Amazing how things change

So my best friend just called me for the first time since April. Of course, it's not her fault, she's been in BOOTCAMP for the last 2 months!! Lindsey Heberling (some of you may remember her as Lindsey Murray) graduates on Thursday from basic training and today was one of the first days she was allowed to use her phone. After that she is reporting to Fort Ruckers, Alabama for AIT training in flight operations. While we were talking it just struck how we are both in such different places.

One year ago: Matt and I were engaged, not really even thinking about kids yet and hadn't even moved into this house yet. Lindsey and Max (her husband) were living life like normal and She was getting ready to fly down here to be in my wedding.

Now: I'm married and pregnant and she is graduating bootcamp! When she gets back she is going to be able to finish her degree and get a better job. I can't believe she is in the military now! I'm just so proud of her and everything she has accomplished. God knows I couldn't have gotten through bootcamp. Lindsey, I know it will be a long time until you read this, if you ever get to, but I want you to know that I love you and I am so proud of you!! Congratulations!!!

It just amazes me how fast things change, 2 years ago I was living in Chicago, Matt and I weren't even dating yet and I think Max (lindsey's husband) had just gotten back from being deployed, if he was back at all. Max has been deployed 3 times now.

Do you ever look back and think about what you were doing a year ago? I would like everyone's comments about something they were doing a year ago, or something they are doing now that they couldn't have envisioned a year ago, or even 2 years ago! I wanna hear everyone's stories!

Love you Lindz! Can't wait to hear from you again, and good luck with training!!

A Few More

I forgot these on my last post cause I was getting sleepy :)

Matt kept telling me that I don't look pregnant from the back but I didn't believe him so I made him take a picture. My waist isn't quite as little as before, but it's still there!! Hopefully I'll be able to get back to normal after Victor is born.

From the front.

We decided to give Victor a music lesson :) Don't worry, the volume wasn't up very loud. Sometimes when I'm listening to music Victor will start kicking me so we were trying to get him excited. We started out with some classical and then switched to a little bit of country. If he was kicking it wasn't hard enough for me to feel it so we finally gave up, haha! of course, he was holding my drink for me. Diet Sunkist is probably my one craving right now. I go through a 12 pack every couple of days. Victor makes a convenient shelf for holding things :) Luckily he's not big enough yet to kick them off!

More Pictures

It's Thursday, so belly pic day! Officially 25 weeks today, so 15 weeks left if I go the full 40. We're praying for a few weeks early though! If you look closely you can see my belly button through my shirt. It's easier to see on facebook where it's bigger.

My scandalous skin pic. Ignore the silly face, haha!

There's my belly button!! You can see it through my shirts, a girl at worked poked it the other day, haha.

Can you see the faint linea nigra? I just noticed it myself a week or two ago. I'm hoping it won't get much darker! And how many people can say that they've seen the inside of their belly button?

A friend of ours has offered to do some pregnancy photos for us later on, probably in August. I'm really excited! I feel huge and gross most of the time but I want pictures of everything. It all goes by so fast, I want to remember everything!! I got out one of our newborn size diapers last night to look at. I can't believe how small they are! for those who haven't had any experience with diapers, it's the size of my hand! and my hands are little, my ring size is 4 1/2. I can't believe how small he's going to be .... but at the same time I can't believe there's going to be an 8lb (on average) baby in my belly!

My mom and dad got us a gift for the baby, they got us the stroller/carseat combo and the extra carseat base for Matt's car. I'm sooo excited!! I love it! Thank you so much mom and dad!! We got it yesterday and we immediately put it together and started playing it. It was fun playing with all the buttons and figuring out how to fold it up (with the click of 1 button, so cool!) and how to move everything around. I love baby stuff! I can't wait till we have more and we get his room cleaned out so we can really put it together.

Whoa nesting! long post....

I have totally been nesting! Matt and I had been talking about how to rearrange things to get the baby's room ready and make the house a little more baby friendly. One of our better ideas, and I think Matt actually came up with it, had to do with our dining room. Up till now, we've had our cool, plastic, outdoor patio furniture serving as our dining room table. And we NEVER use it for anything other than piling stuff on that we don't want to put away. So we decided to take it apart and store it in our attic storage area and move our computer desk downstairs to get it out of Victor's room. We also have a hutch that my grandparents gave us that is next to the desk in the same room. I put a shelf up above the desk as well to give us some extra storage room. We are still moving stuff around a bit and still organizing, but it looks waay better than it did!

