19 weeks & Gender Party!

Due Date: March 24, 2012
Weight gain: 11lbs, no weight gain this week.
Maternity clothes: I wear maternity pants…but I can still wear my shirts and dresses for the time being.
Sleep: pretty good, but I snore now!!! I don’t know if it’s a pregnancy thing or sinus thing but I keep Steven awake at night & I wake myself up!
What I miss: sleeping on my belly
Movement: He kicks all the time.
Sex: BOY!!!! Brady James Seals
Food cravings: Butterfingers!!!
What I'm looking forward to: Shopping & decorating

So, we got all our family over to our house Saturday night and had a big reveal! It was so much fun but most people picked sex…. BOY!!! We are so excited to have baby Brady James on the way!!! I can’t wait to go back to the doctor Thursday and have another sonogram so I can see his sweet face again! Every day I fall more and more in love with him. He’s the greatest blessing of our lives! We couldn’t be happier. Today, Steven was on the tractor & all I could think of is in a few years, Brady will be up there with him. God is SO good! He knows exactly what we need & He always provides. This journey to parenthood has been long & tough but so worth it. Without every little thing that’s happened we wouldn’t be where we are today…and that’s happy & excited about our baby boy!

Here’s some pictures of the gender party. We had Steven’s family & my family over to celebrate. Steven grilled hamburgers & I made the cake to reveal, “It’s a BOY”. (I just couldn’t see spending $40 on a cake…so I made it myself…it looks more like a Charlie Brown cake, but it was made with love.) My “boy” shirt was made by my sweet friend Jamie Martin. She’s one of the most talented people I know.

The food:


The cake:


Our mom's cut the cake to reveal the sex.


Our grandmothers:


My sisters:


Message in a cake:


It's a BOY!!!

Secrets!

Secrets are NO fun..especially when it's something you really want to tell!!! I went to the doctor yesterday for my weekly check-up. When my doctor walked in she said, "do you want to find out what you're having today?" I was like heck yeah!!! I wasn't suppose to have my sonogram until next week, but she said she wanted to know the sex and of course we were dying to know. So we went in the room and got to see our sweet angel again & thankfully "it's" not shy or modest!!! So we know!!! And I couldn't be happier!!!! I am SO excited and I want to shout it to the world...but I want to tell all my family at the same time...and we couldn't find time to do it until Saturday. So, I'm trying my best not to slip and tell someone my exciting news!

Every good and perfect gift is from above.
James 1:17

18 weeks

Due Date: March 24, 2012
Weight gain: 11lbs
Maternity clothes: I wear maternity pants…but I can still wear my shirts and dresses for the time being.
Sleep: pretty good, just have to get up a couple time a night to use the restroom
What I miss: sleeping on my belly
Movement: The baby kicks all the time when I’m still, however, it won’t kick when Steven’s trying to feel it.
Sex: Don't know yet. We will find out next week!!!
Food cravings: Butterfingers!!! Those things are the devil!!!
What I'm looking forward to: I can't wait to find out the sex! I'm so excited to start shopping!!!!

Inching closer....

I'm 17w5d pregnant today. I went to my weekly doctor's visit and everything is still good. The baby's heartbeat is in the 150's and "it's" moving like crazy. My doctor said everything looks good. I gained 4 pounds, which didn't surprise me, but I'm not too happy about it. I know gaining weight is a part of being pregnant but gaining 4 pounds in one week is not good. I'm going to have to start eating healthier and get back to walking.The exciting news is that I'm going to have a sonogram in 2 weeks...which means in 2 weeks we hopefully will know the gender of the baby!!! We're so excited!

