7 Months

Ok, so these two pics with the dogs are a little blurry - I don't know why. I am wearing the best shirt ever though. It says "not finding out". We love this shirt. It gets a lot of reactions when I wear it. Some good, some bad. It's amazing how many people these days expect you to find out the sex of the baby and then get upset when you don't know. I am 29 weeks in these 2 pics which is mid 7 months. Notice the dogs posed with me on either side of my growing belly.

Here are two pics of me at around 28 weeks, early 7 months. Marianne and Todd had a Halloween evening and invited Mike, Josh, Bethany and us over for dinner and pumpkin carving. The pumpkin that looks like a Jackolantern is the one Chris carved - he won the vote amongst us all for best pumpkin. In the picture below - you can't tell - but Marianne's two months pregnant. Bethany is in the blue shirt and Marianne in the pink shirt.

Update on the pregnancy: my anemia is improving. My blood count is coming up partly from the iron pills I am taking and partly from all of the iron rich food Chris keeps making for me to eat. I recently found out that I have gestational diabetes. The positive is that it looks like my lab work is fairly normal and after the baby I should go back to normal. So for two more months, I just check my blood sugar, eat right, exercise and keep things under control. The doctors are considering inducing the baby around the end of the year due to the diabetes and the baby potentially getting too big to deliver. My due date is still Jan 7 (my birthday) but we are looking more like a Dec 29/30 delivery. We shall see - will know more as I approach weeks 35-36. Not such a bad thing though - our insurance deductable will be met and can anyone say TAX CREDIT!!

Hope all is well, will post more at the end of 7 months. Love, April

End of Second Trimester

Here is a picture of Lori (Chris' sister) and me at her birthday party. This marks the end of the second trimester for me, I am at 27 weeks (end of 6 months) pregnant. I really am all belly. Everyone keeps speculating on what the baby is and how I am carrying it. Well, I can truly say I have gained very little weight anywhere else but my belly. It literally goes from my ribcage to my pubic bone, straight up and down. Not sideways, just up and down all belly. So, if that tells any of you anything, there you go.

I have had a rough few weeks regarding labwork. My hemoglobin and hematocrit came back fairly low, low enough to take serious action. I have been eating more iron rich foods and taking iron supplements. I will have my labs repeated this week to see if there is any improvement. Also, I failed the glucose toleranace screeing test for gestational diabetes, but not by much. So, I just took a more extensive lab test this weekend and should know the results soon.

Hope that all of you are well and I will post more this week with updates and 7 month pictures.

6 Months and Counting

Here is a pic of me with the finished crib. I am 24 wks, which is early 6 months. According to our FL friends, I don't look that big in real life. I think the top I was wearing plus the angle of the pic.....oh well. Something to accept. I will post a later 6 months pic in a couple of weeks and you all can decide for yourselves :) I go to the doctor tomorrow to see if I can get off of bedrest....here's hoping, fingers crossed.

Starting the Nursery

Here is Chris getting a good look at the directions for the crib. They made it real convenient by glueing them to the bottom of the crib so you would never lose them. However, didn't think about it later on when you still actually need to read them and the crib is put halfway together.

Here is Chris in jail
Hard at work
Final product

Here I am, just waiting on that Lil' Mountaineer to fill the crib. (But little one, don't come too early.)

I had a bit of a scare this week. Wed and Thurs night I had a lot of back pain which NOTHING I did would relieve. Thurs night I also had some stomach cramps and a little bleeding. I ended up at work Fri am in a lot of pain and when I called my ob, they sent me straight to the hospital for the ER / OB Triage dept. Looks like I was having VERY MINOR contractions. They were only lasting 20-40 secs, at most 45-70 secs. The official diagnosis was "irritated uterus". Now, what in the world did I do to "irritate my uterus" you ask? I have no idea, nor did I even know that was possible. Anyway, I was sent home from OB Triage on modified bed rest for 4 days. I go back to the doctor on Tues am and hopefully I can go back to work / normal life / housework / etc. For those of you who know me well, this bedrest thing for me sucks. I just don't know how to stop / slow down / not do things. UGH!!! Guess I am going to have to learn....we will see how this goes.

Five Months Vactation

Here we are in WV. We take an annual vacation there around Labor Day. We try to catch the opening football game for the WVU Mountaineers. I can't believe that this time next year, we will have a new lil Mountaineer to join us.

Five Months

Here I am at five months. I can't believe what a difference a few months makes. I really am starting to look pregnant here. Also, at the ultrasound done at 18 weeks (the beginning of the five month mark) we didn't get to see much of anything. The baby was sooo active that we had to close our eyes. We were so afraid that it would flip around and we would see something. We are both so excited, we have no idea what the sex is.

Four Months

Here I am at 4 months. I started feeling much better by this point. Morning sickness gone, energy back. Thank goodness.