5 Random Thoughts

We're getting closer and closer to the big reveal. I bet you're all on the edge of your seats, aren't you. HA!

I just wanted to jot down a couple random thoughts from today.

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Thought #1: I wish that I could sew my own clothing. I say this because i'm having some real trouble finding anything that I would even remotely want to purchase on any of the maternity clothing websites i've browsed (gap, old navy, motherhood, jcpenney, the expensive ones like pea in a pod, etc). Even H&M was disappointing last time I was there. Is there no where to get cute maternity clothes?? Forever21 has a line but it's way little.. by little i mean there isn't much to choose from, tanks, camis and leggings. I could live in those, sure, but they aren't quite 'work appropriate'. I have a pair of Forever stretchy jeans that still fit (and button, woo hoo high five!) so i'm thinking maybe i'll just buy normal jeans a size or so bigger so that they're slouchy and can button easily. I just don't get maternity tops. My mom commented to me a couple weeks ago (while I was wearing a normal tank with a cardigan) that they make looser fitting tops for pregnant people.. implying i should probably start wearing them. No offense to the clothing I got from my older sis (from 5 years ago!) but it's outdated and i'm not going to walk around wearing a shirt that says baby in rhinestones. I want to wear clothing like the picture above, but in adult sizes. Why do they make the cutest clothing for kids (at an awesome price by the way) and not have the same styles (albeit a little different) for adults. It's some kind of joke, isn't it? Anyway, back to sewing. Obviously, I don't know how to sew.. if i did.. i wouldn't be complaining. I mean, maybe I should just learn to sew, and then learn where to buy all the 'cool' fabric so that I can make my own cardigans and maternity tops and then i'll start a fashion line and rule the world. bahaha, just kidding. What a long thought, am i right?

Thought #2: We decided on nursery colors. I plan to do some posts on this including before and after and i wish i had an inspiration board to share but to be honest, i don't really know how to make those, and the inspiration is more in my brain than on an image that already exists (but check out this post or this post for some of the nursery related thoughts). Oh, you want to know the colors? How silly of me not to mention them. I can't possibly tell you the colors without revealing the gender.. so this will have to wait. I even wrote everything out and then thought, what the heck.. everyone will know if I write all this now. Sorry charlies.

Thought #3: Headed to the gym today again. Looking forward to it. Then i'm going to make dinner and probably do more laundry. I should probably mop the kitchen too.. it's a cream colored floor so it shows so much dirt so easily. But that means I have to vacuum first. We'll see if I have time for all of these things.

Thought #4: Every morning when I get in my car to go to work.. I wonder how long it's going to take to get used to driving this new car. This reminds me that I haven't taken a picture of it yet. Put that on my list of things to do this evening as well!

Thought #5: Tomorrow is Friday!!!!! Add to that the fact that I might get out at 3pm due to the holiday weekend and also we have off on Monday! I live for these work holidays even though they only come 10 times a year. That seams like a lot but it isn't.

There's a real live baby in there!

Reaching out with the right hand toward us!

Say hello to our little baby bru!! (Gender to be revealed on Saturday)

Here's a play by play of our appointment:
I arrived early and they called my name to go back before Alex even arrived. Luckily, as we were walking back he was walking in the door.

Our ultrasound tech Kelsey was the sweetest! She was very social and asked us lots of questions and kept us informed through the whole thing.

It was crazy to see a baby inside there, a real live baby. Since I took Britt's advice and had some chocolate beforehand, the baby was moving around like crazy! Closer to the end of the ultrasound, the baby settled down so that Kelsey could take some final measurements.

Back to the beginning.. May Grant is awesome because you don't have to go to the hospital to have the ultrasound, they do it right in the office. You lay down on a bed and look up at a flatscreen monitor near the ceiling in the room. Kelsey (or whoever) looks at her own machine. Kelsey was busy busy typing as she saw things, she measured lots of stuff. I don't remember all that she said but we saw the stomach, the kidneys, the spinal column, the diaphragm, the brain and of course, the heart and it's 4 chambers beating away. The baby's heartrate was 143 this time around. One of the first things she did was look between the legs. It was obvious to me what it was, but we waited for her to confirm. I wish I had a picture to share of the experience but Alex and I were pretty caught up in the moment to take pictures. We could've stared at the screen all day watching the baby move around.

