Name Change and U/S Date

Tim and I have decided if we have a boy we are going to name him Lincoln James instead of Donovan James. Its a name we ran across recently and both really liked. I have my 16 week appointment on November 7th. I asked Dr Williams if we could get an ultrasound to see what we are having on that day and he said that we can try. 16 weeks is still a little early for that, normally its done between 18 and 20 weeks, but I know several people that were able to tell as early as 15 weeks what they were having, so I'm feeling optimistic about it. I just want to know so I can start planning the nursery and buying some things.

Today's Appointment

We went in for our 12 week appointment today. I've gained a total of 5 pounds in the first trimester. Not terrible. Dr. Williams wasn't able to hear the baby's heartbeat on the hand held dopper so we had an ultrasound done. I really wasn't suprised at all that he couldn't hear it because I've been trying to hear it at work and I've never been able to either. The part that did suprise me was the the ultrasound tech wasn't able to hear it on the ultrasound either. It took her a good 5 minutes to find it at all. She said she could see it, and that everything looked fine, she was just having a hard time hearing it. She finally told us that it was 162 beats per minute. Sounds good to me. She said that the problem was that everytime she got the baby pinned down and tried to listen, it would move. I couldn't see very well from my angle, but Tim said that he could see it moving and waving its arms and legs.

12 Weeks

Today I'm 12 weeks pregnant. This is a very important milestone that I have been looking forward to. Mainly because I get to stop taking my progesterone today. That means no more twice daily suppositories. Yay! Today is also often looked at as the beginning of the 2nd trimester. Some books and people say 13 weeks is actually more accurate, but I say as long as I make it there I don't care when it is. I have an appointment tomorrow morning at 9:30 am, so I'll be updating again soon.

My Jumping Bean

Tonight when I was at work I had the chance to look at my baby on the ultrasound machine for a few minutes. While I was looking at it I must have done something that startled her because she jumped really fast, hit the top of my uterus and then floated back down to where she was. Of course I couldn't feel it, but it was so cool to actually see it moving. It made my day :)

Pumpkin Carvings

I got home from work this morning and found a carved pumpkin on my kitchen counter. Tim said he made it as a tribute to my morning sickness. I thought it was hilarious! On another note, I asked one of the doctors I work with to ultrasound me a couple nights ago at work so I could see my Sweetpea. We were able to see the baby and the heartbeat. The machine had such bad resolution that we couldn't tell a whole lot about it, but its always fun to peek.

The Nursery: Thoughts and Ideas

We haven't started working on the nursery yet. We really need to get started soon, because we are going to have an incredible amount of work to do. We plan on moving Tim's office into what is now my office and moving all my stuff into our bedroom. We will then make Tim's old office the nursery. My current office has a sliding glass door leading out onto the deck and we figured that probably isn't the smartest thing to have in a baby's room. We really should have considered things like that when we moved in, but we really weren't thinking about kids at that time.

I have absolutely no idea what our nursery will look like if we have a boy. I haven't seen anything online that I was particularly attracted to for a boy's nursery. I have found some really cute stuff for a girl though. My current favorite bedding is called Tiger Lily by Kidsline. I actually ran across it before I knew I was pregnant when I was looking at bedding online with my best friend Vanessa, who is also pregnant.

2nd Appointment - 8 weeks 1 day

Its been two weeks since our last prenatal appointment. Today we had our ultrasound first before speaking with my doctor. I was absolutely amazed at how much our Sweetpea has grown in the last two weeks. You could see the little arms and legs moving on the screen. It was really amazing. Today the heart rate was 178. Unfortunately I probably won't get to see the baby on the ultrasound again until our appointment around 20 weeks when we will find out what the sex is. Well, actually I probably will because I like to take a peek when I'm at work on occasion. Shhhh!

We have decided on names. I really love our girl name and I'm ok with our boy name, but I'm not quite as excited about the boy name. If its a girl she will be Amelia Claire McQueen and if its a boy his name will be Donovan James McQueen. Subject to change without warning, of course.