Then, I had some old white wood picture frames laying around. I had gotten them for free from Ann Taylor Loft when I worked there 2 years ago, and had just never done anything with them. So I stained them a darker color so they would match our other things and stand away from the walls a bit since we can't paint (the joys of renting).
This is a shot of our living room, kind of, just to show you the one frame I put up in there. I put wedding photos in both of them.

I put the other up in our kitchen. We have this blank wall that I was dying to put something on, so I put the frame up in there, and then decided it needed some shelves so I put those up too. Here is the finished product of that wall.

This is the Before shot of our living room wall above our entertainment center. We had christmas cards hanging here still for the longest time and I just took those down, haha!

This is what it looks like now that I put up shelves. I love shelves! Yes, they are not even, I did that on purpose, lol.

This is the wall above our couch on the opposite wall. I finally put up the wedding pictures that we got months ago. This wall is still a work in progress though, I think it needs a shelf or something....any ideas?

And this is the window in our living room. I just got matt to put up the curtain rod (that I found at big lots for $7) and the curtain ($5) last night. It's amazing how different our living room looks now with just that one added touch.

The sad thing is that we have lived here for a whole year, and I'm just now doing these things. For awhile I was scared of putting too many holes in the walls and then we weren't sure if we were going to be moving or not, and now that I know we are going to be here for at least another year I'm ready to make it look like we actually live here, haha! I figure we can always putty up the walls before we leave, no biggie.

We got our dryer fixed finally too! For those of you who don't know the story, we bought our washer and dryer off some friends about a year and a half ago when we moved in together. She even told me when we bought them that the dryer might need a new heating element soon. We didn't think anything of it cause it worked, you just had to run it a couple of times to get everything all the way dry. Well, a couple of months ago it quit drying completely. I eventually looked up the part we (thought) we needed from the Sears website and Matt picked it up. We tried putting it in, and at first were not successful. We finally got it in and put back together and it still was not working. We were very, very not happy.

We had been without a dryer for about a month by this time and had been taking our laundry to a friends house to do. Every now and again I would wash a few work clothes at home and then just hang them up in the bathroom to dry. Problem was, if I didn't do it early enough they wouldn't be dry by the next morning. Anyway, as you can imagine, this was getting very annoying. We finally figured out that it was the thermostat on our dryer that was busted. I went and picked up the right part on Saturday, Matt installed it that night and Presto!! Our dryer works again!! 2 months without being able to wash clothes in your own home will make you very grateful, haha. Of course, our power bills and water bills went way down when we weren't doing laundry, but I'd rather be able to wash my clothes!!

So I've been doing laundry all day, hooray. Plus I dusted everything I could get my hands on and scrubbed the kitchen counters and the stove top. Matt woke up when I was putting the sheves up above our entertainment center and he started helping me clean. He helped me move all the furniture in the living room so we could vacuum under everything and helped me fold the laundry. I have the bestest hubby :) !! Then after he went to work at Outback and I took my nap, I went grocery shopping at Wal*mart. I got a clorox ready mop (cheaper than a swiffer wet jet for the same thing ) so I could more easily mop my floors. AND, I bought our first pack of diapers :) I figure we'll start picking up a pack everytime we go grocery shopping and then we won't have to buy a ton all at once. I'm only buying a couple packs of newborn size and then getting bigger ones. I figure that we can always buy more small ones, but if we have too many you can't really take them back.

Also I picked up some of those cool storage bags that you vacuum all the air out of and they are easier to store, they are sooooo FREAKING cool!!! I only got 2 of them because I wanted to see if they would work the way I wanted them too, and now I am going to have to buy a bunch more, they are sooo great!!

So our home looks like a home now and while I still have a few things I want to do, I feel better knowing that some things are already done. I have faith that things will get done in time and I love the way our house looks when it's clean and put together!!!

