so much to be THANKFUL for!

So this is a belated Thanksgiving post... We spent part of this past week at the deer lease, where Cooter shot the best buck he's ever killed. It was a great trip...and best of all, my morning sickness is slowly fading so I wasn't miserable the whole time! I forgot my good camera at home...go figure he'd shoot a good buck since I didn't have it. I had the case, lenses, etc. but no camera. People warned me that the baby would eat my brain...but seriously?!? The act of forgetting things is an everyday occurrence now. Here's Cooter with his buck.

Seeing as I outgrew my jeans a couple weeks ago, I got to give my new maternity jeans a good try while we were there. Turns out, they are pretty cute with cowboy boots too! Mom and Nicole went overboard on a shopping spree to Motherhood Maternity a couple weeks ago. Here's the loot mom gave me to get started... I am SO blessed! Can you read the red shirt on the bottom?...it says Tis the season to be pregnant. Cute. I will be wearing this every couple of days till Christmas!

That same day the clothes fairy visited me, I went to Pearland to see Jeremy and Nicole as they closed on their first house! So excited for them!

So on to baby news because I know that's why you are all such loyal followers. We raced home from the deer lease Wednesday for our last appointment with the fertility specialist. I got a call halfway home asking us if we could either come in early (um no could do...we were miles down I-10) or take our appointment to The Woodlands office. So we did. We actually saw our doctor for a minute...which we haven't seen since I quit my shots. The nurses do all of my ultrasounds and the doctors just help get the babies made. When he walked in I got nervous, like something was wrong...turns out it was just a misunderstanding. He thought we were sent to The Woodlands because we needed to see him (i.e. pregnancy complications), but our office was just short staffed that day. He stayed long enough for the nurse to start the ultrasound, saw a wiggly baby and beating heart, congratulated us and left! I LOVE feeling such trust from the doctor!

So this was by far, the best ultrasound we've had yet. I keep saying that... Immediately the nurse commented on seeing a good strong heartbeat. She measured it and it was 156bpm. I asked if that was okay since we have steadily fallen in the last couple of weeks and she said anything over 120 is normal. Also, the baby was more or less resting again this week...not that we didn't see our fair share of wiggles though! It had flipped around again. Each week, its head it on the opposite side of the sac. So weird to know how much the baby is flipping around inside me and I don't feel a thing. Soon I will though! The baby is the size of a lime this week...measuring about an inch and three quarters today and will be two inches within a few more days! Amazing! During most of the ultrasound the baby had hiccups. Do you know how adorably cute it is to watch it hiccuping on the monitor?!? Its whole little body would twitch and then lay back down. The nurse said I would start feeling the hiccups in the next month or so. Yay! I was 10w4d at this appointment, but the baby measured 10w6d. Anything within a couple of days is good. At this point, I like seeing it jump ahead like that! Grow, baby grow! Here's June bug this week with is feet curled up. Feet are on the left, head on the right.
As adorably cute as we found the hiccups...we were once again stunned by cuteness as the baby took a big stretch. Its legs stretched all the way out and both hands went up. We could see fingers and toes... What a sight! The legs are stretched out of the left (see its little feet?!?) and one hand is to the side and the other is up by the face.
Then as if we hadn't had enough ooooh and aaaaahs for the day, the nurse was able to get a shot from the baby's bottom half. This picture is a little harder to understand... The two white dots on the bottom of the pic are the bottom of its feet. The legs are curled up in the fetal position so we don't really see much of them. Then if you look upward there is another dot in the middle of the pic. That is the answer to the heated debate...boy or girl?!? Those are the parts, ladies and gentleman, but we just can't seem them enough in detail yet.

Oh how I wish they would keep me there another couple of weeks and then we'd know early! The nurse did hint a bit that she thought it looked awfully boyish, but she couldn't give us any more than 50% accuracy...lol. Cooter is convinced though...even calls it "he" when he talks about it. Speaking of talking about the baby...I LOVE to hear Cooter go on and on about the baby. I LOVE watching him show off the ultrasound pics and hear his description of each one and recount what a wonderful experience we had at our appointment. So sweet. He's going to be such a great daddy.

And the appointment just got even better! Yes, there was still room for more excitement... We HEARD our baby's beating heart for the first time! It is the most beautiful music to a pregnant momma's ears! Nothing is sweeter than that swishly thump-thump of your baby's heart beating. Typically the specialist didn't have the ability to hear the heartbeat, just see it via ultrasound. They don't deal with much prenatal care outside of watching the first 10-12 weeks of growth and development. However, they had just received new software for the ultrasound machines and this was the nurse's first attempt to see if it worked. Boy, did it!

It was a bittersweet day as we said good-bye to Houston Fertility Institute. We feel so lucky to have been brought to their care. They are such an attentive, caring staff. We know this is a good thing. The baby is doing well enough to graduate to the OB full time now. We're just going to miss our weekly sneak peeks at the little guy. We left that last appointment on such a high...thrill after thrill, goofy smiles are our face as we carried all of the pictures of our baby out to the car. No videos this week...the files didn't save to my thumb drive for some reason. I might make a drive to The Woodlands this week to retrieve them. Next appointment is with our OB on December 7. We are doing NT screening (more info on that later) and will be having an ultrasound...yay! Then we probably won't see the baby until late January...

We had a busy, but wonderful Thanksgiving with the family. We spent Thanksgiving eve sitting in the garage with the neighbors. Always a good time. Thanksgiving Day, we dropped Laila off at Jeremy and Nicole's new pad so she could spend the day with her aunt, uncle and grandparents. Cooter and I took of to the Gonzalez house for turkey dinner.

Cooter and I Thanksgiving Day

Justin and Emily

After turkey, I headed over to my parents house to watch the Aggies beat UT in the annual Thanksgiving game. Jeremy even gave Laila a Maroon Out shirt to wear during the game. Cooter and the guys headed up to the deer lease for another weekend of hunting.

See, SO much to be thankful for! Big bucks, new houses, precious time well spent with friends and family, growing, hiccuping, stretching baby in my belly, and Ags win! What a wonderful end to an amazing holiday! Now, time for Christmas!!!