Mexico Getaway

Well, we are back from officially our last vacation as just the two of us. We enjoyed several relaxing days doing nothing but laying out by the pool, going out for dinner and for me working out every morning and enjoying a virgin drink while Greg enjoyed some Mexican beer. After much contemplation, I decided to sport my two piece swimsuit despite the beginning of a baby bump.

Half way there & finally starting to show

Last week I reached the official half way mark, 20 weeks. We celebrated with a doctor's appointment and another ultrasound of course. We were able to see some great pictures of the baby and looks like our Baby Francis is going to be a mini-Greg with his facial features, height and thin build! I'll post pictures soon.

And luck would have it that I would finally start show after Thanksgiving dinner... and of course just days before we head to Mexico for a quick vacation (our last for a while at least). I marked the 21 week spot with officially not being able to button any of my pants, except for 1 pair of jeans. So I headed off to the mall for a less than thrilling shopping mission to find pants with room to grow. Thankfully one of my favorite stores, Express, came through for me and I was able to find my favorite pair of work pants in a larger size that weren't too terribly big, but yet still gave me some growing space.

Baby Bump Watch

Well, I've gotten to the point at 18 weeks where some of my clothes are starting to get snug, particularly my workout tops! I've decided to put away the size 0 pants b/c even though I can still get in them, it just isn't all that comfortable sitting in snug pants all day long. According to websites and friends, I will probably be sporting a bump any week now. For now it looks like had WAAAAAYYYYYYYYY too much to eat!

We got ourselves a future kayaker!

That's right we are having a boy! According to the U/S tech, "it's definitely a boy and he has his hands all over it" - I guess he wanted to make sure there was no mistaking his gender. Greg is absolutely thrilled he is going to have himself a mini kayaker, camper, and outdoorsy little boy while I'm worried about not knowing nearly enough about raising boys. After all, I grew up with all girls in the house (incuding our pets minus one boy kitty) and my dad had all sisters. What do I know about boys? After all I'm a pageant girl. Well, I guess I'm about to get myself a crash course on raising boys now. Thankfully, I have several friends who either have boys or have recently had a baby boy, which means hand me downs and tons of advice!

One Sexy Mama!

This past Friday I had the opportunity to model in a hair show promoting a green/eco-friendly vodka at a local bar in Denver. I decided since I was not showing yet and the hair show was paid - why not participate! Check out the picture of us sporting our newspaper dresses and nature-inspired hair. And yes those are twigs ratted into my crimped and curled hair!

Bye Bye Abs!

All my life I have taken pride in having good abs, but now they are slowly disappearing (which is not the most enjoyable aspect of being pregnant for me). Here is the progression - 7 weeks, 9 1/2 weeks, and 12 weeks

2 pre-baby projects down!

Many of you have heard about our pre-baby projects that Greg and I have been diligently working on (okay, so Greg's been doing more of the physical work than I am able to). We recently laid a garage tile floor down, which Greg absolutely loves. And then the BIG project we've been working on since the week after we found out we were pregnant - is the backyard! Harley Dog had destroyed the backyard, plus we threw it together pretty cheap when we first moved in. So now it was time to invest energy and some $$ into making it a family-friendly place to hang out. We completely gutted the backyard, rebuilt a retaining wall system, added a drainage system, leveled the yard (finally I won't fall of my lawn chair when tanning), had a flagstone patio with lighting built, laid new sod, and planted some trees and shrubs. We (or Greg) did the majority of the work, with only hiring a contractor for the patio. Oh and did I mention for our anniversary, Greg gave me a plague that was engraved with the date and a dedication to me and the baby. Now we have a backyard fit for Harley Dog and Baby Francis to enjoy!

New pictures

Today I had another doctor's appointment and I got to see our baby's development. It's unbelievable what can happen in a few weeks! The baby no longer looks like a nut (or cream cheese swirl brownies as my sister so pleasantly stated), but actually looks like a baby! Unfortunately, the baby was being stubborn and wasn't ready to disclose it's gender quite yet. Imagine that - Greg and I having a stubborn baby!!

Our Little Peanut!

A week and a half ago, I had yet another doctor's appointment and ultrasound. This time the ultrasound was a 3-D ultrasound. The technology nowadays is unbelievable! Not only did we get several new pictures of our baby, but I actually got to see her/him dance around a bit. I would expect nothing else from my baby! I'm sure s/he would have tossed out a pageant wave too if it had arms. Check out the 3D photo - it looks more like a nut than anything else at this stage.

And the date changes yet again!

This past Friday we had another doctor's appointment. Because my first ultrasound did not match up to the original estimation of how far along I was, the doctors are monitoring me quite regularly to get a better idea of how far along I really. So at this appointment, we had another ultrasound which determined I'm approximately 7 weeks, which matched up perfectly to last week's ultrasound where they estimated I was 6 weeks. The benefit of getting weekly ultrasounds is we have tons of pictures of our baby already which is allowing us to watch the baby's development. Our latest due date is April 13, 2009.

First Appointment... and even doctors make mistakes!

We had our first appointment on Friday. Upon arrival, we were overwhelmed with nurses gathering around telling me how good my numbers looked (from my 2 previous progesterone tests). Greg, of course, had no clue what they were talking about. Then I overheard two nurses talking about how they just know I am having twins! That's when my nurse explained to me they didn't want to shock me, but my numbers were so high there was a good chance I was having twins. I immediately panicked and began thinking "but there's no way I will ever get my abs back if I have twins!" (hey I can still be a bit selfish right?). Thankfully, when we had our ultrasound we got to see our baby. That's right our baby, not babies! (All of the nurses were gathered around the door waiting to hear the news of twins, but they were all wrong!) However, when the ultrasound tech was measuring the baby she discovered I was only 6 weeks pregnant, not 8 weeks! So, looks like our new due date is April 9th, 2009.

We are going to be parents!

On August 7th, we discovered we are going to be parents. I am 7 weeks pregnant! I surprised Greg with a "I Love My Daddy" frame and paint samples to turn his kayak room into a nursery. He was in shock and almost didn't believe me. We will officially be welcoming Baby Francis into our lives in March 2009 (we are both March babies).