Week 17

Belly Time! My mom mentioned earlier today that she hadn't seen any new pictures in awhile. So since today is Thursday (my official new week day and my weekly picture day) and I didn't post any last week I figured I should do it today.

On a side note, I got my blood drawn last week for the AFP test (finally) and our results came back good! Hooray! Only 19 days until we find out if it's a Pheobe or Pheobo! (some of you Friends fans will get that) :)

Week 17

I weigh exactly the same now as I did on our wedding day. WHY do I look soooo much heavier?!? I know I'm not fat it's just the baby, blah, blah, blah. But I feel soo gross most of the time.

I was not quite ready for Matt to take this picture, so that's why the wierd look on my face.
This is my "mommy view" Notice that you cannot see my feet. LOL!
This is my belly button. This is not what it normally looks like. Ignore the little hole above it, that's where I had it pierced forever ago. I took it out months before the wedding. I think the little hole will always be there, but the hole itself where the post goes through has healed, I can't get the post through there anymore. Anyways, I digress. I have been somewhat obsessive over my belly button as of late. I noticed at just 9 weeks that it was starting to get bigger, and now i can put both my thumbs in it! AND, the top left side of my belly button in the picture there is starting to pop out! Over the next few weeks as I get bigger, I betcha it pops out completely. It's driving me crazy! Of course, Matt loves to play with it, which drives me even more crazy. I know it's a silly little thing.... but it's my belly button! It used to be little and cute. Now it's all big and funny looking :( LOL.

Cartoon of the Week

Hahaha!

Deployed

My oldest brother, Nathan (the one with the buzzed head), was deployed this morning at 10:50am to Afghanistan. He will be gone for 12 months. He is a helicopter mechanic so will be on base most of the time and not out in the field, thank goodness. His wife and 2 little boys (the ones who came to visit us a couple of weekends ago) will be home taking care of things for him and waiting. His wife, Kristy, just recently found out she is expecting again. She is due the beginning of December with their third child, so she will be pregnant and raising both kids (and all 3 for a few months later on) all by herself. I can't think about him being over there for too long or I start getting teary eyed and emotional. I love that he is fighting for our wonderful, beautiful country, but I hate the thought of him getting hurt..... He will probably be ok, but there's always that chance..... I was just hoping that everyone could say a prayer for my brother and his family, and all the troops who are deployed right now as well. We want them all to come home safely!!

The Mayonnaise Jar and Two Cups of Coffee

"When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day is not enough, remember this. A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was. The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was. The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous "yes."
The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed. "Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life.The golf balls are the important things - God, family, children, health, friends, and favorite passions - things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, house, and car. The sand is everything else - the small stuff.
"If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. So, pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. "Take care of the golf balls first - the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand. "One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend."


I have been thinking about this concept for several days. It amazes me how sometimes we get so caught up in little things that they are all we can see. So what if I can't eat sugar? It's really not good for me anyways, my body doesn't need it outside of the natural sugar in fruits and such, and it's going to help me be healthier all around. All I could think about when he first told me was that I wasn't going to be able to eat candy or drink soda. So what? At least I'm healthy and as far as I know my baby is healthy. That's all the matters. That is the BIG PICTURE. The golf balls, if you will. My health and that of my baby and my family. I just want to take a minute and say thank you to a lot of the golf balls in my life.

-My parents, who have always loved me no matter what trouble I may have gotten into. We always had plenty of food, nice houses and nice clothes (even when I was bratty about clothes, you know we all were at some point:) ) They loved me so much, and I can never express fully how much I love them and am grateful to them for everything they have done for me.

- My friends, you all know who you are :) For being my friend and loving me for me, thank you. Life has been so much better with all of you in it.

-My husband. Where do I begin? I love him so much that it physically hurts me sometimes (even when he keeps me up with his snoring, lol). I know we were meant to be together forever and I'm so glad we took the plunge together, lol. I know you are going to be a wonderful daddy and I'm so looking forward to the rest of eternity together. I love you.

-God. For without Him I would have none of these things. Thank You.

I could probably go on forever with all of the people I'd like to thank and tell that I love them. It's important to me that I tell the people in my life that I love them every chance I get, for you never know when will be your last chance. I'm making it my personal mission to look at the golf balls every day and not get bogged down in the sand. And to never forget to take the time to have a cup of (decaf) coffee with a friend :)

To all of you who are reading this:

Thank you for being a part of my life. I love you!

