Little Guy,

Today marked 22 weeks! We are over half way there. This month has been so busy. We found out that you were a little boy, and we immediately jumped into boy mode.

Here’s the first outfit I bought for you.

I though you would look so handsome in the green (especially if you have red hair). Your daddy picked this awesome little outfit out.

You are going to be the coolest! I think Daddy wants an outfit like that for himself. We also picked out your name and ordered the bedding for your room. Your car seat and stroller came in last week. It’s so neat. You’re going to be stylin’. Oh and once we found out that you were a boy everyone started giving us presents for you faster than I could put them away. Everyone is just so excited to meet you.

I felt you move for the first time on Valentine’s day. You like to roll around and seem to be the most active in the evening. One night I was having a hard time getting comfortable to go to sleep. I decided to lay on my tummy. It felt so good and comfortable, but you were not having it. You started kicking and hitting me repeatedly, so I reluctantly turned onto my side.

I still do not really have a baby bump. Daddy took this picture of me on my birthday.

You can kinda see it a little bit, but you still are not sticking out yet (which is so funny to me because you are the size of a banana now) I look more like I ate too much at Thanksgiving than pregnant. Last week was the first time that my regular pants didn’t fit, so I know that you are growing. Maybe it could also be all the cream cheese I am eating. I have always liked cream cheese, but since I have been pregnant it is my go to snack of choice. Before now we never kept cream cheese and bagels in the house.

I went to the doctor last Monday. You look perfect, and everything is just as it should be. This was the big 21 weeks appointment to look at all of your organs. It was so incredible to look at your heart. I was able to see all four chambers pulse with every beat.  And just look at that face!

Gran (my mom) says that your lower lip looks like your daddy’s. We’ll see! And no there isn’t a crack in your head. That’s just an error in the scan.

The funniest part of the sonogram was that you kept….ummm…..playing with yourself. You kept putting your hands between your legs. The sweet lady doing the sonogram said that in her 20 years of giving sonograms that she has never seen a baby girl with her hands between her legs. Let me just go ahead and give you your first set of advice. Stop playing with it or it’s going to fall off!

Love,

Mama

Me: Guess what Little One (LO)?

LO: What mama?

Me: You’re a boy!

LO: Duh mom. I’ve know that for over 18 weeks now.

Last Monday I went ahead and made a doctor’s appointment because I was feeling so bad. When I went in they started talking about rescheduling my next appointment for another 4 weeks. This would have meant that I would miss my sonogram that had been previously scheduled for today (the 8th).

So I started to get a little upset. When my wonderful doctor entered the room I told him about how I was feeling, and then I proceeded to beg him for a sonogram. After one minute of my irrational babbling he said, “Come on girl.”

That’s when we found out that you are a boy. Not only are you a boy, but you already have a big head. Like father like son. I have already gone through all of the clothes we have been given and packed up the pink stuff. Ryan is going to build out the closet with two rods instead of one so I can pack it full of twice the amount of clothing! We also have almost completely nailed down the name (for this moment at least)!

I wonder who the baby is going to look like.

It’s been too long. Why did you go away for so long? I hardly remember the things I love about you. Iguess that is behind us now. I’ll take you back, and yes I did miss you.

Welcome back. (and I’m in denial that one of the actors said that they are 11 episodes into the final season at it still doesn’t make sense yet. There better be closure ABC!)

Actually it is more accurately the house of snot. Ryan, my mom, and I are all sick this weekend (which really sucks because we can’t really take care of each other). I should have seen this coming Friday night. I woke up in the middle of the night to Ryan’s snoring rattling the headboard. He always snores, but it is never to the point of waking me up. No amount of poking or pushing could make him stop, so I relocated to the couch.

While attempting to sleep I had the weirdest dream. I have to preface this with letting you know that my dreams have been out of control over the past few weeks. I have has some truly traumatizing dreams. Supposedly these dreams are caused by being pregnant. So Friday night here’s how my dream went:

I was sitting at my computer checking the Ellen Degeneres show site, and they had just opened the reservations for seat in the month of May. Why is this important you ask. Ellen does an awesome Mother’s Day show every year for pregnant moms, and she gives away thousands of dollars worth of baby swag. Ever since I found out I would pregnant on Mother’s Day I have dreamed of going to her show. Anyhoo, back to my dream. They had released the block of tickets and I could fill out the reservation form, but I was so excited that I was having a hard time typing. I lovingly looked over at Ryan and asked him to help me fill out the form.

