The BIG Announcement

So by now, we've announced it to family and we can finally put it on the blog! I'm preg...pregna....oh goodness... I'm expecting. It still feels weird to say the "p" word. I mean, come on! I just did this! Before you ask, nope, we were not trying to have a baby. In fact, we were preventing. I guess we're just one of the 3%, huh? Lol. That said however, we are beyond thrilled. I'm actually super excited about delivery this time around. That is a HUGE load off my mind and I'm so glad to be in such good hands with my OB and his staff. I had my 8 week appointment today and got some odd glances for carrying a 6 month old into an OB's office. Jackie, the nurse, teased me good-naturedly and Dr. MacDonald told me he had a feeling that he'd be seeing me soon. Wow, guess everyone knew I was...pregnant... but me. Aunt Jenn and Beth even asked me Easter Sunday if I was pregnant. At that point, I didn't know. It was the day after the mud run, I still felt super sore and the very last thing I wanted to think about was being pregnant (I'm always achy). We decided to do a fun announcement General Conference weekend since we were going to be in Prosper and had invited my grandparents. Papa still wasn't feeling well from the chemo (prayers for them would be much appreciated!) so they weren't able to make it. I decided I'd wait til the ultrasound to tell Gamm and Papa. We were legitimately worried that it was twins and figured it would be a cute reveal to Gamm (who had a set of twins) if it was. WHEW! Imagine my relief when I saw only one little bean on the screen! We were worried it was twins because I used three pregnancy tests and all of them were positive before I could even lay them on the ground. Pregnancy tests test your HCG levels (pregnancy hormone) and twins produce twice as much HCG. Scary! We'd have been thrilled if it was twins, but I'm thrilled that it's not. ;)

 April 3rd - the 3rd test (and the 3rd positive) for the 3rd kid

The onesie we used for the reveal. It said, "Big Bro 11/27" The due date I calculated was a little off

Our little bean pod! Taken at the ultrasound today. :)

Jeff got home first so we did a trial reveal with the onesie for him.

And Tammy never fails to crack us up!

Bryce at 36 Weeks

We have the best ultrasound tech ever! She let me take video of Bryce and printed off a bunch of pictures for me. This kid is a chunk! He already weighs about 7 lbs and is measuring about 10 days ahead of schedule. He was still as a mouse so the tech could take all her measurements but when she tried to get a better look at his face, he wiggled back and turned his head away. Little punk. :)

Face Explaination

Heartbeat

Can you see his chubby little cheek?! He's so adorable!

 36 weeks 0 days

I guess most of you know but since this is more of a journal bit for me you get more details (or repeat details). I ended up having to go to Labor and Delivery at the hospital a little over a week ago. My doctor thought my water might have broken, so I dropped by to get checked out. Membranes were intact (my water hadn't broken) but I was 2 cm dilated and 40% effaced so the nurse called the on-call OB to be advised. The nurse came back about 10-15 min later and said rather casually, "So, are you feeling your contractions?" I'd been feeling what I thought were Braxton-Hicks (false labor pains) that were tight but not particularly painful... but apparently they were registering as big-time contractions and were coming every 2-6 minutes (sidenote: apparently I don't feel pain with upper-uterine contractions unless they're HUGE. I was feeling mostly upper-uterine contractions at this point). The contractions, coupled with the fact that I was dilated and effaced, meant that I was going to have to stay in the hospital for two hours so the nurses could keep an eye on me and make sure I wasn't actually going into labor. Thankfully, I hadn't changed at all (though the contractions stopped and started fairly regularly) and I could go home. Ever since though, I've been feeling some MAJOR contractions off and on throughout the day... especially after cleaning up or sitting in the car for a long time. I ended up calling Mitchell during the Relief Society Broadcast last Saturday in tears asking him to come get me. Really bad night. Understandably, I was rather nervous for this OB appointment today. The dr checked me and said I was barely a centimeter dilated. Wait, WHAT?! He said it wasn't uncommon for women to dilate and then close back up a bit, particularly since I'm not quite full term and especially since I'd been trying to take it easy and appease the contraction gods. Oh well. At least I can clean through the contractions and not be particularly worried. Plus, as of next Monday I'll be 37 weeks which is considered full term and Bryce can come whenever the heck he wants at that point. Mitchell even jokes that he's going to take me for a 5 hour car ride to really start my labor. HA! We'll see. I still have a huge list of things to get done before this baby comes so, as far as I'm concerned, he can take his time. Just as long as he doesn't come on the 14th - I'm not too thrilled about possibly sharing my birthday. ;)

FINALLY This Kid Has a Name!!

