Just in Case You Want to Hear More About Baby!

Changes:

It has now been a week since my last appointment, but I feel like my body has changed a lot in just this short amount of time. I feel like I have grown a lot in just a few days. Also, I am starting to feel him more when he moves. Usually they are movements only I can feel, but sometimes they are really strong movements and my tummy will move- almost like an isolated hiccup. This has only happened twice, but it is really neat. Damon saw it the first time, but the second was just earlier this evening when Damon was at his volunteer fireman's meeting. It is exciting to feel him move!

Another thing that has occurred is my feet were swollen for the first time on Friday. This happened at work. I went home, put them up for about an hour, and they went down, but later that night they did it again. I haven't noticed it again the past couple days, so maybe it was an isolated event. I hope it won't be a daily occurrence- at least not this early on.

My heartburn has taken on a different pattern. I didn't have it for almost a week, but then I had a horrible episode. I have it again now. I guess instead of mild cases every day I will now have it to a worse degree, but not daily. I don't mind a little heartburn though. It is nothing compared to the early nausea symptoms I was blessed to avoid.

I have noticed a change in my sleeping patterns too. It seems that 2:15 is my wide awake time. I have been waking up at that time fairly often and I will be wide awake, unable to go back to sleep- anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours! I guess my body is getting me ready, early on, for those late night feedings. It amazes me what your body is created to do and how it helps you adapt.

Shopping:

I avoided all things baby for the first half of my pregnancy. I didn't want to buy things or look at things until I knew the gender of my baby. As predicted, I now have to look at baby stuff every time I go into a store. I have already purchased a few outfits- not too many. Here are two of the five:

 

The other night, Damon and I went to Target. When we went to check out he realized I had thrown a set of pacifiers into the buggy. You should have heard the scolding I got in the Target checkout line! Apparently I am not supposed to buy baby things because that is what showers are for! The pacifiers stayed behind with the gum and tic-tacs. Hmmm...

I told that story to a couple of my friends, including Danielle. Well, apparently that is also what friends are for because this morning, when I got to work, I found this on my desk:

So sweet!!! Thanks, Danielle!

More about Baby and our House!

The day after our big news, I got to wear my "It's a Boy" shirt to work! When Danielle gave me the shirts I remember thinking I liked the boy shirt better (there are little polkadots on the feet), but little did I know it would be the one I got to wear. It was bittersweet to grab that shirt out of my closet and leave the girl shirt behind. I am going to hold onto both shirts though, because you never know what the future may hold.

Here I am in my shirt. Finally, we all know!

I called and talked to so many people after our appointment. I was so excited to share our news. One person I called was my friend, Emily. She had been hoping all along that we would have a boy, but I protested the whole way- so sure it would be a girl. The next day at school she brought me a present to help me move my mind into boy mode.

So cute! Thanks, Emily!
If you look close, you will see that there are firetrucks embroidered on the outfit. This is very fitting since we are planning a firetruck themed nursery.

 

House and Bump pictures:

Tuesday, after work, Damon and I went out to the house to check the progress. Here are pictures of the front and back.

Damon took some "bump" pictures. I am 20 weeks, 2 days in these pictures.

 

It's a BOY!!!

I know this post is a week overdue, but just to recap... We are having a BOY!

Damon and I went Monday, April 23rd to find out what we were having. This was our second ultrasound. Our first was at 10 weeks. After waiting 10 more weeks, we finally got to see our baby again when I was 20weeks, 1 day.

The night before, I hardly slept. I was so excited! I had five dreams that night about finding out our baby's gender. Three times it was a girl and twice it was a boy. Although I had dreams about each, I still went into that ultrasound 99% sure we were having a little girl. HA!

When I got there we went straight back. Tammy weighed me and I had gained 5 1/2 pounds! That means I have gained 7 pounds so far in this pregnancy. After she checked my weight and blood pressure, we were taken to our room. Last time we waited over an hour for our ultrasound. This time, we waited less than 5 minutes. When Dr. Bolton came in my heart started beating out of my chest. I was so excited to get to see our baby again and to finally know if our munchkin was a girl or boy.

Dr. Bolton's office does not make ultrasound DVDs, so Damon used our camera to record the ultrasound session. All of the pictures I am going to post here are still pictures I got from our video. I know it sounds crazy, but the stills she gave us weren't very good, so I had to improvise and make the most of what I had.

