Club 33 & Disneyland

We went to Disneyland on Saturday for our reservation at Club 33. It was quite the experience! The food and service was amazing! Afterwards we went on some rides and enjoyed the holiday sites. We even got snowed on during one of the shows(of course the snow was really made of soap suds). All and all we had a great day! I included some photos of us too. The first one is us on the balcony at Club 33 that overlooks New Orleans Square. Next is us inside Club 33. And lastly is us on the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters (as you can see Sterling really creamed me on that ride).

Our Trip to Hawaii

So we haven't really gotten around to saying this yet but we had a great time in Hawaii! We went to the beach, attended Jordan's graduation, ate some good food, enjoyed the sites and worked on our tans! It was wonderful!

4D Ultrasound

We just went to our 19-week ultrasound appointment. We were referred to see a high-risk pregnancy doctor because of my Scleroderma. Little did we know that they would be performing both a regular and a 4D ultrasound. It was really neat. We also learned that the doctor, Dr. DeVore is LDS. Anyways during the appointment they first had me put on these high tech glasses so that I could see everything the doctor showed us, right in front of my eyes, while Sterling looked at the monitor. We told the doctor that we didn't want to know the baby's gender and asked if it would be obvious. He said that he didn't even have to show us the baby's gender if we didn't want (so it is still a mystery). As they started the ultrasound Dr. DeVore first showed us our baby's profile with the regular ultrasound. Then he checked things like the heart, spine and body to make sure everything was normal. Thankfully it was. Then he switched over to the 4D and looked closer at the baby's face. Our baby is so cute already! He even had a way of just seeing the baby's skeleton. He mentioned during the ultrasound that due to my illness he saw some signs that I might have some complications with blood flow getting to the placenta in the future. So to avoid this we recommended a couple things. First he told me to have baby aspirin everyday until the 32-week mark. Then (my favorite part)...

Dr.DeVore: Do you exercise?
Cori: Yes.
Dr.DeVore: Stop.

How many people get told not to exercise? It was a little funny to hear him say that, I think most doctors generally tell you otherwise. He said that when you exercise it takes some blood away from the placenta and moves it to your heart and other organs. Since he's concerned about the baby getting enough blood, this should prevent that. Lastly he told me that each day I need to lay down on my left side for two hours. This will also help improve blood flow to the baby. Then he will continue to monitor the baby every month to make sure it's getting enough blood and growing properly. Worst-case scenario he said, he'll have to put me on complete bed rest. So all and all I thought it was a good appointment. I'm very glad the baby is healthy and that I can continue to do things to ensure that good health.

Christmas Elves

We elfed ourselves! My favorite dancer is Becca!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=272397876

Our Best Christmas Present

This is what 17 weeks of pregnancy looks like at our house.

17 Weeks

So today we went to our 17-week OB appointment. It's great getting to get feedback and talk to the doctor about how things are going. We found out that I have gained 4.5 pounds since our last appointment a month ago. This is apparently right on track for my pre pregnancy size. Dr. Yu also measured my belly, which has added 16 cm in size. She said that that meant the baby is about 6 ounces right now, which is a very healthy size. Again we got to listen to our baby's heartbeat. It has slowed to 154 bmp now. It's so neat getting to hear that little beating heart.

We also found out some exciting news. On December 21 when I go in to see the high-risk doctor (which is normal procedure for women with auto immune diseases) they are going to do a 4-D ultrasound in addition to the regular one. This will help the doctor to see if there are any abnormalities. But in general it will just be very cool because a 4-D ultrasound is extremely clear, it's like taking an actual photo of your baby. On the downside, we didn't want to know the baby's gender prior to birth and Dr. Yu told us that generally the 4-D ultrasounds are so clear that you can tell pretty easily what the baby will be. But hey, we are okay with knowing, we just thought a surprise would be fun. Our doctor actually mentioned that we are the minority, she said that she usually only has about 3 couples a YEAR who don't what to know the gender of their babies by ultrasound.

So all and all, things went really well and we are getting more and more excited for our new baby to come!

Starting Out

So we thought we might try having a blog and see how it goes. We figured it might be a good way for us to keep in contact with our family and have a journal of our many adventures. As far as our life right now...

- We are getting ready to go to Hawaii in December for Jordan's graduation! He's graduating from BYU Hawaii in International Business and we are we are super excited to be there with family! Not to mention, who doesn't like a good reason to spend the hoildays in Hawaii!

- Cori is 16 weeks pregnant now and definatley looking like it. We have decided that we don't want to know the baby's gender before he/she is born and are excited to have a new addition to our family in May.

-Sterling is still working long hours and trying to get his CPA liscense by passing all four parts of the big exam.

-We celebrated Sterling's 28th birthday on November 16th. He still can't believe how old he's gotten.

-Cori is looking forward to the end of Fall term this coming week. She just has to survive finals week first.

So basically life is going well for us and we are staying busy. One thing that really made us laugh today was from a little six year old girl named Dayna that Cori teaches in her class at church. She was leaning on Cori and took a deep breath and said, "Sister DeVard... your baby smells good." It was so cute and funny! Until next time!