Exciting gift news!

I just heard about an exciting gift to buy for yourself, grandparents, father's day gift, etc. from a fellow mommy-to-be. At her hospital they offer a kit from Build-A-Bear to record the baby's heartbeat so you can then take it to Build-A-Bear and forever immortalize your child in a bear (or whatever stuffed animal you choose). I don't know yet if my hospital offers this and yours may not either but not to worry! In doing a few quick searches I discovered that people have been doing this for a long time without the hospital's help and that it was a hospital in the northeast that actually started this $30 kit idea. They offer the sound recording and like a hospital t-shirt or something like that. So the cheap and easy way to do this is to go to Build-A-Bear and buy their "Build-A-Sound" kit for $8 and take it to your next appointment to record the baby's heartbeat. And then of course go back to put it in a stuffed animal.

Anyways, I thought this was one of the cutest and most unique ideas I'd heard of so I thought I'd pass it along.

Things are progressing nicely

So yesterday we had another appointment. The doctor said that I am 50% effaced now. Last week I was 0% so I guess the kid is getting impatient, lol. I also got the results of the Strep B test and it was positive. All that means is that I am a carrier and so I'll have to have antibiotics during labor so I don't pass it on to our son. It's no big deal and is actually fairly common.

We asked the doctor to clarify what he had said last week about the due date. He explained the due date to us being like an airport. You are scheduled to land on the due date but you might sit on the runway for a while or circle the airport a few times, etc. But he still thinks the baby is going to come early. He said since he's probably about 7 pounds now that the closer we get to the due date the bigger the numbers are going to get. He said we'll probably talk in a couple of weeks and see what options we have. He did say that obviously the best way to give birth is naturally and that you can deliver an 8 pounder but there are options and we'll just decide what's best for me and the baby at that point.

In the meantime I'm starting to feel a lot more pressure, especially when I stand up after sitting for a while. I finally asked about taking Zantac and the doctor said that was fine. I finally slept through the night last night without having to wake up and eat Tums 1 or 2 times. That's the first time that's happened since around week 27 or so... I honestly can't remember when it was but I know it's been a while!

I just realized that I have yet to put the poor child's name on our blog! It's not like we've been keeping it a secret but it's just not been published anywhere (with the exception of shower invitations). His name is going to be Brendan Daniel. The only story behind the name is that Brendan is a name I read in the Lois Duncan book A Gift of Magic when I was in Junior High and it's stuck with me ever since. I actually discovered when I went looking through the book that it's spelled differently in there but I like it better this way. And Daniel is Brent's middle name. My dad and I both have looked up the meaning of Brendan and we came up with two different things. Dad found that it was derived from the Welsh word meaning "prince". When I looked it up I found that it was Irish and meant "little raven". I just looked it up again and in England it means "sword". I think "prince" is our favorite so far. It fits since he's the first grandchild on both sides of the family and will be spoiled rotten, lol.

Maybe less than 4.5 weeks?!

We went to the doctor for a checkup and ultrasound today. We got the mean ultrasound tech again. She did the first one so I guess it was fitting for her to do the last one. But we don't like her at all! She's very technically-minded so she doesn't have a very good bedside manner. The other lady will actually listen to Brent when he asks a million questions (cause he's very curious since he's a nurse), this lady doesn't. But anyway. So we came away with one picture from the ultrasound that all you can see pretty much is a nose. I'll post it later.

This ultrasound was to measure things and determine how big the baby is (or at least their best guesstimate). He's 6 lbs 8 ozs right now! And I technically have 4.5 weeks left! The doctor said that he thinks we're talking mid-June now. We didn't get a chance to ask him exactly what he meant by that (adjustment of due date or meaning he wants to induce) but we'll definitely ask Monday when we go back! Personally, either way is fine by me! This appointment was also to get the Strep swab/culture. So I guess we'll find out about that on Monday too.

So we're getting down to the wire here it sounds like. I'll try to give more frequent updates as we get closer. All I know is that I need him to hold out till after June 7th! (The date of the church shower, lol.) Papaw Bean is hoping that he's born on June 11th which is his birthday. I'm just hoping he doesn't try to come out on June 13th cause it's Friday the 13th! Ahh! Though Brent would love that cause 13 is his favorite number, lol.

