Ordered her baby furniture today!

Today we went to Behr's furniture store today. We had gotten a few recommendations to go there. I had gotten a postcard in the mail a few weeks back that they were gonna have some booths set up with chances to win a few prices, so we figured that would be a good time to go. I did a few raffles like free baby picture package, free baby cleaning products, gift card to the furniture store. Rich's mom was nice enough to go so she also put her name in to give us another chance to win.

Then we ordered our furniture. We are buying a convertible crib (converts to toddler bed and full size bed), toddler bed rails, conversion set to make it a full size bed, one long dresser, one tall dresser, nightstand, and glider. It's a lot of money but a good investment since the it is good quality furniture. We decided on the Munire Savannah collection. Here is the link if anyone wants to see it...we are going to get it in the cherry wood. Love the white, but the cherry goes with our bedding for her better... http://www.munirefurniture.com/savannah_01.htm

And here is the bedding we are going to have for her: http://www.cocalo.com/item.asp?id=66&brand=1&g=1&coll=&cat=1

I can't wait to see the final product!

20 week appointment

Wednesday was my 20 week appointment. I can't believe it's the halfway point. Seems like time is flying by. It was a pretty uneventful appointment. Weight check, urine sample, blood pressure check. They also checked the heart rate with the doppler...and it was easier to find this time. Then spoke with my OB. He still was encouraging the amniocentesis, but if the specialist doesn't think it's necessary, I am gonna pass on it. He feels to be safe though, he's gonna do an ultrasound once a month to watch the baby's growth and make sure everything stays ok. He says everythings looks on track though.

I have the following appointments now scheduled for the near future. Next week I have an appointment with my cardiologist. I haven't seen him since I got pregnant, and ever before struggling to get pregnant. Hopefully things with my heart looks the same. The at 23 weeks I have a fetal echocardiogram scheduled, so we can make sure our baby girl's heart is ok. Then I go back to see my OB at 34 weeks. That's when I have to do the glucose tolerance test...where they see if I am gonna have gestational diabetes.

Level II sono

So today was supposed to be the day we had our level II ultrasound but it was actually done 1 and 1/2 weeks ago. The couple weeks before were very emotional for us. The bloodwork I had done at my 16 week appointment for different disorders came back with an elevated AFP level. I had a repeated a week or so later and again found out it was elevated. Elevated AFP levels can show a risk for spina bifida, small or no brain, abdominal wall defects, kidney problems, and a few other things. My OB called me when he got the results of the repeat bloodwork. He explained that he wanted me to move the ultrasound up sooner and that I had to consider doing an amniocentesis. The idea of amnio never crossed my mind ever...and I was concerned about doing one...there are risks of miscarriage and infection with having one. So my OB told me to think about it and he made me an appointment for my ultrasound that day. I was very upset of the possibility of something being wrong with our child. Rich was really great through this whole thing. He took the day off of work for the sonogram to hold my hand. He told me that if we need to do the amnio then we have to do it. So we went in with the intention that if the high risk specialist felt we needed to have one, we would do it. So luckily, all with baby Luckman is great! They were able to visualize everything that would have indicated a problem, and all those things looked fine...even with the baby wiggling like crazy...our baby is very active! The specialist felt that an amniocentesis would not give us anymore data that the ultrasound had given us. That was such a relief. And the best part of it all was that we were able to find out what were are having....it's a GIRL!!!!!!!! I am so excited...but I had the feeling we were having a girl since the beginning. Rich is a little overwhelmed and keeps asking me "what do u do with a girl?", but I know he's gonna be fine. He is starting to warm up to the idea. The day after the ultrasound, I went to NH to visit my family. He ended up sending me beautiful tulips with a teddy bear and card that read "for my girls. love, daddy" And the other day we picked out some pink mets clothing. He is gonna be a great dad and I'm lucky to have him in my life.

So I figured I'd finally break down and take a picture of my growing belly. So here it is.

And here are the three pictures I got of our baby girl from our ultrasound. They aren't the greatest pictures cuz she is a wiggly worm...they apologized and said they would try to get better ones when I go for the fetal echocardiogram (picture of her heart).