Well Dressed

It looks like our little guy is going to be very well dressed. Look at all the clothes we have! I've only bought a few things - most are gifts. Granted, these are all different sizes - mostly up to 6 months, but several things are larger. We don't have too much small stuff because I don't anticipate he's going to be all that small since I keep growing and growing and growing.

First Ultrasound

We're only a few weeks away from meeting our little guy. Here's our first picture of him from our first ultrasound. I'm so glad my doctor has a 3D/4D ultrasound machine. It's been really cool to see so much.


By the way, the "bump" on his back is the yolk sac.

Echocardiogram

I had an echocardiogram today. My OB wanted me to have one since I have a ventricular septal defect (link), and I think she wanted to be prepared in case of any complications during my labor. The ultrasound tech said she was excited because she doesn't see VSD that often, and then she was really excited when she was able to find the hole. I was able to see the screen most of the time that she was doing the ultrasound so I got to see how the oxygenated blood and non-oxygenated blood was flowing and where the blood from the left ventricle entered the right ventricle. It was pretty neat.

I've finally gotten to where I'm really hot all the time. In the last couple of weeks I noticed that I'm actually warmer than Brian which is not the norm. It's cooled off here, and we've had to have the heat on some. I keep turning it down or off and Brian is freezing. Even at work I've been turning off the heat in my area which my co-workers probably like because they prefer it freezing. By now I'm usually bundled up wearing a jacket all day with my space heater on and now I'm too hot when I wear long sleeves. Hopefully I don't get anyone sick by keeping it so cool all the time!

37 weeks & 1 day

I had another routine doctor's appointment today. My blood pressure was 124/73 (or something close to that) and I am fat - I put on 6 pounds in a week and a half. However, no one at my doctor's office seems at all concerned with the amount of weight I've put on lately so I guess it's okay still. I really didn't think I had gained much this time between my appointments, but I was wrong.

I am now 2 cm dilated but the baby is still "floating around" and hasn't "locked into position" yet according to my doctor. So he could still potentially turn into a breach position though that's not too likely.

My doctor was having trouble getting a good heart rate reading from the little guy with the hand held device so she put me on the fetal monitor. It was supposed to be for 15-20 minutes but I think they forgot about me and I was on it for about 50 minutes. Luckily Brian showed up after about 30 minutes and entertained me. He had been there already for 20 minutes (he was a couple of minutes late due to a lunch meeting) but since my appointments are usually so short he figured he'd just wait until I was done. I was so glad he found me though because then he could open the door to the room to let it cool down some. I was starting to think my fingers were going to burst because they were so swollen in that hot, stuffy room. And by opening the door, it reminded the nurse and doctor that I was still in there.

The doctor said the baby's heart rate looked good and there were 3-4 contractions in that 50 minutes which is good. They weren't consistent, but they were there. I really only felt one, and it was really mild.

I'm going back to the hospital tomorrow for an echocardiogram. My doctor wanted one done since I have a heart murmur. I think it's to make her feel more comfortable about my labor and delivery since she doesn't know much about what my condition really is.

Curtains

We hung curtains in the dining room a few weeks ago and got the hold backs up today.


We've had a pretty relaxed weekend for once not trying to get too much done. I got the most sleep I've had in months this weekend - it was nice!

Car Seat

We went ahead and put the car seat in my car today so that there's one less thing to worry about when we have to go to the hospital. It was REALLY EASY to put in the base. We can't understand why it's supposed to be so hard to install car seats correctly. Maybe if you have an older car and can't use the simple latch system it's more difficult.


We also went shopping today and got the last of what we think we need for the baby. We should have enough to make it through the first few weeks with the little guy. I'm sure we'll figure out other things that will work out better, but we should have enough to start off with.

Belly Update

I haven't felt like I've been getting that much bigger this last week - finally. For the last month it seemed like I was able to notice a difference every few days. My next doctor's appointment is on Monday so I'll get to find out for sure if I stayed closer to the same size between appointments this time.

Cute Raccoons

Who knew raccoons could be so cute?


The woman that works at our Pennsylvania office sent me this today as well as a cute picture frame.

Birthing Classes

We finished up birthing classes a couple of weeks ago. We went to 4 classes, once a week, that were each 2-3 hours long. There were about 8 other couples in our class. The classes were at the hospital we are planning to have the baby at. They were generally helpful and informative. I'd definitely recommend them if for no other reason than to make you feel a little more confident about what's going on and to know a little bit of what to expect. Some people have told me that their classes scared them, but I didn't feel that way at all. A couple of delivery nurses from another hospital taught the classes. Here's a short summary of what we covered ...

