Week #21 Update

I am sooooo thankful I've been able to take such a long time off of work for the Holidays. I did work Christmas Eve (only a half day really because nothing was going on) and then I've been off work since. I don't have to go back until January 2nd and even then I'll only be working that one day. I decided to take Friday, the 3rd off of work because that is the day we have our ultrasound! Up until now I've been very patient about it and not getting myself too amped up for it, but....it's hit me over the past few days. I REALLY want to see the baby in there and make sure it's OK. It will just be a bonus if it cooperates and allows us to see if it's a boy or a girl :) I'm super excited and anxious for it all at the same time.

I even had my FIRST baby dream since getting pregnant (I think that's rather weird considering I dreamt about having a baby many times while trying to get pregnant). I remember in the dream that Ramin and I went to the ultrasound and I said to him something to the effect of "Well, I guess this means we're going with Leila!" ....this clearly means that in my dream we found out we were having a girl. I don't know though, most people tell us we are having a girl but I still don't have a feeling either way. I'm trying not to get my hopes up either way...I'm just anxious to find out. I think I spurred on the dream because before going to bed I remember feeling my belly and realizing how clearly I could feel my uterus and how hard it was...I then grabbed Ramin's hand and made him feel it so he could see what I was talking about. That was the last thing we did before falling asleep so I'm sure that's why I had the dream that I did. :)

I feel bad for not posting a lot of pictures of me and Ramin on here...I just don't take a lot of those types of photos. Perhaps I will while we're at the ultrasound appointment (we'll see). What I CAN post, however, is all of the neat stuff we keep getting for the baby! This week's awesomeness was the 4Moms play yard (called the Breeze) that I WON from CelebrityBabyScoop.com (yes I browse that site weekly because it's fun). I entered the contest they had in early December and I won just a few weeks later! The Breeze showed up on December 23rd! I feel pretty lucky to have won it and I'm excited to use it! We'll most likely use it mostly downstairs in the area that will become the "play area" - near to where I have my craft/office set up.

And these are literally the only other two pictures I took this week - Dingo eating his Ginger Bread Man treat :)

Next post I'll FINALLY be able to post up the stats about the baby as well as what we're having (hopefully). Let's all hope for good news all around.

How far along: 21 weeks, 6 days

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I know I'm up A LOT this week....I even exercised more than usual (lots of cleaning, walking and workout DVD)....but I just think baby and me are going through a growth spurt, as is also evidenced by my lovely face breaking out right now.

Maternity clothes: I LOVE maternity clothes, I don't know why people whine about them. I think they make me look cuter!

Major Symptoms: Pretty much every night this week I've experienced the hip pain while sleeping. It mostly results on the side on which I'm sleeping, so I have to flip over multiple times a night. I have a feeling it will get harder to do that as time goes on. Sometimes the only relief I can get is to either lay on my back and stretch my legs out OR just get out of bed altogether and walk around. I may need to replace the mattress pad we took off a while ago...it may help with cushioning more.
Stretch marks: Actually, I think a few are starting to sprout...but can't be sure yet. 
Sleep: I looooove sleeping. I've even been able to get in a few naps as well. 
Best moment last week: Receiving our Breeze play yard! So awesome.
Movement: Yes....I think they're becoming more distinct now and I can tell when they're happening.
Food cravings/aversions: More cereal and LOTS of Halos (small oranges)

Belly button - in or out? Still in and moving outward.
Labor signs: Nope
What I miss: It's getting harder and harder for me to get up from the couch multiple times, especially our couch downstairs. While I wouldn't say I actually "miss" it....I am starting to feel like it's harder for me to remain as flexible/mobile as I was before.
What I am looking forward to: ULTRASOUND!! 
Milestones: Nothing specific this week, other than getting a play yard :P

Week #20 Update - HALF WAY THROUGH!

This was a pretty standard week :) I was pretty busy making sure I mailed out all of our Christmas gifts and finished making a lot of the handmade items I gave as gifts as well. I'm so glad that I'm finished with all of it - now all I have to do is wrap a few gifts for Christmas day!

