"Damn you, scuba Steve!"

A quote from the movie "Big Daddy" b/c that's kind of how we felt after leaving our 4D ultrasound appt today. Little Aidan was being shy and stubborn and had his face buried into me so we couldn't get a good image of his face. They jiggled my tummy to coax him to move and even gave me a soda to drink and had me walk up and down the hall for 5 min to see if he'd change positions. No luck. So they are letting us reschedule our 1st appt for next week to try again. They did give us one image that was the best we could come up with from today's appt. It's not very good and doesn't really show us what he looks like, which is what we were hoping for today. But hopefully it'll work out next week. I know it's not the end of the world, but we were so excited to see our son's face today, so we were just bummed it didn't work out.

On the positive side of things, Aidan was just fine in there! He was kicking and moving his arms and feet and opening and closing his mouth a lot too. He had his hand up near his brow at one point, giving us his dramatic pose!

Aidan's nursery is looking so good!

The wallpaper border went up a few days ago and we just put the letters for his name up tonight. We are so giddy everytime we are in Aidan's room! I'm loving it more and more as we get further along with it.

My showers are coming up! Hard to believe it's already time for them. I've got some girlfriends that are hosting a friend shower this Saturday and my mom and aunt are hosting a family shower the next Saturday.

Tomorrow, we have our 4D ultrasound and get to see Aidan's face! We cannot wait! I'll be sure to post pics after our appointment. =)

25wks today, getting close to 7 months

As of last week, all the books say that Aidan is now considered to be viable if born now. Of course, I want him to stay in there as long as possible b/c that is what is best for him, but it's also comforting to know that if something happened now, that he would have a chance at survival. I'm doing well, and Aidan is moving everyday; morning, noon and night. His wallpaper border is getting put up this morning. Can't wait til it's done. I'll be sure to post pics for you. It's still raining today and I think I'll spend most of today cleaning and catching up on laundry. It's starting to get difficult to get out of bed or get up from the sofa and bending over to pick something off the ground is becoming a challenge too. My fingers have been swollen for sometime now; I haven't been able to wear my wedding rings for about 2 mos now. I bought a replacement set so I have something to wear so people know I'm married. Even my watch seems tight around my wrist, so I haven't been wearing it. My jeans that I wore at 3-4 mos PG, still fit, but the belly area is tight and becoming uncomfortable - so I feel like my weight gain is mostly in my belly area and then some water retention in other places. So far, I'm up 21 lbs. Yikes! But the books say that is also in range of what is normal, expected weight gain at this point. Still, I've never weighed this much in my life, so looking at the scale is not the most fun thing I could think of to do. But, it's all worth it! As far as I'm concerned, I'm carrying a miracle.

Week Twenty-FiveThe structures of the spine begin to form -- joints, ligaments and rings. These will protect the all important spinal cord which serves as the information transmitter for your child's body.
Blood vessels of the lungs develop.
Your baby's nostrils begin to open. There is a study out of Belfast that suggests babies at this stage have the capability of scent preferences!
The nerves around the mouth and lip area are showing more sensitivity now. When baby is rooting for food later on, these will be valuable!
His swallowing reflexes are developing.
Dexterity is improving. Your baby can make a fist and would clasp objects placed in palm.
Your child has now obtained an approximate length of 13.6 inches (34.6cm) and weighs 1.46 pound (660gm).

Landscaping done!

This isn't baby related, so I'll keep this short. This is a project we've been working on a little bit at a time and it's now finished! We replaced the garage door, front door and all plants around the front and redesigned the flowerbed layout. I've put a before and an after pic in this post for you. (You can click on the pics to make them bigger.) We plan to sell this home in 1-2yrs and it needed a curb appeal make over! Now the outside better represents what's on the inside. =)

24w3d belly pic and nursery pic

My mom is here this weekend to help me relandscape the front yard, which we finished yesterday (yay!) and she brought Aidan's bedding w/her so Ray and I put it together this morning. His room is looking better and better! We still need to have the wallpaper border hung around the top of the room and I need to put up the valance, but it's coming together!

My belly pic looks like I've grown a bit in just 2 wks time, if you scroll down and compare to the last belly pic we took right before we left for Italy.

Today, my mom and I are going to go shopping for a gift for Lea's baby shower (brother's ex-girlfriend). She is having a little girl and is due late November.

Latest u/s pic of Aidan

Here's the u/s pic of Aidan from Oct 9th (but was unable to attach for some reason). Ray and I are applying for life insurance and a lady is coming by the house this morning to take some blood and other vital signs on me. I wasn't allowed to eat any sugar/carbs for breakfast until after she comes, so I had eggs and decaf coffee. I told Aidan not to worry, that was just an appetizer and that we'll eat real food when she leaves. =) I do feel weird about her coming over to the house to do all of this, with all the attacks on PG women lately. I will be on guard with her today while she's here. You can never be too careful. If all goes well, then afterwards, I have a ton of errands to run today. Poor Ray got up around 2 or 3am this morning unable to sleep. I woke at 5am b/c Lola got sick and threw up, so I've been up since. I'm sure I'll need a nap sometime today.

We're back from Italy!

Our trip to Italy was good but long, 10 days. We went to Venice, Florence, Pisa and Rome. In hindsite, I would not have done this trip while PG. It was really hard on me b/c I couldn't keep up w/Ray, so I either took lots of sitting breaks or just stayed in the hotel room while he went out and walked around to take pics. He took 693 pics on our trip! OMG... The only way to share them w/family & friends is to burn CDs - too many to upload to Shutterfly or someting similar. Also, flying while PG, made my feet swell so badly that I could barely get my shoes back on! Of course we had long flights so I don't think that helped.