He looked at the computer screen and said, “Yeah. I’m not doing that.” That’s when I slapped him (remember in my dream, no spousal abuse claims to the PD please). He got this look of shock on his face and said, “I cannot believe you just hit me.” My response was, “I didn’t hit you nearly as hard as I wanted to. If I had hit you that hard, you would not be sitting up straight.” I know that I’m such a sweet wife.  It was the impending sickness that made me have those dreams…..right?

Then I woke up to a dog’s paw ramming in my neck. The next day we decided to go check out the BuyBuyBaby in Addison. It’s  a lot bigger than the Plano store, but they didn’t really have more of a variety. Ryan’s nose really started to run and he looked like death in the store. We went home, and then my nose started to run. We tried running errands once more thinking that it was just our allergies.

Then the fever hit, and we were done for. It’s been nonstop snot over here for the past 36 hours. Granny was so sweet that she did a grocery run for us because the Walgreen’s by our house of out of tylenol cold. Pepsi makes everything better.

Ryan and I are both planning on going to work tomorrow, but we’ll see if we still feel the same way in the morning. I can only imagine down the road when the whole house being sick involves a kiddo too. I’m going to enjoy my wallowing while I still can.

I have watched this video over 10 times easily in the past day, and it has left with such a feeling of appreciation. I am so blessed for all of the wonderful people in my life. Thank you for being there and making memories that will last forever.

Enjoy the bliss below!

Little One,

It is so hard to believe that I have been pregnant with you for over three months (16 weeks yesterday). The time seems to have gone so fast. Over the last month lots of things happened. You received your first Christmas presents. So many of your family members remembered you on this special day, and it really made me happy. We spent the whole day in our pajamas hanging out on the couch.

On January 4th we had our first visit with the doctor that will deliver you. He is really funny and made both me and your dad laugh within minutes of meeting him. I was hoping to get a sonogram and see if you are a boy or a girl. Instead he sent me to the specialist to do a routine sonogram to make sure everything was forming correctly (you are growing perfectly by the way). I was promised that this doctor would be able to tell us pink or blue.

You had other plans though. We were able to see you wave, flipping around in my belly, and count all of your fingers. However, you did all of this with your legs criss-crossed like you were sitting in my kindergarten class the whole time.  You were not even being still. You kept arching  your back and wiggling, but your legs were still. So now I will do my best to be patient until our next appointment on February 8th.

I just can’t wait to get things ready for you like painting your room, going through all of the clothes family and friends have given you, and pick out your name. As you will soon find out after you are born, I am kind of anal when it comes to some things. I will do my best to not make you the same way, but just rest assured that all this energy comes from a good place inside of me that only wants the best for you.

We are officially in the second trimester now. The sickness is completely gone, and I am hoping that the fatigue will end soon (fingers crossed). Most days you do not seem real to me. I still am not showing. I will often look down at my stomach (knowing that you are now almost 5 inches long) and wonder where are you? I’m sure by next month you will have made yourself outwardly visible and hopefully I will have felt you moving. We just can’t wait to meet you.

Love,

Mama

I have officially made it through the first trimester! Woohoo! Supposedly the second trimester is going to be the best out of the three. I’ll see about that. One thing I have realized is that many of my ideas about pregnancy are wrong or things have happened that I had no clue about. I’m sure it would be different if I actually read the pregnancy books you are supposed to read, but who has time for that? So here’ what I have learned….I guess the hard way.

1. You can start having pregnancy symptoms very soon after conception. Mine started after only 5 days. I have even judged people (publicly) for having symptoms too early. I chalked it all up to being a drama queen. What did I know? NOTHING. So I’m apologizing to those I have judged wherever you may be now.
2. The main symptoms of pregnancy you hear about is the nausea, vomiting, fatigue, and breast tenderness. Oh but there are so MANY more (not that those don’t completely suck). The main few I have had are an awful metallic taste in my mouth, dehydration (I never seem to not be thirsty), and food aversion (something is wrong when you turn down a Reese’s peanut butter cup). There are even more symptoms than that. Those are just the ones I’ve faced this pregnancy. Oh and I almost forgot about the hormones. Let me go cry for a few minutes before I finish this post.
3. When you say, “I’m ____weeks pregnant” it is not how long the baby has been in you. It is from the date of your last period began. I was so proud to be able to jump from saying I was three weeks pregnant to five. It made me feel proud of my little one is some silly way. “You go baby! Look at you adding two more weeks to your life.” (please refer to the end of number #2 for rationale on that thinking)
4. Not all women will show at the same time (or even close to the same time). A coworker of mine is due the day after me. She has a cute little baby bump. I don’t. I have mixed feelings about this. Bodies are completely different in this respect and even from one pregnancy to the next it can be different.
5. Your first sonogram is such a joy (if you are prepared for it). You finally make it to the 8-10 weeks they make you wait before your first doctor’s visit. You go in expecting to get a glimpse of your sweet little one on the sonogram screen. You’ve seen in the movies what an amazing experience it is to raise up your shirt, have them squirt the sonogram gel on your tummy, and show you your baby. Unfortunately, that is not reality at this point.  As Ryan and I sat for over and hour and a half (part of why I’m seeing a new doctor) in the room waiting for the doctor, we had A LOT of time to look around. Then he points over at the sonogram machine. “Hey, that thing has a condom on. I bet I know where that’s going.” My thoughts were surely not. But, oh YES. Usually your first sonogram is an internal one (not the romanticized experience I had envisioned). Future first time preggos…. remember this! Apparently I wasn’t paying attention when I watched Knocked Up the first time.

