June 28, 2009: 21 Weeks

Thanks to everyone who provided input on her name! We've pretty much settled on one (although there are still plenty of weeks left to change our minds) but we're keeping the final selection a secret. Have to have something to surprise everyone with, right?

On Friday we registered at Great Beginnings in Gaithersburg, MD. It's the greatest (and biggest) baby store. Unfortunately, they do not have a very good website (maybe Jacy will fix it?). They're also pretty low-tech. We had to walk around with a guy with a pen and paper and a clipboard. No fancy scanning gun!

http://www.greatbeginningsonline.com/

We also registered at Pottery Barn Kids -- primarily because you get 10% off after 30 days!

http://www.potterybarnkids.com/

We may register at 1 more place (Buy Buy Baby or a big online site like Baby Earth or Diapers.com) so that people who are shopping on line have it a little easier.

We also made some progress on the nursery front. After painting 8 stripes of various shades of green and blue on the wall, we decided we didn't like any of them. We're now planning to paint the room with stripes of two different shades of cream. Kind of like this picture, but probably not quite as much contrast...

http://www.poshtots.com/Designer-Rooms/Nurseries-for-Girls/Alexandrias-Lullaby/12/2367/2959/productlist.aspx

We're keeping the walls pretty basic and will carry a subtle jungle theme out in the decorations. We're trying not to go too over the top "baby." Paul is going to have a lot of fun painting the stripes! :)

She seems to be growing very quickly because every day my belly seems a little bigger and I'm getting strange and new aches. She has also decided to hang out on my bladder whenever I try to get on the treadmill.

Woooo hoooo stripes! I can't wait to start. Painting a monochromatic room with simply a brush and roller is for rookies. Try adding masking tape, a straight edge, a ruler, and an extra color of paint to create perfectly straight parallel stripes along 4 walls... AND BECOME A REAL PAINTER!!! (and if anyone wants to help CALL ME). After I'm (we are;) finished, a few cocktails will be in order.

I am starting to feel a sense of urgency to get the house babe-ified because as Shonna stated, her belly is growing daily. Only 4 months to have everything ready. At least the baby room should be finished by August, then its time for the rest of the house. It may sound simple enough to complete one room, but when you talk about switching from carpet to hardwood, paint, closet renovation, and potentially bathroom renovation and raising the ceiling, there is much to be done.

Well I've got to go and do stuff.

1/2 way point on Fathers Day

What gives? 5 more weeks and no noticeable difference? Is Shonna really pregnant or does she simply keep a whoopie cushion taped to her belly? (See picture @ week 15)

Well, as you can see by the additional pictures, Shonna really out did herself on the Fathers Day celebration... Does she realize that by rule, she has to top the previous year's celebration until the end of time? Father's Day is going to be FANTASTIC!!

June 19, 2009: Help us pick a name!

Well, we're close to square one on the name front having been trown a bit by our baby girl! We're going to keep our final selection a secret until she's born, but we'd still love to have the input of our friends and family.

Here's a tentative list of names under consideration. Please let us know what you like and don't like and if you have any suggestions you think we should add to the list (possible nicknames are in parentheses)!

First Names: Scarlett, Alexandra (Alex, Lexi, Sasha), Jacinda, Kiera, Mariella, Neve, Olive, Simone, Tarryn, Emeline (Emme), Marcheline (Charlie), Salome, Kaelyn

Middle Names: Aurora, Nicole (Nico), Arabelle, Brynn

By the way, we've gotten a couple of inquiries about our plans for the last name... We're going old school. The baby's last name will be Waltrup. No hyphenation or last name merger. I'll just be the outsider in the family with a different last name. :) I'm okay with being a rebel...

June 18th, 2009 - Guess the Sex!

Paul is writing first for a change...

Like most parents to be, we have been trying to guess the sex of our baby from day one. Research, movement, baby position, family history, caffeine intake, and even the Chinese Calendar have been part of the discussion. After all of this "scientific" research, we concluded that it was most likely a boy, which meant it was probably a girl. Guess what... we were right!!! (and as you can tell from our conclusion, we would have been right either way ;)

Tensions were high on the way to our scheduled sonogram today. I don't know why we were nervous, but I guess that's how people react when they are about to find out the sex of their baby. Nerves subsided (for me anyway) once we sat down and watched the first images of our baby. Its amazing how far technology has improved in just the past couple of years. After talking to friends and family about their experiences, I wasn't prepared to see the detail we were about to witness. WOW! Not only were we able to view and count vertebrae and digits, but could see detail down to the spine structure and metacarpal. We didn't just watch the heart beat, we could see blood flow in and out of separate heart valves. Its also kind of freaky to look into a live skull and see moving brain and skeleton.

