Drum Roll Please.....

Baby Z is a healthy little BOY

Just in case you need proof here are his little boy parts :) There is no doubt that there is a little boy growing inside of me :)

We are BEYOND excited!!!! Growing up with all sisters I always wanted a Big brother so I'm super excited that our first little one will be a Big Brother one day :) Also I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I am for my parents, especially my Daddy :) He always wanted a little boy to take to games and to learn to play sports and of course above all to be a little boy scout following in the Bradshaw family tradition. But alas he had all girls and I was the closest he got to having a little boy :p So I'm really excited for my Daddy :) Getting to tell him and Mama today was probably one of the greatest moments of my life. They are beyond excited too! :) They would have been ecstatic regardless but having a little boy was the icing on the cake. This reminds me...when Mama and Daddy came for Matt's surprise party they bought their first present for Baby Z, a cute little blue mini Adirondack chair that matches the ones we have in our back yard! :) Precious :)

Here is our little boy yawning. Obviously he was bored with all the attention. :)

Baby Z in profile :)

Today's sonogram was AMAZING! We got to see his little brain, all four chambers of his little heart (and we got to see it beating!), his little liver and other important organs! He is weighing one pound one ounce which is right on target for where we are in the pregnancy :) However his little body and head are measuring ahead, this sonogram put us being due around October 30th, so it should get interesting. We also got to see his little tummy and we could tell that he had been eating like he is suppose to! YAY! :)

However, the baby sac (remember I don't like the p word it creeps me out) is sitting a little low right up against the birth canal. It's a little early to be alarmed, but the good news is it's not yet covering it. They said if I were to go into labor I could still have a vaginal birth. I'll get another sonogram at week 28 when I do my glucose test to check on Baby Z and if the baby sac has moved up away from the birth canal in that period of time. Fingers crossed it does! :) Regardless at least little Z is healthy! :)

In other news he has been in rare kicking form today, it might have something to do with the little Starbies treat I had this morning before my doctor's appointment :) Baby likes fraps too!

This weekend we have PLANS to go to BabiesRUs to scope some things out for Baby Z, as well as hit up one of the outlet malls! OMG I cannot wait to buy my little bundle of joy a sweater vest! {insert a squeal of joy} I'll have lots of fun updates next week from our shopping adventure :)

Maternity Pictures

So we have been going back and forth about maternity pictures. And since its our first baby I really want to do some. So we've been talking with our wedding photograph Marirosa about doing a session with us later in August. While we've been planning/talking this all out I've been doing a little research on what exactly I think would be okay and what exactly would NOT be okay. Well I couldn't have summed up the latter myself any better than one of the blogs I follow the Pregnant Chicken did (Thank you Sara for getting me hooked on this fun blog!). I seriously almost peed myself laughing at these pictures and the blog.

Let's keep the good times rolling right? Why stop with maternity pictures...how about some shower cakes too!? Check these out!

And on days when I start fretting about the weight I'm gaining and what I'm starting to look like, well I just use this little pick me up right here!

Gender Games

So with Baby Z's gender being revealed tomorrow (ekkkk!!!!!!) we've been doing a lot of planning and researching on the big ticket items for our little gal or guy. The guestroom upstairs will be converted (in the next few months) into Baby Z's room. The room is currently a limish green so we've been looking for bed sets and furniture that will match.I'm in love with convertible cribs and we've got our our on this little gem.

With this dresser to match that will most likely be stored in the closet.

And with this little changer.

All that is left for us to find furniture wise for Baby Z's room is a comfy rocker for Mama. :)

For those of you that don't know I'm OBSESSED with farm animals, cows and pigs being by far my most favorite animals. So one of our choices for Baby Z's bedding is this cute little number:


This little set is from BabiesRus, but Target has some cute little accessories from another cute Fisher Price set called 'How Now Brown Cow.' Isn't that little swing adorable?! Baby Z really wants it (Did you hear that Dad?!) The nice thing about this little set is that it would work for either a boy or a girl. HOWEVER, if we have a boy I have promised Matt that we can do dinosaurs and of course I have found an AMAZING set. Here is a peek at the dino set:

We can still use some cow and pig accents you know blankets and that adorable little swing! :) Also I've found these beauties that I am DYING to parade Baby Z around in:

How cute is this infant car seat?? And its super light too! :) That's really good news for Matt ;) And the best part is that it hooks right onto this adorable stroller that can convert.

