Monday, May 28, 2012

20 Weeks - Baby Bach's Gender Revealed & Fun with Family in PA

Happy Memorial Day All,

I hope that you all have had a fun and relaxing Memorial Day Weekend. The weather has been beautiful both in PA & VA, and I hope everyone had a chance to get out and enjoy it. I also hope everyone took a minute to give thanks for the Men & Women who have sacrificed their lives for our Country as well as those who are serving today. We are forever in their debt. 

It's been another eventful week in the Bach household as I imagine they all will continue to be from now on :). We are 20 weeks today and almost 1/2 way there! Can you believe it? The time is really flying by. We had our 18 to 20 week ultrasound last Wednesday and found out we are having...Drum Roll, please!! A BOY!!! Jon and I were so sure we were having a girl, but the little guy had something else in store for us :). It was very exciting to see him again on the Ultrasound. Most importantly the Dr. said that he is healthy. He was very active during the ultrasound kicking and playing with the umbilical cord..already getting into trouble, taking after his Daddy ;). We couldn't wait to share the news, and I baked cupcakes to take into work to announce the baby gender to my co-workers.


We also were able to make it home to PA to enjoy some fun with family & friends for the holiday. Jon & JP had a chance to fit in a round of golf at Stonehedge, Jon had a nice visit with his Brother & his family (Congrats to Michael for getting accepted into a Nursing PHD Fellowship Program!!), and The Patchcoski side of the family made their way up to Tunkhannock for a very nice cook out yesterday. It was really great to see how the family is growing.  All of the Patch cousins are having little ones, and it's really cool to see  another generation learning & growing.  My cousin Cheryl is actually due to have her baby 1 week after me! Who knows maybe there will be 2 new Patch cousins sharing the same birthday :).


Well, on to week 21 :). Jon and I will be celebrating our 2nd Wedding Anniversary Tomorrow. I couldn't have asked for a better 2 years. Thanks for being the best Husband a girl could ask for Jonny!



Have a great week everyone,

Sara

Sunday, May 20, 2012

19 Weeks - Daycare, Strollers, Nursery, & More

Hello Again :)

Hope everyone has had a great week. The weather sure has been awesome. Jon is out taking advantage of the weather and one of our weekends "pre-baby" golfing with our friend Jeff. Jeff is also a "soon to be dad". Jeff and his wife Taylor are due to have their first baby any day now..we have them in our thoughts & prayers and can't wait to meet Baby Baltzer when he arrives!

So..we're at week 19, almost 1/2 way to Baby Bach's due date! As promised here is my first baby bump picture.. I'm finally starting to have a bump..it's still small but there! This pic was taken yesterday afternoon.



The biggest items over the past couple weeks on Baby Bach's pre-birth checklist have been to 1) figure out daycare for when I go back to work 2) Determine what stroller/car seat we want to buy 3) Start on the Nursery...we've been able to accomplish all 3. The daycare situation was the biggest decision stressing me out. There are many options in this area, but there are also wait lists/registration fees, etc. for the good ones. We took a morning off from work and visited 5 of them.I also visited a few more after work..so I think we went to a total of 8 or 10. Walking into the first one was a bit difficult, I kept picturing the first day that I have to drop our baby off and was having quite a bit of anxiety about it.  As the visits progressed/weeks have gone by I've come to accept the situation for what it is. I also have decided on a facility that I feel really comfortable about..thanks to some feedback from great co-workers! It is very clean and seemed to be very well organized. Jon and I both got a really good feeling during our visit.

We also have purchased our stroller..man it's like shopping for a car! There are SO many models with different features. It was a bit overwhelming. We decided on the City Mini and a Chicco Car Seat. I fell in love with the city mini b/c it's so light and folds with just pulling a strap.  Jon loves the BOB stroller..but we wanted to start with something smaller and will probably purchase that in the future. Here is a pic of our baby cadillac :)


Finally..Jon has been hard at work on the nursery. He is putting lots of tender love & care into it. Here is an in-progress pic. We'll be sharing more pictures as it gets done.


