My Pregnancy: 14 weeks

How our baby's growing:
This week's big developments: Our baby can now squint, frown, grimace, pee, and possibly suck his thumb! Thanks to brain impulses, his facial muscles are getting a workout as his tiny features form one expression after another. His kidneys are producing urine, which he releases into the amniotic fluid around him — a process he'll keep up until birth. He can grasp, too, and if I were to have an ultrasound now, I might even catch him sucking his thumb.

In other news: Our baby's stretching out. From head to bottom, he measures 3 1/2 inches — about the size of a lemon — and he weighs 1 1/2 ounces. His body's growing faster than his head, which now sits upon a more distinct neck. By the end of this week, his arms will have grown to a length that's in proportion to the rest of his body. (His legs still have some lengthening to do.) He's starting to develop an ultra-fine, downy covering of hair, called lanugo, all over his body. Our baby's liver starts making bile this week — a sign that it's doing its job right — and his spleen starts helping in the production of red blood cells. Though I can't feel his tiny punches and kicks yet, our little pugilist's hands and feet (which now measure about 1/2 inch long) are more flexible and active.

Is it February already???

Wow, this year is already flying by. What the hell happened to January? It was here and gone in the blink of an eye.

So, things are going good around these parts except for the fact that Jack and I are sick with a cold. (Pregnancy+Cold=Misery). Unfortunately for me, when my kids get sick they are MAJORLY cranky and not at all sleepy. Uggg...

I got a call from my ob/gyn today and my first trimester screen came back negative which means we have a low chance of having a baby with Down's. Yay! I have my next appointment a week from Thursday. I'm excited about this because I'll be 14 weeks then and they like to see you every 4 weeks, so when I make my next appointment I'm going to see if they will schedule my "big ultrasound" at the same time (I'll be 18 weeks then). I really don't want to wait until 20 weeks to find out if it's a girl or a boy. It's killing me not knowing. I don't know how those people who are surprised at the birth do it.

I'm proud to say I'm still running. I ran a 5k this past Saturday in Dade City. I came in at 27:10. I thought that was pretty darn impressive being that my best 5k time ever is 26:25. I felt really good running it to. I was nervous that I would get really out of breath, but it didn't happen. I only slowed to a walk one time and that was just to drink my little cup of water. The Angels ran it too and they did really good as well. It was a great day for everyone. I felt SO good to run fast. I'm dreading the day I get to big to run that way. There is something so free-ing (yeah, i make up words, so what?) about running fast.

In other news, Chip's job offered him a very generous amount of money per month for us to move back to Sarasota and rent a house that accommodates us. I'm excited, but very nervous. We'd move back in June if the plan goes through. It will be nice to have the privacy of our own place again, but I've really got all my help here in Tampa. I'll keep you posted on that one.

Confession Wednesday...

I've been eating Chips Ahoy bite size chocolate chip cookies late-night in my bed, everynight for the past year (i do get back up to brush the teeth, so don't go thinkin im gross!). I love my late night snack. I've tried other types of cookies and I always end up with ol' reliable: Chips Ahoy. I can have 5 cookies for 150 calories and add a glass of milk for 100 calories. I've grown into such a relationship with my late night snack. For instance, nothing beats a fresh bag. Once I'm down the the bottom of current bag, they're just not the same. Nights where I'm all out, I'm left wishing I had some of those sweet pieces of heaven. Sometimes I'll make a special trip to the store just for my cookies.

It's no wonder my mom's nickname for me since early childhood is "cookie". Wait, did I just say that. That's another confession of it's own. :)

Hello, Hello!

It's been awhile since I've posted and for no other reason than being super busy. My sister had her baby shower Sunday and I was in charge of the planning. It turned out great and she got lots of awesome things for her little boy. The shower made me *that* much more excited about meeting James "Joba" Bryan Spinner. Only 7 more weeks to go!!

I had my first trimester screen today which is done by ultrasound along with a blood test. I was REALLY excited to see our little peanut. For some reason ever since my miscarriage last year I'm super paranoid that something is going to go wrong. When the baby popped up on the screen and looked like a baby with arms and legs and all, I was so relieved. The ultrasound portion of the test looked good and the tech made a guess that our baby is a girl!! We won't know for sure for about another 8 weeks, but it's exciting none the less. Chip really wanted to go with me, but Grace came down with a fever late last night and we decided he should stay home with the kids instead of taking them to my grandparents house. The tech gave me extra pictures so he got to see those. I wish I had a scanner to show you how beautiful my little baby is already. :)

I'm feeling better these days and while the morning sickness hasn't totally gone away it is definitely much, much, better. I think I'm really starting to poke out, but my pants still fit so that's a good thing. I dread having to wear maternity clothes.

