24 Weeks

We had another appointment this morning. It started off with an ultrasound. The objective was to take measurements to ensure that the baby is growing normally. Everything is looking good. Measurements were all normal and the head is a little wider than normal but that may be due to the shape of the head. The baby weighs about 1 pound 10 ounces. It is in the 63rd percentile and is measuring at 24 weeks and 5 days (about 4 days ahead of the estimated due date of May 23).

The technician worked hard to get us some good pictures. The ones I have posted are the best we could get since Vegas Baby was not cooperating very well.

This one is of a leg (you can see the picture is marked with the thigh, knee, and foot).

And this is of the bottom of the feet (the baby has its legs crossed at the ankle).

This was a 3D ultrasound so it would have been really neat to have a picture of the face but the baby was being very shy. Its head was face down and would not budge. Of course 10 minutes after we left the room the little thing was moving all over the place and has been all day since. I have been feeling a LOT of movement all over lately.

After the ultrasound we had an appointment with the doctor. Nothing really new there. I have gained a lot more weight than 1 pound 10 ounces but the weight gain is on track for the amount I am targeted to gain - about 30 pounds by the end of the pregnancy. The doctor also asked us to start getting ready for the delivery - taking birthing classes, getting registered at the hospital, and deciding what type of delivery we want.

Less than 4 months to go and we have a lot to do! Brett and I have each purchased one item for the baby. I went to Lincoln last weekend with some of my family and picked up a little Nebraska hat for our Husker baby ;) Brett was skiing in Steamboat Springs and bought a tee shirt. It was really cute... although the smallest size they had was a 2T so the baby will be a toddler by the time we can get some use out of it. Needless to say, we have a long way to go. One of the next few weekends I am determined to get some furniture purchased so we can at least get started on the baby's room.

20 Week Appointments - Halfway There!

I had two more doctor appointments this week. Monday with with the perinatologist and Tuesday was with my obstetrician. Both went really well.

The perinatologist did another ultrasound and the baby is getting bigger... yay!

Here is a profile of the face.

And this is a pretty good shot of his or her hand which is pretty cool to see.

The baby was moving around quite a bit (as usual - at every ultrasound we hear that we have a very active baby). The crazy thing is that I couldn't even feel it. I can't imagine what that kiddo looks like moving around when I can feel it! Anyway, the doctor was very pleased with how everything looked - normal. It is still breech but the baby is growing at an appropriate rate which was the main reason we were having to see a specialist. So now unless something else comes up I don't have to go back to her anymore. Let's hope that is the case for the sake of the baby.

On Tuesday I had an appointment with my regular doctor. Nothing new there. She told me that the max I can work is 50 hours per week - darn! ;) We will also be doing ultrasounds once a month throughout the rest of the pregnancy. Starting in March I will be in to see her every two weeks.

I am getting more and more anxious to start doing more baby things. We haven't bought anything yet and are trying to hold off for a while. It has been fun to get a few gifts from family members and that makes it a little easier to wait. I've also been online window shopping if that makes any sense. We did have to start shopping for maternity clothes which was painful - I hate shopping, and finding cute maternity clothes that I can wear to work has been a pain. My belly is growing and Brett is definitely not used to that - he makes comments daily and says things like "you really are pregnant." Not sure why it has taken him this long to figure that out...

And the most exciting thing for us this week is that we found out some close friends of ours, Paul and Amie, are expecting at the beginning of August! I think that makes Brett feel better... he isn't the only one whose "life is over." :) And it will be nice (and fun) to have friends with a kid the same age as ours. Too bad they don't live in KC!

Happy New Year!

We are hoping for a very happy 2010... so far so good. We had our annual new years party last night and it was a great time. It was definitely the latest I have stayed up in quite a while! A lot of our friends found out our "big news" last night and Brett has been calling a few other friends today. He seems to be getting more and more into it the more people we tell... I think he feeds off of everyone else's excitement (and forgets all the stressful parts for a minute). The baby has also been kicking so much that he has been able to feel it a few times.

We have an appointment with the perinatologist on Monday to check for growth restriction. Will update more then.

Happy 2010!

Christmas

Well, Christmas is officially over and we definitely can't complain. We have been blessed this year with a new little guy or girl to look forward to in May! Here is a recap of what we have been up to the last few days...

Brett and I headed to Wichita on the 23rd to spend Christmas with his family. On the way there, we decided that instead of waiting until Christmas day to share our news, we would probably have an opportunity to do so that night. We needed Brett's parents and grandparents to open their gifts at the same time in order for it to work. As it turned out, Grandpa Sonny was bowling that night and got home after Brett's dad had already gone to bed (he had to work the next morning).

