The LaRosas: July 2010

This week, I am 22 weeks along! Time seems to be flying by now! And little Lucy sure seems to be doing well because she's been doing flips in my belly and has even given me a couple of good little kicks lately. I love feeling her moving and I can tell she's getting stronger every day. I have waited for this feeling for what feels like forever and it's just as magical as I imagined!!

Lew and I have been busy planning for our new addition lately and we've gotten lots done. We finally decided on a nursery theme!! Yay! We're going with Pottery Barn's "Penelope" bedding with pink and green for the nursery colors. I love the little mama and baby birds on this bedding and we both really liked the colors. Here's what it looks like:

We also registered at Babies R Us last night and it was so much fun! It's amazing how much stuff a new baby needs but we felt so wonderfully blessed to finally be doing this! Lewis was so cute and loved scanning all the items. He's pretty clueless when it comes to what newborns and infants need but he loves learning about all the baby stuff and he really wants to be a part of all of it. (This is one of the many reasons I know he is going to be an amazing father!) Last night got us both really excited about meeting our little girl in a few short months and we left with the biggest smiles on our faces. I'm going to register at Target today as well since they also have lots of cute baby stuff. Can't wait!

As for how I'm feeling... Well, I feel pregnant - much more pregnant this week than last. My belly is starting to really pop and I feel a heaviness walking around that's new. (For those of you asking, I'll try to post a picture of my growing bump next time!) I'm enjoying the feeling right now but I know this is only the beginning and Lucy and I have a LOT more growing to do. I haven't had anymore trouble with bleeding but I'm still on restricted activity for now. I go back to the doctor on the 10th and they will do another ultrasound to check the position of the placenta and I'm praying it has moved so I can get back to normal. Oh, and I'm still sick. At this point, I've just accepted that it's probably going to be that way until I give birth and I'm okay with that. The part that bothers me is feeling like I can't do all the things I want to but I'm sticking to the doctors orders and will as long as I need to.

Overall, I am absolutely loving this part of my pregnancy and I am happier than I've ever been in my whole life! I am just so grateful and very, very blessed!!!

Today was my 20 week OB appointment and we had the big anatomy scan. What an amazing day!!! We went to a sneak-peek place last week and already knew it was a girl but I wanted to hear it confirmed today since the tech last week had a little trouble finding it.  Our little princess was extra wiggly today and the technician got the gender shot right away so now we know for sure that she is definitely a little girl!! :)  Although we honestly did not have a preference for boy or girl, we are thrilled! I'm so excited about doing her nursery and buying all the little girly clothes and hair bows and Lewis is loving the idea of having a daddy's girl. It just feels so good to finally know and we feel more bonded to her than ever!

Seeing our little one in 3D last week was incredible but today's ultrasound was by far the most amazing thing we have ever seen!  Since the purpose of today's scan was to take measurements and make sure everything is developing properly, we got to see her up on the screen for a long time and got a very in depth look at her entire little body. We saw detailed views of her brain, got to count all 10 fingers and all 10 toes, saw the chambers of her heart, saw her bladder and two little kidneys, her amazing little spine, her sweet face, and even counted the blood vessels in the umbilical cord! Everything measured perfectly and she is right on schedule! Thank you, Jesus! :) Even though I felt deep down that all was well, I have been a little worried leading up to this appointment. We both felt so relieved to see that there are no obvious problems with her. I have been emotional all day just thinking about how God has blessed us and answered our prayers.  We are so very grateful!

During the scan, the tech noticed a possible problem with the placenta placement.  It is positioned at the bottom where it is partially covering my cervix so I have been diagnosed with placenta previa. In lots of cases, it will move up on its own as the uterus grows but it is something they will have to watch closely because it can cause some complications in later pregnancy.  They'll do another ultrasound when I go back in 4 weeks to see how it looks. At that time they'll also try to get a good look at the blood flowing in and out of our baby girl's heart since she was moving around way too much this morning for them to get a clear view of that. In the meantime, I'm supposed to take it very easy. I'm not on bed rest or anything yet, I'm just supposed to avoid lifting, any kind of pulling or pushing, and no strenuous activities. Although the risks in later pregnancy are kind of scary, I'm not worried now because they said there is a very good chance of it correcting itself in the coming weeks. That's what we'll be praying for!

Now that we know for sure it's a girl, we've decided on a name.... Lucy Elizabeth LaRosa! I had a short list of girl names that I liked but Lewis loved Lucy from the first time I brought it up and through his persistence, I've fallen in love with it too. It's actually after my mom - her middle name is Lucille and everyone in her family calls her LuLu. We chose Elizabeth after his grandmother - her name was actually Betty but we liked the formal Elizabeth better for a middle name.  We love being able to finally call her by name instead of just saying "the baby" all the time.

Now for some pictures:

The classic 3 lines - it's definitely a girl!