21 Weeks

21 Weeks

How far along? 21 weeks

Total weight gain: 9 lbs.

Maternity clothes: I am in need of some more shirts and pants. I have 2 pairs of maternity jeans, and that is pretty much all that fits well. And when I am at home... the sweat pants go on for sure! haha!

Stretch marks? No

Sleep: Last Tuesday night (after working Monday night and sleeping some during the day on Tuesday), I went to bed at about 9 and woke up at 1am... WIDE AWAKE!! What in the world?! We were leaving early Wednesday morning to go to Florida, so I think I was just anxious about that... so I didn't go to sleep again until about 10PM that night. I was EXHAUSTED to say the least!!

Best moment this week: Blake getting job offers!!! :) Praise the Lord!! He has not officially accepted one so I want to wait until it is a done deal to announce! Oh the anticipation...

Miss anything? Being able to fit into and wear all of my clothes.

Movement: Oh yes! More and more every day! I can tell she is getting stronger! I love to guess how she is laying and if she is kicking or punching or what. It is so fun!! What an incredible blessing to be able to feel her jumping around...

Food cravings: Nothing too weird or crazy this week that I can think of. 

Anything making you queasy or sick: Not recently. We will see how this week's grocery store trip goes... hopefully it won't make me too sick feeling.

Gender: Girl!!

Labor signs: No

Symptoms: Round ligament pain and a few random braxton hicks contractions. It scared me a little the first time I realized that it might be a contraction I was feeling. It didn't hurt at all. I just happened to be touching my stomach and notice that it got hard and then relaxed... like a contraction. I looked up lots of info on braxton hicks (no, I don't know everything since I am a labor and delivery nurse. haha!) and I learned something new. You start having braxton hicks contractions when you are only 6 weeks along! Wow! That was so crazy to me! Thank goodness that is all I felt. Praying Caroline keeps cooking inside for a LOT longer! haha! :)

Belly button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? On

Looking forward to: Making a final decision about Blake's job offers and all that comes with that! Lots of changes in our near future... stay tuned! :)

20 Weeks

20 Weeks

How far along? 20 weeks

Total weight gain: 7 pounds according to my home scale

Maternity clothes: Obviously I have been wearing maternity clothes. I'm thankful a lot of my shirts still fit. My scrubs for work still fit for the most part, but a few of my tops are getting a little too snug. Haha!

Stretch marks? No

Sleep: I feel like I could sleep at least 12 hours every day. The first trimester fatigue went away for a little while but it seems it is back in full force. Hopefully I will have a little more energy soon.

Best moment this week: Buying a new car!!! Blake sold his truck and we bought a Jeep Patriot! Blake is going to drive my Honda and I will get to drive the Jeep... don't I have the best hubby ever?! I am so excited about taking Caroline all around town in style! ;)

Miss anything? Being able to eat anything and everything. My stomach seems to be much more sensitive so I am trying not to eat a ton of fried foods and other things that might cause it to be upset. Hoping this won't last the whole time.... but we'll see!

Movement: YESSSS!!! Finally! I felt her move for the first time on January 30... 18.5 weeks. (I got confused in writing last week's blog because it was before 19 weeks that I felt her move). It was the craziest feeling. I had just woken up that morning and I turned over onto my back and felt it for the first time. I thought to myself, "Was that it?" Then a few seconds later... I felt it again!! Then I knew it was Caroline!! :) It just felt like a little flutter the first few days. Since then, she has been getting a lot stronger and moving even more! Blake can feel her on the outside which is so fun for him too! It is such a blessing to be able to feel her move so much now... I am loving it!!

Food cravings: Chinese food. I love my some Panda's in Auburn! I enjoyed some of that this week before work.. yumm!

Anything making you queasy or sick: The grocery store. For some reason, everytime I go to the grocery store... everything just smells bad to me! It is quite unappetizing when trying to pick out food to cook and eat. Pregnancy nose is no joke... every smell is amped up about a thousand degrees!!

Gender: Girl!!

Labor signs: No

Symptoms: Gaining weight, round ligament pain, and my hips have been a little achy recently. I guess everything is just adjusting and moving around to fit a baby!

