New Years Baby Bumpdate: Week 18

18w2d

What's up with Baby this week? Baby is about six inches long, and eight ounces in weight!  She is also growing vernix this week, a cheesy varnish to keep her skin from getting all wrinkly from floating around in fluid for 9 months! 

Symptoms? Heartburn is back, and it's worse than before!  Also, near the end of my vacation, I started experiencing some round ligament pains again, which I think may be from so much walking around and much less rest than usual.

Gender? A sweet baby girl!

Excited For? Working more on the nursery, and our upcoming anatomy scan!

Maternity Clothes? All regular scrubs at work, and 50/50 at home.  My looser tops are still working, and even some of my tigher ones, but that may be coming to an end shortly.

Sleep? Slept horribly on vacation, but now that I'm back in bed with my Handsome Husband (and my Snoogle), I'm all good!

Movement? Still not entirely sure, I really want to feel her moving around in there!

Belly Button Status? In!

Missing Anything? I was really wishing we could go for an awesome sushi dinner while on vacay in Seattle, and some glasses of wine wouldn't have hurt either!

Milestones?
18w First stranger asked me how far along I was!
18w Baby's first (in utero) plane ride
18w5d Handsome Husband (Hot Dad?) finished painting little one's nursery!

Cravings? Just the sushi!

Weight Gain? Haven't stepped on a scale since doctor's appointment two weeks ago, where I was up about 3 pounds.

Linking up with Busy Bee for Baby Talk.

Back to School

As the days click by, we get closer and closer to the school year starting up again.  Not for me, but for my Handsome Husband, who is going into his second year of law school in just weeks.

The beginning of a new school year is completely bittersweet.  It brings us one year closer to being done with law school entirely, and it brings some fun events and times with our fun future-lawyers-of-America friends.

But with the sweet, comes the bitter.  It brings more stress back into our lives.  It puts an extra toll on our marriage - one I have no doubt we can make it through easily, but a toll nonetheless.  It becomes harder for my HH to work, as he has to go back to performing the scary balancing act between school, work, social life, his marriage, and soon?  A baby!

It's scary and exciting, and groan-inducing and thrilling.  It's fun and it's torture.  In the end, I hope it is all worth it, that we will look back and remember the great times and not remember the hard ones nearly as vividly.

Happy back to school!

Quotable Tuesdays

Boy or Girl?

Last chance to take a guess, I hope you'll watch the video and see who will be joining us in January!

The Emerald City

I'm off in Seattle for a little getaway with the ladies in my family - Gardening Mom, Sister Singer and Sister Swimmer.  I can't wait to see the sights with my favorite gals.

On top of the space needle in 2007, visiting Best Friend Cute Apartment in her home state!

 

I won't be back until late Monday night, but if you're wondering whether or not I'll be picking a pink or blue onesie with SEATTLE all over it, you're in luck, because I'll be sharing the gender of our little New Years Baby right here on the blog bright and early on Monday morning!  Come back and see! 

New Years Baby Bumpdate: Week 17

17w2d

What's up with Baby this week? Baby has learned to yawn this week - if we're lucky we might even be able to catch one during our next ultrasound.  Baby's hearing is getting more and more acute, which means the little one can hear all the sounds on the inside of my body! 

Symptoms? Heartburn has really calmed down over the past week or so, and life has been so nice!

Gender? We know, and you will be finding out very soon!

Excited For? Settling on a name, and getting started on our nursery!

Maternity Clothes? I'm still rocking all pre-pregnancy scrubs at work, and about half maternity on the weekends.  I've got one pair of jeans that I can still squeeze into (they're very stretchy) but still rocking lots of pre-pregnancy dresses and flowy tops.

Sleep? Sleeping like a baby, especially since my Handsome Husband got me a SNOOGLE a few weeks ago!

Movement? I think I felt something at the end of last week, but I haven't felt it again since...we'll see.

Belly Button Status? In!

Missing Anything? Was a little jealous of all the ladies sipping on wine coolers at the Gender Reveal party, but at the same time I was so over-the-moon excited that I didn't miss it too much.

Milestones?
17w1d Feeling little bubbles, was that baby?
17w2d Finding out our sweet little New Years Baby's gender!

Cravings? Nothing special this week

Weight Gain? Haven't stepped on a scale since doctor's appointment last week, where I was up about 3 pounds.

Linking up with Busy Bee for Baby Talk.

Aloha August!

Double month recap time!  Oh yeah oh yeah!

In June...

We started off the month with birthday celebrations - dinner at Goofy's Kitchen for Sisters Singer and Swimmer, and a local Italian restaurant for Gardening Mom.

 

I had a long overdue meeting with an old friend, filled with catching up and apologies, forgiveness and moving forward.

 

We headed to the San Clemente pier to one of our favorite restaurants for a perfect Saturday lunch with Cute Apartment and her Boyfriend Number Cruncher.

 

Arizona was calling our names, and we finally got back out on the boat!  The whole family went out for Father's Day and it was so nice to spend some time in one of our favorite places (especially with the addition of brand new air conditioning!).

There was lots more family fun to be had when Uncle Firefighter, Nurse Auntie, and Cousin Snapshot and her darling kiddos came to visit!  We had two lovely dinners, and it was nice to see family that we don't get to see as often as we'd like.

We finally revealed to family that there was a little BABY in our future!  It was so fun to tell all of our family, and a relief to have the secret OUT!

I got to get some more practice in with my camera when I took some photos of Mother-in-Law Red, and Mr. Bear.

I graduated from 1st trimester to the 2nd trimester of my pregnancy - time is flying!

In July...

Handsome Husband spent some time at the International Negotiation Conference, negotiating with law students from all over the world!

We celebrated the 4th of July by hosting our friends for beers, bbq and a big surprise!