At the end we got some pictures, including the one shown above. It's going to be hard not to tell our parents the gender until Friday but that'll just heighten it even more. We're still surprised (as we would be with either gender) and it's going to take some time for it to sink in. We just love knowing that it's a little boy or girl in there and that it's healthy, that was the #1 thing. I swear, if there were reviews for ultrasound techs, Kelsey would get a 20 out of 10. She was awesome!

After the ultrasound, I had my normal appointment. Nothing too interesting. We just need to start looking for a pediatrician. We looked at the baby's pictures a lot through the evening. The miracle of life is truly awesome!

Check back Saturday for the reveal!

Nursery Layouts

While thinking about all the things (and making a list of things!) I'm going to need for the nursery. I started to think about the layout.

Things to consider (from what I read):
- Don't put the crib by the window due to the temperature changes. Windows are obviously colder in the winter and hotter in the summer. The sun actually rises on the back of the house onto the only window in the room. While positive for winter, it's a negative for summer. We will be getting great curtains that hopefully retain heat in the winter (and our windows are from 1998 so they aren't inefficient) but we probably won't be putting the crib by the window.
- Don't put the crib by the window because when they grow and can stand in the crib, they could get tangled in the blinds. No brainer.
- Keep the Crib and Rocker/Glider close to one another for grab and feed sessions in the wee hours.
- Keep the dresser and changing table close to each other for 'within arms reach' clothing for necessary changes. We won't have a dresser out in the room, so the changing table will be stocked with essentials.
- Place the diaper pail and a trash container by the changing table. No brainer.
- Put a nightstand or place the bookshelf close to the rocker/glider with a light on it just in case you need to access one quickly in the middle of the night. Or use it as a place to set things when you don't want to get up.

Okay, that's enough tips. Here are the layouts I designed on babysdream.com.

 

Okay so, I'm partially not following a rule when it comes to the crib by the window in the top right layout but I still like it. I need to run these by Alex as well to get his favorite. I also like the crib in the middle of the room but i'd probably have to see that in person to get a feel for it. The fact that there are 3 doors in the room (the main entrance is the lower right door, the bottom door goes out to storage and the top right door goes into the bathroom) and two large closets takes up two of the walls already and a large window takes up most of the 3rd wall, leaving only one full wall is challenging. And that's really the big wall I wanted to decorate, so we'll have to see how it goes. I do like the idea of having some living plants in there to purify the air a little bit.

Which layout do you like best?

Milestone :: Movement

It's official. There's a real life baby in there.

Saturday in the evening, while enjoying a delicious bowl of Turkey Hill Choc. Chip Cookie Dough Frozen Yogurt, I felt a thud in the tum tum. Not a normal thud or anything I've ever felt before and since i've been waiting for movement/signs of life in there, I knew what it was. I've been feeling it every once in a while ever since!

Hooray! The baby's limbs appear to be in working order. Of course we'll find out how many fingers and toes in a couple hours here at the ultrasound. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you the gender until Saturday for secrecy purposes. Don't be mad ;) I will post a picture when I get it scanned into the computer!

New Car, Barnstormers, Friends, and Hurricane Irene

After what was the longest and most tiring work week of the entire year thus far the weekend was finally here. I (luckily) got off work a little after 2pm which was a relief. I was super tired and all the manual labor from the past couple days was taking a toll. I got to relax a little bit before we headed to York to close on the car.

The only picture I took all weekend.

We bought a Honda Pilot. I will post a picture soon. So far, we love it. We don't anticipate that changing anytime soon. It's basically perfect for what we needed (and wanted). Plus, Alex did a killer negotiating job and we got a great deal. (Thanks Apple Honda) Closing on said car took 2 hours. When we got back home, we immediately headed to the Barnstormers game with Matt because I had won tickets the week before. Unfortunately Britt was working and couldn't join us. We left during the 7th inning or so due to sheer boredom and headed to the Cat's Meow where she worked though to visit. Had a good time overall. Ate some yummy soft serve at the baseball game.. mmm.


Saturday, Alex went to work at the farm and I headed up to my parents house to show them the car and hang out for a little while. (I should've been sanding the crib) And when I got home, I took Alex over to the Nowaks for a Fantasy draft, where I returned later that evening to hang out/help Court put away the cutest nursery stuff! What a learning experience. Babies get a lot of clothes at showers, (duh) but really.. a lot of clothes! After all that, we got to check out Laurel's Bachelorette photo shoot images which turned out really great. I'll be sure to post a couple of my favorite on here once I get them from her!

