18 mos old...

SO.HARD.TO.BELIEVE. we have a child who is a year and a half old.

I took Deacon to his 18 month well-check last week and he did great, of course.  The doctor said he was right on track for doing, saying, eating everything an 18 month old should be doing, saying or eating.  He's such a busy-body that it was pretty difficult to hold a conversation with the doctor, but she's a mom, too, so I guess she understood that I WAS listening, even if my attention was on making sure my son didn't flip off the table.

So his stats at this point haven't changed much in the last 3 months:

Weight = 23 lbs, 11 oz (21%)

Height = 31 inches (21%)

He's progressing on his own chart exactly as he has been doing (no huge jumps or lags) so the doctor says he looks great.  And no shots this time, yay!  He'll get his next booster shot at his 2 year appt, and then nothing more for a couple years, I think.

His vocabulary has ramped up a little bit, though he still speaks lots of Japanese, if you ask me.  :)  He can now say/sign or sound the following:

eat (and he does the sign, too)
more (just the sign)
please (just the sign -- which looks a lot like "bath", too :)
ba (bath)
mama
da (daddy)
shh (shoe)
cah (car)
cruh (truck -- it's weird but he looks right at a truck when he says it)
chh-chh (choo-choo train)
chh (cheese)
night-night
nap
nack (snack)
hot (as in "the food is hot" or "the oven is hot")
up
no
uh-oh
whoa
yay
apple
nana (banana)
wa (water)
Deacon (oh, my word -- it is the cutest thing!)

15 mos old...

Deacon had his 15 month well-check yesterday at the pediatrician's office.  He did great, as always, charming the nurses with his sweet smile and adorable face.  :)  In fact, they were fighting over who was NOT going to give him his shots.  No one wants that job, especially for the cute ones.  :)

The nurse who "lost the bet" did a fine job, though -- very fast & efficient -- and Deacon was over it in 10 seconds or less.  And I'm sure he doesn't hold it against her.  :)

Here's what we discovered his stats are now:

Weight = 22 lbs, 10 oz (24%)

Height = 31 in (46%)

So still a little guy in comparison, but none of the docs or nurses show any concern about his diet or health.  And he's average for his height.  Jeff and I are, too, so that's not surprising.

In other news, he's pretty much eating whatever we eat for lunches and dinners.  He's somewhat picky (does that make you happy, momma? :), but I think it's more that we just have to keep trying things with him before he decides that he likes it.  He was like that with baby food, so it makes sense that he's like that with table food.  His favorite snack is Teddy Grahams, but he likes Kix cereal and Cheerios, and goldfish, too.

He's walking all over the place and has recently discovered how to get up to standing by himself, without the help of a wall or piece of furniture.  I was so proud of him the first time I saw him do that; I kinda made a big deal about it.  And still do.  :)

He is still such a chatterbox!  I'm so surprised that he's not saying words, other than mama and da (daddy), just because of how much he jibber-jabbers.  But he is starting to mimick things that we say, like "ahcky" for when he gets into the trash can (ew.) -- he says "ah", and I say, "That's right, ahcky."  He also will copy us when we say "up" for help onto the couch.  He makes the same sound.  And he's been saying "bay" for baby, when he sees himself in the mirror, or when he sees pictures of a baby.

And he's still getting so many teeth!  The boy already has 3 molars!  I haven't counted recently (cuz he knows how to use'em, too :) but I would guess he probably has 11 or 12 teeth now. 

Alright, so I don't know how this happened, but we haven't taken too many photos since Christmas.  I must've just been taking the month of January off, I don't know.  So since I don't have many of him at THIS point in time, I'll share a few from the past couple of months...

[13 mos]

[sweet scrunchy face.  14 mos]

[15 mos]

one-year well check...