On Christmas Eve, we traveled to Great Bend to have lunch and spend time with the Brack side of the family. We had to keep our secret for the day since Brett's parents did not know yet. We gave Brett's grandparents a gift box (with their great-grandparent mugs) and told them they had to open it after we left since it was the same thing Brett's parents would be getting. I had left a note explaining that we wanted to tell them in person that we were expecting but we had not told Charlie and Tammy (Brett's parents) yet. Brett and I were alone on the way back to Wichita so he gave his grandma a call... from the sounds of it, they were very excited!

That night, we thought maybe we could get the word out but Grandma and Grandpa Weber had their lights out by 8:00... so we ended up waiting until Christmas morning just as planned. We went over to the farmhouse and handed out gift boxes to Brett's parents and grandparents. I told them they might be mixed up since they were wrapped identically.

(Here is an example of what the Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle, and Aunt mugs looked like.)

When Tammy opened their box, she noticed that it said "Grandma" and immediately switched boxes with Grandma Joyce. When that mug said "Great Grandmother" she caught on right away. Our plot had worked just as planned!

Enter the password "brett" to see the video embedded in the blog.


Needless to say, we had a great Christmas and will hopefully have an even better one next year when little Austyn or Kyler is with us!

Telling Cindy's Family

Well, it is Christmas time. And that means it is time to start telling people that we are going to have a baby by the end of May.

Prior to this past weekend, the people who knew we were expecting were my parents, Brett's brother Ryan and his wife Jessica, my co-workers, our friends Andy and Sarah, and five of my best girlfriends from college. We started off the weekend by telling some friends from college, Lynch and Sadler, on Friday night. I think they were pretty shocked and equally excited.

Then on Saturday it was time to break the news to the Olberdings. I had come up with a plan on how I would be breaking the news to our families. I ordered mugs that said things like "Great Grandma" to give as Christmas gifts.

So that is what I gave my mom's mom. It took her a little while to figure out what I was trying to tell her... at first she thought I messed up and got the wrong mug.

Enter the password "brett" to see the video embedded in the blog.


But when the family started putting the puzzle together, it stirred up a lot of excitement. My aunts couldn't believe it... they had all been well aware with my fertility problems so there were tears in many eyes. Poor Traci missed the excitement. She went up to get some beverages and have a bowl of soup when our 8 year old cousin told her what was going on. Don't worry, we have the whole thing on video. My aunt Sherry and by brother were shocked that my parents kept the secret for so long - it was over 2 months!

On Sunday we went and told my dad's parents in the same way. They didn't catch on either. Although to their defense, they were already great grandparents so it wasn't quite as obvious. When I told them there would be 4 great-grandkids by June, they thought my cousin was expecting twins (she has two kids and one on the way this June). We can't be at that Christmas because we need to go see Brett's family so I emailed other members of the family to get the word out.

We are glad that everyone is as excited as we are and can't wait to meet little Kyler or Austyn. Oh, and we are not finding out the gender of the baby for those of you who have been asking.

We will be telling Brett's family on Christmas day and I will post on that later. Merry Christmas!

The Name Game

We have finally decided on a boy and girl name! Middle names? Don't push it. :) We are not shy about sharing the names. I know a lot of people don't like to disclose. So if you don't like them, get used to them before May!!!

Austyn is still the girl name. That one was easy to agree on quickly. I had liked some other names that Brett was just not into (like Julia or Ava). He didn't really have any suggestions after we discussed Austyn. This was a good choice for us for a couple of reasons. First, we both have cousins with the same name (both boys). One is spelled Austin and the other is Austen. We chose Austyn so that it is a little more feminine and different than each. Second, we love the city and have many great and fun memories from visiting. Thanks for moving there Mark, Becky, and Chris!

It took us a long time to agree on a boy name. We had come up with a few that we agreed on... Gavin, Damon, and Devin. But none were really "the name." Brett liked Jacoby which I hated. And I liked Carter and Kyler which Brett wasn't a huge fan of. After discussing the names with some old college friends, we finally decided that Kyler was it. Thanks Uncle Sadler! ;)

So now little Austyn or Kyler needs a middle name, which won't be nearly as stressful. We though about using Gavin as a middle name for a boy, but that gives us KGB as initials. Guess we'll have to keep thinking...

Maternity Leave & Funny Story

I met with my HR guy at work on Friday. And I get 12 weeks of maternity leave. Woo hoo!!

