Realizations

I'm awful - we're now 26 weeks and I haven't taken a picture since the snow one!! Perhaps one will happen this week. I'm much bigger than I was then! My muscles in my lower belly have been very sore this week, and I think it's because I've actually started growing!!

Here's the GREAT news!! David has a second interview with Rayonier!! That is REALLY exciting! Rayonier has two jobs available - one in Dublin, GA and one in Hastings, FL. We'll take EITHER! I'll let y'all know how the second interview goes. It hasn't been scheduled yet, but will be within the next couple weeks.

I looked at a few friends' blogs today (Amanda and Mollyanne) who have recently had babies, and I realized that I am going to have one of those soon. I know this seems like a strange realization, but their babies move and talk and do cute things... on the outside. My baby does amazingly cute things on the inside, but as I can't see him/her, in a way the baby is still a part of my imagination rather than a real baby. Sounds crazy, I know. I am going to have a real live baby, folks!! And it's gonna do cute stuff!! And it's gonna cry! And sometimes I'm going to be really frustrated and really in love at the same time!
Weird. :)

Week 22 Pic!

It's been a while since we've taken our weekly picture... we've had a busy month. My great grandfather died in the end of January, so we went to Alabama for a week, and since then it's been one thing after another!
I've had some CRAZY heartburn lately! It's not even worth changing my diet, though, because I get heartburn from WATER!! I did some research and found that women who fight lots of heartburn during pregnancy tend to have babies with full heads of hair!! NO SURPRISE with my genetics!! The reason for this is women who have more heartburn tend to have slightly higher levels of estrogen and progesterone in their systems, which relaxes the lower esophageal sphincter. Coincidentally these hormones are also responsible for fetal hair growth!!
So we're expecting a baby with a head full of hair!!

Here is our 22 week picture in the SNOW!!

18 Weeks!!

I have felt this baby move SO much lately!! I felt him/her for the first time on Christmas Eve, but have just felt a few jabs a day sinced then. Sunday night we were watching the TV stream of The Call while they were worshiping, and this kid did flip after flip after flip!! I'd be surprised if s/he wasn't dizzy! In fact, David got to feel the baby move for the first time on Sunday evening! It was so exciting - he got the biggest grin ever!!


Here are the week 18 photos!!

I have a belly!!

We didn't take 15 week pictures, and I'm not entirely sure what happened to my 16 week pictures... they seem to have disappeared. If I FIND them I will put them in order before this post, so check back if you're interested.

Here are my 17 week pictures! I'm starting to look big, huh???

 

Week 14

Here is week 14! One of these days I will start pooching for real. I'm bigger than I was before, but no one else notices!!

And here's my baby girl...

Week 13

It's been a while since my last post!! Finals and the holidays threw me off schedule, but I DO have some pictures from the last month!!
We missed week 12, but I have pictures from week 13 and 14. We missed week 15, and I plan to take our picture for week 16 tomorrow!!

As for the heartbeat debate, I ended up hearing the heartbeat again with the dopplar at my midwife appointment - 150 beats per minute and SOOO cute! (the midwife said it was nice and strong!!) - but we aren't going to have an ultrasound. Thanks for your comments on the matter!!

Here is the pic for week 13!

To Listen or Not to Listen...

So we missed week 12's picture... bummer. But today we're starting week 13!! That means we're about to enter our second trimester!!

I've been trying to decide if I'm going to go to my next prenatal or cancel it - the midwife told me that if I don't want to hear the baby's heartbeat again I should just cancel it because that's pretty much all they're going to do. Here's my dilemma. I'm a girl, so I really really WANT to hear the baby's heartbeat again!! It's so amazing!! I LOVED it!! But I keep hearing contradicting information. The midwife doing my prenatal care told me that all the doppler does is pick up sound waves from my belly - it doesn't emit anything of its own. A friend just recently said, though, that the doppler is thought to be MORE dangerous than an ultrasound because it is more concentrated. The ultrasound emits its own soundwaves into the belly which bounce off of shapes (aka baby) and send back images.

I could REALLY use some advice here, friends!! Or some research to back up either side?? All I've found is research backing up the midwife, but that's likely because she's in the medical field, and sometimes the more naturally minded articles are harder to find.

Suggestions??