So blessed!

The Summers Family just left an hour or two ago, but I'm so excited, I just wanted to post about it.  No, haha, I didn't mean for it to sound like I'm excited that they left, but because they came to visit us in our apartment today.  With them, they brought lunch, Christmas presents, and baby furniture!  :)

We now have a crib, a co-sleeper, a travel swing, baby bouncer, a boppy, high-chair, bath seat, travel booster seat, and more.  To top it off, Branden even took care of assembly!

The co-sleeper fit perfectly in our room, just a couple feet away from the bed!
And what makes it more special is that the baby will be in the same bed
as her cousins came home to when they were first born.  <3

The crib -- set up and ready!

THANK YOU SUMMERS FAMILY!

...and especially Branden who delivered and assembled everything so quickly!

We very much enjoyed your visit, and please feel free to come by again soon!

Cleaning and clearing

We've been so busy for the past week, just trying to get the rest of the baby's room cleared....and low and behold, we are done!  (or as done as we can be for now)

We've got a couple things left in the room, like the printer, and a few boxes up against the wall.  And the closet is still pretty full of non-baby things, but we've made some good progress!  We're ready for the crib and other baby things to start filling the room.  This coming Tuesday, Nicole and Branden will be bringing the things over.  It's getting exciting!  I think when I see the crib fill the room, it will feel even more real.

20 Weeks!

At this point, my major "symptoms" are that my back and hips are achy.  It's hard to find a comfortable position while laying down.  I soooo miss being able to sleep on my stomach.  Also, I get painful leg cramps at night, and occasionally, I'll see my feet swell a bit.  My appetite is here and I don't have any food aversions, but I'm definitely not constantly eating either.  Michael still needs to remind me to eat every once in a while.  And most recently, my stomach is now starting to itch.  I put on cocoa butter lotion, but all I think it's doing is making me smell like a candy bar.  I hear it's supposed to help with stretch marks or itching...I guess time will tell.  Other than that, I'm still waiting for the baby to kick hard enough to feel on the outside.  I can only feel her flutters of movement on the inside for now.  Michael talks to my stomach all the time and encourages her to kick.  It's pretty funny.

Anyways, time goes by so fast!  I can't believe that I'm at the half way point of my pregnancy.  And just think-- in just 20 more weeks, our baby will be ready to come out of my tummy and come home with us!

Speaking of coming home...Michael and I have been hard at work clearing out our second bedroom so that we can turn it into our little girl's room.  The room was previously an office/store room...and it was FULL! My sister has been so helpful because she's been here helping us clean, sort, and haul car loads of unwanted and unneeded items to Salvation Army.  There were things too that I wish we had room to store until we have a house....but we're trying to keep only what's necessary.  It's not even just the throwing away and giving away that's the hardest part...it's the loading/unloading in the pouring rain that makes this all so inconvenient.  :(  This week, apparently, Southern California is having the biggest set of rain storms it's had in over 10 years.  All the streets are flooding, and it's almost too scary to go anywhere.  But since this is our week off and our only chance to clean...we don't have much of a choice.

Anyways, once we get the room cleaned out we can start setting up the baby's room with some furniture.  Michael's sister & brother in law, Nicole & Branden, have graciously offered to let have their crib and several other baby items.  To top it off, they're even going to deliver and help with assembly! We couldn't be more excited or thankful!

Butterflies, fairies, or flowers....oh my!

Michael and I went to Babies R Us a couple weeks ago to look for a present for our niece, Annabelle.  While we were there, we ventured towards the baby room decor to see the different nursery "themes".  The store didn't have all that many (about a dozen or so)...and most looked similar to one another.  There were princess themes, butterfly themes, and others with flowers, fairies, and little animals.  None really stood out to us.  So we went home and I looked around on the Babies R Us website.

Turns out, they have TONS more!  We even found one that we both agreed was super cute and girly...but not too pink.  Unfortunately, these themes are usually unavailable in the stores and need to be ordered online.  However, since Michael's dad gave us some money to buy something for the baby, we think we've decided to put it towards buying the crib bedding.  Also, I was able to find the same bedding on Amazon.com, who sells it a little cheaper, tax free and with free shipping and handling!  Woo hoo!  I'm sure we'll be buying it in the next couple weeks.

And since I'm sure you're curious what our "theme" is.....here it is:

CUPCAKES!  :)

The bedding is made by a company called Trend Lab, and although it's sold by Babies R Us, they don't seem to sell any of this particular theme in their stores.  Kind of a bummer, especially since we were hoping to register for some blankets that coordinate with the bedding, but that's okay.  The patterns are colorful and could match with most things. I just think it's sooooo cute!  

"4th Month Picture"

I've seen that some people take these kinds of pictures every week.  Sometimes I think I wish we were more diligent about taking them, but considering how busy we are and have been....we just forget.  :(  That, and I think that really, I don't see much of a change that it warrants taking a picture.  But still, Michael's mom reminded him that he needs to chase me down and make sure we take a picture at least every month...so here's the one for month #4.  Although, I think technically, I was at almost 5 months at this point.

It's funny because I feel so big already, I can't imagine getting any bigger.  Yikes...

2nd Trimester Ultrasound

So we went in for my ultrasound appointment today.  Like I had mentioned, I knew they were going to do a full anatomy check.  It was so cool to see how big the baby had gotten! We got to see all the organs, which were taken pictures of, and measured.  Everything measured right on target.  The baby's organs appeared to be growing appropriately and functioning well.  We even saw the baby's heart and all the little parts of it moving together and pumping.  It was amazing and definitely nothing short of a miracle!

From the scans, we found out that the baby now weighs 8 ounces. Additionally, we saw that are having a little girl!  I knew it.  :)  I don't know how I knew it, but I always had a feeling ever since I found out that we were going to have a baby that we were going to have a girl.  Although I wasn't surprised, Michael was very surprised.  We're both really happy and glad to know for sure so that we can call the baby a "she" instead of  just "the baby."  This also means that we can start narrowing down names and registering soon!  Yay for all the pink things!!!  :)

From our ultrasound, we were hoping that we could get some "cute" sonogram pictures to show friends and family how the baby has grown.  However, our little girl was moving so much that it was hard to get a non-blurry picture of her.  She was waving her hands, kicking her feet, and dancing in there.  That's fine though!  We'd rather know that she is healthy and active.  :)    Nonetheless, here are a few of the pictures we got of her:

Her profile @ 18 weeks & 1 day.
Here, you can see her head, eyes, nose, mouth and chin.

Another profile shot 

Her footprints
(blurry...because she was dancing in there)  ;)

Boy or Girl?!?!?

We shall find out soon!

I'm so excited!  Tomorrow is my 2nd trimester ultrasound appointment.  The doctor will be doing a more comprehensive ultrasound to check for how the baby's anatomy (bones, spine, heart, and other internal organs) are growing, as well as measuring the baby to check the accuracy of the baby's due date (currently set at May 10th).  During this check, we'll also be able to see if we're having a boy or a girl.

I had always wanted a baby boy first....that way, he'd be the protective older brother.  But honestly, I don't care.  I just am praying that the baby and I stay healthy through the rest of my pregnancy, and that the baby continues to grow and stay healthy.

The only reason that we'd like to know the gender is so that we can start narrowing names down, and know how to decorate the nursery and what kinds of things to register for.  Ahhhh!  So much to look forward to!   :)

We can't wait to find out!  (Although if I had to make a guess.....I'm thinking:  GIRL!)