24 Weeks

I really don't have much to say today. Nothing new has really been going on with my pregnancy. However, some day I wake up and my stomach, sides, and back hurt like crazy from all of the stretching but that usually doesn't last more than a day. I feel like I am starting to get braxton hicks. Is that possible to get them this early??? Maybe it is just me whining and not being used to this kind of pain. Umm anything else... Oh I am almost over my craving of vanilla ice cream but I am still LOVING fruit. I can never get enough of that delicious stuff. I carry dried fruit in my purse so I can eat it, ALL THE TIME. MMM, I should go get some right now.

I did manage to attach a couple of pictures to this post. The first picture is from 22 weeks along. It is the only picture I approve of out of the 5 bazillion that I took. And the second picture is from 24 weeks. It is crazy to me how much I have changed in just two weeks.

22 weeks today.

I don’t have any new pictures to put up for this post but I wanted to write down some of this stuff before I forget it all. And I have tried to take some pictures of my little baby girl growing but really…I don’t like any of the pictures I have taken. Who would thought?? I mean, I can totally post all of these ugly nasty pictures of me sweating while running, wearing my ugly nasty running clothes, having the whitest legs known to man, no makeup, and red faced but when it comes to taking a pregnancy picture, I totally dread doing it. I just can't bring myself to post any of the pictures. Maybe it is all of the crazy hormones... Ya, that has got to be it.

I mainly wanted to post today because Brighton got to feel our baby girl kick for the first time today! I was so excited for him. I officially felt her kick (from the outside) for the first time was on the 18th but every time I told Brighton to come feel she would stop. Typical story I know. But today I was catching up on my Biggest Loser episodes (shocker that I was behind, I know) and she must have the same excitement for the show that I do because she wouldn’t stop moving. That’s my girl. While I was sitting there watching my tummy move I convinced Brighton to come over and see if he could feel her and he could!!! I was so excited to see his smile when he felt it. My little girl is getting bigger!! I have a whole bunch of doctor appts tomorrow including another ultra sound and a fetal echo cardio gram and I can’t wait to see how she has grown since her last 8oz. That is the one good thing about being high risk is I get to see my little girl at every appt. They make for longer appts but so worth it.

I also wanted to post the weird cravings I have had during my pregnancy. Now that I look back at them I can totally see them as cravings but before it dawned on me what they were it was just what sounded good at the time. I usually eat what sounds good at the time (Not something I recommend if you are not pregnant, it can be fairly unhealthy) but my pre pregnancy 'cravings' were usually over in a day or two. Not two weeks later.

So far they have been

1. Pop – I NEVER drink pop and for 2-3 weeks it was the only thing that sounded good and the only thing I could keep down in the morning. Water was just so gross and came up way too easy! This by far was the weirdest craving I have had to date. I am WAY glad that is over.
2. Chips – I HATE chips because counting the carbs in those things is such a nightmare. But cheetos and Doritos were heavenly and I ate them by the bags. Big bags.
3. Soup – I had to have soup for lunch for 2 whole weeks. I am usually over soup in a day.
4. Fruit – now this is a good craving. I like fruit typically but I was eating anywhere from 5-15 fruits a day and a lot of those were oranges/tangerines. I HATE oranges… for a lot of reasons but I couldn’t get enough of them there for a while.
5. Chocolate milk – I don’t like any kind of milk because it sits weird in my stomach and I don’t like any liquid drinks other than water because, once again, it is hard to count the carbs. But I had to have at least 2 chocolate milks a day for like a while month. I am glad that is over. Chocolate milk is expensive.
6. Ice cream – Ya, need I say more.
7. Right now, Sandwiches – For my first trimester I could not even stand looking at lunch meat but right now, I can’t get enough of turkey sandwiches. Something about them.
8. More? To be continued... I am sure.

I would like to say I am sorry there are no pictures, maybe I will be later tonight, but right now... not so much. :) I just wanted to write this all down so some day I can come back and read it all. Hopefully I didn't bore anybody to death!!

The verdict is in...

The verdict is in and baby Pierce is going to be a girl! Everything looks wonderful and she is growing as she should. My favorite part of the whole appointment was watching her breath and swallow. Being pregnant has just become 150% more real to me and I can’t describe how excited Brighton and I are. (Brighton REALLY wanted a girl.)

Baby girl stuff that was given to us by people who knew we were going to have a girl! Who knew they would be right!?!? (I am posting these next two pictures because I don't have any way to post the pictures of the ultra sound. So just picture a baby in these clothes.)

