20 Weeks!

We were 20 weeks on St. Patrick's Day.  David & I were both sick that night and Friday, so it was Sunday before we finally got some pictures.  I can't believe it's been 20 weeks already and we are half way to meeting our new addition.  I am feeling him/her move all the time and I love it...especially when I am holding Grace and I feel the baby move.  Something about feeling Grace & this new precious life at the same time that just blows me away.  The baby particularly moves when I'm giving Grace her bottle at night.  I didn't feel too connected to the baby early in the pregnancy, but those days are over.  I think I just needed the baby's movements to make the pregnancy "feel" real.  :)  Yesterday David was able to feel the baby move for the first time.  As much as I love to feel the baby move, I equally LOVE to see Daddy's face as he rests his hand on my belly and feels his precious child for the first time...

Anyway, here are some belly shots we took yesterday.

For comparison purposes, here I am at 20 weeks with Grace.

Here is the baby at 20 weeks too!  These are the pictures from the ultrasound last week.  We didn't get a ton of great pictures because the baby still wasn't facing sideways or forward, but the tech got us a two really cute ones.

Baby smiled at us!  :)

Oh and Happy St. Patrick's Day!  Here's a flashback to last year and one of my favorite pictures of Grace & I.

All Is Well - Praise God!

We had our appointment today and the baby is PERFECT!  They like to see the fluid levels at a 2 or more and we were at a 4.6, the kidneys looked great, as did all the other organs.  As soon as the tech told me the levels were fine I immediately relaxed.  David joked that she could take my blood pressure again now and it would be lower.  :)  We got to see our precious bean and she got all the information she needed.

When we met with the Doctor he said he didn't see anything abnormal in any way or any reason for concern.  They want us to come back in 4 weeks just to follow up, but he said everything looked great.  We are still measuring a week ahead, and he confirmed that he didn't see any reason we couldn't try for our vbac, so we'll see how it goes!

Thank you all SO much for your thoughts and prayers.  I am grateful for a Lord who loves me even when I worry and takes care of all He has made, including our precious baby.  I am grateful for conservative doctors who would rather cause unnecessary alarm than assume everything is ok and it not be.  While extremely difficult going through it, it's worth it.  I am also grateful for my amazing, wonderful, adoring husband who loved me so well in the last 2 days (and always).  I love you David, thank you for being my supporter, my best friend and my forever love.

Update

I didn't sleep well last night so first thing this morning I called the perinatal specialists' office to see if they had any cancellations and could get us in any earlier.  The nurse I talked to was WONDERFUL and totally understood that we would want to be seen ASAP, so she called around to a few other offices and found us an appointment for 1pm tomorrow (Wednesday) at their downtown location.  I am thrilled to know we only have less than 24 more hours until we'll find out what's going on.  

Today has been filled with distraction which is much needed and appreciated.  Grace slept until 9:30 and I slept off and on all night with her...I was grateful for the few extra chunks of sleep.  Then, since it was raining, we played inside for a bit and headed off to lunch with Daddy.  It was great to get a few errands run, visit with Daddy, enjoy lunch together and have Grace run around and see everyone at his office.  :)  We got home a little late for naptime, but my girl is a trooper and she went right down.  I only have to make it another 2 hours until David will be home.  Having him with me makes me feel so much better.  I am beyond grateful to have such a loving and supportive husband.  

Anyway, say a prayer for more sleep tonight and for everything tomorrow.  I'll update when we know more.

"Potential Abnormalities"

Those are NOT words you want to hear when you get a call from your OB about your nearly 20 week old baby.  Well I got that call from my OB's office this afternoon.  They said there were some "potential abnormalities" in the ultrasound we had last week.  Since the baby was rear facing the tech couldn't get any pictures of the front organs (heart, kidneys, etc) so we knew we would have to go back in a few weeks when hopefully the baby would be forward facing and they could see and measure everything.  She also noted in her report that the amniotic fluid was low so apparently since I was borderline preeclampsia at the end of my pregnancy with Grace this red flag was enough to warrant a visit to the perinatal specialist.  As you can imagine I'm a bit anxious so we got the first available appointment for 8:15 Thursday morning.  The great thing about the specialists (we saw them exclusively with Grace) is that the Doctor comes in and does the ultrasound while explaining everything.  Plus their equipment is far superior, so Lord willing we'll be able to see everything and rule out the low fluid.  A quick trip to see "Dr Google" told me that if the fluid was really low they would have called last week and I'd already be in the hospital on bedrest. 

Our wonderful pastor Jim is going to watch Gracie for us so David can be present with me.  Please pray for the baby, for the Dr to be able to see everything, for the fluid level to be fine and for me to rest in the Lord and not worry.  

We appreciate and covet your prayers and will let you know when we know what's going on.

It's a...

