29 weeks

Whew.. what a week! Things got really crazy last week and they just haven’t stopped. Between classes, teaching, birthing class, family, friends, chores, sleeping and eating I have just not had any free time! Starting next week I have an exam or a baby shower every week until Thanksgiving, at which point I will be 37 weeks. On the positive side I will be so busy over the next 8 weeks that I won’t have time to just sit and be anxious for our little one to arrive. However I must admit that I am very nervous about keeping my stress levels under control and about staying on top of all of my responsibilities while making sure to take care of my body and baby. I have been encouraged that I am doing a good job, and at this point I just need to rely on the help from those around me to get through this time. Well, enough of the therapeutic venting of my worries and onto the update!

How far along? 29 weeks.

Total weight gain: Still hanging on right at 15 pounds. I don’t think this is a big deal since I went though quite a growth spurt during month 6. Also, my belly is definitely growing and baby is for sure getting bigger. I think that my decrease in appetite has just made me lose some weight in other places.

Updates on baby: (Thanks to What To Expect) How big is your baby this week? She weighs nearly three pounds now and measures about 17 inches. Though she’s getting pretty close to her birth length, she still has to chub out a bit. In fact, over the next 11 weeks, she’ll more than double — or even come close to tripling — her weight. And as she grows and the room in your womb gets tighter, you’ll be less likely to feel those big kicks and more likely to get poked by an elbow or jabbed by a knee.

Maternity Clothes:  I finally went out and bought myself a few maternity things. I have been so, so blessed to get some awesome hand me down maternity stuff thus far so I only needed to fill in a few things. I got some maternity workout leggings and 2 tank tops and they are SO much more comfy than my old shorts and T-shirts. If you are pregnant, or if you ever will be, take my advice when I say just go get maternity clothes. They are so much better than regular clothes! (of course, in these pictures I am wearing my old sweatpants… some stuff can still fit.)

Symptoms/Body Changes: The third trimester just kind of stinks. I have kept everything in perspective because at least I am not getting sick everyday, and this part of being pregnant is so fun and exciting. But I have to be careful lately to not push myself too much. Even though I am able to keep food in my stomach there are definitely other challenges that may not be quite as debilitating but may be more serious than I want to admit. I am aching… all the time. My back, sides, ribs, and legs. One time this past week my foot fell asleep while I was taking a walk with David.. weird! I am not sleeping very well, nor has my appetite returned. I think that the biggest symptom that I am bad about ignoring is fatigue. Sometimes I just feel like I need to lay down, and when I ignore that feeling I just go down hill from there. I have gotten lots of swollen ankles and headaches that I am pretty sure could have been avoided had I just rested. This is something that I really want to work on as I continue throughout my pregnancy.

Exercise: I have been pretty good about listening to my body on this front. I walked 4 miles one time early this week and I didn’t feel well afterwards. So for the rest of the week I walked at most 2.5 miles at a time. This left me feeling energized instead of exhausted, which is the point of exercising anyway. On Thursday I lifted weights but somewhere along the last few weeks I have gotten out of the habit of doing my pilates. A goal this coming week will be to add this back in to my routine!

Movement: It seems that right now our baby girl is at a prime time of moving around. She hasn’t gotten so big that she has run out of room in there, but she has gotten big enough so that I feel her all the time. I don’t know that she stops moving for more than an hour at a time during the day, and at night when I wake up (like every few hours) she is always kicking and flipping. I love it. I catch myself putting my hand on my belly all the time to feel her in there and I love that it is a moment just between her and I.

Cravings:  Water and milk. That is about it!

Aversions: I tried to eat Qdoba tonight… and I think I am back to food without strong flavors (like red onion and cilantro).

What I miss: Being able to be as productive as I used to be. Our schedule is must more difficult to keep now that I need more rest and can’t go, go, go all day every day. But we will figure it out and I will just keep doing my best, which is all I can do.

What I am looking forward to: Baby showers the next two weekends!! Yay! Also, this coming Friday I have my 30 week appt. with my doctor. David is coming and we hope to discuss our birth plan with the doctor, so I hope that goes well. Now that I am in my 3rd trimester I will start having appointments every 2 weeks instead of every 4. So exciting!

Time to go grade, or study for my midterm on Friday, or work on my Master’s exam… or maybe bake some chocolate chip cookies :)

Childbirth Class

I cannot do math anymore… it is going on 12 hours for the day and I am just done. So instead I will write.

David and I attended our last of 3 childbirth classes last night at Central Baptist Hospital. Even though we are delivering at UK (since our deductible is waived there, sweet!), Central Baptist offers free childbirth classes to anyone and they had a natural birth class option while UK only had the “normal” delivery class. Our class was called “Laboring the Natural Way” and was 3 weeks long for 3 hours each. It was quite the commitment during this INSANE time in our lives, but we both think that it was well worth it.

I went into this class thinking, “I want to take the natural childbirth class because they will teach me important things like breathing and positions that I will probably need even if I do get an epidural, you know in the early part of labor”. I knew that ideally I would prefer to give birth naturally because, well, it is more natural. However I seriously, seriously doubted that I could ever do it. I mean, my body has kind of been fighting me on this whole pregnancy thing already, I really feel that I have a low pain tolerance and most people in my family and that I know rave about the effectiveness of the epidural. So in the end I figured I would most likely break and just take the pain meds.

Another motivation for going natural that I had before going into the class was kind of a selfish one. Considering the fact that I will be starting the spring semester a mere 4ish weeks after the baby is due I am terrified of having a C-section. Obviously if that is what needs to happen for our baby girl to be healthy that is what will happen. But I would like to avoid this major surgery which takes 6 weeks to recover from in any way possible. And the fact of the matter is that any kind of medical intervention increases your changes for a C-section. It may just be by a little bit, but the chances go up. So I thought that if my one of my biggest fears was this surgery I should try to go without anything that would make the chance of a C-section higher.

But to be honest, I went into the class just on the fence. The first thing that the awesome nurse who led the class made clear was that you can’t be on the fence about going natural. You have to be determined to do it. This doesn’t mean you are sad if it doesn’t happen, this doesn’t mean you “fail” if you need drugs, this doesn’t mean you put your baby at any unnecessary risks for the sake of your “plan”. However, if you ever want to have a chance of going all natural you have to be committed. It has to be your plan A. So right from the start I was challenged, and David and I really had to think about and discuss what we wanted.