So about the sex... after 15 minutes or so we finally got to the "privates". Sure enough the first phrase out of the technician's mouth was "now here is the labia..." AND THEN IT SUNK IN! "We are having a girl!" We were excited and shocked at the same time. I wasn't going to run out and buy a Minnie Mouse dress just yet because we did not get a definitive shot. But then the shy little girl who spent the entire time on her stomach decided it was time to flash. YEP I'm pretty sure she is a she! Now its time to get some paint, buy some pretty bedding, and look for a prom dress.

I will be putting together a list of banned TV shows and any help would be greatly appreciated.

So far I have:
My Super Sweet 16
16 and Pregnant
RuPaul's Drag Race
(and most likely any other show on MTV or VH1)

Before I go, I need to briefly discuss the photos.
1st is a profile showing full lips (uh oh)
2nd is a brain/skull shot (just not as good as the live view)
3rd 3-D face (might have my nose, poor girl)

Apparently the baby likes to use Shonna's placenta as a pillow and spent all day on her stomach, so it was a long day for the technician. Shonna can tell you how she was finally able to get the baby to flip after an hour... My ADD is kicking in so I must go.

Shonna here:

Okay, I've been asked repeatedly to share how I got the baby to turn around...

The doctor suggested that I try walking around the room. Keep in mind that this was a very small room, very full of furniture and medical equipment. What's a girl to do? Not ready to give up but also not willing to go into the hallway with my front-opening gown and no pants, I decided to use a variety of jumping and dance moves to try to motivate her. I bounced, jumped, twisted, skipped... and thanks to the suggestion of her daddy-to-be, I also attempted the running man, the chicken dance, and the butter churn. I'm not sure which of these fabulous moves did the trick, but she did finally move.

Some additional details... She is 10 ounces right now and her heart beat was 155 bpm this time. She seems to have long limbs (no idea where she gets that from) and likes to keep her hand in front of her face. They had a really hard time getting a good shot of her face because she was either lying on her stomach or had her hand in front of it! They gave us a few 3D shots, but they aren't very clear. She definitely has pretty full lips, but otherwise it's hard to tell!

Paul is very concerned about spoiling our little girl. He's pretty darn good at spoiling her mom, so I'm pretty positive that we're going to have a daddy's girl on our hands. SO... now the big issues... What to do about the nursery? What do we name her? How are we going to get through the teenage years?!?

June 14, 2009: 19 weeks and kicking!

We had our monthly checkup on June 10th with Dr. Kathryn Born. We got in and out really fast this time. It was my first confirmed weight gain and we got to hear the heartbeat again. All is well - my bllod pressure is still really low and there aren't any signs of things going badly. They confirmed the results of the second part of our screening and said that our risk of downs and a number of other things is lower than usual for parents at our ages. All good news.

On Friday (June 12th) while I was at a workshop in Baltimore, I felt the first kick! Pretty cool... Now it's a fairly regular occurence (although still pretty random). The baby seems to generally kick pretty low and in the middle-ish (today it was more on the left side and it seems to be getting a bit harder). We can also tell which side the baby os on by feeling around. Count down to sonogram... T-4.5 days!

June 2nd - Itchy

It's been a few weeks since we've posted anything but there really hasn't been much activity! We're 17 weeks (about 4 months!) and all-in-all, things are going well. Current cravings are pickles (straight from the fridge - the crisp ones) and yuca with spicy green sauce. No new symptoms really, except being VERY ITCHY. I'm beginning to think that I'm allergic to pregnancy. Otherwise, the second trimester is far easier than the first in terms of having much more energy. I still like naps, but don't struggle to make it through a day. 

We had a doctor's appointment on the 29th but it was just to have blood drawn for the second half of our screening test. We'll get the results at our next OB check up on the 10th. Next landmark will be finding out the sex on June 18th!! Just a few more weeks!