Jan 4th- 23 weeks Christmas and GENDER update!!

Week 23....a long awaited update:

First, i apologize for not updating this in a while- we both took 2 weeks off work and went back to Ohio for the holidays and have enjoyed spending time with our families...now its back to work :)

Baby has been kicking like a crazy man!!! we went to the DR Dec 30th and everything looked great-- i got my first belly measurement!!! woowhooo ( i think i'm finally showing- like other people can see it :) yippie! i measured 22 cm-- and i was 22 weeks, which is perfect :) i gained 2 lbs--which i'm VERY happy about, considering i haven't seen the gym in at least 2 weeks-- ekk so that a total of 4 lbs and i'm half way through my 2nd trimester :) i'm feeling great- tons of energy and cleaning like a mad woman :) i guess this is the nesting phase of pregnancy haha. and like i said he's been kicking like crazy all day on and off- so hard that Dave and I saw it from the outside last night!! maybe he's going to be a soccer player?! haha

so here's an update on the last 2 weeks:

on Dec 17, 2009 we went to get our anatomy scan ( i was 20 weeks) these pics are from in the car before we went in--such an anxious moment!!

WHAT IS IT?!!! we will soon know...but no one else will-- ahhh can we keep the secret?!!



me getting the ultrasound:

they said everything looks great! we told her to wait until the end to tell us the gender-- i wanted to see aortas and diaphragms before i cared about genitals-- haha so i got to see the heart-- soooo AMAZING!!! all 4 chambers, great septum...no ASD or VSD...an amazing aorta-- all the same size all the way down :) a diaphragm all the way across and well formed lung tissue... she said he was already breathing (well they don't breathe yet, but they practice the motions for muscular development) and she said that is like a month ahead of normal- and his lung tissue is very well developed at this stage!! PRAISE GOD--- ECMO stay away from my little white boy :) hehe ... yes i'm a nerd-- those of you medical people will understand all of these concerns :) sooo after everything was great... now it was time for the gender

***back up to a conversation Dave n i had in the car before walking in: we were both talking about how inthe next hour our whole lives would change: either blue and football or pink and gymnastics-- haha so Dave says to me:" hunny, don't be upset if i don't respond right away... i'm just processing everything" and i said..ok- no big deal- i probably will be too- i'm so convinced its a boy, if they say its a girl i'm going to be totally thrown off!

***back to the ultrasound: the lady says: do you see what i see? and types "ITS A BOY" on the screen... DAVE THROWS HIS HANDS IN THE AIR (IN A FIELDGOAL) AND SCREAMS"TOUCHDOWN!!!' HAHAHA how hilarious!! that lady looked at me and said...uh, i think he processed...HAHA!!! we are both soo excited!! i love little boys and can't wait to raise our own. i told Dave, he is such an amazing man, husband, friend...everything that Jesus knew we need more just like him :) YAY!!! now on to decorating!

TRAVELS HOME:

we were planning on leaving Charleston on Sat am early for ohio, spending friday night having a romantic dinner together and exchanging gifts and packing up the car that night...well, Tony called me at work and said,"Ash, if you guys are heading out, you may want to leave now- there's supposed to be a blizzard hitting WV" so i called Dave and my mom and decided we should head home, exchange gifts, pack and get on the road tonight. i head out of the office to get to the car and OMGOSH high tide + lots of rain = BAD flooding at MUSC...so the water was so high i was afraid to open the door on the Explorer, that the water would gush inside the car--ekkk so i called Dave to make sure i should try to start it...i went for it-- and made it home- thankfully... we have a little lake type thing in our backyard that is usuallly 6 feet below the level of the ground... this is what i saw:

sooo- we exchanged our gifts (Dave got me a beautiful diamond + tanzanite necklace to match my ring) and lots of other great things :) we threw everything in the car and headed out.... got to NC that evening and it was COVERED with snow...yes i said NC-- so we both knew this was a bad sign. we kept driving and thought about pulling over- decided to go 1 more exit and yep- the entire road turned to a sheet of ICE- got stuck for an hour until we could finally get off the exit ( we shoulda just stopped when we first thought!) so we spent the night- work up and the roads were clear--shew... continued on to 77- got stopped in traffic for 2 hours-dead stopped--euughh!! then finally got going again-- thank goodness! only to find ourselves stopped AGAIN on the turnpike...except this time was for 7 hours!!! everyone was getting out of the car and mingling- haha we met some really cool people- let the dog out to play and everyone was bringing their kids to play with her :) you can see below how deep the snow was! they shut down the turnpike while we were on it and called inthe air natl guard-- it was that bad! 27 hours later we made it home!!

finally home :) this is me at 21 weeks

we have been looking at new cars for months now and just haven't been able to decide on which one is best for us... soo with a little push from our parents-- we finally found one :) a loaded ford fusion... its leather and has all the fun tech gadgets for Dave... a USB port (that makes it a huge ipod) you tell it what song to play and it plays it :) it also has the bluetooth and other fun features :) yay for a new baby friendly car...anyone know someone who is interested in an Eclipse? haha oh yeah and we now have a scarlet and a grey car...Buckeye fans at heart :)

a bib Donnie and Grandma made for baby boy :)

Christmas 2009 ...just love him sooo much :)

Christmas Day 2009 my family went up to Boardman to meet at the Hodge's house to play the GENDER GAME Dave and i made up- to reveal the gender of the baby :)

this is Jeannine (NaNa) ready to get the game started:
everyone gathering around ...Dave with our new FLIP HD videocamera from the Hodges :)
The mom's opening their new baby boy pandora charms for their baby bracelets :)

my grandma got the winning box, but has an eye infection and can't read too well, so Amanda got the box by default :) and ...ITS A BOY!!! they couldn't get any face pics b/c he would move from his curled up position, however, his legs were WIDE OPEN! HAHA and its obviously a boy!!!

cute lil horse mom got for the baby for Christmas...Bella is very curious about this haha

Jeannine got these sweet precious moments bears and super soft blanket


and his 1st OSU book :)





the Westport Christmas Party Dec 26, 2009

all the Westport Parents :)

AND that's our eventful 2 weeks!! sheww... we also had Jon and Becky and Pat here for the weekend of NYE....so much fun! we miss you all already! we will post the ultrasound pics soon and the video of the gender game :)

love, Ashley Dave Bella and Baby BOY hodge

oh yeah, and an updated belly pic... i POPPED...a real belly now!! i'm 22 weeks and feeling prego :) the shirt is from mom...it says " boy? girl? definately a BUCKEYE" hehe