In My Dreams Awake

Chrissie

That's right...and everything nice! It's a GIRL! We had a very nice experience at the ultrasound clinic. They had a toy corner for the kids and they were totally absorbed in playing so that Mike and I could enjoy the ultrasound.

Our little girl was laid back and relaxed, snuggled up with the umbilical cord and using the placenta as a pillow. She was also sucking her thumb. It was very cute. She wasn't hiding anything and the tech was able to get plenty of "money shots". She is without a doubt, 100% girl.

We are undecided on girl names but have already tossed a few around. I'm sure the perfect name will come to us soon.

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Big News, No News

Chrissie

We have been eagerly anticipating today's 17 week prenatal appointment for nearly a month now. Our BIG ultrasound was scheduled for 10:30am. I barely slept last night for having dreams of what the baby would be: girl or boy! At 9am, the doctor's office called to say there had been a scheduling mistake and they would have to cancel my ultrasound. Being the hormonal mess I am right now, I burst into tears. We are rescheduled for September 28.

We did, however, get to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time which was pretty neat. Heartrate is in the 150s.

On the side of really BIG news; Mike was offered and accepted a position at The Crowne Plaza in Atlanta. He starts on October 18th, so we have very little time to gather up everything and head south. We are all very excited about the move and all of the upcoming opportunities.

Also, my application for the CPE (Certified Professional Electrologist) exam was accepted! Mom and I have arranged to meet in Baltimore and spend some girls' time exploring the Nation's Capital around my exam time. I'm so excited and can't wait until it's time to go!

I will post more updates as they come! Here is a photo of my giant belly at 16.5 weeks. :)

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

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Exciting Things and Jumping Beans!

Chrissie

The week started out less than spectacular with morning sickness taking out its fury on me, and Caleb's diaper rash returning even worse than before.

Wednesday morning, Mike had Interview #1 of his summer-long job search. It seemed to go well and we are awaiting the call for Interview #2 with the same company. I am crossing all my crossables that everything goes well.

Also on Wednesday morning, I had my 13 week prenatal appointment. Due to Mike's interview going longer than expected, I went to the appointment alone, which was a disappointment because we were supposed to get to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time. Well, hearing the heartbeat was not meant to be. My midwife searched for a good 10 minutes and it was no where to be found. To ease my worries (even though she said the morning sickness was sufficient evidence that all was well) she sent me over to the ultrasound lab to check on things. Yay for ultrasounds!!

The ultrasound tech was so great! She found the baby right away and let me watch for a good half an hour. Baby looked awesome! He/She was bouncing all around in there, rolling, flipping, and just generally showing off for me. I was sad that Mike and the kids had missed it. The tech took about 12 pictures for me to take home, all of which turned out really great. Before leaving, I got to set up my next appointment for September 14. Before that appointment, we will have our BIG ultrasound and find out whether the belly bean is a girl or a boy! I can't wait!!

Here are some pictures from the ultrasound:

Here is Bean, chilling out. I love how you can see both legs and the little nose. :)

Here is Bean arching his/her back and reaching toward the mouth. You can see tiny fingers!

In this one you can actually see the baby using my uterus as a launching pad! See the bent knees and the teeny foot at the top? :)

And here is the baby saying, "Go Junior" with his/her arms up just like big brother!! The baby is turned away in the photo. You can see the spine from the base of the neck to the rump, a femur bone of the thigh, the arm, hand, and tiny fingers!

Caleb had a word explosion this week! He went from a handful of words to closer to 10! He can say cracker, here, look, No, pap pap (pacifier), bear, Buzz (Buzz Lightyear), thank you, here you go......Those are the only ones I can think of right now. Some of them are undecipherable to people other than me and Mike but words, nonetheless. :)

And on the last exciting note! I completed my final two theory courses for school! Tomorrow morning I will go in to meet with Mary and calculate my remaining hours, if any. I am so excited and can't believe I finished by my goal date. When school started, the goal was to finish by the end of August. I'm pretty proud of myself and Mike and the kids for my being able to do this with the limited physical support that we have. We are a pretty awesome team!

And speaking of the team....tomorrow is mine and Mike's 2-year anniversary! We both decided this morning that we couldn't believe it was 2 years. Seems like an eternity! LOL!!

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Pink or Blue?

Chrissie

Just for fun, last night, we bought an IntelliGender prediction kit. I know of several other women who have tried them just for fun and some of the predictions have been correct. According to an article on CNN Health, IntelliGender claims between 75-80% accuracy. Even so, the instructions clearly state not to paint any walls or invest serious emotional or financial stake in the results of the test. It is supposed to be for FUN. :)

Ours predicted........GIRL! Mike seemed a little bummed because he will now be outnumbered. Ha! Either way, let the name debate begin!

Just to get out of the house today, I took the kids down to Winnekenni Castle to play on the playground. It was a beautiful evening on the lake. Caleb had a great time in the swing, giggling and laughing the whole time. Reagan made a few friends and became captain of the playground ship, giving out orders and making kids walk the plank. At about 75 degrees, it was perfect weather for driving around with the windows down (one of Reagan's favorite things to do). When we got in the car to leave, I rolled the sunroof open and Reagan said, "Ah, isn't this the light, Mom?" Hahaha!

It will be a pretty uneventful upcoming week minus our 3rd prenatal visit on Wednesday. I am looking forward to this one because we should be able to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time. And perhaps we'll get to set up an appointment to verify IntelliGender's prediction! We shall see.

Here is Caleb on the swings tonight. :)

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Blueberries, Baby, and Road Trips

Chrissie

With morning sickness being less of a factor during the last two weeks, August has shaped up to be a great month for us. Reagan started ballet and swim lessons at the YMCA this month and is really enjoying herself. Mike has been fortunate to have a couple of Saturdays off which we have taken advantage of and gotten out to enjoy the beautiful New England summer.

