17 weeks and counting!

Hi all!
Sorry for the lack of updates! I will reward you for waiting an entire month for a post by posting my first ever belly picture!! On Friday I woke up and it seemed like all of a sudden my belly had popped out, and stayed that way (before it's looked like this, but only after eating or if I was pushing it out)....now it seems to be here to stay! I'm loving it. This picture is from last week, we haven't taken one this week yet, but when we do I'll put it in the next post.
Baby Thornton seems to be doing well. The heartbeat sounded great at our last appointment a couple days ago. According to the apps on my phone, this week Baby T is 5.5 inches long mastering reflexes such as blinking, sucking swallowing and even yawning! Our baby is now able to hear sounds and his or her sense of hearing is sharpening, guess we should start reading to the baby soon! The baby is now big enough that it is possible to feel his or her movements, though I don't think I have felt anything yet. Some women feel movement around 15-16 weeks, while others are much later such as 20-21 weeks.
Our anatomy scan is scheduled for the first week of October, we are looking forward to getting all of baby's body systems checked out, as well as finding out if our little one is a girl or a boy!!
It has been awesome to go through this experience with Kat. We've hit up quite a few maternity shops and are having tons of fun. I can only imagine the shopping once we both know the sexes out our babies. I've linked their blog on the side of this one so you can follow them too, if you aren't already!! I also added a poll to our blog for you to vote if you think the baby is a girl or a boy. As of right now it's all tied up with half the votes for boy and half for girl!

More week 13 Adventures

Today Baby T and I had a quick check-up with the certified nurse midwife. It was the first time the doppler's been used to heart the heartbeat. We've been spoiled, and have heard the heartbeat via ultrasound, but from now on, aside from the anatomy scan, the doppler will be how we hear the heartbeat at each appointment. As soon as the midwife put the wand on my belly the sound of the heart rate filled the room. It's always so wonderful to hear.
Thanks to Hurricane Irene we have been without power for nearly four days. Matt and I have both worked the last four nights, so it hasn't been too inconvenient to be without power. Tonight we decided to head up to West Hartford to spend the night with Jeff and Kat (and Baby Sonny), who never lost power. It has been so nice to spend the evening with them! We are so excited that Baby T will have a cousin born around the same time as him/her and have loved sharing this adventure with Jeff and Kat so far.
For those who have not seen me lately, there's not much to see in the way of a baby bump yet. We have been taking belly pictures periodically, and will share some of them on here soon.

Lucky 13!!

Today is a big day for us-- Baby Thornton is now 13 weeks which marks the beginning of the second trimester!! It's hard to believe we are a third of the way through the pregnancy. I'm really looking forward to the upcoming weeks....finding out our little ones gender and beginning to get a baby bump are right around the corner! 13 is Matt's lucky number and he knew our little one would bring me good luck today as I sat for my boards to become a certified pediatric nurse practitioner. Thankfully, he was right and I passed my boards. It's hard to believe that would very well be the last test I ever take (never say never...). I celebrated passing the exam by going shopping and I bought a few things for the baby! The cutest item is a book for Matt to start reading to the baby. The book is "Spot Loves His Daddy" and I bought it because I knew pages about Spot and his dad playing soccer would totally hook Matt.
Another weird coincidence today--- while I was taking my boards Matt was waiting at the DMV to get Connecticut license plates. The plates that they randomly gave him start with "313"...which is his date of birth!!
Hope everyone is doing well!! Looking forward to seeing you all soon!
Love,
Hannah

More good news for Baby Thornton!

 Today we had our first trimester risk assessment, which combines information from the mother's history, blood work results, and results from specific measurements taken from an ultrasound. The ultrasound portion of the screening was today, and we loved getting to peek in on our little one yet again. At first the baby was sleepy, but with some coaxing from the ultrasound tech and some coughing done on my part, he or she perked right up and put on quite the show. He or she measured exactly on track for 11 weeks 6 days. The measurements were all perfect and the risks for the diseases they looked for today are very, very low. The ultrasound tech was also able to show us all 4 chambers of the heart, as well as the important heart valves already working hard. We also got a good look at the brain, and saw the heart beating away in the chest the entire time. The heartbeat was 162. After the ultrasound we met with the maternal-fetal medicine fellow, as well as a geneticist to go over the results. It was all good news.

Today we also decided to share the news with the world (AKA Facebook), since we hit the 12 week mark tomorrow. This makes it feel so much more real, now that the word is out and so many more people know the news.  Enjoy the pictures that we got today! You can make them bigger by clicking on them.

I love this shot with his/her little fingers up by the face

Another peek at Baby T

On August 10th we were able to have another peek at our little one. They ordered another ultrasound to confirm the dating of the pregnancy. The baby's size was perfect and is measuring on track for our due date of March 1, 2012. The most amazing thing was being able to see the baby waving its hands and kicking its legs throughout the entire ultrasound! He or she was very active, and Matt thinks they are just practicing for soccer already. We heard and saw the heartbeat, which was beating 178 times per minute.
Waving right at us!

 With both arms up

 Clearly defined fingers

Kiawah!

We spent a wonderful week in Kiawah with all of the Thorntons. Baby was very kind to me and I had no sickness at all during all of the travel. We had a wonderful time, as we always do in Kiawah. We took a few pictures to help announce the upcoming arrival of Baby Thornton. The last picture was taking on my 28th Birthday, and Baby's 10 week mark!