15 WEEKS!

Life is busy!We made the decision to move to CA and my parents have graciously offered us part of their house. I had my last day of work on Saturday and we've just been packing, selling, sorting, and throwing away stuff. The moving tuck is reserved, my Mom's plane ticket purchased, and half of our house packed up. I'm a little overwhelmed but it's all coming together now. The plan is for Momma to arrive on Thursday, load the truck on Friday, drive all day Saturday, then unload on Easter Sunday. We're supposed to have a snowstorm later in the week so I hope that doesn't make our travels too difficult.

I've been having a lot of headaches and stomach problems. But the great news is that I seem to have got most of my energy back! I don't feel like I need to lay down or pass out half way through the day any more. I'm surprised when I look at the clock and it's 10pm and I'm not tired yet. The baby must be moving around a lot in there because I'm getting some sharp really uncomofortable pains in nerves I didn't know I had. A few have made me catch my breath.

Our last OB visit with Dr. Sloan was on the 23rd. She was sorry to see us leave but wished us the best. I gained 3 lbs from my last appointment so not too bad I'd say! We didn't get the heart rate measurement because the baby wouldn't hold still enough to keep the doppler in one place to measure the beats per minute. I'm glad to hear I have a very active little one in there. It's funny to me that I still can't feel anything even though there's obviously so much activity in there.

Because we were busy packing and organizing I didn't get to take my weekly picture on Sunday. So after I dug out a camera, this is me at 15 weeks 2 days.

14 WEEKS!

So I'm starting my second week into the second trimester off with a cold. Yuck. The nausea has been much better the last few days though, and I'm very thankful for that. I'm still having lots of sharp pains in my lower abdomen which I assume are growing pains. I dont' feel like I've grown much, if any at all, but I know that babe is in there growing at an alarming rate. I still have to pee all of the time but I don't really expect that to let up. My nails are growing super fast and a bit thicker than before. My skin is very very dry and nothing I do makes it better. I don't know if it's important to note or not, but it seems I've had my first baby dream. I dreamt of a little tiny girl but it was my sister's. I know it wasn't Charlotte becuase she was in it also. So maybe Michelley is going to have a baby girl soon?? :)

We've had crazy weather this past week. It was snowing all one day then 50 degrees two days later. I'm enjoying this break from the cold and am anxious to start working on my flower beds. Steven has been out playing with his airplanes and trucks and soon will be starting his boats. The dogs are loving staying outside during the day instead of in their crates while I'm at work. Spring has arrived!

Since this is a document for posterity I feel I should include what just happened in our government yesterday. Everyone says we're making history as American's but I can't help but feel a sense of apprehension. The House has passed the bill (219 to 212) for Healthcare Reform. It seems that public opinion is split down the middle. We'll see if this is history making or not if it shows up in our children's history books a few years from now. Many say it's going to make everyone's quailty of life better and many say that it's another step toward socialism and more government in our lives. I am not for the plan but it's obviously out of our hands, so we'll see what the future brings. I'm assuming just higher taxes and worse healthcare.

A dear friend told me I should be smiling in these pictures and she's so right. So from here on out you will see a silly toothy grin becuase I am very happy about this baby coming and I should be showing it! :) I guess a little makeup wouldn't kill me either. LoL

13 WEEKS - 2nd Trimester!

Hi everyone,

It's now a few days in to my 13th week! I can't believe we made it to the 2nd trimester! It honestly feel so surreal. There are days where I still can't believe there is a little human swimming around in my body. I'm sure once we know the gender and I can feel movement it will be more real.

This week has been awful. I've been really sick with nausea and headaches and pretty grumpy. I missed 3 days of work and felt like I sucked at life. I'm happy to report though that my kitchen and bathroom have stayed clean through it all. The threat of having to put your face in the toilet will do that to ya. *wink* Being sick physically hasn't helped my emotional state at all. I still cry over anything and everything. I've started having stronger and more frequent anxiety attacks. I don't want to tell my Dr. because medication is the last thing I need. I should probably buy a yoga video so I can breath and relax when I get too stressed or anxious. I seem to have separation anxiety now also. When I'm alone I start freaking out and get really lonely. I'm sure it's just hormone madness but it sure feels like the end of the world when I'm in that moment. I also have a lot of tightness and pain in my lower abdomen and back. I expected my back to hurt as I have a previous injury but I didn't think my belly would hurt so much until it got bigger.

I had my EAGeR appointment at the University of Utah Hospital and the nurse gave me more pictures from our first ultrasound at the LDS Hospital. I haven't gained any weight since my last appointment a month ago so that means I'm still down about 10lbs from my pre-pregnancy weight. I'm pretty happy about that. I needed to lose a little bit before, but hey, if baby wants to help me out I'll take it.

