IT'S A GIRL!!!

John and I had the pleasure of doing the 3D ultrasound session at Prenatal Peek. I initially wasn't going to do one of these ultrasounds but our stubborn little baby didn't want to reveal itself to be boy or girl. Johnathon and I were anxious to know before Christmas, so we decided to do the 3D ultrasound and are proud to say we are having a BABY GIRL. It was not what Johnathon or I were expecting. For some reason, him and I thought it was a baby boy for sure, but our intuition was wrong. We are very excited to be having a little Muchow girl. We got some very nice pictures of our baby girl and would love to share them with our friends and family. Here are a few. . . .

This is a side view of baby girl. She

was once again being stubborn and would

only show us half her face. At times she

even covered her face with her hands.

Side view of baby girl with her arm and thigh in view

This is my favorite.

Baby girl is resting her hand on her

face. This is one of Johnathon's favorites.

This one might be a little hard for you to decipher.

This is an image of her right arm, leg and foot.

Here is another one of hand and foot.

The ultrasound tech highlighted them

with arrows .

Here is one of baby girl covering her face and

giving us the peace sign.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Halfway done. . . 20 weeks. . .Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to our friends and families! We are at 20 weeks and have chugged along to another milestone. . . baby and I are halfway done with the pregnancy. WooHoo!! We are now measuring baby from head to toe. No more crown to rump business. So baby weighs approximately 10 ounces and is 10 inches from head to toe. . . . we are saying about the size of a banana!! Baby is getting big and so am I. Right after my 18^th week, baby decided to make an appearance and my belly popped out rather quickly. Baby is starting to make meconium in its digestive tract. This is the black, gooey, sticky substance that accumulates in their bowels. I am feeling baby move around. No kicks or jabs in the ribs. . . .too soon for that. But I can feel baby making turns, twists and swim around in there. 

A frustrating 18 weeks. . . .

Friday was a frustrating day. Our ultrasound was Friday afternoon before leaving for Minnesota. We wanted to find out the sex of the baby, in hopes that we could buy something special gender specific in Minnesota. Well that ended up not to be the case. To start I had to drink two glasses of water an hour before the ultrasound so the bladder would rise higher than the uterus, making it easier to visualize the baby. If anyone knows me. . . . they would know that I have a small bladder and can’t hold much liquid for a long period of time. So this made the ultrasound VERY uncomfortable. The lady was poking and prodding on my abdomen while I had to hold a very full bladder! When we started the procedure the ultrasound tech asked if we wanted to know the sex of baby, we said of course. She then began to do the normal measurements needed for the second trimester to make sure baby is growing as it needs to be. She said she wanted to get the boring measurements out of the way. So she measured the circumference of baby’s head, the femur bone, the stomach, kidneys, bladder, and spine. While doing all this she kept calling baby a boy, in my head I kept thinking she knows something and isn’t telling us yet. Everyone I’ve talked to has said this baby is boy. . . . that is what their predictions have been. . . . so I thought, “Oh this is a done deal, this baby is boy, woohoo.” Well. . . . at the end of the 45 minute measurement exam she looks for baby’s sex parts. At first she says she thinks she sees a scrotum, but this STUBBORN baby wouldn’t open its legs wide enough to really for sure show anything. . . . so she concluded the procedure by saying it might be a girl and couldn’t definitively tell us if it was boy or girl. . . . HOW FRUSTRATING!! I walked away very frustrated but glad that she gave me a handful of photos of the baby and the reassurance that baby is measuring where it needs to be. At the time of the procedure baby was measuring to have a due date of May 10^th. . . . and my estimated calculated due date is May 7^th. So I don’t have exciting boy or girl news to share but I do have some pretty awesome pictures to share.

Face View of Baby

John says baby looks like the terminator in this photo.

What you see is not the eye of baby. It is the lens in the eye.

The baby actually keeps its eyes closed.

Here is picture of baby's right leg. You can see the bone structure and you can see that baby has some "chunky" thighs. Makes me nervous, I hope baby doesn't get "too" big.

This picture is a little blurry but it is of baby's spine.

We had the privilege to go to Minnesota with two of our favorite people, Michael and Debbie. We went to the Mall of America and shopped until we dropped, saw a play called The Servant of Two Masters, and went to the Minnesota Vikings vs. Chicago Bears game. My favorite part of the whole trip was the snow!! We woke up Sunday morning to it snowing. It was the coolest experience. I had never done that before. It really put John and me into the Christmas spirit. It was a great way to end the weekend!!