 

Best Cousin and I headed to the fair to see Colbie Callait, and I was inspired to write my first letter to our little baby on the way.

We got to see all of our favorite future lawyers at a Vegas-themed birthday bash!

HH and I spent the day with Cousin Study Buddy and company - breakfast followed by a fun-filled day at our neighborhood water park and pool!

Handsome Husband's family finally got together for another Poker Tournament!  It had been long overdue, and I was so happy (almost as happy as I would have been had I won again) that Tutor Girl took home the prize!

We got another little peak our our sweet New Years baby on the way, and a few days later held a Gender Reveal party to find out whether we are expecting a baby boy or a baby girl!  I can't wait to share with all of you in just a few days!

In August? The ladies in my family head to Seattle for a long weekend, there are lots of birthdays to celebrate, HH goes back to school, and we'll get to see our little Baby M again!



Quotable Tuesdays

On Babymaking: What a Mind Eff

This series of eight posts was written throughout our journey of trying to conceive our little New Years Baby. I am so glad I started writing from the very beginning, because I can look back and remember how I felt during this time. I remember feeling like every single person in the blogworld's story started out with something like "so we started trying, and much to my surprise, I got a positive test a few weeks later, and 9 months later we had a healthy baby!". While I by no means, suffered from infertility, our road to where we are now was not completely covered in rainbows and butterflies. There was anxiety, and sadness, and lots of worry. I know there are women out there who feel like less of a woman because they didn't get pregnant that very first month, and I know that because I am one of them. I hope that, in addition to great diary entries of what was going on in my mind at the time, maybe just one woman will relate to our story.

Post originally written November 9, 2012 - about three months into our Babymaking journey.  Read about the decision to start trying HERE and my first negative test HERE.

So our first really half-assed, middle of month decision, month of trying had come and gone.  I had my first negative test, but I stayed positive as I knew we hadn't really tried that first month.  It was more of a spur of the moment thing.

Month two, here we come!  And this time, I'm not joking around.  I started charting - a crazy person thing in and of itself, something I literally had no clue about until I had been married over a year and started doing some research on the whole babymaking thing.

I was armed and ready for this little battle, and had no intention of taking this war past two months.  I was going to win this damn thing and my prize would be a baby!  Without getting into too many details (because mostly, I don't want to explain all the insane abbreviations - BBT, TTC, OPK, BD, blah blah blah), I backed myself with an army of fertility aids.  I knew when I ovulated, and I knew when to expect my enemy (aka that bitch, Mother Nature).

So we did our thing (still can't get over how awkward this is to write about), and I waited.  I was determined to wait until I missed my period before taking a test, but then again my willpower blows, so I tested slightly early.  Another negative (can we just talk about how effing ridiculous it is that for your entire sexually active life until you're ready for kids, you are so relieved to see a negative pregnancy test and then all of the sudden it's the worst part of your day week month?).  Okay, no biggie, it was still early and it wasn't the end of the world - this was after all the first real month of trying.

But then I waited.  And waited.  And wouldn't you know it, my friend still hadn't arrived.  I shit you not, kids, this was the latest Mother Nature had arrived for the party in my entire life.  So I kept taking tests, and getting negatives, and getting sad, and then still waiting. 

{source}

And then, finally, five days later than I expected her, my nasty little friend arrived. 

I was sad not to be one of those lucky ones who gets pregnant right away, how easy that would have been.  But I'm not in any huge rush, and I have faith that when He is ready to tell Mother Nature to eff off - He will do so.

Letters to Baby M: Your First Concert

Letter written Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Dear Baby M,

I've been waiting to start writing you letters, because it felt funny writing not knowing whether I was writing to my future son or daughter.  But, I felt so excited and connected to you earlier this month, I had sit down and write to you.

First of all, hi!  I'm your mom!  That is so weird to say, you'll find out when you get here I'm super hip, young, and hot for a mom, so it makes sense that it feels funny right now.  I can't wait to meet you, and I'm especially interested in what color your hair will be!

You went to your first concert this month (July 12, 2013), I saw Colbie Caillat with my Best Cousin (Your first cousin once removed?  We'll need to think of something a little more affectionate for you to call her) and she asked if I could feel you moving.  She thought maybe you'd be dancing!  I haven't felt you just yet, I can't wait for the moment I can feel you moving in there, and all the books say it could be any week now!

At the end of the concert, Colbie (who sings the best love songs and does a great show, by the way) asked everyone to stand and sing and dance along with her.  I kept touching my growing belly, and thinking I wonder if you can tell when I'm dancing.  Will you come out loving to dance like your momma or will you have to be drug onto the dance floor like your dad?  It was the first time I felt so connected with you that I felt like I already knew you, even though I still don't yet know if you're a little girl or boy in there!

If you're a girl, I hope you're like the pre-teen girls sitting two rows ahead of us, carefree and swaying to the music, giggling with your girlfriends.  I hope you'd turn around and tell the lady who told you to sit down (at a concert, hello?) to shove it (on second thought, those might not be the best choice of words), and that your mom told you never to take crap from nasty bullies at concerts.  I hope you'd be like the girl sitting with her mom, seemingly not because she had to, but because she wanted to.  I hope you like me as much as I like my mom.

If you're a boy, I hope you're like the many men entertaining their wives by attending a Colbie Caillat concert (not their first choice, I imagine).  I hope you'd turn out like the good guys in her love songs - the ones that treat women well, and make them fall head over heels not just for their looks but for the wonderful way they make them feel.  I hope you'll always hold a woman that you love's hand, rub her back, and whisper in her ear, no matter who is around.

I can't wait to find out more about who is floating around in there.  I hope you liked the dancing, little New Years Baby.

Love,

Mom

Linking up with: The Sweet Season, Things I Can't Say