Oh, my doctor's appointment! I had my 24 week appointment on Wednesday morning. The ultrasound our doc did last month was a courtesy one since we didn't have insurance yet, so now that we have insurance, he did another one this time so he could bill it to them, yay! Victor is up to 1lb 10oz, almost 2lbs already!! Still definitely a boy too! He's looking perfectly healthy so far, yay! I did recieve a bit of unpleasant news though. Since I am having problems with back pain and sciatica, making it very difficult to stand, walk or sit for long (pretty much anything, lol) he recommended that I not travel until I'm feeling better. So I will not be traveling with Matt to his parents place for their 4th of July party, I also can't travel to see my sister-in-law like I wanted to at some point next month. While I'm sad that I won't be seeing family, I'm also relieved because sitting in a car for 4-6 hours at a time really sounds like torture right now. I'll miss you guys! But I'll see you some other time, I promise!

I'll be doing my glucose tolerance test at my next appointment, so hopefully all my not eating sugar will have a beneficial effect and my results will be good. I only gained 3 lbs at this appointment so I'm thrilled about that. All in all, my appointment went very well, I'm measuring right where I should be (well, a week ahead of my official due date, whatever) and my BP is good. Victor is consistently measuring 10 days ahead and I measured a week ahead too, but he won't change my due date because he said it doesn't really matter. Victor will come when he comes. Although my doc did say "There's no way you'll go till then, I'm guessing you'll deliver in September." I had pretty much figured the same thing, but I guess you never know!

Anniversary, Cincinnati, and belly

The 6th of this month marked our 9 month anniversary! Woohoo! I was kind of laughing, 9 months married and about 6 months pregnant, that's the way to do it, lol! Above is the cake I made to celebrate. The cake at our wedding was Funfetti so I made a funfetti cake to celebrate and it was absolutely delicious!!! We finished the whole thing in 3 days I think.

Happy 9 months babe!!!

This past weekend Matt and I went to Cincinnati to visit his family for his brother Michael's birthday party. It was really nice seeing everyone and fun to sit by the pool and relax. It was slightly frustrating at times just because nobody wanted to accidently hurt me so they didn't really want me to play anything, then whenever I wanted to get in the pool people would jump in and start horsing around so I couldn't do that, and I can't get in the hot tub..... so basically I just sat by the pool reading all day and watching everyone get drunk. Matt would come over occasionally and say, "I'm sorry you can't do anything babe," which of course just made me think about it more, so that didn't help, lol. It was definitely entertaining at times, but will be much more fun once I'm not pregnant anymore.

Matt's family bought us a crib for Victor! And it converts into a regular size bed later on so that will be very helpful. Thanks guys!

24 weeks pregnant. Maybe closer to 26 weeks though if my doc will change my due date at my appt in the morning. We are getting another ultrasound and if Victor is still measuring 10 days ahead (if not more) I have a pretty good feeling he'll bump it up a bit, cause that's quite a difference. I had just got home from work and didn't feel like waiting for Matt to get home to take a pic so I took it myself! I'm starting to seriously feel huge and I can tell when I've beena t work too long cause my belly starts to ache and my back starts twitching. Plus I think my feet are stretching cause my shoes are hurting my feet. The carpal tunnel in my hand is getting a bit worse, but I've been sleeping with a wrist brace on so that seems to help with the tingling and the achiness.

But on the bright side Victor is moving around much more than before. I still don't feel a thing on my right side (I think that's where my placenta is) but I feel him punching me all over on the left. I kind of feel like I'm missing out a bit since my placenta is in the way of me feeling him more, but I know as he gets bigger I'll be able to feel more. Matt has felt him kick twice now. He's so cute! He gets all excited and rubs my belly even more. I love feeling Victor move more than anything!! I can't wait for our appointment in the morning, I love ultrasounds!!

Weekend Fun

Random Picture of my belly button from my view taken a few days ago, it's actually out more now. It pops out more and more every day, soon it will be completely out, not just a little bit. Matt got to feel Vic kick the other day! I've been feeling him kick a bit more lately and one night he was kicking more than usual and Matt kept laying his hand on my belly. He was upset cause he said he couldn't feel it. I thought he was nuts because Vic was moving my belly every time he kicked me. I grabbed his hand again and was like "are you sure you can't feel that?" He said "that right there?" I said, "yea!" "that's him?" he said. "Yea!" "Oh I just thought that was your stomach!" hahaha! Then he got super excited and started kissing me and rubbing my belly even more. It was soo cute!