I'm still running. I ran 10 miles last Monday with the "Angels" in about 2 hours. I only peed once!! Yay for that! The "Angels" short for "Angels with filthy soles" is the name of the running group Kristen, Jen, Melanie and myself have started. I wish could run with them more, but with kids and finding a babysitter, etc. it's hard.

Can you all do me a favor?? Pretty please???

There is this amazing girl Kelly, that has a blog at http://www.kellyskornerblog.com/ She and her husband tried for two years to get pregnant and they were finally blessed with a sweet baby girl. Harper was born about 8 days ago and immediately had to go into the NICU due to breathing trouble. At one point they didn't think she was going to make it. The wonderful news is she is doing much better, but she still could use any and all prayers you have to spare. Watching Kelly go through this ordeal and seeing how her faith in the Lord has enabled her to have the amount of courage she has shown has been amazing. She is definitely a wonderful example of a strong Christian woman. I'm so glad I found her blog and it's nice to have someone my age to look up to. I admire her so much! So please say a prayer for Harper and their family tonight. And also if you could, my mom's friend Robin lost her son today to leukemia. They knew it was a matter of time before he passed, but that didn't make it any easier. He was only 22 years old. I have to believe this was part of God's plan and he's now resting peacefully in place far better than Earth. Please pray for their family!

Thanks guys!

Oh, like my new shirt?? ;)

Today's doctor appointment

It went fabulous! I got to hear the heartbeat again. It only took the dr. a few seconds to find it and boy was I relieved. I have a home doppler I've rented from BabyBeats and it looks just like the one she had, but only at home I'm having trouble finding a heartbeat. When it came in the mail the other day and I first tried it with no sucess I was having a mini-freak out inside. But all is well, so no worries. I've gained 4 pounds and the doctor says thats perfect. I go back in a week for the 1st trimester screening which is an ultrasound that looks for any kind of birth defect. Wish me luck!! Also, that 's the ultrasound my sister found out she was having a boy at. There's no gurantees, since that's really early, but it's still fun to take a guess.

Sometimes I still can't believe I'm having a 3rd child. It seems like it was just yesterday I was partying it up all carefree like and now I'm a mother of 3. WOW! Someone pinch me!

Confession Wednesday...

I think Steven Tyler is sexy. There I said it.

Well as you know this past weekend me and the husband went to Orlando for what would have been my first marathon. Although it was bitter sweet in a sense for me, we did have such a wonderful time indeed.

On Saturday we left the house around noon, had a pit stop at Boston Market and then we were off. We arrived in Orlando and checked into our hotel, the Disney Beach Resort...


I've decided this is thee place to stay for the Marathon. Although the room was pricey (around $320) it was definitely worth it to be *right* there. I didn't realize that our balcony faced the race route until Sunday morning when I looked out the window and saw all the yellow cones barricading the course off. Before I get ahead of myself let me rewind.

So we check in, clean up, and head out to Downtown Disney. We had reservations at a place called Fulton's Crab House. OMG, so good!!! You have to go. We totally splurged since we don't get out much these days. For an appetizer we had stone crab claws and lobster bisque. Then for my entree I ordered thee most expensive item on the menu. :) King crab claws with a lobster tail. I swear I died and went to heaven. Chip had a filet and a lobster tail bringing our grand total to almost $200.00 dollars. Wow, it was worth it though.




After dinner we headed over to the Cirque de Soliel. We were right on time and got into our seats just minutes before the show started. Here I am outside of the theater.


The show was fantastic. I was in complete awe of the things these people were doing. I recommend everybody go see it at least once. When the show was over I had thoughts about joining the circus, that's how good it was. :)

Once we got back to the hotel we decided, well I decided, we needed dessert. We ordered ice cream, a milkshake, chocolate layer cake, cookies, and a glass of milk from room service. We wanted to make sure we covered all bases. $50 dollars later I felt like I was going to puke. Why, oh why do I do these things to myself?!

In the morning we ordered room service (again!) for breakfast and were able to watch the very first racers run by. Someone told us it was between 24-25 miles where we were at. Here's a picture of Sunday morning before anyone came through...




Now Jen, Kirsten, or anyone else who's planning on running this race in 2010, the reason this place is so ideal is that the husbands can sleep in, have a nice breakfast, lounge around the pool area, etc. while they wait on us to run on by. Lots of people were pulling chairs from the pool up next to the race route. If you don't stay at a Disney hotel it would be very hard find somewhere to camp out at and wait for us to come by. My mother in law for example tried to watch the first year my father in law ran and it was so crowded and uncomfortable that she has stayed back at their hotel (a few miles away from Disney) the last 2 years. And seeing our husbands at mile 24 will be a great boost of energy to get through the last 2 miles and finish strong.

