Our 16 week ultrasound shows the baby is a girl. We will confirm this at the 20 week ultrasound, but it looks pretty convincing already!

I wish I could explain how it feels to look at a screen and see a baby and know that it is living inside of you! When I could see the baby move its head and arms and legs, it made my heart race. After I counted the fingers and toes and saw it added up to 20, my stomach dropped back down where it belongs. When I saw the heart beating and could see all four chambers, I felt a huge relief. To see and hear the genuine excitement in my husband’s face and voice was amazing. If you have ever seen Shane excited about something, you can probably imagine. The ultrasound tech was laughing at some of his reactions because he was SO excited. When the tech was getting the gender shot (between the legs), I couldn’t see any sign of a boy, so I asked her “Do you think it’s a girl?”. She nodded her head yes and Shane yelled, “Really? Are you 99.99% sure?” She said she wouldn’t go that far, but yes it looks like a girl. Shane yelled, “We’ll take it!”

When you see a person living inside of you, you realize the responsibility that it brings. That life depends on me and the choices I make. Of course, I am staying active and exercising regularly. You’ll all be glad to know I am eating more salad and fruit than ever before! I don’t like tomatoes, but I am eating those too. I crave milk so hopefully I’m meeting the calcium requirements. I can’t say I’ve given up my Funyun vice, though I think I went about 2-3 months without them in the beginning! Now that the nausea is gone, the Funyuns are back. Hopefully I am fooling the baby into thinking they are real onions…

Ok, here it is…the pregnancy blog. We all knew it would happen one day, right?!
Here are the quick facts:
Week 5: positive test! Why did I take it? FATIGUE!
Week 6: I got an early ultrasound and we saw our baby’s heart beating!
Week 6 and 8: It was a chore to get off the couch. Nausea came daily, but not until evening time.
Week 8: Another ultrasound. You can see the head!
Weeks 9 and 10: The vomiting phase
Week 11: Improvement in all symptoms!
Week 12: OB appointment. We heard the heart rate via Doppler. 160 beats per minute. Shane asked the doctor…”What does that mean? Is it a boy or a girl?” Her response…”Yes”.
Week 13: Clothes are getting tight
Week 14: Clothes getting tighter. I finally give in to maternity pants. Maternity pants are the most comfortable clothes you could ever wear. I may never go back. I can still fit into my pants, but why be uncomfortable? I am slowly rotating shirts out of commission too. Getting a wee bit tight on the top, if you know what I mean.
Week 15: My baby is the size of a softball, around 4 to 4 ½ inches long. It can suck its thumb!

It is hard to believe there is a baby in my belly! I know something must be in there because it now pooches out like never before. I’ve already had two people rub my belly. By the way, please don’t rub my belly without asking first. It can be shocking to all of a sudden have someone’s hand on your stomach petting you like a cat!

In about 5 weeks we’ll get another ultrasound and should be able to tell the baby’s gender! That’s right, we’re not waiting! I challenge anyone to find gender neutral clothing. These days all the clothes are either very much girl or very much boy clothes. I have been able to find 2 onesies that could pass for either. Another fun part of knowing the gender is getting the nursery ready!

A common question I hear is…do you want a boy or a girl? Well…if you base it off the bedding sets available at Babies R Us I would prefer a boy. The girl stuff is too girly, too pink. Don’t get me wrong- I like pink. But I don’t want my baby to live in a room that vomited pink. Plus, I hear boys are easier to raise. If we base it on dressing the baby, it would be more fun to dress a girl. So either way I’ll be happy. Of course Shane is rooting for a boy, but he’ll be happy either way.

So as you can see we got a new car on Memorial day! To be more precise a 08 Ford Escape. I know I know it's a SUV, didn't think we would be getting a Mini-Van did ya? If so you're crazy. We're not going to be the typical family with 2.5 kids, a dog, and a good ole mini-van. No offense anyone, but that's just not us. I would have to say so far I really like it. The semi-tough part was saying good bye to my dependable S-10 I've had for several years. But I seem to be getting over pretty quick!

