The Week 19 Recap

So, I guess we've already reached the point where pictures of the baby take priority over pictures of me! :) Below are some of our favorites from this week's ultrasound.



(Baby Akin arching his back and showing off his spine!)



(Here he is practicing the FSU war chant.)



(Baby Akin already has long legs!)

Weight gained to date: 10 pounds
Baby's size: About the length of a banana.
Interesting baby fact: The baby now has taste buds and according to studies, after birth, babies respond to tastes they've already tasted via the amniotic fluid. I'm trying to eat a variety of healthy foods (with the occasional, or okay, regular, bowl of ice cream).
Baby's heart rate: 162
Overall health: Feeling really great!
Best part of week 19: Clearly our ultrasound and finding out that Peanut is a boy! And a very healthy boy at that. :) We really could have sat there all day watching the ultrasound...he was such a show-off! From touching his toes to arching his back and from sticking out his tongue to kicking his legs, he was not at all bashful and knew he was being watched. (Does it sound like an Akin?? :)

He is measuring at 21 weeks right now, which is a week ahead of our due date. No one seemed concerned, saying babies grow at different paces during different periods of the pregnancy. Our ultrasound tech was great, taking lots of pictures. Hope you enjoy looking at a few more.

The 18 Week Recap

Not only did last week mark 18 weeks, but it also brought spring with it to Houston (until the cold front that moved through this weekend, that is).

Weight gained to date: ? pounds
Baby's size: About the length of a bell pepper, which is 5 1/2 inches long. This week peanut weighs almost 7 ounces.
Interesting baby fact: Peanut is becoming more mobile; and spends his/her time yawning, hiccuping, rolling, twisting, kicking, punching, and swallowing.
Baby's heart rate: ?
Overall health: The hip pain from week 17 was significantly less this week, although I do feel it occasionally. Overall I continue to feel really great, aside from a stomach bug that hit me during the middle of Wednesday night. Thankfully, it was a 24-hour bug and I was back to normal on Friday, although a bit hungry. :)
Best part of week 18: Enjoying daylight savings time and the beautiful spring weather with walks at Memorial Park. Since I haven't been able to run since week 8, walking on the treadmill is even more boring than running on a treadmill. Which makes it pretty darn boring. Thankfully, with it staying light later and with beautiful 70 degree weather, I can walk the 3 miles at Memorial and stay entertained by watching all those around me. Even if I do occasionally want to start running just to show all those around me that I can run too. :)

The 17 Week Recap

Sorry for the delay in posts; one of our "pre-baby tasks" is transforming our office/man room into an office/guest room (just don't tell Taylor...it's still "his" room!). As part of that, we purchased a new wall desk to replace our L-shaped desk and ultimately take up less space. Our main computer was down for the week, so I couldn't access the photos.

Okay, enough explaining...onto week 17!

Weight gained to date: ? pounds (Our scale broke right around the time I became pregnant. Conveneint, right? I've decided not to purchase a new one until post-baby, so I only get weight updates after seeing the doctor.)
Baby's size: About a turnip. This was hard to envision for me, so it was easier to go by the stats: 5 inches and 5 ounces.
Interesting baby fact: Peanut can now move his/her joints.
Baby's heart rate: ? (Again, will need to wait until the next dr. appt.)
Overall health: Week 17 will be remembered as the week Peanut became a pain in the neck hips. As if on cue, as I began week 17, my hips began hurting, especially in the evening when sleeping on my sides because all pregnancy books tell you if you sleep any other way your baby will come out as an alien. Okay, so they are not that extreme, but it's close. The great news is that I tried just about every Internet solution and it seems that a heating pad before bed does the trick. The pain greatly subsided by the end of week 17, so hopefully I can cross that off the list.

Best part of week 17: Feeling the baby move! After thinking a few times during the week prior that I could feel Peanut, this was definitely confirmed during week 17. It's such a strange sensation...at first it was just like a piece of popcorn popping. It is a bit stronger now and I love each time I feel the little movements.

Our ultrasound to determine if the baby is a girl Peanut or a boy Peanut has been postponed to March 25. As excited as I was to potentially know a week earlier, Taylor's schedule didn't cooperate. But, it will be an incredibly memorable 4th wedding anniversary for us!

16 Weeks

Sorry for writing out of time sequence...just pretend like you're reading a novel that occurs both in the past and present. Just without the novel-quality writing style. (And the page-turning writing style, for that matter.) Unfortunately, this is going to continue as I catch up on posts from the first-trimester.