We learned a ton from the class and it was really wonderful! Even though it was definitely a little bit scary to hear about the whole birthing process it was comforting at the same time. SOOOO many women have had babies, and a lot of them have had babies without any kind of medication. It was really neat to be introduced to the perspective that what we call “pain” during childbirth maybe should not be regarded as such. Normally when we are in pain something is wrong and our brain is trying to tell our body to do something about it. But during childbirth our bodies do exactly what they are supposed to do and nothing is really wrong. I mean, I am sure the process doesn’t feel good, and one of the great things about the teacher was that she was very honest in saying when she delivered her 3 children naturally it definitely hurt, but she explained it as being a different intense sensation than pain. She said that if I can just keep in mind that nothing is wrong, that my body knows what it is doing and that it was actually made to do this the perspective on the “pain” really changes. I think that this was the first time I was convinced that the physical strains brought on the body by childbirth could actually be endured. I had knows others to do it… but I guess I just believe now that anyone (including me) has a chance.

During the second week of the class we learned different breathing techniques and positions to use during contractions so that you can focus on something else. I think that all of them will be really helpful and I was so impressed with how good of a coach David is! We had different stations that we rotated to and at each one we would hold an ice cube to represent the pain of the contraction for 30, 60 or 90 seconds and then try the different techniques to take our minds off the sting. It was a helpful exercise for sure. We also learned about the different stages of birth, watched a few videos and did a few relaxation exercises (which David and I inevitably fell asleep during). What I liked most about all of this was that the teacher kept saying how you have to just focus on one contraction at a time. Previously when I had thought about giving birth naturally I would quickly get overwhelmed by how long I would be hurting, and how after one contraction there would come another, and then another, etc. But it makes so much sense that by splitting the experience up into a lot of small goals, by only focusing on the current contraction and not the hundreds that lie before you, a person can get through hours and hours of labor.

After really learning about the process of childbirth and all of our options our Plan A is definitely to try to go all natural. This means I will hopefully begin labor on my own rather than be induced, try to labor for as long as I can at home so that I can eat, drink and move around as I please, and then once we get to the hospital try to not get an epidural. Ultimately we want a healthy baby and that is all the matters. In no way will we put our own ambitions and plans above this priority. But, assuming that all goes well we are excited to let my body do what it was made to do in the most natural way possible.

Any comments/encouragement/questions would be much appreciated! I am definitely nervous about this decision but at the same time I think that it is the right one for us. I feel most comfortable with this plan and I am so happy because David is being a huge supporter as well. It is just so crazy that this baby inside of me will someday be here… outside of me. I am so excited, scared, anxious, happy and overwhelmed. I just can’t wait to meet our baby girl!

Weekend in Pittsburgh

This post has been a long time coming. With the craziness of school lately I have barely had time to sleep, let along write on the blog, but in this 20 minutes that I have between writing up a homework assignment and going to pick David up from work I wanted to share about my family’s weekend in Pittsburgh. As you may already know, (if not, click here) on my side of the family we are HUGE Steelers fans! They are the NFL (you know, football) team that has the most super bowl wins in history, i.e. the best team out there :) But that isn’t why we like them, it is because my dad grew up in Pittsburgh and has successfully brainwashed us. I wouldn’t call myself a sports fan in general, and a lot of people who know me find it very surprising that most Sundays I sport a Rothelisberger or Harrison jersey to sports bar or to my parent’s house where I can cheer on the Black and Gold. However, I love this tradition that my family has and I hope that we can convert David over to our side soon so that the tradition of loving a fantastic football team can continue to be passed down.

So, this past summer when Steeler tickets went on sale we all got on our cell phones and web browsers simultaneously to try to get some for the whole family (they go really, really fast). We ended up getting 6 tickets for the home opener at Heinz Field and so last weekend we packed up the car on Saturday morning and headed to Pittsburgh.

When we got there we stopped at this bar and grill place where they had “headwiches”, ie. sandwiches as big as your head. Of course my 145 lb. husband ordered one.

After that we walked around the bustling city taking it all in and then we decided to ride on an incline.

The hills are really steep in Pittsburgh so they have these cars on tracks that will take you to the top (or to the bottom). They are really old and packed with history… so cool!

Here we are on our way up.

The view from the top!

Photo opp for the fam :)

After snapping a few more pictures we took the incline back down and stopped at an adorable ice cream parlor for some dessert!

Then we went back to the hotel and slept really well until the next morning when we got up and got pumped for the game. We drove into town early and it was just so awesome to see everyone in their Steelers gear getting ready for the game. Seriously, everyone in Pittsburgh is a Steelers fan! We stopped by an outlet store and David agreed we could get something for baby girl.

Then off to the game!

I look so pregnant below! I was just glad my jersey still fit me.

All in all, it was a GREAT weekend! The Steelers won, big time, the day was beautiful, and it was wonderful to spend such quality time with my whole family.

We haven’t decided if next year we will be hauling a 9 month old baby to Pittsburgh to repeat this venture but it really is weekends like these with my side of the family that makes me realize how much I want our little family to someday have our own traditions.

Go Steelers!

28 weeks

And just like that I am in my 3rd trimester! How did this happen? It seems like just yesterday I was freaking out about the plus sign on that tiny stick and now I am due in less than 12 weeks. Time goes by so quickly…

How far along: 28 weeks.

Total weight gained: 15 pounds.

Updates on Baby: (Thanks so BabyCenter) By this week, your baby weighs two and a quarter pounds (like a Chinese cabbage) and measures 14.8 inches from the top of her head to her heels. She can blink her eyes, which now sport lashes. With her eyesight developing, she may be able to see the light that filters in through your womb. She’s also developing billions of neurons in her brain and adding more body fat in preparation for life in the outside world.

Maternity Clothes: This is an obvious yes by now. I tried to wear one of my old T-shirts on Friday (they used to be so big on me!), and it kept riding up and my belly would be hanging out of the bottom a bit before I knew it. Whoops! I had a sweatshirt on but it is crazy how uncomfortable even my T-shirts are now. Tomorrow I will clean out my drawers once again and transfer my old wardrobe back to the storage closet and replace it with some more hand-me-down maternity stuff.

