Some Coworker Love!!

What does a girl do when there is eight inches of snow outside ...blog of course. This weekend was a blast! On Saturday, the girls at work threw me a baby shower. Oh my gosh, soooo much fun. We went to Franky Bones, which is a yummy restaurant that is styled after a place Frank Sanatra and "the boys" would hang out at. It's a cool place, it's like at almost any moment the Rat Pack is about to walk in.

Those that came were ...Micki, Sandie, Jan, Tipton, Joy, Erin, Gwen, Crystal and her daughter Phoebe, Katie, and of course the guests of honor (Moi & baby Amelia). Lot of others wanted to come, but either had to work or the roads were bad in their area due to snow & ice. On to the food ...yumm!! Now that my little girl has moved down a little, her momma has a little more room to breath and eat. I almost got their Mac & Cheese (this ain't no box mix), you could have lobster added to it ...need I say more! Instead I got the California burger, which was ...amazing!! A yummy burger on focaccia with mozzarella, pesto aoli, and avocado. Did I say AVOCADO!?!? It came with simple yet divine shoe string fries and a crispy, white Kosher pickle. Mmmmmmmmmmm!!

On to the fun stuff. We received lots of cool things, like baby outfits, socks (that look like Mary Janes), diapers, wipes, paci holder and wipes (in case its dropped), diaper "pail", AND a Travel set from all the girls at work!!! My friend Katie came and made the best cake in the whole world ....peanut butter & chocolate cake. This is no ordinary cake, you just have to try it. Go to her blog, and check out her cakes... http://katiescakesofasheville.blogspot.com

In the mean time, here are some pics from this fun day (if you want to see them closer, just click on the pic) ...







This pic is of me holding piece of paper, from Tipton, telling me that I will be receiving a Moby wrap. The best part was the pics on the back side. Click on the pic, and you will see our heads superimposed on the pic, and I am holding Brint when he was a baby in a moby wrap, and he is holding me when I was a baby. It awesome & hilarious!!!!!!











Left to Right: Sandie, Jan, Crystal, Me, and down below Pheobe.

Micki & Me

Gwen & Me

Sandie & Me

Tipton & Me

Erin & Me

L to R: Joy, Me, Micki, & Erin


Yumm cake!!


Thank you to all those who came and contributed to the gifts we received. They were very much needed, and are very appreciated!! Thanks for the love and friendship you showed us as well.

Merry Christmas!!!

Hey ya'll ....Merry Christmas. Have you ever seen that movie "A Christmas Story"? It's my personal all time favorite. Remember the scene where Ralphie wakes up on Christmas morning, and finds that the world out side is covered in sparkly white snow. Being California kids, having a white Christmas was something we've never knew ....till now.

Brint and I decided to go out and play for a little while, and take some pics of us and our little one in the snow. Feel the love....







A little baby time ...



Love this one ...




This one is called ..."pregnancy agression". We were playing in the snow, and how can you not throw snow balls at each other. So I got Brint ...real good. Hee, hee!!


Hope you've all had a warm and wonderful Christmas. We love you all, and wish you nothing but the best!!

Holly Cow!!

Holly Cow!! The grips of pregnancy brain has finally released me, and I'm now realizing all the things I need to catch up on. I had some time today, and thought ....I haven't read any blogs in soooo long. I logged on, and saw when my last post was. I'm in total shock ...August!? ....really!?!? I'm so sorry everyone for not keeping up on this. So I'm just going to hop on it, and give you the highlights of this great pregnancy we are having. *Click on the pics below to see them better!!*


SHORT SORIES:

*When I was 6 months along they did an ultrasound. They were having a hard time seeing all four chambers of her heart. The office said "Because of her position (breech and facing my spine), we can't see all four chambers of her heart. Happens a lot, don't worry." What I heard was "We can't see all four chambers of her heart ....worry!" Working in the medical is hard because you know WAY to much. I worked for a Pediatric Cardiologist, and I know what kind of things happen with babies that have major heart issues. My doctor saw me that same day, and repeated the same thing, "Dayna, don't worry ...she's fine." She saw the look in my eyes, and said "Let's send you to ROGS, and they can do a more in depth ultrasound. It will help us see her heart better, and it will make you feel better." Two days later, my doctor's office rocks, got me into ROGS who handle high risk pregnancies. I was there for two hours. The first hour was doing basic anatomy, and trying to get her to turn. She was still in the breech position and facing my spine. It made sense, she's comfy, warm, and had her head on a cushy pillow (my/her placenta). After the first hour, they had me drink two boxes of juice, touch my toes, stand on my head, do the hokey-pokey, etc. For a half an hour she had turned a little, just enough for the tech to get all the pics they needed. Then sweet relief came ....four chambers, an aortic arch, great blood flow, etc. The funniest part, I love my little girl - she already has a sense of humor, THE moment the doctor walked through the door, and took her turn to do her part of the ultrasound, Amelia turned back to her stubborn position where they couldn't see the heart again. We all couldn't help but laugh. Although we had a little scare, we got the best pics of our little girl!!