And when Baby Z get bigger there is this little cutie too:

I'm super excited to find out the gender so we can start making some really fun plans AND start a registry. I don't know what it is about making lists and registries that get me really excited! :) Nerd Alert!

Pregnancy Week 21

Pregnancy Highlights:
Date: June 27th
How Far Along: 21 Weeks
Total Weight Gain/Loss: +2 pounds (total) +12 (counting the original -10)
Maternity Clothes: Can I get an Amen for working from home?!?! :)
Best Moment this week: OBX with the Bradshaw Family :)
Sunday morning after Megan's wedding we drove down to OBX. My family stays in Kill Devil Hills every summer since I can remember and I love it! :) When we go to the beach we spend all day down there.
Our little family on the beach. Note the sandwich in my hand!

Sister and I playing some Putt Putt at Jurassic Putt. Kateland had to go here because Matt loves Dinosaurs; she even let him pick the course! :)

Sisters at Jurassic Putt!

Kateland was pouting and refused to take a good pic with me. So I pouted with her.

That made her smile and we got this good pic :)

So after spending Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday all day at the beach we needed a little break. On Thursday we all packed into the truck, normally it would have been the van but the folks had some difficulties with it on Sunday..fuel pump. So my Uncle Andy let us borrow his truck which was the nicest thing ever. Thankfully he has an extended cab that has room for your pregnant butt to sit comfortably for an extended period of time, unlike the Tacomasaurus. Matt had never really been out to the Oregon Inlet, Avon, Buxton, Hatteras area before and only my folks had ever taken the ferry to Ocracroke Island. So we set out on our little adventure. First stop was the Cape Hatteras Light House.

Here we are preparing to hike up 248 stairs in a muggy 90 degree lighthouse, it took forever to get to the top only because there was a line...and rude children that I wanted to knock out.

Mama and Kate on the ferry from Hatteras to Ocracoke Island.

Me and Kate on the Ferry :)

My Mama and Daddy :)

This pic of my Daddy and Matt is the cutest :)

More Ferry Ride...it was a long ride.

Once we made it to Ocracoke Island we drove around the entire island, which didn't take very long at all. We went and visited the Ocracoke Lighthouse and also made a few other little stops. My favorite was Candyland a little candy shop that was FABULOUS!

On Friday we switched things up and went to the other end of the beach to visit Duck/Corrola because Matt had never been down that way either. The fun thing about Corrola Beach is there is an access like Oregon Inlet where you can take your vehicles on the beach. Mama did an excellent job her first time using 4-wheel drive on a beach. We had a nice relaxing day which is apparent from the picture below. There were many exciting sights on the beach, the family next to us caught a sting ray, a van got stuck right behind us (seriously why would you bring a van onto a beach when you don't have 4-wheel drive then like an idiot go up to the deepest part of the sand???) and HORSES! As we were leaving we got to see some of the wild ponies which was a nice little treat!
Gender: ONE MORE WORK DAY and a Wake up!
Movement: Baby Z goes nuts at all hours of the day. We have a little performer on our hands already. Also Baby Z has a serious case of the hiccups, I shouldn't laugh but its a pretty hilarious feeling.
Food Craving: french fries...homemade of course!
What I miss: Being able to sneeze without a dribble of pee sometimes escaping as well...embarrassing.
What I am looking forward to: Finding out what little Baby Z is!!!!!!!!!!! :)
Symptoms: Does pregnancy waddle count?

