So much to share!

What an exciting couple of weeks! I have a feeling this post may be a bunch of rambling because there is so much to tell! I'll try to start at the beginning...

Sitting in the bath a week or so ago I felt those funny belly feelings again. To me, it felt like someone using a paintbrush on the inside of my stomach followed by some tapping. Until this point I was in denial that I had been feeling my baby (I didn't have a better explanation I just didn't want to get excited over nothing). I decided to just watch my belly. All of a sudden, part of my belly jutted out as I felt the tapping from the inside. There was no denying it- it was my little one! I was so excited! Matt rushed in to see too but baby decided he/she was tired for the evening and didn't give us any more action. A couple days later though, baby was active in full force and Matt was able to see and feel the movements. That was so special! Many belly kisses followed.

As far as baby news, this is only the beginning really. My belly is getting much bigger. It is now 32 inches around my stomach at the belly button. That's a 4.5 inch growth from week 8. I've gained about 8 pounds. My belly button continues to creep outward day by day. My pre-pregnancy pants still fit, but only with discomfort so I have grown to love maternity pants. That elastic waistband feels so good! While at dinner with my mom and Doug one night, Matt brought up the idea of having a gender reveal party. These parties are the super trendy thing to do these days. So after some convincing, I agreed. So even though we had our anatomy scan today, we asked the ultrasound technician not to disclose the sex but to write it down and put it in an envelope. Then my mom will take the envelope to a baker who will bake a cake that is either pink or blue on the inside. When we cut into the cake at the party on Feb 2nd we will find out- son or daughter!

On to the anatomy scan! Even though we didn't find out the sex today, there was plenty else to see! We got to see each body part individually and watch our little one move about in my tummy. He wasn't particularly cooperative for the head and face shots but we managed to get a couple. Our technician even gave us a few 3D shots! I pretty much melted when I saw that little nose. I really couldn't believe it- that was my child's face! The best part of the appointment was hearing that all Baby G's measurements look great and all organs are functioning. I could even see five little fingers and five little toes!

Okay, on to non-baby news. This past weekend was our niece Allie's 4th birthday party so we drove up to celebrate. We sure do love that precious girl! Luckily, Matt's mom got a new camera for Christmas so she got a bunch of great shots of the party! We had such a good time!


Other great happenings recently: I got to visit my honey at work for lunch and he showed me around his new fancy building, we got to visit the Bakers in Ardmore (in addition to Allie's party), and I got a smokin' deal on some nursery furniture. Needless to say- we have lots of pictures to accompany this post!

Uncle Matt sure is popular!

Meeting Mr. G for lunch.

2D profile view of Baby G!

3D picture of his/her face. Look at that little nose!

3D profile view of our baby... and our kitten?

Hello 2013!

2012 was a wonderful year for Mr. and Mrs. G! With our vacations, relatively new house, marriage, and pregnancy it’s hard to imagine that this upcoming year could be any better. But, even if the only significant event that happens this year is the birth of our little one then I must admit, it will surpass 2012 on the greatness scale. Matt and I rang in the new year in our living room. Originally we had plans to celebrate but I cooked too big of a dinner and Matt insisted he was in a “food coma”. I was right there with him so we decided to stay in. Matt was sweet enough to drink apple cider with me so I didn't feel alone in my sobriety. It was actually one of the best NYE celebrations I've had in recent memory.

Now that the holidays have come and gone the weeks seem to be going by more slowly. I am 17 weeks and 4 days today, but still don’t look particularly pregnant. This whole pregnancy thing is mind boggling, really. I never realized how tough it would be to simply trust that my body will care for our baby properly. I read about the significant changes that are supposed to be happening at a given time and it’s hard to put my faith in my body to automatically do those things.  Once my little one makes their debut I think I will owe my body a great big thank you!

Although the recent weeks haven’t given me any exciting baby news, the weeks ahead certainly will. For starters, I am right at the point when Mom’s start feeling the baby move. I haven’t had this experience yet but  that doesn't stop me from trying to stimulate my baby to move. Every day before Matt gets home from work I take some time to either read or talk to Baby. Then, at night, I put my phone on my belly and play soft music. I try to play the same few things in a cycle. Some studies have shown that babies recognize sounds from the womb (mother and father’s voice, specific songs or tunes, etc) after they are born and that it can be very soothing. I don’t want to be one of those over the top parents who follows every study to a tee, but this one is fairly easy and helps me bond with Baby so I go with it. Another exciting thing coming up is our anatomy ultrasound. This is scheduled for the 24th and will tell us the sex of Baby (who will finally get a gender specific pronoun!). We had planned on keeping the sex a surprise until birth but this Momma caved and decided we need to find out. What can I say- I was born to plan!

Oh and one more thing I realized this week that I thought was super neat- our baby is due on Father's Day. How special for Matt. :)

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Workin' on my baby bump!

                                                    The video I made for Matt since he couldn't be there.