22 Weeks Pregnant!!

It feels like it's been forever since I've updated (sorry Hunter)! I think it's just because I've been so busy! But here we are... starting our 23rd week:):)
I have an appointment with the perinatologist on the 12th! My mom is going to try and come up to be with me for it, and we are all staying very positive about everything!! Please say a little prayer for my "moms"! My mother is having surgery on her wrist on the 5th and Thomas' mother is also going through something with her health right now as well. So please just lift them both up in your thoughts and prayers this week!

I have started to feel the Braxton Hicks contractions! They aren't painful at all but are uncomfortable! I get them a lot when I'm standing or walking around a lot but as soon as I sit down they get better! It really is a weird feeling... knowing that I'm getting closer and closer to them being the "real thing"!! But I'm excited nonetheless!!

I feel like my belly is bigger every time I see it, but I still think it's a small baby bump! I've started using this great oil (I guess it's oil... it's thick though, almost like honey) that I got from amazon.com... it makes my skin so soft and it smells like chocolate! I'm praying that it will help keep the stretch marks at bay... even though I know that there isn't much you can do to stop them... if I'm going to get them then I'm going to get them! But at least this stuff helps me feel proactive lol!!

This morning was a big morning for Thomas!! He pinned on SSGT:):) I made it pretty clear to him that his life was at risk if someone didn't take pictures for me! So hopefully I will have those soon and will post them for all of you!! He also found out that he pasted his final CLEP test (surprise surprise!) and has all the credits he needed to complete for his Associates Degree:):) I'm a verrry proud wife! He is doing SO great! God gave me such an amazing provider!

I should be hearing back from the insurance company by Thursday about the damage to the Durango and then we'll go from there! I'm still hoping it's not totaled! I miss it soo badly! But we just have to wait and see!!

I finally got in touch with the fence company! They should be here at the beginning of the week to get started! Woo Hoo:) It's going to be so nice to be able to let the dogs run around out there!!

I also gave my notice at work! I'm not sure if I mentioned the situation on here before! When I started working for this family in august, i had to sign a contract saying that I would work for them through May of this year, when they would be moving. Well, the contract never stated when in May (beginning, middle, end). So when she told me last month that she found a house in her next town I asked if she knew when they would be leaving in May! She told me that they weren't moving until July and would need me to work all through June! Well!... If you know me, you know how much I have been looking forward to my last day! So I talked with Thomas and my family and pretty much decided that I would fulfill the contract and work through May... and that's it! I really hated this situation because I felt like I was quitting... but I'm confident in the decision now!! And I can't wait to have a whole month to myself before Thomas gets home and then the baby comes!!

Well now that I have rambled on and on... I'll leave you to enjoy all the fun facts about Lily's development over the next week!!


WEEK TWENTY-THREE:
*Proportions of the body are now quite similar to a newborn although thinner since he hasn't begun to form body fat.
*Bones located in the middle ear harden.
*Your baby is able to hear. (Dads, did you know: low-frequency sounds mimicking a male voice penetrate the abdomen and uterine wall better than the higher frequencies of the female voice?)
*The eyes are formed, though the iris still lacks pigmentation.
*The pancreas, essential in the production of hormones, is developing steadily. She has begun producing insulin, important for the breakdown of sugars.
*If born now, your baby has a 15% chance of survival, his odds going up with each passing day. .
*The average baby at this stage weighs 1.1 pound (501gm) and is 11.38 inches (28.9cm) long.

I finally went out a bought a maternity shirt for myself and I love it! I hate how expensive cute shirts are but I had a spouse's dinner and wanted to look pretty so I just spent the money! And I have to say that it felt great! I curled my hair since I have nooo body in it anymore from the pregnancy and tried to snap a few pictures for Thomas... but I'm not very good at mirror pictures, so sorry for the flash! But I thought I would post it up here so you can see what "The Bump" looks like and show off my pretty new shirt!!

