Monday, June 23, 2014

Bump Date | 4 - 11 Weeks


I started keeping track of how I was feeling each week the Monday after I found out we were expecting. I really just want to remember every little thing about this pregnancy. I found out I was expecting at 4 weeks and 2 days. Since we couldn't share the good news right away I grouped each of these together from week 4 to 11. It's a lot but I'm already loving looking back on these past weeks and remembering what the first weeks were like!

This is going to be incredibly long and detailed. Read at your own risk... :)


|Week 4| May 4-10


How Far Along? Four weeks, three days! Baby M is due January 10, 2015!
Size of Baby: A teeny tiny little poppy seed. It is hard to believe that there's a tiny little ball of cells in there that is going to grow into our sweet baby. It's so weird.
Gender: No idea! I'll be anxiously waiting a few more months to answer that question.
Weight Gain: I haven't stepped on a scale yet

Stretch Marks:  Definitely not yet. I'm pretty sure it's not in my genes since my mom doesn't have any and my sister hasn't had any with her pregnancy so far. Hoping so anyway!
Maternity Clothes: No way... I tend to live in maxi dresses in the spring and summer time though and I have a feeling this summer won't be much different.
Nursery: The room that will be the nursery has been empty and waiting for over a year now. And by empty, I really mean full of leftover wedding stuff, wrapping paper, photos I keep meaning to frame, miscellaneous craft supplies, and all sorts of other crap. I spent the morning on Sunday throwing stuff away and organizing so that we can eventually start turning the nursery into a NURSERY!
Purchases: Nothing major yet. I've been slowly collecting little bits and pieces of clothes and books over the last year and keeping them in the nursery room. The Friday before I found out I bought a little baby Oakland A's shirt on clearance at Old Navy. The baby pretty much already has a stock pile of A's stuff. :)

Movement: Nothing, obviously, but I can't wait!
Symptoms: "the girls" are on fire. Seriously, stabbing pains. The week before I found out was a doozy. I cried Tuesday night when I saw Nick the minute I walked in the door from work... then I spent the night violently exorcist style barfing. I cried again when I got to work the next morning for no reason at all and ended up going home. This was all pre-pregnancy test so I had no idea what was going on and just thought I was going crazy. Since then I've been feeling great! A little emotional definitely... but great and over the moon happy!

Food Aversions & Morning Sickness:  Nothing really yet but I don't have much of an appetite. I'm  not a big breakfast person, especially on week days but I'm making a real effort to always eat something in the morning. I'm starving around lunch time and not hungry at all in the evenings. Forcing myself to eat though.
Sleep: SO tired.
Cravings: Nothing yet
What I Miss: I started thinking this morning about how much I'm going to miss my favorite deli sandwiches. I know I can find plenty of delicious items to replace them with but now all I can think about is a turkey & cheese sandwich on a sweet roll with pickles and avocado. Mmmmmmm
Best Moment of This Week: Watching my pregnancy test turn positive and telling Nick. Seriously, it was surreal. Also, telling our families the exciting news!
Looking Forward To: Every. Single. Thing.

Workouts: None this week. But definitely planning to be back on the treadmill next week.


|Week 5| May 11-17


How Far Along? 5 Weeks
Size of Baby: An orange seed. Rumor has it, the little babe has a tail and is starting to form teeny little ears and eyes this week!
Gender: No idea
Weight Gain: Still haven't stepped on a scale. I need to do that soon so I can keep track.

Stretch Marks: Nope but I did invest in some Shea Butter from Whole Foods this week and already started using it after I get out of the shower. Anything helps right?
Maternity Clothes: Nope but I have been searching Zulily for some pieces that I like. I don't want to buy anything just yet... but I think a nice pair of maternity jeans and leggings are in my near future. 
Nursery: Nothing new to report

Purchases: Nick picked up some cute books :)
Movement:  No Sir
Symptoms: This week has actually been pretty great! I'm hitting a wall around 2:00-3:00 and ready for bed really early. My boobs have doubled in size and hurt so bad.
 
Sleep: I'm waking up every single night between 3:30 and 4:30 to shuffle to the bathroom but I've able to fall back asleep pretty quickly.... sometimes.  
Cravings: Nothing yet.

