Austin Lee!

Oh my goodness, this blog post is way late but I am very proud to introduce my little stinker, Austin Lee Petersen! By now you have all received your birth announcements so I won't bore you with too many details. He is 11 weeks old now and changing every day! He is not only cooing regularly but talking back and forth with whoever will engage in conversation. He is fattening up too. He was born weighing only 5 lbs, 1 oz. and now weighs almost 10 lbs! He was in the third percentile for his age (that's right, 3%) and is now in the 10th percentile. He got his first shots last week and mommy handled it like a pro. He was in NICU for a week when he was born due to low blood sugar and had a surgery to repair 2 hernias in his groin, but he's a healthy boy now! Here are some pictures for those of you who live out of town. I will try and keep this updated more regularly. :) Love you all!

37.5 weeks...Full Term!

I am soooooo excited to be full term! He could safely come at any time, though I feel as though he's going to stay cozied up in my belly for a good week post-due-date. I just have that feeling... But still it is amazing to think how little time I have to wait to meet my little guy and it's making it hard to think about absolutely anything else at all.

Two weeks ago my doctor was out of town and I saw another doctor for my check-up. Baby measured 2 weeks behind (25th percentile) so he did an ultrasound to check on him. I wasn't too nervous, but it's never your favorite thing to hear that they need to check on things. The ultrasound looked great, though. He was moving around, which is always what they want to see. He was even practicing breathing, which was too sweet for words. I have a "perfect placenta" (I think I'm going to make a t-shirt for that one) and plenty of amniotic fluid. And they saw what they wanted to see, that his head wasn't abnormally larger than his abdomen, which would mean he wasn't getting enough nutrients. So, the way the doctors explain it, he's just a little guy! That doesn't affect my due date or reflect what his size will be as he grows up. My doctor says that from a selfish standpoint, I should be relieved because he will be less painful to pop out. :)

I am having intense Braxton Hicks contractions more frequently now, which they say isn't supposed to hurt. :/ They may be nothing like labor contractions, but they don't feel like a massage either! I just take it as a sign that things are progressing. I thought for sure I had dropped last week. I was feeling relief from the heartburn and feeling lighter in general. And I work with lots of nurses who confirmed that I looked like I had dropped. But over the last couple of days I have felt those old uncomfortable feelings again so I don't know.

I get a lot of questions about my birth plan. Through this process I am also learning a lot about the opinions of my friends and family that I didn't know before. My "birth plan" is to go with the flow and be easy on myself. This isn't about morals and idealistic expectations for me. This is real life, and I will be surrounded by professionals who will give me their best advice. I have a few things I know are important to me now, but am going to allow for change at the time because I know how unpredictable this whole process is.

As far as the rest of my family, Devin still can't be bothered to discuss anything baby related. And Chad deals with his anticipation in his own way. Let's just say that when I announced my pregnancy, Chad completely gutted and remodeled our basement. And last week-end as I became full term, he completely gutted and is-in-the-process-of rebuilding our yard/driveway/patio. A profound sociological study could surely be done at our house. It is always a source of amusement to me how differently males and females process life events, both mundane and major. Let me say this...I am not afraid of labor. I AM afraid of being so outnumbered by boys in my own house.

Here's hoping my little man comes soon. Today would be nice. :)

35 weeks! The countdown begins....

These last few weeks have flown by! I can't believe how quickly Monday's come, and that is just fine with me. Two weeks ago I had both my baby showers and both were super fun. My Blue Cross co-workers threw the first one, a Dr. Suess themed party, and Cynthia Steinberg threw me a big huge book-themed shower the following day. Pre-baby and especially pre-third trimester it was hard for me to understand why pregnant ladies a)hid out b)couldn't talk about anything but their pregnancy and c)were so boring. Now I get it. You hide out because doing much else aside from sitting on your couch at just the right angle with just the right pillow is just not as comfortable. You talk about your pregnancy so much because it is a completely unique state both physically and mentally, and it's hard to think about much else. And you are boring because of point A and point B combined. You can't do much and what's the point of talking about the weather when there is a fetus rolling around in your tummy? Anyway, the point of this is to say that the showers were a welcome celebration of this life that's growing, and it felt like a huge week-end long hug. While I feel more and more detached from my old life and from life outside my body these days, the showers were exactly what I needed. Friends, food, and games. I love games!

