Vanessa: And the verdict is...

We had our ultrasound yesterdy which was so awesome. Towards the end the doctor informed us that we are having a beautiful little GIRL! Well I added in the beautiful part, but come on she will be! :) We are so excited! Knowing the gender makes it so much more real! Now I am making a list of all the cute things I want to make! Eeee it's so exciting! Here is one of HER close ups!

Nichole ~ Glucose testing and belly rubbing ~

Last week I got to go in for Glucose testing. In Utah when I had my last two kids they sent me home with an overly sugary drink and told me to not eat anything after midnight the day before the testing and to drink the drink exactly one hour before coming in. They then take your blood to see how your body handles the sugar. They check for things like gestational diabetes. Well, here in Texas, they told me not to eat before hand like normal, but they didn't give me a drink before the apt. Instead, they told me to go to a lab down the street and do it all there. Luckily, I had Derrick there to help me with the kids. So they gave me the fruit punch flavored drink, (which is so much better if it's cold by the way, so if they send you home with one put it in the fridge) and told me to drink it in 10 minutes and then sit there for an hour. So I drank it and we sat and the kids colored and read some books that I had in the van. Not fun being stuck in a lab office waiting for over an hour on an empty/sugar filled stomach with a couple of kids. So if they tell you they are doing glucose testing and don't give you a drink, plan on spending at least an hour at the office. It took us almost two hours because they did the normal check up visit before they sent me to the lab. Oh, and if you can schedule your apointment in the morning, that's easier too.

I'm not a big fan of belly rubbing. People, sometimes random people who see your expecting and other times people you barely know at church, love to touch pregnant bellies. They'll ask you how you are doing or how your baby is doing and rub your belly. With family it doesn't bother me so much, maybe because they have a connection to the baby, but strangers or people I know who do it every time they see me, drives me crazy. There may be a baby there, but its still my stomach. I seem to have suddenly popped out this last week or two, so you can tell I'm very pregnant (not to mention a slight waddle in my step), so the belly rubbing is starting.

Vanessa: Strangers

I had today off so I decided to browse the baby section of Wal-Mart and a total stranger stopped and was talking to me. At first she just gave me advise about the baby monitors I was looking at, which was helpful. I told her I was pregnant with my first and she went off telling me not to worry that I wasn't showing yet and a bunch of other random advice I didn't ask for. It was just really weird. Do you guys get advice from total strangers??

Oh and I am officially 1/2 way now which sounds weird, I cant believe how fast the time has gone!

Angela: Baby kicking

First off, I have to say how glad I am that everyone is participating in this blog. I know life gets hectic, but I think it helps to know that family is out there going through the same thing you are.

So our baby has been kicking me viciously lately. I had started to feel flutterings at 16 & 17 weeks, but now that I'm 25 weeks, (which is weird, it totally flew by), it feels like full fledged soccer. I was sitting at my desk last week and one really strong kick startled me, and every night when I am trying to sleep he is also very active. The kicks are so strong that if I lift up my shirt you can see my belly move. With my first child I didn't feel the kicks so early, but this time around I am much more aware of what is going on with my body and I am more sensitive to it.
How's everyone else doing with baby kicking?

Oh and how are every one's boobs? Seems like that's all I hear now from co-workers and family, is how giant my boobs are now. Supportive bras are worth their weight (and more) in gold.

I am way excited to hear what Kristina and Vanessa are going to have. Hope everyone is doing good.

Vanessa: WORK

So yesterday I finally told work that I was pregnant, it was pretty funny. I don't know why, but it has been making me nervous to tell them so yesterday I finally just threw it out there. I work at a clothing store, so I just grabbed a baby boy outfit and a baby girl outfit and asked a couple of my managers which one they thought I would need. It took a second for it to sink in, but then they said congrats, they were totally surprised. They were even more surprised when I told the that I was already 19 weeks! Haha it was great, I thank my long torso for that, unless you know, you cant tell that I am pregnant. I'm just glad they know now, I felt like I was trying to be sneaky or something. Anyways just thought I would share.
p.s. 16 days until I know if it is a boy or a girl. Any predictions?

~Nichole~ Due Dates and Kids

Maybe I'm late to catch on but I just realized that Angela and I have our due dates 10 days apart and Vanessa and Kris are 10 days apart. So cool. It will be fun to see if Vanessa and Kris both have girls or boys together. It will also be fun to see how close we actually have our babies. I so far have had to be induced with both babies, so I might go over a week or more and be closer to Angela's due date.

Since we all come from decent sized families I was wondering if you girls know how many kids you want to have? Derrick and I are both the oldest of 8. We were thinking we might down-size a little and do 6. Originally he thought 4 and I thought 6. We compromised on 6. :) The other day though, he decided that he thought we'd maybe have more then that. Not sure where we'll end up.