6th Doctor Visit

We had our 6th visit to the doctor on Monday this week. Good news all around! Baby is growing normally and still has a strong heartbeat around 150. Baby is also becoming very active and moving around like crazy. Mommy stops several times a day to laugh about all the somersaults going on in her tummy. Mommy also is progressing through the pregnancy well. She tested negative for gestational diabetes and continues to glow. She did get a little nervous when the doctor told her after the next visit we need to start coming in every 2 weeks. I guess we've officially entered the home stretch!

Another Week Closer to the Finish Line...

Here's what's happening during Week 27 of your pregnancy:

Your baby weighs about two pounds and is about 12 to 15 inches long, about the size of a small pot roast. If your baby were born now, he would have an excellent chance (85 percent) of surviving. He still isn't fully formed and would probably not be able to breath by himself. He would need to stay in an incubator to keep his body temperature regulated, and he would have a weak liver and immune system. (Fact: Babies have more taste buds at birth than they will have later in life. Newborns can sniff out and tell the difference between their mother's milk and someone else's.)

Breakfast with Santa

This past weekend, Baby Metros got to meet Santa for the first time. We're pretty sure Baby is on the nice list and Santa will bring the little angel all kinds of great presents. Hopefully Santa remembers Mommy has been very good, too! :)

Our Baby Registry

We just got back from creating our baby registry. We spent 2 hours at Babies R Us picking out all kinds of gear. There is so much to choose from. We're not even done yet. We only picked out the big things like a crib, car seat, bedding, and high chair. Thank goodness we did this as a team. Nick picked out everything. I didn't have to make one decision, which is exactly the way I like it. He even picked out my diaper bag :) He's the best husband/daddy-to-be in the whole world. If you're interested in seeing what we've added to the registry so far, head on over to http://babiesrus.com and check it out!

26 Weeks Down, Only 14 More To Go

Here's what's happening during Week 26 of your pregnancy:

Your baby weighs about 1 1/2 pounds and has undergone a growth spurt in the past few weeks. From weeks twenty to twenty-eight, she almost doubles in height and now would be about a foot tall if she could stand. This week marks a major milestone in your baby's hearing and sight. Your baby's hearing system (cochlea and peripheral sensory end organs), which began fine development during week eighteen, is now completely formed, and over the next few weeks, she'll become increasingly sensitive to sound. In about a month, you'll feel her jump if she hears a sudden loud noise. Sound passes easily into your uterus, which helps her ears develop. Her eyes are almost fully formed. Did you know that all babies have blue eyes in the womb, no matter what their genetic inheritance is? A baby's eyes don't get their final color until a few months after they are born. The air sacs of the lungs, called alveoli, will be developed by the end of this week and will begin to secrete a substance called surfactant that keeps the lung tissue from sticking together.

2nd Trimester Ultrasound/5th Doctor Visit

Well, we're a little behind in our posting, but here are the photos from our 2nd trimester ultrasound. We had so much fun going to this appointment. There were definitely a lot of smiles and maybe even a few tears of joy :) Our beautiful baby was a little bit camera shy (or maybe stubborn like his/her mother), but we were able to get a few good shots. Baby Metros measured in at about 5 1/2" and tipped the scales at 15 oz. Oh...and we did say he/she, we're not going to find out the sex until the little bundle of joy shows up in March. Anyways, sorry for the delay in posting. Hope you all enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/npmetros/2ndTrimesterUltrasound#

Halloween

We wanted to post a couple of photos of us from Halloween...we dressed up as our niece and nephew, Anthony and Isabella...

Birthday Celebration

We celebrated our birthdays with family over a few weeks ago and since many of our friends who live out of town have been asking for pregnancy photos, we thought that we'd post a couple. This first photo is of me, my dad, and our niece Isabella acting crazy! :-) This photo is of me right around 20 weeks pregnant...the half way mark!!

This one is of me and my best friends...also known as my sisters! :-)

Exercise

So, I have been giving myself and our baby some much needed exercise by attending prenatal water aerobics and yoga at the YMCA. The water aerobics is by far the best thing that I could be doing right now, it is so much fun and as many of you know I just absolutely love the water! The added benefit to this class is that I get to interact with other moms, I am the only one in the class pregnant with my first. They give me lots of insight and much needed laughter. I am also participating in yoga for the first time in my life and have found what an amazing experience it is! I love, love, love it!! The instructor, Marilyn is so accommodating for my pregnancy and I always leave the class feeling relaxed and refreshed. It is such a nice treat for me and for the baby. My hope is that my wonderful husband will watch our newborn as I take some me time and continue with the yoga class after the baby is born...I have a feeling I am going to need it! However, those of you who know Nick well know he will probably be pushing me out the door to go to the class! :-)

Thank You

We want to send an overdue thank you to Aunt Lolly, Uncle Tony, and cousins Austin and Dillon for their beautiful and thoughtful gift. From them we received the sweetest ultrasound photo frame. I have never seen anything like it and we just absolutely love it! Tomorrow we go for our long awaited second trimester ultrasound, so we are really looking forward to having a clearer picture to place in it!!

We would also like to thank Papa and Nana Gonzalez and Uncle Kevin for the really cute "neutral" outfits and baby towel that we received...we love them and they match many of the gifts we have already received...this baby is so blessed! Thank you so much for already outfitting this baby before he or she is ever born! :-)

I would also like to personally thank my mom for spending some one-on-one much needed maternity clothes shopping time with me. The funniest thing about shopping with my mom is that she will leave no stone unturned and be certain that we saw everything the store had to offer...she's a blast to shop with! As I stood in the fitting room on that afternoon of power shopping with her I was just about brought to tears thinking of how much I am thankful to have her along for this journey...these are some of the most precious times in a girl's life and it just makes you realize how much you truly need a mom...I LOVE YOU MOM!!

