Pregnancy discussions

I keep thinking the baby will come early since Abi was 2 1/2 wks early but then I think of how different this pregnancy has been from Abi's. So what are the similarities and differences?
The Same:
1) The weight gain. I'm right on schedule to gain exactly the same amount of weight (give or take a pound)
2) The horrible heartburn
3) I don't have stretch marks yet. With Abi they showed up about a month before but so far no sign of them yet. I imagine they will appear any second.
4) Being hot. Not in the sexy way. I have a high body temp anyway and am usually warmer but during pregnancy I am most often very hot.
5) Cankles- although they aren't nearly as bad this time around.

Different:
1) While the weight gain has been the same the odd thing is that this pregnancy I haven't worked out anywhere near the same as when pregnant with Abi. I have also ate pretty much whatever and with Abi I was very cautious.
2) The sheer exhaustion.. this started right away. It was debilitating. I have never been so tired. I could be hanging out in the beanbag to relax for a minute during the first 3 months and wake up an hour later in a panic about what Abi would be up to. She watched a lot more tv than normal. This let up a little during the summer months but has been coming back with a vengeance the past few weeks.
3) I actually threw up this time. I felt sick a lot in the first 3 months. The only thing that would make it better was snacking on something. Weird. I don't remember how many times I threw up but it still wasn't very many.. but with Abi I never did.
4) The cravings. With Abi I craved steak steak steak. This time it's been more carbs.... white rice, popcorn, bread, etc.
5) I think I'm carrying this baby lower because there are a lot of maternity shirts that fit me in the final trimester last time that I was looking forward to wearing and they don't reach down far enough to cover this belly.
6) The fake contractions.. I have them ALL the time. I never had one with Abi.
7) The aches and pains in my bones (hips, pelvis etc). There are times when I stand up and feel like everything is going to break apart and fall out. At night I have to switch sides all the time and it is painful. So strange.
8) Last time I had too much amniotic fluid.. so far that doesn't seem to be the same... only a little extra.
9) This time I KNEW I was pregnant a week into it. It was strange. I was hanging out with Doug and Abi and laid down on the floor on my stomach. It felt like I was laying on a rock. Then I made turkey sandwiches for lunch about a week after that and went to take a bite of mine and almost threw up. I had to take the meat off. I kept telling myself there was no way I could have symptoms so soon but... since it turned out I was pregnant I guess you can.

Anyway, I have finally entered the nesting phase. I denied it for awhile but it's pretty obvious now. Today I am working in spurts so as to not put myself into labor (Doug was worried about me doing that last night) to get the kitchen done. Really it needed to be cleaned in just the normal weekly way but I decided to clean out and reorganize every cupboard so I've been doing that as well as the pantry and fridge since about 6:30am. Yesterday I stocked up at Sams club and Wal Mart on a ton of food so that over the next few days I could be cooking and freezing things just in case she comes early before my mom is here.
So here is a question....

Have your pregnancies been the same or different?
What things were the same.. what things were different?
Did you nest?

baby face

This morning was my second ultrasound. There were a few times when we could see her face pretty good but we didn't get pictures of it. This is the best one we got printed out of her face so hopefully you can see her. If you need help, the top of her head is on the right side...

anyway, I found it amazing how much she looks like Abi did in the second ultrasound pictures. So, I have a feeling she is going to look a lot like Abi.

Also, she is a big baby. Either she is going to be born sooner than expected or she is going to be a lot bigger than Abi was.

Today she is 6 lbs 9 oz. Abi was 7.3 when she was born and dropped down to 6.8 in the hospital...so she is bigger right now than Abi was the day after she was born. Crazy.

It was such fun to see her again and have Doug and Abi get to share in that.

Shower

My mom threw me the cutest little shower yesterday. It was centered most on games and visiting which I thought was really fun. For favors my mom and I put together these cute little buckets with some candy in them as well as a little notepad, a pencil and the games so it was useful during the shower and a fun little take home gift as well.

For one of the games my mom filled this basket with baby items tied to little tags where each person got to be creative and write down the use for each item and a way not to use it. It was cute.

My mom made really yummy chicken salad croissants along with fruit kabobs and cute cupcakes.

Abi was VERY excited. When she woke up in the morning she asked me , "Is the party today?" I said "Yes." and she yelled out, "Yippee!"

She even let me paint her toenails and fingernails!

I had to get this picture of Courtney and Abi snuggling with Grandma.

She made a tent with her bingo card for her M&M's...

The stash...

All the things from the basket game....

I'm also throwing on a picture of Abi this morning in the cute new coat from Grammy.

