And baby makes three!

Ben and I are so very excited that we are expecting our first baby!

We had the baby itch for quite a while now (possibly due to our super cute niece, Ally), but just wanted to wait until we had things a little bit more "settled" in life.  I say settled in quotes because who ever feels completely settled in life these days!?  But, there were a few things we wanted to be in place - 1) for us to feel secure with good jobs/income and 2) to be in a place where we have family around (and Champaign is perfect! :)).  We finally had that feeling at the end of last year.  And, on New Years Eve - right after midnight, we made the resolution to "have a baby in 2012!".  From that day forward, we didn't turn back!

And, at the end of April, we found out that I was pregnant!  We feel very blessed that so far, everything seems to be progressing as it should and the baby seems to be doing well too!  But boy was it hard to keep it a secret for so long!!

Even though Carle usually doesn't do sonograms until 18-20 weeks, we had to have one at about 7 weeks because I was having some pain and they wanted to make sure everything was okay and the baby was in the right place.  I was secretly happy that we were going in for this sonogram because I had been SO worried about the fact that we wouldn't even get to see our baby until 18 weeks (beginning of August!)....just seemed like so far away.  Of course though, I was nervous as I went in because we didn't know if everything would be okay.  But - luckily, the baby (didn't look much like a baby at this point though!) was doing well - had a heartbeat of 117 bpm and was measuring at 6 weeks, 4 days!

Here is the picture from our first sonogram on May 14th!

The baby is in between the arrows - the white circle is the yolk sac (not the head - haha - I kind of thought that when I first saw it, must admit!  On the plus side, at least I didn't admit this out loud to the ultrasound tech!)

The baby wasn't measuring quite as far along as we had thought, so they moved my due date from December 27th to January 3rd!  We had to laugh when we heard January 3rd because that day already means so much to Ben and I - it's our anniversary!  We just think it's perfect that the baby is due on this day!  Although, I must admit - I'm kind of hoping the baby isn't actually born ON our anniversary - I guess only 4% of women actually have their baby on their due date, so our chances are pretty good that it won't be :)

So far I've been feeling really good!  I was lucky that I didn't really have any morning sickness (I know I am very, very lucky!).  My biggest pregnancy symptoms have been being tired, ligament stretching, a smaller bladder capacity, and just a few food aversions (I can't eat grilled chicken and salmon doesn't taste the same!). 

I definitely think I've started developing a little bit of a baby bump.  The first progress picture I noticed the biggest difference was in our 12 week picture a few weeks ago.  Here it is compared to week 8, notice a little bump?!  Just a little bit - not much though :)

I am just over 14 weeks now and am taking another progress pictures shortly - so I will share soon! :)  I definitely think I have a bigger bump now, anxious to see if it's all in my mind! :)

These two are also pretty excited to be a big brother and sister! :)  So I guess technically with these two included....And baby makes FIVE!

Molly :)