FYI on baby names!

To clear up a little confusion, we thought the name polls would be a fun thing to add to the blog, but in reality we are not going to choose our baby's name based on how many votes it got. In fact, the name we choose in the end will probably have never even made an appearance on the polls or blog! A lot of effort goes into picking the right name and we'll probably still be a little unsure until the baby arrives and a decision has to be made.

For that reason (as well as a few others) we have decided to keep the baby's name quiet until he or she arrives. It's going to be hard and some people may get frusterated or even mad that we're keeping the name secret, but we feel like it's the best thing to do. Truthfully, we may not even know ourselves what the name will be until we're driving to the hospital to deliver or we may find the perfect name the day of our next ultrasound.

I hope all of you understnad and will respect this decision we've made and will look forward to the day in October when baby Harris is born and the secret will be revealed! :)

Welcome 2nd Trimester!!

Sunday was the official beginning of my 2nd trimester, which means I'm 1/3 of the way there!! The 2nd trimester is supposed to be marked with an end to nausea, exhaustion, and other unpleasant pregnancy symptoms as your body has finally adjusted to the surge in hormones. Unfortunately, I greeted my 2nd trimester with a terrible cold and allergies that have made me feel pretty miserable. I feel ok during the day but nights are a different story. I read that colds and allergies tend to be amplified and last longer during pregnancy, but hopefully I'll be feeling better by the weekend.

Besides the cold, I've been feeling pretty good! I can tell that some of my energy is back, but I still try to lie down in the afternoons for an hour or 2 and just rest. Insomnia comes and goes but my Dr. said I can take half a Unisom if it gets really bad. I haven't been feeling very nauseous since about the 7th or 8th week, but I still don't have much of an appetite. However, I have gained 2 lbs. so far and have a feeling they're about to start packing on in the coming weeks...hopefully just in the tummy area! :)

I can't think of anything else at the moment! My next appointment is next Tuesday and I hope to schedule the big ultrasound at that time. We hope to find out the baby's gender by the end of May!!

More pictures of baby Tyler...

Welcome Baby J!

Tyler Benjamin Johnson was born today at 10:56 am to proud parents Ben and Tonya! He was a whopping 9 lbs. 1 oz. and measured 21 inches. He's got a head full of brown hair and pretty dark blue eyes. We visited the Johnsons at St. Francis tonight and had a great time with baby Tyler! Here are a few pictures from our visit:

Trying out the baby clothes...

Kohl's had a sale on baby clothes so we bought what few gender neutral outfits they had. We decided to bring them home and try them out on our current baby until the little one gets here. Here's a few photos:

Me @ 13 1/2 weeks!

Here's me at 13 1/2 weeks, 2 weeks later than the last picture we took!

Baby Johnson is almost here!

Our friends Tonya and Ben are going in Thursday to have their little boy and we're so happy and excited for them! We can't wait to meet him and learn what cute name mommy and daddy have picked out so he's no longer just "baby J!" According to Tonya's recent ultrasound, baby J is a big boy and measuring off the charts. Looks like he's going to be tall just like his daddy! We'll hopefully post pictures Thursday night of the little guy! Here's a recent picture of Tonya almost full term!

The nursery is on its way!

Ryan, Grandma JoAnn and I worked for 4 hours yesterday cleaning out what once was our storage room so that we can make room for Baby H when he/she arrives! The nursey will be on the 2nd floor but since the master is on the main floor, we'll let baby sleep in our room until he/she is a year old or so. We're still excited about setting up the nursery and I've already picked out the color schemes for both sexes. It it's a baby boy we're probably going to decorate in baby blue and brown and if it's a girl we're planning on pink and lime green! Here's a picture of a baby girl's & boy's nursery that I really like...

First Screen results & ultrasound pics!

Ryan and I just got back from Dr. Greig's office which specializes in high-risk pregnancies. Their office is right down the street from my usual OB/GYN. No, my pregnancy is not high-risk, but my office refers their patients there because they are better staffed and prepared to do these genetic screenings...plus they have a 4D ultrasound machine!

This was my first abdominal ultrasound and I enjoyed it much more than the first one! I also enjoyed it more because baby Harris actually looks like a baby now and not a tiny gummi bear. We got to enjoy the ultrasound images for almost 20 minutes because baby Harris wasn't cooperating and wouldn't move to the best position, actually, Baby wouldn't quit moving! We've definately got a little active one in there! :) The nurse kept poking my belly with the probe and everytime she'd poke hard enough, Baby would do little flips and squirm all around. It was so cute to watch!!! I think baby was getting agitated with all the movement and just wanted to relax.