15 week appointment

My appointment didn't go quite as expected this morning. It started off great, he found the heartbeat as soon as he put the doppler on my belly and it was loud and super strong. Yay!! However, he then took a closer look at my chart where the nurse had taken down my weight, blood pressure, etc. I was 145 before being p.g. then only 148 at my appt 4 weeks ago and now up to 154 for a total of 9lbs gained so far. Keep in mind that this is 9lbs over the course of 15 weeks. So less than a lb a week I've gained. But still, in 4 weeks 6 seems like a lot (especially this early). I have no idea how that happened by the way. I have been craving fruit for 3 weeks and my appetite is normal so it's not like I'm pigging out all the time. So my doctor put me on a diet. NO SUGAR. at all. zip. zero. zilch. low carbs, and cut back on the fried foods. Basically a diabetic diet. I am not diabetic but my mom is, and my dad is insulin resistant (a diabtetes precursor) and my mom started out as a gestational diabetic, all of this my doctor knows. He put me on the diet because of my family history, he's just being careful now so we don't have any problems later. I totally understand and I have no problem being healthy for my growing baby. But NO sugar? OMG! Anyone who knows me can tell you I have a massive sweet tooth. I can't have sweet tea, or skittles, or even a Dr. Pepper. So I went grocery shopping today (finally) and got lots of fruit and veggies and some sugar free jello and little snacks like that so I can have something a little sweet when I'm craving it without getting into trouble.

Also, they drew my blood for the AFP test. That's the one where they test you for downs syndrome and spina bifida and something else. Currently we are paying out of pocket for our doctor until June 1st when my new insurance kicks in. After we discussed it, Doc said that we could wait until June 1st to send out for that AFP test (I'd still be within the time range at that point) since we found out it was going to cost about $800. Then about 3 hours later I got a message from his office. I called back and turns out the lady who told him it was going to be $800 was a moron and it's only $160. So that's a little more affordable, lol!! However they had already disposed of my blood from today so I have to go back next week to get blood drawn again. I got poked for nothing :( haha!

We scheduled our big ultrasound!! May 19th is my next appointment and they will do a quick ultrasound for us at that point (he's not even going to charge us for it because he's awesome!) to find out the gender of the baby!!! Then June 1st we're going back in to do the official scan where he looks at all the anatomy and checks and makes sure baby's healthy and everything. Wooo-Hoooo! You've only got 4 more weeks to vote or change your vote on the gender poll people!! I think it's tied right now.

Belly Time!!

This was last week at 14 weeks.

This was yesterday at 15 weeks. I was soooo tired I could barely keep my eyes open, that's why I look not so thrilled.

As Mickaela calls it, the scandalous skin pic. hehehe.

This is my newest trick :) I discovered this about 2 weeks ago. My belly is a great holding place for things! As long as they aren't too heavy of course, lol. Cups, cell phones, and remote controls are all perfect for this.

Hi!

Nothing much going on, I was just bored so I thought I'd chat. We had a lazy day on Easter since we were both actually off of work at the same time. (It's amazing, that never happens.) We went up to Wal*Mart to look at their baby stuff, because I've been dying to go look at everything and do the price-matching and research. We're not going to buy anything ourselves until we're quite a bit further along. I don't know for certain, but I think I'll have at least 2 baby showers, so I want to wait and see what wonderful things our family and friends decide to help us out with. Plus, we have to wait until we know if it's a boy or girl for most stuff if we want to coordinate everything, and it'll just be more fun later I think.

So after that we went over to our friends Dave and Kelli's house. Dave's mom was visiting and so was Kelli's sister and friend, so there were 7 of us plus their 2 kids running around. It was a beautiful day outside so we sat out on their back porch and grilled hamburgers. It was a very fun, relaxing day. Then of course I got sleepy, like I always do, and we headed home to watch a movie and go to bed. Hopefully our schedules coincide more often so we can have more fun days together!