I just find out a couple of days ago that I will be doing a check out dive at our Oklahoma Aquarium. If all goes well I will be put on a schedule to help clean the tanks and feed the fish every month. I'm pretty excited about it. It's not the ocean but it will have to do without going on a trip to the coast. In fact it's a salt water environment with live coral, so I guess it's pretty close to the real thing. Once Rachael has the baby she will most likely be able to help as well.

We’ve had two sunny days in a row! I was starting to think we lived in the Pacific Northwest! I think they said it rained 22 days in the past month, every weekend 5 weekends in a row or something like that. So what do you do when the weather is nice? Walk the dogs, work in the garden, go outside for lunch! We also got out the bikes for the first time this year. We aired up the tires, dusted off the water bottles and hit the road. It felt so good to ride again. We didn’t go far, just about 5 miles.

Shane went on his first official dive trip two weeks ago. He said the visibility was at least 30 feet and the water temp was 55. Brrrr! Even if I could dive now, I wouldn’t be diving unless the water temp was at least 70, wet suit or not! He went about 56 feet and saw a jet ski, a car, and a plane. He went with a group of divers from the Tulsa area and it sounds like they really took him in under their wings. They loaned him equipment and gave him lots of pointers. I am glad he found another hobby he really enjoys. Too bad all his hobbies are expensive! What happened to the days of checkers and wood carving?

FYI, Fourth of July party at our house. All our family and friends are invited. Last year we had incredible views of fireworks 360 degrees around the house. It was amazing! It was the best fireworks show I’ve ever seen: city displays in the distance, local displays up close. Trust me, the “local displays” were not cheap fireworks! Bring a lawn chair and some snacks.

Shane and I have been blessed with another family member. We are expecting our first child December 3rd, 2009! We thought we had every detail of our lives planned out but God made sure to remind us things don’t go according to our plan, but to His plan! :)

We had our first ultrasound at 6 weeks and 1 day. We could already see and hear the heart beating. It was the most amazing thing I have ever experienced. To see a positive pregnancy test is one thing, but to see the heart beating and to know that life is living inside of you is incredible. The details of how life begins are something that can only be explained by God, our creator. Our second ultrasound was done at 7 weeks and 6 days. The baby was 16.3 mm in length and the heart was beating at a strong 186 beats per minute.

I have already learned a few things during this pregnancy. First of all, everyone has advice about pregnancy and childbirth. Usually the advice is scary and not at all reassuring. So if anyone has positive stories to tell, that would be much appreciated. Secondly, I have never been so hungry and nauseated all at the same time. Thirdly, our couch is still very comfortable and I can lie on it for hours without leaving a permanent imprint. Fourthly, this must be the ultimate test for husbands. Shane’s job is to take care of an emotional, hormone-engulfed woman and to not complain about it! I think the words…”you did this to me!” have come up more than once already and my husband kindly smiles and apologizes all the while I am sure he is saying some snippet in his head about how many it takes to tango. I love you, Shane! That is the thing about these hormones; you can easily switch from irritable to incredibly in love all in the same sentence. This will be a fun 9 (ten) months!

So after completing the final open water dives in Swepco we are now officially certified open water divers. Although on Sunday the air temp was only 44 degrees, it was a balmy 64 degrees at a depth of 22ft. Once we got our final skills completed for the last dive we got a few minutes to explore the bottom of the lake. I guess you could call it limited exploring since the vis was only about 6ft. We saw a few small groups of fish but mostly it was just to have a little fun after working hard to becoming divers.

I can't wait until the next time we can dive. We will most likely be going to Beaverlake in Arkansas next month. Hopefully the vis and temp will be alot better. Although I have to say I will probably dive as must as possible now even with a limited vis. With experience we will only get better right? The sensation of diving is indescribable to say the least. To get a feel for it you would almost have to try it for yourself! If you think it might be a little daunting then I recommend you at least try snorkeling.