Food Aversions & Morning Sickness: No specific food aversions but I am noticing that I've been incredibly annoyed by any food smells and food commercials. Unless I'm eating it, I don't want to smell it or see it. It doesn't make me sick, I just don't like it.
No nausea really either, as long as I keep my stomach full. As soon as I go more than an hour or two between meals or snacks I start feeling a little queasy. The problem is that the only time I ever really feel hungry is around lunch time. The rest of the day I just have to keep reminding myself to eat.
What I Miss: I would have been missing some Champs at Mother's Day brunch but I found the FRE makes a delightful, alcohol removed sparkling wine. I had a glass or two and couldn't even tell the difference! Crisis averted.
Best Moment of This Week: Celebrating Mother's Day with our sweet moms! Also, Disneyland! Being a pregnant lady at Disney definitely has it's challenges, especially considering my above mentioned annoyance with other people's food. Those giant turkey legs? Bleh.
Looking Forward To: Everything!

Workouts: A couple miles on the treadmill, and endless miles at Disneyland & California Adventure. Does getting up and down from my pool chair at the hotel to go to the bathroom 100 times count?



|Week 6| May 18 -24


How Far Along? 6 Weeks, 3 Days. This week I'm officially half way through my first trimester!
Size of Baby: A little sweet pea
Gender: No idea.
Weight Gain: down two!

Stretch Marks: No Sir! I have been using my shea butter though and just bought some Bio Oil that I've been using a couple times a week before bed. I'm mostly concerned about my boobs at this point. I officially can't even squeeze into any of my bras anymore. I need to go shopping!
Maternity Clothes: Nope, but always looking on Zulily. I haven't found anything that I love yet.
Nursery: Haven't stepped foot in there in at least a week. I'm trying really hard to stay out of there so that the room doesn't turn into another storage disaster.

Purchases: Nothing this week...
Movement:  Won't be able to answer this one for a while.
Symptoms: Overall I am feeling really, really good. Still hitting that wall right around 2:00. I've been tempted a few times to sneak away from my desk in the afternoon and a take a nap in my car in the parking garage. I haven't gone for it yet but I think I'm going to put a pillow and blanket in the backseat just in case. I'm consistently tired enough to fall asleep at 9:30 and I slept a solid ten and a half hours on Sunday night when we got home from Disneyland.
Sleep: See above. Doing pretty good! Still waking up to pee around 3:30 every night.
Cravings: Nothing specific. I successfully ate my way through California Adventure and Disneyland this last weekend though. For every ride I had to wait for the family to go on, I got myself a snack :)

Food Aversions & Morning Sickness:  Still nothing! Feeling pretty lucky to not have any nausea yet!
What I Miss: I am missing my morning coffee. I haven't cut it out completely but I'm only allowing it for a treat which hardly ever happens.Otherwise I'm sticking to tea and chai just to keep the caffeine headaches away.
 
Best Moment of This Week: Telling all of our sweet friends! It's still early but we have some events coming up with our groups of friends and it was just easier to share the news sooner rather than later. The outpouring of love from our friends has been absolutely amazing. I will never forget how wonderful this feels. We are so blessed, and this baby is already so loved!
Looking Forward To: Spending these next 7 1/2 months growing this baby. It is such an amazing and special feeling knowing that I am the only person on earth that gets to have this time with this baby we made.

Workout: Not doing so good in this department. I got in one elliptical workout on Thursday.


|Week 7| May 25 -31


How Far Along? 7 weeks
Size of Baby: A blueberry
Gender: No idea
Weight Gain: Down two pounds

Stretch Marks: Nothing but always making sure to lotion up after showers
Maternity Clothes: Nope
Nursery: Nothin'

Purchases: Nothin'
Movement:  Nope
Symptoms: Holy tired fest. I am seriously SO tired I can't even do life right now. I cannot wait to get my energy back.
Sleep: All over the place. I'm falling asleep super early and then up for 30 minutes to an hour in the middle of the night at least once and then falling back asleep way past when my alarm goes off.
Cravings: It's not even possible to crave anything at this point. I pretty much have to decide on the only thing that doesn't make me gag and try to force it down. The problem is that I can pretty much only eat something once. Once I've eaten it the idea of that thing makes me so sick. I'm running out of the things to eat!