Symptoms/Body Changes: I definitely had some swelling issues this week… in my feet, ankles, and legs after standing for too long. This week was a really hard week at school with my classes and especially my teaching duties. Proctoring an exam on Tuesday required me to stand for about 3 hours straight, from 7-10 pm, a time when I am usually conscious of elevating my feet. On Wednesday we graded for 11 hours… straight, and it was so, so hard on my back and ribs. The small aches and pains that I have had for a while were just amplified by my lack of rest and the high demands that I put on my body this week. It was discouraging and obviously made me nervous about how my growing preggo body will handle these situations in the future. But I can’t worry about that now. I just have to trust that when another hard week comes I will get through it like I got through this one! I am continuing to feel uncomfortable in general because she is just getting so much bigger! I wake up with sore ribs most mornings and by the end of class my tailbone is usually numb due to the way she has been sitting lately. But, as I told my mom a few minutes ago, it definitely beats getting sick all the time! I can take these symptoms :)

Exercise: My week was insane.. see above. But once Wednesday was over, it did calm down…  a little bit. So on Thursday I was able to walk 4 miles with my pup, on Friday morning I did Yoga, and this morning I spent the beautiful fall morning walking 4 miles with my sister. This coming week I need to lift some weights!!

Movement: She moves like CRAZY! She is at the point now where she moves for longer periods of time and then will rest for longer periods of time. Something that has been fun this week is that she normally wakes up with me every morning. It used to be she would be still until I ate my bowl of cereal or even after I had finished my first class. But now I feel like as soon as I open my eyes in the morning and roll over she starts dancing around. It is fun to just lay there for a little bit with my girl before I start the day :)

Cravings: Warm hot drinks… which means coffee. I haven’t kicked my caffeine habit because I really, really enjoy my 6 oz cup of coffee in the morning (and now that I drink half decaf/half caffeinated every morning I really don’t feel guilty about the small amount of caffeine). But now that there are pumpkin spice lattes being advertised everywhere it is hard to not want that afternoon latte kick as well. I have kept this under control and have only had 1 decaf pumpkin spice latte but I want them all the time. Other than warm drinks I don’t really want to eat anything. My appetite left as quickly as it came. I hope it returns soon!

Aversions: Nothing in particular has grossed me out this week. I started wearing scented deodorant this week because my unscented kind ran out and it didn’t bother me at all! (It’s the little joys). Certain smells from when I was really sick I still can’t stand, but I am glad that my sense of smell in general isn’t as strong.

What I miss: I miss being generally comfortable while I stand up and sit down. I miss sleeping really well. I miss working on math without overwhelming emotions of frustration.

What I am looking forward to: Tonight I am looking forward to tomorrow. This weekend has been really good for David and I. We got to stay in Lexington and just kind of do… nothing. Today we did a good amount of homework but we have decided that on Sundays we are really going to try to take a Sabbath. So no homework and no planning our day out until it is full. Tomorrow is supposed to be a beautiful day here in Lexington so I am excited to wake up, go to church, have Life Group and then maybe go to the dog park, bake some pumpkin bread and hang around the house. I am looking forward to relaxing!

That is all for the weekly update. Hopefully tomorrow during my relaxing day I will also feel inspired to blog about our Pittsburgh trip last weekend. Stay posted, and goodnight!

27 Weeks... Goodbye Second Trimester

This past weekend my family and I went to Pittsburgh for a Steelers game (a post on that coming soon!). It was awesome.! However, this week is craziness… seriously I have like a million things to do, and the weekend was exciting but busy. So even though I am closer to 28 weeks at this point than I am to 27 weeks I still wanted to do an update. I have lots of catching up to do on the blog and I hope those posts will be coming soon!

How far along? 27 weeks.

Total Weight Gain: Still right at 15 pounds.

Updates on baby: (Thanks so BabyCenter) This week, your baby weighs almost 2 pounds (like a head of cauliflower) and is about 14 1/2 inches long with her legs extended. She’s sleeping and waking at regular intervals, opening and closing her eyes, and perhaps even sucking her fingers. With more brain tissue developing, your baby’s brain is very active now. While her lungs are still immature, they would be capable of functioning — with a lot of medical help — if she were to be born now. Chalk up any tiny rhythmic movements you may be feeling to a case of baby hiccups, which may be common from now on. Each episode usually lasts only a few moments, and they don’t bother her, so just relax and enjoy the tickle.

**I totally felt the baby hiccups!!! Friday morning I believe it was. So cool!

Maternity Clothes: Yes, they are pretty much a must at this point. I was excited that most of my Steelers stuff still fit me this past weekend, and to be honest a lot of my stuff still fits, as in I can get it on my body. But maternity clothes are just waaaay more comfortable and flattering. I loved this cute burgundy dress!

Symptoms/Body Changes: To be honest, this was a hard week. I just didn’t feel good in general. My aches in my back and sides were really annoying and I definitely felt mild cramping every day. Nothing to be worried about… I just feel like everything is so tight! Like my belly just needs to grow a little more so that I can have room to breathe, and some space for my ribs, and for my food. However, having space for food wasn’t a big deal this week because my appetite kind of disappeared again. Nothing ever sounded good to eat and I would find myself not realizing I was hungry until my stomach started to rumble. The heartburn was present but I finally got some Tums, so those help. My fatigue has also returned with a vengance… just in time for school I guess. It just wasn’t as great of a week physically… hopefully it is just a phase!

Exercise: This was HARD this week since I didn’t feel well most of the time. I got out and walked Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday each about 2 miles. On Thursday I pushed harder and walked 3 1/2 miles on an incline. It took 50 minutes and every single minute was difficult. However, I was never in pain so I just pushed through and then did some weights afterward and I think that it helped give me a little bit more energy. Again, hopefully the whole no-energy or appetite thing will go away soon!

Movement: Last Saturday our little stinker hurt me by kicking me so hard! She seriously moves all the time… I know I always say this but it is true! And lately she has been sitting right in the middle of my belly, below my belly button and right under my ribs. sometimes she will kind of bear down on one particular place causing lots of pressure but most of the time the kicks are still enjoyable and adorable. Also, as I mentioned before, I think I felt her hiccups on Friday morning. I was laying in bed really still just kind of waking up and I felt a small rhythmic pulse that lasted for a few minutes. It was so cool!! Her movements make the aches, pains and fatigue all worth it.

Cravings: Just sleep!

Aversions: No strong aversions… just a general apathy toward all food.

What I miss: Feeling great!!! I had a few weeks of feeling so awesome; almost back to my old self. But I really hope that I will feel well again soon and that maybe this is just a growing phase when a lot is happening in that tummy of mine.