Life is pretty quiet for the most part. We're just waiting until the 1st of April to decide where we're going to live and see what opportunities present themselves. I've picked up some boxes to start packing the things we don't use on a daily basis. I have a feeling we'll be tossing a lot of stuff. I'm worried about Dare, I don't think she'll ajdust very well. My silly co dependant puppy... It looks like we won't have as many fish to move though because they all keep dying! Somehow they got a nasty fungus and it killed of a few cichlids and most of my tropicals. :( It must have been brought in with another fish becuase Steven takes care of those guys better than anything else we own. Well, besides the playstation. Ha!

Here is this week's picture. I think my bump is going down. In case you're wondering, yes, I basically live in that outfit when not at work. Excuse the awful hair and face, I was sick that day.

12 WEEKS!

I'm in the last week of the first trimester!!!!

Symptoms are basically the same. My stomach doesn't look any bigger to me. It just seems to be growing up instead of out. Sleeping is getting more and more uncomfortable. I can still lay on my stomach but it starts to ache. I'm usually a side sleeper but even that is uncomfortable now. So sleep and I have a love-hate relationship right now. I'm looking forward to gaining some energy back soon because I have none at all. I've also noticed that my hair and nails seem to be growing quickly. My skin has been great except for the constant dryness I always have to fight in this climate.

I finally started "The Belly Book" I bought a few weeks ago to document the pregnancy. All that's missing so far are pictures. And in other good news I finally saved up enough money to buy my studio lighting! I'm really excited to jump into learning how to work with strobes. I'll have to get lots of practice in so I can take amazing newborn photos when the little one arrives.

Soon I'll have to start working on a list of baby items we need to purchase and research the best options. I think we're probably going to wait until after the gender scan to purchase nursery items. I'd like to go fairly gender neutral on the big items that can be passed down to future babies, but once Steven finds out the gender I'm sure they'll be no stopping him. So far all we know is the car seat we will buy and that we're going to use cloth diapers. I haven't decided if we're using pre folds and covers or fitteds. I found some good patterns for making cloth diapers and to save a lot of money I'll likely make them myself. I'll be sewing blindly though without a baby to "test" them out on. I forsee an adventure. :)

It's been alternating between snow and rain this last week. I'm excited for spring! My flower beds look sadly neglected. I love watching those dead looking sticks bloom and come back to life. It will probably still be another month or two before that happens though. When we first moved into this house we had a very heavy snow in mid April. Like the saying goes...."if you don't like the weather in Utah, wait 15 minutes".

11 WEEKS!

It's Sunday and I'm making the time to update this blog properly for a change. Symptoms for this week have been much the same as last week. The nausea is virtually non existent now (yay!) and more foods are starting to sound appetizing. I'm able to eat a little more at each meal so I should be putting some weight on soon. The extreme fatigue is still pretty bad but I'm coping with it pretty well. I'm making sure to get to bed early and rest when I feel like I'm about to give out. A new symptom for this week is round ligament pain. Wow, I had no idea how uncomfortable that would be. Some days it's much stronger than others. It mostly feels like a dull aching that gets stronger from time to time right under my belly. I can't really compare it to period cramps since it's not even remotely the same. There have been a few times where I had to stop and breathe for a few seconds. And it hurts really badly when I sneeze. I'm getting more emotional but I think that's mainly due to stress. All of the uncertainty of the near future is wearing on us but God will see us through. It's hard not being able to make plans more than a few weeks at a time. It could all change at any day. But if we move and I have to drop out of the study then I'll be free to choose the home birth that I wanted!

Last Tuesday was my first official OB appointment and Steven went with me. I didn't need a pap since I had one recently with the last pregnancy so she just did the tests required by law like the STD cultures. She tried to find the baby's heartbeat on the Doppler but he/she was being evasive. Which was fine by me since she did a quick ultrasound instead to double check! It was just a very quick ultrasound, enough to see the flicker of the heart and grab a profile shot. She didn't do any measurements or measure how many beats per minute. We did get one picture though! Steven and I were amazed and I really wish we could have watched the screen for longer. She gave me an information packet and explained the optional tests we could have done. But I think we are going to opt out of those tests since any information we found out wouldn't alter our decision on whether to keep the baby or not (and our insurance wouldn't cover anything). I had my blood drawn and that was about it. We will have an anatomy scan up at the hospital around 19 or 20 weeks and find out the gender at that time as well. We'll see her monthly until closer to the end so our next appointment is March 23rd.

Without further delay, here is our little babe at 10 weeks 2 days....



And this is me.

10 WEEKS

I wish I could sit down and update this every Sunday as I originally intended but it seems to be difficult to find the time. It's Tuesday but I'm writing about last week. But what a busy week full of changes it has been!

