We're having a girl!

Today was the day we have all been waiting for. Our 3D4D ultrasound was such a great experience. The lady took her time with us and explained everything to us. Our little girl kept hiding in the back, snuggling up with the placenta and she put her hands over her face, so we didn't get to see her face, but what we could see was simply beautiful.

As soon as the appointment was over, I was texting up a storm. I kept my mom in suspense as she text me, "Waiting patiently..." Little did she know that I was going to surprise her with pink chocolates and some pink balloons at work. After telling all the grandparents and close friends, of course, I had to tell the world of Facebook.

Last Thursday, I also started my weekly belly photo updates, which will be included in this blog post since this is technically my blog post for week 15.


How far along? 15 weeks
Total weight gain: I feel like I should have some weight gain considering how hungry I've been
Maternity clothes? I wore a dress to church the other day that I didn't expect would fit.
Stretch marks? Psh. Ya!
Sleep: I'm still having incredibly vivid dreams and wake up like clockwork in the middle of the night. BOO!
Best moment this week: Josh smiling and his eyes lighting up when I had him feel my belly to show him where the baby was sitting.
Miss Anything? I sometimes miss working, but at the same time, I know I'll have so much to look forward to in May. :)
Movement: I keep hoping for movement, but I can't tell if it's movement or gas.
Food cravings: Buffalo chicken wrap from Cheddars....MMMMM!
Anything making you queasy or sick: Not drinking enough water
Gender: GIRL!!!
Labor Signs: No
Symptoms: Pains under my chest, usually in the middle of the night.
Belly Button in or out? In
Wedding rings on or off? On
Happy or Moody most of the time: HAPPY :)
Looking forward to: Buying so many things for this little girl :)

Let the 2nd trimester commence!

Between multiple Thanksgivings and moving into our new apartment, I missed updating week 13. Hopefully things will calm down a little now and I can get back on track.

One of the major updates in my pregnancy was my appointment the week of Thanksgiving. Mom came with me to my appointment because Josh had to finish fixing the truck so they could get started on another job, but I figured he wasn't going to be missing out on much and that he would be at the gender appointment on the 12th of December. Mom and I waited almost an hour for Dr. Chandler since he was out delivering a baby and after waiting a bit longer, one of his nurses came in and asked if we'd like to see one of the midwives, Dr. Susan Myers. We decided yes and followed the nurse into another room and as soon as Dr. Myers greeted us, I knew I loved her. She was so sweet and sugary and so friendly. I told her about prenatals making me nauseous and she recommended Flintstone vitamins with Iron, so I got started on those. And yes, another month has went by and at my appointment, I still haven't gained any weight. Dr. Myer's asked me if I've been eating plenty or if I've just been working out. If reaching for the remote is considered working out, then yes I have! One of the surprises we got was that we got to hear the heartbeat for the first time. It was so neat and Mom and I got a little emotional hearing it. After that enjoyable appointment, I decided that I wanted to change from Chandler to Myers and made the change the very next day. And I couldn't be happier. :)

So now, with a new doctor and a new home complete with an extra bedroom for our little Woodward, we can finally start planning and nesting for his or her arrival. I know I am only on week 14 of my pregnancy, but I can't say it enough how much I am ready for some growing belly magic! I've been looking out for movements, but I can't tell if it's a movement or gas. I'm sure I will be more aware once I'm farther along.

How far along? 14 weeks
Total weight gain: No weight gain! Whoop whoop!
Maternity clothes? I've been stealing lots of Josh's shirts. Sorry for the stretchiness. :)
Stretch marks? I foresee more showing up in my future.
Sleep: Apparently, I'm snoring a lot and loudly, so I must be sleeping very well.
Best moment this week: Watching Josh do the pelvic thrust while we were watching the Rocky Horror Glee Show :p
Miss Anything? Nothing I can think of.
Movement: I thought I felt something a few nights ago when I was getting angry with the loud upstairs neighbors, like baby might have known I was getting upset.
Food cravings: PIZZA! And sweet stuff!
Anything making you queasy or sick: Nothing in particular
Gender: We find out one week from tomorrow! :D
Labor Signs: No
Symptoms: Starting to feel a little more energetic. I did 3 loads of laundry, folded it and dishes in the same afternoon. WHOA!
Belly Button in or out? In
Wedding rings on or off? On
Happy or Moody most of the time: HAPPY :)
Looking forward to: December 12th

Who's got the magic? Well, I do.

