It's a Boy!!!

Jared and I had our 16.5 week ultrasound today. My doctor told me they would look to see if they could tell what the gender was today, but babies don't always cooperate. I had pretty high hopes that our baby would cooperate and allow us to find out the gender. I of course have been dying to go out and buy the baby's first outfit....not to mention am ready to begin decorating the baby room.

Well, we got to my appointment at 1:45pm....I am always early in hopes they can squeeze me in the minute I get there. Can you tell I am anxious? My appointment was scheduled for 2pm. After checking in, we were told that the ultrasounds were running a bit behind today so to just take a seat and they would be with us shortly. Finally at 2:45pm they called us back to get started. I was also scheduled for a cervical measurement today and it just so happened the ultrasound tech was someone I hadn't met prior to today. I told her we were super excited to find out the gender and she seemed somewhat surprised. As it turns out, they sorta messed up my appointment and for some reason didn't have me scheduled for the ultrasound today, but because my doctor likes me so well, they went ahead and gave the "go ahead". Well, the regular "on the belly" ultrasound showed the baby being super active but in a crouched position where they couldn't really tell the gender. But once they went in for the cervical measurement (which turned out to be a nice long measurement - which is what we are after), they did an ultrasound that way and were able to determine gender from that.

My ultrasound tech quickly asked if we intended to find out the gender....and I said oh yes, why can you already tell....she seemed very excited and pointed at the screen showing us that our baby was VERY DEFINITELY A BOY!!! The picture I am posting below isn't great and definitely not what we saw on the screen.....but team blue is now in effect! ;-)

It's a BOY!!!
After leaving the ultrasound room we were taken in to a much larger ultrasound room with a huge screen on the wall where they did another belly ultrasound. They then took measurements, etc. and determined that our baby boy was growing as expected and all his measurements were on target. Another lady came in after that who reviews the ultrasounds to just do another quick ultrasound view and go over her findings.

Apparently I have something called "Marginal Placenta Previa". If you have placenta previa, it means your placenta is lying unusually low in your uterus, next to or covering your cervix. The placenta is the pancake-shaped organ normally located near the top of the uterus that supplies your baby with nutrients through the umbilical cord. If the placenta covers the cervix completeley, it is called a complete or total previa. If it is right on the border of the cervix it is called "marginal previa". So having marginal previa is better than full on previa, so that is the good news. Placenta previa is not usually a problem early in pregnancy, but if it persists into later pregnancy it can cause bleeding which may require you to deliver early or lead to further complications. If you have placenta previa when you go to deliver your baby, you will be required to have a c-section. The chances are that the placenta will migrate farther away from my cervix as my pregnancy progresses and will no longer be a problem. Regardless, I was told not to worry too much, but basically I am not allowed to get involved in "extreme sports" at this stage of my pregnancy and I just need to monitor if there happens to be any bleeding or severe cramping.

In all honesty, having a unicornuate uterus (as I do) is much more of a concern than a bit of marginal previa, so I am not too worried, nor is my doctor, so that is great!

A full body view of our baby boy:
Jared and I are super excited to begin decorating, stay tuned for future blogs/photos!

Me at 16 Weeks/4 Months....

I promised myself to blog/journal and of course make a scrapbook of all my ultrasounds and of course my growing baby belly! I absolutely love being pregnant so far.....what a fun experience.

Anyway, here is the first of several belly shots!

Jennifer at 4 months:

Laundry Room Update

Last year sometime I decided the laundry room needed a paint makeover. We went all gung ho and painted the whole thing bright orange...it was fun! I also bought these things called "wall-ies" that are basically like little wall paper pieces. The intention was to create a clothes line around the top of the wall and paste these "wall-ies" which were shaped like clothes under the clothes line. My cousin Billie had super cute decor in her laundry room when I saw their house years ago and she somewhat gave me the idea. Anyway, over the weekend I started working on the project and finished two walls before running out of the clothes to paste on the wall. I managed to find another package of these wall-ies on Monday night at Ace Hardware of all places. Well, yesterday I spent another hour and got the laundry room entirely done. It is such a nice feeling to have an "intended" project out of the way! Plus I knew once I finished my laundry room it would be super cute! Not to mention that we will know the sex of the baby soon enough and I hope to put all my decorating efforts into the baby room ASAP!

