Christmas 2016

Let me start this out by saying I was really emotional this Christmas. After my awful Christmas last year I just wanted to get through it without any sadness or bad things happening. Luckily I got my wish this year (plus I remember last year saying I hoped I had a healthy baby by next year, so I got that wish too).

I may be biased, but this has to be the best Christmas there has ever been for the following reasons:

• I actually slept until 5:30! I am like a child on Christmas morning so I'm usually up around 4 AM waiting for Larry to get up so while 5:30 doesn't seem late, it's late for me AND it gave me time to take a shower before getting into things for the day. Larry was up at the same time so it was perfect! After my shower we went downstairs and opened our gives from each other. We got lots of games, house stuff, and some clothes. We kind of agreed we'd do a Christmas-After-Christmas with each other. Plus we still had to celebrate my birthday so figured Monday would be for that.
• Andy was actually up in time so we could open our gifts from/to him and from my mom to us. We got some fun baby stuff at that point and more games. It was great! I'm doing my best to get Andy's holiday spirit up again since he says he just doesn't care about them anymore.
• We got on a Skype call with Mom, Will, Don, Tracy, Grandma, and Cindy to open our baby gender gift. Here's the important part of that video:

• Even though I was so sure BB was a boy, I'm getting used to and excited about having a girl! It's overwhelming, but I'm just so happy BB is healthy and we know the gender at all. We watched the ultrasound DVD they recorded during our visit and it was so fun watching BB wiggle around again. Unfortunately it wasn't the whole ultrasound, but it gives us something to watch when we need to see her until we meet her in May. Here's our fun announcement:





Finding out we're having a baby girl!

• After we were done with all that we started our turkey and played all the games we had that we could. Andy decided to stay in with us so he played games with us. It made for such a fun day. Our Turkey was done pretty early so we had an early dinner, but it was so yummy! I don't think we could have made a better dinner. And playing the games we just got for the day made the fun of the holiday last longer than just the morning! We'll be doing the rest of our gifts later, but I don't care about that. As I've said before, I love giving gifts more than getting them so that part I'm looking forward to.

Here are pics from our Christmas:

Our tree Christmas Eve

The kitties Christmas present

How adorable, right?

Our tree when it was first decorated

Had to get one of others opening gifts :)

I hope everyone else had a great Christmas Day! I love having a 4 day weekend! I just hate when it's all over and people expect things to go back to normal...I'm going to be on a Christmas high for a long time! Haha

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

20 Weeks - We're Halfway There!

Picture was edited AFTER we knew gender...sorry for the spoiler

How far along? 20 Weeks - The halfway point I never thought we'd get to! Haha! (Also, the size of mango)

Maternity  Clothes? I was given a pair by a co-worker that might work. They are large so I'll probably fit in them. Also got some amazing sweats from my mom for my birthday that are just the absolute best! I wish I could wear them to work, it's making me think I might try leggings.

Sleep? I sleep so well when I do, but once 3 AM hits and I have to pee and switch sides all the time it's harder. Although now that I know BB isn't only on my left side it makes me feel better about sleeping on that side (I was worried about squishing him/her before)

Best moment of the week: The big ultrasound for sure. The lady beat the crap out of my stomach so that wasn't as much fun. But watching BB wiggle his/her butt and gulp some lovely amniotic fluid was amazing. Also seeing the legs and arms and feet and hands was awesome. BB has some large feet (in my opinion, so it looks like he/she got that from me), wiggly fingers, and the cutest toosh I ever saw (seriously, want to kiss it...is that weird? Haha) I'm pretty sure I'll be bruised, but as long as BB is okay it was worth it!

Look at that mean face! I love it!

Our little acrobat

Also, BB is still the little prankster. I mentioned before the appointment that I was kind of sad that this would be our last ultrasound, but they usually don't request more unless something is wrong so I'm okay with it being the last for that. Well turns out BB didn't want to show ALL of the heart so we have to do another one at our next appointment just so the Dr can get some good pics. He/She is such a little prankster. The HR was 142 ish so it was really strong and blood was flowing as it should. They also mentioned that the fingers were stretched out, which is good, because babies who have issues usually clench their fists. He/She would flutter them about a bit so that was so adorable. I'm seriously so in love with this baby!

Miss Anything? I guess if I had to say something I miss not having to go to the bathroom all the time. But not having periods kind of makes up for that haha

Movement: Yes! I get a couple days of lots of wiggles and then a couple days of lighter stuff, but we definitely get wiggles. It's the best! Larry thinks it's just twitches, but I'm sure he'll feel what I mean soon enough. He/She is a tough cookie so far and really packs a punch!

Cravings/Aversions: Nothing new.

Gender: Oh man we have to wait until Sunday now! We got our outfit from Buy Buy Baby and now it's just sitting on the fireplace waiting to be opened...calling my name! I thought it would be easy to resist, but it's harder than I thought. Can't wait for that already! The feet make me think BB is going to be a girl though...we'll see!

Labor Signs: Nope, feeling great!

Symptoms: As usual - peeing, hunger, back pains. That's about it.

Moods: Crying a lot still. I'm chalking this up to this week being an emotional one as it was when we lost the last baby so it's one I've been anxious for since finding out we were pregnant. I just want to get through it and hope that the crying relaxes a little after Christmas.

Looking forward to: Officially knowing the gender!! I'm officially crazy for thinking this would be a good idea haha.

19 Weeks!

How far along? 19 Weeks (BB is a grapefruit)

Maternity  Clothes? Still the unbuttoned pants, but I know I'm going to need bigger ones son.

