Doing Well

Well I'm half way done with my time away from Kolt!! I spent the first week watching two of my friend's wonderful daughters. It was so nice to have the company and we had a great time.

The next week I spent in Dallas at my grandmother's with her and my mom. This is a picture of my mom and me, look at my belly!!! She's finally starting to poke out :)

I also got to hang out with a very good old friend of mine, Katie. Katie and I grew up together but really hadn't spent any time together in 12 years. I got to spend 2 days with her and it was a blast. We still have so much in common and I wish we lived closer, but 4 hours is better than 2000 miles! I hope to see her a few more times this summer.

This last week I had a doctor appointment, 24 weeks. It went well. I've gained more weight than I wanted, a lot more, but it is what it is and I'm trying to be more careful and aware from now on. My belly measured 26.5 weeks (although I don't put much stock into the belly measurements) and my blood pressure and blood sugar are all looking good.

With the help of my friend Chrissy, we made baby girl a quilt this week! I don't feel like I did much but I did help sew and pick out the fabric! I think rather than go with a pre-done nursery I want to do my own based off of these colors. I've just fallen in love with the olive and cranberry and I think it will be very original. Hopefully I can pull it off!

One of my goals this week is to get the baby's room organized. There are two closets in her room and I want to empty out at least one of them. There is a decent amount of storage in this house, I just need to utilize it better. I want the room packed and cleaned so when Kolt gets home we can get to decorating!!

Kolt is having a really good time at ASBC. He's learned a lot and is enjoying the break from his regular RN duties I think. I talk to him most days and after this weekend he should be done with all of his big projects and will be able to relax more. This has been a good experience for him and it really hasn't been that bad for me. Granted I still have 3 weeks until I leave and I may get dreadfully bored but I am trying to keep busy!

Thanks to those of you who have been checking in on me and making sure I'm ok. I definitely have my hormonal days and days where I miss Kolt like crazy. I'm really disappointed that we won't get to be together on Mother's Day. It's the first one where I can officially celebrate it and I have a feeling the day will come and go and be nothing special as I'm here alone. But there's always next year!

It's a.....

GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Surprise surprise! We caved in and found out this week that we're having a beautiful little girl. My heart just melted when I saw her in the ultra sound room and realized that we're going to have a daughter. I've felt so strongly right from the get go that this little one was a boy that it nearly took my socks off.

Everything looked good (at least as far as we know) at the ultra sound. Baby girl has long arms and legs but her head circumference measure spot on for her due date, so looks like she's tall already :) She looked really skinny and lean in there too, maybe they all do at that stage. I swear she has her daddy's nose and lips, hopefully my eyes and hair! I can't wait to meet this precious child and hold her! 19 weeks to go!

On a not so happy note Kolt left today for Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, AL. He'll be there until May 28th, when he finally makes it home again. We've decided that most likely I will go out to visit on the 20th of May when his first training ends and before his second begins. That will be when we have the most time together. Right now it's feeling about fifty years away, but I hope the time passes quickly.

This week I should be taking care of my friends two daughters, ages 10 and 15 while she is out of town, and then the following week I'll be heading to Dallas to see my mom, aunt, and grandma and hopefully my friends as well. Those activities will definitely keep me busy, it's the remaining weeks after that that I'm worried will pass slowly.

Once we found out it was a girl I was all ready to get started on the nursery and buying clothes and things for our baby girl, but Kolt pretty much begged me to wait until he gets back to do anything in the nursery, so that will wait for him to get back. Basically my project while he's gone is to just clean and organize so when he gets back we can get it all done.

I will hopefully be having a shower in June and just started to work on my baby registry. I feel really overwhelmed at all of the things there are to pick and hope that we get a decent amount of supplies from the shower. At this point I'm registered at Babies-R-Us and no where else. If you are interested in getting our baby girl a gift (which of COURSE you don't need to, but if you feel the desire) you can look it up online at http://www.toysrus.com/registry/index.jsp with my name, Susannah Harris in San Antonio, Texas. Please keep in mind

if you look at it any time soon, it's VERY rough right now and I'll be working on fine tuning it over the next few months.

I'm sure you'll be hearing a lot from me over the next few months. I tend to want to write a lot when he's gone!