A Little Sprinkle

I heard that showers for 2nd babies and on are called sprinkles by a lot of people and I think that's kind of cute. So, anyway, my mom is throwing a little sprinkle for me this Saturday. It's kind of last minute so we got out invites to close family but not to friends or a lot of extended family. So, if you are in Utah, read this blog, and have Saturday afternoon free and would like to drive down for it email me at dcavw@hotmail.com and I'll let you know the particulars!

Yesterday

Doug was able to take the day off of work for the ultrasound but we had a few hours to kill in the morning so we went to the dollar movie together. Doug never gets to go with us to those so it was really fun.
After that we just had the time to get to the ultrasound.
I was so nervous the entire time. It felt more 'hospital' than the last one did as most things have with this pregnancy. Since I've only had the one pregnancy experience that is all I have to compare this one to. So, with Abi's first ultrasound the computer was turned to me the entire time and as she measured everything she explained it to us. This time the tech was really nice but did all the measurements first with the computer turned away and then at the end turned it toward me to see the baby and find out the sex.
I have no idea how long it took to take all the measurements but it felt like 15-20 minutes and the entire time it was all business. She hardly said a word. I was freaking out inside wondering if something was wrong. I watched her face and every time she made any kind of face I would get nervous... even though they were probably normal expressions.
Finally she showed us the baby. She said "well, from everything I can see and have been seeing this entire time I would say I am 98% sure it's a girl."
I was shocked and figured Doug was too as he has been certain it was a boy the entire time. He has even been referring to the baby as 'he' and as the name we had picked out. Turns out Doug wasn't as shocked as I was as he had heard her say "her spine" a minute before but I hadn't noticed that. Doug brought Abi over to get a closer look and Abi said, "It's a girl?" We said yes.
She then said, " I wanted it to be a girl!!!" It was so cute.
So, we got a few pictures printed out. This one is of her silhouette.

After we left we decided to do the same things we did after Abi's first ultrasound to make them into family traditions. My parents took us all to Red Robin last time so Doug, Abi, and I went to Red Robin for lunch.
Last time I had to drop Doug off at work and then my mom, sister, and I went shopping to buy a 'girly' outfit. So since Doug was really tired I dropped him off at home and Abi and I went to Babies R Us to register (you get a $10 gift card if you do that- with a coupon I had) and picked out this little outfit for her.

We are all very excited to have another little girl. I really wanted Abi to have a sister so that's one really great thing about this.
It was really hard to pick a girl name for us. After Abigail we didn't agree on ANYTHING! We each had names we loved and we both vetoed all of each other's names. It was insane. Finally Abi started telling everyone that if it was a girl we were going to name her Madeline (like the story book character).
I said to Doug, " I like Madeline." He wasn't sure. "We can call her Maddy." He liked that. You see I like long old fashioned names and Doug likes shorter modern ones so... that's why our names have to have a longer more traditional version (Abigail, Madeline) and a shorter more modern version (Abi, Maddy) so we finally agreed on a name. Amazing.
Madeline
Now we just have to figure out a middle name. I have a few that I really like but Doug doesn't seem excited about them so we'll see over the next few months what happens with that.
Anyway, thanks for all the congrats everyone. We are really excited and can't wait to see what she looks like.

Now for the moment we've all been waiting for....

It's a GIRL!

First Ultrasound

Woo hoo. Today was my first ultrasound. I think it is interesting how they do those here. In Utah I would have just had the one 'main' one when we found out the gender but because I had so much amniotic fluid and Abi had fluid on her kidney we ended up having a few. But here, I guess, you get to have a bunch of them.
I couldn't see much. The conversation pretty much went like this:
"Do you see the baby right here?"
"Uh, no."
"See right here."
"Kind of...."
But then I was able to finally make out the body and the heartbeat. That is the best! I love seeing the little heart fluttering away.

Just a little baby update..

Every day I look at my little baby calculator and wonder why it still looks like a sea monkey when it feels the size of a football already! Just kidding. This pregnancy so far has been pretty close to when I was pregnant with Abi as far as feeling pregnant fast, clothes getting tight way too fast, being tired, not throwing up, and having heartburn like crazy but the difference is that the nausea and fatigue are way worse than they were with Abi. The last few days I have felt just sick and so so so tired. I have fallen asleep in the beanbag within minutes a few times this week- this never happens to me. I'm that girl that it takes at least a half hour-45 minutes to fall asleep no matter how tired I am. Also, I just feel sick. I feel like I will throw up but never do. And the only thing that makes that feeling go away is to eat something which usually gives me heartburn!
Oh well though.. the little sea monkey is worth it.