This past Friday marked 16 weeks and on Thursday I had my 16 week appointment. Here's the vital stats:

Weight gained to date: 2 pounds
Baby's size: About an avocado
Interesting baby fact: Peanut can now begin to recognize our voices :)
Baby's heart rate: 153
Overall health: feeling great with more energy than the first trimester

Here's a picture at 16 weeks:



We're anxiously awaiting our next appointment, at which we will find out the gender. Right now it's scheduled for March 18, but we may have to push it back a week due to Taylor's flying schedule. We'll keep you posted. :)

Telling the family

One of the great perks of the flight benefits associated with Taylor's job is being able to tell family really big news (you know, like "We're pregnant" news) in person. It was easy to determine that we definitely wanted to spread the news face-to-face. It was a bit more challenging working out the logistics, considering it'd require four separate round-trip trips to three different states to do so.

(Before I go much further...while it was incredibly difficult to keep the secret, it was also really fun for Taylor and I to have our own literal bundle of joy. It was a constant feeling of excitement knowing that we had such wonderful news to share.)

Christmas this year was with my family, so it was easy to decide that we'd tell everyone while home for the holidays. After some deliberation, we decided to make t-shirts for my mom, Pat, brother, Troy and Shan. We wanted to give them to the family on Christmas Eve, before the business that ensues on Christmas morning.

The plan went great, except when opening the shirts, my mom didn't immediately get it, and instead wondered the message on her shirt--Grandma to be on or around Aug. 13--meant that we were going to get pregnant ON Aug. 13. It was finally Shannon who broke the silence asking, "Are you pregnant?" Celebration ensued, and the family got to wear their shirts on Christmas Day, as we timed members of our extended family to see how long it took each person to catch on to the news.




Next up was Canton, Ohio to tell Rush, Kristen and our niece and nephew. Over Thanksgiving we had talked about all getting together for New Year's Eve and day, so the plan worked well to tell them in Ohio. We got to share the news prior to going to friends for New Year's Eve, which made the night that much more of a celebration. (Although it was a bit of a struggle staying up until midnight. :)

We had also already planned a trip to see my dad and MJ over MLK weekend in January. The week of our trip coincided with our first ultrasound, so for this round of news we got to share Peanut's first photo (more to come on that...). Initially the plan was to share the news over dinner, but I couldn't wait that long. Instead, after lunch together, I gave dad a "late Christmas present," which was a framed photo of the ultrasound.

Panama City was the final stop of the "Spread the Baby News 2009/2010 Tour." Unfortunately I didn't get to go on this one, as Taylor and Rush had planned a weekend to spend some time with their dad. However, Taylor was elated to finally be able to talk about Peanut with his dad, and he spent the time getting some counsel about being a father from both his dad and brother.

While our tour was a bit time consuming and involved a lot of miles, we wouldn't have done it any other way. Being there in person to see our loved ones' responses was a priceless moment for us. Peanut is already so loved by many.

Finally, 14 Weeks!

Ever since discovering we were pregnant on December 5, I've been waiting for the 14 week mark to arrive. We had decided early on that we would just tell our family and close friends until we were past the first trimester mark. Little did we know that was easier to say than it actually was to wait!

Well, this past Friday, February 12 marked 14 weeks of Peanut's development. And, we couldn't be more thrilled to start spreading the news.

With this important milestone behind us, we'll begin updating the blog with more regularity, including a few posts about our experiences during the first trimester. In the meantime, enjoy this 14 week picture, taken on Valentine's Day.

Two pink lines

One week ago today, we awoke early on Saturday morning and opened the blinds in our bedroom to see if the snow that unexpectedly blanketed the city the day before was still on the ground. It was, and the view of our yard and the rooftops around us topped in a beautiful light snow blanket was surreal.

The sense of excitement that comes from a southern couple viewing snow was topped only by one thing: the elation we felt when we learned we would be expanding our family after seeing two glorious pink lines on a pregnancy test that morning. We climbed back in bed, happily numb from the news, which made the lens in which we viewed our winter wonderland even more blissful. Our gratitude for our many blessings was overflowing.

We've affectionately named Baby Akin "peanut" for now, which, while still calling our baby a brown, crunchy inanimate object, feels more personal than "it."

I never knew I could feel so affectionate toward a peanut.