Well, I am going on week 12 of my pregnancy and I am feeling so blissful. Tomorrow, I have my monthly appointment with Dr. Chandler and I'm thinking it's just going to be some routine stuff. You know the usual, dropping the cup again, getting weighed in and having blood drawn like the vampire victim I have become. Tomorrow also commences what I like to call The Foodapalooza Extravaganza aka Thanksgiving week aka every pregnant woman's dream. We've got dinner at my best friend, Emily's, tomorrow afternoon, Mom and Maddie and I will be enjoying Old Chicago when we pick up Maddie in Wichita on Wednesday, Thanksgiving at Josh's grandma's on Thursday and my mom's late Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday. It's safe to say that this mama will be a happy mama. Copious amounts of deviled eggs, my mother in law's famous chicken and noodles and pumpkin pie.

We (when I say "we" I mean "I") finally came up with a theme that we like for the nursery if the baby is a boy. One of my favorite stories is The Little Prince. It's originally a french story called Le Petit Prince and we read it in one of my French classes in college and it's about this little boy, a prince, and he lives on this planet where he is greeted by grown ups. He gives them advice on how they should live their lives and he shows them how he lives on this planet so far away. There's some really beautiful illustrations in the book and the little boy has messy blonde hair and reminds me of what our child might look like since Josh had light blonde hair when he was a kid. And the theme we have had picked out for a while for the girl's room is Alice in Wonderland, complete with tea pots, hats, clocks and quotes and illustrations from the story. We have been preparing more for that one, collecting tea pots of different whimsical designs and finding all the illustrations to display and even a neat mobile with a danging tea pot, cups and spoons.

I've also been obsessively searching the internet for maternity/photographer blogs and how they display each week of their pregnancies and I have found so many ideas that I can't wait to start once this belly gets a little bigger. This is one of the videos I found on a photographer's blog who was capturing his wife's pregnancy with their second child and I fell in love with it. Hopefully Josh will get a little more familiar with my camera and help me with this project because he's going to have to know how to use the camera in the delivery room since I will be a bit busy at that moment.

Magic- A Belly Grows from The Panic Room Videos on Vimeo.

How far along? 12 weeks
Total weight gain: Won't find that out until tomorrow
Maternity clothes? My maternity jeans are waaaaay baggy in the legs, but so comfy in the stomach
Stretch marks? I foresee more showing up in my future.
Sleep: Naps are becoming more frequent in the afternoons...could going to the Breaking Dawn midnight premiere a few days ago be the blame?
Best moment this week: My mom finally having a dream that we're having a Gracie May
Miss Anything? I've been missing Megan a lot and wishing she was here to see everything happening.
Movement: All is quiet in the tummy.
Food cravings: Nothing out of the ordinary, like pickled eggs or the smell of gasoline. :p
Anything making you queasy or sick: Not eating soon after taking my thyroid medicine
Gender: 3 more weeks till we find out!
Labor Signs: No
Symptoms: Still tired
Belly Button in or out? In
Wedding rings on or off? On
Happy or Moody most of the time: HAPPY
Looking forward to: December 12th :)

Officially 11 weeks (but according to my husband, I am only "two days pregnant")

During week nine, I started keeping a photo belly log in my cell phone and will probably start sharing my belly with the world once it's more prominent. Right now, it just looks like I won the award for eating the most pizza bagels. But, I still get excited about the ever growing belly. And I love how Josh reacts to it. In the kitchen this morning, we were talking while he was making breakfast and he was making fun of me because I kept looking down at my belly. He poked at my belly, showed a surprised face and then felt my belly with his whole hand and said, "Wow, your belly is hard!" Those little moments with him are some of the most special to me.

