What will it be???

It's a BOY!!!! Nice job to those few of you who voted boy - you were right!!! To those who thought girl, you seemed a little shocked to find out little George is really a Boy George!! (As Bridgit said, "Are you sure??") He beat all the odds - the centuries old Chinese prediction chart, analyzing the heartbeat (it worked for everyone else preggo right now!!) and even our very own reliable and scientific poll!! He's laughing at everyone's naivete right now!!

We couldn't be happier to find out our news! Going into the appointment, Brian and I both didn't have an opinion or a feeling either way. We asked each other right before and neither of us could say for sure what we thought it would be. But as soon as the nurse told us boy, Brian was beaming for the rest of the sonogram!! He is definitely on cloud nine!!!

So, now what to name him? I've actually had a boy name picked out for 15 years. So, I'm pretty set on what I want to call him. But Brian is still warming up to the name. But, come on, who can compete with a preggo mom who has been holding onto a name for 15 years?! It's also kind of funny that I just came up with a girl name right before going to the appointment. I thought I should be prepared either way. We'll probably just hold on to the girl name in hopes we can use it in a few years :). We'll share our name soon - I just need to make sure Brian is 100% sold on it. I told him it was either this name or we'd call him Boy George :). That almost sealed the deal right there!

Thank you to all for your love and support these past 5 months!! We're so excited to continue on this wonderful journey together!!

20 weeks - 5 months!!

Wow - we're at the midway point!! Honestly, I can't believe how quickly time is going by! I think it helps that our new pregnancy coincided with the beginning of a new school year, followed by the holiday season. It's hard to believe that we find out if Baby George is a boy or a girl in just two days! (For some reason, I'm really nervous for this appointment - I probably won't be able to sleep the night before!!) Look for a posting soon after we find out!

We met our new doctor at our appointment last week. She is AMAZING!! We really like how personable and caring she is and loving the fact that she is a Family Practice doctor. (For those unfamiliar with why we made such a big change, we did it for a couple of reasons. First, we found out that our other doctor wasn't a provider with our insurance and secondly, because the appointments/hospital was too far from our house/school. It was such a hard decision to make a switch halfway through, but we're so glad we did!!) It's also an added bonus to find out out that she is friends with a few people we know and there are a few other teachers/parents who also go to her!

While we were there, she convinced both Brian and I to get the H1N1 and regular flu vaccinations. Since I already thought I had contracted H1N1 in October, I was trying to avoid getting the vaccine. But she convinced us it was really a good idea, especially since I wasn't officially diagnosed. Another reason, too, was because I have become much more allergic to our dogs and have developed asthma, which can really complicate your system if you come down with any kind of cold/flu virus. Who knew pregnancy could be so fun?!

I just realized that it's been quite awhile since I've posted something on here. I was trying to tell myself that Brian and I were trying to make a collective effort to not spend as much time online and in front of the TV, but truly I think the Twilight series was much more behind this than anything else :). Since the last posting, I have finished all four books in four weeks!!! After finishing the last book, I was kind of sad that I wasn't able to spend my time with these characters any more - these books really suck you in! Even though I gave everyone else a hard time for reading/watching the movies, I was a little embarrassed to admit how hooked I was! They were definitely good books for this dark and dreary fall/winter!

Here are some new pics that highlight the last few weeks (we finally got a new camera - yea!!!!)


One of our many attempts at a Christmas card pic. We soon decided this wasn't going to work this year. You may just get a Happy New Year card in the mail instead!!



Bridgit and I took a wreath making class at Edgefield (courtesy of Bridg's mom - thank you!!). The boys and my parents hung out patiently sampling all of the seasonal brews while we did our crafts. I love how all five of us match here!!



18 weeks!

16 weeks - 4 months!!

Ah, the honeymoon phase. I had heard this term before but didn't truly understand it until hitting the 12th week. Ever since then I've felt pretty good. I've even had days where I've felt that I really love being pregnant! The last four weeks has given me time to focus more on what is happening with my pregnancy as well as finally allowing me to make dinner and clean the kitchen each night. All of those things are equally important in my mind right now! We're trying to get as much done during this time before the hardest trimester hits. Only a few more months until then and so much more to do!