14.5 Weeks and Still Growing

I had a super quick checkup and ultrasound with my doctor today. I found out the results of the cystic fibrosis test were negative, so that is great news! No other issues or concerns, I am still healthy and feeling great. My sense of smell has picked up quite a bit and I am not always thrilled with some of the scents I inhale....but it's fun regardless.

Here is the latest ultrasound picture - not a great photo, but better than last time. The baby was super active today, jumping all around and moving all over the place. The doctor was having a hard time capturing the heart beat because our little jumping bean kept moving. I think we determined the heart beat was 158 beats per minute.

Jared and I go back on June 30th to find out the sex....and I am so stoked! Jared thinks it is a boy already....but we will find out soon enough.

A good shot of the baby's spine:
Side profile of head/belly/foot

The Hangover

Jared and I went to see the movie "The Hangover" yesterday. We had just recently seen previews for it and thought it would be a great one to see in the theater. We laughed our butts off the entire time.....there was a lot of raunchy humor (which is what made it so entertaining), so some of you may not enjoy it, but overall definitely worth the money to see it in the theater.

The Plot (without spoiliing it for you): A Las Vegas-set comedy centered around three groomsmen who lose their about-to-be-wed buddy during their drunken misadventures, then must retrace their steps in order to find him.

30 Seconds of Fame

On Tuesday May 26th (the same day as my last ultrasound) there was a movie being filmed in Downtown Portland, a few blocks away from my office. I was super excited because I was thinking I might get to meet a movie star or two. Well, Harrison Ford, Brendan Fraser and Keri Russell were here filming a movie called "Crowley" scheduled to come out next April. Even though I didn't have tons of time, I decided to take a little stroll to Pioneer Place to see which movie stars I could spot (and possibly meet)....likely story I know!
Anyway, after doing some wandering around and not seeing anything (mainly because it was their lunch break) I figured I would wait a few more minutes and then walk back to the office. I got lucky in my few minutes because I was asked to be an extra (walking on the sidewalk in the background of the film). So, I did my little strut (along with the other extras) on the sidewalk of 6th and Yamhill and after they were done filming that, I finally spotted a movie star. There right across the street from my "extra walking" was Brendan Fraser. It was my lucky day because I just happened to have my camera in my purse and was able to take a few shots of Brendan getting ready to be filmed. I was crossing my fingers I didn't get in trouble for taking the photos by the camera crew, but my super sly paparazzi skills went unnoticed.
I was hoping to maybe see Harrison Ford as well, but today was the day of Brendan which was still pretty cool for a normal girl like me to at least "spot" a famous person.

Anyway, look for me walking in the background with tons of other people next year in the movie Crowley...woohoo!!!!

You can see a little bit about the movie by visiting this website:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1244659/

Sorry my pics are a bit on the blurry side....can you tell I was snappin the shots in a hurry!

Co-Pilot Jen is Airborne

Sunday May 31, 2009

Jennifer experiences her first non-commerical flight:

After spending several hours organizing paperwork in our office and washing not only my car, but my husband's ginormous truck, I decided I needed a little something fun to do. My friend Brad has been trying to talk me into going for a ride in his airplane, so I finally decided to go for it....what did I have to lose? Brad lives near the Aurora airport and flew out to the Scappoose airport to pick me up for my first ever non-commercial flight. We decided a short flight for Sunday was best and we would fly around to other locations in the near future. En route to Astoria airport seemed the best option for today.

Brad was such a good pilot, his skills were quite impressive for a 23 year old lad! I am not really sure what I was expecting as we neared the runway, maybe some fear, potential vomiting, etc. However, as we got off the ground I have to admit I was rather impressed that I felt no sickness, no fear, nothing. Just a bit of excitment and wonder....and of course loving the view. I had a few family members worrying about the "preggo" going on the plane and thinking Brad was going to flip me upside down and around....but the fam was quite pleased to hear that I was very well taken care of in the air.
I actually called Jared as Brad was flying us over our house....and he totally saw us, it was so incredible. Flying above your hometown is defintely an experience, especially when you can see the details of everything.
Thanks for taking me to Astoria and back Brad....I had a lot of fun!


Pilot Brad and Co-Pilot Jennifer (don't mind the terrible photo of me):

Brad just landed at the Scappoose airport to pick me up:
Brad doing some checking on the plane - such a good pilot!


The very tiny plane that Brad took me to Astoria and back in: