20 week ultrasound pics!

20 weeks 6 days! Over halfway done!

My belly has popped! We found out on September 24th that we are having a little girl! We're so excited! Liliana (Lily) Mae Garcia is on her way!

I finally get to buy pink things and Nathan is so excited that he's getting a sister! I'll post some ultrasound pictures, too!

19 Weeks Tomorrow

I'll be 19 weeks tomorrow and I feel like I don't look any different than I did at 14 weeks. SOMEDAY my belly will pop.

Today was a pretty eventful day.

Back story: I've felt baby since 16 weeks but haven't felt him/her for the past 2 days. I called the doc and they called back and told me to go to the ER because Labor * Delivery (L&D) at my hospital won't see you unless you are 20 weeks.

Honestly, I'm smart enough to realize that Baby isn't very big and that I might not feel every movement at this point. When the nurse called me back and told me I needed to go to the hospital I was in shock. (I actually asked her, "Really? I'm only 19 weeks. Are you sure?")

She told me that if I've been feeling Baby daily and all of a sudden wasn't I need to get checked.
So, off to the ER I went. I checked in at 1:45 and left at 4:00 so it wasn't too bad for an ER trip. They did an ultrasound and then the radiologist looked at it. The doctor came in and told me everything was OK and gave me the print out from the radiologist showing that the spine, stomach, heart, and kidneys all look great. I still have an ultrasound at my doctor next Thursday to do a gender check and measure some more organs. Everything they did measure was exactly the right size, though.

I have the strongest feeling that this baby is a girl. I wasn't excited about it at first, but now I'm ecstatic, lol. Honestly, now that I know Baby is measuring healthy I don't care WHAT the sex is, but we'll still find out next week!

Sunrise, Sunset

Nathan is growing up so fast. I love to watch him grow and learn, but it sort of breaks my heart. I know I'm not the first mother to feel this way, nor will I be the last, but it's such a strange feeling.

Today he found one of those poppers that you turn inside out and put on a table and then it pops into the air. It's a really big one, though, about 2 inches in diameter. He figured out that if he put it on his mouth and breathed in it would stick but (because there's a small hole it) as soon as he stopped it would fall off. I know it seems like small potatoes, but that's a physics lesson.

Charming :o)

Ultrasound Pics from 10 Weeks 3 Days

10 weeks 6 days

Whew! It's been a month since I blogged!

As my doctor pointed out on Monday, I'm one quarter of the way done with my pregnancy. Ack! For some reason that freaks me out....

I'll be 11 weeks tomorrow. That means in 11 days I'll be done with my 1st trimester. (Each trimester is 12 weeks and 3 days, medically speaking.)

I'm still pretty sick in the mornings. I have a cute little routine...I wake up, pee, turn the shower on, throw up, take a shower, pee again, brush my teeth. I'm hoping it goes away soon. I was sick until 16 weeks with Nathan, though, so I doubt this pregnancy will be any different.

I think it's a girl. I really, really, REALLY (really) want another boy, but I'm pretty sure it's a girl. We'll find out in September and, honestly, I'll be surprised if it's a boy.

I went to the doctor on Monday. The baby is doing VERY well. He did a quick ultrasound and you can see arms and eye sockets. S/he looks like a little alien!

6 weeks 1 day

A bump can be seen this week. I haven't gained any weight, and it's not baby so I'm assuming that my uterus is growing and pushing all my organs up and out giving me that little belly.

I've been really sick this week. Morning sickness (Really? Who came up with that. It should really be called "All Day Sickness.") hit me on Monday and today I actually came home from work because of it. The doctor gave me some medicine to help with the nausea and vomiting but some days it's still really bad.

My "morning" sickness went away around 16 weeks with Nathan, so I'm hoping that I can expect the same thing this time around. That gives me ten weeks to count down. Well, it's better than 20 weeks, I suppose.

I have been addicted to "A Baby Story" and "Birth Day" on TLC. I watched it all afternoon today (since I've been home since 9:30) and I want to watch more. I watched it ALL the time before I got pregnant with Nathan and while I was pregnant with Nathan. After I had him, I turned it on one afternoon and had no desire to watch it. It was kind of like, "Been there, done that." But now that I'm pregnant again I can't tear myself away. It's silly, really. Like THAT much has changed since I had Nathan 2 and half years ago.

Yes, I'm grumpy.

Yes. I'm grumpy and I'm irritable. Deal with it. If you are an idiot I will probably have zero patience for you. This is not new. I have ALWAYS had zero patience for idiots. However, I am now pregnant and this causes me to say what I'm thinking.

