21st and 22nd week in Europe

Hello fellow Americans!

We're back from Europe and I couldn't be happier. Europe is amazing and I've never seen anything like it but I'm so glad to be home. Some of the places we went to were Frankfurt, Wurzburg and Schweinfurt, Germany and Venice, Florence, Monte San Savino and Cortona, Italy. What a place! I was so lucky to be able to go on this trip! I didn't get too tired with all of the walking but in the beginning of the 3rd week, I was getting tired. Italy is VERY hilly and we were climbing hills almost everyday. But man, the view when we reached the top of the small villas in Tuscany was incredible. I didn't drink too much red wine in Italy or too much beer in Germany...just about 4 sips at dinner each night if it was a new brand that I hadn't had yet. Man, was it good! The German beer was out of this world! The good thing though, was that we didn't end up spending too much money because I couldn't buy any clothes in any of the shops (they wouldn't fit my big belly) and couldn't buy any wine or beer for myself. Although, they did charge for water in Europe AND to use public bathrooms! (about .80 Euro per trip) That could have been a nightmare for any pregnant woman!

Baby girl T is now almost at her 23rd week and all is still very well. The trip went great baby-wise and guess what?!?! I saw her kick from the outside of my belly! I've been feeling little things here and there (mostly still just butterfly feelings), but one night while reading in Tuscany, she started kicking me and on the fourth kick, I lifted up my shirt and saw her kick three times on the left side of my belly button (which is now flat across my stomach). I almost died! Totally crazy experience and it really hit home that there is a human being in my stomach, holy crap. Actually, she's kicking me as I write this...

This week JC and I are going to register for our up coming baby showers and we're so excited. I've gotten some great advice from my fantastic girlfriends who are moms so I feel pretty prepared. If anyone has any advice on what I need and what I don't need...let me know! I don't want to buy a bunch of stuff that I think I need and then never use it. Having a master's degree in marketing and advertising, I know that the baby market is just SATURATED with products that are actually useless for babies but are marketed otherwise.

Below are the 21st and 22nd week belly pictures (did you think I'd forget?).

The 21st week belly picture was taken at the Hotel Abbiza in Venice, Italy (an old restored monastary)


The 22nd week picture was taken at the top of an old castle in Montepulciano, Italy (Tuscany). It's where they make Bordello wine.

Drumroll.....

It's a GIRL! Whoa man, can you believe it? I finally get to call her "she" instead of "it". Doctor appointment went beautifully, she is perfect! The sonogram specialist checked her heart, spine, brain, leg bones, everything. Here are some of her vitals:

Heart Rate- 138
Weight- 12 ounces

Check out the sonogram pictures...I can't really make much out of them, except for the pictures of her face. She's beautiful already, don't ya think?

Four days to the sonogram!

Here we are at 19 weeks! Me an goose, just hanging out at home.

This will probably be the last post for awhile because we're leaving next Wednesday for Europe and won't be back until August 9th. Yippee!! Good news...I can eat all of the italian food I want and not feel guilty. Bad news...I can't drink the italian wine. *sigh*

But don't worry, I'll put up a quick post with the sonogram pictures and let you all know if we've got a boy or girl in here!

Have a great weekend!

18 weeks and the Fourth of July

So, I'm sorry this is late (for all those that have been waiting)...but this was a bit of a crazy week at work and I was really worn out from the Fourth of July weekend so...needless to say, I have been going to bed at 8:30 for the past few days.

Anyway, the Fourth of July was awesome! We spent it at JC's family's lakehouse in Granbury with our friends Nate and Stacy. It was SO fun! I actually stayed up the latest that night of all of us...mostly because I didn't drink keg beer in the sun all day like everyone else. By the time fireworks were over at 10am, everyone was ready for bed and I was like, really? Let's hang out! Guess that is ONE perk of not being able to drink keg beer. :)

Last night JC and I went to the Taste of Dallas and had an awesome time. It was in the West End Historic District in downtown Dallas, which was a little hard to find, but we made it eventually. There were TONS of local food vendors with awesome food. It was so hot out though, I stayed hydrated with gatorade and JC did too...in between Blue Moon beer. We walked around forever looking for BBQ turkey legs, but couldn't find any because all of the BBQ vendors were sold out. So, JC ended up with some Mexican food and I had a BBQ sausage sandwich and an ice cream sundae. Go figure. We danced around to the music and people watched...well, mostly baby watched. We watched a 9 month old dance to Michael Jackson's Beat It in her stroller and almost DIED with laughter! It was so cute...she wanted to get out and bounce around to the beat so badly! Needless to say, we're very aware of little kids around us anymore.