Can you believe it - we've hit the 20-week mark! It's weird to believe I'm already half way through this pregnancy. In one sense it feels like it's been that long and in another sense I'm sad that it's going by so quickly. Although, I'm excited to continue growing and experiencing everything that comes along with being pregnant - I really have enjoyed the majority of it.  Here's my standard monthly photo....I think I look like I've grown quite a bit, especially in the upper half of my tummy (I know I can feel it!)

My friend from work, Chrissey, was also generous to us and gave us her jumparoo that she wanted to get rid of - it was very sweet of her!

I've also started to organize the closet as well...of course, most of it is full of items I'll place around the nursery once we get it decorated more...still need to get the dresser and shelves in there.

How far along: 20 weeks, 6 days

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Maybe up 1/2 a pound again not really sure.

Maternity clothes: Definitely. I found a cute top on eBay this morning and am excited to get it!

Major Symptoms: Nothing bad at all....other than constant bathroom breaks :P
Stretch marks: Not yet.
Sleep: My sleep has been much better this week...I've even had the chance to sleep for 12 hours on Saturday...that was great!
Best moment last week: Taking my 20-week picture and knowing we hit the halfway point. Also, getting the jumparoo!
Movement: No more movements...still waiting for really good kicks.
Food cravings/aversions: Nothing specific this week.

Belly button - in or out? Still in...moving forward though
Labor signs: Nope
What I miss: Still absolutely nothing.
What I am looking forward to: Christmas this coming week - I love watching people open their gifts! I'm also looking forward to my long holiday break so I can work on a lot of nursery crafts!
Milestones: HITTING HALF WAY!

Week #19 Update

This was a great week. Nothing extraordinary but it was just good overall :)

Ramin completed moving the office downstairs and we had a chance to move the nursery furniture that we do have into the nursery. Poor Ramin had to take the crib apart because the nursery door is apparently smaller than a regular sized bedroom door. Here he is just outside the nursery door unscrewing everything.

It was actually good that we had to take it all apart because I was able to get in and really clean the crib very well. Since it was used previously I'm fairly sure little Payton (Jill's son) spilled a bottle of milk all over at one point because we had to wipe off a lot of white stuff :P It wasn't too bad though at all.

And here is the big reveal!!!!

This is the crib that one of my best friends, Jill, gave to me! It's so great with the attached changing table. The pictures don't show it real well but it's dark cherry wood. The last piece of large furniture we have is one of my childhood dressers that my mom has at her house. She plans to stain it the same color as the crib.

The rocking chair is something Ramin and I found on KSL a few weeks ago. We got it for $35 out in Lindon!!! The picture does not even do it justice! This chair is made of solid wood and is extremely sturdy. It's also very comfortable, even without any padding. Although, my mom agreed to making me some custom padding for the chair.

The plants may or may not stay in the nursery. While the baby is young they won't be a problem but once he/she stairs crawling around I know I'll have to move them to a more study location. I think having plants in the baby's room will help keep the air fresh and clean.

We don't have any bedding for the crib yet of course. A lot of it is on my registry still and my mom is also going to help make the crib set to match the rocker and curtains - whenever we decide what fabric we want. Jill also gave me a crib set but it's more of a boy-theme with monkeys and such. The crib skirt, however, will work perfect as it's the perfect green color with white polka dots. So we'll use that as the basis for the rest of the theme.

Finally, we have the perfect bouncer!! Ramin found this on KSL for $15 and the moment I saw I knew I had to have it! It was seriously the cutest bouncer I'd seen AND it can vibrate for the baby. It's exactly what I wanted. We put a swing on our registry and if we get one, great....but if not that's OK. I think the bouncer is enough for sure....but it's no guarantee that the baby will like a bouncer or a swing - and I feel OK paying only $15 for this bouncer!!

Once Christmas is over I plan to use a lot of my time off between Christmas and New Years to really work on a lot of my crafts for the baby's room to decorate it. I've got some wall decor in my plans as well as a custom nursery rhyme mobile. I'm sure there will be other items I want to make as time goes on.

How far along: 19 weeks, 6 days

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Maybe up 1/2 a pound. 

Maternity clothes: Definitely.

