26 week belly pics!

I'm in my 26th week and my belly has grown so much in the past few weeks. I can't believe I still have 14 more weeks to go. I still feel great and energized, but because of my heaviness, I do everything at a slower pace. I walk slower and I feel like I definitely "waddle". I actually look kind of funny at times, especially after I eat a big meal. I've actually laughed at myself cause I look so funny. It's hard for me to get in and out of bed, and trying to sleep on my side all night long is getting harder. But, I wouldn't trade this experience for anything! All I wish for is a healthy pregnancy, healthy labor, and ultimately a healthy baby girl :-)

Name - TBD.....

We are completely changing our baby’s name. This has got to be the hardest and the most annoying part of this pregnancy. Who would’ve thought coming up with a name was going to be so hard? I know we’re being completely picky about the names, but after a few annoying arguments here and there, we have decided to not use Laila or Lindsay as her name. We are coming up with a whole new name…..and I will post it as soon as it’s finalized. Thanks to everyone that took the poll, I really appreciate it. At that time we really thought it was going to be one of those two names, but we just can’t decide. As time is fast approaching, I feel like there is still so much I need to prepare for before this baby comes, and finalizing the name is one less thing to worry about. So it will be soon!

Oh, I will post new belly pics soon. I completely forgot to take them at 24 weeks and now I’m already almost 26 weeks! My belly is huge and but I’m still feeling great and energized. I’m eating everything and anything I want and I’m loving it. 2nd trimester has been really good for me so far.

Help! Laila or Lindsay?

Coming up with a name for this baby has been so hard! I know we're being a little too picky but we can't decide! I want to put this to rest and finalize the name so it's one less thing to worry about.

I have gotten a lot of great suggestions, but we are down to two names (Laila and Lindsay) for our own personal reasons listed below.

1) Do not want a common name - names that are on the top baby name list.
2) Do not want a name that is unisex (names that can be for both girl or boy)
3) Want a name that is at least 5 letters since we have a short 3 letter last name.
4) Do not want a name that is normally a last name.
5) Do not want names that can have too many nicknames. I actually prefer no nick names.
6) Do not want a name that somebody already has or has claimed.

Gosh, we sound so picky!! hahaa.

From the beginning we had a few top choices, which were Tessa, Laila and Maya, but we recently added Lindsay to the list, and I am now over Tessa and Maya. Anyways, we are down to two choices and can't decide at the moment. Just for fun, I would love to see what others think about our names and what names they like better. This is just for FUN and does not mean we'll go with the majority. Please take a second and take my Name Poll on the top right hand of this blog!! Thank you!!

New Digs for Baby K

I haven’t updated my blog in awhile because we have been SO busy......buying a house!

Yes, we finally bought a house! Shawn and I decided to start looking a couple of months ago and we found the perfect house in the Aldie/Chantilly area. We’d been talking about buying a house for awhile now and with the new baby coming, we decided it was definitely time to start “looking”. Little did we know, we were going to find the perfect home so soon! It took us only a month but I don’t feel we rushed into it. It was a huge decision so I prayed about it every night and all the right signs were there. Everything just felt right and worked itself out. We didn’t want to miss this opportunity, it’s definitely a buyer’s market out there right now and the interest rates are at a record low.

Shawn and I were both very picky when it came to certain things we wanted in our home, and we’re extremely happy with this decision. Although it’s not in our key location of Fairfax, and we didn’t get as much land as we wanted (probably won’t be building a swimming pool in the backyard..haha), we are happy with everything else. We looked at several homes and every home we saw we found something wrong with it…..until we walked into this one. I walked in and I LOVED everything about it. It was perfect. I just knew this was the home I wanted to raise my kids in and grow old in. We hope to keep this home for many many years to come.

Since the house still needs to be built, we won’t be moving in until December. It’s nice to buy a new home because we get to pick out everything we want to our liking. We get to customize the house to the way we like it and we’ve been spending a lot of our time going through colors and how we want our kitchen to look and everything down to the bathroom tile colors and door knob colors! It’s exciting but I didn’t realize there was so much to buying a new build home.

We’re going to keep our condo and rent it out for a few years until the market goes back up then sell. It’s definitely not a seller’s market out there. The move will be about 3 months after the baby is born, but it’s ok. I am going to wait to furnish the nursery till after the move. It just makes sense since the baby will probably not sleep in her room right away anyway. I can’t imagine putting together all the nursery furniture for 3 months, then having to take them all apart to put it back together in the new home. I’m still thinking of a lot of cute nursery ideas but won’t be putting them to use till after the move.