What I am looking forward to: The past 3 weekends of traveling have truly been wonderful. David and I have enjoyed all of the time that we have gotten to spend with family and friends. But we are SO looking forward to a quiet weekend in Lexington. As I mentioned earlier, I have approximately 8 billion things to do this week (homework, proctor a calculus exam, grade said calculus exams, figure out what classes I want to teach next semester, work on my Master’s talk, etc.) so I am really excited about coming home on Friday night and doing nothing. And then getting up on Saturday morning and doing things like laundry, clean my bathroom, write thank you notes. And then getting up on Sunday morning and going to church and then doing nothing but watch football and maybe cook a really good meal. Sometimes you just crave to be home…. and that is what I want right now.

But now I must go and start on the to-do list of the 8 billion things. Or possibly go to bed since I only got 5 hours of sleep last night. Check back soon for the 28 weeks update and hopefully lots of other catch-up posts! I have so much to tell you about :)

My awesome little brother

This weekend David and I went up to NKY for another baby shower (more on that later). We tried to keep Saturday nice and relaxing… we had lunch with my parents, did a little homework, I got to shop with my best friend Meagan, and then David and I spent the evening with my little brother while my parents hung out with some friends.

I love my little brother. He has been a blessing from the beginning! He was born when I was 14 so we don’t have the typical brother-sister relationship. I would say that David and I are more like a really close aunt and uncle to him. We love the time that we get to spend with him and just hang out and talk. So, here are a couple cute stories about my brother as of late:

On his first day of school they played 2 truths and a lie to get to know each other. Josh’s two truths:

1) I have two sisters and a brother (he calls David his brother all the time!)

2) My sister is going to have a baby (he tells everyone that will listen that I am preggo. Even though he wishes I were having a boy I think he is really excited to be an uncle!!)

His lie was that he has an Xbox. I think he probably won that game.

This past weekend we took him to Skyline for dinner (if you have never had it, you have to come to the Cincinnati area and try it!). David asked him what his dream job would be if he had to pick it right now. He started off by saying he would really like to be a pilot, but then as we kept on trying to get him to spill his real dreams it came out that he wants to be an actor. You could just hear the uncertainty in his voice when he expressed to us that this is what he really wants to do because like all of us Larsens, my little brother tends to be hard on himself. He started saying how he would never be able to be on TV because he just isn’t talented enough. David and I being the wonderful siblings that we are (and wanting to practice good parenting now!) started to explain to him that anything that you really want to do, you can! You just have to work really hard, sacrifice other things and stay focused on your goal. He listened and thought for a minute. Then he said, “So if I worked really hard, do you think one day I could work at Game Stop?”. It was hard to keep a straight face… but we both did and we assured him that if he wanted it bad enough we were sure that he would be capable of working at a video game store.

Hanging out with Josh makes me even more excited about our baby on the way! Children are just so amazing… innocent, smart, creative. I think the way in which they see the world is incredible and I am always feel that as adults we can learn so much from them.

Week 26

Ahh… It’s Friday night and I am laying on the couch in my PJ’s after a wonderful dinner at Saul Good with the hubby (and a much needed Meijer trip). I am pretty sure that grocery shopping on a Friday night makes us officially old. But it feels nice to have a relaxing night at home after a week of school work and before another weekend of traveling up to NKY. And now I get to update you on this past week of my pregnancy journey!

(Beware: I am in terrible need of a hair cut in these pics. I am getting one tomorrow and I am pumped!)

How far along? 26 weeks.

Total weight gain: 15 pounds.

Updates on baby: (Thanks to WhatToExpect) She now weighs a full two pounds and measures nine-plus inches. And this week, her eyes, which until now were developing under fused eyelids, start to open. Of course, there’s not much to see in there, but if your baby spots a bright light (or hears a loud noise) near your belly, you may notice an increase in fetal activity. (“Hey, I’m in here, Mommy! Where’s the party!”) What accounts for that response? Her brain is more developed and sophisticated.

Maternity Clothes: Don’t you just love these maternity skinny jeans? I am rocking my hand-me-down maternity clothes most days now. My day to day wardrobe includes these jeans with button down tops and lots of cute professional dresses to teach in, and today when I didn’t have to teach I wore a slouchier pair of maternity jeans with a T-shirt. SO COMFY! Some of my pre-pregnancy stuff still fits but lots of it doesn’t so I am very thankful to have the maternity options in my closet.

Symptoms/Body Changes: So… the blessing of uninterrupted sleep evaded me this week :( Very unfortunate, but it isn’t as bad as it could be. This past week I woke up every morning before 5:30 a.m. and couldn’t fall back asleep. I was hungry or my back hurt of I just couldn’t get comfortable again. Last night I slept a bit better after working out pretty hard yesterday, so maybe that helped. It has been an adjustment to go from sleeping around 9 hours a night to barely getting in 7. Another unfortunate symptom that has developed is vericose/spider veins in my legs… gross. I had a few before I got pregnant and when I read that they tend to appear or get worse during this process I didn’t have much hope. I am just glad that the weather has gotten cooler and I can wear pants to hide them! No stretch marks yet though, which I am thankful for.

Exercise: The beginning of the week started out a bit rough for me. Monday was labor day so I didn’t exercise then, and then on Tuesday I had a Dr. appointment and I had to do the glucose screening test. So I had to drink this nasty, orange sugary stuff, wait an hour without eating or drinking anything and then go get a blood test to see if my body reacts well to the sugar. The blood test was normal, but actually drinking the stuff and then suffering through the sugar high and then crash was terrible. It made me feel really sick for the rest of the day and I had a pretty bad headache. Needless to say, no workout for me on Tuesday. The rest of the week went like this:

Wednesday: Did about 30 minutes of Prenatal Pilates then I had to stop because it was hurting. I was pretty uncomfortable during the beginning of the week… I think my body was just going through another growth spurt. That may have been why I was more sensitive to the stretches and movement.

Thursday: Walked 40 minutes on an incline on the treadmill. Then worked my biceps, triceps, chest, shoulders and back with my sis.

Friday: Cardio Dance again with my sister (because I wouldn’t dare go without her), then we did squats, lunges, inner and outer thigh lifts and abs. I usually lead us in our exercises and it felt great today when during our ab routine Jen stopped and exclaimed, “Man, you are killing me!”. Yup, still got it.

As I said above, working out seems to help me sleep better at night so I really want to try to get some kind of movement into my day every day. This week it was very rainy and dreary (not that I minded, it was a great break from 90 degrees!). However, the gross weather didn’t allow for as many walks outside with Rooney.

