Dear Baby Boy

Dear Baby Boy,

Last night, March 29, 2013, your Daddy was finally able to feel you kick me.  I have been feeling your kicks for three to four weeks now, and I have been wanting you to kick hard enough for Dad to feel too!  We are so excited to have you in our family.  You have a puppy big sister, Molly, who will love and adore you.  She will snuggle with you and be your constant companion.  You also have a puppy big brother, Deuce, who will be a "boys" dog and play rough and tumble with you and teach you how to grow up as a tough little guy. 

We have been trying to narrow down a list of names for you.  I have a list of the ones I like, and Daddy has been working on his list.  Then we can compare lists and see if we have any names the same or if I have a name that Dad might like or if he thought of a name that I might like.  It's a slow process, but we have a little less than seventeen weeks hopefully before you arrive.  We have a car seat for you, and a crib that will convert into a big kid bed with you as you grow, and a couple little outfits.  This weeekend I am going to try to get the closet in what will be your room cleaned out or at least reorganized so we can put your stuff in it instead of Mommy's.  We are slowly getting ready and buying things so we have everything you need when you finally come!!

We love you, Little Man, and we can't wait to meet you!

Baby Boy and 20 week Ultrasound

Today was our full ultrasound to make sure baby has all his parts and is growing normally.  I had to drink 3 full glasses of water 45 minutes before the appointment.  This was super hard since I struggle to even drink three glasses in the whole day!!  But I did it and now the bathroom will be my best friend every thirty minutes or so for the next couple of hours!! 

The tech kept telling us over and over again how wiggly baby boy was being today!  His heartrate was 160, and she said based on the measurements she took today, he is 13 ounces.  He has both kidneys, four chambers in his heart, we saw his little stomach, his diaphragm, lots of parts of his brain, all of his arm and leg bones, and we even got to watch him yawn!!  I was impressed about how much information the tech knew about what she was looking at on the screen.  I was glad I had taken anatomy and physiology so I had an idea about what she was talking about too!!  (I guess that class DOES come in handy....)  Everything sounded good from what she was saying and from what I understood.  They take all these photos and measurements and send them to the radiologist on staff and then he sends the information he gathers from them on to our doctor who will discuss it more with us at our next appointment in April.  :)  It was good to see Baby Boy again, especially since he was moving around so much.  Seems like he is having a good time in there. 

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This is a pic of his fingers in a fist up by the top of his head!! 

It's a....................

Remember how at our appointment on Monday we tried to find out the gender of our little one but Baby wasn't cooperating?!!  Well, what I left out of the story was that our doctor is super awesome and told us to call on Wednesday after 11am when he thought he would be done with surgery and he would try to fit us in to try again!!!
YAY!! 

So on Wednesday Jake and I went back to his office, and he tried again to find out the gender of Baby Schritter.  This time he was able to see!!  We asked him to write down the results on a piece of paper and put it in an envelope and NOT to tell us what Baby is!  Then we gave this envelope to a friend of ours who baked and decorated a cake that was either blue or pink on the inside, but she was the only one that knew what color it was!!

So last night (Friday) we had some friends over (no family unfortunately because they all live almost 800 miles away) for a potluck and gender reveal party!!  We couldn't wait to cut the cake, so we cut it before we ate and the inside of the cake was................................

BLUE!!!  IT'S A BOY!!!  Well, 90% sure it's a boy, according to the doctor!!  We have an appt. on the 11th for the actual full ultrasound at the other office to verify, but 90% is good enough for me!! We are super excited and had a great time sharing the news with our friends here in Oregon!  My friend has better pictues of the cake I will post as soon as I get them from her.  She did a really great job!!  

Boy or Girl?

Today we had another baby appointment!  Our doctor had mentioned that this appointment he would tell us how to set up for the ultrasound appointment, which would take place at another office.  I called earlier last week because we wanted to know if we could get that set up this week, since Jake will be traveling to Idaho this weekend and might be able to pick up a few things for the little man or little miss.  The doctor said he didn't want to send us to the other office before 22 weeks (we are 18), but that he would do a quick one in the office today to see if he could see if Baby Schritter is a boy or a girl!! 

Needless to say, I've been very excited for this appointment since last week!!  Well, as our luck would have it, Baby was not cooperating today and the doctor could not tell the sex of our little one, so we will have to wait!!  Kind of a bummer, but we did get to see he/she moving a LOT and even got this cool pic:

Baby Schritter, Feb. 25, 2013

Baby was laying face down, but it's kind of neat to see the spine and everything!!  We saw a hand and a foot, and the doc said they will do a more detailed analysis at the full ultrasound, but that the heart and brain looked good today as well!!  The heart beat today was between 140-150 beats per minute!  Normal!!  :)

I guess I have only gained 3 pounds since our first appointment back in December, so I got a little lecture about needing to gain more weight.  Trust me, it LOOKS like I gained much more weight than three pounds!!  I eat as much as I can and I snack all day, but apparently I need to eat more!!  That's about all I have for today.  Although we were disappointed to not know the gender, it was still a great appointment to see him/her moving so much and looking healthy in there!! 