This is such an exciting year for our family. We are so excited for this new baby girl and we can’t wait to start our new life in our new home. We went to our lot and took some pictures (yeah, we’re dorks!!). I hope our neighbors don't mind, but we took pictures of one of the houses in our neighborhood that will look similar to the home we’re building. This house has side-entry garage so it looks a lot bigger than our house will be. Our house will have the front-entry 2-car garage with driveway on the left side instead of the 3 windows you see on this house. The rest of the house will look very similar cause we chose similar brick colors and stone and porch option.

20th Week Belly Pics!

Whoa! I feel huge! I'm in my 20th week now and I feel a lot bigger than I should be at this stage. In the beginning I couldn't wait to start showing, but now I see my belly growing faster everyday and I'm starting to worry that I'm going to get HUGE! Our baby girl is moving a lot now. I've been feeling the movements for a couple of weeks, but Shawn actually felt it for the first time last night! How exciting! The movements are not hard, but definitely enough to be felt each time. It started off with feeling like little rumbles but are getting stronger everyday. It's such an amazing feeling, I feel like the baby is trying to communicate with me. I was laying down watching TV and as I rolled over, the baby started kicking and as soon as I got back to my original position, she stopped. It's like she was communicating with me telling me not to move. Cute!

Yesterday was Mother's Day. Due to our busy schedule this weekend, Shawn took me out to the mall on Friday evening and told me he wanted to buy me something. I ended up getting a couple of items of maternity clothes, and we went out to an italian restauarant to celebrate. And he treated me like VIP all weekend, I got to choose anything I wanted to do and eat whatever I wanted to eat all weekend. Although I'm not technically a "mother" yet, it was nice of Shawn to want to do something for me! He's going to be such a great daddy :-)

It's a GIRL!!!

We just got back from our appointment and we're having a GIRL!!! Thanks to everyone that took the poll - majority of you guys guessed right! We're very very excited and we're so happy that we can finally put a gender to our baby. This baby girl is going to be so loved!!

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Here is the story of my what happened today:
I had to go to Fairfax Radiology Center to get today’s 20th week ultrasound. Coincidentally, my mom’s doctor’s office was in the same building, and she also had her doctor’s appointment today. Her appointment was an hour before mine, so she made plans to meet us in the lobby and she was going to join Shawn and me to our appointment. Well, she had some issues at her doctor’s appointment and she was not able to make it. In fact, her nurse practitioner kept calling me while I was on my way to my appt because there was some paperwork confusion. To make the long story short, I had to go into my appointment alone because I had to send Shawn to my mom’s doctor’s office to help take care of her issues. I was hoping Shawn would make it back to me in time for the actual ultrasound but he never did. It took him so long to take care of my mom’s issues that he never made it to my appointment. I went through the whole appointment by myself.

The appointment went great, though. It took about an hour and the technician went through all of the baby’s organs and body parts to make sure everything is developing normally. I think I lucked out with a very nice and friendly technician because she talked me through everything she was doing. It’s incredible what the ultrasounds can show. I was able to see the baby’s face, brain, spine, kidneys, stomach, hands, feet, etc etc. She also kept commenting on how “active” the baby was. The baby was moving around so much during the ultrasound, it was really cute! I didn’t tell her but I drank some soda before the appointment to make the baby more active but I might’ve overdone it. HAHA. She asked me if I wanted to find out the gender and although I was dying to know, I felt like it was unfair for Shawn to miss this special moment with me, so I had her write it and put it in an envelope so Shawn and I can open it together later. After my appointment, I ran to my mom’s doctor’s office and I see Shawn and my mom both sitting in the lobby area. I pulled out the envelope and all three of us opened it together. Although, it was unfortunate that Shawn missed my appointment, I think it was definitely a blessing to be able to find out together, especially with my mom also being there. All three of us were so excited when we saw GIRL in the envelope!! We were so surprised and so happy! It feels nice to now put a gender to the baby.

I can’t stop thinking about all the cute clothes I’m going to buy for our baby girl. Now, I can start thinking of the nursery themes and think cute pink items…and NAMES! Although Shawn and I don’t agree on most names, we have a few in mind that we’re considering. I’ll let you all know once we come up with a few definite ones. Thank you to everyone for all the texts, emails, posts, and calls! I can’t wait for you all to meet our baby girl. Our baby girl is going to have so many awesome aunties!!!

Girl or Boy??

In the beginning of my pregnancy, most people were predicting a GIRL for me. As time goes on, more and more people are changing their minds and predicting a BOY for me. I am in the 19th week of my pregnancy today, and I thought it would be fun to take a poll of what everyone's guess is. Please see my poll on the top right hand corner of this blog and select your prediction. The poll will close on 5/7/09 @ 1pm.

My appointment is 5/7/09 @ 3:15pm, so check back that evening for the "real" answer!!