21 Weeks And Counting!

That's right...21 weeks and heading down the other side! We are officially past our halfway mark of the pregnancy!! We started the morning with a big pancake breakfast...considering I don't even like pancakes pre-pregnancy, you can see that baby gets what baby wants! To help us celebrate our 21 week mark, the Cowboys beat the St Louis Rams and much to my husband's delight (see facial expression in picture #1) the Cowboys are 4-0 now! We are definitely shooting for a Super Bowl baby with the Cowboys playing on the flat screen in the labor & delivery room. hahaha At our last doctor's appt, Dr. Spoon informed us that she is measuring about a week early, putting our due date right on Super Bowl Sunday...February 3, 2008! He then proceeded to inform us that he, as well, is a Cowboys fan!! Who would have known...now it looks like I might have two fans in the delivery room with me asking the nurses to check the score!
I have been feeling great lately and last night Matt was able to feel her kicks. We were watching Knocked Up...funniest movie ever to watch while you are pregnant...and she just started kicking away...hard! I grabbed Matt's hand and put it on the area just to the right of my belly button and this time she kept kicking. Usually she immediately stops the minute he presses his hand to my belly, I thinks she is already teasing him when she does that :)
I also visited my girlfriend Alison, who is due in 4 weeks, and got to see all of her baby shower gifts. She is also having a little girl, Rylee, and oh my goodness the clothes that child already has!! Her nursery is adorable and they delivered the crib and changing table/dresser while I was there.
I am now so anxious to get our nursery done too!! Matt and I have already purchased the crib bedding, but for now we'll have to keep it with our ever growing collection of baby goodies we've acquired from our our wonderful friends and family. We have adorable shoes, clothing, books and even a funny binkie that says "Mute Button" Thanks to Uncle Jeff she already has three gift bags from Christian Dior. I don't even have anything from Christian Dior!!
This little girl is spoiled already :)
Our little girl is approximately ten and a half inches long now, I can certainly tell with the amount of movement I suddenly feel! She is on a pretty routine schedule daily. I feel a lot of movement usually in my lower abdomen around 3:00pm in the afternoon, then she gets going around 10:30pm at night and again at 3:30am in the morning. She kicked so hard the other night it actually woke me up out of a deep dream. Her weight is around three quarters of a pound and all of her reproductive organs are complete by this week.
The bigger she gets, the more I'm dreaming about what she will look like! I ask Matt a million questions each night as to what he thinks she will look like, and what he thinks her hairdo will be like when she is born.
As I'm typing this, she is a bit ahead of schedule today and is steadily kicking away.
That's her way of saying "Hey Y'all"!!
Love to you all!!

Bellylicious...20 Weeks And Counting!!

5 months.....and it's our halfway mark!! Matt and I definitely had a reality check the other day when we realized that we are halfway through our pregnancy and we only have a little over 4 months until our due date! Along with our little girl being a whole 5 months, this week has been full of great events. We celebrated the wedding of two of our wonderful friends, Andrea & Christian, this weekend and the event marked the very first wedding produced by A Sunnie Affair. The wedding was touching and beautiful and I am elated that I started this company. Amidst all of the hustle and bustle of set up, I stepped back and knew this is exactly what I want to do and I'm so glad I finally started doing what I love! I could not have done any part of this wedding without the help of my wonderful Mother, Patti, who helped all 5 months of me set up tables, linens, lighting and all of the yummy details I had planned out. Thank you Mom!! Also, I was so proud of my husband, who stood as the Best Man by Christian's side. Matt's speech to the Bride and Groom was wonderful. To say the least, it was a proud night for Mommy Channel.
Our little girl has begun to beat her own little drum in my belly. This week I had the first signs of sciatic pain which proceeded to cause me to walk like the hunchback of Notre Dame all day at work and pull over two times on the way home from work because my leg cramped up so bad I could not seem to straighten it! I was feeling pretty badly and after waking Matt up at midnight to rub out another leg cramp for me...such a good husband...I tried to relax and get some sleep. As I was tossing and turning with belly aches, I was holding the left side of my belly and as I pushed in just a bit she kicked back. It caught me a bit off guard at first because when you begin to feel the little kicks you are not really sure if that's what it really is! I waited a minute or so and pushed in again, and kick again! I did that for an hour or so falling asleep with a smile on my face and completely forgetting about that sciatic pain. I see now how women forget the pain of childbirth because those moments with your little one make those hard times invisible.
We had a very positive prenatal appointment this month and we received the negative results of our Downs & Edwards Syndrome tests. Although we didn't have any reason to worry, of course we did from the moment they administered my blood test. Her measurements were perfect and my amniotic fluid all looked as it should. She is a little over 7 inches long...looks like she is getting her Daddy's long legs since the average is around 6-6 1/2 inches for 20 weeks. She is producing meconium and a substance on her skin that will protect her in the amniotic fluid.
I'm enjoying pregnancy so much and I wish I could relive all of the moments of our first pregnancy over and over, from lying in bed at night watching Matt talk to her in my belly to the excitement we get as we drive to each and every prenatal appointment. It's those moments that remind you that...Life is so good.

So...Tell Me How You Really Feel About All This Baby Girl Talk

Alright, My Heart has slowed down enough to Talk.

