Halfway!

To quote Brady's favorite band, Big Time Rush...

"We're halfway there...lookin' good now...nothin's gonna get in our way..."

I can't believe that I am already 20 weeks along. I just started feeling tons of kicks and movement this week and the big ultrasound is scheduled for today. I still fit into all of my regular clothes, though I do like to wear maternity clothes becuase it shows off my bump a little bit better, but as far as comfort, I'm fine in everything. I have had NO cravings and I'm still 6 pounds lighter than when I found out that I was pregnant. I also don't have any real aversions...nothing that makes me sick to my stomach. I am definitely more into eating fruits and veggies and meat is not my thing this pregnancy. I can go to a restaurant and get a salad and a potato (my new fav meal at Outback) and be perfectly satisfied. I also have not had any real cravings for sweets. Desert just doesn't float my boat these days either (could explain the drop in weight).

This could be a pretty perfect pregnancy! Might make having a third even more appealing ;)

Holy Twins, Batman!

No, I am not having twins. But in the past week I have found out that two of my close friends are! I am so thankful that I am pregnant at this point in my life, because I am able to feel such a sense of joy for them during this time. It was so hard being jealous when I was struggling to get pregnant, and it was a feeling that I didn't want, but my natural instinct wouldn't let me not feel it. Probably God's way of letting me know that I really did want another.

It is strange as you look at families that are older and you can only imagine them the way they are: married with twins, or three, or four...it is so hard to make the decision of when to start and when to stop. But when all is said and done, every family appears complete. As strongly as I would like to have three children, I would be happy with two. It's strange that just a few months ago I was trying to come to grips with the idea that I need to be happy with just one, which I think I would have been able to easily accept.

The idea of your love doubling, tripling, quadrupling for your children is something that I have not yet experienced yet. I can understand it, however. When my nephew, Carter, was born I loved him just as much as I loved Brady, and with Sophia, love grew even more. Having only Brady for six years is a time that we will both cherish, and a time that is really has made a huge impact on our relationship with him. We really have gotten to know him as a person on his own before throwing siblings into the mix. He will always be special, and he will always be (literally) a head and shoulders above his siblings. The greatest joy for me is seeing how excited he is to have "our baby". He has definitely taken ownership over the baby and thinks of it as his own. He prays for the baby, draws pictures for the baby, and even reads to my belly so the baby can hear him. He is going to be an amazing big brother!

Pregnant at Disney

I have felt great in the first four to five month of this pregnancy. I still have not experienced nausea, exhaustion, or weight gain...then came Disney. I was so exhausted after walking around the parks for 10 hours a day for five days that I just fell apart! Thank goodness no nausea, but the exhaustion was ridiculous. By the end of the day I was waddling around like I was 9 months pregnant and ready to give birth on a Micky park bench. My muscles were so tired of holding my belly in that it must have given the baby some room to grow. I came back with tired feet, and a belly that doesn't fit comfortably into my pants anymore. Now, I know that most of this was inevitable, but I can't help but think that the physical exertion on this trip sped up the process a bit.

You can see me sitting on the Safari ride at Animal Kingdom with a 17 week belly and ready to brace myself for any bumps in the road. Thankfully, everything that I read on most of the websites was correct, and this ride was fine for expectant mothers. I'm sure Disney doesn't want to take a chance by not putting up the warning. This was the only "off-limits" ride that I attempted while there. It was really like riding a jeep through the zoo. Heather put it best when she said, "I can see a rhino's butt at the Baltimore Zoo if I wanted to!"

Crib is up!

Is it terrible to post the same thing on two different blogs? Brad and Brady put up the new baby's crib. Brady was so excited to help out and give his old crib to the new baby. You can see the wall color, which will not change based on the baby's gender, and I have already picked out boy and girl bedding to go with the walls. It is a little tricky for someone who likes to plan ahead for me to not decorate the entire bedroom before the baby gets here.

This is what Brady's room looked like when he came home from the hospital...

You Know You're Really Pregnant When...

a mom at the bus stop who has only known you for a few weeks recognizes that your belly is sticking out and assumes that you are pregnant and not just fat! I love you Kim!

NT results

All the test results from last weeks NT came back great. She said that the chance of the baby having Downs Syndrome is 1 in 1,998 and the other birth defect that they test for the chance was 1 in 10,000. Those are some pretty good odds!

New Pictures

Today Brad and I took off work to go for our NT (nuchal translucency) test. They measure the amount of space in the spinal column to determine the risk of the baby having Down's Syndrome. Brad and I determined (even when we were pregnant with Brady) that the results of this type of test would not impact our decision to have the baby, but we would like to be prepared and for the doctors to be prepared as well. Based on my age and the measurements they took today, my risk went from 1in 450 to 1 in 2,000 chance that the baby would have Down's. We are still waiting for the results of the bloodwork to make all this final.

Here's our little thumbsucker. Baby wouldn't turn and give the techs a good side profile shot. The only one we got was with Baby's hand in front of his/her face.

Brady thinks that the top picture looks like Darth Vadar...I'm not going to lie, I think that he's right. The bottom picture is a shot of the legs and the butt (I think). It might be top down, but I'm not sure. I tried to figure out if it is a boy or a girl, but at this point boys and girls both look the same, so I was wasting my time. The heartrate was 162, however.

This is just a little picture of the foot. This was the first picture the tech took...I'm glad that they got better after this one!