Belly Picture- 21 Weeks

Here we are... Only 7 pounds gained... Lily is getting big though:)

"Twenty Week" Doctors Appointment

Technically I'm 21 weeks today, but it had to come in at 21 weeks to be able to see my midwife!

We started off by going over the anatomy ultrasound that I had done at Womack on the 14th! Everything came back ok with the Baby but there was a significant find. I have an Amniotic band... which is a band of fiborous, scar tissue going around the amniotic sac that the baby is sitting in. My band is at the top of the sac, above the baby right now. In some cases the band can form around the sac in a place were the baby is forming and can cause malformations and/or malfunctions to the area of the baby that it is surrounding. Basically it's a band of the sac that just won't expand as the baby grows. Like I said, it's up above the baby at this point so there is no affect on the baby's growth at this point. The condition can also cause my water to break early. I have been referred to a peri-natologist (a high-risk pregnancy doctor) and should hear from them within the week to schedule an appointment! They will do more ultrasounds and they are more qualified in these sorts of situations than the regular radiologists that initially looked at the scan! The peri-natologist will determine whether is need to stay with them as a high risk pregnancy or if I can go back to my midwife's care with additional ultrasounds from them!

Right now I am just thanking God that everything is looking good with the baby and her development! I think the only think that calmed me down was thinking that if my water does break and I have to deliver her early, at least she will be as healthy as she can be and will have the best chance of pulling through! I just feel very blessed that Lily is growing strong! Please just keep this pregnancy in your prayers.

The rest of the appointment was typical! It took a while to find her heart beat (I got a little scared since I was just in the accident... even though I could still feel her moving all morning!) but when she did find it it was strong and beautiful at 149:) I have only gained 1.4 pounds in the 5 weeks since my last appointment... so she seemed a little worried about that. The baby is growing fine, but it's not good for me if the baby takes everything from me! So pray that that turns around for me here shortly too!

Other than that we just wait to hear from the specialist and then see what they can do for us!! Thank you all so much for all of your love and support through this deployment and pregnancy! Thomas and I appreciate it sooo much! I will keep you posted:)

21 Weeks Pregnant!

We are now on the down slope of the pregnancy mountain!! I am in my 22nd week:) And as you can see from the post below, we know that I am having a little girl! We can now call Baby Whitten Baby Lily!! I'm sorry I didn't post more about the 3D u/s, it was a pretty busy weekend!

I got in a car accident on Thursday in Clinton, NC on my way to Jacksonville for the weekend! It was pretty unfortunate, but everyone walked away fine... everyone except the Durango! It was towed to a body shop there in Clinton and I should hear something about the damage by Friday! It was an accident, but I was at fault, so I have a court date for the 2nd of June. The u/s was the next morning and it went off without a hitch! Everyone (except Haley) was able to be there with me and Thomas called on the cell phone! Our baby girl was being shy and modest! She pretty much hid behind my placenta the whole time with her hand between her legs! But she was moving all over the place! Finally at the end of the session she pulled her feet up to her face and played with and sucked on her toes for a bit so we were able to see that there was no "external plumbing" as the tech worded it! Thomas was able to hear her heart beating for the first time and was kind of taken back by how fast it was beating! But he was very happy to find out and said that we were "starting a new Halford family!" (My parents had 3 girls). His dad said that the past 7 generations of Whittens have all had boys first... so we are definitely breaking the mold on his side!

I had a doctor's appointment today and I'll post about that and put up a new belly picture later tonight! But for now enjoy all the Fun Facts about Baby Lily!


WEEK TWENTY-TWO

*Your baby weighs close to a pound at this point!
*Your baby can now hear your conversations more clearly than before!. When you talk, read, or sing, expect her to hear you. Studies have found that newborns will suck more vigorously when read to from a book they heard frequently in utero.
*Eyelids and eyebrows are fully formed.
*Fingernails have grown to the end of the fingers.
*Be prepared for all those "Why" questions coming! Your baby's brain has entered a stage of rapid growth, especially in what's called the germinal matrix. This structure deep in the middle of the brain serves as a kind of factory for brain cells and disappears shortly before birth. But the brain's amazing expansion program continues until around the five birthday.
*With some help from mom, baby's liver is starting to break down bilirubin, a substance produced by red blood cells.
*Length is 10.94 inches (27.8cm); weight is nearly 1 pound (430gm).

