Happy New Year!

Well it has been pretty crazy around here lately, so it obviously has been awhile since I have posted. Anyway, Christmas was wonderful! We got to spend Friday night and Saturday with my family in Tulsa. And then Brian's family came to us on Sunday. I love spending time with family. Even though we don't live that far I still miss them all very much and wish we could see them more often. Anyway, we got to open presents for our little girl! It made all this so much more real. Here are a few things she got this Christmas. And people have been so generous to us in giving us things we need and handmedown clothes as well. :)

My Dad bought her this cute little giraffe!! I can't wait for her to hold it...

My Mom got me this cute frame! I put a picture from my second ultrasound in there. Of course it was love at first sight when she looked like a little blob/peanut in there at my 8 week ultrasound. The frame is white and pink which will look perfect in her nursery!

Her first pair of shoes! Brian's parents got her these cute little sandals. 

Brian's parents gave her a little doll rattle and a couple little cute outfits too! 

My friend and former co-worker gave us this. It is "baby's first keepsake ornament." It is white and light pink also, which is why I think I will hang it up on the wall in her nursery! I am looking forward to being able to write her name and DOB on there! :)

Here is a picture of my sweet Marlon with one of his new toys from Brian's sister! He had a good time opening presents as well! He got quite a few new toys and some more doggy treats which he loves. I love this little dog and I think he is going to love our little girl too. Even though I am sure he will be slightly jealous I think he will be quite protective of her as well. 

I really want to be more crafty. I have a few projects I want to do for the nursery! But here is an 'H' I deco podged to hang up in our kitchen. It is still a work in progress - a few places I need to patch up. 

Also the Tuesday before Christmas I hit the half way mark of pregnancy!! Can you believe it? Already half way there. How time flies. There is still so much to do to get ready. We have been working on clearing out the nursery again this weekend. It is getting pretty bare in there now. We plan to get paint real soon and get it all painted and ready to move furniture in there. We just need to get the furniture to put in there now...

I mention this below in my questionnaire, but I got to see her move on the outside for the first time this morning. She was moving around a ton, so I wawatching and trying to feel her and my stomach moved - it was pretty noticeable. Unfortunately Brian was still in bed, so he did not get to see it this time, but there will be more time to come! Brian did get to feel her earlier today though - it is getting a lot stronger and more noticeable now. Loving it!!

Here is the weekly questionnaire:

How far along? 22 weeks tomorrow

Total weight gain: 16 pounds...

Maternity clothes? Yep! 

Stretch marks? Not that I can tell so far...just my veins are really noticeable still. 

Sleep: It is getting better at times. I had major heartburn the other night that lasted 2 full days. It was rough and made it very difficult to sleep, but I made it through!

Best moment this week: I saw her move this morning!! First time that I have been able to actually see her movement from the outside. It was so amazing!

Miss Anything? Still want to go running - looking forward to doing this after I have her to help shed the baby weight!

Movement: Yes! Brian really felt her this morning - she has been moving around lots already today. 

Food cravings: Still craving sweet stuff. Other than that nothing specific. 

Anything making you queasy or sick: Nothing in particular. Usually I feel this way if I eat too much at one time. 

Gender: Girl!

Labor Signs: No

Symptoms: Just heartburn that time. 

Belly Button in or out? It is pretty much flat right now. 

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or Moody most of the time: HAPPY!  

Looking forward to: Getting the nursery painted!

Well I will leave you with my 'almost 22 weeks' picture!

Happy New Year everyone!! Here's to a new year that will be full of wonderful changes and new adventures!

19 weeks

It has been a pretty good week so far. Saturday I met a friend at PetsMart and we got our dogs pictures with Santa! I forgot to scan the picture to myself so that I could upload it. I will post the picture later though. It was fun! Poor Marlon was scared though, so he sat on my lap while I sat next to Santa. In the meantime, here is a picture of him all snuggled up in the blanket. 

Not too much to update on this week. I have my next appointment Thursday, so I am looking forward to that. This should be the appointment when she begins to measure my belly and all that fun stuff. And as always I get to hear the heartbeat - always love that moment. She just moved! :) Feeling movement is so cool. It is really weird though at the same time. Every once in a while I jump because it startles me so much. Feeling the movement makes it all the more real - that this is really happening. I am really pregnant. Honestly, sometimes it scares me too. I begin to worry about labor and delivery and I wonder about what kinds of pains will I endure in the weeks to come. I have read that a lot of women start to have mixed emotions during this point. And I am still just as excited, just nervous about how I am going to handle the labor part of it. But with the Lord's help I will get through it. I am still just so thankful that the Lord has blessed us in this way - truly a miracle and that miracle is growing inside of me. How crazy is that?! Pregnancy is one of those things that you just can't fathom (How is it hat I have a human growing in side of me?!). Like trying to figure out the concept of eternity... 

