Christmas

We had a great holiday with all of the family! We went to Chicago Saturday through Monday, and spent time with Randy, Cory, Charlie, Ron, Diane, Rick, Sandy, and Becky (think of anyone you know with the last name Worzala - they were there!) - and we were more than entertained by Charlie all weekend long! That kid has two speeds - asleep and 100mph. His personality is really coming out, and it's an awesome one :) The best Christmas gift we received was learning that Charlie is going to be a big brother in 2008! This was not Charlie's best Christmas gift, though. We also got to meet Carolyn's almost-five-month-old, Sadie, and despite being on the verge of a fever, she was precious!

We got back to Indiana Monday, and had dinner at our house with all of the Doans - my parents, Julie, and Matt. Pregnant lady needs to figure out how much I can eat in one sitting, because I almost exploded afterwards! Christmas day was spent in Frankfort, until Jeff got sick and we headed home mid-afternoon. Another great Christmas gift, I was asked to be in a great friend's wedding - Jenny Shaffer's - next fall. Next fall is wedding season! I have at least three weddings, and I'm in one and am going to Florida for one. What awesome motivation to lose the baby weight!!

Jeff's parents have been visiting since the day after Christmas, so it's nice to spend some down time with them, too. They've been put to work around our house - standard operating procedure any time they come down :) Rumor has it that there is painting going on today; which would be awesome!!

Yet another great Christmas gift, my cousin Megan gave birth to a beautiful baby girl yesterday (December 27), Lily Taylor. Lily weighed in at 7lbs, 9oz, and is precious. She didn't cry the whole time I was visiting (although I'm sure she'll make up for it later!) It was nice to hold a baby that wasn't intent on putting her foot in my right ribcage!

We are very blessed to have such a great family, and to be given the opportunity to spend time with everyone at the holidays, and all year round! BabyW is looking forward to meeting all of these great people!

6.5-month belly shot

How does this look for the front of our Christmas card? Kidding, of course; but I'm to the point where perfect strangers are asking me when I'm due. I haven't yet been mean enough to deny that I'm pregnant.

The "winter storm" hit yesterday and overnight; here is a picture of what I did all day; with the fire going and the Christmas lights lit, I wore the DVD player out yesterday (literally. We now don't have a working DVD player. We got a good five year run out of the great gift from Kate's wedding, though! )

Hope you're staying safe, warm and dry where you are - I haven't been out of the house since Friday night, but I'm going to try to brave the one-mile trip to church this morning.

Yet another Dr visit

Nothing to be concerned about.... since my ultrasound on Wednesday was supposed to include a doctor visit, and the doctor was called into delivery, I had a follow-up appointment on Thursday. I confirmed why I was getting the ultrasound in the first place, and learned some new things.

The doc was concerned about how small I was measuring for how far along I was; plus that I was carrying so low. So, the results.... the baby is measuring bigger than 28 weeks, but mommy is measuring smaller than 28 weeks. No, not by weight gain, but by fundal height. My official weight gain is pushing 25 pounds, and that's without taking into account that I was heavier than my ideal weight when I got pregnant! The target weight gain is 25-35 pounds, so looks like I'll be working on losing this for a long time to come :) That's okay, though - it's worth it!

Baby's head is down, probably will stay that way - everything looks good, and I'm finally to the point where sleeping on my back actually does affect my breathing. It hasn't up until now, and so I just keep sleeping on my back, despite hearing I'm not supposed to (some things can't be helped!). I was concerned that somehow it was hurting the baby, even if it wasn't affecting me. However, now it IS affecting me, and I'm even dreaming about it (dream about swimming the butterfly leg of the Medley Relay and losing my breath....If i could even swim the butterfly at month 6 in my pregnancy, I think I should win a medal). So, bring it on, left side!

That's my udpate for the day. I'm to the point where I'll be seeing the doc every two weeks for a while, until the point I go to weekly visits. I've visited one pediatrician, who I liked, and I have an appointment with a second (who will probably be the winner, from what I've heard....)

Have a great weekend! Be careful out there, if you're somewhere that they're predicting all this snow!