Sleep? Other than the butt cramps and needing to get up in the middle of the night to pee (which depending on the time, the kitties automatically think is food time), it's great. Although I hardly sleep past 7 AM so weekends are a drag, but it's worth it. Especially if I get a nap

Best moment of the week: Officially feeling movement...see that section for more info :)

Miss Anything? Nothing at all that I won't get back (like I'm noticing sledders are out and I wish I could do that, but I know I'll get to eventually)

Movement: Oh yes!! So I've been feeling little twitches here and there and I thought it was my stomach twitching. Then last night I was feeling them all over and I realized they were too specific to be twitches...that was BB. Then I realized I have been feeling this for quite some time, but it wasn't the wiggling movement I was used to so I just ignored it. Makes me so happy to finally feel little kicks and punches. I can't wait to see the ultrasound to see exactly where BB is to know which movements are coming from which limb.

Cravings/Aversions: Nothing. I am loving how I feel I can eat anything that is on my approved food list.

Gender: The scan is a week from today and then we will know on Christmas...I'm so excited! The predictor I'm choosing for this week (and the last week I'm doing this) is emotions. Up until this last week I haven't felt really emotional, but this last week it's like anything will make me cry! So this says a girl. Since this is my last one I figured I'd tally the totals...we have 4 girl and 4 boy - literally 50/50 (whaaa?). So it'll be interesting to see what the results are (though I'm still feeling boy all the way)

Labor Signs: Nope, feeling great!

Symptoms: Like last week, peeing, hunger, back pains. That's about it.

Moods: Crying ALL. The. Time!!

Looking forward to: Finding out gender so we can do some shopping!!

We're (Fish) Parents!

Lots of exciting things in this household lately!! Larry and I have officially decided to start house stuff shopping since we finally closed on the Condo and have some spending money now. It kind of started randomly last weekend. You see, we had to go get specialty food for the kitties (to help with their oral care) and I happened to see the fish tank stuff. Now ever since we started the building process it's been clear that Larry wanted to get a fish tank at some point. I'm not the biggest fish fan, but we found some cool displays and figured if he wanted it I'm sure it would be low maintenance enough we could manage it at some point.

Seeing that fish stuff and how colorful and awesome it looked got me really excited to actually start it so we found some fish we liked and a tank, but realized it wouldn't fit in Larry's car so we decided to come back later. We then figured since we were out and about we should go look at some furniture at Furniture Row. We had gone before we moved, but now we could really find stuff we wanted. Turns out the couch I loved when we went last time was 50% off and super affordable so I thought it would be good to get now, but we still weren't sure. We decided once Andy got off work we'd bring him out to come try it and see how he liked it and we could also get our fish tank.

How pretty is our tank?

Fast forward to that night when Andy got home and we headed out. Fish tank was bought along with all the accessories we needed (aside from the stand, that came later) and went to get our couch ordered. It was such a good weekend.

We had to get the water set up before we could actually buy the fish so we worked on that this whole last week and then went to PetSmart again today. We found a couple Molly's and Platy's that we liked (the Molly's are Dalmatians and the Platy's were colorful so I figured the kitties would like that). We asked for a boy and girl one for each and it turns out both our girl fish are pregnant so we'll have babies soon.

How you'll find us ALL the time haha

Getting them in the water and settled was so cool. I could watch the tank for hours! It kind of looks pathetic with only the 4 tiny fish, but it's so colorful and the kitties seem to like it (although only Oscar has actually seen the fish) so it's pretty cool so far. I'm excited to see what we end up doing with this fish tank. We wanted to get some shark fish, but they are aggressive and could eat the babies so I'm not sure we'll do that this time, but we'll see. We want to get some frogs, sucker fish, maybe a couple cat fish, and others just to have a good eco system in there. It'll be awesome.

They love the fishies haha

Anyways, I have to go, it's dinner time for the fish and I love watching them eat :)

18 Weeks

How far along? 18 Weeks (we've reached Dragon Fruit size, which we have tried and like)

Maternity  Clothes? Still just the unbutton pants. It's just so much more comfy with the round ligament pains I've had. I'm starting to feel they are getting tight in my hips so I'm going to have to upgrade soon :\

Sleep? I sleep great until 3 AM then I get cramps in my hips and butt and toss and turn each hour to turn the other way. I prefer to be on my right side though so when I'm on the left I don't sleep as well. But I'm still loving sleep.

Best moment of the week: Getting ready for Christmas. I'm starting to look up nursery ideas (although I keep leaning more towards boy ones), which makes it feel more real and exciting.

Miss Anything? Not really. I'm feeling super great lately and I don't have anything to complain about. Except wishing I could feel movements more since I know this is generally when they start (maybe I wasn't feeling them before?)

Movement: I feel like what I was feeling has stopped...so I'm feeling a bit discouraged. I know with your first it can take some time. I hope I feel the real movements soon.

Cravings/Aversions: Nothing really special. I just get moments where I want bread or soup or something like that so I get it. But there isn't one thing I want over and over anymore.

Gender: Just a couple more weeks...EESH! The predictor I've chosen is carrying. I feel like all my u/s show BB as being really low. Also, if what I was feeling was movement it was really low so I'm going with that, which says boy.

Labor Signs: Nope and that's my biggest fear at this point. Please stay in there until May BB!

Symptoms: Peeing a lot more these days, hungry all the time, achy back when we walk too much. Belly is starting to really get in the way and I love it!

Moods: Crying more often, but that's it. No mood swings or anger or anything. I do prefer to just stay home and not do too much so I guess becoming a hermit could be a mood? Haha

Looking forward to: Feeling for sure movements, finding out gender, getting to shop soon!