Baby Smith - Coming Soon!

We are finally expecting a baby! We've already told all of our friends and family and even posted it on facebook, so I might as well put it on the blog and make it official. As I am nearing the end of the first trimester, things are going well. Besides being very sleepy and having a lot of nausia, everything has been great. We met with our specialist doctor several times and have already had 2 ultrasounds. Because everything is looking good, we have now been released to go back to my regular OB doctor.

Baby Smith is due on December 23, 2009 - it should be an interesting Christmas! My next doctor's appointment will be on June 3rd. We should be able to find out the baby's sex at the beginning of August or maybe even the end of July. We have decided that we definitely want to find out if it's a boy or a girl. We have lots of ideas already for decorating the nursery.

For now, we are just enjoying these last 6 months before the baby is here. We know our lives will never be the same. We have plans to take care of some projects around the house this summer - mainly landscaping and hoping to finish the basement. Then by the fall we will be able to get working on the baby's room.

For anyone who has tried to have a baby, you know it is all about the timing. I knew I wasn't suppose to take a pregnancy test until the Wednesday after Easter, but I thought it would be really cool to find out I was pregnant on Easter, so I cheated and took my first test then. We were thrilled when we saw the VERY faint positive line on the test. I kept taking tests each day, and as you can see, the positive line kept getting darker. Good news for us!

6 weeks - our first ultrasound was at 6 weeks. The baby is that little white dot inside of the black circle. Just about the size of a grain of rice - maybe a little smaller. At this appointment we found out that we would be having one baby (because my numbers had been multiplying so rapidly, there was a thought that I might have been having more than one) but they are sure now that it is just one. At 6 weeks the baby's heartbeat was at 107 which was great news.

8 weeks - Our second ultrasound was at 8 weeks. It was amazing to see how much the baby grew in just 2 weeks time! Now it is just about an inch long. You can see the very obvious shape of the head, rump and legs in this picture. At this checkup we learned the baby's heartbeat was at 166 - more good news! The Dr. told us it was a keeper and we could go ahead and share the news with everyone.

The baby is still growing and even bigger yet. I'm not really showing yet and haven't gained any weight (Thank you Lord.) but I am happy to be finishing up the first trimester. Second trimester starts on June 10th. We will try to keep the blog updated and let everyone know how things are progressing! We are very excited for Christmas this year - even if there is a chance we may still be stuck in the hospital!

We love nice weather

Monday, May 18th we were lucky to enjoy some beautiful weather. My sister Lisa stopped by to help us put out and clean our deck furniture and put out our new grill. Here you can see Den cooking our lunch on the new grill - hot dogs, onions and mac and cheese. Mmmm. :) We spent the entire day outside and enjoyed every minute of the wonderful weather.

Bam Bam

Rusty Noodleman

Belfry

And even Iris came out to catch some rays.

Anniversary Weekend

May, 19th was our 3rd anniversary. We decided to do something special for our anniversary since we don't have any big trips planned for this year. We went downtown and stayed at the newly remodeled Four Seasons Ritz Carlton. Everything was great. When we checked in, they upgraded our room. The service was impeccable and our stay was very comfortable. We went out during the day and when we came back, they surprised us with a complimentary bottle of champagne and chocolate covered strawberries. If you are ever looking to splurge on a weekend away, I would definitely recommend the Ritz.

Even the elevators have elegant chandaliers.

Den waiting for me in the spa waiting area.

Our room

Super comfy bed - really makes me want to get a King size bed.

The view from our room - you can see the lake out there between the buildings. A few people were out sailing since it was a fairly nice day.

When we came back from shopping at Water Tower, they had this waiting for us. Mmmm.

Since I couldn't have any alcohol, Den sprung me some ginger ale from the mini bar. It looks kind of the same.

Den's lunch - so maybe a burger isn't worth $20, but they tried to make up for it with a fancy appearance and yummy homemade ketchup.

My lunch = a veggie panini (which I really didn't care for - too much egg) and some carrot ginger soup (too spicy)

Later on I ordered a bowl of chicken noodle soup from room service. I was just expecting a little bowl of soup. When this entire cart arrived, I was pretty surprised.