Baby Lok's Room

The baby's room is nearing completion. The crib and dresser are painted and assembled, the bedding is complete and the curtains are hung. Thanks to my dear husband for his handy work and patience!! A few more details and we will be ready. Below are the pictures of the progress. Click on them to view larger.

37 Week update - Only 3(ish) more to go!

Derek and I went this morning for our 37 week checkup and everything continues to move along relatively smoothly. She has a strong heartbeat, is turned head down, and based on measuring my belly her size is right on track for this stage. Mitra, the midwife we met with this morning, said that since my blood pressure is normal I don’t need to be concerned with the swelling of my feet and ankles. Cause for concern would be if the swelling moves above the knees or if I notice puffiness in my face/eyes. She said overall I am doing very well for being 37 weeks pregnant in the middle of the summer in Atlanta.

As far as when they will induce, she said that if she has not come by 40 weeks they will then do an ultrasound. This, along with how dilated/effaced I am, will help them determine if I should wait it out another week or if they need to induce then to avoid putting stress on the baby. So that means she may just arrive while Suz is taking the bar exam on the 28th and 29th, but keep your fingers crossed that we don’t go that far past the 20th!

We don’t really have any indications that she might come early, but Derek has installed the car seat base in one car and is going to do the other one this weekend. I am going to pack my bag this weekend just to be on the safe side. Other than those last few things I think we are pretty much prepared for this baby to arrive. Now we just need to decide on a name!!!

Surprise!

Let me start by saying that my coworkers are great people. We have weathered a lot together since the departure of a few members of our group last December, but we have all leaned on each other for support over the last few months and have become better friends as a result.



In any case, last Friday I was scheduled to have a lunch meeting with my department head and an underwriter to discuss an account renewal. Around 11:30 another member of my team came by to let me know that the underwriter had arrived and was waiting for me in the conference room. So we walked down there together and opened the door, but in place of the underwriter stood all the members of my practice group. Surprise!!! I looked around the room at all the smiling faces and balloons, and I suddenly realized that I had been duped—there was no lunch meeting, and instead they had brought lunch into the office and were throwing me a surprise baby shower! What fun!!! Needless to say I was stunned. I couldn’t believe how sneaky they were. We had a great time eating pizza and cupcakes together as a team, as it had been a while since we had lunch all together. Below are some pictures of our little shindig.

Still in shock!

Cute cupcakes!

You can never have too many gas drops!

33 Week Bump

Only 7 weeks to go!!!!

30 Weeks: Heart Burn and...Morning Sickness?

This past Monday marked 30 weeks of pregnancy. Woo hoo! So far everything has been moving along relatively smoothly with the exception of a touch of mild heart burn that I developed around week 27. There is an easy solution for that though--TUMS, my new best friend.

So as I said earlier, I'm sailing right along through week 30. Wednesday morning I wake at my usual time, eat my usual breakfast, gulp down a large glass of water with my prenatal vitamin and proceed to the bathroom to take my shower. About 5 minutes later I am racing to turn off the water and fighting to open the shower curtain just in time to see aforementioned breakfast exit my stomach. After 30 weeks of pregnancy with no sickness I finally got to experience what so many of my fellow pregnant friends went through during their first trimesters...and I do not envy them one bit! After a quick call to the doc to make sure there was no need for concern I went on my merry way and haven't looked back.

Next on the agenda: Little Girl Lok goes to Athens for her Aunt Suzannah's law school graduation and then on to the beach for a week. Hopefully we will take some pictures worth sharing and I will post them when we return on Memorial Day weekend.

24 Week Bump

This past Wednesday I had my 24-week checkup. This was the one where I had the "privilege" of chugging a bottle of super-concentrated orange-flavored sugar water so that they can evaluate my body's reaction. I haven't received the results yet, but hopefully they will determine that I am not at risk for gestational diabetes. While we wait, here are some pictures of the growing belly taken today. Enjoy!

HICCUPS!

Early on Sunday morning around 5:00am I felt our little girl truly moving around for the first time! I have been feeling little bitty movements for the last few weeks (which were easily confused with indigestion!) but what woke me up Sunday morning was totally different. As a matter of fact it felt like our baby had a case of the hiccups! For about 2 minutes I felt regular little "jumps" inside my belly. A strange sensation for sure, but very sweet and exciting at the same time.

It's Nursery Time!

