Girl or Boy?

To clear up any and all confusion. We could find out the sex of the baby if we wanted to...but we're not. Instead we are just going to wait until the little guy or girl's birthday. I have to say it is kind of fun to drive all of you crazy, but I also think it will be so much fun for ya'll to find out that day too. And we have more time to think of names...you have to have noticed how indecisive I am about the nursery. Can you imagine Michael and I picking out a name? Needless to say it has been a long road.

Today for fun I took two quizes. They are both based on old wives tales. The first one said I was having a girl. 3 of my answers leaned toward boy and the other 7 leaned toward girl. The other quiz says I am having a girl based on even more silly superstitions, but it is nearly a 50/50 tie. So I do not feel that these quizes have adequatly answered the question do you?

Crib

We bought a crib. It will be in about two weeks from now. I love it and now I feel like I have accomplished something. As you can tell we are going for a very sweet look. Boy or girl a newborn is a newborn and if a baby boy can wear a lace collar or a day gown than he can sleep in this sweet crib.

How big am I? Pictures at 21 weeks...

Well I am not going to tell you my weight. And honestly I don't really feel like having my picture made...but for posteritys sake here we go...

From the front everything looks generally chubby...but that is no different than before pregnancy. From the side however...
By the way, we are half way through! And I am going to pick out a crib this weekend and I think I have everything figured out or atleast some inspiration that will give me direction on everything...so more nursery postings to come. On Monday some time I will post about the baby's size at 21 weeks and all of that stuff. At this very moment the baby is kicking me in so he is apparently excited about being mentioned on Monday too. And even more exciting, on Friday of next week we are going for an ultra sound which I will have on DVD, so more pic's of him to come. Have a great weekend.

THE DRESS

So as Anne's big day draws near I am getting very excited! Today the dock manager at the hotel emailed me to tell me he had a package for me...and it was one of three things...Anne's shower gift, Anne's late birthday present...or the bridesmaids dress for Anne's wedding. All three of which I was very excited about. Turns out it was the dress. It seems I have some growing to do before I can really fill it out. See below:

And for those of you who don't know Anne her she is with her fiance Jimmy at my rehearsal dinner.

And just so we are all clear on just how witty my sister is she just responded to an email and suggested that Anne have the photographer bring a wide angled lens!

Baby Godwin's First Gift

Just so you all know Baby Godwin has alot of names...none of which Michael or I have coined. Mamma calls her Baby Godwin, and she was the giver of the first gift. See it pictured below. It is a little shirt by Gerber that she stiched the trim on while Daddy drove them to the Delta for Nancy and Roger's wedding. She wrapped it in a blue bag which Michael took as a good sign. Please note her "A" in the back of the shirt. She is working on her signature. I put it next to Lauren's purple ink pen so ya'll can see how small it is. It is for a 5-8 lb. newborn...and I am hoping it will fit the baby just right. 5-8 lbs. seems like a good healthy weight...10 lbs. scares me! Back to Baby Godwin's many names: Elizabeth calls her Elizabeth Jr. Tracy and Carolyn decided to call her Clyde, Melanie calls her Simon, and Veronica calls her Cleophus.

I think Elizabeth is calling her Elizabeth Jr. because she thinks if she has to share her birthday with the baby she should get something. When I called Elizabeth and told her I was pregnant she replied, "What...I thought I was done celebrating you for a while." So needless to say she loved hearing the due date of December 13th was the day before her birthday.

Old Ultrasound Photos

Well it seems that due to the status of today's poll I will be refering to the baby as a "he".

Sorry but since I did not have the blog from the begining I might just have to do some backtracking to make sure I have journaled about everything at atleast most everything. So today I am going to show the third ultrasound we had which was also the last ultrasound we had. I went in because I was having some bleeding that could not be explained. Everything was just fine, I honestly think the doctor let me get an ultrasound just so I wouldn't drive her nurses crazy worrying. Michael was in court so he did not get to go, and so far has only been to one ultrasound (the first). Anyway this ultrasound was taken at 11 weeks and 5 days.

In both pictures the baby is laying on his back with his hand laying against the back of his forehead. In the second picture however the baby is floating back down because he kept arching his back and jumping up. And though I could see all of that movement I couldn't feel it. Some who have looked at the first picture have asked if that was the baby's nose sticking off his face...it is not...just his hand. Oddly the baby was in the exact same position when my mom and I went at 11 weeks. The ultrasound technician said, "Oh, it must be a girl she is already acting like a drama queen." Speaking of his pose with his hand laid against the back of his head.

Our House

So this post is for all of you who have wondered about our some what new house. We made our first home purchase in February and then moved in during the month of March. And I kind of was so crazy with school and work and all the new house duties that I forgot to tell alot of my friends. So just to catch ya'll up I thought I'd share a video Michael made of the house when he was moving us in. Sorry you'll have to wait till later to see the furnished version. Baby steps!

Click on a video below to watch it:
Mar 08 2009 - VID00006Video Length 5:07Click here to watch

Doctor's Appointment

For the sake of this post I will be refering to the baby by "she"...I am using she because that is what the votes say today. But I myself am completely unsure of the sex of the baby. I am sure in my next post I will say he. You know calling the baby "it" would be wrong.

