20 week ultrasound photos

Here are three photos from our ultrasound this week. Hopefully you can make them out okay. We only get small printed photos, nothing digital, so these are scanned in...Enjoy!

Baby Girl Lowe - it's official (and no, I won't point "it" out to you...)

Baby Girl Lowe was waving at us.

Head shot - brain, eye sockets and nose are visible

It's official - we are having a baby....

GIRL!

Everything on the ultrasound was excellent, heart rate, aorta, brain measurements, four limbs, all 10 fingers. I’ve gained 4 lbs this month, so I’m right on track. Glucose testing next month, and then another ultrasound at 26 weeks to check my cervix (since I had surgery on it way back when). Mini-hospital tours in the next couple of weeks to pick our hospital and then we’ll probably take one fast baby/childbirth class for some basic info. I feel like I need it…..

Ben is already worried about our daughter dating, but then he did admit that she'll have him wrapped around his little finger. I can only imagine....

Photos and maybe a video of BGL (Baby Girl Lowe) will follow later this week.

New Years' Update!

So I have to apologize for not posting anything in a while. The holidays came and went, I got sick, I started a new position at my firm, trained my replacement for my old position, and well to be honest, I just wasn’t feeling up to blogging much. Just too tired and run down from my cold to even attempt to keep up. I’ll try to keep this short and sweet….

First – the holidays. My in-laws and Ben’s brother, John, and his girlfriend, Tracy, came to stay with us for a week over the holidays. Even with the small house, it was nice to have people at our place for once. We watched a lot of movies and ate a ton of food. For Christmas Eve we went to Carmine’s on Penn for some awesome Italian food, and then Christmas Day Ben and I made our first full-fledged turkey dinner. I did a traditional roast turkey and Ben deep fried one. They both turned out great. I might add we did cornbread stuffing this year and it ROCKS. I’ll post some photos below. We exchanged gifts with everyone and got tons of great stuff. We got a gift card to Babies R Us, which will come handy for sure, a gift card to Best Buy, which we used to upgrade our camera with some video capabilities, and we got a jogging stroller as well. Ben’s stoked about that one! We got some baby sandals, booties, robe/bath set – all of which are just too cute and I can’t wait to get them on Baby Lowe. All in all, it was a great week and we were really quite lonely when everyone was gone. But I guess we should just relish the calm before the storm.

I caught a nasty cold which started the day of Christmas and just got worse over the next couple of days. I had bad head congestion and then it moved into my chest. Believe it or not, I finally just kicked my cough this week. I was as tired as I’d been during my first trimester. I was miserable on some days, somewhat okay on others. Didn’t miss any work, but I think I probably should have. I just didn’t have the time to take off since I had to take 6 of my vacation days for my knee surgery back in June. That just messed me up for the rest of the year to take time off.

I am now a paralegal at my firm, working on post-judgment collections and general litigation. Basically, one of my mail responsibilities will be to find money (that people likely don’t have) to pay debts to our clients. I’ll be doing investigative projects, garnishments, and preparing my attorneys for hearings in which they’ll question the debtors about their assets, etc. I’ll also be supporting associates on general litigation matters within the firm, drafting documents, doing filings with the courts, document management, calendaring, etc. The list goes on and on, but after a week and a half in the new position, I have now realized I was really ready for the change and the challenge. I trained my assistant, Stacy, last week and she’s fallen into our firm nicely. I am happy to leave my two partners and one associate in her hands!

We also got a crib, if you can believe that! I remember driving home with it in the back of Ben’s Xterra, thinking, wow, a year ago we’d have been driving home from Sniagrab (big ski sale) with new skis or snowboards or something, but here I was staring at a crib and dresser thinking, wow, this is actually going home with us. We’re not delivering it for a friend, it’s actually for us…..weird, surreal, but really very exciting!

Baby Lowe is growing - I can tell. Kicking has gotten more often and not so much flutters, but more of full on kicks once in a while. I felt the first one at the beginning of 19 weeks, and grabbed Ben fast enough that he could have a chance to feel it from the outside too. He just lit up and got this big grin on his face. I was so happy that he could feel it I wanted to cry. Then again last night, I was laying in bed reading when I felt some more. I got his hands on my belly and he felt them too! I love the smile on his face, and I got all giggly to the point where my stomach was shaking so much you couldn't tell what was going on for a few seconds. But he definitely felt them!

I am at the end of my lunch hour, so I’ll leave with one more blurb – check the blog tomorrow. We have our 20 week ultrasound and we’ll hopefully find out if we are having Baby Girl Lowe or Baby Boy Lowe. We’ll take a DVD with us, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get it uploaded from the office computer or not. But we’ll definitely post on here what sex the baby is. Stay tuned…..

Here are some photos from Christmas and the crib. Oh and a couple more belly shots of me along the way. Happy New Year everyone!

Cornbread stuffing, yams and greenbean casserole

Our two turkeys, roasted in the front, deep fried in the back

Ben's handiwork setting the table - it looked so nice!
Our tree
Ben's ingenious idea for stringing lights - backpack!
Baby Lowe's dresser with changing pad
Baby Lowe's new digs

16 weeks
18 weeks

19 weeks

20 weeks

Excellent test results!