3D Ultrasound Pictures! 20w2d

(1) It's a GIRL!!! Lillian Michele Whitten
(2) Sucking her thumb!
(3) Profile and hand
(4) Frowning
(5) Hands in her face
(6) Skinny little chicken arms:)
(7) Both legs stretched out stright with feet crossed at the ankles!
(8) Big Yawn
(9) Lily's Feet!!
(10) Flexible baby! Feet folded up to her face!
(11) Playing with her toes!

Gender Poll

Only a few more hours to vote!! Girls are pulling ahead for the first time in the whole race!!! Can't wait to know who has it right!! Thanks for playing:)

20 WEEKS PREGNANT!!!

HALF WAY DONE!!!!

Woo Hoo!! I don't want to sound like I'm ready for it to be over... it's just now starting to get tolerable!! But it is exciting to think that in the next 18-22 weeks I will have my little baby out and in my arms:):)

The past week has been exciting! My mom, dad and little sister, Hunter, came to town to help me "spring clean" my house!! It was a HUGE blessing! I still had to work in the mornings so they worked on the house while I was gone and we got to spend a lot of time visiting and enjoying each other... although I'm sure they wanted to beat me for how messy my house was! It was a lot of work, but a blessing none the less!!

Hunter stayed the night with me, by herself last night and went to work with me this morning! We are about to drive to Jacksonville in a few hours!! The big day is tomorrow!! My 3D-4D ultrasound in Wilmington is at 11:00! My parents and Hunter, Thomas' Mom, Dad, Step mom and sister will all be there and my other sister, Haley, will meet up with us in Jacksonville later that day!! Thomas is set to call in for the appointment from Iraq... so pleeeeeease pray that the baby cooperates and that we can find out the gender tomorrow!! It should be amazing either way but I think we are alll ready to know whether there is a little Logan or Lily growing in there!


WEEK TWENTY-ONE:
*White blood cells are under production. Leukocytes (or white blood cells) form our body's defense systems. They help fight infections and diseases.
*Your little one's skin has changed from translucent to become more opaque.
*Your infant's tongue is fully formed. If you were able to peek you might catch your son or daughter practicing giving you a raspberry!
*If your baby is a girl, her womb and vagina are formed. Unlike males, females have a limited supply of eggs in their lifetime. At this point your daughter will have 6 million eggs. This amount decreases to approximately one million by birth.
*Baby swallows more this week. After your baby takes in amniotic fluid, his body absorbs the water in the liquid and moves the rest into the large bowel. This is good practice for his digestive system!
*Wake and sleep periods become more consistent. Some research suggests that baby sets her internal clock to match the outside world's even before birth! Your eating and sleeping habits as well levels of light and noise serve as her signals.
*Length is now measured crown to heel.
*Baby measures about 10.51 inches (26.7cm) and weighs nearly 12.7 ounces (360g).

ULTRASOUND-19w5d

(1) Straight on shot of the Face!
(2) Baby Yawning
(3) Arms
(4) Profile of face with hands in mouth
(5) Hands covering face

I had my Anatomy u/s on Monday, the 14th ((Sorry these are so late!)) My mom and Aunt Jennifer came with me! There isn't much to write about... most everyone just wants to see the pictures! The whole thing lasted about half an hour and it was pretty uncomfortable for me. The baby was breech, sitting Indian style and the technician was having a really hard time getting good angles of the spine and organs so she was pushing in on me pretty hard. The baby kept his arms up in front of his face the whoooole time, so the pictures aren't the best, but you get the idea!! We could see the baby moving his eyes and chewing on his fingers (whole fist in his mouth, just chomping away!!) I cried for a second when I got to hear the heartbeat, like I always do lol. Seeing the baby was kind of strange, but hearing the heart beating was magical! Ultimately the Tech couldn't see the gender (I say "he" just out of habit now) which is fine since I wanted to find out on Friday with Thomas! Enjoy the pictures:):)