Movement: She is our tiny dancer in there! She really moves all the time. David has gotten to see some of her bigger movements this past week and that was really cool. She is sitting a lot higher in my belly lately so when she moves I can really feel it and it literally moves my stomach around. I love it! Last weekend I told David that it felt like she was doing tiny speed bag movements right around my rib area. This happened a few more times and then I read somewhere that around this time they start to do this quick pedaling motion which will help them develop to walk later. So cool! Another neat thing that I noticed this week is that I can usually tell now where she is in my belly, like down low, over to the left, right under my belly button, etc. It gets really hard wherever she is sitting and I love the idea that she is right there under my skin. Amazing.

Cravings: Nothing noticeable this week. This wasn’t a great week as far as eating goes.. I just kind of felt blah.

Aversions: My heartburn returned a bit this week. It is especially bad tonight. So the southwestern queso and hot brown pizza that David and I shared at dinner don’t sound good to me at all right now. I have developed a major aversion to sweaty guys at the gym. It must be the whole heightened sense of smell thing, but I really can’t take men’s body odor lately! It makes me want to gag.

What I miss: Being the kind of student that I was before. It has been quite an adjustment going back to school. My mind and focus just aren’t the same (pregnancy brain is real! Hormones are crazy!), but also it just feels a lot different because my priorities have obviously shifted. When I get tired at night I just feel like I need to go to bed and give my body the rest that it needs rather than stay up and try to read one more chapter in Topology. Also, there have just been some practical things that make going to school harder. Like the fact that I can’t sit up in a chair and read or do homework for long periods of time and just a general decrease in energy. I am still productive each day and I am really loving my semester so far! But having this new body and this baby inside to look after and give consideration to has definitely changed how I am able to approach each day and if I want to be as good of a student as I was before I will need to adjust my approach.

What I am looking forward to: We are traveling to NKY yet again because, as I have already mentioned, we are super blessed and have another baby shower! This one is with my dear girl friends from high school that I danced with for years and years. It will be so wonderful and I am really excited. On an entirely different note, the NFL season has started, but I am sure you already knew that. This means that the Steelers play on Sunday!! I am so excited to sport on of my Dad’s jerseys and watch the game with my family on Sunday.

I hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Twentyfive.

Today is September 1st which is just really blowing my mind because little Baby H is due in December! That is in 3 months!! I know I keep saying this, but time just keeps on rolling by. During my first 6 weeks of being pregnant (aka the worst time of my life… literally) I thought that I would never feel like this journey was moving along. Every day was long and exhausting and depressing. But now I feel like my old self again in all of the good ways, plus I have the added joy and honor of carrying our baby girl! Time does fly when you are having fun.

How far along? 25 weeks.

Updates on baby: (Thanks to BabyCenter) Head to heels, your baby now measures about 13 1/2 inches. Her weight — a pound and a half — isn’t much more than an average rutabaga, but she’s beginning to exchange her long, lean look for some baby fat. As she does, her wrinkled skin will begin to smooth out and she’ll start to look more and more like a newborn. She’s also growing more hair — and if you could see it, you’d now be able to discern its color and texture.

Note: I didn’t know what a rutabaga was, so I went in search for another vegetable-size comparison (there are lots out there), and I found one that said baby is the size of an eggplant!

Maternity Clothes: Yes, yes. Still loving those elastic waist lines and tops that actually fit. I have felt really wonderful about the way that I look lately and I have been getting a lot of encouragement from others which is always nice. On a few occasions I have been told that I am glowing, I look great, pregnancy fits me, and that I don’t look as far along as I am. Keep the compliments coming because even though I do feel really great about how I look it never hurts to hear kind words as your waist and hips continue to expand!

Symptoms/Body Changes: My heartburn and aches got a lot better this week.  I am still sleeping wonderfully and since I have been working out more often my body just feels a lot less hindered. I feel more mobile lately and the only thing that has continued to ache is my back when I sit up straight for too long. There was one day, this past Saturday, when David and I walked a mile or so to a block party, stood around for a few hours and then walked back and my feet swelled a bit. I think that once it stops being 90 something degrees this symptom won’t pop up too much.

This past weekend we did go to the Kentucky State Fair and the day after I was very aware that my body is not what it used to be. A day of walking around, being in the sun, eating terribly and not getting much sleep drastically affected me all day Monday and a part of the day Tuesday. While we were there I didn’t notice a huge change in my energy level, but my body made it very clear to me the two days after this adventure that it was not a fantastic idea to push myself that hard, and I am thinking we won’t do anything like that again for a while.

Exercise: I am all about it lately! I mostly have a schedule down for the semester and ever since I committed to blocking out time for myself and my body I feel so much better. Here is what I did this week:

Monday - Break… resting from the state fair. I almost put the fair down as my exercise for Sunday because we walked A LOT, but then I thought twice about it since we also consumed large amounts of fried food while there.

Tuesday - 4 mile walk and prenatal pilates.

Wednesday - Cardio Dance Class with my sis - that’s right. Last night I was shaking my hips to Beyonce’s Single Ladies with a bunch of skinny, tan 18-20 year old college students. It was pretty hilarious but was also a great workout! You know I love to dance, and even though I may not be able to arch my back like I used to I can shimmy with the best of them. After the class I figured I had already made a huge fool of myself, so I took my uninhibited preggo body over to the free weights and worked my biceps, triceps, shoulders, back and chest along side stinky 18-20 year old college boys. I definitely got some looks but it was good.

Thursday - 4 mile walk in the HOT SUN, then I did squats, lunges and leg lifts when I got home.

Friday - Tomorrow I am going to a yoga class in the morning before my classes start and I am planning on taking a 3-4 mile walk in the afternoon.

Movement: Oh my goodness… first of all my belly literally grew overnight on Sunday. It was the hot dogs and funnel cakes I bet. But really, when I woke up Monday morning my belly felt so much bigger and throughout the day I noticed not only a huge increase in baby’s movement, but all the sudden I was feeling her move really high! Like around my rib area. Until this point she has mostly moved in my lower tummy with a few kicks around my belly button every once in a while. But this past week something drastic happened with my belly because now she is kicking around my rib area, visibly flipping from side to side right in the middle of my stomach and moving around so much that it is distracting during class! I love it, and it doesn’t hurt at all yet which is really nice. This week I have also noticed her moving a lot more when I lay on my side. It used to be that I had to be perfectly still on my back to feel her move. Now her nudges come when I am in all kinds of positions and doing all kinds of activity.

