Baby Update {24 Weeks}

At 24 weeks, baby is about the size of an eggplant, or approximately 13 inches long and 1.5 pounds. She is not as see-through anymore, since she's been packing on some fat. She has developed taste buds, so now she can taste what I eat--time to get my fruits and veggies in!

One fun thing that has happened over the past few weeks: Just after our 22 week update, we discovered that we can now see my tummy jump sometimes when baby kicks really hard! And she's definitely getting stronger, because that happens somewhat often. In fact, as I write this, I'm getting kicked hard, and it feels so weird...

Just the other night, I woke up at about 2 AM and she decided that was a good time to get some stretching in--I could feel a whole bunch of jabs on both my left and right sides at exactly the same time! Needless to say, I didn't fall back asleep for a while. And I didn't mind at all.

We got Debbie's gift assembled a couple weeks ago (well, Dan did while I napped!). It's so adorable, and so very generous of her. Baby's going to love it! Thanks, Auntie Debbie!

We got another fun surprise in the mail recently. The Beckmans sent some adorable outfits...thanks, Karissa, Tyler, and girls! So cute:

And that's about it for this week's update; we are traveling over Easter weekend, so I am scheduling this to auto-post on Saturday. Hopefully it works!

On that note, I'll leave you with one last picture...Graya and Mila snuggling with their baby sister.

March 2016: MN & Sioux Falls Trips

Last weekend, we went back to Minnesota to see Dawn & Jake's house for the first time, and to attend Selena's 4th birthday party....

We arrived at their house late Friday night, and had a fun and relaxing Saturday visiting. Saturday night, the girls (Dawn, Sydney & I) went to our cousin's baby shower.

Sydney and cousin Addie (Kaisa's baby)

There was still a lot of snow in MN, although I'm sure it melted quickly after the nice weekend. In Huron, we don't have any left...it's 65 degrees F right now.

Sydney giving good-bye hugs.

We stopped in Glyndon for Selena's birthday, and watched her open gifts and blow out her candles....

We headed home afterward, and still got back at a decent time. It was a short work week for us, since we had to take Friday off for our appointment in Sioux Falls. After the ultrasound, we did some shopping and ate at Old Chicago, shopped some more, and stopped at The Falls, since I've never been there. It was a beautiful day for it (actually, in my opinion, a little too warm after walking around the park!).

And now I need to get outside and get some sun and fresh air...it's way too nice to be inside today.

Baby Update {22 Weeks}

A couple exciting things have happened over the past week....

First, though, how big is baby? She is the size of a corn on the cob, at about a foot long, and she is one whole pound now. When she isn't sleeping, she's busy touching everything she can--her face, umbilical cord, and so on.

The first exciting thing happened last Tuesday. When I sat down, I just happened to have my hand on my tummy right when she kicked really hard in that same spot. So Dan put his hand there and felt a few kicks too. He felt them again this morning, which was really neat.

And secondly, yesterday we had our follow up ultrasound in Sioux Falls, so we got up really early and made the two hour drive to the hospital. The scan went great--they didn't find anything wrong with her heart, so they cancelled our second appointment (and we were able to do a little shopping that morning!). They also confirmed she's still a girl, and we got some really good pictures of her face. :D

And now for the pictures...there are a lot of them! Sorry about the quality, I just took pictures of them on my phone and it's too much work to crop them all....

baby's face with her hand touching it

she's still a girl

her arms are crossed in this one

one of her feet

a leg and foot

and finally, a good one of her profile

I have to admit, I got a little teary when I saw her adorable face on the screen. It's all so much more real now... She still seems to like having her hands up to her face, but they were able to get some good pictures anyway! Dan said he noticed that her fingers were moving all over the place.

I'm not planning on buying much right now, but I've been really eager to buy something girly, so we stopped at a couple stores in Sioux Falls and Dan chose this outfit for the baby (he thought it was something I'd like, and I'm in LOVE with it):

I also got some fancy socks and hair bows, but the picture apparently disappeared from my phone.

The nursery is starting to fill up with some other fun things...my mom made an adorable travel changing mat, and Dan's parents gave a security blanket with tags around the edges and little piggy princess washcloths. We also got some fun hair things that were Sydney's when she was a baby.

We even received a fun delivery this week from baby's great-aunt Debbie, so we'll have to take a picture once it's assembled. This little girl is so spoiled already!

Well, that's about it for this week's baby update...I also have some pictures from last weekend and yesterday, but I'll save those for a separate post!

Baby Update {The Gender Reveal}

The Great Reveal....

Well, the day finally arrived for our anatomy scan and, as expected, the morning dragged by. Finally, it was time for lunch and - afterward - our ultrasound.

Sadly, we didn't really get the greatest pictures to take home. Baby was moving like crazy and holding both hands in front of its face (face on right and an arm above and below):

We did get just the tiniest peek at some eyes and a nose, but it was all kind of hard to see.

And then there were some waving fingers and a foot:

Finally...although I saved this one for last, it was actually the first thing we saw. It took no time at all to find out the baby's sex:

It's a GIRL!!!!

Now, for the most part, everything looked normal and healthy. However, we are being sent to Sioux Falls next week for a Level 2 ultrasound and echocardiogram...just as a precaution...because my doctor thought she was able to see a slight irregularity in the heartbeat. It's possible that she was wrong, because the baby was moving around too much to get a very good look, and she wasn't able to get a good image of the heart. Right now, we're not too worried, though, and want to do this for our own peace of mind. If there is anything wrong, we'll just need extra monitoring for the rest of the pregnancy.

Anyway, I'm really excited to know that we're having a baby girl! I would have been perfectly happy with a boy too, but I'm a little bit excited to shop for little girly things. I think Dan would have loved to have a little boy to teach baseball to, but he's going to be an amazing daddy to our baby girl.

Until next time....