Say hello to Ava!

This week I am 31 weeks (crazy!) AND we got to do our 4D ultrasound this week! I cannot tell you how amazing it is to sit and stare at a machine that is showing us our little girls face. Yes, a couple tears did fall.
We had to go to our appointment first but for the Ultrasound they wanted me to drink 32 ounces of liquid before hand. For this, we debated whether I should have any caffeine or not. Before you laugh let me just tell you a fun fact about myself. Caffeine has no effect on me. I can drink a red bull and be fast asleep 10 minutes later. This is not just a pregnancy thing either. Throughout the pregnancy however, I've noticed a couple times that on the lucky days I get my 5 sips of coffee or mountain dew or whatever that it doesn't really seem to make a difference with the little angel. Perfect example: the other week when the Burris Bunch were in town for the shower I decided to drink coffee to try and wake up little Ava and get her kicking so everyone could feel - she didn't move barely at all. Of course.
Anyways...how side tracked did I just get? ... Yes so we were deciding yes or no on the caffeine. I just knew that if I DIDN'T drink any and she didn't move, the ultrasound tech would just think what an idiot, its her fault she isn't moving so I went ahead and had a mountain dew...and a half...   turns out our suspicions were true. Ava is just like Mommy. Caffeine=sleepy time. *Note to self, anytime mom wants a nap give Ava coffee* (side note to the note - no mom and grandparents, don't worry, I'm not really going to do this)

OK doctors visit went well. I'm up to 157 and the doctor laughed about the weight gain saying "It's a little more than we wanted but you should be fine" bleh. Oh well. I had several questions to which most of them she just smiled and answered "thats normal". I did find out that my amazing cravings for red grape juice have interfered with some other things. Turns out it inhibits iron from being absorbed...and I'm having to take extra iron in the first place for anemia...so my one craving is worsening my problem. BUT she said I just shouldn't take them together and I should be fine. For a second I thought she was going to take my grape juice crack away from me and I just don't know how i would handle that. Withdrawal for sure.

After the visit we walked down the hall and waited for the Ultrasound. I was about to pee my pants. Ava was not moving at all too. Naturally.

We got back to the room and got to see a couple 2D images - one of them is my favorite 2D one so far. Her little arm is all propped up behind her head and you can just see her little face...fast asleep.
(*NOTE: YOU CAN CLICK ANY OF THE PICTURES TO ENLARGE THEM TO GET A BETTER LOOK OR IF YOU WANT TO SAVE THE PICTURES TO YOUR COMPUTER!*)

Isn't she adorable? Yes. Yes she is. Then she switched to the 4D mode. It was at this point that we realized the caffeine was NOT the choice we should have made. We saw Ava on the screen, but really it was Ava's arm - covering her whole face - which was smushed up against something else. AKA - no baby face.

See? No face, just an arm and side of a head...which honestly was still cute to see haha

Not only was there no face, but there was no movement. She was VERY asleep. We proceeded to take the ultrasound wand and bounce up and down on my belly trying to wake her up. The tech went back and forth along her spine, and up and down on her little head, around her whole body...despite the trampoline and massage efforts it phased Ava none. Just seemed to make her even more relaxed. All I could think of was really? you move ALL the time and the one time we pay $150 to SEE you move, you hide and sleep. thanks girl.  It was quite hilarious thinking of how hard we were trying to wake her up, when in 2 months, we are going to be trying even harder just to get her to go to sleep ha.

So after probably 20 minutes of bouncing and pushing Ava finally moved her little arm. There she was! You could see her little eyelids and nose and tiny mouth all perfectly outlined. Her little hand would come up and rub her eye or she would suck the knuckle of her thumb (no, not her thumb, just the knuckle area - this will be fun to see if she continues this in the real world ha). We just stared at the screen. Anytime she would move there would be an "aww" or a "look!" or something like that. I am just amazed at our technology (am I sounding old yet?)

So that was definitely the highlight of the week. Another little update for the blog: the dreaded first stretch mark made its appearance this morning. Eh, scratch that - I saw the dreaded first stretch mark this morning.  It's probably been there for a little bit but I can't look down and see it because its below my belly button haha. So thanks to the mirror this morning there she was. But hey, its worth it. If I have to get some stretch marks so that Ava has room in that belly to cook a little longer, so be it! (*this note is for Ava when she gets older and reads this: See what I have already sacrificed for you? What a good Mom I am. You should probably thank me...)
Next week is Thanksgiving!! We head up to Memphis Tuesday night and then to Missouri Wednesday. Hooray!