Deacon had his one-year well check a couple days ago (late I know, but we had to move it back a little because he had a bout with strep throat, of all things; he's totally over that now, praise the Lord!).  He got a great report from the pediatrician:

Weight: 20 lbs, 5 oz  (14%)

Height: 29"  (21%)

Head Circumference: 46.4cm  (49%)

Okay, so he's a short, lightweight thing, but I'm totally fine with that.  He definitely isn't scrawny by any means, with those chunky legs and apple cheeks.  Oh, I could just eat him up!  :)

He got 4 vaccines at his appt, boo.  2 sticks in each leg and boy, he didn't like that, but 15-20 secs after I was able to pick him up, he was over it.  Such a tough guy.  In fact, they had to stick his big toe for a hemoglobin test and he didn't make a peep over that.  He just looked down at the nurse while she squeezed the mess out of his toe to get enough blood and was like, "Hey...watcha doin' down there?"

He liked her purple gloves.  :)

So he's good for another 3 months, until his 15 month well check.  And I'm sure that will be here before I know it.

10 months...

Here we are, another month milestone.  Can't believe my little guy is 10 months old already!  This year is flying by too, too fast!

I have a feeling that won't be the last time I say that.

We had another big month with the foods.  We are trying pretty much anything we can get our hands on.  He's in the 3rd Foods stage (by Gerber) -- jars that hold a little more quantity.  Some new things we tried this month:

a banana fruit medley

apricot

pear & mango

We also tried giving him some meat for the first time toward the end of the month.  He's not a fan of the chicken noodle dinner.  It's fairly chunkier than he's used to and has lots of herbs in it.  We've tried it several times and so far he's not coming around.  He IS still eating a lot of the same veggies he's been eating: sweet potatoes, squash, mixed veggies, etc.

We also gave him "puffs" for the first time this month.  You may or may not be familiar with this little crunchy concept that dissolves fairly quickly when the baby puts them in his mouth.  It's a good way to get them used to that kind of texture in their mouth, and it also helps them practice their motor skills with their fingers.  You can do the same thing with Cheerios (surprisingly, they dissolve fairly quickly, too), and we did.  But we have more flavors in the puffs, so we do both.

He did pretty good.  It took some practice because to begin with, he would get it to the back of his tongue and then start to gag a little bit, not quite sure what to do with it (swallow or spit it out).  But practice makes perfect, they say, so we're doing that throughout the day, here and there.  And he's getting better.  At picking them up, and at eating them.  :)

We also tried giving him baby yogurt for the first time this month.  He likes that stuff!  Our grocery store carries the Yo-Baby brand and we've tried the peach and the blueberry flavors of those.  He likes both.  Jeff also picked up a bulk pack of baby yogurt at Sam's (may have been Gerber brand) that has peach, banana and strawberry flavors, and Deacon likes all of those, too.  We've started substituting his morning meal at 10am, which used to be breastmilk, with a couple tbsp of rice cereal mixed with water and the yogurt.  We've been doing that for about the last 3 weeks now and it's working for us.  It's like giving him breakfast so we're working toward that transition to 3 meals a day.

I'll be honest with you, though: when it comes to changing his schedule in some way, or adding something new in, it's hard on me.  I don't know if any of the other mamas go through that, but it's tough for me.  I get pretty used to the schedule as it is and then the next "stage" just throws me for a loop!   Such a learning experience for both (all) of us...

One other thing we've done this month in the meal department is tried giving Deacon a sippy cup for the first time.  We have a sippy cup with a soft, silicone spout and we're just giving him water in it for now.  He seems to be doing okay with it.  We offer it at random times during the day, mainly when he's eating his "breakfast" (the cereal and yogurt) and when he's having a snack (the puffs or Cheerios).  He does drink a little bit of the water and then sometimes he plays with the cup.  We have cups that don't have handles on the sides, but I think I'd like to get one that does have handles and see how he does with it.

Most everyone reading this will be aware of the hurricane we had blow through here last week, the first hurricane of this season, Irene.  Well, that was Deacon's first hurricane!  Of course, nothing was different for him.  We stayed here and just prepared ourselves for what could come.  He had no trouble sleeping through the wind and rain that Friday night/Saturday morning that the storm came ashore.  Our work offices closed around noon that Friday so we just spent the day hanging out, taking (and uploading) cell phone photos of the storm around our house, waiting for and wondering if our power would go out.  It never did.  In fact, we fared really well through the storm as compared to other areas around us.  Praise the Lord for that.

