It's a baby ...

We went in for our ultrasound at 19 weeks yesterday morning. It was awesome to get to see the baby. The ultrasound tech said we have a squirmer!  That the baby was moving around a lot.  (I still haven't really felt the baby kick or anything.)  We could see the spine and bones all ready formed and it was cool to get to see all four chambers of the heart beating! She checked for all sorts of things and said that everything looked good and then she showed us that we were having a healthy baby girl. Pretty exciting! In our informal poll, only 3 people thought we were having a boy, so I guess most everyone was right. :-)

an heirloom tomato

All right, 2 weeks in row we've had some good examples for the size of the baby.  Yay!  We are at 19 weeks and he/she is an heirloom tomato...and measures approximately 6 inches from head to bottom and is 8.5 ounces.  So the baby is growing!  Speaking of growing, I had my weight check-in appointment today.  My doctor was very pleased that I've gained 3 pounds in 2 weeks and it brings me up to 1 pound more than my first appt with them at 8 weeks.   I forgot that I'd lost a couple pounds and then remained the same weight for a couple of months.  Anyway, tomorrow is the BIG day.  Hopefully, everything works out that they are able to determine the sex of the baby.  Mat and I are pretty excited for our appointment in the morning.

Mat's another year older...

To celebrate Mat's birthday, we had a shish kebab barbecue.  It was a lot of fun, so much so, that this is the only photo I took.   I was too busy enjoying myself!  (Look at those fantastic shish kebabs that some friends brought.  Note to self: cut veggies and meat larger!)  We were lucky and the 60% chance of rain in the forecast didn't present itself.

The next morning, we put together Mat's present from his family and made Maddy test it out.



Maddy looks excited, doesn't she?



We couldn't get her to willing get in, so Mat had to place her in the cart.



Trying to make her feel comfortable...



Maddy really isn't sure what to think.



Mat is doing some convincing that it's going to be fun.



Maddy really doesn't like it when it's rolling.  She still doesn't know what to think about this thing we've got her in.



She's getting ready to bail.  But we sure enjoyed the entertainment.  This cart's real purpose is to move yard debris and dirt to other parts of the yard.  Mat and I are pretty excited for it.   After moving a truckload of mushroom compost with a bucket, this will be a VERY handy addition to our yard tools!

Mother's Day 2010

We had a fantastic dinner with everyone!

moving on...to a bell pepper

I'm happy to say the turnip week is over. I can now let everyone know that the baby is the length of a bell pepper. Not too much has changed since last week other than I'm trying to eat lots of protein and Mat lets me know when I've not quite hit the mark and that I need to eat more. It's been a bit hard this week since I've started work and I'm eating breakfast a lot earlier. My stomach doesn't really like that, so I end up just throwing it up. Hopefully, my body will get adjusted soon.  So far, I've gained 0.8 pounds.  I'm not certain how much weight I'm supposed to gain by my weight check appointment...

Week 17...a turnip?

A turnip, eh? They couldn't come up with a better vegetable/fruit to let you know how much the baby weighs? Currently, it's approximately 5 ounces and 5 inches big.  Probably not my favorite visual so far!

Yesterday, for Mat's birthday present we got to see the doctor and hear the heartbeat at the end of the appointment.  I'd heard it at the last one, but Mat couldn't make it.  At the last appointment, they'd asked me to keep a 3 day food diary and bring it to this appointment because I hadn't gained any weight.  Well, I didn't gain any weight this month either and after reviewing my food diary, she informed me that I need to up my protein intake by a LOT.  300%.  That means 3 times what I normally eat on average.  I don't know why I find it hard to get a lot of protein in my diet, but I do.  I don't LOVE the taste and texture of chicken, salmon or meat so I rarely think about preparing them for dinner.

So far, I've come up with these items as sources of protein:  chicken (~36 grams), salmon (~20 grams), shrimp, almonds, yogurt, eggs, quinoa (which is also gluten-free, Sarah), tofu, beans, hummus, almond butter.  I am going to have to find some more, because otherwise, it doesn't look like I'll have too much variety in my diet otherwise!  Let me know if you have any suggestions...

Today, I've all ready eaten 2 eggs scrambled with black beans and a wee bit of cheese melted in there, a half hour later because I was still hungry I then had yogurt with granola.  About an hour later an apple.  For lunch,  almond butter spread on wheat bread with banana slices and almonds.   And I'm super tired.  Maybe my body is having a hard time digesting all this fantastic protein.  I hope it adjusts soon!

