100!!!

Our ticker hit 100 today. Wow, only 100 days to go (give or take) before little baby Keyes joins the world. It's amazing how many days have been checked off. 100 still seems like many days to go, but it is all seeming more and more real each and every day. Sleeping is starting to get a little more cumbersome, the belly seems to be growing each day, and the baby items are starting to actually make us look prepared to welcome a baby, rather than just the idea of one. It's wonderful!

St. Louis has been a great time. We're enjoying our last day here. We've had time to see all of our family, and tonight we're gathering with friends. Unfortunately I managed to catch a nasty cold. It's made me even more tired than normal and going through lots and lots of tissues. Hopefully sunny Florida will bring good health back my way.

I could go on and on about my first baby shower last weekend. It was just beautiful! My friend Meg and her mom completely outdid themselves. It was so classy and personal all at the same time. I was able to see so many girlfriends and family friends along with my grandmothers and mothers from both sides. I've enjoyed showing off baby gifts this week to anyone who's interested in seeing them. :) I can't wait to begin organizing things at home once we return. I've attached a link to the pictures that were taken at the shower. The link should take you to my Snapfish page and then you can just click on the album. Pictures don't begin to describe what a wonderful time it was!
http://stlbabyshower.snapfish.com/snapfish

Meet Me in St. Louie!

After an hour and a half delay, I made it to St. Louis! It really wasn't too bad. I had a good book and found a Chili's so I made my self comfortable and the time passed rather quickly. Even security was a breeze! I'm a very anxious flyer...have never liked it much due to motion sickness, anxiety, etc. and particularly don't truly enjoy flying by myself but it couldn't have gone much smoother. It was a quick, smooth flight and I slept or read my book a good portion of the way.

Brrrr....21 degrees when I arrived! It had been a cold week in FL-getting down to the low 40's, but still nothing like the 20's! Yeaaa for pregnancy hormones to keep me warm though. Now when I start having a hot flash, I can just open the door and step outside for 10 seconds!

It was great to see my parents. I haven't been home since last Christmas. I've seen my mom a couple times in between there, but not my dad. I'm looking forward to a couple days spent with them before the hustle and bustle of Thanksgiving arrive. Mat and Jeff will arrive Tuesday night and then we'll all return back to FL next Sunday.

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend!

Everyday is Christmas!

We're quickly getting spoiled! Between lots of little gifts from friends, some super cute hand-me-down clothes, and early arriving baby shower gifts, it's starting to feel like Christmas has arrived early. I feel like a little kid again.....it's SO exciting! It probably sounds slightly greedy, but it's just so fun to watch all this become more and more real. One piece at a time, it's all beginning to come together and I couldn't be happier!

Mat added to my joyfulness by emailing me at work today to see if I'd be up for a date tonight. He's wanting to pick out a special book to begin reading to the baby belly, so we're headed to the bookstore and dinner soon. He'll probably be embarrassed I even mentioned it.....but it melts my heart. This past weekend he read Brown Bear, Brown Bear to him and we got a couple kicks from the little guy. Apparently he approves!

Each Sunday evening we take a few minutes to read about what to expect for the upcoming week of pregnancy. As we were reading about week 24 this Sunday, we realized that before Christmas we'll enter the 3rd trimester and that just sounds INCREDIBLY strange and is hard to comprehend. This 2nd trimester is FLYING by! I'm expecting that I'll start growing a little more rapidly here soon. We read that the baby is now gaining about 6 ounces per week and is around a foot long. He'll start developing some baby fat now as he begins to fill out and look more baby like. His taste buds are developing and his brain is growing rapidly. While I'm looking forward to meeting him, I am very content for right now and enjoying this stage of pregnancy!

One Step Closer

We are one step closer to creating a nursery for baby Keyes. After purchasing the furniture a few weeks ago, we began our hunt for bedding. We both like things that are rather simple and calm. I liked the idea of organic, but it all seemed way out of our price range! But we finally found something that we both adored. Yesterday we ordered it and it should be here in the next couple weeks! We ended up getting it from WalMart, which everyone knows we despise, but it was a GREAT price, a color we liked, organic, and we had a gift card!! I can't wait to see it in person. Hopefully we'll like it as much as we think we will. We want to paint the walls a rich blue color, so I picked out some paint samples yesterday that we can now think about for awhile. We've registered for a few cute baseball accessories like a lamp, rug, etc. and we're hoping to either find a baseball mural or have one painted at some point. So in the end it will be khaki and blue with red/white baseball accessories. Piece by piece, it's all starting to come together! I think Mat is secretly jealous of the baseball theme and will want to move into the nursery. :)

Tongue Tied!