I found a crib online at Target that I like!! It is crib/changing table/drawers all in one!! Then one side of the crib can be removed and it turns into a toddler bed. Then you can take it apart and it is a twin bed with a night stand/drawers. Anyway, I like the idea and look of it from just looking at the website. Still need to shop around though and make sure I find one that will work best and for the best deal! But having a crib, drawers, and changing table all in one would save so much space in her room. That room is not that big, and I was afraid we wouldn't have room for all that plus the glider that I will eventually put in there. So with something like this, it would leave lots more room for other things. 

Here is the weekly questionnaire:

How far along? 19 Weeks

Total weight gain: Not sure...will find out Thursday. I don't think I want to know though.  :)

Maternity clothes? Yes!

Stretch marks? Not that I can tell so far...just my veins are really noticeable. 

Sleep: Still a hit or miss on this one. Just depends on the night.

Best moment this week: Sunday night she moved a TON and I really enjoyed it. And today at work, I felt her moving, so I put my hand on my belly to see if I could feel it, and I did! It felt like a little wave. 

Miss Anything? Still want to go running

Movement: Here and there. Getting a little stronger though when I do feel it. 

Food cravings: Cuties (I eat a couple a day) and chocolate. I constantly want something sweet.

Anything making you queasy or sick: The sewage smell that was wafting in the bathroom at work on Monday

Gender: Girl!

Labor Signs: No

Symptoms: I am having what they call Round Ligament Pain. A sign of my uterus growing even more. 

Belly Button in or out? In 

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or Moody most of the time: HAPPY! Only moody when I am driving. 

Looking forward to: Doctor appointment Thursday. I will get to hear the heartbeat again and this is the week my doctor will start measuring my uterus and all that fun stuff! 

19 week picture:

Random Pregnancy Questionnaire

I actually saw this on Pintrest (it is someone's blog I guess) and thought it would be kind of fun! I will just answer this one up until this point, then I think I will answer them accordingly for each weekly update!

How far along? 18 Weeks

Total weight gain: 10lbs (I don't think I have ever weighed this much in my life...it is tiring!)

Maternity clothes? Just bought some last Friday! I have stretchy black dress pants (not maternity, but work perfect). I did buy a few maternity tops as well because a lot of my tops are getting too small!

Stretch marks? Not that I can tell so far...

Sleep: It's a hit or miss. Some nights I sleep great. Other nights I wake up and my hips and back hurt, so I end up sleeping the rest of the night propped/sitting up on my pillows. And I usually have to pee at least once during the night.

Best moment this week: Brian thinks he felt her move in there this week. And we decided on colors for the nursery and possibly a name...

Miss Anything? Sometime I miss going for a run

Movement: Here and there. I love it!!

Food cravings: sweets for sure! Up until this point, I have craved pizza, hot dogs, and apples. And sometimes I just randomly get in the mood for whatever I may have seen that day. But lately I want chocolate quite a bit...not a good craving to have!

Anything making you queasy or sick: The smell of cigarette smoke and egg nog. Yuck!

Gender: Girl!!!!!

Labor Signs: No

Symptoms: Headaches here lately, but they are getting much better. I feel pain in my rib sometimes too, but sitting up nice and straight helps that.

Belly Button in or out? in still - but starting to get tighter.

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or Moody most of the time: HAPPY!

Looking forward to: Christmas! So excited to see and spend time with family and by that time I will be half way through my pregnancy and of course more things to look forward to by then!! :)

Preparations

Well I am 18 weeks along - almost half way already! Oh how time flies...

I have begun getting the nursery room cleared. I removed everything from the closet and bought cute little hangers to hang her clothes on as she gets them. Speaking of clothes, I bought a couple onsies for her the other day! They are too cute and I cannot wait to hold her in these. Also speaking of clothes, I am going to have a serious problem. I knew this would happen when I had a baby especially if it was a girl. Everything is just so darn cute - I want to buy it all!! Must. Learn. Discipline.

So cute!!

Here is a closer look. The one has a green butterfly and the other has an adorable baby elephant. 

