Belly Update

I thought I would post a picture of my latest belly shot at 19 weeks.  I am right at that point where I look like a have a beer belly or have put on some serious lbs.  It is funny because I feel like my stomach is really big, but I guess I ain't seen nothing yet.  The hardest part about adjusting to the body changes is that all I want to be is comfortable, but cute.  Most of my comfortable clothes are not really that cute.  I remember before being pregnant that I said I wanted to be a cute mom, to be honest though, I can see why some moms prefer sweats.  Also anytime I think that something looks good on the hanger and will be totally cute.....I put it on and have a different opinion.  Thank god for leggings and long shirts!  

As far as the pregnancy is going, I have this new restored energy and I am feeling great!  I have been told that the second trimester is always the best because you are not that tired and don't feel sick.  I was lucky to not have any morning sickness in the first trimester and to have only fallen asleep a couple times mid-activity.  Lately, Cameron and I have been trying to get swimming in at least once a week and I have been trying to keep up on the exercise.  I am really hoping to continue to feel this great through the rest of my pregnancy, especially because I go back to work next week. :(   

On Tuesday, I went to visit my friends Caryn and Joe Carlson! Joe is now about 5 months and I hadn't seen him for a while.  It is amazing how fast babies grow and how much they start to look more and more like their parents.  Right away when I saw Joe I totally thought he looked like a Carlson.  I think it was most definitely the eyes and the nose.  Unfortunately Joe wasn't feeling that great when I came to visit, but we still managed to hang out and have a good time.  He was a champ that day and was so sweet for putting up with me continuously wanting to touch his little face.   All of this exposure to parenting and each little baby is such good practice for me and for Cam.  I have learned so much about being a mom already (dos and don'ts).  It gets me really excited for Baby Watts to come.  Anywho when it comes to Joe, I can't wait to visit him again soon and  to see how much he has grown!  

New & Improved Backyard

So when I first started the blog I had thought that I was going to only be giving updates on the baby..........the growing part, doctors appointments, etc.   However, the more and more stuff Cameron and I do to prepare for this baby, the more and more I thought it would be important and fun to include all of the events, home improvements and adventures that we are all taking part in.  

The big thing that we have been working on, besides of course cleaning out the guest room, is that Cameron has really been focused on the backyard.  For those of you who remember our backyard, it was very ugly and limited in space.  Last October we started to work on small improvements to make the yard look bigger.  My mom and I pulled a bunch of weeds out (including those stubborn rose bushes) and the hedges, while Cam knocked down and removed the gazebo.....bascially we had nothing left in the backyard.  It sat this way for a long while...... but then in April once the rain stopped we were able to finish our backyard plans, and to this date we are almost done!!  We are so excited to have a new spacious and updated backyard, and we cannot wait to entertain very soon.  Here is what the new yard looks like.  Thanks Cam, I looove it!

Quick Trip to Sac

This week Cameron and I traveled to Sacramento for work and for play.....Cam for work and me for play.  Cam had a couple of customers that he had to visit and I decided that I would go and visit the Reads.  I hadn't seen baby Alex and really wanted to do so before the end of summer. After major traffic and a few wrong turns (we even had a map) Cam and I made it to Sacramento a couple hours later then expected, it took us a whopping 5 hours.  Thank gosh, Karla and I were still able to enjoy a delicious lunch and hang out with the little guys, while Cameron and Jason were at work.  This was a great experience for me, because not only was I able to see what it was like with one baby.....but instead what it was like with two!  Here is a picture of Alex Read which I think is funny because he was on his swing so I couldn't get a stationary picture. He is almost 3 months now and is a very smiley baby.

  

                                               

Here is a picture of the two dads hanging out, talking shop.

           Here is Karla's oldest son Jake with his friend Savannah.  Savannah is Laurie's daughter (Laurie went to college with us too!)  The two were so cute together.  

                 Here are the two of them gardening together.

                 This one is my favorite.  Just call me Joe Dirt.

Here are some images from our most recent ultrasound.  As I mentioned before the baby is very active so the first image is of the baby waving.  Well, actually now that I look at it, it looks like the baby is getting ready to touch it's nose.  The second image is of the baby's cute butt (the nurse kept stressing how cute of a butt this was).  She said it was quite the bubble butt which means the baby got it from Cam.  The last image is of the baby's spine.  It is amazing how much you can see about the baby from the ultrasound.  At the appointment the nurse also confirmed with us the baby's due date which is now December 23rd......she did however say don't count out Christmas, the baby could still be born then.  I guess we will have to wait and see!

Week 17 ultrasound

Yesterday, Cam and I went to our 17 week ultrasound which was so exciting because we were able to find out the sex of the baby.  This was something that Cam and I were dying to know and we both definitely had our predictions.  The lady who did our ultrasound was super awesome and gave us like 10 different images of our baby.  She said it was because our baby kept posing-----already a superstar!  The baby's heartbeat was a strong  152 beats/minute and the baby was super active, it kept moving it's hands and feet!  However, baby was a little shy when it came to revealing whether it was a boy or girl.  Finally the moment of truth came......  

The Watts are having a......

Meeting some baby friends part 2

On Wednesday I left SLO and headed a little further south to Los Olivos to visit Erika and newborn baby Kendall Herthel.  Kendall was just one month and 2 days old and was the cutest little peanut.  She is very tiny only 7 lbs 3 oz.  It was fun hanging out with Erika and Kendall because I was able to get some early training on mommy-hood.  Erika and I were able to go on a nice walk around Los Olivos and I especially loved seeing the Herthel's awesome house. 

Meeting some baby friends!

I just got back from a quick trip to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo....the future school of babyWatts!  I went down to visit with a couple of friends before the summer ends.  The greatest thing about the trip was that baby Watts was able to meet a couple of his/her future friends.  On our visit to SLO baby Watts met baby Logan (son to Natalie & Michael Beamer).  Logan is the cutest baby boy and such a little character.  Even though baby Watts is still in the womb and not able to really experience all of the great  restaurants of SLO, he/she definitely was able to taste the yummy food from mommy.  Natty and I went to Woodstocks and Gus' for lunch and Firestone for dinner.  Actually I must be truthful......I went to Firestone twice.  I always love going back to SLO to reminisce about the good old days at CalPolyand of course as I mentioned to eat the good food.  Oh, by the way we also ran into Chuck Liddell and Logan was able to get a picture with him.

Finding out we were prego

So just to get everyone up to date.  Cameron and I had been talking about starting a family once we both turned 30.  30 sure did come faster then we could imagine and we just knew that 2008 was going to be a great year!  I started to feel a little strange around the weekend of April 12th.  I was at a baby shower for my friend Erika Herthel and there must have definitely been something in the water.   Everyone was either pregnant or announcing that they were.  Even though I was feeling a little strange I didn't really think anything of it.  A couple days went by and I thought well maybe this could be it, I should take a test...I was still feeling a little odd.  On April 17th (my sis's 29th birthday) I decided to take a prego test.  I had to do a double take because I was surprised, ecstatic and speechless about the result.  I then went in to tell Cam who was just as shocked as I was.  Still a little skeptical about what we had discovered, I took two more tests to confirm that it was in fact a positive reading.  Sure enough a doctors appointment and ultrasound later, we were officially pregnant! 

Deciding to blog......

After seeing all of our friends set up such cool blogspots, Cameron and I decided that we would establish a page to track the growth of Baby Watts...well and me (I am obviously growing much faster then the baby :)).  We hope that by setting up this page that all of our friends and family will be able to stay up to date on current baby related events and enjoy this journey along with us. Enjoy!

 

Proud Parents-Julie and Cameron