Here she is!!

Baby Girl Lowe's first portraits! Mommy's nose, Daddy's lips! She's a keeper!

I passed the gestational diabetes screen, so from here on out, no more major testing. Mostly just going to be monitoring me and watching my blood pressure, weight, BGL's growth, etc. I visit the doctor every two weeks now until about 34-36 weeks. Then I'll be there once a week.

Oh yea, we settled on a name, and no we aren't going to tell you!

We are having dinner on Saturday with my mom and sister for Ben's birthday (March 2) at Ben's favorite pizza place. Nice and casual, right up his alley.

In other Lowe news, Tanner managed to severely dislocate a toe. He started limping around earlier this week, so we kinda watched it, and then decided better to have the vet take a look. We thought it was a broken toe. So we dropped him at Dr. Y's office (who is the coolest vet EVER!!) yesterday morning for an x-ray. Dr. Y took time to check Tanner out before the x-ray and determined that Tanner had dislocated his toe badly enough that he's torn the ligaments that keep it in place. No surgery or anything discussed, but we hope that over time, enough scar tissue builds up that it essentially repairs itself. We've used my old ace bandage from my knee surgery to keep the toe in place, and we got some self adhesive wrap last night at PetsMart; however, Tanner decided today that he's had enough and ripped it all off. He's limited to short walks now, no playing ball or chasing squirrels. You would get the impression that he thinks his life is over as he knows it - he is acting truly pathetic. Here's a photo of Tanner when Ben got home from work today. Check out the glean in his eye - "Yep, I tore that sucker off."

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Today's dr. appt. was great!

My blood pressure is really good, BGL's heart rate is fantastic, my iron levels are excellent, and weight is right where it should be. I did drink the yucky glucola stuff before my appointment today - barf. It is so sweet and syrupy, but I got it down and then they did blood work an hour later. I should have those results in the next day or two, which will give us any indication of gestational diabetes. Hopefully nothing weird shows up. I'd like to keep this ball of goodness rolling right on to the end! Two minor issues arose - our choice of hospital and the pesky pregnancy rash I have.

Hospital choice - we had chosen Lutheran, but now are seriously considering St. Anthony's Central. Our doctors prefer it based on the quality of patient care, patient perks (like massages and fresh cookies daily) and overall logistics. Their neonatal and intensive care units are really good and their perineonatologist attends each and every delivery instead of having to be called in if something goes wrong. On top of that, my nurse midwife told me that Lutheran was just bought out by a Catholic charity which is causing some issues (politically more so...) amongst OBs who deliver there. That's all tied up in litigation. So I am thinking we'll steer clear of that stuff....St. Anthony's is my docs' preferred choice, so that's enough to sway me, I think. Besides, as Ben pointed out, it's much closer to our house than Lutheran.

Rash - I've had this weird rash on my chest and now little spots on my shoulders since I was about 8 weeks pregnant. We've tried two different at home treatments, but neither have worked - I'm now going on 4 MONTHS of dealing with it!! So I got a referral to a dermatologist, who I am seeing tomorrow. Hopefully she can help me resolve this issue. It's itchy and really makes me self-conscious. I can't wear half of my maternity clothes right now because of it. I want it gone!

Weekend update and two more belly photos

Nothing too exciting happened this weekend. Overall, it was nice and relaxing. I went to get a prenatal massage on Saturday morning and Ben was kind enough to clean house while I was gone - I LOVE HIM!! Saturday night we had dinner out with our friends Matt and Kate to celebrate Kate's birthday. I had gnocchi stroganoff and it was awesome. Ben had a burger, and he liked it. Only problem was he added blue cheese, so I couldn't try it (have to steer clear of blue cheese for now...). Sunday we actually made the trip to Babies R Us to register. (We have a bit of tweaking to do, but you can view it if you search for us by name.) Dare I say, it was a bit overwhelming! We enjoyed checking everything out, but it makes you realize how much stuff you really do need (or maybe you really don't need) for Baby Girl Lowe. I think most of the items are creature comforts and things of that nature that in general make life easier with a baby. We shall soon find out - I'm 24+ weeks now, right around the corner from the third trimester and into the homestretch!

I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, which beforehand I have to drink some "yummy" glucose drink and then do some blood work. This will be give the doctors any indication of gestational diabetes and whether I need to have a more extensive glucose test done (think drinking thick cough syrup over the course of three hours....not fun!). So hopefully my results after tomorrow are good and I can avoid the additional testing!

