16 Weeks- Boy or Girl?

Well, tomorrow is *hopefully* the big day! We are heading to Orlando to have an ultrasound and find out if Baby Shaffer is a boy or a girl! There is always a chance that they won't be able to tell but I really hope that they can! I really have no gut feeling either way! I am really just super excited to see the baby again after so long! I am starting to get pretty big haha, here I am at 16 weeks!

My Growing Belly

Well these pictures speak for themselves. I am reluctantly keeping track of this growing baby belly! Enjoy :-)

Baby Movements

I think I might have felt my first baby movements tonight while sitting on the couch watching TV with Jared. It felt like little flutters in my tummy. It was a feeling that I have not felt before and haven't felt after but I had this intuition that it was the baby. I hope I start to feel more movement soon! What an awesome experience to be able to feel the life growing inside me!

Telling Everyone!

Labor Day officially marked 13 weeks for me! Jared and I decided to tell family and close friends during that weekend and then announce it to the world that Tuesday after we had our second appointment! We called our Grandparents, Aunts, and Uncles first. Everyone was really sweet and acted excited for us! We let our closest friends know before everyone else too. We went out with a group of our best friends that weekend and when Jared announced that we were pregnant, one of our friends announced it too! We are only 2 weeks apart! That means that Jared and his two closest friends (self titled 3J since their names all start with J) all have wives that are pregnant at the same time! Here are a few pictures from that fun night!

On Tuesday the 6th we had our second appointment. It was a quick appointment this time. We did get to hear the heartbeat which is the best sound ever! :-) The nurse who used the doppler seemed like she might have been training and it was so cute because as she was leaving the room she said to the main nurse "I found it really fast that time!" All my bloodwork came back fine. My next appointment will be at 18 weeks where they will do a thorough ultrasound and determine the gender. We will actually be going at the end of September to find out at the gender at an elective ultrasound place but it will be nice to have to confirmation so soon after! :-)

When we got home we decided that it was time to let everyone know on Facebook but as soon as we went to post it the internet went out. Brighthouse had a major internet outage everywhere that day. We decided to head out and have some lunch and then post it later. Here is our official Facebook announcement. We were overwhelmed at everyone's sweet comments and so excited to finally have it out in the open!

Maternity Clothes

So whether it be bloat or bump, my pants have started to get too tight! Maternity clothes are not completely necessary yet but I knew I would feel better to have some pants that would give me some breathing room! My mom and twin sister Kellie went shopping with me for this right of passage. :-) We headed to the Brandon mall and hit Motherhood Maternity. I was really only looking for a couple of jeans that I would be able to wear for a little while as this baby bump grows. In the end I had a LOT of stuff in the room to try on. It was fun putting on the (rather unrealistically shaped) bump pillow that they give you and seeing how I will look a few months from now! :-) Thanks Mom and Kell for my pretty new maternity clothes! I am looking forward to seeing this bump grow into them all!

The Most Beautiful Sound

I am one of those unfortunate people who spends way too much time on the internet. That, mixed with being pregnant with a lot of questions has led me to Google and the many (sometimes silly) answers that it can provide. Unfortunately, it has also exposed me to the many scary possibilities of early pregnancy. This coupled with the fact that I only saw my doctor at 9 weeks and then have to wait until 13 weeks (almost there, yay!) gave me a great desire to be able to tell if everything was still OK in there with baby Shaffer. :-)

While reading the internet I came across what is called a Fetal Heart Doppler and found that many people use them to hear their baby's heartbeat in between appointments to put their minds at rest. One of the most recommended versions is actually quite inexpensive to buy and I just knew that it was something that I would really love to have for myself.

While it may not be for everyone, having this doppler has been the best thing ever for me. Being able to hear my baby's heartbeat at home has made everything so much more relaxed for me. Before I had it I worried all the time if the baby's heart would be beating at the next appointment. Now I know that she/he is in there still going strong. It is hard to film and find the heartbeat at the same time but I went ahead and made a little video so we can share this beautiful sound with the world! :-) Here it is!