In two days, we can start moving into our new two bedroom apartment! We're staying in the same apartment complex, but instead, we'll be downstairs and there will be an extra bedroom for Baby Woodward. We went and looked at it the other day and I got so excited when I walked into the second bedroom and started imagining what the baby's room would look like and where the crib would be and other various details. Another part that got me excited: the master bedroom is even bigger than our present one and the closet is a WALK IN CLOSET! EEEK! When Josh saw that, he pointed at the largest side of the closet and said, "This is where aaaaaall of your clothes will go." He he.

Speaking of clothes, with my stomach being a little bloated thing right now, I am in the transition between being able to wear my regular jeans with the button undone and when I'm feeling the need...the need for comfort, I wear my super comfy maternity jeans or my personal favorite, my maternity leggings. Oh my sweet Jesus, where have maternity leggings been all my life? SO COMFY! I am so excited about transitioning into having a bigger belly and being adorable in my cardigans and dresses and sweaters and all that winter magic. Plus, I finally ordered some awesome boots today (since all mine were blown away in the tornado; thanks midwest weather!), so let's start making a presence, baby belly!

For a girl's name, we have chosen Gracie May and have had that name decided since before we even got pregnant. The morning that Megan passed away, I told Josh later that day that I wanted to name our first daughter Gracie after my sister since she was Megan Grace. Later on, Josh came up with the middle name "May" and not only have we both loved that name, but everyone around us loves it, too. For a boy, I love the middle name Dean, but Josh doesn't want to carry on the "Dean" legacy since his middle name is Dean and so is his dad's and grandpa's. We still can't figure out a first name we both like for a boy. Every suggestion I come up with isn't masculine enough; for example I love the name Henry Dean. I think it's such a classic name, but Josh always finds an excuse for the name or why it's a lame name.

How far along? 11 weeks
Total weight gain: At this point, I have lost 5 pounds so far!
Maternity clothes? Loving my maternity leggings and trying not to parade around in sweats all day
Stretch marks? ha! I had stretch marks before I got pregnant, so that's nothing new to moi.
Sleep: till like eleven am most mornings!
Best moment this week: hearing my mom yell, "hey baby!!" to my stomach. :)
Miss Anything? not having to worry about drinking too much caffeine and having my caffeine nazi husband yell at me. lol.
Movement: none yet, but I'm excited for when that does happen.
Food cravings: lunch, I craved pizza hut and dinner, all I could think about was a chimichanga
Anything making you queasy or sick: the smell of eggs and certain areas of the grocery store
Gender: 5 more weeks till we find out! :D
Labor Signs: No
Symptoms: Just lots of fatigue and nausea if I don't take my thyroid medicine
Belly Button in or out? In
Wedding rings on or off? On
Happy or Moody most of the time: HAPPY
Looking forward to: my belly getting bigger and moving in a couple of days

Now I must end this post because I have been craving a chimichanga from Maria's and Josh is finally home! :)

First ultrasound

My first ultrasound was the afternoon of Monday, October 24th. My mom met up with me at the appointment since Josh had a monster job that he had to start that day. I figured I'll have plenty of appointments in the next 6 and a half months that he can attend. Plus, I was really excited that my mom's first appointment with me was my first ultrasound. It was pretty routine like any other appointment before the ultrasound. They weighed me and, to my surprise, I had lost five pounds! The nurse said they normally don't like that sort of thing in the beginning, but she saw how pumped I was, so she didn't say much more. And, of course, I gave them a sample in a hat. I don't know what it is, but I always get nervous before I do that and drop the cup while it's empty and I'm putting my name on it. Josh said at the first appointment, he heard the cup drop from the hallway and the nurses looked at my room with confused faces. Yes, I am a dork. Oops.

