Baby Update--5 weeks left!!!

We had our weekly doctor's appointment on Monday. Our weekly doctor appointment now consists of a non-stress test and meeting with my doctor. We also had our monthly (and last) growth scan. 

The biggest news is that the baby has flipped. It's no longer breech and is head down. This is a huge relief for me. I was nervous about having the procedure to turn the baby! Now if the baby would happen to turn in the next 5 weeks, we would schedule c-section. 

Speaking of scheduling, we have scheduled our induction for Wednesday, July 31st at 6am. My doctor isn't planning on the baby coming until Friday when she is in labor and delivery. This makes me a little anxious, knowing that we are going in on Wednesday and she already isn't planning on the baby until 2 days later! I would love for this child to come on it's own before the 31st, but just not too early! 

We took our monthly baby bump pic: 

Celebrating Jaxson!

May 30th marked one year since the day we first got to hold Jaxson in our arms and on June 1st we celebrated one year of being together in Iowa. I can't believe that it's been a year. This year definitely flew faster than any year in my life. I can't believe how much Jaxson has grown in that year. He is talking so much now and definitely is becoming his own person. He is all about cars, trains, and trucks, just about anything with wheels.

We had decided that we wanted to do something special for Jaxson's first family day. We wanted to make it a weekend of Jaxson's favorite things: trains and Legos. We did some research and decided that Chicago was the place for us to go!

We got into town Friday afternoon had lunch and then it was time for Mommy to hit IKEA. 2 1/2 hours and about $300 later, we checked into the hotel and got ready for supper. While we were at IKEA Jaxson couldn't get over the carts going up and down the escalators all by themselves. He laughed and laughed...it was so funny!

We went to supper at a place called the Village Tavern. It is known for it's chicken strips and so we had to check it out. It was very good!

Our pre-supper family picture

Daddy and Jax gave supper two thumbs up!

On Saturday morning we got up bright and early and headed to the train store. To say Jaxson was thrilled is an understatement. They had 3 different wooden train sets for kids to play with and in the back room they had a very large electric train set up. It was huge! There were buttons that Jaxson could push and different things would happen. He could make the train whistle blow. He opened and shut a garage door and put the fire truck inside. 

We left with a couple new trains a new t-shirt and a new favorite store to visit! 

From the train store, we went to a place called The Choo Choo. It is a little diner where you can belly up to the counter and an electric train will bring you your meal. Jax was beside himself here. He got so excited each time a meal would come and by he would squeal with excitement! 

After lunch, we went back to the hotel for naps and rest time for Jax and Mommy! Once we were fully rested, we got up and went to the Lego Discovery Center. There were a lot cool displays and Jaxson liked looking at them, but I think that it was just a little too advanced for him. In a couple of years, he will love it more!

I'm not sure when, but Jax has gotten so big! 

We ended our night with a trip to Giardano's for supper. Giardano's is Daddy's favorite pizza and Mommy loves it too! Jax is not a pizza fan, so he had noodles and chicken.

Now that we are home Jaxson has asked to go back to the train store multiple times and hasn't stopped playing with his trains. In fact, if you look through the pictures, he always has a train or a car in his hands. 

It was an amazing weekend celebrating a little boy that we both love so much. He's the boy that made us parents and every day brings a smile to my face! 

30 weeks!

We had our 30 week growth ultrasound on Tuesday. It was nice because my parents came to the ultrasound with us, so they got to see Baby Brokaw. The baby weighs 3lb. 14 oz. and is still in the 78th percentile for weight...for the 3rd month in a row, so it's growing at a very consistent rate.

During the ultrasound, the tech got this picture and it has quickly become my favorite. For the first time,  it looks like a baby. I'm so excited to meet the newest member of our family!

The baby is still breech, in fact, it's Frank Breech (sounds like a retired teacher's name to me), so when I go back at 34 weeks, we will make the decision to try and turn the baby or schedule a c-section. Right now, I'm leaning towards trying to turn the baby, but there's time to think about it. I'm still hoping that it will turn on it's own and it will all be a moot point!

Our May bump picture

Rainy Day at the Zoo

We had an amazing Memorial Day weekend! I wanted to take Jax to the Niabi Zoo over the long weekend and it snowballed into the whole Weida family making the trip. Steve had the great idea of renting a 15 passenger van so that we could all ride in one vehicle! It was perfect...until Mother Nature had to make her presence known. It was a rainy, rainy, day at the zoo, but we didn't let that stop us from having some fun! 

The whole family

Sophie enjoying a pony ride. 

The birds loved Bubba and Jax

Even Grandma got to feed the birds

Jax wasn't so sure about these birds.

"Ummm.....there's a bird on my shoulder"

Daddy's boy

The Brokaws

The Normans

The Millers

Everyone ready to head home! 

Surprise!!!!

On the afternoon of April 24th, I thought that I was headed to our last professional development of the school year, but it was actually a surprise baby shower for Baby Brokaw! I was shocked and appreciate the awesome Lincoln staff!

We've got a bump....

I knew I was never going to be the really cute pregnant person...you know the people that look like they swallowed a basketball and are just cute when they are pregnant. I knew that was not what pregnancy was going to look like on me and I was ok with it. I have Steve take my picture every month around the middle of the month. I'd been waiting for a while to get my baby bump, waiting for my regular pants to be too tight, waiting for shirts to start to get shorter, waiting for the time to bust out the maternity pants. 

This is my picture from February, I was about 16 weeks pregnant. 

This picture is from mid-March. There's a little bit of difference, but nothing too noticeable.

And now, welcome to April. This was taken on Sunday at 24 weeks and 5 days. We definitely have a bump! In fact, on Monday, one of my co-workers made a comment about me really starting to show, so it's obvious to more than just me. The funny thing is that is just happened out of nowhere. I never thought I had changed that much in the last month. 

Until mid-May......

Baby Update

We are 23 weeks pregnant today....so we have 16 weeks (or less) left! That's exciting to me! The last few weeks have been a little stressful, but I'm feeling good and baby is kicking up a storm lately which is cool and disturbing all at the same time! 

When we went for our anatomy scan at 18 weeks, the sonographer discovered the baby had a 2-vessel cord. This is not a big deal by itself, but having a 2-vessel cord is linked to other issues like chromosomal abnormalities and heart defects. Not what I wanted to hear at our appointment. I was upset and instantly worried. 

Our doctor spelled everything out for us: with the 2-vessel cord we will have to have ultrasounds every 4 weeks to measure the growth of the baby because 2-vessel cord babies can be smaller and gain weight slowly (right now we are measuring about 5 days ahead, yah baby!). I wasn't too upset about having more ultrasounds I love seeing this peanut! 

Our doctor told us about a blood test we could do that could tell us if there were chromosome abnormalities. Steve and I talked about it and decided to take the test. They took vials of my blood and sent it off to California. They told us it would be 10 business days until we got the results...it wasn't about a week later we found out that they are 99% sure there are no chromosome issues. Whoop, Whoop! I was so relieved! 

We had our next ultrasound at 21 weeks and there was concern over where the heart closed on the bottom and the possibility of a small hole in its heart called a VSD. Instead of having another ultrasound in a couple of weeks, we were sent to the pediatric cardiologist to have a fetal echocardiogram. 

Our echo was on Monday and I'm happy to report that everything appears to be normal! We are thanking God for a healthy baby so far! It really put into perspective for me all of the is it a boy, is it a girl talk, because right now the most important thing is that it's HEALTHY, Thank the Lord!