Somebody Loves Me!

After the ear/sinus infection from hell, I am finally starting to feel better! Although I still can't hear anything in my left ear...odd! Today I was feeling pretty malaise and wanted to just go back to bed after going to yoga this morning when all of the sudden I heard the doorbell ring! I opened the door to a beautiful flower arrangement and a very sweet note from Mom and Jim hoping that I feel better soon! Thanks guys! I love you bunches! :)

On another note, can you believe that Thanksgiving is only a week from tomorrow. I am so very excited! I do not play around when it comes to hosting Thanksgiving dinner, so I have been diligently coupon-clipping and shopping for about 2 weeks now. Chris was making fun of my 'Thanksgiving 2008' Excel workbook complete with shopping list, guest list, menu, gameplan, etc... What? Doesn't everyone make an Excel workbook for events that they are hosting?

Homegrown Fruit Salad...

Sorry it's been a while since we have updated; it has been crazy over here at the Allison casa!
First off, we had a check-up with our midwife on Friday. Everything is looking peachy. Speaking of peachy, Chris and I noticed a funny coincidence in all pregnancy-related books, magazines, websites, etc... Anytime you read about a certain week or month of pregnancy, you will ALWAYS find that they compare the size of the baby to a piece of fruit. Example, we are currently just over 17 weeks and have read that our baby is the size of a small pomegranate this week. We have been through the grape, cherry, plum, and peach stages already! We got to wondering, who the heck decided to compare your baby's size to fruit! We ultimately decided that a baby the size of a cheeto puff or small soft taco just didn't have the same ring.
Anyway, we got to hear a nice strong heartbeat (155bpm), and the midwife taught me how to feel where the top of my uterus starts (which is currently about 1.5 inches below my belly button! Pretty cool!) My uterus is measuring right on track, but the midwife told me to be sure that I was eating enough because I have only gained 2 pounds so far. After Chris picked himself off the floor from laughter, he quickly explained that I frequently out-eat him at restaurants! Once we convinced her that I was eating enough, she agreed, but said that she wanted to see me gain another 1.5-2 lbs. by my next check-up (Dec. 5th).
At the December 5th appointment we will also be having our 20 week ultrasound done to ensure that everything is going okay, and we will also be able to find out if we will be having a boy or a girl! YAY! Right now we have a pretty even spread of predictions!
I am currently getting over a pretty severe ear/sinus infection that popped up over the weekend. The doctor laughed when he looked in my ear, saying "Oh yeah! You definitely have an ear infection!" Seriously, I feel like I have a knife stuck through my head right now! Chris will stay home tomorrow to take care of me, then he will be off to Morgan City, LA for the rest of the week for work. I will be flying to New Orleans on Friday to meet him for a short weekend vacation. I think I will definitely catch up on missed calories while in New Orleans!
Cheers!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes (a la David Bowie)

I have finally collected a few belly pictures that are actually worth posting. When this started I had intended to take a picture every week, blah, blah, blah, but it turns out that we suck at remembering to take pictures as well! Not to mention, my blossoming belly really only made noteworthy changes the past two weeks or so. So here we go; this first shot was taken at about 5 weeks. I took this picture about a week after we found out that we were pregnant.

This second picture was taken at 12 weeks 4 days. Here my jeans had definitely started to tighten a little, and I was feeling more bloated than anything!

This last picture was taken tonight, and I am currently 15 weeks 2 days. My belly is starting to look more pregnant and less "I just ate too much today."

Overall, I am feeling wonderful! I am absolutely loving being pregnant so far! I have remained active and started taking yoga classes a few weeks ago. That deserves a post all itself; yoga is fantastic, and I wish I would have started much sooner!
Hopefully this weekend Chris and I will finish setting up the new guest room so that I can post pictures. For those of you who have been to the house, the pepto-pink room is officially gone! YAY!

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!