We hope you enjoy these pictures as much as we enjoyed having them taken:
Monday, July 4, 2011
Baby Bump Photos
As promised, here are some of our favorite baby bump photos from our session last week. The photographer is Inga Howard, and her photography studio is called Lady Rouge Studios (check out the link: http://www.wix.com/ladyrougestudios/justaddlipstik#!). She happens to also be Tamara's hair stylist at the moment, and as you can tell from some of these photos and her website she specializes in sort of an older 40's style pin-up girl/glamour look for the portraits she does. She did all of the hair and make-up for Tamara herself, and some of the makeup is fairly dark since we told her we were interested in a lot of black and white photography. She took several hundred shots while she was here - she edited a few of these, and gave us all of the originals on disc as well. Some of the pictures below have not been edited in any way, so you'll see some background in them that might not otherwise be there in a more finished edited shot. In any case, we really enjoyed having her here at the house, as it was a much more intimate and casual setting for taking photos.
We hope you enjoy these pictures as much as we enjoyed having them taken:
We hope you enjoy these pictures as much as we enjoyed having them taken:
An Independence Day Update
It's taken a bit of time to mess with the files and get the movie down to the proper size to load it up onto the blog, but at long last, here's the link to the ultrasound video from June 9. To everyone who's been asking about when this would be ready on the blog, and for an update in general, thanks for your patience! Again, the quality of the video is not as great as the original, but hopefully the audio and video are clear enough. The file is still pretty large, so bear with it if it takes a while to load:
As you can see from the video (and the last blog post), we got several good glimpses of the baby's face, arms and legs, and got to watch her move around and try to evade the ultrasound tech. We also got a free 4D ultrasound out of the deal, since the tech couldn't seem to resist the urge..Hope you enjoy the video!
So, the basic outcome of this ultrasound session is that everything looked good, except the baby's head and torso were a little larger than they should be at this stage, and the overall weight of the baby was already over 6 lbs. according to the ultrasound measurements. That could mean multiple things, from gestational diabetes to a slightly larger-than-normal baby to nothing at all, since ultrasound measurements of this sort are known to have large margins of error, especially when, as in this case, there's a lot of amniotic fluid in there. So, we talked with the doctor, he ordered some tests, and they came back just fine (in fact, Tamara passed her blood tests for gestational diabetes "with flying colors"), so the next question we asked was "now what?" With the Mooney clan known for potentially large babies, there is a possibility that the baby will be too big for normal delivery methods, so in our follow-up appointment we talked about options. The end result: wait and see. The doctor said it's possible nature will just take over and she'll come a little early at a "normal" baby size, or it's possible we'll be looking at something like a C section just before her expected due date. At this point, though, we're just waiting to see what will happen and monitoring things as usual.
Tamara had another appointment this week where the doctor performed a few different examinations and ran a couple of tests, and once again, all is normal. We've got another ultrasound scheduled for this coming Friday, this time at the hospital with different equipment so the doctor can get a second opinion, so to speak, on the baby's size and progress. Then, we'll have a follow up appointment next Monday (July 11) to get a game plan in place for the coming weeks and settle on a delivery method one way or another. Hopefully, we'll get a blog post up faster next time, as we know there's a lot of anxious waiting at this point since the baby could come any time now!
In the meantime, we took this last Friday off and interviewed a couple of daycares to start making arrangements (yes, they do have waiting lists, but from our talks with them, that's not going to be a big deal at all) - we just have to make a decision at this point and get ourselves registered. We have our hospital bag packed (or at least mostly packed), and we've got car seat bases installed in both vehicles, so we should be set. We also went to a cloth diapering class on Saturday, and while it now makes a lot more sense, doesn't seem like it would nearly be the chore we thought it would, and would result in huge money savings ($2500 to $3000 per child estimated over buying disposables), we're not sure it's going to work out with daycare options...which means, we're probably going to have a somewhat hybrid situation, where we use both disposables and cloth diapers...we'll see, we're still mulling all of that over.
We've got a recliner/rocker on order (keep your fingers crossed that it will come in relatively soon) for the nursery, and now all we are missing are the baby monitors and maybe one or two other odds and ends. We're just waiting excitedly now to see what happens in the next couple of weeks...
Finally, last Sunday we had a photographer come over to the house to do some baby bump photography, and while we have all of the images now from the session, we're still sorting through and picking a few favorites to put up on the blog. We should have that up in a separate post pretty soon.
So, stay tuned, not only is there more news to come, but there's a baby that's going to be doing the same here pretty soon...Happy Fourth of July, all!
As you can see from the video (and the last blog post), we got several good glimpses of the baby's face, arms and legs, and got to watch her move around and try to evade the ultrasound tech. We also got a free 4D ultrasound out of the deal, since the tech couldn't seem to resist the urge..Hope you enjoy the video!
So, the basic outcome of this ultrasound session is that everything looked good, except the baby's head and torso were a little larger than they should be at this stage, and the overall weight of the baby was already over 6 lbs. according to the ultrasound measurements. That could mean multiple things, from gestational diabetes to a slightly larger-than-normal baby to nothing at all, since ultrasound measurements of this sort are known to have large margins of error, especially when, as in this case, there's a lot of amniotic fluid in there. So, we talked with the doctor, he ordered some tests, and they came back just fine (in fact, Tamara passed her blood tests for gestational diabetes "with flying colors"), so the next question we asked was "now what?" With the Mooney clan known for potentially large babies, there is a possibility that the baby will be too big for normal delivery methods, so in our follow-up appointment we talked about options. The end result: wait and see. The doctor said it's possible nature will just take over and she'll come a little early at a "normal" baby size, or it's possible we'll be looking at something like a C section just before her expected due date. At this point, though, we're just waiting to see what will happen and monitoring things as usual.