Love!

The table setting!!  One dozen roses and a potted orchid plant!

They are SO gorgeous!!  I love the vase!  Red roses on one side, white on the other!

Dinner is served: steak, asparagus, and mashed potatoes with a shrimp and mushroom marsala gravy.  SO SO SO good!

We had a really good Valentine's Day!  I came home to the living room picked up, the kitchen table cleaned off (and redecorated with a tablecloth, roses, more flowers, and rose petals on it), the bed made in the bedroom, and my sweet husband cooking dinner.  I sure am spoiled!  I got him some cologne he has been wanting for quite some time now (Lacoste).  After dinner I let him pick the movie and we went to the theater to see the new Die Hard movie.  At the end of the night, Jake gave me my last surprise of the evening: a new case of Mountain Dew Live Wire in the fridge (my fav!).  He sure knows the way to my heart!!! 

14 weeks, 4 days.

We are now in the second trimester and today we had another baby appointment!!  There is not much to report, but that's okay with us!  I have gained two pounds since the last appointment, but only gained one pound since our first appointment since I lost a pound between the first and second appointments.  Confused yet?  We got to listen to the heartbeat again today, and it was 160 beats per minute.  The last time we heard it it was 180 beats per minute, but our doctor says the slow down is normal.  My doctor keeps trying to convince me to get a flu shot.  I told him I will probably not do that one.  I just feel like the flu shot is not very effective since they try to guess which strain of the virus will be most prevalent that year.  So if another strain of the virus is the one that spreads around, the vaccine would have been a waste.  Then he reminds me about getting the whooping cough vaccine (pertussis), which I assured him I will get.  I'm not against proven, effective, timely vaccinations, I just don't think the flu shot is one of them.  :)  Feel free to chime in here if you want!  Our next appointment is not for another four weeks, and then we can make an appointment to find out if the baby is a boy or a girl!  They don't do the ultrasound at that office, so we will have our next appointment and then have to call some other office to make an appointment.  I can't wait to see if we will be welcoming a son or a daughter!!  We will keep you updated after our next appointment!

1+1=3

Happy New Year!!  This one will be a great one for Jake and I: We are expecting our first child in July!!  We are very excited and can't wait to be parents!  This has been a very long road for us.  We have been trying for a year and a half and suffered a miscarriage once, but this time things seem to be going well.  We have had two doctor's visits already.  The first visit with our new doctor here in Oregon was great.  He answered all of our questions and made us feel more at ease.  He even did a vaginal ultrasound (at 6 weeks!) just to make sure that everything was okay with Baby Schritter.  We saw the heartbeat at tht first appointment, and the pic we have was from that appointment as well.  It was very comforting to see the little blips on that screen and for us to know that so far everything was okay and progressing better than the first time!  Then came the part that I dread the most: The blood draws they do to test your blood and make sure everything is good that way.  I hate needles, especially when they are taking blood OUT of my body!  I need that stuff!!  Ha ha.  It's all for a good cause though!  Our second appointment was yesterday.  Our doctor went over my blood test results: everything is normal!  My thyroid is normal, blood counts are good, and.....I'm O+!!  I never knew my bloodtype until yesterday!  Our doctor did a regular ultrasound and we got to see Baby Schritter move his/her little hands and feet, and then we got to hear his/her little heartbeat: 188 times per minute!  It was such a good sound to hear.  So far I haven't really been sick too much.  I do have a little nausea almost every day, but it's not really that bad.  I've only dry-heaved once, and I learned from that that I need to keep food in my tummy so that doesn't happen again.  And the only other time I almost threw up, I didn't.....so score one for me!!  I absolutely hate throwing up though, so I avoid it at all costs!!  I know people say that you will feel better after, etc, but that is not the case for me.  I would rather keep it in and deal with the stomach churning than have it come out!  TMI?  Well, I don't really think many people read this blog anyway, so I'm not worried!!  I have discovered foods that I ordinarily love do not agree with me right now, so I am missing out on some things that I usually love.  But no special cravings yet, just foods I have to avoid for now!  We are almost at eleven weeks and I hear the second trimester kinda evens everything out so I am looking forward to that!  I feel chubbier than before I was pregnant, but according to the scale yesterday, I lost one pound since the first appointment four weeks earlier.  I chalk that up to the fact that muscle weighs more than fat and I must have lost some muscle tone!  :)  Doc says it's all good, and that the first trimester is more about maintaining weight so he is not concerned. 

That's all the updates we have for now!!  I hope everyone had a safe and happy new year, and that yours will be as blessed as ours will be!!