Friday, June 25, 2010

20 Weeks!


Here I am at 20 weeks! We're halfway there and can't wait to meet out little guy!

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Boy, Oh Boy!!





It's official! Baby Pretekin is a boy! We had our appointment on Tuesday and found out that not only is Baby Pretekin a boy, but he is healthy and growing right on schedule. We couldn't be more excited!

I went to a little breakfast gathering at my mother-in-law's house, where she and some of our friends guessed the sex of the baby. Not everyone made it to the gathering, but we had a lot of guesses. There were 7 votes for a girl and 6 votes for a boy.


There was a boy duck and a girl duck...

The boy duck!!

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Summertime Fun!

Here's a Pretekin Update:
Jenny: I am finished with school for the summer!! I am excited to continue to work on organizing our office and to paint the baby's room. I am also thrilled that in about 2 weeks my mom and dad will permanently be moved back here from their time living overseas. Basically, I am planning on having a relaxing summer spending time with friends and family before going back to work and before the little one arrives late next fall.
Michael: M is continuing to work hard this summer. He seems to be enjoying his job and finding a lot of success there. He is also hard at work in pursuing his electrical engineering degree. In online degrees you don't get to take the summer off, but luckily we will be taking a short trip to California to celebrate his cousins graduation, which should be a wonderful time. Otherwise, he will be hard at work and will continue to be a supportive and caring husband to his pregnant wife.
Baby P: Our last appointment went well, and Baby P continues to grow. The heart rate was again 160, which still puts the baby in the "girl" range. (Quicker hear rates - anything over 140 beats per minute - tend to be indicative of a girl. I am told that the quick heart rate is a 75% predictor that the baby will be a girl) Our next appointment is June 15th and this is the big one! Hopefully Baby P will cooperate and we will be able to see if we are having a boy or a girl. After feeling the belly and sensing the "baby energy," our friends and family are split on their guess of our child's gender. Place your bets! I am also looking forward to being able to feel Baby P move here very shortly!
Cheers to Summer!

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Bumps & Booty


First up, the baby bump: Baby P has gone through quite the growth spurt in the past few weeks. Here I am, 15 weeks along and definitely looking preggers.


Next, the baby booty: We have been so blessed to receive some generous gifts for the baby! We have gotten quite a few books. My mom sent us "Alice in Wonderland" and "The Chronicles of Narnia" popup books by Robert Sabuda. These books are unbelievable - the popups are truly amazing! I don't think my pictures even come close to doing these books justice. We have also received some other cute items for baby - a little outfit, a bath towel, a bib, and a teddy bear.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Baby Bumpin'


Here's me at 12 weeks. Yup, I'm already starting to show. This seemed a little early to me, but I've been reassured by mommies and medical professionals that everybody starts to bump out at different times. So, I'm going to sit back and enjoy seeing our baby keep growing away!

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Baby P Goes to the ER

Let me start by assuaging the fears you blog readers are having due to the title of this post: EVERYTHING TURNED OUT JUST FINE!

It all started Tuesday afternoon. I started having some abdominal pain. It was a dull ache on the upper right side. A very different pain than anything I had felt before. Now, pregnancy is full of new and unusual things, and with your first it's hard to know what is "normal." I, trying to not stress, figured I would just ride it out. However, a few hours later, the pain was worse. By this time, my doctor's office was closed. They do offer an after-hours service that you can call and get advice from nurses. So I called, described my symptoms and listened to the advice: take some Tylenol, lay on your right side, and drink fluids. I did all of these things and went to bed hoping I would wake up feeling better. About 1am I woke up in even more pain. A concerning amount of pain. So, I called back the after-hours service to get some more advice. The nurse's advice? Go to the ER now and get checked out. Adbominal pain that is becoming more severe is a BIG red flag during pregnancy.

After waking Michael up, we were off (and I have to say, that is the fastest I have ever seen that little Prius drive). Luckily, there is a Swedish Hospital ER very close to our house, since the other hosptials that will take my insurance are a ways away. Once there, the very nice nurse got us set up in a room and proceeded to take blood. I was apparently serverly dehydrated (I have the bruises from the multiple attempts to insert an IV on both my hands to prove it...). The doctor ordered up an ultrasound to check on pretty much every internal organ below my stomach.

They checked all of my organs, but the exciting part was that we got to see Baby P again! I did not have a great view of the machine, but Michael carefully watched everything. He reported that Baby P was definitely bigger (almost double the length he/she was last time). He was also able to notice some features, the nose in particular. Baby P was again very active - moving and wiggling around to make sure he/she was known (I sure hope Baby P is not such a wiggler when he/she gets bigger). The awesome ultrasound tech told us, in his Russian accent, that the baby was just fine. The heart beat was normal and there didn't appear to be any problems. Whew!!! That right there was my biggest worry. That the baby wouldn't be fine. The first trimester is a delicate time, when chances of miscarriages are much higher, and we are not quite out of that first trimester yet, so it is always a worry in the back of your mind.

Anyways...they weren't able to find anything specific wrong. If things got worse, they said my appendix might be a concern. They also said the dehydration could be causing some problems. And although they did not mention it, many friends and family felt that it was probably growing pains. I'm glad that nothing was wrong, that Baby P is looking good, and I am feeling so much better. Hopefully, it will be smooth sailing from here!!