JC went and got me a pregnancy pillow because the doctor said that I should be sleeping on my side now instead of my back. Something about how all of the pressure from the baby smashing my internal organs all night... What the hell? Now I have to sleep a certain way? Anyway, it's been hard to do that so , he suprised me with a special pillow to help me sleep on my side. What a sweetie, huh?

The big day to find out the sex of the baby is July 21st at 9:15am. We're counting down the days to that, we're very excited and of course, we'll share with all of you on the blog.

It's that time again!

Seriously, this blog is getting kind of boring. I promise, at some point, I'll write really interesting stuff for you all to read. This morning I'm really swamped at work SOOOOO I'll just post the new pics and write up the real post after the 4th of July. JC is getting his fancy camera out this weekend so we'll have some really great pictures.

Have a great, safe and happy Fourth of July!!!

Here we are at 17 weeks yesterday, we took these on our balcony at our condo. Jc wanted to change the background a little bit. :) He's such a high strung photographer...hee hee :)

We bought our first baby clothes...

Good Morning Everyone! Yesterday was the 16 week mark and I'm starting to feel little "twinges" in my stomach. It's hard to explain, but there is definitely something there. I'm kind of bummed because I found that that we wont' find out the sex of the baby at our July 8th appointment, we'll have to wait until the one after that. So...we'll all have to patient! My mother-in-law has started called the baby "Shimmy" (a combination of she and him I suppose) because nobody wants to call it "it" and "he" or "she" isn't quite right either. Ha! I bought some of our first baby clothes this past weekend at Babys R Us in Forth Worth. All yellows and greens, mostly things with Ducks on them. My favorite is this yellow ducky sleeper with little ducks for feet. It feels so warm and cozy and will be perfect in January or February after the baby gets just a bit bigger. I put a picture of it up in this post for everyone to see, along with my 16 week baby belly picture! (And mom, yes, I was making my famous "forced smile" just for you) Ha! We have been under heat advisories in the DFW metroplex for the last few days and everyone keeps asking me if the heat is really bothering me and really, it's not. Granted, I get to sit in an air conditioned office all day, then get in my air conditioned car and drive to my air conditioned home. Maybe that's why it's not bothering me at all... :) The air is pretty hazy from the heat though so we've also been in air pollution adivsories for the past few days. Usually, I can see the skyline of downtown Dallas from my office window, but it's SO hazy that I can barely see the outline....if I squint really hard. As most of you know, we're getting ready for our big trip to Europe in about 4 weeks with JC's family. I'm so excited, but I still need to check in with the doctor to see if there is anything that I need to do while I'm there or before I leave. I'll have to do some research on the closest hospitals in Germany and Italy, which foods I should avoid there, water consumption, etc. Better safe than sorry I suppose! And of course, we'll be back in Nebraska over labor day weekend for a visit and a baby shower! I can't wait to see everyone soon!!! Love you all, take care!

15 weeks and the baby is an orange

Hello family and friends!

We just had our 2nd doctor's appointment and everything is A-ok! I think next time, we get to find out the sex, which is three weeks from now. I got to hear the heartbeat (poor JC was left in the waiting room...I feel so bad he didn't hear it), but it was amazing! It took the doctor a few seconds to find him/her in there, but when she did, oh my goodness. It was beating so fast! And every few seconds, the machine would make this static noise and break up the heart beat. So, I asked the doctor what that was and she said, when it does that, it means the baby is jumping around or moving in my stomach. JUMPING AROUND!?!? I can't really feel any "jumping around" yet, but hopefully I will soon.

Right now, the baby is about the size of an orange. So, we keep graduating to larger fruit. What a great analogy for the size of our baby :)

Hope you all have a great day! Here's another awesome picture of our cat, Goose. He loves to "hide" in things and I couldn't help but share this picture. I wonder what he was thinking when we took this... Hmmm... Love you all!

Guess what? Another picture of my stomach.

