20 Weeks

I am half way through this pregnancy!!

Robbie was able to attend the last prenatal appointment and hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time. We were able to sneak a peak at our baby using the ultrasound machine to try to see if we could tell the sex of the baby. It was still pretty early, but if they had to guess, they said it was a girl. I think that's so exciting! I always thought I wanted a boy baby first, but I have a feeling this one is going to be a girl.

Our next appointment is next week and it is supposed to be one of the milestone appointments. We're going to have an ultrasound on one of the good machines, and hopefully they will be able to pinpoint the sex of the baby. I hope it cooperates!

I browsed Babies R Us today and I felt pretty intimidated by how much everything costs! I hope our baby doesn't end up sleeping on the floor. Bassinets apparently don't last very long, and you probably have to end up buying a crib anyway. I suppose I'll just have to keep looking. I think I'm about to get to the busy part of the pregnancy. I am going to have to rearrange my flute lessons to try to take a prenatal class. I also want to take a breastfeeding class.

The closer I get to the end of the pregnancy, the more I wish that I could just stay home and have the baby. I also wish that I could use a birth pool. I've done research on them, not much, but I really think that being in water like that will help me out. I'm going to ask about whether or not we can bring our own to the hospital, but it seems like it will be kind of a hassle to have to put it together there. Hopefully I'll at least have a shower in my room.

I finally bought a blender and made a strawberry milkshake smoothie thing. It was a disaster even though it tasted good. The baby LOVED it! :0) I've never felt it move so much!

15 Weeks 4 Days

We finally announced to the world we are having a baby, and it was so fun! On the drive home, Robbie and I were tossing around baby names again and decided that if it's a boy, we'll name him Jackson Hayward Keen. It seemed to fit so well! I think we've decided that we'll name our baby Lillian if it's a girl and call her Lily. We are having a difficult time deciding on the middle name. Several people have suggested Lillian Nicole, and I feel a little weird about that. Is it okay if my kid has the same middle name as I do? I really does sound good though.

My next appointment is December 22nd, and Robbie is finally going to be able to go! I am excited to see how he is going to react to hearing our baby's heartbeat. His face was priceless when he thought he felt the baby kicking, and I was so sad to disappoint him by telling him it was just gas. I have thought I have felt the tiniest little poke in there a few days ago, but it is still really too early for a first-timer like me to know what I'm feeling. Sometimes I feel as if something is rolling around in there, but again, it's difficult for me to know whether or not it might just be normal tummy rumblings.

I finally brought up the subject of cloth diapers, and as expected, it didn't go over very well. But we settled on an agreement better than I thought we would. I think we're going to start with disposables when the baby is really tiny, and slowly transition to cloth. We'll try cloth for awhile and see how it works. I promised I would do a rinse with just water and bleach after every diaper wash. That works for me! If that helps with his mental comfort enough that I can try cloth diapers, then I'll do it!

That was pretty much the only parenting choice that we didn't agree on. I don't think Robbie is totally on board with it, but he's not flat out against it. I am thankful for his willingness to try. I can't wait to see him holding our little baby and teaching it about the world! He's going to be the cutest daddy I've ever seen!

P.S. March 4, 2010

I finally found my camera again after we moved, so I would like to share a few pictures. My Master's recital ended up being a big baby announcement, and my friend Antonia helped to make a cute reception as a big clue. She had baby carrots, little bite sized cookies, little bottles of water, slim jims, among other tiny foods. She also made these little signs that said, "These are Slim Jim's; they're like BABY sausages. These are little bottles of water, like BABY bottles of water." She had them set up all over the table. It was cute.

12 Weeks 1 Day

I only thought I knew the meaning of being full before I got pregnant. In 5 months from now I'll probably be saying the same thing about how I'm feeling right this minute!!!!

I think I'm starting to show just a little bit, but if someone doesn't know I'm pregnant, they'll probably think I had an overly large lunch!!!

12 Weeks

Today I have reached the 12 week marker, and I am very excited! This is supposed to be the week that the threat of miscarriage goes down significantly. We also have one week left until we let Robbie's family know about Baby Keen! I can't wait. They just think my recital is the celebration-no-it's a BABY!

My recital IS a celebration, and I can't wait until it gets here. I'm ready to be done with the stress of preparing for a recital. I can't wait until all I have to do is sit around crocheting baby blankets, and thinking about baby things. Well, I'll have to teach lessons and continue to perform, and all that, but it will be FUN. No pressure. It's funny how thinking, "I'm doing this for the baby," motivates me to get through this. I'm finishing school as quickly as I can for the baby. I started exercising LAST YEAR for the baby. I've tried eating better for a long time for the baby. Everything is for the baby. :o)

I really think we're going to call the baby Rebecca if it's a girl because anytime we talk about it, Robbie likes to call the baby Rebecca. He just KNOWS it's a girl. I still don't KNOW. I'm waiting for a confirmation in a few weeks.

I'm still having first trimester symptoms, but I have good days in there sometimes. I'll have energy one day and not the next, and I'll have an appetite one day and not the next. Hopefully all that will clear up soon. I can't wait to eat real food again! Thanksgiving is in a week. I BETTER be back to normal by then! Green bean casserole, here WE come!!!

