moving right along... {23 weeks}

 My ever growing belly.

The power of clothing...I think my belly looks the smallest at 23 weeks!

Chris keeps telling me I need new gym clothes...

I don't know what he's talking about!

Baby girl's profile.

The bubble in front of her mouth is the umbilical cord.

We went back for the second ultrasound a couple weeks ago and baby girl was still in the same position.

After an hour of some serious poking and prodding we finally got her to move enough to get the views they wanted of her head and brain--everything looks great.

It felt like my abdominal muscles were bruised for 3 days after...glad I don't have to do that again!

But we did love seeing our girl again and watching her move around.

She kept putting her hand in her mouth and her arm behind her head...so cute!

Appointment:
Had an appointment last Friday and everything looks good and right on track.
Baby girl is healthy and she is measuring a little ahead of schedule (probably thanks to the tall genes from both our families) but no change in due date.
The doppler actually picked up her heartbeat this time, so no ultrasound for the first time ever.

Best news so far:

Every pregnancy symptom I've had so far has a solution!

Lower back pain = back exercises and stretches.

Pinched nerve in leg = working out and stretches.

Slightly swollen ankles = working out and drinking lots of water.

I feel great these days, mostly thanks to working out.

My only complaint:

I feel a bit tubby because my appetite has been O.O.C. (out of control).

Still looking for a solution to this symptom....

Best moment of the past few weeks:

Going to Mission Impossible 4. 

The movie was pretty good. 

The best part was the show going on in my belly, baby girl was kicking up a storm.

I think all the loud action sounds kept the poor girl awake, but it was awesome to feel her moving so much for so long.
We love feeling her kick!

My belly:

Feels like it is growing so fast! I keep waiting for the stretch marks to appear...
I've been getting some comments about my belly so I think I am FINALLY out of the "is she fat or pregnant" stage.
A couple people were even brave enough to come right out and ask if I'm pregnant at church on Sunday.
I guess eating a granola bar during relief society might have been a dead give-away...
I just can't make it 3 hours without eating!
Chris is also obsessed with my belly. He thinks it's so cute--I definitely can't complain!

Favorite comments from Chris:

(Referring to my t-shirt in the 2nd picture up top):

C-"You're not wearing that to the gym...are you?"

H-"Yes. Why? What's wrong with it?"

C-"You can't wear that! Your belly's showing!"

H-"No it's not, not if I keep tugging my shirt down!"

(I was in denial for awhile...)

C-"Oh no, when your like real preggers, we're going to go broke on toilet paper! Cause you'll be peein all the time and you use like an eighth of a roll at a time!"

(I get in trouble all the time by the T.P. Nazi for using "too much" T.P! Hello, I'm a girl!)

C-"Wow, you really are pregnant!"

(After putting on a dress that really showed my belly.)

I hope all my future pregnancies go as well as this one has so far!
People are always asking how I've been feeling...it makes me think this pregnancy thing is supposed to be hard or something?
No complaints here...let's hope it stays that way!

halfway there {20+ weeks}

So apparently ultrasounds are the theme of this pregnancy...

I have had one at every doctors appointment, plus the fancy one where we found out the gender, plus another fancy one tomorrow. 

That will be a total of 5.

I have loved seeing our baby but I am hoping to cool it on the ultrasounds for a while.

I know ultrasounds are safe, but too much of anything can't be great...especially since our last one was over an hour long and our baby is perfectly healthy!

(I know many people have lots more than that, I just don't think it's necessary for me).

This was the day we found out that we are having a GIRL!

Ahhh I was SO shocked to hear that word come out of the ultrasound tech's mouth!

I was so positive it was a boy, but what an AWESOME surprise!

We are absolutely thrilled!

 Even though we had no preference, I think Chris was secretly hoping for a girl :)

Here is her cute little leg:

 A long arm:

 And a little foot:

This ultrasound was so immensely better than the dinky ones my doctor does when she can't find the heartbeat!