My symptoms have been pretty much the same. Sore boobs, very tired, some nausea, not much of an appetite, not sleeping well, frequent urination, very thirsty. My tummy is no longer bloated and is now very firm to the touch. It feels like the swelling is pushing upward and not just in my lower abdomen. I think I might have lost some more weight. My pants are all baggy in the rear and leg areas but tight around the middle. My shirts however are all too tight from my growing breasts and belly. I feel very out of porportion. I really need to get a new bra (again) but as soon as I buy one I outgrow it! On Sunday I had a lot of pains in my pelvic area and was starting to get worried. I guess it's just from everything growing and being rearranged in there. It was quite uncomfortable!

Another thing has come back...and that is being teary and emotional over EVERYTHING! I haven't really been angry but little things like seeing the sink full of dishes, or wanting to sleep but can't, or seeing some stray dog makes me tear up. Steven and I decided to get rid of our catfish becuase he's a brat face and picking on everyone in the tank. When he was trying to catch the little guy he got his fin stuck in the net and I was crying the whole 15 mintues it took to get him free. He wasn't hurt and after the trauma wore off (about 3 mintues) he was back up to his old tricks but I insisted on leaving him in there for another day. You should have seen the look on Steven's face like I had lost my senses but I was so adamant about it that he didn't fight me and took the little guy back to the store while I was gone the next day. I have a feeling this is only going to get worse.

The fatigue has taken on a whole new level I never thought possible. I honestly feel like I've had the worst flu of my life for a week and am trying to move around again. I get winded so easily and dizzy. My heart feels like it's working overtime and nausea is always lurking around the corner. I'm eating only a fraction of my usual intake becuase I get full so quickly. But if I let my self go without eating for more than 3 hours I start feeling sick. I feel like I could sleep for a week at any moment but when I try to sleep it's not restful.

Almost everyone at work knows now and another girl said she was a few weeks behind me! It's exciting to have another preggo buddy at work. People kept commenting on my weight loss and how tired I looked so I had to spill the beans. Honestly I was surprised because I felt like I looked fatter! LoL I'm so glad to report that even though I feel awful and have the energy level of a sloth, my work performance has not suffered at all! Even the owner's husband told me what a great job I'm doing and how thankful he is of my hard work and he's not the type to give compliments. Me and the Sales Manager are the only ones who met our sales quotas last month and exceeded them enough to recieve extra pay from the bonus structure. My paychecks have really been helping us out and if I can keep that up we may have enough for some extras around here like a new mattress and strobes for my home studio. Not to mention all of the baby things that will need purchasing. God has been so good to me! I just take things day by day and do my best to not worry about tomorrow.

I bought my first two pregnancy related items the other day. It's called "The Belly Book" and I found it at Barnes and Noble. It's a really cute book to document your pregnancy in with all of fun nuances my body is doing. There's also a place for weekly belly pictures and ultrasound photos. I haven't started it yet as part of me thinks as soon as I start it I'll lose this baby. I wouldn't really call it a superstition becuase I don't believe in that. I'm sure I'll feel much better after my OB appointment this afternoon and seeing the baby moving around. The other thing I bought was my first piece of maternity clothing. A pretty green shirt I found at Old Navy for $5! Woot! And it's nice enough to wear to work. I think in a few short weeks I'll be able to wear it.

Steven is continuing his job search and some recent added stresses have caused that to be kicked into full gear. So far he's had some good leads so we'll see if they turn into anything. We're open to moving anywhere for the right job at the moment so we're praying hard for the right opportunity to present itself. I'm not going to worry until May when our health insurance is up.

I just found out that I can turn my blog into a book for a very reasonable price! I'm so excited! Now I'll be able to keep all of these memories long after this pregnancy is over. I'll have to be more dilligant about writing (and spell checking). :)

Here is the latest belly pic. It's not much bigger but it's changing shape I think.

9 WEEKS!

Sunday was 9 weeks for me and the past week has been pretty uneventful.

I still have huge sore breasts, and ocassional nausea. I'm still very tired and not sleeping well. I wake up often to pee (about 4 times a night) or have really bad dreams. My whole body aches so I can't seem to get comfortable. I don't have as much cm as the previous weeks though. I'm getting little annoying headaches all of the time and can't for the life of me find the huge bottle of Tylenol I know we have. The bloat has gone down tremedously and all of the chub is starting to get firmer. My appetite has picked up some so I should be gaining weight soon. At my last EAGeR appointment I had lost about 9lbs.

So far so good and 9 weeks is a record. I've never made it past 8 before so I'm feeling good about this babe. I still haven't bought a book to record the pregnancy in as I'm afraid as soon as I start it this pregnancy will end. My next OB appointment is on the 23rd and after I see the little one swimming around I'll feel better about buying things.

Here are the pics!