12 Weeks!

Tomorrow I will be 12 weeks pregnant with our baby! It is surprising how quickly these last 3 months have passed. It makes me realize that the rest of the pregnancy will probably fly by as well, since there will be so much going on. School will start, then Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and then BABY! My due date has been moved up to February 7th. Right now I'm planning on working through Friday the 4th; hopefully that will work out! I want to take all of my time off to spend with the baby once it's born.

We'll find out the week of September 15th whether it is a boy or a girl. Initially I was convinced that it was a boy, but lately I have been second-guessing my feelings about that. We are so anxious to find out, although we will be delighted with either one! I'll just be glad to get away from calling him/her "Baby Guacamole" and assign one of our actual names!

I'm not including a bump picture this week, because I still look a lot like my 10 week picture. Kevin has been noticing more lately though; every once in a while I'll catch him staring at my stomach and he'll say "That is really growing!" I'll include a picture next week, to celebrate the end of my first trimester!

I do have our 11 week ultrasound picture for you, though! It's hard to tell what you're looking at because the quality isn't great, but the head is on the left and the baby has it's hand raised up to the face. The legs are on the right, and are curled upward. It was so cool to watch the ultrasound because I was able to see the umbilical cord pumping along with the baby's heartbeat, giving it nourishment and life. It is so amazing to have this miracle growing inside of me, and to know that I am able to give him/her everything they need!



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Yesterday my parents, grandparents, aunt, and uncle came in from College Station to visit Kevin and I and see our new home. We grilled hamburgers and stuffed jalepenos and had a great time with everyone. Kevin and I both agreed that it was such a blessing to have our family come in and spend time with us.

After they left we took a much needed nap and then had dinner (grilled again) with Chad and Julie. After dinner we watched a huge storm come in and pass, and then we took the golf cart out for one last ride. Kevin's "demo" is over, since the golf cart is sold as of tomorrow. We rode out to the undeveloped land owned by our neighborhood and up onto this big hill. Chad got out and decided to "ski" down the hill, which he could not climb back up. As soon as he got to the bottom, this huge herd of (like 200) cows started running across the field off in the distance. Then they quickly saw our lights and started running at us! Chad ran around to the other side of the hill where he could climb up, we all jumped into the cart, and we sped out of there! What an adventure!

Kevin and I are amazingly blessed by great family, friends, and in countless other ways. We are so thankful for everything that God has done for us, specifically in the last 6 months. Our lives have changed so much, and while it was scary, it was definitely the right thing for us. Thank you for supporting us during all of these changes and exciting times!

Recent Events and a Mohawk

A lot has been going on since my last post! First, I traveled to San Antonio for the week to visit my family. I had so much fun and it was so nice to spend time with them! Kevin, of course, was not able to go with me. Unfortunately not everyone gets the summers off! My sister and I spent some time together and got some sun, we all spent lots of time just sitting and talking with each other, and we went to a friend's pool on Saturday for a cook-out. The most exciting part was when my mom, Lindsay, and I went to go look at baby things! Of course it is not time to buy anything yet, but it was fun to do some initial research. My mom bought this adorable, soft teddy bear that has "Baby's First Teddy" monogrammed on its foot.

While I had a lot of fun, I really missed Kevin. When I came home on Monday he had made the bed (GASP), vaccuumed, and bought me some pretty pink flowers. It was so sweet! It has been nice to be home, cooking for my husband and relaxing in my own home.

Something exciting has happened over the last week! My belly has started to show the first signs of growing a baby in there! Look:



Crazy, huh?

I have also felt remarkably better recently. I think my body is finally adjusting to the pregnancy. My only problem lately is that I'm having trouble sleeping (suggestions welcome, experienced Mommies). I think my problem is that I'm a tummy sleeper, and that has recently become very uncomfortable. I'm sure I'll adjust to a new way of sleeping soon. Hopefully before I go back to school!

I've been doing a few little projects around the house, but I usually try to limit it to 1-2 per day because I get really tired. Today my project was to organize our attic - the last part of our move that was incomplete. The boxes weren't too heavy so I was able to move them around, but it was SO HOT up there! I got everything all grouped and then labeled the different sections - Christmas, Fall/Halloween, School, Baby, etc. I'm feeling very accomplished!

While I was in the attic I found a TON of baby things that I have been stashing (mostly books, it's the teacher in me) away for some time now, but had almost forgotten about. That was exciting! I also found a whole box of pants that I wore after I gained my Freshman...let's just call it 15 for my own humility. The pants range from 1-3 sizes bigger than I wear now so it will be nice to have them in the coming months!

Aside from projects, I have been hanging out a lot with neighbors and friends. I spend a lot of time at our pool and have been watching a lot of TLC and Discovery Health baby shows. Usually they make me cry, and I've learned to embrace it. Haha.

