Ultrasound Pix

*Bean's profile*

Look @ those lil' bitty feet!

You can really see her spine in this one:)

Sugar & Spice

Our ultrasound day will officially go down in history as one of the greatest days of my life:) WHAT a truly positive & exciting experience it was.

I brought my mom & Rob with me to Lankenau and we ended up with a very sweet ultrasound tech named Janene. Having the 2 of them by my side made for a genuinely special & intimate time that I will always remember.

Janene pointed out Bean's every body part to us as she located & checked it: the arms & legs & fingers & toes...the spinal cord...the 4 chambers of the heart...the kidneys...the bladder...even the different parts of the brain! It was such an amazing feeling to truly SEE our baby for the first time. I didn't want it to ever end.

We learned that she is about 10 inches long now & her heart rate measured at 161 beats/minute. They said that everything looks great so far, as far as they can tell:)

Both Janene & the doctor who came in to check the baby after her told us (independently of each other) what we are having and I am ELATED to tell you that, as it turns out...

...WE ARE HAVING A GIRL!!!

After the ultrasound, Rob & I took a drive out to Lancaster to do some outlet shopping where we picked out a bunch of cute onesies & things for baby, along with her very first pair of shoes; a pair of silver Mary Janes from the Children's Place:) I find that it is now an impossibility to not at least peek into the baby girl section at each & every store I find myself in.

And as you can plainly tell from my 21-week photo (above), she is definitely beginning to make her presence more & more visible by the day;-)

24 hours...and counting!

We've officially reached the 24-hour mark for our Big Ultrasound countdown! Tomorrow morning at this time Rob & I will be at the hospital, looking at our Baby Bean for the first time since January:)

And I am in my 21st week now, officially having passsed the halfway point! This is all so overwhelming; I can hardly contain my excitement:)

I have been feeling really good these days, short of this weird finger numbing "pregnancy induced carpal tunnel syndrome" I get from time to time. Oh & I got a "charley horse"/muscle cramp in my left leg the other day for the first time ever. Apparently this is a common occurence for pregnant women...but man...it hurt like you would NOT believe!

I finally bought my first pair of maternity jeans at Old Navy & must admit that I love them. I'm going to have to start shopping for some maternity work pants in the next few days too because everything is getting tight in the waist...

Rob & I are in the process of looking up lullabye guitar tab so that he can play songs for baby, both before & after (s)he is born:) Apparently from 5 months on, their ears are fully formed & functional enough that they can hear everything...even outside the womb...so we've decided that its now time for Daddy to start the line of communication in the way he knows best;-)

Updated belly pix & ultrasound pix will be forthcoming in the next few days, so be sure to stay tuned...

Wish us luck tomorrow!!!

...xoxo...

P.S. www.thenest.com says baby is a "cantaloupe" now. Awwww:)

Almost...

...halfway there:)

I can hardly believe how far this pregnancy has come already. I am a few days into week 19 now. What an unbelieveable journey this has been.

And we are only 15 days away from our BIG ultrasound! We scheduled it for 9:00am on Thursday, April 24th. Rob & I will both go, of course...and I think my mom will come with us as well. I hope the bean cooperates & they are able to tell us the sex. We are SO anxious to know!

I thought that on Monday afternoon, while sitting at my desk at work around 2pm, I may have felt the baby move for the first time...but I can't be sure. I felt a sort of pressure/pushing sensation on the right side of my belly...and then I felt it again a minute or 2 later. It might have just been my uterus stretching or something...but it was definitely a distinct feeling that I haven't felt before. I am trying to be super consicious of what's happening down there so that I am sure not to miss baby trying to get my attention:) Hopefully I will feel him/her soon enough & be able to be certain that its baby & not just gas or my stretching uterus! LOL

If any of you who've been through this before have any advice as far as that's concerned...I am all ears:)

...xoxo...

Eighteen

So this is me on the first day of my 18th week...and I definitely have a little baby belly starting to poke out;-)

It was actually much easier to notice after I asked Rob to shoot a couple of profile shots of me.

Photography is such a beautiful thing!

We had our 3rd OB/GYN appointment today & got to meet Dr. Rudo's partner, Dr. Laverin. He was awesome! As was expected, the bean's heartbeat has slowed down since the last time we were there about a month ago. The last time it was in the mid 160's and today it was at 132. It still sounded beautiful as ever, though:)

Dr. Laverin gave us the prescription to make our "big ultrasound" appointment @ Lankenau. I am going to call tomorrow & try to set that up. Its super exciting to think that in just a few weeks, we will know whether Baby Bean is a boy or a girl!

I think we are going to try to take profile photos like this one every week or 2 throughout the remainder of my pregnancy. I think they will be neat to look back on once the baby is born:)