Strawberry Pancake

Tate's mom told me the cutest story about Tate today. Over Thanksgiving Tate got a Strawberry Shortcake doll. At first she wasn't super interested but when they got ready to leave she says to her mom, "Wait, I need my Strawberry Pancake doll!" Strawberry Shortcake will now forever be known as Strawberry Pancake.


One of our friends read our blog the other day and emailed me with the good news that they had a Doppler that we could borrow. As soon as I got home from St. Louis we picked it up. We then came right home, after a detour at the mall to get Shelly a "Hot Dog on a Stick" which has been her recent craving, and listened to the Little One's heart beat. Shelly found it right away and we clearly heard the "whoosh - whoosh - whoosh" sound of our LO's heart beat. Hearing it once again brought big, big smiles to our face. Steve got to hear it also. It will be nice to use when we are suffering "In-between-itis" (thanks for the official term Karen!).

It was nice visiting with our friend who loaned us the Doppler. We hadn't seen her in awhile. Her and her partner have an adorable almost three year old girl and two very cutie pie 4 month old twin boys. Talk about a whirlwind! Three kids under 3. K, I'm not sure how you do it but I so admire you for getting it done! You're a great mom!

Just 15 days until the gender identification ultrasound!

The In Between Stage

We're currently in the "In Between" stage. It's too early for Shelly to feel the little one and we're two weeks from the next doctors appointment. It's "in between" for us because it's been two weeks since our last appointment with two more to go. It's hard when you can't feel the LO yet. Shelly's starting to feel better which makes you then start to worry..."Is everything okay? Is the baby okay? etc., etc., etc, etc. " You expectant mothers all know what I'm talking about. How do you get through it? We're seriously thinking of renting a doppler for the next couple of months so we can hear the heartbeat until Shelly can start to feel the LO kick. It would be fun to have a doppler over the Christmas holidays so that we can let the family hear Little One's heartbeat. Anyone else rent a doppler? Is it worth it? I'm interested to hear what think.

On another note, I'm miles and miles from home in St. Louis on business. :( Shelly, my three four legged kids, and the Little One are all curled up together at home in front of a fire watching COPS. Yes, Cops. One of Shelly's favorite shows. It's a good thing I'm out of town so she can enjoy watching it because it's NOT a favorite of mine. I MISS YOU GUYS! Luckily my trip is ending early which means if the flights are available I'll be home a day early!

Our First Baby Gift!!!

Last week was Thanksgiving. It's tradition with Shelly's family, who we spend Thanksgiving with, to get together the day after Thanksgiving for left overs. Shelly's sister and niece had been shopping that day and picked up a little surprise for the Little One. They gave us two adorable onesies. Our very first baby gift! I was so excited and touched that I cried! I hope I don't cry every time we get a baby gift. We were holding those tiny newborn onesies and couldn't hardly believe that in six months a tiny little baby will be wearing them. Did I mention that they were so tiny!!

We're officially in our SECOND TRIMESTER! Yeah!!! Shelly's feeling much better. She still has her moments but the constant nausea is gone. She's gone from not being able to eat to feeling hungry every 30 minutes. It's no wonder as much as the baby is growing right now. In the books I'm reading it says that Little One will go through it's biggest growth spurt during the next four weeks, and will actually double in size. No wonder Shelly's belly is starting to show signs of a bulge.

Good news! I have officially overcome my "Shoppers Block"! I spent 8 hours shopping with friends on Black Friday. I was able to almost finish our Christmas Shopping and even picked up a couple of presents for Shelly and the Little One. I love shopping the day after Thanksgiving! There's nothing like watching crazy people push each other around at 5:00 am in the morning!

I'm off to St. Louis tomorrow on business. This is the first time I've left Shelly since we became pregnant. I don't like that I'll be away from her and not here to help take care of her. At least it's just a few days and Steve is here to watch over her.

Little One's Gender ID test is just 19 days away!

