Thursday, February 12, 2009

and the belly bump begins...

Well, I wasn't sure if I was going to be one of those people who tracked their pregnancy with pictures, but just in the past week I started noticing that my belly was starting to stick out just a tad, and I got kind of excited... (And Russ is probably more excited than me!)
So, I think I might be one of those belly picture people now... but I am definitely not committed to taking these every week, because I know I won't. So they may come and go, but no matter how many there are throughout the next 28 weeks, one thing is for sure, they are only going to get bigger.

Plus, I think it will be nice to have the pictures as a reference/goal when I want to reverse the cycle after the baby is born. This way I know what I have to get back down to... but I am 100% sure that I won't be taking pictures of that progress... crazy how that works...

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

from seven weeks to eleven weeks...

Well, we have been very busy over the past month, so I have neglected my blog updates. I do apologize!

Since our last post, we got to see the baby and hear it's heartbeat. It was probably the most surreal experience that I have ever had. To me, it felt like I was watching someone else see their ultrasound for the first time, like I was just hovering in the room watching a movie about someone else's life... I know that sounds crazy, but it was just so amazing, that it didn't feel like it was happening in real life. Unfortunately I can't post the ultrasound pictures yet because I haven't been able to scan them in the computer (one reason, because Russ left the pics at his mom's house like two weeks ago... and another reason is I haven't installed the scanner feature of my printer yet...) So we will add those as soon as possible to share them with you.

Eating has become my best friend, and we spend a lot of time together! I am not sure of my weight right now, I was up to 120 at the ultrasound appointment on January 21, but that was two weeks ago and I bet that I have put on a few more pounds since then. I still feel pretty nauseated most of the time, but eating something or having a piece of candy in my mouth always soothes me a little bit.

I finally got sick for the first time about a week ago, but fortunately that has been the only time so far. Russ got a kick out of watching me hurl up my dinner that night, enough so that he leaned on the doorway of the bathroom with a little smirk on his face... I think he was just happy about the fact that the only reason I was sick was because we're going to have a baby.

Other than those milestones in the pregnancy, everything else has been pretty normal. Work has been challenging for me with just being so tired after being on my feet for 7 or 8 hours straight. The only good thing about it so far, is that I sleep really really good at night after working. So good that I wake up in exactly the same position that i fell asleep. All other nights it is still a challenge to get a really good night's sleep.

I haven't started craving anything silly so far, but I have found a few things that I just don't like to eat anymore. One of them is macaroni and cheese. I have tried to eat it three times now, and I just don't like it... which is so strange to me. Also, I normally LOVE to eat things that are burnt, like toast, waffles, eggs, or bread rolls but now I just can't stomach the taste of anything burnt. When I get hungry, I do get picky about what I want to eat. Like I just can't open the pantry and grab anything, I have to eat exactly what is on my mind, which drives Russ crazy, but he is starting to get used to it.

I am slowly getting bigger in my waistline, but all my regular clothes still fit fine, but I can tell that they are getting a tad tighter... When I actually start showing we will put some pregnant pictures up, so you can watch me go from small to very large....

I have started to pick out colors and items for the nursery, and it is so exciting to plan it out! Here are a few items that I want in the room, or want to incorporate somehow. I know we are going paint the walls green, and we are buying a crib and a changing table set from my older sister who used it for her first two kids. It is white. And I originally thought about painting it brown, but I think I may stick with the white furniture and go with brown bedding...but i still haven't decided on the bedding yet. For the room details, I want to paint a white silhouette of a tree on the wall. I got the idea from an old Pottery Barn magazine. Here is the pic from the magazine (it's the one on the left side, the one on the right side is someone else's attempt to do the same thing. it was the only picture i could find on the internet...)


I also want to hang a canopy over the crib. It is from IKEA, it has some cute little leaves on it. I have wanted this canopy for a long time, way before we were even pregnant, cause I saw it at the IKEA store in Atlanta, and have just had it in my mind ever since! Here is what it looks like.I also want to hang two or three white shelves on the wall to set picture frames on. Here is an idea of what I want. These are from IKEA too.
Other than that, I want to keep everything really simple. The only complex idea that I have is i want to do some kind of lit wall art with artsy pictures of the baby after it's born. Like maybe three or four different sized frames collaged together on the wall and a picture light hanging above them to make it look like an art gallery wall. I haven't seen a picture of what I have in my mind exactly, so it is hard to give you a visual idea, but I can post pictures of the final outcome once it is hung on our walls.

I am still not sure of what I want exactly with the bedding set, I haven't come across anything that I absolutely love yet... but I still have some time to figure it out.

Russ and I have had an incredible month, of course it has been really hard at times, but so far it has been amazing to watch him slowly mature more and more with the idea of a baby on the way. It is so attractive to me to see him so concerned with doing things right, and making sure that everything is going to be taken care of financially, and with making sure that I am eating healthy, and taking my vitamins. He really has been so helpful, and is becoming much more of a leader in our home.

Well that is all for now, I'll definitely try to update more often, and we'll see about getting those ultrasound pictures up soon! Thanks for keeping up with our new family!

upcoming events:
next doctor's visit wednesday, february 18