Baby is pretty much huge now. He is the size of a melon, over 5 lbs. and 18 inches long. His organs are developed and his main job now is just to get fat. He gets hiccups at least once a day and to say that he is a gymnast is an understatement. At my last appointment he measured one week behind, so he was at 32 weeks while I was at 33. But all that means, says my doctor, is that he is smaller and will be easier to push out. Yesssssssssssss! I was 7 something lbs., 21 inches and Chad was 7 something lbs., 22 inches, so we were both relatively small babies. Here's hoping Junior follows in our footsteps. He will be full term next week, but really he could come any time and be totally fine. (hint, hint) I have this feeling that he's going to come late, but let's pretend that I don't have that feeling.

His nursery is almost done and I love it so much I sit in it sometimes and just look around at all the stuff, wrapped and unwrapped with love, from all his friends and relatives who are so excited to meet him. Reason number 3530 why I can't think about much else these days. I am about to meet my SON! There is nothing more exciting than that!

32.5 weeks

Only 8 weeks left! It's going by fast, which is good because I'm getting super impatient!

Little man is growing fast and his kicks, punches, and flips feel pretty pronounced now. Sometimes they take my breath away, literally. He is the size of a jicama. Seriously? What is a jicama? He weighs about 3.75 pounds and is about a foot and a half long. How does he fit in my tummy? That's what I want to know. :) A stranger outside the hospital today said to me, "Is it triplets?" I said, "If it is, I'm giving you two!" He thought that was HILARIOUS! :) People say the craziest things.

I had just written my last blog entry when my week started to go seriously downhill, and since I've written more than my share of mundane details of pregnancy in this blog, I suppose I should record the events for historical purposes. So here goes...

On Thursday I was working at a cushy law firm and as work came to an end I was returning a chair to it's home in the corner of the room. It was a carpeted room, mind you. And a padded chair. But it caught on the carpet, and I had nowhere to go but on top of it. It was the weirdest fall ever, and even seemed to defy gravity. But over I went, tummy first, and with just enough pressure that I was a bit concerned. Thank goodness my little baby boy knows his mama worries and kicked for me right away to show me he wasn't completely traumatized. But I called the doctor anyway to see what they recommended, and of course they recommended that I come in and be observed for 4 hours. Chad came with me, and I was really really glad he did. This may sound crazy but I actually felt pretty giddy to have my hubby all to myself for 4 full hours. Even holed up in a tiny, clinical hospital room. They took my blood and hooked me up to a monitoring machine and everything was completely fine, so I was released. Friday, totally unrelated to the fall, I had some swelling in one particular spot and wanted to check in with my doctor a few days earlier than my scheduled appointment so I came in for an unscheduled check up. The swelling had been getting worse for a few weeks and was starting to hurt. Doctor told me it had something to do with a broken blood vessel, was nothing to worry about, but would probably get worse for the rest of pregnancy. Yay! On my way out I mentioned in passing that I also had a lump that had developed since pregnancy under my armpit. She took a look, didn't have an explanation, and said she wanted me to see a breast surgeon for a consult. I was NOT thrilled about this. I have a tendency to worry about things, and breast cancer while pregnant was not a small thing. But I put on a brave face and headed immediately next door to my dermatologist, who needed another sample of skin for a biopsy. The last biopsy from a mole I had removed a few weeks ago was inconclusive because it was too small, so she used a bigger needle, took another sample, and this time I got stitches. And the mole in the front, my signature mole, which had been removed at the same time, was not healing properly. So she used a bigger needle, and stitched me up. What a day! So I go to my best friends house to vent about my no good, very bad day. And on my way out of her driveway I backed right into a set of 4 mailboxes and put a good size dent in my car. !!! So that was not my best day. Since then the biopsy for my new skin sample came back normal, and my mammogram/sonogram/breast exam was normal as well. What a relief! I feel so fortunate that I am healthy after all that madness.

