24 Weeks and Happy New Year

Isabella is 24 weeks along today.

 Yesterday she weighed one pound 6 ounces (45th percentile) and if they gave us the length we don't remember it (fail).

The fruit/vegetable comparison thing has been helpful for us visual types.  It has also been extra fodder for my brother's ongoing comedy routine.  See our text exchange below from when I sent out the ultrasound pic to my family yesterday:

I had a regular appointment with the OB today.  All was well.  They didn't even mention the 10 pounds (yes, 10 pounds!) I gained in December.  I hope that those 10 pounds cover both December and January!  My next appointment is at the end of January and will include the Glucose test.

Speaking of January it is hard to believe we are only a day away from the new year.  My parents (should) be coming down this weekend for New Years (winter weather headed their way last night so we shall see).  We will likely watch football, play games, eat (& drink for those who can) and hang out at home to ring in 2017.

Ella's Echo

Babies born through the assistance of IVF are at an increased risk for congenital heart defects.  As a result an echocardiogram was scheduled as a part of our prenatal care for this morning.  We were certainly not going to complain as it provided us another opportunity to see our pretty girl and to get a picture as to her general health and well being.

Given the hustle and bustle of the season I had not given the appointment much thought.  That is until the knee I managed to wrench last night while unpacking and my new pregnancy pillow were at odds waking and then keeping me up.  I spent 1:30-3:00 this morning considering all that could go wrong.

TMI warning:  Added to the general "What if" concerns is some dampness of unknown origin I have been experiencing over the last few days.  With all of the preterm labor warnings I have been reading about (and leaking fluids being one of them) I was doing a lot of praying this morning!

Fortunately, my prayers were answered and the appointment was a success.  Everything looked perfect with Miss Ella.  Also, they did not seem concerned about my fluid levels and my cervix is still long so there were no signs of preterm labor and they are chalking the dampness up to discharge.

We also got the added bonus of a few 3D images.  Our girl is a shy one, so we only got one where her arms were not covering her face:

Isn't she beautiful?!?!

A Very Merry Christmas

Last year as we traveled home from our annual trek to TN and PA we had a very difficult conversation related to where we wanted to go next in our journey toward parenthood.  How wonderful is our God that one year later our conversations on the way home were centered on what life would be like in the coming year with the birth of our baby girl!

Since we began dating almost 13 years ago we have rotated so that one year we spend Christmas eve/ day with J.T.'s family and the next year with mine.  This year we spent Christmas eve/day with J.T's family.  Friday night his aunt and uncle took the families out for dinner.  We go to see another aunt and one of his cousin's that we have not seen in years.  On Saturday (Christmas eve) we went with his mom and stepdad to see a very well done production of A Christmas Carol.  We then went out dinner and came home to watch the Livestream showing of Christmas Eve service from our church and, as is tradition, It's a Wonderful Life.

On Christmas we opened gifts (for ourselves and for Ella:).  J.T. got me a beautiful locket and jewerly box in which to keep it.  It may have made me cry:).

                  The love between a mother and daughter is forever.     We prayed for 2,190 days... He Answered.  1 Samuel 1:27

I.G.K & B.M.K 

Christmas 2016

After presents we ate Christmas dinner and watched Christmas movies.

On Monday we hopped back in the car and traveled to PA where we visited with my dad's family basically upon arrival.  My sister-in-law and niece & nephew came a little bit later and we opened presents and played games.  On Tuesday we went and saw Rogue One with my parents (RIP Carrie Fisher) and in the evening watched a bunch of home movies.

It was hard to believe this morning that it was already time to get back in the car to to go home.  J.T. had done all the driving to this point, so I took a turn.  We stopped every 2-3 hours, but when we got home I felt worse than I did while driving and worse than I expected.  I guess this was the last travel we will do until after Ella arrives as I expect getting bigger will not make travel any easier!

Looking forward to spending next Christmas at home with our 8 month old:).

23 Weeks

Isabella is the size of a 

Operation Organization is a Success!

It only took two days, two trips to At Home (one for purchasing and one for returns), and a trip to Target for me to pleased with the results.  A place for everything and everything will (hopefully!) go in its place...

And the winner is...

You may recall my story about the name we had picked for our baby girl all those years ago.  Well I drove past that little shop today and realized I had not yet officially shared baby girl's name on this blog (though if you read the 21 weeks sign closely you saw it:).  Here is a pic of the shop and a close up of the sign:

  

 

Grace was an easy choice for a middle name as in recent years it became abundantly clear that the only way we would be starting a family was through the grace of God.

It became even more clear that Isabella Grace was the perfect name when I looked up the meaning of the name Isabella:

I am going to keep the runner up under wraps in the event we need it in the future.  However, I will share option number three which seemed like a real contender until about the third or fourth day we were testing it out.  J.T. threw out the name Adeleine (pronounced Add-a-line) after I couldn't make up my name about the other two.  However after working at ATT for years J.T. began to pronounce her full name would be "Adeleine for $9.99" soooo there went that one!