We had a fun weekend! On Saturday I worked in the morning, then when I got home there were 2 boxes of stuff waiting for me in the living room! Chase has a fantastic work/life program and they have several different types of perks from different programs. I called to inquire about their different programs and they sent me 2 kits, one for their Lactation program and the other for their prenatal care program. In the Lactation kit, there was a cd/rom labeled, Breastfeeding, what to know BEFORE you give birth. Also free breastmilk storage bags, nursing pads (for bra) and nipple cream. Also, several pamphlets about their Mothers at Work program for helping new mothers at work continue to breastfeed.

Now remember, all this stuff is FREE! In the prenatal kit, there was a Onsie, a bib, a mini-cooler for bottles and snacks, a dozen more pamphlets (on stuff like finding a pediatrian for your child, childcare, birthing options, etc) and the coolest thing, 2 books; Dr. Spocks Complete Guide to Baby and Childcare and The Mayo Clinic Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy. I mean, these are books you can get at the bookstore for like, $15 and I got them for FREE!!! I love working for Chase, they have some of the coolest perks.

My boss was asking me the other day when I thought I'd be leaving and coming back. I told her that I planned on working right up until I went into the hospital so that I could mazimize my time at home with Vic. Then as for how long I will be gone depends on them. Since I will not have been there for 1 year yet when I have Vic, I will not qualify for FMLA which guaruntees 12 weeks of leave, or Paid Parental Leave, which guarantees paid time for at least 6 weeks I think? Anyways, I'll have to take all my vacation/sick/personal time and that will equal about 3 weeks of paid time for me. After that I wasn't sure what was going to happen. My boss had told me that he would approve additional time off for me but I was afraid that without a paycheck our health benefits would lapse. Turns out, as long as my leave is approved by my manager and HR, they will just send me a bill each month for our portion of the benefits. So I can take 12 weeks (if we can afford it) and we won't lose our benefits!!! Funny thing is, when I asked my boss (the big boss, the branch manger) he said he had no problem with me taking 12 weeks, he said that he figured I would want to take that long (he has no kids). Our assistant branch manager, (a woman with 2 kids of her own) had said she thought I was only taking 6 weeks and gave me the look of death when I told her that the BM cleared me for 12 weeks. I was like, Whoa! What is this? She should know better than him how hard it is to have a newborn at home and have to go back to work too quickly. Geez, lol.

Anyways, way off topic there, After I got my fun boxes o' stuff, I ended up going to a wedding with my friend Rachel. Matt was at work all night until about 10:30. It was her boyfriends brothers wedding and since her boyfriend was best man and going to be busy the whole time, she wanted someone to hang out with, so I was her date :) I got all dressed up and of course, forgot to take pictures, even though I purposely took my camera with me. It's always fun and meaningful watching 2 people exchange their vows of love for one another. Then I came home and promptly fell asleep, haha! I was exhausted. Matt got home from work and then left to go hang out with some of his old friends. His old summer baseball league from Cinncinnati was in town playing a tournament and so he was hanging out with his old coaches.

Sunday morning we got up and went to watch them play. It was alot of fun meeting the guys he used to play with and one of the coaches was actually someone we went to UC with, so it was great seeing him too. Of course, it was very sunny outside. Very sunny, and hot. And guess who forgot to put on sunblock? that's right, ME! And since I have not been allowed to go tanning, I fried like an egg on a skillet. I'm still in pain, I can barely move my arms because my shoulders are so sore.

Later that evening Matt had his own baseball game to play in. He plays in the "old man" league, haha! It was his first time playing in awhile, so he was super sore afterwards. I only got a couple of pictures before the battery died on my camera.

My little pitcher! I kept trying to get him mid-pitch, but my camera was acting up and I kept getting him either right before or right after, lol and then it died. They won both games though! Way to go babe!

The funniest part was after he got home from the game while we were both getting ready for bed. Since he hasn't played for awhile, he was pretty sore already when he got home and thinks he pulled his butt muscle, haha! I actually had to help him get into the shower cause he was having trouble standing on one leg. Then as we were both trying to get comfortable in bed, I was in pain from my sunburn, plus general uncomfortableness just from being pregnant, he was in pain in his shoulder and his leg. We were both moaning and groaning in pain and then we just started busting out laughing because we were so pathetic. Once we got over the worst of the hysterical laughter, we both passed out and slept very soundly until our alarms went off this morning (waaaay too early I might add). And now we're back to work! Fun stuff, right?