Update from the Brown's

So far this year has proved to be eventful. Dan and I decided to build a new house early this year. We are building a gorgeous two story home with lots of space in a new subdivision in South Austin. We have kept very busy monitoring the progress of the home. It is almost finished and looking great. We hope to be moving in early October.

Even more exciting is my pregnancy with our first baby. I found out I was pregnant in late May and shared the news with Dan at our new house. The first doctor's visit and Ultrasound went really well, I was amazed to see the tiny life inside of me and the little heart already beating.

This ultrasound was done when I was 6 weeks pregnant, June 15th, 2007. The baby is in the center of the black fluid in the middle- difficult to see, I know.

Starting at about 8 weeks, I started having nausea and I was really tired. The nausea was not too bad, but I felt queasy for 6-8 hours a day. Usually, I was able to feel better by snacking on little things during the day. When my stomach was empty, it wasn't very happy, and it could go from full to starving in a matter of seconds. When I got hungry, I felt nauseated. Weird how food can make it better. I didn't have any food cravings, but I developed some food aversions- I stopped wanting things that I usually really liked. Most of the things had strong smells. Also, some strong smelling things made me gag- very unusual for me. With my job, I can tolerate most horrible smells with no problem.

From 10-13 weeks, my nausea was quite a bit worse. It was a constant problem that didn't really go away even when I was busy ( previously when I was busy, it wouldn't bother me too much). Luckily, no actual vomiting, but I still felt pretty awful most of the time.

Dan was very sweet during all of this, he did most of the cooking, cleaning and errands. Usually I would work and come home and lay on the couch for the evening. Growing a baby is hard work.

Currently, I am about 14 weeks pregnant. My nausea is gone- yeah! and I have a lot more energy. I am developing a little belly right around my belly button. Not too obvious, but it is there. It is actually pretty funny- it starts out small in the morning, and after each meal it gets noticeably more pronounced. I don't think the food has too much room to go anywhere. The baby is sitting lower than my "belly," still within the pelvis. I got my own doppler system called HiBebe so that we can listen to the baby's heartbeat. It came in last week and it was very cool to find the heartbeat, it brought a great big smile to my face.

Today, I did a quick ultrasound and was able to very clearly see the baby! I saw the arms and legs moving, the face and most of the body! I was not able to see the sex due to the position of the baby and interference from my pelvis/organs. The baby should be easier to view in a few weeks. Here is the picture for you to see!

You can see the face and nose, one of the arms, the umbilical cord and most of the body very clearly. Isn't that amazing???My bladder is squished at the top.

The baby is about 3 inches in size.