18 weeks pregnant and still feeling just as awkward taking this picture. Ha ha, does my face show it or what??? Trust me though, I am REALLY excited.

Not what I expected...

I have seriously rewritten this post THREE times (Even more in my head) and I still can’t figure out how I want to say it. Where is Brighton when I need him?

July has always been my favorite month. Heck, my birthday is in that month, I get two paid days off during that month, and most of my vacations fall during that month. It can’t get any better right? Wrong. Brighton and I are expecting our first little one July 4th!!
There I said it. I can’t take it back. Why has it been so hard for me to tell? I am not sure. This whole pregnancy thing has been very SURREAL for me and totally not what I expected. I am still not sure I am fully enjoying it but the idea is still growing on me. LOL get it, growing on me? Okay I am done.

I am now 17 almost 18 weeks along and doing a whole lot better. I wasn’t too sick the first couple of weeks just SUPER SUPER tired. I am pretty sure in all of my preparation and reading ‘being tired’ never came up. I could not get enough sleep. I was barely on time to work every day, sleeping during lunch and falling asleep as soon as I got home. I have been tire before but I have always gotten over it. Man I was tired for weeks on end and definitely not enjoying it. Exercising was totally out for me. Also, the whole smell thing made me ornery. I was not nauseated (like I was planning on) but certain smells made me want to kill people. And foods and that I once loved became nasty to me and my desire to eat went down. That is rare. The holidays were not as fun as they usually are because I couldn’t stand the smell of any of the foods (thinking about it still makes me…) and I was so tired that socializing with family was a chore. I am not sure why anybody wanted to talk to me.

Then around 11 weeks the nausea hit and throwing up, well let’s just say it happened a lot. But that honestly did not bother me as much as the smells and exhaustion. LOL, it bothered Brighton though. Seeing him plugging his ears and hearing the radio volume go up while I am throwing up outside of the car, makes me laugh. He told me he was this close to joining me on the side of the car. What a sight that would have been.

Next week we get to find out what we are having!! I am hoping once we find out this whole experience will be more real to me. My little tummy is growing more but I still just feel fat. In some of my clothes you can’t even tell that I am pregnant. Some days that is nice but other days I want my outside to show what I am feeling on the inside. I guess I need more patience. That will happen eventually.

Overall, I am excited though. Not enjoying the journey, but excited at the chance that we get to be parents. Here is to July and all the fun it brings!!!!

p.s. taking this picture was the most awkward thing I have done. I had to wear the tightest shirt I own and Brighton kept telling me to stop sucking it in. I still don't know how I feel about it.

California Part - 2

So I have been trying several different ways to post the funniest videos of our California trip. The first night we got there we didn’t have a lot of time to do anything so we decided to go to a driving range. I saw Dallas’s golf clubs in the spare bedroom closet and while we were decided what we wanted to do until Mindy got off work I mentioned that we should go to a driving range. I had just finished my golf lessons and wanted to test out my new skills. And hey, Dallas had some golf clubs. So away we went.

It was highly enjoyable and I would have done it all night. I had the coolest video to download but I couldn’t get the format to work and got too frustrated to continue trying. The video was of my hitting the golf ball… kind of. The first swing I totally missed (typical), the second swing was of me right hooking it (even more typical) and the third swing was of a perfect hit! Extremely Rare. The video probably would have been boring for everyone else but it made me laugh really hard. I look so terrible in it. So all I have to show is this lovely (eyes rolling) picture. It was the best one I could download that didn’t come up way too fuzzy.

I thought I was pretty good at golfing until I saw Brighton and Dallas hitting a few. Man I am terrible! I also had a video of Dallas hitting the ball and my form may have been better but his went at least 400 feet longer. I kept telling myself they have a couple (30) years on me and I couldn’t help but laugh. I guess there is only one way to get better. Bring on the driving ranges.

So from all of the golfing classes and experience on the driving ranges here is the only good picture I have! If you want to see my funny video, please come on over.

California - part 1

So this post is a long time coming. I am not sure why it took me so long to update my blog but I haven't update forever!

Back in October for Fall Break we got the opportunity to go out to California to see Brighton's brother and sister in-law. I have to say it was one of the most relaxing and enjoyable vacations I have ever been on. If we haven't annoyed Dallas and Mindy too much, we hope to do it again!

Here are just some of the pictures from our adventures...

