our first appointment

Immediately the day after finding out that I was expecting I called my ob/gyn to set up an appointment. I have been seeing her for my last couple of check-ups and have been more than happy with her. The soonest they could get me in was April 5th at 8 am. And so the waiting began...

I was pretty sure those 5 1/2 weeks would never come to an end, but some how they did and finally it was the day. It worked out perfectly with Nate's work schedule and he was able to come along.

We answered about a million questions about our health history, and listened to all the information the nurse had for us. We discussed my due date. According to a normal cycle I would be due October 26th, but since I average a little longer cycle we agreed on the November 1st due date. We will know more once we have our first ultrasound.

Then finally after about 90 minutes the doctor joined us to answer any questions we had. We had some concerns about having the baby in the hospital, and about what is and isn't allowed during and after labor. For now, we are both comfortable with our doctor and are planning to move forward with this option. We may look into having a midwife present to help communicate our birth plan (although I know these don't always go according to plan). I was excited for Nate to meet our doctor and see what he thought of her, and thankfully he liked her as well. I think she will be a great personality fit for us.

Then the time came for us to hear the heartbeat. She told us that we would probably hear two heartbeats, one mine and the other the baby's. As soon as she placed the doppler on my belly we could hear one really strong heartbeat. She remarked about how you couldn't even hear mine and that our baby definitely was not shy. We could hear as the baby moved in and further out from the surface. We have active little person on our hands. A perfect little heartbeat of 172. She let us just listen in silence for a couple minutes.

Now we are counting down the days until we get to hear again in mid May.

A day or so after the appointment, as I was thinking about hearing our baby's heart beat, I turned to Nate and said, "isn't it weird that there are two hearts beating inside of me?" He agreed, but what's even more fun is to think about how one of those heartbeats is what keep the other one beating. :)

a positive sign

The cat is out of the bag. Nate and I are going to be parents, and Cooper is set to be a big brother. I am in my twelfth week and Baby Lueth is due around November 1st. We are super excited (and I'm slightly nervous) about adding to our family.

We found out on February 26th. I thought for sure I was about to start my monthly cycle, but when I woke up at 5:30 am and had to pee I thought why not take a test and see. Sure enough it turned positive almost immediately. I was torn between pulling my pants up and running as fast as I could into the bedroom to tell Nate. He says he thought something was wrong as I was shouting "Nate! Nate! We are going to be parents!". I wish I could have told him in some really sweet and thoughtful way, but there was no way I could keep that secret all to myself.

The past 12 weeks have been...something else. Nate told me he feels like a single guy again. He cooks and he cleans while I sleep and throw-up. When we first found out I wished and hoped I wouldn't get morning sickness, but unfortunately that has not been the case. It has been pretty constant morning, afternoon, and night sickness. Taking the bus to work is the worst! There were a few really bad days there were I told Nate I don't know how any woman does this more than once. I am sure I will understand once our little bundle is here and in my arms. The past couple of days have been a little better, so there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I hope I am not jinxing myself.

A little side note. We had something with buffalo sauce in it one night towards the beginning of my pregnancy, and I haven't been able to think about it since with out getting sick (even as I type). Well, Nate continued to use the sauce on other things he was eating and I kept telling him how sick it made me. Finally, I hid the bottled. I shoved in the back of the other condiments, and I was much happier for not having to see it whenever I opened the fridge. Well, last night I sat down with my husband to eat grilled chicken and what do you know? Nate has covered his chicken with that darn buffalo sauce that I apparently didn't hide well enough. I begged him to quit using it, and this morning he was so kind as to throw it out. :)

I am hoping to keep updating the blog with these stories frequently so I can remember all of the little things. I will come back soon and share how we told our family, our first appointment, and most importantly how Coop is taking it all.


Sorry there are no pictures this time!

Steve's 30th Birthday Party

I am soooo behind at getting things posted. My apologies!

Here are some more pictures from my brother's 30th birthday weekend. After we met up and ate, we headed to the pool and then hung out in the room.

The kids really liked surprising their dad with some silly string. Meagen declared that we should do it at every birthday.

We had a really great time with our family. This weekend we are headed home for Easter, and we are super excited. We haven't been home since Christmas. I cannot believe it has been that long. We are really excited to see our family. I hope to be back a lot sooner this time.