Ages

I am very very sorry for the outrageous delay in updating my blog. I can only blame it on laziness and tiredness. I am so tired and so busy.. horrible combo. Not that the tiredness is anything outlandish or horrible.. just continuous. When my alarm goes off at 3:30 to wake up, I am having the hardest time getting up and keeping my eyes open. Maybe it is because I am growing a baby or it could be because I only get backaches when I sleep which decreases the quality of sleep. I don't know.. but its silly. However, I don't mind, just another reminder of my sweet baby growing in my womb.
Speaking of my womb, I absolutely love to feel the borders of my uty (uterus). I frequently ask Joey to feel it. I wonder how he feels about that. I mean, I don't ask him to feel it inappropriately.. just to feel the borders and when it is tight. I love the growth every week. Lately it has been tightening up and you can feel it really well. It tightened up while I was at the OBs office and he said he thought it was just the way she was laying because it wasn't completely firm in all quadrants. (Can you tell I enjoy talking about the uterus?) :) It is so weird to know how big it is compared to my pre-pregnancy uty. It is now about 2 inches above my belly button. Which, by the way, is really starting to flatten out. I used to have somewhat of a deep belly button, I don't know why.. just what Jesus gave me. But now it is slowly coming closer and closer to the surface of the rest of my belly. I wonder if it will pop out at any point or just get flat. Only time will tell. :)

So I had my 22 week appointment on Friday. All went amazingly well. Babies heart rate was 140 (super!) and she was moving lots. The nurse kept having to chase her around my belly to get a good consistent reading. Already as ornery as her father and I. Joey has been able to go to all of my appointments except for one. It has been wonderful to have Joey at my appointments. I think it is so cute that he wants to go to them all. He is going to be such a great father!! Dr.Adams started measuring my belly at this appointment. I was so excited when he said he was going to measure my belly. I don't know why I was so excited.. probably because it is related to pregnancy and I love it! I measured slightly big at 23 weeks, but he said it really depends on your pelvic shape. And he said the measurement is just the starting point and the ones after this are the most important because they note my growth. I only have one more appointment that is 4 weeks apart then I go to q2 week appointments. Whoo hoo!! And only 2 more weeks till viability! Not that being born at 24 weeks would be good.. but at least it would be viable.

My tummy growth has really taken off lately. I still need to post my 22 week photo, but you can see the outrageous growth from 18-20 weeks. I love it! My original plan was going to be to take a photo every week after 20 weeks. But I think I am going to stick to the q2 week photos until about 36 weeks. After that I will take them weekly due to the possibility of having the baby. Hard to imagine I have less than 18 weeks till my due date. I know that sounds like a lot of weeks, but it is only about 4 months away. CRAZY!! Another amazing development- Joey and I felt her kick on Thursday. I had felt her kick inside- inconsistently but still... I could feel it. Then on Thursday I was laying on the floor and she started to kick and I could feel it on my hand. So I had Joey feel her and it was so neat!! I love that we were able to feel her at the same time. I didn't want it to be one of those things where I could feel it for weeks before he did- I wanted to share this moment with him. Funny, as I was typing about her kicking- she started to kick. What a silly goose. I guess she knows what I am thinking about. :) Its weird, its almost like I know when she is getting ready to kick. I have this weird feeling in my gut, almost like my stomach is dropping, and then she starts to move and kick. Have I mentioned how adorable she is?!
Alright.. that's enough for now. Sorry for the long post. Much to update you on. I will attempt to 1.Post my 22 week photo soon and 2. Update more often. :) Wish me luck.

Time to Introduce To You..

