Counting Down - Getting Ready

So the time for Allissondra to be welcomed into the world is drawing ever so close! We are down to 6 weeks! Nathan and I have been doing a lot in preparation for our first baby girl to arrive but we have oh so much more to do.

We have received gifts from family and friends, and we appreciate it all so much! But unfortunately there is much more we need. Thankfully we have the most important stuff... the carseat, crib, bedding, dresser, changing table, diapers, blankets, clothes, bath stuff, diaper bag, binkies, bottles, cremes, lotions, receiving blankets, etc but there is much more to get. Including: hair bows and bands, piggy bank(not necessary but something we'd like if we get the money) , medicine kit, first aid kit, breast pump, breast milk storage containers, bottle warmer, drying rack, baby bath tub, wash cloths, thermometer, healthcare kit, oral health care kit, diaper genie and refills, backseat car mirror, backseat carseat protector, baby music, orajel, teethers, toys, window shades, highchair, and baby bottoms (jeans). We checked the stores and prices for all the stuff we have yet to get and it totals well over $500! We are hoping we can get the stuff before she gets here but we don't know if we can for sure ...

Besides the stress of getting everything we need, things have been good! I was tested for pre-eclampsia but it's not been diagnosed yet. My doctor is keeping an eye on everything. He says he thinks I am in a mild case of it but not severe enough to worry just yet. So they are just watching it for now. I have had less back pain thankfully! but more headaches! I now have a pain killer prescription to help with the pain and headaches. That has helped a lot! I have some moderate swelling in my lower legs and feet and mild swelling in my hands and face. Nothing serious or that noticable yet. Let's just hope it stays that way =-D ... my doctor is having me go in to the cardiac unit to be put under observation and tests. He wants to make sure I don't have a heart problem, bc I get dizzy and almost pass out and my heart races beyond belief! so they are checking on that too. I don't go in for that apt until the 25th of August.

Nathan and I are very excited and impatient for Allissondra to be born! We talk about it all the time and try to be as prepared as we can. We started taking Birthing classes last Thursday and have one every Thursday until Sept 10th. They are helpful but most of it is stuff that I already know from my baby books, but its nice to be able to ask questions and talk with someone who isn't in a rush like the doctor's.

We will be getting our bedding this week hopefully and we can't wait to set it up in the crib to get the final look =-D. Everything is coming together and we just can't wait for her to be here! I started packing my bags and diaper bag for the hospital. I almost have them competely done but still have a couple items left to get and pack. I will hopefully be done with the bags soon and have them put in the car and ready to go by the first week of September. Just in case we deliver early for some reason. It's nice to know that I have it together and won't forget anything important.

33 1/2 weeks down .... 6 1/2 weeks to go =-D

We are due October 2nd but keep your fingers crossed for the week of September 21st! Nathan has that week off work and we really want to deliver during that week.

Baby Kicks

I started feeling Allissondra kick when I was about 4 months pregnant. She has been quite active and I love it! Nathan has felt her move and give light kicks but Friday night he got to feel a whooper of a kick.

We were at the movies watching the Terminator Salvation. As always when I eat, Alli was kicking up a storm after every bite. I nudged Nate and he put his hand against my belly. Soon after she kicked his hand so hard that he was startled. He looked from the screen to my face with a look of pure surprise and excitement. I have been waiting to get that look. Everyone would say how their husband or significant other's face looked the first time he really felt the baby kick, and I wanted to see that look on Nathan's face so bad. I was so tickled when I finally got that look!

It makes me so much more excited now that I know he can really feel her move. I think it makes it more real for the both of us. We just can't wait to see her!

I have my second, and probably last, ultrasound scheduled for June 26th. I will be 26 weeks pregnant. I am really excited to see how much Alli has grown and changed. So next comes the ultrasound and then she'll be here before we know it.

We also found out at our last doctor's appointment that Allissondra has a 1 in 19990 chance of having down syndrome... which seem like good odds to me. It is such a relief to know that we don't have to worry about our baby's health. With those tests negative, we can breath easy for now =D

Over the next couple months we have a lot going on. We have BBQ's, parties, weddings, showers, reunions and so much more. We just hope we can make it all work.

