What a day!

So I had today off as my MLK day and was looking forward to running a few errands and then relaxing. But that didn't begin to happen until 7:30 tonight.

The first order of business was going to the DOL since I lost my ID a month ago. I tried to do it online, but had to update my address as well so they make you come in to do it. Then I was going to go to Bellevue Square to spend my Bump gift certifcate and finally quench my craving of Cinnabon Cinnamon rolls. Last order of business was to go pick up a crib my friend was giving us. Sounds easy enough, right? Pfft.... yeah right.

So I completely do my hair and make up for the sake of my licence photo-something I hate doing on my day off. I get to the DOL and it's closed. Like shut down for good. They refer me to another facility in the city but I don't have a GPS or internet on my phone. So I decide to give up. Screw it. I have my passport and a paper copy of my license-I'll do it some other day.

I head to the mall and try on a bunch of skirts with my GC. I had to buy a large :( Stupid skinny pregnant boutiques. The skirt was $105!!!! But thats all I could find that I needed. Thankfully my GC covered the cost. I asked the employee if she can point me in the direction of Cinnabon and she said that its right across from the store. All I see is a white wall. I said, "really?" She looked and exclaimed that it looks like its been shut down. WHAT!? I finished my transaction and felt the overwhelming feeling of sorrow come over me. I became depressed. I've been craving a delicious warm, gooey Cinnamon roll for three weeks! I decided to get a slice of Dulce de Leche cheescake from Cheesecake Factory as a consulation. But I vow to find the perfect cinnamon roll to take care of my cinnamon, butter, frosting craving!

Tim calls me and I tell him I'm giving up on the DOL. He talked me out of it, after all, he also need a CDL book. So he sent me directions to the still open DOL. *SIGH* Thankfully it wasn't a long wait. It just stunk in there.

So I finally get home and Tim and I head out to his parent's to get his dads truck to head to Seattle to pick up a new (to us) crib. We already had one from his sister. However the one we were getting from my friend was white (which I preferred) and a convertable bed. We pick it up with no incident and get home. We were going to take apart the other one and bring it to his parents for them to sell. Well, Tim didn't have the right tools so he decided we'll just sell it. We drive all the way back to his parents to drop off their truck. On the way home we stop by Lowes to pick up crib screws, picked up Red Robin for dinner and make it home. Tim rebuilds our old crib so I can take photos of it to put on Craigs list. Thats when I discovered the crib that we've had is also convertable. Anyway we clean off the new crib and start putting it together. Turns out the screws don't work, we don't have the directions and it's just not working.... Grrrr. Theres nothing else we can do. So we take it back a part, take it back down stairs and start moving our original crib back up stairs. What a waist of time, effort and money!
We decided we will pain the other crib white. Great! More money to spend, more effort (to paint) and now we gotta figure out what to do with the "new" crib.

Seriously today was SO ANNOYING! Oh and if anyone wants to come bring a Cinnabon Cinnamon roll I'll be eternally grateful!

24 Weeks

Wow, I’m 24 weeks – that means I only have 16 weeks to go, which is only 4 months!

There is still lots to do, but we have plenty of time. I “finished” painting the nursery this weekend. Tim might claim he helped me, but if you compare his 15 minutes of help to my 5 hours of work, I don’t think saying “we painted” is really accurate :). And when I say “finished” I think I want to add a 2 inch brown trim between the pink and green on the walls. But I’ll tackle that later.

Although Tim’s sister gave us a nice crib that both of her kids used, my friend wants to give us her daughters convertible crib that converts from a crib to a big girl bed. We’re going to pick it up this weekend.

The crib set I ordered was on back order so we should be getting that in the next two weeks. We have registered for and still need a glider, a swing, book case and changing table for the nursery to be considered, “complete”. Oh and I still need to get shelves and the valance in place… hmmmm I’m sure I can add a lot more to my “to do” list.

