Pink Pink Pink

Now that we know we are having a little girl, we have started to plan for everything that is girlish and pink, including her name. We've decided to keep the nursery wall color as is (a light yellow) and search for nursery bedding that is pink. This search started the day we found out the gender and lasted for two hours on the Internet that night. Unfortunately, our little one has picky parents, and we just couldn't find bedding that we absolutely loved...at least, bedding that wasn't super expensive. It was so cute how Jeff just could not find the right pattern for her room. Nothing was quite right. Everything he looked at was either too busy, the wrong pink, too much pink, or cheap looking. She won't be spoiled, will she? We also went to buy her her first outfit, but once again we could not find the perfect thing so we gave up, figuring that it wouldn't be too long before her little room was full of clothes and toys and anything else she could ever want.

We have also narrowed our name pool down to three names. Our favorite right now is Lily Grace. We mostly love this name simply because we think it's cute, but lilies are also Jeff's favorite flower, and we have them planted all over our yard. After calling her Lily for the last couple days, we awoke to a sign that this should probably be her name when we saw that a large lily had bloomed out of season in our backyard. It has to be a sign! Right? Our other favorites are Grace Elizabeth and Maggie Grace. Lily likes to kick for Jeff when he talks at night, so he decided to test the names out on her the other night. She kicked like crazy for Grace, but the problem is we don't know if that means that she loves it or hates it. It's so weird how she always kicks the most for Jeff. Whenever he is sitting next to me and talking she will wake up and start kicking. Hard! I don't know if it is just a coincidence or if she really does know and like the sound of his voice or not, but she will not kick for anyone else. My mom's best friend Liz has been waiting--poised at my belly for weeks--to feel just one kick, and she has yet to feel one. This baby is a stinker. And for now she is Lily...and this may or may not change, depending upon whether we can figure out if all the kicking means she likes the name or not.

It's a....

Today Jeff and I went in for our 20 week sonogram and to find out the gender of the baby. I woke up at 4 am because I was so excited and couldn't wait for our 8 am appointment. I woke Jeff up as well...he wasn't quite as excited. As we were getting dressed and ready to leave, we both had mixed emotions on whether we wanted to know the gender anymore. We have been so set on it the entire pregnancy, but when it came time we both felt nervous and anxious all at once. We arrived at the doctor's office before it even opened and sat in the waiting room for a good 15 minutes before they called us back. I brought a glass of Mt. Dew with me so we could make sure the baby was up and moving when it came time for the big moment. They finally called us back at 8:15 am, and right away the nurse found the heart and told us that the heart was so perfect it could be in a book. That was great news to hear! Then, as our baby was being so cooperative, she looked at the brain and the spine and the other organs. Everything was in place and working properly. It was amazing to see all the parts of our little baby! We even got a great picture of the profile of the face. Then, after identifying all of the body parts for us, the nurse turned and asked the big question..."Do you wanna know?" We both hesitated momentarily, and she took the opportunity to share her personal thoughts on the matter. "You don't want to know....it's your first, let it be a surprise, " she said. We had been waiting a long time to know, however, and this seemed to be all the push we needed. We both answered that yes, we wanted to know the gender, and the nurse proceeded to tell us that we'd be having a healthy baby girl! Jeff and I are both so excited and happy. The news of the baby's good health was all we needed to hear, and learning it's a girl was just a bonus to the day.

1st time pregnancy worries

So far, I have been pretty calm about all the aches, pains, twitches, and sick feelings I have experienced during pregnancy. All the changes are weird and make me worry a little, but I usually get over it pretty fast by reading in my books about the different symptoms or the symptoms pass after a short while and I know that it is just part of pregnancy. Today, however, was my first scary experience that led to a call into Dr. Thorton's office. I was sitting in our staff meeting and all of sudden I started to feel dizzy and my vision and hearing became blurry. I knew right away that I was about to pass out so I excused myself from the meeting and went to my office where I sat down and put my feet up. I then broke out in a terrible sweat. Soon it passed and I felt a little better, but a little concerned as well. With no book at arms reach to tell me whether this incident was normal, I decided to call a nurse to make sure it was not anything to worry about. Luckily, the nurse told me that I just had not eaten enough and that my baby is growing so much right now I need to make sure I am eating more and more often. It was a hectic morning and all I had eaten was an English muffin with peanut butter, which I figured would tide me over until I found something more substantial, but apparently it did not. I have learned my lesson and will be sure to make more for breakfast every morning.

* belly at 19 weeks

Backstage at the Show

This picture is from the Pat Benatar concert last night. I got to work my first meet and greet with the performer and this is a picture of My boss Mike, Jane our box office manager, Pat Benatar, Shannon our ops manager, Melissa and Me (can't even tell I'm pregnant). Pat Benatar and her husband Neil did a meet and greet before the show and were very nice and cool people. Their concert was a great and successful show as well. I only made it through 4 of her songs before I needed to go home and go to bed since I had been at work since 8:30AM. However, the highlight of my night was meeting her and listening to her sound check earlier in the day. She still ROCKS!