18 weeks down

So Sunday marked another week down. I'm a little late updating this week, but life has been BUSY! :) Sometimes I wonder why I update this, if anyone even reads it, then I remember how special it will be one day for my children to read how important they are to me, and these pregnancies have gone. Because like everything, I know that if I don't document things, memories will go and will someday be forgotten. I never want to forget the moments I have loved so much.

It has been a super busy and crazy week with the holidays. This week was filled with family, friends, Santa and snow. Being a parent makes the holidays so different and so much more special. I love seeing Mia's face light up when we talk about Santa and presents. I love seeing how she responds to seeing family and how much she loves all of them. She has brought more joy to our lives than I could ever imagine.

At the beginning of the Holidays Mia was terrified of Santa...she loved the idea of Santa, and seeing him from far away, but the thought of seeing him too close scared her. That was until we went to see Santa at the mall. She waved at him, yelled "SANTA" and when it was her turn, she ran up to him and jumped up on his lap. This is the picture that was taken...priceless.

We made cookies for Santa and left them by the tree, except she decided she wanted to eat some of them herself.

On Christmas morning, as soon as she came downstairs and saw presents, she sat down, waiting for the OK to open them.

Right after Christmas we also got A LOT of snow. The first time it snowed she hated it, stood frozen and shouted "ALL DONE" the whole time...this time was much different. She LOVED it. She was nervous at first, but then ran around, picked up the snow, and even tried to eat it.

Daddy even made her a snowball to carry around

The holidays definately took a toll on my weight, I gained 2 pounds this week. It probably didn't help that I didn't workout all week, and ate LOTS! So I can't blame anyone but myself, eventhough I realize that at some point it is necessary that I gain SOME weight, I just really want to try and keep it down.

The other thing that happened this week is on Sunday (18 weeks) I think I felt the baby move for the first time. It was a couple of times, and I have felt it a couple of times since, it is just so faint still it is hard to know if it is really the real thing, but I am pretty sure it is.

So here are this week's pictures.
Covered

And the bare belly

Less than one week we will be able to see this little baby again! YAY!!

Midwife Appointment

So today I had my regularly scheduled midwife appointment. Every thing looks good. I am officially down a pound according to the midwife, but she said that is fine at this point. Baby seems to be growing right on track, so no worries as of now.

Baby's heartrate was 158 today, so heading back up on the scale. Our ultrasound is scheduled 2 weeks from today, I am so excited, even though we won't know who this baby is, we will be able to see this little baby moving around.

17 weeks and it's Christmas Time!

Yesterday marked the end of another week. I am currently 17 weeks pregnant....and knock on wood, I am finally feeling pretty good. Last week I ended up at the Dr. and was told I had a UTI. I am pretty sure when I went to the ER a couple of weeks ago I had a bladder infection, but they told me no..now 2 weeks later I have a UTI...HMM..interesting. Anyways, they gave me some drugs and I am on the road to recovery. When I was at the Dr. the baby's heartrate was measuring 150, so we are still looking really good.
My belly seems to be growing by the day and I am starting to really anticipate feeling this baby move. I felt Mia start moving about 18 weeks..so I am hoping it is coming soon! I LOVE that feeling.
As of yesterday, I am down a pound from my prepregnancy weight. I am hoping that I can keep my weight down this time and hopefully that will make it easier to lose in the end, but either way I know the reward will be great!
Christmas is just around the corner and we have already started some festivities. Josh sister, and her family are visiting from Vegas and we finally got to meet our new nephew, Tyler. He is adorable and looks like such a little man...every time I see him I get more and more excited to meet this baby. We got Family pictures taken on Saturday morning and then did Christmas at Josh's parents on Sunday night. It was so much fun to see Mia open presents and watch her get really excited about them. She is so much fun and I love watching her grow.
Having a baby/child during the holidays is such a rewarding feeling.
17 weeks covered

17 week belly

16 weeks

Well, another week has passed and I am officially 16 weeks pregnant. It is amazing how fast this pregnancy seems to be going. I think part of it is because Mia keeps me very busy! :) I have been feeling pretty good, except for the horrible round ligament pain that I am still having. It has gotten so bad at times that it hurts to walk, but I know this will pass too.
The belly seems to be growing, however, I feel like there are times when I still look more fat than I do pregnant.
Here is a story that happened this week:
I told Josh that I was really excited because as of today, I have not gained any weight. I am still at my pre-pregnancy weight. Josh turned to me and said, "Well, you didn't gain much weight with Mia, until the 3rd trimester, when you exploded."
Wow, that was such a thoughtful thing to say! haha! Sometimes I think men forget to think before they speak, especially when their wife is growing a child!

