Baby-making...knits that is!

Well, looks like I've had a streak of productiveness the last couple of weeks.  I've made a few baby items for Alexander.  David thinks this has to do with my nesting phase, but I think this may end being only a small part of it!

Baby Uggs

Umbilical Cord Hat

Camo Hat

Camo Sleep Sack (per David's request, Alex  "needs" camo)

Crochet beanie

No scratch mittens

I still have several more items queued on my to-do list after a couple of gifts get made...and something warm for mommy as I can't button my coats up anymore!

Austin family & friends Couple's shower

David's mother and 2 friends hosted a Couple's baby shower for us yesterday.  This was mostly a get-together of a lot of the Austin area family and friends that we haven't seen in a while...but focused on Alexander!  The co-hosts did a beautiful job, and the work they put forth was definitely shown and appreciated by us.
The guys that were there got to watch the rest of the UT/Texas Tech game (sad outcome for us) and the ladies got to do what we do best....gab!  Janet also got to come down for the shower and she had fun catching up with David's family members.

Sweet ceramic of a couple with newborn. 

bath time

rattle 

Baby Bullet to make my own baby food!! 

Diaper cake with binkies, washcloths, wooden A (on top) and a bottle of wine inside for post-pregnancy! 

Diaper bag, onesies and bibs...David's a good model, yes?

yes, I realize I might have problems when I put a hooded baby towel on my head in front of a roomful of people

One of the co-hosts, Cindy Brown, David's mom's coworker

Kris (David's brother) and Melissa who now live only 3 hours from us!

Delicious, adorable cake...no one, not even me, noticed that the last letter is an "H" not an "N" until looking at the pics a day later!  (I had two pieces!)

Receiving all these wonderful gifts made me very emotional in realizing that our little miracle will be here in 3 short months!

Since David just posted some (not so great) pics of me on Facebook, I thought I'd at least add my latest bump picture.

Vacation

We got back from our baby-moon vacation a couple weeks ago, and finally got the pictures downloaded from the camera.
We started our vacation with a night and half day in New York City.  We stayed in Mid-town, then walked around quite a bit the next morning before heading for the cruise terminal.

View from our hotel room

Central Park

View from our ship at port

As we're leaving the New York harbor:

watching the scenery from our balcony

Lady Liberty

Boston harbor on the following day.  

David took a lot of pictures of sailboats for Alexander's nursery.  Here's one:

We decided to visit Harvard since we were so close, then we walked the Freedom Trail around Boston that goes to historical places, monuments, etc.

Portland, Maine

After playing a round of miniature golf on the ship, we just walked around the town for a couple hours.

"anchor-duty"

more silliness

fall colors

sunset in the harbor

St. John, New Brunswick

A bit colder the next day in Canada, we bundled up and explored part of the city before going on a boat tour of the Bay of Fundy and the reversing falls.

City Market where I bought some Maple syrup :)

Reversing falls, i.e. river water flowing into ocean: this is the area where the fresh and salt water would try to mix and the water  levels were about even this time of day

A family of seals that live in the bay...I'm a sucker for cute hanimals :)

Fun Day at Sea: lots of activities and eating later...

Halifax, Nova Scotia

We signed up for a Lobsters and Lighthouses tour hosted by a local restaurant.  Unfortunately the water was quite rocky and the smaller boat we were on did NOT help this pregnant lady!  But I refused to let this ruin the day.

Our tour guides teaching us about lobsters 

beautiful fall foliage

where we ended the tour, with a lobster lunch (my nausea caused me to miss out, but David enjoyed it!)

On the last full day of our cruise, we went on a "Behind the Fun" tour of the ship. We couldn't bring the camera or phone with us on the tour, so no more pics, but we got a couple professional pictures taken with the captain and one of the tour group at the pointy part of the ship.  We got to see the crew area, lounge, cafeteria; laundry services, backstage, main galley, engine control room, and the bridge where we met the captain and asked him questions for half an hour.

All in all, we had a lot of fun just being able to be together for a week :)

Birthdays

David and I had our birthdays last week.  We received many calls, emails/texts/facebook posts, and cards from all our family and we wanted to say again, Thank You!!

