Girl or Boy?

July 31, 2014

I'm a little nervous for our first ultrasound tomorrow. We should find out if Baby Hoek is a boy or a girl! They say it's unlikely they won't be able to tell, which is good because we are doing a gender reveal party for our parents (and Kara) and a few extra friends who can make it, on Saturday. I'm sending an email to Barb Hoek at It's Personal by Sweet Cakes to color the frosting of our reveal cake pink or blue based on the gender, if the ultrasound tech would be so kind. We want it to be a surprise with everyone else. Just thinking about it is making me all teary. I'm sure I'll cry Saturday. It's pretty split as far as I know. The people at work mostly think it'll be a girl, and most of my family think it's a boy. I did a FB pole and it's currently leading with boy, but only by a few votes! I don't have a super strong feeling either way, I just go by whatever I naturally call it, "he" or "she" on the day it is. Today, she's a girl, but yesterday, he was a boy. Who knows! So excited to find out and HOPEFULLY get another good checkup with baby being healthy, just as we have every time so far.

Here's what I posted on Facebook:

We shall see!!!

Dear Baby: Part Eight

July 23, 2014

Dear Baby,
We are getting very close to finding out what you are going to be! A boy or a girl, that is! Our ultrasound is scheduled for next Friday. I hope it's the only one we have to do (although I don't know the intricacies of pregnancy still, so maybe there's another required one... I don't know), especially because we are having your Gender Reveal Party the very next day. Then your dad and I can start arguing about what to name you. Oh... that should be fun ;)

Yesterday, I had my third check-up with you. I got to hear your heartbeat again, and though Dr. Lown wasn't there (he was off to deliver another baby!), the PA was very nice and said it sounds like you are doing well in there. She also told me all my pains and ouchies are more or less normal, and that I'm growing (and gaining weight) just about the right amount. I am finally showing, although not a whole lot, but I need to work on getting something to make my pants bigger! Erika suggested belly bands, for when the hair ties I'm using to keep the buttons together aren't going to work anymore.

I really need to start taking baby bump photos too. I feel like I will be disappointed if I don't do it soon. Now that I'm showing, it might be a good idea, otherwise you'll get too big too fast! I've been slacking on keeping up with my own stuff... if it's not something someone paid for, I just watch TV instead ;) But we'll start getting motivated soon. With the party coming up next weekend, I better! Lots to do!

We'll SEE you next Friday!

Love, Mom

Baby Bump

July 15, 2014

I can finally see some growth progress on my little one. It's about time to finally start taking bump photos. I've been struggling to decide how I want to do it. I had the idea of doing it on our scanner camera at work but I can hold still enough for long enough for that to work (I learned on my trial run last week). So this week I will figure it out. Although I definitely can see the bump now, though I'm still mostly gut for some reason. The area below my belly button sticks out a little more when I suck my belly in. AND, as you will se below, my pants are MUCH tighter now. This particular pair really don't fit. Might have to get to maternity clothes a little sooner than I wanted!

Yesterday, Angie and I went to a prenatal yoga class. It was a little hard but it was pretty fun anyway. Her schedule doesn't work out for us to go every week, however I might sneak in there the week after weddings even if she can't come because it really stretched me out from the one I had last weekend. We are going to use Oole's prenatal yoga video that she let us borrow on Wednesday's though, so that should be fun too! I have a feeling we'll eat a lot of ice cream after though, for some reason ;)

Dear Baby: Part Seven

July 2, 2014

Dear Baby,

Today I was talking to Geoff at work about being a mom (or in his case, a dad) because he's got two little guys of his own. I love talking to Geoff cuz even though he's a guy, he gets what I'm going through and that's always nice to hear. I don't feel like I suck so much at this pregnancy thing when we chat. He's got lots of good thoughts and ideas too, so that's also nice! I hope you get to play with his kids someday; I imagine you will. They are a little older than you, kind of like Jason and Erika's kids, 2 and 5, but when you get a little older, you could play maybe!

In other news, I'm still feeling crummy, but I'm having longer stretches of feeling good, or at least normal again, which I'm hoping means maybe I'm almost done with the morning sickness. Still a little tired but I definitely have more energy. It was gradual when that happened, but it's an improvement. Now, if only I could stop feeling nauseous! Haha!

This week's concern was having a few pulse-y pains down toward the 'exit areas' (putting it nicely) so I started worrying about incompetent cervixes and such. Aunt Angie said she had something similar around the stage I'm in, and Aunt Kara told me not to worry either. Hopefully more things are just stretching out, I expect there's a lot of that going to be going on from here on out. Bring on the cocoa butter moisturizer.

Well, I better get back to work. I'm on the back end of being able to do my job as I know it, so I best get some things done while I can. Also I'm hungry, guess I need to eat... again!

Mommy