172 beats per minute! That’s the Lightbulb’s heart rate.

We went to the doctor Wednesday morning. He reviewed all of my bloodwork results – all is well. All of my measurements are right on target for being 10-weeks pregnant. So the due date remains at May 22.

Then the best part… He took us into the exam room to listen to the heartbeat! Except we didn’t get to hear it. After about 3 minutes on putting a great amount of pressure on my always-full bladder with the Doppler-stethoscope, he turned it off. He said he heard the heartbeat a couple times, but couldn’t capture it on the speaker long enough for us to hear it, too.

So out he went, and came back with the portable ultrasound machine. So we got to see pictures!! The doctor laughed about us having a shy baby – which Jeremy and I thought was pretty funny, and likely impossible with us as parents. Then when he got the image up, he said “Nope, not shy – just a wiggle worm” as we watched the baby doing back-flips! It was completely amazing. Although it’s not much larger than a peanut in its shell, we could already see arms, legs, a body, and head! We could see its little tiny heart beating – it’s about the size of a pea, and beating at a whopping 172 BPM!

Unfortunately, this machine wasn’t connected to a printer, so we didn’t get to take a picture home. (I was hoping to post one on here.) In 8 weeks I have an appointment at the hospital for a full ultrasound so they can measure everything on the baby. At that time I’ve been assured I’ll get pictures.

And to the always-full bladder. No, I’m not crazy. It’s not “all in my head.” I’ve been reading. Apparently in the past 10 weeks, the volume of blood in my body has increased by 50%. Additionally, the extra hormones my body is producing cause increased kidney function. Combine those two, and that explains why I spend a large part of my day walking to and from the restroom. See… I’m not crazy!

Okay… more later!

A Few Funnies...

... There's not really anything new to tell. I have a doctor's appointment next week, so hopefully I'll have a picture to post. But until then... have a few laughs.

The Integral of Little Paw

So... because a long time back the guys I work with saw a picture of Dad and realized that he's slightly vertically challenged, they began calling him "Little Paw." So, now when he's referred to in conversation with these guys, we refer to him as "Little Paw". Now that he's going to be a grandfather, Dad's chosen to be called Paw-Paw. So I shared this information with my lovely co-workers. Because we're a bunch of engineers and happen to have taken 30+ hours of math and calculus in college, we began laughing at the idea of him being "Little Paw Squared" or (Little Paw)2. Then, yesterday afternoon, this became the ultimate result of the conversation:

Quick Update from my Doctor

I got a message from my doctor, Dr. Shellie Steenken, today. She's gotten all the lab results back from the gallon of blood they took from me two weeks ago. All my levels came back "normal." They confirmed my blood type is A-Pos. All counts were normal, and there were no signs of any infection at all. All good signs.

I won't see her again until October 24. I'll keep you posted, but so far so good!

The Nursery

After several trips through Babies-R-Us, JC Penny, (both on the internet via my couch, of course), and any other online retailer of baby "stuff", I came to the conclusion that there was nothing out there (at least nothing reasonably priced, anyway) that was suitable for the vision we have for the nursery. So I asked Grannie (my Mom) if she was up to sewing the linens, given she has enough time. Of course she was up to the challenge!


Because we're not finding out the gender, our theme has to be neutral. The all-white and off-white sets are really pretty, but they'll be ruined the first time the baby throws up on them. (And I think we're pretty guaranteed that will happen!) We want bright colors - a more stimulating enviornment. So... off to the fabric store!! After about an hour of stacking bolts upon bolts of fabric on top of the racks (I think we drove one of the workers crazy!), we settled on a scheme -- shown in this picture. Working from the bottom of the stack, up, you have...

blue/green/orange/yellow stripe - crib skirt, curtain trim, quilt


solid orange, blue dots, solid yellow, red stripe - sheets and blankets


white with dots - bumper for crib, curtains


red with dots - diaper bag


According to Mom, we bought too much fabric. But she assures us she'll use as much of it as she can, making coordinating accessories and blankets with the left overs. But we have a scheme!!


We also found these cute wooden letters - about 8" tall, all capital letters. We're going to paint the room two colors - probably green and yellow, sorta like wainscoating with a chair rail. We'll use a thin flat wooden rail to go around the room between the top and bottom colors. I want to get the entire alphabet, A-Z, paint them in bright colors, then attach them to the chair-rail to make the alphabet go around the room.


So that's our plan for the nursery. For those of you who know our house, we're using our office/study. The room has a pretty wide doorway opening, so we're putting in french doors. It's going to be sooooo cute!!