Week 23

Well we are almost to the 6 month point. Aughh!! Crazy! :) Lately we have been noticing that this baby has a personality. I've been able to feel small flutters for a few weeks now, but just this week Ed got to feel a kick for the first time. Lately I've been feeling it move more and more. Mostly though, the baby seems to sleep most of the day and awaken right as we lay down to go to sleep. Great...hopefully this isn't going to be true after it's born!

Today we went for our ultrasound. Last time we got to see the baby I was only 13 weeks along so we were pretty excited to see how it's changed and grown. The pictures were INCREDIBLE. The tech went through the entire anatomy of the baby and explained every little bone and parts of the body like the brain, kidneys, stomach, etc. It took about 45 minutes and we were glued to the screen the whole time in awe of how amazing it was. We made sure to tell her before she started that we didn't want to know if it was a boy or a girl so we had to close our eyes for that part. As hard as it was we both didn't peek so it remains a surprise that we will find out in March of 2009 like everyone else. At the very end of the ultrasound she clicked on a button and all of a sudden it was in 4-d!! We were so surprised b/c we had no idea that she could even do 4-d! We got to see our little baby's face. It is so AMAZING. Here is the picture she took.

Isn't technology absolutely incredible??? Our baby is so cute! You can even see its little ear and everything. Both of its hands are up to its face. Today was the best day ever!! The tech told us that the office offers a full session in 4-d for only $75.00 for their patients (it's normally $200+) because they want them to have the opportunity to get it done at a reasonable price. She said the best time is around 28 weeks or so. We are definitely considering doing it. They can put it on a cd/dvd so if we get it we'll post more pictures like this one.

We also went ahead and took another picture of the ever-expanding belly...getting bigger and bigger everyday! Here it is...

I can't believe I live in Florida and I'm this pale...oh well. I'll get out to the beach after the baby is born. There's no way I'm wearing a bathing suit now. Haha! :) Well we will keep everyone posted. That's all I've got for now.

Week 22

Well we are finally settled into our new house and getting really great at navigating the area. This week we had a doctor's appointment at our new OB/GYN here in Florida and we were very pleased. The practice is very nice and there are 4 doctor's available to rotate. They deliver at a hospital right around the corner and we have heard that the delivery suites are very nice, the whole unit is newly built. Here are some pictures from the hospital's website. There is a slideshow you can click on and see everything.
http://www.health-first.org/hospitals_services/hrmc/birth_suites.cfm

We haven't been there yet, but we are planning to take a tour soon. Next month we are going to start our "Prepared Childbirth Classes" at the hospital. We are pretty excited about it! We are just now starting to collect things that we'll need when the baby gets here. I am so excited about getting the nursery together. It's so much fun to look at baby stuff. I pretty much spend all of my free time looking online for the best deals. Ed likes looking at baby stuff too, but he's not obsessed with it like I am.

Updated..Finally!

Whew! I think the page is finally updated!! After the move it took awhile to get everything caught up. We are finally settled into our house. We got our phone/internet/cable set up, email me for our home phone number. We are going to use that one primarily because we paid for long distance this time (I had a problem going over my cell minutes). Last week I had a job interview with Pediatric Services of America (PSA). I will be working with kids who have special medical needs, but in their own homes. I'm excited because it will be more personalized care than at the hospital. I'm interested to see the differences between the two jobs. I still miss my old job though and everyone I worked with. I start orientation tomorrow so wish me luck!

Last weekend we went out to Orlando for our friend DJ's birthday. There were 12 of us total and we went to this great Greek restaurant. The food was incredible! They let people dance on the tables and they started dances around the whole restaurant with the people. Here are some pictures...

Week 21

Well our stuff got here first thing Monday morning!! They brought it over in a huge van and it took most of the day to get everything moved into the house.