Dallas lives 30 minutes from Disneyland so of course we had to visit the happiest place on earth.

While waiting in line for Soarin, what are they doing? Checking their fantasy football. Can you tell they are related? On a side note, guess who is number 1 in our fantasy football league? Yep Yep, yours truly.

Also, just like Disney world, Disneyland has High School Musical!!! Brighton, Dallas, and Mindy were super nice and let me take time out of their day to watch the High School Musical parade. It was awesome!! I stood in between two kids who had better dance moves then me. They were inspiring.

If you haven't been to Disneyland in the fall I recommend it. They have some pretty fun decorations

Dallas and Mindy also told us about the new night show at Disneyland called World of Color. I HIGHLY recommend it. I don't have any pictures of the show because I was totally mesmerized during the whole thing but I would have gone every night if we could have gotten there early enough to get tickets. It is a show with all of these pyro techniques and the water fountains...go see it.

We did however, get some fun before and after shots.

Dallas and Mindy also live 15 minutes from the beach. After visiting the beach I decided I want one here so I could run next to it. You know how awesome that would be?

Our day at the beach.

Brighton's first attempt at surfing. Conclusion? A lot harder then it looks.

At the harbor Brighton and Dallas got us some ice cream and in the process found a shop where you could pick out an oyster and keep the pearls that were in it. We went back at the end of the day and picked out two oysters and made me my first pearl necklace. Mindy picked out one oyster that had three pearls in it (a less then 1% chance) and made some earrings with it. It was something I would do again. However, I get nervous trying to pick out one oysters. Which one which one?? Brighton on the other hand had more fun picking out the oysters then anything but I do love my pearl necklace.

Well I do not have the rest of my pictures from our California trip yet so I am ending my post here for the day. I will continue with the rest of our week as soon as the pictures upload. Stay tuned.

Icing on the Cake

Last weekend for me was not the best. It is one of those that you just trudge though until you come out the other side. And I am happy to say I came out the other side!! But I do have some pictures to show from my adventures.

To give a little recap, my grandpa was in the ER last Friday and had a severe blockage in his colon. (No more details than that, I promise.) My family was super helpful to come take care of my grandpa that Friday and Saturday and everything ended well. The rest of my family had a vacation planned for that weekend and they were going to cancel because of my grandpa but since he was doing better they decided to go. Well after the trauma of not getting any sleep for two nights straight I was looking forward to a relaxing Sunday. However, I woke up Sunday morning and my grandpa was in more pain. Long story short I had to give him more laxatives and... well you get the pictures. Not a fun Sunday.

I am not sure why but I was super emotional all last weekend. The ER was super hard to be at. The last time I was there was when Brighton's mom passed away and every image I had from last December came flooding back and I just cried my eyes out! I never do that. I cry but I don't bawl. It was also super stormy and rainy all last weekend. Now I usually am not a seasonally depressed person but the rain was destroying any happiness I could muster up. Why?? I have no idea!

After helping my grandpa out all Sunday day I was exhausted and I wanted to talk to some of my family. So I was walking down the stairs to call my brother and his wife in Omaha when I looked out the door and saw this...

Oh my heck!!!!! I had to do a double take and sure enough, a tree in my grandpa's back yard had blown over and fallen in my neighbors back yard. Great! I knew I hated the rain and weather last weekend for a reason! After trying to get a hold of my neighbor (who by the way is super nice) I decided there was only two options at the point I could do. Cry or take pictures. So after taking a little breather I took pictures. :)

I had been telling my family since we moved in that this dead tree should go and now I got my wish! There is more than one way to skin a cat. :)

My amazing husband cutting up the tree. Brighton was phenomenal all weekend to help me out. He let me cry and was there when I needed him. When the tree fell he didn't even say anything. He just went right into my grandpa's garage, got a chainsaw, and starting cutting up the tree.

Since the tree was so dead it actually didn't take us that long to clean up. It pretty much snapped in our hands.

My neighbor Joey. When he came home and saw the tree he asked if we had added a new addition so his home. And then he and his family helped us clean it up.

We were super lucky with how the tree fell. It missed all of the power and phone lines, all windows, any part of Joey's house and anything of worth. It did break the fence but it needed replacing anyway. I like to think of the tree as a blessing in disguise. It actually helped me to get outside and smile, I did end up enjoying the wind and clouds, and it got rid of a tree that we have wanted gone for a long time.

Moral of the story? Blessing came in every shape and size!