There haven't been any updates this week because I'm having a hard time staying awake long enough to write one. Man, have I been sleepy again. There for a couple weeks I was feeling kind of normal again energy wise....staying up a little later, exercising, etc. but this week I've been zapped! Luckily I'm still able to get comfortable enough to sleep like a rock, so I'm counting my blessings in that area.

Dentist appointments and I just don't seem to get along lately. I went yesterday to have some cavities worked on. They were trying to be sweet I think and numb me up good, but after 8 shots I couldn't feel a thing...not even my eyes. I've had LOTS of dental work done and this was by far the numbest I've ever been. Apparently, during the procedure,- I bit not only the side of my cheek, but also through my tongue and put a nice gash in it. Of course all the numbness has worn off now and there is no pain in my teeth but boy is my tongue swollen, jacked up, and sore. Feeling like such a dork! The dentist called today to check on me, which was nice, but of course there's not really anything I can take medicine -wise or do for now except just let it heal. She said it would be a slow process....yeaaaa! Even soup is unpleasant to eat but boy, am I hungry. Baby boy wants some food! I might break down and get a big fat milkshake tonight. Maybe that will fill me up better than broth!

Okay, enough whining.......

One week from today I'll be flying home to St. Louis. I'm really looking forward to it. I haven't seen any of my family or friends back home since becoming pregnant so I'm really excited to share some time with them. I bet baby boy will be getting lots of tummy greetings from grandparents-to-be! I even have my first baby shower next weekend. So exciting!!!

23 weeks

We've entered the 6th month of pregnancy!!! I still don't totally understand the way pregnancy is calculated....who came up with this math anyways? But, I'm ecstatic to know that we're beginning the 6th month and everything seems to be a-okay! I guess we got a little picture happy last week. The first picture was taken at the end of week 22 and the last picture was at the beginning of week 22. The belly is growing slowly but surely. Mat even convinced me to take my first bare belly shot! I'm not so sure I'm brave enough to post it here, but it will definitely be one for the memory books! My favorite pair of maternity jeans are quickly becoming too tight in the waist. I was hoping I'd somehow be able to squeeze into them throughout most of my pregnancy but it's looking like their days are numbered. O well! By now our son can supposedly hear most sounds outside the womb and feel my movements also. Hmmm....I wonder if the stairmaster rocks him to sleep or if he gets tired of hearing my students at school talk all day long?? He is a little over 1 pound by now. I read in my book that by the end of this month my uterus will be the size of a basketball. Wowsers!!!!! Amazing to think how in the world that fits in there. That does explain why bending over is starting to get a little more challenging though! :)

Proof in the Pictures

I finally got around to uploading baby boy's 21 week pictures. If you're like me, these pictures are always hard to decipher so here's a little play by play. The first picture is proof that indeed he is a boy. The second picture is a close up of his arm. Such a boy already as he is flexing his muscle for mom and dad. So precious! Last but not least, the third picture is a profile of his head, chest, and stomach. If you look at his head you can see his brain and in his abdomen you can see his ribs that are forming. Such a beautiful boy in the making.

We went back this past Thursday for our follow up appointment to review the ultrasound results with the doctor. The bad news was that during the week in between our ultrasound and our follow up appointment, their office was broken into and several computers were stolen. So needless to say they were a little behind schedule as they were trying to reinstall everything and get up and running again. Frustrating for us as we were anxiously awaiting to hear the results and more positive confirmation that baby boy was just as he should be. Doctor assured us he'd be reviewing our results this week though and if there were any concerns they'd call us, otherwise it would wait until our next appointment. Besides that though all seemed well.....I am measuring right on track, my weight was right on point and even slightly below (what?!?!?!) where he expected me to be at this point. He did notice that my uterus seems to be sitting off to one side and asked if I'd ever had any testing done to diagnose uterine abnormalities. I refreshed his memory of my history with a uterine septum but that it had been surgically removed a couple years ago. He did not seem concerned it all, but I thought it was pretty amazing that he could tell that just by feeling on my belly. After we left the appointment I began to feel perplexed and even a little worried thinking how in the world could this still be causing an issue after all I went through to correct the problem so that it wouldn't be a threat to baby or myself. So, the next morning, to put my mind at ease, I emailed my RE (specialist that we saw for IVF) and asked if it was possible for a septum to somehow return. He assured me that it was definitely not possible and it could just be that my uterus is more developed on one side or twisting and turning as it expands. So, no worries and I will continue to trust in God and my doctors that everything is as it should be. Our next appointment is at the beginning of December where I'll do the lovely glucose screening. Blah!