Of course it hasn't all been rosy - in the last few weeks, I have become much more allergic to our dogs. Which is a hard thing to deal with since both sleep in our room (and one on my pillow!). There were even a few nights when I woke up unable to breathe and feeling very asthmatic - pretty scary! Of course the solution it seems would be to find a different place for them to sleep, but since that is almost impossible (Bella & Brody have proven to be Houdinis and have found ways to sneak back into our room, not to mention their constant whining would be enough to drive us crazy!!), so I had to find a different room to sleep in for a night. After a lonely and sleepless night, I decided being with Brian and the dogs was a much better situation than being banned to the guest room. This just means we need to vacuum, clean the sheets and bathe our dogs a little more regularly - a few times a week!! What are we going to do when the baby comes and also shares the bed with us in the beginning?? We've decided that we still have 5 more months to figure that one out...

We had our second appointment last week and got to hear the heartbeat again. We're still going to our original (or really, 2nd) doctor, but after being late to our appointment by 20 minutes, we again realized exactly why we need to change locations. After a lot of thought and a lot of good suggestions, we decided on going to a family practice doctor. We thought this was a good idea for a couple of reasons. First of all, neither us have a primary care doctor and we would both be able to go to her from now on. And now we also do not need to find a pediatrician since the baby will see the same doctor once it's born. The other plus side is that it's MUCH closer to home and only 5 minutes from work! We also got an appointment pretty early and get to meet our new doctor on December 15th! We may even find out what we're having at that appointment! What a wonderful, early Christmas present!!

Last week, we found out another close friend is pregnant!!! We are so excited for them - this is the same couple who introduced us and they're due two months after us! Brian is especially excited to have another guy to go through all this with. This also means there are four of us close friends all due within six months of each other!! We are so excited to share in this experience with such good friends!!

Here are pics at 15 & 16 weeks - although the first one looks like I'm farther along than the second!!

12 weeks - finally!!

I can't believe the 12 week milestone is finally here (well, actually, I'm 13 weeks right now, but was a little busy last week to make this posting :). I thought #12 would be just a number, but it turned out to be a pretty eventful week!

The day I hit 12 weeks, the exhaustion and nausea pretty much became non-existent! It was amazing to wake up last Monday and discover that I had almost all of my energy back!! And good timing, too, because that was Halloween week - one of the most exhausting weeks all school year! I actually worked out three days in a row - I'm sad to admit this, but that was the most times I had exercised in two months!!

The other fun thing I woke up to on Monday morning was the fact that a belly had grown over night. I tried hiding it all week, but could tell by Wednesday that it was nearly impossible! I decided I had to tell my staff on Thursday, or else they would all think I was overindulging WAY too much in my stash of Halloween candy. (Okay, I was, but I wanted to blame something else.) Many had already suspected. Go figure. I also told my students' parents on Friday. Many of them also had their suspicions. Maybe I'm not as good at covering things up as I thought?! And then yesterday, I told my students. Their reactions were priceless. They had such innocent questions and also blunt statements. Such as, "Will you be able to sit in that chair when you get big?" Thanks. Or, "What do you think the baby is doing right now?" And then today a boy came into the classroom and said, "'I've been wanting to see you all morning to see if your belly has grown!" I showed him and before I could explain that it isn't going to get huge over night he said, "Yep, it got pretty big already." Thanks again. Oh, how I am going to love sharing this time with four/five year olds!!!


And last but not least, I am also experiencing the very fun "pregnancy brain". At least I spend most of my time with kids half my size, so hopefully they won't notice too much. But I had one experience on a nature hike field trip last week that really made me want to crawl in a hole. A question came up as to what our state bird is and no one knew it. I kept saying, "I should know this, I should know this." And then suddenly I shouted out, "A beaver!" And then quickly realized a beaver is an animal, not a bird. A parent also quietly explained to me that that would be a good answer for the state animal. Wow, made me feel even more like an idiot. Since the parents who were there didn't know I was pregnant yet, I couldn't blame it on preggo brain. I wasn't even quick enough to say, "Oh, I guess I've been hanging out with PreKers too long." Nothing came to mind, so I just felt pretty dumb for about 5 minutes and pretended I was really interested in some of the PreKers questions. Yikes - I had hoped that I could escape the preggo brain!!