Anyway, so the closet is cleared out, now to just get rid of all the furniture and everything else in that room since we won't have any room for it anywhere else. I believe we have also decided on colors for the nursery - which makes me even more anxious to clear the room so we can paint and buy furniture to put in there. I am thinking white furniture would go really well with our colors...We plan to do the walls in a minty green color and then do light pink and white accents. I plan to sew the curtains, probably pink. Brian wants to paint a mural or some kind of design on the wall, so now we just need to figure out what designs we want to incorporate with these colors. I am so excited though!!
And I think we have settled on a name. However, this name will be revealed at a later date...

I finally bought some maternity clothes. I was getting annoyed that I had one pair of pants to wear to work and one pair of jeans. And many of my tops are getting too small as well. I went to a consignment shop by my work on Friday and bought a pair of work pants, pair of jeans (yes with the maternity belly cloth covering and all), and 2 tops. Maternity clothes are awesome by the way! So comfortable - I will be sad when I can't wear them anymore! It's so great to not have to worry about buttons and zippers.

On another note - We got a new roof last Thursday. Ours got messed up in the hail storm a few months ago and we finally got it all fixed. I had to take the day off to be home - it was nice to have a day off form work to just relax at home. It was loud most of the day, but I was able to tune it out every once in a while. Poor Marlon was not a fan of the new roof though. Another reason I am glad I was home, I would have felt bad if he was this scared and home all by himself. He kept his ears back and shivered for a while, then he decided to go sit in his crate (which he only does if he thinks he is in trouble or if he is nervous or scared). He switched off from hiding in his crate to curling up in the corner of the living room. Here is a picture:

So sad. 

We got all of our Christmas decorations up!! I love decorating for Christmas. Brian did such a great job on the tree too! I let him take on the task of putting the tree up and decorating it. 

Well, here is a picture of my growing belly at 18 weeks 1 day. My t-shirts are having to stretch a little more each day! Oh and ignore the 'OU' on my shirt - this is just a sleep shirt. Figure I should have at least one OU shirt since I do live in Norman. I am an OSU fan! Go pokes! I did enjoy a pretty amazing game this last Saturday too! I just wish they could have made it to the BCS Championship game, but that's okay..maybe next time!

Keep growing and moving around in there baby!! Can't wait until your movements are more noticeable and your Daddy can feel you moving around too. So thankful for you - you are truly a blessing from the Lord!

Love you baby girl!! 

It's a....

GIRL!!! 

Here are her beautiful pictures from the ultrasound:

Sweet little hands!

Feet

She apparently she likes to sit with her ankles crossed - you can kind of tell in this picture. 

It's a Girl!! No extra parts were seen...

Waving hello!

Love this 3D picture of her. All curled up in there. 

I was so nervous and anxious to get to this ultrasound. The appointment was at 4:20 and the day seemed forever long! Then we had to wait about 30 minute after the appt time before we were able to go back. We were in the room for a total of about 40 minutes looking at our sweet daughter. She was being pretty stubborn and wasn't wanting to reveal her gender. So the ultrasound tech kept poking and shaking my belly to get her to move. She would measure a few things, then try to look, and measure a few more things, then try again. This went on for about 20 minutes until we finally got to see her! Doctor came in afterwards to take a look and confirm the sex of out baby. He said it was a girl, that he didn't see any boy parts in there. He also checked the brain, spine, neck, lips, etc and everything is perfect and healthy. Baby is growing right on schedule too. She weighs 6 ounces right now. It's crazy to go back and look at our last picture and see how much she has grown. Anyway, we are very excited to have a little girl. My parents have 2 grandsons and my in-laws have one grandson, so we will be bringing the first granddaughter in for both sides of the family, which is pretty cool. I can't wait to get a name picked out and get started on decorating the nursery and probably buying cute little outfits for her to wear when she graces us with her presence in 5 short months!

On a random note, a customer came in to my work today and looked at me and said, "You are carrying around some extra baggage there, huh?" This is the first time anyone has said anything to me about being pregnant that didn't know already. So I guess it is becoming obvious that I am pregnant! It was pretty exciting actually to have someone say something to me about it. It didn't bother me at all! 

I made some sugar cookies with pink frosting for us to take to our jobs. I thought it would be a fun way to share the news with our co-workers. 

It's pretty crazy to think that I am going to be a Mom soon. I remember being a little girl myself and here I am about to have one of my own. My parents did a great job raising me, I can only hope I will do a great job raising my little girl as well. I love you Mom & Dad!!! 

Seeing my baby girl and finding out the gender has made the reality settle in a lot more. I am really looking forward to being a Mom even if it is a little scary to think about at times. 