Bubba, the love dog, decided to give me a little scare and a wake up call last night. I can't blame him as I was encouraging him to jump into my lap. I guess I underestimated the size of my belly or the weight of his body, but I clearly wasn't thinking. I thought there was still plenty of room on my lap, but nope, he leaped right onto my belly square in the middle and boy did it hurt! Then, of course I felt terrible that maybe I'd hurt baby boy. But he seems to be moving all around still and although my belly is sore, I'm not having any issues so he probably just got a nice jolt. Definitely a lesson learned to be more careful!

As I was lying on the couch this morning still worrying about baby boy, he began moving all around and I commented to Mat about how much I love when he does that. It's almost like he knows when I'm worried and his movements are a way communicating with me that he's okay. I told Mat just how much it makes me love him. Don't get me wrong, I knew I would LOVE this baby but I was not really prepared for the amount of love I would feel for him already at this point. I've known he was there for months now, but until he began moving, I don't think I'd made that emotional connection with him. Since then it only continues to grow stronger and stronger and I can't even imagine what that emotion will feel like once he's born and truly makes his presence known. A little later I made the connection of my love for my Lord and Savior. From a young age I knew of His existence and importance in my life, but it wasn't until I began to feel him really move in my heart and my daily life that the emotional connection formed. It's often the times that He makes his presence known that I am reminded of what a deep love I have for Him and He has for me. I know I am an incredibly blessed woman to feel God's presence in my life and now the presence of my son.

Mat and I were able to take the dogs for a nice walk this morning. Now Mat's hard at work on the hardwood floors again and I have a baby shower to attend this afternoon. In the meantime it's laundry, lunch, and a little rest. Wishing each of you a wonderful weekend!

History Mystery

I'm sure once Baby Keyes comes along and grows up, I'll be telling him about today....about how it was quite possibly the most important election of my lifetime (thus far anyways) and how either a black man became President for the first time ever or a female became VP for the first time ever. Pretty neat that our child will be part of a generation where people of all races and genders are valued equally. Years ago citizens never would've imagined either one holding an office, and even for my generation it seems quite an amazing feat. It's neat to think that by the time my child grows up, gender and race won't even be a consideration! We had a mock election in our school district today. It was neat to see the eagerness as my student's each cast their secret vote. Of course most of them simply choose who they hear their parents talk about, but that's fine for now. I'm just glad they're having the exposure and experiencing this day. Obama won the election at our school and we discussed how to handle the news with respect for one another. I'm not big on talking politics with loved ones, but I will say that I'm excited to watch the news unfold tonight and see if this "History Mystery" matches the votes and premonitions of our elementary school. :) Regardless of the outcome, I'm sure that one day my child will be reading about today in their own school textbook!

I've now reached Week 22 of pregnancy. Time is really starting to move fast. It's so exciting! By now, he is almost 1 pound and just a little shorter than 1 foot. His lips, eyelids, and eyebrows are becoming more distinct and he's starting to actually look more like a newborn at this point. Even his little toothbuds are beginning to develop below his gums. I'm really enjoying saying "his" now and not flip flopping between he, she, and it! Between feeling him move, finding out it's a boy, purchasing furniture, and even a few baby boy outfits it's just feeling so real and so exciting. I can't believe how much my love for him grows and grows and I'm sure I can't even comprehend how I'll feel once he's actually born!

A Nursery in the Making...

My countless hours of searching Craig's List paid off!! We didn't really need to buy furniture this soon, but we kept looking with the attitude that if we found something we really liked, for the right price, then we'd buy it, and if we didn't find anything come the new year, we'd go ahead and buy new furniture. We got lucky though! We were able to find some beautiful Ragazzi nursery furniture in Orlando and the color, size, condition, etc. was just what we were hoping for. We now have a dark cherry convertible crib, dresser/changer combo, and bookshelf. I woke up this morning and went into the room just to admire it for a moment. Mat put the crib together this morning and we both envisioned what it would be like to see a little baby lying in it. Thanks so much to Jeff for trekking out to Orlando with us to load and move it. What a great uncle he will be! :)

Yesterday really was a baby-filled day because besides the furniture, I headed out to Babies-R-Us to put the finishing touches on our registry. We'd waited on some things until we knew the gender. Nobody can say there isn't enough to choose from now! I think it's a little overboard, but it was fun nonetheless. Besides deciding on bedding, we're all done adding every possible thing we'll need.

Today we're taking a day off from baby mania and heading to see Phantom of the Opera. This is Mat's all time fave so he's been really looking forward to it. Should be a fun afternoon!