17 weeks

Yesterday marked 17 weeks! We had our 4 month check up on Monday, the 22nd, and everything looks good. It was a pretty routine visit - she measured my belly and answered some questions we had. We also heard the heartbeat again, which is perfect at this stage - in the 160s.

We have an appointment on April 9th to get the "BIG" ultrasound and find out if we are having a boy or a girl.

Yesterday at physical therapy, a woman told me she has correctly predicted the gender of all 11 of her grandchildren, and she told me it will be a girl. Another lady did the "nail on a string" trick over my belly and said it would be a girl. But a few weeks ago, a lady told me she was positive it was a boy because of "how I am carrying the baby" (I am carrying forward and low so far) ....everyone at PT is kind of invested in this pregnancy :)

The baby has been moving around a LOT this week, especially in the past 3 days, and I fully expect him or her to start kicking the you-know-what out of me any day now. I am not sure what I expected it to feel like, but I know this is definitely NOT what I had in mind. I am sure I will get used to it eventually, and it won't bother me as much. I think we may have an athlete on our hands!

Eating is getting harder for me...I am starting to be more picky and not wanting to eat very much at a time. Before, EVERYTHING sounded yummy, now, as I sit here and think about it, I can't think of one single thing that sounds appetizing.

Here is the weekly belly picture!

Have a great week!!

~the Sullivans

16 weeks today!

Hello again, everyone! It is a beautiful, warm, sunny day here in Georgia (FINALLY!!), and I am 4 months to the day today. My clothes are fitting snuggly, and I had to purchase my very first maternity clothes this week. I had saved up all of the Target gift cards that everyone sent me for Christmas and for my birthday, so if you sent me one, THANK YOU!! I bought 2 dresses and a BeBand - it is a band that you wear around your belly with your regular pants unbuttoned, and it keeps your pants up - genius! Here is one of my dresses - I think I may try to do all of my weekly photos in it, so I always look the same...maybe we can do a flip book at the end! haha :)

I have been sleeping fairly well this week, and I am not as hungry all of the time anymore (although I am still hungry more than usual.) The only real complaint that I have is that my left hip is killing me. It makes it hard to get around sometimes, and I have to take breaks often and rest...Lord please just don't let me do the pregnant "waddle"!!

Dave came up with a good system for talking about the baby. We don't like to say "it", so we rotate from him to her. One day we say "he is awake" and the next day we will say "she is hungry".

We have bought a few things here and there that are unisex, like a baby bath tub and some wooden blocks. We also have been getting books here and there to read to the baby. I have come to realize that there are SO many crazy baby toys out there! I know that babies need stimulation, but some of these toys never stop singing or blinking! I have been looking at the more simple toys, like I had when I was a kid. It really doesn't matter at this point anyways... all the baby needs for a while is a place to sleep and food!

That's about all for this week. The blog will be updated on Fridays from here on out, as that is the beginning of my pregnancy week...so keep checking in on us when you can!!

Love, the Sullivans

almost 15 weeks

So a lot of people have been telling me that I need to update this blog more often, and I hope to be able to do so from now on, it's just that not much happens in the 1st trimester that is really "noteworthy".... just think of it as "No news is good news!"

I am out of my 1st trimester and into my 2nd. Friday will be 15 weeks! I joined a gym and have started working out (taking it pretty easy though!) I want to be as strong as I can when it comes time to deliver...I have ZERO pain tolerance, and I just think that the stronger I am, the easier the delivery will be. Plus, I would like to keep my weight gain down!!

Also, a lot of people have been asking for a belly picture. Until now, there really wasn't anything to show, but in the past few days it has become obvious that there is a bump forming...I only have one pair of jeans that still fit when buttoned.

This was taken first thing this morning because my belly seems to grow throughout the day the more I eat! Speaking of eating, it boggles my mind how tired of eating I am! I typically need something every 2 hours, and it can be a challenge to come up with 7 meals or snacks a day that are not plain old JUNK food! There are so many people in the world who do not have enough to eat, and here I am complaining about having to eat too much...I definitely do not take any of it for granted.

Our next appointment is March 22nd, and we are not sure whether or not we will be able to find out the gender, but we are really looking forward to finding out so that we can start buying the things this baby will need. A lady told me the other day that she was sure that I was having a boy because of how I am carrying the baby. I have also read that you will have a bigger appetite if it is a boy...no shortage of that...so...I give it a 50% chance of being a boy :) hehehe

Still no nausea or sickness. I had a dizzy episode Monday night - I woke up about 4am to use the restroom and I could barely walk. It was strange because I didn't FEEL dizzy, I just couldn't walk a straight line and I almost fell over several times. Dave got up and helped me walk into the kitchen and he fixed me a glass of water and gave me some fruit to eat. I felt fine for the most part after that, so we just assumed my blood sugar dropped since I hadn't eaten. I had my mom drive me to physical therapy that morning, just to be safe, and I had my physical therapist take my blood pressure twice while I was there. It turned out to be nothing...but it was a crazy feeling!! (note to everyone reading this: please don't get all crazy and worried and make me regret posting this story! It really turned out to be nothing!!)

