Boy oh Boy!

Bring on the hand-me-downs!



On Monday, April 20th we had our ultrasound and found out that we are having a BOY!
We also found out that our baby is a little stubborn and did not cooperate much during this ultrasound, hence we do not have any fun pictures to show off from the ultrasound. In order to peek at the sex of the baby the ultrasound tech had to sneak her wand under his but and look in between his legs!

If you look hard enough you can see the femur bone laying parallel to the bottom of the screen. The Left foot is hanging out in the black space and there is a little "thing" sticking up from the bottom right corner of the screen...


On Friday, April 17th while I was watching Baby Gabe, I had the pleasure of feeling the baby move around for the first time. I have now felt it frequently since and am still getting used to that tickling/poking feeling! On Saturday, April 18th while we were watching TV, Tyler and I both got to see the little flutters appear on my stomach!

Tyler expressing his excitement! Tyler also bought this balloon and one that says "It's a Girl!" and then subsequently popped the "It's a Girl!" balloon when we got home!

Baby's (apparently) Moving!

Since I have nothing else exciting going on in life except carrying this babe inside,
here's another baby update:

I had my 18 week Dr. appointment today and baby is a moving!
The Doppler picked up all sorts of whooshing, moving sounds, but I still have yet to feel a thing. Baby's heart beat is 150 today.

AND we get to find out on MONDAY "what we are having"!!!

So stay tuned...

Turning 23

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

That's the question these days that most are constantly asked in life. I remember being asked this countless times throughout Jr. High, High School, and more recently in applying for jobs after college.

I turned 23 on Saturday and cannot say I would have said yes if someone would have asked me 10 years ago if I would have my first child at 23. I would have said yes if the age would have been 25, but not 23 (Big difference 2 years makes, huh? haha). I have dealt with people being shocked finding out that I was married at 20 and now at 23 have been married for over 2 years. I have a feeling that the same will happen when I meet new people and tell them I am 23, have been married for over 2 years, and am having my first child.

Why is the world obsessed with age and stereotypes about what people should be doing at a particular age?

I have often dreaded when people notice that I am married and then more often that not ask, "how old are you?" or "you don't look old enough to be married". I have even thought about lying and not telling people my true age because I feel it is not their place to judge me and my life choices. One of my more significant memories of this is when I had a conversation with my manager at work and somehow ended up telling her that I was 20 when I got married. To this she responded, "I was 20 too, with my first marriage, and that's why it didn't last long".

Here are my thoughts on my age: I do not feel I have ever truly acted my age in retrospect to the stereotype. I skipped my Sr. High prom because I felt I was already "over" high school. My family and I even had a "death to high school" themed graduation party for me instead of the typical celebration party for graduation. I believe we joked about that for weeks and then decided against it because most others attending would not have gotten our humor. Instead of taking fun trips or time off on the summers during college, I was doing summer school and still working which led me to graduating a semester early from college.

I do feel that my family has greatly influenced my decisions to marry and have a family early. As most know, my sister, Julie is my best friend and has the most adorable baby (see below). I do not believe that sibling rivalry has led me to keep up with her in life, but more admiring the lives that my siblings have and wanting to be a part of it with them. I do not want to experience these joys of life 10 years later than them. And let's face it, "Tyler's not getting any younger!"

(This is the best picture from my birthday. Anytime we go out to eat with Gabe he finds the edge of the table to bite down on - must make his teeth feel better! Come on' Gabey, cut one already!!)

In ten years...

I will be 33 and a mother of at least a 10 year (God willing) probably toting him/her off to a sports practice of some sort (not basketball b/c wrong season, maybe baseball?). I may also have a 7 year old and 5 year old? Who knows how many kids we'll have or their ages - guess we'll see how much trouble Baby Tracy is ;) Our family will love still having Brody around (sorry Aaron, but he should be much better trained by then!) Not sure where we will live, not sure where we will be working, and honestly don't really care to plan ahead 10 years ;)

In other news:

At 16 5/7 weeks, Baby Tracy is hopefully doing well. I have had numerous people ask me, "how's baby doing?". Honestly people, sorry, I have no idea! I know how I'm doing and I'm still not feeling any "side effects" of pregnancy. I am not as tired anymore. Still squeezing into my regular clothes (not for much longer) and am noticing a definite baby bump starting to protrude. My mom took Julie and I shopping for some maternity clothes (for me, not Julie!) which was fun but a definite realization that I will actually be wearing those soon! I will be going for another visit to Dr. Card on Tuesday, April 14th. At that appt. I will be 18 weeks and am not sure when she will decide to do the ultrasound so we can see what gender I am bringing into this world!

Here is my baby bump shot at 16 weeks (mainly so Grandma Fay can see there is indeed a little baby starting to grow)...

Baby Mama

Baby Mama!
(lots to catch up on - can't believe it's already been 5 weeks!)

Well, I did say I would start a blog once I had a child and had something to blog about. I guess that day came sooner than I thought ;)

Thursday, Feb 11th 2009: I had an upcoming Dr. appt for Friday, 2/13 to discuss fertility with my Dr. I had previously been told that we would have more difficulty with fertility due to my thyroid condition and extremely irregular menstrual cycles. So the night of Tuesday, Feb. 10 Tyler told me to take a pregnancy test in the am because "you know your dr. will on friday anyway" (She always takes a pregnancy test before she does anything with me because I am so irregular). Anywho on Wednesday am I took a test and it was positive. In complete disbelief I called Tyler who had just left for work and told him he should come home. Tyler was then annoyed with me because he had just left, but when he realized what I had done that morning he said his mood changed to being excited to get home! I went out to walmart that afternoon to buy more pregnanacy tests and took another one in the pm that was positive as well.

Thursday, Feb 12th, 2009: I still did not believe that I could be pregnant and took yet another test which of course, was positive (see below)



Friday, Feb. 13, 2009: I kept my dr. appt and when I told her that I thought I was pregnant she wanted to confirm it with a blood test. Before being sent to the lab she said "If you're pregnant, I think it will be a miracle (well, yes I know all pregnancies are miracles!)... It was confirmed! Baby on the way!

Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2009: Can't believe it's already been 1 month since we got to see the first ultrasound of our baby! We were told by the ultrasound tech that we probably wouldn't get to see the baby because I probably wasn't the far along... Another surprise to us that the image on the ultrasound definitely looked like a baby and was a 10 week old baby non-the-less...


Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009: 12 weeks along and hardly any symptoms of pregnancy: the only one really being increased tiredness! Today we had our 1st Dr. appt with Dr. Card whom we have absolutely fallen in love with! We (Amanda) chose to go to a family practice physician who also does OB/GYN and can deliver babies because Amanda gets a little sick of hospital physicians and how they do things! Good news: got to hear the baby's heart beat: 160 -
which has Grandma Fay thinking it's a girl...
Bad news: Amanda got scolded for losing weight in her first trimester (didn't know I was pregnant and wasn't hungry so I probably didn't eat as much as I should have)

Tuesday, March 17th, 2009: 14 weeks along - Happy St. Patty's Day little Irish one! Nana Stroh has already bought you a St. Patty's Day onsie for you to wear next year! Had my 2nd appt with Dr. Card (she wanted me back in 2 weeks because of my weight loss). Gained 4 pounds everyone so all is well! Good things happen when you start eating knowing it's not just for you anymore ;) Heard baby's heart beat again and still holding strong at 160 bpm!

Well that's all for now! More exciting baby news to come and can't wait to find out if you are a boy or girl!!