Class 1 - General pregnancy information and signs of preterm labor. We also took a tour of the maternity ward. I haven't seen the maternity rooms in other hospitals in Knoxville, but these seem really nice.

Class 2 - The stages of labor, including viewing a few birth videos. These really weren't as graphic as I had expected. I've seen almost as much on TV.

Class 3 - Pain management (types of pain relief) and post labor recovery.

Class 4 - Basic newborn care, including a question and answer session with a pediatrician.

And here's a picture of why I get out of breath so easily and get up to pee at night every 1-2 hours ...


I also took a breastfeeding class a couple of weeks ago at the hospital. Unfortunately Brian was in Fargo, ND that week so he didn't get to go. The other two women in my class brought their husbands which is the norm for this class. The instructor was extremely long winded and took every second of the three hours the class was scheduled for, but the class was useful. The instructor is a maternity nurse at the hospital we'll be at so hopefully she isn't assigned to me because she might drive me crazy.

Home Improvements

The house we bought this year was purchased by the first owners in January of 2006 and we bought it from then in April of 2008. It had been on the market since at least October of 2007 (that's the earliest MLS listing our realtor could find for the house), and we believe the owners moved to Florida when they put it on the market. We think it took so long to sell the house because of the price (by the time we made our offer, they had dropped the price $22,000) and choices the previous owners made about paint, carpeting, etc. Also the pictures they used for the MLS listing were terrible and did not convey anything positive about the house. We only looked at our house after seeing almost all the others for sale in the same neighborhood and not liking them but loving the neighborhood. And we were desperate to find something - our house had already sold and our closing date was approaching.

We have done a lot of basic remodeling since we've moved in. One of the biggest changes we made was painting the entire downstairs, the stairwell, and the upstairs hallway. The best way to describe the color choices for downstairs made by the previous owners is rainbow sherbet. The dining room and office were a light green, the bar was a salmon color, and the rest of the downstairs was a yellowish peach color. And the previous owners chose to use a glossy paint that reflected a lot of light. We decided to cover all that up with a neutral flat paint called "River Sand". We also had the stairwell and the upstairs hallway painted this color. We ended up getting a painter to do all of this because it was just too daunting of a project for us to handle. Plus we have nine foot ceilings downstairs which are difficult to get to the top of with just a step stool. Here's a before and after picture from the front door that kind of shows the difference the paint makes.

Before:


After:


Another major change we made was replacing all the berber carpeting. The previous owners put berber in the family room, on the stairs, and in the upstairs hallway. All the bedrooms however have plush carpeting and they just butted the two types of carpet up to one another with nothing between them. It looked pretty ridiculous. We had the berber in the family room and upstairs hallway replaced with the same hardwood that is everywhere else downstairs (other than the kitchen which is tiled). We had the stairs recarpeted with the same carpet that is in all the bedrooms. We really wanted hardwood stairs but went with carpet since they are safer. Here are some before and after pictures.

Before:



After:



Some of the other changes we've made are:

- Replacing all the blinds with 2" faux wood.
- Adding ceiling fans to the family room and two bedrooms.
- Painting the master bedroom and bathroom and the nursery.
- Removing contact paper from every cabinet and drawer in the kitchen, bathrooms, and garage.
- Replacing the leaking kitchen sink piping.
- Replacing the kitchen faucet.
- Installing new locks on all the doors.
- Adding a garage storage / organization system.
- Fencing in the backyard.
- Staining the deck.
- Cleaning up all the beds, replacing one with grass, and adding a new one around the maple tree.
- Putting rocks under the deck.
- Moving and adding sprinklers to our irrigation system.

No wonder we've been so busy the last 6 months! Just buying everything for and setting up the nursery was a lot of work.

My Office

I cannot wait to not be working for a while. I'm still not sure when or how much I'm going to be working after the little guy is born - we're putting off deciding that for now. I definitely won't be missing my actual office though when I'm not there.

