6 Months..........

Some days this pregnancy feels like it is going by so fast and other days it feels like I have been pregnant for 10 years and will be pregnant for 10 more. :) Overall it has gone pretty well. Recently I have been getting braxton hicks contractions that were a little too close together so I have had to stop exercising and rest a little more. This has seemed to help most days. We are so thankful for all of the people that have been praying for us and for the safety of our little boy. Below is my 6 month picture. My stomach has grown a lot and I just can't believe it will get way bigger over the next few months. It is amazing how skin can stretch. The baby moves a lot now and weighs a little over a pound and is between 10 and 12 inches!

"Pop" goes the belly.......

Here is a picture of me at 20 weeks. I am now just over 21 weeks. It was like an overnight phenomenon. All of the sudden I woke up one morning between 19 and 20 weeks and I had this stomach that just popped out. I was standing in front of the mirror wondering whose stomach this was and exactly what had happened to mine? :) People can clearly now tell that I am 5 months pregnant.
I feel the baby move all of the time now and am loving it. One night I was laying in bed and Brian put his hand on my stomach. All of the sudden the baby did some acrobatic move and made Brian's hand jump off my stomach. It was the first time Bri got to feel the baby move. It was one of those moments you want to freeze in time because you know every time you go back to visit that moment it will bring a smile to your face.
This little guy is becoming more of a reality every day. Some days it seems like it will be forever until we meet him. Some days the reality hits that in just a few short months our lives will never be the same. We can't wait!

Baby McCutie is a boy!

Today we had our 20 week ultrasound. We both were convinced we were having a girl and were shocked to find out that we are actually having a little boy! After the initial shock has worn off we are really excited. Brian has already started to plan out all the things they are going to do together. My dad is convinced we need to train him to be left-handed so he can grow up to be a famous pitcher and make us all the big bucks, however, Uncle Chris is going to teach him how to be a punter because there is no easier way to break into professional sports. :) It was so awesome to watch him on the screen. We could see him suck his thumb and move his arms and legs. Below we have posted some pictures of this cutie. Now we just have to agree on a name...........

This is a picture of the baby sucking his thumb.

This was our favorite. Looks pretty cute. :)

This is a picture of the baby's feet. The baby's
right foot is turned sideways behind its left foot.

18 Week Checkup

Last Thursday Brynne and I had our 18 week appointment to make sure that Baby McCutie was doing OK. All signs pointed to a healthy baby and healthy development for Brynne too. She's starting to show a little more everyday and I've noticed people are tempted more and more to rub her belly. This is one of the most fascinating observations from living with a pregnant woman. In any other situation you're sure to be slapped upside the head if you touch a woman's belly, but a lot of people don't hesitate once they find out she's pregnant. The thing is, until she's somewhere in the ballpark of 20 weeks, her stomach is still the same as it always was. So you're not so much rubbing a pregnant belly, but just her normal everyday belly. I've given Brynne permission to rub anyone back who rubs her belly without asking her-I think it's only fair. So far she hasn't taken me up, but beware!

Here are a few more observations from Brynne's conversation with our midwife, Sherri, at our appointment last week.

-Brynne's been feeling pain toward the bottom of her stomach and Sherri explained that her uterus and bladder are fighting for space at this point and her bladder is extra tender. I always wondered what happened to all of the normal organs when a woman gets pregnant and the baby starts taking up space. Apparently everything else pretty much suffers, to the point where I think Sherri suggested Brynne stand on her head before going to the bathroom so that the baby could force every last little drop out of her bladder when she stood back up. (Thank you to Deb and Kelly for providing additional bathroom-time exercises to help the cause)

-This same pain becomes amplified when Brynne exercises because she feels like everything is colliding together inside. Again, Sherri confirmed that that's exactly what is happening and told Brynne that she needs to stop running until she's past 20 weeks. This made me think, baby or no baby, don't my organs collide around inside me when I run? If it's not good for Brynne, is it good for any of us? No word from Sherri on that question yet.

4 Months and Counting...........

The baby is doing well from everything we can tell. I have slowly started to feel better and think I may finally be moving out of feeling sick all the time. We are hoping I will get to feel the baby move in the next few weeks. As you can tell from the picture my belly has started to grow. We laugh because it seems to grow more as the day goes on and then goes back down again by the next morning. I am enjoying sleeping on my stomach while I still can. :) We are growing more and more excited to meet this little one. February can't seem to come fast enough.

