Baby Girl Maynard!!!!!

Profile shot. You can see her little hand right under her chin.

Cute little thing!!

I think she's sucking her thumb! You can see a full

body shot here.

Cute little hand

Blood Flow

Back view, I love her cute little bum!!

Her brain!

So cute..

It's a girl!

Well, we're having a baby GIRL!!! My due date is April 1st, and I am about 16 weeks today. We are SO excited, she can't get here fast enough. This is the first post I have done while being pregnant, I'm just too busy to keep this thing updated! I'm going to try and be better about it, now that I'm pregnant. I'm going to try to use it as my journal throughout my pregnancy. We'll see how it goes!

We found out we were pregnant July 23rd. I had a feeling I was pregnant, but Matt really didn't think I was. We had only been trying for a month. We both thought it'd take at least 3 months or more, so he figured I wasn't pregnant. I decided to take a test anyway. While we were waiting for the results, I left the bathroom and went into the kitchen for something. Matt stayed anxiously bent over the counter two inches away from the test, waiting to see what would appear. Within one minute he said, "ummm babe?? you might want to come look at this." Sure enough, two little pink lines appeared!! So I did what any other girl would do, I took another test, and another, and another, and well about 3 more after that. It started to become a little game, it was so fun seeing the test result each time!!

I haven't really been sick. Weeks 6 to 8 were a little rough (which also happened to be when we were in Mexico, bad timing!!), but nothing too bad. I don't know how I got so lucky. I'm just crossing my fingers hoping it will stay this way throughout the rest of my pregnancy. I'm still teaching, and I think working everyday and keeping busy is real good for me. I don't have time to think about being sick and it just keeps me going. By the end of the day I am EXHAUSTED!! I'm still exercising every day, which is actually frustrating because the scale is still going up, up, and away every time I get on it. I guess that's normal for being pregnant, but it's still frustrating!!

We have had three ultrasounds now. The first one at 8 weeks at the doctor's office was so cool. We were able to hear her little heartbeat and see a cute little blob. The next ultrasound we did at Fetal Foto's and that was AMAZING. We did it the day after I told my family we were pregnant. That's right, I didn't tell them until I was 15 weeks!! It was so hard to keep it a secret. I told my parents at week 8, but I wanted to wait til my brother Michael (who lives in Chicago) was in town to tell the rest of the family. It was so fun, and I was so glad I waited. My entire family was there, and it was so fun.

She had grown SO much from week 8 to week 15, it was incredible. Everything was formed and she actually looked like a baby! She moved around like crazy the whole time. We saw her puckering her little lips, wiggling her legs and arms arching her back, it was so neat. When the ultrasound tech told us what we were having I just started to cry. Knowing that "it" had a gender made it so much more real to me. I am so excited that she is a girl. I can't wait to dress her up, it'll be so fun! The pink wardrobe has already started to fill her closet. :)

Our 3rd ultrasound was today. Matt works at the school's heath center, and the ultrasound tech he works with needs hours for certification, so she offered to do ultrasounds for us. Of coarse we couldn't pass a chance like that up!! It was so neat, she spent a good 45 minutes with us checking everything and making sure everything was growing and forming how it should. And sure enough, the entire time she was wiggling and moving around. It was amazing to see her little fingers moving and legs kicking. She gave us a CD with all the pictures she took, which was great! Above are some of the pictures she took.

We are SO EXCITED to be parents, and can't wait to meet our little bean!!