I very much want this blog to reflect the reality of my experience being pregnant so I am going to be honest. It's not easy! Some very weird stuff happens to your body. I have the lump under my arm, pretty significant painful swelling in a strange part of my body, a large dark spot that pretty much took over my left leg, and those are just the weird things. It's hard to experience things that relatively healthy people like me have never experienced, like trouble breathing, and so much heartburn! I have to constantly remind myself that I am pregnant and my insides are all sorts of compressed inside me, and this isn't a reflection of my overall health, but a symptom of the life I am creating. And then I feel better until a little throw up comes up into my mouth again and I'm back to the Tums and the cursing.

Still the good things remain. I love to feel him moving, and he has been getting hiccups at least once a day for the last couple of weeks. It makes him even more real to me. And it's actually getting to the point where it's close enough to get excited. And I have TWO baby showers this week-end! I can't wait. Not just because of the baby loot he will get, but because I feel so alone sometimes and feel guilty talking about pregnancy or baby with anyone who isn't pregnant. So, most people. :) Just because I always hated it when my pregnant friends only talked about being pregnant. Well now I know why. It kind of consumes you! So this is my week-end where I don't have to feel guilty for focusing on this amazing little person growing in me. I get to celebrate him with all my favorite people!

30 weeks!

For some reason this week really feels like a big milestone. The end is in sight! And I can't say I'm not freaking ready!

Last week-end Chad and I took an all-day childbirth class. I ate it up big time. It was one day I got to focus completely on baby AND the best part....I got Chad all to myself. With our crazy work schedules and other priorities it was a real treat to have his full attention all day. The class was reeeeally informative and fun. I didn't realize how good a massage would feel until the instructor made the dad's give us 800 of them throughout the class to "prepare us for labor", except I think she was giving us moms the silent secret wink, knowing this might be our only chance to get a free massage. It was fantastic. And Chad of course made me giggle all day, which I told him was one of his duties. I loved feeling understood by the other mom's, and finding out that they were going through all the same stuff. I also loved listening to the dad's fumble about, clueless. Ha! I was clueless once too, boys. This stuff is no joke!

Speaking of, I am outnumbered by boys in my house and I often feel like a big fat alien. I can't do many of the things I used to (duh) and I hate feeling helpless. And I hate getting brilliant ideas like going camping or having tickets to standing-only concerts and then realizing...duh...I can't do that! That would be miserable for everyone! I know how naive I was about pregnancy and I'm a girl. I can at least have some bit of empathy. But boys, they have the privilege of staying naive forever. I can often be heard saying unnecessary things like, "If you could only feel this cramp for one minute, you would pass out." But of course, they never will know what any of this feels like. If they did, babies would never happen.

People often ask me about my food cravings. For those who know me well, this is a laughable question because I have always, and will always, have a real passion for food and pregnancy doesn't change this a whole lot. And I guess I do crave stuff, but more than craving it's that certain foods taste extra extra wonderful now, like my taste buds have actually matured. The following are foods that I now adore: fruit (especially oranges), JUICE, fries, OREOS, cheeseburgers, and ice cream. I never liked fruit before, and ice cream was something I didn't really care about either. I am having a hard time staying away from the Oreos, man. I have to set a daily limit for myself.

Lat but certainly not less important than food cravings, we are finally working on the nursery!

We had to switch Devin's room to our old office before we could start building the nursery in Dev's old room. Lord help us, this Saturday was NOT fun for any of us. But as I type this, Chad is finishing the bed frames he built for Devin's bed and the guest/nanny bed in baby's room so that will be a huge load off! Pictures coming soon. :)

27.5 weeks

Yay, more pictures! This time Grandma Judy came with me so she could watch the little munchkin flip about for herself! It was lots of fun. To me he looks more filled out than in the last round of photos taken a month before. It makes sense because now his main job in life is to fatten up. :)

He is about 2 lbs. and about 14 inches long. And now instead of poking me here and there, I can feel great big sweeps of motion. It woke me up for the first time the other night!