So far we have yet to call her Isabella when we talk to or about her.  I call her Ella (Bella is out since it is the name of my sister's Miniatur Schnauzer) and J.T. has been calling her Izzy.  The name Isabella offers so many nicknames I suspect she will rarely hear her full first name!

22 Weeks

Baby Girl is the Size of a Spaghetti Squash

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Christmas Music...check!
Holiday baking...check!
Frigid temperatures...check!

We finally took the fall decor back up in the attic and lugged the Christmas stuff down last weekend. We will not be in town on Christmas so we are not doing a tree, so it was fairly easy once I got started.  Well there may have been a rigid strand of garland that made me mad and went to live in the trash, but I digress...

Monday night was the 2nd/3rd grade holiday concert.  It was cute, but REALLY long.

On Sunday, I started the baking for my annual dessert bar for my staff and may have gained about 25 pounds just from sampling my wares.  I am pleased with how it turned out.

Just realized I left the lids on most of the stuff when I took the pic.  Under wraps are a Thin Mint Cake, Candy Cane Brownie Cookies, and Reece's Peanut Butter Fudge.

I don't have much to do on the shopping front.  J.T. sent me a link to what he wanted so I have that ordered.  My family doesn't exchange gifts and my niece and nephew are 15 and 16 so cash is king.

While I enjoy the laid back nature of our family of two Christmas preparations, I am very much looking forward to next year's Christmas preparations while chasing a crawling 8 month old around:).

Hibernation

Last fall we began to make a concerted effort to break out of our weekend rut (movies and going out to eat were the primary means of entertainment) and take advantage of all of the things our city had to offer.

I am so glad we did because since the start of this school year our weekends devolved back to going out to eat/movies and over the last few weeks have devolved even further into take out (or one raging Saturday night-cereal!) and Netflix/Amazon On Demand/Redbox.

I have decided we are simply hibernating.  We're not boring, we are storing up our energy for baby girl's arrival this spring.   Yeah, that's what I will keep telling myself...

21 Weeks

Organization Needed Stat!

A teacher brought in a bag of baby clothes for me yesterday  She is having a baby girl herself, but she is due in a just a few weeks so she passed along the NB and 0-3 month summer clothes to me.  I was excited to come home and sort through the super cute, tiny outfits.

However, as I was sorting I began to feel a bit claustrophobic as I realized that this tiny bag of clothes was just the beginning and in the months to come many, many, MANY other tiny skirts, sleepers, pants, hats, socks, onesies, etc. are going to enter our home and if I don't come up with a plan to get it all organized fast we will soon be buried in very cute, but very many new baby items!

You see I was not born an organized person.  My mom was and I was forever exacerbating her growing up as our home was VERY neat except when the hurricane that was me came through.  Picture Pig Pen from Peanuts but instead of dirt I was surrounded by stuff!

Once I was out of my parents house I realized I needed some systems or I was going to spend my life looking for things I had lost or feeling discombobulated because I was used to living in order.  God bless the internet, HGTV, Pinterest and other resources that have helped me remain sane and fool the world into thinking I am a naturally organized person.

So, with all of that being said, I am in the process of trying to figure out the best way(s) for organizing all of the STUFF that this tiny baby girl will be bringing into our lives.  I am planning to set up the nursery over winter break, but got a head start on getting some ideas for how to organize things and bought some bins this morning to organize the items I got yesterday.

20 Weeks--Halfway Point!

Time is tricky.

Some weeks I think it's Wednesday and it's really Thursday (score!).  Some weeks I think it's Wednesday and it's only Tuesday (boo!).  Some weeks seem to fly by in the blink of an eye.  Some weeks seem to move at a snails pace.

With all that being said it is hard to believe we are 20 weeks in and it is equally hard to believe that we still have 20 weeks (fingers crossed!) to go!

20 Weeks

Baby Girl is the size of a...

Mango!

December Appointment

Another successful doctor's appointment!  We heard her heartbeat and all of our numbers looked good.  It would have been another in and out appointment, but I came armed with questions this time. Questions related to labor and delivery.

When I was in college TLC used to have the wedding story and the baby story.  I enjoyed both, BUT could not watch the baby story past when the mother went into labor.  I honestly didn't want to know what it was like.   I do remember in a high school classes watching the miracle of birth, so I had seen it once and that seemed to be good enough for me until the time came.   Well the time is coming...gulp.

Since becoming pregnant I assumed that I would go for an epidural--no questions about it.  However, after doing some reading I have a few concerns related to the ability (or lack thereof) to push with an epidural and how it may impact the breastfeeding process.

The doctor answered each of my questions and ultimately summarized our discussion with my favorite answer--"It can [to a certain point] be a game time decision."  Sounds like a plan to me!