Just got off the phone with the doctor. I got my blood work results back from my appointment last week. My Downs Syndrome screening came back negative, which means that I am outside the result window for concern or even more testing (like a super scary looking amnio). As for Cystic Fibrosis, my chances of having a baby inflicted with that are 1/12,000. And then for Trisomy 18 and/or 13, my chances are 1/23,000. So those numbers are really excellent! Of course, nothing is definite, but my doctor has no reason to be concerned from any of our results! Here's to a happy, healthy Baby Lowe!

Tanner Wishes You a Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Lowes! Tanner is having too much fun with all the sweets and treats at the house....he found some antler ears and just couldn't resist. Happy Holidays!

Tanner at 4 and 1/2 years old:

Tanner at 7 months old (his first Christmas, and yes, he got coal in his stocking after this!):

16 week check up

Well, I'm in my fourth month, if you can believe that! I had my 16 week check up on Wednesday, and just had my vitals, weight, etc., checked, met with the doc briefly, and then had some blood drawn. Nothing to report, no concerns, just right on track. The highlight was listening to Baby Lowe's heartbeat! I love that - I could listen to it for hours. Ben and I are going to get one of the home listening devices. I'm so excited to get one of them! We'll get the one where

Ben's parents arrive on Saturday to visit for a week for Christmas. Then John and Tracy arrive for four days on Tuesday. It'll be good to host for once! Ben took a half-day today to get a start on cleaning, etc., as evenings are hard for me to get motivated at all. By the time I get home from work, I'm usually pretty tired. There are a few days a week that I feel pretty good, but generally, the thought of doing more than making dinner, taking the dog out or laying on the couch doesn't appeal much to me. Again, Ben's been great - taking on the majority of the housework. I don't tell him enough how much I appreciate him, but I will start doing that more for sure!

First Kick (?) and Holiday Parties

So last week, I "think" I felt the baby move, kick, punch, stretch or whatever BL is doing in there. It was very faint, but happened about four times right in a row. Little butterfly flutters is the best way I can describe it. However, that being said, it's kinda early to have felt something, or so I've read....still, it's always possible. Everyone I mentioned it to said, "It might have been gas," yet to be honest, I wasn't gassy at all that day. I called Ben at work and told him, and he got just ask excited as me! Then the whole rest of the day and the following day, he asked me if I felt any more, but alas, no...Oh well. Definitely looking forward to BL's first really distinguishable kicks, although I know there will be some later on that will rocket me out of my chair, I just know it.

Ben's work Christmas party was on Friday. They don't do the spouse thing, so Kate and I met up and went out to dinner. Then we headed to Vesta Dipping Grill to meet Shelley and her crew to celebrate her birthday. Kate and I had already eaten, so we sat at their table during dinner and just hung out with them. It was great. Shelley has been dating this super sweet guy, Chris, and he was adorable with her. She seems happy, so I'm happy for her! Kate and I then went to meet up with the rest of the ALPS crew after their party ended. Ben was a tad bit intoxicated, so he was dancing (believe it or not) and rubbing bellies with me. Very cute! He is so excited about this baby, I can't tell you how excited that gets me! His buddy Pat was all about my belly, rubbing it, singing to it, pointing to it. I was laughing. Saturday night it was my work's Christmas party. A five-course dinner at the Brown Palace. It was wonderful! The food was awesome and the room was beautiful. The attire was cocktail, so everyone was all snazzy and dressed up. Both of us were tired by 10 p.m., so we headed out of there, went home and crashed.

Ben left for a one night trip to NY for a client meeting on Sunday and my mom and I went to see Jersey Boys at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. It's a musical about the Four Seasons, and I LOVED IT! The music was great, the guy who played Frankie Valli was amazing. I would highly recommend it to anyone!

Here's a couple of photos of Ben and I from my holiday party - Ben looks so great in a suit, and since I don't travel with him, I never get to see him wear them that often. So enjoy!

First Belly Photos

I'm currently about 15 and a half weeks, and people have been asking for some belly photos (Shaleigh, here you go). I will try and take a photo or two each week to post on here. I am not looking so pretty - just back from swimming. I've decided that maybe I'm not too keen on taking these belly photos - my back is all out of whack and these photos don't look natural at all. Oh, and I'd just eaten dinner, so I'm full....Maybe we'll have better luck next time...

Cats

Pat forwarded this video to me and it reminded me of our cats. Milo in particular - he's been known to swipe at strange dogs and even us when we walk by and he wants to play. I could definitely see Andy getting a little persnickity about something like this though. Enjoy....



Another note about the cats - I am wondering if they can sense that I am pregnant? Here's the back story - literally. I was doing the elliptical two nights ago and at the end of my time, I got on the floor and did some stretching. My back has been bothering me since about the time I found out I was pregnant, thanks to the hormone relaxin, so if I lay flat on my back for about 5 minutes, it gets all stretched out and aligned and I feel much, much better. As I was laying on my back, Andy crawled up on top of my belly and rubbed his head back and forth on my tummy. Now I know you don't know our cats as well as Ben and I do, but he's NEVER done that before. I don't know about you, but tells me he can either smell, sense, feel or smell something in there....weird, I know. But it was totally cute! I went downstairs and told Ben, who proceeded to roll his eyes and me and call me crazy. Still, I'm starting to think Andy has figured it out. As for Tanner and Milo, that remains to be seen.... What do you think - can cats, or any pets in general, sense when their mommy is pregnant? Post your comments to let me know what you think.

Cute baby/dog photo

This came from my stepsister. One of her friends had a baby recently, and she sent me this photo (knowing that we have a dog as part of the family). I cannot wait to see how cute Tanner will be with Baby Lowe. Enjoy!