Dude.
Two bizzare things going on here lately: For the last two days, I can feel my belly strrrretching! It feels soooo weird!!!
And just a little while ago, I got a bloody nose! My nose has been bleeding a tiny bit for a couple months now, but this was the first one where I actually had to stuff a kleenex up there to stop the bleeding. Didn't last long at all, but it was weird too!
Pregnancy is weeeeird! LOL!

Tricia, I know you'll read this so please accept this as my heartfelt THANK YOU for the absolutely beautiful Willow Tree Angel! I LOVE IT and I cannot wait to put it in Alyssa's room!!! I have never seen this one before and I just absolutely love it. I will think of you every time I look at it. Thank you, dear friend!!

How could I ever have not wanted a kid??!
One year ago, I would've laughed in your face if you told me that a year from then I would be pregnant. I was so opposed to having a kid. I thought all they were was trouble, inconvenience, and work work work. I liked our freedom to come and go as we pleased and to not have to worry about someone else. I couldn't imagine getting up six times a night to feed and change a baby, and didn't even want to think about all the rigamaroll you have to bring along every time you go somewhere with a baby. I didn't want the hassle.
TOTAL 180. I know it'll be hard. I know it'll be a huge challenge, especially at first. I know it'll take some major getting-used-to. But now that I'm pregnant, I am LIVING for the day that this little girl is born. She's not even here yet and my life revolves around her. She's the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning and the last thing I think about at night. I just ache to hold her and hug her and kiss her cheek. She's already my precious little Alyssa and I love her more than I can ever say.

Well, we chose a name!! Our baby girl's name will be Alyssa Belle Conger. Isn't that cute? I love it! Her initials will be ABC- lol
And I spent a couple hours registering online this morning for baby stuff. It was so much fun! If you feel like taking a gander at all the cute stuff I registered for, the websites are:

Bedding/Nursery:
http://www.babybeddingtown.com/babybedding-viewregistry.htm?registry-name=Wendy%20Conger,46277

Good ol' Target:
http://www.target.com/gp/registry/babyreg.html/602-1790004-6427045
(just input my name. This one might not show up right away - I guess they have to process it or something before it shows up.)

I found the crib bedding set that I want!!! I absolutely love it!!!
It's called Secret Garden. Isn't it beauty-full?!! Gonna order it soon!

God's little Conger is a GIRL!!!!!!!!!

(It won't let me upload the ultrasound pics for some reason! Hopefully I'll figure it out and be able to post them soon!)
So I was SUPER-nervous all day til the appointment. I was SO glad when we finally got there...I just wanted to get the show on the road! First, a young lady doctor did a u/s and pointed out basic body parts. She said, "You're positive you want to know the gender?" I said, "OH yes, very much so." When she got down to the little legs, Baby C cooperated beautifully and spread 'em. The doctor immediately said, "Congratulations, it's a girl!" You could have heard a pin drop. We were both SO SHOCKED! The dr. must've noticed our silence cuz she asked, "Were you guessing it was a boy?" I said, "Oh my gosh, we completely thought it was a boy!" It was so funny!

Then she left and about 20 minutes later, a different doctor came in - an older-ish man. He was sooo nice and sooo informative. He basically did another u/s and easily confirmed that it is a girl! Then he went on to show us and measure almost every organ in her little body - the heart, the brain, the stomach, the diaphram - as well as pointed out that her arms, hands, legs, and feet looked perfect. Those are all things they check closely to see if there are any abnormal growth patterns. Every SINGLE thing he checked looked perfect. He even showed us the left and right ventricles of the heart. It was very, very detailed and very, very fascinating! After he determined that everything looked great, he said that IF we wanted to we could have an amniocentesis. I am definitely not having one. There is a slight risk of harming the baby with an amnio...and seeing our perfect little girl on that screen today was all the assurance we need!

I have to say, I am truly TICKLED PINK to be having a girl (pun fully intended)!!!! I have to change my whole mindset after four months of "just knowing" it was a boy! But holy cow - it'll be so fun to have a little girl!! The adorable clothes and then makeup and then school dances with beautiful dresses, and then a wedding and then HER baby....I know, I'm getting SO way ahead of myself here! But it's SOOOO FUN to think about!!!! I couldn't be happier!! Steph (my sister) kept all of Mackenzie's baby clothes so we'll have lots of really cute clothes right off the bat. Mackenzie was also a Fall baby, so they'll be the right size and everything! And ya know what I am so excited to do? Go garage-saleing and buy cute little girl clothes!!! It is WAAAAY cool to know the gender now!!!!!!!

Once again, I thank our ever-faithful Father for His answers to prayer, for protecting this little sweetheart whom I already love SOOO much, and for easing our fears today. He is my everything and the works of His hands are absolutely miraculous.