Our Baby Girl

Nathan and I have finally chosen a name for our beautiful baby girl.

We chose Allissondra Elizabeth! =D

We chose this name because it was something we finally agreed on lol. Also it meets our expectations of what we wanted a name to be. I have always loved long names for girls. I think Allissondra is very elegant and beautiful for her name. We chose Elizabeth after my mother. I always knew since I was young that I would give my first girl the middle name of my mother. =D We also liked Allissondra because we could give her the nickname Alli. A nickname was really important because we knew we wanted a long first name, so we had to consider the possibilities. With Allissondra we get the best of all worlds! We have the long, elegant name with the short gorgeous nickname =D

We love our name choice and she seems to love it too! Right after we decided on the name I said it to her and she started kicking around and moving a ton! So I took that as a good sign. =D

We can not wait for her to get here in late September or early October! We have been working on our baby registry at Target and are really excited for the shower and her arrival! We have everything picked out, it just depends on what people decide to buy us and what we have to get ourselves.

We are going to do the nursery in lime green with pink accents. That way we can hopefully reuse the bedding for our next baby, no matter the gender. We can reuse the pink and green for a girl or just the green for a boy =D See we like to think ahead lol



We'll keep you updated!

XoXo

Ready for Baby?

I have come a long way since February 4th when I found out that I was 6 weeks pregnant. Now here I am at 17 weeks and ready to find out the sex of the baby. =D

Nathan and I have thought long and hard about names, our registry, parenting methods, baby showers, and what we thought the gender would be. But we know nothing can prepare us for the future, whether that future is 6 days away when we find out the gender or 5 months away when I give birth. What we do know is that we love this baby no matter what and that we are ready.

I have noticed throughout this pregnancy that some things aren't great, some things suck and other things are better than I thought. I love being pregnant but hate it at the same time. I hate being sick in the mornings. I hate being exhausted all the time. I hate not being to eat what I want or when I want. I hate not being able to sleep. I hate feeling out of control of my body and emotions. I hate not being able to work. I hate not being able to get out of bed. I hate the migraines! I hate the back pain. I hate that none of my clothes fit anymore. I hate the cravings. I hate the nausea. and I hate my extreme sense of smell! But I do love feeling the baby. I love picking out baby names. I love looking at baby clothes. I love my maturnity clothes. I love the thought of being a mom. I love feeling the baby kick. I love thinking about the boy or girl to come. I love the fact that Nathan is my husband and that he is the father of my child. I love the idea of having a baby.

It does seem that the hates out-do the loves, but sometimes thats how it is. Don't get me wrong... I do love being pregnant. I just hate the side effects! I want many kids, well as many as Nate will let me =D. I only had my mom and sister growing up and I never really had that sibling experience. I want a lot of kids bc I want them to have what I didn't have.

I am really excited to find out on April 30th what I am having. I feel so bad calling my baby IT lol but I can't call it anything else except baby. But soon that will change =D

I am also really excited for my baby shower! My mom and I are in the process of planning it. We have found a place to hold it (if we can book it) and we are working on the details now. I am hoping people will chip in with the food. I am inviting a lot of people and would like to have an actual meal. Like sloppy joes, potato salad, chips, cookies, veggies and fruit, and maybe some other stuff. But I really dont want just sandwiches but I'll do what I can. It just depends on money =D

Also Nathan and I have two boy names and two girl names picked out. Of course the names depend on the gender. We are thinking we will keep our top two names secret until the baby is born, and make our decision once we see the baby's face..but that is just an idea. We will probably decide which name we want before that. =D

We will keep everyone as informed as we can with the information we get.

XoXo

I'm pregnant! <3

Nathan and I took a pregnancy test yesterday afternoon. We were unsure if it was going to be positive or negative and were trying to be as calm as possible while the test set. Nathan was so cute sitting on the couch watching the clock, waiting for three minutes to pass..and he jumped up so quick when the time was up. I got to read the test first and turned around with it in my hand and looked at Nate and started to cry. It was a mixed feeling of surprise, happiness and utter shock. We were both expecting it to be negative even though we had a feeling it would be positive.

