25 weeks

My apologies once again for the lack of posts. Between our busy lives at work and at home, blogging has kind of fallen to the back of my mind. Plus, there haven't been any major updates to Baby lately. I'm just feeling bigger and bigger each day, probably because Baby is growing bigger and bigger each day. According to the books, Baby's gaining a half-pound a week and a couple inches too! The only other update is that we have one active child in there. If the last few weeks are any indication of how the kiddo is going to be once it gets bigger, we're in trouble! But it's been fun for us to get feel all those movements!!

I did have my monthly check-up with the doctor on Monday. Everything looked good and the next appointment will be another big one - the glucose test. From what I've heard it's not very pleasant. You have to drink something sugary, wait for awhile and then get your blood tested to see if you have gestational diabetes. It affects about 10 percent of pregnant women, according to one of my books, so even though I have no history of diabetes, I could potentially get it now. It would mean changing my diet, but thankfully goes away after Baby. Fingers crossed I don't have to deal with it!

Baby's 25 week stats:
Heartrate: 152 beats per minute (I think it was a little higher than last appointment because of all the kicking it had been doing that afternoon!)
Mom's weight gain: Almost 18 pounds, which is right on track for where I am. The nurse said I should be gaining about a pound a week at this point.
Mom's vitals: My pulse and blood pressure continue to be normal, thank goodness.
Belly measurement: Somewhere around 26 inches, I think. This was the first time the Dr. did this, so it kind of took me by surprise. I'll have to pay closer attention next time.

And last but not least, what most people probably come on here to see. Here is the Baby Steiny Bump at 25 weeks:

(Side note: I need to start taking these when I'm finished getting ready in the morning. Yikes!)

Baby's first shower

I am very blessed to have wonderful co-workers who went above and beyond throwing me a baby shower this week. Why in April, when I'm due in July, you might ask? Well it is because it was a joint shower for me and another momma-to-be (who also happens to be one of my very good friends in and outside of work). It was wonderful to share the experience with her! I have worked there for almost five years now and it has been the people that I work with who have made that time enjoyable, but the generosity and kindness in gifts to our baby was still overwhelming.

It was held at our offices after work and multiple people contributed yummy food, flowers and decorations to brighten up a few of our conference rooms.

 Here is a look at some of the yummy food. Yes, you do see a plate of pickles. The organizer's fiance thought it was a necessity to include those she said. Too funny!

And the most lovely and delicious cake!

Here's a look at some of the nice gifts and pretty flowers.

And last but not least, here's one of the two moms-to-be! Rachel is due with her little girl in about a month, so our kids will be about two months apart. I can't wait for them to be friends!

Rachel and I both received many wonderful gifts. We both got things off our registry, as well as unique gifts. One of the unique gifts was a laundry basket full of bath stuff, like shampoo and lotion, as well as wipes, hangers and a cute little rattle. I also was lucky enough to get many gift cards to Babies 'R Us, Target and a cool bookstore in St. Paul.

I also got two wonderful blankets, one sewed by my co-worker and one from a store and it might be the softest blanket I've ever felt. Baby stuff is so fun! I also go the much-needed changing table pad and cover and some of the cute bath stuff we registered for, like some washcloths and hooded towels. I also received the little chair that goes in the tub (also ocean-themed).

As you can see, I wasn't lying when I said my co-workers are generous! With more showers already in the works for family and friends, Baby Steinhoff is sure going to be a spoiled kiddo!

10 fingers, 10 toes and 1 flexible baby

At 21 1/2 weeks or 22 weeks (depending on what due date you go by), we were able to have our next ultrasound. This one was the biggie, where they look at and measure all of the important parts of Baby and make sure everything is looking good for how old it is and developing properly. Everything checked out! There is one thing, a little extra fluid in the colon, that they're going to maybe do another ultrasound to check on in a few weeks, but the doctor didn't seem too concerned about it when going over the results.

We saw 10 fingers, 10 toes, a pumping heart, parts of the brain, leg and arm bones, kidneys, bladder and face. All was where it was supposed to be and looking good.

And we managed to restrain ourselves and stick with our plan of not finding out the gender, so it remains a mystery!!

Baby cooperated for the most part, but it was in an odd position for a few of the pictures so I had to move around a bit to get it to move around. It was laying on it's back with it's legs up above it's head! What a flexible child...or that means it has it's Dad's long legs!!

Can you see the funny position I'm in? You can see my head and then my leg extending up to where the ultrasound tech marked my foot. I'm one flexible kiddo!

We also got a few nice shots of Baby's pretty little face. According to the ultrasound tech, it spent most of it's time facing Dad. Hope that doesn't mean it's playing favorites already!!

If you can see that white line above the mouth, right by the nose, those are Baby's teeth starting to form! Amazing what they can see on ultrasounds these days!!