Here are some pictures of our progress:

My grandma, lil sis and I went to the fabric store this weekend to pick out fabric for the baby quilt. My grandma has made quilts for all of her grand kids for their 18th birthday. And although I’d like to think she’ll be around for all of her great grandchildren’s 18th birthday, she makes them a quilt for when they’re born. She does an amazing job and I’m excited to see this finished quilt.

Overall I’m feeling really good. I feel energetic although I still love my naps if I can fit them in! The only problem I’m having is my sciatic nerve in my back. Some of you may recall when I was in high school (and a few times after) my legs would give out and it would be pretty painful and have trouble walking. Well it’s back with a vengeance. I know what causes it: picking up anything with a bit of weight to it. When I did a lot of furniture moving and painting during my vacation, my back was out for the next day and a half. When I finished painting on Saturday it bugged me a bit on Sunday. It worries me a little bit that I still have 4 months to go and I’ll only be getting bigger which would put my pressure on my back.

Speaking of getting bigger I’ve already gained 23 pounds! And boy do I feel it! I gained a lot of weight during my vacation because I was pretty sedentary, made myself a heaping breakfast every day and made elaborate dinners. Oh and I had TONs of holiday treats to eat. I huff and puff going up the stairs and since I’ve always been active and in shape, I’m really not liking this extra weight. The last week and ½ I’ve been a lot more active and not indulging as much. I know I can’t realistically lose weight but I’m gonna try and slow down the gain.

Here is the baby update:

At eight inches and slightly over a pound, your baby is the size and shape of a small doll when you are 23 weeks pregnant. This week marks the beginning of some serious weight gain. Your baby's weight in the next four weeks alone should double (and you may feel as though yours is too).

You have probably heard your developing baby's heartbeat through a Doppler a number of times already but by now you can also hear it through a standard stethoscope. What a heart throb!

Your baby's skin is reddish in color now because of the developing blood vessels underneath (remember, the skin is very thin still). It also hangs loosely from his or her little body at this point. That's because the skin grows faster than the fat develops during fetal growth. But don't worry. By the time your baby is born, he or she will be pleasantly plump and filled out — from chubby cheeks to chubby toes.

23.5 weeks

Reflection

It's Christmas morning and I woke up too early as I have been the last 4 days. Tuesday and Wednesday I woke up at 2 am, yesterday it was 4 and today it was 5am. But my inability to get more than 5 hours of sleep isn't my point of today's blog.

As I was laying in bed contemplating if I should give up and just get up, I was thinking about where we were last year at this time. I've learned a valuable lesson in my life - don't dwell on the past, but I think it's important that you reflect on it so you can appreciate how far you have come.

Yesterday marked our 1 year anniversary of homeownership. Although to be completely accurate, Tim did own his own condo before. A week before we got the keys to our home it had snowed quite a bit and I had just told Timmy he was going to be a daddy. It was all very exciting, but stressful for us. The snow made transportation anywhere a hassel and dangerous, we were living out of boxes while our closing date kept changing because of complications with snow, and the even though the news of a baby brought excitement and joy, it also brought worry.

We got our keys on Christmas eve and started to move into our home. Because I was worried about heavy lifting, poor Tim did the majority of the work. We were both beyond exhausted, but because we had to return the U-haul on Christmas, we woke up early on Christmas morning to get the last of our belongings out of Bellevue. Needless to say there were no tree, lights, stockings, gifts, etc that year. But we had each other, a new home, Griffey and a baby on the way, so the other stuff didn't matter to us.

This Christmas is extra special for so many reasons. Not only is our brand new home a year old and already has great memories in it, we are getting to have our first 'real' Christmas in it. We have a beautiful tree with some very special ornaments, our stockings are stuffed, and we have countless cards from loved ones. We also have a precious, healthy daughter on the way.

So as I reflect on the past, I'm eternally grateful that God is faithful. Not only is this my very first home ever (as most of you know I grew up poor and on welfare and many times was homeless) we have also have a successful and relatively healthy pregnancy. I knew God would make us parents some day. We had to count on Him and His timing, and He was faithful in our pursuit of parenthood. Most important of all, God called upon the virgin Mary to do something far greater than any other person in history. To give birth to a Son who would provide our salvation if we believed. Santa may not be real (gasp! Did I just say that!? :)) But God's love and His promise to us is. This time of rejoycing, thankfulness, giving and love wouldn't exsist without the biggest Gift of all, Jesus Christ.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

21 wks

It's (gonna be) a Girl!