When she began the ultrasound, there was that awkward moment where you aren't allowed to look at the screen. She just wants to make sure all is well before you get to see. Thank goodness that moment was brief. She turned the screen toward me and I got to see our little wiggle worm. The baby was moving and everything looked well. The heartrate was 153bpm- just 1 bpm slower than last time.

This ultrasound was the anatomy scan, so Dr. Bolton spent a lot of time looking at the baby and measuring to make sure everything was developing well. She never said she was going to check the gender, she just moved the wand until she got the view she was looking for. Well, after a second I realized what we were looking at and I could clearly see that we were having a baby boy! Although I knew the gender, I couldn't bring myself to say a word. I had to wait for her to tell me herself. I was shocked by this unexpected surprise. No baby girl for us! We are having a beautiful, healthy, BOY!

Here are his boy parts. He has his legs curled, so the length of his legs you are seeing is just to his knees. You can see his feet a little- up under his bottom.

Here he is on his tummy. From right to left, you can see the curve of his spine, his little bottom, and his legs curled up behind him.

Here are his legs, although you can only see the front one in this picture. I will predict that he is going to have long legs just like his mommy and daddy. Damon and I were both 21 inches long- and I was early- so I anticipate his length will be no shorter than that.

Here is his precious face! If you look closely you can see his eyes and his little nose- maybe even his lips.

Baby Boy McGough looked really healthy and all was developing well- according to my doctor. He was very active, just like he was in his first ultrasound. He is definitely our little "wiggle worm" and I think we may likely have a rambunctious little boy on our hands. He was measuring for 20weeks, 3 days; therefore, he is only two days ahead of the projected due date. He weighs 12 ounces.

The lesson I learned from this appointment was to never believe a wives' tale again! It was a shock when we found out our baby was not the gender we were expecting, but it made the experience and memory all the more fun! There is nothing like a truly unexpected surprise! We thought we were having a girl, but God always knows exactly what we need and this little boy is the miracle he chose to bless us with!

We are so excited about our baby boy! We do not have a name yet, but we are working hard to find the perfect one.

19 weeks, 5 days

The countdown is getting closer and we are almost there! 3 more days until we find out the gender of our baby and get to see him or her again in our second ultrasound!

Two New Symptoms:

I have two new pregnancy symptoms to share. The heartburn that I thought I was going to be blessed to avoid has arrived! For the past week and a half I have had heartburn every day, beginning around mid-afternoon. Thankfully it has not been bad enough to deter me from eating the foods I want. As a food-lover it would take a lot for me to change my mind on something I want to eat. There have been two times that my heartburn was pretty bad, but I am going to try to avoid the Tums. I have not had any medication so far in my pregnancy and I don't plan to if I can help it.

My second symptom is temperature changes. If you know me, you know I am almost always cold. If you ride with me in the winter time I am likely to melt you with the heater in my vehicle. Don't get me wrong, I love some AC during our Alabama summers, but when at home on the couch I tend to keep a blanket with me and my classroom stays a few degrees warmer than the rest of the school. This remains to be true- at least during the day; however, the past few nights I have been so hot! I guess they are somewhat akin to hot flashes. I will be fine one minute and then practically sweating the next. Fun times!

A Sweet Gift From a Friend:

My sweet friend, Danielle, had cute shirts made for me, so I can reveal our baby news on Tuesday after our appointment. I love them!

I can't wait to find out which shirt I will be wearing!

 

Thanks, Danielle!!!

Lots of House Pictures

Our house is continuing to grow- much like our baby!

My mom and I went back to look at the house on the 7th, expecting big changes, since it had been an entire work week, but I was disappointed to see very little change. Here is the front: 

Here is the back:

Not only was I a little bummed at the lack of noticeable progress, but I also managed to lock us out of my car!!! Here I am, on my mom's cell phone (mine was in the locked car), calling roadside assistance to come get us back into my vehicle.

Damon went to the house on Wednesday, April 11th, to work. He took a picture so I could see what had been done. It was a big difference which made me very excited to see it in person. The roof makes it really look like our house!

 I went back just two days later and this is what I found!!! (April 13, 2012)

Back: They even had placed a roll of the tar paper- or whatever that stuff is that goes down before shingles.

 Right side:

It was so much fun to be able to walk through the house and really be able to sense what it will be like when finished. You can walk through all the rooms and, now that the roof is on, you can really sense the dimensions of the spaces.

Here is a view from the front door. Our living space is very open. The foyer, kitchen, dining, and great room are all open floorplan. Here you can see the kitchen to the left and the dining on the right. It is hard to make out because not all the exterior walls are closed in and some of the window spaces are covered instead of left open.

