Ultrasound Pictures

He looks so sweet!

He looks like he has Aaron's lips, to me.

Hand up by his nose.

Getting ready to punch me!

0.06%.....

That is the chance the baby has of having a neural tube defect. So basically, we got the all clear that he is a healthy baby boy! She did not say anything about his legs being short this time, but I saw that they were measuring 20w, so a week behind. Everything else was right on target. He weighed 13 ozs. After she got done measuring his legs and moved on, he kicked or punched me several times in a row! I guess he didn't want us looking at his legs! She commented on how active he was also. They did the ultrasound with a new machine, so she practiced 4d on me, which I am very happy about! We got 2 shots of his face, but he did not want to cooperate very well. I will have to scan the pictures in later. In one of them, it looks like he is picking his nose!

After seeing the dr., we meet with a genetic counselor. She explained exactly what everything meant and what the chances of him having down syndrome and trisomy 18, which were both very low. The AFP level was very slightly elevated. The high end of normal is 2.5 and his level was 2.67. She said that it could be an indicator of other future problems, such as hypertension and the baby being small at birth. Hopefully, my blood pressure will stay where it is and this is not an indicator that it will keep going up. I am really glad we met with her, because she was very informative.

Oh yeah, we got a brochure in the mail yesterday about ADHD in children! Is it a sign that we are in for a hyper little boy?!?!

One appointment down, 3 to go....

I had my regular OB appt. this morning. Everything went well. My uterus is measuring 22w, which is right on, I have gained 6 lbs, woohoo, and his heartbeat was 150. It took her a few minutes to find it because he was moving so much, but he was kicking her the whole time! I think we are in trouble when he gets here! Hopefully he will take a nap when we have the ultrasound this afternoon. The only concern is that my blood pressure is creeping up. It was around 134/76 today and I have always had a low bp, like 115/60. I had to leave a urine sample so they will be checking for protein in it. If protein is present, I will probably have to cut back my hours at work to help control my bp, and relax more. I sure hope this is not the case, b/c I get bored sitting at home by myself.

I will update again later, hopefully with ultrasound pictures!

A name change.....

The baby may be named something other than Henry. We both like Henry, but there is another name that I really like too. Also, like Aaron said, Henry might be to traditional for us, because we all know we are not traditional! We will announce his name at his birth, because that is probably when we will decided. I want to see if the name fits him or not before it is set in stone.

I am feeling him more and more each day now. I usually don't feel him much at work, but he has been playing this morning! On Monday's he seems to be calm all day. I guess he is getting back on schedule after the weekend. Who knows.

We have lots of appointments tomorrow. One with my regular OB, which I have alot of questions for. She will probably wonder what is wrong with me b/c I have never really had any questions. We also have an ultrasound and appointment with the specialist and following that an appt. with the genetic counselor.

Lastly, keep my grandfather in your thoughts. He is having a really hard time right now.

Pictures

Here are pictures of his nursery. We, aka Aaron, finished it a week or so ago. I love it and I am sure Henry will too!
The dresser will go in between the 2 animals on this wall and we are going to paint his name above it.


Aaron is going to paint another bug on this wall. The glider will go in the corner (to the left).



20weeks 3 days. I think it is time to retire this shirt!

Party in mommy's belly.....2am

I guess that Henry thought he could have a party in my belly last night! I got up to go to the bathroom around 2, when I got back in bed, I couldn't go right back to sleep, nothing new. When I finally got comfortable, I felt this little kick, and then another, another, another..... I bet he kicked me 10 or more times! It is so exciting that I am feeling him more and more, just maybe not when I am trying to go back to sleep! Looks like I am in trouble when those kicks get harder.

Half way there!