10 Weeks 2 Days

Here are pictures of our little gummy bear baby. We are so excited to be having this baby, and this was one of the neatest experiences of my life. I was so surprised to see it moving and wiggling already and I enjoyed being able to see a picture of the baby. It looks pretty clear for an ultrasound. I'm going to enjoy this for awhile because I won't have another opportunity to see the baby like this for many weeks. At that time we'll hopefully find out the gender of the baby! We decided to just go ahead and find out so that we know how to plan. Robbie hopes that it's a girl, and he really thinks that's what it will be. I also have a feeling it's going to be a girl, but my feelings about this are not as strong as Robbie's. I only want a healthy baby at this point.

We're trying to decide on baby names, and we've only talked about girl names so far. We've come up with Emily and Rebecca for first names, but we still have not decided. We thought it might be cute to name her Rebecca L. Keen so she would have the same initials as Robbie. We haven't decided what the "L" would stand for yet. We've tossed around Leigh and Leanne or some variation of that name. It's funny how we haven't even thought about boy names.

I'm going back and forth on my appetite at this point. I lost 1/2 a pound from my first visit to the second, so I am trying to eat a little more. Some days I feel great, but some days I don't. Today is an example of a day where I don't feel great, while yesterday I felt great! I still need to go to the bathroom a lot, especially at night. It leaves me feeling very tired every day even though I'm getting 7-9 hours of sleep every night. There's nothing like pregnancy to make sure I'm getting to bed on time!!! I haven't gotten this much sleep in years.

I passed my pre-recital jury yesterday, so I am definitely giving my recital on November 22nd. After that my friend Antonia is going to announce to the world that I'm pregnant. :-) A few days later we're going home for Thanksgiving and we'll tell Robbie's family. I'm so excited, and I can't wait!

I'm pregnant!!!!

For awhile I've kept a pregnancy blog so I would have somewhere to write what was going on with me until we were ready to announce the pregnancy. In the next few days I am going to switch over the entries from the other blog to this one so I only have one blog to manage.


9 Weeks 2 Days

Today I decided that I couldn't stand it anymore and I had to tell all about what is going on with me right now.

I'm pregnant!!!!!!!

However, I am keeping this blog private until I can announce to the world that Robbie and I are having a baby. We are waiting until the end of the first trimester when the risk of miscarriage goes down. We have already told a few people such as my parents, a few of my friends at school, and a few of his close friends. His family doesn't know at all, and it will be the most fun seeing how his mom reacts to the news!

I found out that I was pregnant on September 24th after responding to Robbie teasing me about being pregnant. For some reason he had been teasing me that he thought I was pregnant for days before that, and to finally prove him wrong, I took a test. Well....it turned out to be positive! I felt like such a little baby all of a sudden. How could I have a baby when I AM a baby?

I had a new patient orientation at St. Luke's on September 30, where I got to hear from one of the midwives. I am hoping to have a natural delivery, so I am seeing the midwives at the moment. I am scared to death of an epidural, but I'm also a big baby when it comes to pain. I am determined to do this at this point.

The very next day some scary things started happening to me. I think I might be one of those women that spot and bleed a little during pregnancy. I'm sure that's more than anyone wanted to know, but hey, these things happen. Since then, I have been spotting a little after certain activities, or any unusually hard day. It generally goes away quickly...so far....but I am still very worried that I may miscarry.

Except Wednesday of this week....was one of the best days I've ever had in my entire life. I had another ultrasound done and I saw our little gummy bear shaped baby move and wiggle!!! I could have cried, but instead I just giggled and cooed the whole time. The little heart rate was 171 bpm. That's so fast! I don't know if it's a GOOD heart rate at this point, but when I went in to see the midwife, she did not even perform a pelvic exam. She told me that I had a cute baby! The pics really turned out well-I think it's a little ham! They said it was, "so cute" and "so fat." We chatted for awhile and she explained some reasons that women bleed sometimes, which I hope are MY reasons. She felt my belly for tenderness, there wasn't any, and that was it. I smiled for the rest of the day.

Until last night when I bled a little again. Ugh...I think this is the story of my pregnancy so far. Robbie keeps telling me it's normal-at least normal for me.

But every time I think of that little wiggling baby I saw on the screen on Wednesday I get teary-eyed and smile!!!! I can't wait until Thanksgiving when we can announce to the world WE'RE HAVING A BABY!!!!!!!!

I'm not the only one

Saturday Robbie decided he wanted to take me out on the town to eat at Chili's and to see Avatar in 3D. We really had a great time together and it seemed like it had been awhile since our last date. After the movie, we went to Target to pick up a few household necessities. Every time we pass the baby aisles I HAVE to go in and look. Well, this time, as I was looking at baby clothes I turned around to catch Robbie putting some onesies in our basket! They said "Daddy's little girl" and "Cute cute cute!" all over them. Ha! I'm not the only one who can't resist. He says that she must wear the "Daddy's little girl" onesie on her way home from the hospital. I'm so happy he's so excited about our baby.