Results are in!!

The final vote came out 11 to 20 in favor of a girl. And the result is.... 65% of you (and myself) were wrong. :) We're having another boy!!! We'll let you know when we decide what his name will be. We haven't quite narrowed it down yet. :)

Cast Your Vote for the Baby's Gender!

The Countdown's On!!!

Custom Countdowns & MySpace Layouts

11wk update

So it’s been a long and rough couple of weeks. My morning sickness finally subsided a few weeks ago and I felt pretty good for about ½ a week. Then one day I started feeling really dizzy and as a result I was feeling motion sick- like being stuck on a boat on rough waters. The only thing I could think of was maybe a problem with my blood pressure. Normal for me is about 90/60, which is considered borderline low. Sure enough my blood pressure was down and was averaging 75/55 over several days. My doctor has assured me that it is normal for blood pressure to drop during pregnancy and that I should just be careful so that I don’t fall and hurt myself or the baby.

I went in for my routine prenatal checkup a week later and my BP was down to 74/48. After consulting with the Dr. my midwife assured me that I have nothing to worry about, but she did run some extra blood tests to see if there is an underlying cause. She also wants to see me in 2wks rather than the normal 4wks, because she is concerned that I have been continually dizzy for so long (even when I’m laying down). The good news is that at that appt (11wks) we were able to hear a nice strong heart beat, so the baby appears to be doing well. I just have to ride this out and hope my blood pressure goes back up soon.



Here is the latest sequence of pregnancy pictures. The one on the left is at 4wks, so basically the before picture. The others from left are 8wks, 9wks, and 11wks. I was too sick to take a picture wk 10. :( Believe it or not, I lost 5lbs between the 4wk and 8wk pictures and then lost 2 more lbs. after that, but I have yet to put a single pound back on. But that hasn’t stopped my belly from growing.







Here I am at 11wks and I am the same size that I was with Carter at 19wks.



















And of course Carter still loves to give the baby some love.

Baby Talk

So I was lying on the couch this morning and my belly was poking out a little from my shirt. Carter came up to it and said "there you are!" and preceeded to say goodmorning to the baby and give my belly hugs and kisses. He later came back up to me, when my belly was fully covered and he said "where did it go?" So he had to pull my shirt up and find my belly again to talk to the baby some more. I think he's getting excited about being a big brother. I asked him if he wanted the baby to sleep in his room when it came out of mommy's belly, to which he excitedly replied "yes!" (If it's a boy they'll share a room). It was the sweetest thing and I just had to share it.

Pregnancy Update (8 1/2 weeks)

So we’re 8 ½ weeks into this pregnancy and I am feeling slightly better with the help of some anti-nausea medicine from my midwife, but there are still many bad days (they’re just not as bad as they were).

We finally got around to taking a belly picture today after we took down the Christmas tree that was blocking the “photo” wall. Here’s a look at the “before” picture (3 ½ wks) compared to now. I’ve done a lot of growing in just 5 weeks.














Clearly what they say about you showing sooner with your second is true. Here’s a look at my first pregnancy at 15wks compared to this one at only 8 1/2wks.















Carter already loves being a big brother and loves to give my belly hugs and kisses and talk and sing to the baby. He tells the baby “morning” when he wakes up and tells it “night-night” before he goes to bed. (Of course if the flutters I’m feeling already are an indication, the baby is actually waking up about the time he says night-night)




We got our first ultrasound picture last week.







Here's a little diagram I made up to show you what you're looking at. It's harder to distinguish on a still picture than it is while they're doing the ultrasound and you can see things moving, so I figured I'd offer some help.










And here's just a fun little thing I did in Photoshop. Nothing genius, but seeing as out last name is Herman, I always remember the character of Baby Herman from the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He's the cute little baby that's really a cigar smoking man off camera.




And just because no blog is complete without a Carter update- this week we're working on shapes. So far he knows: oval, triangle, diamond, moon, star, and circle. (He has one of those cubes with holes in it that you put different shapes through.) He had square down, but he just learned diamond and now he gets them confused (along with rectangles). He also occasionally confuses a circle for an oval, since he just learned oval too, but he's getting better.

So that's everything for now. Only 4 1/2 weeks left in the first trimester, so hopefully all the nausea will subside soon. In the mean time I'll keep eating whatever cravings hit me that don't make me want to vomit. :)

Announcement and Update

So for those of you who haven’t heard the news yet, our family is growing. Carter is going to be a big brother come August. The official due date is August 25, but since Carter was so big (9lb 3oz), we will likely have a planned c-section about a week early. We’re considering the 20th, because that’s Ryan’s birthday, but we still have plenty of time to decide.

Carter is already talking to the baby. He likes to lift mommy’s shirt and kiss and hug her belly and tell the baby good morning or night-night. He also likes to sing to the baby. He’s going to be a great big brother.

As mentioned, Carter likes to sing. His favorite song by far is Twinkle, Twinkle. He also likes to sing the ABC’s, jingle bells, and several of the songs from his Sabbath School class. He has a hard time remembering all the words, but he’s pretty good with the tunes.

He’s still growing like a weed. He’s 36” and 28lbs now. That keeps him right at 95% for height and about 65% for weight, which is pretty much where he’s always been on the growth chart. Based on that he’ll likely reach 6’2” by the time he’s done growing.

He’s still learning things like crazy. He knows all his letters, though still not in alphabetical order, and he can count to 13. He can say any word he hears and is talking in full complete sentences now. He loves to read books and will sit and recite his favorite ones out loud to himself when we’re too busy to read to him. He’s heard many of them so many times, that he really can tell the stories himself as he turns the pages. A couple of his favorites are The Pokey Little Puppy and his Sabbath School Quarterly.

He also loves to cook. We get a step stool out for him when we’re making a meal and he’ll be right there helping measure things out and dumping them in and stirring. We even got him a little apron and chef’s hat for Christmas.

He still eats a lot and isn’t very picky, but he is showing preferences, asking for certain things a lot. As a Herman, his favorite food is of course tacos. He LOVES vegetables, especially beans (any type). There really isn’t too much he doesn’t like, but the few things he doesn’t we don’t push too hard, since he does like so many things that are good for him.