3 Ultrasounds, 3 Weeks

Today was my scheduled ultrasound with the technician. This is the one that was scheduled two weeks ago when my doctor was "concerned" about how low I'm carrying, and I made him go ahead and do one that day - he still wanted me to get in with the tech for more accurate measurements. In the meantime, I've had yet another ultrasound, since I had some weird things happen last weekend.

Today's was a good ultrasound; we got to see things more clearly with the technician driving. We even saw hair! (well, I would have had no idea it was hair, and am still shocked that anyone could TELL it was hair, but that's what she said....)

The scariest part? When she said that the baby was measuring for a March 28 delivery! What?!?!?! "Um, I mean FEBRUARY 28, sorry!!" So, either I'm going to go earlier than anticipated, or I'm going to have a huge baby. Jeff asked if it was "bad" that the baby was measuring big. She said no, big babies are better than small babies. I pointed out that sure, that's easy for everyone ELSE in the room to say, since this "big baby" is not coming out of their bodies!! However, of course I want a healthy baby above all, and if that means 10 pounds, bring it on! I'll be on drugs anyway.

Heart rate was in the 150s. They still say it's an old wives' tale, being able to determine gender based on the heart rate, but for curious minds, I wanted to let you know.

She did say that I don't necessarily look six months pregnant. I hope that pays off after the baby is born, but I doubt it with the amount of chocolate I have been eating for the past 28 weeks! Baby is moving quite a bit more now than it was at the end of November, Lucas is starting to figure out something is coming up, and I think we may finally have names picked out for a boy AND a girl. Now if we could just pick paint colors for the nursery!

Seeing my stomach move

Starting this past Tuesday, I've been able to actually see the baby kicking. Jeff finally got to see it today - it's like an alien in there. The baby took about a week and a half hiatus from moving much, so I called the doc (he has encouraged me to call him for less....) and I got an ultrasound on Monday. He assured me that everything looked fine, and he said I just have a "laid back baby." Hey, I'd pay money to have a laid-back baby once he/she is born - but I want to see him/her first - it's a little TOO laid-back when I can't feel it move much and I can't SEE that it's okay. Well, the baby got the message, and it's been making up for lost time ever since.

So I'm done with all of my traveling after getting back from Orlando on Tuesday evening. It was great to see Kelly on Thursday night - I haven't hung out with her sine before I was pregnant, and this after I thought I'd get to see her "all the time," living in Indy!

We got our Christmas tree up and decorated this week, and I'm hopefully going to get a bigger dent in the Christmas shopping done tomorrow. We also purchased a few key items for the nursery this week - a mattress, rocker/recliner, and a bookshelf. We have the dresser (doubling as a changing table) picked out and just need to place the order, and now we need to figure out the decorating! Paint color, bedding, and window treatments...

We're looking forward to a month filled with family, friends, and celebrating the season.

My blog has been very boring lately with no photos - I'll try to do something fun enough to photograph soon :) Take care.

Western Tour

I got back today from the Dallas/Phoenix leg of my pregnancy tour. I flew to Dallas Thursday morning, spent a few hours in the office there, and then headed to warm Phoenix, where I got to sleep with the balconey door open in my hotel room! It was dreamy. Until the next morning, when it started raining, and rained the next twenty-four hours I was there. However, of course, it was still warm. Spent Friday in the Phoenix office, went back to a Best Western motel (had the company told me before I left that they would pay for Friday night's lodging, I probably would've stuck with my Thursday night hotel! As it was, I spent $50 for the Best Western.

Anyway, the highlight of my trip, and the reason I stayed an extra night, was to see family. I went to dinner with Aunt Matha and Wendy, and Wendy's grandson Alex. It was so good to see them, since Aunt Matha moved back to warmer climates this past fall.

The flight today was about an hour early getting into Indy (when was the last time you heard of that?? So I've been organizing Christmas decorations and getting settled here. However, my organizing/decorating for Christmas on the first of December (my earliest ever) does not hold a candle to my cousins Tim & Alli, who have already MAILED their Christmas cards! What overachievers. Cute picture, Alli!!

Happy December!

Guess when Baby W's Coming!

http://www.expectnet.com/games/BabyW

To enter the pool and guess the date, time, gender, weight, and length of the new addition to our family, check out the above link. While the winner does not get naming rights, there might be some bragging rights that go along with it :)

The name of the game (you may be prompted to enter it) is BabyW

Play responsibly.