Our office is probably one of the least expensive office spaces in Oak Ridge. As a company, we are very, very cheap which is good and bad. We are able to thrive because we don't waste money, yet we often times lack things that would make our job easier. We only get new computers and equipment when something completely dies. And then we still buy used equipment. My computer is a refurbished Dell that used to sound like a helicopter whenever a CD was spinning in it. It's quieted down some lately. The color printer that we rent (which we're encouraged to never use because it costs too much to use the ink) is in such bad shape that the service guy we've called in several times said he remembered working on that specific printer when it was at two other companies and recommended both times that it be taken out of service. We must have gotten it for really cheap!

We have no atmosphere in our office. Nothing that puts you in that productive frame of mind. We don't want our clients to think we charge them so much that we can afford to waste money on our office. Most of our furniture comes from the ORNL auctions. It's the really old stuff they don't want anymore. Most things don't cost more than $10. All the other furniture is stuff people had at home that they no longer wanted. A couple of years ago we set up some cubicle walls in an open area. I don't know how much they cost (if anything at all) because they came from a barn where they'd been stored for years. It took many, many bottles of Febreeze to finally get them smelling acceptable.

Our offices are not pretty. They have very stained pink carpeting (which our cubicles match perfectly). The office space we expanded into about a year ago is a little better - it's all blue. We are planning to further expand and take over the office space on the floor below us sometime next year. We're working on getting a set of stairs put in so we can connect to the lower section without having to go outside and walk around the building to get to those offices. Our office building is on a hill so both levels have a ground floor entrance on opposite sides of the building.

The one benefit of working in such low cost offices is that I get to bring in Charlotte. My boss has some bird dogs, and he wants to be able to bring them in with him sometimes. I don't know how many dogs we're allowed here at one time since we've expanded and added more offices, but it's probably 3 or 4. Charlotte has a lot of fun when my boss brings in Jubil and they get to play for a little bit. They are about the same age and play exactly the same way.

Here are some pictures of my office:

Leaves

We drove up to the Smokies this morning in hopes that the leaves were changing and I'd get to take some pictures. Today has been the first real fall day here - low 60s and breezy. Maybe we didn't get high enough into the park, but there just wasn't much to see. It didn't help that it was overcast which made the little bit of color dreary. We didn't bother going up Newfound Gap Road because of all the clouds and fog. We doubted there'd be much of a view. We did drive up to the Little Greenbrier Schoolhouse, along Little River Road, stopped at the Sinks, and went over to the Tremont area. There were a lot of leaves on the ground, some yellow and brown leaves on the trees, but most of what hadn't fallen yet was still green. We didn't want to hike much since I'm due soon and stuck close to the car.

We also drove for a little while on the Foothills Parkway. They opened up a section for the weekend that is usually only open to bikers and hikers. As expected, the clouds prevented any good views.

The Sinks:


Tremont Area:


Do you think a bear did this or some bored picnickers?

Yesterday's Appointments

I had a routine checkup appointment yesterday. Everything is still looking good. My blood pressure was 120/70, which I was told was good. I put on ANOTHER 4 POUNDS IN 2 WEEKS!!! I really don't think I've been eating more, but maybe I have been. I saw Leslie (the nurse practitioner) again, and she wasn't worried about my weight still. The baby's heart rate was 137 bpm. I am 1 cm dilated right now. Leslie said that was good because a lot of women don't dilate at all until right before labor with their first pregnancy. I go back in about a week and a half.

Brian and I also met with a pediatric group yesterday morning. We liked the office set up, and the nurse who showed us around was really nice. The office is close to our house, and they have a second office downtown right by Children's Hospital. Both offices have Saturday morning hours, and the one downtown also has Sunday morning hours. Their nurse line also always answers your questions immediately instead of just calling you back. They said you could be on hold for a little bit, but that seems worth it to get an answer right away. The doctor we met with seemed good. I didn't instantly click with him, but there wasn't anything wrong with him either. There are several pediatricians in the group so I'm sure we'll mesh with some better than others. We saw the wife of one of Brian's coworkers in the waiting room, and she told us they've been using this group for 16 years. Also, they are the office that my OB recommends, and all her other doctor recommendations I've gotten over the last few years have worked out really well.

Baby Shower

Last night the women of my office had a baby shower for me at Carol's house. The back row, from left to right: Ann, Carol, Kim, and Kristi. The front row, from left to right: Addison, Vivian, me, Kelsey, and Susan. Andrea (Addison and Kelsey's mom) took the picture. Sonja wasn't able to make it because her daughter got a door closed on her hand and had to get 16 stitches earlier in the day. And Leslie was working out of town and unfortunately had a small stroke the day before. She's improving though and it looks like everything is going to be okay.