Belly Picture- 19w2d

This is the first time I've done them like this... but I was just curious to see what "the belly" looked like covered and straight on... so here we are! I still don't have the obvious pregnant belly from the front since my hips are so wide! But I just smile because I still have a waist... for now at least:):)

19 Weeks Pregnant!!!

Hello all!! We are in the 20th week!! Half way there!! So amazing:):) the week has been pretty typical! Which is something that I love and hate all the same!! Some days the rhythm helps it move by faster and the day that Thomas is here again couldn't come fast enough!! But other days I feel lazy... like I'm wasting my pregnancy! It's hard to wrap my head around "pregnancy". I always pictured it as a time when Thomas and I would be together! So it's tough to realize that that isn't the case and that I should still do the things I always looked forward to doing during this time!! It is a blessing to have this little child of ours inside of me right now! Sometimes I get really down and I just hug my belly and know that there is a little piece of my amazing husband thriving in me and that makes the loneliness a little less!

The baby loved the chicken pot pie that I had today! I felt him sooo much!! And the kicks really are starting to get so much more obvious!! He was just drumming on this one little spot for like 10 minutes... and that made me smile soo big! I can't wait to see that little foot on the u/s screen!! Only 8 more days until I can officially call this baby a he or start apologizing to my little girl for calling her a he for sooo many months and try to break the habit lol!!!

I guess I'll stop rambling now and do some laundry! Thanks for reading! I hope you have a great night! Enjoy the Fun Facts!


WEEK TWENTY
*You're half way there!
*The rapid growth stage is about over. While things have slowed down, this next stage is vital to survival.
*The baby's heart grows stronger. Find a quiet place, lay flat on your back. Locate your own heartbeat by finding your pulse. Next lay your hand on your belly. You may be able to distinguish the two heartbeats!
*His legs are reaching their relative size. With the increase muscle develop occurring as well, you will start feeling much more than tiny flutter kicks soon!
*Immunities are being transferred from you to your baby now. These immune cells will protect her from viruses you've already had for up to six months after birth!
*The nerve cells for taste, smell, hearing, seeing, and touch are now developing in specialized areas of the brain. Production slows down as existing nerve cells grow larger and make more complex connections.
*Your baby may startle in reaction to loud sounds. Amazingly, she can actually hear noises outside of the womb. Familiar voices, music, and sounds that baby becomes accustomed to during her development stages often are calming after birth.
*If your baby is a girl, her uterus is starting to develop. She has approximately six million eggs in her ovaries. About one million will remain at birth.
*Baby is about 6.46 inches (16.4cm) and weighs around 10.58 ounces (300g

Our Baby Names!

I was pretty nervous about announcing these but I've already blabbed them to people, so figured I would just go ahead and make it official!!

Thomas and I had had a pretty hard time when we were trying to get pregnant of agreeing on names and I was kind of worried that we wouldn't find one since he was so far away! Butttt one night it came up in conversation and we decided that since he was the pickier of the two of us, that he would come up with a list of 5 boy names and 5 girl names that he liked and we would decide, together, from those!!

The next day he had his lists and I actually liked most of them!! But I think we both knew right away that our little boy's name was the number one name on his list!! The girl name that we are actually using wasn't on his list but I had skimmed over it a few times and when I heard his list, I asked him about the name and he said yes right away!! One of his best friends in High School had this name so we both figured the other wouldn't want to use it... but as soon as we said it out loud and talked about it we were both sold!!

So with no further ado... Baby Whitten will either be Logan Thomas or Lillian "Lily" Michele!!!

The middle names are pretty simple to explain... Thomas is, obviously, my husband's first name! But it is also part of a neat little pattern. The last 4 generations of Whitten men have either the middle name Thomas or Alton! It starts with his Great Grand Father and goes Thomas, Alton, Thomas, Alton, Thomas (with the last Thomas being our little boy-- if Baby Whitten is, in fact a boy!).
Michele is a little different! Both of our mother's are named Michele and it is also my middle name... so I knew when I met him that we would use Michele for our first little girl's middle name!!

