Portrait day!

19 week portrait day!


Today I had the day off work, so I got busy doing my week 19 shots.  I have fun doing them.  It's always fun to get out my camera and practice, but it's even more of a challenge to get out and practice on yourself!  I have to set up my camera on my tripod and use my remote on 2 second delay to get situated.  It's actually quite comical to see if you were watching.  I stand in place, push the button on my remote, and then chuck it across the room so it's not in the picture.  It even makes me laugh, especially when it hits a wall or something.  It's really unnecessary for me to throw it as hard as I do sometimes.

I've been feeling the baby kicking around a lot these past few days.  It's almost to the point where I can tell when it wakes up and when it's napping.  Honestly, it is the coolest thing in the world.... if only I could get it to not kick my bladder when I'm in the middle of working on a patient and can't get up.  ;) 










Anyways, in my babycenter.com update I got this week, they said baby's sensory development is exploding, and research shows baby could hear my voice.  I had a hunch that it possibly could because after work yesterday when I was driving home, I was singing for whatever reason louder than I normally do, and that little bugger was kicking up a storm.... probably begging me to quiet down!  haha.  Then, I got home and read that in my email, and it kind of made sense.  It also said that baby is about 6 inches in length and is starting to sprout hair on its head.  I bet the hair is curly.  :)


146 days to go!!  I'm almost halfway there!

Baby's First Sonogram!

We've been waiting so long for this appointment to come, and the day is finally here!!!!!!


Meet Baby Hancher... the unknown gender child.  We decided to not find out if we're having a boy or girl!  Sometimes a surprise is nice, and I think it's safe to say that I'll greatly enjoy a big surprise like that after the whole painful labor situation I'll be in.  :)


The appointment was really fun, actually.  Besides having my bladder so full that I'm fairly certain I needed to be wearing Depends and an ultrasound tech that pushed so incredibly hard on my lower abdomen that I was 98% sure I was going to pee all over the table, everything was great.  However, since no accidents happened, I can say that things ran smoothly.  The baby's heart rate was 148 bpm, and it looked very healthy.  It's kind of funny watching the 4 chambers of the heart move so quickly.  Apparently baby weighs 9 ounces, although I wonder how on earth they determine that!  Baby stretched around a good bit after a heck of a lot of prodding, but it seems to like being curled up in my belly during mid morning hours.  Maybe I should have scheduled an afternoon appointment.  I know for a fact it  likes to start exercising then!  I can sometimes feel it kicking around and flipping from one side to the next.  This is a fairly new feeling, so it always takes me by surprise and makes me giggle.  Anyways, 10 fingers, 10 toes, eyes, ears, mouth, and nose.  It's a cute little bugger.


Just seeing it bounce around in there was the most beautiful and entertaining thing in the world!  I wanted to share the video with everyone, so enjoy!


152 days to go!

My New Used Book.

"Some of my more unfortunate girlfriends have had such extreme nausea that they would gag right in the middle of a sentence.  My poor girlfriend Maryann was so plagued by morning sickness that she would throw up spontaneously.  There would be no warning signs, like a wave of nausea or a watering of the mouth.  One moment she would be chatting normally, and the next minute it was the pea soup scene from The Exorcist.  She just sat as quietly as possible with her mouth clenched tightly to try to keep the mess to a minimum."

This book makes me laugh.  A week or so ago, one of my patients at work asked me what pregnancy books I've been reading.  I told her "What To Expect When You're Expecting," which is almost a given with how popular it is among expecting mothers these days.  She suggested I read "The Girlfriends' Guide To Pregnancy" because it was her absolute favorite, and it didn't contain only medical advice or questions like all the others.  Being somewhat of a hypochondriac anyways, I thought maybe I should read a book that didn't put horrible ideas/symptoms into my head to save the little sanity I have left!  I decided to take her advice because she seems to have a personality like my own.  Out of curiosity, I stopped at Half Price Books only to find a good, solid copy for $1! I started reading it and was laughing hysterically at some of the stuff in there while I was outside the other day.  My voice was echoing all over the neighborhood.  The author basically tells it exactly how it is, and always has funny comparisons or stories to go with every subject.  It's seriously great!  I would recommend it to any mother-to-be, especially if she has a quirky sense of humor like my own.

In other more recent news, I'm finally being able to tell the difference between the baby moving and... well, I don't know what else I thought it was before.  Digestion doesn't feel like someone bouncing around inside you... at least not normal digestion!  I feel flutters occasionally, but I've mostly felt teeny tiny kicks when my bladder is super full.  I think the baby is giving mama upper cuts and jabs to get her out of bed cause it's being squished by what feels like an overactive bladder.  ;)  It's really fun to feel that, though.  As much as I yell down to it in my most ferocious baby voice, "Stop hurtin' your mama, Tiny!", I secretly want it to keep kicking around more and more all day long just so I know it's having fun in there.

I really, REALLY love this little baby.  

(5 ounces, 5 inches long now... 161 more days to go!)

Our newest, best news yet!

Surprise!!!!!!!  We're having a baby... my baby and me!  :)

Dana and I are ridiculously excited to be new parents at the end of March.  We can't wait for our little spring chicken to get here.


So far, the pregnancy has been great.  I was pretty nauseated from week 5 to 8, but with the help of Werther's Originals and ginger snaps, I kept it under control.  Now I feel fantastic!  I have energy again, I have control of my cravings (for the most part... hehe), and I'm back to exercising, which feels wonderful to my changing body.


I must say, this week has been pretty eventful.  I changed doctor's because of my new insurance, and so far I really like them.  I was weighed again, and they told me my body is changing at a steady, healthy rate, and I "look great for being 16 weeks."  :)  (I was happy to hear that!)  More importantly, though, this is the first week that I heard baby's heartbeat.  It was amazing.  There was nothing more beautiful to me than hearing "whoosh, whoosh, whoosh..." coming from the doppler.  I wanted to record it and listen to it over and over again on my ipod.  I can't wait to hear it at my first ultrasound appointment in a couple weeks!!!


So, "Tiny" as we've nicknamed the unknown gender baby, is doing very well.  It's healthy and growing bigger and bigger every week.  (4 1/2 inches long I do believe.)  That's all for now.  Just wanted to let everyone know our exciting news!!!!!!!!!!!!