This is my growing baby girl. Isn't she adorable!! I can't even believe that this adorable little person is inside of me.. just baking away until its time to pop open the oven and introduce her to the world. By the size of her the adjusted due date was 11/6, however they are going to keep my due date 11/11. I am kind of happy about that because I like that date. It just seems exciting and fun to say.
I went to the doctors on Wednesday (sorry for the delay in writing.. I have been a little exhausted to say the least). I first had my sonogram and it was delightful! The ultrasound technician was super nice and funny. I have to admit I was terrified coming into this photo shoot. I was so worried that Baby Antebellum was not going to be healthy.. or her heart wouldn't be beating. The good news.. the worrying was for no reason. She was as healthy as a .. I don't know. Something very healthy. We got a really good picture of her heart, which was so adorable and little. Her tummy was the size of a pea. It is so little. No wonder she only requires 10 or so calories a day. At the beginning of the ultrasound I told the tech that I had told the baby to cooperate so we would know if it was a boy or a girl. Right after I said that Baby Antebellum shook her head no. I just knew we would have a stubborn baby. Thats what Joey and I get for always being stubborn and hard headed as kids. :) I was a little concerned about the babies position.. it didn't look too comfortable. She was laying/floating on her back and her legs were up over her stomach, like her body was in a V position. The lady said it was completely fine and that she would move positions a lot... and the positions normally don't look too comfy. Baby Antebellum was so calm during this photo shoot. She had her hands up by her face and would just move her little face sometimes along with opening and shutting her mouth. Yumm... amniotic fluid. I was very relieved to know that I do have plenty of amniotic fluid. This was a worry of mine only because I read too many blogs. But she had good healthy kidneys and my mind was set to rest. YAY!

Next was my appointment with Dr.Adams. It was very uneventful. He just said that Baby Antebellum and I were very healthy and everything looked great. He also said that I only have 2 more appointments that will be spread 4 weeks apart. Holy cow! 2 more months and I will be seeing him every 2 weeks. Yay!! That milestone seems so far, yet so close. I also asked about my weight gain since it has been minimal and he said everything was fine. As long as my baby was growing perfectly.. then there was nothing to worry about. Whew! He said that in the next 10 weeks I could gain 12-20lbs in water weight and swelling alone. YIKES! I am totally for gaining weight to keep baby healthy.. but come on.. swelling! I don't want to gain 20lbs in swelling. Oh well, it all comes with the territory and I will take was Jesus blesses me with. Just as long as Baby Antebellum stays healthy.

Next issue: Naming this little princess. We originally thought that we would name her Adrianna Marie. But then I decided I liked the name Maribella Lynn. Needless to say.. we have no clue what we are going to go with. If we name her Adrianna we will call her Addie for short and if we name her Maribella we will call her Mari (sounded like Mara) for short. Only time will tell what this beautiful girl will be called. Please feel free to comment on your favorite name. :)

The Count Down Begins

Four more days till I find out if Baby Antebellum is an Anthony or an Adrianna/Maribella !! Yeah!! The suspense is killing me. The current poll says that I am having a boy. The chinese gender chart says girl..except if I put in my birthday and the date of conception- then it says boy. My maternal instinct says.. nothing. It says NOTHING! How can I not have a single clue about what this baby could be?! Oh well, Im not too mad at myself. This is only my first pregnancy.. cut me some slack.

Next on the agenda: My baby has decided it would be fun to start kicking me. I thought I felt it at week 15 (I know its early) and I became positive about the feeling last Thursday. And I must say.. It is soo fun!! I wish I could feel it consistently, but I can't yet. I wouldn't describe this wonderful feeling as a butterfly flutter or as "gas bubbles", but more like a true jab or kick. Not a hard kick by any means.. but a small tiny adorable jab. I am positive that this baby is going to have the strength of Joey. Joey has pretty big muscles and I imagine baby Reid does as well. When I go for the ultrasound on Wednesday, I think that if they measured the babys thigh muscles and biceps.. they would be HUGE! I bet he/she will have big baseball pitcher legs and calves... just like daddy. :) I am already a proud glowing mommy about how strong Baby Antebellum is!