Food Aversions & Morning Sickness:  Oh goodness. Morning sickness and food aversions came on with a vengeance this week. I woke up and RAN to the toilet on the first morning of week 7. Nothing, and I mean nothing sounds appetizing. Early in the week I picked a dinner I really wanted to eat the other night, Nick made everything and put my whole plate together and then couldn't even eat a bite of it. My annoyance with other people's food and food smells is not such much of an annoyance anymore... it's turned into real sickness. I have to leave my office around lunch time before I turn green from the smells of everyone microwaving their lunches in the kitchen. I'm not going to be sad when this part of this pregnancy is over.
What I Miss: Enjoying food!
Best Moment of This Week: Seeing my dad! He came down to visit over the weekend with my step mom and we had such a wonderful, relaxing time. We barbequed with my in-laws on Saturday and pretty much spent the rest of the weekend lounging and napping. Also, my sweet cousin had the most beautiful wedding. It was so much fun to see the family and share the news with everyone we hadn't seen yet!
Looking Forward To: Wanting to eat again

Workout: Yea right. Keeping my eyelids open for a full 8 hours at work is enough for now. Also, getting a pretty good ab workout since I keep loosing my cookies.



|Week 8| June 1 - 7


How Far Along? 8 weeks!
Size of Baby: A big ol' raspberry
Gender: No idea
Weight Gain: Down another three pounds. I've lost a total of five from my pre-pregnancy weight.

Stretch Marks:  Nope, I'm shrinking.. not stretching!
Maternity Clothes: No but still looking all the time.
Nursery: Nope but we've been talking about it a little. I'm making some early furniture plans and starting to think of some ideas of what we might want. Of course, we can't really make any plans until we find out who this little baby is!

Purchases: Nothing but we did get a cute little Oakland A's onesie in the mail from my sweet friend :)
Movement:  No ma'am
Symptoms: Barf  Barf  Barf. Yep. I've been having my self a nice time right around 8AM every morning. Sometimes in the shower... sometimes over the toilet. I know. I'm sorry.
Sleep: Pretty good! It's such a relief to get a good, solid night of sleep. I've pretty much been falling asleep around 9:30-10:00 and sleeping all the way through the night with only one quick potty break around 2:30. I've been falling asleep on the couch for a quick little nap after dinner on work nights and taking longer naps on the couch during the day on the weekends.
Cravings: I hate food.

Food Aversions & Morning Sickness:  Everything. Pretty much all food is still disgusting. Sour candy has been good.. green apples and green grapes too. I can handle a baked potato on a pretty regular basis and a PB&J here and there but I'm gagging on pretty much everything I eat.
What I Miss: Enjoying my food!
Best Moment of This Week: We had our first doctor's appointment this week! We got to see our sweet little babe on the monitor. We could see the teeny tiny little heart beat and a little bit of movement. It was seriously such an incredible experience. It really made everything feel so much more real to finally see that sweet little life. Also, our friends had a beautiful wedding that we were so lucky to be a part of. I was Maid of Honor and got to finally add another big old check to my 30 by 30 list!
Looking Forward To: Everything. Even with the hatred for all food and with the morning sickness, I wouldn't trade this for anything in the world. I cannot wait to experience everything this pregnancy has to offer.

Workout: A few dog walks are about all I could handle this week.


|Week 9| June 8 - 14


How Far Along? 9 weeks 3 days
Size of Baby: A green olive.
Gender: Who knows?
Weight Gain: Down a total of seven pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight.

Stretch Marks:  No ma'am!
Maternity Clothes: Still no...
Nursery: Is currently filled with laundry piles. I need some serious motivation.

Purchases: An itty bitty pair of shoes to use in our announcement photos and a Snoogle pillow. I'm pretty excited for that big guy to show up. Nick is not going to be so happy. I also started putting together a check list for registry items that I definitely know that we will want.
 
Movement:  Nope!
Symptoms: Still hating food. It's gotten a little bit better but my portion sizes are still staying very small and pretty much nothing sounds appetizing.
Sleep: Really hit and miss. I generally sleep better on weekends but I'm waking up at least once a night to potty and that is really making it difficult to get a good sleep.
Cravings: I wouldn't call them cravings, but I have been wanting sweets a little more than normal. I baked some brownies and chocolate chip cookies this week and ate about 4 rice crispy treats at a BBQ we were at this weekend. Wooops!

Food Aversions & Morning Sickness:  A baked potato with shredded cheese and non fat plain yogurt is about the only thing I've been able to eat consistently. I've been all over the place with my morning sickness too. I'm throwing up only once or twice a week with no real rhyme or reason to it. It seems like if I wake up sleeping on my back in the morning those are the days I'm getting the most sick.
What I Miss: Enjoying food.  
Best Moment of This Week: Sharing the news with more of our family and friends. It's been so much fun to see everyone's reactions. We went to visit Nick's Grandma this weekend and brought her pictures from the sonogram. She's certain I've already got a belly {I don't} and that the baby is going to be a boy... and that we should name him Jamal... Not so sure about that.
Looking Forward To: Everything! Regardless of the sickness and the hatred of all food items, I just feel so happy and content. I'm excited to finally get a little belly and hoping that happens sooner than later. I'm ready to actually feel pregnant rather than just feeling like puking.

