Live Those Songs Again!

Hi everyone! We just got back from our "babymoon"- our trip to see our 10th Kenny Chesney concert in Moline, IL. It was a great way to celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary too, which was on Monday the 16th. The trip went very well, with only a few minor meltdowns- Andy's in Dubuque when I insisted that we not eat any more fast food and mine somewhere in the middle of Iowa when I could not find a cold bottle of lemonade. Other than that, traveling while pregnant was not too bad. There were a lot of bathroom stops along the way- Andy took it all in stride. Being pregnant at a concert was different- my ankles were pretty swollen that night from all of the standing, and waiting in line for the bathroom got to be really long, but I'm not complaining. We had a really good time. Overall, it was a great show. Andy really enjoyed LeAnn Rimes (his new crush), and I tried not to scream and get myself too worked up when Kenny took the stage :) I was excited because when we walked around the arena in the afternoon to see if we could get a glimpse of SOMEONE we saw Kenny's guitarist Tim Hensley walk right past us and Kenny's security guard Tambo setting up the Vibe Room, where the band hangs out before the show. Quite the spotting! Still, no Kenny. I should have really run down that bus back 2 years ago in Madison when I had the chance. I told Andy this year if I saw any sort of sight of Kenny he better have my back and some bail money ready just in case!

Everyone was wondering if we would run into any flooding down there. Other than seeing some water in the fields and high rivers spilling over their banks, we didn't see much. There was high water outside of our hotel which was right on the Mississippi River- they had laid down some sandbags even though the water receded the next morning. We drove out of our way to get around the hardest hit areas of Iowa on our way home, but the whole state seems to be affected one way or another. There won't be corn as high as your knees by the 4th of July this year.

On our way back home we stopped in the cities to finish up my baby registries. I'm registered at Target and Baby Depot (thanks Darcie for the help with that!!!). We visited with Darcie and Rob and the kids and then with Krista, Matt, Micaiah and Joni. Micaiah has really grown since the last time we saw him! It will be fun to see the little cousins interact once Baby Hoffmann is here. He has been kicking and moving so much more this week! Right now he moves or kicks every so often. I can feel some moving most of the day but I'll see and feel him kick once a day or every 2 days. Andy has felt it, but for some reason the past few days on the trip I'll feel it and as soon as Andy will touch my belly Baby will become shy and stop. Right now we just watch my belly and wait for him to show us something. I'm sure in a week's time we will feel and see a lot more!

The Long and Winding Road

Today I had my 5 month prenatal appointment. I am now officially at the halfway point- woo hoo! It feels good to reach that mini milestone. The next 20 weeks I have a feeling will be more of a challenge than my first 20. I'm already starting to find out that picking things up off the floor or bending over isn't as easy or as fast as it once was. Imagine 3 months from now!

The baby's heartbeat was easier to find this time. The past few months the doctor had a hard time finding it, but this time our boy was a lot more cooperative. I'm also starting to feel him move a lot more now. Well, if what I'm feeling is indeed movement. It feels like rhythmic pulses for a few minutes every so often. Yesterday it was nonstop. It was fun yesterday morning to watch a tiny part of my belly pulsate. I'm choosing to believe it was our baby boy either moving or hiccuping and not just gas!

The only area of concern this month was with the results of my ultrasound. The ultrasound detected a fibroid about the size of a baseball on the top of my uterus. Apparently it isn't really something to worry a lot about a lot at this point since they are common in pregnant women, but the doctor is going to keep an eye on it since it is so large in size. They are going to do another ultrasound in the near future to see if it shrinks on its own or grows any further. Since it's on the top and not on the bottom, it shouldn't interfere with childbirth or the pregnancy. It's on the outside of the uterus too, which is great news. If it were on the inside, it could interfere more with the pregnancy. So it's a waiting game right now to see if it will have any impact or none at all. I'll keep you all posted.

Other than that, everything else is going well. I'm still feeling really good, which I am thankful for! We are starting to get outside a lot more which is great now that the weather is warming up. Andy has started to ride a lot more lately, and is training for his next race, which is June 22nd here in Duluth. That is going to be a busy weekend for us. We are going to be going on Thursday the 19th to Moline, IL for our only Kenny Chesney concert this summer. He is not going to be playing at the Xcel Energy Center this year like he usually does, so it's either Moline or nothing. Since this is our last summer pre-baby, we are going to make the 7 hour trek to see Kenny. I'm not excited about the 7 hour car ride with gas prices the way they are (3.99 today!!!). I'm hoping there are a lot of gas stations along the way though. I'm not sure how driving through 4 states at 22 weeks along is going to be, but I'm guessing that we might be making a few stops along the way! It's hard to be sowing the last few wild oats and taking one last road trip when you have to pee every hour!

Beautiful Boy!

It's a BOY!!!! Andy and I are overjoyed that we were able to see our beautiful baby boy today at our ultrasound! The lady that did the ultrasound was able to tell right away that it was indeed a boy- I guess that there was no question of that as soon as she looked. The baby was looking developmentally healthy- everything looked great. This ultrasound was a little different from the last one because the baby is much bigger now at 19 weeks- they were looking at individual parts and organs and doing their measurements rather than looking at the entire baby. It was a little confusing for me as a first time mom because I was expecting to see the entire baby all at once just like the last time, just more in detail. This time it was looking at him in segments. I asked a ton of questions to make sure I was understanding what we were looking at. The baby was down so it was hard to get a clear look at times, but we did see the heart which was SO COOL because we could see all 4 chambers beating at once. WOW!!! The bones were also neat and the spine because they were so well defined. He even did a somersault once and showed us his little rear end. That was funny because his little feet fanned out- Andy and I agreed that was a decent little flip turn that he did for his daddy. Although we were excited to find out that we are definitely having a boy, we were a little disappointed this time because we could not see the baby in 3D mode, which was the highlight of the last ultrasound. Since the baby was down, we could only see the top of his head. I thought that she could have tried a little longer to look, but the ultrasound tech was convinced that it would be a waste of time and flipped the machine off within 10 seconds, which did cause me some tears. But we were spoiled with awesome pictures the last time, but we were able to determine the gender today, so we are focusing on that. I'm posting the 2 pictures that we got even though they are hard to see and not very clear at all. One is of his head and torso- you can really see the ribcage and spine really well. The other one is a straight on shot of his head and torso- the arms are up near his ears. To me I can see the arm bones really well and see the left side/right side of the brain, even though the face is a little hard to make out.

We are just excited to finally know what we're having and looking forward now to referring to our son by his name and gender rather than just "baby" or "he or she". Andy is really over the moon about the thought of having a boy. He's wondering how soon you can bring a little boy up into a tree stand! I did have a dream that I was having a boy last week, but I had no clear cut feeling. Andy and I also feel fortunate because we have had a boy name picked out since day one and were struggling with girl names. We should still pick out a girl name just in case, but it won't be with too much urgency. I'm told there is no question he is a boy. Now he'll be able to wear the Yamaha beanie that I bought for him at a rummage sale over the weekend. A friend of mine and I went to the Mothers of Multiples sale 2 days before the ultrasound. Terrible timing to really shop, but I did pick up a few things that were boyish. Auntie Joni is coming up for a visit this weekend and I'm sure we'll do a little shopping! Thanks be to God- it's a healthy baby boy!!!!