Belly Update, 25 weeks!

Only 15 weeks to go! We've started counting backwards now because it makes it seem like it's right around the corner. I hadn't really thought about the fact that we only have a little over three months to go, until week 23 when Josh said "17 weeks to go". All of the sudden it hit me, that's not very long! Here's the latest belly pic.

4 weeks

20 weeks

25 weeks

Probably good that it came before the holidays, the picture after Christmas may not all be baby growth! We'll update again after things slow down from the holidays, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Doctors Appointment

We went for another routine appointment last week. Everything went well! I've gained another 5 lbs. for a total of 16 lbs. and my belly measured 25 cm. After 20 weeks, the doctor started measuring my belly at every appointment. The measurement (in centimeters) is suppose to correspond to the week of pregnancy. So...I was 23.5 weeks pregnant at the appointment and my belly measured 25 cm. According to Dr. Birch, the measurement should be within 2 weeks of the actual week of pregnancy. So we're a little ahead...maybe Owen will be a March baby after all.

We also got to listen to Owen's heartbeat again. It was beating strong at 140 bpm...but apparently Owen didn't like the sound of his own heartbeat, because he kicked so hard that Dr. Birch had to re-adjust to find his heartbeat again. Owen has become an active little guy lately. In the past, I had to lay on my back for Josh to feel his big kicks. But now....his kicks are so big that you can see my whole belly move.

Apparently, Honey Nut Cheerios and a glass of OJ are the wrongs things to eat before a prenatal doctors appointment. They found sugar in my urine and had to test my blood to make sure my sugar levels were okay. Everything was fine...but Dr. Birch suggested that I have more of a bland breakfast before my gestational diabetes test.

I'll have my glucose screening test for gestational diabetes at our next appointment on January 6th. This will be our last 4 week appointment...then we'll start going to the doctor every 2 weeks. We'll also schedule our follow-up ultrasound during this visit. Dr. Birch is wanting us to have the ultrasound done at the Breast Clinic sometime between 28-30 weeks. So...we'll get a chance to see our growing boy again in just a few weeks.

Ugly Christmas Sweater Party

Some friends of ours, Chris and Cassady, hosted an ugly Christmas sweater party last weekend. After briefly shopping for Christmas sweaters we decided to make our own. We bought some cheap sweatshirts and then picked up some random decorations from the craft department. Josh came up with the idea of having real Christmas lights, so he searched the light department and found strands of lights that ran off batteries! We had Josh's mom decorate the shirts with snowmen (mine's a snowwoman), bells, snow, and a strand of real lights. On Josh's left shoulder it says "Feliz", and on my right shoulder it says "Navidad", so when we stand together it adds an extra touch of "corny" for extra enjoyment.

Josh and I in our "Feliz Navidad" Snowman Sweaters

Chris and Cassady
Christie and Cassady

The T.E.A.M. Christmas Party

My work Christmas party was last Friday night at the Springdale Country Club. There was a big turn out this year, thirty-five of us girls and all of our spouses. After dinner we played "Dirty Santa". The Starbucks giftcards were a hit this year for all the girls that require that boost of caffeine to get through the day. We typically wear scrubs at work, so this is the one time of year that we get to see each other all dressed up. We had a lot of fun eating, drinking, and dancing the night away.

All the Girls!

Us...

Caroline, Karen, and Kate

Josh and Jimmy

Jim Bob and Amber

John Michael and Karen
Karen, Caroline, Christie, Carmen, and Shayna

Josh, John Michael, and Ross

rEcess

Recess is a parents night out for kids with disabilities. We have been volunteering with Recess for about a year now and have had a blast with the kids and getting to know all the other volunteers. Josh has been paired up with Samuel for a little over a year now and they have become best buds!! It's awesome to see Josh interacting with the kids that I work with every day. This month Recess was Christmas themed. The kids made snowflake ornaments and sang Christmas carols. The "Twelve Days of Christmas" was very entertaining...each kid chose something they wanted for Christmas and the list made up the twelve days of Christmas. Some of the things that the kids came up with were hilarious...1 bag of chex mix, 2 guitars, 3 lego agents, 4 puppies, ...and a partridge in a pair tree. I wish we had the video camera!

