Vivian Reese, Camille Sofia, and Charles Dale

Another week...another doctor's visit. It was another positive visit with the doctor. My Strep B test was negative, so another thing we won't be worring about on labor day :) I am still at 2cm and around 75% effaced. I could be here a while...or go into labor soon. While the tax deduction would be nice, we will let little piglet come when he or she is ready.

I am still pretty comfortable and able to work out 3 or 4 times a week for about 30 minutes on the elliptical machine. I think this keeps my back and butt from hurting, which is good. I consider myself blessed for still feeling as good as I do at this point :) I'm pretty sure Dad is pretty happy too - you know, as long as I am happy, so is he!

Well, unless there is any breaking news, I will write next week after our appointment.

It was another day at the doctor, but a little more information...exactly what it means...who knows? Everything checked out good and mom and baby are doing well. My progress was checked for the first time and I am about 2cm dilated and more than 50% efaced. The doctor says this is good progress and it is hard to read into anything from it...but he did tell me to try to keep it in for another week or so - for good measure :) I continued to measure around a 1 1/2 to 2 weeks ahead (as far as baby's size). I told him that we didn't want a little bitty baby, so I would rather wait...and he told me that we had a pretty good size baby already. That was good news to me :) I didn't ask how big, since they are usually just guessing anyway. So, other than that, we will see him again next week (on Thursday) and see where we are then. Mom's nerve and lower joints are starting to hurt a bit (like in my early months) since the baby is back in my pelvic area, but nothing that we can't tough out for the next month (or less)! Thanks for checking in and thinking of us! Have a very merry christmas and a happy new year!

Love,
Stacy, Colin & piglet (at least for a bit longer)

Another uneventful doctor's appt today...all good news and from now on we will see the doctor weekly! Next week I will have my Strep B test and they will check to see if I am dialated. It should be interesting ?:)?

We graduated from child birthing classes tonight, so they gave us a certificate that we were ready to be parents!! I am pretty sure that will be true, I just hope we make it through the birth! Just kidding - although it looks pretty intimidating at this point!

Well, thanks for checking in on us and we will have an update next week (and hopefully a belly shot soon too). Continue to have a wonderful holiday season and GO COLTS!

Well, another Tuesday, another birthing class...more videos that are hard for me to watch! We have had 3 classes so far and it seems like 7 is going to be a lot!! I think it will get better next week since we will meet with the anesthesiologist and learn more about different situations like c-sections, inducements, etc.

We were able to take a quick tour of the labor and delivery area of the hospital last week and it is amazing! More than you would ever need...but of course, we will take it :) It is officially opening on December 1st, but hopefully we will only be visiting for a while.

Finally, my friends here at work threw a shower for me yesterday too (big day)! I got all kinds of really cute clothes, blankets, toys and more :) Colin and I stayed up late last night going through everything and had a really good time. Of course, the cats did as well, since it was more bags and tissue paper than they had ever seen!

Well, I think that is is for now...hopefully we are going to have a quiet weekend before the holidays kick-off and then before you know it piglet will arrive! I am going to do a huge picture upload tonight...so look for that later if you are interested!

Thanks for checking in with us!

Well, we have been bad lately and have not updated the site for a while...but a lot has happened. I had a wonderful shower with my family and a few close friends on Sunday, November 6th. Piglet and I had lots of good food and fun! We also received a truckload of stuff for Daddy to put together :) I will have pictures from this up in the next few days (along with a belly update, which will be shocking compared to the last update)!

On November 10th, Daddy and I intended to celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary...but my body had a different agenda. I had a little scare and had to go into the doctor's office, which then sent me to the hospital (and then Daddy joined me at this point). I was having some contractions and bleeding (but no pain) and was monitored for a few hours at the hospital. We ruled out dehydration and then had a quick ultrasound to make sure piglet was OK. Since piglet looked perfect, head down and doing great, we went back to monitoring contractions. It was finally determined that I had a urinary tract infection (apparently very common in pregnancy - especially the 3rd trimester) and that was causing all of the problems. So, after a long and stressful day, we went home with antibiotics. I was also ordered to rest for the weekend, no work on Friday and no Colts game on Sunday, but back to work on Monday (assuming no problems).