Now that we know we will be welcoming a little girl into our lives come late July it is time to start decorating the baby's room. I am really excited about this part of the process (much more fun than putting on clothes to find they no longer fit!) but as most of you know I can be quite the procrastinator, as well as a "tad" indecisive when it comes to decorating. So I have once again enlisted the discerning eye of my sister-in-law Randall. She has played a large part in getting our house where it is now, so I am excited that she is also on board with the baby's room. Below is a sample of the fabric that I am going to use for the crib skirt and a few other accent pieces. I bought paint samples yesterday so my goal for the weekend is to get those up on the wall and make a decision. I think having a set goal date is the key to motivating me to get it done!

Baby Bump

At last, here is a picture of Little Lok.

21 weeks pregnant, or just over 5 months.

(Ignore the weird expressions on my face.)

Telling the Family

After Derek and I had dinner together our families (including some special guests from CT) came over to the house for cocktails and cupcakes so we could tell them the big news in person. I think they would have been happy with either a boy or girl, but they were definitely surprised to hear we are going to bring a little girl into the world. Below are a few pics from the evening.

The Big Announcement

The Grandmas The Grandpas

Al & Mom

The Fam

Words of Wisdom

IT'S A...

For those of you that don't know, on Monday, March 2nd Derek and I arrived at the doctors office for our 20-week ultrasound appointment. We both had really been looking forward to this appointment for several weeks since we were about to find out our baby's gender. Well, nature had a different plan, because when we checked in at the desk I was informed that the ultrasound tech hadn't made it into the office because of the 2 inches of snow we received the day before. What a disapointment! I thought I was going to CRY! But we met with the doctor as planned and afterward the girl at the front desk said she could fit us in for an ultrasound at 3:30 that afternoon...at the Johns Creek office almost 40 minutes away. We both had our hearts set on finding out that day so we took the appointment.

So after a crazy afternoon full of doctors offices, disapointment and driving we finally saw our baby kicking and squirming on the ultrasound screen. We asked the ultrasound tech not to tell us the gender though, but to write it down on a card for us to open later. We arrived at dinner with our card in hand, ordered a few cocktails (or mocktails in my case) and I handed the card to Derek for him to open. Boy were we surprised to see that it read "It's a GIRL!" So now our dear Derek is surrounded by females: Alex, Kitty, Sadie and now baby!

16 Week Appointment

Today we went in for our 16 week appointment. We met with one of the midwives, who was very informative and easy to talk to, and she explained to us the differences between delivering with a midwife and delivering with a doctor. A friend of mine who goes to the same OB-GYN practice used a doctor for her first pregnancy and a midwife for her second and highly recommended the midwife given how much more attentive they are. We have several more weeks before we have to make a final decision, but after our visit today we both agreed that a midwife may be the direction we take.

We were able to hear the baby's heartbeat again today, which is always reassuring. The midwife said that within the next few weeks I should be able to feel little flutters of movement!! I cannot even imagine what that will be like.

Our next appointment is on March 2nd and we will find out whether we are having a boy or a girl. I know we are both really excited about that.

Alex Meets Elastic

I never thought I would see the day when I wore pants with an elastic waistband to the office...but that day has arrived. I finally broke down and purchased my first (and only, to date) pair of maternity pants over the weekend after I caught sight of myself in the full length mirror in the office restroom last week. It's one thing to leave that top button undone on my pre-pregnancy pants, but when I realized that I couldn't even get the zipper half way up I decided the time had come to take drastic measures.

So on Saturday I ventured into the new Target at the Prado and found my way to the maternity section. I selected a pair of pants that I deemed suitable for the office and took them to the dressing room. I must have been caught up in the excitement of buying something baby-related because at the time I thought the black slacks looked nice...even a little flattering; however, when I arrived to work wearing them yesterday morning I felt far from attractive in my big elastic waist pants! The girls in my department were very sweet about it though and told me that I would be more comfortable in these. I think that was just a nice way of saying they were glad I was through trying to stuff myself like a sausage into my pre-pregnancy garb!!! Let's face it--that look is not becoming on anyone! Whatever the case, they did make me feel better and I made it through the day.

So far I have only purchased the one pair of pants, but I am aware that more are in my near future. So to that I say that I will wear them out of sheer necessity, but I am NOT going to like them!!!

First Trimester Screening Photo Op

Baby Lok ultrasound pics taken on January 7, 2009, approximately 12 1/2 weeks along. Baby was being difficult (I have a feeling that won't end once he or she leaves the womb) and was upside down, making it hard to get measurements.

Pic 1 is a close up profile shot of the head with hand next to mouth. Amazing how you can see outline of the mouth and nose.

In Pic 2 you can see the feet to the left and slightly higher than the head which is on the right.

In Pic 3 you can see baby is almost doing a complete head stand! If this is any indication is looks like we are in for a wild ride!!!