Friday was such a long day! I woke up 3 times and had a hard time falling back to sleep. It was like the anticpition when you're little waiting until it's time to see what Santa brought you.

I could barely focus at work - all I could think of and what a lot of my employees asked me about was how excited I was to find out the sex of B-Mo. One employee even brought me a beautiful baby frame. Besides that I got a few other gifts. My supervisors (all four guys) bought be a beautiful bouquet of flowers which was a birthday slash Christmas gift and a gift certificate to Amazon.com - which I've already purchased the baby mobile with. I also received an angel ornament. All in all a good day - just not very productive.


Anyway, Tim picks me up from work at 330 since our appt in Bellevue is at 4. The technician spends the first 15 minutes or so doing all of the measurements. I started having a little bit of anxiety - all I want to know is the gender! But of course I realize how important all the other stuff is too. Turns out our baby has a perfect heart and everything else looks perfect and she is in the 91% percentile for her gestational age. As the tech is moving around the wand on my tummy I kept looking towards the legs to see if I can see a penis or testicals (The reason I was looking for those parts was because I knew I wouldn't recognize any girl parts.)-I know Tim was doing the same thing. In fact he thought the umbilical cord indicated we had a boy!


Finally she asks, "do you want to know the gender?" and we say yes. She instantly said, "It's a girl" She showed us the little butt cheeks (which you can see in the clip below) and in the middle was her vagina. The technician also made a crack about how her legs were wide open and we need to teach her thats not okay when she comes out. ummm... thanks?

As soon as it was announced she was a girl I said, "yay" and reached out to Tim and scratched his back. Naturally- like most daddys- he was hoping for a boy.



We head out to Marysville to go tell my mom in person. I promised she'd be the first to know. My poor sister, Breanna had been waiting on pins and needles and I had to tell she had to wait 45 minutes :) I think it was torcher for her. Traffic from Bellevue to Marysville was awful of course and Tim wasn't talking a whole lot. I think the shock from learning we're not having a boy right now to the annoyance of driving all the way to Marysville had him in a quiet spell.

I made little ornaments for my mom and Tim's parents on the way to their houses to be able to tell them the gender of B-Mo.

We gave my mom's hers and it takes a second to realize she is having another granddaughter.

It was cute when Tim's mom looked at the ornament and announced it was a girl and Tim's dad just lit up and said, "Girls are the best!" It was so sweet.

Later on, Tim said he was perfectly fine having a girl after he talked to his buddy Matt who has one daughter and another one on the way. I think man to man encouragement on how wonderful girls are is a good thing for any daddy anticipating a little girl.

Oh I should mention that 'they' put my due date back to 5/5/10. I guess it really doens't matter. Bottom line, our princess is due early May. At this point she is measuring the length of a banana.

I'll be taking the week after Christmas off and use that time to start decorating the nursery. Unfortunately, none of the nursery set we want is available in store so I'll have to order it online and wait for it to arrive. But as I mentioned above, I ordered the baby mobile in hopes it would come shortly after Christmas so at the very least I can pick up paint and supplies. Here is what it looks like:

I really wanted butterflies but I didn't want it to be over the top pink or purple frilly. I'm glad the set has green and brown. It took a while to find a girl set we like. And although I'm sad to not get the boy set we fell in love with, we have a 50/50 chance of getting it next time. :)

We can't wait to meet our Kaydriana Sheyanne in early May!

Two more days!

In two days (well less at this point) we find out if we're going to have a Lake or Kaydriana to look forward to meeting! People have been asking me if I have an inkling on the sex. I think the only reason why I'm guessing girl is because I've answered most of the questions in a book my sister sent me called, "Gender Predictor" and most of them say I'm having a girl. For example the 'tests' that predict a girl were my craving of citrus, that I eat crust and my leg hair grows slower. But wouldn't it be interesting if we have a boy and it blows all those theories out of the water?