I have a regular appointment scheduled with my midwife on the 21st of December and then my big ultrasound is scheduled for January 4th. I am so excited for our ultrasound so we can see this little baby. I am also getting super excited about NOT finding out the sex of this baby. I am so excited about the suspense this time. People have started asking me if I have a preference of what this baby is (not that I have any control) and I can honestly say, I really don't care either way. I would love for Mia to have a sister this close in age, but I would also love to have a little boy. I will just trust God and know that His plans for us are better than our own. So come May, we will be able to say, "It's a ......"

Well, here are the pictures from the week.

Here I am 16 weeks, still at pre-pregnancy weight

And here is the "Super White" bare belly

So today marks the start of my 15th week. I can't believe I am already 15 weeks. It has already been an interesting journey, but one I wouldn't trade for anything. I am starting to feel much better. Besides the stomach virus I got on Monday, I haven't thrown up for about a week and a half, so that is very exciting. I am still working out 3 days a week, and teaching dance 1 day, so I am keeping busy and hopefully preparing my body to be in the best shape come time for delivery. I am hoping by working out this time around, that my delivery will go as planned, natural, midwife assisted. But I am open to whatever God has in store for us.

I am back up the 2 pounds I lost while being sick. So in reality, to this point I have not gained any weight, which is very exciting, but I am sure that will soon change.

That's about all that has happened this week. So without further delay, here are this week's pictures.

15 weeks covered

15 weeks bare belly

Another one bites the dust!

So I thought I was going to escape the dreaded stomach bug going around my house. However, I didn't. I went to work on Monday and threw up in the morning. I chalked it up to pregnancy, thinking it was semi-weird since I hadn't thrown up in 5 days. Got home from work, didn't feel very well, laid down and took a nap. Woke up very nauseous, but again claimed pregnancy.

I went to my appointment with my midwife (regular appointment). Everything looks good, the pain I was experiencing is definitely round ligament pain, I am measuring right on track, the baby's heartrate was about 155 and all is well. My midwife also said I am an excellent candidate for a VBAC and she let me know that there office has over a 70% success rate with VBAC. I am so excited to pursue this journey. My midwife is so supportive and encouraging.

Okay, so I got home from my appointment and walked in the door, and straight to the bathroom to throw up. At this point I was starting to think it was NOT pregnancy related...I was right. I threw up for the next 6 hours straight. I was miserable. My back hurt so bad, so I came downstairs to sit in the recliner...the worse part was Mia wanted her mommy, she always wants her mommy. So I would cover my head with a blanket and fall asleep and she would run over, pull the blanket off, giggle and shriek "HI MAMA!". How do you not at least try to smile when your baby girl does that.

Well, it lasted Monday night and all day Tuesday I just spent in the chair with a heating pad on my back. Now it has been through my whole house, so I am hoping we are good for awhile. Man, rough couple of days for our household!

In 1 day, I lost a couple of pounds and it almost looked like my belly completely went away! Crazy!

Also, we have our big ultrasound scheduled for January 4th. I am so excited, now I just need to make sure I can hold out and not find out who this little baby is!

14 weeks

Today marks 14 weeks pregnant. It's amazing to think that I am already this far. I know I have awhile to go, but each week gets me closer to meeting our sweet little baby. I am actually down 1.5 pounds since last week. That should be impossible since it's Thanksgiving week, but I think due to the stress of everyone being sick this week and spending Thanksgiving by ourselves, I didn't have much time to indulge in all the festivities.

Mia is finally feeling better, but today Josh woke up and had the stomach bug. I think I need to seriously disinfect my house!! I am praying that I don't get it and can stay healthy. On a good note, I haven't thrown up in a few days, so I am hoping that we are going to stay on that path.

Well here is the belly this week. I feel like it looks huge, might just be the shirt.

14 weeks covered

And here is the bare belly!

Hope your holidays were blessed and you had plenty to be thankful for. Even amidst sickness, we had plenty to be thankful for this year!

Thanksgiving and Black Friday Fun...or something like that!

So this year, I was especially excited for Thanksgiving. I was excited because Mia would be old enough to enjoy some of the festivities and we had great meals planned...except the day, or should I say weekend, turned out slightly different than planned.