As for me, I'm feeling less comfortable, that's for sure. Still having a very good pregnancy in relation to how it sometimes goes, but it's harder to sleep, sit, squat, kneel, etc. And I get out of breath easily and have to be careful. It often feels like my lungs have less room in my body, which I'm sure is exactly what's happening. But really I am still feeling pretty amazing for being 6 and a half months pregnant.

We are starting to get the room in order. I am so excited to decorate the nursery! No cheesy baby stuff for me, baby Petersen and I have more of an edgy taste. His first piece of art is a little bird D.J'ing. Ha!

I am going to the doctor every two weeks now, with only a little over 12 weeks left. I did my glucose test this week and will find out my results any day.

I've never been very patient, and this is the hardest thing to wait for! I can't stand watching and feeling him move all the time, and seeing his face in photos. I just want him to get here!!!

26 weeks

Oh my goodness, he's getting so big! I really did mean to write last week, especially to announce that he was the size of a rutabaga....(what the HECK? It's some kind of warped, furry vegetable!) but life has been a bit nuts. I am getting ready to shoot my second official wedding this coming Saturday and am traveling a whole bunch this week for work. So...here's the stats for this week!

He is about 14 inches long and weighs about 1.75 pounds! He is the length of a hothouse cucumber. Can you believe these veggies? My favorite development this week is that he is practicing "breathing" with amniotic fluid so his little lungs develop. Also he can probably hear our voices and recognize mine and Chad's. :) :) :) He is filling out, getting some good fat on him. (I bet his mom helps him out with that with her never-ending appetite!) And since we are all friends and I know you won't embarass him with this later, his little testes are dropping so he's becoming a full fledged little man this week! Sorry, baby boy. I just love talking about your developments because it's all I have until you are here!

I am still feeling great for the most part. It is indeed getting more and more uncomfortable to sit, bend over, squat, etc. He is still very active, especially after I eat. And it feels pretty surreal. But it's a reminder that he's in there and healthy and I love it!

And the best news is that I get another 3d ultrasound this week! Pictures soon to follow!

xoxo

24 weeks

Baby Boy Petersen at Week 24:

Weight is just over a pound. Length is that of an ear of corn (with melted butter and salt)

Things we are working on this week include sensory, lung, and taste bud development, and fattening up!

As far as I go, I continue to be amazed by his movements. I don't just feel little pokes or jabs here and there. I feel continuous movements, like he's swimming or running in place.

And as for baby's nursery bling, we bought his crib tonight! I am having mixed feelings about what to buy used and what to buy new. And it doesn't help that all kinds of cribs have been recalled and others are just plain ugly. But I for sure wanted a used crib since I hear they aren't used very often. So I am happy to have baby's first piece of furniture purchased and waiting to be put together. :)

That's it for now!

22.5 weeks - 3d ultrasounds extravaganza!

Yaaaay! It just keeps getting more and more exciting! Just when I'm starting to feel really pregnant (not always a great feeling, physically) I have these little gems to remind me the joy at the end of this process. I wish I could have a sonogram every week! We had our last sonogram (boring ol' 2d) at 20 weeks and that seemed really exciting at the time. That's usually all you get with a low-risk pregnancy, one sonogram session. But I am a lucky, lucky girl who is blessed with lots of friends and one of them happens to be Patty, or "Aunt Patty" as I call her. She has been a special presence in my life since I was born. She was friends with my parents and we became friends. I remember spending lots of time with her and her husband Steve when I was little. She was, and still is, a nurse at our hospital and was there when I was born! So she offered to set us up with a 3d sonogram and I jumped! I can't even say how amazing it is to see the life inside you, moving around on his own will. We got to watch him with awe for an hour! And we took home LOTS of pictures! These are just a few. Don't let the "gunk" around his face and body freak you out. It's all due to amniotic fluid, camera angle, pressure of the scope, etc. But the nurses confirmed, he's as perfect as possible! All 10 digits, correct measurements, lobes and chambers in the right places, no club foot or club anything, no cleft palate. That is the absolute best part about the sonograms, to see that your baby is growing and developing as he should be! He moved around a TON again, but mostly to torture us by hiding his face with his arms and legs. His umbilical cord acted a fool too and got in the way. But finally he turned enough to see his precious face just enough. :)

