I think my stomach gets a little bigger every day. My belly button is completely flat. It’s kinda strange to me still. The phrase “roll out of bed” is all to familiar to me these days too. I literally have to roll over and roll up out of bed and then usually kinda waddle to the bathroom. It has become routine so it’s not bad anymore. I’ll be glad though when I can sleep through the night… and that’s probably going to be in a few years from now. I can dream, right?

Found out that my blood pressure has gone up… Kinda expected it to happen. I’m not worried though. I have a fabulous doctor that I trust and I’ve done a lot of reading on the subject. I feel pretty prepared with what is to come. I’ll just have to take each day as it comes! With new meds and a order for “taking it easy”, I should be fine. Although if it continues to go up, I’ll be induced early. As long as the baby is healthy, I’m on board for whatever Dr. Rager says!

I feel as though Chris and I have come to an agreement on a name for Lil Lady V. Although I’m not 100% sure, I think her name will be Kenley Elise. I have a feeling that this name will suit her. Picking a name is eally rhard… Hopefully we will make the right choice when the time comes!

The nursery is all set up. All we have to do is rip out and replace the baseboards and paint the room. Sounds like a lot but we should be get it done over a weekend. Hopefully we do that sometime soon. My stomach might be getting in the way if we wait too much longer! I love her furniture (Thanks mom & dad). The dark expresso brown will match her bedding perfectly!  It will be adorable. Very cute… light pinks and dark browns. I have to find some kind of lighting to go in there. Not sure if I want a hanging light or not. We’ll see and as Chris says “We have time”.

So as I enter the third trimester (never thought the day would come), I look forward to the next three months! I grow more and more eager to meet the little one. I wonder what she will look like and try to imagine how much I will love her. I can’t wait to count her little fingers and toes and look into what I expect will be her big blue eyes! She’ll be perfect, I just know it! Come on July, I’m getting a little impatient!

I’ve been feeling a lot of movement lately. Her somewhat subtle flicks have turned ito full fledged punches and kicks. Every time she kicks (which is almost non-stop these days), it reminds me that she’s in there. The other day was the first time I saw my whole stomach move. Really weird but pretty cool.

My belly has now completely popped out and I feel as though I finally look pregnant. My belly button has widened and is almost completely flat. Chris finds this absolutely hysterical. Don’t ask me why. I’m no longer wearing pre-prego clothes. I’ve made the switch and really don’t mind for the most part. These days, I’ll take comfort over cute.

With the weather getting warmer, it’s nice to finally spend some time outside. Walking the dogs has been a must the past few weeks. It’s nice to get out and walk for a while. I feel as though it helps me sleep a little bit better. We are starting to get the outside of the house in order so that we can start on the inside. It’ll be nice to have things in order before the little one comes. I have a feeling that when she arrives, I’m going to want to do nothing but spend time with her.

I am looking forward to the next few months. The bigger the tummy, the sooner she will come. In a few weeks, I get to have a 3D ultrasound. I can’t wait to see what my little girl is going to look like. From the last ultrasound picture, her profile shows that she is going to have Chris’ nose. Sooo cute! I’m so excited!

The day started with me getting about 1-2 hours of sleep. I felt like a kid at Christmas. I couldn’t stop thinking about how the coming news would change mine and Chris’ life. Boy or Girl; I didn’t care. I just wanted it to be healthy. Flash forward about 4 hours to lunchtime. Chris took a half day from work and came home. I was a mess but hid it pretty well. I had made myself sick with worry. We had elected not to do any genetic testing in the first trimester, so this u/s would be able to tell us if anything looked to be “not right”. I just to know that the baby was ok. 

We headed out to the appointment a little early to drop off my Pepcid Rx. Someone gave my baby a flamethrower… the heartburn is terrible. Walking into the Perinatal center, I was really anxious. It was a good thing that they don’t take blood pressure there. Mine would have been through the roof. It felt like my heart was beating out of my chest. A woman in a pink sweatshirt came out of the door. “Amanda Von Handorf”, she said. It still takes a minute for it to register that my last name has changed. Grabbing my stuff, I jumped up and probably walked rather quickly towards the door. She lead us to u/s room #1. I sat down and again, could feel my heart pounding. Here it goes, the sonogram had started. She took all the measurements first. Hearing the words, “everything looks great and the baby is measuring exactly where it should be” was the best moment of the day. I felt a huge calmness come over me. I was finally relaxing. With everything looking good, I was now excited about finding out the gender! Looking up at the screen, the sonographer pointed out the little “parts”. With that she said, “it’s a girl”! She tried for a few more picture of our little one before leaving the room. After she left, I looked at Chris and just smiled. We finally knew that our baby was a healthy, little girl.