Belly button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? On

Looking forward to: Blake's interviews in Florida (This was last week... 2/9/12. I am just late posting again). We have some big news about this that I will be sharing soon :) 

19 Weeks

19 Weeks

How far along? 19 weeks

Total weight gain: About 6 or 7 pounds according to my scale at home

Maternity clothes: Definitely needing longer shirts these days... and of course I am loving my maternity jeans! :)

Stretch marks? No

Sleep: Sleep is pretty good. I have enjoyed having time off from work and not having to switch from sleeping at night and during the day.

Best moment this week: Finding Caroline's bedding and getting her lots of cute clothes!! :)

Miss anything? Being able to eat anything and everything. My stomach seems to be much more sensitive so I am trying not to eat a ton of fried foods and other things that might cause it to be upset. Hoping this won't last the whole time.... but we'll see!

Movement: Stay tuned to next week's post... (I am posting this really late so I am feeling her move but it was after 19 weeks. haha!)

Food cravings: I have been wanting lots of pasta. That is probably not the healthiest craving but not the worst either. 

Anything making you queasy or sick: Some smells make me feel a little queasy but still no sickness! Yay!

Gender: Girl!!

Labor signs: No

Symptoms: My belly is definitely getting a lot bigger by the day!! It is so funny to try on shirts that used to fit so well and are now too small with my bump! I am definitely enjoying LOOKING more pregnant now though! :)

Belly button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? On

Looking forward to: Setting up Caroline's nursery! We are waiting to know exactly where the Lord is going to have us when she makes her debut until we set up her nursery.... but now we have all the essentials!! Her crib and dresser are in, we have her bedding, and a few clothes the hang in the closet!! :) I am just trying to be patient and not get too anxious waiting.

18 Weeks

18 Weeks

How far along? 18 weeks (I am almost 19 wks now, but am just late in posting this... oops!)

Total weight gain: 5 lbs

Maternity clothes: Maternity jeans are a must! I really prefer to just be in sweat pants or pajama pants if I am at home.

Stretch marks? No

Sleep: It has been better than last week for sure... still waking up for the restroom but not staying awake like before.

Best moment this week: Getting to shop and think about all GIRL stuff!! :)

Miss anything? Normal clothes... or clothes that just fit better overall. Haha!

Movement: Still waiting... I am so anxious to finally feel her moving!

Food cravings: Nothing out of the ordinary really.

Anything making you queasy or sick: No

Gender: Girl

Labor signs: No

Symptoms: Hungry every few hours... nothing really to complain about!!

Belly button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? On

Looking forward to: Going to Mobile for the weekend and shopping with Mom for lots of fun stuff for Caroline!! (This has already passed now... so this week's update will tell all about what we found!)

Caroline Grace Thaxton

Wednesday was one of the best days of my pregnancy so far. We had our first ultrasound and found out that we are having a baby GIRL! What a great day!! Her name is Caroline Grace and her due date was changed a little based on her measurements... so she is now due June 27. I wanted to share a few of the pictures from our ultrasound and give everyone an update on everything.

First off, Miss Caroline is breech and very low! So it was a challenge to get good pictures, but I am very pleased with how her first photo shoot went! ;)

 Here is Caroline's profile! We saw her open and close her mouth and move her arms and legs alot! It is so crazy to see her move and not feel it yet! I can't wait until I can feel her. 

 Sheila, the U/S tech, was great at showing us all the little details on little Caroline that we can see. We saw her 4 chamber heart and her heart rate was 144.

 Here you can see sweet Caroline's spine and ribs. She is all scrunched up in there!! Sheila measured her arms and legs and said everything looked great. She counted 10 fingers and 10 toes. She said her head and brain development looks great. She said her umbilical cord has 3 vessels (normal) and my placenta is posterior (all normal and good). 

 This shot face on is a little scary... just kinda looks like a skeleton face since you can't see her eyelids. Really, her eyes are still closed and eyelids fused together, but here she looks like she has some bug eyes! haha!

 My little breech baby all balled up! Her bottom is down right now so her feet were up my her face in almost all the pictures.

