it's still a girl!

i just had my 20 week ultrasound to check on all of her organs and see how she's developing. at first look, the radiologist says everything looks just right.

*here you can see her arm and hand

they got some great pictures. it was pretty amazing what they can zoom in on during those ultrasounds. we could even see the four chambers of her heart just pumping away.

they were able to verify that yes, it's a girl!

*here you can see her leg and foot

*here you can see her whole body and her long legs

she's looking pretty cozy and relaxed in there!

dear baby - great to see you moving around and all your organs working. i'm still trying to get in the veggies we both need. this weekend i promise to get new pants so we aren't so squished all day, xoxo

half way done

how did we get to 20 weeks already? things are really going well and i've been feeling great - other than the fact chris is out of town for training (notice the gear all packed up).

i started painting baby's room over the weekend. i felt a bit like jennifer garner in 'juno' trying to decide between the different shades of yellow all named after desserts. we decided to go with a light gray and i managed to narrow it down to 'classic silver'. so far it's turning out just right!

my cousin koby & his wife anita were in town over the weekend. it was nice to have company. we went to see the cliffs in point loma, the seals in la jolla, and walked along the sand in pacific beach. after some great food mixed in the day, i was pooped. i think i might have slept 11 hours that night.

dear baby - we have your 20 week ultrasound tomorrow to check on you & see how all of your organs are developing. i think i might have felt you this week, but can't tell for sure quite yet. keep on growing. hope the belly band isn't squeezing you too much.

to buy maternity pants or not to buy

none of them them button or even zip for that matter. yoga pants are still my favorite, but unfortunately those don't qualify as professional attire for a government employee.

i'm getting new aches here & there and definitely need to keep my posture when sitting down. things get squished easily now. baby anabelle is supposed to be the size of a mango this week. we listened to her heartbeat last night and it's still pumping nice and strong.

we worked some more on the baby budget this weekend and enjoyed some beautiful socal sunshine.

we had a great visit with alexis and lamine on saturday talking about taking bradley method classes from them and having alexis be my doula. we are excited to learn from them and get more scoop about being prepared (as much as we can be). i'm also trying to figure out when to have my mom & suzie fly out. hey anabelle, what day do you think you'll be arriving?

dear baby - this week we are praying that you grow up to be an individual who makes wise decisions.

looks like i'm getting hips for valentine's

yep, things are a-changin'! guess she's starting to need more room. go, anabelle. do your thing.

this weekend we're meeting up with alexis and her husband to talk about the bradley method class they teach and about alexis being my doula. thank you ahead of time for all of your support, alexis! i'm excited for to chris to get a chance to learn more about what the birth will be like and to do some more planning for myself (love planning).

here we are at week 18.

dear baby - i'm excited to feel you move around in there. a friend told me it can take a little longer for girls with strong abs (i'll take the compliment!). goodies from your grandparents and some friends have been arriving for you and a date is now set for your/our baby celebration brunch. my friends rock! you've got tons of auntie's waiting to meet you & love on you.

17 weeks

the weeks just keep flying by. we're in week 17 now and all is good (other than the fact that my white bra shining through my blue sweather is the only one i have that fits).

to-do:
go bra shopping . . again.

baby girl!

this was a big weekend for us. saturday we had an appt for a 3D ultrasound and were able to find out that we're having a baby girl! seemed all the votes were on boy, but we both woke up that morning each having girl dreams during the night.


her name is going to be anabelle reece (just 1 'n' in anabelle). i love seeing her name written out and being able to talk to her and about her now that we know who she is. the ultrasound was amazing. their system projects it up on the wall for you to see so our 6 oz. tiny baby was almost 2 feet tall with her little heart just beating away. they printed lots of pictures for us so i wanted to share a couple. chris says i need to include a disclaimer because he thinks the 3D pictures are pretty creepy looking. i think they're fascinating!



we're going to go again in late april so chris can see how she's doing before he leaves. she should look a little more plump by then.



i was able to talk chris into a quick trip to old navy right after so we could each pick out an outfit for anabelle. well, we ended up with one extra since the entire store was 30% off. oh, this could be trouble.

i had a quick check up with my midwife on thursday. she says everything seems to be moving along just right.

sunday, i surprised chris with massages. we'd talked about getting them before deployment but i figured i'd go ahead and schedule them before the weeks got away from us. it was a great relaxing treat.



dear anabelle - it was so amazing to see you! keep growing and i'll try to keep making good food choices for us . . that frozen yogurt last night was pretty tasty though, wasn't it?!


here is a quick video from our visit if you'd like to see. (disclaimer from chris: baby is pretty boney & looks sort of creepy. message from susan: she's amazing!)