All that aside, it has been a wonderful experience. Many days it does not seem real to me. I know that I am pregnant, but part of me thinks that I will not fully realize it until I feel the little one move. I’m looking forward to the second trimester, and I hope that there are fewer misconceptions over the next three months.

Last Monday I went to my first visit with my new doctor. He is so awesome and funny. At one point he even used the term va-jay-jay. We thought we were going to have a sonogram since this was my first visit with him. Instead I found out that I needed to have the routine pre-screener sonogram with the specialist. So we made an appointment to go Tuesday evening.

As we looked up on the screen, we saw our perfect little baby waving at us. Everything looked to be forming perfectly. We could even count the fingers.

Here’s a forward facing shot. You can even see the eyes, nose, and mouth.

After measuring the neck and length of the baby, the specialist went in to determine boy or girl. This little booger kept his/her legs criss-cross applesauce (formally know as Indian style) the WHOLE time. That would be ok if the baby was being still, but it kept arching it’s back and wiggling all over the place.

So my next doctor’s appointment is February 8th. I have decided to refuse to leave the doctor’s office until I find out the sex, and for good measure I’m going to drink some coffee on the way to my appointment.

This whole experience raises some questions about the baby’s temperament. My friends have been teasing me that the baby is ready for kindergarten, and that he/she has heard me say sit criss cross applesauce over and over to my class. So I ask you, was the baby being obedient or stubborn by refusing to budge? (remember that red hair could be a factor here)

I started the task of clearing off my memory cards. I’m almost done with one (thank goodness). While going through the 400+ images I found this video from Jennifer’s birthday celebration back on August 5th. We go to Pappasito’s often. It was so sweet for Jonathan to lead the birthday song. He did it perfectly.

Enjoy!

Dear Fuzzy Jelly Bean,

You are on your way. Your Daddy and I have planned and wanted you for such a long time, and you didn’t wait to make your presence known. After only 5 days you began to make me feel so sick and have such an awful, metallic taste in my mouth. I was on the bus on my way back from the kindergarten trip to the pumpkin patch when the first wave of nausea hit.  I kept thinking that I was just getting sick.

I didn’t want to get my hopes up in case you were not really on the way. The next Wednesday I went to get blood work done. They called back and said my levels were high, but not high enough to be considered pregnant. They told me to repeat the blood work in a week. sigh.  This whole time I didn’t say a word to Daddy. I didn’t want to get his hopes up like mine already were.

The following Monday, I couldn’t take it anymore. I took a pregnancy test.  On November 2nd we got this great news.

The blood test later in the week confirmed that you were indeed on the way. We could not be happier. I called Daddy into the bathroom. I asked if what I was wearing looked okay, and then I showed him the test. After it sunk in he said “High Five. Great Success” in a Borat voice (it will be many years before you understand that).

We began to tell the family. Everyone is so excited about you joining the family. Your first gift came from your cousins Garrett and Gracie. We got our first view of you on December 1st.

Daddy called you a fuzzy jelly bean. We could see your little heart beating, but we could not hear it. I have to admit that I was a little bummed out about it. Hopefully we will get to hear it on our next appointment. I also cannot wait to find out if you are a boy or a girl so I can start getting your room ready. Will it be owls or butterflies? I’m just so excited.

Pregnancy has not been without it’s struggles. The biggest symptom being a pain in my butt is the exhaustion. I also got a stomach virus a few weeks ago. That has made my stomach super sensitive, especially to your vitamins. At the end of the day though I know that it is all worth it. You will be here before I know it, and we can hardly wait.

Love,
Mama