And after I embarrass myself by dropping the cup, I get into my ravishing paper gown and await the arrival of Dr. Chandler with mom. He comes in and we start the very short, wham bam! thank you ma'am, process of the ultrasound. When I say wham bam, I mean so fast, he didn't even let us hear the heartbeat. It wasn't quite the magical crying moment they portray in movies. My mom said she was hoping it was twins and told him about all the twins that run in our families and he responded that twins come from the mother's side and said it was a good thing she didn't gamble. Yes, this man was talking about gambling to my Pentecostal mother, but I digress. Nonetheless, we got to see the little peanut on screen and that made me as happy as ever. I also learned at this appointment that my body is producing too many thyroids, which could result in lacking brain development in the baby and miscarriage, so now I'm on some once a day medicine to balance that out.

Mom and I left the appointment and got to share an emotional hug in the parking lot while we looked at pictures of the little bean. I met up with Emily at Walgreens to retrieve my hard drive that I forgot at her house (pregnant brain!) and we looked at the pictures in every pregnant lady's favorite aisle: the candy aisle. I even drove to Kristin's when I got back into town and showed her and the kids the pictures. So, all of these people got to see the baby before Josh, which he didn't mind since I wanted to show him when he got home, which was late like usual. Before I showed him, I text him while he was still at work and said that I got to see our daughter or son on the screen today. His first question, "What does it look like?" I responded with a lima bean and he asked me some questions about the appointment. When we finally saw each other, we looked at all four of the pictures together and I told him our new due date, May 30th, 2012 and said the heartbeat was 181 bpm and Chandler said that everything looked great. I asked him if seeing the photos made everything more real and he smiled and said yes.

I am ten weeks and this baby is the size of a lime now. One of my current problems is taking my prenatals. I asked Josh if it would be alright if we just had a conehead baby and he gave me a "Josh" look and said I needed to take my prenatals. They make me more sick than the first few weeks of morning sickness ever did. Speaking of morning sickness, it seems to be not making such a presence anymore, which was nice, since I only had nausea and nothing ghastly like staying in the bathroom all hours of the day. WIN!

The Three H's of Pregnancy: Hormonal, Hungry and Honest

With this pregnancy comes all sorts of new feelings and things I've never felt before. I guess with all of these hormones comes the feeling of invincibility. Some of my close peers have noticed that I am a little blunt sometimes. Maybe that will balance out once the baby is here; maybe not. For the next seven months, my hormones will definitely be a treat for everyone around me. :)

As for the hunger pains, I've had some various cravings these last few weeks. One day, I just had to have Airheads and Starbursts. Yes, let's just rot out all these teeth before the seven months is up. A few weeks ago, I craved a cheese pizza, so I grabbed a few cheap Totino's pizzas at the supermarket. Now I can't even look at one or smell one without getting nauseated. My most recent craving, which has been the healthiest one so far, is apples. Oh, and I found out a pregnant lady's worst enemy and craving causer: FOODGAWKER. I saw a breathtaking photo of some Belgium waffles and have wanted one for the last week and a half; I finally got one today. SCORE!

Another fun aspect of this pregnancy that I have been able to ponder is the vivid dreams that I have almost every single night. Last night, and into the morning, I had three separate dreams, all with different plots and people. In one dream, I was being blackmailed by one of my step sisters to help pay for a "cooking adventure" company that she wanted to create. Before the next one, my phone actually went off in real life and dinged three times for three text messages. In my next dream, I opened my phone and they were text messages from my friend, Lauren, saying how much she missed me and wanted to see me as soon as possible. And the final dream, my husband stole a cooler from a homeless guy and was followed around by him for the remainder of the dream. Weird? I think so.

And a very exciting update to close this post: my first ultrasound is Monday. I can't wait!

