Beats of Joy

At 23 weeks, we can now hear Baby Girl's heartbeat with our at-home monitor!

We love this little device. We've been putting the headphones on and hopefully pressing it to my belly since about week 12, and so far we haven't been able to hear anything besides some unpleasant stomach noises.

Two nights ago, that all changed. She was moving around a ton, so I was able to direct Casey to her location, and by a huge stroke of luck, he found her little heartbeat! It was so cool! It's neat to have that one additional sign that she is there and doing well.

Don't know what you have till it's gone

22 Weeks!

I love being pregnant! I even love my ever-expanding belly, and the many different challenges it presents. Baby Girl moves all the time now, which is absolutely amazing and awesome. So much so that I was even able to see it from the outside for the first time last night! I was laying in bed reading, and all of a sudden my belly was jumping all around, like popcorn was popping inside! My students continue to notice the difference in my growing size, too. One of the boys was absent and hadn't seen me in a few days, and his first observation today was, "Mrs. Strassner, I think you've gotten bigger since the last time I saw you!" I'd be offended, except I'm sure it's true!!

We had a doctor's appointment last week, and I am pleased to say that everything is still going wonderfully. She was very active during the appointment, so I was able to show the doctor exactly where to put the little heart monitor device. We found her heartbeat right away (very unusual for Baby, just like for her mommy), and it was strong and steady... except for the fact that she had the hiccups, which made everything a little uneven!


On a more sour note, Casey has not been feeling very well for the past few days, and having him down for the count has made me again appreciate how lucky I am to have such a wonderful, supportive husband. He is truly amazing, and I am extremely grateful to have him. He helps out with so many things, including making me breakfast in the morning and packing my lunch. I know that doesn't sound like such a big deal, but it makes an incredible difference when my energy is low. Beyond that, though, it's just so nice to know that he is there for me and involved - in ways that he can be - with our daughter.

I have been thinking about that a lot recently. Certainly, I could do this on my own if I had to. But having my best friend AND my partner around to help makes my life not only easier, but that much more blessed. He is always there for me, taking care of me and doing whatever he can to lighten my load so that I can focus my energy on the baby and all that making her requires. We may have a lot to learn about being parents, but in my heart I know that Casey is already a great daddy! We are extremely lucky to have such a strong, stable and loving marriage to bring our little one into.

Get well soon, Daddy! We need your help!! :)

Getting ahead of myself

...as per the usual! Somehow I never, ever seem to be able to wait the appropriate amount of time when I am excited.

So what if I bought Baby Girl's bedding set? She'll get here eventually! Actually, I found it online several months ago at Babies-R-Us, and knew it was the right one. Casey and I have been looking ever since, but haven't been able to find one that's quite as cute or right. I looked again last weekend and we couldn't find it; it had been discontinued! Fortunately, through the wonders of the internet, I was able to find it at an outlet store. Not wanting it to slip away again, I bought it.

I was so excited when the set got here! It is absolutely adorable!!! I like it because we knew we wanted something a little bit neutral so that we can reuse it with another baby, but it still seems feminine and soft enough to pass in a little girl's room. I wanted to take it out of its packaging right away and snuggle with it... fortunately Casey is a little more practical than I am. With 4 months left to go, that might not be the best idea ever.

In addition, we did a little bit of shopping for our little pumpkin. Nothing elaborate, but I couldn't resist a few purchases.

First pink clothing! From Auntie Jessica and Uncle Andrew. CUUUUUTE!!

Ducky towel... so soft and snuggly!


My personal favorite... for our spring baby

We also started our basement remodel this weekend. It's going to be quite a lot of work, but it will be totally worth it. We always knew we'd have to do this before we put the house on the market, and this way it just gives us that much more space to work with to get things ready for our impending bundle of joy.

My handy hubby taking down a really ugly light fixture.

I'd love to say it doesn't always look like this, but hence the need for remodeling. It was such a mess when we bought the place, we basically haven't done anything but store stuff.

Washing is about all I can do to actually contribute to getting it all finished. I'm good at helping with the design elements - not so much the execution! Thank goodness for Casey!

We're supposed to be focusing on the basement remodel so that we can clear what is now the office out of one of our spare bedrooms. Then, after Christmas we'll start putting the nursery together - or at least, that's the plan. It is extremely hard to wait! I have so much fun hanging the few things we've purchased for our little pumpkin in what will be her closet, and envisioning how it will all come together...

And, I'm dying for a rocking chair!!!

Spooky

Happy Halloween!

We love Halloween at our house. We have fabulous fall traditions...

Halloween 2008 - our graveyard this year was burried under a foot and a half of snow!

...none of which we actually got to put into play this year. That's okay; this year was extremely, abnormally busy! There was an entire array of big, life-changing events that took place during the month of October this year in our circle of friends, not to mention for us personally.

But we did keep up our wonderful Halloween night tradition: I made Broccoli Cheese Soup and baked awesome bread, we watch a scary movie (the new Halloween - pretty much just as horrible/awesome as the original!) and answered the door for the little ghosts and goblins of the neighborhood. And this year was just as fun and successful as past years in the decor department; we love to listen to the "oohs" and "aaahs" from the kiddos as they approach our house. Last year, we had a few that were actually too afraid to come up to our door. This year, those same kids were delighted by the spooky decorations! It's fun to see their progression and growth - they change soooo much in a year!

