20 Weeks and some pictures

 

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 20 weeks-- HALFWAY THERE!

Size of baby: Baby H is the size of a banana from the top of his head to his bum. He is about 6 1/2 inches long from his head to his bum and weighs about 10 ounces. I still need to call my OB to get his stats from our appointment last week. I was so excited that I forgot to write everything down. 

Total Weight Gain/Loss: About 7 pounds but it feels like 70!

 Maternity Clothes: I have been wearing my normal pants and normal shirts, but have started using some maternity dresses and sweaters that some friends gave me. I am IN LOVE with dresses. Is there anything more comfortable?!
Gender: Our sweet baby is a BOY! To be honest, I never once thought this baby was a girl. Tyler was in complete agreement until five minutes before the ultrasound. I told him that he was free to think it was a girl, but that he was just wrong. :) Finding out the gender was absolutely the best day of my life so far, other than our wedding day. I know that will be surpassed in about 4 months, but for now, I'll take it!

Movement: This fella is active! I feel him mostly in the morning and when I'm going to sleep. I will feel him a little bit throughout the day, but I think he's sleeping most of the day for now.

Sleep: I'm sleeping very, very well!

What I miss: I haven't thought about sushi much this week! Ha! Other than that-- nothing!

Cravings: I still drink lemonade every morning. I also could eat Mexican food for every meal. 

Symptoms: None currently. I feel really good and am really enjoying being pregnant-- finally!

Best Moment this week: Getting confirmation that we're having a BOY! BEST DAY EVER!

I realize that I dropped off the face of the earth after last Wednesday! We had a busy week with our gender reveal party, saying goodbye to some dear friends with a potluck, and a visit to Chicago to see my brother! 

I've already said it a few times in this post, but getting confirmation that our boy was indeed a boy and a very healthy boy at that was the absolute best thing ever. I know it sounds cliche, but I just wanted to know that the baby was healthy. I am SO THRILLED to be having a little boy though! It has been so fun looking at nursery bedding and dreaming about little boy's clothing. It has also been an extremely powerful thing to pray for my son and to ask the Lord to grow him up to be a mighty man of God. We are so blessed to be walking this road to parenthood and we aren't taking one minute for granted! 

I went a little picture crazy at the ultrasound, but I was so happy that I didn't even care! Our ultrasound tech was also very sweet and didn't mind that I was clicking away.

Our sweet boy's profile! They have a big screen TV where they project the ultrasound image. We have the fun print outs, too!

Right after we found out it's a boy and that he is healthy! So exciting!

We got to tell my parents on Skype! I love Skype so much! We showed my mom and dad a blue sign that said, "It's a Boy!" We called T's parents since they weren't together at the time. After that, we each called our brothers. It was so fun telling everyone!

We had a gender reveal party that night. We had some friends over and we ate chili and cornbread. We put a small baby pin sticker on the bottom of one of the blue plates and told people to pick blue or pink based on what they thought the baby was. They also wore pink or blue depending on their guess! Our friend, Taylor, picked the blue plate. It was a fun night! I got the idea from Libby to use mason jars for glasses and I tied blue and pink gingham ribbon around each one. It wasn't very fancy, but I really enjoyed myself and seeing our friends! It was great celebrating our boy together.

That night, I made my students chocolate chip muffins and put a blue gumball in the middle of each muffin. I got this idea from my friend Katie's sister who is extremely creative! The kids absolutely LOVED it! I just had two days of parent-teacher conferences and almost every single parent told me how excited their child was to find out the baby's gender! Quite a few said that they had to set their alarms early for that morning because their child insisted that they could NOT be late to school because it was baby day! It was so sweet to hear that they are enjoying my pregnancy as much as I am. :) 

Hopefully this incredibly long post makes up for the fact that I've been MIA for a bit. Thank you for being so excited for our sweet boy! I am already so in love and having such a good time carrying him. Life is such a miracle!