And here we are at week 21: Home sweet home after two weeks away

Pregnancy Week 20

Pregnancy Highlights:

Date: Should have been the week of June 18th but we were on hiatus
How Far Along: 20 Weeks--Half way there!!!!
Total Weight Gain/Loss: We gained a little and we are sitting even now after the -10 that we lost in the first trimester. Yay! :)
Maternity Clothes: Thank the Sweet Baby J for stretchy gaucho pants and Old Navy Large Tank tops! :)
Best Moment this week: Megan's Wedding Weekend and an entire week at the OBX with the Bradshaw Family :)

Megan's wedding was AMAZING! We fit in our dress nicely even though Baby Z was bigger than anticipated. Even with the cut of the dress you couldn't really tell that I was preggers unless you already knew :)

Here is my cousin Megan the beautiful bride with the pope watching in the background. The pope was every where. It's cool though she's Catholic.
Meg is the only one in the family that is/was Catholic other than our Memaw. She wore Memaw's rosery beads wrapped around her bouquet as her something old! :)


Meet sweet Victoria, this is Megan's little cousin on the Story side of the family and she is just precious. Victoria is two and is the cutest little thing ever. My favorite thing about her is she has extreme cases of stranger danger when it comes to boys! :)

Little Miss Victoria hung out with me waiting to walk in. She was suppose to walk in with her sister Mary Ann, but when she got to the door stranger danger kicked in and she didn't want me to put her down. Thankfully Mr. Palin, Dave's nephew, didn't want his Dad to put him down either. So here we are walking in. Now this is talent: 20 weeks pregnant, heels and carrying a two year old! All down a stone walk way might I add! :)



Me and Husband after the ceremony. Surprised my face and hair haven't melted off...hottest day on record!


After the ceremony we headed to Lake Gaston to my Aunt and Uncle's lake house for the reception! :) After we walked in and Meg and Dave had the first dance everyone changed into casual comfy clothes! :) YAY! Here are some fun pics from the reception:
Father Daughter dance turned into the stanky leg!


The Cake. They cut it to American Honey.


The toast was shots of American Honey in personalized favor shot glasses. Now this here is probably the best picture of the night! Kateland just threw it back like a champ

Dancing with my buddy Victoria.

Apparently Victoria did not have stranger danger for Matt. :) He is gonna be the best Daddy!


Family Shot! :) For those of you that don't know that's Stuart Sister's new boyfriend :)
Pics of the Bradshaw Family Beach week to follow in the next post :)
Worst Moment this week: You would think with all the wonderful going on the past two weeks that I couldn't possibly have a worst moment....yeah well leave it to me to have the unthinkable happen while at the Outerbanks. So one blustery day we are leaving the beach late in the afternoon and we are hauling all our mess back up. In order to clear the beach and reach the beach access I have to walk by the life guard stand. You would think that would mean if I've made it safely through an entire day on the beach I would be able to safely leave right?! No. Of course not. A huge gust of wind knocks the life guard's GIANT umbrella down which side swiped my right thigh. Thank you baby blood flow for allowing the LARGEST bruise (I seriously didn't think I would ever see the day that my Willie Nelson bruise would be out done) of my life! Don't believe me well judge for your self. I'm pretty sure for the rest of the week people on the beach thought that Matt had knocked me up and then just knocked me around some for fun too...file that under TPT.
Gender: We'll find out June 29th at 10am!!!! BEYOND EXCITED!!!!!
Movement: Starting Father's day Baby Z went NUTS!!! Unfortunately Matt wasn't able to feel Baby Z move until the next day. We've found that our little bear cub is most active early in the morning or right before I should be eating. Imagine that our child gets excited over food who would have thought.
Food Craving: Ice cream, french fries (homemade of course) and shrimp (thankfully we were at the beach and were able to satisfy this craving daily!)
What I miss: getting to wear a two piece. I refuse to wear a two piece while pregnant I think its gross showing your gut when you have one regardless of the reason. I think bellies of all shapes and sizes should be covered at all times.
What I am looking forward to: GENDER!!!!!!!!!!!!
Symptoms: More prone to bruising

And here we are at week 20: Check us out all dolled up for Megan's wedding.