A quick update at 17 weeks. . . .

I wanted to post a quick update from last week's post. I had my doctor's appointment this week, baby and I are doing good. The heartbeat of baby is moving fast. My midwife kept calling it a "he" during the whole visit. It made me chuckle a little. From what I have heard from various people, a strong fast heartbeat means it is a boy and slower heartbeat means it is girl. But I believe that could be all rubbish. I had a strong fast heartbeat. . . .they thought I was a boy. . . .and then I popped out. . . .little Miss Newton. We find out the sex of the baby a week from today!!! John and I couldn't be more excited!! We want to plan and pick out for the baby. Right now we are shopping around for the crib and baby dresser. It can all we overwhelming because there is so much to get for the little one and there are so many options for everything. So I keep telling myself, one thing at a time. My cramping is starting to subside. The midwife confirmed with me that the cramping is indeed "growing pains." I am petite and this little one is starting to grow at a rapid pace. Just last week I posted a picture of my belly barely showing, well yesterday the little one decided to take the plunge and really pop out of my belly. I am beginning to look more on the pregnant side and less like I am bloated.

John has one more week left of school until the winter break. I can't wait because then he'll have more time to spend with his wife. How exciting for him!! More time to help me get ready for this little peanut growing inside me.

Love to All! Check back in next week for the reveal of the baby's sex. . . .are we destined for blue or pink???? I'd be curious to hear what everyone's prediction is. . . .

Happy Turkey Day, we are 16 weeks!!

Happy Turkey Day to all our friends and family!! We hope everyone had a fun and thankful day. John spent the day working on school stuff and visited his mom for a couple hours to eat some delicious grub. I spent my turkey day at work taking care of sick patients. I am very thankful to have a job and to work with a wonderful  group of people. I feel very blessed in that regard.

This week marks baby and mine's 16 weeks together. It was a non-eventful week for us. The baby is barely popping out of my belly. But I am definitely experiencing some growing pains. On Turkey Day it felt like someone had punched me in the stomach. Everything that I read says that baby should be hitting a growth spurt by now, and I have to assume that means my little belly will be hitting a growth spurt as well. Baby should be 4 1/2 inches long from head to rump and 3 1/2 ounces in weight. About the size of a mango. Baby's heart is now pumping 25 quarts of blood each day and this number will continue to rise; as an average adult heart pumps 5 liters of blood per minute. The tiny bones in the baby's ears are now in place, making it likely that baby can hear my voice when I speak or sing. So baby will begin to know my voice and the music I listen to. I plan on giving this child an eclectic taste in music.

An update on our poor little pup. He is going in to have surgery tomorrow morning. Through all the stresses of his last surgery and developing a infection on his neck from the stupid cone he had to wear, he developed cherry eye. Which is a bulge in the gland of his inner eyelid. It has to be removed or it will cause problems later for our Brutus. Soooooo here we go again. . . . round 2 in surgery. Poor little guy!

We hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving! We have a baby appointment on Monday. So hopefully there is more updates to share next week. Lots of Love to all!!

A Big Milestone - 14 Weeks. . . .

14 weeks is a big milestone for baby and me. It means that we are now in the second trimester. The best is yet to come (said by my favorite singer Frank Sinatra). At 14 weeks the baby is sprouting hair on top of its cute head, eyebrows and body. This hair is called lanugo. It develops its own furry blanket. The body hair is not permanent, it’s just meant to keep little baby warm. This is good because it has been COLD here this last week. The baby should be 3 ½ inches long from head to bottom. This is about the size of an avocado.

I had another doctor’s appointment this week. My doctor did not take any new pictures of baby but I was able to hear baby’s heartbeat again. It was beating 152 beats per minute. This is good. And it was moving around a lot! I could hear the movements through the Doppler. They say that in the next few weeks I should be able to feel baby moving in my tummy. But I haven’t felt it yet. The only thing I am feeling right now is a lot of cramping. I think this is due to the stretching of my stomach muscles and growing of my uterus. But my doctor wants me to drink LOTS of fluids . . . .over 2 liters a day and I am to go back in the office in 2 weeks to re-evaluate my cramping. I was given a referral to get a full ultrasound to find out the sex of the baby! Yes, Johnathon and I will find out the sex of the baby. We will find out between 18-20 weeks. So in about a month everyone will know whether we can call this baby a she or he!! And we can start to figure out what we need to buy for the nursery!! I am very much looking forward to getting started in buying stuff for our little Muchow.

