Blessed & Overjoyed

Brian and I are over-the-moon to be expecting a baby this October! It is something we've hoped and prayed for - for a very long time. Just when we thought it was another failed month - Brian asked me to take a home pregnancy test. We had one left from months prior. I honestly didn't think we had conceived. Maybe I was just too bummed about our miscarriage a few months before, that I just couldn't believe I was.. Even after the HPT came back with the joyous words - PREGNANT - I still was afraid to get excited as we did previously. So, this time, we kept the news to ourselves - until we were about 10 weeks along and had our first appointment and ultrasound.

Given the positioning of the screen, I wasn't able to see much of anything until the tech printed some pics. I've included some of the pics below...





Brian was able to see the baby moving - boxing, actually. He's started calling our baby - "lil Chuck Liddell" - as in the UFC fighter. Ha-ha! I love seeing Brian so excited. I like to call our baby jellybean.

The tech tracked the baby's heart rate at 168 beats per minute. The tech thought it was too early for us to hear the heartbeat, so we didn't get a chance to hear the heartbeat until a few weeks later at my next OB appointment. When we actually heard the heartbeat, I was simply giddy with happiness. It was such a special day for us!

We are loving every minute of this pregnancy... overall, I've felt pretty good. Just a few battles of nausea. I've been really tired, so I take plenty of naps, whenever possible. My cravings have dwindled a bit. For a while, I was craving green olives on everything. And one time, I REALLY wanted a Whopper with cheese from Burger King. And let me tell 'ya, that was the best Whopper I've ever had! :-) I've had trouble sleeping, so I finally purchased a pregnancy pillow last week. It's been a tremendous help in alleviating the back and body aches I had while sleeping. What a fantastic purchase!

We are looking forward to what lies ahead. In a few weeks, we have another appointment. I don't think we'll find out the baby's gender until the appointment after next... we can't wait to find out! I think it's a girl, but we'll have to wait and see!