Baby Shower - April 4, 2009

My family and Mike's family put on a wonderful shower for me. Here are some pictures from my shower. If you want to see some additional pictures, please click on the link below.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=u0twltd.2bv4auth&x=0&y=-y2uyri&localeid=en_US

My shower was on April 4th from 12 to 4 at Osteria Via Stato Restaurant in downtown Chicago. It was beautiful. It was in this gorgeous room with different rustic tables. My sister, Erin (with the help of my niece, Shannon) put together several beautiful flower arrangements for the tables. My family also organized a fun game of "Guess the Baby Food". Shannon also was a huge help with this along with my cousin's daughter, Maeve (see the last picture above)! Those that won the game got to bring home an arrangement (lucky them, they were amazing!). Finally, the food was excellent. It's an Italian restaurant so of course I enjoyed every last crumb!

After the meal, we played the game and opened the presents. Wow did we receive a lot....thank you to everyone that came and contributed to Baby Byrne's new wardrobe, nursery or playtime. He will be very grateful to all of you!

I think two of the best parts of my shower were 1) my sister, Holly surprised me by coming in town all the way from London for it; and 2) Mike's parents drove up from Atlanta to be at that shower, which is so thoughtful considering that was their first of 3 trips to Chicago in 3 months! I'm so blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful, loving and caring family members!

So I need to tell you a little about the pictures:
1) Baby Byrne's parents after my shower!
2) Everyone's generosity....wow!! Thank you to all of you!
3) This picture is of all the ladies at my shower who were pregnant. Mary Beth, Andrea and I are days apart, then Courtney is due in August and Lauren is due in October. So exciting!
4) In this picture, I'm holding the "personalized" onesies from Keelin, Ed, Ryan and Carter. They were a big hit and will be when Baby Byrne finally wears them.
5) A picture of all the Barrett women!
6) Catherine (my mother-in-law), myself and Triona (my sister-in-law)
7) We were the last to leave and thought we'd take a picture since my dad and Mike were there. My mom pointed out that there are actually 4 generations in this picture. Mary Jane (my grandmother's sister), my mom, me and Baby Byrne.
8) My niece, Shannon and my cousin's daughter, Maeve monitoring the "Guess the Baby Food" Game.

Thank you to my family and Mike's family for everything you did to make my shower so special and perfect. I really loved it and can't tell you how much that day meant to me!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

30 Week Update

I had another doctor's appointment today. It was a general check up. Unfortunately, my doctor wasn't in so I had another doctor. The other doctor was ok, but rushed through the listening of the baby's heartbeat, which is my favorite part of each appointment. Overall though, the appointment was fine. I've gained 2 pounds since my last appointment, which is good. I'm gaining about a pound a week. My blood pressure was 108/62 and the baby's heartbeat was around 150 bpm......similar numbers as the last appointment.

My appointments will now be every 2 weeks for the next 2 months. My next appointment is scheduled for April 7th.

We only have 10 weeks left before Baby Byrne arrives. We're getting excited, but also worried since we're moving a month before his due date. We hope everything is ready for him to come home by the time he's ready to meet the world!

Other than that, I've been feeling good, but have been experiencing some low back pain daily for about the last 2 weeks so the doctor suggested that I go for Physical Therapy. This Friday (3/27), I'm going for an assessment and then starting physical therapy next week. I've always had chronic low back pain so I'm actually surprised and happy that it hasn't bothered me until now. You have to count your blessings, right?

Baby Byrne continues to be active and I can tell he's growing. His jabs and movements can be a little painful at times, but still cute! I love feeling him and so does Mike so I'm not complaining!

Well, that's all for now. Thanks for keeping an eye on our blog and I'll continue to provide updates as they come! Love ya!

Glucose Results

I received a call from my doctor that the glucose tests came back Normal. Yeah! We were relieved to hear that.........not sure I was more relieved to hear it b/c I know it means the baby and I are healthy or if it's because I can continue to satisfy my sweet tooth........wins all the way around!