I always love Halloween, and I'm usually sad when it's over. Somehow, this year I just couldn't fully get into the spirit. Between all the big events, and the fact that we didn't get to do many of our traditional activities like haunted houses, and the crazy pre-Halloween blizzard, I never quite made it to my usual "Halloweenie," as Casey calls it. It was still a ton of fun, but I spent most of the day yesterday researching baby gear and nursurey designs... not exactly the most terrifying activity ever (unless you take into account how much everything costs!).

Somehow we managed not to get any pictures on Halloween, but we did take a little video of our awesome, spooky, Haunted Halloween house. Enjoy!

Tickled Pink

And the cake says....

PINK!

IT'S A GIRL!!!

Yes, Casey and I are so excited to announce: We are having a daughter! And I absolutely can't believe it... I thought for SURE it was a boy. Evidently "motherly intuition" doesn't count for much when it comes to guessing the contents of my uterus! Either way, though, we couldn't lose.

We threw a "Haunted Halloween Sex Party," since it was the day before Halloween. It was a funny combination of sentiments: on the one hand, all of our spooky decorations were out, but sitting right in the center was this adorable yellow ducky cake!

I loved the cake. I thought it turned out great, and it was yummy to boot. And, I have to admit, I came pretty close to peeking. When they dropped off the cake, the lady from the bakery also asked if we wanted our ultrasound picture back. Casey was still at work, and by the time I mumbled "yes," I had pretty much decided that I was going to sneak a peak. Thankfully, she had re-sealed the envelope with duct tape. Had that not been the case, I would have looked for sure!!

It was incredibly nerve-wracking to have to wait to cut the cake to find out! It was an enormous test of my patience and restraint to have to wait for all of our guests to arrive before we cut it. When it actually came time to cut the cake, I almost couldn't stand the suspense! It felt like it took Casey forever to slice that first piece!!


All in all, though, I am so glad we chose to do it this way, with our family and friends around! It was so neat and special to have them there to experience that with us.

I am amazed, though, by how much knowing the gender changes the baby from my perspective. Yesterday, it was this abstract little person - even though it was a very, VERY real person whom I loved desperately - and this morning she is a concrete little thing with a whole, amazing life of possibilities ahead of her. Some possibilities have fallen by the wayside, and others have emerged. It's incredible! The baby as a little person has been very real to me from the beginning, but to know that it's a girl - to know that we can eliminate one half of the baby-names book, and one half of the store when we shop - makes it so much more real! I had no idea that I would feel that way, I was truly taken by surprise by how much it almost overwhelmed me to know that we aren't just expecting a baby... we're having a DAUGHTER!!! That was as big a moment as finding out we were pregnant to begin with!

Baby Girl: we are so excited that you are joining our family, and we can't wait to meet you!!

Snow, 20 weeks and more snow

On Wednesday, October 28, it started out like this:

By afternoon, it looked more like this:

By the time we went to bed, it looked like this, and it was still snowing:

When we woke up, roughly 24 hours after it started, this is what we saw on our deck. And it was (and is) still snowing!

I can't believe how much snow we've gotten! I haven't measured it, but I would guess it's somewhere in the range of 14-18 inches. It's kind of amazing! Needless to say, I had the day off again today, while Casey had to go to work again. I wish he could be home with me, but he is adamant that he has work that has to get done. Saaaad!

In other news, we are officially past the halfway point of our pregnancy! I can't believe it; it has gone so fast! I hope that the next 20 weeks go a little slower... I absolutely love being pregnant! Although I am so excited for all the amazing milestones we have in the coming weeks, and even though I am sure that I won't be as eager for things to slow down by the time week 38 gets here, it is just incredible to me that we are already halfway through this.

Baby also learned a new trick earlier this week: kicking Mommy in the bladder! I must admit, I'm not as fond of this particular milestone as I was when the baby first started to move. I can only imagine what it will be like as Baby gets bigger! But, I am still trying to enjoy each and every little development, because I know that it all goes so fast, and, no matter how thrilled I am with our wonderful next steps, I'll still miss it once it's gone.

Lastly, I had a rather vivid dream last night that the baby was a girl... Daddy and I are SO curious to see how this plays out!!

Some pics from Week 20:Hey, two days before Halloween, what do you expect?

It seems SO much bigger to me! I see the pics and think, that can't be right!

I'm literally twice the size I used to be! Grow, Baby, grow!

PJ's and Cocoa

Why am I sitting under a blanket in my pajamas at 7:30 on a Wednesday morning?

Maybe it has a little something to do with this...

Or this...

But most especially, this...

Yes, it is a snow day! The best days of the year!!! Unfortunately, Casey doesn't get to stay home and enjoy it with me. At least we have the Highlander this year, so when I watch him go I don't worry about him having a safe car to drive in.

I am so excited to have this time off. We were just talking about all that we still have to do in preparation for our "sex party" on Friday, so this gives me a wonderful opportunity to do some cleaning, baking and other stuff that I wouldn't have been able to get done. Hooray!