So today I had a doctors appointment. It was boring. They used the doppler and they checked my blood pressure along with my protien and sugar levels. Everything was great. Oh, they also checked my weight...it is the first thing they do and the worst part of the appointment. I know I have to gain this weight and so far I am gaining it the way they want me to...but it is still wild to watch it crawl like that. At this point they say to gain an average of a pound a week. And while we are on the topic of weight gain...I also talked to my doctor about Anne's wedding (http://www.anneandjimmy.com/), the wedding in which I will be wearing a size 18 bridesmaids dress (http://www.priscillaofboston.com/dress_detail.jsp?gid=2&sfid=50631&f). I have been putting off talking to the doctor about it because I have been scared she would say I couldn't travel at that time...but she gave me the green light. It was a big relief. She said she will have to check me right before I go to make sure I am not dialated, but she said I should be fine.

So the doppler is about the only real interesting part of the doctors appointment. The nurse uses it to check the babies heart rate. Today the babies heart rate is in the 140's. Last month it was in the 150's and the month before it was 169. They told me the heart is different at different times based on the babies activity at the time. At first when they do the doppler it is scary because they kind of search around for the beat and in the meantime you hear all sorts of other strange sounds coming from in there. And in my case when they do find the fetal heartbeat you only hear it briefly because the baby moves. Today the nurse was so nice to try to find it and let me listen but the baby kept moving everytime we found it.

Now you would think with all the moving the baby is doing I would be able to feel her...but no. I cannot always feel the movement. The last ultrasound I had the baby was jumping all over the screen but I couldn't feel a thing, same goes for today. I have however felt the baby move. It was the 4th of July and I was sitting outside on the lagoon in Gulf SHores with Mrs. Godwin, Michael, Liz and John and I felt her. It was a very strange sensation and one that would have gone unnoticed had she not kept moving for so long. It felt the way an underwater wave feel brushing against your body. I couldn't feel anything from the outside though. It happened again last Friday and Michael got to feel it this time, but the movement is sooo slight that you question whether or not you felt it. I guess we will have to wait until the baby gets larger to really feel her.

Sorry this post just keeps getting longer and longer...but speaking of size I just found a guide on http://www.babycenter.com/ which says that, "Your baby equals a large heirloom tomato in size and weighs 8 1/2 ounces. (length: 6 inches, head to bottom)". Here is the picture that it shows in reference to 19 weeks, and today I am one day shy of 20 weeks, but I will save that picture for next week.

Nursery Part II

I cannot quit agonizing over the nursery! I am really unsure what to do and I think my indecisiveness could lead to one ugly room. So I am posting some pictures of the room itself. It used to be a guest room and the walls had a gray color left by the former owners. Now it is a work in progress. The walls have two paint samples that are in the green family and look more yellow. Also please know that the white primer still shows a little bit of that gray peeking through. And while we were thinking a light green on the wall, we are now thinking a khaki color that is on the walls in our living room. Anyway here is the room, I will let you know if we make progress.

These first two are looking in the future nursery from the hallway.

These next two are the yellow paint colors we have tested and decided against. The colors are Feldspar and Lime Twist.

Nursery?

NURSERY?

I think of myself as a pretty decisive person (please feel free to disagree), yet when it comes to putting together a nursery I am unable to make any firm decisions. I know I have plenty of time...but as I have responded to you all, "I start school in August." And as I am sure Michael will testify I was pretty pitiful during the first trimester, so the third is likely to be more of the same. Aside from my inability to make decisions I was so tired and certainly not task oriented. So I want to make these decisions before school starts...just the decisions. Well and maybe some paint on the walls and ...let's be honest, once I get started I might just keep going.

As most of you know we are waiting to find out the sex of the baby until we meet the baby so green is my color. I think it is gender neutral and Michael likes it so that decision was easy. I have found a fabric that Michael and I both agree on. The fabric is a toile of sorts and it pictures characters from the Tales of Beatrix Potter. It is so sweet andwhose childhood didn't include Beatrix Potter? You can see it, along with some other samples pictured above. My next hurdle is to decide if I am going to mix fun fabrics like polka dots or mix in sweet less playful fabrics in...time will tell.

So my question to any of you who feel so inclined to post back is...what was your own nursery like as a child? Elizabeth and I had a Paddington Bear theme in ours.

Why do I have a blog? What is a blog?

This post is for Carolyn. Carolyn just does not understand why I would start a blog or really what a blog is. So if anyone else is also confused Webster’s defines a blog “…as a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer.” So I am going to journal. I am also starting this site because emailing pictures is a bit challenging. Sometimes the pictures are too big and get filtered out and sometimes they take forever to download and then when they do there too big to see…but with a blog you just go to the page and there are no downloads. Plus this way I am not forcing any of my friends or family to look at pictures when they don’t want to, or respond to an email they didn’t want to receive in the first place. So check the blog if and when you want to.

Now more about the blog…as some of you have already guessed I am not the creator of the title or the artwork. All of that credit goes to my sister. As with all computer related and writing related projects I went straight to my “Creative Director”, Elizabeth. I know she loves it when I take on a new project! So now you can read the blog and see the boring posts about our progress with the nursery and how indecisive I am ...or just wait until December the posts will get alot more interesting then!

Above you will see a fabulous picture of Elizabeth (for those of you here in Montgomery that have not had the opportunity to meet her). Obviously this picture was taken prepregnancy and I am a big fan of it...I wore that same dress about two weeks ago and it does not fit the same now! Also you can see a picture of the precious little onesie that Elizabeth gave me for Mothers Day...blog inspiration?