Major Symptoms: This week I had a HORRIBLE cold with a really bad cough. I was only able to work 2 days in the office and I still feel pretty crappy with my cough. But, as far as pregnancy is concerned, I can't recall anything specific that happened this week.
Stretch marks: Not yet.
Sleep: It's been extremely bad due to my increasing cough. I couldn't even nap when I needed to because I would cough too much. Let's hope it gets better!
Best moment last week: Putting the crib in the nursery - it starts to make things a bit more real.
Movement: Ok so I *think* I felt something happen on Thursday night. The best way I can explain it is like feeling a bolt tighten on a screw or nails lightly scratching on your skin. I felt those weird sort of movements for about 10 minutes straight....even during moving around myself to see if they would stop. The funny part is that the movement/feeling was very low down and to me it kind of felt like feet moving really quickly. I still can't be 100% sure though :P I just want a good solid kick!!
Food cravings/aversions: More cereal. I bought a huge box of Frosted Flakes from Costco and I have at least one bowl a day. 

Belly button - in or out? Still no
Labor signs: Nope
What I miss: Still absolutely nothing.
What I am looking forward to: Getting through this last full week of work. It will get me one week closer to the Jan. 3rd ultrasound!
Milestones: Putting the crib in the nursery!!

Week #18 Update

Ok so I'm a day late posting my blog entry which means I'm already 19 weeks today. It's ok though because I have a good excuse! Yesterday I wanted to write the blog entry, but I literally was out of energy from doing waaaaaaaay too much work around the house.

You see, I got the itch to start reorganizing things to make it possible to move our office downstairs so that the nursery would be free to start fixing it. But, in order to start moving the rooms, I wanted to tackle the closets FIRST. So in the morning on Sunday I started rearranging closets. I had to clean up the former office closet to make room for all of the baby stuff. This meant I had to have somewhere for all of that stuff to go....so I had to rearrange the two bedroom closets downstairs. The smaller guest room is where I always kept my holiday decor, but things started to get stuffed to the brim in there so I knew I wanted to change that closet to the hodge podge closet - meaning it would hold additional craft items, gift wraping and other random stuff we can keep stored forever :P

The larger guest bedroom (formerly my brother's room and then my dad's room) is now going to be our new office. I moved ALL of the holiday stuff in there and wow is it full too! Only it's more organized :P  Here's the pictures of what it looks like now:

As I moving around all 3 closets I knew I was probably lifting and moving around too much weight, but I just wanted to get it done so badly that I couldn't help myself.

Once Ramin woke up he went outside to plow away all of the snow we got this weekend - it was a lot! I was mesmerized watching the snowblower take care of it all :P

Once he was done with that he came in the house and helped me continue the move. We switched out beds in the two guestrooms - one had a twin and one had a queen - we needed the twin to be in the larger guest room where the office would be because it fits more nicely with the two large desks going in the room. We also moved our corner TV stand (previously my fish tank stand) and placed Ramin's large but good TV on it for the office - BTW, Ramin is so happy to have a TV in the office again :)

We also moved the two large desks from the old office downstairs. It was a TON of work and by the end of the night my pelvis/lower back was extremely sore and achey. I just knew I did way too much but I couldn't stop myself. I thought I would sleep good but I didn't....I have a crappy head cold that causes a horrible sore throat every night and last night was the worst night sleeping.

Tonight when I got home we continued the transition and I was able to completely clean out the nursery!! HOORAY!! That was my first priority of course because it means we can move the crib and other items in there this week.  Here's the newly cleaned out nursery!

After I took these pictures tonight I got down on the floor and even cleaned the base boards! I just wanted it to be super clean. I also wanted to take some pictures of both of the bedrooms downstairs but the office isn't quite done yet (that's Ramin's domain) and I'm also very tired and need to get bed. Of course, I just had to write this blog first though :P I still have to take pictures of the new nursery items I got as well but I'll wait until we move them into the nursery first as right now they're just waiting in the cold garage.

One final set of pictures I want to share is from the middle of last week! I had been having trouble wearing my normal pants....I kept having to use elastics to hold them up and even those were stretching beyond capacity. My mom had said she would transform some of my jeans into maternity jeans, but we still needed to buy fabric and I needed some new pants NOW! So I started looking online for good deals on maternity pants - holy crap are they expensive! I'm talking like $30-40 per pair!! That's just outrageous! I found a few pairs on eBay that could have worked but then I found a great ad on KSL from a lady listing an entire lot of plus size maternity clothes - do you realize how hard that is to find?!?!  Her lot was listed for $55 and I could see from the pictures that she had at least 3 pairs of jeans...that alone was worth $55 to me.