Also, I forgot to mention that Aunt Erin was over here recently and felt the baby kick/move..........she's been the only one to see and feel Baby Byrne moving and kicking besides his lucky parents! It was fun to see her reaction.

And no names yet for the little guy......we have a few in mind, but haven't settled on anything. We still have a few more months and will let you know if we do come to a decision......until then it's still Baby Byrne!

7 Months/28th Week Update

We had another doctor appointment today for our 28th week checkup. It was another general check up, but they also drew my blood for a glucose screening to check for gestational diabetes. I should get those results back in the next day or two.

My blood pressure was 108/60, the baby's heartbeat was ranging from 148 to 151 to 155 bpm and I've gained about 5 pounds since the last visit. All great numbers once again. When we were listening to Baby Byrne's heartbeat, we could also hear my heartbeat (71) so we were hearing mine and his at the same time. How cool is that? We really enjoyed hearing both beat together.

I've been feeling good for the most part. I had a bad day yesterday with dizziness, some lightheadedness and nausea, but it just lasted a day. I also came down with the stomach flu a couple of weeks ago, but again that only lasted a day. Other than that, I've been doing really well and feeling great.

Baby Byrne has definitely grown since my last update. I can feel him moving more and more and the kicks are getting stronger. Mike and I enjoy watching my entire belly move from the little guy. He still seems to be very active which is starting to worry us that he's up more than he's down. Yikes! We are hoping for a sleeper but might not get that.

We have 12 weeks to go and are starting to prepare for him to arrive. We have purchased most of the nursery furniture by now and my baby shower is April 4th (thanks to our families for organizing it), which we'll get more stuff for the baby then. However, we won't be preparing the nursery until May because we hope to move into a new house by the end of April (keep your fingers crossed for us). Nothing like getting a new job (me), having a baby and moving into a new house all within 6 months. Mike and I love change and I guess we like to do it all at once to keep our lives exciting.

That's all that is new with us. We will now have our doctor appointments every 2 weeks so the next one is scheduled for March 24th, which is just another general checkup. I did confirm with my doctor that we'll get another ultrasound at the 34th week appt for them to check the fetal growth. It will be fun to see how big he's gotten since the 20th week ultrasound.

Thanks to everyone who continue to follow our blog and for your support. We are getting very excited for little Baby Byrne to arrive and for all of you to meet him!!

24 Weeks/6 months

I'm 24 weeks or 6 months, only 16 more weeks left. Yeah!

Today, I had another doctor's appointment. It was 60 degrees in Chicago and it was so nice to go downtown when it wasn't below zero. It made me think about spring and once spring arrives, then our baby will be here shortly after that.

Anyway, it was a general checkup. My doctor checked my blood pressure, which was 112 over 60. She also checked our baby's heartbeat, which was 155 beats per minute.......strong as ever!! We will never get sick of hearing that little heartbeat inside me! She also measured my belly which measured at 24 weeks so the baby's growing just as he should. At the end, she said I looked healthy and thought everything is going great for us.

I'll post some more pictures of my belly. I'm definitely growing and our baby is still very active. I swear he's going to be an athlete with all the kicking he does!

As for other updates, we're starting to shop for cribs and other baby furniture. We also plan to register soon. It's all so very exciting.

That's all for now. Our next doctor's appointment is March 10th when I'm 7 months. After that, we'll have appointments every 2 weeks.

6 Month Pregnant Belly Pics

Here are some pictures of me at 6 months/24 weeks.

23 weeks

My sister, Holly, who lives in London keeps asking to see pics of my belly so I took one today.......I'm 23 weeks.

No real update other than our baby is super active...........I constantly feel him kicking........but then there are periods where I think he's passed out like his dad......maybe he has CFS too (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome). In any case, he's going to take after his dad in more ways than one - sleeping and kicking (our lil' soccer player).

Well, that's all for now. We have our next appointment on February 10th. It's just a general check up, but we'll update the blog again after that.