Well, I pretty much got the scare of a lifetime yesterday.
At my last appointment they took blood for a "quad panel" test, which tests for fetal abnormalities. My OB called yesterday around noon and told me that my test came back with abnormalities in the downs syndrome blood count. Women my age are supposed to have a 1 in 500 chance of having a baby with downs, and my blood test indicated that our baby has a 1 in 160 chance. When she first told me that, you could've knocked me over with a feather. My heart was in my stomach.
Then she said, "Please don't panic - there's still less than a one per cent chance of your baby having downs syndrome." Then she told me to cancel my 20-week ultrasound appointment at their hospital and schedule it at Evanston Hospital instead, because they have level two ultrasounds available at their High Risk Fetal Evaluation Center. High risk. That term sent my heart rate skyrocketing too.
She kept saying, "It's really nothing to worry much about. We send a lot of our patients there. It's just a precaution...."
So I got off the phone and sat down on my bed and bawled. I could not stop crying. She had just told me that our baby has a higher-than-average risk of downs syndrome. I was beside myself with absolute terror. I got my sister on MSN instant messenger and told her about it. She had a lot of comforting things to say, including the fact that she has a friend whose doctor told her the exact same thing while she was pregnant. She, too, completely freaked out. But her child was born absolutely perfect. Then I called Scott, still bawling my head off, and he left work right then and there and came home to me. I am SO glad he came home - he got here so fast and I needed him more than ever. We spent the afternoon together and he was just so wonderful. At one point he grabbed this double deck of cards that we have. It has 104 cards in it. He made a mark with a pen on one of the cards and then shuffled them really well. Then he had me randomly pick a card, so I did. I didn't pick the one he had made the mark on. Then he said, "The odds of you picking the card I wrote on are *greater* than the odds of us having an unhealthy baby." 'Course, then I cried all over again. He is such a gem.
While I was waiting for him to get home, I posted on the message board about it and my dear friends there were so wonderful too. Devon said she didn't have that particular test taken - and she was smart not to. I wish I hadn't. I think it's causing a lot of unnecessary stress and worry. Her doctor told her that a lot of the time, those tests come back with false positives. It's just not a reliable test, and a friend of my mom's said the same thing. She said there are SO many factors that can affect the outcome of it, so much so that it's almost useless. And Patti - good ol' Patti, one of my favorite voices of reason ever - said, "That's a 159 in 160 chance of normal, dude." She rocks.
I also called my mom, of course.
In hindsight, now that I'm feeling much, much better about it, I think I freaked out too much. But hearing those words she told me struck MAJOR fear in my heart. I want my baby to be perfect and healthy and happy - nothing less.

But now - let me tell you the GOOD part of this: I scheduled the ultrasound at the high-risk center, and it's happening this coming Monday, the 24th!! I'll only be 18 weeks but she said that's plenty far along to be able to determine the gender. The ultrasound they do at this place is more detailed than the regular 20-week one - more measurements and stuff, I guess. But this means that we will know the gender in TWO DAYS instead of THREE WEEKS!!! I am so NOT complaining about that! Of course, that depends on if the baby's camera shy or not and whether or not s/he shows us the goods, but as wiggly as this peanut is, I have a feeling that won't be a problem! So if all goes well I will have an exciting update on here in a couple days - boy or girl!!

On another note - my nose has been soooooooo stuffed up for the past few weeks and yesterday I got a prescription for Rhinocort Aqua nasal spray. You use it once a day and it's for chronic congestion. I've used it twice so far and it already seems to be starting to help a bit! It will feel SO GOOD to be able to breathe again!!

And one last thing - we went to Motherhood Maternity today and I got a pair of jean capri's and a pair of jean shorts. They fit me now, but with room to grow! :)

And with that, I'm signing off for now. Bless your heart if you read this whole entry. Yikes!

I think I heard our gummi bear moving!
I was shopping at K-Mart today and decided to go to the baby section, thinking maybe they'd have fetal heartbeat monitors. I doubted it, but wanted to check. To my great delight, the very first thing I saw in that aisle was BebeSounds Prenatal Heart Listeners!! There were only two left on the shelf and they were only $19.99, so I grabbed one. I was so excited!
http://bebesounds.com/products_prenatalheartlistener_description.asp
So I got it home, put a battery in it and read the manual that came with it. It says that the heartbeat can be heard starting early in the third trimester. Well, I tried it anyway, of course....and I can only hear my own heartbeat, can't hear the baby's yet. However, I think I could hear the baby moving around. The manual says you should be able to hear not only the heartbeat, but kicks, movements, and hiccups too!
This thing will be so fun to have. You can record and email the sounds but I haven't figured out how to do that yet. I will, though, no doubt!

I have a headache again today. Gonna try to sleep it off in a little while but that doesn't usually work!

I am still infinitely fascinated at how God creates people. Ya know what I mean? You have a sperm and an egg and as soon as they meet, BOOM - a tiny person starts forming! It grows arms and legs and eyebrows and right about now, Gummi Bear is developing the swirls that become fingerprints! Utterly awesome. God is soooooooo amazing!! As my pregnancy progresses, I'm getting more and more excited about having a baby. As my belly pops out more and more, I'm getting so psyched that there's a BABY in there! I can't wait to find out the gender in three weeks, and then to see what this little peanut looks like when s/he is finally here!!!!

