Lil' Kicker's name will be...

Nate and I are just too excited to keep it in our little girls name will be...

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Emeralynn Rae Olmstead
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This is a name that both Nate and I have loved for the past 3 years. Where did it come from? Well, I made it up. Most everyone knows that I love the color green and therefore love Emerald as well. Somehow the name grew from there I do not know how but it did and I couldn't be happier with her name. When we found out that we were expecting a girl I could not think of any other names that would fit her. We decided that this must be her name, and to be honest I believe it fits her unique personality.

What a pain in my...

On Friday February 5th I started having severe pains on my right side. I waited for a couple hours and the pain subsided and I figured it was no big deal. Wrong, the pain quickly showed up sharply across my belly button and spanning from one side to the other. Once again I wanted to assume that the pain was normal growing pains but the severity triggered a call to my Doctor. After explaining the days run of events, the nurse placed me on hold. I am assuming to ask my Doctor, when she returned she told me it was very important that I drive to the hospital to be checked out in the ER. I was a little concerned but quickly put on a tough face and told Nate that I was going to drive myself to the ER. In addition, because Nate was going to leave for work I called Jenn to let her know where I was going.
When I arrived at the ER I could tell that it was going to be a long night. After about 25 minutes I was seen by the nurse triage and sent back to the waiting room. Time passed slowly and about an hour later I was able to be placed in one of the ER rooms. The nurse came in to find lil' kickers heartbeat and of course, being our child, lil' kicker was hiding. When she finally did find what she defined as the heartbeat it was very quite and I didn't hear it long enough to count the heart rate. Part of the reason it is so hard to find the baby's heartbeat is the fact that the placenta is right on the front wall.
By the time the ER Doctor finally came in I had been there for almost 3 hours. He asked me to define the pain and its current severity. Then said since my pain was not that bad I could just go home, or if I really wanted he could run the usual tests. I told him that I didn't want to drive 30 minutes home to have the pain return and have to drive back. I wanted to know if there was a reason for this pain! He reluctantly agreed, I had blood drawn, and I waited for my scan. They wheeled me though hospital to the u/s room. The tech was very nice and pointed out all the different parts of the baby as she measured them. The baby measured a week ahead, putting my due date based on the measurements at June 27th. The baby weighed 10 ounces! She soon discovered the source of my pain. Somehow my right ovary has become swollen, not to point fingers but someone fondly known as lil' kicker has feet in that very same location!
With 90% certainty we can now say that lil' kicker is...
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Comments by ZingerBug.com

Nate believes that the baby was getting mad that he was calling it a HE!! So she took revenge on me by kicking my ovary until it was extremely swollen. Then she was a lot calmer during the ultrasound and we even were able to peak between the legs. It was kinda like a cruel joke, but the is just like her mother... it is scary how much me I already see in this little girl. There is always a chance that something was hidden but we are fairly confident that lil' kicker is a girl. I could not be happier!! What a blessing :)

Ultrasound Today

Today was the big ultrasound, the one we had been waiting for. Well here is lil' kicker's profile...

Here is lil' kicker sucking a thumb...


So you may be wondering if we are having a boy or girl, so are we! What we do know is the baby is perfectly healthy, all organs (minus the ones of sexual nature)are accounted for! We will try to take another peak in about 12 weeks, but may end up waiting till the baby is born to find out! We feel really blessed :D

16 Weeks

Well the past 16 weeks have been a new experience and do not know how else to put it. I can say that people and even the books leave a lot of unpleasant details out, and we will leave it at that. So far this pregnancy has turned into a rather good diet plan, so far I have lost around 15 pounds! I am hoping to start gaining some of that back at some point, but for now I am not complaining. We have had a few minor ER visits these first 16 weeks, and Nate has asked me to cut that out. I think he is tired of all the trips to the hospital, and I agree. The amusing thing is I was never hospitalized or taken to the ER until I was pregnant, so this pregnancy has brought a lot of first.

On to the good news, my energy levels have started picking up. Although, the nausea and morning sickness are still around, they to not physically drain me as much as they used to. My clothes still don't fit as my pre-pregnancy clothes are too small and my maternity clothes are still too big.

The date for our anatomy scan has been moved to Feb. 3rd, exactly 5 months before our due date. We are both excited to find out, but my Mom is sure that it is a boy. I of course flip flop back in forth. I have started preparing as much as I can for baby and for now that means compiling the list of names. We have decided to make a list of our favorite names and bring it to the hospital and name the baby after we meat him/her... so the name will be our little surprise.

In other news, I started school again and am now going part time at Penn State. So far I am enjoying my classes, but that story may change in a few weeks. Nate starts school again on Thursday and although he is not thrilled he is dedicated to getting his education. We, but mostly Nate, has started reorganizing the house to be ready for lil' kickers arrival. Nate is anxious to get the baby's room set up and I can not say that I blame him. We have picked out the crib that we would like, finances allowing, and every time we are at Babysrus we sit and stare at it for a while. Here is the link... http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3535422. Part of the appeal is the fact that the crib is lower to the ground so I would not need a step ladder to get into it.

Anyways lil' kicker and I are doing well. Although I do not feel constant kicks I do feel him/her having a dance party in my tummy from time to time.

I will try to update this more!

Allie

Countdown to gender!

We are so excited that the baby is still healthy, now the next milestone is finding out the gender :D Thank you all for your prayers, check my facebook for ultrasound pictures!

Countdown Clock by Zoodu.com

Dedication

"You'll always be my first!"



There is not a day that goes by that I don't think of my angel. As I progress through this pregnancy I only fall more in love with the idea of being a mother, but the truth is I already am. I am a mother to my angel and I am a mother to the baby growing within me. I am grateful to know how blessed I am, Heavenly Father has given me constant reminders.

Counting our Blessings

Yesterday, after a visit to the ER, we found out that Baby B had stopped growing. I just sat there as the ER tech kept trying to find Baby B's heartbeat, she tried for over 30 minutes. I kept asking her if she could see the heartbeat hoping that the little blueberry was just being shy. She lied, for my benefit, and said that she could see it. As she began to measure the baby I knew, Baby A took up more space and was beginning to take a human shape. Baby B stopped growing at 7 weeks when it was only the size of a blueberry, it is now our angel baby. Baby A is right on track for growth and has a heartbeat of 185.

My question has always been how does someone deal with loss of the life inside them? Even more importantly how do you mourn the loss of one and celebrate the health of them other? Our way has been to find the good in the entire situation and I would like to share that.

1. Heavenly Father never gives us anything we can not handle, he has prepared us for this through our faith and the friends/family that we have.

2. Baby B has returned to Heaven, for a reason we are not aware of this baby was not ready to come to this earth but will continue to watch over us from Heaven.

3. Something was wrong with Baby B, either it's heart of nervous system was not strong enough to sustain life and Heavenly Father knew that.

4. Baby B will always be our baby.

5. Baby A is healthy and strong providing us with overwhelming hope of what the future holds.

6. Our marriage is only being strengthened through this experience and we are blessed to have each other.

7. The blessings of the Priesthood surround me providing me comfort I never thought was possible.

8. Our blessings are limitless

In short we are choosing to celebrate both our babies. They will both forever be apart of our lives for their own special reasons. Please continue to pray for Baby A and remember there is always more to thankful for in our lives, sometimes it is just harder to find.

With all my love for your continued support,
Allie