Happy Memorial Day!

It's the unofficial kick-off to summer! Whoohoo! We decided to take a day trip down to Branson for the day. We strolled around Branson Landing a took a scenic cruise on Lake Taneycomo. It's been a fun day, but boy is it HOT here! I have a feeling I might be a bit of a hermit these next few months...
This hot weather has again ignited my craving for ice cream/frozen yogurt. A few days ago I discovered the banana split blizzard at Dairy Queen. I'd like to believe that the fact that it contains chunks of bananas and strawberries qualifies it as health food.

I hit 24 weeks yesterday and am still feeling good. My next appointment is this Wednesday, and I'll be doing the glucose test. Fingers crossed that they have the lemon-lime flavor that I had last year! I'll keep you posted on how that goes.

Here's the latest pic:


I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday weekend!

Love,
Ashley

22 Weeks

Can You Say Excited?

Last Friday Keith came home and told me that he'd ordered some Husker stuff for the bambino. When I asked what he got, he sheepishly told me it was a surprise. Naturally this made me pester him more about it and he eluded to the fact that there was a onesie, beanie cap, and shoes involved. Okay, sounds reasonable. When not one, but two separate packages arrived at my doorstep this week, I knew there was more than he'd let on about. Check out all these little doosies:



That would be 3 short sleeved onesies, one long sleeved onesie, a pair of athletic shorts, two pairs of knit booties, one pair of shoes, two pacifiers, one beanie cap, and a bib. This is not a few things. This is a wardrobe. I'm not sure which is conveyed more by his purchases: his passion for his son or Nebraska football. Either way, they are pretty darn cute. The baby is due at the beginning of the season, so he should have plenty of time to wear them for games. And Heaven help us if he's born during a game...it might just be me in the delivery room! :)

Just thought I'd share these little goodies. They may not be tutus and headbands like I originally envisioned, but they're just as great!

Love,
Ashley

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

I don't have many of my childhood photos in my possession, but I thought I'd share a few of my mama and me:



(Please try to overlook the heavy blush and blue eyeshadow. It was the 80s)


To all the mamas and grandmas out there, I hope you have a wonderful day. :)

Love,
Ashley

Eating Crow

That's what I'm doing right now because I was wrong...we are having a BOY!!!!! We are very excited, but I have to admit that I was caught off guard when the tech told us. But there's really no arguing with this:



Keith is proud. :)

Things went very well. All body parts/organs looked good and measured on track. Baby is measuring at 13 ounces, which puts him in the 65th percentile or so. I'm 20 weeks and 2 days along, and baby is 20 weeks 3 days. My belly measured 21 cm. I'm very happy about this because I sometimes worried about how both of us would measure. In my last pregnancy Ethan and I measured behind. The fact that this baby measures right on track, if not a little bit big, makes me feel much better. There were only 2 issues that arose during the scan(though at this point neither one of them is truly a real issue). First, it appears that I currently have placenta previa, meaning that my placenta is covering my cervix. As my uterus grows and thins out, the placenta could be move upwards. We will be doing another ultrasound in 8 weeks to check this. If it still hasn't moved, we will do another a few weeks later. If by 30 something weeks it's still covering my cervix, I'll have to have a c-section. In the meantime I have to be careful not to do anything strenuous (not a problem!) to avoid causing any bleeding.

Second, there was a small cyst (a choroid plexus cyst) on part of the brain (I believe the part that produces fluid?). The tech told us that sometimes they see this at this point in an ultrasound, and sometimes they don't. Usually this type of cyst disappears on its own by 30 weeks and is not cause for concern. She and the doc agreed that since our first trimester screening was good and everything else with baby looked healthy, it's not anything to worry about at this point. They will also check for that at my 28 week ultrasound. I'm not feeling worried about it at the moment, but I'm curious if anyone else has had experience with this or knows someone whose baby had one of these cysts? (preferably positive experiences!) I looked on Baby Center and all of the posts I read from women said that their babies had one and it either disappeared before birth, or the baby was born with it and it had no affect on it. Keith and I still feel like all is well with baby, but of course we pray that this cyst is gone by the next ultrasound.


Here are some other pics that we got today:

A profile shot with baby "waving" at us:


Another profile shot:


This one was actually two shots that the tech pieced together so that we could see the whole body together:


Thank you for all of the prayers sent our way. We are feeling very blessed that things went well today, and are very excited about our little man!

Love,
Ashley

Today Is The Day

Our appointment is less than 2 hours away and I'm getting really anxious. Overall Keith and I have been feeling very positive about things, but I know the nerves will kick in once we get there. We just really hope and pray it goes well.
I have to go to work after afterwards, so unfortunately I probably won't be able to post the news until I get home this evening. Stay tuned, and if you have time to squeeze in a prayer for us before 8:30, we would be so grateful!

Love,
Ashley