Perspective

Last night my baby had an upset tummy, which lead to a little bit of a rough night. Nothing terrible, it was just more difficult than usual to get her to go back to sleep.

I was tired and frustrated and just wanted rest for both of us; me because I was exhausted and her because I knew it would make her feel better.

As I was rocking her I realized how foolish it was for me to be frustrated. I was holding my healthy daughter in the safety of my warm, dry home while other mothers in Moore are grieving for their babies or praying they find them alive. I can't fathom that. Today, I'm praying for them.

Let's get this party started!

It is May 1st, 2013 and I'm laying in a hospital bed, waiting to meet my daughter for the first time! Amazing!

I'm equal parts nervous and anxious but more than either of those, I'm excited :)

I had a doctors visit this morning and my blood pressure had crept up a bit and since I am 40 weeks 3 days we decided to go ahead and induce. I was almost to a 4 on my own when we got here so hopefully things go quickly and easily. I'm liking the idea of a May 1st birthday!

Here we are just before walking in the hospital :)

The Crud :-/

My pregnancy has been great. No morning sickness, very little nausea, baby girl is perfection, honestly I have had nothing to complain about. Sunday changed all that. Ick! I've had some sort of cold or virus and it has knocked me flat out. Having a doctor for a father makes it really easy to get medicated when you need it, that is, until you're 7 months pregnant and can take very little. I know it isn't the flu because I got a flu shot and haven't had a fever so, I've got that going for me :)

I'm trying hard not to complain because, really, I don't have anything to complain about. Some have it  much worse than I do.  So, instead I will leave you with a little peek of our girl from the 3D ultrasound we had last week.

She likes to move it, move it.

Currently I'm at 24 weeks 5 days. At 21 weeks it was like a switch flipped and baby girl started kicking HARD, haha. I read that sometimes before the baby starts to really kick you can listen to her with a stethoscope. So, I borrowed one from my dad and that night when we went to bed I was listening and as if she felt her privacy being invaded she kicked the stethoscope head. I immediately took Trevor's hand and put it in that spot and he got to feel it for the first time :)

Since then she has been moving more and more each day. I notice she is much more active after I have eaten and when I'm still. At first she really only moved enough for me to feel her when I got in bed at night, but now it is throughout the whole day. This week and a little last week I've been able to see her move which has been really fun! She seems to wiggle and seesaw back and forth. She doesn't move slowly or softly, haha.

While I'm at it, we had a fantastic Christmas! We looked at lights, spent lots of time with family, visited family in Dallas and got some really fun and sweet gifts. It was a wonderful time, very busy, but wonderful still. Next year will look different and I can't wait! I finally took down our tree this last weekend. It was time. I always feel a little sad putting it all away but getting to clean my house the way I like and having that extra corner of our living room back feels pretty darn good.

2013 is here and it's going to be a big one for our little family. Bring it!

20 Things From the First 20 Weeks

Sunday marked the halfway point in my pregnancy, WOOHOO!  As I'm not one to fill in the same survey week after week I thought I'd write down 20 things about my pregnancy thus far.

I've thrown up exactly ONE time, it was from a cheeseburger.

So far we have TWO outfits hanging in the closet for Baby Girl, TWO Christmas ornaments hanging on the tree...and one huge Hippo for good measure.

THREE people, not in my family, have touched my belly; a co-worker, the 70+ year old wife of a partner at my husband's law firm and a relative's relative...I didn't mind, but it was kind of weird. 

During my first trimester I was ready for a nap at FOUR every afternoon.

On FIVE different occasions we have gotten to see Baby Girl via ultrasound, one of the perks of being a doctor's child.

Currently we have SIX names on our list, still no firm decision.  We may go into delivery with a top two or three and decide when we see her.

We couldn't hold out like we tried to and told our families at SEVEN weeks, this was also when we got the first glimpse of our sweet baby.

Every week for the last EIGHT weeks I've taken a bump picture. Starting with week 12 in the red shirt on the left and ending with week 20 in the black dress, bottom right.

The NINE foods I can remember craving are: pickles, peppermint ice cream, oatmeal, Sour Patch Kids, buffalo sauce, tomatoes, baked chicken taquitos, cranberry sauce, broccoli salad and queso.
My friends and I had planned a girlfriends photo shoot when I was TEN weeks and I patiently waited until then to tell them so I could capture it.

August ELEVENth Baby Girl went to her first wedding, I didn't know she was there...and to be fair she probably didn't either :)
On no more than TWELVE separate occasions I was positive my hair was all going to fall out.  I always heard how thick and beautiful you hair would be while pregnant and mine fell out like I was going bald for 4 months.
September THIRTEENth was the date of my first doctor's appointment which was really just meeting with a nurse and confirming a positive pregnancy test...I had already taken three at that point :)
As of today I have FOURTEEN more shopping days until Christmas and all I want to do is register for baby gifts, buy little girl clothing and decorate the nursery.
It wasn't until week FIFTEEN that I felt like my belly popped out...FINALLY!  It also appears my "girls" exploded that week...maybe it was just the dress haha.
At least SIXTEEN times per day I think or talk about my sweet girl and I'm overcome with joy and thankfulness!
For SEVENTEEN weeks we really thought we were going to have a boy.
But, we found out Baby Hughes was a girl at EIGHTEEN weeks on November 30th.
August NINETEENth I took my very first, positive pregnancy test in a hotel in Puyallup, WA where I was staying for a cousin's wedding.
So, there are TWENTY things about my first TWENTY weeks of being pregnant and now I've got TWENTY maybe a little less, to go!

Being Pregnant

I will be 20 weeks on Sunday which means I will be half way through my pregnancy with Baby Girl and I can't believe it.  The time has gone by so fast and I want it to slow down and speed up all at once.  I know this is the easy half of pregnancy and at the risk of sounding like an obnoxous first time Mother...it has been so wonderful.  I like being pregnant!  I have felt so good and moving into the time where I am actually starting to show is so exciting.  I have felt a little bit of movement and I am eager to feel more and looking forward to Trevor being able to feel her too.  We are planning to do a 3D ultrasound in the next few weeks.  From our last ultrasound people have been guessing she will have my nose so hopefully we will be able to see if they are right.  It also looked like she will have Trevor's face and head shape as his is more oval and mine is more round.

We are working on names.  We had settled on a boy's name and I thought we had settled on a girl's name too but when the rubber met the road we (really I) got cold feet.  We have time to get it nailed down and who knows, we might be those people who wait until they actually see their baby to give her a name.  We'll see :)

I will leave you with the other profile shot we got from our last ultrasound.  I was a little "deeper" so you can see where her teeth will be, haha.

Biggest surprise of my life!

Friday we went in for Baby's anatomy scan.  By "we" I mean myself obviously, Trevor, my parents and Trevor's Mom.  The tech did a great job, she started with Baby's heart and moved all around showing us all the perfect little parts of our baby including her little heart.  Then, like it wasn't any big deal she said "It looks like you're having a little girl"....WHAT?  We had been so sure we were having a boy but no, clearly she is a girl :)  It was such a sweet, sweet surprise. 

We have been so supremely blessed by being able to get pregnant easily, by the fact I haven't had any sickness to speak of, by the baby being healthy, we just haven't had any surprises and I'm so happy we got this one.  The tech gave us some sweet snap shots of our little cheeseburger and this one is the best, it is her profile with the top of her head on the right and her little hands up by her face.  Can I just say how wonderful it is to have a pronoun to use?? Haha.