We saw everything on this girl! Ribs, spine, leg bones, arm bones, kidneys, stomach, heart, feet, hands...but not much of her head.

She must have been REALLY comfy the way she was positioned because she WOULD. NOT. BUDGE.

The ultrasound tech could not get any measurements of her head!

We were there for over an hour, mostly trying to get her to move around...peeing didn't work, walking around for 5 minutes didn't work, pushing/jabbing at my stomach didn't work. 

(And by move I mean change positions, she moved around but kept her head buried and hidden).

So we are going back again tomorrow to get her head measurements and look at her brain, etc.

We have been surprised to find that knowing the gender has really "bonded" (for lack of a better word) us more to our baby.

It's felt real for a long time, but now it REALLY feels real.

The first 20 weeks have FLOWN by and I feel like now that we are really excited to meet her the next 20 are going to drag!

Here's to hoping it goes just as fast!

A quick Christmas recap

I know Christmas was almost a month ago (wow!) but better late than never!

Our Christmas vacation home was mostly really, really awesome.

The awesome parts included:

-Seeing family and spending all our time with them!

-Seeing how much our nieces Maddy and Katelyn have changed in 4 months! Wow!

(I'm convinced that my sister traded her nonstop-crying baby of 4 months ago for a new one).

-Eating Devouring Cafe Rio for the first time in 4 months

-Getting together with friends.

-Giving our present to Bob and Minnie that would reveal our big news...and being SO antsy for the news to finally be out!

-Finally being able to talk freely and openly about pregnancy! What a relief! It felt like I had been holding my breath for 15 weeks and could finally relax!

We made a photo calendar to give to Bob and Minnie with pictures of everyone in the family. . .and January included a picture of Katie's ultrasound and due date, March had Stephanie's ultrasound and due date and much to everyone's surprise...June had our ultrasound and due date!

Our ultrasound and feet picture, along with pictures of Adriana and Liam who have June birthdays

The plan was for Minnie to discover our news while flipping through the months but she got interrupted while still looking at February. Katie then picked it up to look through and let out a big "WHAATTTT!!!???" when she got to June. Everyone was pretty shocked and excited! (We did a great job of making them all think we weren't having kids until Chris graduates).

It was just the reaction we were hoping for!

The not-so-awesome parts of our Christmas vacation included:

-Sore throat for Chris, followed by a sore throat for me, along with fever, chills, and backache.

-Tossing my cookies after eating Cafe Rio meal #3.

I'm devastated that Cafe Rio might be ruined for me!

-Being sick for half of the trip!

-Eating at Texas Roadhouse to celebrate our 3 year anniversary.

The food was fabulous and delicious...until my stomach started to churn.

After eating we went back to my parents where I felt pretty nauseous and shortly after threw up dinner.

As this continued, Chris was taking great care of me...until it suddenly hit him too!

We spent the night of our anniversary taking turns throwing up and laying in bed feeling miserable.

We thought it was food poisoning but have decided it was some 24-hour flu bug.

What a memorable anniversary...

Despite being sick we had an awesome time being home and spending all our time with everyone! 

And we have since been seriously enjoying our Christmas gift to ourselves...an ipod touch.

It was hard to say goodbye, again but.... not THAT hard!!

That was the last goodbye EVER before moving back home and starting rotations!

What a wonderful feeling!

Now it's on to school, studying for boards, baby appointments (we find out the gender today!) and getting things ready to move in a few months!

