Happy New Year from Peanut!

This was our early Christmas present this year, another ultrasound! The one advantage to having Gestational Diabetes are the extra growth ultrasounds. We fell in love with our little Peanut even more after this ultrasound. She's fattened up so much since the 20wk ultrasound, and she is looking even more and more cute if I do say so myself! The final result of the ultrasound is that our little Peanut is right smack dab between the 50th and 95th percentile for growth, after asking my midwife some questions I found out that this means that she is perfectly NORMAL. This is a huge sigh of relief. So as of right now my GD has not caused our sweet little Peanut to be a huge baby. Let's hope she stays that way!




So since we know that Peanut is perfectly average sized right now, and I am 30 weeks (!!!!!) pregnant. Peanut is now the size of a squash!

It's hard to believe that I have a little tiny human growing inside of me that could potentially weigh just over 3 pounds! Craziness I tell you. She's moving around like crazy now, especially first thing in the morning when Andre and I eat breakfast together, and then again later at night when I'm relaxing after Andre has gone to bed. Last night I even felt what was unmistakably either a foot or a knee. What I do know for sure is that it was sharp and hard!

Otherwise I have been feeling really good. The odd ache and pain in my hips and low back. Some swelling in my ankles, but I am on my feet most of the day at work, so that's unavoidable. The belly is steadily getting bigger, and about three weeks ago I really started to feel pregnant, especially when getting into bed at night, I joke with Andre I need a crane! To give you an idea of how I look now here is a self-portrait I took of myself in Peanuts room. Don't get too excited though, we haven't started to decorate, so it's just a yellow room.

So without further ado I will end this blog entry with a picture of the the belly (and me) at 30 weeks:

Peanut is halfbaked!

Other than reaching the half way point of the pregnancy (yeah!!) this milestone also means the time for the "big" ultrasound (double yeah!!!). We decided early on in the pregnancy that we really wanted to know whether it was going to be a sausage party or a taco party around here. From the word go I thought that peanut was a boy, I had dreams about it, so it had to be true right? Well you're just going to have to wait to find out sheesh!

So the big day arrived. Andre had decided that instead of having the big reveal in the ultrasound room at the hospital, he wanted the technician to write down whether it was a boy or girl on a piece of paper and put it in an envelope. Then we would take the envelope and do the big reveal in the same place where this all began... (get your minds out of the gutter people!) the place that he proposed (awwwwwww). Thank you to his cousin for suggesting this! So armed with our camera, some kleenex and our winter coats since we had a surprise cold snap that morning we headed to the hospital for 8:10 am!

We arrived on time and I went in for the first part of the ultrasound. After what seemed like forever (the sudden reappearance of some random nausea that week made it seem that much longer) they let Andre come into the room for the fun part of the morning, seeing peanut! Apparently peanut is a mover and shaker (again taking after Andre) and was moving the entire time. We got to see everything (minus the money shot). The technician triple checked the anatomy and wrote it down for us. We left the hospital and headed to Bayfront Park!

After a very cold morning walk we arrived at the spot where Andre popped the question 5 years ago. We opened the envelope and saw:

"Congratulations it's a GIRL!!!"

Our little peanut is a girl! We couldn't believe it. After some tears of joy and lots of hugs, we called my mom at work to share the good news. We then booted it back to the car to warm up! When we got home we made another call, this time to Andre's parents to share the news.

The other great part of the day is another picture of peanut!

Here it is for all of you:

Isn't she beautiful?

Now the big wait begins! March seems like so far away until we meet our little girl.

Ultrasound time!

This week has been a busy one! Yesterday we had the first part of our IPS testing completed which consisted of an ultrasound and some bloodwork. We got a picture, but honestly it was horrible, so we haven't bothered to scan it. Today we had an appointment with our specialist. This was a special day since we officially "graduated" just into the care of our Midwife. They weren't going to do another ultrasound because we had one the previous day, but we told them we got a crappy picture, so they said that they would do one so we could get a good picture.

You should have seen peanut! Arms and legs were moving like crazy, doing flips back and forth from tummy side up to bottom side up! As the tech was doing the measurements she couldn't help from smiling, and I could hear Andre laughing as he watched the screen, and he told me that peanut was exercising. Finally after all the measurements were complete the tech turned the screen so I could see little peanut, and so many changes since the ultrasound at 9 weeks! Peanut looks like a baby now!

Here is the best picture that they gave to us today:

I love this picture since it shows the whole entire body!

Second ultrasound!

Andre and I are incredibly lucky because we were blessed to see our little peanut again! We were at the specialists office this morning for another visit, and another ultrasound to make sure peanut is developing normally. The ultrasound tech is absolutely wonderful and as she was checking out the umbilical cord and placenta she had Andre come over to the screen so he could see everything.

Peanut is measuring on schedule, and the little heart was beating at 145 beats per minute. We also found out that peanut could be arriving a little sooner than we originally expected since our official due date is March 9th!

Our first ultrasound I was only 6wks3days pregnant, so this time at 9wks5days pregnant there was so much more to see this time. It was miraculous to see. Both Andre and I both had tears in our eyes this time. Peanut is no longer a little blob on the screen, but actually looks like a little person! A person with a really big head, but a little person! Peanut was even moving! There are no words to describe what we were feeling when we saw the little arms and legs moving, and body wiggling. It was amazing.

Seeing everything today makes all the nausea, gagging and dry heaves more than worth it.

We were given a few pictures, but I think this one shows the head, arms and legs the best. Here is peanut:

Introducing...

Peanut! (or Cashew as my mother has named our little one)

Some of you very lucky readers received this picture via e-mail earlier in the week, but the rest of you I'm sorry, but you had to wait till today to see.

For those out there here is the technical mumbo jumbo: the black blob? that's called the gestational sac, the little circle up and to the left? that is the yolk sac, this is what is currently feeding our little peanut. Further to the left, between the two +'s is our little peanut.

That day peanut measured 5mm! The best part of this whole experience was seeing that little tiny heart actually beating. There are no words to describe how wonderful it was to be holding Andre's hand and seeing this little heart beating inside of ME! Let's just say there were some tears. Andre still can't stop talking about how cool it was to see that heartbeat. Truly amazing.

The specialist reviewed everything, and said that everything was progressing normally and I am due back on August 12th. I hope we get another picture because that will be an awesome present for my dad who will be celebrating a birthday on that very day!