I had to share this story because I thought it was hilarious.. Brett went to a concert this past Friday with some friends of ours. Afterward, he decided to go to a Christmas sweater party. As it turns out, he had quite a bit to drink. So while they were at this party, he was relieving himself and Andy was waiting outside to use the restroom. Brett told him to come in and that's when he told Andy that I was pregnant! Of course Andy asked, "why are you telling me this now, here?" Anyway, the whole thing cracked me up so I thought it would be a fun story to share with the whole world. Sorry B!

In other news, I am getting pretty excited about telling everyone at Christmas. I have started packaging the gifts. That will be a story for a future post though.

16 Weeks

Nothing too eventful has taken place since the last post but I will update with what has occurred. We have told some more people and I have had a couple more appointments.

First, we went to Florida over Thanksgiving to visit Brett's brother and sister-in-law and told them that they were going to have a niece or nephew while we were there visiting. We spent Thanksgiving and that Friday and Saturday at Disney World before going to their home in Jacksonville for our Thanksgiving meal and some QT with them. It was a lot of fun and nice to see them. Brett seemed a little more relaxed about the baby after telling and talking with his brother.

When we got back, I went to the doctor to check up on everything since I had been bleeding just a tiny bit. They checked the heartbeat and it was completely normal so they said it was nothing to worry about. That was a big relief. I would guess it was just a result of all the extra walking I did at Disney. At work, I finally told my boss. It went really well and I am meeting with our HR guy this week to go over the policies, etc.

As if I hadn't already done enough traveling, we road tripped to Dallas for the Big XII championship game with some of my family. It was a lot of fun and a great game even if the result was not ideal for us Nebraska fans. The good news is that I was able to keep my secret from my mom's sisters (even though I had to do some innocent lying). The scary news was that when we got home, I was bleeding a little more than before.

I had a doctor appointment today (we got back last night) and told my doctor about my newest scare. She checked the heartbeat which was perfect but decided to do an ultrasound to make sure everything was looking okay... and it looked just fine. Phew! She said I should be able to go home for Christmas as long as everything still looked okay in two weeks when she checks me again. Oh, and I passed my diabetes test so it will be a very merry Christmas!

Perinatologist Appointment - 14 Weeks

Today we had our first appointment with the perinatologist - a specialist. We first met briefly with a genetic counselor who addressed the HLA-B27 gene. This gene can cause a few rare diseases which my mom and some of her siblings have. A med student sat in on our discussion. Basically, there is nothing that needs to be done at this time. It is just something that is good to know about in case the baby or I ever have symptoms of the diseases caused by the gene.

The main reason we were there was to meet with the perinatologist for any issues with the baby such as growth restriction or preterm labor and what we could/should be doing between now and delivery to help. The baby is sitting pretty much right in the middle of my stomach and no longer to the right. B and I thought it looked pretty crowded in there from the ultrasound. The measurements were all fine so the baby is growing at a normal rate which is excellent. There were two pieces of information that are not exactly good although they are not a big deal right now. First, the baby is breech (head up, rump down). This is bad because although most babies can turn to be head-first, ours probably won't have enough room to do so. Second, the placenta (I know, gross) is not in the ideal place. They are just going to keep an eye on it for now. It may be fine.

Nothing new has really changed. I think I am starting to show a little. I can't suck it in anymore so I guess I can officially blame my tummy on the baby. I also have to pee a lot more often and have to get up during the night to go.

I told two more co-workers last week. They are good friends that I thought should know before the rest of the office. I am planning to tell my boss next week which I'm sure will go fine but I am not necessarily looking forward to it.

12 Week Ultrasound

We had our 12 week ultrasound today. This one was to test for any genetic disorders, etc. Things like spina bifida and chromosome abnormalities I believe is what we tested for. We decided to go through with these tests since my insurance covers them and so that we would be aware if there was any type of problem.

I didn't know but the ultrasound was a 3D one. You can sort of see the face shape. I posted a picture. It is a little dark since I couldn't use the flash or there would be a reflection. The technician commented on how active the little thing was. She said I would probably be feeling a lot of movement after the next few weeks. She was having trouble getting the pictures she needed because of all the moving around Vegas Baby was doing and had to tap on my stomach to get him/her to get into a good position for a picture.

We also got a goodie bag at the doctor's office today. It had a bag with bottles and formula which was a big wake-up call. Although a little early - it expires about 2 weeks after the baby is due. We also got a run down of what we need to do to get registered with the hospital. It seems like such a long ways off but I'm sure it will fly by.

My next appointment is with the perinatologist on the 23rd. I'm not sure what they will do, I am guessing a physical exam. Ultrasounds are so much more fun!