5 and 1/2 weeks

FIVE AND A HALF WEEKS!!!! This is daddy Bean writting in because basically i haven't written in a while. Well we are gathering more and more baby items and they are some how magically fitting in the nursery. My work just threw me a diaper shower and we now have over 1600 diapers in the house....and yes before it is said....I do know that we will use every single one of them and more. Well the baby seems to be warm and happy at the moment. He seems to be punishing Jennifers right side...making it nice and tender. He is getting to the point that you can actually see his kicks instead of just feel and say "I think that was a kick". We just keep going day by day waiting for our little screaming crying bundle of joy to appear. I seem to be sleeping longer and longer on my days off trying to store up sleep but as I have been told by many professional and non professional personel that this does not work and will not help. I am enjoying the sleep and I do not feel the least bit guilty. Well that about it from the baby front. Sorry my blogs are not as nicely sprinkled with pictures like my wife but she seems to get to the camera first. Well until next time....Bye.

11 weeks to go!

Can you believe it? 11 more weeks and there will be another Bean in the world! Thank goodness tax season is over so I can concentrate on 2 upcoming showers and getting the little Bean's room ready (and clothes and bedding washed) and choosing a pediatrician! Amongst a million other things left to do. I'm exhausted just thinking about it, lol. Speaking of showers... we're registered at Babies R Us and Target. Here's the theme for the baby's room. And as soon as I actually get it washed and set up in the actual room, I'll post another pic.

And as promised... I have finally found our camera cables and you can enjoy beautiful prego pics of me! Lol. These are from Easter. Sorry for the blurriness... we got this camera for Christmas and we obviously haven't figured it out quite yet!

I almost forgot to add a comment about the glucose screening test. First off everything I read about the drink they give you said it was horrible. Well, honestly, I liked it. Maybe it's cause I have a gigantic sweet tooth! When my doc went over the results with me he said that I get a gold star. Apparently 130 is the cutoff and I was at 121. So I passed! Whew. So, yeah, he's still using that P word (perfect).

So my first shower is the first weekend in May and we're having it here at our house. So hopefully that means I'll get everything unpacked before then and I can take lots of pics of the house to share on my Xanga blog! I'll post a few here too since some will be baby-related.

Drumroll, if you please

So, working our way from the top... the first picture is the stomach (the black dot). The next picture shows us... IT'S A BOY!!!! Thank you all for participating in our poll and I'm sorry if your guess was incorrect. We are so stinking excited!!!! We both wanted a boy. So the next two pictures, we think anyways, are our son's attempt at signing "I love you" and getting his guns up for Texas Tech. Lol. Actually, the second one looks more like number 1 than the guns up sign, but we'll take what we can get right now!

And these are the 3D ultrasound pics that they took at our doctor's office! We were stoked about these. We were actually planning a trip to a place downtown that would've put a bunch of these on a DVD with music for like $200, so we were really glad that they did them as a normal part of the ultrasound. The first 2 pics we refer to as the "Linus" pics. I can already tell we'll have a blanket-toting son. And the last two, I think anyways, show that he has my cheekbones and Brent's nose! Of course, we'll still have to wait to see if he gets Brent's brown eyes or my blue eyes.

Sorry for the long delay in posting! I was hoping to find the cords to the new camera we got for Christmas so that I could upload pics of me and not just the baby, lol. But alas, they're in a box somewhere. That, and the very proud Daddy of the baby has been showing off the pics at work. So I couldn't scan them until tonight.

I'm still doing great. The doctor keeps using that "perfect" word. He said the baby is in the 71st percentile for his size. I'm hoping he doesn't get any bigger for my sake, lol! Tax season is keeping me busy at the moment so I don't know when the next blog entry will be, but I'll try to update sooner next time. Oh, and one more pic for the road. This is the crib we've decided on:

We were having a difficult time finding a crib that would match the furniture that we already had from my childhood cause it's antique white. But this crib from Target was as near to perfect as we could get! I can't wait to set it up! We're still deciding on a theme for the nursery.

That's all for now!

3rd Ultrasound Update

It turns out that my doc is not in the office on Valentines Day so the ultrasound is now scheduled for the 15th of February. I don't know why they let me schedule these appointments knowing he wasn't going to be in the office to see me after the ultrasounds. Do they think I have all the time in the world to live in the doctor's office?!