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I work at Chase as a teller. They have particular rules about certain things (for good reason) and in order for me to have a second job I have to actually fill out an application and send it in to Human Resources so they can investigate it and make sure there are no conflicts of interest between Chase and wherever I want mysecond job to me. So whatever, that's fine. Of course, it would have been great if it hadn't taken TWO WEEKS to get the approval back so that I could pick up a shift or 2 at Outback, but whatever. The approval finally came back last week, so since I've been a bit more energetic lately, and we need the money, Matt and I both decided to pick up shifts at OB last night. I worked at Chase from 9:30 to 4:30 then went straight in, and he did the same thing at the liquor store. I didn't get home until about 10:30pm, basically I worked from 9:30am until 10:30 pm. Wow I was tired!! It was a lot of fun and I'm glad I did it though. We made some extra money and it was fun to see alot of the people I used to work with. It was a pretty slow night which was perfect for me since I haven't worked there in about 3 months, so it was easy to kind of ease back into it. But oh yea, by the time I got home I was exhausted. My feet hurt and my back was killing me, whew! I won't be doing that very often I don't think, but once in a while is ok. Matt has been working there at least once every week, usually on Sundays, so he's been a little more in touch with everyone than I have.

So since I had a little bit of extra money, I decided I should go look at maternity clothes. I've needed to get some jeans for a while and am now getting to where I really need them. So I went to Target, Motherhood Maternity, Sears, JC Penney and Wal*Mart. Did you know that most of those stores only carry a couple of things in maternity?? Motherhood obviously has more, but it's also much more expensive. I found 2 pairs of pants I liked. One at Motherhood for $35, and one at Wal*mart for $18. I actually liked the ones at WalMart better and ended up buying those, mostly just because they were so much cheaper. I got a pair of jeans and some cute hot pink flip flops for $24. Cheaper than just the one pair of pants at Motherhood! Yay! I have jeans that actually fit me now and are comfortable. I was looking at shirts too while I was out and about. Maternity shirts are not really my style apparently. Most everything I find labeled maternity is flowy and just big. I want shirts that are snugger and actually show my bump so I don't just look chubby. I found a couple of shirts 2 weeks ago in just a regular clothing store. They were just some basic t-shirts with the rousching on the sides so they were a bit stretchier, but still were snug so they showed my belly without being, you know, gross. Lol! I also like the empire waisted tops (like the pink one in my last picture) so they are snug on top and flowier (yes, I'm making words up) around the middle. I just can't find anything I really, really like. So I'm just going to have to keep looking.

I have my next appointment on Friday morning so I'll give an update then. Plus, I'll have a new picture this week too. That's really all the excitement going on here. I need to go grocery shopping......

Happy Easter!

HAPPY EASTER!!! I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and a wonderful day with family (or however you spend the day :))

The flowers don't have to do with anything, I just thought it was an appropriately springlike picture :)

I need everyone's opinion!

Baby names. Specifically for a girl. Obviously we don't know yet if it's a boy or girl, but we want to have names ready for either when we do find out. We've had our boy's name picked out since day 1, so now I just have to find a girls name that I like. Here is the problem that I need advice on: Every time I find a name I like, I find out about 2 or 3 other people who are naming their kid the same thing or something really close. How much should that bother me? For instance, my favorite name right now for a girl, I just found out a friend/acquaintance of mine is naming her daughter the same thing. My spelling is different, but it's still the same name. Again, how much should that bother me? I still really like the name, and this person isn't really a friend, just someone I run into once in awhile and used to work with, like 4 or 5 years ago. I talked to her about it and she's totally cool with it, she was really sweet about it actually. She said that she thinks it's a beautiful name and she totally gets why I would love it and she would never think I was "Stealing it" lol. I don't really want to spill my names yet, for reasons I'm sure you all understand, but just wondering what you all think as I'm sure most of you have been through the same kind of thing. Help please!!

It's that time again

Ok. I am 13 weeks as of yesterday. Why am I soo stinking huge already?! There's only one baby in there so I guess I'm just going to be humongous. I was kind of happy that I look halfway decent in this picture instead of my usual pajamas and no makeup pics. Tonight was my friend Rachel's birthday so I got dressed up to go out to dinner with all the girls. It was so much fun! I have noticed a trend for people I don't know to come up and rub my belly. It's funny because my friends don't want to because they think it will make me uncomfortable and strangers think it's a great idea apparently, haha! Go figure! I told the girls tonight that they could rub my belly all they wanted but they had to keep the weird people away from me, haha!

Oh and just think, 27 more weeks in which to keep getting bigger...and bigger...and bigger... . .

real quick

Just a quick blerb to say how excited I am that today I officially turned 13 weeks and officially entered my 2nd Trimester!! Woot Woot!! Let the good times roll, lol!!