Dream a little dream of Dean

This morning, I had the most vivid dream. Josh and I were sitting in our separate recliners in the living room of our old house on Pennsylvania. A small boy with messy blonde hair walks out of the bedroom and into the kitchen. He comes back into the living room with a big glass of chocolate milk. Before enjoying some cartoons, he goes over and gives Josh a big hug and then comes to me and sits in my lap for a moment to give me a kiss. I ask him, "Are you feeling better?" He shrugs his shoulders and replies, "I guess." I put my hand on his forehead and said, "Well, you still feel a little warm, but not as warm as you did." This boy smiles at me and hops off my lap, retreating to the couch to watch some cartoons.

Even though this was such a short dream, I absolutely loved it because our child looked so much like Josh; one thing I remember the most about this little boy was the freckles on his face. I wish we had said his name in the dream so we could have an idea of a boy's name. All we know at this point is if we have a boy, his middle name will be Dean.

33 weeks and counting....

Last month, on September 19th to be exact, I had a hunch that I had a bun in the oven. This feeling was more certain than any in the past 9 months. I took my first pregnancy test at work, like all classy people do. I saw a faint second line indicating that I was pregnant. I stared at the stick of fate for a good ten minutes, thinking that I was just imagining things because I had yearned for a child since October of 2010. I waited till the next morning and took a second test; all signs pointed to pregnant again. I took yet another test, the third, that afternoon. I figured three can't be wrong. I had no idea how I wanted to tell Josh. I envisioned something involving giving him a gift, like a Green Bay bottle or onesie. The only way my scared and excited brain could think of was to just simply show him the two positive pregnancy tests I had at the house. As soon as I showed him, his face lit up and I cried in his chest.

At first, I told him I wanted to keep it quiet since I wasn't sure how far along I was and because the positives were faint, but there were so present at the same time. The following day, I took one more test and the line looked even more present. That was the moment I got so excited and decided I had to tell my close friends or I was just going to burst. I drove all the way to Emily's with a big grin on my face, thinking of a clever way to tell her. As soon as I got out of the car, she said what a good day she was having and how she felt good and I responded with, "I know, right!! You feel awesome..
.it's a nice day...I'm pregnant!..." And that was the last word I got in before the screaming and jumping and crying commenced. Emily, Sam, and I cried, hugged and started making a list of things I needed to start doing; prenatals, doctor's appointments, no caffeine, etc. They even helped me plan how I was going to tell my mom.

I knew that I had to make it special when I told her. All she wanted in these last nine months was a grandchild to fill that void in her heart and bring her some happiness. Not that anything could replace losing Megan, but that we could have some joy. Sam filled a beautiful purple pumpkin with some white and light purple flowers and I filled out a card that said, "Happy (early) Halloween, Grandma Gigi. Love, Your Little Pumpkin." I met my mom at the house right after she got off work and loved the flowers as soon as she saw them. She had no idea what they were for and I told her she had to open the card and find out. The first time she read it, she thought that I meant that I was her little pumpkin and I told her that I was having a baby. She was quiet for a small moment and said, "Are you sure?" I told about the copious amount of pregnancy tests I had taken and said there was no doubt in my mind. After that response, we both cried and held each other and she said how excited she was about this grandbaby and the possibility of a little Gracie; I know we both hoped that this baby will have a couple of Megan's features; maybe her nose or her perfect eyebrows or that snarky smile. After the water works finally slowed, we started calling and texting everyone.

My next phone call was Kristin. I so badly wanted to tell her in person, but she had gone to Kansas City that day to see her family. I called on the way home after I left my mom's house and told her the good news. She screamed on the phone and kept saying, "Oh my god! Oh my god!" She kept saying how excited she was and couldn't wait to talk with me more about it in person. I remember saying and agreeing with her those first few days that we couldn't believe that I was pregnant and how we had been so used to talking about me being pregnant in the future tense instead of it being in the present tense and finally happening and becoming true.