My O.B. checkup went very well today!

Heard the heartbeat again - woosh, woosh, woosh! That is the most reassuring sound I've heard in my entire life! Today the rate was 156 bpm. I asked my doctor if the fast heart rate means a girl and she said, "Well, let me put it this way: There's a 50/50 chance that that's true!" In other words, that's pretty much a myth.
Oh, and while we were listening to the heartbeat, we heard some rustling around going on, and doc said, "The baby's definitely moving around in there right now!" Yep, this is a MAJOR wiggleworm!!

I asked if it was normal for me to still be SO tired and exhausted all the time, and she said yes and that it's nothing to worry about. She double-checked my iron levels, etc, and said they look "fabulous".
Made the appointment for my 20-week ultrasound - it will be on Tuesday, May 9 at 9:00 a.m.! I cannot wait!!!!!!!!!! Scotty's taking a couple vacation weeks off of work at that time and will definitely be able to come with me for it. Woo Hooooooooo!!

So everything's going very smoothly with this little gummi. I praise God from the bottom of my heart for that!

WHERE'S THE BEEF?! I need beef. I love beef. I adore beef.

Tricia reminded me that I needed to post on my blog! Jeez, I think six days is the longest I've gone without writing on here. Sorry 'bout it!
I guess part of the reason I haven't written much lately is because I've been sooooooooo tired. Just absolutely exhausted. I thought the tiredness was supposed to let up a little bit by 16 weeks, but apparently not! Therefore, I haven't been real busy. Still just relaxing around the house most of the time. BOOOORING. My next OB checkup is next Tuesday, the 18th, so when I'm there I'll ask my doc why she thinks I still have absolutely no energy. No need to tell me possible reasons....I know what the possible reasons could be. It'll be good to talk to my doctor about it.
...Still haven't felt Gummi Bear move since that one time a few weeks ago. I cannot to wait to feel him (or her) move again!! I'll probably scream - even it's in the middle of the night....LoL!
The appetite is getting better. Up until the past week or so I haven't been hungry for dinner at all. Lately I finally am hungry for dinner again. In fact, usually I'm so hungry that I end up eating before my hubby even gets home from work! Poor guy! He's getting used to it though.
Ya know, part of me wonders if life will ever be the same again. The baby's not even here yet, and my life is sooo different. LOL!
My belly continues to pooch more and more. Only a few weeks til the 20-week ultrasound and then *hopefully* we'll know if it's a boy or a girl!!
Tonight we have to go to Jackson-Hewitt to sit and go over our taxes. UGH. Can I just say - I abhore (did I spell that right?) financial crap. Scotty said he'd do most of the question-answering and stuff, thank goodness. So most of the time I'll be sitting there wishing we weren't there. Yuck.
So let me go see if I can find a picture of what the baby looks like at this point - 16-1/2 weeks. I'll definitely past after my appointment on Tuesday. Do you think I'll hear the heartbeat again? I hope so!!
...Okay, found a picture. I can't believe the baby's about 4-1/2 inches long already!

Every now and then I lay really still and see if I can feel the baby move at all. So far, I haven't felt anything. As I get closer to 18-20 weeks, I'm hoping to feel some wiggles!
Only about a month til I have the ultrasound that will tell us the gender!! I cannot wait!!
Check out this little drawing....I can't believe Gummi Bear is that big in there already! And my belly is definitely reflecting it. Getting rounder all the time!

Last night at bedtime, all I could think about was KFC. A big chicken breast, baked beans, mashed potatoes, and a biscuit. Maybe some ice cold Diet Coke. I asked Scotty how late KFC is open and he was like, "Oh man, that sounds SO good right now." But it was 10:30 and we figured it was probably closed. I settled for a can of Bush's baked beans, some CheezIts and a big glass of milk. My tummy was happy - and I'm sure Gummi Bear's was too. Hee!

Still feeling pretty darn crappy with this sinus infection, which is disappointing because I thought the antibiotics would have knocked it out by now. And I think the antibiotics might be making me feel weird on top of everything else. Very hard to explain but....I feel like I have "medicine head" all over my entire body. I don't have the energy to do laundry or grocery shop, both of which desperately need doing. I wish SO much that I had good friends around here that I could call and ask for a little help but I wouldn't feel comfortable at all asking somebody for help around here. I feel very alone. I'm tired of my pity party though, so I'll stop right here.

Yesterday morning in church I was looking at the babies in the "parent seating" section. Oh my gosh, SO cute! I think it's neat that church has that section. It's close to an exit so parents can get up and leave the auditorium without causing much disruption. Makes a lot of sense to me.

Well, I am really starting to POP out! Sometimes Scotty catches me holding my growing belly and looks at me like I've completely lost my marbles, but I just tell him I'm proud of my big belly! And wow, I am definitely at the peeing-every-15-minutes stage. Last night I got up to go potty and by the time I was back in bed I had to go again! Unbelievable! I think Baby C enjoys pushing on my bladder...lol!

Well, I should get some breakfast. Have a good day!