First of all, Happy New Year to all our friends & family. The holidays were really nice this year, very lowkey which is just what we needed! We spent it the way we have the last few years, traipsing from one Christmas service to another, one family's house to another, and - most importantly - eating our faces off! Even I managed to scarf down a few cookies. We kept our Christmas Breakfast tradition and it turned out very well...I didn't even get too nauseous except when Adam started frying up the turkey sausage. Ick! My gift from Adam was two Bella Bands, which is (for those of you who don't know) basically a band of stretchy material that you can use to keep your pants on when your belly is too porky to button them, but you're still too small for maternity clothes. I joked that I wasn't sure how to take his gift, since it was for my growing waistline...but in all honesty it was the best gift he could have gotten me. They've been really useful this past month or so, and I know he was getting sick of me complaining about how uncomfortable and tight my regular clothes were getting!
Here is George on Christmas Day, enjoying his gifts:
Our New Year's was also very low-key...I was feeling pretty rotten but we managed to go out to dinner to Cheesecake Factory (our NY tradition), and then I crashed on the couch and barely got to see the ball drop on TV. I made it though!
Right before Christmas, we had our first trimester screening for Down's Syndrome and a few other chromosomal defects. It was very easy, just some bloodwork and an ultrasound, and the great news is that our little one has a reduced risk for everything they tested for! We weren't too worried, but it's always wonderful to hear that things are looking good. It was also awesome to see how much our little peanut has changed since our first ultrasound at 8 weeks. What was once a blob on a screen was suddenly something that resembled a baby! It was also incredibly active, so much that the ultrasound tech had a hard time getting it to stay still long enough to take the necessary measurements. At one point she actually tried to pin the wiggle-worm down with the ultrasound wand pressed hard into my stomach...fun! Below are a few pictures from the ultrasound, you can see the baby's profile in one and the other is a shot of its hand. It was definitely a great day for us.
All in all, it's been a busy few months. Lately we've been trying hard to balance a hectic work schedule (for both of us), Adam started his graduate class at UVA this month, the dogs are driving us crazy, and I've finally started feeling a little bit better. I'm still waiting on that 2nd trimester kick of energy that everyone talks about, but it hasn't happened yet - I'm still hitting the sack as early as 8pm some nights, especially since work is so stressful these days. My Luncheon is less than 3 weeks away, so hopefully once that's over I won't be so drained at the end of the day! I plan to take some belly pictures to post, at almost 17 weeks I'm definitely starting to show a bit - my pants haven't buttoned in a month and I think I am going to finally have to go get some serious maternity clothes. I've been putting it off as long as possible...I hate the thought of spending so much $ on clothes that I am only going to wear for a little while. It's necessary, unfortunately!
I will leave you with a cute picture of the furry kids from this morning after a particularly exhausting wrestling match. Forgive the bare mattress and the doggie nose-prints on the window - I was in the middle of cleaning & changing the sheets! Hope you're all doing well!
Lots of Love, Michelle & Adam
