20 Weeks

20 weeks and we have reached the half way point! May still seems very far away, but that's okay because I am soaking up every second of this amazing experience.

We had a great time back in Phoenix for Christmas and came home with an entire suitcase full of gifts for Eleanor. These are some of my favorites:




Right after we got back we ordered some of our nursery furniture. By Monday we should have a crib and mattress and a dresser/changer combo. It's a good thing too, because we're starting to run out of room for all of the clothes we are acquiring. I'm really looking forward to setting everything up and doing a bit of organizing.

We also got a start on Eleanor's stuffed animal collection!

The white bunny in the middle Andrew and I bought right after our "It's a girl!" ultrasound. The pink dog is from Grandma Nagle and plays a lullaby that has the uncanny ability to make me burst into tears. The pink bunny is from Great-grandmother Fenn and is holding a fleecy little blanket.

My favorite gift was the Pentax K-x I'm holding in the picture above. I promised my mom I would use it to take daily pictures of Eleanor when she finally arrives. For now I'm having a lot of fun learning how to use it. I've got a long way to go yet, but expect the quality of the photos here to get better and better.

It's a Girl!

Yep, no penis! Or at least that is what the ultrasound tech kept repeating as she looked around between the baby's legs. "No penis. No penis. No penis." The above image shows the baby's pelvis (where the arrow is pointing), no penis, and the legs.


Her name is Eleanor Saoirse Nagle. Here is her head. Andrew thinks she already looks like me, especially in the chin.


Here is her beautiful little leg and foot with a few visible toes. The ultrasound tech counted all 5!

We are so excited!

18 Weeks

18 weeks! We're moving right along. We'll know if we've got a he or a she the day after tomorrow! I think I'm going to be far too excited to keep the news all to myself.

I feel the baby moving more and more every day. It has inspired me to spend a lot more time sitting still with my hand on my belly. I wait and wait, and then, there! I felt one! Just like that. I can't wait for these pokes and mini kicks to grow stronger.

For the past few weeks we've been interviewing doulas to assist with the birth. We found someone who we really like and who we think will be a great asset when the time finally comes. I'm looking forward to meeting with her in the next few weeks to start developing a birth plan.

Andrew took this photo of me over the weekend, eating a typical pregnancy lunch. He titled it, "Callai Eats All The Food." I guess he thought it looked like I had laid a banquet out for myself, but I don't think it was that much food. A small bowl of soup, a bagel, two tangerines, and a handful of grapes. Not a banquet, but a big tasty meal that manages to keep me sated for, oh, about two hours if I'm lucky.

This is our collection of baby clothes so far. We've been on the lookout for cute neutral items, and even though we will soon know the sex, we're going to try to keep the baby's wardrobe largely gender neutral. We have several reasons for preferring neutral tones and patterns, but chief among them is the hope that the wardrobe will be more versatile and can be passed down to baby #2 regardless of gender.

We'll be back in Phoenix in less than a week. We're really looking forward to celebrating the holiday and spending some quality time with family. Just 10 days until Christmas!

16 week ultrasound

I had an ultrasound on December 2nd, but the printer on the machine the tech was using was broken, so she promised to mail them to me as soon as it was fixed. They arrived today!

This is a profile view of the face.

This is the hand showing off all five tiny fingers.


This one might be a bit harder to make out, but its a profile view with head to the left, one arm and hand up by the face, and a fat little tummy to the right.

Aren't they lovely? I can't stop staring at them.

Fur Baby

I think we might have some jealousy issues in the near future.

17 Weeks

17 weeks as of today and all is well! Baby is growing right on schedule and I'm feeling great. I really love being pregnant. I get lots of sleep and lots of exercise and I'm just about to eat us out of house and home. Second breakfast is my favorite meal of the day.

This morning I felt the baby move for the first time with complete certainty. Right after I woke up I was sitting on the couch with my hand on my lower stomach, when I felt this little poke. It was so strong that I could feel it with my hand. It didn’t feel at all like normal digestive movement, it was definitely a little something poking OUT! I sat really still and in the next few seconds felt the same movement two more times.

I think I’ve been feeling slight movements for the last two weeks or so, but I was never totally sure. I felt things that didn’t feel normal, but they were very infrequent and fleeting, so it was difficult to say what exactly they were. Today, however, I am certain. I felt little mini kicks courtesy of baby.

We have some exciting news to share! We are going to find out the gender of the baby on December 17th! That's just 9 days away. We haven't decided if we want to announce the gender online or if we will try to wait until we are back in Phoenix for Christmas so that we can tell you all in person. By the way, we'll be back home from the 21st through the 28th. See you soon!

16 Weeks

Heartbeat

At 15 weeks we recorded the baby's heartbeat and made this video. We used the Angelsound Fetal Doppler that we bought on Amazon for just under $30. It was a really great investment. It's so much fun to be able to listen to the baby's heartbeat whenever we want. Sometimes it takes a few minutes to find the heart, but this little device works amazingly well considering its cheap price tag.

15 Weeks

14 Weeks

Right around 14 weeks is when I first started to show.

10 Week Ultrasound

These are from the second ultrasound on October 19th. The baby was 10 weeks old and full of activity. In the bottom picture you can see that his or her little legs are blurred from wiggling around.

First Ultrasound

This is our first ultrasound, done on October 1st when I was about seven weeks along. The baby was just a little bean, but with a strong heartbeat that was a wonder to see.

Best Day Ever

I have this image saved on my computer as "bestdayever.jpg", and it really was! We found out we had a baby on the way on September 6th. There was that second pink line that we had been hoping for! It was faint, but it was definitely there.

Getting Started

We decided that it would be a good idea to start a blog to keep our distant family and friends informed about our pregnancy. We plan on posting plenty of photos and regular updates along the way.