I am feeling so far behind with Lily's baby book, pictures, writing down special milestones, blogging, etc. I have this endless list of projects and goals I want to accomplish and I think maybe that's the problem. There are so many things I want to do that I end up not doing any of them because I am so overwhelmed and don't know where to begin. It's time to get it together!
Every little moment and milestone with Lily has been and is so very special. We are loving it. I am going to try to play catch up and post some special things about Miss Lily starting from the beginning. I am excited to reminisce and share with you all things lily!
This first picture might be TMI for some, sorry, but I feel like it kind of captures just how excited I was to find out I was pregnant. Giddy is written all over this way too, up close and personal shot of my face. I took this picture wanting to remember how amazing and miraculous it felt reading the positive pregnancy results on the 7 million tests I took. I especially loved the ones that actually read, pregnant. Yes, I took every kind they make but this kind in particular was my favorite. I just kept taking them over and over again doing a goofy and giddy little jig each time I read the word pregnant on the screen.
Soon after the news began to set in and we told our family, I became a nervous reck. It seemed like all I could think about was something bad happening to our miracle. One afternoon, I ended up driving myself to the ER. It was the day before Thanksgiving, my Dr.'s office had already closed and I felt desperate to know that everything was okay. I was only about 5, 6 , 7 weeks along. I can't remember for sure. They checked me out, hooked me up to oxygen, the whole nine yards. Houston showed up and a nurse wheeled me to have an ultrasound. Oh and by the way, this little trip wasn't cheap. So the Dr. does her best to find our little one and can't see anything. So rather than making me feel better, this very expensive event ended up making things worse. I was reassured that it was just too early yadda, yadda. I did get to go back the next day to get the results to the blood work and was excited to see that my levels were good and greatly climbing. All that to say, we ended up having 5 ultrasounds to nourish my ever growing anxiety.
Here is a picture of the second ultrasound but the first one that we were able to see her. I was right about 8 weeks or so. We went to Ultrasound Unlimited to have this done to satisfy my need to know things were still going well. This was our first glimpse and it was amazing. We could even see her head and little, soon to be legs! What a miracle! If only I could have taken that cool machine home with me.
The third ultrasound we had done was at 17 weeks. We went back to Ultrasound Unlimited to find out the sex of the baby because we just couldn't wait. When she said it was a girl our eyes filled with tears and we were very excited. It was so wonderful to know and our love for her grew leaps and bounds that day. I went straight to Old Navy afterwards and bought a couple of little newborn dresses. I was so excited! A couple of weeks later we had our fourth ultrasound, Dr. ordered. It was the one the Dr. generally orders at around 20 weeks to check for certain things. Of course we were so excited to get to see her again and so soon! We invited our moms to share the excitement this time. Here is a sweet little profile pic from that day.
The fifth and final ultrasound was pretty exciting. One day on my lunch hour I quickly went to a maternity clothing boutique, Pickles & Ice Cream. Sweet little place. Too bad I couldn't afford to even touch anything. On my way out the very friendly woman behind the counter asked if I wanted to fill out a little card for a drawing. I was in a hurry to get back to work but I filled one out quickly and I didn't even notice what the prize was. A few weeks later I get a phone call from Stork Vision, another ultrasound place. They told me my name was drawn and that I won a free 4D ultrasound! Holy cow! I've never won anything from a drawing and this was probably the best thing I could ever win. I couldn't believe it. I felt so lucky and so blessed. The experience was kind of strange at the time but very cool too. It was another chance to know she was doing okay in there and we loved getting to see her in 3D (or 4D, whatever that means). We were so thankful and felt like the Lord was near, giving us this special surprise gift. Here is one of the pictures of our sweet baby girl from that day.
So we went a little ultrasound crazy. Part of the beauty of carrying a child is that you usually get what you want for those sweet 9 months!