Tamara had another appointment this week where the doctor performed a few different examinations and ran a couple of tests, and once again, all is normal. We've got another ultrasound scheduled for this coming Friday, this time at the hospital with different equipment so the doctor can get a second opinion, so to speak, on the baby's size and progress. Then, we'll have a follow up appointment next Monday (July 11) to get a game plan in place for the coming weeks and settle on a delivery method one way or another. Hopefully, we'll get a blog post up faster next time, as we know there's a lot of anxious waiting at this point since the baby could come any time now!
In the meantime, we took this last Friday off and interviewed a couple of daycares to start making arrangements (yes, they do have waiting lists, but from our talks with them, that's not going to be a big deal at all) - we just have to make a decision at this point and get ourselves registered. We have our hospital bag packed (or at least mostly packed), and we've got car seat bases installed in both vehicles, so we should be set. We also went to a cloth diapering class on Saturday, and while it now makes a lot more sense, doesn't seem like it would nearly be the chore we thought it would, and would result in huge money savings ($2500 to $3000 per child estimated over buying disposables), we're not sure it's going to work out with daycare options...which means, we're probably going to have a somewhat hybrid situation, where we use both disposables and cloth diapers...we'll see, we're still mulling all of that over.
We've got a recliner/rocker on order (keep your fingers crossed that it will come in relatively soon) for the nursery, and now all we are missing are the baby monitors and maybe one or two other odds and ends. We're just waiting excitedly now to see what happens in the next couple of weeks...
Finally, last Sunday we had a photographer come over to the house to do some baby bump photography, and while we have all of the images now from the session, we're still sorting through and picking a few favorites to put up on the blog. We should have that up in a separate post pretty soon.
So, stay tuned, not only is there more news to come, but there's a baby that's going to be doing the same here pretty soon...Happy Fourth of July, all!
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Sneak Peek
With week 33 officially hitting tomorrow, we had another ultrasound appointment this morning. There's lots to tell from the visit, along with video and still image scans from the ultrasound print-out, but since it's late we'll just post a sneak preview with a few images.
More to come soon, with hopefully a full post sometime this weekend. Enjoy in the meantime!
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| So, unprompted by us, we got a 4D ultrasound from the tech, who seemed to be enamored with Olivia's cheeks and lips - pretty amazing image huh? |
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| Another shot from the side of the 4D ultrasound |
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| She definitely has the Mooney lips! |
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| Another picture of those lips...the tech described them as "baby doll lips"...very cute! |
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| A profile shot, where you can see her hand, her face, her belly, and her thigh and knee |
Sunday, June 5, 2011
More Finishing Touches
So, thanks to Tamara's very generous co-workers and employer last week, we received a ton more baby products, including play sets, baby clothes, pacifiers, toys, the window valance, the crib mobile, and the high chair (thanks, everyone)! We also picked up a cool owl lamp, pillow, and some Irish baby garb in San Antonio/Spring Branch/Boerne over Memorial Day Weekend (thanks, Mom and Dad Mooney!) and then again this weekend at Babies R Us (thanks, Brian, for the gift card!). So, while the living room/library area is full of empty boxes and wrapping paper still, the baby nursery is even more complete, with some of the last finishing touches now applied. We assembled the high chair and the pack and play set, hung a few things up, and got the valance and mobile in place. And just in case she turns out not to be a she in a surprise last-minute turn of events, we've left tags on several non-neutral items for the time being...
Here's a few photos then of the nursery in its still more completed state...
Apart from nursery decorating, we also went to swim in the community pool today, which Tamara definitely appreciated. The weather was perfect summer weather for a swim and we both had a blast. Big news this week: the next ultrasound is scheduled for first thing in the morning on Thursday, so hopefully we'll have a lot of confirmation concerning due dates, single or multiple babies, hopefully another confirmation that all of our pink things will definitely be put to good use, etc. We'll post another update with some images and video from the visit toward the end of the week.
Here's a few photos then of the nursery in its still more completed state...
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| Crib, with bedding and mobile in place; high-chair set up in the background |
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| Another view toward the closet - I think we're set for clothes for a while! |
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| The pack and play set up in bassinet form, with changing table attached; the large pink owl was picked up last weekend |
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| A closer view of the pack and play |
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| Closer view of the high chair |
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| A view from below the mobile, with the mural beyond |
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| The dresser, with the new owl lamp |
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| The changing table, with diapers, lotions, etc. compartmentalized |
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| "OLIVIA" hung on the wall with a couple of little owls, and below that the leaf/branch coat hanger with the little pink monster bath towel hanging from it |
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| The valance, from a distance |
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| The valance, in context with the little birds hopping and flying to the tree |
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| Back to the owl lamp, now lit up |
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| A close-up of the owl lamp, lit up; might be time to curb back the owl obsession... |
Apart from nursery decorating, we also went to swim in the community pool today, which Tamara definitely appreciated. The weather was perfect summer weather for a swim and we both had a blast. Big news this week: the next ultrasound is scheduled for first thing in the morning on Thursday, so hopefully we'll have a lot of confirmation concerning due dates, single or multiple babies, hopefully another confirmation that all of our pink things will definitely be put to good use, etc. We'll post another update with some images and video from the visit toward the end of the week.
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