I was naughty and didn't blog on Monday so he's actually bigger than this now, but for my dad's sake, I will mention that as of Monday he was about a foot long, the size of a spaghetti squash! We LOVE spaghetti squash! I love it when it's a decent vegetable and not something gross like a bell pepper. At the sonogram he weighed just over a pound. Still tiny, but I recall the day I was excited he was the size of a lentil!

His development is now a lot of fine tuning. It's scary to say, but if he were born within the next week or two, he would actually have a pretty decent shot at survival. So that gives you an idea of what he looks like now, more like a miniature newborn. But of course we are all rooting for him to stay in the cooker for another 17 weeks so he can come out strong and show us those muscles in person!

A lot of people have asked me how Chad and Devin are feeling about the baby. Chad has been a quiet but strong presence for me in all this. He is not anything like me, demonstrative or effusive. That's why I married him. He is a balance for me that I absolutely need. He doesn't read stories to my belly, but he gets up at 3 in the morning to deal with the carbon monoxide detector that goes off for an hour. In other words, he takes care of us in the way I need him to. I have the good fortune of knowing exactly how he is as a father and I couldn't be more confident in his role. And he has come to every one of my doctors appointments, even when we were just considering becoming parents. So all that said, he did breath a big sigh of relief when the sonogram told us we were having a boy. And as far as his excitement, let's just say that by the time I came back from the bathroom, he had texted all of his family and friends to tell them the news. :) Devin doesn't seem too concerned about the news either, one way or another. We keep testing the waters, trying to give him the chance to open up. We keep our eyes out for signs he is feeling scared or worried about it. But his only concern was that the baby was going to cry a lot, like his other baby brother. :) He called our house his "vacation home", which we translate to mean, his "all about me" home. Which is really sweet because we are determined to make sure he never feels left out. In fact, we are really excited about him being a big brother because he is SUPER good with little kids, and especially his baby brother on his mom's side. And the other day he said he was excited for when baby is 4 years old so he can start teaching him baseball. Chad said, "what makes you sure he'll like baseball?" And Dev said, "He has to, it's in his genes!" Love it!

21 weeks...It's a BOY!

Shux, I never did get around to blogging last week. I was too distracted by the news...It's a BOY!!!

I had been counting down the days for WEEKS. Every morning I wake up and read my IPhone baby update apps to get all sorts of information, tips, and my favorite thing, updates on weekly fetal development. And on the days leading up to the sonogram I would check off the previous day and count down. I couldn't wait! On Monday I was so excited and nervous. You always hear how excited moms are to know their baby's gender, but this sonogram was also really important as far as baby's health and development. My heart was in knots when they called my name! It happened really fast. I barely hit the table before they had that jelly on my tummy and immediately we could see our baby! The feeling I had was pure amazement. I remember thinking how incredible and miraculous it was to actually see a fully formed human on the screen. Last time it was just a little tadpole! And when the tech said, "It's in the breeched position so it will be a miracle if we can determine gender," I felt disappointed, but then she went on to take measurements and I was too much in awe to be too upset. But then, we all know how the story ends. He did reveal himself only a few minutes into it. He did a full on flip while she was trying to take measurements and he flashed us good! Chad and I being like most people when it comes to sonograms couldn't tell what the tech was looking at when she said, "There we go!" But then she pointed to his "winky" as she called it and I yelled, "It's a boy?!!!" and smiled really, really big. And I will never forget Chad taking my hand and breathing a huge sigh of relief. :) She took lots of measurements and I loved every single minute. She kept saying more things that were exactly how they should be: 2 lobes in his brain, 4 chambers in his heart, all his limbs, organs, everything was in place. We got to see him move around a TON and my very favorite part was when he opened and shut his mouth a few times, like he was curious about the sensation. It was sooo cute. She took tons of photos and gave us 15. My favorite thing she said, besides that everything seemed perfectly normal, was that he was so photogenic she took way more photos than she was supposed to. I told her that he knows his mama is a photographer!