Well, it is really late and I must get to bed, so here is a picture of my 17 week "It's A Girl" belly! I'm pretty sure it is getting bigger! And I can still feel her moving in there. I am really excited for Brian to be able to see and feel her too. Hopefully that will happen in the next week or so!

Sorry I know I don't look the best. Again, I just took a shower. I meant to take the picture before my shower, but I forgot! :) I forget a lot of things lately...

Baby girl,

I am so excited to meet you in May. Today begins the 5th month which means I only have 5 months to go! It goes by so quickly. Your Daddy and I are so excited and looking forward to having a little girl in the house. I bet you will be a Daddy's girl too. Keep growing and moving around in there! Love you so much already baby girl. And don't worry, we will have a name for you soon!

Love, Mommy

Thankful

Well it has been a busy but great past week. I went and visited my family last weekend which was wonderful. It had been a couple months since I had been able to get up there and see them. I sure did miss them! I actually was able to see everyone in my extended family while there too which was awesome. My Mom and I tackled Affair of the Heart on Saturday - which was rather disappointing. A lot of the booths we wanted to visit again (since the last one) weren't there anymore, and there just wasn't as much good stuff to see. Maybe this is a good thing - less money spent. I had a good time walking around with my Mom though and we both found cute scarves to purchase! It was so nice to spend time with family last weekend. I know we are only a couple hours away, but I miss them so much and wish I could see them more often! Oh! and my Dad gave me a glider rocking chair for when the baby comes! So we now have a piece of baby furniture in the house. The fabric on it though is not the best, so my mother-in-law is going to help me recover it!

For Thanksgiving, we got together with Brian's parents and his sister and family. I ate lots (probably too much because my belly felt really tight and full for a while!) of good food! It was so nice to spend some time with all of them as well because it had been a little while since I had seen them. My sister-in-law brought my a couple bags of her maternity clothes for me to borrow since I am outgrowing all of my clothes and haven't really bought anything recently.

The cousins on my Mom's side of the family drew names earlier in the year and we were supposed to make a homemade ornament for them and send by Thanksgiving. It worked out that Nancy and I both drew each other's names and I just got my ornament in the mail yesterday. I love it!!! Here is a picture. She did such a great job!

Here is what I made her. I painted an ornament and then made a standing decoration out of a washcloth! It was fun getting to be crafty. This is the first one of many I made, so they actually got better than this one in the picture, but you get the idea. On the latter ones I used real buttons rather than the pom poms and I used an orange pipe cleaner for the nose instead of just painting on on there and felt works much better than ribbon for the scarf! 

Getting to make these ornaments has made me really want to be crafty now. There are a few things on my list that I plan to make and hopefully make time to do them before Christmas as gifts! :)

I have also begun the de-cluttering of the room that will soon be made into a nursery. There are a few pieces of furniture that we have to get rid of or find another place in the house for it and go through the closets and organize all that stuff that we have stored in there. We have this fairly big entertainment center in there that I planned to get rid of, but my Aunt Debbie gave me a great idea! She said I should paint it and then hang a curtain on the open areas, and buy cute little baskets to store the baby's things in there and there are a few drawers I could use for clothes. I told Brian about this and we both think it is a good idea, so we may see what we can do with it and hope that we enough room to have that, the crib, and changing table and everything in there. We shall see!! Only a couple more days until we find out if we are having a boy or girl!!! I am SO anxious. Then begins the baby names, nursery themes/colors, and lots of other fun things! I have started to kind of feel the baby moving around in there which is really awesome but also really weird, in a good way though. My sister-in-law described it best I think, it's like a fish swimming around in there. It does feel like a little wave in my belly. I am looking forward to when I can feel it more and when Brian can see and feel it as well. I can't believe it is going by so fast - already almost 17 weeks. 

Here is a random picture Brian took of my view of the ever growing belly!

Yes I think it is getting pretty big real fast! Even my boss noticed on Friday that it looked slightly bigger than it was just a couple days before. :)

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!! I will post Tuesday with the exciting news! Feel free to predict or guess what it could be...

Growing...

15 week picture:

If you look at my belly on the above picture, you can see a little white line, that is the difference from last week to this week. 