Baby's heart was beating at 158 bpm which is good and normal. Baby even measured a week bigger, but they said my due date will probably stay the same for the time being. It was really exciting to see baby Harris in 4D, in fact those might be my favorite pictures! I didn't think I'd like 4D because it was a little weird looking, but you could actually see so much better!

Anyway, down to the reason for the ultrasound! It was to test for the genetic defects of trisomy 21 (Down's Syndrome) and trisomy 18. Once Baby cooperated and got into a good position, a measurement was taken of the fluid in the neural tube. I won't go into all the details, but baby H measured just fine which puts him/her at a 1 in 2000 chance of having the genetic disorders. The ultrasound was accompanied by a blood test and I will get those results back on Monday, but should things come back normal as expected, there will be over an 82% chance baby H will be just fine. In fact, Dr. Greig said we should go ahead and quit worrying about the little one and start worrying about saving for college since baby looks good and healthy!!

I could go on and on and on about the visit and how much fun we had watching the ultrasound, but I'll go ahead and post the pictures for everyone to see baby H at 12.5 weeks!

*PLEASE READ*

Ryan and I feel that this pregnancy and the birth of our first child is a wonderful and life-changing event which we want to share with so many, but we also feel that this is a somewhat private event in our lives right now and not one we want to share with just anyone with access to the internet. We also want to prevent people from reading this site who might be critical or who do not have our best interests at heart. Therefore, I have restricted access to the blog to only those people whom I know care deeply for us, our wellbeing, and the wellbeing of our first child. However, there are several good friends and family members who I believe should have access to this blog, but whom I don't currently have e-mail addresses for. If you know of someone who would like acccess to our blog but is currently having problems logging on, (most likely due to the fact I didn't have their e-mail address to add to the safe list) please let me know so I can fix the problem!!

I hope all of you enjoy reading about our wonderful journey through pregnancy and parenthood. Thanks to all of you who have expressed your love and support and who we care for so much that we want to share with you this amazing time in our lives! God bless you all.

Love,
Jennifer, Ryan & Baby H

Trip to Charleston!

Ryan and I just got back from a trip to Charleston yesterday and I wanted to post a few pictures! We went down there because my friends Aaron and Katie were having their bachleorette party on Saturday night (they're getting married a weekend apart in May). Ryan and I got a hotel room in Mt. Pleasant and I met the girls at the beach house on Folly Saturday night for a little bachleorette fun while he went out with his friend Wenjin who lives in Charleston and is newly engaged! Here are some pictures from the bachleorette night and from mine and Ryan's visit to Market St. on Sunday.

This is Peanut, he's a dwarf miniature horse. I really wanted to bring him home with me to live in the backyard, but his owner was pretty attached!

Speaking of attached, Ryan and this rooster became pretty close!

Me @ 11 1/2 weeks!

This is me 11 1/2 weeks pregnant! I'm starting to get a little baby bump but it looks like I'm just getting a pot belly. Ryan can hardly stand next to me without patting the belly. I think now that he can see my belly expanding he truly believes there really is a baby growing in there! :) According to the Dr. scales I've only gained 1 pound so far, but I think my decreased appetite in the 1st trimester has caused me to lose some weight and then the expanding of my belly is evening it out now. It's hard for me to believe that I can barely fit into my pre-pregnancy pants anymore yet I've only gained 1 pound!

Just back from my OB exam...

and everything looks great! Dr. Keith went over my blood test results and everyting is good. My thyroid is fine, my blood sugar is great, I don't have any known diseases or STD's, I'm negative for the Cystic Fibrosis gene, I don't have toxoplasmosis and I'm immune to Rubella! In other news I've gained 1 lb. during this 1st trimester which is good and completely normal and my blood pressure is still perfect. My heart and lungs sounded good and the baby's heart sounded even better at 160 bpm!! Dr. Keith was even surprised we could hear it this early using the doppler, but she found it quickly and it sounded like baby H was chugging along in there like a little choo choo train!

It's still early, but I talked to Dr. Keith about some birth options and she said that for a short person I have a normal sized pelvic region and shouldn't have any trouble with a natural delivery. She said that c-section deliveries only happen about 30% of the time and she always tries for a natural delivery if circumstances are favorable and mom is on board. I've recently become somewhat anti-ceserean after reading a bunch of articles and watching 1 too many episodes of A Baby Story, so I'm very pleased that Dr. Keith and I are on the same page with regards to delivery. She even said that once I reach 39 weeks and a couple days, we can talk about inducing if that's what I want (and circumstances permit). She said she likes to induce during her on-call days every now and then to make sure she's the one there to deliver her patient's baby. Of course we'll let things play out and go with the flow, but it's always good to know that my Dr. and I both see things in a similar fashion!