These pics are Dec 21, Aubyn is 32 weeks and a couple days here. She's getting tired of taking pictures by herself. Maybe deep down she likes the attention and would like it if we all just took pictures of her and always asked her about how she's doing...or not. Either way this is what we've got, she's feeling well. She's had light contractions at around 4 an hour so its almost to the point where we should be concerned. Last night she was having around 5 or 6 an hour. She plans on checking with her dr. today to see if she has another bladder infection. She/we survived the weekend in Elk Horn as we got there just before the blizzard(wednesday) and left shortly after(sunday). Despite being stuck inside it was an enjoyable trip as Jerome and Jacey left for Denver with the team on Saturday, Jaime and Chad were there for most of the time and left on Saturday and of course Mom and Dad were there the whole time. Janna didn't make it back as she'll come later this winter, likely when the baby comes. No one else from the extended family came although Dan and Allison's crew came after we scooped them out with 3 tractors as they were out of electricity for a day or more. It was a very blessed Christmas even though none of the cousins made it. Jerome, Jacey and I did go sledding for a bit on the icey roads which is always a fun time.

Ultrasound

Yesterday Aubyn and I went to SF to have our regularly scheduled ultrasound. The baby's heart continues to look good, the heart rate is consistent and strong. It was at 158 bpm yesterday. Aubyn will be 32 weeks complete tomorrow. The pictures aren't nearly as good now in comparison to earlier in pregnancy as the baby doesn't have much room to show itself. He/she is still breach and has it's legs up above its head still. We asked multiple questions regarding that and the Dr. Boyle isn't concerned about it and explained that the baby's torso is small now and as it fills out more that can cause the baby to flip. He also said that if we have to have a C-section, that wouldn't be a terrible thing, as baby is healthy and that's the main thing.
After the appointment and some shopping, we went ate at Texas Roadhouse with Owen, Leah and Clara. On a scale of 1 to 10, they are some cool people. It should be noted that Clara beat Aubyn in Guess Who later on. This is noted only because I think it has to do with pregnancy brain and should be documented.

In the 32nd week

Here is Aubyn at 31 weeks and 1 day. She's looking a bit more plump. She's feeling more and more stretched as the baby moves and kicks constantly. It also is not seaming to be in good positions. It's side to side instead of up and down and seems scrunched in there. The last ultrasound she had the tech even said it looks like its getting scrunched. Its still measuring big, healthy heart rate and Aubyn keeps gaining weight. The book says its at 4 lbs and 19 inches by now. I'm guessing it's 4 lbs and 25 inches. When Aubyn stayed in the hospital the other day the heart rate varied from 138 to around 170 at times. They say that's healthy. I might have mentioned it before but they also say that a high heart rate can indicate a girl. However, they say thats not always the case. Regardless of the gender, each checkup the baby's heart has been healthy with no signs of heart block. We are very thankful for that. We continue to pray for a healthy baby and thats all we care about. It continues to be enjoyable for us both and we are getting more and more excited as the weeks go by. Although after staying in the hospital we looked a little more seriously about names...just in case.

Unexpected trip to the hospital

On Thursday night Aubyn was having some lower abdominal pain. She reluctantly decided she should go in to the hospital where her doctor was the ER doctor on call. Expecting to be there 1/2 hour, the doctor checked her out and told her she'd be there atleast 1 night. The situation was that she had a bladder infection(UTI). The UTI was causing her to have contractions(1 every 3 minutes). At one point the doctor gave a steroid shot to Aubyn which helps develop the baby's lungs as the doctor said "in case this is the real thing". Aubyn's response was something to the effect of "no this can't be the real thing". Anyway, they gave her the shot and treated her infection as well as gave her muscle relaxer for the contractions. She ended up staying thursday night, all day friday, and friday night. She's out now and feeling good. She has had small contractions but only a couple an hour so with rest today and tomorrow she should be fine to work on tuesday. She's only 31 weeks complete now so its too early. The baby is in strange positions. Still breach and moving and kicking all the time. Hopefully it turns at some point. The hospital stay wasn't much fun but it did give us good orientation of the hospital and got us used to the atmosphere. We hope not to go back until early February.