I texted her and realized she was close to me in West Jordan and we arranged a time I could stop by. The moment I walked in there and saw all of the clothes I knew I was hoooked. There were 5 pairs of jeans, 4 pairs of work pants, 2 pairs of lounge pants and a ton of sweaters and tops!! Here's the bounty I was able to snag:

Holy cow - isn't this maternity clothes HEAVEN! All of the clothes were in GREAT condition too, especially all of the jeans. She even threw in a support belt from Motherhood as well as a nursing bra she didn't use that just happened to be my size! She also had an extra belly band too. I tell you, I snagged the best deal EVER when I found that lot of clothes. I'm sooooo happy I have comfortable pants to wear again :)

Good week indeed!

How far along: 19 weeks, 0 days - sorry, a day behind on posting this.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I think I'm pretty even with where I was last week, but who really knows.

Maternity clothes: Ummmm yeah...check out that bounty above!

Major Symptoms: Hip pain as usual. My pelvis and extreme lower back really ache a lot anytime I'm on my feet for too long or working too hard doing things around the house. Other than that I've felt good this week except for the lingering nightly sore throat. This morning I woke up sounding like a frog!
Stretch marks: No, however, my linea nigra has been appearing for the past few weeks. While it's not a stretch mark I'm considering it part of that category. I never would have guessed I would be one of those women who gets "the line"...it's light (thank goodness) but it's definitely there.
Sleep: My bad sleep is mostly caused by my head cold issues....stupid sore throat and cough!
Best moment last week: Getting my maternity clothes!!!
Movement: Ugh....no...I did read in one of my apps that the baby is only awake for 6 hours a day. Just my luck I'm sure it's awake while I'm sleeping so of course I wouldn't feel anything :P
Food cravings/aversions: Nothing in particular. Usually I have to settle for what's around rather than going out of my way to get what I really want. 

Belly button - in or out? In - however, I check it nightly and it seems to be pushing outward. 
Labor signs: No....although I hope I didn't cause myself any problems moving around furniture yesterday.
What I miss: Absolutely nothing.
What I am looking forward to: Putting the furniture in the nursery - it will feel MORE real at that point and I can start decorating! (after Christmas gifts are complete though hehe)/
Milestones: I think clearing out space for the nursery is considered to be a milestone for sure. It means we're starting the nesting phase :P

Week #17 Update

This week has been great - mainly because it was Thanksgiving week and I only had to work 3 days total. It's been nice staying home for the past 4 days and catching up on things around the house that I've wanted to do for a few months but had no energy to do :P

We also got some new stuff for the nursery but I think I'll save pictures of those items until next week. This week I'm excited to share Ramin's baby pictures!! My mother-in-law sent me sooo many cute pictures of Ramin and I just had to share them because he was a cute baby with some super chubby cheeks!! 

Here we go!

And my absolute favorite picture actually goes along really well with one of my own baby pictures. Apparently both Ramin and I had a tendency to love crawling under side tables....it's amazing to me how similar we both look sitting under these tables :P BTW I'm in the top picture and Ramin is the lower one.

How far along: 17 weeks, 6 days - can you even believe that I'll be 18 weeks tomorrow!?!?! In just two more weeks I'll be halfway through my pregnancy - unreal!

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I know this week I gained a 1 or 2 pounds, I can just tell.

Maternity clothes: I also know my tummy has grown this week so I've been wearing nothing but comfy clothes. We'll see what happens tomorrow when I go back to work...I'm sure I'll have to keep wearing my belly bands!

Major Symptoms: I felt super great this week and as a result I had energy to do much more than usual....including chores. However, on Friday I think I did a little too much (5 loads of laundry, dusting, vacuuming, and flipping the bedroom mattress - I know, that's bad!) ....and in the afternoon when I went to take a nice sunny walk I didn't feel right. The only way I could describe it was that it felt like my uterus was about to fall out of me. It felt really low and weird every time I moved. So I listened to my body and decided to take it easy for the rest of the night. I laid in bed or on the couch the rest of the night watching movies. The weird feeling went away and by Saturday I was able to do some more chores (lighter of course) AND go for a nice 45-minute sunny walk. It felt great, especially when I came home and stretched everything out.
Stretch marks: Still no
Sleep: I had one night this week where hip pain woke me up. The only way to relieve my hip pain is to roll on to my back and sleep but I know that's bad too...so I end up getting up out of bed and walking it out a bit and it seems to help.
Best moment last week: Getting Ramin's baby pictures!!
Movement: Still no....anxiously awaiting to feel the baby kick!
Food cravings/aversions: I am really picky about sweet stuff these days. I'll turn my nose up at things I used to love...it really depends on my mood. Generally, ice cream is the only constant item I want.