The whole reason we took the test was because I was a week late for my period. I have never been more than two or three days late so it was a pretty big deal when I was late. That was when I went out and got the test just in case. As more days went by I got more and more nervous and finally told Nate that I wanted to take the test.

The poor baby looked like he was going to throw up when he saw the results. I didn't know whether to cry or smile or hug me or what. He was so cute! Of course we were both in a kind of shock but we knew it would be okay.

We know that we are blessed. We were not trying to have children for another couple of years and we look at this as our own little miracle. If it wasn't meant to happen then it wouldn't have happened. That is the way we are looking at it!

We are so excited and can not wait to get on with the pregnancy. We can't wait to do ultrasounds and hear the heartbeat. We can't wait until we find out the sex of the baby!

After taking the test and calling our parents we went to walmart to get the proper vitamins and some other stuff. We couldn't help but go in the baby section and look at the clothes and toys and strollers and cribs...already deciding which ones we want if its a boy and which ones we want if its a girl.

I think I am only a month or so along. But hopefully I can find out for sure when I meet with the doctor. I go tomorrow to get the proof of pregnancy and get the medical card and food stamps. Then I should be able to choose an actual doctor and start really getting into the whole preggo thing :-D

Nathan and I would love to recieve blessing and good wishes from everyone. We are nervous about miscarriage and have people praying for our first time pregnancy to go to term. We already love this baby and want it to live a long healthy life.

Nathan has already started rubbing my belly and kissing my belly. He is just so cute about the whole thing. You can tell he is excited and loving this. I am not even showing and he is already in love with my belly!! How funny is that!

Our Honeymoon

I was looking back at my previous blogs and realized that I never posted anything about our honeymoon! So I decided better late than never.

Nathan and I had planned to get on a plan at 7:10am from Pittsburgh to Ft. Myers Florida. We waited for two hours and at 6:50 they told us our flight was cancelled. We were able to reschedule a flight for 6:20pm. We were stuck in PA for 14 hours! We called a cab and went to the mall. We walked around, shopped a little, went to a movie, and finally went back to the airport to wait. Thankgfully that flight was not cancelled.

We flew to Cincinnatti that night and stayed at a very nice hotel. We were able to eat, shower and rest before leaving that morning for Ft. Myers Florida.

Once in Ft. Myers we found that we were not able to rent a car because we did not have a credit card in Nathan's name and I was not 21. So we had to take a taxi down to Naples Florida.

We stayed at the LaPlaya Beach and Golf Resort in Naples, Florida. We had to take a taxi everywhere we went, which was very expensive.

Our honeymoon was not the picture perfect experience one might have thought it to be. Once there, Nathan and I both ended up sick, I started my period (on my honeymoon!!! AH) and it rained everyday but one, which was the one day we had scheduled our massages, therefore we could not enjoy the sun as much as we would have liked.

Nathan and I loved being in Florida despite all the bad things that had happened. We hope to go back to that Resort every couple years to celebrate our anniversary.

Here is a slide of some of our favorite pictures from our honeymoon.

Meet Zoe - our Doberman Pinscher

This is Zoe our 13 week old Doberman Pinscher. Nathan and I got her on January 15th in Preston County when she was 11 weeks old. She has grown so much and we love her so very much. Everyone that has met her has fallen in love with her. She is the sweetest and most playful puppy you'd ever meet.

Zoe loves to play, bite and chew on everything ... especially feet (lol)... She loves sleeping on Nate's or my lap while we watch TV in the livingroom ... She has her very own 'couch' and blanket to chew and sleep on (although right now she is pinned in the kitchen at night because we are in the process of house-breaking her)... Zoe loves her ball and her rope. She also loves to play with empty water bottles.

When Zoe was born she was the smalled little doberman. She was the runt of 13 puppies. She also had a healed broken leg that makes her limp a little. We are taking her to the vet in two weeks to get her second check up and also get her leg looked at to make sure everything is okay with it. Wish us luck! :-D