I can’t wait to meet her!

Only 7 more days til we find out what the little one is!!! I can hardly wait!

At this point in the pregnancy, the baby is 5 inches long from head to rump. I love that word, rump. It sounds like the appropriate word for a little baby bottom! According to BabyCenter, the kiddo is about the size of a turnip or the size of my palm.

This week, the baby’s bone are starting the ossification process, so I should start to feel a little movement and then some kicks in the next few weeks! The baby is also starting to pack on some fat and will do so until it’s born. Hmm… that sounds oddly familiar. Like mother, like child.

Speaking of packing on some fat, I am now comfortable in my pre-pregnant pants with the button undone, zipper slightly unzipped and with the help of the Bella Band. That little band has helped me so much! I feel bigger in the midsection but can still wear my old pants. I’m trying to hold off on maternity pants for as long as I can! So far, so good but ask me next week and you might get a totally different answer!

This pregnancy thing is really starting to mess with me… My eating habits range from absolutely starving to not wanting anything at all, just depending on the day. Sometimes I have to make myself eat so I’m pretty happy that the nausea is gone. I haven’t been able to sleep lately. I’m usually a tummy sleeper and well, that’s not an option these days. I wake up every morning pretty exhausted from sleep deprivation. I guess I’m just preparing myself for when the little one comes. Trying to change sleeping positions after 25 years is pretty tough. Poor Chris.. I keep him up at night. I guess he needs to get used to it too, right? One thing that I didn’t know what was going to happen was that my balance would be non-existent. I’m usually a clumsy person but WOW. I guess I can blame the excess fluid that is surrounding my joints for the multiple contusions that cover my poor legs.. Thank goodness I’m able to wear pants all the time!

Off the preggo topic… This past weekend, we traveled up to PA for my nephew Justin’s baptism. First off, that boy is so stinkin’ cute. I couldn’t get enough of his cheeks! He is a beautiful baby. It was great to see Kev, Raquel, Lanie and Justin. We haven’t seen them since the wedding and the birth of Justin, so spending time with them was very nice and long overdue! I am very honored that Kevin and Raquel asked me to be his Godmother. The baptism was wonderful. The monsignor did such a great job and with that church as a background, it was perfect. While tracing a cross on my nephew’s forehead and pledging to help him grow in his faith, I couldn’t help but to be moved to tears. It was an amazing moment that I will never forget. I can’t wait to see what the future holds in store for that special baby!

The holidays also bring me my friends. I look forward to every year around Christmas because I know that my friends will be in-town.  Having been friends for years and years, they are more like family to me. I love them all so much and look forward to the next time we can all get together.

Now that all the hustle and bustle is over with, it’s time to look forward to a new year, a new life. So many changes are happening this year and it’s all because of the little one that’s growing inside me. It makes me grin from ear to ear. I’m 13 weeks now and only days from starting the second trimester. So that means the risk of miscarriage drops about 75%. Whew. I’ve also been told that the second trimester is the best for most women. The energy level goes up and the nausea goes down. Sign me up!! AND I get to find out if this little booger is a boy or girl in about 6 weeks! Although I am very eager to find out, all I really want is a healthy, happy baby.

This year is going to be a big one in terms of my faith. I have been taking RCIA classes and have every intent on being confirmed Catholic at the Easter Vigil. It is very important to me that Chris and I be on the “same page” before raising a child together. I thought it would be very difficult for me to go through this because I was raised in a Non-Denominational church but I’ve realized that it’s the same beliefs. The classes have been very informative and I feel as though Chris and I have grown from all of this. I like to think of it as “we are all trying to get to one place, we are just taking different roads to get there.” How true?

So, with three months down and 6 more to go, here’s to what 2010 will bring. Cheers… and that’s with a NA beverage!

Two more weeks and I’m out of the first trimester. It’s hard to believe that I’m almost a third of the way done.  Over these past 2 months, I’ve been on a rollercoaster of emotions. I’ll be giggling for 20 minutes only to be followed by streams of tears down my face. Yes, it happens that quick and for no real reason at all. Hello hormones! Nice to meet the new and enhanced yet evil version of you! It’s a real pleasure.

