What A Weekend!

Last weekend, Graham got to spend the night at Cookie and Bompa's house!  He had such a great time.  He went to several parks and a pumpkin festival.  We took Graham to this same festival last year and it was amazing to hear (and see the pictures) of how much he has grown in wanting to participate in the activities offered!

Runnig around at Cookie & Bompa's

Bowling with pumpkins

Rolling around inside the giant ball

Decorating a pumpkin with Cookie

Smiling in the train

Riding the pony

Meanwhile, Michael and I attended a wedding.  One my good friends from college married a wonderful, so we traveled up to Ft. Collins to celebrate!  The ceremony was beautiful and the reception was a lot of fun.  The best part was the delicious food.  The food was Mexican-themed.  The appetizers and buffet were absolutely amazing!  We had such a great time at the wedding and then next morning we went out to breakfast together before picking up Graham and celebrating Cookie and Bompa's 34th anniversary with another delicious dinner!

Wedding celebration

20 Weeks

We are halfway there!  Unbelievable!  I know I've said this before, but there some moments early on where I really doubted we would make it this far, but our little girl is growing away!  I also did a comparison to my belly when I was pregnant with Graham.  It's crazy to me how different I look!

Belly shot!

Let's compare!

Think Pink!

We are having a GIRL!!  You read that correctly, come late February/early March Graham will be getting a baby sister.  We are thrilled to be adding a daughter to our family and surprised that there will be a Pretekin girl (there's not a whole lot of them)!

And now for an update on the pregnancy so far.  I have been feeling good, but experienced a bit of bleeding again around 16 weeks.  My doctor had me come in for an ultrasound just to make sure everything looked okay.  Baby was looking good during the ultrasound, but the tech thought that my placenta appeared to be very low and at my next visit, she would check to see is it had moved down over my cervix causing a condition called placenta previa.  Placenta previa typically means some level of bed rest with very regular doctor visits in order to monitor mama and baby, since the condition can have complications.  The tech also thought that my placenta looked like either it had an accessory lobe (totally normal and does not cause any complications) or could have another tear.  I was told to take it easy and to do as little lifting as possible.  During this visit, the tech also told us that she was fairly certain we were having a girl, but was not 100% sure since it was still early and baby wasn't completely cooperative.  We told our immediate families the news about the baby's sex, but decided not to tell anyone else until we got confirmation a few weeks later.

So on to my next visit.  I am happy to report that everything looked great!  My placenta moved up quite a bit, so I am no longer at risk of developing placenta previa.  The tech was also able to determine that my placenta has an accessory lobe and there are no new bleeds.  Our baby girl looked great, is developing normally, and measuring right on track.  I'm also happy to report that our baby girl is quite the mover!  I didn't feel Graham move until a bit later in the pregnancy due to the location of my placenta (me and the placenta, right??).  Even when I started being able to feel him, he was never really active.  Baby girl sure is!  We are so excited!

Yawning @ approx. 16 weeks

Little face @ approx. 16 weeks

Are those girl parts??? (approx. 16 weeks)

Yup, baby GIRL @ approx. 20 weeks

Little feet @ approx. 20 weeks

Little face @ approx. 20 weeks

Fun Fall Day

Fall is in the air! Today Graham and I went to the library (typically we go every other week to pick out new books) and we ended up staying for storytime! We didn't make it through all of storytime, but Graham had a great time with the other kids. I had a great time watching him interact with the other kids. He's incredibly expressive, he makes all kinds of gestures while he's talking and hasa ton of inflection and expression in his voice. After naptime, we did some painting using fall colors. Such a fun filled day!

Storytime

 

Artwork

With a Song in His Heart

He's singing "Working Together" from Thomas and the Blue Mountain Mystery.

15 Weeks

Right around 15 weeks was when I started to bump out with Graham, and I have definitely noticed a growth spurt within the last week (Michael swears I've grown in the last few days).  Here's my bump at 15 weeks with Graham and with Baby 2!

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday, which went well.  It was just a basic appointment: weight, blood pressure, baby heart rate check, and blood draw.  Baby's heart was 130 beats per minute, which is within normal range (normal is 110 to 160).  At our next appointment, we will have the BIG ultrasound!  They will check all of the structures on the baby, and we will get to learn the sex (fingers crossed baby cooperates)!  I cannot wait!!

Big Brother

(My best attempt to get him to pose while holding the ultrasound picture of his little brother or sister!