Belly Picture- 18w2d

Here we are!! Over the next month or so, my belly should really start taking on that "pregnant' look! So I'm getting excited about that! Today is my day off so I slept in and bummed around in Thomas' pajamas all day:) But my little, blog stalking, sister called and scolded me for not having a new belly picture up yet, so I haddd to get on it!! Here you go, Hunter!!

18 Weeks Pregnant!

Almost half way done!!! Can you believe it!? It's blowing my mind lol and I am starting to freak out a little bit at my lack of motivation!! i just started to get back on thenest.com on the 2nd trimester board, hoping that I will start to be interested in finding bedding and cribs and furniture and strollers and what not!! I'm pretty much praying that motivation will bite me in the butt after I find out the sex of this little one... which is only 15 days and a wake up away:):):) We shall see!

I've still been a little sick, the past three days have been vomit free! I have developed motion sickness though lol! It seems like every time I drive I get nauseous:( But as long as I'm not throwing up I'm ok with it!! I'm still not eating very much. Someone actually told me that they were surprised I wasn't eating everything in sight... I didn't know if that was an insult or not so I just blew it off! I figured I would have a stronger appetite by mow too but other than the occasional craving, I'm pretty much having to force the food down:/

The baby is moving a lot. I haven't noticed a consistent pattern or anything like that, it's just every few days I'll feel him playing around in there for a good 20 minutes or so:) It really is amazing! I just lay back and hold my stomach and look forward to the day my fat stretches out enough to be able to feel his kicks from the outside! I can't wait for my family to be able to experience that with me and to be able to "interact" with the baby!!

Thomas is doing very well!! He is busy, busy, busy! He e-mailed me last night and he is doing 3 jobs on top of his regular job right now! He joked about wishing he has just "pretended to be incompetent" so he wouldn't have all the extra work... he does get the exact same pay either way!! But that all just goes to show how well he is doing over there and how much they need and appreciate his hard work!! Every time we talk we talk about our vacation we're planning to Florida in July! It has been so long since we've had a vacation together and I dream about laying next to him on a white powder beach almost every night!! It is going to be so amazing to raise this little baby with him! He is such a wonderful man!!

Now that I'm done rambling... I will leave you to the Fun Facts about Baby Whitten that I know you love soooo much!! A new belly picture will be up by Friday!!

WEEK NINETEEN
*Your baby has the same awake and sleep patterns of a newborn. He has a favorite position for sleep and recognizable active and rest periods.
*Throughout baby's body, nerves are being coated with a fatty substance called myelin, which insulates the nerves so that impulses can flow smoothly.
*Scalp hair becomes apparent this week. It has sprouted and continues to grow.
*The milk teeth buds have already developed and over the next few days the buds for the permanent teeth will begin to form behind the milk teeth.
*If baby is female the uterus starts to develop. If you're having a girl, the vagina, uterus, and fallopian tubes are in place.
*If it's a boy, the genitals are distinct and recognizable.
*Your baby is swallowing amniotic fluid and his or her kidneys are making urine.
*Your little one's size is around 6.02 inches (15.3cm) and 8.47 ounces (240gm).

New Poll:)

Over on the Left of the page I added a Poll. "What is the sex of Baby Whitten"!! Obviously there are only two possible answers:P I can say that we are pretty much hoping for a boy and as you can tell, have a horrible habit of referring to the baby as a "he"! But I am pretty much convinced that I'm carrying a little baby girl! I did a chinese gender predictor the other night and it says girl but I've done a few other wives tale predictors with my boss and they all came back boy... soooo it really is a mystery!! But the poll is set to end at midnight on the 17th of this month! I'm having the 3D-4D u/s done on the 18th so it will be neat to see just which team was right...Team Blue or Team Pink! So please vote... I think you can vote more than once, but let's all play fair please:):)