Anyway, I'm so glad to be back in the US and back home again. I missed my bed and my snoogle so much! And I missed my food - nothing over there was what I expected it to be. The last two days we ate at Hard Rock Cafe in Rome and it was so good!!!

I'm 24wks today. Hard to believe I'm almost in my 3rd trimester. I made an appt to have some 4D u/s done at http://www.clearviewultrasound.com/ (DH was actually more into this and made sure I made the appt today).

Our glider and ottoman came in while we were gone, so we picked it up today and set it up. The nursery is coming together!

Level II u/s showed cord issue

We are back from our Level II ultrasound and Aidan looks good (all organs are perfect), but they discovered that he has a 2 vessel umbilical cord instead of a normal 3 vessel cord. A two-vessel cord identifies one artery and one vein, rather than 2 arteries and 1 vein, the expected 3-vessel cord. This variation is found in less than 1% of single babies and may be higher when there are twins. Most children, at least 70%, are normal.

A two vessel cord can be associated with a variety of organ-system and chromosomal abnormalities: the reassuring news for us is that all the organ systems are normally formed. A two vessel cord can be associated with impaired growth as the pregnancy progresses: this is monitored by serial ultrasound studies to document the size/weight of the baby and biophysical profile (combines ultrasound measures with fetal heart rate patterns) to assure baby health.

Their main concern was his heart, but he has all 4 chambers, so they are not as worried. The doctor came out and talked to us and told us that he is not alarmed and that this happens to 15% of pregnant women and he will just want to do more ultrasounds to keep an eye in Aidan's growth. Currently, he is in the 49th percentile for his size. He is measuring a day smaller than he should be, which is not a huge deal. He weighs about 1 lb and 1 oz, and is about 11 inches long.

Other than that, my cervix is long and closed, which is what we want it to be right now, so we are cleared to leave the country. I go back in 4 wks to do a glucose test to see if I have Gestational Diabetes (GD). I'll have a 1hr glucose test w/a blood draw and if I pass, then I don't have GD. If I fail, then I go back for a 3hr glucose test and if I fail that, then I'll be diagnosed w/GD. GD goes away after giving birth, but I'm hoping that I pass and don't have to worry about that.

So, we are trying to process this new info and are still getting ready to leave tomorrow. We are about to take our 3 dogs to the kennel/doggie hotel in a little bit. I hate parting w/them; the house will be so empty and quiet w/o them here. I'll post when we get back w/pics of Italy! We did get u/s pics from today and I've been trying to post them, but it's not letting me. I'll keep trying and hopefully can get them up before we leave.

One more belly shot before Italy

Here's my belly shot from tonight, at 22w3d. Looks like I'm getting bigger up higher from the last belly shot 2 wks ago. Everything is being pushed up and over as Aidan grows and my uterus gets bigger to accommodate him. So far, my only gripes (and they aren't really gripes b/c I feel so lucky to even be PG) are lower back pain (I am unable to lay on my back on a flat, hard surface like the floor; it's unbearable) and it's getting harder to get the clothes out of the dryer since I have to bend over and reach in. It seems to be hard on my back to twist into that position.

We are still working on Aidan's room a little bit. Trying to figure out the best arrangement for the furniture and still waiting on the glider and ottoman. My mom will be coming down the weekend we get back to help me put the wall paper boarder up. She will also help me finish the landscaping in the front yard then too. It'll be a busy, tiring weekend for both of us. But I feel so much accomplishment when I get to cross something off my to-do list.

Right now, our focus is the trip and getting everything ready and packed. I'm so looking forward to some alone/romantic time w/my husband one last time for a while. Tomorrow, we get to see Aidan for a long time with the Level II ultrasound and we're excited about that. As long as everything looks good, then we'll go. I'm sure I'll have new images of him to post tomorrow too.

With the holidays coming up, time sure does seem to be flying! Hard to believe that Aidan will be here very soon! We can't wait!

22wks = 6 months pregnant today!

1 Samuel 1:27, which says "For this child I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of Him."

Wahoo!!! I'm 6mos PG today!! So exciting and amazing that I can say that. I thought I'd never be able to say that. Still feels sureal to me that this is really happening to me since trying and dealing w/infertility for so long. I feel so lucky and blessed by God. Having my husband Ray and expecting our first child, I feel like my life is perfect. I'm finally getting to the good part.

We have so much going on right now. We are leaving for Italy for our anniversary trip next week (we planned this before I was PG). We've been getting ready, exchanging some money into Euros before we go, tying up loose ends, planning which clothes to bring w/us, etc. I'm ready to go, and have some alone time w/Ray. This will be the last trip like this for a while, I'm sure.

Ray bought some classical music CD's for the baby to listen to. I transfered all the songs to my IPod and got some headphones that fit on my belly and now Aidan can listen to Mozart and the like. I'll take w/me on the plane for our trip.


Week Twenty-Two
Your baby weighs close to a pound at this point!
Your baby can now hear your conversations more clearly than before!. When you talk, read, or sing, expect him to hear you. Studies have found that newborns will suck more vigorously when read to from a book they heard frequently in utero.
Eyelids and eyebrows are fully formed.
Fingernails have grown to the end of the fingers.
Be prepared for all those "Why" questions coming! Your baby's brain has entered a stage of rapid growth, especially in what's called the germinal matrix. This structure deep in the middle of the brain serves as a kind of factory for brain cells and disappears shortly before birth. But the brain's amazing expansion program continues until around the fith birthday.
With some help from mom, baby's liver is starting to break down bilirubin, a substance produced by red blood cells.
If your baby is male his testes begin their descent to the scrotum.
Primitive sperm have formed and he is producing testosterone.
Length is 10.94 inches (27.8cm); weight is nearly 1 pound (430gm).