So, we had a very stress free weekend and I had no more problems :) We went back to the doctor today and my infection is cleared up and at the end of the week I can resume normal activity again! Yeah! Also, piglet's heart rate was good and I measured just a little bit ahead of schedule. We will go back in 2 weeks.

We have class tonight and I had another shower at work today...so I will write another update tomorrow! Off to class...

Another uneventful doctor's visit today :) Hopefully we can keep these up the next couple appts...and then we will probably be ready for some action! Everything is going on schedule and piglet's heart rate was around 150 bpm. When the doctor put the doppler on my tummy, the baby kicked hard and moved it! Then it proceeded to roll around and make it hard to measure the heart rate. It was really funny and then, of course, when I laugh, it makes it even harder :) Oh well, I guess piglet was protecting his or her turf!

We also had our first childbirthing class tonight. It was also pretty uneventful...for now. We met the other 11 couples in the group and learned a little about the last trimester and relaxing, but the big stuff starts next week when we will watch a video of a birth! Of the 11 couples in the group, there are only 2 couples (ourselves and one other) that do not know the gender of our baby. There were a lot of boys, not many girls...

Well, that is pretty much it for now! I will update this weekend after my baby shower with pictures and details! See some of you there :)

Yesterday, mom and piglet attended their first shower at Tracy and Baby Leininger's house. We had brunch, ate cake, opened presents, and spent time with some of our good friends. The brunch was awesome and piglet was definately happy about that!! It was a place for piglet to find his or her new friends with 4 out of the 11 guests pregnant :) I have put some pictures out there for you to look at if you like! Talk to you on Tuesday or Wednesday (after our dr appt and our first class)!!

Well, it was another quick appointment yesterday, which is always a good thing. I am measuring on track and piglet's heart rate was right around 150 bpm (for those of you trying to figure out if our little piglet is a boy or girl). I will be going to the lab sometime in the next 2 weeks for my glucose test and final blood work. I also was told that I needed to get a flu shot in the next few weeks :( For those of you that know me well, this has never really been my favorite thing - needles!! Oh well, whatever is best for piglet.

Speaking of little piglet...I think he or she is going to be a little soccer player or something. I am feeling a lot of movement, which is awesome as it makes mom and dad worry a little less. I also have felt piglet's first hiccups in the past 2 weeks. We are starting to get really excited to meet piglet.

Piglet has been meeting many of his or her future friends over the past couple weeks. Our friends from Butler, Luke & Jenny, had a precious baby girl, Alli, on August 27th. Our neighbors had a beautiful baby boy, Gabe, on September 28th. Also, on October 10th, our friends Ryan and Heather had a gorgeous little baby girl, Abby. We wish the best for all of them and look forward to watching them grow. As you can see, piglet will not be short on playmates as we still have 3 more friends to come before piglet is due to be here :)

Well, I think that is all for now. Thanks for everyone's continued love and support. Colin, piglet and I appreciate it!

Well, another good report for piglet and mom at the doctor's office. It was pretty uneventful, which is excellent. I measured to be right on track, or maybe a few days ahead (but no change in the date). Piglet's heartrate was much slower today, started at 135 and went to 140 in the few seconds we were listening. Still perfectly normal, just a little slower than last visit. We received information to schedule our classes at the new Clarian North where we plan to deliver piglet into the world! We will be able to get a tour in November or early December. It looks very nice for mom, dad, and baby piglet.

We will be getting our furniture delivered tomorrow evening and hope to have some more nursery pictures by the end of the weekend. Also, another belly update will be coming this weekend. Piglet will be attending the first of many Colts games on Sunday afternoon with mom and dad. Mom can still wear her jersey for now, but pretty soon it will be on to dad's xl jersey!! Thanks for checking in and we will update again soon.