The "Twelve Days of Christmas" Recess style!

Josh and Sam

Josh and Sam laughing at the Christmas carols

Levi and Ethan watching the Bee Movie

Lance snoozing...

Christmas Time is here again!

Since we'll be busy Thanksgiving weekend, we decided that it was time to put up our tree. Josh drug the tree out of storage and started the unenviable task of spreading the branches. After we got the tree ready Josh left me to do the ribbon and most of the ornaments on the big tree while he decorated the small tree. One thing I realized that I can be thankful for this thanksgiving is pre-lit Christmas trees! This is our first Christmas to have a pre-lit tree!

Josh setting up the tree

Christie hanging ornaments

The finished product

On Saturday night we joined some friends for the lighting of the square in Fayetteville. It was our first time to go for the parade and the actual turning on the lights. We met up with some friends at Tiny Tim's for dinner then moved outside to watch the parade. It was a lot of fun, there was a ton of people on the square!

Josh and I waiting for the lights

Shaun and Emily
Jennifer and Aubrey
Cassady and I

Chris, Cassady, and Layla
Chris and Cassady's little boy Brenner

Owen Peyton Summerford!

We know that some of you were probably checking our blog last night hoping to find an update from our doctor's appointment yesterday; however, we got in late and decided to get some long overdue sleep! So here is the story from yesterday.

We feel very positive about the appointment. They spent about 2.5 hours doing the ultrasound and looking at every inch of baby Owen’s body. Overall, all his organs are functioning properly, he does not have clinched fist, he does not have rockerbottom feet, he is not under developed (he’s actually measuring 6 days ahead of his due date), he has a 3 vein umbilical cord, and my amniotic fluid level is right on track. So…he doesn’t have any of the major “markers” for Trisomy 18. He still has the choroid plexus cyst on both sides of his brain and they found what they describe as a calcium deposit in the muscle of his heart. Both of these are “markers” for Trisomy 18, however they are the weakest markers! The only way to diagnosis Trisomy 18 is through an amniocentesis, which we have decided not to do secondary to the risk of miscarriage and because there is no treatment for Trisomy 18. Since we are not doing the amniocentesis, we will be doing a follow up ultrasound here in Fayetteville in ~8 weeks to make sure the Owen is still growing at the rate he should. This will not confirm that he doesn’t have Trisomy 18, but the geneticist in LR said that if his measurements are correct in 8 weeks….we should stop worrying and enjoy the rest of the pregnancy. At this point, we have relaxed and feel much better about the situation. Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers!! On a positive note….they did a 3D ultrasound and Owen looks just like Josh!

Apparently we were being too loud. Owen was covering his ear!

Belly update, 20 weeks!

We are halfway there! This week marks 20 weeks of pregnancy and the halfway point to meeting baby Summerford. We thought we would mark this occasion by adding the 20 week belly shot!

4 Weeks

20 Weeks

Baby Summerford has decided to celebrate 20 weeks in his own way, by staying up late and being very active. He has been pretty much like clockwork this week, at 10:00 every night he wakes up, stretches and then spends about 30 to 45 minutes kicking and doing somersaults! It has been a lot of fun feeling all of his activity as he gets bigger and stronger by the day!

Baby Summerford Update

We got a call from the doctor today to schedule the level II ultrasound. The original plan was to have the ultrasound done here in Fayetteville via satellite with the geneticist in Little Rock. However, the earliest we could get in at the Fayetteville clinic was December 22nd! When we heard this we immediately decided that we would be more than willing to drive to Little Rock and meet with the doctors if there was any way we could get an earlier appointment! About an hour later we got a call back saying that they had an opening Wednesday November 19th at 2:30. So we will be making the drive to Little Rock next Wednesday to meet with these doctors and learn more about our baby boy! Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers next week as we make this trip.