On a sad note, while we were in Florida, our poor little puppy hurt himself. His leg muscles are so strong that when he was jumping around playing with a cat he pulled his leg muscle away from the growth plate in his leg bone. He had to have surgery and is now moping around the house with an ugly cone on his head. The orthopedic doctor that did his surgery thinks that he will heal just fine. He’s a tough dog.

Johnathon has started student teaching this week. He will pretty much be student teaching every day until school is out. . . .busy boy. I had the last 8 days off of work, not by choice but because our union had gone on strike again. Now that Obama has been re-elected the hospital is freaking out about the Affordable Care Act and how it will affect the hospital financially. It’s a scary time right now for us nurses that work for Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. Administration wants to reduce our benefits, not give us any raises and reduce staff to cut costs. What I have been told is that nurses haven’t had a raise in our hospital in the last 2 years. I feel blessed that we have such a strong union. Out of 600 nurses that work at the hospital, 436 voted to go on strike against the hospital and 4 nurses voted to not strike. This is a pretty strong number. Go SNA!!

All my love to our family! Until next week. . . .

My Lucky Number 13......

Johnathon and I spent the last week in Key West with our Hatfield family. There is a big Halloween festival that we got to be apart of called Fantasy Fest. Thousands and thousands of people travel to Key West to go Fantasy Fest. People walk the streets dressed up in costume, not dressed up in costume, in their birthday suits or in painted costumes. It was quite the adventure and experience. One night Johnathon dressed up in his usual short shorts and tight tank top with a bright blue crazy wig. The next night was toga night, so John and I dressed in our Roman attire. The third night was a march from the Key West cemetery to Duval Street (the Main Street in town), so we dressed up like He-man and She-ra, which was one of Johnathon's favorite cartoons/comics growing up. The last night was a big parade where the locals put floats together and toss beads into the crowd, like Mardi Gras in New Orleans. We had such a great time, spent with great people. Most importantly I got to relax, which means baby got to relax. We had a few hiccups getting home, which I am pretty sure was related to the awful weather the Northeast was having. While in Key West it rained off and on, and was windy but we weren't too affected by the hurricane.

I have to brag and share a story with everyone. We flew from Key West into Atlanta, then to SFO. During our layover, while trying to get onto the concourse train, a gentleman collapsed to the floor and had a cardiac arrest. I at first thought the man had merely passed out, but when I took a look at him his lips were blue......so I began CPR. I did CPR for probably 10-15 minutes before paramedics showed up. I don' know if he was ever revived but I walked away knowing that I did what I could with the knowledge that I have. But it's kind of funny the thoughts that cross your mind when you are in the heat of the moment. While doing CPR on this guy, the thought crossed my mind....."what is a pregnant women doing CPR in an aiport concourse train doing"....I kind of felt like a pregnant "badass."

On another note, baby has turned 13 weeks and has begun rapidly growing. Baby is now 3 inches long and weighs about an ounce. It is the size of small peach. Can you believe it baby went from a size of lime to the size of a peach in one week. I have a feeling that this little one is going to start really showing and popping out of my belly soon. A very cool development this week for baby is that it's fingerprints have formed and now has it's own identification.

The big question that Johnathon and I keep getting asked, and I am sure I will get asked lots more is: do we have names picked out......the answer is no. Johnathon and I have decided to not waste our brain power on picking out a name until we know the sex of the baby. So family and friends since I have made that announcement just maybe the question won't be asked (ya right.....I know I'm dreaming). 

We hope the family is doing great; living happy and healthy. Our next appointment with the doctor is November 9th.....just a week away!

A Late 12 Week Post.....

I was planning on doing this 12 week post a week ago, but life took over. So I am sorry for the delay. The reward is that you all will get two posts this week. At 12 weeks, Baby Muchow is 2 inches long from crown to rump, about the size of a lime. When I put this lime in Johnathon's hand, all I could think is that the little peanut isn't a little peanut anymore. At 12 weeks, baby's big development is it's reflexes: it's beginning to open and close it's fingers, the mouth has begun to make sucking movements, toes will curl and eye muscles will clench. This all means baby is getting stronger.

