12 week appointment

So I went for my 12 week appointment today and it was a HUGE relief! I got to HEAR the heartbeat for the first time. We were able to see it flickering on the ultrasound at 8 weeks but the baby was too small to hear the heartbeat. Now at 12 weeks it is big enough for us to hear the heartbeat with a doppler. Baby is still dancin' in there with a really strong heartbeat of 180 beats/minute. (That's on the high end but great!) Yippee!!!

Welcome Baby Autumn Rose!

Hooray!! Steve's brother Kevin & his wife Jill just had a baby girl and we are proud aunt & uncle again :) Isn't she precious! Can't wait to get back to Wisconsin to meet her!


And check out the baby quilt I've been working on for her. It's almost finished - I still need to tie it, but it's my first quilt and I'm quite proud :)

12 weeks

Wow! I can't believe I'm almost at the end of my first trimester. In all honesty everything is still so surreal. I can't help but wonder "is there really a baby in there?!" I know I haven't posted in awhile - this is sort of intentional because I don't want to "jinx" anything and also because there isn't that much to say. I've still avoided morning sickness for the most part. I've had about half a dozen moments of fleeting nausea in the last month - usually in the morning - brushing my teeth or driving into work. But it passes quickly and it's really more of an overall icky-ness than feeling pukey.

I still haven't told anyone at work though I think some of my colleagues can tell. :) I'm having to wear looser tops and have actually been asked outright if I'm pregnant by 2 people already, and a student asked me today out of the blue "Mrs. Schabow do you want to have a child or something?" "um, why yes I do...someday soon maybe..." ha ha! She wouldn't have asked that if she wasn't suspicious so I guess I'm not hiding it well, ha! I'm planning to come clean after my appointment this Thursday and I can't wait to finally be "out"!

Here are some fun baby facts for now, At 12 weeks:

• the baby is the size of a PLUM
• eyes and ears are in place
• baby is able to swallow
  
• fingernails are forming
• most body structures are now formed and baby enters the "maintenance stage"
  

Pretty awesome, huh?!!

I head to the doctor on Thursday, so I'll update again then if there is any interesting news!

Peanut's First Pictures

Today might have been one of the best days of my life!! Steve and I headed to the ultrasound appointment and just before we got on the elevator to go in he said "I'm nervous. Are you nervous?" I said "very!". Then we bravely went in for our appointment full of firsts! The ultrasound lady promptly put goo on my belly and then we saw our little peanut!! He/she is just a little blob at this point (as big as a raspberry!), but it's amazing what they can see. I think I held my breath up until the point when the tech said "oh, there's a little heartbeat" WOO HOO!! BEST DAY EVER!!! Actually later the midwife told us the baby is "dancing in there" Little Peanut's heartbeat was 180 beats/min WOW! So cool and amazing. Everything feels much more real now. We promptly called my grandparents and aunt and uncle to tell them about our Christmas surprise. Today was a great day. Here are some of Peanut's first photos! You'll probably have to click the image to make it bigger.

8 weeks

So yesterday I was officially 8 weeks pregnant. I still can't believe it. I've had NO morning sickness and very minimal symptoms otherwise (well, aside from the fact that I'm expanding at an alarming rate, and I'm exhausted all day). In a crazy way I have wished to be sick as it would provide reassurance that there is indeed a little one growing inside of me. The past few weeks have dragged on so sloooowly. I'm dying to shout it from the mountain tops but wanted to wait until my first ultra sound which is TOMORROW!!!!! I am so excited and nervous to see our little one. We should be able to see/hear the heartbeat too which has me just giddy! I want to go home now and sleep until 2:15 tomorrow so the appointment can just be here already.

In non pregnancy news, we've been carrying along just fine. We went to the tulip fest with my friend (and biz partner) Kara and her husband Dominic. It was so beautiful and we had a great time visiting, wine tasting (well, I watched everyone else wine taste), and eating delicious fresh made sausages & brats. Here are some photos from the day!

And Baby Makes 3!!

Yep, you read it right! We are PREGNANT!!! I can hardly believe it. It's a huge secret right now (so I won't be publishing this on the actual day I'm writing it 4/6/10). It's been exactly one week since I first peed on a stick and saw the beautiful pink line. And while it's still really early, the line keeps getting darker, I've been confirmed by a blood test at the Dr.'s and we are just ecstatic! Our estimated due date is 12/8/10.

For those of you who didn't know, this has been a long ride for us. I know it's not as long as for some people, but when we started trying 10 months ago I really thought it would happen right away. I am a planner after all, so were were doing everything, ahem...correctly. ;) But it wasn't long before I just realized something wasn't right (I won't go into all the details). At first my doctor didn't really take me seriously as we are still young and the general rule of thumb is "give it a year". But after some blood tests, it was revealed that there were medical reasons for our difficulties conceiving. Long story short, it's been a really emotional year, but we are finally pregnant!! HOORAY!!

Today I am 4weeks 5 days pregnant and don't really have any symptoms which makes it even harder to believe this is real. In a really odd way I can't wait for morning sickness or some other symptoms to set in for some reassurance.

I promise to be a better blogger and will keep all the baby updates here. Hooray and CHEERS to 2010 and our Christmas Baby!

Jan-March 2010

In January I hired my first employee. It's been a really great, yet terrifying experience! Her name is Shannon, and she's a really lovely gal. (You can read about her on the biz's ABOUT US page). Right now, it's been a ton of work to train her and get her caught up to speed on things. But slowly but surely things are going more smoothly and I am so thankful to have the help!

In February we went wine tasting with some friends for Valentine's Day. Wine tasting has definitely become one of our favorite weekend past-times.

In March we took a few hikes as the weather started to turn nice. We hiked Angel's Rest in the gorge and it was amazing! The hike is billed as "moderate" but I found it pretty tough due to the constant incline. In the end it took us about 3.75 hours round trip and was worth the views! Here are a few pictures:







Finally at the end of March I spent 5 days visiting my family in San Antonio. It was great to see everyone and just spend a few days relaxing!