A 25 Week Update - Better Late Than Never!

(Please ignore those splash marks on my dirty bathroom mirror and the quality of this picture!  I snapped it quickly before work the other day because I keep forgetting to take pictures!)

How far along?  I’m so bad at keeping up!  I’m technically almost 27 weeks, but this picture is from 25 weeks.  

Total weight gain: WAY too much!!  At least 25 pounds so far (so embarrassed to admit that!!) even though I feel like people keep telling me a look small.  …?

Maternity clothes? All the time!  I do still have a handful of shirts/sweaters from prepregnancy that I wear occasionally.  And until a couple weeks ago I was wearing prepregnancy pants with an extender for the button, but recently maternity pants are just so much more comfortable!

Stretch marks? Recently discovered two big ones right down the front of my belly. :(

Sleep: Depends on the night.  My hips have been killing me from sleeping on my side, and I toss and turn and wake up A LOT during the night.  And always have to get up at least once to pee.

Best moment this week: Spending time with family over Christmas! :)

Miss Anything? Most recently lunchmeat!  All I want is a darn turkey and cheese sandwich!

Movement: All the time!

Food cravings: chocolate milk, cheeseburgers, and I’ve really been wanting sweet potatoes lately - not sure if that one will stick!

Anything making you queasy or sick: Nothing really makes me sick, but coffee is still pretty unappealing.

Gender: boyo!

Symptoms: Just this past week: SWOLLEN FEET.  I put my chuck taylors on the other day and couldn’t even walk in them.  Then, last night I was afraid to take my shoes off at my in-laws because I didn’t think I would be able to get them back on when we left.  I think it might be time to go shoe shopping!

Belly Button in or out? still in, but weird

Rings on or off? On, BUT I think I might have missed the boat to take it off.  Not just my feet are swollen, and now I couldn’t get them off if I tried.  Oops.

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy most of the time.  I have noticed that weird things have been making me want to cry recently though.  And I get annoyed a little more easily (especially when I’m hungry!!)

Looking forward to: My next ultrasound on the January 3rd!! 

Nursery Furniture!

I am SO excited because I finally bought our first piece of nursery furniture this week!! 

A dresser!!  And I got it for only $20!!  The paint needs touched up a bit, but other than that it's totally perfect!  And it's already painted the colors that we are doing the nursery in - how lucky is that?!

I got it through my work classifieds, and the same guy also has a white crib that he is planning to sell but hasn't listed yet.  I can't wait to check out the crib when we go to pick up the dresser next week!  We just might be able to get the crib and the dresser together for under $100, which would be amazing!!

Nursery Planning

As soon as we found out we were expecting, I began looking at things for a future nursery!  I love this kind of stuff, and could browse the internet for hours just looking at all the cute things!!  I was first inspired by this art I saw on pinterest:

Isn't is gorgeous!  I knew I wanted this to be the theme of our nursery, boy or girl.  And thankfully, I have a sister that is a very talented painter, that will hopefully be able to replicate something similar to this for me. :) 

I pictured this with gray walls and yellow/gray crib bedding.  Unfortunately, I had fallen in love with this set before we found out if we were expecting a boy or a girl:

But after we found out it was a boy, I knew that this set was just too girly.  And now that we know it's a boy, I would love to include light blue in our gray & yellow sunshine theme.  I'm hoping to find a used dresser/changing table on the cheapskies that we can refinish and paint blue.  And we added a blue glider to our registry:

Anyway, all this to say, do you know how hard it is to find yellow/gray crib bedding that isn't custom made and doesn't cost a fortune?!  Oh my goodness, I feel like I have looked everywhere imaginable, and I haven't found anything I've really loved.

This is what's on our registry (from Target) right now, and I like it, but it just isn't my favorite:

I like the giraffes, but I just wish it was more yellow than gray, especially if we are going to go with gray walls, I don't want it to be too much gray.  I have looked and looked, and the only things I can find that I like and that aren't too girly are on etsy and they cost an arm and a leg and a kidney.

So, has anyone seen any mostly yellow with gray and/or blue crib bedding anywhere??

I suppose if I really can't find anything, and I decide that the above set just won't do, we could paint the walls yellow and go with a mostly blue with yellow/gray bedding set just because it's so much easier to find!

Any advice??

Over That Hump

I think I have FINALLY (halfway into my second trimester) reached that awesome stage of pregnancy. I have been feeling (relatively) great except for some occasional bad heartburn. I actually look pregnant, and have some great fitting maternity clothes that I am loving. I'm not constantly tired anymore (though I do still love my naps). And I'm still pretty comfortable.

According to the stages of pregnancy on pregnantchicken, this stage lasts approximately 27 minutes. However, I've been feeling great for about the past week. Not going to take this time for granted, that's for sure!!