This was pretty much the extent of our "hurricane party":

Deacon does have a couple more tricks but I'll be posting about those in a separate post soon.  I've written enough in this post about my sweet boy, right?  :)  You know I could just go on and on...

We did weigh Deacon at the end of this month and he is now 19.5 lbs.  Up 3 lbs in 4 months.  I was kinda thinking that he would weigh more than that by now.  He seems like a little chunk to me but then when I see him up against other kids his age, he's on the small side. 

Regardless of his weight, height, head circumference, or whatever else they want to measure, he's my perfect little doodle.  :)

6 months...

Alright, I'm a little late with this post, sorry.  I just can hardly believe that my baby boy is already 6 months old -- a HALF a year old.  Seriously...where do I turn the speed down?

Our boy is officially in size 2 diapers now.  I told you it wouldn't be long.  We're still using diapers that folks have given us which is such a blessing.  But we're to the point now that the size he happens to be wearing, whatever that is at the time, we only have maybe a box or something, so depending on how long he stays in that size, we may or may not find ourselves buying more of that size.

At this point, I think I prefer Huggies brand.  They seem to fit Deacon the best and give us the best results regarding leaks/blowouts (sorry if that's TMI).  We have tried some store brands like Costco's Kirkland brand and they're okay, too.  I have heard that Luvs is a really great brand and they're cheap, too, so when we get to a point that we need more, I think I'd like to try some Luvs to see how we do with those.

[24.5 weeks]

About midway through April, we saw Deacon roll over from his tummy to his back a couple of times.  We figured it was just lucky and we were right cuz we haven't seen him do it since.  That's not something he's rushing to do and though I'm surprised, I'm not rushing it either.  :)

He's really been playing a lot with his feet since he found them last month.  He likes to throw them in the air and then grab onto them.  He does that wherever he is, whether he's laying on the floor, in his bouncy seat, in his car seat or on the changing table, even.  As a matter of fact, I saw him stick one of his feet in his mouth on the changing table one morning.  All by himself!  :)

[25 weeks]

As you saw from my last post, Deacon had his first Easter at 6 mos old.  That was really special -- I'm glad it worked out that he turned 6 mos old right around Easter this year.  He went to his first Easter egg hunt and did really good.

The night before Deacon turned 6 months, we tried giving him some solid food to see what he would do.  We started with some warmed green beans (Gerber 1st Foods) and boy, the faces he made!  I knew he was an expressive child but holy cow, he had some faces that night!  Poor baby -- some of his faces were hilarious and pitiful at the same time.  :\  We quit with the green beans that night and moved on to some warmed bananas and I thought for sure he'd like those better.

Nope.

The faces he made with those were even worse, it seemed like.  We tried again the next night and still got the same reactions/faces, only that night he just stopped closing his mouth.  Yeah.  So the food would just fall right out.

We're still in the trying phase of solids...

When I took Deacon for his 6 month well-check at the pediatrician's office, I was really curious to know what he weighed.  That's a question I get asked a lot.  At his 4 month appt, he weighed 13 lbs 13 oz and was 24 in long.  At his 6 month appt, he weighed 16 lbs 7 oz and was 25.5 in long.

A perfectly normal healthy 6 month old.  Who is uh-dorable.

7 weeks already!

Deacon is now 7 weeks old.  He's growing so fast and changing so much, though I can still see my little newborn munchkin when I look at him.  :)

We are enjoying him so much. We take random photos of him ALL the time, we love and kiss on him ALL the time, we talk to him and try to make him smile (we've both been able to do that a time or two by now and it just thrills us to no end -- I wish you could've seen Jeff's face the first time he was able to make him smile. :).

