Ellis Paige in 3D

We got to have a 3D ultrasound on Saturday, January 25th.  I was 28 wks 5 days and we were happy to get a good look at our girl on the big screen!  Lane came along with us, but wasn't too impressed with everything.  At one point he said "She just looks pretty orange to me."

I took this picture of the screen next to me while we were having the ultrasound done.  Isn't that little smile she gave us cute?!

 

We received a DVD of the session and 8 prints of different poses.  I didn't realize until after we got home that the DVD didn't include any digital photo files, so I did some handiwork and figured out how to take some screen shots of the DVD.  Here are Ellis Paige's first glamour shots!  We think she looks a lot like me...especially the nose!

And here is just a sweet profile shot.

 

Proud Mommy and Best Big Bro after the appointment

 

This is a short clip of the DVD we got where you can see her moving around and giving her little grin.

 

We are getting so close to seeing her little face in person, and we can't wait!!

IT'S A..........

On Thursday, November 7, 2013, we had our appointment with the perinatologist for my 18 week anatomy scan sonogram.  It was originally scheduled for November 14, but Kyle was scared he would have a work conflict, so we were able to move it up a whole week!  We were thrilled because we had already planned a trip back to DFW that weekend and could tell our family the baby's gender in person!

The appointment went well.  Most importantly, the specialist was able to see all of the parts of the baby and confirmed that the heart, brain, limbs, and the baby in general looked GREAT!  Baby Coots was measuring right on track and cooperated by letting us get a peek at her girly parts!  :)  The specialist knew right away it was a girl and got a couple of extra views in to make completely sure.  We are thrilled to be adding a little girl to the mix!  I know Lane was set on a sister, and Kyle and I are excited to experience having a daughter.  We both didn't care at all if it was a boy or a girl, but were happy to hear that SHE is healthy and can't wait to meet HER!

The sonographer snapped this picture of us right after we found out the news.  We all have such genuine smiles!  I love this picture so much and am glad I had her take it.

I searched Pinterest for some cute gender reveal ideas and came across these do it yourself confetti poppers using push pop containers.  Rather than having to eat a bunch of push pop popsicles, I was glad to find empty ones at Michael's and stuffed them with pink confetti.  I wrapped them in scrapbook paper and sealed them with tissue paper. 

Lane was really excited to tell Mums, Gran, Pops, and his Aunts and Uncles his big news.  We stayed with my mom for the weekend and she was excited to pop her popper and find pink confetti.  She must have had a premonition because she was wearing the right color!  ;-)

I put an "It's a girl" strip of paper in each popper so Lane could pose with his loved ones.

We took Kori and Mitch's Christmas card pictures at the park, so Lane took their confetti poppers to give to them there.

Gran and Pops were excited to hear the news too! Their confetti poppers worked the best of all!  Lots of pink showering everyone!

Even Sawyer was happy!

 

This same weekend was the Walk to Defeat ALS that my family participates in every year.  My Aunt Kathy, Tiffany, Mason and Marley all were in town to go to the walk, so Lane let them know the news by spraying the kids with pink silly string!!  Marley hid under the table so she wouldn't get sprayed, but Mason was quite ready to be a target!

I think Mason was having so much fun getting sprayed that he didn't really realize what it was all about and what the pink meant.  Tiffany said "Mason, do you know what this means?  Lane is going to have a baby sister!"  This picture was right as she told him!

Uncle Mitch was just minding his own business and got the last few sprays of silly string directed at him.  Such a good sport!

We let the rest of the family know by phone calls, texts, and emails and everyone was very excited.  My grandpa, Paw, has correctly predicted the gender of all of his great grandkids and had told me back in September that he thought it was a boy.  He picks his own names for all of the babies and to this day calls Lane "Dusty" after choosing the name "Dustin Blake" for him before he was born.  Evin was "Lisa Lynn," and he had decided that my new baby would be called "Cody Colt."  He is serious about his predictions and had never been wrong, so I was kinda sad for him that his streak had ended!!  I called to tell him the news and he said "Well, I don't really believe them, but I am just thrilled to have another little great grand-daughter!"  He later blamed his incorrect guess on the radiation treatments he has been receiving for some cancerous spots on his head!  I joked and told him that she may be a girl, but I bet his prediction means she will be a tomboy!

Now that we know we will be having a sweet little girl, we have to decide on a name.  Kyle and I each have our own favorite name and can't seem to agree on many others.  Let's hope the right name comes to us!  Any suggestions???

Pregnancy Update : Weeks 1-12

July 2013-9/30/13

Alrighty...I have posted the actual pregnancy announcement on the blog, but have yet to post any details of the pregnancy so far!  Here's my attempt to catch up to our last doctor's appointment, which was my 12 week checkup.  This is mostly for my records, so feel free to skip through and look at the cute pics of our newest babe!

Since I had been on Clomid for this pregnancy, I was on top of dates/symptoms and found out I was pregnant really early.  That very first week after I found out I was pregnant, I started feeling cramping similar to period cramps.  They started on August 1st and continued throughout the weekend, getting a little bit worse.  They were waking me up at night and happening throughout the day, so I called my doctor on Monday, August 5th, and she advised me to come in for some blood work.  