IT'S GROWN!!!! Holy crap, this is crazy. Look for yourself! It's grown...alot, right? Is it just me? This baby is gonna be huge considering I'm only 3 1/2 months pregnant right now. Oh dear lord... Anyway, here I am at 14 weeks today. I wish I had more to share about the baby but right now, the only baby developments that we have is the growing belly. Once we start "buying" the traditional baby stuff, know the sex, etc. I'll probably put up some different pictures and you guys won't have to keep looking at my stomach...which to some, might be a little weird... :) Cause hey! Not everyone is interested in looking at people's bellies! :)

On another note, we have a few tornado warnings in the Dallas Metroplex (what they call the Dallas/Fort Worth + all suburbs area) tonight. Some friends and family in the area were pretty concerned but JC and I were like, "Meh...we'll be fine." I guess spending lots of Springs and early Summers in Nebraska kinda takes the drama out of tornadoes, huh? Actually, it's probably a bad thing to be so complacent about it now that I think about it....

This weekend is gonna be pretty exciting because it's the Dallas Art Festival and you KNOW I'm all about things like that, so I'll be checking that out on Saturday. I'm pretty excited to check out that whole scene in Dallas since I haven't really done much of that here yet. I'll let you all know how it was in next week's blog addition.

And on one last note (and I hope this doesn't embarrass/annoy him too much if he reads this), but I want to share how unbelievably proud I am of my brother who was deployed to Iraq last week. For those who might now know, he is a second leuitenant in the Infantry division of the US Army. He and his wife Brandi live in Manhattan, Kansas. As of now, his deployment is around 4 months and he should be returning in September. Until then, everyone, keep him in your thoughts for a safe return. I know I am!

End of first trimester today!

Hi everyone!

And we're done with the first trimester today. Woo Hoo!! Baby T is graduated from being a tadpole! According to some websites I found, the baby is now the size of a small piece of fruit, all of the major organs and most of the body parts are fully developed and all it needs to do now is grow, grow, grow! I am starting to feel good again (at least more human than I was feeling in the last 5 weeks or so). I don't feel like I have to nap in the middle of the day and I don't really get that nauseous in the mornings and nights anymore. Knock on wood that it stays that way!!!

Our next appointment is June 17th and hopefully all will be okay then. I hear the appointments get much shorter once the first one is out of the way. AND...only 7 weeks until we can find out if it's a boy or girl. Can you believe it??? I sure can't...

Because we're already sharing with everyone, I thought I'd also share with you some of the names we're thinking about for the Baby T.

Boy- Jack Timothy Talman (this one is solid, probably won't change it)
Girl- Caroline Jane Talman, Natalie Jane Talman, Olivia Jane Talman (my favorite is Natalie)

We're also throwing around the name Chloe Jane, but that isn't firm enough to be on the "list" haha :) I'm still unsure about that one...

Hope you're all doing well, we miss you all in Nebraska and Tennessee and can't wait until we see you again! For now, I'll leave you with the 13th week belly picture...

12 Weeks Belly!

Hmmm...is it the extra ice cream I've been eating or is it baby? What do you guys think? Regardless, here is "the belly" at 12 weeks pregnant.

And an extra picture of Goose biting my hand "just because."

Our first Texas home

Hi everyone!

So, the new place has finally come together and I just had to share the pictures with all of you! I'm sure things will change alot as the year goes by and of course, baby "stuff" will probably take over the whole place, but for now, it looks like a pretty cool "grown-up" home!

The last 2 photos are the view from our bedroom and our living room. We look down on a bunch of restaurants and shops near the Galleria shopping mall. We feel so cool.

Paste the link below to see the pictures of the new place! Hope you like it!

http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=460879024/a=154312336_154312336/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Only 29 more weeks to go!!

Hi everyone! In an effort to keep everyone updated in Nebraska, Texas and wherever else on the progress of Baby T, we've created this blog to send all of the updates and pictures. Today was our first doctor appointment with Dr. Heidi Harms (who I just love) and we learned the due date, how far along I am and got to see the baby and the heartbeat!! Here are the stats:

Due Date: December 9th, 2009
Progress: 11 weeks
Heart rate: 162 (which the sonogram specialist said is perfect)

Pretty good, huh? To the right are the pictures of Baby T. Pretty cute kid already, huh? I have a feeling it's a boy (but, if I had a nickel for every time my "feelings" were correct, I'd be rich), so who knows. We did definitely confirm that there is only ONE baby in there, so that's good, right? I was like, *whew* no multiples in there... :)