It's a ........???

As of Tuesday 8/31, I am 18 weeks and 5 days. So today we were off for our ultrasound appointment. The last time we saw our little sweetie, he/she looked like a fuzzy-wuzzy-gummy-bear. So now this was to be the real deal. First of all it will look like a real baby, not a fuzzy spot on the screen. Second we will get to see cool things like fingers, heart, head, tummy, legs, all kinds of movement, etc. Third, and this is the most important (especially to all our family and friends), is to find out what he/she is.

Here's the beginning of the adventure of the day...

So the morning started out with drinking my 24 ounces of water to fill up that bladder. The theory is so they can see the baby better. My theory ....a good laugh for the office staff. A waiting room of women bouncing, cuz they "gotta go", AND let's push our hardest on the mom's tummy to get the "shots" for the ultrasound, and let's go back and forth over the overly full bladder like a teenager practicing parallel parking ....over and over!

Yes, the simple answer would be to go to the restroom as soon as that is over, but you see there was another fun obstacle in my way before my dam was about to break. My ultrasound was at 9am, and I had an appointment with Dr.Hunt at 10am. As some of you know, you have to give a urine sample every time you come in. We were done at 930a with our ultrasound, and our sweet little tech was REALLY taking her time putting all the ultrasound pics together, and do a quick report for the doctor, so I could take it all upstairs for my next appointment. Ahhh, I'm dying here!

We went upstairs for our appointment, and thought they'd take me right back and bring me to my sweet relief, but noooo. Half an our later, Brint couldn't take it and went up and asked if I could just leave a sample, because I REALLY, REALLY had to go. I was even bouncing in my seat. The nurse felt bad, and said I should have spoke up sooner, oh well that's what I get for being polite. Finally the sweetest relief I've ever had in my life, so far. This may have been more than you wanted to know, but it was a fun story anyway.

Back to the best part. So I'm laying on the table in this nice cool room, that has soft mood lighting. She said first she will be looking at the anatomy of the baby, then asked us if we brought a VHS tape to record the ultrasound. Then she asked if we wanted to know the sex of the baby, and we both said a resounding YES!!! She blobbed on warm, yes I said warm, jell and went to work. The first image was a nice sized baby on the screen, and the first thing I saw was a beating heart. Whheeewww!! That was my first concern, next ...onto normal anatomy!

When all was said and done the tech took enough pics that would have stretched across the entire room. We got to see (and all the anatomy is normal and healthy) a spine, along with each vertebrate, a cute round little head, measured her tummy, measured her femur, looked at her stomach, got to see her face (one image that was more skeletal and one that look more like a face, which was cool), her feet and toes, her hands and arms, she measured my placenta (which the baby was using as a pillow), and I asked her what position the baby was laying in. They baby is in a breech position, for the moment. At this point there is plenty of room to move and flip back around.

Ok, so the part you have ALL been waiting for..... what are we having???? She showed us an image, that even I couldn't make out, and she said we are having a GIRL!!! See the pic below. What the tech says is where the arrow points to is a side ways W. It's whiter than the most of the anatomy, I know, I know most of you still can't see it, but it's there.



The next set of pictures are really fun, and my favorite two will be the last two. The next pic is of her little foot. Her toes are on the left, and her little heel is on the right. Click on the pic if you want to see it closer.


The next pic is of her head/face. On the left is the top round part of her head, a little further to the right is her eyes, a little further past her face is her two hands and arms, and a little further is her knees/legs together. Can you see her better now?


This next pic is one of my favorites. In the pic the head is on the right, looking to the left is her two knees almost against her head. If you look a little further you can see her two legs, and they are crossed like an X. Such a little lady already, love it!!


The next pic I call her paparazzi pic. It of her tiny, delicate, little hand saying "Please ...no more pictures." Cute as can be :)


So that's her! I don't think that Brint and I were surprised that she was a girl, we were more excited to see her move and see how much she has grown. Brint said the other day "I love her and I haven't even met her yet.", that just melted my heart, but he is soooo right. We just fell in love with our baby even more. I can already feel that motherly/parental love for her, and can understand how mom's that I see at work fall in love with their babies the moment they see them.

We go back for our next appointment Sept 28th, and we get to have another ultrasound. Because of the the position she is in, legs crossed tight up against her chest, they weren't able to see all of her heart, and where the umbilical cord goes into her belly. The totally reassured me that's it's all because of her position. I asked the girls at work, and a lot of them had the same "issue". The doctor, ultrasound tech, and my friends said "that just means you get to see her again, and get more pics!". Can't wait!!

What's new...

Today I can breath freely!!! Why do you ask??? Well I just bought my first pair of maternity pants ....aaaaahhhhhh. Why are we not wearing these all the time? I had finally had it yesterday when I wanted to put on my pair of "big" jeans, it gave me heart burn when I buttoned it because it was so tight around my tummy. So I told Brint "I think it's time". Not bad, I am 5months now and I haven't bought anything till now.

Well that's not true. I did buy a belly band at Target. What it a belly band you ask?? The best way to explain it is ...it's like a tube top. What you do is you put your pre-prego pants on, don't button or zip them up (usually you can't anyway - hence the belly band), pull the band over the open part of your pants, and it will hold your pants up AND cover your open drawers. Pretty cool!!!! It saves you some money, so you don't have to buy expensive maternity pants, for a while at least. It worked last month, but this month I was a vienna sausage.

So today, I went to Motherhood Maternity and tried on some much wanted jeans. Once on all I could say was .....AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!! Even the skinny jeans gave you ample room to breath. Again, why don't we wear these pants all the time. Below are pics of what I bought. I only got pants because I have a friend at work who has emptied out her closet and is giving me her maternity clothes. Yippee!!