He's growing so much, gaining weight as he should and feeling heavier each time we pick him up.  We think he's probably up to 11 lbs by now.  He's filling out his clothes and has actually grown out of his short-sleeve newborn size onesies (at 5 weeks ). He's also in size 1 diapers now. Not that the newborn diapers don't fit anymore, but more so that they don't hold what he fills them with. If you know what I mean. *eyebrows raised* Yeah.

Ahem -- but going back to the smiling thing...he really started smiling "on demand", if you will, around 5 weeks old.  The smiles were sparse but we saw them when we'd talk to him, etc.  Then the next week, at about 6 weeks, he really started smiling and sort of laughing/gurgling at me when I would put him on the changing table to change his diaper.  He seems to be his happiest in the mornings after he's eaten and it just melts my ever-lovin' heart to see him smile and laugh at me.  He's cute anyway, but when he breaks into those grins -- YA'LL.  He.is.DANG.cute.  :)

We had a parent/child dedication on Sunday, Dec 12, at our church and we participated as a family in that special ceremony.  They called us up on stage with about 10 other families (5 of which were friends of ours :) and gave us a sweet dedication certificate and a little New Testament Bible for Deacon.  Then our children's pastor gave a charge to the parents and read from Deuteronomy --

You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.  You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land... 11:18-21 (ESV)

Amen.

He prayed for all the parents, that God would give them wisdom and knowledge to raise their children in all His ways and that their chidlren would never remember a day that they didn't love the Lord.

Amen, I said.

Deacon did wonderfully through the ceremony, sleeping mostly through the whole thing.  That was just fine with us.  :)  And he looked adorable in his little vest and corduroy pants with his little shoes & socks!  Our sweet friend, Stephanie took photos for us so we'd have them to remember this special day in the life of our little family.  Thanks so much, Steph!

We got our first family Christmas card mailed out just a few days ago.  We had a friend in our neighborhood come up and take some family photos for us.  I was going to try to set the self-timer on our camera just like I usually do for our Christmas card photo, but with an infant, you kinda just need to snap away in hopes that one of them will look okay.  My brilliant husband pointed that out to me.  Duh.

Anyways, Alissa did a great job getting some good shots for us.  She is due with her first child, a girl, in April, so she enjoyed holding Deacon after the "photoshoot".  Thanks, Alissa!

Here's what we ended up with:

As I stated above, we take random photos of Deacon ALL the time so here are some sweet shots for you to enjoy:

[5.5 weeks]

[Daddy already has safety glasses for his boy]

[we caught another smile!]

[6 weeks]

[love his facial expressions...]

[this is the photo we used at the parent/child dedication]

[Daddy is so good at giving him a bath]

[6.5 weeks]

[7 weeks]

"dinner" meeting...

Okay, so it wasn't a dinner meeting...it was a breastfeeding class but I didn't want to scare folks with that word just blazed across the title of a post.  Call me considerate.  :)

But yeah, we had Breastfeeding 101 last night at the hospital (same place our other class was).  It was an hour long (not even) and very informative.  Our teacher, Briar, had lots of good information for us and really put most of us at ease about the subject.  We had 14 folks total in the class, 4 of them being daddies.  :)

The first thing that Briar did was pass out some items and some cards that she told us not to look at until she said it was okay.  She had us go around the room, tell what our item was and then tell how WE thought it had anything to do with breastfeeding.  Once we said that, we were allowed to turn the card over and read what the item actually did have to with breastfeeding.  It was really quite interesting to hear everyone's answers as well as the answers on the cards.

Jeff's item was a tape measure.  Do YOU know what that has to do with breastfeeding?  Both Jeff and I had a pretty good idea -- and we were right.  :)  Breastfeeding, specifically milk production, burns between 500-1000 calories a day!  That piece of information right there was worth sitting through a whole hour long class, in my opinion.  :)  But we have heard from our friends who have been able to breastfeed that you really drop the weight fast and are able to bounce back to your pre-pregnancy weight (or even smaller sometimes!) easier if you breastfeed.  Out.stand.ing. 

