It's true what they say ... you won't be noticing much change and then one day you wake up and BAM! Where did this come from!??! So, I am starting to show ... and I let Bob take a picture of my little bump yesterday! The whole time I am writing this entry, I can't help but sing that Black Eyed Peas song "My Hump" but replace the word "hump" with "bump" ...

"My bump, my bump, my bump my bump,

My lovely lady bump, my bump, my bump, my bump ... check it out!"

We have FURNITURE!!!

We want to send a very special THANK YOU!! to our friends who have so kindly donated furniture to us. 

The beautiful glider (+ matching ottoman, not shown but also glides!) was given to us by Jason & Loren. Jason worked with Bob at Sungard, and they were updating the furniture in their son's room and offered this up to us. Umm, we'd love it!

The lovely white crib was given to us by one of my old co-workers, Britt. She and her husband had just taken the crib apart, because their son is transitioning to a "big-boy bed", and they thought they could help out some new parents to be! Hello!? That would be a huge help! 

SO, to very thoughtful friends of ours... we just want to say THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) 

Belly Buddies

We finally downloaded pictures from Thanksgiving week when we told the family in Brasil about our fun news - not only do they get new cousins, but they're only like 3 weeks apart! There must be something in the water!!

The dressing room has a whole new meaning!

It's pretty frustrating to wake up one morning and button your pants, then the next morning wake up and they just aren't fitting like they use to! So... I decided to make my first trip to a 'maternity store'. Pea in the Pod/Mimi Maternity to be exact. WOW! I didn't know maternity clothes could be so expensive! I mean seriously... there's just a little more material and they've added some elastic, so why do they charge double??

Anywho... I pick out a few items and the sales woman gets my dressing room ready. As I go in to change, I notice this strap-on belly thing sitting on the bench. Hmmm... I just try on the pants and top and walk out to show Bob (who is sitting in the "man section" - black leather seats and sports tv) and ask "What do you think?". That's when the saleswoman comes over and says "No, no...go put the belly on and see how it looks" as she's leading me back to the dressing room, where she basically undresses my waist area to get the belly strapped on. It was pretty hilarious. So, I walk out for the second time to show Bob and ask "How do I look?" which is when he snaps this picture. Funny to think I will have a belly that big! Here's a little preview until then...

A Little Birthday Celebration...

 Adrienne, Sandra, and Me: The 3 preggers enjoying some virgin strawberry daqueris! 

 Catt showing off where my baby is...and no, that is not my wine glass! :)

Future "Mom and Dad"! :)

The Second Sonogram

The second sonogram was a little more visualizing for us, although still nothing that really resembled a human yet. We went in a few weeks after our first visit, same room, same equipment, same probe. I promised Heather that I wouldn't ask nearly as many questions while the tech had the wand wanding. Well, not that many, at least. She did the usual checks - making sure that everything was in the right place. Our baby, now closer to the size of a pea (about 2.6 mm), was indeed in the right place, hanging from the front part of the uterus, which would five us good views for all subsequent sonograms. The pictures she took looked more like a cocoon than a baby, but keep in mind, we're still pretty early on - but so much is happening in that little being. The nervous system is forming, the brain is developing like crazy (250,000 neurons a minute!!), arm and leg buds are developing, and so much more!! By this time too, the heart is beating more along what you would be expected of an 11 week old embryo (almost graduating to fetus!). 132 beats per minute this time!! Wahoo!! We've got a nice strong heartbeat that we could see on the screen, and hear! No video yet - something up with the VCR I guess - all that technology, and we can't get a freakin' video? C'mon! Anyway, so next time we see our baby, we'll be able to tell if daddy put the stem on the apple! 8 weeks...seems like forever!

The First Sonogram

I'll let Bob explain this one...

You hear about "the first sonogram" all the time - they're going to do this, and put that there, and look around, but you never really know what to expect - or how much they're going to zoom in. The whole biology of pregnancy and fetal development really intrigues me - amazing that two tiny little cells coming together ultimately end up as a human being. Our first sonogram was around 6 weeks - still pretty early, so I didn't expect much. We went into the sonogram room - there's this big machine with a monitor and all sorts of buttons, and, well, probes. These days, they're pretty high-tech, but there's still something to be said for getting up close and personal. I'll spare the details, but let's just say that while the sonogram technician and I were chatting about where the egg came from (right ovary), and how she could tell, and where the "baby" was, and how big it was at the time (slightly smaller that a poppy seed), and that we actually heard the beginnings of a heartbeat and saw it on screen. It was 83 beats per minute, but at that point, the heart was barely formed. We'll wait to the next visit to really see some development. So, that was about it - got to see a tiny little black and white dot on a black and white screen - looked more like a TV with no signal, but it was my baby - and confirmation that indeed, my little dudes swam and did what they're supposed to do!