So life since then has been pretty dreamy. We can now start planning his baby room and it just seems more official. As far as names go, we definitely have a favorite, but we decided to make a list, narrow it down, and decide for sure once we meet him. We have a dear friend who is a nurse and was there when I was being born! She set up a 3D ultrasound for us next Friday and I am excited to see if he reveals more of himself! WIth any sonogram you run the risk of seeing only one part and not always a favorable part. I want to see his little face!

As far as his development goes, he is now measured from head to toe so he is about 10.5 inches and weighs about 3/4 of a pound! His vegetable/fruit this week is a carrot/banana. I hate bananas with a passion but carrots aren't that fun either. What can I do? :) His movements get stronger and stronger every day and I absolutely love my time at the end of a long day on my feet when I can just be still and feel him move around.

Me, I am feeling pretty pregnant these days. My first trimester was a breeze and now I am feeling some of the aches and pains. Nothing serious and nothing to complain about (though Chad will tell you that I do sometimes:) ) But I am getting bigger fast and with it comes many little "perks" like having to go to the bathroom a million times a night, and the stretched out feeling of my tummy. It gets so tight sometimes, and it's weird that it gets in the way. But my biggest complaint is that it just seems so far away until he arrives and we can meet him. I get so anxious, like, come on already! I can't wait 19 weeks! But I hear this second half goes by really quickly....too quickly. So I'm trying to let it all in. And thank goodness I can now focus on preparing his room and our house.

Thanks to you all for reading and for caring and for loving all of us so much. Baby Boy Petersen says thanks too and he just did a flip for you! :)

19 weeks

Only one week to go until we find out if it's a boy or girl! We are both really excited! Baby has been moving a LOT this week and I love it. Though Chad has only felt it once, even though I feel sure he should feel it every time. He thinks it's a girl and that she's being shy when dad tries to feel her kick. But really we're pretty sure I can just feel it stronger from the inside than the outside.

Baby is about six inches long this week, the size of a large heirloom tomato. Whatever that is! The most exciting thing this week is that his/her senses are "exploding". I am especially excited that he/she can probably hear voices, so you all better get your tummy talk time in so you are familiar! I already do a lot of talking and singing, so I'm pretty sure I'm set. :) The other exciting development is that it's little body is now proportionate, so the limbs are the right size as compared to the rest of the body.

7 days and counting!!!

18 weeks

This week has been amazing! Baby is moving a LOT! The fluttering has intensified and now I also feel kicks on the inside and outside! On Sunday it even had hiccups and Chad felt it move for the first time. :)

Baby is about 5.5 inches long and weighs about 7 oz. This is about the size of a bell pepper. In the next two weeks it will grow significantly, just another reason I am counting down for week 20. The reason I am probably feeling stronger kicks and movement is that his/her little bones are turning harder, so there is more force backing the kicks.

As far as my own changes, I can no longer sleep on my belly or back because there is too much weight there now and it hurts too much. This really restricts me, as if getting up to go pee 34739 times a night doesn't wake me up enough! But other than that, I still can't complain about being pregnant. I have had a really easy one so far!

17 Weeks

Well I have one especially exciting piece of news. I for SURE felt my little one swimming around in my tummy! I had felt quirky little bubbles and what not, but this was unmistakable. I felt the thing everyone describes as butterflies fluttering. And I would add one more super cheesy comparison...fairy dust. It was tickly, and unlike anything I've ever felt. I was of course in the middle of working and had all sorts of commotion around me, yet I froze. What a blessing to start to feel your baby inside, proof that it's really happening!