Can't wait to see what else this experience brings! This has definitely been an interesting adventure so far!!

1st Appointment!

Last Tuesday we had our first appointment. We haven't actually picked a place yet, but we went with the first doctor that had availability. We absolutely loved her and the hospital, but realized it's a pretty far drive from home, especially in traffic (not good when you're in labor, I'm sure!). So we might just need to go with Option B even though we don't know much about that hospital except that it's close to school and home. We still have six more months to make a decision, right? Only kidding...

Back to the appointment - we were lucky enough to have an ultrasound and actually see our little one!! Our doctor even printed off pictures for us which were pretty amazing. It's crazy to already see arms, legs and a body developing even though the baby is only 10 weeks and about 2 inches long. That definitely made it more real for us! We also found out our due date - Mother's Day 2010 (May 9th). How appropriate!!

In the midst of the appointment, I was still pretty sick but was so happy to find out that everything looked good so far! We actually had a few days that gave us a little a scare, but we were able to go back into the doctor on Friday and hear the heartbeat! We were actually told that it's a very strong heartbeat for being so young! Good news!!

We're hoping to get pics up here soon but still have a defunct camera. I've felt so lost without it lately so hopefully we'll break down and buy a new one soon - good excuse to upgrade!!

Almost 10 weeks!!

It's hard to believe that we are almost 10 weeks along. So far, I feel like this pregnancy thing has been going by pretty fast. I think a lot of that has to do with teaching a new grade level at the same time as finding out we were pregnant (oh, and the fact that we had four of our good friends' 30th birthdays to celebrate in there, too!!). That took most of my time and energy over the past few weeks!! But now that Back to School Night and conferences are over, I am really excited to now put more of my focus into what's ahead. :)

So, as many of you know, we still haven't had our first appointment yet. We actually have two scheduled within the next few weeks. Hmmm...doesn't that sound like me? Trying to find just the right place?! We actually know where we want to go, but have heard conflicting things from our insurance and are still trying to find out if we can go there... Hopefully it will work out!

Brian has been such a good supporter and husband these last few weeks. As much as I didn't want to admit that I wasn't going to have as much energy, it's true - you really don't have any!! I am finding that all I can really do is go to work and then come home and maybe make dinner. Maybe it could be due to the fact that I also get up at 5:30 and am now teaching 4/5 year olds! But whatever the reason, the laundry, the cleaning and even our dinners have really suffered. I now do the bare minimum - whatever it takes to get by!! Meanwhile, throughout this change, Brian has been so good at going to the grocery store for all last minute things. And I do mean last minute things! Lately it has been almost each day for small food cravings - chicken noodle soup, Starbursts, donuts at 7pm, but no pickles and ice cream just yet...although pickles are sounding really good right now... It's strange, but I haven't had the same two cravings twice. After I have it, it doesn't sound good to me again and I'm on to the next thing. Hence the last minute trips to the store. He has been a saint!!!

I also haven't been too sick. Morning nausea every day, yes. But at least it hasn't been unbearable. I did get the flu pretty bad though while in my 9th/10th week. That was actually worse than any nausea I've had this whole time!! Oh, the joys of being with the little ones and all their viruses all day long...

I know this is a long posting, but I haven't really kept up to date with how everything is going. I promise the next few will be shorter! And we will post pics soon, too! I tried taking pics of me at 8 weeks to post on here, but laughed when I didn't see a bump at all. They looked pretty silly. :) I'm sure there will be plenty of "bump" pics to show soon though!!

Thanks for all of your love and support over the last few weeks! We look forward to sharing more of our joy in the upcoming months!!

Post #1!!

Brian and I decided to start a blog soon after we had confirmation that our George clan is expanding. Since most of our family lives out of town, we thought this would be the perfect way to connect with everyone who may be interested in finding out the adventures of the George family! Check back here often as we will be posting our exciting events!