Another reason why I like being pregnant is that stores/companies give you free stuff, samples, and coupons. Since this was my first trip to the store, I got the goody bag below. It was full of hair product samples, laundry samples, coupons galore, and my favorite was the $25 gift card to shutterfly. Yippee!!

What's new on the baby front?!

Well as of today we are 15 weeks and 4days, and going strong. I was thinking that some of you, especially those who don't live in town are probably wondering how things are going, how I'm feeling, etc. I thought I should share some of the good stories about this pregnancy, some of you had heard the stories, but most of you have not. You know when Brint and I are involved there is always a good story, so here goes (and since we don't have any pics to share, I thought I'd show you baby pics of Brint & myself)...

~The placenta brain, as we call it in the biz, or pregnancy forgetfulness as you my know it, hit me again big time. We have a monthly meeting (third thursday of every month) at church, called Branch Council, where all the Presidents of all the auxiliaries get together to bring up calendar items, welfare issues, and other church related issues that we work together on. Right after that meeting I have a PPI (Personal Progress Interview) with our Branch President, where we talk even more in-depth about welfare issues and the needs of those in the church. So these are pretty important meetings. Well, for me, that week came and went. Usually I think about those meetings days before we have them, so I can discuss with our President about the issues at hand. It wasn't even a thought in my mind. I wasn't till I received an email of the minutes taken at that meeting, and I received that email on a Saturday. GASP!!!!! Couldn't believe that I did that, I have made it to ALL the meetings since I became president a year and a half ago.

Sunday morning, after sacrament, I went up to our Branch President and gave my deepest apologies. About how it completely did not even come to mind, etc. He said ...and get this ..."That's ok, I just told the whole council that you were excused because you have pregnancy brain." NICE!!! Well, at least he was light hearted about it and understood since him and his wife have three boys. I bet they were hootin' it up at the meeting when our leader made that comment. Very Nice! :)



~I work every other Monday to help out with payroll at work. A couple of weeks ago I got off two hours early from work. Brint and I rode together that day, and he was getting of at 5:30pm. So I needed to kill some time till he was off. Where does a girl go to kill some time ......Target of course. I actually haven't been in a couple of months, I hear the gasping out there, it's just been to hot to go anywhere. Anyway, I wanted to go particularly to look at maternity clothes, and baby stuff (price things out, etc.), but of course one has to shop Target head to toe. I think I was an hour into my shopping experience, I was half way through the baby section, stopped and looked down at the floor and thought "I could really just lay down here on this linoleum, and totally go to sleep." Never in my life has a store floor look so enticing. That's when I knew it was time to go, otherwise they would find me on isle 22 curled up with a blanket. Now that's tired!



~Got to hear the baby's heart beat again last Tuesday. Brint was so excited that he wanted to recorded it on his phone. So I laid down on the table, pulled the top of my pants down a little, and Amy our Nurse Practitioner went to work. She found the baby on my right side, after some pushing on my filling bladder. I look up at this special moment, and Brint and Amy are in cahoots to get his phone to record ...don't mind me! After a couple of minutes they were done. I sat back up, got my self re-situated with my clothes. Brint was checking the recording, and Amy asked "Did you get it?". Brint said he didn't think so, Amy said no problem we'll do it again. Next thing I know I'm getting pushed (gently) back down, and had to pull the top parts of my pants down ...again.

So Amy went to work again to find the baby, looking on the right. Finally she found the little on the left, all the while pressing again on my ever filling bladder. I don't think the baby was all to happy either being pushed on. I looked up again, and there they were hovering over the phone to get the recording....don't mind me. This time it worked, whew! All kidding aside, the coolest part was when we heard, both times, the baby moving around inside. It sounded like if you scratched a needle on a record (remember those round things that played music). I loved that part. Our next appointment will be on Aug 31st, and I will be 18 1/2 weeks along. You know what that means ....we'll be able to know what this "fuzzy-gummy-bear" is going to be. So let's all pray that his/her legs won't be crossed, or be a typical Argall and be difficult. Hee, hee!

(I think I was destined to be a Jane Austen girl!)


~For my Birthday, the girls at work celebrated it with me on a Wednesday. After an a half an hour or so they (Micki, Sandie, Gwen, Teresa, Joyce, Julia, and Joy) all came around the corner singing me Happy Birthday. Micki was holding a tray full of her yummy brownies, a bunch of fresh pick "Micki's road side flowers" (she loves risking her life to get the prettiest flowers on the side of the road), and a cute ballon that everyone had signed. The surprising part was what was going up to the ballon. Taped and stapled all the way up was folded (in different shapes) money and checks. I was STUNNED!!! They said instead of bringing in food or ordering out, they wanted to make a birthday/baby fund. Words cannot say how touched I was, and still am.

Throughout the day, when I left to use the bathroom, or had to go to other parts of the department, I would come back and more money would be stapled to the ballon string. In the end they blessed me with $200. The money will go towards a crib, and some very overpriced maternity clothes.

Thank you, thank you Micki, Sandie, Gwen, Melissa, Tipton, Linda, Joy, Erin, Sharon, Ronnie, Teresa, Joyce, & Julia (and by the way Julia made the best fresh salsa ever!). My angles of L&D ...I love you!!!

(I love that curly head boy!)

Now I've been sitting here for 15 minutes and here I am again, knowing I have quite a few more stories to tell you, but can I think of them ......nooooo! Ugh, I guess until next blog posting.

**I love the pic below, because it's of four generations. In the front on the left is my great-grandma, in the middle is my mom one month before I was born, and on the right is my grandma!**