We all headed over to Carol's house after work. We got the tour of the house first since she and her husband had just moved in a few months ago. The house backs up to the North Boundary Greenway in Oak Ridge where Brian and I biked once before. It's about 50 years old but was just flipped so some things have been redone. There are tons of windows that are impossible to cover with blinds which is neat during the day, but I'm not sure I'd be comfortable with at night. Our tour included the reptile room where Carol keeps all her snakes and lizards (she breeds them). The twins were very excited about this. After the tour we had sandwiches, fruit salad, a vegetable platter, and cheesecake to eat. Then it was time to open presents! I got quite a bit of stuff for the baby - especially crib sheets - I got 5! It was a simple shower, no games, which I think we were all happy about.

We Passed!

Last night Brian and I took the American Red Cross certification course for Child and Infant CPR. We both passed and are now certified for one year. We learned how to perform rescue breathing, CPR, use an AED, and how to help someone who is choking when they are both conscious and unconscious. The class was specific for children under 12 and infants. We got to practice everything we learned with dummies and then had to take four 10 question multiple choice tests. You have to get at least an 80% on each test. I don't know our scores, just that we passed. I got to work with my dummy on a chair because the instructors didn't want me on the floor with my big belly. I really think it was a lot harder though doing it that way because I had to crunch over more and that made my lung capacity even smaller.

We both feel like we learned a lot and are really glad we took the course. We're thinking that next year we'll take the adult CPR class and the first aid class.

Five weeks to go ...

Here's a picture of how big I currently am. The little guy is getting so big that I feel all bruised from him still trying to squirm around in there. My belly is still super hard and it's really easy to feel him. You can almost grab an arm or leg sometimes with how it'll stick out along my belly.


This week is another busy one for us. Tomorrow we're taking an infant CPR class with the Red Cross. It's from 5:30 to 10pm which sounds like a really long time. I'm going to be dead tired by the end of it. We do get certified though so it should be a good, thorough class. On Wednesday the ladies at my office are throwing me a baby shower after work. Carol just moved to Oak Ridge so it's close to the office and we'll get to see her new house. Then on Thursday we are "interviewing" a pediatrician and I have a doctor's appointment in the afternoon. Plus we have a list of small projects to get done around the house this week so we can maybe find time to drive up to the Smokies this weekend for a day. The leaves are starting to change so I'd like to takes some pictures before they are all gone. Hopefully no one will catch me sleeping at my desk at the end of the week!

More Painting

We painted the master bathroom this weekend. It wasn't too much painting - mainly prep work. Taping, including the many doorways, taking down the light fixtures and towel racks, wrapping the toilet in a plastic bag so we could paint behind it a little bit, etc. It took a long time. But it looks a lot better. We used the same color as we did for the master bedroom that we painted last weekend.

I never knew my feet and hands could swell so much. Last night I thought my feet were going to pop. They were fat, fat, fat and angry red. I guess that's what I get for standing up all day.

Before:


After:


Before:

After:


Before:


After:

I think he's dropped ...

I think the baby has dropped. First, when I was checking out at Kohl's on Monday with a couple of new maternity tops because I have outgrown almost everything I have, the girl at the register asked me how much longer I have because she thought I had dropped. I didn't think much of it though because she was no more than 18. Then on Wednesday morning when I stopped at a gas station to get a drink (where I have been maybe 3 times in the last month), the girl that always works there said I had dropped too. Last night I noticed that I can no longer see my belly button, so I guess it's true - I have dropped. Now today I really am noticing more pressure lower down in my pelvis. Maybe this is why I've been feeling so crappy all week... Or maybe it's because I really do need to start getting more sleep.

Last weekend after standing most of Saturday and Sunday while painting, I noticed my feet were huge. Brian said they didn't look that different - I really hope my feet don't normally look that scary! Ever since then, they have stayed pretty swollen and get huge by the evening. My fingers are also starting to look even fatter all the time. I stopped wearing my rings a few weeks ago because they'd get too tight at some point during the day when I was more active and hurt a lot to take off. I also didn't want to take them off somewhere random and lose them. I doubt I could even get them on first thing in the morning now.

Random Pregnancy Stuff, Part 1

There's a bunch of stuff I know I'm going to forget about being pregnant that I wanted to list out so I remember it later on. In order for this post not to be TOO long, I'll break up this up into a few posts.