Sunday we slept in nice and long.. Hurricane Irene had given us a slight pounding from 3pm on Saturday and was basically over when we awoke. The hardest rain/wind I thought was from about 11pm to 6am. I think Alex read his parents rain gauge at 4 inches. Anyway, back to Sunday. We had to get ready to head over to the farm for lunch, so we got moving. We got to check out a lot of Nick and Laurel's honeymoon pictures from Hawaii which were beautiful. It looked like they had a great time. I was jealous and wanted to be back there again (perhaps with the body I had in 2009).

We left around 3:30 to get ready to head to Hershey to meet up with Erin and David for dinner. We ate at Houlihan's. It was yummy. Unfortunately, Nicole and Jimmy couldn't make it but hopefully we'll see them soon. It was nice to chat with Erin and David about the upcoming babies (for both of us) and get some perspective on daycare stuff. Erin has a wealth of knowledge since she works at a pre-school. We had a great time, I love the laid back feel of hanging out with them.

When we returned home, we just relaxed before another work week starts. Today we find out the gender of the baby!!!!! We've been waiting 19 weeks for this!

Baby Bump :: 18 weeks

This was last Monday. Sorry my days are so messed up, I'll try to do better. Coming soon, a weekend post. :)

18 weeks!

Today I am 18 weeks along.

One week from now we will see the baby on the big little screen and find out the gender. We are SO excited for this. Our poor families will have to wait until the following friday when we tell them. They've waited this long, they can wait an extra couple of days.

Anyway, back to me (just kidding). But seriously.. I'm still feeling normal. One thing we found out last week that I cannot do is walk for extended periods of time, which is kind of unfortunate. My back starts hurting if I walk for too long. And I was even wearing sneakers! This has brought my exercise routine to basically nil and for my own sake, I should really start some kind of prenatal yoga to offset the fact that I can't walk for more than 15 minutes (without discomfort of the sciatica nerve variety).

Other then that, things are awesome. Alex let me order the WEN hair care system by Chaz Dean, so that I can try it. It's supposed to be magical. I'll be sure to post how it goes when I receive it. That totally wasn't on topic of pregnancy or 18 weeks but whatevs. Really.. I think it's because I don't have many other pregnancy complaints. I wouldn't complain if the baby showed some movement in there though, this might be the only time I request to feel a kick or a punch.

I can't wait to announce the gender at the beginning of September. I can't wait to know whether we're having a boy or a girl. And seeing it will make it so much more real (feeling it in there would also help). Our little beebee.

Baby Bump :: 17 weeks 4 days

Here is a couple pictures I took Friday morning before work. Check out my belly button, cray-zay!

Baby Bump

We look just like the button I made on the top right of the blog, right??

Here's the bump at 15 weeks and 5 days. Obviously this was weeks ago but I thought I would share it. And I know Alex is covering a lot of it but there's another one I'll share as well that was taken with Laurel. Her hand is (obviously) much smaller. Regardless. Enjoy :) I will eventually get the actual image and not have to 'steal' the proof.

17 weeks!

No bump picture, just words today.

2 weeks away from the anatomy scan and learning the gender! woo hoo!

Feeling great still, this morning I had some crampy stretching going on. Not painful just annoying.

Some days I show more than others. I definitely need a new bra but i'm struggling with what size to buy.

I've recently been reading delivery room stories that include crazy family members (mostly mothers and mothers-in-law) which prompted me to talk to my parents yesterday about what they did when it came to labor and delivery. Apparently things were very different back then when it came to visiting hours and even my sister (who had a baby 6 years ago) said that people can't just burst into the room, like i've read in some of these stories. I'm obviously not worried about anything crazy happening since I have normal parents and inlaws. Just think it's (sadly) entertaining to read about.

Other than that, I've started moving furniture around upstairs. I moved all the stuff I could move on my own and now have to wait for Alex to do some and then for the next strong man to walk into the house when Alex is home so I can convince them to move more. Then I can get down to sanding and painting the crib and changing table. That should take about two weeks anyway! I'll be sure to take before and after pictures for this here blog.

An ironic fortune

I got this fortune out of a cookie back in May when I probably shouldn't have been eating sushi. Little did I know, I was pregnant. At the time, I took this fortune as more of a doomsday the world is going to end so enjoy yourself while you can type of fortune. And I didn't even think twice about it when I did find out I was pregnant (though I do still have the fortune).

Now that a baby is coming in January, Alex and I are fully aware that things are going to change drastically. We aren't put off by it in the least. We're actually welcoming of it. We know it's not going to be easy and we're going to lose a lot of sleep and it's going to test our relationship but what could be better then bringing a baby into the world and then raising it to be a good human being.