Pop...goes the belly {18+ weeks}

• I have officially developed a small belly, woohoo! Of course it depends on the time of day, if/how much I've eaten recently, and if I've been to the bathroom recently, but it's there! My pants are getting a bit snug these days, especially after a big dinner.
• I started feeling the baby kick about a week ago...or I should say I was finally able to distinguish the the "bubbles" (kicks) vs. gas bubbles.
• Our doctor couldn't find the heartbeat again with the doppler thing today...so we got to see our baby again on the ultrasound :)
• In one week we get a fancy ultrasound and find out the gender! We are getting very antsy to find out. The only downside to knowing the gender is having to start thinking about names...yikes! I'm convinced that is going to be the hardest part of pregnancy. (I've refused to talk or think about it up til now, saying I have to at least know the gender. Now I will have no excuse to avoid it).
• I laughed as I read this in the Mayo Clinic Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy: "Unless you are quite tall, your pregnancy now is probably quite obvious." Quite true Mayo Clinic, quite true. Still number one comment I get is about how little I am showing for being almost halfway done.
• The other day I had the thought "_________ is the only bad part about pregnancy so far." Only, I can't remember what it was! So I guess my only complaint so far is my poor memory...
• You would think acne would be my only complaint about pregnancy, but it's actually been getting so much better this past month. I owe it all to a mysterious substance that I'd never heard of before...witch hazel.
• Life is good right now and I am loving pregnancy. And I will love it even more in a week when we know what we're having!

See! My belly is growing!

pregnancy so far... {17 weeks}

Pregnancy has been nothing like what I expected.

I was expecting to be among those sick pregnant ladies who envy the women who have easy pregnancies. 

I feel VERY fortunate to say that so far pregnancy has been WONDERFUL!

I have felt great!

Since we had to keep a tight lid on this pregnancy for so long in order to surprise family with the news in person for Christmas, here is a rundown of how it has gone up til now!

• The comment I have heard more than any other by FAR since announcing it is "Are you sure you're really pregnant?" along with variations of "You don't look pregnant!" I'm almost embarrassed to tell people how far along I am because I don't look it! I feel like people don't believe me! It's hilariously maddening but I will probably love it later. I guess that's a bonus of being 6'1".
• My worst symptom so far has been horrible acne. I was really tired in the 1st trimester (never sick luckily), but my energy has been back for a few weeks now. My acne seems to just get worse and worse...it's a little annoying, but I will take acne ANY day over being sick! Since I feel so good I honestly forget sometimes that I'm pregnant!
• We  had our first ultrasound at 10 weeks and were very relieved to see that our baby was growing and just fine, although he or she just looked like a jellybean. I was a little concerned about why I wasn't feeling sick, but I guess I'm just lucky!
• We got lucky and my doctor did another ultrasound at 14 weeks since she was having a hard time finding the heart beat with the doppler thing. Our baby looked so different from 10 weeks! He or she was wiggling and waving like crazy! I love seeing our baby!
• We find out whether baby Lowe is a boy or girl in a little over 2 weeks! We are super excited. I think it's a boy and Chris thinks we have a 50/50 chance. Ha! He won't believe me that it's a boy...we shall see! But we really don't care, either way we will be excited. 
• My due date is June 13 which is right in the middle of my last finals week ever! We'll see how that all works out...
• We move home in May so we will be having our baby in Utah woohoo! We weren't necessarily aiming for that to be the case, but I am pretty excited that it will work out that way. It's going to be a very wild and adventure-filled year for us...having a baby and moving every 3 months.
• Announcing our pregnancy has been SO fun! We waited longer than we normally would have so we could tell family in person during Christmas. It was so so so hard to keep it a secret that long but SO worth it! LOVED the reactions we got :)  I guess that's one good thing about not looking pregnant...being able to hide it longer with no one suspecting a thing. 

• Both of Chris' sisters are pregnant as well as my sister-in-law...we are very happy our baby will have lots of cousins to play with! Really everyone is having a baby in 2012! We know someone (family members and close friends) having a baby every month so far up through July.
• Chris has been wonderful to me during this pregnancy, which is no surprise. For the couple of weeks that I basically laid on the couch all day except to get up to pee, he took care of everything I slacked off on...dinner, dishes, cleaning, etc. on top of all his school work. He is one amazing man who will make one amazing father!

Our baby at 10 weeks. He or she looked very different just 4 weeks later!