Hey everyone, So I guess you have all heard the news..... It's a Girl!!!!
It has taken my heart a day or so to slow back down to normal and not like I'm taking my last breaths. I now know how Jim fainted when Sunnie was born. I knew it was a little girl and I'm great with that, but I guess I was secretly wanting a boy first for some protection at school. Now it looks like I'm going to find the big bully in her school every year and pay him to beat up everyone that looks at my baby. You know she is going to have her mother's big gorgeous eyes that attract every scumbag in the world, I know.
I do appreciate everyone's kind words and advice, such as, ya better get your double barrel out of the closet and get it cleaned up and now your only job Matt is to keep that girl off the pole, thanks Chris G.
I know that she (my baby) will be incredible and will surprise me and have me wrapped around her finger in no time. When I called my dad (father of three boys) this week and told him, he told me I could do one of two things, learn from her cause he doesn't know anything about girls either, or go ahead and make her one hell of tomboy. I figure I can still teach her a little bit about the 3-4 defense and the Boys, Cowboys that is. What's really funny is how set my mother was that it was a boy, she even apologized to me and said '"I don't think you can have boys baby". (All boys on both sides of my family and one girl, crazy Courtney)
Daisy is getting used to "D the middle child" and not "Baby D" anymore.
Thanks everyone again for all the congrats and kind words.
I know she will be her own incredible little person.
P.S. Please send all gifts and cards to Homer, AK where I hear there are no little boys and I'm moving the family ;)

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice!

It's A Girl!!!

Opening Her Mouth!!

Skeleton Shot!!
Looking Right At You!
Her Face and Hand

We're having a girly girl!!! Wow, was today an amazing day!! I woke up this morning just as excited as I did on my wedding day knowing that Matt & I were going to find out the sex of our first child! I was actually even a bit nervous for some reason heading to the doctor's office. I think the anticipation has been building and we have been looking forward to this day with so much excitement. We met with a sonographer for our appointment and once she prepared the ultrasound on my stomach we got our first shot of The Bump. At first I wasn't really sure of what we were looking at until she said, "This is the rump here and the two legs...and did the two of you want to know the sex?" Uh yeah..of course we do!!! Hurry before we explode!!! It was at that moment that she told us we were going to have a little girl. Looking back, I am a tad bit embarrassed at the high-pitched shriek/sigh/tears that I let out at the moment she said "girl". Matt doesn't recall my shriek because I think he may have blacked out for a moment when he heard the word "girl" :) She instructed us that we were looking directly at the female genitalia, two straight lines arranged between her legs. Yep, definitely a girl.
So, we are proud to announce that The Bump is no longer just a bump, but our precious little girl. I've loved talking about her today saying "she is going to do this" or "we should get her this." Every moment we experience in our pregnancy seems to make it all the more real to us...that and the expanding waistline!
The sonographer appointment was really calming as well. We learned so much in such a little time about our little girl. She is VERY active, the sonographer kept chasing her movements and she would not stay still. She was opening and closing her hands, opening her mouth and swallowing, twisting and turning, sitting indian style at one point and doing everything a doctor wants to see during this specific ultrasound. The measurements of the heart, kidneys, liver, and stomach were all exactly where they should be and we were able to see the blood pumping through both umbilical arteries. The facial bone structure was proportional and they ruled out any signs of cleft palette, although as you can see in the pictures, it is a bit eerie to see your child in "skeleton" form! All wonderful signs to a parent though!
Lately, I have been telling Matt and my family that I swore that the baby was in my left abdomen. I've been feeling flutters and bubbles, faint but apparent, throughout my left side and I can't seem to lie on that side for too long. Sure enough, the sonographer confirmed that she is positioned with her head just to the left of my belly button and her body stretched down at an angle toward my left hip bone. She is pretty good size, around 7 inches right now!
We are so excited to be able to start to plan the nursery, pick a name and think about all of the grief we are going to give those little boys in 18 years.
Of course, that is, if Matt ever lets his little girl go on a date!!
Love to you all

17 Weeks and Counting!

The entire family spent the Labor Day weekend on a wonderful getaway in honor of our great friends Andrea & Christian. Well almost the entire family...we left the pups at home in great hands with Grammy! Matthew planned a Bachelor party in Puerto Penasco, Mexico and 16 of the guys headed down in RVs for a pre-wedding getaway. I planned Andrea's Bachelorette party in San Diego, CA and 15 ladies joined me to celebrate Andrea's last moments of single life! The weekend was definitely event filled, but every moment was a blast! We did everything from enjoying swanky dinners on the beach at Tower 23 Hotel to attending the Del Mar Racetrack in our fabulous hats. I was able to spend time with Beth, and she gave The Bump its first LJBTC onesie...so cute!

My belly is feeling the effects of our constant growing baby. The stretching and pulling in my abdominal muscles this week has, at times, been a bit unbearable. I will never complain about the aftermath of doing too many sit ups again!! I can feel my bones and muscles moving and stretching to make room for the little one!! I am amazed at the sudden roundness of my belly and I think I am to the point that I am about to...POP!

The Bump is about 5 inches long-about the size of an onion-and weighs about 5 ounces. The umbilical cord is growing stronger by the day and the cartilage is beginning to harden into the 300 bones it will have at birth.

I am beginning to feel the light flutters in my belly from the baby's movements and I am really looking forward to our doctor's appointment on Monday, September 10th. This specific doctor's appointment is with a sonographer for our BIG ultrasound, as Dr. Spoon called it. I have to drink tons of water before the ultrasound and she will measure the baby's size, proportion and gender! Yes!! We are finally going to find out The Bump's sex...which we are SO excited about. So, you all have an announcement to look forward to next week...can't wait to tell you all the big news and solve all of your predictions!!

Until then....All Our Love XOXO