I promise I'll be back in action next week! I have another short week with two teacher inservice days on Thursday and Friday. My principal asked me to teach a SMART Board class to my colleagues on Friday and I have got to buckle down and finish my class! In my opinion, it's a lot less pressure than parent-teacher conferences. I'm looking forward to it! 

Have a fantastic weekend!

If you haven't heard...

Nineteen Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights:

 

How Far Along: 19 weeks

Size of baby: Baby H is the size of a large heirloom tomato-- YUM. He/she is 6 inches long from head to bottom and about 8 1/2 ounces.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Still only 5 pounds, which is shocking because I feel like I look huge! I was talking about my weight with some people the other day and when I said I'd only gained 5 pounds, someone in the room actually rolled their eyes! Ha! It actually cracked me up because I thought, "I know, I'm shocked too!"

 Maternity Clothes: No, but I'm still rubber banding my pants and using those Bella Bands all the time. I need to go maternity shopping SOON. 
Gender: WE FIND OUT TODAY! I CAN BARELY STAND IT!

Movement: YES, YES, YES! I have been waiting for that little flutter, but last Friday, I was sitting at my desk and felt what I can only describe as popcorn in my stomach. It took me about 2 more days to realize-- that's the baby! I have felt him/her everyday since. What an INCREDIBLE feeling. I can't describe what it did to my heart and my emotions. There is nothing like feeling your baby move inside you!

Sleep: I'm sleeping very, very well!

What I miss: Still sushi. I already have my sushi order written out for after the baby is born. T's instructions are to cut the cord and leave to get sushi! Ha!

Cravings: Still Simply Lemonade and WAR HEADS. My mom was here this weekend and I saw some at the store. I haven't been able to stop eating them since.

Symptoms: I feel great! I'm not even that tired anymore! Praise You, Lord! I'm serious, the first four months have been rough. I'm so thankful for this pregnancy but it hasn't been super easy!

Best Moment this week: Feeling Chester (nickname of the week) move!

 

I've only got a few minutes, but hopefully I'll be able to do a quick post tonight about the gender! If not, feel free to check my Twitter or Facebook. Hey, the baby just moved! I thought you'd like to know that. We are having a gender reveal party tonight with a bunch of our friends and I am so, so, so excited! I am so thankful that we have an amazing group of people who want to celebrate this fun day with us. We are so incredibly blessed. I got the idea to do a party after hearing about my friend Katie's sister's gender reveal party. I should link up to her post if I can find it. My party won't be amazing like hers, but I am thankful for the fun idea. Thanks, Sarah! :)

 

So, what do YOU think... boy or girl?

 

Much love!

What's for Dinner?

T's boss is in town and is coming for dinner tonight. This is the first time I've had to make a meal for someone I don't know. Add to that the fact that it's his boss, and I'm a little bit nervous. Since I got pregnant, I haven't been great at cooking full meals because I'm so tired and sometimes food still makes me sick. Thankfully, I've been feeling a lot better in the past few weeks so I'm up to the challenge. I've also been cleaning like a maniac, which feels suprisingly good. My house is spotless right now-- I wish it would stay that way! It's amazing how good it feels to accomplish something when you've felt terrible for the better part of four months. Here's what I'm making tonight.

Pioneer Woman's Three Cheese Stuffed Shells with Meaty Tomato Sauce

Oh my word, these called my name when I saw them. I gave Tyler a few choices for the main course and this is the one he chose. I married a good man.

(Photo Credit: The Pioneer Woman)

Spinach Salad with Yellow Pepper and Tomato
I'm making the salad easy on myself. I have a few fun salad dressings that I'm going to offer to spice things up a bit.

Cole's Garlic Bread

I grew up on this garlic bread. I know it's not homemade, but oh, it is SO good. It always reminds me of my brother because he is obsessed with it.

Oven Roasted Asparagus

Recently, I received a beautiful Tastebook that my girlfriends and I put together. I actually have a blog post brewing about the book, but my sweet friend, Katie, put this in there. We obviously both like Pioneer Woman recipes! I am so excited to try it because I love asparagus in anything. Love you, Katie!