We had another OB appointment last week and again heard the heart beat. It was just right. :) Chad is secretly a superstitious old lady and thought the heart beat sounded more like a washing machine than galloping horses so it MUST be a girl. He swears it's not a sexist wives tale. I just hope if it is a girl that she ends up doing "girl chores" like the dishes about as much as I do, which is to say, not at all.

Little one is around 5 ounces and 5 inches long, about the size of a turnip. It drives me mad that for about 5 weeks all the vegetables they compare baby's size to are about the same. What's the dang difference between a large orange to a heirloom tomato to a turnip? I am ready for baby to be an eggplant on week 20. Speaking of week 20, that's the happy happy week when we find out the baby's sex! I couldn't be more excited and actually, I'm tired of waiting. Come on already, week 20! Anyway, the major developments this week are that baby's skeleton is changing from soft cartilage to bone, and can move his or her joints. Probably why I'm feeling movement for the first time. :)

16 Weeks

This week-end was wonderful. We celebrated Devin's birthday with a starch and seafood-filled feast at the Petersens, then I went to see Jess's brother Jonathan's band play. (awesome!) Saturday night we played Phase 10 at the Brooks' (always a good time) and Sunday night I spent at the Thatch's celebrating Jess's b-day, which was super cozy and fun.

In baby news, pretty sure I am feeling her move! (Now I just have a feeling it's a girl...we'll see soon enough :) ) I was sitting in a movie yesterday and felt something like little bubbles popping. It continued all night. I am due to feel movement any day now, which is super exciting! She is the size of an avocado this week!

We have our next OB appointment tomorrow, the last monthly check-up before we have our second ultrasound and find out the sex.

I look back on photos from week 13 and it's fun to see how my belly has changed. It was certainly pooched out before, but now it is taking a clear shape and looking less like a beer gut. :) That bloated stage was the worst! I LOVE showing now. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed with emotion when I catch a glance in the mirror or wake up and feel my tummy. I'm a very excited mama. :)

15 weeks

Unfortunately (or fortunately) the most "exciting" thing that happened this week was unrelated to baby. I got strep! What kind of bum luck is that? It was pretty rough, but didn't last long once I got antibiotics, so for that I am thankful. Being sick does make you appreciate being well. And it's been lovely out all week-end. I can't even tell you how much I despise the month of January, and February is not much better. I am itching for Spring to come so I'm not so darn cold all the time, and don't have to worry so much about driving and walking on the snow and ice.

So the top two questions we get are "Are you going to find out the sex?," and "Do you 'know' what it is?" The answer to the first question is "HECK YES!" I can't imagine waiting until delivery to find out. I am so excited and can hardly wait 5 weeks! And as far as what I think it is, I honestly have no idea, nor do I care. I just want to meet the little peanut.

Baby is a size of a naval orange this week. To me, that doesn't seem any bigger than a lemon, but oranges have been something I have craved like mad since being preggers, so it's fitting. I am due any day to feel him/her "flutter" in there. I have no idea what to expect but I'm SUPER excited to feel something! My little cramps have been really mild and nothing to complain about. Other than that, I just get really out of breath quickly. It's tiring, but again, I'm not complaining. Now bring me an orange! :)

Week 14

Greetings friends and family! Welcome to our blog. I wanted a place to keep the important people in our lives updated on our little peanut. Also, I just wanted to be able to write about my experience as a mama kangaroo. :)

My first trimester was pretty uneventful as far as physical symptoms. I never got sick, and the only thing that was really overwhelming at times was the fatigue. At exactly 13 weeks, the mark of my second trimester, my fatigue lifted. I felt soooo good, like I was emerging from hibernation. I was also introduced to my first pregnancy pains. I hear they are called round ligament pains, and they are really unpleasant. A cross between a cramp and a tummy ache. OW. At the same exact time, I felt less "fat" or bloated, and my baby bump showed poked out. This is not going to shock anyone, but I am really excited about my bump, and I'm not one of those mom's trying to hide it.

Today marks week 14. One of my favorite things to do each Monday is to see what food item is the same size as baby. Today baby is the size of a lemon! It seems like yesterday that he/she was only a lentil bean. :) Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy these little updates!