I had morning sickness through about 18 weeks. I never actually threw up (I've only thrown up a handful of times in my life) but I was nauseous all the time. It got worse as the day went on so I tried to eat as much as I could early in the day (which usually wasn't much) because by dinner time, it was really hard to get anything down. I couldn't imagine ever enjoying food again during that time. I never really found anything that I could eat either - there was not a "magic food". I did take some prescription medicines to lessen the nausea (including Zofran during the day and Phenergan at night), and they helped some but definitely did not make the nausea go away. With them I could at least function enough to make it through the day at work and go to sleep at night. I kept my weight steady during this time - didn't gain anything but didn't lose anything either. We were house hunting too for the first part of the year, and it was really difficult to muster up the energy to make it through those days of looking at houses with our realtor. When we made the offer on our house, I didn't really remember the house that well and I really hoped I liked it. I definitely had not scrutinized it as much as most of the houses we looked at because I felt so terrible when we saw it. I was trusting Brian that it was a good house. Luckily, it has turned out to be perfect.

Now that I can eat again, I haven't had any food cravings. I've pretty much just been eating what I normally do. I've gotten to where I can't necessarily eat as much in one sitting, but I will get hungry again pretty quickly. I definitely snack more. I keep trying to eat more healthy foods, but I haven't been very successful at it. I don't eat a lot of junk food or desserts, but I really could add more fresh foods to my diet. I'll keep trying.

I've been having a lot of back pain lately during the week when I have to sit at my desk all day. Weekends are generally okay when I'm moving around most of the day (except when I overdo it by painting all weekend, etc), but sitting all day kills me. It may have something to do with our really cheap office furniture ... hhmmm. I've been using a folded up beach towel as a sort of pillow lately and that's been helping some.

The little guy moves a lot lately. It doesn't seem like he kicks or punches as much as he squirms. At first, I think that's more what I felt, but for the last month it's more the squirming. My belly is really hard and you can find him by pressing on it. Sometimes you find something small which is either a foot, hand, knee, or elbow (I can't tell the difference) and other times it's bigger (like his back or butt). I can usually make him move around by pressing on him. Hopefully he's not going to be all bruised up from that! He doesn't move too much when I go to bed and rarely has woken me up when I'm sleeping. Sometimes he seems to do a dance and my belly jiggles all over the place - it's pretty funny to watch. It's usually over so quick though that Brian has never seen it.

I've been sleeping a little better lately. For awhile I'd wake up with extreme pain in my hips. Turning over wouldn't help. I get up to pee usually two or three times a night (except last night I got up about 10 times, literally) but I usually fall back to sleep quickly so it's not a big deal. It is getting harder to turn over though and to get out of bed with all this weight attached to my stomach. I got a Snoogle back when I was only about 4 months pregnant and have used it every night. I think it's helpful, but I haven't tried sleeping without it so it's hard to say. It generally prevents me from sleeping on my back, but I still wake up often enough and realize I'm flat on my back. Here's a picture of what I'm talking about in case you're completely lost.

Rain

It's finally raining here! It's been about a month since we've had any real rain - we got about a third of an inch on September 14th. Other than that, just a couple days with some really scattered showers. I think that according to the drought maps, we're still in a severe to extreme drought. We're so happy that we have an irrigation system at the new house! No more having to move hoses around all evening and remember to turn off the sprinklers. Too bad our water bill is still high. But I think Charlotte appreciates having all that thick green grass to run through.

Here's the view from my office window. I know, not much to look at - a parking lot and a hill. The rain makes it look pretty depressing. But at least I have a window.


And this is what Charlotte does most of the day when I bring her to work - I'm very jealous!

Baby Blanket

We went to a wedding a couple of weeks ago in Durham, NC. It was the wedding of one of the guys I grew up with - our families lived across the street from one another in Wilmington, NC. Steven (the groom) and his twin brother Matthew were born about a month before I was. We all went to school together from preschool through college where we all majored in chemical engineering. Stephanie (the bride) did an amazing job planning the wedding and coordinating all of the details. It was really beautiful. The ceremony was in Duke Chapel, and the reception was held in a small building in the gardens on campus.