My item was a (positive) pregnancy test.  And my answer was almost word-for-word what the card said.  *brushes shoulder off*  Your chances of getting pregnant decrease while you're breastfeeding but it is not a fool-proof method of birth control by any means.  We have seen that come true first hand with some of our friends.  Let that be a lesson, Mr. Wenzel.  :)

Briar then passed out some handouts for us to look at and make notes one (which I did) while she spoke.  A lot of the stuff I was already aware of but there were some interesting tidbits of info to learn.  I won't get into much detail because really, if you're still with me at this point, I don't want to make you any more uncomfortable that you already are.  :)

It was a great class and I'm glad we attended.  We have one more class, on baby care, next week and then we should be golden, right?  Got this whole parenting figured out before the kid even gets here, yes?  Ha.  :)

doctor's appt #10...

I had another doctor's appt today -- I'm now going to my OB every 2 weeks (instead of 4) -- crazy!

Today's appt went well.  My blood pressure was relatively normal and according to their scale, I hadn't gained any weight in the last 2 weeks so that's great!  I feel like I have been gaining weight like crazy so that part of the appt always worries me.  I'm always afraid someone is going to mention it and tell me I've got to slow down.  So far no one has said a thing about my weight, God bless'em.  :)

I saw Dr. Vogel -- and a PA student -- today.  I think I may be getting close to meeting all the doctors now.  There may be 1 or 2 I haven't met yet.  And it always seems like there's a student following the doctor I'm going to see.  :)  I don't mind that, though.  Seriously, I think I've met 3 young girls in PA school.

Ashley (the student) checked my fundal height -- I'm measuring right on, she said -- and listened to the baby's heartbeat with the doppler.  She actually pointed out the heartbeat and the sound the umbilical cord makes -- never had anyone point out the subtle difference before, so that was kinda neat.  Both sounded very healthy.

Dr. Vogel mentioned that at this point in the pregnancy I need to be taking count of the fetal movement at some point each day.  Nothing official but just to count at least 5-6 movements within an hour's time at some point during the day when I know he's awake and will be active.  No problem there -- when this kid is awake, it's at least 5-6 movements, if not way more than that.  Even so, Dr. Vogel said that if at any time I can't count at least that many in an hour's time, I should give them a call.  After that, he looked over my chart and said everything is looking great -- "don't change a thing!".

Roger that.  :)  

uh, your uterus is showing...

I bought my first pairs of maternity pants/capris this week.

I'm not so much concerned about the top situation -- my mom sent me a maternity top almost as soon as she found out I was pregnant, bless her heart.  Said she couldn't help herself.  :)  I also got a few tops from my friend, Allison, to use.  And I, myself, have picked up a top that isn't maternity per se, but is that "baby doll"/empire waist style that everyone is wearing.  That'll work.

But the bottoms situation?  TOAHtully different.  I'm to the point now where not really ANY of my pants/capris are comfortable anymore.  Oh, they're fine for awhile.  Until I have to sit down.  :)  Which is what I do for MOST of the day at work.  So I'm a little worried about that part of my clothing situation.

Tuesday night, I found myself at our mall and decided to check out JC Penney's maternity department.  I usually have pretty good luck there with general clothing needs; hadn't ever looked for a maternity department.  Well, I almost missed it!  Which seems to be a pattern -- the maternity department in any regular department store like that is really tiny.

So I was excited when I found a few racks of khakis, capris and jeans.  Tops, too, but I'm not worried about those right now, as I said.  I tried on about 7-8 pairs of jeans with no luck.  Ugh.  Well, that hasn't changed with the pregnancy.  I had a terrible time finding jeans when I WASN'T pregnant -- guess that will still be the case.  So no jeans.  But I'll keep looking.

I did get a pair of khakis and a pair of capris.  I figure those will have to do for awhile.  I'll just change it up with different tops.  And accessories.  :)

I did go into the Motherhood Maternity store at the mall but didn't really find anything.  I was mainly looking for a pair of jeans since I didn't find any at JCP but didn't have any luck there.