I'm surprised it took us this long to settle on a name! Derek was named within four weeks of our gender ultrasound. This one we named the day before I hit 31 weeks and after roughly a dozen trial-run names. Anyway, drumroll please.....

BRYCE WILLIAM HEATH

will hopefully make his debut on 22 Oct 2012. I had to schedule an induction with my OB so we can be sure he'll be the one to deliver me (I need some surgery done and no other dr will attempt it, so it has to be my dr to deliver). Otherwise, I'll have to go in for general anesthesia surgery sometime after the baby is born aaaaaand I'd rather not. So please pray the epidural works!! :D

Lens of the eye, hands tucked under chin and little white lines are the umbilical cord - 16 wks 4d

Little Bryce is measuring just ahead of schedule (just like Derek did), all organs look fine (unlike Derek's kidneys), and he likes to sit right at the very bottom of my uterus... as far down as he can get. He also has a tendancy to tickle my ribs and, let me tell you, that is WEIRD. I'm sure everyone has been tickled on the outside of their ribs, but being tickled from the inside is a whole different feeling. It really feels like he's intentionally tickling. So far, he doesn't like it when I drink hot chocolate or when I scratch my stretch marks. He stops moving when Mitchell puts his hand on my belly, but we're not sure if he's just listening to the incoherent, deep voice mumbles Mitchell makes when he tries to talk through my belly (he puts his lips right on my bare belly, deepens his voice and makes all kinds of "reassuring" baby talk. It's adorable.). Maybe Bryce is just afraid of the massive hand blocking out most of his light.

Hand over his face at 20 wks 4d

3D image at 20 wks 4d

I have developed the strangely funny habit of bracing myself whenever Derek runs over to me. Usually he tries to "color" with me (he can't say "cuddle" properly) in the mornings on the couch which involves a lot of belly guarding as Derek launches himself into my lap. A few mornings ago, he ran over to me, patted my belly, kissed my belly and said, "Ah lah yew brudda!" (translation: I love you brother!) Completely unsolicited from me, I assure you. I can't wait for these two boys to meet each other!

Derek is talking more and more and MORE! And not just jabbering but he'll have bursts of surprising clarity more frequently. He's probably up to 100-200 words if you count the ones that I have to translate, but a surprising number are becoming intelligible to other people.

His new phrases this week:

"Hey, check it out!" - said when pulling every single toy out of the toy box
"What happened?" - pretty self-explanatory
"Where'd you come from?" - usually when Mitchell comes home for lunch
"What the HECK?!" - seriously, no idea where he got his little sing-song version of this one
"So..." or "so, yeah..."- he says this pretty often before he starts into a sentance. I'm the source.

What the HECK?! 

Bryce William 31 wks 1d

New Ultrasound Pics

This baby is a mover and a shaker! The tech had a hard time getting the measurements she needed because of the little wiggle worm's propensity to wiggle. We got some great pictures of him/her, though. I even got to see her drink amniotic fluid. Sounds pretty gross, but it was super neat. Kept scratching at his/her face, too. No sucking thumbs yet, but we have a picture that looks pretty close. I'm on the fence about whether he/she is a boy or girl... can you see what I mean in the first picture? I saw some pretty suspicious looking parts between the legs, but we won't know til our 20 week ultrasound. It's $100 here to get an elective ultrasound!!! Good grief!! It'll be difficult to wait the extra month, but I'm sure it will be just as fun finding out!

 

Very suspicious...

 

 No thumb sucking yet, but it sure looked like he/she was ready to try!

 

 Chin/mouth grasped between the thumb and forefinger - not even kidding.

Baby #2

Had a sonogram today and met my doctor! Love him! Here is baby #2 at 8 weeks 4 days. Due date is October 29th. Sorry for the blurry pics. They aren't the best ultrasound pics, but that's our little bean! :D

This is my favorite picture as well as the clearest. I think I can see eyes, nose and mouth. Head is the large bulge at the top, right arm/hand flipper is bright white.

Odd view

Another little blob picture