Baby Stone is a Girl!!!

I know that I am almost a week late with the posting, but everything went great at our doctor appointment on June 21st! Baby Stone is a girl, and she is a beautiful, healthy growing little baby! We are going to name her, Quinn O'Neil. 

To the left is a picture of our cake from our Gender Reveal party with our friends. Aren't the sweet little pink booties adorable?  The lady at the grocery store was so cute and excited about decorating the cake!

We also got a few great sonogram pictures during our visit.

The first picture is the best profile picture we were able to get. She was being a little camera shy at first;) The second is just a funny one where she has her legs up by her head.  As you can tell from her position, we have no doubt that she is a she..lol. For some reason, it just seems wrong for me to post the sono picture verifying..haha.

Typically, we got so excited at our Gender Reveal party that we didn't take that many pictures, but our friend, Alisha, did get a video of the big reveal! John made his famous brownies with vanilla icing in the center. He put pink food coloring with the vanilla.



We have the sweetest friends for coming out to celebrate our little girl! The party was a blast. John and I ended the night with putting our dvd from the appointment on the tv to see all the pictures from our appointment. It was just the two of us relaxing on the couch. We talked about what features from each other we hope she gets, and we let everything from the day actually soak in:) It is amazing how just knowing the gender of the baby makes you feel so much closer to the baby. It's so nice to feel her kick now, and I just smile and say, "well, hi there Quinn."

Here are at least two pictures from that night. The first is with our good friends, Amber and Erin. The first of many belly touching pictures I'm sure;)

 

I have learned that fluffy shirts like that may add a little to the belly. So we also took a picture with the same shirt I was wearing in the first post for comparison. I have really learned that I'm loving the tighter shirts! They are just more flattering than the shirts that don't touch you anywhere.

20 weeks

We couldn't help ourselves after the appointment. We had to stop by the baby store, and we found Quinn's bedding for the nursery. A special thank you goes out to Quinn's grandparents-to-be,  Mr. Johnny and Mrs. Cathy, for the bedding!! It's perfect. Here is a picture of the bedding from the store. John tackled the border this weekend, and it is gone! We are now painting, and pictures will follow once it's completed:)

We are painting and getting ready for our big family reunion over the 4th!! Cannot wait to see everyone!

Butterflies in my belly:)

We have movement!! This past Tuesday, I felt the baby for the first time while I was at work. I had no idea what it was at first. It reminded me of some strange muscle spasm until it moved in my belly. Since then, I've at least felt a little flutter a couple of times a day. I cannot wait to feel the baby more often! Of course, I may change my mind if the baby thinks that 3am is time to wake up and greet the day:) I may as well go ahead and get used to it though.

We have had an exciting week. My sweet Bigmama bought our crib set for us, and we got it last weekend.

It definitely sparked me to now get this nursery together! We moved everything out of the room, and when we figure out how to get the wallpaper border off the walls, we will begin painting. The glue on the wallpaper is putting up a good fight, but we will win! The spark did not stop with the nursery. I do believe that nesting has kicked in now. John came home from work last Saturday at 11:00pm, and I was in the process of cleaning out our closet and dresser. I had to stop myself from moving onto the hall closet.  Now, that I am officially on summer break from work, I am really looking forward to getting all the house projects done:)

Everything is still going great with the pregnancy!  I have learned that sneezing is a side effect of being pregnant. They started around week 12, and I think the record has been 6 sneezes in a row so far. I'm still enjoying my extra long showers that I started taking during my first trimester, and I am now mixing my wheat bagels with cinnamon swirl. They just smell so good!

We are counting down until Tuesday morning.  I cannot wait to know if we are having a sweet girl or boy! We are going to have a few friends over that night for a gender reveal to our friends. It's just a good excuse to get together and celebrate.



Getting Started:)

So...I'm going to give this blogging a try. I saw on another blog where they termed pregnant blogging as "progging." I think that will probably describe mine better since being pregnant was my inspiration for getting this blog started:) I have noticed how a lot of people forget details of their pregnancy even after the first year (justifiably from lack of sleep;), and I really would like to start keeping some type of journal to document everything. No promises on consistent progging, but I am going to try!

Quick recap of the past few months: We found out that we were going to be parents on March 12th. I cannot even begin to describe to you how excited and happy we were! Since I had gotten used to seeing negative pregnancy tests, I took one at home by myself thinking that it was going to be another false alarm. Much to my surpise, it was positive! 2 tests later...I realized that I would have to pace around the house for anther 2 hours before John would be home from work to tell him because I couldn't possibly break the news over the phone,and he had to be the first to know! I think I cleaned the entire downstairs, took a shower, and practiced on how I would calmy break the news when he walked in the door. Our first appointment was April 8th. Here's our sonogram from that day:

It was amazing to see the baby's heartbeat on the screen! The baby measured at 8wks 4 days, and our due date is November 11, 2011. So 11-11-11! My parents, sister, and niece were in town to celebrate, and we had an amazing dinner downtown at Oak that night.

I was really lucky during the first trimester as far as morning sickness and nausea goes. The strangest thing for me was how I just woke up around week 7 and hated the smell and taste of coffee. For those of you that know me, I don't usually communicate without at least 2 cups of coffee in the morning. This was really strange for me. Fortunately, around week 14, I started feeling like myself again, and I now can enjoy my cup of coffee in the morning (in moderation of course). Our next appt. was May 4th:

Our little munchkin was moving all over the place. I just love the picture of the baby's "frog legs." This was at week 12, and I decided to tell my office that I was expecting after the appointment. I had noticed that I seemed to have a little pooch showing the week before, and I was pretty convinced that my boss had noticed at a luncheon we had that week. As soon as I told her the news, she said she had noticed and had just been waiting for me to tell her..lol. I am so fortunate to have an office full of the sweetest ladies! They have been so excited and supportive! After I broke the news, the baby decided it was time for everyone to know, and I got down to only wearing leggings, dresses, and 2 pair of my "big" pants. Thank goodness for summer and dresses!! I have now officially gone to maternity clothes, and I have no idea why I didn't start sooner! They rank up there with scrubs! Here is my most recent picture from this week. I am almost at week 17:

We had a great doctor's appointment on June 2nd. It was so nice to hear the babies heartbeat! We have an active one on our hands. Our doctor lost the heartbeat twice cause the baby was moving so much. I still cannot feel the baby move yet, but I am looking forward to it! Since I am so close to being 17 weeks, our doctor said we can come back in 3wks instead of 4 to find out the gender of the baby! I have my guess, but we shall see!! Countdown to June 21st!

That is pretty much it for us over the past few months. I have been really fortunate so far! I feel great, and I haven't had any emotional breakdowns yet or crazy cravings. I did get a little concerned a few weeks ago when I teared up at a Publix commercial, and then cried during the Glee episode where Sue's sister passed away. Fortunately, I was home by myself :) I just want to end with a quick plug for my gorgeous town since it is summer, and we do live so close to the beach:

Y'all are welcome to come and visit anytime!!