Belly button - in or out? In
Labor signs: Not yet - unless you count that weird feeling I had on Friday.
What I miss: Absolutely nothing.
What I am looking forward to: Getting through the next 3 weeks until Christmas...and then I have another long break from work!
Milestones: Don't think we really hit any milestones, other than making it through 17 weeks  (as weird as it sounds, I'm kind of relieved because in my pre-pregnancy trying-to-conceive mode I actually read of a few pregnant women who had miscarriages at 17-weeks. So in a weird way, I saw 17 weeks as a milestone to pass....makes absolutely no sense but to me it does)

Week #16 Update

This past week was a bit of a mixed bag. It was definitely good baby-wise, but not so good for me :P  We had our 16-week prenatal appointment on Wednesday and Ramin and I were finally able to hear the amazing heartbeat! It was the coolest thing ever to hear it so clearly. The nurse said it was about 155 beats per minute (which wasn't surprising to me at all of course because I knew it would be that fast).

We also scheduled our fetal ultrasound. Technically we're able to do the ultrasound around December 20th when we'd be 20 weeks, however, because our midwives are actually located in the hospital and have to share the fetal ultrasound services with tons of other doctors, they were extremely booked up and the earliest appointment they had available was January 3rd!! At first I was super sad that I wouldn't get to know what we were having before Christmas (I wanted an early Christmas present of course), but after crying about it to my mom for a few minutes I realized that it was OK. In fact, I'm actually OK with it because I'll get to spend a good amount of time at home during Christmas and I'll have fun and such...and then I get to look forward to even more fun come Jan. 3rd!! So now I'm alright with how things are turning out.

So why was this week kind of bad for me? Well....I've been battling a dry cough at night and a mild sore throat during the days. It wasn't until yesterday though (Saturday) that my sore throat really took a turn for the worse. I was so fatigued for most of the day that I slept a lot....and my nodes in my neck were swollen too. I honestly thought I had strep throat...so I rested and had as much vitamin C as I could (I ate 5 cutie oranges throughout the day). But, today I woke up very rested and feeling much better! I was surprised my throat didn't get worse, but I'm also very relieved!

*TMI Warning *The other crappy thing about this week was that I've had to deal with a weird rash. Actually, it started last week. I didn't document it last week cause I thought I had gotten rid of it...it started under my boos (I know, sorry TMI again). I figured it was just my bra getting too tight or something and me sweating a lot. So I added some body powder under there and it seemed to help. Well, Tuesday night (the night before our appointment) I noticed a similar rash under my tummy (yes I've got skin that hangs over) and I thought it was weird because I always powder up down there. So I thought that maybe my skin is just being super sensitive right now to moisture and heat. So we went into the appointment and of course the nurse has to get to my tummy area in order to do the doppler for the heartbeat. Her reaction was priceless. I tried to cut her off and say "I know I know, I've got a rash"....but she replied with "Well this is a yeast infection"...and all I could say was "Are you sure?!?". I was in shock - I'd never had one of those and I never realized they could be on the OUTSIDE of your skin! Soo....that's what it is. And now I'm using an over the counter yeast infection cream and applying it to just under my tummy as well as under my boobs. I also use a special medicated powder so that it won't itch. Gross I know....but it's really not that bad honestly.

NOW - on to the fun picture stuff!! Since it's 16 weeks I had Ramin take a new picture of me. Since it's the weekend my hair is crap and I'm not dressed too well but here it is:

Don't mind the dumbbell in the corner :P Sooo I think it's getting more obvious but it's funny the way I'm growing...I generally have two tummy rolls (an upper and a lower hehe) and my top roll is actually growing more than the bottom one. In fact, the part where the two meet is actually my waistline and it's growing and causing me not to be able to button up most of my pants anymore. I find this really weird honestly. But it's OK. I'm excited to grow and get my belly but I also feel like I'm in the awkward stage where people just think I'm getting fatter :P I know I've thought that about a few people in the past only to realize later that they were pregnant hehe.

