Whew!! What a day…lately I feel like our schedules are completely out of control! Work has been really busy for both of us, and everything else has gone into overdrive. Sometimes it is a fun kind of busy like our trip to Vegas, and the 4 fun events we crammed into 2 days this weekend and I wouldn’t change a thing.  But this is also a time when all I want to do is relax, read books and enjoy some peace and quiet before the baby comes and that is just not happening, so we’re hanging on and taking it one day (sometimes one hour) at a time.

Today’s perk was my doctors appointment.  All is well, my blood pressure and weight gain are right on track.  We heard his strong and healthy heartbeat again.  In fact, I think he has taken a clue from our crazy schedules since he is on the move himself.  My OB had to keep moving the doppler around to keep up with him.  It is amazing the peace it gives me just hearing his heartbeat and knowing that all is well.

During my walks with Apollo I try to use that time to “relax” mentally and not think about everything that needs to be done at work, home or in a certain timeframe. Most of the time it doesn’t work, sometimes it does and at least the exercise and fresh air gives me a clear head, energy boost or a second wind to keep going.

Here’s a picture I snapped with my iPhone of a pretty sky on one of our walks. Doesn’t looking at that give you a sense of calm! Work with me here…I’m trying!

I am 20 weeks preggo…halfway!  Wow that kind of flew by!  I am understanding now why people always say the 2nd trimester is the best.  Here’s why I am enjoying it:

I actually look like I am pregnant now and not just a little thick around the middle.
Other than a few minor aches and pains I feel great!
Shopping for new clothes is always fun and dressing up the belly is no different.
Random strangers smile at me in public.
I get more and more people stopping to let me go in front of them, holding doors open for me and even stopping traffic to let me cross the street.
There seems to be a magical aura that surrounds a pregnant woman that makes the world take notice and become happier people.
My inie belly button is becoming an outie.
I am no longer Michelle, everyone now calls me ‘Mama’.
I love the stories I am hearing from other seasoned mama’s.
If I can put a smile on someones face by simply walking into the grocery store, then I consider it a good day!

I am in awe of this little miracle growing inside me, especially when he starts moving around, stretching, kicking and swimming in my belly. I never tire of feeling that, even in the early morning hours before the sun comes up.   I love that Justin loves my belly and the excitement I see in him when he feels him kick or we talk about our future with our little boy.

Our lives are pretty crazy right now, we are trying to get some projects done around the house before we can really start creating a nursery as well as working full time.  On the weekends and evenings, we are meeting with contractors, picking out carpet, redoing a bathroom, moving electrical and painting, on top of our social, athletic and other weekly commitments.   Once all that is done then we can get a crib and dresser and start decorating, oh JOY!  In the middle of all this madness, baby boy keeps kicking away and reminding me to pause, smile, enjoy this time and be thankful for all that we have and all that will come…God is good.

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever ~1 Chronicles 16:34

And here’s my 20 week belly 🙂

Not only do I want to use this blog as a way to keep friends and family posted on what’s going on with us, but it is kind of going to be a journal for me.  Especially down the road when I start cataloging and documenting our baby’s life.  There are some things (details) that I don’t want to forget, so I plan to post them here from time to time.  One important day that I don’t want to forget was the day we found out we were pregnant, so here goes…

On the day of my pregnancy test my mom was in town.  First thing in the morning we went to my doctors office and they drew my blood.  We were chatting with the nurses and my mom had asked them when they thought they would call with the results.  The nurse said, we try to get all our phone calls done during the lunch hour and we usually call the pregnant ones first.  So with that all done, we went to the Corner Bakery for breakfast, then we did what girls do best, we went shopping!  We had a list of errands to run and places to shop at, one by one we checked them off the list.  I had my phone in my pocket on ring and vibrate and checked it every 5 minutes to make sure I didn’t miss a call.  Around lunchtime we were at DSW (my favorite shoe store), when we left we still had not heard anything.  We only had one place left to go…Babies R Us.  I had a baby shower to go to the following weekend and I was putting off getting the gift until I knew the results so I could either prepare myself to go in get a gift and leave OR my mom and I could look around at all the cute stuff.  We had not had lunch yet and by now it was about 1:30, so we decided to go to In and Out which was on the way to Babies R Us. Both of us kind of got quiet and I was mentally preparing myself for another negative result so I wouldn’t completely loose it when I got the call.  We sat outside and ate lunch. At this point Justin had started calling me and asking if I heard anything.  Finally after stalling long enough I said lets just go get this over with, so we go to Babies R Us.  I printed the registry from the kiosk and we wandered around while I looked at the registry to determine what I wanted to buy.  Once I figured it out, we had to walk across the store to the other side to get it and we ended up walking through all the baby furniture, cribs, dressers, rocking chairs, etc…I was literally smack dab in the middle of the store and my phone rang.  I honestly thought about not answering it, I held it staring at it for a few seconds before finally deciding to answer.  It was my favorite nurse and she said “Congratulations, you are pregnant!” I had to ask her to repeat herself to be sure I heard her right.  She assured me that my numbers came back well within the positive range and she wanted me to come back in two days for a repeat test to make sure the numbers were doubling.  After hanging up my mom and I hugged and we sat in the rocking chairs and cried for a few minutes.  I can only imagine what the sales man was thinking as he watched the whole scene.  Positive!! I am pregnant!  When I caught my breath I remembered why we were there and we set off to find the gift I was buying and my mom picked up a copy of ‘What to Expect When You are Expecting’.  As much as I wanted to linger around the store, I couldn’t wait to tell Justin and I didn’t want to tell him on the phone.  Luckily his office was about 10 minutes down the road, so we headed over there.  On the way, I am calling him to tell him that we are coming over so I can ‘show my mom his office’, he wasn’t picking up my calls.  We get there and all the doors into his office are locked and they change to codes often, so I had no idea what the new code was and couldn’t get in.  So I used the keypad outside the door to call into his office (also while I am simultaneously calling him on his cell phone) and he didn’t pick up, I called the admin desk and no one picked up.  I was getting frustrated and started knocking on the door, finally a lady opened it for me and I explained who I was and we set off to Justin’s office.  He was not there…no one was there.  I started thinking about it and realized it was a little after 3:00 on a Friday, which usually means happy hour.  So as we are pulling out of the parking lot Justin calls me, I explained that we were at his office and he confirmed my suspicions that he was at happy hour with the guys.  They knew that Justin was waiting for the results so they took him out for a drink to get his mind off of things.  I hung up without telling him because I really wanted to tell him in person.  He said he was on his way home, so we met him there. As I walked into the house I gave him a hug and told him we were pregnant!  He was thrilled!  It took some time to sink it and over the next few days I had to keep reminding myself that it was true.