Thanksgiving morning Josh worked the Turkey Trot and so he got up early...at 9am, Mia was still sleeping. Now while this seems great, this is TOTALLY unlike her! She is an early riser ALL THE TIME! So I decided I better wake her so we can start getting ready for the day. I walk into her room to find a horrific smell. I walk over to her and she is passed out, that is when I notice chunks of hot dog...yes, she had puked all over her self, her crib, her stinks, her blanket, everything! So I get her up, wash all her stuff, give her a bath and we head downstairs...she seems to be feeling fine, so I assume the puking was due to the coughing fit she had about 6am.

In the meantime, I prep my turkey, which I am making for dinner. We are hosting and I am very excited.

So Josh gets home, we get loaded up and head to the Cracker Barrel to meet up with Josh's grandparents for Thanksgiving lunch. Josh drops Mia and I off at the door, we go inside, get to the hostess stand, say hi to his grandpa and it happens...she vomits everywhere. I don't mean a little, I mean all over the floor, herself, a towel, or clean stink, and it just keeps coming. She was crying, I was mortified and the manager was beyond angry, "sorry sir, like I meant to have my 19 month old daughter vomit all over your restaurant." So we clean her up as much as possible and head home. We get her home, clean her up, get on fresh jammies and it happens again...all over the floor. UGH!! The joys of parenthood. So she ran around in a diaper for awhile and luckily that was the end of the puking.

So, since she was sick, we knew we couldn't have family over at our house, so my mom picked up the turkey and dropped off some leftovers and Josh and I enjoyed Thanksgiving all by ourselves with a sick little girl at our side. Oh well!

Friday, I woke up praying for a better day. Well, it didn't quite happen. For the past couple of days I have been cramping really bad. I've also been having to go to the bathroom a ton. I called my midwife, but the office was closed, the nurse said she thought I had the start of a bladder infection. Well, as the night went on, the pain got worse. I decided I should go to the ER and get it taken care of, since I was hospitalized with Mia for a kidney infection. I get there, see the Dr. and she is pretty sure it's a bladder infection, we just had to wait for my urine sample to go through the lab. The nurse comes back in (who was my neighbor, by the way) and it is clean, they do a blood draw, all is good, even my white blood cell count. Then I get to have an ultrasound. I am still amazed everytime I see our baby...it is such a miracle. It has long legs and is measuring a tad ahead of schedule, but alas, everything was normal. SO the diagnosis...severe round ligament pain.

Now I had RLP with Mia, but it was NOTHING compared to this. So I will follow up with my midwife on Monday, and for right now, take some tylenol and rest.
As if the weekend wasn't eventful enough, woke up at 9am on Saturday to again find Mia still sleeping. Go in her room, afraid she has thrown up again. She wakes up and I bring her downstairs, she almost falls asleep in her highchair and then only wants to cuddle with me. I put her back down and she sleeps from 9:30 to 11:30...gets up, but will only sit with me on the couch. She goes back down for a nap from 1:30 to 4:00 and finally seemed to be feeling better when she got up. The doctor said he thinks she had a stomach virus...seriously can my house feel better soon or what!!!

So that was my amazing Thanksgiving weekend...however, eventhough it went entirely NOT as planned, I have so much to be thankful for:

* Even when my baby is sick, I am thankful I have the opportunity to be a mom and continue to pray for those who are struggling with infertility and yearning for their own baby to care for
* I am thankful that we can afford medical attention when necessary
* I am thankful I have an amazing husband that loves me so much and tries to help more than the average dad
* I am thankful for my family, even though we didn't get to spend the holiday together, I know how much they love us, and pray they know how much they mean to us as well
* I am thankful to be blessed enough to carry another child. The shear joy of seeing a baby, created in love, on an ultrasound, reminds me of God's amazing works
* I am thankful for so much! I feel I have been blessed abundantly in life


On a more exciting note...I got my ring back from the jewelers this weekend. We took the center stone from my grandmother's ring and put it in the center of my ring and then I got my 5 year anniversary band!! YAY!! So the top band you see is the brand new anniversary band (it is not soldered yet), the middle is my engagement ring with my grandmother's stone in the middle now, and the bottom is my wedding band! I LOVE IT!!!