...healthy baby!  LOL, we had our big ultrasound yesterday, but of course we didn't find out the sex.  :)  Good thing we didn't want to know because this little one was being difficult and the tech couldn't even see.  The baby was transverse and rear facing, so we'll have to go back in a month or so for them to check the heart and all that other good stuff.  I'm measuring a week ahead, which is nothing but good news as far as I'm concerned.  They won't change my due date for just a week, and any extra time I have between when this baby could potentially come and when they will schedule a c-section is a gift in my eyes.  We really want to try a VBAC, but since most babies come at 41.5 weeks and they will schedule a c-section at 40.5 weeks, the extra week could make a difference.  Of course, it could also just mean I need to stop buying newborn sized diapers, lol. Our little one was just a moving and a shaking and had the hiccups 3 times during our ultrasound and the tech said everything looked fabulous.  

We did finally get a few pictures of this precious one.  None of them are really great, but it is nice to have some pictures of our sweet little bean.  Hopefully next time he/she will be more cooperative and we can get some great photos.  :)  Until then, please meet our sweet Baby Bilbo!

This one kinda creeps me out a bit, but the eyes are to the left and the mouth is to the right.  I'm sure he/she will be cuter  in color.  :)

Spoiled...not Rotten

While Grandpa was here he spoiled Grace with all kinds of fun things.  I kept saying you are spoiling her rotten and he said she's just spoiled, not rotten.  I like that.  :)  Her favorite treat of this latest visit was for sure her new bike.  She has loved getting outside to ride her bike everyday and I love it because I'll be able to push her on it all summer even as my belly gets larger and larger.   We even ride inside on rainy/cold days... so many options!

Inaugural Ride!

We had alot of other fun while Grandpa & Nana were in town, here are a few more photos from our time together.

Grace loves to get into her toy chest

She hopped in her chair half way through changing her clothes to read a book - she was trying to avoid having to put her PJs on and go to bed...little stinker.  :)

Swinging with Mommy

Grandpa is fun!

She loves this big ball! 

Lately

Grace has FINALLY mastered climbing up on top of the subwoffer. She has been trying for weeks to get up there, particularly to play with her buddy Scotty, and last week she did it! She was so proud of herself and luckily I had the camera handy to capture her huge grin...priceless.

Gracie's Nana & Grandpa here visiting and she is in heaven. She loves it when any of her grandparents are here to spoil her and last Saturday she had her Mama & Papa here too - what a lucky girl! Grandpa has had so much fun with his girl and they take a turn on the swing daily. I just LOVE this picture, I think it captures her adoration just perfectly. :)

Grace & Truman's Birthday Party

Grace's cousin Truman's birthday is Jan 19, so we decided to have a joint family party for the 2 of them over Christmas.  I had been sick and even had a fever the day before so I didn't have much energy to prep, but I got the cupcakes made and they had their super cute Birthday shirts on and much of the family was together.  What I didn't know was that my Aunt Reta had planned to have Scooby Doo make an appearance to wish the kids a happy birthday!  I actually jumped when Scooby walked in.  At first the kids weren't so sure, but then they warmed up a little.  Grace even let Scooby hold her.

Jenn & I with the kids and Scooby.  Maggie & Truman still weren't 100% sure about him...

The Bilbos & Scooby - I LOVE Grace's face!

My Mom & Uncle Wally with Scooby

Grandma wasn't too sure about Scooby...she doesn't like having dogs in her house, especially big dogs.  

David & Scooby being silly

After Scooby gave farewell hugs, we plopped the kids down in their chairs and let them go to town on their cupcakes.  Grace was on her 3rd cupcake (as we celebrated her birthday for over a month with multiple mini-gatherings trying to include all the family) so she was quite the pro.  It was so fun to watch she & Truman interact, it was like they were having their own private conversations - I wonder what they were saying!

Happy Birthday Grace & Truman!  What a special day!  :)

Random Cuteness

Grace has "new to me" shoes from her cousin Maggie and they are black dress shoes.  She LOVES them.  This morning when we came downstairs she found them and brought them to me and wanted to put them on over her frog footed PJs.  I did and she walked the lap on our main floor 8 times grinning the entire time. Here she is during a lap:

A little while later I walked around the corner and saw that she put her kitty in the cat bed and brought the cat bed over to the living room (so one can only assume she could "keep an eye on her".)  LOL - she is the funniest little girl on the planet...she always keeps me on my toes!

My Big Girl Chair

Ok, so these posts are going to be out of order, but they are all late so who cares, right?  :)

Ever since we got home from Christmas, Grace has been trying to sit on anything she can find that is the "right height".  She gets on all 4's and crawls backwards until her bottom hits whatever she is currently using as her chair and she sits up, it is hysterical!  Well David & I figured we should find the girl a chair, easy right?  Um no, we went to 7, yes 7, stores looking for a freaking chair for a toddler and nothing.  We did find one $13 plastic chair that would have fallen over at the slightest pressure and we found alot of chairs over $50 (seriously?!?) but nothing that would work.  A friend suggested we hit Ikea and we hit the jackpot.  I was a little nervous about this chair since it was so big, but it was only $30 and she'll be able to use it for years.  She LOVES it!  It took a few days for her to learn how to climb back out, but now she takes a few toys or books, climbs up and relaxes.  It's really quite precious.

First time in my new chair - I love it!!

I love to relax and play in my chair.  :)

This face just cracks me up!