The really special thing about that weekend was Sunday was Mothers Day. My mom was still in town and we all went to church.  At the end of the service the all the kids came in with roses and handed them out to all the mom’s.  Not everyone at church knew that we were pregnant yet, but one couple who did had their little boy give me a rose, it was a touching moment!  Justin also gave me a really sweet Mother’s Day card.  I was still in that surreal mode where I couldn’t believe I was actually celebrating Mother’s Day in a different way.  It was such a special, emotional weekend and I am so glad my mom was there to share it with us.

We had our follow up appointment with my OB yesterday and overall everything looks great!  My blood pressure and weight gain is good.  Baby’s heartbeat is still strong.  The only thing we need to check on later is my placenta.  Right now my placenta is low in my uterus (it typically is at the top), most of the time as the baby grows the placenta can migrate further up.  So that  means I get another ultrasound around 28 weeks (yay, more pictures of baby!) to check and see where my placenta is.  If it moves up, great!  If it doesn’t move or continues to go further down, then it could cover the cervix which means the baby will not be able to get into the birth canal for delivery, which means a C-Section will be scheduled.  The baby is perfectly fine and healthy and my doctor is not concerned at all. He said only about 4% of women who have a low lying placenta end up having complete blockage of the cervix, most of them end up “fixing themselves”.  So I’m not worried, I would prefer not to have a C-Section…but of course if I need to then we will.

On another note, I’ve started feeling the baby move! A few weeks ago I felt something several times, but was not sure if it was the baby or not.  While we were in Oregon I was feeling the same sensation, only stronger and more often so I knew it was him, and have been feeling him more and more since then. Last night while I was eating tangerines in bed (my latest food obsession) I started feeling him move around again so I put my hand on my belly and was so excited that I could feel him from the outside, so I quickly grabbed Justin’s hand and he gave Justin a good kick!  Guess he likes tangerines!

I really don’t like posts without pictures so I am leaving you with a (dark & blurry) picture of Justin’s soccer game last night.  I have yet to master the art of shooting sports.  Now that I am thinking about it….I’m convinced that’s why baby was kicking up a storm last night, he wants to come out and play with daddy!  So I guess my little kicker is going to upgrade me from a soccer wife to a soccer mom 🙂

We just got back from visiting my parents in Oregon and had a great time!  I’ll post pictures and more info on our trip later.  Right now, we have some exciting news to share.  The day before we left we had an ultrasound to determine the gender so we could surprise our parents.  The results………………………………..

…………………it’s a BOY!!! Here’s proof 🙂

Yes, I know my son is going to hate me one day for posting this, but then one day he will, hopefully, understand.  We are thrilled!  I will be even more outnumbered in our house with 3 males (dogs count too), and Justin is excited to have a buddy to do boy type things with.

The day after we got back from Oregon, I had fetal anatomy ultrasound, this was a 30 minute ultrasound and was very thorough.  I had to drink 32 oz of water an hour before and hold it.  Really, what are they thinking when they tell a pregnant woman that they have to hold it!  Anyway, the ultrasound tech couldn’t really tell us anything since she was just a tech and her job is to get the pictures.  They will then be read/interpreted by an MD and sent to my OB’s office.  We have our follow up visit with my OB on Monday so I will know more then and will post an update next week.  She was able to tell us that all 4 heart chambers were developed and functioning, the spine looks good and she pointed out all the different body parts.  At the end of the ultrasound baby boy started sucking his thumb, so cute!  And I would like to note that it was not just any thumb, it was his left thumb.  Here’s to betting he’s going to be a lefty like his mama!

