02/23/2008 - Columbus Baby Shower

My aunt and cousins threw me a baby shower in Columbus this weekend.

The decorations were so cute and creative and I think everyone had a great time!

Click on "Columbus Baby Shower" under Photo Albums on the right to check out some of the neat gifts that we got!

02/21/2008 - 32 Week Doctor's Appt.

Today I discovered that Anna Claire and I have had a little growth spurt :) She went from just under 3 lbs. at my last visit just 3 weeks ago, to 4 lbs. & 5 ounces at this visit! This took her from the 47th percentile to the 67th! My doctor said not to put too much weight on the percentiles this far out, but I must admit that I'm a little nervous now about having a bigger baby than I was anticipating!

That was the most interesting part of the visit...everything is still coming along smoothly!

02/17/2008 - Glider

Back in October, Mandy's dad said that he wanted to buy the baby a gift and asked us what he could get.

Mandy remembered a story that her dad used to tell about the first time that his little girl was visiting her paternal grandparent's house and wouldn't go to sleep. Mandy's dad knew immediately that his little girl was desperately needing a rocker so that her mom could rock her to sleep, but the only problem was that Mandy's grandparents didn't have one. Well, when Mandy's paternal grandfather found out that his granddaughter didn't have what she wanted, he got up in the middle of the night, woke up the shop owner of the local furniture store and went down to purchase a rocker! It was such a simpler time then!

So, Mandy thought that a glider would be a very appropriate gift from her dad :) As the nursery started coming together, we decided that a yellow glider would be a nice compliment to all of the pink and green. We ordered this glider about 3 weeks ago and got it this week. We're very happy with how the color and fabric pattern turned out and also very excited that the glider is super comfortable to sit in!

02/13/2008 - Promotion

Most women in their 3rd trimester of pregnancy do not pursue promotions at work :) And even though promotion to Director was a natural next step for Mandy, after obtaining her FSA, she still didn't expect to receive the promotion before going on maternity leave. So you can imagine her surprise on Wednesday when she found out that she had gotten it! Eric was just as excited and came home with these flowers to show how proud he was.

02/04/2008 - Prepared Childbirth Course

For the past 5 Monday nights we've attended a prepared childbirth course at our hospital. Our instructor was thoughtful enough to take a picture of our class and email us the picture.

The class turned out to be really informative. We realize there's only so much we can do in anticipating what Mandy's labor experience will be like, but we found it really helpful to learn about all of the different possibilities (induction, epidural, cesarean birth, etc.) We'll see how well Mandy remembers the breathing techniques we learned once those painful contractions begin! :)

01/31/2008 - 3D/4D Ultrasound

Today was my 3D/4D ultrasound appointment and we got our first glance at Baby Grau. It was so strange to see her for the first time...she looks different than I expected, but I don't really know exactly what I was expecting her to look like! Of course she is still developing and although better than 2D images, there's still some distortions in these pictures since my OB said her face was pressed up against the placenta.

This picture makes me think that she has her daddy's nose...which is probably a good thing for her :)

During the ultrasound we could see her moving her little hands in front of her face as if to say, "No more pictures please!"

This picture shows a clearer image of her lips. She kind of looks like she's smiling!

My OB added little comments to some of the pictures.

So far, we are both still progressing well. My glucose test came back okay, so no sign of gestational diabetes. He said that she's still growing in line with my due date and is currently in the 47th percentile on size, weighing almost 3 pounds.

We did one more check on the gender and since we are 99.99% sure that she really is a girl :), we are ready to share the name. We are going to name her...

Anna Claire

With Anna as the first name and Claire as the middle name and we're going to call her "Anna Claire". The name Claire is from Mandy's maternal grandmother...we shared a very special relationship and her middle name was Clarene. The name Anna is just a name that both Eric and I like. We wouldn't mind if she decides to drop the Claire when she gets older and just go by Anna. We can't wait to meet Anna Claire for the first time!

01/30/2008 - 29 Week Belly

We took a lot of pictures at Christmas but decided that I was due for another "official" belly shot.

Eric chose this outfit when we first started taking the belly shot pics. I was skeptical about being able to wear it for all of the pictures, but so far I'm still able to squeeze into it! We'll see if it continues to "fit" over the remaining 11 weeks!

Baby Grau continues to become more active. I usually feel her move some during the day at work but I feel the most movement when I'm lying in bed at night just before I go to sleep. Eric was recently able to feel some of the movement and I've actually seen my belly move a couple of times, which was also pretty cool. Showing more and feeling more movement have definitely made the pregnancy feel more "real".