One More Thing...

I knew I was forgetting something while posting at 10:00 pm last night! Last Thursday, besides wearing maternity jeans for the first time and feeling the baby move, I had my first official pregnancy craving! That morning, I just had to have a Chick-Fil-A sweet tea and chicken minis! For all the friends and family who don't have Chick-Fil-A, those are little chicken nuggets tucked in dinner rolls, like mini chicken biscuits. Oh yeah, with honey butter on top too! They taste so good! Since then the craving hasn't come back, and I hope it doesn't come too often because that is not the healthiest thing to crave. But anyway, it was all delicious and well worth it.

An Eventful Week

Well, it finally happened. I was laying in bed Thursday night, and I felt a little "poke" in my lower stomach. I wasn't exactly sure at that time if it was the baby, but sure enough, I've felt it several times since then. It usually happens only when I'm very still. I'm so excited because I've been waiting for this to happen! The other night, right after I got on the phone with Davey, I felt it again. He was so excited too and joked that maybe the baby knew it was him. :)

Another big thing has taken place in the clothes department. I wore a pair of maternity jeans on Thursday night for the first time, and they're so comfy! Everyone seems to tell me they put on maternity clothes probably too early when they were pregnant, so I've been patiently waiting until I really needed to. I'm amazed how in the last few weeks the maternity pants that were too way big before now either fit perfectly or are very close. Barely anyone believes me that I'm showing, but that's proof enough for me.

Friday night, Davey and I celebrated my birthday by going to see the Broadway play "Wicked." (It's sort of the prequel story to the Wizard of Oz, and it's about the wicked witch of the west and Glenda, the good witch, when they were in school. There's a lot more to it than just that, but you get the idea.) It was a late birthday celebration because that's when we could get tickets. Before the show we went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory - yum! The play was fantastic, and we would definitely see it again! Maybe next time we go to NYC - Davey's favorite place in the world.

On Nov. 6th, we get to go for our mid-pregnancy ultrasound. If we were going to find out Baby's gender, this would be the time...but we're still going to be surprised at the end. My father-in-law is still trying to convince me otherwise. Sorry, Mr. David! You'll just have to wait along with us! It will be neat to see how much he or she has grown. If we get a picture, I'll definitely put it on here. So keep checking back!

Baby's Heartbeat

Today Davey picked me up at work to go to our routine OB check-up.  We ended up waiting an hour, but I guess that was because the doctor was running late.  But it was worth it because we finally got to hear our baby's heartbeat!  It was such a beautiful swish-swish-swish sound, at least that's how we would describe it.  The rest of the time we talked to the doctor about different questions we had.  She was wonderful and really excited for us.  The practice has several doctors, and I will see all of them at some point during the pregnancy so they can all get to know me as their patient.  This was the first time we had seen this doctor, and we liked her so much, Davey told her, "I hope it's you who gets to deliver our baby!"  All the doctors are on a rotating schedule for deliveries, so there's no telling who will be there for delivery time.  Good thing they're all great!

So, after hearing Baby's beautiful little heartbeat (and eating dinner), we went to Sam's Club to get our membership cards and look around.  We didn't buy much, but we did get an idea on how much we can save on diapers among other things.  This will definitely come in handy soon!

Well, that's all for this post.  It's late. I'm tired.  The end.

Drum roll please...

Everyone has been wondering when I'm going to "look" pregnant. The truth is, I can still wear my regular pants (though they are getting harder to button), and only Davey and I can tell that my stomach has rounded out. Nobody would know I was pregnant unless I told them. Baby is growing quite a bit, but my stomach is not showing it much to the outside world. Currently, at 17 weeks, Baby's crown to rump (aka head to butt) should be the approx. size of an onion (around 5 inches). Last week it was an avocado, which I much prefer to the onion, so fortunately this is only a size reference! I know, I'm silly.

Well, tonight I looked back at my "baseline" belly shot that Davey and I took after we found out I was pregnant and compared it to the belly picture I took today at 17 weeks. The proof is in the pictures! Despite the fact that no one else can tell through clothes, there is a *little* bump there. :) A lot of people don't believe me, but you can now see it in the photos. And no, I was NOT sticking it out either! Haha, I actually made a point not to.