Now I am going to start shopping!  Can’t wait!

I had a friend ask me the other day how I was REALLY feeling, they didn’t want the ‘I’m fine‘ sugarcoated version, they wanted details.  I am finding that is a common question I am asked these days.  And I can honestly say that right now at 15 weeks 3 days and in the beginning of my 2nd trimester, I feel great!

I do have to say that I was pretty lucky I did not get as sick during my first trimester as some women do.  I had my share of nausea for about 2 weeks. Otherwise I really didn’t have any kind of appetite, nothing sounded good and if I finally decided to eat something, once it was in front of me it no longer was appealing.  At least I was not hugging the toilet for 3 months, that would have been miserable. The one thing that I did not (and still don’t) have any desire to eat is red meat (except for In N Out, I can eat that anytime!)  We love to BBQ a tri tip for dinner especially during the warm summer months, but we haven’t done that this summer.  It is really hard on Justin since we have a freezer full of grass fed beef from my parents cattle ranch and he is chomping at the bit to cook it up.  One night I told him to go ahead and make himself a steak for dinner, I ended up having to take the dog out for a walk while he cooked because I couldn’t stand the smell.  It just blows my mind how one little tiny thing can blow your whole body out of whack!

I did, however, have a BIG struggle with fatigue.  I simply could NOT stay awake.  When I got up in the morning and got ready for work, there were times when I had to lie down and rest before I could leave for work.  Then somehow I managed to drag through the day and once I got home most of the time I never made it out of my work clothes, or even made it upstairs to bed, I just made a beeline from the garage to the couch and promptly fell asleep.  That nap didn’t usually last long because the dog would start bugging me to take him out on a walk, and those days his walks were very short.  Once we got home I immediately went back to sleep until Justin came home from work.  Then I would wake up and talk to him for a bit and then go upstairs to bed for the night. I had zero energy and everything seemed like such a chore to do.

Finally, about 2 weeks ago, I feel like I woke up out of a 3 month fog, now I can actually go a full day without a nap.  I have energy again! My appetite has come back full force and other than a little bulge in the belly, I feel normal.  I have been putting off buying maternity clothes and I don’t think I can get away with that much longer, my clothes are getting pretty uncomfortable.  So I see a shopping spree in the near future! The one complaint I had was I was having difficulty getting comfortable sleeping at night, so a friend told me to get a body pillow, not just a regular body pillow but a super special one, which I did, and now am a proud owner of a bed raft and I am sleeping like a baby!

One really awesome thing about pregnancy is my nails.  I have never had strong nails and when I was younger I used to drive my mother crazy by chewing my nails.  Even if they did get long, they would break off the minute I touched something.  I always wanted to have beautiful long nails, real ones.  When I started taking prenatal vitamins in 2009 they helped a little, but nothing to get excited about.  Now, that I am actually pregnant, I can tell you it is not the prenatal vitamins alone, it is a combo of those with a growing baby that make your nails super strong. They are out of control, I almost don’t know what to do with them.  I’ve never been in the habit of needing to trim or file my nails since I didn’t have any to do that to.  Now I do and I love it!  So I am sleeping well, eating, awake and have nice long, strong nails, life is good!  Here’s my 15 week belly.

XOXO

AT&T has been down in our area since Thursday so we have not had any cable or internet for 2 and a half days. To tell you the truth I actually enjoyed not having TV, but the internet is a different story.  It really made me realize how much we rely on the internet.  If I didn’t have my iPhone I probably would have gone to the library or Kinkos to get online.  We’ve seen AT&T trucks across the street working over the last 2 days and about two hours ago when I was walking the dog, I walked by and the guy looked at me warily (I’m sure he’s had many people approach him) and I just smiled and said ‘so…is there any hope?’ He laughed and said ‘yes, there’s hope’.  He asked me a few questions and told me to try a few things which I did with no luck, he looked up our address and said he would work on it and about 10 minutes later we were back online, TV and all!  It helps to make friends on the street while walking the dog 🙂

Anyway, my point is, I haven’t been able to post about our latest appointment.  Thursday afternoon I had my 14 week appointment (technically I was 13 weeks 6 days).  It was a really quick appointment, all my numbers are good and we got to hear the heartbeat again!  Our next appointment is going to be the fetal anatomy scan, which I am really looking forward to and we will have lots more to share then.

Right now I have a house full of men playing poker, Justin is realizing his days of having loud guys in the house late at night are numbered, so we’ve had quite a few poker nights lately.  Thankfully the internet is back on so I am able to get all my stuff done in the comfort of my bed raft.  Which, by the way, is Justin’s name for the new body pillow I bought.  I LOVE it!  I was having a hard time getting comfortable sleeping so I found this amazing pillow on Amazon and it was on sale, with free shipping and arrived the next day!  They must take orders from pregnant women pretty seriously!  When I’m not cozy in the bed raft, Apollo is.