I'm going to leave you with a funny story, at Kevin's expense. He went to get a haircut earlier this week, and took a shower later that night. When he got out of the shower and dried his head off, he realized that he had been given a mohawk! He flew out of the bathroom in a shocked rage and demanded that I take pictures of the damage so that he could WRITE A LETTER OF DISAPPROVAL to Great Clips. Before I share the pictures, I will say that they fixed it the next day and his hair is fine, albeit a little short, now. Okay, here you go!

Kidney Stones... :(

This has been a long and painful holiday weekend! On Thursday Kevin and I were enjoying a nice lunch together at home, and right as I finished eating I got this incredibly sharp pain in my middle left back. Over the next 5 minutes it got to the point where I could not walk, sit, lay, or curl into a ball without crying out in pain. I have had kidney stones once before (in college) so I was fairly sure that it was happening again and I was determined to handle it at home this time.

So I went to bed and laid down on a heating pad, took some Tylenol (all I can take since I'm preggers) and started pumping down water. Kevin went to CVS for me to get me some cranberry juice and gatorade. Four hours later I could no longer stand the pain. Plus I started worrying about what if it was something else - something that could hurt the baby. Kevin and I loaded up and went to the Walgreens clinic, where the doctor told me that they would not treat me since I was pregnant and suggested that we go to the emergency room.

The good thing about the emergency room is that when you are pregnant, you are a priority! Everyone glared at me as I walked, crying and bent over at a 90 degree angle, into the conferencing room. They got me put into a room and it seemed like forever before I got some (mild, for obvious reasons) pain medication. We then got a renal ultrasound since they cannot take x-rays or do a CT Scan. In the ultrasound they found a 4mm kidney stone lodged in my ureter!

The only good thing about the night is that they decided to check on the baby at the same time, and their machine is so much newer and stronger than my doctor's. We were able to see our baby with so much more detail! I saw arms, fingers, and legs! Plus while we were looking it raised up it's little arm as if to wave and say "Hey guys, I'm fine in here. Don't worry about me." It was incredible.

Six hours later we were discharged just in time to get my prescription filled before the pharmacy closed. As we waited, we went to Chick Fil-A because poor Kevin had only had a bowl of soup all day, at it was 9:30pm. As soon as we walked in I got light headed and ended up getting sick in the restroom. Not good.

Anyway, we got the prescription filled and got home from the ordeal. I spent the next 4 days in bed, with my INCREDIBLE husband taking excellent care of me. He refilled my cup constantly to make sure I was hydrating myself, got me medicine, fed me meals in bed or on the couch, and generally pampered me. I am so lucky to have him!

By Sunday evening I was up to going to watch some awesome fireworks in our neighborhood with our friends and neighbors. It was a great show, and so nice to be up and about! Then we rode our golf cart around the neighborhood and watched the fireworks that other neighbors were setting off in the street! And today I am almost completely back to normal! Thank goodness that is over!

8 Weeks!!!

Today Kevin and I went to my 8 week appointment and it could not have gone any better! We got another ultrasound and the baby has grown from 4mm to 21mm in just two weeks! While the doctor couldn't measure the exact heartbeat because it is not audible with a doppler yet, he said that by looking at it he could tell it is between 120 and 150 bpm. This is exactly where it should be and he was very pleased. The best part of today was that, while were were watching the baby's heartbeat, it started to wiggle around! Something about seeing our little baby moving around in there made my heart so happy! The doctor told us that, after seeing such a strong and healthy baby at 8 weeks, the chance of anything going wrong decreases dramatically, to less than 3%. Thank the Lord!

I have been feeling much better the last week. A lot of it has to do with the fact that I found the right prenatal vitamin and started taking it right before bed so I don't feel sick during the day from it. Smells have bothered me more lately, and I got sick for the first time while shredding some chicken yesterday. I also can't stand the smell of fresh paint, which becomes a problem in a brand new house! Other than that, I have just had some stretching pains in my abdomen and a VERY hard time sleeping. Kevin has threatened to sleep in a different room because I am keeping him up with my tossing and turning :(

Our next appointment will be at 11 weeks, three weeks from today. Until then I'm planning on just taking it easy and getting plenty of rest. Kevin has been wonderful with helping around the house, getting me dinner, and being patient. I have just been so exhausted and easily tired out when I try to do anything! I'm grateful for his patience. I have included a couple of pictures for you:

My belly at 8 weeks (most of it is water weight, but with all the stretching pains I've felt lately, I have to believe there's SOME baby to that!):


Our 8 week ultrasound picture (The head is on the right, and if you look closely a little to the left from there you can see a bright little dot - that is the heart beating!):

...and Baby makes three!!!

Kevin and I are so happy to announce that we are expecting a new member of our family on February 10, 2011! We could not be more thrilled about this! I am currently only a little more than 6 weeks pregnant, and while I realize that it's still early, we saw the fetal pole and even a flicker our baby's heartbeat today! This was one day after my birthday, and the most amazing gift I have ever received. Tomorrow is our 3 year anniversary, so we have even more to celebrate! What a great week :)

We will be going back to the doctor in two weeks to see and hear a stronger, more steady heartbeat. The doctor is also going to monitor me because he saw a little bit of bleeding on my physical exam. He says this is typically nothing to worry about this early in pregnancy, but Kevin and I would GREATLY appreciate your prayers for the safety and health of our tiny one.