Check out was at 11am, but we decided to stay until 12 to see my father in law and my brother in law run by. FIL is 65 and this was his third and last marathon. He's had trouble with his feet and he wasn't sure if he was going to finish the race. When we saw him at mile 25 we were SO proud. He was pretty happy to see us too, as it was a surprise.



I can't wait to go back next year!!!

10 Weeks

Your pregnancy: 10 weeks



How your baby's growing:

Though he's barely the size of a kumquat — a little over an inch or so long, crown to bottom — and weighs less than a quarter of an ounce, your baby has now completed the most critical portion of his development. This is the beginning of the so-called fetal period, a time when the tissues and organs in his body rapidly grow and mature.He's swallowing fluid and kicking up a storm. Vital organs — including his kidneys, intestines, brain, and liver (now making red blood cells in place of the disappearing yolk sac) — are in place and starting to function, though they'll continue to develop throughout your pregnancy.If you could take a peek inside your womb, you'd spot minute details, like tiny nails forming on fingers and toes (no more webbing) and peach-fuzz hair beginning to grow on tender skin.In other developments: Your baby's limbs can bend now. His hands are flexed at the wrist and meet over his heart, and his feet may be long enough to meet in front of his body. The outline of his spine is clearly visible through translucent skin, and spinal nerves are beginning to stretch out from his spinal cord. Your baby's forehead temporarily bulges with his developing brain and sits very high on his head, which measures half the length of his body. From crown to rump, he's about 1 1/4 inches long. In the coming weeks, your baby will again double in size — to nearly 3 inches.

Is that a baby bump or did I eat too much pizza?? I'll go with the pizza for now :)

Taken at 8 weeks pregnant:

January 9, 2009

Howdy y'all!

It's been over a week since I last posted and since I last updated on the evil morning sickness. Well that bitch is here and it's not pretty. I LITERALLY feel like I wanna puke every waking moment. It's a vicious cycle...nauseous, really nauseous, eat, very nauseous, nauseous. Over and over and over again. Damn, someone throw me a bone! Thee only thing good about morning sickness is that it signifies that everything is going ok inside. Right now I'm 9 weeks and 2 days pregnant and with each day that passes I feel more confident that I'm not going to miscarry. Yay for that!

In other news, classes started and I can officially say I'm in my last semester at USF (Finally!). It only took a little over 10 years, but I'm actually going to graduate and be able to say I have a bachelors degree in social science. That feels awesome. I'm so glad I stuck to it. I'm taking 3 online classes since all I had left were electives. The best part is I have zero papers to write. If you know me you know how much I dread writing papers. OMG, no more papers for the rest of my life, Yay!!! I really have my husband to give credit to for me finishing school. He has been awesomely supportive of my education. Thanks babe!!

I'm still keeping up with the running. I ran 5 miles 3X last week and 2X this week so far. My goal is to get 15 miles a week. I hope I can keep up the running throughout most of this pregnancy. I figure if I can get out there and do it now feeling like shit, once the morning sickness dies down it should be a lot easier.

Tomorrow we leave for Orlando. It's going to be so nice to get away with Chip even if it is just for one night. Our plans are to leave here around noon, drive to Orlando, check in and shower, go out to dinner, go to the show, go back to hotel, order late night room service, watch tv, sleep in, go for run around the resort, eat breakfast, shower, and back to Tampa. Fun times!!

My father in law (who's running his 3rd marathon this year, holla!!) offered to pick my race shirt up for me since I did pay $125.0o to enter, but I declined. I don't want that shirt. I just wouldn't feel right wearing a shirt to a race I didn't even run, kwim? That's false advertising. Only once I've run my marathon will I sport the shirt with pride.

Dear Husband...

Although the presents you've picked out in the past have been absolutely fabulous, I'd thought I'd give you an extra hand in the next round of gift giving. (don't we have a dating anniversary coming up January 24th? ;))

Want!

The i pod nano (in pink of course)...



And to go along with it the Nike+ system...


only to be followed by the Nikon D90 (think of all the money we would save not hiring a photographer!)...


And remember when I said I want to go to Hawaii on for my 30th birthday? Well that still stands...



And lastly, if all else fails, I'd really love to sleep in every once in awhile. I am, afterall, carrying *your* baby. And since it was *you* who knocked me up, it's only fair. :)