Gonna be a Razorback!!!

Josh's little sister Amanda signed her national letter of intent yesterday to play softball with the University of Arkansas. Friends and family gathered at the Fayetteville "Lady Dawg" softball field yesterday to show their support. Amanda signed her letter with her mom, dad, and grandfather at her side. Following the signing party the whole family went to Josh's parents house for a feast.

Josh, Christie, Amanda, Daddy Feck, Lisa, and Joe

Josh and Amanda

It's A Boy! (Officially)

We went to the doctor today for our 20 week checkup and ultrasound and got confirmation that baby Summerford is for sure a boy! He was very active during the ultrasound making it difficult, but with a little patience he rolled over and sure enough there were boy parts. It doesn't show up on the video, but we've got pictures! When all of the measurements were taken baby Summerford measured at 20 weeks and 2 days; 6 days ahead of schedule!

FYI: Christie gained 6 lbs. since the last visit for a total of 11lbs. We also heard the heartbeat, sounded strong at 140 bpm!

20 Week Ultrasound

During the ultrasound the technician came across something that was not as perfect as we imagined our little boy to be... She noticed Choroid Plexus Cysts in his brain. She assured us that she has seen this multiple times and that everything would be fine. However, there is a risk associated with these cysts; therefore, they recommended a level II ultrasound to make sure that the cysts weren't indicators of something more serious.

After we got home we spent some time googling these cysts and here is what we found:

The second trimester ultrasound examination will sometimes identify a cyst or cysts in the choroid plexus. The choroid plexus is a tissue in the brain that produces cerebrospinal fluid. Fluid-filled cysts, called choroid plexus cysts or CPCs, are identified by ultrasound in approximately 1-2% of all pregnancies scanned between 16 and 24 weeks gestation. In the majority of cases, CPCs disappear by the 28th week of pregnancy with no effect on the baby. However, a fetal CPC is considered a “marker”, indicating that the baby may have an increased risk for a chromosome abnormality (specifically trisomy 18).

Please keep us and baby Summerford in your thoughts and prayers through this stressful time until we find out more! We will keep you posted, thanks.

Happy Halloween

These are the pumpkins that Josh and I carved this year. I did the goofy face and Josh opted for the spiderweb pattern!

Halloween at Children's Therapy T.E.A.M.

We joined the kiddos in dressing up for the occasion! Several of the therapists dressed as fairies. I was the lone "pregnant pixie" in the group!

Lenard even got into the spirit of Halloween and joined in with his version of a fairy, not sure how happy he was about this!

Samuel was a scary ghost who liked to sneak around and scare people, "BOO!"

Caroline was Dorothy and was not too happy about taking more pictures. This picture follows the "ruby red slipper" toss! How cute!

We stayed home for halloween and had a ton of trick-or-treaters! Some friends also came by to show of their costumes.

Kate and Ross brought their little bumble bee Norah over to show off her costume

Shaun and Jennifer dropped by with their two little princesses, Emily...

and Aubrey!

Baby Bump!

5 weeks

10 weeks
17 weeks

It has been over a month since our last post, and things have progressed! Christie went to the doctor for her 16 week check-up on October 14th, and all was well. She had gained her first bit of baby weight putting on a whopping 5 lbs. in 16 weeks of baby building. She was able to hear the heartbeat, and had bloodwork done for genetic testing. The Dr. recommended genetic testing due to my sister Peyton who was born with a genetic disorder (trisomy 13) and survived for 66 days. We were told we should have the results within 10 days and no news is good news. It has been 14 days with no word...great!

Since the Dr. visit we have also begun to feel the baby kick and move around in Christie's belly. He really seems to enjoy sugar (cupcakes, brownies, chocolate milk, etc...) funny thing is, so does Christie so they make a good team!

We go back to the Dr. on November 10th for the 20 week ultrasound where they will confirm the baby's sex and record the ultrasound. We are counting down the days 'til we can see him again and also show him off to the world with our first baby video!