15 weeks!

Hello everyone :) Today is the start of week #15 and it feels SO good to see that number continuing to increase! We have a baby orange this week, hehehe! Last night, Cory and I were using our home doppler and found baby Albert's FHR in about a minute (the quickest we've ever found it) and it was in the 160's.....after all my years of fetal monitoring it still blows my mind that the FHR I'm listening to now is from OUR baby :) I have my first pre-natal physical therapy appointment on Thursday morning this week and I'm hoping that it will bring some relief to my back pain :( Then next week on Monday, I go to MFM for our AFP blood work - this is the blood work to screen for neural tube defects like spina bifida. Only 23 more days left until we find out if baby Albert is a boy or girl!!!! I'm seriously on pins & needles while we wait! I've gotten in the habit of calling our baby "her" so I'll be in for a big change if it turns out that we're having a boy!

I was finally able to redeem my birthday present this past weekend - Cory told me that for my birthday he would have my Escape totally detailed & cleaned - well, the weekends quickly slipped by us and until this past Saturday we've not been able to get it done. So, I called the place and the only time they had open on Saturday was at 0730 - yikes that was early, but it was SO worth it!!! They shampooed all the carpets & mats, cleaned all the windows & mirrors, amazingly cleaned out all those hard to get to nooks & crannies that collect crumbs & dust, conditioned my leather seats & the dash, applied a coat of wax, cleaned the tires & rims and of course ran it through the car wash.......and after all of that it feels like I'm driving a brand new vehicle!!! Cory was so impressed that he has expressed interest in getting the same thing done in his pick up for his birthday in June :) While the Escape was being cleaned, we took the time to have a nice breakfast out, picked up a few things, had our rings cleaned at Shane Co (and boy what a difference!) and then spent the rest of the time browsing at Babies R Us :) I just about fell asleep on one of the gliders!

Then on Sunday, I made an appointment for myself at Phillipes Spa for a facial & an eyebrow wax (it had been awhile, ha!)- and all I can say is it was AMAZING! I've been going to a different spa for the past few years, but I think I've been converted! I was given a gift card last semester from my AM clinical group of students and I cannot thank them enough for that 90min of pampering, it was so wonderful :) As much as I would love to have a massage, I'm a bit hesitant with my back acting up & being pregnant....so poor Cory has been acting as my massage therapist - thanks sweetie :)

As an aside, I've made a few minor changes to the blog layout....I put all our US pics in a slideshow so that they're not taking up so much room on the page, I added a fun poll for all our possible baby names (even though Cory and I already know which names will be used for our 1st boy or girl) and I added some links to different baby sites that we've been getting ideas from or will be registering at.