Happy New Year's Eve! ~~ 22 weeks

Andy and I have had quite an eventful last month: 20 week ultrasound and the results of that (plus hitting the halfway mark to baby!), graduation, Christmas, Baby B. moving like crazy, and Kona turning two! It has been an amazing December, and somewhat busy, but we've enjoyed every minute.

Pre-warning: this will probably be a very long update. :-)

First: ULTRASOUND! We went in a couple of weeks ago for the 20 week ultrasound, and what an amazing thing that was! It was the day after my final and the day before graduation from nursing school...needless to say, it was an awesome day! We got to the ultrasound (me with a full bladder, which was extremely uncomfortable) and the tech started trying to get the picture on the screen. As soon as she did, we noticed the baby was sucking its thumb! It was so adorable being able to see it suck its thumb and fingers, move around, flip upside down - we have an active little one! Andy said it became so much more real for him being able to see those images.

Baby's face on the left, belly, and left hand waving!

Baby's head on left, right arm bent, and right knee (it had just taken its hand out of its mouth).

Baby profile.

So the ultrasound was awesome, but unfortunately, we weren't able to ask any questions! I was asking if everything looked okay, etc., and the tech said she wasn't allowed legally to say/diagnose anything. So I got a call from my doctor the next day, 15 minutes before I was about to walk at my graduation, and she said I have what's called marginal placenta previa. The baby looked completely fine, but my placenta is low-lying in my uterus, and could possibly block the baby's way out in a natural delivery. I researched a little more, and it's actually pretty common and usually resolves itself later in the pregnancy. They'll do another ultrasound at 30 weeks and if it hasn't moved up, they'll schedule a c-section (worst case scenario). But, we're thinking and praying it will move. :-)

A quick sidenote: we told the tech at the very beginning that we didn't want to know the sex of the baby. She was very respectful of that and also very careful. She had to turn the monitor screen like four times during the ultrasound, and by the third time she told us, "Your baby is not shy!".....Take that for what you will. :-) Andy still thinks it's a girl, but I'm leaning towards a boy - the first hunch I've had the whole pregnancy.

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Next: GRADUATION!! After a very emotional and trying last week of attempting to keep my sanity, I finally made it to the goal I have been working at for 6 years - graduating from nursing school! I got an 87% percent on the final and ended up with a solid "B" in the class. The graduation day was pretty surreal, but awesome nonetheless. I had a lot of family and friends come out and support me, and that was amazing. Andy and Matt (Jessie from my class' husband) set up all of our decorations, and we were actually able to use some of the stuff from our wedding again!

Christine and Emily at Fox and Goose after the final with other friends from class (an end-semester-tradition).

Jessie and Emily at Fox and Goose.

Andy setting up the decorations.

Faculty on left, students on right, with gorgeous decorations! :-)

Me with my brother Brent and sister Leslie after the graduation.

Emily and Natalie after graduation.


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BABY UPDATE: So I am 22 weeks tomorrow, which means I am officially over halfway to the 40 week mark. Baby B. is moving a lot, and I cannot get enough of it!! I feel like I could just lay there and feel it all day, it's the most amazing feeling. We just started being able to feel it from the outside a couple of weeks ago, which is really exciting for Andy. It is now our nightly routine when we get in bed for the night for Andy to spend a few minutes and feel Baby kick him - it's awesome!

This is what baby looks like this week: it measured 13 ounces two weeks ago at the ultrasound, but we didn't get the length - it's approximately 10-11 inches.

20 week bump picture taken the day of my final, before Andy took me out to Fat's for dinner!

21 Weeks

21 Weeks - getting closer to an outie! (Please ignore the piercing hole).

Sorry this is so incredibly long, I will try to get better at posting more often now that school is over - hooray!! Hope you all have a wonderful and safe New Year's Eve and a very happy 2009!!

Happy 2nd birthday (yesterday) to our awesome Kona girl (happily playing with her new Christmas toy)!

17.5 Weeks, Maternity Shopping, and Baby Gifts!

First off, I hope you all had a wonderful, relaxing, and filling Thanksgiving. We spent the day at Grandma and Grandpa Gruner's house, relaxed, ate awesome food and caught up with family we hadn't seen in a while. Here are a few pics...

Beautiful Aunt Tina and Uncle Gary :-)

Stopping to pose for the camera

Grandma busy making yummy gravy



Grandpa busy carving turkey






Uncle David and Aunt Lisa

After trying to button my pre-baby jeans one last time a couple of weeks ago, my mom and I finally decided to go to the Folsom Outlets (they have a Motherhood Maternity!) and get some pants! It was a lot of fun to take the day off from studying and hang out with my mom. Motherhood keeps fake baby "bumps" in the dressing rooms that you can strap on to your stomach to see how clothes will fit you later on in your pregnancy - we had too much fun with those!

The first look at me with a huge baby "bump"!



I absolutely loved this shirt and will probably wear it on Christmas. :-)

Quick story about a really cool thing that happened last week:

My class usually does a potluck together about once a semester. So a couple of weeks ago, one of the girl's in my class decided it would be fun to do it one last time together! I thought it was a great idea and was looking forward to it. We planned on doing it last Friday, considering we weren't at the hospital, but on campus for a simulation lab. So we had lecture in the morning, and then were getting set up to start the potluck in our classroom. I was toward the back of the line, and when I finally got my food and was about to sit down and eat, Janette and Christine walked in the room looking very suspicious. Janette got everyone's attention and said they wanted to recognize three people in our class - me, Megan, and Andrey! Megan is currently about 5 weeks ahead of me, and Andrey's wife had their second baby last month. The whole class got together, collected donations and Janette, Christine, and Jillian put together three beautiful gift bags together for each of us! I was blown away!

Amazing gift for Baby B. from my nursing class - onesies, washcloths, binkies, diapers, wipes, pillow, bath supplies, toys, changing pad - amazing! Andy and I were completely overwhelmed!


Here are some pics of a couple of other gifts we've received:

Baby B's first official gift - his/her first Bible from cousin Chris, Laura and Levi!



Two comfy gowns and booties from Aunt Lisa

So now it's time to move on to some updates of our little bean! I am currently about 17.5 weeks, have just noticed my belly starting to "pop" a little, and not go completely flat when I lay down! I haven't for sure felt movements yet, but have noticed little "bubbles" off and on that is still too hard to tell for sure if it's really the baby or just me. I'm looking forward to that moment though!

We had our 4th appointment on Wednesday, and because Andy wasn't at the "extra" appointment that I scheduled a couple of weeks ago, he got to hear the heartbeat for the first time - it was awesome! The heartbeat was 159 again, and strong. It's funny that about half of the people that hear how fast it was say it's a girl because of that, and the other half (including my mom) say it's a boy. Everyone's already putting in their guesses!

This is what the baby looks like this week; he/she is about 5 ounces and 5 inches long, can move joints, developing sweat glands, and bone is ossifying and growing harder - pretty cool, huh? Here are some recent 17 weeek bump pictures:


17 week baby bump


The first time my belly didn't go flat when I layed down!

17 weeks


17 weeks, Thanksgiving day

I think that's it for my many updates, hope everything's well with all of you and that you're enjoying this awesome holiday season!