I have to go back to see my doctor in 2 weeks so they can check my weight.  They really didn't like that I hadn't gained weight in those 2 months.

Overnight backpack along the Appalachian Trail

This past weekend was Mat's first of his 3-day weekends with his new schedule, so we decided to go backpacking. It worked out fantastically. We left on Friday morning to the town of Roan Mountain where we had arranged for a shuttle since this was a point to point hike. We started hiking around 1 p.m. and enjoyed a beautiful clear day with a nice breeze. Roan Mountain is one of my favorite places to go because it is so high up and you get such long distance views. We enjoyed the views and then when we would descend into the woods we got to enjoy all the wildflowers that were blooming. It was an awesome time of the year to be out hiking along the Appalachian Trail!



We arrived at Little Humpback Mountain around 5 or so and hung out.  The views were so amazing up there that we decided we'd camp there.  (In the above picture, you can see where we'll be hiking the next day.  About 1/3 the way up, we found some very fresh bear scat.)  Anyway, we enjoyed the evening and our very gourmet meal of macaroni and cheese.  Once it was dark, we crawled into the tent, a bit later we were woken up by gusting winds.  I don't think we slept the rest of the night.  It was so windy and we wondered if our tent would last.  The whole tent was bending over us.  Somehow the tent didn't rip at the seams and the poles did not break!  I wasn't sure if that happened if we would just stay in the tent and try to wait out the night even with it collapsed on us.  Luckily, I didn't have to find out.



The next morning it was a bit chillier of a hike, but still such an amazing and beautiful section of the Appalachian Trail to hike.  You can hike this trail as a long day hike, but we enjoyed spending the night out.  Good to get a spring backpack in!  This hike really reminded us of where we backpacked for our honeymoon near Steamboat Springs, Colorado.  For those of you not familiar with this area that we currently live in, most of the hiking is done in the trees, so even when you get to the top of the mountain you still don't have much of a view.  I so love finding hikes with long-distance views!

If you look closely in this picture you can see my belly oozing over my hipbelt of my backpack.  I hope I didn't do any permanent damage to the baby!  And Maddy, of course, is loving being outside and hiking around.  She doesn't even mind that she has to carry her own food.  She's just so excited to be out!

peach fuzz

I've noticed that I've started to find I have more peach fuzz on my face than normal. My first summer working at Rocky at the entrance gates I had a friend I worked with and we talked about all the many random woman who had lots of random lengths of hair on their face.  We couldn't figure out why wouldn't they tweezer them out or electrolysis them?   Or maybe they just couldn't see the long, single hair growing out of their chin?  Now I am getting pay back. I don't know if it is the prenatal vitamins or all the hormones, but I have definite peach fuzz and random growths of hair on my chin/face. I am trying to keep up with the tweezing, but it takes time and if I don't check for a day it seems like another one has popped up. This isn't attractive, so I have not provided a photo for you.

Avocado

We are starting week 16 now and according to babycenter.com the baby is the size of an avocado. I find it curious they keep comparing it to food, but I guess that is something all people can relate to...it just makes me think oh, I like that or oooh, I don't really like that vegetable. :-)

Last week, it was the size of an apple.  These both are things I have been eating in quantity lately.  I love Gala Apples and Avocados.  Not together.  But individually.  Sometimes I love peanut butter with the gala apple slices!

I am out of the first trimester, but I am lucky and am still getting to go throw up pretty consistently.  I had 5 days in a row that I did not throw up and and it was awesome.  Then it came back with a vengeance and it's been 5 days in a row.  On Sunday, I was lucky enough to throw up twice!  Anyway, I just keep telling myself it is a good sign.  Hopefully the baby is growing rapidly (but not too rapidly) and healthily.  (Is healthily a word?)

Next week, we go in for our next appointment and we'll talk to them about setting up a time for our ultrasound.  Pretty exciting.  I think having the ultrasound will help make it seem more real.  Not that the throwing up doesn't make it real, but right now I just picture the baby as an avocado or the mass of cells that it was at 7 weeks when we got the ultrasound to make sure that it wasn't another ectopic pregnancy.  I'd like to picture it more human-like than clump-of-cells-like.