I'm not much of a worrier and I'm pretty stress free. I haven't given much thought to the 'what if's' that I read other first time moms or current moms wondering aloud about on the babycenter forums. I don't know if it's because i'm a little uneducated in what could go wrong but I just feel like, i'm doing my best to stay healthy and whatever happens, happens. It could also be because this pregnancy is going by so uneventfully that there isn't much to worry about in the first place.

I guess the fortune is half true, I should enjoy myself while I can.. but I'll also be enjoying myself after we bring the baby into the world, maybe even more than I ever have.

16 weeks 3 days and Nursery Inspiration

Today is 16 weeks and 3 days into pregnancy.

Things are still going quite smoothly and I couldn't be more thankful. I've had a couple of small stretching pains but nothing other than that.

The bump is getting a bit bigger as you may have seen yesterday. Here's a picture today so you can see it went back down! :)

There really isn't much else to report at this point. Just chomping at the bit to find out if it's a boy or a girl.

Moving onto the Nursery Inspiration.

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When I saw the top image on pinterest, I really liked it. Obviously the colors will be a bit different since our room is currently aqua but I do plan to decide the other colors when we know the gender.

For a girl, I think orange, pink, purple and light yellow would be great and contrast well with the rest of the aqua room.

For a boy, I think orange, lime, teal and maybe silver would be cool looking. I'd obviously have to get some swatches together to make sure.

Then I saw the second image. Which shows exactly what I was thinking about doing. Squares are cool but diamonds are better. I would make them bigger then shown in this picture though since they'll be multiple colors.

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I still need to figure out how i'm going to get my tape that straight on a 45 degree angle and how i'm going to make sure the paint doesn't get under the tape. More googling is in order I guess.

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This is, however, why I love love love Pinterest.

And just for good measure. Here is another thing I love and plan to do in the nursery. What a great way to display books!

I could show you way more on my baby board, but if you want, just take a look for yourself. {here}

After this friday, when my sister moves out, we'll be rearranging furniture and I'll start sanding the crib pieces and the changing table to prepare to spray paint it white.

Does anyone know the rules about painting while pregnant? Obviously I want to paint a wall and spray paint some stuff, which i'll be doing outdoors when I can. But I think I might just rely on good ventilation when painting the wall. It shouldn't take too long anyway!

Bumpity and Me at the Beach

I promise. That's my body. Alex cut off my head when taking the picture. Which I'm fine with.

To be honest, I feel like this bump is kind of false because it's definitely not that big this morning and this was taken yesterday afternoon. Oh the fluctuations of a baby bump.

Anyway, this marks 16 weeks and 1 day (as the doctor would say). Still feeling good/normal.

Here's a small recap of our mini vacation: (i'll do a wedding post later to recap that)

Saturday afternoon around 1:30 we headed off to Bethany. Enduring an almost 4 hour car ride, me driving.. Alex sleeping.. having belly cramps and driving stick in heavy traffic is no fun game. When we arrived, we unpacked the car and relaxed. We had pizza for dinner, played some Disney Apples to Apples and went to bed pretty early. The beds, by the way, were like sleeping on the floor. Super hard.

Sunday we went to the beach, learned how to play Settlers of Catan and watched Inception. This was also the night that the kids cooked the meal, which went over quite well.

Monday I went to the beach rather late in the day. I enjoyed relaxing in the house alone while everyone was out. We played some more Settlers of Catan and had an amazing mexican dinner. We watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1.

Tuesday we went to the beach. It was overcast when we were there and quite yucky, and windy. So windy it picked up sand and stung us with it. We didn't stay long. It later got sunny.. go figure. We (of course) played some more Settlers and packed up all of our stuff. We had indian for dinner and then left for home. It took us 3 hours on the dot.

We had a great time as always. It's nice to get away for a little while. It's also nice to be home though sleeping in a comfortable bed.

Wedding time!

Tomorrow I will be rocking a pregnant tummy in a gorgeous bridesmaid dress for my brother in law and future sister in law's wedding. It's going to be amazing and I'm super excited!

I'll be sure to post a picture later on because I'm hoping I'll look lovely even with a protruding belly. Speaking of, I need to try my dress on again tonight.

I'm just so excited. I love weddings and especially weddings for people I love.

Perhaps an impromptu baby bump picture is in order?!

Have a great weekend! I know I will!

Anxiously waiting..

Yesterday after the appointment, I scheduled our next visit.

The big appointment. The appointment of all baby appointments.