This week is a BIG week in the Bach household..we have the ultrasound this Wednesday to make sure the baby is healthy and to find out the gender. I am very anxious about it b/c they will look at things like the heart, spine, etc. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers that everything goes as expected.  AND we are having a new roof put on the house..wasn't something we were expecting to have to do right now but it's something that just needs to be done prior to the baby arriving.

Hope everyone has a great week..can't believe Memorial Day is next weekend.

To health & happiness always,

Sara

Sunday, May 13, 2012

18 Weeks on Monday

Well, I've been wanting to start a pregnancy blog for awhile, so I decided that today would be the day that I would stop thinking about it and start writing! And what better day to start my blog but Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day to all of the wonderful Mom's out there (especially mine!). I would be lost without my Mom..I only hope that I can live up to the high standard she has set..she is the most amazing, loving mom!  It has been a great first "to be mommy" mother's day for me. My hubby Jon brought me home Sprinkles cupcakes and a beautiful card, it was a great surprise. He has been fantastic throughout the pregnancy.  I also received many mother's day wishes from my amazing friends and family. It really touched me that they would think of me today, this baby will be surrounded by so much love. I just can't wait!


So, since I'm picking this up at 18 weeks into my pregnancy..here is the 5..well maybe 10 minute recap of the first trimester. Jon and I had talked for awhile about starting a family and had decided that no matter what you plan for there is never a "good" time to start. No matter when..there will always be something going on with work, financially, etc. So we made the decision and started to try. We got the wonderful news that we were expecting at the end of January. I had envisioned all of these really creative ways to tell Jon, but all of those went out the window when I saw the first very faint sign of a positive on the pregnancy test. I couldn't wait and woke Jon up to have him make sure it really was there. He confirmed it was definitely positive, but then of course we had to go out and get 4 more different types of test just to be sure! It was a very emotional/life changing day that we both will never forget.

The next couple of weeks were very nerve wracking for us. I went to the Dr. to confirm the pregnancy and they of course took blood to confirm the pregnancy. I received a phone call from the Dr. once the results came in because my HCG levels (hormone levels that indicate pregnancy) weren't quite at what she thought they should be which could indicate a miscarriage or other "problem". I went back for another blood test. The results showed that my levels were going up, but they still weren't what she thought they should be which then lead to another blood test and an early ultrasound. The early ultrasound showed a pregnancy, which I was extremely relieved to see. I thought all would be in the clear, but then the next day I received a phone call from my OB/GYN asking me to come in the next day for another ultrasound because he thought I could be having an ectopic pregnancy (which means that the egg implants outside of your uterus). I was extremely anxious for this appointment. Jon was out of town, and I of course kept reading about all the possible scenarios on the internet. When I finally had the appointment, and the Dr. confirmed that I was in fact having a healthy pregnancy I broke down in tears. It was such a huge relief.

The anxiety/fear turned to excitement and we looked forward to sharing our wonderful news with friends & family.We were able to share the news in person with Jon's Sister and her family during our trip to Florida and even got to tell Jon's Cousins Nick, Dee, & Dimitri in person too! They were so excited and showered us with love & blessings. We shared the news with our family in PA a couple of weeks later. We gave both of our parent's onsies...one of them is below:


Our Parent's & Brothers were SO excited..it was so much fun to surprise them. We also were able to share a 3D ultrasound of the baby, which was just amazing. As our niece Ava said..Baby Bach looked just like an alien :).

The past 18 weeks have flown by. I've been very blessed to have zero morning sickness. My appetite has also been good and largely unaffected...although I seem to avoid protein, which isn't a good thing.. I know I need my protein! I also seem to have numbness/pain when I sleep at night on my sides. I've decided that if that is my only issue I'm extremely lucky!

Jon is busy working on the babies room...I'm so excited for him to become a daddy. He is absolutely in LOVE with the baby already. I feel so very blessed every day to have him in my life. I can't tell him I love him enough every day.

I hope to make this a weekly update moving forward and share some "bump"  updates. I'm starting to show a bit...but I feel like I just have a big belly and don't look pregnant yet! We also have the big gender ultrasound next Wednesday! Please say a prayer that Baby Bach is healthy!!! If you know me, you know how much of a planner I am so we'll be finding out the gender! We think it's a girl, but what do you all think?

Here is to next time! Let's make this week go by quick!