It might be a while before I post more belly shots (seeing that it's not growing at a considerable rate quite yet), but I thought everyone would enjoy this. It's proof! There really is an onion, I mean, a BABY in there!

The New Crib and A Surprise Baby Shower!

THE NEW CRIB
We ventured to Babies 'R' Us late Thursday night and barely made it in time to buy the crib we had picked out. The sales people were really nice, and they helped us load it in the car, which was a tight squeeze. I kept saying it would fit and it did, fortunately for me. Well, we decided to put it together the next night (Friday, my birthday!) since it was already so late.

Well, I haven't really been feeling that great all week, due to some sinus stuff, but Friday morning I woke up feeling worse. I came down with a little stomach bug (according to the OB nurse) and was running a low-grade fever. She said not to go to work, so I spent my birthday in bed drinking lots of fluids and sleeping. Fortunately, I could take some medicine to help me feel better and bring the fever down. By the evening, I felt ok enough to assist with assembling the crib. It was actually very easy to put together, which was nice. Afterward, Davey moved the shelves around in the nursery while I sat on the floor and dictated :). He was very patient as we tried different things, and we ended up with a different layout than we originally had planned on. As usual, things look better in real life than in a picture, but this will work for now. We turned the shelves diagonally in the corners, and it looks really good. This also opens up the rest of the room for other pieces to be added later. It's really the best use of this space, and we are very excited! Can you tell we're enjoying this?

A SURPRISE BABY SHOWER
A week ago, we were so blessed by the church in Mooresville, NC when they threw us a surprise baby shower! Of course, I wasn't there, but Davey was able to experience the fun of getting gifts and opening them, which he LOVES to do. To all our dear friends who were so generous and loving to do this for us, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. It means so much! Thank you for all the gift cards which will definitely come in handy. Here are a couple pictures of some of the baby clothes we received (you can see them all draped on the crib in the other photo of the room). By the way, to make any of the pictures larger, I think you just have to click once or twice on them. We feel so blessed to have people that love us so much! Thank you again!
And one more picture of my dear husband with the diaper bag we received. When he told me about it, his exact words were..."I never thought I'd get so excited about a diaper bag!" I thought it deserved to be on here. :)

Milk cartons and bath time

I just couldn't resist. Rudy and I have been having some fun the last few days (more fun for me...you'll see why), and I just had to share the laughs. Soon I will be videoing our baby, but for now it is still very fun to video the dog.

This video is a little long, so don't feel like you have to watch the whole thing. It's pretty cute though! This one's entitled, "Rudy Running with the Milk Jug."


Since Davey's coming home tomorrow (hooray!), I decided to give Rudy a bath so he'd be nice and clean for daddy. Rudy has always tolerated baths, however, he does not prefer the water. In fact, he knows as soon as I start the water and take his collar off that, yes, it is time again. He doesn't run away or hide, he just gets a knowingly sad look on his face like, "not again."
Then he goes and curiously looks in the bathtub every time. I don't quite know what he is thinking, but he always does it. Just look at those curious little ears! Just for fun, I added a few bubbles this time. Oh, now that's just pitiful!
Get it OFF, mom!



Soon, it was all over and he could shake to his little heart's delight. He has to dry off fully in his kennel though because being wet makes him go crazy. He'll run around the house at full speed like he's nuts.

Well, that's all for now!

Stripes

Davey's on the road again, and I'm here at home with Rudy. He's been traveling a lot lately, so I try to keep myself busy with things so I don't dwell on it too much. Today I felt really good and had a whole Saturday off. I decided it was time to paint the lines in the nursery. They turned out great! Only a few minor touch-ups will be necessary. It only took a few hours, and most of that was getting the tape perfect. Here are some pictures to show the progress and then the final result.
Tape...

Paint...

and Finish!...

Now that the walls are done, the next step will be to order the crib. I can't wait!