The following day, we had an doctor's appointment to get a true confirmation that I was pregnant and, surprise surprise, there was still a bun cooking in the oven. That was the day that we made it Facebook official. And this is what Facebook looks like when it's getting blown up with lots of love for Baby Woodward.



There was so many responses and I wanted to respond to them all, so I just simply liked them, even though at that point, I wished there was a love button. The response that made my heart melt the most was from my mom.



The first order of business was to pick an OB/GYN and schedule an appointment. We decided to go with Dr. Chandler and made an appointment for Monday, October 3rd. Josh went with me, pointing out that I was way too happy to be seeing a doctor. There was lots of paperwork and questions and lots of private laughs between Josh and I. We finally meet Dr. Chandler for a moment to answer some more questions and he leaves the room. My husband, being the guy he is and doing his Josh thing, completely analyzed this doctor in the first two minutes he was in the room and Josh's first reaction, "He's kind of an oddball." I couldn't disagree with him, but I felt comfortable with Dr. Chandler...I can't say the same for Josh when Dr. Chandler came back into the room to give me an "exam." Josh stared at the floor the whole time and when it was all finally said an done, he would hardly talk with me. I kept poking fun at him, asking him if that made him uncomfortable and he didn't want to talk about it. After some blood work, we drove home and I was a little upset with him because I just wasn't understanding why he wouldn't talk with me and I took it that he wasn't "on board" and ready for this baby and so I started crying about that. He consoled me and gave me a kiss and said, "Baby, I'm on board for this baby; it's just going to take some getting used to coming to those kinds of appointments...it's just...weird!"

We got home, made more phone calls and just couldn't stop smiling. His mom cried so much on the phone when he told her, but then asked him not to call his grandma or Aunt Jerri because she wanted to call and tell them the news and brag about it. After what seemed like thousands of phone calls, text messages, wall posts and messages on Facebook, things finally settled down...or so I thought...

Like clockwork, the morning nausea started kicking in. I couldn't believe that at 5 weeks, something the size of a sweet pea could have such an effect on me. After many mornings of dry toast and slowly sipping water, there is no beating the nausea. Thankfully, there has been no brutal, ghastly sickness, but hey, it's only week 6; anything is possible in the next 33 weeks.

The next disaster of many small ones to come: I had to go to the ER because of some blood that shouldn't have been present that completely scared the living daylights out of me. Come to find out, I had my first UTI. So now, within my first few days of being aware of my pregnancy, I was on antibiotics, taking prenatals, and feeling so sick and taking naps like they were going out of style.

I suppose after saying all of the above, I should explain my reasoning for this blog, like most blogger mcbloggers do. I wanted to keep a log of things that were happening in my first pregnancy for a couple of reasons. My mom kept a diary when she was pregnant with me, which she kept and gave me when I was old enough to appreciate it. I want to do the same, but I find that I can gather my sporadic thoughts better when I type instead of writing. Secondly, I want to be able to have something to look back on and read when this baby finally does get here and then I say, "Oh, Josh, I think I'm ready to have another baby," like us crazy women do sometimes and which I probably will do. Also, I want to be able to reflect on this time and laugh at some of the things that happened: the ever constant trips to the bathroom, ice cream cravings, millions of changes occurring in my body, the weekly updates of how big the baby is (as of right now, it's the size of a blueberry). Or even some of our favorite moments during the pregnancy.

I'll end with one of my favorites. Almost every night when Josh and I go to bed together, I'll be laying flat on my back and I'll put my hands on my stomach. Nudging Josh, I'll say, "Hey baby, how big you think this belly is gonna get?" And then I'll put my hands an exaggerated length away from my belly and he'll reply with a funny look with raised eyebrows and say, "I dunno, Ho," making me laugh every single time and freaking him out a little more each time.

I do solemnly swear that every blog will not be this long. This is just a crammed update from the last three weeks in Eggo Mcpreggo Land. And now, I'm off to bed to most likely sleep till 11am like I have been doing the past few weeks. Nothing wrong with a little consistency, right?