 This is one my favorites. Right before she froze this to take the picture she was kicking her foot, waving her hand, and opening and closing her mouth! How crazy!!

 Another one of my favorites... This is the bottom of her foot so it looks like a little footprint! Her foot is about the size of your pinky nail to give you some perspective. So precious!

This is a similar foot picture with both her feet up in the air... I can't wait to put little socks on those sweet feet in about 5 months!! :) Sorry if that was picture overload or if none of the pictures made sense to you. I have studied them so much and watched the ultrasound video over and over again! I am already so in love with Caroline Grace and can't wait to be her mommy!

17 Weeks... Take Two

17 Weeks

Here is our first picture of our baby GIRL!!! Caroline Grace is due June 27 and we could not be more thrilled about adding her to our family!!

How far along? 17 weeks (My due date was changed at my appointment this week based on baby Caroline's size... so now I am 17 weeks again. Haha! I guess I didn't enjoy it enough the first go around, so here is take two of 17 weeks)

Total weight gain: 5 lbs

Maternity clothes: Maternity jeans are really the only pants that fit well now. I have one pair of normal jeans that I can wear for now, but I'm sure that won't last too much longer.

Stretch marks? No

Sleep: The last 2 nights, I have been up for several hours in the middle of the night. I wake up to use the restroom and then I am somehow wide awake and can't go back to sleep. So that results in me sleeping half the day and not being tired the next night. What a vicious cycle! And my night shift schedule doesn't help anything either...

Best moment this week: Having our first ultrasound and finding out we are having a baby GIRL!! (More details about the U/S in my next post...)

Miss anything? Being able to sleep well

Movement: Not yet. My Dr. said it will probably be around 20 weeks... so not much longer! I can't wait!

Food cravings: Nothing out of the ordinary really.

Anything making you queasy or sick: No

Gender: GIRL!!! Caroline Grace Thaxton!

Labor signs: No

Symptoms: Still getting hungry alot! I have had a few episodes where I can tell my blood pressure has dropped and I will get kinda dizzy and lightheaded. It has happened twice in Target so I may need to stay away from shopping for a little while. Haha!

Belly button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or moody most of the time? Happy. (I think that will always be the answer so I may take this off next time)

Looking forward to: Buying lots of girly things for Caroline!! :) I can't wait to put a bow in her hair and dress her up in cute clothes! Blake and I went shopping today and it is so fun to see all the adorable little outfits for baby girls! I can't wait!!

17 Weeks

17 Weeks

How far along? 17 weeks and 2 days

Total weight gain: 2 lb (at my appt last week)

Maternity clothes? I have worn my maternity jeans a few times and am going to get more tomorrow at Target. A girl can't survive with only one pair of pants that fit well! :)

Stretch marks? No

Sleep: I've been sleeping well! No crazy pregnancy dreams or anything yet either. Haha!

Best moment this week: Having a good weekend at work. Work has been tough recently and this weekend really helped to lift my spirits being with some great work girls!! (And I got to listen to Baby Thaxton's heartbeat--Yay!! It was in the 150s everytime I listened.)

Miss anything? Fitting into my favorite pair of jeans. I guess that will be my big goal after the baby is to fit back in them. We'll see how long that takes! Haha!

Movement: Not yet. I am beyond ready! I am not sure I would even recognize it if it happened right now though. I'll keep you updated! :)

Food cravings: Dr. Pepper. I didn't drink much caffeine before I was pregnant, but I have been trying to limit it more now. I think when I tell myself I can't have something, it just makes me want it more. So I have had a few this week! Baby T is on a sugar high!! Haha!

Anything making you queasy or sick: No

Gender prediction: Who knows?! Blake now says he thinks it could be a girl. So we will see!! We find out next Wednesday!! YAY!

Labor signs: No

Symptoms: Hungry... about every 3 hours. My belly is definitely poking out more (if we can call that a symptom). No bad symptoms, which I am so thankful for!

Belly button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or moody most of the time: Happy!

Looking forward to: Helping throw a baby shower for my sweet friend Abbe this weekend!! She is having a little BOY... Mr. Judson!! I can't wait to see her and celebrate! :)