Also, I got two new nursery items in the mail this week (both purchased on eBay of course). The first is this Scentsy warmer. It's got the "Hey diddle diddle..." nursery rhyme on it. The seller failed to ship the warmer dish so I've got to get one for it, but I'm excited to use it as a night light when I do nighttime feedings :)

I also got this super cute pewter frame, also with the same nursery rhyme on it (it's the main nursery rhyme for my Mother Goose themed nursery). I accidentally bid on a second frame not remembering I already bought this one....so I'll probably end up with two of them. I think as soon as we get the ultrasound pictures we'll put one in here :)  Isn't it a cute frame! I just love it!

That's this week's wrap up! Good progress for sure :)

How far along: 16 weeks, 6 days

Total Weight Gain/Loss: At my official prenatal weigh in they said I was up 2 lbs for the month. They said that was within limits so I didn't get a weight lecture (which was good!)

Maternity clothes: The orange shirt in my picture is a new maternity top i got from Zulily. I've started wearing it now because I'm not sure how long I'll have to wear it before it doesn't accommodate my belly.

Major Symptoms: Yeast infection I documented above. Some hip pain at night while sleeping...When I sleep on my left hip it hurts (cause I tend to favor that side a lot) and when I try my right side my back ends up hurting. Last night I resorted to sleeping on my back most of the night due to my pains....I know back sleeping isn't the best so I'll have to look into ways I can fix my pain.
Stretch marks: Still no
Sleep: It's very good when I have no pains.
Best moment last week: Hearing the heartbeat! I thought to myself  "Ok, it's still alive in there" haha
Movement: Unfortunately, no
Food cravings/aversions: This week wasn't too bad.

Belly button - in or out? In
Labor signs: Not yet
What I miss: Nothing. I'm so grateful for being pregnant I'm just loving the entire experience so far!
What I am looking forward to: Having a 4-day weekend for Thanksgiving this coming week!
Milestones: Hearing a strong heartbeat at 16-weeks!

Week #15 Update

This week was fairly uneventful. I had no major symptoms and we didn't really have anything special going on. I also didn't get any cool things for the baby either. I decided then, that it was time I start organizing all of the baby pictures my mom brought over to me. I spent some time organizing all of my pictures from the time my mom was pregnant with me, till my 1-year mark. I was too lazy to scan them in so I took a picture of a few of my favorites. They are in order from a few weeks old until a year old. I think it's important to review baby pictures of the parents because there's such a great chance that the baby will look like a combination of them.  Ramin's mom promised me she'd send me a bunch of Ramin's baby pictures so I'm waiting on those.  I'll post them when I get them. 

So - all of my pictures are after the weekly update. :)

How far along: 15 weeks, 6 days

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Maintained. surprisingly though because all I'm doing is retaining all of the food I eat :P

Maternity clothes: Definitely yep. Lots of my jeans are unbuttonable at this point

Major Symptoms: I guess I have to document that constipation is a major symptom for me. I know it's TMI but honestly, it's the only real symptom that's been consistent with me since I've been pregnant.
Stretch marks: Still no
Sleep: Sleeping well this week....I know I go into some major deep sleep and have super intense vivid dreams. I usually go to bed between 9:30 and 10:00pm but I usually wake up feeling like I didn't sleep at all.
Best moment last week: Having an incident/symptom free week was pretty great.
Movement: Haven't really felt anything this week at all. Perhaps my feeling last week was just a fluke after all. 
Food cravings/aversions: Lots of Rice Krispies cereal. I've had a few nights so far where it's all I've had for dinner.

Belly button - in or out? In
Labor signs: Not yet
What I miss: This week I don't miss anything :)
What I am looking forward to: Next prenatal appointment with the midwives on Wednesday
Milestones: Completing 15 weeks!

This is the one picture I have of Ramin as a baby. It's clearly his hospital picture and I don't think it looks much like him at all...but I guess we all come out that way.  I'm so excited to see how much our little one will look like us :)