It may not look like I grew that much, but I sure feel it! My belly seems a little heavier and I noticed last night that it seemed to be sticking out a lot further than I remember just the day before. I always get slight cramping and my stomach itches a lot right before it grows - and I experienced these again over the weekend. Anyway, I was showing Brian last night how I thought it was bigger and he said he could tell. Then this morning, I was talking with my co-worker, Clarissa, about how I thought it looked bigger and she said she could tell too! Later that morning my boss was having a teller meeting with all of us. So we are just standing around in the drive thru and in the middle of the meeting she stops and looks at me and says that my stomach looked bigger, that she had just noticed that! Clarissa and I thought it was pretty funny since we just had a discussion about it that morning. And again, later that day, another co-worker looked at me and said the same thing. So I guess it is becoming more obvious now!! 

I have felt pretty good overall - I have been getting quite a few headaches lately though. Which is probably a combination of pregnancy and allergies. My allergies always flare up when the temperature won't make up its mind. I still feel tired some, but not near as much as before. I am able to actually stay awake most of the evening without falling sleep on the couch!

I go and see my OB Thursday to hear the heartbeat and all that normal testing stuff. Still anxiously awaiting November 29th when we get to see our little one again and find out if we need to be picking out a boy or a girl name! I can hardly wait!!! 

On another note, I got a manicure with a good friend of mine (Mary Rachel) on Friday afternoon and it was awesome. We got the deluxe manicure, so they massaged your hands and did the hot towel - so relaxing! Afterwards we had some extra time, so we went to New York & Co and then Bath & Body Works where I spent more money! They had their hand soaps 4 for $10! Love when they go on sell. But it was a such a good time! Next on the list is a pedicure...

I think I am going to start crafting things more often too. There are a few projects I have seen read about on other blogs and it has inspired me. Now if I could only get someone to tutor me on how to use this Pintrest website everyone is crazy about...

And to make the time to do all these things. I really need to scrapbook as well....

So much to do and so little time to do it! Time goes by way too fast. 

Well I guess that is all for now. 

one more thing...

Baby (and I for that matter) experienced our first real earthquake on Saturday! Brian and I finished watching some football and I think we were just watching the news or something when we heard this loud noise and then the TV and everything started rocking back and forth and rattling. I felt like I was swaying on a boat or something. Very unsettling - and it felt like it went on forever! At the time, I did not like it too much, but afterwards it was kind of cool. But that doesn't mean I want to experience it more! 

Which I just did again...I was typing my blog and Brian is playing a new video game and we both heard this noise and sure enough, things starting rattling some. Not near as bad as the one Saturday night and it only lasted for a few seconds. But got to feel an aftershock I guess.

Crazy Oklahoma!! 

Week 14

So today I began my 14th week of pregnancy! Here are a couple pictures of the belly I took earlier...

14 weeks

I took this looking down on my belly. Brian made fun of my lack of picture taking skills, but I still thought it was kind of fun...haha!

I have still been feeling pretty good lately. The only day as of late that I had some nausea was when I ate chili for dinner. Not a good idea apparently. I did eat tacos the other night and they didn't bother me! Maybe I can venture out and eat some real mexican food with chips and salsa soon. I sure do miss my spicy foods. But overall, it is so wonderful to have more energy (and did I mention that Brian is enjoying it as well, that I am not falling asleep right after work and just being a vegetable all night!). I actually was able to play some ping pong last night with Brian too - It was a good time. I whooped up! ;)

Last week at work my sides starting to hurt. Come to find out my dress pants (mind you the only dress pants that I could still get in to) were just getting too tight for comfort. After I unbuttoned my pants, I felt so much better! This fact left me with zero work pants. So this past weekend I ventured out to find pants that actually fit because I have to have dress pants for work! I just went to Goodwill and a few consignment shops. I figure why spend a bunch of money on pants that I may not be able to wear for very long. Anyway, I was finally able to find a pair at a resale shop. I got them for $13 and they are New York and Company brand. They feel like pajama pants (soft cotton), have a fancy cuff at the bottom to look like nice dress pants, and wait for it...they are stretchy! NO buttons or zippers! They just pull right on up. Love them!! Pretty sure I will be wearing these pants everyday to work. Don't worry I will wash them frequently. :)

Something else is that I am getting paranoid about getting sick with the flu or a stomach bug or whatever. I just do not want to be sick while pregnant if I can avoid it. But it is kind of hard when people come to work sick and throwing up and when people are coughing all over everything (not covering their mouths) or just coughing on their hand and then touching something on my desk. I will be stocking up on hand sanitizer and making frequent visits to the bathroom to wash my hands. I also will be cleaning my teller station more often because of this. Let's hope I can keep the germs away!