Going to miss Kolt

Well we found out on Tuesday that Kolt has been selected for ASBC training (no clue what it stands for, so don't ask, lol) in Montgomery, AL. He will be leaving NEXT FRIDAY. I'm in quite a bit of shock because it's happening so fast, but we knew he needed to go to this training and we're happy that it's now and not later, either middle of summer when going into labor might be inevitable, or shortly after the baby is born. It just really caught me off guard and it's all happening so fast.

It's great that he's going, this training looks great on his reviews for promotions, but he also got selected for another training right at the end of ASBC so he'll be gone from April 9th to May 29th. I will go out and visit hopefully the first weekend in May, and then again for the last week of his training and drive back with him. So if it goes like I am hoping, we won't be apart for more than 3 weeks. I'm just a little scared about being here all alone. When he left for COT I was with family and friends the whole time, so I wasn't really alone. While I do have friends here, they live on the other side of the city so it's not like I can pop over every time I'm feeling lonely! I know I'll be fine, but I just hate that we're missing out on this time alone together.

We're hoping to take a trip to the Florida Keys soon. We wanted to go in May but now we can't, so we're hoping for June. One last hurrah before the baby comes. It should be a great trip, I just hope he can get the time off!

The baby is growing nicely and I'm feeling kicks all the time now. It is wonderful! We can even feel the baby from the outside now and Kolt and my sister Piper both have gotten to feel the kicks :) I have an ultra sound on April 7th, right before he leaves! As of right now we are still not finding out the sex, so it will just a be a good look at the baby and all of his parts!

I just got back from Idaho on Tuesday and spend a wonderful week with my family. I even got to go to my nephew Ethan's baptism which was an honor. The trip went by quickly and it was hard to say goodbye since I don't know when I'll see them again, but I'm glad I got the chance to go.

I'll update next week with pictures from our ultra sound!

Awesome Family Fun

This has been a busy couple of weeks! Kolt's family came to visit us for Spring Break and we had such a blast. Brandi, Nathan, Ethan, Mialee, and McKenzie were here for 6 days and Kolt's parents are leaving tomorrow and will have been here for ten! It's been wonderful to get to spend the time with them.

It feels like we did EVERYTHING while they were here. We went to the Wild Animal Park at Natural Bridge, Sea World, Corpus Christi, and down town San Antonio. It was definitely an exhausting several days but so worth all the fun.

We took Kolt's parents up to Driftwood to the Salt Lick BBQ (yes it is Salt LICK, everyone thinks they're saying Lake lol) and it was the best meal I've ever eaten, bar none. I'm really excited to go back. It's in the hill country and a really pretty drive. Kolt says next time we're taking the S2000 and going on a more winding route :)

I am now 18 weeks pregnant and have been feeling the baby move for about two weeks! It is the most amazing feeling ever and I still get surprised every time I feel him. I'm so grateful to have made it this far!

I had an appointment at 17 weeks and everything is looking good. I have the anatomy scan ultra sound in a couple of weeks and am getting really excited! Kolt still doesn't want to find out the sex but I'm hoping that I can convince him to change his mind!! Doubtful, but we'll see.

I'm headed back to Idaho to visit my family on the 23rd and will be there for a week. I'm also going to get to spend a couple of nights with my best friend Lauren and her family! YAY!! All of these visits with family will make March fly by so fast! By the time I get back from Idaho it will be time for my ultra sound. We've had so much fun in March I hope April isn't a let down!

New pictures of our baby

Hello everyone. Greetings from the second trimester of my pregnancy!!! I've never been this pregnant before and it's been amazing to watch the pregnancy continue and develop. We went in for an ultra sound last Friday, Feb 12th to screen the baby for down's syndrome. It was such a great experience. Normally when I go in for an ultra sound I go to radiology where they aren't very pregnancy friendly. The dad is the only one who can see the screen and so during any given appt I got to see the baby for all of about 30 seconds. Well for this ultra sound they do it on the maternity floor with a screen for the mom's to look at as well. The baby was being stubborn and the tech had a hard time getting measurements so we got about a 45 minute session just getting to stare at our baby :)

We saw the baby kick and spin and do a full flip. (I'm calling the baby a him from now on, easier to say than "it". But we won't be finding out the sex so don't take that to mean that he will really be a he) We also got to see him sleep, this annoyed the tech because he was in the wrong position and so she shook him and made me turn from one side to another, and even get up and take a long walk. Over all it was just an amazing experience and I wish I had another ultra sound soon! My next and probably last one will be somewhere around the 18-20 week range.