Cravings: Chips and salsa. I have had this snack 3 different times this week and I just can’t get enough! So salty and yummy and even though there is some spice it hasn’t given me heart burn.

Aversions: Nothing really. I still can’t eat large portions of anything but other than that I feel pretty normal on the food front.

What I miss: Nothing this week. I am really, really loving being pregnant right now and I hope that the feeling doesn’t go away! It is so crazy to think back to how terrible my first trimester was, and even how hard things were until right around 19 or 20 weeks. Thus far the second half of the pregnancy has been truly amazing and I have loved it! I know I am only 3 weeks away from my third trimester, which is supposed to be a time when some tough symptoms come back and lots of new ones emerge, but I am hoping that as I continue to eat well, exercise and take care of myself I will keep feeling great!

What I am looking forward to: First baby shower is on Saturday! Yay! But I already wrote about that…

I am also looking forward to my next Dr. appt which is on Tuesday the 6th. I have decided to try out a new doctor who was recommended to me by my sister because I wasn’t totally in love with my last doctor. After encouragement from family and friends I decided that I should just see if I like another one better since I didn’t shop around at all before choosing my doctor. So anyway, since I rescheduled with this new doctor I get to have my appt a week earlier than I would have! I am excited to hear baby girl’s heartbeat and even though I have to do that glucose screening test (to see if I have gestational diabetes) which I have heard is not fun, I am still looking forward to hearing that everything is still perfectly normal.

I will try to post pictures ASAP from the baby shower on Saturday because I know that you are just dying to hear the details. Until then…

My Old Kentucky Home

This past Sunday David and I went to the Kentucky State Fair for the first time! We bought tickets with a couple of friends to go to the Maroon 5 and Train concert and then a couple weeks ago we realized that the concert was at the fair so we decided, what the heck, while we are in Louisville we might as well see what the fair is all about as well.

It was… interesting. And fun. And entertaining. Oh, and completely exhausting. Apparently walking around in the sun all day, eating lots of fried food and staying up until 3 in the morning is not as easy as it used to be with this preggo body of mine. On Monday I felt like I might die, and yesterday wasn’t that much better. However, today I feel pretty recovered and thus I have the energy to write again :)

I was born and raised in Kentucky. This is a completely true statement. However, I always feel like I should add an asterisk after it, like I need to qualify this fact. Because I was born in Louisville, KY while my parents were finishing up college and then before I have any memory we moved to Northern Kentucky (the infamous NKY which I speak of). Northern Kentucky is much more a huge suburb of Cincinnati than it is a part of the good ole Bluegrass state. Where I grew up there were lots of movie theaters and malls, there were public schools with 800+ people in them, and the word “wash” did not have a silent “r” in it. 

You see, even though I have lived my entire life in Kentucky up until a few years ago I had never drank and Ale 8, seen a horse farm, watched the Kentucky derby, or seen a tobacco plant. Even at this point I have yet to try Kentucky bourbon, be told that I have an accent, or understand where this term “bluegrass” comes from. I used to be thankful that I was somewhat removed from the “real Kentucky”. The state with the horrible stereotypes and education system. However, moving to Lexington has definitely made me open my heart a little bit to things like southern hospitality, supporting local farms and camping. I have really come to appreciate my state a lot and enjoy all of the beauty and fun things that it brings along.

So here are a few pictures for you to see for yourself what the fair was like!

It was such a beautiful day! I was thankful I couldn’t ride anything because I am a sucker for amusement park rides but I have always heard that the ones at the fair are particularly not safe.

And there was of course the fair fare (David kept using this phrase and I kept getting confused and then we talked about how much better of a pun it is when you write it out rather than just say it. So that was for him I guess.) He got a HUGE smoked turkey leg for lunch while I played it safe with my all-time-favorite-food, a corn dog. It was awesome. We also had a shaken lemonade, a caramel apple and a funnel cake throughout the day. The craziest food we saw: A burger whose bun was two Krispie Kream doughnuts….

There were lots of competitions. One of which was a wedding cake decorating competition.

And of course an ugly lamp competition…

What fair would be complete without a huge showing of farm animals?? Definitely not the Kentucky Fair!

Ah… all in all we had a fantastic time! We enjoyed a great dog show (I am a sucker for pups in general, but especially ones that can catch frisbees while doing back flips!), took a walk through the display of Kentucky Counties, petted some baby ducks and soaked up the hot, August sun.

Photo opp in front of the fountain!

Oh yea, and there was one other little thing that we did… WE SAW MAROON 5 AND TRAIN IN CONCERT!!!

This was the Hall the the concert was held in. It was so, so awesome. Train and Maroon 5 are two of our most favorite bands so when David and I found out they were in concert together in our humble home state we decided that we had to get tickets. We squeezed the budget and made the tickets count for each other birthday presents and it was totally worth it. Train was so entertaining and Maroon 5 was like 10 times better than they are on their CDs which is saying a lot.

What a great experience! I am so glad that we went to the Kentucky State Fair. As it has been with most things Kentuckian, I find that once I open my mind a little bit and start experiencing all the state has to offer I fall more and more in love with it.

Goodnight ya’ll :)

Week 24

I am 24 weeks pregnant!! Actually 24 weeks and 2 days since it is Saturday. That means I am 6 months along… and I only have 3 more weeks left in the second trimester. Time is just flying.

How far along? 24 weeks.

Total weight gain: 13 pounds. Since I am now regularly going to the gym again I will actually start knowing how much weight I gain from week to week rather than month to month which is good I guess :)

Updates on Baby: (Thanks to WhatToExpect) Your baby is about eight and a half inches long and weighs one and a half pounds, gaining steadily at a rate of six ounces per week. Much of that weight comes from accumulating baby fat, as well as from growing organs, bones, and muscle. Those little ears of hers are getting sharper and can hear very loud sounds, from a yapping dog to a jackhammer. Also by now, that fabulous face is almost fully formed, complete with eyelashes, eyebrows, and hair. Is your baby a brunette, a blonde, or a redhead? Actually, right now her locks are white since there’s no pigment yet.

Maternity Clothes: You betcha! In fact this week’s pictures are taken in some of my old  tank tops and I feel like I look so much bigger. Most days I wear maternity tops now and I think in a couple weeks I will be going back to the Gap Clearance Store to try to find a nice pair of black maternity capris that I can wear to teach in.