And I'm really thankful to be feeling good at this particular time of year!

Korey and I got together with my sister the other night to take our very first "family" picture to put in our Christmas cards! It was a lot of fun, and we ended up with some pretty good shots! here's my favorite at the moment:



I think this is probably the one we will actually put in our cards.

I have been feeling pretty GIGANTIC lately. Between my doctor saying that I'm gaining weight a little too fast, and a probably well-intentioned but still a little hurtful comment from my step-father-in-law's mom on Thanksgiving (that's a mouthful!), I've just felt like maybe I look like I'm further along than I actually am (my sister-in-law is also pregnant and about 6 weeks further along than I am, and she commented that I look bigger than she does, which is probably true, but still isn't awesome to hear). Plus it's just tough to watch your body grow and grow, even when it is for the best reason! And I am not a big fan of watching the number on the scale go UP. I've really been trying to watch what I eat a lot lately (even though all I crave are cheeseburgers and coke!!), and I even got my butt over to the gym last night and spent 40 minutes walking on the treadmill! I've only gained about a pound or two since my last appointment, which is GREAT and I'm really proud of myself. Hopefully I can keep the weight gain to a minimum before my next appointment which is in about 2 weeks.

AND today, one of my co-workers asked me how far along I was, and when I told her I was 23 weeks, she said, "Oh, but you are still so little!" Even if she was just saying that, it totally made my day!!

Thanksgiving

Let me tell you, Thanksgiving is a pregnant woman's DREAM. I told my husband that I want all of my pregnancies to happen over Thanksgiving!

First, have you seen that episode of Friends where Joey wears the maternity pants on Thanksgiving? That is my life. Maternity pants are awesome and still so comfy after consuming mass amounts of food. And when you're pregnant you can eat as much as you want and no one will judge you!

Second, you can take as many naps as you want and no one will judge you! In fact, people encourage it.

And third, no one asks you to do dishes when you're pregnant. And when you offer, everyone just tells you to go sit down (at least they did on my husband's side of the family). Yes, that is awesome.

Pregnant Chicken

www.pregnantchicken.com

Any and every woman who is pregnant or has ever been pregnant MUST read this blog. I laughed so hard I cried at nearly every post. So so funny.

Out Little Nugget is a BOY!!

We found out last Friday (11-11-11!!), and it was pretty clear on the ultrasound that he is a little boyo. We are so excited!!

We could change our minds a thousand times in the next four months, but right now we think we are going to name him William Wallace Flinn and nickname him Liam. He'll be named William after one of my grandpas and Wallace after one of Korey's grandpas. We are aware that William Wallace is also from the movie Braveheart, but think that that's pretty awesome. I'm not a huge fan of Bill, Will, Willy, etc as a nickname, so we are really going to try hard to make Liam stick. But I know that whatever name suits him will stick. :)

He is one active little guy, that's for sure! I first felt him move the Tuesday before our ultrasound, and ever since then I can feel him squirming, flipping, kicking, etc multiple times a day. Every time I feel him, it makes me smile! Korey was able to feel him from the outside once already, but it was faint. I can't wait until our little boyo is strong enough to be felt from the outside!

And I am officially looking very PREGNANT. I was able to get some great fitting maternity clothes and a maternity winter coat this weekend thanks to my amazing mom and the occasion of my birthday. It is so much easier in the morning when I actually have a choice of things to wear. And it makes it much easier in my life that I don't have to do a load of laundry every few days. So far, I've gotten a lot of great used items at various Goodwills, and I found a lot of great fitting and affordable stuff at Old Navy this past weekend. I got my coat and a few other items at Destination Maternity which has a lot of great stuff, but some of it can be a little pricey sometimes.

I did get a little talk from the doctor last Monday at my follow-up appointment about gaining weight a little too fast. I gained I think like 7 or 8 pounds between visits, which is probably twice what I should have gained. I know it is because I have been drinking so much pop. Something about the ice cold, bubbly, sweetness makes me crave it so much!! I have been trying to no overdo it anyway because of the caffeine, but now I've limited myself to ONE pop per day. I'm hoping cutting out those calories, and subbing in water the rest of the time, will help me not to gain so much weight before my December appointment.

And here is a picture of my growing belly:



I am almost 22 weeks! I just know that time is going to fly by, especially with the holidays coming up, and that he will be here before we know it!!

Counting the Days Until November 11th!

So we had our first appointment with our new Indianapolis doctor this past Wednesday, and it went really well. I really like our doctor, everyone in the office is really nice and friendly, and her office is connected to the women's hospital which is only about 20 mins away from our apartment. I really really like our doctor so far. She is friendly, talkative, and really funny. She never made me feel rushed and talked me through all my questions, which I really appreciated.