Even though I'm out of the first trimester I'm still pretty sick. I was hoping it would magically go away, but so far it hasn't. I'm fine with it, it's kind of a pain in the butt, but I welcome the symptoms and the strong reassurance.

We're down to less than a month til Kolt's family gets here! I'm so excited to get to see them. I might get to go back to Idaho at the end of March after their visit. My sister has spring break then and Kolt will be doing a field training all of that week, so we're looking at me going back home to see my family. That's almost 3 weeks of family time in March, I hope! That will be so great!

I really think I'm finally starting to legitimately show now. For bed at night I wear t-shirts, the same ones I've always worn and they're pulling really tightly across my belly :) I told Kolt the other day I don't remember them ever being this tight before, he said that's because they haven't been :)

Here are the pictures. If you look in the last one the gestational sac is shaped like a heart, I didn't notice at first but a couple of friends pointed that out!

Keeping it all in Perspective

Today on the pregnancy blog I am on, we lost two more August mothers, for a total of 18 losses so far. One of the women was 4 days ahead of me and it just really hit home as to where I am in my pregnancy right now. I lost my first baby at 12 weeks three days, just 3 days from now. I can't imagine finding out now that our baby wasn't going to make it. I'm so in love with this child already, it's simply impossible to imagine getting past another late first trimester loss. Sometimes I still don't know how I've moved on from those losses. Time really is the only thing. I can't believe it's almost been 2 years since I lost my first baby.

The good news is this pregnancy has been completely different right from the start of either of my previous two. I'm still sick at 12 weeks, despite taking medication, for which I am extremely grateful for. I haven't had any spotting and did with both of my prior pregnancies. And the best part of all is I have my own doppler so that I can check in on my baby daily. With out that peace of mind I don't know how I'd be doing right now.

So I'm trying to just keep everything in perspective. Does it suck to be sick and throw up? Yes. Is it worth it? Absolutely. That wonderful, albeit awful, reassurance has been very helpful in easing my fears. I know that there are much worse things than being tired and sick all the time, especially since it's all for a very wonderful reason.

I'm wearing maternity clothes now, I wouldn't say that I'm totally showing yet, but my old pants no longer fit. I've actually lost about 4 lbs so far this pregnancy, so I know it's all baby poking out and not fat! For which I am also very grateful.

Kolt and I have started picking out nursery furniture and decor. We won't be buying any for quite a while, but it's nice to have it planned out. We also have our car seat picked out, it's a Recaro car seat. For those of you who don't know (which I assume is all of you) Recaro manufactures racing seats for race cars, they just happen to make baby seats as well. Kolt wants nothing but the best for our little one, and so it will be the coolest kid on the block riding around in a black and red Recaro seat. Kolt wants to get the little peanut started out in their racing future as soon as he can.

Over all things are going very well, this is just kind of a scary week for me but I'm hoping to get past it and move on to the second trimester. Hopefully soon I'll be feeling the baby kick, which is an experience I've dreamt of and longed for my whole adult life. I feel so grateful to be pregnant and to so far not have had any complications. I love this child so much and can't wait to meet them!

So Happy to Write this Post

Yes, those are pictures of our beautiful baby!! We are having a baby on August 20th of this year. We weren't really planning on this, it just kind of happened, but the timing truly couldn't be more perfect and I'm so grateful to be having this baby.

As of today I am 11 weeks and 3 days pregnant. Morning sickness, aka ALL DAY sickness, has been in full effect since 5.5 weeks. I've been taking medication to help with it and it has been a life saver. I tried to come off of it yesterday since I had been feeling so well, alas, I'm not ready yet. So on it I will stay for the time being.

I have had 3 ultrasounds and all of them have gone beautifully. So it really does look like we'll get to be parents at the end of this pregnancy. I bought a fetal heart rate monitor and was able to find the heart rate at home on Saturday for the first time, holding steady at 165 bpm. It is the most wonderful thing I have ever heard.

The reason I haven't posted in so long is because I couldn't reveal this surprise yet and didn't trust myself to talk about anything else. The last two months have pretty much consisted of me throwing up and sleeping, not very exciting!

We are really happy to be getting some visitors soon! Kolt's whole family will be coming to visit on the 10th of March. I am counting down the days until they get here and know that we will have such a blast. There will be a lot of pictures from that week I'm sure and I will be sure to post some.

I don't think this announcement comes as a surprise to any of my readers as I think I'm friends with everyone on facebook, but this is by far the best post I've ever made!!