Today marks 20 weeks! Time has flown by, hopefully it will go by as quick for the next half! I am so excited to meet my little boy! He weighs around 10 1/2 ounces, is 6 1/2 inches long from head to rump or 10 inches from head to heal.
We didn't do much of anything this weekend. It was cool and rainy. I love that it is fall now, even though that means winter is right around the corner. I love fall baking, long sleeve t-shirts, mums, pumpkins, the leaves, shall I go on! I can't wait until next fall when we can take Henry to the pumpkin patch to pick out his own pumpkin, to the apple orchards, and halloween of course!
I felt him multiple times on Friday! We got taco bell for dinner and soon after I ate it, I felt him do a flip or something, it wasn't a kick, and soon afterwards I felt a kick. I guess he didn't like the spicy food to much, but his mommy sure did!

And....strangers are noticing that there is a baby in my belly

Last night we went to Target to get some things. Aaron and I both wanted some candy, I got rolos and he brings a sour lafey tafey thing and puts it on the belt. The cashier asked if I was having a craving, I said, "nope, that is for him!" I do think my stomach is starting to poke out more, where it doesn't just look like I am fat, thank goodness! Everyone at work has made a comment about the bump this week, too. You can see it starting to show, since I wear scrubs everyday. One of these days I will get Aaron to take a picture of this growing belly! I weighed myself yesterday and I still have not gained any more weight. I never thought I would be one that didn't gain much at first. I thought I would have already gained 25 lbs! My goal of gaining 25 -30 lbs., just might be met!

One of the baby websites that I read says that at 20 weeks he is the size of a cantalope :0, a small one of course, but that is BIG! I may have felt a harder kick this morning. I am not sure though because it was above my belly button, and I don't think he is that high up yet. I don't know what else it would have been though.

Our next appointments are all on the 26th of this month. In the morning, we go to the regular OB and then in the afternoon, we go back to the specialist for another ultrasound.

I will be flying back on October 3rd for a long weekend and baby shower. I look forward to seeing some of you!

And, if it is not one of the four making me worry about them, it is the other. First it was Henry, then it was Alex because he got in hes food bag and ate WAY too much, but he was fine. Now, Abby some how got a half a cake off the counter yesterday and ate all of it. She is in pain this morning and has vomited 3 times, so she will be spending the day at work with me. It better not be Emma next!

I hope everyone has a good weekend!

I finally felt him!

I felt Henry again last night! I was laying in bed, laying half way on my stomach, when I felt this little thump. I guess he was telling me that I was taking up to much of his room! I can't wait to feel him more and more!

Oh, I don't think I have officially announced his name. It will be Henry Nixon or Henry Nicholas. We wanted a name that is not common and that is so hard with little boys because alot of them seem so off the wall. Aaron came up with Henry, a name we finally both agreed on! None of the names are family names, just names we like. Henry means "ruler of the house"! I think we are in trouble!

Also, I can't believe I am almost half way to meeting this little guy! Time has flown by, it seems like just yesterday that I took a pregnancy test!

This week he is the size of a large heirloom tomato, weighing in at 8 1/2 oz. (He weighed 8 oz. on Friday)

The quarter is how big he started out as, my how he has grown!

Pictures

Here are the ultrasound pictures from yesterday. Apparently my scanner needs to be cleaned, too!
Profile. His mouth is open.


He is doing a head stand! Aaron says that Abby taught him how to do this because when she is digging herself a bed she puts her head, upside down, and digs!
Getting ready for the head stand!

Little Feet!

He is a healthy baby boy!

I think Aaron and I had the best and worst week all in one this week. The nurse telling me that something was wrong with my baby was absolutely devastating to me because there was nothing I could do but wait. Yesterday the doctor telling us that she didn't know why his AFP was elevated that everything looked great were the best words I have heard! She said his spine looked perfect and as she was scanning through all of the other images, she said that everything looked good. The only thing she found wrong with him is that his legs are a little short for his age, but she was not concerned about it since neither Aaron and I are tall and no one in either of our families are tall, just average or short. His heartbeat was 150bpm, which is what it was at the drs. office. We have to go back to this doctor in 4 weeks for another ultrasound.