The most exciting part of the appointment was we got to hear baby's heartbeat for the first time! Our doctor in Pittsburgh did a Stage I ultrasound at each of my appointments, so we had seen the heartbeat on the screen, but hadn't heard it yet. It made me really happy to know that our little one is doing just fine in there. I can't wait to feel him/her move!!

We scheduled our ultrasound for November 11th, and I can't wait to see our little nug!! We are also hoping that baby will cooperate and show us if we will be expecting a boy or a girl! Korey is DYING to know, so I really hope we are able to find out!

As far as pregnancy goes, it depends on the day if I feel sick or not. Sometimes I get sick in the morning, but most days I'm usually okay. I've also been getting afternoon headaches pretty regularly, which isn't fun, but I'm starting to get used to it actually. Mostly I have to make sure I keep snacks on hand and keep my blood sugar up or else I start to feel crummy and I start to get really cranky. Korey has definitely learned to keep me well fed! Unfortunately I've been craving pop hard core lately - which I know isn't good because of all the caffeine (not to mention calories), but I try to keep it down to one per day, and since I've quit drinking coffee I don't think I'm doing too bad.

I'm really having a hard time with my clothes lately though. I am so inbetween - most of the maternity clothes I have are too big, but all of my regular clothes are too small, and I can't ever find anything that looks good. I feel like I wear the same three outfits all the time! I'm finally getting to the point though where I think I'm actually beginning to look pregnant instead of looking like I'm just gaining a bunch of weight, so that makes me feel a little better. And I had a great find at Goodwill yesterday - a pair of Liz Lange for Target maternity jeans in my size still with the tags on!! And they fit great!

I need to take another baby bump picture!! I know I will later regret not taking a picture and writing a little blurb every week, but the weeks go by way too fast! Hopefully now that we are a little more settled and (finally!!) have internet in our new apartment, I will be able to keep up with that a little better. :)

Overdue Update!

I suck at updating. But life is going by SO freakin fast lately!!

We just made the move from Pittsburgh to Indianapolis a couple weeks ago because my husband got a promotion with his job that came with a move. Luckily we have family and friends in and around Indy, and we graduated college close by so we are familiar with the area. We are actually staying with my in-laws for the time being until we can move into our apartment this week (so excited!!).

I meant to update a long time ago, but job searching and looking for a new ob/gyn has pretty much taken up ALL my time! Luckily, I did land a part-time admin job at my alma-mater, which I’m super excited about. I’ll be looking for other part time things to fill in my time, but I think it will be great to work part time and stay home part time once the baby is born. And I think we can swing it, so I’m looking forward to that. :)

I haven’t found a new doctor yet, but I’m getting anxious because I need to make an appointment so that we can find out if it’s a boy or girl!! We are about due to know in 2 weeks I think, so I’m really looking forward to that!!

And I’m finally starting to show! Well, I at least like to think that I’m finally starting to look actually pregnant instead of just like I’m gaining weight. :)



15 weeks & my first pair of maternity jeans (from Goodwill - I’m telling you that is the BEST place to buy maternity clothes!!)

I think I’ve probably gained a little too much weight a little too fast so far. I haven’t weighed my self since we moved, so I’m not sure exactly how much. But all I want to eat is CARBS all the time, so that’s really not helping. I try to keep reminding myself that every women’s body is different and handles pregnancy differently, and it really doesn’t matter how much weight I gain as long as our little one is healthy!!

Pregnant?!?

This blog is a little late in the making - considering I’ve been thinking about starting it for about 2 months now. But anyway, here it finally is, and here we are surprisingly expecting our first baby!

Two months ago, on August 1st, I told my husband Korey that I should probably take a pregnancy test because my period was at least a week late. He shakily said, “Okay,” and I bought a three-pack at Walmart on my way home from church that afternoon. I took a test late that night once he got home from work, and the line was pretty faint. We weren’t aware at the time that no matter how faint the preggo line is, if you can see it you are pregnant. But we didn’t know that, so we weren’t exactly sure. So I took another test, and it looked exactly the same. So then we googled it. And we realized that I was pregnant. And I thought Korey’s eyes were going to bug out of his head. And then he got a little teary, and I got a little teary and it was pretty sweet. And then we called my mom at nearly 2am to tell her. :)

I took the third test in the morning (because sometimes they say that it’s more accurate if you take it first thing in the morning), and what do you know - also positive. So then we went to the Med Express, just to be SURE, and had another test done and got a prescription for pre-natal vitamins.

And then we had to let it sink in that I was, in fact, PREGNANT, and we were going to have a BABY in MARCH. And two months later it’s still sinking in!!