4th Doctor Visit

We had our 4th visit to the doctor yesterday. Mom and baby both checked out great again. The baby's heartbeat was still holding steady in the 150s. We scheduled our next appointment for Nov. 13 and we will get to have our 2nd trimester ultrasound taken during that visit.

3rd Anniversary at Lighthouse Restaurant

I was going through our photos and found this photo of us back in July celebrating our 3rd Anniversary....completely oblivious that we were pregnant but definitely hopeful all the same. How fitting that we would be positioned for the photo right in front of the highchairs! :-)

Cards, emails, & phone calls

We want to personally thank everyone who has either sent a card, email, or phone call our way with all their well wishes about our pregnancy. We intend to post all of the emails and save the cards for our baby book so that our child can see how loved he or she was even from the beginning!

Gifts from Grandma & Grandpa Metros

We would like to send a special thank you to Grandma and Grandpa Metros for the beautiful Winnie-the-Pooh tie blankie made lovingly by Grandma Metros...we have a feeling it is going to be a favorite some day! In addition, their grandchild received from them the book titled, "The Complete Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh," which we also think will become a staple! Thank you, thank you! In the link below there are photos of the gifts, as well as the bib that Aunt Deanna purchased for the baby!

http://picasaweb.google.com/npmetros/BabyGiftsFromAuntDeannaAndGrandpaGrandmaMetros?authkey=Gv1sRgCPzthfCosrXLzwE#

Baby Gifts from Grandma and Papa Stochel

So, less than 24 hours after we announced our news, Grandma Stochel came over with her arms loaded full of goodies. You'll have to take a look at the pictures via the link below and let us know if you think she's excited!?

http://picasaweb.google.com/npmetros/BabyGiftsFromGrandmaPapaStochel#

She also showed up the next day with an awesome pregnancy journey...so much fun filling it out! Nick also received a box set of books containing a book for the new dad to-be and also a book about the toddler years...fun! In all seriousness...she's the best!! We are so thankful that we have her along for this journey. Oh, Aunt Deanna also showed up with a bib that says, "I love my Auntie." Our child is already so blessed!

3rd Doctor Visit

We had our 3rd visit to the doctor today. Mom & baby are both healthy & well. We got to hear the baby's heartbeat with the Doppler monitor. The heart rate was around 150 beats per minute. It was very exciting, we were both speechless and had huge smiles. The doctor told us the old wives' tale was that a heart beat over 140 means you're having a girl. Guess we'll have to wait and see. We have another appointment in 4 weeks on Dad's birthday!

Do You Want to Know a Secret?

After 13 weeks of tight-lipped secrecy, we finally let our family in on the fun of our upcoming "labor day" over Labor Day weekend. We had redone our deck, so we invited everyone over for a cookout to enjoy the new digs. Our parents, sisters with their significant others, niece and nephew were all there. After an hour of chit-chatting, we told everyone we had a game to play and passed out cards that had "the couples' name you'd be playing against" on them. Here's a copy of the card (in case you're wondering, this is Daisy's happy face!):

After a little confusion (are they getting another dog?), there was a lot of hugging and tears of joy. We had a pretty awesome cake made up for the occasion, too. Check out all of the photos here http://picasaweb.google.com/npmetros/LaborDayPregnancyAnnouncementCookout#

2nd Doctor Visit

We had our second visit to the doctor at 11 weeks on August 20th. Mom & baby were both progressing well. We had our first ultrasound and you could see the baby's heart flutter on the screen. Definitely one of the proudest and coolest moments in our lives. Here is our baby's first photo (on the left side of picture):

1st Doctor Visit

We had our first visit to the doctor on July 23rd. The doctor confirmed that the home pregnancy tests were accurate (Priscilla was still doubtful). She dated the pregnancy at 7 weeks and calculated our due date as March 17, 2010. Guess we'll have a lucky charm for St. Patrick's Day!

Flowers for the Mommy-to-be

For all of you that were by the house and wondered why Priscilla got that big bouquet of roses, she does deserve them just because. However, Nick brought these home with the card on Monday after we found out the big news.

Should I Take Another One?

During the week of July 6th, we started to get the feeling something might be up. On July 12th, when Priscilla made her first trip to the bathroom in the morning, we took a home pregnancy test. After waiting a couple of minutes, Nick went in to read the results, and this is what he saw:


He came out of the bathroom smiling ear to ear and shaking his head yes. Even though the instructions said the test was over 99% accurate, and the lines could be any shade of blue and didn't have to match, Priscilla still wasn't convinced. So, she headed out to Walgreens in Cedar Lake (couldn't go in CP, in case she ran into one of her Mom's friends) to get another test. After seeing the results, she asked "Do you think I should take the last one?"

The Secret is Finally Out!

Hey everyone! If you're here reading this, obviously you now know our little secret. We found out about our little bun in the oven way back on July 12th, but didn't let anyone else in on the fun until Labor Day weekend. Needless to say, a lot happened during those first 13 weeks, so over the next couple days we'll put up some posts of the highlights of that first trimester to catch everyone up. Hopefully this will allow all of you a chance to share in that initial period of excitement, while missing out on the not-so-exciting stuff (morning sickness...ugghh, shouldn't they call it "all-day sickness"). So, make sure you check back for updates often, and we'll make sure to not keep too many more secrets to ourselves over the next few months!