We'll find out if we're having a bouncing baby boy or a darling little diva girl. And we'll get to see the cutest baby currently in utero.

I think about it all the time. I whine about it because I can't look at baby clothes or choose things for the nursery. I think about it some more.

I feel like seeing it on the 'big screen' will make it even more real than just hearing the heartbeat. I mean, what if there are twins in there? We currently don't know. What a surprise that would be.

4 weeks is going to take forever, but luckily we have a lot going on between now and then to keep us busy!

Today is normally a baby bump day so I might just upload a picture when I get home, okay? okay.

Baby Appointment

Today I had a baby appointment. Yippee.

They told me I was 15 weeks and 1 day, so i've apparently been off in my calculating. Oops! I'm going to go back and adjust the baby bump pictures because that can make things misleading.. mostly for myself.

Regardless, here are some stats:
Blood Pressure - 117/70
Pee - Negative for too much glucose/protein
Weight - Gained 3 lbs so far this pregnancy
Feelings - Like i'm not pregnant.. so basically normal
Baby's Heart rate - 140 bpm (last appointment was 157 bpm)

Next appointment is the anatomy scan. Unfortunately, it's 4 weeks away. But it IS on a monday, which is a relief I won't have to wait all week that week.

I might take this blog public (aka on facebook for a one time, looks it's a blog type post) after we know the gender. I'm still thinking about it. We're definitely going to announce the gender via official announcement because I don't think all of our family friends know. The ones we don't talk to on the regular anyway!

Happy Tuesday!

15 weeks!

Today is the start of week 15. I don't have any pictures because i'm going to try to stick with a wednesday theme for that. Just to make it easier.

I have to admit, everything's been very easy so far. I hope this doesn't mean i'm really in for it in the next 5 months to make up for that. The tum tum is growing slowly and my belly button looks funny. Other then that, everything is normal. I feel like a normal person who can't eat sushi. Though I heard this weekend if you trust the provider you can have a little. I miiight have to do that. We'll see. What fetus wouldn't enjoy a bite of spicy tuna roll? I don't know of one.

I still fit into all my normal clothes. I have a bellaband so that I can loosen them up around the tummy. I get full pretty quickly these days so I try to eat small(er) and more frequent meals. If i drink too many fizzy drinks I get super bloated. I could probably fly away if I didn't have a baby (and you know, my body) weighing me down.

Whhhhat else. I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow where I'll probably hear the heartbeat again and then schedule my next appointment (which will probably be the anatomy scan). I'm going to fib to them and say that I won't be able to do it closer to the end of the month and ask if they can push it up a week or two. Meaning that it could be in 2 weeks!

Happy first week of August!

Pregnancy Websites

My two favorite pregnancy websites are:

babycenter.com
and
pregnancytoday.com

BabyCenter has this thing called a January 2012 Birth Club group that has all the other people who are expecting in January talking on it. It's neat to see what they're writing about, plus some people also post pictures.

Pregnancy Today has the best (i think) week by week description of how the baby is growing, what's happening to you, etc. Even before I was pregnant I read through the whole week by week just to see what I was in for.

It's still kinda crazy to me that there's a baby growing in there but last night i pushed my hand into my belly and thought i could feel the heartbeat. Who knows if that's true. They say you can start to feel bubbles or butterflies around 16 weeks (next week) and that's the baby moving. I'm sure they'll be lots of excitement next week with the wedding!

14 weeks 3 days

 See this bump. Doesn't it look smaller than the picture I took three weeks ago? Why yes, yes it does. The difference? This picture was taken this morning. The other picture was taken in the evening.

In all honesty though, the tum tum is growing little by little. I feel like my belly button is also turning into a sink hole and getting wider. Weird. I know.

I'm still feeling good. We have an appointment next week and i'm hoping I didn't gain too much weight since the last appointment. This week the baby is the size of an apple and next week it's an avocado. I guess it's a small apple if next week is an avocado, unless it's a larger california avacado as opposed to a haas avocado. Be specific babycenter! just kidding.

In other preggo news, there isn't any. Things are going smoothly and I feel great. I have been getting a little bit of throat burn which i attribute to what heartburn would feel like in the throat (but probably a little less intense). Tums take care of it.

So that's all folks. Oh, i do want to comment on the loveliness of the day. Upper 80's and no humidity is THE LIFE. Perfect night to play volleyball!

Funny

I got this in a pregnancy email from babycenter.com

I thought it was cute. That's how i feel in the morning but not in the evening! HA!