We had our 12 week doctor's appointment, I was very excited to go in hopes that I would be able to see baby again and get a new picture. However, the doctor did not do an ultrasound. So I do not have a new picture of baby to share. We were able to hear the heartbeat by use of a doppler. This was quite exciting for us, that we recorded it to share with the family. So below is a video of the floor of the doctor's office but most important is the sound. Baby's heartbeat is strong. After hearing baby's heartbeat, I personally was relieved to know baby was doing okay. I have been struggling with the anxiety of not knowing if baby is doing okay. It's hard knowing there is a little being growing inside me but I can't see it, feel it, or hear it. I just have to trust that my body is  strong  enough to house such an important creature. I will admit that from time to time I intend to use the dopplar at my work to listen to baby's heartbeat.......shhhhh don't tell........

So I told you I would post a belly photo at 12 weeks, so here you ago. Here is a picture of me at 12 weeks, I am barely showing..... I hope I can stay small but I know that I probably won't. It's hard for a woman to watch her body change so quickly. Oh, by the way I cut my hair off!

So proud of our Muchow man.....

This was a big week for Johnathon. He finally passed the CSET exam for World History. He took this test four times and each time walking away not feeling confident that he passed. Well the fourth time is a charm. . . . . he passed, which means he can move on in the teaching credential program and begin student teaching. This is a very big deal. . . . . if he hadn't passed, his education would have probably been delayed by a year. So we are very proud of our Muchow man. Good Job babe!

Our little Muchow is growing and growing fast. At 11 weeks, it is 1 and 1/2 inches long, about the size of a strawberry. My favorite fruit! The little one is already busy kicking and stretching inside of me. Movements too small for me to notice yet. . . . not for a couple of months. My lower abdomen is starting to protrude just a bit, but no belly shots yet. I'll start those at 12 weeks. I don't look preggo, I just look like I have been "over doing" it on the food department. Baby has his first set of gear. I bought a little onsie for the baby to get in the spirit of having a new addition to the family. Johnathon was sure pleased. . . . . .

Our next appointment is this Thursday, October 18th!! We are very excited because we will get to hear Baby Muchow's heartbeat and get a new picture!! We are going to try to record the heartbeat and post it on the blog. So stay tuned for another update at the end of this week!

9 weeks and counting.....

Today marks that our little one has been growing for 9 weeks. At 9 weeks it is the size of a large raspberry. The fetus is starting to look more and more human and less like an alien. The four chambers of the heart are now divided. The gall bladder, spleen and liver are developing. The basic physiology of the fetus is in place, and now set for rapid weight gain. . . . . . .which means I will be adding on the "lbs."

I just finished my first (12 hour shift each) three day in a row work week while being pregnant. I have to say I'm pretty proud of myself for getting through it and not having any issues except being tired. Tiredness and fatiguing easier is the only pregnancy symptom I am feeling right now. Weeks 5 through 7 were not fun in the slightest. During that period I was extremely emotional, with up and down mood swings and I felt nauseated ALL THE TIME. . . . .grr. But I got through it. I am thinking positive that it'll be easier from here on out and my hormone changes have leveled out.

To share a sensitive and side note with the family, today my nurses union went on strike for the very first time in 26 years. It was an empowering and historical day for my fellow co-workers and myself. The article in the Press Democrat newspaper made it seem like us nurses were striking for more money, but in fact we are not asking for more money, we are wanting to keep our contract the same. SR Memorial Hospital is trying to change our benefit plan, cut our wages, and give priority to travel nurses over regular staffed nurses. It is pretty awesome to feel the unity of my fellow nurses. I picketed this morning with my telemetry crew. There were nurses picketing in front of the hospital, down the street and on the other side of the street. I was told 88% of our union nurses united together to make this stand today. There is still one more day of the strike. It's exciting to think how many people will show up tomorrow to picket. I hope the hospital and our union come to an agreement soon. . . . .to clear the tension in the air.

The Muchow Times has begun........

We have family near and far, and with crazy schedules it is hard to keep everyone updated with what is going on in our lives. Now that there is a little Muchow Peanut brewing, we thought it would be most important to keep family in the loop as to what is going on. I thought keeping a blog and journalizing this experience would be the easiest way to let our family know how the Peanut is doing.



Here is Peanut's first photo. This was taken at our first doctor's visit, at 7 weeks (September 18th). The circle that looks like a head is actually the yolk sac and the fetus is the peanut shape above it. The dark crescent moon is indeed my uterus. At the time the photo was taken, the embryo was the size of  a blueberry. 

Stay tuned for more updates......this is just the beginning.....