(Photo Credit: The Pioneer Woman)

Croissant Pudding

This is another recipe from our Tastebook from my friend, Emily! I am really lucky to have amazing girlfriends who are excellent cooks and bakers. We like to eat well and this is a great recipe.

I am excited about my dinner! I love having people over and serving them good food in my home. Say a little prayer for me this evening; I'm really hoping everything turns out well. If not, well, at least I'll have a good story! Ha! Mostly, I'm thankful for a beautiful home and a hard working husband with an excellent job that makes it possible for me to do my job (until June a teacher and then just a momma!). It's such a pleasure to be his wife and to serve him in this way. I'm very blessed! Have a great evening!

18 Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 18 weeks

Size of baby: Baby H is the size of a bell pepper (my favorite!). He/she is 5 1/2 inches long and about 7 ounces. Little peanut!

Total Weight Gain/Loss: 5 pounds as of this morning and I am FEELING IT.

Maternity Clothes: No, but I am definitely rubber banding my pants and using those Bella Bands all the time. I need to get some cute maternity stuff but WHERE? Moms, help a sister out.
Gender: We find out next Wednesday! Only one more update before we know this information. :)

Movement: Baby Center says that the baby is busy flexing it's arms and legs. I've felt some weird stuff but still nothing that I've been able to conclusively pinpoint as the baby.

Sleep: I'm getting great sleep, but I go to bed really early... around 9:00 pm.

What I miss: Still sushi... always sushi.

Cravings: Juice-- lots of it and any kind without pulp. I loooove Simply Lemonade.

Symptoms: I've only thrown up once in the last 2 weeks! HOORAY!

Best Moment this week: Registering and going to our first birth class. Both were so much fun!

We registered on Sunday at Target and Babies R' Us. We ended up finishing the registry online because some of the items we wanted weren't in stock. My friend, Emily, went with us since she had her first baby in April. She was extremely helpful, telling us what she loved and what she didn't use as much. Twitter and Facebook were also great places to get feedback on things that worked for different people. We wanted to register before we know what we're having so that we weren't super partial to girl or boy things-- we need these things to last! I'm really pleased with the registry and what is great is that you can add or take away from them online! Tyler got to man the registry "gun", so he was a happy camper. This was before we left to meet Em at Target! I was a little more excited than Tyler, but I think that's to be expected. :)

We also started our birth class on Monday nights. We are going to be having the baby in a hospital with a doctor but using the Bradley Method. The Bradley Method is basically husband coached child birth without any drugs or interventions. Obviously, if the baby or I were in immediate danger, we won't hesitate to get it out as quickly as possible, but other than an emergency situation, we won't have any interventions in this birth. You can tell me I'm crazy (don't worry, plenty of people already have), but I know that this is best for us and our family. Every mother is entitled to have the type of birth that she wants and feels is best for her baby-- me included! I'm thrilled about our birth class and our teacher, Tracy. She was Dana's Bradley teacher and came very highly recommended. Tracy had all four of her children using the Bradley method and countless others have too, so I know it can be done! The pros of having a natural birth far outweigh the cons of all the pain. All in all, I'm really looking forward to the birth of this baby. I know it will HURT, but in the end I'll be holding my sweet baby and it will all be worth it!

Oh, and before I forget, my darling little Malachi turns one today! I can't believe it's been a year since this boy came into the world. I absolutely adore this little man and he makes me so excited to be a momma. Happy birthday, sweet boy! I love you!

(Please excuse the poor quality of this cell phone picture, but it's one of my favorites!)

Happy Wednesday!

Sixteen and Seventeen Weeks

I am a bad pregnant blogger. I have been thinking for weeks now that I need to document my week to week progress on the blog but just haven't had a chance. Well, I have some time to myself this week, so I am going to start and continue. I also need to pacify some of my girlfriends (cough, Mandy, cough) with some belly pictures. I am going to cram my sixteen and seventeen week post into one, but from now on, I will do one every week. Oh, and just to be clear, there will be NO bare belly shots on this blog. No judgement if you like those or take them yourself. They just aren't for me. Okay, with all that being said, here is the debut of my first update!