We went camping on Halloween weekend down in Sulphur. It was fun and somewhat relaxing, but boy was it cold! Friday night was just miserable. I had multiple layers on and we had a ton of blankets and I was still shivering all night. And of course I had to pee in the middle of the night, so I had to trek all the way to the bathroom, teeth chattering and all, and then try to get warmed back up. But camping is always a fun adventure and it was good to get away for a couple days. Here is a picture of us on one of our walks!

Dear baby,

I cannot wait to see you again in just a few short weeks and find out if you are a boy or girl. Keep growing baby Hostetler. Looking forward to the day I hold you in my arms!

pictures!

Well today marks a new step in my pregnancy journey. I began my second trimester!

I can tell my energy is increasing rapidly. I have been more motivated to clean around the house and go for walks and play with my dog and many other things I have not felt like doing much of these past few months. I actually made a hearty and healthy dinner tonight (pork chops, potatoes, and green beans), which I am sure my husband appreciated due to the lack of motivation to cook dinners lately! :) I went grocery shopping last night and was able to make it through without wanting to fall over and go to sleep or just sit down for a while. Our cabinets have been getting pretty slim because of this. Anyway, I am really looking forward to this renewed energy!! Hopefully I can get back on a regular exercise routine now that I will have motivation to do so.

My nausea has gotten better these past few days as well. However, I felt awful this morning! I didn't feel nauseous when I first got up or even when I got to work. Well, I bought this new cereal at Aldi (Cranberry Crunch - which I love cranberry cereal!!) and had a bowl of it this morning a little while after I got to work. Not too long after eating that bowl of yummy goodness I starting feeling very sick. I didn't really want to move or anything or else I feared I would throw up all over my desk! Thankfully, after eating a delicious Gala apple and resting during my lunch break, I felt much better! It is so weird how nausea can just come and go at random times...

I have really enjoyed my pregnancy so far. Not only am I enjoying what I am experiencing at the moment (yes even the sickness and random pains that I have!), but looking forward to the next thing too. We get to have our next ultrasound Nov 29th and at this appointment we will get to find out whether it is a boy or girl! Yes, we are going to find out. I want to be able to prepare and go buy fun and cute things that are gender specific!

And now here are a few pictures of my belly.

9 weeks

10 weeks

12 weeks

I didn't realize until just now that I wore the same shirt for the last two pictures - oh well! And sorry that last one looks so terrible. I just took a shower. As you can see I already have a little pouch going on - it's fun! But I only gained 3 pounds in my first trimester! :) I will probably take belly pictures every couple weeks or so just to see how much and how fast it grows. 

A blessing!

Well it is time to announce that I am pregnant! I am 12 weeks and 2 days today. The Lord has blessed my husband and I tremendously. So far this has been a wonderful experience - I am thrilled to be blessed in this way! Going through what I have makes me so much more grateful for this little miracle growing in my belly. Not that I wouldn't have been thankful before, but just a different perspective I guess. I refuse to complain about anything I experience during this pregnancy because I will go through anything in order to hold this baby in my arms in 6 months!

Beginning:
I was a few days late, and I hesitated to take the pregnancy test because honestly I was afraid of it saying yes. I was just so scared that I would have to go through another blighted ovum. I finally took the test and it said pregnant. It was very hard for me to be excited about it or anything until I knew that there was something to for sure be happy about. This may sound horrible, but I just didn't want to get my hopes up I guess. My amazing doctor immediately sent in an order for some blood work and other tests and I went in to see her the week after I called with the news. Around week 6 I went in for more testing and my levels were increasing perfectly, but I was still hesitant. I scheduled my first ultrasound at week 8. And here is what I saw:

I was so nervous going in to this ultrasound too - afraid I would hear bad news and not see a sweet baby on that screen. But once I saw this wonderful sight I started crying tears of joy! Hearing that heartbeat was music to my ears...

12 weeks:
I scheduled my next ultrasound at 12 weeks. I was slightly nervous just because I wanted to know that everything was still okay. Here is what I saw on that visit:

Already in love with him/her

Love those little hands!

This pictures is so cute. It's little bottom with its legs sticking straight up!

And a beautiful 3D view

During this ultrasound, the baby was bouncing and moving all over the place. It was so surreal - to think that that baby up on the screen was really mine! Words cannot describe the joy I felt and feel from seeing this sweet and precious baby. I cannot wait until I get to see him/her again!! At least I got to hear the heartbeat again at my doctor appointment the day after! I was able to record it on my phone too, so I can listen to it whenever I want. 