I have also developed a bit of a leak problem..not bad though. I had no clue that colostrum could even start coming in this early. Thank goodness I have my pregnancy consultant (Ashley Wrecke) to talk to about all my symptoms. She does a tremendous job of reassuring me that this is all normal. So.. I have started to pump so that I can save every bit of this precious nutrient filled fluid. Haha. I'm just kidding- that would be crazy!! On a side note- I am so glad to have Ashley right now and I know that I will be even more happy after this baby is born. I am going to use her as my lactation consultant.. and I think that she will be amazingly supportive and reassuring. I have already started to prepare myself for a difficult first month or so with breastfeeding- but I am still crazy excited about this wonderful mommy opportunity!!


I was consoling a baby last night and I started to think that in nearly 5 months I will be consoling my own child. I feel so amazingly blessed that I can't even describe the emotion! I have wanted to be a mommy since I was a little girl. Now it is coming true and it is unbelievable. Jesus has blessed me with a super great pregnancy (knock on wood) and I don't even know what to say. I love this growing belly of mine! I am doing my darnedest to keep only my belly growing and not my butt, thighs, face and arms.. but whatever Jesus blesses me with I will be happy. I know that no matter what- there will be some much needed workouts to be completed following this babys arrival. I am trying my hardest right now to work out.. but it is so hard with Joeys business and working full time. That is still no excuse.. so I will get my butt in gear. Maybe starting on Tuesday, when my 4 in a row will finally be complete. I want to start strength training.. at a moderate pace. Joey has started to eat good recently and since he is the amazing cook in our house.. we have had some amazingly good (tasting and good for us) meals. Plus I am having a bit of a fruit addiction lately.. ooh and a milk addiction. YUMMY! So thankfully this baby hasn't made me crave any food that is very bad- isn't Baby Antebellum amazing!!

Well wish me luck at my ultrasound and I will update you asap after my ultrasound. After we tell our parents of course.. Ooh! And I will also have to post my 18 week photo (Can you believe I will be 18 weeks!!!).

Bridal Bliss

Becky had her bachelorette party a couple weeks ago. I went out to dinner with all her crazy friends and it was a blast. I didn't go out after dinner because I had been fighting a pretty severe headache. But I think Becky had a lot of fun that night.. I thought I would post a couple pics from the night. You can tell the who the preggo one is.. the one who is all conservative in the attire.

Just A Growin

24 weeks to go!! Yay! Everything has been going smoothly. I was unable to post a pic in photobucket tonight due to the computer I am on.. so here is the most recent pic. I know that it is harder to see my growth when it isn't next to the previous pic.. but this is all you get for now. I definitely think I am growing. My mom said "Wow. You look pregnant today". I loved it needless to say!



Symptoms wise.. heartburn continues. That was a no brainer. I knew I would have it, no biggy. At the least I think I can handle a little burning esophagus and stomach. I have some prevacid that I got for free that I will soon start taking. I got it from my PCP a while ago to try, I just figured that I would wait till I was preggo because I could only imagine that that's when I would need it most. I am still holding off until it is close to unbearable. Its funny, my stomach isn't that big, yet when I sit up it puts alot of pressure on my stomach and esophagus and up comes the acid.
Next.. my boobs are finally growing! Yay! I have now reached C status. I have never had the luxury to be in the C status before and I gotta say.. I am loving it. I wonder how huge they will get when they are engorged with milk.. maybe D status?! On the subject of boobs... well this picture says it best.



You can thank Katie Mo for that wonderful illustration. :) That illustration had a couple more fun pictures with it.. hopefully I will be able to find a reason to post those soon.