I'm extremely tired and sick. Ask anyone: a tired Amanda is NOT a nice Amanda.

So, let's review:

Exhaustion + Morning Sickness + Idiocy = I'm probably going to explode.

Names and Feelings...

We've been talking about names for the baby. Even though I'm barely 5 weeks pregnant we want to be able to know the baby's name when we have our "big" ultrasound in approximately 13 weeks. Assuming the little one cooperates, we'll be able to find out the sex and then be able to refer to him/her by his/her first name instead of calling him/her "the baby" (not to mention get rid of the need to use multiple pronouns).

As I mentioned previously, we really want a boy. Ironically, that is the name we're having a problem coming up with. We've known for a LONG time that if we have a little girl we're going to name her Liliana Mae (Lily, for short). We both really like the name Alexander (Alex, for short) for a little boy. But, in 2008, Alexander was the 6th most popular name for boys. I'm worried about our child having the same name as 30 other little boys in his school.

I know it seems silly, but there were a lot of girls that had the same name as me when I was growing up, and it was frustrating sometimes. (I always had to be "Amanda K." in elementary school. I could never just be "Amanda".)

We've toyed with some names but our favorite so far is Matthew Alexander. I'm sure we'll keep playing with names for the next few weeks.

Part of me feels like we shouldn't even worry about it because I think it's a girl. I read a study this week that says when asked what they think the baby will be, the pregnant mother is correct 71% of the time. That's a lot better odds than the 50/50 chance of guessing correctly if it's a boy or girl...I guess we'll find out!

5 weeks 0 days

Yikes. Check out that belly bloat. That's definately because I just ate dinner.

I'll be 5 weeks tomorrow, here's how big baby is!

I've started thinking of "him" as Johnny Appleseed after seeing this today. Here's what's going on:

"Your embryo (looking kind of like a tadpole) is starting to form major organs (heart, kidney, liver, stomach) and systems (nervous, circulatory, digestive). Baby's presence in your uterus triggers production of hCG (the hormone detected by pregnancy tests)... which triggers production of other hormones like estrogen and progesterone... which trigger all those great symptoms you've probably been noticing!"

"He's" still so tiny!

First doctor's appointment today!

We had our first doctor's appointment today. It was pretty uneventful. The nurse did an ultrasound but our little bean is only the size of a poppy seed right now so we couldn't see him yet. She did confirm that my uterus has a nice thick lining and is ready for the baby to start growing (yay!).

Other than that it was pretty uneventful. Just a bunch of paperwork and stuff.

So, I am only supposed to gain between 15 - 25 pounds this pregnancy. My goal is to gain even less than that. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to be unhealthy, but I'd like to develop healthier eating habits anyway and what better excuse than because I'm responsible for feeding the baby?

We go back to the doctor in July. I'll post ultrasound pics then!

Bump Watch @ 4 Weeks 4 Days

So here's the non existant baby bump at 4 weeks and 4 days pregnant. My plan is to take a picture every week but, as everyone knows, life gets in the way. I'll try to update as often as possible.

4 Weeks and 4 Days

My hips are killing me. I don't remember this much pain when I was pregnant the first time. Then again, I wasn't chasing a toddler the first time, either.

I've read that the hips start to shift early in pregnancy. That gives them 9 months to get ready to let the baby through. It's a painful shift, though.

As I'm writing this, Nathan is napping. I can't help but imagine what life will be like when we have another little one around. I keep imagining the baby, but s/he just looks like Nathan did when he was first born. I can't wait to see what this baby will look like.

I think it's a boy. Call it mother's intuition. (Of course, I have a 50% chance of being right!)

Of course, my guess could be clouded by the fact that I really want another boy. Of course, it goes without saying, all I REALLY want is a healthy baby. But, after that, a boy would be great. I think it's just because I know what to expect....sort of....

I have been having some of the CRAZIEST pregnancy dreams. The other night I dreamt I was being chased by Russians and I escaped them in my flying golf cart.

Last night I had a dream I had a German Shepard mix named Charlie. THEN I got in a huge argument with one of my best friends form work because she was chewing tobacco and thought it was no big deal. There also was a period in that dream when I was chasing after two little boys on a train and I kept telling them to stop (they were running towards the door at the end of the train car and I was afraid they were going to fall between the cars) and the wouldn't listen to me. I think that one was just my fear of being a mother to two toddlers. (Even though they both won't be toddlers at the same time.)

Our first appointment is on Tuesday, June 9th. We will get an ultrasound but as I'll only be 4 weeks 6 days it's highly unlikely that we will see a heartbeat. I'll post more on Tuesday about the appointment!