!?!

Food Journal

I thought keeping a food journal would help me really see what I am eating and help keep accountable for my weight gain during this pregnancy. So here is my journal for 3/8/11.

Breakfast:
--1 banana
--container of fat free peach Chobani greek yogurt with homemade granola
--3 Rainbow Light Complete Prenatal Vitamins
--1 Norwegian Gold Critical Omega pill
--2 tall glasses of water

Morning Snack:
--1 grande iced coffee from Starbucks with extra cream and 5 raw sugars
--a few bites of cashews

Lunch:
--1 salad with romaine, carrots, mango, and sliced almonds with homemade Oriental dressing
--1 snack sized baggie of baby carrots
--1 cup of French Onion Soup (I packed this for lunch but wasn't hungry for it)
--1  24 oz bottle of water

Snack:
--cashews

Dinner:
--1/4 of General Tso's Chicken from Chinese take out
--2 crab rangoon
--2 large glasses of ice water
--3 Rainbow Light Complete Prenatal Vitamins
--1 Norwegian Gold Critical Omega pill

Weight gain: 0 lbs

Some updates and recipes

We've hired our Doula!!! Yay!! She is great and I really like her. The only problem is that her family is planning a vacation from July 23-31st. (This would be the most likely time I will deliver before 37 weeks) We discussed this and I am okay with it. She has talked with both Hubby and I about material, videos, and role playing in order to get us comfortable with a plan in case she is on vacation when I deliver.  She will also help us make a "cheat sheet" for Hubby in case we do labor alone, Hubby will have some back up to rely on of different positions or techniques.  I am really hoping to make it to 37 weeks this go round which would put me at August 7th. My last shot will be on July 31st which should hopefully get me to 37 weeks or beyond. 

Tammy will also help me write up a birth plan. I did not do a birth plan with the other two pregnancies, so this is new to me. I mean, I know what a birth plan is and consists of, but I have never written one.  The hospital that I deliver at has been great in the past about my wishes, so I don't think it will be a big deal. I think what matters to me most is hopefully being able to have those "normal" birth experiences this time around. I am hoping to keep my baby in the room with, breastfeed right after birth, put a cloth diaper on my newborn, and just have some bonding time with the baby.  My doc is great and so are the nurses (my sister, Angie and Jamie, holla!) so I am confident that things will go great.

As for other things, I have slowly been able to incorporate some chicken back into my diet.  I am still very much wanting veggies, fruit, and nuts as my main diet, but some days can handle meat. Here are a few new recipes I have tried and loved them!!

Roasted Artichoke Hearts: Yummy!! I love artichokes and this recipe is great as a side dish. I used frozen artichokes but you can also use canned.

Baked Chicken: It doesn't get much simpler than this recipe! And it tastes great too! Even the next day as left overs. I used drumsticks, but the recipe calls for bone in breasts or thighs. It's very versatile to what you have and quick to put to together.

Chicken Drumsticks Pierre: This recipe was pretty tasty and different. The boys each had seconds of the chicken. I served it with jasmine rice and veggies.


Applebee's Oriental Salad Dressing: Love this stuff!! I love the salad from Applebee's and now the dressing I can make at home. It really does taste just like the real stuff.  I have made this twice now and its good on salad and to dip veggies in.

I also added a new blog to my blog roll. It's called My Frugal Fun Life and it has some great posts about frugal living, shopping, and other ideas.  Check it out!

15 weeks

Today I am 15 weeks. Things are going pretty well thus far. I did have to contact my doctor last week though. I have been feeling kind of run down lately, so on Thursday I took the afternoon off work to come home and just rest while the boys were still at the babysitter.  I took about an hour nap and when I got up I had 4 contractions in 2 hours.  It made me nervous because usually I don't start have contractions until after the 20 week mark. I called the nurse to make sure I was okay to wait until the 16th to see my doctor.  This is also when I am supposed to start my shots.  My doc ended up calling me back to talk to me. (This is why I LOVE my doctor. She takes the time to make sure things are ok, not just leaving it to a nurse) I talked to my doc for about 15 minutes and she decided to go ahead and send in my prescription for my shots to my pharmacy.  She said that I can start them this Friday (this is when the "wheel" says that I change weeks, but according to the calendar I change on Sundays.) My doc also said that she was not worried about me, but gave me changes to look for and said to call her back that night if anything changed because she was on call. 

Things have settled down a bit and although I do have contractions occasionally still, I know that unless they are painful or I have more than 4 in an hour, its probably ok. I see my doc again on the 16th, so I'm sure we will gauge how things are going.  I still haven't gained any weight and my appetite is still good. This baby really likes veggies and fruit still which is probably the reason I haven't gained much thus far. I hope that it stays that way. We should be getting our first CSA basket this month which I am excited about. I love summer for all the fresh produce available. We also love to grill out in the summer and have already twice now. I can't wait to get out with the boys and take walks and go to the park. We have taken a walk twice now so far this year. It feels good to enjoy the fresh air!