The past month has been full of lots of fun things for the McHugh family. We went to the beach for a week and then to the McHugh's in NJ for the annual MIT Basketball tournament. Brian did not win but he also did not turn his ankle this year....a big plus! Brian got a new job teaching Calculus and Geometry at Pequea Valley High School. We have been overwhelmed at God's timely provision of this job. His first day of school was this past Monday and things went really well. The school is located in the heart of Amish country and Bri loves to tell people that it is in the lovely town of Intercourse, PA. I had to call HR to get insurance information and the woman I spoke to said there were already rumors circulating about the new good looking math teacher. Apparently my husband is now the "hot math teacher". :) Below is a picture of us from our beach trip.


Brian had a few days off in between jobs and we were able to do a lot of fun things. We started his break off by celebrating his 28th birthday. To celebrate we went into Philadelphia and I had the pleasure of having my first real Philly cheesesteak from Pat's. There are two famous places in Philly, Pat's and Gino's. They are right across the street from one another and there is serious competition between the two places. You have to make sure you know what you are doing when you order or you will get sent to the back of the line. Brian flawlessly told the guy behind the counter that we wanted two, wit, cheeze wiz. This meant we wanted two cheesesteaks with onions and the traditional fake cheese they slap on top. I was so hungry by the time we got there that I thought it was the best tasting meal I had feasted on in a long time. I think the baby liked it too. It was great to celebrate the life of my wonderful hubby in such a fun way.

I also had the pleasure of going to the Denlingers house to "do corn". This is a big thing in Lancaster. When I say "do corn" I mean that you get like 20 dozen ears of corn and cook them slightly and then cut off the corn and put it in bags to freeze for winter. It is a day filled with sticky, messy goodness that tastes amazing. I always eat more corn then I should and then don't want to eat it again for weeks. This is an event that I have started to look forward to every summer. The Denlinger family is amazing and they always make me feel welcome and loved.

I rounded out the summer by taking a fun trip to the beach with friends for a day and Bri got to squeeze in some poker and pool with a few friends. We joyfully await the coming of Fall and all the great things it will bring with it.

Brian Chimes In

For those of you who have noticed that we started a baby blog, you might have begun to wonder, "What's Brian think about all of this?" Well, it may not happen often, but I've seized the controls for right now and can tell you what the last 15 1/2 weeks have been like from my perspective.

Brynne's willingness to eat fast food/junk food has been an absolute delight! I've never eaten healthier than the 4 years that we've been married, so early on when Brynne requested we drive to McDonalds at 9:00 at night for some french fries, I knew I was in for a 9 month health-holiday. Now don't get me wrong--I embrace the idea of eating healthy and I fully plan on promoting to our children the idea of making healthy eating choices. In fact, it was for this very reason that I agreed to have dinner at Eat'n Park when Brynne had a craving for a salad bar (does that even count as a craving?) For those of you not from the Pennsylvania area, Eat'n Park is like a Friendly's or a Perkins, and I knew we were in for a treat when we pulled into the parking lot and all of the handicap spaces were full. Going inside confirmed that none of the other patrons were even within 40 years of us. And when an old lady broke wind while browsing at the salad bar and was too old to even realize she had just done it and the two old people sitting at the booth right behind her when it happened never even flinched, I couldn't help but bury my head into my menu and thank Brynne from the bottom of my heart for being pregnant and for allowing us to deviate from our normal dinner routine.

Our friend Colleen recently gave us a Panera gift card with a generous balance on it (thanks again, Colleen!). She lived with us for a while last summer and knows full well how much Brynne enjoys Panera. It didn't take long before we scrapped plans to make dinner one night and decided to go to Panera. Wouldn't you know it, we got there and we bumped into our good friends who promptly announced to us for the first time that she's expecting! She said that she didn't feel well but that Panera sounded good to her, which is also Brynne's exact story. Needless to say, we've been to Panera 3 times in the last 3 weeks. It's even to the point where our friends Jared and Kim offered to buy her Maggie Moo's ice cream, and she passed it up for Panera's chicken noodle soup and a garden salad. I find this all very entertaining and the best part is that I still have 5 months more of this.

Heartbeat..............

Today we had our 14 week appointment. We got to hear the baby's heartbeat for a second time. It is one of the coolest sounds in the world. Yesterday I was feeling pretty sick and wondering if I would ever feel better. This morning as I heard the heart beating inside of me it was such a gift and good reminder that this is all worth it. It was like our baby was saying "hello, I'm in here!". Hearing that little noise just makes this all seem more real and exciting.

We scheduled our 20 week ultrasound for September 22. Just 6 more weeks and we get to find out what we are having! Stay tuned for more pics in the next few weeks..........