I just received my 21 week email update and it says BMo is the size of small canteloupe and is 6.5 inches long.

I had an OB appt today and Dr. Graham says I'm doing good. I've gained 14 lbs and at this point I could start gaining a pound a week, yikes! She did say to stay away from sugars... ummm... I have about 5-7 pieces a day. I promise myself that after Christmas is over and Tim and I clean out all the chocolate, I won't indulge myself so much. After all, my goal is stay under 200 lbs!

I got to hear the heart beat again and Dr. Graham says my uterus has grown and is up to my belly button, which I figured since I started to feel little movements behind it. And speaking of movements, right when I began to write this, Bmo was moving a lot! In fact I wish Tim was here so he could feel her/him move, which I'm pretty sure he would have been able to feel.

Here is a 20 week photo from last Friday:

We have movement!!

It FINALLY happened! I can say without a doubt that I felt B-Mo moving and kicking last night. I was laying in bed flat on my back (don't worry I no longer sleep that way) praying and I felt movement. I just went to the bathroom (sorry TMI) so I was confident it wasn't gas bubbles. So I put my right hand below the right side of my belly button and there it was- a kick or punch! I was amazed! Tim was asleep down stairs and I was tempted to go wake him or call him on my phone (bedroom is on the 3rd floor and living room is on the first-its a lot of effort, ok? :) ) but I worried if I moved I wouldn't feel her/him anymore. I had the biggest smile on my face, thanked God for this moment and I'm pretty sure I fell asleep with that big grin.
Ahhh.... just thinking about it now puts a smile on my face!

And just for clarification, Tim likes to sleep with the TV on and I need silence. So he falls asleep on the couch and if he can manage the energy to come up the 28 stairs to our bedroom he will in the middle of the night :)

19 weeks

My growing belly has made it necessary to wear only maternity pants. Not even the maternity pants I bought a few months ago feel comfy anymore. I need the ones that stretch over my belly, otherwise I'm too uncomfortable.

Motherhood Maternity is running a special where you spend $75 and you get a $50 gift certificate to a restaurant. So because I was in need of more pants for work, I figured I might as well take advantage of the deal. I didn't realize until an hour after my purchases that I didn't qualify because I went to a Motherhood Maternity/Pea in the Pod store. Ugh... and of course there was , "nothing they could do for me". Pfffttt.... oh well.

After the maternity shopping, Tim and I headed to Seattle in hopes of taking a ride in a horse drawn carriage. Unfortunately, it being an unusually clear (almost sunny) Seattle day there were no rides available. So we just walked around and took in the sites and did some shopping. I'm excited to try the body pillow I picked up. We got a $10 one from Bed, Bath and Beyond. I'm not sure if there is that much of an advantage to get an expensive maternity body pillow, but for $10 it's worth a try.

We stopped by Borders books because Tim wanted a pregnancy/parenthood book he could get into. And I picked up Belly Laughs. My sister gave my Baby Laughs that I loved so I've been wanting to get Jenny McCarthy's first book. I've definitely busted out laughing a few times.

I decided it was time to finally take another belly photo. So here I am at 18W/6D:

At this point I should be feeling B-Mo moving... and I think I do sometimes, but it's still not obvious. Tim and I almost bought a fetal heart monitor thing for $20, but decided to research it's effectiveness first. The reviews go back and forth. The moms who got it liked they could hear their baby kicking and moving around, but most couldn't pick up a heart beat until the 3rd trimester. We might get it anyway and try it. Because we'll be finding out what gender B-Mo is in less than 2 weeks we have been looking at different bedding for the baby's room. Here is what we want for a boy:http://www.babysupermall.com/main/products/coc/coc7035-862.html
For a girl we think we like: http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3635751

We're 100% on the boy's choice and 50% on the girls choice. Is that some indication on the gender? :)