Pregnancy Week 19

Pregnancy Highlights:

Date: Technically this was the week of June 11th, obviously due to our two week hiatus from civilization its late :)
How Far Along: 19 Weeks
Total Weight Gain/Loss: Gained two pounds this week so we are still at -2.
Maternity Clothes: Cotton summer dresses oh how I love you! :)
Best Moment this week: The Jersey Shore (Wildwood) with the Zelman Family. As many of you know I had rarely made trips north of the Mason Dixon line until I met Matt. Well needless to say in the past four years I have made many trips north, however this week I made my first ever trip to a Northern Beach. My entire life the most north I ever went was Virginia Beach. Our family always went further south to OBX for our summer vacation and the occasional Myrtle or Daytona thrown into the mix. Needless to say expectations were extremely low due to MTV. I just knew that we were in for an extremely small beach with folks packed in like sardines, Italian stallions fist pumping at the drop of a hat and since it is Jersey we are talking about I just assumed it would be DIRTY. Well boy was I wrong! The beach was gorgeous and there was so much of it. I guess that's what you get when you have to PAY to go on the beach. Thankfully we were there a week before the beach is 'in season' so we didn't have to worry about having a beach pass.

Here we are me, Baby Z, Matt and Uncle Dan lounging on the beach.
Here is our little family on the beach. The one really nice thing about the Jersey Shore is NO HUMIDITY! Can I get an AMEN?!

On Monday it was suppose to be overcast and raining so we took a little day trip over to Atlantic City. Now on a scale of one to trashy I was for sure set on AC being TRASHY beyond belief. However, their boardwalk was really quaint and it would have been really nice if it wasn't for all the sea gulls...birds are gross. I'm sure Sister would agree with me here! haha

AC Boardwalk
We spent the entirety of our trip here at the Trump Taj Mahal. Hello $1 Black Jack tables and Baby Z's first gambling experience we had a blast. As much as I hate Donald Trump the man is a marketing genius he had his face on all the water bottles, excuse me all the 'Trump Ice.' Very classy :P

Matt and I on the AC Boardwalk. Side note: I promise I have more clothes that fit other than this dress. It makes multiple appearances through out the next week and I promise in each instance it has been washed!
Jersey brought a lot of firsts for Baby Z. First beach trip, first gambling experience, first round of putt putt and first fried snickers! OMG if I could get one of those everyday I would! TO DIE FOR.

Here is a little montage from our putt putt games over the week.

Gender: We'll find out June 29th at 10am!!!! SO EXCITED!!!!
Movement: This week I began to feel bits of movement here and there. The worst part about early movement is that it feels like gas. Seriously though its the best way to describe it. You know when you've eaten something that hasn't set well and you feel that gas pocket move across your belly. It's subtle but you know you felt something. Yeah well that's what its like and I didn't realize it was the baby until 15-20 minutes later when I haven't yet farted. Now this describes the sudden little flutter moments of the baby. Baby Z is a little wiggle worm and has a tendency to do some amazing acrobatics in the womb on occasion...I'm talking flips. The best way to describe these little flips is a roller coaster ride. You know when you go down that first HUGE drop? And your stomach floats up a little and you get that weird feeling. To me that's the same feeling I get when the baby flips only intensified a little and with a little pressure from the inside out.
Food Craving: ice cream, ice cream, ice cream!!! We went to this AMAZING place called Duffers, we had no idea what were we in for. Look at the size of these sundaes and banana splits!

Dan with his "Here Comes the Fudge" sundaeMy banana split!
Debbie's Marshmallow Sundae

What I miss: Having a nice cold drink in my hand while my toes are in the sand at the beach.
What I am looking forward to: GENDER!!!!!!
Symptoms: The belly it poking out enough now that the belly button is REALLY shallow...this should get interesting.

And here we are at week 19: Mama and Baby Z are ready to fist pump it on the Jersey Shore!