Fish Don't Fry in the Kitchen...

This past weekend we decided to do something fun; something that didn't involve unpacking/organizing the house or cleaning up/repairing crap from the hurricane! My wonderful brother/professional fishing guide :) talked us into going out with him Saturday morning for a fishing trip in San Luis Pass (near Galveston). We had a total blast and caught 40-50 fish! We had only planned on staying out for a few hours in the morning, but we ended up staying out all day! Needless to say we are all quite sunburned! The weather was amazing, and it was a great way to spend the weekend. Here are some pictures from the trip:


On a sad note, Chris left Sunday for a 6-week field rotation in Carthage, Texas. He is about three hours from Houston in the middle of nowhere; the only thing that they do out there is drill for gas! Luckily he will be home on the weekends, but during the week it is just me and the pups. :(

Music to Our Ears

This past Wednesday we had our first appointment with our midwife who will be our primary care provider for the remainder of the pregnancy, including labor, delivery, and post-natal care. Before leaving for Canada, our fertility specialist released us from his care; this allowed us to move over to a regular ob/gyn practice. We decided to go to a group in the Medical Center that consists of seven obstetricians and four certified nurse midwives. In this practice we will be under the care of a midwife; if we have any problems then one of the ob's will be there to see us.
So far, we have noticed a huge difference in the level of care and attention that you receive from a midwife versus an ob/gyn. The appointments average 45 minutes to an hour! Our midwife sat and spoke with us about nutrition, exercise, our concerns, etc... She used a hand held Doppler to detect the baby's heart rate; it was wonderful to hear a healthy heart beating away! We are scheduled to go back for another check-up in one month.
We have belly pictures from 4 weeks and 13 weeks but the difference is pretty small, so we will probably take another picture in a few weeks then post them on here. CHEERS!

Oh, Canada...

Chris and I returned from our trip to Canada late last night; we had a total blast, but we are very excited to be home. I desperately missed the mundane routine of my everyday life. We spent the first five days of our trip in Calgary where Chris attended a conference for Devon. I spent my days exploring the city. I explored the beautiful parks, attended plays, went to museums, and shopped!! It was great fun. Chris and I went to a great island park one day where we bugged the geese. We also had a complete blast at the Calgary zoo.
We stayed in Banff for the remaining four days of our vacation. Banff is a gorgeous little ski town! The view of the Canadian Rockies is breathtaking. We took a day trip up to Lake Louise, a pristine glacier-fed lake. We also ventured up to the Columbia Ice field and frolicked on the glacier all day.

Yay! It's a....human

Here are pictures from my most recent ultrasound. I am 11 weeks 1 day along at this point and we were really excited to see the baby again. For the first time, we could clearly see a human baby in there! The little bugger was moving all over the place. We could see arms and legs flailing all around. We even got a wave "Hi!"No real physical changes in myself yet. My appetite is returning and I am feeling much better! No weight gained so far (I am sure that will be coming sooner than I could imagine.) Chris keeps insisting on rubbing my belly everyday and asking me when it will get big!!

More Seamonkey Pictures

Since I am trying to play catch-up with the blog at this point, here is a picture from our third ultrasound. This was done on September 26th. Still looking a little more seamonkeyish than baby-like. Heart sounded great again!!

Hurricane + Morning sickness + No power = NO FUN!

Here are some pictures from our second ultrasound. My doctor is keeping a very close eye on both myself and the baby, so we will be going in once a week throughout the first trimester. (We love it because we get to see the baby every week, and we are gathering quite the picture collection!) Here I am a little over 8 weeks along in the pregnancy and have just started to not feel so hot throughout the day!

Hurricane Ike is definitely not making this process any easier. We lost power for about 12 days! My appetite has pretty much disappeared, and the only foods that I can stomach recently have been popcorn and goldfish crackers. Here are some pictures of the hurricane excitement! We lost two very large trees in the backyard. The large oak landed directly on the garage. :( Sophie entertained herself by dressing-up when there was no electricity! :)

First Glimpse

Here are some pictures from our very first ultrasound that was done on September 3rd.

The baby is just a little blip on the screen, but it was still exciting to see our little peanut looking healthy! We were even able to hear and see the heartbeat at just 6 ½ weeks!! I am still feeling great; hearing the heartbeat made everything seem so much more real now! At this point I was having no noticeable symptoms yet!