The first Saturday, we drove up to Hampton Falls, NH to the orchard where we went apple-picking last Fall. It is the end of blueberry season up here and we picked a giant basket full of blueberries. The bushes were full of plump, juicy, beautiful blueberries. Reagan and Caleb both ate their share of them while at the orchard. It was a beautiful, cool day and we all really enjoyed being out on the farm that day.

Our NT Scan which was scheduled for Friday, the 11th, went very well. We all got to go together to see the baby, who was mostly sleeping from what we could tell. This baby seems to be very laid back like Caleb was. Toward the end of the scan, the baby kicked a few times but that was about it. The doctor said that all of the measurements looked normal and Baby was measuring about 4-5 days ahead. The ultrasound tech even let Reagan use the wand to find and see the baby and press the button to take a picture of her very own. I got the results from our scan back yesterday and all was negative for Down's Syndrome and Trisomy 18. Here is our favorite picture from the scan which was taken at 11 weeks 2 days.

This past Saturday, after Reagan's ballet lessons, we piled into the car and set off for Maine! We took the coastal route from Massachusetts and drove up the coast of New Hampshire and crossed the NH/ME border on Rt. 1 in historic Portsmouth, NH. It was really beautiful! Portsmouth is a classic New England fishing town with towering church steeples marking the humble skyline.

The moment you cross the Piscataqua River Bridge into Kittery, ME there are giant lobster-shaped signs everywhere you look and seafood restaurants on every corner advertising the best lobster rolls in New England. It was about 5-10 degrees cooler in Maine than it was when we left home in Massachusetts and the smell of cedar and the sea was abundant. Cruising along in the beach-goers traffic with all of the windows rolled down and the sunroof open was a little slice of heaven.

About a half-hour into Maine, we arrived at York Beach and made the turn up a crowded coastal road to Nubble Light. It was beautiful! The lighthouse, itself, is on a private island surrounded by rocky New England coast and the Atlantic Ocean. Reagan enjoyed watching the artists with their canvas, easels, and paintbrushes and jumping from rock to rock while Caleb seemed fascinated by the waves and the seagulls. I think I could have found a quiet rock facing the waves and spent the entire afternoon in peace.

We heard rumors of a famous ice cream joint while at Nubble Light, so after spending about an hour at the lighthouse, we got back in the car and went in search of Cape Neddick's famous ice cream. It didn't take long to find it as there was quite a crowd! And it really was as good as we had heard. We explored the coast for a while longer before heading home, made a few discoveries (such as Perkins Cove, which looks like the perfect place to go on vacation), and decided we would definitely go back for a longer trip and go further north up to Acadia National Park. I already can't wait for our next road trip! Leaf-peeping season is creeping up and I can't wait to drive up into Vermont to see the beautiful maples!

Our next prenatal appointment is a week from today, which is also the first day of the second trimester! Hooray for milestones! I will have updates then and hopefully some more adventures to brag about. :)

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It's a....Gummy Bear!

Chrissie

Our ultrasound last Wednesday showed a super cute belly bean with a heartbeat, flickering away at 177 bpm! The baby is measuring perfect in terms of dating. The overall appointment was worry-free. On August 6 we go in for an NT Scan and will hopefully have more cute pictures to share!

At 10 weeks now, the morning sickness seems to be letting up a bit. I was actually able to do a little bit around the house yesterday. With Mike's help in the kitchen this week, it's looking less like a bomb went off in our apartment. Reagan's bedroom is an entirely different story, however. Ha!

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Summerness....

Chrissie

Well, there was no wishing for warmer weather this year up in New England. We have definitely had our fair share, or more. The majority of this month we have had temps in the 90s. With it being so hot, it actually helps me to feel less guilty about feeling so rotten that I can't take the kids to the park and the beach like I had planned. Morning Sickness has a full hold on me with this pregnancy and I'm miserable about 90% of the time.

We had an unplanned last minute trip home to GA over the 4th of July weekend and were pleasantly surprised at how mild the weather was! We had a really great week with the exception of Reagan and Mike being sick part of the time and Caleb repeatedly bumping his head! We were all able to go to Nash Farm and watch the 4th of July fireworks show, which was a lot of fun. Caleb was mesmerized by the fireworks and seemed to really love it. The day before we left to come back to MA, Mike and I took the kids to the Georgia Aquarium and had a really wonderful day. It was my first trip there and I was really impressed. It is always sad to leave and I miss everyone but it sure is nice to be sleeping in my own bed again!

School is winding down for me and I have mostly online theory hours left to complete. This comes just at the time when Summer is really ramping up for Reagan, who completed her first week of Art Camp last Friday. She is having a blast making new friends and doing all kinds of arts and crafts projects, while enjoying lots of outdoor play as well. They put on a play Friday in which Reagan had the lead part for her group. They put on a mini production of 101 Dalmatians and Reagan was Pongo. She also had a solo during the singing portion of the presentation. I have no idea where she gets her courage from but she showed no signs of stage fright whatsoever. She has one more week to go and will then, hopefully, be starting swimming lessons and ballet/jazz lessons at the YMCA!

Caleb is doing pretty much what he always does. He has learned a few more tricks such as blowing kisses and throwing his arms up to let us know he's "done" but he still only has one word (uh-oh) and I'm not sure if he's in any hurry to learn new ones.

I am very excited for our first ultrasound of our new belly bean this coming Wednesday! I will be sure to post the ultrasound photos as soon as I get them. In the meantime, here are some photos from our trip to Georgia and the Aquarium.