Throughout Pregnancy So Far:

Just a quick overview of how I have felt! I have been pretty nauseous, mainly in the evenings and at night. Thankfully, I have not thrown up yet or anything, but there have been may times I thought I would at any minute. I cannot eat spicy foods anymore. And let me tell you, this is hard for me. I LOVE mexican food - I could eat it everyday, well use to anyway! :) I grew up eating salsa and anything hot and spicy. But this type of food gives me some major indigestion and I usually feel pretty terrible for a while afterwards. It is kind of fun trying to figure out what I can and cannot eat anymore! I crave apples! For a little while I craved pizza a lot. Now I want hot dogs along with with my apples. My clothes do not fit anymore. I had to get a belly band pretty early on, but had to give in and just buy some bigger sized jeans and dress pants. I am excited to see my belly grow - I have taken some pictures, I will try to upload them soon. I am really enjoying being pregnant so far and look forward to all that is to come!

Firsts:
I have experienced many firsts so far this pregnancy. I have never had heartburn in my life, until a few weeks ago I woke up in some serious discomfort. My chest was very uncomfortable and honestly I wasn't sure what was going on at first. Anyway, I was up the rest of the night laying on the couch waiting for it to go away. I finally found that drinking a big glass of milk calms heartburn. :) Learn something new everyday! Then about a week or so ago I woke up and had a major cramp in my calf muscle. Yet another thing I have never experienced! Now that was painful, plus I was half asleep so it seemed so much worse than it really was. That was a fun night too. It is fun though getting to experience new things!

Well, this is long enough. Now that the announcement has been made, I will hopefully be able to keep you all updated on what I am experiencing and all that fun stuff!!

Keep growing little one! Can't wait to meet you! :)

What a Day!

So my husband and I were given tickets to the OU v. Texas game and the Texas Rangers game on Saturday. We drove most of the way and stayed in a hotel in Irving Texas Friday night, so that we could get up and have plenty of time to get to the OU game the next morning. Well traffic was crazy and we were about 10 minutes from the stadium and needed to pull off the highway for a minute. Well when we went to start the car back up and get to the game, the car would not start. The battery died. Thankfully my husband had met a guy who lives in Dallas just the week before. If he had not met this guy, who knows what we would have done being in a city we are not familiar with and not knowing anyone else who lived close enough. So this guy drove about 30 minutes to get to us and jump started our car, followed us to a place we could get a new battery and get the car fixed. Once it was all ready to go the game was already in the 3rd quarter, so we decided it was not worth it to go to the rest of it. Plus OU had a solid lead anyway. We hopped in the car and headed for Arlington to make it to the Rangers game. We got there pretty early, so we napped in the car (since we had a pretty exhausting morning) and then just strolled around the ballpark for awhile. It was a little cloudy, but not too bad at the time. Well the game got started and a few innings in had to be delayed due to rain. So we waited it out and they got started up again. We made it to the top of the 5th inning, and yet another rain delay. We planned on driving back home that same night and it was already 10 PM. So...we figured it would be best to just head home since we didn't know if they would be able to resume the game or not. At least we got to listen to the rest of the game on the radio on the drive home! We finally made it home around 2:30 or so AM. It poured rain on us the whole way. Needless to say, it was an eventful weekend and we were pretty exhausted on Sunday. Weekend didn't turn out at all planned and was slightly stressful - but good things have come from it and it all worked out anyway! Just have to learn to go with the flow sometimes!

My sweet doggy, Marlon

I got home Monday afternoon and went about my normal after work routine. While I was in the bathroom, Marlon (my little 3 year old weenie dog) came in and I noticed something weird on his little body. My head was kind of feeling funny, so honestly I thought I was seeing things or something. You know when you have those weird moments where you feel completely disoriented? Anyway, I took a few more looks and noticed he had huge welts all over his chest and armpits. I immediately started shaking because it scared me! I had never seen anything like this before. I called my husband and told him something was wrong and I decided to go ahead and take him to the ER (since his normal vet office was already closed). They told me he had hives and had an allergic reaction to something outside or possibly a bug bite or sting. So he got 2 shots and they thankfully went down by the next morning. I went in to work late so that I could monitor him some and make sure he wasn't acting weird and to also give him some children's benedryl. Well, after getting better he woke me up this morning with them all over his poor body again. I had to call in to work, that I was going to be late again, and took him to get another shot. He has been pretty sleepy today, but the bumps are slowly going away again. I have to give him benedryl twice a day for a few days to hopefully keep them from coming back. I feel so bad for Marlon! He has been through a lot and I am sure it cannot be comfortable to have hives all your body! The only thing I can think of that he could be reacting to is that we had our yard sprayed a couple weeks ago. I wouldn't think it would irritate him so much later, but who knows! Hopefully he will be all better soon and not have to worry about getting hives anymore!

from then until now

Hello,
So this is my first attempt at writing a blog. I thought I could share my journey this past year and then continue on with my life from there! This first post will mainly be catching you up on my life and loss since July of last year. So here goes!

