first baby pics!

last week i had started feeling some wierd pains in my lower abdomen. thinking that they would go away, i didn't call the doctor. well, by friday i finally called. the nurse reassured me that they were probably ligament pains and they were completely normal, but scheduled an appt for me on monday anyway, just to put my mind at ease.

thankfully nothing got worse over the weekend and i went in monday afternoon. marsha, the nurse practitioner, didn't seem very worried about the whole thing, but was great at calming my nerves. i have seen her twice and both times she is just like the calm grandma that makes you feel totally comfortable. she found the heartbeat, after what i thought seemed like forever, but my mom and gabe both reassured me that it was quick. she then told us that she would check to see if the ultrasound tech had an opening and could get us in! I couldn't believe it...i was going to get an ultrasound before 20 weeks! so the gang all went next door and waited to see the first pictures of the baby.

so, here are a few of the pics from the first ultrasound. do you all see the size of that foot up there! those are going to be in my ribs in about 4 months and that might hurt. and this baby is a mover and a shaker. i think we might have a partier in there. the baby wouldn't stop moving the whole time that she was looking at it and she even kept commenting on how much trouble i was in for the coming months. yikes! we were her last appointment so she was just playing around and getting us different views. she also pointed out all of the major organs for us and we could count all of the fingers and toes. then, when i thought that she was done, she flipped a switch and put the ultrasound into 3-D and that is what the other picture is down on the bottom. that was when we could really see it move around. i know that the baby borders on an alien in these kind of pictures and i will try not to put another one on here, but i just had to show you the first one. she also told us the baby was measuring a few days more than we thought, about 14 1/2 weeks at that point.

14 1/2 weeks

i know that most of you think that i am crazy, but there is a belly there! gabe likes to show it off to anyone who will look at it. personally, i think that i just look bloated or like i have eaten too much. which could be the case considering that my appetite is through the roof right now. rumor has it that's not going away any time soon either!

Breaking News

Great News! Mandy and I just got back from our 12 week doctor visit and we have a confirmed-healthy heartbeat! What a relief. I still have a smile on my face. Also, the doctor picked up the babies first word-"Daddy!" What a day...I'm feeling like I'm on top of the world. Feeling so good that I'm going to make a Masters prediction...Tiger is going to win (really sticking my neck out there). If my prediction comes true, Mandy has agreed to let me name the kid Eldrick or Tiger...what a great mother-to-be. Take care, be strong, and always remember to never skinny dip with snapping turtles....Gabe

11 weeks

11 weeks in already! here are the lastest pics. i know it doesn't look like much, but i will take one at night. there really is more of a tummy then. i will explain the one of gabe in a minute.

so i drug gabe into goore's for the first time on sunday. as first time parents, this was overwhelming! luckily i had gone with my mom a couple of weeks ago and knew what i was in for, but to go with gabe was a totally different experience. now, anyone that knows him knows that you can't overload him or his brain just shuts off. so, i just wanted to go in and look at strollers and have him push around the two or three that i had narrowed it down to. we pull in to the parking lot and the poor guy thought the whole mega-store was full of strollers. i just lost it laughing and that started our experience.

the doors open and i immediately head to the restroom and gabe hits up the gliders that are conveniently postioned outside of the restrooms, for the dads i'm sure! we head over to the stroller section and gabe's eyes are getting bigger and bigger as we go through. (for those of you who are out of state and have no idea what i am talking about, goore's is kind of like babie's r us with different brands and more furniture. if you go online to goores.com you kind of get the idea.) not to mention the place was crawling with women who were very visibly pregnant, their husbands and children in tow. i felt like the least pregnant woman in the joint, which i probably was! so we get to the strollers and i show gabe the first one that i like and he immediately starts playing with it; trying to collapse it, fold the seat, push it and fold it up all at once. anything he can possibly do to break the thing, he's trying it. i am just standing on the sidelines giggling and he is practically running down small children trying to do one handed 360's with this stroller. now, i show him that the infant car seat will just snap on when the stroller seat is down and i show him which seat goes with it. here is where the picture comes in. this is after about 5 mintues of trying to get the dumb thing out of the base! and he won't let me near it to try and help him, not that i could have helped on this one...i had no clue. he had every possible latch unhooked and was convinced that the whole thing, base and all, just sat right on the stroller. (i can't tell you how hard i was laughing.) finally, he asked one of the sales people the trick and she came over and lifted one little flap and had the whoe thing off and swinging in her hand. she had to be thinking "rookies", but was nice enough not to say anything.

jog strollers were next, but the lane was full so we'll have to save that one for next time. i took that opportunity to take him over to the cribs while he still had a working cortex and show him the couple of cribs that i had liked. we didn't take too long and then we were out of there! granted we both had to go home and take a nap after, but we made it through without any bickering, and a whole lot of laughs!