Week 19 - a Name, a Bachelorette Party, and our last Silent Night

your baby's the size of a mango!

At about 6.0 inches long and weighing in at about 8.5 ounces, she's getting there!

 

 

your baby at 19 weeks

• Developing a protective coating over her skin, called vernix caseosa. It's greasy and white and you may see some of it at her birth.
• Working on her five senses. Nerve cells for her sense of taste, hearing, sight and smell are developing in her brain.

 

First thing's first - Week 19 began with naming our baby girl, yay!!  After much consideration, we have finally decided that our sweet baby girl will be Blair "uh-LEESE". (Yes, that's a pronunciation, not a spelling, because we haven't quite settled on a spelling of her beautiful middle name yet.)  Her first name is her Daddy's middle name & her middle name just sounded pretty with it. We love it, and we love calling her by name!!

 

Last weekend, Blair & I went to a bachelorette party for Aunt Kaity. I can't disclose exactly what happened ;) but we did have lots of fun with all the girls. Here is our "before" at dinner Friday and our "after" that was taken after yoga on Saturday.

 

 

On Saturday night, Darrin & I met up with Abby, Bill & Emma to have dinner for Abby's birthday. Can you believe I haven't spent any significant amount of time with my best friend in over a year and a half!?!? It was wonderful seeing them and Emma gave Baby Blair sweet hugs!

 

 

 

Merry Christmas!! Week 19 ended on Christmas day. We had a nice, quiet, stress-free, relaxing Christmas day this year - probably the last we'll have for 20+ years!  We didn't go anywhere, have any company, or do much of anything (besides eat!) and it was wonderful! (not that family and traveling aren't fun, but we've been going A LOT lately) We didn't even do gifts, because we didn't have much of a wish list other than things for baby girl. :)  Can I just say, I did NOT miss the mall this year?!

 

A glimpse at Barton Christmas 2013...

Our puppy friend Sami and little Sully Bear were cuddled up with us on the couch all day! The bottom is a nice shot of Sully's big booty, Daddy's feet, and a sliver of baby Blair relaxing by the tree and watching A Christmas story. I stared at this sweet view for about 2 hours.

Pregnancy-isms: Headaches, cramps, and EMOTIONS. That about sums me up at week 19!!

Baby Blair is getting bigger!!

Tomorrow we have our 20 week appointment and ultrasound. We can't wait to see your wiggly little self again!! :)

Love,
DB, Jamie & Baby Blair

Week 18 - Christmas Parties galore!

your baby's the size of a sweet potato!

She's about 5.6 inches long and about 6.7 ounces now and she keeps on growing rapidly. (That's why you're probably feeling so hungry.) Of course, I'm ALWAYS hungry.

your baby at 18 weeks

• Can you believe she's yawning, hiccuping, sucking and swallowing? Yes, we saw her swallowing!!
• And she's twisting, rolling, punching and kicking, too -- and she's big enough that you might be able to feel her doing it! No, I haven't felt her kicking yet, but it's just a matter of time.

Here we are at 18 Weeks!

Maybe the fact that I haven't felt her yet means she's little and will not be a 10 pound baby?  Ha!  I can dream, right?  We have had a ton of Christmas parties lately and we went to our 3rd and 4th this weekend.  (One with our friends - "The Crew" - and one for Crawford...also with "The Crew".)  We love Crawford and the fact that Daddy works there with his best friends. 

The Crawford Guys - I'm a big fan of this one on the right ;)

All the sweet wives. Hannah, in purple, is expecting too and her baby will be just 6 weeks older than ours!

The only thing I really have to report is that I still have no brain and I'm now at 7.5 pounds weight gain since the beginning.  Daddy loves to laugh at me when I eat and my belly sticks out!  haha

There is one more Christmas party coming up this week and tonight is the big Christmas musical at our church!  You better be singing out with me, little girl, I know you've heard these songs a million times!! :)  Oh, and this weekend, you're going to your first Bachelorette Party.  Woo hoo!!!!

17 Weeks - My little Ruffle Princess

your baby's the size of an onion!

Baby continues to beef up. Now she's about 5.1 inches long and weighs about 5.9 ounces.

 

your baby at 17 weeks

• Her rubbery cartilage is now turning to bone.
• And she's growing some meat on those bones -- putting on some fat.
• She's growing a stronger, thicker umbilical cord, too.

 

Week 17 Bad color choice on the shirt, it's kind of hard to see.

 

Sorry, but I am so late on this Week 17 post, that I don't really remember any "pregnancy-isms" other than IT'S A GIRL!!!! :) :) :) And while this actually happened on Week 18, we went to a couples shower for Aunt Kaity and Uncle Craig this past weekend and stopped at Aggieland Outfitters to get our little Princess her first girly girl outfit & hair bow from us...

