From Gummie Bear to Baby

While most of you probably know by now, we thought it would be a good idea to start from the begining. By the grace of God, Dr. Helfgott from Northeast OBGYN, Dr. Bopp from Midwest fertility, and an oral drug called Clomid we were able to conceive and get pregnant May of this year 2011! Adding a sweet little pumpkin to our family has always been a dream of ours and now we can say it is an amazing reality. :)

We are beyond thrilled and wanted to not only document this crazy wonderful experience, but also share as much as we could with family and friends along the way. So, here goes...

Once we found out we were preggers it was extremely difficult to keep it a secret. Traditionally, people say wait until 3 months (or 12 weeks) to share the good news. But we've been down that road before and instead decided to shout our good from the roof tops once we got our 8 week ultrasound to confirm that our Little Pumpkin (which we now affectionately refer to as LP) was healthy and growing :) that way the more people that knew early on, the more people could pray for our LP :). So here it is, the first ultrasound...

LP at 8.5 weeks

(top of the head is on the right and legs/rump is on the left and if you look close you can see the little eye sockets, arm buds, and leg buds)

As we left the doctor's office, Greg and I both agreed that our Little Pumpkin looked a lot like a gummie bear, well the cutest gummie bear we've ever seen anyway, but we may be a bit biased :)

Also, just to quickly add it in because I know someone will want to know, but YES I did have morning/all day sickness. Originally I didnt think it would hit me, but WAM come 6 weeks preggers and it was like a brick wall of nausea, vomitting, and migraines. It lasted til 12 weeks and then like someone flipped a switch I was okay... so weird! I still have issues with smells once in a while and I still get migraines pretty often (I got them before being pregnant, so they just got worse and more frequent once I was prego).

Now, let's jump ahead to our 20 week anatomy ultrasound, where they check EVERYTHING! This was my favorite ultrasound appointment because it lasted for at least 45 minutes :) Mainly because they have to make sure the baby is growing right and it has all of fingers and toes among a million other things they had to check, but it was amazing!

LP at 19.5 weeks

(if you look close you can see LP has his/her hand by their mouth and a cute button nose...LOVE!)

This was the first picture of our LP we got to see once the ultrasound started :) Greg was so excited he blurted out... "LP looks like a baby!" And sure enough LP does indeed look more like a baby and less like the gummie bear we saw at 8.5 weeks... He or she did a LOT of growing over the last 12 weeks :) And whoa did this baby move... throughout the whole ultrasound he or she whas a wiggle worm! The tech had to jiggle LP around a few times to get the pictures she needed. Our LP is already a real character! :) And in case you were wondering, NO we are not finding out the sex of the baby because we want to be surprised :) But here are a few more pictures from that same ultrasound...

LP at 19.5 weeks - LP is turning away from the ultrasound :)

If you look close and you can see his or her spine, back of head, and one arm raised as he or she is turning away from the ultrasound tech :)

LP at 19.5 weeks - SENIOR PIC WHAT!? :)

We loved this picture because it looks like LP is already preparing for his or her senior photos with the obvious classic pose of "fist under chin"... too funny :)

LP at 19.5 weeks - the thinker or thumb sucker ;)

It looks like LP is deep in thought in this one or at the very least he or she has found his or her thumb... either way its still pretty darn adorable!

Okay so that is the skinny on the Hetrick family plus LP :), but we will be sure to try and update at least once a week. And though im nervous about it, I do plan on posting progressive belly shots starting with our 21 week belly shot since my baby bump is just now get noticeable, by me at the very least. Its scary to put it all out there (dont worry I will be fully clothed, sickos ;)), but it will also be pretty fun to document things. Oh and I plan on changing up the format a little for the next post so its easier to keep track of the milestones :)

Also, a big THANK YOU to everyone for all of the well wishes, congrats, and prayers during the first half of our pregnancy journey... we hope you stick with us for the second half! :)