I know that I just posted a photo for 16 weeks and there really wasn't much of a bump there, but trust me when I tell you, there is now!  I guess it's just like everyone says -- it seems to happen overnight.  Everyone still says I don't look pregnant, that I don't look like I've gained anything, that they can't see a bump but it's there, people.  I did NOT have "this" before I got pregnant, so what else could "this" be??

It's a baby, that's what.  A baby bump.  :)

what not to wear...

I got this email from whattoexpect.com last week and it made me smile/laugh so I thought I'd share it here.  The wording is just, um, well...candid.  :)  See for yourself:

Right about now you're probably most comfy at 14 weeks pregnant in a pair of cozy sweats, worn loose and low. Unfortunately, your boss might not appreciate that look around the office. Plus, as much as you'd like to, you can't show up for that big meeting looking like you're headed for bed to watch Desperate Housewives. On the job, expectant moms should dress for success and comfort; so skip anything too revealing (like that plunging neckline that shows off your larger than life set), and give your high heels the vacation they deserve (think two-inch and wide). Invest in a few tailored shirts in pretty colors, some tummy-hugging sweater sets, and a couple of slim dark maternity skirts and pants.  You're as good to go as the CEO.

See what I mean?  There were a few parts in there that probably had a few of you chuckling.

Now, this article really was seemingly written more for those who are in a professional line of work, like accountants or lawyers, so most of it really doesn't apply to me -- I don't "dress for success" in my line of work (not that I'm not successFUL); just casual & comfy.  And there's room for leniency where I am.  :)

On a personal note, I really haven't gotten to a point where my clothes aren't fitting anymore, but I do have a couple of pairs of pants that are getting more snug than I prefer.  I think pants/shorts/capris will most likely be the most problematic.  Tops and dresses/skirts may have a little more play in them for me as I grow (outward).  Most people who know me know that I don't wear dresses/skirts.  I just prefer pants/shorts/capris.  But I'm figuring out -- and resigning myself to the fact -- that dresses are just going to be more comfortable at a certain point.  And they have more flexibility as far as expansion goes.  And that translates into saving some bucks.  I'm all for that.

So I HAVE picked up a couple of dresses myself with that in mind (not maternity, but with room to "grow"), and GOD BLESS my friend, Amy!  She brought over about 13 dresses for me recently, 8 of which I kept!  It's a good thing cuz we still have THREE weddings to attend this summer.

I didn't really want to have to wear the same dress to all 3.  That would be a no-no in the fashion world.  :)

11 weeks today...

I'm 11 weeks today.  Another week down.  It seems like it's not going very fast -- not that I'm wanting it to -- but I'm sure the farther along I get, that will change and things will start to go much faster than I want them to.

Right now, I'm really enjoying this pregnancy.  Thanks be to God I still haven't had any morning sickness or any other negative symptoms, for that matter.  I told someone today that I'm just enjoying it right now, not really wishing I was to the next phase, or wishing for the next ultrasound, etc.  I'm really not even showing yet, however, I can tell that my mid-section is changing (those abs I've worked so hard on aren't so noticeable anymore *sigh*).  I haven't gained any weight -- actually, I've lost a few pounds -- which I don't understand at all because I really haven't been eating the most healthy things.  I am still trying to work out most every day so that must be helping a little bit.  I know I'll be gaining weight soon enough so I'm not complaining about my weight loss right now.  :)

Our baby has been growing and developing even more over this last week...here's what babycenter.com has to say about what's been going on:

Your baby, just over 1 1/2 inches long and about the size of a fig, is now almost fully formed. Her hands will soon open and close into fists, tiny tooth buds are beginning to appear under her gums, and some of her bones are beginning to harden.

She's already busy kicking and stretching, and her tiny movements are so effortless they look like water ballet. These movements will become more frequent as her body grows and becomes more developed and functional. You won't feel your baby's acrobatics for another month or two — nor will you notice the hiccupping that may be happening now that her diaphragm is forming.

Such an amazing thing...what's happening right there in my belly...

successful shopping trip...

I went shopping in Myrtle Beach yesterday with some of my fave girls -- we went to the Tanger Outlets.  :)  And had so much fun!  My trip was very successful in that I found the few things I was looking for, as well as a couple things I wasn't looking for.  Bonus!