My husband and I got married in August of 2008. We decided to start trying to have children last year, so we began trying in July. Well needless to say it did not take long for me to have a positive pregnancy test the next month. We were thrilled! We decided to go ahead and tell our family and friends the good news - I was about 6 weeks along when we told everyone. Everything seemed to be going just fine. The OB I was seeing at the time did not do ultrasounds until the 22nd week, so I was pretty anxious having to wait that long! When I was 12 weeks, I was at work and noticed I had some bleeding. I had had a little bit of bleeding before this, but my doctor told me it was normal, so I didn't really think much more about it. Anyway, the bleeding started September 14th. I monitored it and it continued through the evening, so my husband and I decided to go to the hospital to see what was going on. I went through a crazy amount of tests and ultrasounds. They kept saying "Oh, you may not be as far along as we thought" I wanted to tell them to just tell me the truth and to stop trying to make me feel better. I know these nurses only have the best of intentions when they say things like this, but I would rather them just give it to me straight. They finally came back after being in the ER for several hours and told me that I had a blighted ovum (this is where you get a positive pregnancy test, your body goes through most early pregnancy signs, and you secrete HCG, but when seen in an ultrasound an empty gestational sac is what you see) and that there was no baby. I would began miscarrying that morning. I will say that this was by far the most painful experience I have ever had, physically and emotionally. I was off work for 2 weeks. I became severely anemic and had a bad reaction to some pain medication my doctor put me on. Through all this, I had trouble getting my doctor to test for my iron levels and everything else. When they would take a test, they never called me to let me know what the results were, so I had to keep calling them and they still gave me the run around. When I had my reaction to the pain medication (my eyes were swollen shut, I had an unbearable headache, and so on) I called my doctor and she told me to go to the ER, so I did and the doctor there talked with my OB to see what was going on and they came to the conclusion that I just had a virus that I got from someone I was around. Really?! I was not happy. I don't think a cold or whatever would make my eyes swell and give me all of the symptoms of an allergic reaction. I also was so anemic that I could not stand up at all. I had to crawl to the bathroom. I had to have someone at home with me at all times. I could go on and on about how awful it was, but let's just say I was NOT going back to that doctor after how I was treated. It is hard enough to go through a miscarriage or believe you are pregnant and then find out there was never a baby even growing in there - the last thing I needed was to have my OB not really care about what I was going through...

We were told to wait at least 2 months before trying to conceive again. In this time, I went to check out some new doctors and found one I really liked. We became pregnant again in December of 2010. This time we only told a couple close friends and our immediate family members. My new doctor scheduled my first ultrasound at about 11.5 weeks (in March). I felt sick and had all the pregnancy symptoms again. I never had any sign of bleeding and things seemed to be going alright. I met my husband at the office to get our first ultrasound. I was so nervous and honestly I just did not have much hope that things were okay this time - it just didn't feel right. The technician put the jelly on my belly and started to take a look. Immediately I knew something was wrong because there was no heartbeat for one and two the picture up on that screen looked the exact same as it did last time. Again the tech, only trying to be nice, said that I may not be a far along as we estimated and decided to do a vaginal ultrasound to take a closer look. Again the picture was all too familiar. She said she was so sorry but did not see a baby in there. I was devastated. You don't think something like this would ever happen to you - and definitely not more than once! I had to get dressed and go meet a doctor there to tell me about what he saw - I had a blighted ovum for the second time in a row. The next morning I met with my new OB. I had begun miscarrying that night before meeting with my OB that morning. She was wonderful to me and I can not thank her and her nurses enough for how they made the experience as good as it could be considering the circumstances. They tested my levels once a week and would call me first thing the next morning to tell me what the results were and they were great at explaining everything to me so I would know what was going on. The second time was still just as hard emotionally, but was a lot less painful physically.

Well that is my story so far! Sorry it is kind of long, I tried to shorten it as much a possible! I do hope and pray that the Lord will bless us with a child one day. It can be difficult to trust in His sovereignty and trust that His timing is best, but I try my hardest to do this. His will, not my own!
Thanks for reading!