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 16, then 17 Weeks

Size of baby: Baby H* was the size of an avocado and now is the size of a turnip! He/she weighs about 5 ounces and is about 5 inches long.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: About 4 pounds but it looks like a lot more!

Maternity Clothes: No, but I am definitely rubber banding my pants and using those Bella Bands more often than not!
Gender: We will find out on October 13! We both feel rather strongly that it is a particular gender. If you ask me, I'll tell you!
Movement: Not yet, but I'm waiting patiently! Or not so patiently...

Sleep: I'm getting great sleep, but I go to bed really early... around 9:00 pm.

What I miss: Sushi, sushi, sushi! And I want Jimmy John's a lot but no processed meat!

Cravings: Juice-- lots of it and any kind without pulp.

Symptoms: In the last week, my nausea has left me. I'm hoping that it's not just a stage but something that I am really, truly over! I'm still absolutely exhausted though.

Best Moment this week: Going to a banquet for the school I grew up at and seeing so many people who are so, so excited for this baby!

When you are having a baby, it is amazing to see the people who come out of the woodwork-- good and bad, if you can believe that. Luckily, I have experienced the majority of the good kind. With the exception of only a few people who have been a bit ugly to me, the grand majority of people can't even begin to express how happy they are for us and how this will change our life for the better! It's definitely been a choice not to let the haters get me down. I've also been learning a lot about choices in general lately. My behavior and attitude both boil down to the choice that I have to make-- no one else. And with that, I will step off my soap box.

 

This past weekend, T and I went home and had the privilege of attending a banquet for the school I grew up in. It was such a delight because not only did I get to spend the evening with two of my favorite Michigan girls, Carrie and Kate (pictured below), but I got to see so many people who are so excited for us and who have known me since I was a little bitty girl! I even got to see my sixth grade teacher whom I haven't seen for probably at least 10-12 years.

 

 

Overall, it was a fantastic weekend. The banquet topped off a wonderful Saturday that was spent at a Mom2Mom sale, then at the cider mill and the National Coney Island, and followed by a nap before getting ready to go to our evening festivities. My parents know my love language-- food. All I wanted was some Yates apple cider and plain donuts and then a coney. Bless their hearts. They hauled us all the way around town to make PG (pregnant girl) happy and they truly did. It was fantastic! The one thing about living far from home is that you really get to go home from time to time and that makes it all the more special. 

 

I hope you're having a great week!

 

*Not the first initial of the baby's name. We are just calling it that until it is born. :)

Thankful

I cannot tell you how much all of your sweet comments, Tweets, text messages, and phone calls meant to me. I was so excited to go public with this news and you all made it so much more special! I am thrilled and a little nervous about where this new path in life is going to take me and Tyler, but I do know that I wouldn't want to be doing anything else right now other than preparing to be a momma.

I promise to update you on a regular basis now that we've told you all about the baby. It was hard to post this summer because I wanted to share so badly combined with the fact that I was so tired and sick. I'm feeling better but still not great. It's quite worth it, though!

We had an appointment with my new doctor a week or so ago and got to see the baby for the first time. All I can say is this-- there is nothing like it. I can't put it into words, so I won't even try, but it was indeed amazing and the coolest thing I have ever seen.

I have a lot more to say and some questions to answer, but that's going to have to wait for next week. Tonight, we are headed out to watch two special friends get married on Saturday. The neatest thing is that one of them is a sweet girlfriend from college and she is marrying a close friend of mine from grade school, middle school, and high school. And what I find even better is that they met at our wedding. It just fills me with so much joy to see how intricately God brought them together after waiting for that perfect person. Chad and T, we are so, so, so thrilled for you! It is a special wedding for so many reasons, but I am especially excited because it brings together my friends from home and my friends from college! I'll be spending the better part of tomorrow with most of my best friends-- I can't wait. I may be more excited then the bride. ;)

Again, thank you for everything you all have done to remind us how blessed we are to be in this process of becoming parents. God has been so good to us! We love you all!