Symptoms/Body Changes: I definitely have some carpal tunnel syndrome popping up, which is normal, and my hair and nails are growing like crazy! This week I noticed that my appendages seemed to fall asleep really easily which I am sure is just caused by my changes in circulation. My skin and scalp have also been noticeably dry so I try to lotion up every day and shower in cooler water (aka normal-temperature water. My hubby has informed me that I like my showers to be scalding hot!). Another symptom which was really annoying this week was heartburn. Yuck. I have never had any heartburn issues in the past and it bothered me quite a bit in the evenings, but later the week I tried to eat milder things and I noticed that this helped. And I think that I will just put sleep details in here too… getting comfortable to fall asleep wasn’t difficult, but staying asleep was due to leg cramps and belly pains (when I try to stretch) in the middle of the night. My body just feels really tight everywhere… maybe I should try more yoga!

Exercise: You will be so proud of me! I have exercised every day this week and I feel so wonderful because of it. I think it has helped me to sleep better and it gives me so much more energy each day. Here is the run down:

Monday - Yoga, 2 mile walk to Starbucks with the pup and hubby.

Tuesday - 3 mile walk

Wednesday - 4 mile walk

Thursday - 3 mile walk, prenatal pilates (standing pilates, core workout, stretching). I found these great 10 minute videos on YouTube where the instructor is 36 weeks preggo. They are very professionally done and she is so encouraging and motivating!

Friday - 2 mile walk to the park with Rooney

Saturday - Elliptical for 20 minutes, then weights at the gym. I did biceps, triceps, shoulders, chest, upper back, squats, lunges and abs. I also stretched really well at the end!

Like I said I have felt wonderful as I push myself a little bit more. I am not working out as intensely as I did before I got pregnant, obviously, but I really hope to be able to build some strength back up which I lost when I was so sick.

One time this week I got too ambitious when I attempted to climb 8 flights of stairs to my office when I was already a little hungry. That was dumb and I won’t do it again… I was SO exhausted when I got the top!

Movement: She is still our crazy little mover in there! I can now feel her move even when I am standing up and sometimes it throws me a bit off guard. I love it every time. This Friday while I was meeting with my professor for my independent study she was seriously doing some kick-boxing in my belly. There were some really big kicks and they were so high! Most of the time I feel her rolling around lower in my belly, but my favorite is definitely when I can feel and see her move right around my belly button… so fun. Also, this may be off topic, but I read this week that my uterus is about the size of a soccer ball. A soccer ball! There is something that big in my stomach, and it is crazy to me.

Cravings: The unhealthy pregnancy cravings hit this week. I want dessert all the time. Ice cream, brownies, muffins, doughnuts; you name it. I have been pretty good about not indulging too much. We got some ice cream at the store and most nights I will allow myself a small scoop (we got some cute little bowls just for this purpose). This way the craving is satisfied but the portion is controlled, and I am convinced that ice cream helps heartburn :)  On the first day of school David and I ate lunch together and we both got these amazing chocolate muffins from the cafeteria… YUM! But I kinda felt guilty about that one.

Aversions: Nothing really stood out this week. I am back eating cheese yogurt and eggs normally now… Yay! Meat is also getting a lot easier to stomach, and my sense of smell seems to have decreased a bit which is nice. For a while there I had to leave our apartment any time our cat used the litter box.

What I miss: Fitting in to the normal college crowd. I definitely stand out on UK’s campus with my baby belly; at the gym, in my department, in my classes and as a teacher. I am not super self conscious about it but I definitely notice looks from others. I just want to say, “Yes, I am pregnant. And in school. And teaching. Deal with it.” Everyone who I have talked to is so wonderful, encouraging, excited and sweet. It is mostly just the sideways glances from strangers that I notice and I am not used to standing out in any way I guess.

What I am looking forward to: My first baby shower is a week from today!!! I am pumped about it. Have a told you that I am having 7? Yes, I said 7. Two on David’s side, two on my family’s side, 1 for lexington friends, 1 for NKY dance friends, and 1 for math friends. David and I are pretty much the most blessed and loved people and we are so grateful! Anyway, I have one on September 3rd and another on September 11th and I am very much looking forward to them. I know that we will be showered with gifts, support, and encouraging words from all around and I am sure that these showers and the things that come along with them will make the fact that we are having a baby so much more real.

Ok, now I have to go do math homework. Which is ok. We have had a great weekend already with our date at the Arboretum last night, and tonight we are planning on going to our neighborhood block party which should be fun. Oh yea, and tomorrow we are going to the KY state fair and the Maroon 5 and Train concert!!!!! I am sure I will post on that early next week.

Happy weekend.

I kind of love hanging out with my dog… is this weird? I mean he likes to do the same things I do: walk, hang out at parks, meet other dogs and people, and take naps.

I have been working at school all day and now that I am home I realize how much I have been looking forward to spending the early evening just me and my puppy… taking a walk to the park and enjoying the beautiful day!

It is date night tonight for David and I and promise to make him to take another belly picture of me so that I can do the 24 week update very soon!

Now, off to the park with my dog.

And so it begins...

Tomorrow I start the Fall 2011 semester and I have so many mixed feelings about it.

I love school… the new pens, pencils, folders and books; the new classmates and professors; the new schedules and syllabi. I really enjoy change so I am always excited to begin a brand new semester! It feels very refreshing to begin again, to have a fresh start. I also love school because I truly LOVE learning and I guess I kind of like math too :) I am so excited to be challenged intellectually for another 4 months.

I also love to teach and tomorrow I will begin my experience as a Math Excel Teaching Assistant. I was fortunate enough to be selected to be a teaching assistant for this special program which was developed by the math department 20ish years ago. The model for it was proposed by Uri Treisman at UC Berkley (aka a super smart guy at an awesome school), and UK has been recognized numerous times for its success in also implementing the program. Pretty much out of the 1,000 students taking Calculus this fall at UK, about 100 of them chose to sign up for 2 extra hours of class time a week. They go to lecture for 3 hours each week, and then I get to meet with 30 of them for an hour and a half three days a week. In my class they will work on supplemental worksheets (not their homework) in groups and I will simply walk around and help when needed. The idea is that they fight with mathematics themselves… try things, teach one another, and practice a lot. Programs of this type have had a ton of success in the past… i.e. the students who work together on math rather than by themselves tend to do a lot better on the exams. It is going to be a great opportunity for me to develop my teaching skills as well as build real relationships with these 30 students since I will be seeing them so often.