Workout: Trying to take it pretty easy in the interest of not loosing much more weight. Mostly just dog walks after work with the hubby.

|Week 10| June 15 - 21


How Far Along? 10 Weeks!  This is going by so fast.
Size of Baby: A prune! A little wrinkly prune.
Gender: Who knows...
Weight Gain: Down 7 pounds

Stretch Marks:  No way
Maternity Clothes: Still nothin'
 
Nursery: Nope

Purchases: Nothin'
Movement:  Still not for a while!
Symptoms: Tired, tired, tired. 3:00 - 5:00 is the worst part of the day. I feel pretty good when I get home but still so tired.
Sleep: Not sleeping very well at all. I've been having crazyyyy dreams and waking up at night to potty isn't helping with the solid sleep. I'm still waking up for an hour or so around 3:00.
Cravings: Baked potato with plain yogurt and shredded cheese. All day err day. And Cheerios. And peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Food Aversions & Morning Sickness:  The three items listed above are pretty much all I can do. Random other things sit well once in a while. Still throwing up too much.
What I Miss: Food! Well... liking my food.
Best Moment of This Week: Celebrating Father's day with the sweetest father to be!
Looking Forward To: Our next doctor's appointment. I'm doing the NT scan and we will get to see the baby again. I can't wait to see how much baby has grown since last time!

Workout: Yea... no.


|Week 11| June 22 - 28


How Far Along? 11 weeks 3 days!
Size of Baby: A lime! How did we get from a lentil to a lime so quickly?!
Gender: Nooo idea
Weight Gain: Down 7 from my pre-pregnancy weight.

Stretch Marks:  No way Jose.
Maternity Clothes: Still nothing.
Nursery: Nothing...

Purchases: A Snoogle! Omg amazing. Best $59 I've ever spent. Nick doesn't even hate it as much as I thought and I've even caught him snuggling up to it in the middle of the night a few times :)
Movement:  Nope
Symptoms: Still puking, still not liking food. Certain smells are really, really bad. Even if it's something I recently wanted or even ate. This is such a weird thing.
Sleep: A little better thanks to my big fluffy pillow boyfriend. I'm still waking up to pee {I have a feeling that's not going away anytime soon} but falling asleep a little faster than before.
Cravings: No... pretty much just my standard baked potato w/ plain yogurt and shredded cheese.

Food Aversions & Morning Sickness:  Yep. puke, puke, every day.
What I Miss: Not puking every time I wake up. Honestly, it could definitely be worse though. I'm complaining... but I'm really not.  
Best Moment of This Week: Celebrating Nick's 29th birthday in Napa! I actually felt like a normal human all weekend and did pretty good eating and made it through the whole weekend without a nap. Feeling like I might actually be growing a little belly that I'm not trying to suck in for once!
Looking Forward To: Everything! I keep saying this, but it's so true. There is so much to look forward to.

Workout: No...

Friday, June 20, 2014

Five on Friday | On Being Pregnant at Disneyland

Happy Friday! I'm linking up with April & Co today for a little Five on Friday fun! I'm bending the rules a little bit and making all five on the same topic.

So, this summer I found myself on a long pre planned Disneyland vacation with my in-laws. Something I had been begging for, for years. I hadn't been since I was seven years old, long before California Adventure had been built and back when I was terrified of going on rides.

We were so excited to find out that I had finally gotten pregnant only weeks before we were supposed to go on our trip. I immediately started Googling what rides I could go on and only found a bunch of forums with ladies fighting with each other about being selfish, terrible mothers for even thinking about rides at a time like this. Yikes. Spare yourself that drama. 

Anyway, I decided to make it easy and just stayed away from any of the rides that Disney has dubbed unsafe for pregnant women. {Read: all of the good ones}. This doesn't mean that your trip can't be fun. I will admit I was pretty bummed at first but found some acceptable ways to cheer myself up that I'm going to share with you.


ONE
First, find yourself a cute pair of Minnie ears and let your little kid flag fly. I wore mine the entire time, even to dinner and was laughed at many times by my family. So what.