I have to say that I LOVE my new dr. She might be the coolest OB ever. Not only did she answer ALL of my obligatory questions, she talked about her pregnancies. She knows exactly what I’m going through and it makes me feel very comfortable. It’s a huge difference from the last OB. I have my sister-in-law to thank for the recommendation. I owe her big time!

Although I haven’t heard the heartbeat yet, I’ve been lucky enough to see it twice! The first time was Dr. Rager’s spur of the moment u/s . Unfortunately, Chris wasn’t there that time. I was in love when I saw that little flicker. It was such an overwhelming, surreal moment. I remember telling myself for the next few hours following, “I’m going to be a mommy”.  It was one of the best days of my life. The next u/s was at the perinatologist. It was scheduled and therefore Chris was able to come. It was such a neat moment for the both of us to share. You could see the baby moving around, almost like it was dancing! And since it’s my kid, I have no doubt that is what it was doing! Chris was looking at the screen and just kept saying, “that’s so crazy”. I don’t really know what that meant but from the smile on his face, I think it was a good thing.

As far the pregnancy symptoms/feelings, chalk me up for a few of them. The nausea has finally subsided, I hope. I have the “stretchy” pains in my abdomen and as for the expected bra size enhancement, double check!  I’m so happy that I’m finally over the whole food aversion thing. I couldn’t have any dairy for 2 months without feeling terrible. If you know me, I usually have at least one glass of milk a day. So for the past 2 weeks, I have been drinking milk daily and eating my fair share of any dairy products that I can get my hands on. It’s been so wonderful!

Bump watch- It’s there. It just popped out a little bit over the past few days. Yes, it’s pretty small but big enough for me to notice. Well, I’ll say that it’s big enough for the buttons on ALL of my pants to notice. I can see myself and my yoga pants forming a very lovely bond over the next months. Call me crazy but I’m actually excited to have a bigger belly. At least people will know I’m pregnant and not just packing on a few winter pounds. My fat pants have now become the “fit quite nicely with the button undone” pants and my skinny pants have become the “get those things away from me before I have a nervous breakdown” pants. Yay.

On a more uplifting note, I’m 11 weeks now and continuing to wait patiently for the latest development. I have my moments where I’m extremely nervous about becoming a mom yet oh so very excited at the same time. Then I have moments where I’m still in shock that this is all happening right now. I am so blessed to be where I am, who I’m with and what I have. “To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” –Ecclesiastes 3:1

Baby Von Handorf @ 11 weeks. Size of a fig!

I think my mom has a sneaking suspicion. She keeps asking questions. She’s my mom, she’s done it three times before, she probably knows. It’s going to be difficult to keep it from her and my dad. I tell them everything. I wish we would tell people. It would make things so much more fun!! I want to spend this special time with my family. They are going to be thrilled!

I had been feeling a little under the weather. A day of not so great stomach issues. I called Chris and asked if he could pick up some Sprite on his way home. Along with the Sprite, he also got me a “surprise”. It was a test. He had a sneaking suspicion that I was pregnant. Ok, here we go… one line, I’m not; a  plus sign or cross, I am. Did the drill, waited about a minute and then Chris walked into the bathroom. He looked down at the counter, turned around and his eyes lit up as he said, “I think it says positive”. There it was. A faint cross, lying on the counter. I grabbed it and stared for a while. I layed the test back down on the counter. As I turned to Chris,  the tears welled up in my eyes as I reached out my arms and embraced him. I was so happy.

I went through almost every emotion in the span of two minutes. We decided to go get another “better” test after church class, just to make sure. Well, just our luck, both of the “better” tests had an error! So, I took the second one that Chris had got earlier. There it was, another plus sign, or as I like to call them, a cross. There it was, our miracle, in the shape of a cross. How fitting!

Now that I know that I’m pregnant, it makes sense. All of the breakdowns in the past few weeks. I mean, total breakdown, sobbing uncontrollably one minute and then giggling the next. Crazy how hormones have already kicked in!

We have decided to not tell anyone until Christmas. I’ll be 3 months along by then and what a great Christmas present for our families! It’s by far the best present I’ve ever received.  So until then, I have to let out all of these emotions somewhere. Thanks blog, you’ll do the job!

I’m excited, nervous, hopeful and so blessed. Here’s to the next 9 months! I can’t wait to meet the end result…

Size of Baby Von Handorf at 4 weeks!