Also, headaches have become more of an issue. Holy cow. Sometimes I think my head is going to fall off. Last weekend I even called the doctor because I had a headache for 3 days strait.. with no relief. I would go to bed with a headache and then wake up with one. 1000mg of tylenol could knock the pounding to a dull knock... but still.. crap! The doctor said that the only symptom in pregnancy that causes headaches was preeclampsia.. and that was highly unlikely at my stage in pregnancy (which I completely knew and didn't think that was the issue). I had just been told that if you have a headache for several days you should notify your doctor. So I did.. and it was dumb. He told me to go to the ER since I had a headache for so many days without relief. I said "Ok, thanks". Then.. I went on with my day. Really?! I am not going to go to the ER for a stupid headache. That seems a bit excessive doesn't it. I might as well be going to the hospital because I have vaginal discharge. C'mon.. lets be real. So I started to drink 1 cup of tea a day. I figured that excedrine migraine has caffeine in it.. so it must help a little. It is amazing. Technically you can have 200mg of caffeine a day and I am only drinking about 30mg. So... alls well. And I must say that the headaches have improved slightly. I quit drinking tea for 4 days and the headaches have slowly started back up. I had a mega one last night. Possibly important to note- the weather has NO IDEA what it wants to do. 60s-80s.. never know what it wants to do. Ridiculous! Oh well, I can manage.

I get to find out the sex of this baby in 2 weeks. WOW! 2 weeks is so close.. yet ages away. Please post what you think this baby is going to be, I must write it down in my pregnancy book that Katie B gave me. :)

Checkup Time

I had my 14 week checkup on Wednesday and everything was great. Doodles Baby had a heart rate of 153.. very excellent. And I hadn't gained too much weight, thank goodness. Don't get me wrong, I want to gain enough to have a healthy baby and a healthy pregnancy.. but we don't need to be going all willy nilly with the weight gain. Only 4 more weeks till I (hopefully) get to find out if Baby Antebellum is a boy or girl. I am soo excited to get to call this little munchkin by a name. It is so crazy to think that this little tiny being is growing inside of me. I think I quite enjoy being an incubator. :) I have posted my 14 week photo. It looks like I am growing quite a bit. Yesterday morning I woke up and BAM.. my belly was even bigger, just from the night before. I am hopeful that I can keep those pesky stretch marks away.. but also realistic and know how high the potential is that they will creep up on me. I talked to Dr.Adams about the voiding issue and he said that it can be quite normal due to how big my uterus is and how it is taking up a lot of my pelvic space.. including my bladders area. He also said it should subside within a couple more weeks or so. Soon the uterus will come out of my pelvic space and impede on other organs.. I can't wait! (Seriously.. I think it will be fun times all around. This could be amazing!)

Other news.. Joey and I had our 2nd Wedding anniversary on Tuesday the 12Th. We went to Fogo De Chaos on the plaza. It was soo much fun. It is a Brazilian steak house and they serve tons of different kinds of meat. They have a salad bar that you can go to as many times as you desire (that is quite delish). And then when you are ready for "the meat" you turn over this card on your table to green. Green means the Gauchos (the guys with the meat) will come out and offer you tons of different types of meat.. like steak, chicken wrapped in bacon, lamb, ribs.. ect. Then when your plate is full or you think you have enough, you turn your card back to red. Red means you don't want any more meat (till later.. ;) They give you cheesy bread, garlic potatoes, polenta and caramelized bananas as sides- these are endless. You also don't just have waiter or waitress, there are several and they all help all the tables. Whenever you go to get up they will help pull your chair out and when you are ready to sit down, they will push your chair in. I felt like pretty woman. I didn't know the appropriate etiquette for such a fancy restaurant. When I got ribs I said to Joey "How am I suppose to eat this". I didn't know if it would be appropriate to pick up with my fingers. haha. Joey just said to pick it up. The bartender was very nice also. He made me a fresh limeade (made with fresh limes and condensed milk). I was worried it was going to be like $12, and he kept just bringing me out new ones without even asking. I thought "holy crap, this is gonna be expensive". So when the waitress offered to get me a fresh limeade I told her I didn't want anymore because they were so sweet. Turns out that it was only $4.25 and it was free refills. haha. I wasn't sure. Lastly I asked the waitress to take Joey and I's photo because it was our anniversary and she said "Oh.. its your anniversary" and then told someone to do something. Then she brings out this amazing chocolate turtle cheesecake mousse dessert. AMAZING! We were soo stuffed. She offered to put most of it in a to go box (thank goodness!). The restaurant was tons of fun! Then we went home and watched a movie. It was a very great anniversary!