Of course, it was too early to buy anything for our baby since we don't know yet what it is (but rest assured, we WILL be finding out!) but it was such fun to go into places like Carter's, The Children's Place and Osh Kosh B'Gosh and see all the sweet, tiny little things that we'll soon be purchasing/receiving for our little one.  Oh!  LOVE those little tiny clothes!

So, since I really couldn't do that, I went looking for a dress or two for me and possibly a bathing suit (thanks for the idea, Momma!).  Most folks know that I'm NOT a dress-wearing girl.  I prefer pants or suits.  But in an effort to avoid having to buy a lot of maternity-specific clothes, I am looking for tops, etc. that have the potential to "grow" with me, if you know what I mean.  :)

My original goal for this trip, a month ago when it was planned, was to find something to wear for Easter.  However, we had a wedding to attend 2 weeks ago and I decided to get something to wear for that (I told you I'm not a skirt/dress-wearing girl so I really don't have much to wear to special events like that).  I ended up getting a new shirt for Jeff, too, and we look so spiffy together (coordination is a beautiful thing :) that I decided those would be our Easter outfits.

So yesterday's trip was just to see if I could find another dress or two to add to my wardrobe that would give me a few more things to wear throughout the pregnancy.  The first place we went to was The Loft -- success!  I found a few dresses in there and ended up walking out with one that I felt really cute in.  :)  It's very simple and doesn't have the potential to grow "all the way" with me, but it will be something I can wear for several more months and immediately after the baby is born, too.  THAT'S not something I had thought of, but my girl, Allison, pointed that out.  Good call!

Another place we went was Vanity Fair and I found a top that isn't specifically maternity but it has the empire waist with a flaring bottom so it has lots of room for me in it.  When I get to that point, it will be a comfy top, I think.  Another thing I'm not thinking about at this point is nursing bras/tank tops but my girl, Bekah, pointed out that this place had them for really cheap.  Thought maybe it would be prudent to check those out but I was confused on how I would know what size to get at this point.  I ended up with 2 nursing tank tops that were just S/M/L sizing.  I went with the L since I.have.no.idea what will happen to my body in the next 6.5 months.  :)  My girlfriends assure me that I will be comfy in these.  Yay!

The last thing I picked up yesterday was a bathing suit.  I went into the Motherhood store and I gotta tell you, it was kind of a weird experience.  It's still kind of surreal to me that we're having a baby, so I kinda felt like I didn't belong in there yet.  But I did see that they had some bathing suits so I looked through those.  They had some really cute ones and they were actually a lot less expensive than I thought they'd be.  Less expensive than even a regular bathing suit usually costs.  Score!  The one I got is really comfortable and is just cute.  Pinks, oranges and browns on white.  I was really excited to already have that taken care of!

I didn't look at much else in that store.  As I said, I was kind of overwhelmed and at that point in the trip, I was pretty much DONE with trying on clothes.  Some may not know this, but Motherhood has these "belly pillows" that women can try on to see approximately how big they may be at certain points in their pregnancy, to aid in their purchases.  My girlfriends asked me if I tried it on.  I told them that I hadn't, that I wasn't quite ready for that yet.  It's a little scary for me to think of getting bigger.  I have struggled with my weight/weight loss for the past 7 or so years, working so hard to have that needle on the scale go one way -- to the left -- instead of the other.  That will not be the case for the next 6.5 months so I've really been trying to just take it one day, one pound at a time.  No need to rush anything.  I think I'm doing okay so far.

The shopping trip was fun for me.  The other girls got lots of goodies, too, and we all had a good time just hanging out together.  My mom and I have already been talking about a shopping trip later on, meeting in Raleigh for the day.  That will be super-fun, too!

We have our first doctor's appt this Wednesday, March 31.  I'm so anxious to go and have a "professional" confirm this pregnancy and have an opportunity to see our baby by way of ultrasound.  Jeff will be going with me and we're both excited about it.  I'll post soon after that to fill you in.