He was a busy, busy boy while the tech was doing the ultrasound! I didn't drink anything that would have made him more active, just a whole lot of water. They told me to drink 32-48 oz. of water for the ultrasound, and I drank 32 + ounces, I thought my bladder was going to explode! We got some really cute pictures of him, I will scan them later. He was not just laying in one place this time, he was all over the place. The tech kept trying to get a good picture of his little feet but every time she would focus in better, he would move! We saw him give me quite a few nice kicks, too! I may have felt him last night, but I am not sure. It was like a little tap on my belly. When the dr. and tech tried to verify the sex for us, he was shy and had his legs crossed, but the tech and Aaron both said they saw little boy parts. If he turns into a she, she has tons of blue clothes to wear and a very blue room!

That's about all for now!

And so the nursery begins....

Yesterday was a rainy day, so we decided to go to the dells to go shopping. We said we were not going to buy anything, but of course we found lots of clothes for the baby! We got alot of really good deals though. He is set for summer clothes already, but the poor thing doesn't have any winter clothes.

My bump is growing! Here is a picture from last week, maybe I will take another one today just to see the change. Oh, I got my hair cut too! I love it!



When we got home we decided to work on his nursery. It is going to be so cute and I can't wait for him to be here to see it! Here are some pictures of the progress.
His crib will go on this wall.

The other walls are painted blue and they will have animals painted on them, like frogs, snails, a snake, turtles and then some bugs.

That's all for now, I will let everyone know how our appointment goes.

Registry

We went and registered today! I will be having a shower in October, so we decided to go today since we are both off, and to keep us busy, waiting on Friday. We registered at Babies R Us and Target. I am also going to register at cottonbabies.com because that is where you can get the cloth diapers we are going to use. It was so overwhelming to register for all of that stuff. It seems like you have to have so much. We finally decided to go with a travel system. It is made by Chicco and the carseat has the best safety ratings, so I feel confident in our choice.
I don't know what we are going to do tomorrow, but this has to be the longest week EVER! Time has flown by this whole year. It always seems like the work week has just started when Friday is already here. Not this week.

On another note, I still have not felt him move, but my belly button is getting wierd! I don't really know how to explain it, but it is not normal! It is getting more flat.

He has name, too! We still have not completely decided on his middle name, but he has a first name and 2 options for a middle name!

Quads test results

I got the worst phone call ever yesterday. I had the quads test done last week at my appointment, which screens for birth defects such as down's syndrome. Aaron and I decided that we were going to do this so that we could be prepared if something was wrong. So, we are in Chicago, getting ready to leave when I get a voicemail from my Ob's office telling me to call that they have some appointments set up. I immediately think that something is wrong, but then I kept telling myself that maybe they need to reschedule one of my future appointments. I started crying then and had to gather myself to call and see exactly what they wanted. I start talking to the triage nurse and she tells me that they have an appointment set up for me to see a genetic specialist on Friday. She keeps going on about the appointment and what I need to do to prepare for it, while I have no idea what this appointment is for, but I know it can't be good. I finally asked her why I have this appointment and she thought the Dr. had already called and gave me the results. One of the levels is slightly elevated. It is the AFP. She told me that it has to do with his neurological system and they are going to be looking at his spine. I busted out in tears. She was very apologetic that the Dr. had not called me, which I am still mad about. So, we go on Friday for an ultrasound and to meet with a genetic specialist. It seems like Friday is so far away, I wish we could go now. From what I have read, it usually means that he could have spina bifida, I could be farther along than I think I am, or it could be twins. We know it is not twins! So we will wait and see. I also read that 90% of the time it ends up being nothing. This is also the part of the test that has the highest rate of false positives.
We went in IKEA on our way home and just looking at all of the baby stuff made me cry. I can't imagine my life with out this little man in it.
I will let you all know how it goes on Friday. I can't wait to see my little man again!!