Time to Ring in 2012 & Celebrate our Anniversary!

We spent the day at the hotel pool and welcoming some more friends and family to the hotel.  It was great to relax the day away and have everyone over to our rooms to ring in the new year! 

Happy Anniversary to the happy couple! :) :) :)

The kid's rang in the new year too...just a little earlier!

Some of my girlfriends who came to celebrate with us!

Unexpected Hospital Visit

I got a phone call at work from my Dr. advising that after reviewing my ultrasound, she wanted me to leave work and head over to the Elmhurst Birthing Center.  I went right over and got hooked up to all the machines to monitor the baby for a for a while and then an IV for some extra fluids.  Luckily, everything was monitoring good enough so they let us go to have a relaxing weekend at the hotel and dinner with Jolie (my mommy-to-be friend) and her husband, Yuri.  We finished our stressful day with a nice relaxing night!   

Fluid Check Ultrasound, 28 weeks (7 months)

Today we went back to Loyola for our follow up ultrasound from last week.  As always, it was great to see our baby!  They thought the fluid appeared better but after measurements realized that it had gone down - from 11.9 last week to 9 today. :(  Unfortunately that means we need to come back in a week again for monitoring.  My doctor's office at Elmhurst Hospital called in the evening to review.  They advised to take it easy, drink fluid and I will be seen sooner for my regular appt so they can measure me.  I may need to go on bed rest! :(  We will know more after my visit.  In the mean time, I'm going to relax and keep on drinking a ton of water.

Here is a picture from today.  Again, look hard - the baby looks to be laying on its side.  You can see half of the face - eye & nose...the face is smashed into the placenta they say!

  

We chose our Doula!

After much research and a great referral from another mom to be - Joli, we decided on our Doula!  Alyssa  Ruben will be joining us at the birth of our precious baby!  Alyssa has been a doula for 7+ years and has had 5 kids (the last two at home).  She is studying to be a midwife and will have completed that program and will be doing home births on her own next year!  We are pleased to have her in our life to share her education and allow us to understand this process from a natural and holistic prospective.  She will be joining us at during the labor and birthing process as well as prenatal visits, and helping us with nursing and cloth diapering when the baby comes home.  We are thrilled to have her!  Check out her blog at http://www.themommydialogues.com/


Alyssa joined her two mommy's at a pelvic floor class at the Good Sam Wellness Center - where we also do our prenatal aqua!  This is all of us on our way out! 

Joli, Alyssa & Aimee 

  

Christmas Time

The baby had a special first Christmas, celebrating with lots of friends and family.  Megan and Ally were with us during the half of the week leading up to Christmas and woke up Christmas morning at our house to find lots of goodies under the tree from Santa.  We had a very nice holiday!

On Christmas Eve night, Devin was able to look into my belly button, he said it was like a telescope in to see the baby.  Hmmm, he said the baby has boy hair but is wearing a girl shirt....and looks like Justin Beber! aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!  So, is it a boy or girl???  I guess we'll have to wait!  

 

Our Growth Ultrasound

We had our "growth" ultrasound today at Loyola.  Basically, they said at our last ultrasound that they wanted to see us back just to monitor the growth of the baby just because of my history.  It was great to see our little one.  We can't believe how much everything is growing.  The baby looks great and is measuring well, just on the smaller side (39th percentile)...big surprise there! lol  We were also told that the fluid is on the lower side, so we'll have to return next Thursday to have it remeasured.  Here are the pictures we got - not the best, compared to what we saw, but at least it's something!

Profile of the face:

The full face, looking at you:

  

26 Weeks and growing...and growing, and growing, etc!!!

Ok, I think the baby is hitting a growth spurt!  This belly is growing faster and faster now and the kicks are getting strong enough to bounce a book off from resting on my belly while reading.  We had another doctor appointment today and all was great.  I passed the glucose test and iron test with flying colors - who says you need steak or red meat for iron - it seems our iron is thriving on the prune juice! :)  Next appointment is Tues 12/20 for our 3rd trimester ultrasound, yay!

6 Months!!!

24 weeks and the baby is moving around like crazy!  It's the best feeling I've ever felt...even when it's waking me up at night!  Today we went to the Elmhurst Tree Lighting fest and met mom, Erik and the boys up there.  We left early to meet Aunt Michelle to go see the original "Bells of St. Mary" at the theater but we had the wrong day!  Oh well - next week!  Bill, Aunt Michelle and I met up with Mom, Erik and the boys for dinner instead.  Everything is still going smooth and I'm feeling good - occasional hip and back pains but all is great!

 Look at Daddy...can't leave him out on this! :)