Here's one with part of the whole body.

In checking to make sure it had all it's fingers and toes, we had the chance to see Baby's cute little hands and feet. We didn't get a picture of the hands because it was clenching it's fists and moving around too much. But it did have its right index finger pointing up (pretty cute if you ask me, but I'm biased of course).

Here's my foot!

As always, it was an amazing experience for the both of us to see our baby flipping around in there. We saw Baby do a couple of kicks (one of which I really felt, strong baby!), opening and closing it's mouth and moving it's hands up and down. The best part though is just knowing that Baby is doing well in there and growing like it's supposed to. And in just four-and-a-half more months, we'll be able to see and hold those cute fingers and toes!!



Flutter, flutter, tap, tap

At 21 weeks, I am pretty sure that I'm feeling the baby a little bit. Having never been pregnant before, I'm never 100 percent sure that's what it is, but it feels different than anything else, so I would just have to assume it's the kiddo.

I have been trying to describe the feeling to people, but it's very hard to put into words. Everyone always says it feels like a little "flutter," which I would agree with, but I also think it feels like someone lightly tapping or poking your skin. It's very light right now, but hopefully Baby will just continue to get stronger and the movements will be more apparent. Because Baby's Dad is very anxious to get to feel it now that I can!

At 21 weeks is also when Baby has decided to hit a major growth spurt. I swear I woke up on Wednesday and was sticking out two inches more! Maybe it's just all in my head, but I really notice a difference. But of course, this is a good thing because it means Baby's growing like it's supposed to!

I took this picture on Monday morning (pre-growth spurt in my opinion):

A helpful tip...

If anyone is looking for a way to not have to spend a lot of money on baby stuff, one way is to have your sibling have a couple of kids first and then take all of their stuff! Not that this was my plan all along, but my older brother and sister-in-law are parents to my adorable niece and nephew and generously passed on a lot of baby items to us this weekend. We are so very grateful!

Thanks to them we don't have to buy a tub, Boppy pillow, swing, bouncy chair, Bumbo chair, bassinet, ExerSaucer or activity station (where the lay underneath it). 

**Note - yes, the ribbon on the bassinet is pink, but we do not know the baby's gender and are not planning on finding out. The bassinet is from when my niece was born. My nephew slept in it too and is showing no signs of being tramatized, so we'll just leave it too. :)

It really does help a lot, though there's still plenty of stuff to get for this kiddo! We're off to register for more stuff this afternoon. This is another reason (besides him liking "projects") that Chris is looking to finish the basement - so we can have more room for all this stuff!!

Again, we are extremely thankful for having family that is willing to share their things with us. Another friend/family member of mine has already said we could have a few of her things as well. We are so blessed!

More updates to Baby's room

We're getting more and more prepared for Baby to arrive. While we had most of the basics for the nursery in place, we were (and still are) missing a few pieces. We recently were able to pick up the glider we had ordered and also bought a bedding set.

Here's the new view when you come in the door. We set up the glider and bought an end table and lamp to go with it (for all those late-night feedings!). Due to the bright sun outside, you can't see the nice valance that came with the bedding set, but it's a nice light green with some polka dots on it. Chris put up a curtain rod a couple weeks ago (but now he's running out of "projects" in the baby's room, so he's already started looking into finishing the basement!). We haven't found much to put up on the shelves yet, but I think that will come with time. So far, there's just a book about the ocean, which was a gift from Baby's Grandma Sell, who just couldn't resist. :)

Here's the view from the other corner of the room. The bedding set also came with a diaper bag which is hanging on the closet. The cute turtle on the dresser is a nightlight, and was Baby's Valentine's Day present from its Daddy.

Belated Dr. appt recap

My apologies for my absence! I would love to have some kind of excuse, but the last couple weeks have just gotten away from me and blogging got shoved to the back of my mind. Sorry! We've both been busy at work and then in the evenings, one of us stays up working late and the other falls asleep in front of the TV around 8:30 (I'll let you try and figure out who is who).

But we did have our monthly check-up with the doctor on the 20th. It was a pretty quick appointment, mostly just to check all my vitals and of course, hear the baby's heartbeat.

Here are the stats:
Heartbeat: 150 beats per minute, heard loud and clear by Mom, Dad and the Dr.
Blood pressure: I never remember the specific numbers, but it was in the normal range
Mom's weight gain: 10 pounds, right on track for 17 1/2 weeks (Meaning I'm in full-on maternity pants now!)

Our next appointment will be the biggie! Even though we'll be 20 weeks this week, we're not going to do the next ultrasound until March 21, because we both want to be there for it and one of us is starting to travel for work. So we'll have to postpone it a bit, but it will be well-worth the wait - a 70-minute ultrasound, followed up by a check-up with the doctor, who will also go over the ultrasound results.