I had a particularly long week of work, reaching 40 hours by about mid-day Thursday and I was feeling as exhausted as I had my entire first trimester. Fortunately, I met all of my critical deadlines by mid-day Friday (and have an incredible considerate and understanding employer) and took the afternoon off to catch up on some sleeping. It was glorious!
After napping for several hours, I woke up and decided it would be fun to do something for the baby. So I got online and setup a baby registery at Target and Babies ‘R Us. It was great! I spent about two hours just browsing their web pages and selecting items at my own convenience, even pulling Brandon in for his opinions every now and then. There was so much cute stuff, it was hard to know when to stop!
I don’t know about anyone else, but online shopping is my [...]

Original post by Brandon

Since the sonogram told us we were having a boy, we’ve finally started doing some of the much-needed shopping to prepare ourselves for baby time. Although we’ve not purchased much yet, we did get things started by taking care of one big ticket item, the stroller/car seat travel system pictured to the left.
It was a tough decision, and I think we spent at least an hour and a half trying out all of the different travel systems that Babies ‘R Us had to offer. We ended up deciding to splurge a little on this purchase, figuring that it probably had the most long-term functionality of everything on our list.
I’d have to say the stroller is awesome. It’s got a nice, smooth ride (just ask Roxy) and pushes very easily. The car seat part locks in place with a simple snap and transfers well to the car. In the long run, [...]

Original post by alissa

After that last visit to the doctor, we had another timeline adjustment, and she moved my progress back a couple of weeks. So here’s another photo of my belly at 21 weeks, but an accurate one this time. That means the previous picture was actually more like 18 or 19 weeks.

Original post by alissa

Despite the economic turmoil the world is currently going through, life at the Sheley household is still pretty good. That’s not to say we’ve not be hit by economic troubles, because we have. Brandon lost his contract job out of L.A. – they’re hoping to hire him back as they get closer to launching their network, but can’t make any promises until the economy is looking a little better. Fortunately, we’d always sort of viewed his income as discretionary because our budget to coverour basic needs (house, food, utilities, etc.) is completely covered by my income. And through his last 10 months on contract, I was able to squirrel away a decent amount of savings.
I’m sure our retirement savings vehicles aren’t looking great right now, but I’m not even worried enough to look. I mean, it won’t do me any good. And it’s money that I’m not planning to access [...]

Original post by alissa

Here’s some of our sonogram photos
Profile picture - that’s one good lookin’ head.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Another profile – I think he might be sucking his thumb.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Little boy Sheley is waving “hi”. It’s his first shout-out to mom and dad.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Here’s a picture of his little foot.
 
 
 
 
 
 
The stuff little boys are made of … the sonogram technician outlined his little butt and legs to show us why she was sure it was a little boy. Brandon now likes to refer to it as the baby’s third leg … he’s pretty proud.

Original post by alissa

So we finally got to see the baby today. Alissa had her sonogram this morning and I got my first views of the baby. We have some images that I’ll scan, but I don’t think my printer is even hooked up. I’ll try to get that all setup this week and we can update the baby post with the new images. This picture I took with my phone and had posted it on facebook, Within minutes I had a few people posting congrats.
I’m just happy everything looks healthy, heart and brain, kidneys all looked good bone structure as well
Now we can at least let everyone know what to buy, we’ve had so much support and several of the family members have already been gathering toys, outfits and stuff.. It’s been great

Original post by Brandon

I had my first sonogram today, and I have to say, it was pretty cool. We learned many things and had a chance to see our little guy go through quite a workout. That’s right, I said little guy! : )
Everything looked good - heart, kidneys, brain, lips, tummy, feet and hands. The baby waved at us once, and then kicked the technician every time she pushed down to get him to move. It was pretty funny … I told Brandon we were bound to get a rebellious teen. She estimated that he weighs around 9 ounces right now.
After all of the official measurements, they were able to give me a more accurate due date: February 23.

Original post by alissa