You can't see much of anything here, other than the 5mm fetal pole (the beginning of the baby's body from head to bottom). However, it's the first picture of our baby and it's special to me!



We decided a while back that it was getting close to time to start our family, so we went for it. We didn't realize that it would happen so incredibly quickly, but it's another one of God's MANY blessings on us. We got all moved into our new house and finished unpacking on Tuesday, May 25th and I found out on Wednesday. We then confirmed it with 7 more tests over the next two days (the picture only shows day 1 tests, LOL).

We are still fairly early in this adventure, and we would appreciate any prayers that you could send for us. It is a frustrating feeling to know that there is only so much that I can do for our baby. However, at the same time I have full faith that our baby is safe in God's hands. Please join us in prayer for our little one!

We look so forward to the journey that lies ahead of us, and we are so grateful to have you all in our lives to share our excitement!

Four Weeks - I won't be showing for a while but I still plan on pics every 4 weeks :)

Pictures of our (almost) completed home!

The last few days has been a whirlwind for Kevin and I. On Friday we closed on our house with no problems, and then headed straight over here to seal our tile, slate, and granite. We worked until very late, and thus were already tired when we started our move at 7am on Saturday. We worked until about 1am on Sunday and then slept for a few hours and started again at about 8am. Again, we worked until 2am in the morning that day. Sunday also included a (not so) fun trip to Lowe's in which we shopped for 3 hours and filled a basket and three flat beds with our goods. Yikes. This is a picture of us checking out, but they already turned one of our flats around the corner!



We got a water softener and supplies to go with it, a utility sink, a trash can, and a ton of light fixtures and fans. We also got under cabinet lighting. What a day!

Yesterday Kevin's dad came over to help him put up light fixtures and fans while I met with the blinds company who is doing our custom blinds, which will be in on Friday!

Everything was going incredibly well, until I found fleas on Bella last night. That's right - there are fleas in our yard, and now possibly in our brand new house. There's not much out here, so I guess bugs are a problem. I went to Walmart at 11pm to get flea spray and took care of the dogs to the best of my ability. Now we have the exterminator coming tomorrow to do a full indoor and outdoor treatment, plus the customary first visit to get us started on a quarterly schedule. This is going to cost us $400. OUCH!

Okay, that's all I'm going to write for tonight. The rest will all be pictures. Enjoy!

Exciting Stuff is Happening!

I know I haven't written in a while, but things (again) have been super busy. Kevin and I have watched our house being completed over the last two weeks. There have been a lot of last-minute things that needed to be changed or fixed, but as of today they are all finished. Which is great, because...

WE GOT FINAL APPROVAL ON OUR LOAN!

I just got the email and I had to share the news. In case you don't know why that is such a big deal, I'll briefly tell you. Since we bought our first home two years ago, lending guidelines have gotten ridiculously tight and it is very difficult to get a loan. Add that to the facts that we both have brand new jobs in a new city, that much of Kevin's income is based on (at this point,un-provable) commission, and that I took a short term pay cut of 1/3 of my salary through August. As you can imagine, receiving final loan approval is a huge blessing and relief. The last 3 months have been a rollercoaster of emotions and we feel so blessed and proud to be buying this house.

At the same time that the final things have been working with our loan, they have put the finishing touches on our home. I am very pleased overall with the amount of detail and care that has been put into it. For example, as you know Bella is a very small, 6 pound dog. She also likes to escape. With our brand new fence and undeveloped lots surrounding our back yard, we had significant gaps under part of our fence. We asked our builder to fix it and, like a hero, he had the fence guys do a very nice patch job along the bottom so my baby girl is contained and safe. This is a small job, but the kind of above-and-beyond that means a lot to me. We also had a small imperfection in the silestone in our master bath and when the patch job didn't look perfect, they replaced the entire slab. We feel well taken care of.

This week has been full of packing! We did not even take that much with us into our tiny apartment, but it is amazing how quickly our little family has spread out and filled up the place. I am starting to get stressed out thinking about the move this weekend, but I know it will go smoothly.

Tomorrow we will close on the house at 3pm and go to pick up our keys. From there, we will go straight to the house and seal all of the grout between every piece of tile in our house. We'll also be sealing the granite and the slate backsplash. It will be a lot of work, but it'll be exciting at the same time.

Saturday morning Kevin is going to pick up 3 guys who used to work for him at the golf course here, who we're paying to help us move. He will go with them to pick up the truck we're renting and work on moving our things from the storage room into the house, and setting furniture up. I'll be moving clothing kitchen stuff, etc. from our apartment to the new house and then supervising the guys as they bring stuff in. It will be another long day! Then on Saturday night we will spend our first night in the house. :)



There are other thigns to write about, but my break is almost over and this is the major thing on my mind right now, anyway! Have a wonderful day!!!