Here are two more belly photos - I think I'm caught up!

23 weeks - Baby Girl Lowe had a growth spurt! 24 weeks - no major growth spurt, just a big dinner right before we took this photo!

Songs on the Blog and baby names/suggestions

We added two of our favorite songs that remind us of BGL to the blog. Ben's favorite is "Daughter" by Loudon Wainwright III - you might recognize the song from the movie Knocked Up. Mine is "Beautiful Life" by Fisher - it's the song from the commercials for Jon & Kate Plus 8 on TLC. Hope you like our choices.

Many people have asked about the name of BGL. Here it is, short and sweet -- we are not going to be sharing the name of BGL until she makes her grand arrival. Sorry to disappoint, but we did find out the sex to satisfy many of you (yes, including ourselves), so this name thing is going to be something that Ben and I can share just between us. I will, however, offer you a tidbit....below is a list of suggestions from our friend Lauren Motley (soon to be Lauren Johnson - it'll make sense when you get to the last name on the list). She cracks me up. My favorite is Butterfly - it's kinda hippy-ish and we all know how much Ben loves Boulder, so it seems to fit. Enjoy! Oh, and if you have BGL name suggestions, respond to this post and we'll put them on the list. You might be lucky and have us choose a name you like.....we'll take first and middle name suggestions.

Names for Baby Lowe. One for each letter of the alphabet.

Aiesha
Butterfly
Chrystyna (a new twist on the ol’ Christina!)
De-lisha or De-nossis (couldn’t pick just one)
Ezola
Fajah
Germaine (yep, under girl names)
Hyacinth
Imelda (on the list)
Jack-ee (not to be confused with Jacquie, both on the list); Ja'Quaelah
K'Brianey (I just picked this one so you could try pronouncing it)
LeRinda, L'Tanga, or Larhonda (the L’s just sound too good with Lowe)
Monette (yep, also on the official list)
Skipped N’s – no good ones
Odessa
Precious
Queisha
Redonna (just shy of Madonna; a ready-made celebrity name)
Sharisha (rolls right off the tongue); Shamecca (Shamecca mecca high mecca highny ho)
Tye (not to be confused with Ty Bo)
Blows me away there were none for “U”
VeNay
Wygenia (hmmm, wonder how they came up with this one? The guy at the end of the table with a lisp….)
YoLanda (because you have to include this one)
Zelda (don’t use this one – it’s reserved for the future Zelda Johnson)

HUGE THANKS TO...

My cousin, Alicia. She sent Ben and I a HUGE HUGE HUGE box of baby stuff. We got it a week ago and I feel like I'm still going through it. I can't thank her enough for taking time out of her busy schedule with two kiddos to package that stuff up and get it to us. Believe me, Alicia, it will be well used! Thank you again!

Mini-update and one more belly photo

No news to report on the pregnancy front, so again, no news is good news. BGL is moving around more and more. Ben and I can feel her just about every day with good swift kicks. She actually kept me awake for part of Sunday morning, just having a party in my belly! I think more sooner than later we'll be able to SEE her moving - that will be very interesting! Next appt. is not until February 11, where I'll do my initial glucose testing to screen for gestational diabetes. Then another ultrasound (probably our last) on February 26. Nothing to report for this week, just going to finalize our registry list and hopefully make it to BabiesRUs to get that done this weekend. We'll see...the weather has been so nice, we haven't wanted to be inside for hours and hours. We are still walking on the weekends when the weather cooperates, although I have noticed that I feel it more about half way through than I have in the past. Just tired a bit, and my hips and pelvis start to feel some pressure. But if this is as bad as it gets, I'm good to go! Here's one belly photo that hasn't been posted yet. It was last week, when I was 22 weeks along.

Saturday we went to the Avs game and had a great time. They lost, but it was still close and we got to see a total of 7 goals. Ben hasn't ever been a hockey fan, so he probably got tired of me talking my way through the game, but I do think he had fun. He stood up and cheered and got into it more than I thought. Progress is progress! After the game we swung by St. Anthony's to tour their labor and delivery ward. Neither of us got a warm fuzzy from it, so we've decided we're delivering BGL at Lutheran in Wheat Ridge.

We went to our friends' Matt and Kate's to watch the super bowl last night. Had some good snacks and watched a good game. Ben and I put $10 in this pool where you had to pick results from 10 categories throughout the course of the game, like first sack, first touchdown, etc. We actually won! Took home $70 - not too bad for a Sunday afternoon of watching football.

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!