It is probably pretty clear now why I am in grad school… I am a huge nerd and I love to teach. However, I am also nervous for the semester to start because by the end of it WE WILL HAVE A BABY! As in our little girl’s due date is the Thursday of Finals week. Obviously we don’t know exactly when our bundle of joy will decide to show up, but it will most likely happen very quickly after the semester ends, if not before. And I know how the semesters just FLY by. So for that reason it is a bit overwhelming to think that it begins tomorrow. With the exams, studying, grading, homework, etc. I know that the weeks will just start to fly by and then all of the sudden it will be December! And we will have a baby…

Don’t get me wrong, I am obviously excited about my pregnancy journey progressing and the prospect of meeting our daughter. I can just sense that these next few months will zoom by and I really don’t want to take a second for granted. Even as I work hard as a student and as a teacher I want to make sure I am cherishing every kick and tumble inside of me, every baby shower, every day that I wake up with a BIGGER belly, every moment of peace that David and I will share together, every adventure that we will have this fall and winter.

Deep breath in….

It is going to be a good semester. In fact I think that 2011 will turn out to be a fantastic year. By the end of this calendar year I will hopefully have published a paper, taken a master’s exam, be 3 credit hours away from finishing my Masters Degree, inspired a few students, and, most importantly, grown and birthed a beautiful baby girl. It is so crazy how fast life goes by and how quickly things can change. But it is truly a beautiful ride.

Twentythree!

Another week has come and gone already! This was my week “off” between work and school. I didn’t have many plans other than to prepare for the coming semester, and it is a good thing because I have kept myself plenty busy. Between cleaning our apartment, making phone calls, shopping for school supplies and getting ready to teach I have had lots to do and thus the time has just flown.

How far along? 23 weeks.

Total weight gain: 13 pounds! I got weighed at the doctor yesterday and was so surprised that I had gained so much. I am now at the low end of the “normal” range for weight gain at this point which I am really happy about. Now that I finally feel myself again and love to eat I will be a little bit more health conscious and try not to gain 8 pounds in 4 weeks again, not that I care that much but I do want to be gaining the right kind of weight :)

Updates on Baby: (Thanks to BabyCenter)

Turn on the radio and sway to the music. With her sense of movement well developed by now, your baby can feel you dance. And now that she’s more than 11 inches long and weighs just over a pound (about as much as a large mango), you may be able to see her squirm underneath your clothes. Blood vessels in her lungs are developing to prepare for breathing, and the sounds that your baby’s increasingly keen ears pick up are preparing her for entry into the outside world. Loud noises that become familiar now — such as your dog barking or the roar of the vacuum cleaner — probably won’t faze her when she hears them outside the womb.

Maternity Clothes: Oh yes! Look at this pile of awesome maternity clothes that I got from my sister-in-law-to-be.

I got some GREAT stuff to use while I am pregnant and it is such a relief! It is all very nice, from Motherhood Maternity and such. I might be the best dressed that I ever have been while I am pregnant. I am mostly still wearing my own bottoms with the BeBand, but I find maternity shirts so much more comfortable at this point. You can just tell they are made to fit pregnant bodies and it really does make a difference in how I feel. They flatter my bump so much more and I feel great in them!

Symptoms/Body Changes: I changed this topic from “Eating” because I feel like my appetite and such is back to normal as long as I take my nausea medicines and I think it should stay this way for the rest of the pregnancy.

However there are lots of other changes going on! My back, sides and ribs have been giving me some pain lately, especially if I sit up for too long. I started some prenatal pilates videos this week and I think they helped a little bit so I plan to keep that up. I am also experiencing some aches in my legs, especially if I try to walk any distance in flip flops, and aches in my hands and wrists. Apparently all of these mild pains are completely normal and they never bother me enough to take any medicine.

While my belly continues to get rounder my belly button pushes out more and more. It isn’t close to popping out completely yet, but it has definitely changed its shape… So crazy! Another change that I have noticed this week is the texture of my hair. I have always had fine, soft hair but lately it is noticeably more coarse. And yes, my nails are growing like crazy too!

Sleep: I was about to take this topic off also, but last night I had some sleep troubles so I guess there is an update on this. I woke up a few times with pains in my back and in my belly so I will start to try harder to sleep on my side with a pillow in between my legs since I have read this is best.

Exercise: Over the summer I have taken somewhat of a break from exercise. I have been walking regularly, but I think that it was a good idea to take some time off anything intense while I gained some weight back and also gained some everyday strength again after I was so sick. But now that I feel like my old self I have picked up my workouts too and it feels great! I walked 4 times this week (about 4 miles each) and this is a pretty good cardio challenge since I do it outside and pretty quickly. I have also done prenatal pilates, as I mentioned above, 3 times (I just do some videos I found on YouTube!). Next week the semester starts so I plan on getting into a workout routine that will include walking, weight training, pilates and yoga. I will keep you updated as my schedule gets set!

Movement: O ur tiny dancer is a crazy mover! Yesterday I saw her move in my belly for the first time and it was amazing… and honestly a little freaky. In the mornings she usually does a gymnastics routine with somersaults and flips, while in the evenings she does more quick, sharp kicks. These kicks are the things that I can really see from the outside. So cool. I love feeling her move!

Cravings: Nothing in particular, but I am very excited to be eating cheese and yogurt on a regular basis again! Also, tonight I had eggs for dinner and they weren’t too bad. I have had a sweet tooth lately, but I have tried to keep it under control :) 

Aversions: Nothing grossed me out too much this week… I didn’t take my Zofran on Monday or on Thursday and both days I got sick. But even the things that I couldn’t keep down don’t sound bad to me. It was kind of bizarre when I got sick… less of a sick-to-my-stomach feeling and more of an intense gag reflex. Maybe that was TMI.

What I miss: Having hands and wrists that don’t ache! That is about it. 

What I am looking forward to: Hm… tonight David and I are going to see a movie so I am pumped about that. Also, I start classes on Wednesday and like always I am SO excited. I think I could go to school my whole life. As I start school again I am also excited to see my old math friends and share my exciting news with everyone. It is kind of weird because when school ended I was just throwing up all the time, not able to tell anyone what was happening and now I am almost 6 months pregnant! They are all in for a shock I guess.

Now off to our Friday night date! Happy weekend :)