Week 23 - 119 days to go!

So, I'm still not quite good at counting things in weeks, but I guess I should get used to it since you count the baby's age in weeks for awhile too. Iam at 23+ weeks, almost 24 by mid-week.

At this stage, the baby can feel my movements, and I can really feel the baby moving around too - and I know it's not just my stomach being upset or something, which is kind of cool. It's still mostly something that only I can feel, but Matt did feel a kick the other day when he/she was being particularly active. Feeling the baby move is amazing - and makes everything seem more real. It's also kind of weird... like you are this host for a little creature growing inside of you... Kind of like Alien or something, only cute, not scary. :)

Everyone still thinks that we are crazy for not finding out if we are having a girl or a boy, but since the ultrasound has come and gone, all of the arguments for finding out are really moot. So, I am getting into some fun nursery design ideas with my friends Shelly and Kristen, who have great taste. We are looking at fabrics that really aren't baby designs at all - very modern with fun colors like kelly green or brown and red. No pastel yellow and green for me!

Academy of Country Music Awards

So, one of the benefits of living in Vegas is you get random tickets and invites to events that just drop in your lap sometimes. Yesterday at 3 pm I was invited by my client contact at Krispy Kreme Doughnuts to attend the Country Music Awards - they had an extra ticket, but I had to be at the MGM Grand at 5 pm.

I actually debated not going - I am so busy at work right now. But then I thought, when's the next time I will be able to go to the CMA's at the drop of a hat? So, I went. So fun!

We got to see the behind the scenes of the awards show since we were sitting up to the left of the stage - but not too far up. And be part of the whole - 3, 2,1 - applause please!

Live performances included Carrie Underwood, Rascal Flatts, Reba (who was also the host) with Kelly Clarkson, Brooks and Dunn, George Strait, and more! It was like the perfect country concert - just the songs I know :)

Here's a link to more info on the awards: http://music.msn.com/music/acma2007/articles/bestworst?GT1=9987

The Ultrasound - It's a .... ????

We went in for our ultrasound on May 9, despite my sudden bout with the stomach flu (the doctor's office was going to charge me $50 to cancel... Rude!). Anyway, it was an amazing experience, and completely distracted me from feeling like I was going to vomit all over the ultrasound tech.

My first ultrasound was basically a picture of a dancing piece of rice... I was only about 8 weeks pregnant. This time it was a completely different story. I am in love with this child! It was so amazing - I just held Matt's hand and stared and stared at the screen. We got a few waves from two hands, each with five perfect fingers. The shot we got of the feet was so cute! Matt had to know how big everything was... the feet are each 3 centimeters long - that's a little over an inch. How can something that small be so perfectly formed already? Amazing!!!

Everything looked good and was normal on the charts for both me and the baby. My due date stays the same - Sept 20th. It feels more real seeing what's going on inside of me - I have been thinking that I've felt the baby kick for a few weeks now, but then I think I'm imaging it. But, the past few days I have felt a very distinctive - bump, bump, bump - that I know is not remnants of the flu.

And, we held out and did NOT find out the sex of the baby... sorry all you friends and family who were hoping we'd change our minds (we are part of the 5% of people who don't find out). You'll just have to wait for the big surprise!

Other Recent Events

Here are some pictures of recent events at the Hiller household, including Nick Hiller's birthday and a visit from Grandpa Johnson at the Poppe's house.











Matt and Shannon at the Hiller's house for Nick's birthday dinner.
















Justin with nephew, Damien.

Grandpa Johnson with the prego ladies - Alicia and Shannon

Second Anniversary

Matt and I celebrated our second anniversary on May 7, 2007 - time is flying by! We went out to dinner at Lawry's Prime Rib restaurant and then took some dessert home with us. A pretty simple evening.

Our bigger plans to celebrate were to go to Orlando, Florida this weekend for 5 days and do the Disney World park and the other attractions out there... But, I just had this feeling that something would not go right. Either the low pressure system off the coast would turn into a huge storm, or something else would happen... I woke up Wednesday morning with the flu that Matt had just gotten over, and I am still feeling pretty lousy.

After being paralysed with indecision over what to do - do we go to FL anyway and then I just sit in our hotel room and feel sick? Or do we cancel the flight with the chance that we might not get out there again before the baby is born? We cancelled the flight. And after still feeling sick today, I know we made the right choice.

I am bummed though - I really wanted to go!!! Sorry Becky!

Hiller Family Pictures

For my mother-in-law's birthday, we decided to all pitch in and give her a family portrait as a present. Of course that required actually organizing everyone to take the picture first, so we picked a day several weeks in advance. And then it turned out to be the hottest day of the year!

We met last weekend at Lorenzi Park for the pictures, and everyone was trying to be good sports about the heat. I claim that I was the hottest since I have a little built in heater... but I wanted to do these photos sooner rather than later, because as you can see, I'm already showing quite a bit now ( I tried to hide in the back for as many pictures as possible, but I couldn't avoid the full frontals in each one). :)

Rough Week

It has been a rough week at the Hiller household... I've just been so busy with work, training a new account coordinator, and doing a bunch of proposals that made me feel like I was back in the worst college class of my life. But poor Matt -he had the worst of it I think. He has had trouble with his group in one class all semester, and there have been issues with their grade and assignments that he just found out about. With finals just next week, there is only so much time to fix everything. We accidentally missed an awards ceremony (we had the wrong date) where he was going to receive an Outstanding Student Award from CCSN (for the communications dept, one student selected per department), and then he got the stomach flu on Thursday night.

I was thinking maybe it was sympathy morning sickness, but he has gotten better quickly and seems to be doing OK today. I just hope he isn't contagious because I really don't need one more excuse to throw up right now. :)

We leave for Orlando, Florida next week for a much-needed vacation. We are making this our "babymoon" - a fun trip with just the two of us before the baby is born. Our friend Becky Baird is in the Monsters, Inc. production at Disney World, so we will be spending some time with her and experiencing all of the theme parks out there. Even though I can't go on many of the rides, I think there will be enough things to keep me entertained. I will just people watch while Matt goes on a few of the rides.