13 weeks pregnant and a 19 month old baby girl

Well, I have made it to the 13 week mark. I can't believe I am already 13 weeks and in the 2nd trimester. I am still amazed at the blessing before us. I am back to my starting weight, but still in all my regular clothes. I am hoping I can still hold out for awhile longer! I am feeling pretty good during the day for the most part. I am still getting up at least once a night to pee and usually still throwing up every dinner, but I know that it's all worth it in the end.

Here are some new belly pictures
It's probably just me, but I feel like it is starting to stick out more

On another note, Mia also turned 19 months. What a blessing she is. She has gotten so big and is just such a joy to be around. Josh and I took her to the Festival of Trees Parade and she couldn't have been more excited. Once it started she didn't move except to wave at the Balloons and people on the floats. It was so fun to see how much she is interacting now.

Here she is waiting for the parade to start.
That night we went to the Lighting of the Commons to see fireworks. She was NOT excited to see Santa, and was pretty scared of the fireworks at first, but overall, she loves being outside and she danced around for awhile.
Here is a family picture during the fireworks.
For reference, her is Mia at 1 week old, just 19 short months ago.
And here is my baby girl, 19 months old. I just can't believe where the time went.
Her new favorite thing when you get the camera out is to say "CHEESE", then she wants to see the picture.
However, when she says it, she usually closes her eyes!! :)

For those of you reading this, thanks once again for joining us on our journey. We are so blessed to be where we are.

Some of Mia too!

My baby girl is growing up right before our eyes. In less than 4 days, she will be 19 months old. She is so fun and full of personality, which also means she tends to be full of SASS too!! She is strong willed, independent, smart, funny and everything in between. I love when she wakes up in the morning and gets so excited to see us.
She is talking a ton. Her favorite words are mama, dada, dog, bubble, bath, elmo, dora, baby, milk, snack, eat...and there are many more, but those are some favorites.

We talk about the baby in mommy's belly, so she likes to lift up my shirt and talk to the baby (which she thinks is my belly button). She also gives the baby kisses and even shares her momo (pacifier). She will be an amazing big sister.

Here are some pictures from her 18 month shoot that we had done at Scott County Park. Isn't she adorable!

Looking out the train window

The First Trimester

So, I have obviously taken quite a break from the blogging, but have finally found some time to get caught up and am hoping to keep up a little better from now on. This first post will chronicle my First Trimester. As with Mia, the first trimester has been very hard on me, lots of throwing up (almost every dinner), some headaches, lots of emotions, etc. I actually got a prescription for Zofran, but didn't really want to take it. I hate taken medicine while I'm pregnant. So I only took it on the days that I knew I had a lot of presentations to give. My due date is May 30th, so we are very excited for another spring baby. Mia was due May 8th, but came 3 weeks early on April 22nd. We have also decided this time that we are not going to find out what we are having. This was more my choice, but I think Josh is finally onboard with the thought. I will also be attempting a VBAC (Vaginal Birth after Cesarean), which I am very excited about. So during this journey, I just ask for your prayers and support as we embark on this journey. So here are some of the pictures from the 1st trimester...just a warning...the belly is already not so cute!

12 weeks -back at my starting weight

Showing my belly

Here I am at 11 weeks 5 days before a date with Josh

11 weeks - Still down 1.5 pounds, but feeling huge

11 weeks10 weeks - down .5 pound, had an appointment with the Midwife this week and baby's heartrate was 166. The sound of a baby's heart beating is such an amazing sound. I have also started experiencing some round ligament pain, not horrible, but not comfortable.
10 weeks uncovered

9 weeks, down about 2 pounds

9 weeks uncovered

8 weeks, down 1 pound - had my OB interview this week. Basically just getting all the information again about what to expect and all the forms I have to fill out.

8 weeks uncovered

7 weeks, at starting weight. This week has been really exciting for us. We got to have an ultrasound to date the pregnancy since I ovulated so late. The baby was measuring right on track and the heartrate was 173. I still get so excited and emotional when I see and hear OUR little baby. Also exciting is the fact that on October 16th Josh and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. It has been 5 years filled with trials and tribulations, but most of all joy and excitement. I am so excited to once again be on the journey to parenthood with my best friend.

7 weeks uncovered

So here is a picture at 6 weeks after my Mother-In-Law's birthday dinner. I was pretty bloated. The nausea has started to set in and I am still at my starting weight.

5 weeks, up a pound. I think this is mainly due to the massive amount of bloat going on. I am feeling great at this point.5 weeks uncovered

4 weeks, really bloated, but so excited

4 weeks, check out that bloat

The day we found out, 3 weeks, 2 days.