20 week update

Almost to 20 weeks! It's pretty hard to believe, that's for sure. I can remember when we first found out at 5 weeks, then going into 7-14 weeks with all the nausea...halfway through the pregnancy seemed terribly far away! I've been getting all sorts of little "love bumps" recently also. Yesterday, baby sammy was kicking (hitting or head bumping) me on the right side only. It seems she's moved over more to the middle and the left side to switch it up a bit. Apparently she's quite the spontaneous baby. ;)

We recently took a quick trip out to Connecticut to visit our new niece, Alexis. She is an absolute doll. She and baby Sammy are going to be great friends!

Now, we're in Portage for Steve's 10 year reunion and a White Sox game. We went for a fun hike this morning out to Lake Michigan. Max (and the rest of us) had so much fun playing in the water. He's now taking a nap...and I think I might join him. That was a lot of excitement for us!

Hope everyone has a good rest of the weekend!

It's a girl!!

We had our "extensive" ultrasound today...how exciting! Baby girl Sammy is a mover and a shaker. She was dancing all over the place! The nurse who completed the ultrasound and the MD who reviewed the pictures said that everything looked great! She's slightly big for her due date, but that just means she's growing well.

Needless to say, we're very excited and I've already started looking at girl clothes, bedding, etc. :) We can't wait to meet her!!

Pink or Blue?

Just a couple more days until our exciting appointment! Hopefully, we'll get to find out if Baby Sammy is a girl or a boy. I really have no feeling yet one way or the other. Steve really doesn't have a vote one way or the other either at this point. So, we'll see!
On a different note, at about 17 1/2 weeks I'm feeling pretty good as far any kind of morning sickness goes. I feel like everytime I've said something like that, starting at about 12 weeks...the next day isn't a good day. We'll just pretend I didn't say that then!?
Hope everyone has a great weekend!

A +

Baby Sammy passed his/her first test this week! We elected to do the AFP (alpha-fetoprotein) screening. It's a substance produced by the baby and if larger-than-normal amounts are found in the mother's bloodstream, it could indicate an abnormality. All bloodwork came back normal! On a different note, I woke up last night with the worst cramp in my calf that I've ever experienced! As I'm yelling, "ow, ow, ow..." poor steve is trying to figure out what's wrong and Max woke up and started whining. All I could get out was, "my leg, my leg, pull my foot back toward me." Looking back, I'm sure it was quite the funny scene, but at the time, it was a little painful. I guess I need to make sure I'm getting my potassium and calcium!

And...baby makes three!

Well, baby makes five, that is if you count opie and max as children...which we do! :) Anyway, some exciting news at the Samuel household; we're expecting a baby in December. We're very excited, nervous, elated, etc. In about three weeks we'll get to find out what we're having - so likely we'll start looking a little more intently at names and all sorts of fun baby "stuff."