Great surprise for the Parents to Be

Jason and I got the best surprise today from my most favorite uncle - that would be Uncle Pedro in case you are wondering :)

Clearly I won't be enjoying a sip of tasty champagne until after Butterbean arrives, but what a great way to celebrate his/her arrival!

I may just have to smuggle this into the hospital (wink, wink)...

Thank you Uncle Pedro - the glasses are beautiful, we can't wait to make our toast to Butterbean!

Belly Watch - 14 Weeks

First, please excuse the self taken belly picture - our digital camera is out of commission and I had to take this with my blackberry. But I've been wanting to post a updated belly shot since (in my opinion) there has been quite a bit a change since my 12 week post :) You can give me your opinion if you agree or disagree....

I've been feeling great overall, exercising as much as I can, even making it out to boot camp. Of course I have to modify some exercises and I am running a bit slower. I will say that since the day I got pregnant, I have not been sleeping well at all! If you know me, I've always been a sound sleeper, but now, I toss and turn all night. I definitely think this is my body's way of preparing me for Butterbean's arrival and the lack there of sleep.

My next appointment is on January 25th - it will be my 16 week appointment and I can't wait! I'm so ready to hear Butterbean's heartbeat again, it's been a long few weeks :)

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

And today marks the day I made my first maternity purchase....

Well I guess it was inevitable to happen sooner or later, I mean I am growing another person in my belly, but today I sucked it up and went into a maternity store for the first time... I would have to say that for the most part, all my clothes are still fitting okay. However, it's pretty apparent that there is some growth happening around my waist :) All my jeans are low rise, so with the Bella Band, I can still wear them unbutton and/or unzipped and I have a few pairs I can still button (yay! yay!). But I have noticed I'm constantly tugging at them to stay up and not because I've lost any weight in my butt or legs, I think just with the sheer fact that my body is changing shape.

Today I had to make a return to Macy's and my very sweet friend, Brandy, had given me a gift card to Pea in a Pod/Destination Maternity, since I always said I wanted to splurg on one purchase when I was pregnant and that would be on some designer maternity jeans. So after I left Macy's, I thought what the heck, I'll walk over to the store and check out some jeans.

I wasn't sure what to expect, but the jeans were right in the front of the store, so I grabbed 3 pairs of jeans and headed to the dressing room. The first pair I tried on were the Pea in a Pod brand and they were so comfortable. Man that band of elastic is the best thing since sliced bread! I then moved on to a pair of 7's and Citizens - I didn't have nearly the luck. I already hate buying jeans, but for some reason I thought it wouldn't be as bad being pregnant... not the case... The 2 designer jeans a) say they were petites, however the extra 5 inches in the length could not have been petite and b) the sales woman said they fit like normal jeans, with a bit of stretch to "grow with you".... Now it's my hope that I don't grow too much in my bootie and legs, but I'm trying to be realistic here... And sadly they just fit really strange. So I folded my "would be" splurg purchase and kept the first pair.

As I went to the register to pay, the Pea in a Pod pair didn't have a price tag, so I wasn't sure of the price, but I did know they probably weren't the price of the 7's or Citizens (incriminating information I won't share, wink, wink). As sales associate rung me up and after my gift card, I ended up splurging a whole $47.76! Let's just say this is a round about 1/4 the cost of the other jeans.

So after being a bit nervous to walk into a maternity store for the first time, I felt pretty darn proud of myself. Besides, the bag from the store was super cute too, I kinda felt cool walking around with maternity purchase :)

It takes just a little bit of Hope!

Where oh where to begin... If you've been following along, our journey to parenthood was detoured a bit this summer, but Jason and I are happy to announce that we are having a baby! Needless to say it's been a hard secret to keep, but we wanted to be reassured that everything was progressing as it should - and it is!!!!

I'm 12 weeks today and our Butterbean is due July 13, 2010!

Back tracking a bit, we found out that I was pregnant right after my birthday :) - I guess you could say it was a belated birthday gift. I took a test on November 6th and there was the glaring "Pregnant" on the stick. Jason had been traveling all week, so I surprised him when he got home. He couldn't believe it happened again so quickly.

Our first appointment was the week of Thanksgiving (I was 7 weeks), and things looked good so far and we got our first glimse of Butterbean. Given the past miscarriage and that we didn't know the baby stopped growing, I requested another ultrasound at 10 weeks.

So after what felt like the longest 3 weeks of waiting, I was able to see our sweet Butterbean at 10 weeks on Dec. 16th.

I was pretty nervous about this ultrasound, fearing that they wouldn't find a heartbeat and Jason couldn't come since he was traveling with work. As the tech started the ultrasound, I stared at the screen the entire time, searching for the tiny heartbeat. At first I couldn't see it, but I could see a head, body, arms and legs. Then as I looked a bit closer, there was the heart just a racing! I immediately started crying, I couldn't believe the rush of emotions. It finally felt real! Our little Butterbean was just a wiggling around the entire time.

Now fast forward to today... We had my 12 week appointment along with a Nuchal Translucency screening. During my OB appointment we got to hear the baby's heartbeat and it took the nurse no time to find it - so amazing to hear! We then went to another office to have the Nuchal Translucency screening. It's a more detailed ultrasound screening for Down Syndrome risk. My OB said we would really enjoy this ultrasound, but I didn't realize how much. It lasted for about 25 minutes and we got to see so much of Butterbean. He/she was moving all around, but didn't want to quite cooperate for some of the measurements, but after a little poking, proding and coughing the tech got what she needed. Both the tech and the doctor said everything looked really great and Butterbean looked healthly.

Here are some of the pictures from today, along with some commentary I added :)

And lastly, here is the first of the belly shots... I think our camera was being extremely nice today, there is a bit of a belly going on. All I can say is thank you to lowrise jeans!

Jason and I are so excited and feel so blessed that we have our Butterbean on the way. We've got a long road ahead of us, but so excited to see what the future holds!

A special gift of Hope

I wasn't sure when I'd be back on our blog, but I received such a special gift in the mail yesterday that I just had to share.

I have a very dear friend Heather who was blessed with triplets in February 2008. However, her and her husband's journey to these angels didn't come easy. After her second miscarriage, Heather wore a Hope bracelet all the way through to the birth of her miracles - Ella, Ben & Will. In her card she explained to me that she knew she wanted to pass this special bracelet along to someone special who also needed Hope, so she sent it on to her friend who lost her triplet daughters at 22 weeks. This same friend was later blessed with a baby boy who will be a year in November. Heather told her friend about me and her friend happily sent the Hope bracelet back to Heather, saying how much Hope it brought her and how she didn't take it off her arm until her son came home.

When it comes to starting our family, I can't imagine what both Heather and her friend experienced, having only miscarrying one time. But what I think I'm beginning to understand is, as women we share a special bond of wanting to be a mother. Then once you are blessed with 1, 2 or even 3, you then understand "so this is what my parents were talking about" - the unconditional love for a miracle that shares traits of both you and your spouse. Heather's card came on a day when I needed it most. I have good days and I have bad days, and being the friend she is, she has now passed along the Hope that saw her through her life being blessed with her 3 sweet, sweet babies.

Thank you Heather, this post is dedicated to you. I love you dearly and my life is so blessed with your friendship! You have given me Hope that Jason and I will be blessed very, very soon.