25 weeks 2 days and many more smiles

What a fat lady, in a good way. Aubyn is gaining weight by the way. She's gained I believe over 12 lbs by now. I'll not put her actual weight in here just b/c if we become famous as planned we don't want the paparazzi to get ahold of her weight. All appointments that we've had have gone really well. The doctors in SF are very good and we feel comfortable with them. We've been going up there for weekly ultrasounds to keep an eye on the baby's heart valve. This is b/c of Aubyn's past auto immune tendancies. She has certain antigens in her blood that give the baby a slightly increased risk of congenital heart block. The risk is still around 2% chance but they have a good ability to treat her with steroids if they detect it early enough, thus the reason for the weekly ultrasounds. Our last visit at 24 weeks they decided we're far enough along that the risk keeps going down. We'll only visit from here on every 2 weeks or so. At that 24 wk appointment the baby weighed 1 lb 12 oz and had a heart rate of 161. With this higher range heart beat it could be a girl, who knows though as we're not finding out. It's all unbelievable to think about! The baby is kicking and moving like crazy as every night I can feel it even. The bad news is, right now the baby has fun kicking Aubyn's bladder giving her scares to the bathroom and it moves so much it wakes her up at night at times. Aubyn's sleep has been cut down some b/c of it but overall she feels good at this point.

20 wks 2 days at this ultrasound

After uploading all of these sweet pics of the baby living happily inside of Aubyn I don't think I have too much else to say about it. It just pretty awesome. The pics are from the ultrasound on 9/28 which would have put Aubyn at 20 weeks and 2 days. I'm a bit behind on the posts but thats just the way it goes. The baby is doing good at I believe 156 bpm on the heart rate which has stayed in the mid 150's for most every appointment. After seeing the pics we get more and more excited, especially during the ultrasound when we listen to the heartbeat and can see the baby moving a bit.

All smiles

Here is Aubyn on Sept 2nd, at 16 weeks 4 days. She is defenitely showing with a tight shirt. Baggy clothes, you can miss it pretty easily. I'll post an updated pic although it seems like at 16 weeks it was over night that she changed to that size and since then its been slower. She's been feeling alot better lately. We've been praying that it continue that way. At week 20 we went for our ultrasound in Sioux Falls. It went great, everything looks good, heart beat was at 156 bpm again. The one down side to the trip was that b/c of Aubyn's auto-immune tendancies and roe anti-bodies in her blood, there is a slight increased chance(2%) that those anti-bodies passing through the baby could cause congenital heart block. They tested for it and it passed with flying colors but they want to keep an eye on it. They know that if they caught it early they could help it significantly with medication. At worst case scenario the baby would have to have a pace maker installed. So far each following appointment has gone perfectly though. They test the baby's heart valve each time and its looked good every time. We are praying every night that God will watch over the little one and keep it from developing this heart block. Every day we thank God for the blessing of pregnancy and are humbled by this opportunity. It is all an incredible miracle. Thank you all for your prayers. More to come later.

Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3...

This is my first post on my first blog with my first wife who is pregnate with my first child. It's pretty exciting really. Mainly the first child thing. Aubyn is currently in her 19th week. She claims she's 19 weeks but I count that she's 18 weeks and in her 19th week. Whereas she thinks when she's in the 19th week she's 19 weeks. But I told her I'm in my 30th year and I'm defenitely not 30. Agree to disagree. She's feeling good... or better atleast. She's tired often and some days she feels the mild nausea pretty much all day. However, on sunday she didn't feel tired or nauseated(sp?). She was all over the house cleaning and getting ready for our bible study that we host. She had a doctors appt yesterday and she learned that she finally gained weight. She's at 132 which is a gain of 6 lbs from before pregnancy. She was very excited. The doc wants her to gain 35 lbs but its been tough with the nausea. She's showing a little but not too much unless you're around her alot you might not notice. She has felt the baby moving several times in the past week and once I even saw and felt it. Pretty crazy. Very exciting. I'll take a pic and post it sometime shortly. We have our 3-D ultrasound coming up. We aren't going to find out the gender but still are anxious to see how much he/she has developed since 10 wks ago when we had our standard ultrasound. Aubyn got a flu shot yesterday(regular). She was told to get a H1N1 shot sometime too b/c shes more succeptable to catching it b/c she's a woman b/t age 18-35 and she's pregnate. Evidently they are the most at risk.