20 weeks!
Posted by Laurie Stilwell in 20 weeks!, Bringing You Baby! on May 16, 2012
20 weeks marks the official HALF WAY point!!!!! WOO HOO!!!!
This is such an exciting time because I am finally starting to feel a little movement. Nothing huge, but enough to know that little Josiah is making his presence known. The flutters are still too subtle for Michael to feel with his hand, but yet I can feel them internally without a doubt. Michael is eager to be a part of this experience.
Speaking of Michael, he celebrated Mother’s Day for me this year by getting me a Willow Tree and a sweet card “from” Josiah thanking me for taking such good care of my body for him. I have collected Willow Tree for years now and I LOVE them. How precious is this:
I registered a couple weeks ago at Buy Buy Baby!!!! What a fun, but overwhelming experience. There are so many options and items out there. I recruited the help of a “modern day mommy” that I respect and trust and she was such a help. I also had few other mommies comb through my registry to make sure I didn’t miss anything OR get too many unnecessary items.
The last couple weeks have been really easy on me thankfully. I had only one or two “hiccups” along the way. One of them being at work last week. As a personal trainer you can imagine how ACTIVE my job is. I am constantly re-racking weights, demonstrating exercises and being a cheerleader for my clients. I typically train 4 or 5 clients back to back without a break, so I am constantly ON! It is very vocally and physically demanding, but I LOVE it and have always been blessed with energy and passion for this type of work. It is because of my hands on, involved approach, that I ran into my first “hiccup” while showing a client an overhead press.
I lifted a weight above my head, and felt a little tug across the right side of my stomach. As I put the weight down it felt like someone had punched me in the stomach. I went to the bathroom to investigate and sure enough my stomach was breaking out into little blue veins on the right side. It was my body sending fresh blood to the injured area…the inflammatory response.(gosh, I love how smart our bodies are). I called my mid-wive who answered immediately(beauty of a mid-wive) and she told me that it was probably just a superficial tear. She told me what to look for in case it was something worse, but thank God, those red flags never came. I had indeed mildly pulled a stomach muscle. It healed within a day.
Ironically, it was actually a really good experience for me to have. It was the first time my pregnancy didn’t allow me to do something that I had typically been able to do without a problem a dozen times a day. It was good for me to remember that my core muscles are stretched and compromised and I must respect that. Even if my body is strong enough to complete a movement, my stomach may not allow me to do so. This is an important lesson to learn as a trainer who isn’t used to physical limitations. I am both humbled and grateful for the learning experience.
Anyway, my second “hiccup” was yesterday as I dealt with a nasty stomach bug. It is so unfair that pregnant woman get sick, because we are so limited in what medicine we can take. Ha. So I just duked it out in bed AND the bathroom all day long. Throwing up and much more unpleasant things. Thank God I am much better today…just feeling a little weak. Focusing on MAJOR hydration!
I’ll wrap this post up with a few pictures of my growing belly.
18 WEEKS
19 WEEKS
ALMOST 20 WEEKS
Baby Gender Reveal
Posted by Laurie Stilwell in Baby Gender Reveal, Bringing You Baby! on May 5, 2012
Michael and I got the ultrasound last Tuesday May 1st and WOW what an amazing experience! We went in with low expectations in regards to being able to get a clear image of the baby, but we were so wrong! Watching a live ultrasound with today’s technology is POWERFUL! We saw every little vertebrae, every nook and cranny and beautifully designed bone structure. We could tell its bladder was full, which says good things about babies developing skills, such as swallowing and its digestive system.  We zoomed in on the heart and saw the four chambers, as well as the left and right atriums and the left and right ventricles.
Baby was so ACTIVE during the ultrasound. It was literally attempting somersaults. At one point it rested on its side with its two hands under its head for support. Another moment, baby put its hands over both its ears as if we were being too loud. Swept up in love and awe of such a miracle of life, I just lied there with tears rolling my cheeks as I watched. Michael was close by taking pictures and holding my hand.
We asked the tech to keep the gender a secret for us so she wrote down the sex and secured it in an envelope. We then went to a baby store and picked out PJs for a boy and then a girl. We asked the cashier to open the envelope and find out what gender we are having so that she could only charge us for the one outfit that corresponded with the sex. We told her to put the receipt and change in the box with the outfit and wrap it up. She was excited to help us. We walked away and shopped for a bit and picked up our package on the way out. We rushed home, and sat in our family room (with Norman too of course) and opened up the present together. Both of us were thinking it was a girl, but we were secretly(Michael not so secretly) rooting for a boy! Michael and I closed our eyes and he fumbled with the packaging and on the count of 3 we opened up and saw babies first PJs:
Yup, ITS A BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Those are cute little whales on the Pjs.
I pounced on Michael and wrapped my arms around him exclaiming over and over, “You got your boy, you got your boy!!!”
We laughed together and I cried of course… I was so joyful I peed my pants a little. Whoops! Haha.
We had planned in advance to tell my family that night. There are 9 of us total and getting us all together can be quite tricky, so I was so thrilled that I didn’t have to wait a week or something to tell them all in person. Telling family in person was very important to us.
Check out the video of how we told them!!!! If you got an m&m you were right, if you got a skittle you were “sourly” wrong.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TWJsOk2x4Q
The next night was reserved for telling the Stilwell family. We went out to eat and had a great dinner together…and they guessed boy and indeed were obviously right. From there, we all headed to Buy Buy Baby where we ordered the baby furniture that we had previously picked out. The Stilwells were SO nice and helped purchase some of what we needed. Man, babies are expensive!!! Michael and I are so blessed to have the help of our generous families.
As the week progressed we told more people as we saw them. Often we told them through this, totally dumb, but insanely awesome dad joke:
“Our baby has three knees. A right knee. A left knee. And a WEENIE!”
We must have told that joke a dozen times and it never got old.
Friends and family, take a peek at our little boy JOSIAH !!!!! From this angle it looks like Josiah is lying on his back. This is a view from the side. You can see the profile of his face. The mass above his chest is a hand!
