So, I'm counting down the hours until I get to find out whether my baby will be wearing dresses or suspenders (for those of you who don't know my dad -- the suspender thing runs in the family)! I keep playing that soon-to-be-moment over and over again just imagining what its going to be like. Obviously we will be SO thrilled either way, I just want to know!

Kyle has to bring home the envelope tomorrow night since hes off work Thursday and Friday -- how am I going to stay away from it?! Hardest. Two. Days. Ever.

I love feeling the baby kick. Its so relaxing and reassuring. I'll admit, there are times -- when I'm trying to sleep namely -- that I'd like it to cool it, but there really is nothing like it. Its getting to the point now that I can even see my belly giggle when it really gets going. I could stare at my belly for hours.

AND, we bought our first pieces of baby furniture last night. God bless Kyle. I started to get stressed last night when I realized the furniture I had originally picked out was junk. I hadn't really read the reviews I guess because once I did I realized quickly it wasn't the way to go. So, Kyle made me jump in the car at 9:00pm to "just go look" at Babies R Us. We ended finding the crib and a "baby" armoire that was on clearance. With the coupon I had, it was a deal that was meant to be.

Now we have the wainscoting on the wall and two of the four pieces of furniture and I love it. The nursery is starting to come together and I can start to picture my little one all cozy in there. Now, I just have to find out which way I'll be decorating!!

Kyle felt the baby kick! Not the most sentimental moment, but still a milestone.

We were in the $1 movie theatre (which costs $2 now) watching "The Hangover" and the baby was going crazy. He got to feel the "pop, pop" a couple times.

Very fun.

Its been brought to my attention that I haven't given an update in awhile:) My life feels like its been a bit out of control these last couple weeks.

First, we went on a fantastic cruise with Kyle's family. We were supposed to go to Ocho Rios, Jamaica and Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, but due to a sleepy propeller system they changed our itinerary the day before we left to Half Moon Cay and Nassau, Bahamas. Have you ever heard of such a thing?! There was some uproar prior to boarding the ship, but after setting sail, its really hard to be mad at the mall on the blue water and the 80 degree weather. Take me anywhere, I don't care.

So, before I left my mom wasn't feeling great, but due to a recent Chron's Disease flare (or so we thought) I didn't feel bad leaving her because unfortunately this wasn't rare. I spoke with her last Saturday, from Miami, and although she wasn't feeling great told me that she was "better." Well, the next time I was able to call (at $3/min) was last Tuesday. You know its bad when your 17-year old sister answers the phone saying, "Don't freak out." Great.

Turns out mom had a perforated bowel. Scary. They removed two more sections of her bowel leaving her just enough to not need any sort of "waste bag." Thank goodness. So, they had done emergency surgery on Sunday while I was in the middle of the ocean. My sister is quite mature for her age, but I felt an immense amount of guilt that she had to figure this out without me. After all, she is just a kid.

Needless to say, since we got home last Thursday (turkey day with no turkey) I have spent most of my time helping my mom get on the road to recovery. She is better, but still has a long way to go.

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On the baby front, half way tomorrow! Its hard to believe really. Our "big" u/s is next Thursday. Can't remember if I posted our plan or not, but we are going to have the Dr. write down the baby's sex on a piece of paper and seal it in an envelope for us to open X-mas eve. Kyle is going to either have to bury the darn thing in the backyard or give it away for 2 weeks because I have zero willpower. What ever made me think I was going to be able to wait another 20 weeks to find out?!

I'm off work for almost 4 weeks around the holidays (I love education) so my plan is to start getting my ducks in a row. Start the nursery, the registry, that sort of thing. I figure I'm feeling pretty good now so I should probably take advantage while the gettin' is good.

So it turns out that all my worrying was for nothing -- thank goodness. My cervix is a normal length and it isn't funneling or dilating at all. Whew.

The Dr. was back to her normal-self so that was a relief, too. She was bubbly as ever and was completely understanding as to why I wanted this extra ultrasound. I understand we all have our bad days, docs included, so I forgive her.

I got to see my baby's spine! Since the ultrasound was really about the cervix and not the baby, we didn't spend too much time looking at our little "tater" (as my husband's family has taken to calling he/she), but we did get a special glimpse of all those little bones in there that have formed since our last ultrasound 6 weeks ago.

We scheduled our "big" u/s for December 10. We decided to ask the Dr. to write down the sex on a piece of paper and put it in an envelope for us to open on Christmas. I'm pretty excited about this idea (which I owe to my 17-year old sister) although I told Kyle he is either going to have to bury the envelope in the backyard or give it to someone else to hold onto because I will find it and I will open it despite my good intentions. Heck, I've even already tried to talk him into opening it on his birthday, Dec. 13, but just as I almost had him convinced he snapped out of it and reminded me that his birthday is for him and Christmas is for our family:) How can you argue with that?

Happy Thanksgiving to all. We will be on a boat this holiday headed down to the Caribbean. Doesn't get much better than that.

So, we had a sucky Dr.'s appointment yesterday. I have always loved my Dr. for how bubbly and sweet she is, but either she was already mad before we got there, or I pissed her off.

My cervix has undergone two separate, but related, surgeries one of which was an emergency repair surgery. So, naturally, I am worried about the strength of my cervix as the baby gets bigger and bigger. She originally told me that she would begin monitoring it at 20 weeks. That sounded fine at the time, but here I am, getting ready to board a cruise ship for the Caribbean in a week and I'm slightly nervous about the state of my cervix. So, it only seemed logical to me to have her check it before we left to ease my mind. Keep in mind, this is only 3 weeks earlier than she had planned on starting to monitor it anyway.

Well, when I brought up that I was starting to get worried about it she practically made me feel like I was asking for a kidney. How hard it is to do an extra ultrasound? Eventually, after some tears, she did offer up to do the extra ultrasound, but not super willingly. I left there feeling bad for standing up for myself, but that hardly seems fair. Yeah, my worry may be premature, but after the trauma I went through "down there" it isn't hard to believe that I can't quite shake the terror I have from imagining that my cervix is shortening too soon.

I go back in on Wednesday for the "extra" ultrasound, but now I'm dreading it even more. Partially because I fear the unknown, but also because I don't feel all that warm and fuzzy towards my Doc at the moment.

I had a silly meltdown yesterday. It didn't feel silly at the time, though, of course. I was supposed to have my 16-week Dr. appointment and they had to cancel at the last minute for a delivery. Instead of being understanding that we had to reschedule for Thursday, I broke down. Yes, it would have been reasonable to have been disappointed that I wasn't going to get to hear my baby's heartbeat that day, but it wasn't that reasonable to have the sobbing-fit that it resulted in.

One good thing came out of though, Kyle finally realized that there are just times when I need to him to just listen and not talk. I called him in tears and when he realized I didn't want his positive spin on things he said, "So, is this one of those times you just want me to listen and not talk?" Good job, honey.

Voting: check. Next on today's agenda: the H1N1 shot.

I'm really not looking forward to standing in line for hours at the community clinic, but at this point I'm running out of time to get it. We leave for a Turkey Day cruise in about 3 weeks minus the 2 weeks that it takes to protect you, so here we are at today's clinic.

I'm a slight hypochondriac, I feel nauseous already.

In other news, we are sneaking up on our 16 week appointment. People weren't kidding when they say how fast this goes!