But, now comes the hard work. I told Steven we have 2 weeks to decide on a name for each sex. I want to have a name picked out when we find out the sex. So, all the way home tonight we pretty much argued over names. It's so hard to pick a name for another person. This is what this child is going to be called forever....how he/she is going to be identified. I don't want to pick something that will bring my baby embarrassment in the future. So, tonight I sat down and when through hundreds of boy names...I've decided I'm going give my list of 40 names to Steven & let him narrow it down. I'm thinking one week to decide each sex is long enough...we're starting with boy names first.... Hopefully we can come to a decision without killing each other! ha

17 weeks

Due Date: March 24, 2012
Weight gain: 7lbs
Maternity clothes: not really (I do use a belly band to still wear my jeans.)
Sleep: pretty good, just have to get up a couple time a night to use the restroom
What I miss: sleeping on my belly
Movement: I can feel the baby when I lay still...but today it was kicking me during Gage's football game.. maybe we're having a football player or cheerleader???
Sex: Don't know yet, but should find out in 1-2 weeks!!!! I'm so excited.
Food cravings: Sweet stuff (and that's so not like me!)
What I'm looking forward to: I can't wait to find out the sex! I'm so excited to start shopping!!!!

Belly Shots

Here's how I've progressed throughout this pregnancy so far. I don't know if you can tell in the later pictures but it's pretty obvious that I'm pregnant...the people who see me every day have been wondering when I was going to say something. lol
5 weeks (We were on vacation, so this pic is taken in Maine... pretty awesome background!!)


6 weeks


7 weeks


8 weeks


9 weeks


10 weeks


11 weeks


12 weeks


13 weeks


14 weeks


15 weeks


16 weeks

1 Month

Our journey, with this pregnancy, begin way back in January 2010. I never would have thought then it would have taken so long to get to the point where we are today, but it has all been for good reason, I have no doubt about that. After my three miscarriages, my doctor decided she'd done everything she could think of and referred me to a specialist in Dallas.

Our first appointment with the specialist was in April 2011. He discovered that I had cysts on my ovaries, but felt really good about our chances of having our own baby. His plan of treatment was to prescribe Clomid (a drug to help you ovulate). I began Clomid on June 20th. On day 10 of my cycle I went back to Dallas and had a sonogram which showed the Clomid had worked and I had one good follicle. So, our specialist gave us the green light to try.

Well, once again (just like the last 3 times we've tried), I got pregnant the first month. I took a positive pregnancy test on July 12th. I went to my doctor for blood work on July 12 and 18th and everything looked good. On July 27th I had my first sonogram and everything looked good. The baby was too small to see, but the sac was there. My doctor decided to prescribe Crinone (which is progesterone), just to be safe. She also decided to prescribe Lovenox (a blood thinner). I took Crinone through week 14 and will take Lovenox until week 32 (I think) then she'll switch to a different drug (Hepron). The Crinone is a suppository, which is yucky, but painless. I'm very thankful I'm done with it. Lovenox is an injection. Steven gives me a shot in the stomach every night...and it hurts!!! But so worth it!

Here's pictures from that first month.

One Word

It's crazy how one little word can completely change your life. We are so excited to be expecting our little blessing, but still very nervous and scared. I've been wanting to blog about this pregnancy but didn't want to word to get out too soon. So, after 16 weeks, and a growing belly, I've decided now's the time to let you in on my secret. I plan to do a weekly pregnancy blog...today is 16 weeks. I'll blog about the last four months soon.
Please keep us in your prayers.

Hello October!!!

It's seriously so hard to believe today's the first day of October. I was telling Steven last night how it felt like I just changed the calendar over to September and now it's time to do it again! I love fall and it is a little cooler this weekend, which makes it even better! I haven't really seen any leaves changing colors yet, but hopefully that will happen soon.

I have slowly been working on decorating my house for fall this past week. I have decided that instead of decorating separately for all the fall holidays (Halloween & Thanksgiving) that I'd just focus on fall decorations and keep my decorations up a little longer (plus it saves money, which makes my hubby very happy). Here's what I've done so far....I forgot I had all these decorations, so it felt like Christmas the other day when I went up in my attic and found all these decorations.

I made this wreath myself! (Again, saving that money!!!)


Happy Fall Y'all!!!