Plugging Along

I think it's pretty much general knowledge now that yes, we are expecting a baby this fall. I'm almost 16 weeks and had a checkup yesterday. Things are looking good. Baby's heartbeat was a steady 150 (normal is 120-180, so right in the middle). My BP was very slightly elevated, but the doctor didn't say anything about it--and she knows my history of pre-eclampsia, so if it was worrisome, I'm sure she would have brought it up. They've already done a baseline check for protein in my urine (sorry, gross, I know) and it was normal, so that's good. My iron levels are low, though, which is understandable considering the current anatomy of my stomach, so I've been put on an iron supplement. Maybe this will help with the frequent dizzy spells I have.

Assuming all goes well and I don't have to change the appointment for some reason, we have set June 18th as the date that we will have the 20-week ultrasound to check that everything is going well with baby--and to hopefully find out if Joshua is getting a brother or a sister! So excited for that one. We will be sure to keep everyone in the know.

 This morning, we were all laying in our bed together--Joshua gets up right at 7am every morning (we've established the rule that he can't get up until the first number on his clock is a 7, so sure enough, 7:00:01am, he's calling out for us--I wonder what time he actually wakes up? Anyway...), and we often just snuggle together in bed for a few minutes before we get up and get ready to leave for the day. Joshua looked over and saw my body pillow on the floor and asked why I didn't have that on the bed. I responded that I had put it on the floor to make room for the four of us in the bed. He looked at me like I was crazy and said, "Mommy, there are only THREE of us!" And he proceeded to count himself, Mommy, and Daddy, "One, two, three..." at which point I pulled up the blanket and pointed to my lower belly and said, "Four!" The look on his face was priceless! "Oh, yeah! I forgot about the baby!" And he proceeded to giggle and smile for the next little while. It was cute.

Joshua is very interested in knowing how big the baby is. I have a pregnancy app on my phone that, each week, says the baby is the size of X fruit (it's been the size of a kumquat, a lime, a fig, an apple...) so he always asks me what fruit it is. He gets shy when asked if he wants a brother or sister, though he originally claimed he wanted a sister, most likely thanks to living so close to his cousin Maggie. He's going to be a great big brother.

So, things are moving along with the Alleman clan. I continue working my two jobs, Cody is taking two classes this semester and doing an unpaid internship at a local law firm to get his last internship credit, and Joshua loves daycare but is excited for preschool to start in a month. Life is hard but good!