OH! And I decided to stay with my doctor and deliver at the small hospital!! I took Dave to see Walton Medical and take a tour and for some reason, it just seemed much better this time around. Maybe it was because Dave was there with me, or maybe I could just tell he was fine with it, and that was reassuring. I am actually looking forward to it now. The staff is so personal and one on one, and I am so glad I have decided to stay with my doctor - she is fantastic. My mom and I went to tour Eastside, which is a bigger hospital much closer to our house, and it just seemed so cold. It was nice, but I definitely did NOT get a warm and fuzzy feeling. Walton seemed much calmer and Eastside made me feel too institutionalized...

In the end, I decided I would rather have a small, older hospital with a one-on-one doctor and personal care, than a fancy big hospital and just be another patient....I mean, this isn't just ANY baby I will be delivering! ;)

Well, it is this baby~mama's bedtime!

Love

~Robbi (and Dave too...even though I can hear him snoring in the bedroom!)

Doctor dilemmas...

Well, I am 11 6/7 weeks today (12 weeks tomorrow) and I had my 2nd OB appointment this morning. I got to hear the baby's heartbeat again, and it sounded like a real heartbeat this time instead of inaudible static. That was really the only exciting thing that happened....pretty routine visit (sorry, no new pictures), but all looks fine and dandy so far.

I am really bummed because I have a GREAT doctor, who is very personable, has a great staff, and has a private practice (so she would be my ONLY doctor the whole way through AND on THE day).........BUT......she only has privileges at Walton Medical, which, if you are not from around here, is....umm....let's say it is LESS than nice, and it is quite old and very VERY small. It is the trailer park of hospitals. But, the upside to it being so small is that you receive very personalized care, but if ANYTHING goes wrong, they are not equipped to handle any kind of huge emergency.... am not PLANNING on having any type of emergency, but it really isn't in my hands! Plus it is 30-45 minutes from our house.

SO...now I have to start all over looking for a new doctor. The problem with that is that I live in metro Atlanta, and 99.9% of the OB/GYNs around here are part of a huge group practice...meaning that I am just another patient, a number. I want to find ONE doctor, not have to see a new face and explain my entire life story every time I go for a check up.

My mom and I took a tour of the L&D at Eastside tonight, and the facility looks nice, but the staff was a bit of a mess. The best thing Eastside has going for it is that it is so close to our house, maybe 10-15 minutes because of Snellville traffic. I have been hospitalized 2 different times at Eastside for about a week each time, once in 98 and once in 2000, and as far as hospitals go, it was great, and I felt like I received excellent care.

So, this is my dilemma....and I am pretty sad about it all, not to mention that I have had some pregnancy "moments" emotionally lately, including a huge mess of a crying fit yesterday because of some design work I am doing for a client. Dave is being very patient with me and is very supportive, so that is a huge blessing.

The #1 question people ask me, oddly enough, is if I have been sick at all....it is just a little weird when you tell someone you are pregnant and the first thing they want to know is if you puke a lot or not .... so, in case you are also wondering, no...no I have not been sick one little bit. My mom said she was never sick during either of her pregnancies, so maybe it runs in the family :)

However, poor Dave is sick. Not throwing up, just a cold I think. Dave never gets sick, but this is the 2nd time he has been sick since we found out we are expecting....oh the irony.

Well, that's about it for now. I will keep the updates coming as soon as get any new news!

~Robbi

It's a BABY!!!

Hello everyone! As you may already know, Dave and I are expecting our first child! He or she will be here September 3rd!!

Since almost all of our family on both sides live far away, we wanted to start a blog to be able to share our journey from pregnancy to parenthood with you all.

We found out on Christmas Eve that we were expecting...I just had a hunch that something was up, and i decided to take a home pregnancy test just before bed while Dave was preoccupied by setting some last minute gifts under the tree. After seeing two little pink lines appear, I hid the test behind my back and called Dave over. I asked if he wanted an early Christmas present and presented the test to him. It took him a few seconds to realize what it was and exactly what was happening, but when he did, he looked up at me and said "REALLY??!!!" I was shaking with excitement and couldn't help crying hysterically. We hugged for an eternity! I took 3 tests in all before it was all over...just to be sure. All were positive! We laid in bed that night like...well...kids on Christmas Eve! I was able to dose off, but I don't think Dave was even able to close his eyes! He woke me up at 4am and we got up and decided to go ahead and open presents and get the day started.

Our doctor wouldn't see us until 8 weeks, so we had to wait almost an entire month...but it felt more like a year. January 21st Dave took the day off and we went in for our first visit. It took Dr. McGee about 2 seconds to find the baby, and she whispered "hello there little peanut". We got to hear the heart beat (which was very good for 8 weeks at 177) and she answered a lot of our questions. (She told us that we had to cancel our February snowboarding trip...boo.)

She also gave us the baby's very first photo, which she said was actually a really good "peanut picture"...you can't really see much of anything at this stage, but this kid is already a great model! Haha!!

So there he or she is. Our next appointment is on February 18th and I am hoping we will get a more exciting photo to share with you all. We definitely can't WAIT to learn whether the baby is a boy or a girl. Dave and I honestly don't have a preference, we just want him or her to be healthy.

As for me, I have not had any sickness at this point. At first I was extremely tired all of the time, but that has passed for the most part. And I am constantly hungry...but that is starting to let up a little bit as well. I have gained 2 or 3 pounds, probably due to the constant hunger. My back pain is a little worse, since I can't take my medication, but I am willing to suffer through for the Littlest Sullivan :)

~the Sullivans