LOOK AT HER GLOWING BONES ...THAT'S BECAUSE HER MOMMY DRANK LOT'S OF MILK!!




*So Brint is a very informed, and very involved husband/soon to be daddy. How lucky am I!! He know's about how ALL women love their body/belly pillow. Well, I guess I'm not "ALL" women. I figured that I have broken all the rules from the beginning of this pregnancy anyway. No morning sickness and all that fun stuff. Anyway, Brint insisted that I needed to sleep with a million pillows, or that we should just buy one of those $50 pillows that are in an "S" shape. I told him don't waist money on that, I like my two pillows, and besides we could use that money to by more baby stuff. In true Brint form, he didn't listen to me, asked the girls at work about their opinion (and how much they love their body pillow), and went to Wally-world and bought me a body pillow. Thank goodness it was only $9, because I TRIED, honestly I did, to use it that night, but it was on the floor in 15 minutes. Brint woke up in the middle of the night looked over to see that I was all cuddled up with this fabulous pillow. What he saw was laying there with my two pillows under my head, blankets thrown off, faaaaast asleep! Nice try honey ...at least we have a nice "decorative" pillow for the bed now.

HER FACE WITH ARM BESIDE HER HEAD.


*One Sunday, after church, Brint and I slipped into our comfies, had lunch, and was watching a movie. I was leaning on my right side on the couch, when all of a sudden my belly was going crazy. I said to Brint "Hey! Look!!!" while pointing at my belly. His eyes just about popped out of his head, and he said "Holly crap!". My belly was bouncing from left to right. We now call this a belly dancing moment.

ANOTHER FACE SHOT, THE TECH ASSURED US HER NOSE IS NOT THAT BIG!


*It's so amazing when a baby, who is still in the womb, already have the traits of her/his mom and dad. So when we got to the 25th week, we had read in our weekly pregnancy emails, that the baby was now able to hear sounds. Of course we talk to her, and we saw her respond to my talking during an ultrasound. Now it was time to give her a little music. Brint and I are HUGE music lovers, from classical to rock, and EVERYTHING in between. First we played her some Vivaldi, my favorite classical composer. I had the headphones on my belly for about a half an hour she liked it and moved around quite a bit. Over the next couple of days, we played a couple more different classical composers, Medieval Babes (check them out, they are awesome), Lorna McKinnett, Enya, and a little B-52s to shake things up. We found her favorite ....Amelia LOVES Alison Krauss!! We listened to her old stuff and new stuff. Her favorite song, because she moved around a lot, was "Atlanta". I guess she knows she has Georgia roots!


*Another Sunday we came home from church, did our normal routine of putting our comfies on, eating lunch, and watching a movie. Halfway through our movie, I notice little Amelia moving. Then after a minute or two, I noticed that it was quite repetitive. I looked down, and could see the bow on my pajama bottoms was "bouncing" with each movement. I thought about it for a minute, and realized she was having hiccups. I called Brint over, and he just laughed. We tried to video it with our camera, and it was pretty funny to watch. I notice, probably because I am laying down, that she has the hiccups when I lay down to go to bed, or get up first thing in the morning. I love to just lay there and feel that movement, plus that's a good time for Brint to feel her too. All I have to do is roll to my other side to give her some relief, and me a little sleep! She definitely takes after her mom the "Hiccup Queen"!

AFTER THREE CONFIRMATIONS THAT SHE IS A GIRL, WE ARE FEELING CONFIDENT. HINT: LOOK FOR THE SIDEWAYS "V", BY THE WAY SHE MOONING YOU!!


*This may be a "more than you need to know" story, but I'm going to tell it anyway ...it's funny. I'm usually at one extreme or the other. Either I can feel my bladder is full all the time, or not at all. Apparently I have a built in warning system, and her name is Amelia. One night, after a long day at work, Brint and I were relaxing on the couch. I noticed that "someone" kept making quick little movement, very low in my belly. I just continued to lay there, and let her move. What I didn't know was she was trying to tell me something. So I still just laid there, feeling her move swiftly. Finally I felt this "punch" on my full bladder, that I didn't know I had. As I was trying to quickly get up from the couch, huffing, puffing, and grunting my way up, Brint asked if I was ok. I told him "Apparently ...I have to pee!". Got to the bathroom just in time, and boy did I ever have to go. Thank you my little early alert system!

MY FAVORITE, I TURNED THIS ONE. YOU CAN SEE HER NOSE (see she has a small one), MOUTH, AND CHIN COMING OUT OF THE SHADOW. WHICH STAR WARS CHARACTER DOES THAT REMIND YOU OF?

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!!