Matthew's wife, Kari, gave us a really special baby gift at the wedding. She made us a beautiful quilt. Somehow she matched the theme and colors of the nursery just right even though I don't think anything on our registry really conveyed this. I was friends with Kari and her sister Katie in high school but unfortunately don't really keep up with them anymore. The fact that she took the time to make us such a personal gift really means a lot. Here's a picture of the quilt she made.

Ceiling Fan

We put a ceiling fan up in the nursery as well this past weekend. The room is so much brighter now and the fan really helps the air flow in that room. There are 2 vents in there but one of them is in the dormer and doesn't provide much cooling. It's been pretty nice here the last few weeks (highs in the upper 70s and low 80s) so we've been able to manage with the windows open and our couple of ceiling fans. It has gotten pretty cold a few nights though (dropped to about 40) and we probably froze Charlotte since her bed is under the windows and she isn't used to spending all that much time outside.


I also got the mobile for the crib today. I know it looks a little crazy but it had tons of great reviews. Hopefully the baby will enjoy the mobile, and it'll keep him occupied for a few minutes when I need a break. The black and white pieces look like they might hypnotize the little guy though!

Master Bedroom Painted

We painted our master bedroom this weekend. It was a really blah off-white color (the same color the entire upstairs was when we bought the house except for one bedroom that is pink - that will hopefully change to a slate blue color sometime soon). The color we chose is called "Sensible Hue" by Behr. The room is a lot warmer without being too dark. All we have left to do in that room now is hang pictures. We're going to try to paint our bathroom the same color next weekend and maybe the laundry room as well (which is across the hall from our bedroom).

A wall with the new color and one with the old color:

Finished Project:

Nursery

We have generally finished setting up the nursery. We still need stuff for the baby, but we've already gotten all the big things - like furniture, the stroller, and car seat. Here are some pictures of what we've done.




We still want to put in a ceiling fan - the current light fixture barely lights up the room. The photos on the walls are of animals at the Knoxville Zoo. I added an oil-painting effect to some of the pictures I'd taken and most turned out pretty good. So, we've gone with a sort of jungle animals theme, though have only stuck with that loosely. We tried to keep the colors somewhat neutral so we might be able to use some stuff for another baby down the road. We got the crib and changing table/dresser combo at CSN Baby. I'd definitely recommend them to anyone looking for nursery furniture. They had the best price on what we wanted and have really, really good customer service. One of the side rails for the crib came loose in the box during shipping and they sent us a replacement piece immediately.

Doctor's Appointment

I had a doctor's appointment today. Everything is normal. The little guy still has his head pointed downwards. His heart rate was 140 bpm. I somehow put on 6 pounds in 15 days! However, this was my first afternoon appointment, and I do tend to weigh more in the afternoon than in the morning. So I think that number is a little high. My doctor forgot to measure me last time since we did an ultrasound but my belly did seem to grow a whole lot in the last two weeks so I'm blaming the little guy for the weight gain because I haven't been eating more than usual (I don't think). Comparing pictures from then to now do show a big difference in belly size. My blood pressure was good (110/70) and everything else they measure was normal as well. So nothing to interesting to report.

My doctor (Dr. Evitt) recently started her own practice so I see either her or her nurse practitioner (Leslie, who I saw today) every visit instead of seeing one of several doctors in a practice. I really like getting to see the same doctor every time - she actually remembers who I am. She also never makes me feel like she's in a hurry and wants to move on to her next patient. The only problem with that is she can get a little backed up sometimes. Her office is at the hospital where we are planning on having the baby. It's a relatively new hospital - opened in 2003 - so everything is still nice and has that clean, new feeling to it.

First Post

Brian and I decided that we wanted to start a blog so that we could easily share stuff about our new addition with our family and friends. I also thought it'd be a good idea to have a journal so we could remember being pregnant and the early years of the baby's life.

We still don't have a name for the little guy. We like a name for a few days and then hate it. We're not too worried yet though - we'll think of something. We're 33 weeks and 4 days today. One and a half months to go. I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow. At the last appointment, two weeks ago, we were told the little guy was probably 3 lbs, 13 oz. His head and belly measurements put him really close to our due date (November 16th) so he seems to be an average size so far. Here's a picture from the 4D ultrasound they did. Brian and I both think the baby looks like Brian.


I'm continuing to grow outward. I've definitely put on weight everywhere, but the majority of it has been on my stomach so far. I really do look like I have a basketball stuck under my shirt because I'm not getting that wide. Here's a picture I just took to give you an idea of how big I currently am.