TWO
Since you are going to have to spend time waiting for the people you are with to go on a ride, at least be productive with your time and wait in line for a Dole whip, churro bites with chocolate sauce, cheese filled pretzels, and a giant corn dog or two. Sitting in the shade with a delicious snack is way better than standing in the sun in line for a ride for 40 minutes. {Avoid the humungous turkey leg at all costs though. Those seriously grossed me out. Blahhhh}

THREE
Try to be past your first trimester so at least you have a little bump and people might suspect you're pregnant. Otherwise you're just a weird girl wearing sparkly Minnie ears sitting by herself stuffing her face.


FOUR
When you go to the pool bring some kind of pregnancy book or magazine to read. That way, instead of people looking at you and thinking "that girl is shaped kind of like a jellybean" they will think something like "Oh she's pregnant! How cute!" Or whatever. Also, side note. Spend a little more to stay at a Disney hotel. We stayed at the Grand Californian and it was a-maz-ing. There is a private hotel entrance for guests to get into the park so you don't have to wait in line and it was so nice to be able to quickly go back to the room to change shoes, grab  a sweatshirt, take a nap, etc.


FIVE
There are still tons of rides that you can go on, albeit, most of them are little kid rides but not everything is off limits. Mr. Toad's Wild Ride is fun! And, it's possible that people watching in Disneyland is more entertaining that going on any rides at all. Seriously, there are some funky people in this world. Also? Stroller shopping! I seriously became obsessed with strollers on this trip. I was constantly pointing them out to Nick who laughed at me every time. I definitely came home with a wish list.
When you can't go on any rides... take a selfie with your MIL who hates Splash Mountain :)

So, there you have it. I absolutely loved this vacation and was so happy to finally get to spend a couple days in the happiest place on earth. I'm happy that we went before my morning sickness and real food aversions really set in strong. It was so much fun and I couldn't help but imagine our first trip after this little one comes. It will be a while, a few years at least, but I can't wait!

 

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

And Baby Makes Three!



We have a fun little announcement today! Yep, that's right...I'm cookin' a little baby M!

Here's a little story about the day we found out...

Sunday May 4th I laid in bed and listened to my husband and the dogs sleeping. Nick was curled around me and I stared up at the ceiling. I kept feeling like something was different today, we were on the verge of something big. I couldn't shake the feeling that I might be pregnant. Of course the chances were there since we had completed our first cycle of Clomid and got a positive ovulation test. My doctor did warn us early on though not to count on it working the first time. She said the chances of a pregnancy were slim. I was just so happy to see that the Clomid had done it's job that I wasn't really counting on anything else.

As I lay there I put my hands over my stomach and prayed and prayed that God would give us a baby. The same prayer I have been praying for months. For over a year.
 
 
Nick woke up and went off to the kitchen to make a French Press pot of coffee and I decided I was going to take a test. I didn't tell him and I shut myself in the bathroom. I set the test of the counter and didn’t take my eyes off of it. Slowly, that second, pretty pink line started to form. My heart started racing and my eyes filled with tears. I stared up at myself in the mirror in total disbelief and then back down at the test. I realized I was completely unprepared… and somehow, now, I needed to go tell Nick. I had always  planned on doing some kind of cute thing to tell him. So much for that! I tried to pull myself together and walked out to the kitchen. He looked up as a I came in and I think he knew right away. I set the test on the counter and cried and cried.
 

We spent the morning staring at each other from across the counter in total shock and laughing, and I cried some more. We talked about the due date and I let a couple holy sh**s! slip. The entire day felt so surreal and I was so happy that it was a Sunday and we were able to spend the whole day together.

The line on the first test was pretty faint and I took maybe four more tests throughout the rest of that day. I ran to the store to get a digital test and jumped around like a crazy person to see Pregnant flash on that beautiful little screen. There's just something about seeing it in writing that still makes me feel a little giddy.

Since we live a few hours from my parents and a state away from my sister we weren't able to share the news with them in person. I FaceTimed my mom and sister on Monday morning before I got out of bed to share the good news and then told my dad over the phone on Tuesday.

We had Nick's parents and sister over for Cinco de Mayo dinner to tell them. Nick's mom is a walking Pinterest board and she has helped us so much with choosing paint colors over the years and giving us decorating and home improvement advice. I picked up some pink and blue paint chips and hid them in a drawer in the kitchen. When everyone was sitting around the kitchen island I asked her if she could help us with some paint colors. I pulled the chips out and set them in front of her and asked what she thought about those. Everyone started screaming and laughing, hugging, and crying. It was such a fun way to tell them!

Everyone is so excited. Our families {especially our moms and sisters} have been so involved in this process and anxious for us to finally get to this point.

We are so excited and cannot wait to meet this sweet baby that we have all been waiting so patiently for!
 

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