 

It has ruffles on the butt!! :)

Eeek! I can't want to dress her up!! Also, I'm obsessed with ruffles right now, so I'm sure they will find their way into EVERYTHING - her curtains, bedskirt, pillows, socks, etc.  This is going to be too fun. ;)

IT'S A .....!!!!!!

Week 17 kicked off with our big gender appointment!!  I posted the day before with predictions of what little Baby Barton is and some of the Old Wives' Tales.  Between Darrin, our family and friends, and Facebook predictions, the votes were overwhelmingly for our Little Love being a little boy.  I still had no feelings one way or the other.

At Thanksgiving, we gave our families this homemade scratch off card...

Everyone was told that they would know the gender as soon as they started scratching off, but after they scratched the box completely, they would also know our little baby's NAME! :) Everyone said "Wow! I can't believe y'all have already agreed on names!"

The morning of our big appointment! Can this count as my Week 16 pic? It was only 2 days into Week 17. :)

The ultrasound was pretty quick, but it was awesome to see our little one wiggling around and so much more developed than before (last u/s was at 9 weeks and wasn't nearly as clear).  The spine was very defined and we could see the little feet and TOES!  We could even see that the little one had its hands tucked back behind its head.  The tech pointed out that she could see the little baby's mouth opening to swallow fluid and we could watch it go down the throat and swirl around in the stomach.  It was amazing!  After a few mins she said "Ok, are you ready to know what it is!?" and then she said... "It's a little GIRL!!"  Whoa!!!!  Honestly, we were shocked.  About a million things ran through my mind, but I couldn't even tell you what they were, it was kind of a blur.  How amazing! :)

The ultrasound tech was so nice and took these pictures for us.

Darrin is already wrapped around her little finger!! :) I can just see him with painted fingernails having a tea party at a table the height of his shins.  haha!!  I hope I can be even half the mother and friend that my amazing Mom is to me, and I know she will be the ultimate Daddy's girl ...much like her mommy.  :)  We are so blessed with amazing parents and can't wait to be the same kind of parents to our little girl!!!

 

So, for the big question - what is her name?!  Well, take a closer look at our scratch off card...

 

"No girl name needed...we're sure this baby is a boy."

Truth be told, we were having trouble committing to a girl name and we were so certain that it was a boy that we figured this box would never get scratched.  You'll just have to wait a little longer to find out what she will be called! :)

Thanks for loving our baby GIRL!!

16 Weeks - A Special Boy vs Girl Edition!

My 16 week post is a smidge late. What isn't late, when it comes to me!? Due to Thanksgiving travel and Darrin being gone for 4 days on a hunting trip there is no weekly picture this week. I just absolutely do not do selfies, sorry! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with family and happiness and kicking off the Christmas season. We saw all of our immediate families, traveled to Austin to see most of my Dad's extended family on Thanksgiving day and got to have some fun with our totally awesome little nieces (they really are the best!) Our hearts are truly overflowing this year with thankfulness! The icing on the cake? This year Thanksgiving fell on our 4th anniversary. I can't think of a more appropriate day to celebrate our marriage. Every single day is better than the day before, and this is the greatest life we could've ever imagined!! So, in the true spirit of how my heart feels right now, THIS is my 16 week picture:

Thank you Blessed By Grace Photography for this beautiful picture that I treasure. And everyone act surprised if it shows up on our Christmas cards! :)

Week 16 - your baby's the size of an avocado!

Now, she's about 4.6 inches long and weighs about 3.5 ounces, and she's big enough that your doctor may be able to hear her heartbeat. (I find this statement odd because we've been able to HEAR the heartbeat since week 9.)

your baby at 16 weeks

• She's listening to your voice, thanks to tiny bones forming in her ears.
• She's growing hair, lashes and eyebrows.
• And she's forming taste buds.

Tomorrow is the big gender appointment!! Here are some of the common Old Wives Tales and where we fall. Only a few more hours until we know for sure and I CANNOT wait!!

Morning Sickness? None!! (Boy)

Cravings - sweet vs. salty? Mostly sweet, although I do always want cheese! (Girl, or boy?)

Carrying low vs. high? Low....I think?? (Boy)

Pregnancy "glow" and skin condition? Although my sweet husband claims I've got the glow, I've got some pretty terrible skin going on right now. (Girl)

Side sleeping - left vs. right? Left, always. (Boy)

My feet, colder or warmer? Warmer (Girl)

Clumsy or graceful? SUPER clumsy! (Boy)

Chinese calendar? Which is supposedly 90% accurate (Girl)

Headaches? Yup :( (Boy)

Daddy's prediction? 100% from day 1 it's a BOY!

Mommy's prediction? I don't have a clue, I just hope it's only 1 baby!!

Tune into Facebook Friday evening to find out for sure! :)

Love, the Barton three