Just a quick update to let everyone know that piglet and I are doing well. My back/butt problems are feeling a lot better these days and I have even been able to jog a few days a week :) We will be going to the doctor in a week and I will give another update after that! Until then, enjoy the nursery and belly pictures...finally, I know!

After much anticipation, we finally got to see our little piglet yesterday! According to the doctors, we have a perfect healthy baby. He/she was beautiful and we didn't want to leave the ultrasound room. If we could just watch all the time, we would :) He/she was very active and stubborn (imagine that) during the ultrasound. As soon as the ultrasound tech started looking at the baby, he/she started putting its legs and arms up and rolled around. It was also puckering up and blowing bubbles in the amniotic fluid. It seems to be quite an active baby. We were trying to look at the heart and it kept moving and putting its hands and legs in the picture. So, she decided to move on to the other critical organs...we saw the bladder, liver, stomach, and brain. Everything looked really good. As she started looking at the spine, she realized the baby was finally giving a good view of the heart, which is also perfect! We finished with another look at the brain and spine, which were still looking good.

The tech finished by giving us some really good shots of his/her profile for us to take home with us. We will hopefully scan these in this weekend. I thought piglet had Colin's nose and lips when we zoomed in on the nasal cavity...but we will see with time if I am right.

Some of the other good details were that my ultrasound was measuring me to be closer to January 10th than January 18th. The legs measured January 5th!! The ultrasound tech thought I was somewhere between 19 and 20 weeks. I didn't see my doctor after the appointment, I saw one of the other ladies in the practice and she didn't want to move the date without talking to my doctor but admitted after measuring and feeling my uterus that it felt like a 20 week uterus...so I will be discussing this with my doctor on September 13th. Neither one of us can remember how long piglet was, but piglet weighed a little over 9 ounces. And last but not least, the heart rate was 153 bpm. According to my doctor, the normal range is 120 to 160 and it will probably fluctuate througout the pregnancy.

Well, I think that is all for now. I am feeling piglet move all the time now and it is awesome. I started feeling him/her about 2 weeks ago and it gets stronger every day. I will be posting another belly picture this weekend and there will be a dramatic difference from 2 weeks ago. Colin and Grandma Susie will be painting the nursery on Sunday, so we may have some pictures of that too! Talk to you soon :)

Stacy, Colin & piglet

Well, it was another fun day at the doctor's office :) Piglet's little heart was going at 163bpm today! He/she must be moving around in there...probably should enjoy it while he/she still has room to play. Well, that was the fun part. The reason I was there related to a lot of lower back pain (mostly in my butt), which is a result of my sciatic nerve and potentially my SI joint. I guess this isn't going to be quite as easy as I thought (ha, ha)! Luckily, my doctor is proactive and referred me to a massage and physical therapy place specializing in women's needs. Hopefully that will help. Well, the next appointment will be our ultrasound...so, I look forward to sending a healthy piglet report after that.

We went to the doctor today and heard Piglet's heartbeat. What a wonderful feeling :) The heartbeat was 150bpm. We will be going back in 4 weeks and we will have our ultrasound! I can't wait to see Piglet again. I know he/she is getting so big. Well, I think that is pretty much it for now. I will continue to update as things evolve. Hopefully, Dad and Grandpa will start the nursery transformation pretty soon.

Well, as you all now can see, the Johns' family will be expanding in 2006, or at least that is the current plan. We are very excited and have been anticipating this for sometime! We are also glad to finally bring all of you into the group. We have known since May 6, 2005, so, as you can imagine, it has been a long time of keeping our huge secret!

One advantage to knowing early, and having a few minor kinks along the way, is that we have been able to see "piglet" a couple times already. Everything is perfect so far with piglet (and mom doesn't have too many complaints either) :)

For those of you new to the circle, "piglet" is our name for the baby until the day it is born. To many people's disappointment, we will not be finding out the sex of the baby ahead of time. However, we feel there are only a few true surprises in life and this is one we would like to experience. So bear with us and enjoy the surprise when it comes!

Ok, that is pretty much it for now. We will keep you posted througout our journey.