Here is a portion of the great room. I love our vaulted ceilings! The wall you are looking at is going to be beautiful when finished. The fireplace will be in the middle, with built-in bookshelves on each side, and above the fireplace/mantle/TV, in the vaulted part of the wall, will be gorgeous windows!

Here is part of the master bedroom. It too has a vaulted ceiling.

Well, that is all for house pictures, but...

ONLY 8 MORE DAYS til we have more BABY pictures!!!! Can you stand the excitement?!?!? 

Random Pictures

I was looking through my iPhone and camera, moving pictures to my computer for this blog, and I began looking at all the great pictures I have but have never printed out or posted to Facebook. I decided to share a few here. If you don't care about my random life and pictures, then this is just not the blog entry for you!

You will see that these pictures are random and few. I am the worst at thinking to take pictures. I have to get better at that. Damon takes many more than I do, but we have both missed so many photo opportunities over the past years.

Summer 2011:

This is my brother- Jeremy, Me, and Damon celebrating my 25th birthday- (May 2011) This is the only picture I have of my brother on my camera.

These are the flowers Damon sent me at work, for my birthday. They are the only flowers I have ever received at work, and it was special because I have never celebrated a birthday at school. My birthday always falls at the very beginning of summer, so I never got to have cupcakes and celebrate at school when I was younger. I told that to Damon once and he remembered and sent me flowers. You can see that my room was already set for summer vacay, but we were all still there. Technically this was four days before my actual birthday, but I didn't care. I thought this was such a sweet gesture! I was completely surprised to get them. (May 2011)

Last summer, in July, Damon and I took a trip with his mom to Tennessee for a mini family reunion with some of Damon's family on his dad's side (mainly cousins). Here is Damon and his mom, Karen, at the Tennessee rest stop (July 28, 2011).

Here we are, outside the Dixie Stampede (July 29, 2011).

Here we are, on that same trip, outside the Tennessee Aquarium (July 31, 2011).

Damon loves this picture! I must admit, it is cute. We are just hanging out at the aquarium- Karen, me, and a larger-than-life raccoon (July 31, 2011).

I don't want to add a million pictures from that aquarium trip, but I had to post this one, because I thought it was really neat. 

Fall/Winter 2011:

If you don't know Damon, let me tell you, the man can do almost anything- I swear! Here he is welding (September 2011).

I took this picture on September 11th, 2012, in Fayette.

Here I am, with Grandmama, before graduation. I graduated in December with my Master's degree in Educational Psychology (December 17, 2011).

My mom and me at graduation (December 17, 2011).

Spring 2012:

This is my Sugar bear! Sugar is my cuddly Chihuahua. Damon and I have had her for as long as we have been married. She is unlike any Chihuahua I have ever met. She doesn't bark, and adores everyone! She is very loving and friendly. Here she is wrapped up in a towel.

Okay, this is where I will admit I am a Facebook stalker! I save people's pictures from Facebook to my phone, because I love them! Here are recent pictures of people I love and pictures I had to have:

This is Damon's brother, Jason, and his wife, Bethanie, along with our nephew, Tanner. (Spring 2012)

These are my cousins, Holly and Kara. They are beautiful girls! (Easter 2012)

I can't look at this picture of Mary Evelyn McAnnally without smiling! (April 2012)

This is not my cat! LOL! This is my brother's cat- Pepper. She is a cutie. Those are my sheets, though! That was my bed, when I lived at home.

Very Random Pic:
Okay, I had to post this picture. This picture was taken by Damon, when I was very unaware. Every time I look at this picture I think, "Wow, that REALLY is me!" Anyone who knows me has surely seen a similar expression on my face before. Lol! I was looking at my crazy dog who was going berserk, trying to get Damon to throw her toy. (March 2012)

More House pics!

So, I guess I lied about my tummy picture. I still haven't taken one. I am really bad at remembering those.

Instead of tummy pics, I have brought you more house pictures!

This is the front. It looks a bit odd because part of it is covered. The guy in the picture is shoveling sand in the "front porch" so they can pour the concrete. You can see that they already poured the concrete for the garage. I'm not sure when the walls for it go up.

Here is a view from the back. Yes, we are going to be on a crawl space, and we'll have a lot of storage space under the house. We will have a great view of our woods and land from the back porch!

These pictures were taken yesterday. They said the wood for the roof should go up today! If the rain holds off this week, I can't wait to see what my house will look like by this weekend!


Only 20 more days until our next ultrasound and gender reveal!!!!