After the movers left we looked around and realized we had a lot of work to do. Not only did everything need to be unpacked, arranged, organized, etc. We had to call and get all of our utilities set up. It pretty much took most of the week for us to get everything settled, but by the end of the week we had everything under control. I had a job interview in the middle of the week with PSA and I start my orientation next Wednesday. I'm so excited to finally get back to work. I hate sitting around all day...it sounds like a great idea but after about a week or so it's not fun anymore. I'm excited about starting home health nursing. It will be interesting to see the difference between that and working in a large hospital. Back to unpacking...

Week 20

Well this is the week we finally got our house!! :) We got up super early and left for Cocoa! We were excited to drive back down in the new car (pics to come soon!) and finally see where we would be living!! We got down here on a Thursday and did our initial walk through of our new house. We didn't get to sign the papers that day b/c it was too late in the afternoon. We spent the night in a hotel and planned on coming back to the office first thing Friday morning. We didn't mind too much, after driving/riding in the car all day we wanted to get some sleep. Here is a picture of Hope with her new dog bed...she fell asleep on this chair in the hotel with her leg hung up on the arm. She was exhausted!! :)

We signed our papers stating we accepted the house on Friday morning. We were so excited to finally get the keys!! The house is awesome...here is a picture of the front of it.
We couldn't get our stuff until Monday so we camped out for the weekend. We had to go to Wally World and get a big air mattress, tv, and dvd player so we didn't go insane in an empty house. Over the weekend we explored the area and ate out pretty much every meal except breakfast. It was exciting to look forward to getting our stuff and deciding where everything was going to go. So far the area is amazing with so many things to do, places to eat, etc. The movers brought our stuff on Monday and we couldn't wait to get everything unpacked and settled.

Week 19

Well we are still on vacation and this week we went to Jacksonville, FL to the STEELERS GAME!! Ed's mom and Harvin got all of us tickets for his birthday. We loaded up the car and drove down to Jacksonville on Saturday afternoon. We stayed in the same hotel on the river where we spent our first night as a married couple. :) Here is a picture of Ed and his mom on the balcony of the hotel. You can see the stadium in the background!

Saturday night we went to dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse (yummy!) and relaxed the rest of the evening. Sunday morning we had a nice brunch and then donned our jersey's to get ready for the game. We went down to the Landing and met up with Crystal, DJ, Tyson, and other friends.

We had dinner and then got onto the ferry to head to the game. We had awesome seats and the game was suspenseful...but we WON!! :) It was awesome! Here are some pictures of the ferry and inside the stadium...

Here is a picture of Ed and I after the big win!!

Week 18

Well we passed our final inspection and drove down to Cocoa Beach. We got to the housing office right at 3:37 and they closed at 3:30...DANG IT!! We had to find a hotel and camp out for the night so we could go back first thing in the morning. Luckily we found a pet-friendly hotel right on the beach and Hope LOVED it!! We let her run off all her energy from being in the car all day and Ed and I went to bed early since we were exhausted. The next day we woke up bright and early and went straight to the housing office to get our letter we needed to take to Pelican Coast. From there we went straight to Pelican Coast and the lady said we were getting a house, but it would be 2 weeks. Here is a picture of the beach down the street from our house.

That was fine with us. Since we had so much time off we figured we would take off and visit our families for awhile. In the meantime, I was talking to PSA trying to set up a job interview so that when we did come back down I would be all set to start working until the baby gets here.

So we came down to Sumter, SC and have settled in with his parents for a nice visit. It has been so nice to be able to sleep in and not worry about the boat, or shiftwork, or the hospital. After all the driving the Jetta needed some attention so we took it to get serviced. When we went to pick it up from getting an "oil change" we found out that somehow it wouldn't start suddenly so they were going to have to keep it over the weekend. Well that was pretty much the final straw for Ed (he pretty much hates the Jetta) and since we were going to need more room in a vehicle with the baby (and future babies) we decided it was time to start looking for a car...

Here are some pictures of us while we were vacationing in Sumter. The first one is of Hope and Scarlett. They were best buddies and followed each other around everywhere. We got them matching collars!! :)

Here is a cute family picture!

Here is a better view of the ever-expanding "bump".