Dad and Janet took us to Joe's Crab Shack (this is now apparently a tradition we do, since it's the third birthday dinner with parents in a row).  David's happy he gets to work so hard at his meal:

(pardon his goofy photo expression)

Although his birthday is first and we both ordered each others' gifts the same day, mine arrived first:

A K-cup coffee machine, so we don't waste nearly a whole pot of coffee on the weekends, plus I love all the variety of flavored coffees/teas in K-cup form :)

David's gift, I had to order all the way from Surrey in England.  He was home when it arrived and saw the location and was able to narrow down the possible gifts it could be to one of two choices!  He waited until I got home to open it and was very happy and (partially) surprised.

He absolutely loves the British show Top Gear, and somehow got Janet and Dad hooked on it too.  For those of you who don't watch the show, there is a professional driver on the show to test all the cars they discuss, called "The Stig" because he is supposed to be anonymous, and therefore never talks, and always wears a full racing suit with helmet.  

Thanks, Janet for giving me this idea for his gift :) 

Currently, at home, I'm trying to complete a knitted pullover that's taking a lot longer than anticipated.  I wanted to finish it before our cruise which is in 5 DAYS.  eek!  I've accepted the fact I won't be finished with it, but I'm still working on it whenever I can.  So much left to do before Vacay...but then we'll be relaxing!

About halfway...

I was wearing a dress yesterday that really showed some bump, so thought I'd take a quick picture after getting home from work (sorry for the poor quality).  I'm now 19 weeks 5 days or 20 weeks depending on how you count ;)

(serious expression was concentrating on keeping phone still!)

Last weekend, Janet took me maternity clothes shopping and we got some good finds!  I'm slowly putting them into my wardrobe for work as I need them so they don't get too overused too early.  More and more of my pre-prego clothes are getting pushed aside as the days go by!

Last night in bed while David watched TV and I was reading, I felt the tell-tale pops of Baby kicking. two lower kicks, pause, then another higher and to the right. I grabbed his hand and told him to wait a few minutes, because Alex was kicking. Another moment later…POP right into his hand!  Before now, he’s only been able to feel some vague movement or fluttering, but this was the first time he’s felt a kick.

Great moment :)

Names, trips, etc

Soon after finding out the gender of Baby Schoen, David and I narrowed down the name list to either Alexander or Austin.  I was already partial to Alexander/Alexandria for my decision-making-impairment looooong before we conceived.  David really liked Austin.  Middle name, for some reason, took a lot of talking about (never realized the middle name would be such a big deal, but it was)

So we have decided for about 2 weeks now to name him:

Alexander Brian Schoen  :)

~~~~

David and I just spent a long weekend on Labor Day to drive up to Green Bay for his co-worker/friend's wedding, then over to visit with his Dad and Karen.  On the way up, we decided to do a bit of touristy dining.  I looked up the Food Network show "Man vs Food" to see which places he ate at in St Louis.  We ended up eating at the Iron Barley for lunch, kind of a bar & grill with old-fashioned American food, some items with their own twist!  We also stopped by Milwaukee and ate downtown for dinner, then to see the corporate office or "mother ship" (as he likes to call it) of David's company.

We had a good time and got a chance to relax a bit minus all the driving (although, I only drove 3 blocks of the distance...from the reception to the hotel, since I am a permanent designated driver currently!)  I love that car, but I sure was getting tired of sitting in it for hours and hours!  On the upside, I finished a pregnancy book, 2 romance novels, and the front of a sweater I'm currently knitting during all that time in the car :)

And the results are in...

I had my 16 week ultrasound yesterday! the last few days with the devastating news of a friend’s missed miscarriage and a patient of mine who recently had a stillborn at 33 wks, and that I haven’t felt baby yet (even though this is my first, and I have no idea what it should feel like yet) I was getting really worked up that something was wrong with baby.

But I was wrong, most happily. Baby has a good heartbeat at 153 bpm, all fingers and toes, no problems that the dr could discern, and my placenta is in a good place. And…

HE gave us a great view of his little parts! (sorry, son, for putting your penis on the internet, but you really can't see it, so I hope it's OK with you in about 15 years)  The very first image the Dr. got on the screen, there was a little waving appendage, and he said "Well, that's pretty obvious!"  And I was worried that baby would be shy...

He also saluted us, lol

David already asked me to make baby a camouflage hat and booties set :)  So I'll just have to add it to my growing list of projects!

planning ahead...

So, as my hobby/obsession will now start gearing towards baby items, thought I'd share the two baby hats I made a few days ago...

So depending on what my OB is able to see next Thursday, pending baby's cooperation, of course, I'll have one hat down out of...I dunno, a LOT more!  Hats are just so much fun to make :)

Also working on some other projects, such as a nursing cover-up and a pullover I had my eye on pre-pregnancy, but would work as a maternity top as well.  Pics to come as more of these become completed!

Growing...

Well...I officially can't button my work pants anymore!  Never thought I'd be excited about something like that, but it means little Baby Schoen is a-growing!!  Trying to stretch out my work wardrobe as long as I can before needing maternity clothes, so certain items are going to get lots of action, like gaucho pants (!) and skirts.

This is me at 11 weeks:

(currently waiting for updated pic at 13 weeks to be saved from the desolation of being held up on a camera memory card)
As week 13 is coming at an end, I can finally breathe a sigh of relief that I'm past the higher miscarriage risk.
grow baby grow!

First craving:

Root beer float!  Wanted it Friday when co-workers had one, but I was already eating pineapple. Still wanted it Saturday but was rushing around trying to get to a surprise party on time.  Still wanted it on Sunday, and wasn’t able to get it until 10 pm. 

mmmmmmmmmmmm

12 Week OB appointment

We had our appt yesterday, and all looks good!  We didn’t get to do an ultrasound, but we did get to hear Baby Schoen’s heartbeat!  160 beats per minute.  The last time we heard the heartbeat was with the fertility center’s fancy machine with a trans-vaginal ultrasound when I was only 6 weeks or so.

Back story on the fertility center:

After about 2 years of infertility and a lap hysteroscopy when my OB removed endometriosis in February, he said that if I haven’t gotten pregnant in 3-6 months, start looking into fertility treatments.  Eeck.  The money scared the heck outta me.  But, as anyone who has gone through infertility knows, it is a rollercoaster of emotions month after month.  Not fun and, frankly, exhausting.  So at the 3 month mark, I scheduled an appointment to have an initial consultation with a fertility specialist.  After all the interviews/questions with the nurse and the doctor, he did an internal ultrasound to check out the uterus, fallopian tubes and my ovaries and actually was able to count the maturing follicles!  He told me about when I would ovulate that month and from which ovary (Cool!!).  We decided that we would start the IUI process in my next cycle.

But we didn’t have to!  The morning that my next cycle was supposed to start, I got up early to answer nature’s call, so I figured I’d just take a pregnancy test (I got a value pack a few months back…might as well use ‘em, right?).  And…

My OB says at my next appointment in a month (Aug 25) we should be able to tell the gender on ultrasound if Baby Schoen cooperates and gives us a good glimpse.  Hopefully I'll find some entertaining stuff to write about in the meantime...

I'm new!

So this is my first blog...I don't know how interesting I am, but I hope my family and friends will appreciate all that I keep them updated on.

Main reason behind this blog:
David and I are expecting our first child!!  We are beyond excited to even be able to say these words.  We've been trying to conceive for 33 months before I peed on a stick that will change our lives forever!

I want to keep everyone who's interested to stay updated on what's going on with me, David and, as we are calling him/her, Baby Schoen.

I'll try to put in a post at least weekly, maybe more often as more exciting pregnancy symptoms assert themselves!  (Right now, I'm mostly dealing with just plain being tired, and nausea.)  I'll try to include pictures/videos if I can figure it out.

In non-pregnancy related news...David and I are planning to go on a cruise in October from New York to Canada!  It's a mix between our 5 year anniversary gift/pre-baby vacation.  We're getting very excited and counting down the days...

Tomorrow will be my "12 week" OB appt.  So I'll definitely have some updates!

Until then...