Shoppers Block

I've been waiting three months to begin shopping for Little One. We've crossed that 1st Trimester mark which means I could begin to pick up a few things. Yesterday I stopped by Pottery Barn Kids. Three months ago I would have spent, spent, spent. Now that the time has come, I'm not spending! Everything I thought about getting I would tell myself to "wait until after the Baby Shower". What has happened to me??? I know I'm not becoming frugel. Sorry, Shelly, it's true, I can't be changed. But I think I do have Shoppers Block. Hopefully I'll get over it before Friday aka THE BIGGEST SHOPPING DAY OF THE YEAR!!! Maybe I'm just saving up my energy for Friday. I know I'll need it! I did buy a CD of Nursery Rhymes. Shelly and I were trying to sing with Tate the other day and couldn't remember the words to most of the songs. We agreed we better "brush up" on Nursery Rhymes before Little One is born. When I ran across the CD at PB Kids I thought I'd better pick it up and get a jump start on becoming a expert Nursery Rhyme performer. Did I mention I can't wait to shop this Friday???

Picture of the Little One

Here's a picture of our Little One! This is from Friday, 11/17. Little One was very active and his or her favorite position was standing on its head.

Last weekend we took Tate to the Aquarium exhibit. She loved it! Lots of Nemo's, Dori's, Sharks, and Fishies. Below are our pictures from the Photo Booth there. I couldn't get Shelly to get in the booth with us. And, I have to make sure you all know this was NOT a beauty day for me. It was get up, throw a visor on, and get out of the house.

12/16 - The Big Day

I couldn't wait any longer. I've scheduled an appointment with Fetal Foto for December 16th. Our appointment with the Doctor to found out the sex is 12/29. Who can wait that long!! I need to shop BEFORE christmas! Plus, by going to Fetal Foto we can have the Grandmother's, Shelly's sister, brother, and niece all come. My Mom's asked if she could come to a doctor appointment with us but if we do that we need to bring everyone. I'm all about being fair. I can just see us showing up for a doctor appointment with five family members. So, in order to include everyone we've made the appointment with FF. I can't wait!!!

Stubborn Little One

13 weeks today! Yeah!!!

It's been a crazy couple of days. Thursday was the first of our integrated screening appointments. We we're so conflicted about whether to do the screening or not. We decided to meet with them, get our questions answered and then decide. In the end we chose to go ahead with the testing knowing the risk of false positives but feeling like everything is fine and it could at least rule out any questions on doing an amnio. The test is done via ultrasound and blood work. We started the ultrasound and the first thing they did was let us HEAR THE HEARTBEAT!!! We both started crying! We'd seen the heart beat before but never heard it. Little One's HB was 148 on Thursday. It's been 162 before and at Friday's appointment it was 138.

Little One (LO) wouldn't cooperate during the ultrasound and move into a position where they could get the measurements on the back of the head. LO was standing on its head, punching, kicking, and stretching but would not move in the right position for them. We tried three different times with Shelly getting up, walking around, stretching, but LO wouldn't cooperate. We got some great pictures though! I'll get them posted hopefully today. We finally gave up and made arrangements to come back Friday morning before our OB appointment. Friday morning came and LO had moved and was now kneeling and laying over the placenta but still would not move into a position where they could get the measurements. We gave up and decided to do the test with just the blood work. I think LO was trying to tell us that the tests weren't necessary. But we did walk away with lots of great ultrasound pictures!

Friday morning we had our OB appointment. Everything is good so far. Shelly's lost 4 lbs. this month. I'm not surprised as sick as she's been. Our OB used the doppler and we got to hear the heartbeat again. So fun! Once again Shelly had to get blood work done. By10:00 am Friday morning Shelly had been poked five different times while they tried to get blood. After they finally got blood samples we got our flu shots which made us both a little sick. Thank goodness we only go to the doctor once a month. It was a crazy morning.

We're now supposed to get the other blood test for the integrated screening done between December 4th & 8th. We're supposed to go for our test to find out if it's a boy or girl around January 1st. But I CAN'T wait that long! I'm going to try to get us into Fetal Photos before Christmas.

Last night we took Tate for a sleep over. So much fun! Yesterday we went to the mall and rode the Merry-go-round, saw Santa, and Built a Bear at Build-a-Bear. Then we picked up Shelly and went to see Fishes at the Aquarium. Today we're coloring and playing. Lots of fun!