I went in on Tuesday, August 6th for an HCG Quant Draw.  I would need to come back again in two days to do another draw to see if my numbers were doubling every other day, proving that my pregnancy was viable.  My first round of blood work came back at a 718.

I happened to be in Mansfield when the next blood draw was ordered, so I went to my old doctor in Mansfield to have my blood taken and they said they would fax the numbers to my doctor in Austin.  This was on Thursday, August 8th.  It turned out to be a disaster, because by Monday I still hadn't heard anything and we realized that the lab had lost my sample.  All during this wait I was paranoid that I was going to miscarry because I continued to cramp and never had any cramping with Lane.  

On Tuesday, August 13th I went back to my Austin doctor for the next draw.  They rushed the results so I would know by the end of the day.  Around 4pm, the nurse called with "bad" news.  My HCG level was only at a 986, far from doubling every other day.  Kim (the nurse) said these numbers were just given to her by the lab over the phone and that they were faxing the official paperwork her way.  She said it was weird to her and she would follow up with the faxed results, but that this likely meant that my pregnancy was not viable.  I immediately called Kyle to break the bad news, but he didn't answer.  Next on the list to call was my mom.  I was crying and upset and she was disappointed as well.  Kyle beeped in and I told him, and he was just as bummed.  Just as I was telling him, I got yet another call from Kim.  She started by saying "You are going to want to kill me and love me all at the same time.  We received the fax from the lab with your written results and your HCG level is at 9,806-- not 986!!!"  She apologized over and over for all of the mess-ups and said that Dr. Schneider would be filing a written complaint to Quest Laboratory concerning all of the mistakes that they made.  Evidently, someone from Quest can't READ NUMBERS CORRECTLY!  I couldn't believe it when I got the good news.  I went from nervous, to devastated, to ecstatic all within about 10 minutes!!  Whew!

This was my bandage from the last blood work appointment.  The nurse grabbed a piece of gauze, bunched it up on my arm and stuck some tape on top.  I immediately noticed that it somehow had formed a perfect heart!  I pointed it out to her and she said "It sure is a heart!  I bet that's a sign that everything is going to be just fine."  And she was right.  :)

The cramping went away by the time I had my last blood draw at 4.5 weeks, so I was relieved.  Between 5-6 weeks pregnant, we were in California for our vacation.  On night 2 of the vacation I got a migraine that turned into vomiting, as usual.  I was miserable because I couldn't take my usual cure-all of Excedrin Migraine.  I just assumed it was one of my normal migraines and hoped I'd feel better in the morning.  Well, from then on I vomited multiple times a day until recently.  Weeks 6-8 were the absolute worst, with me getting sick numerous times a day and even in the middle of the night.  From about 8 weeks until 10 weeks I was getting sick, but mostly just in the mornings.  After 10 weeks the sickness seemed to taper off, thank goodness!  I had occasional nauseous feelings here and there, but MUCH less vomiting!

We had our first doctor appointment on August 26th, when I was 7 weeks along.  We were eager to know if there was more than one baby in there, and also anxious to see our baby and know that everything was ok after the miscarriage scare!  Kyle and Lane came along for the first appointment.  Dr. Schneider did a sonogram and determined that there was just ONE HEALTHY BABY in there!  We saw the little heart beating away and were overjoyed!  She determined that the baby was measuring about 4 days ahead of schedule, but kept my due date as 4-14-14.  Lane was a little disappointed that it wasn't boy/girl twins.  He had already named them Firefighter Bob and Police Girl!  Dr. Schneider prescribed Zofran for my sickness and said it should get better around week 12.

Little gummy bear at 7 weeks.  That tiny thing had Mommy feeling pretty darn sick!

My next appointment was on September 26th at 11 weeks 3 days along.  We decided to go ahead and do a first trimester screening for chromosomal disorders.  This included a detailed ultrasound with precise measurements.  A special sonographer did the ultrasound and also a finger prick for blood work.  We were told that she may be able to determine the sex of the baby, but she said it was just too early for her to make a guess.  :(  Bummer!  We did, however get a cute picture of our little sweetie and were very relieved to hear that our results came back negative for disorders.

My, how you've grown!

Lane was at school during this appointment, but Kyle was able to come along.  I told Kyle to take notes during the sonogram and found these stats in my notebook when I got home:

*He is dead set on the name Landry for a girl, and really thinks this baby is going to be a girl, based on how different this pregnancy has been for me so far!*

After the screening I had my normal monthly checkup with Dr. Schneider.  It was just basic weight check, blood pressure, urine sample, and questions/answers.  She said everything was looking good so far and I scheduled my next checkup for October 24th at 15.5 weeks.

I wasn't too great about taking weekly pregnancy pictures when I was pregnant with Lane.  I took some here and there, but didn't keep up with every week.  I decided to include Lane in my progress pictures this time but knew it would be hard to get him to cooperate every single week.  Plus, I feel like you can't really tell that much change in weekly pictures, so I am planning on trying to take a picture every 4 weeks or so and maybe near the end I'll do them more often!  Here are the first two installments of "Watch Mommy Grow!"