Beauty

So 13 weeks preggo and I feel like a big fat lard butt. And I don't mean because my belly is growing so much. Because believe me.. I have waited a long time to grow this adorable baby bump. I love it, I love it, I love it!! However, my legs feel gargantuous (that means huge), my butt feels like it is growing by the minute and my face is all chunky. Also, my hair is all frizzy. I got my hair cut today, its a lil short. I didn't have time to style it (we'll get to that later), so it is back in a lil ponytail. But my ponytail is pretty small. I already feel tons better about my appearance just due to my hair. I also got my eyebrows waxed. They look tons better!! I feel like this would be an important place to tell you that I haven't gained too much weight. I think I have only gained a couple pounds thus far in the pregnancy.. so I probably don't look as awful as I am describing. However.. I feel nasty. (Side note: I don't like the word nasty. I have no idea why I decided to use that word. It sounds so.. sexual. You know what I'm saying? Oh ya.. you know. Ok that's enough.) My clothes still fit fine, I am wearing maternity clothes though. I can still wear some of my shirts, but can't wear any of my capris. My baby bump just won't allow it. I know it isn't huge.. but its big enough to make a difference in the clothes I wear. I bought some cute capris at Kohls (they were having a super good sale). I currently love them.. but I think I must buy another pair soon. I think another sale will be here before I know it. Because we all know that I won't buy a non-sale maternity item. Lets be real here!

Other news.. Im in my second trimester!! Yay. I love that Baby Antebellum and I have made this wondrous milestone. Have you seen how big Doodles Baby is? So big!! About 3.5 inches now, holy cow! Jen said that that's about the size of a poly pocket. haha



Hopefully Doodles Baby doesn't look like this, yikes! Lately I have been having a bit of flight of ideas. When I was using the restroom yesterday I was thinking "What would happen if I accidentally pushed my baby out". ( I think I was pushing too hard)How awful would that be? I know I shouldn't think about this stuff. But honestly I don't think it would really happen, I'm truly not worried about it at all. I just have these random scenarios pop into my head. Its crazy huh! But I never told anyone that I was normal.. you just assumed.

So second trimester is here (barely) and I am exhausted. Most people say that your second trimester is the easiest and all your symptoms subside for a bit, but mine are coming now. Its crazy! Like if I do anything at all (go to the bathroom, eat dinner, go to the grocery store.. ect) I need to lay down for a bit. Not always take a nap, but at least rest for a while. And a nap daily would be most amazing! What would make it even more amazing.. if Joey took it with me! I LOVE THAT! Today when I got my haircut I had complete intentions to style my hair prior to work. However, I was really exhausted and decided to take a nap instead. It was dreamy and definately worth it! I am also having issues with going potty. I literally go potty all the time. And sometimes I will go potty, stand up and have to sit back down because I still have to go. I have even done some exercises while on the toilet to help make sure all the urine is out of my bladder. Those are obviously useless. Sometimes I will go potty literally like 3 times in 10 minutes. OOC! Another issue.. I will have to go soo bad, I mean like I feel like my bladder literally can't hold any more urine. I go to the bathroom and a tiny little stream starts to trickle out. I feel as if the stream may even stop at any minute because it is going soo slow. Or sometimes it will stop in between, like this: pssss....pss...pssssss...psss and so on. It will take me 2 minutes just to get out all the urine. I feel as if I am straining muscles just trying to get this urine to empty out of my bladder. These episodes only happen at night though. Last night I had this happen and when I came back to bed Joey asked "Is everything ok?". I told him I just had to potty and he said "Well, I wasn't sure because you were in there for a long time". haha. I was in there forever because my body wouldn't allow the potty to come out at a reasonable rate.




But in all seriousness I absolutely love all the symptoms Jesus is blessing me with. I have waited long enough and I don't ever want to sound like I am complaining. I thank Jesus frequently for what he has blessed me with!