17 week survey

How far along? 17 weeks 1 day
How big is baby? about 5 inches long and weighs about 5 ounces - like a turnip
Total weight gain/loss? At my appointment on Thursday I learned that in the past 4 weeks I have gained a total of almost 3 pounds. Woo hoo! We are finally moving in the right direction! My doctor was pleased with that amount.
Maternity clothes? Pretty much. I still have some shirts that are fine, and a couple skirts and dresses, but the maternity stuff is so much more comfortable. Plus, it shows off my bump :)
Stretch marks? None yet.
Sleep? Still waking up often to go to the bathroom. My hips are starting to become sore, I think from sleeping on my side. The guest bed seems to be easier on my hips than our bed.
Best moment this week? Getting to see our friend Kandice's parents at church this morning and having lunch with them, and several other awesome people, after the service today. It was such a good and encouraging time. Oh, and hearing baby's heartbeat on Thursday - a great rate of around 140 beats per minute!
Movement? Still just every now and then.
Food cravings? Nope, still just aversions.
What I am looking forward to: Our next ultrasound! Only 10 days to go! We are excited to see baby looking like a person and not like a little gummy bear :)
Weekly wisdom: People apparently like to start rubbing your stomach when you start showing. Just be prepared.
Milestones: Baby can move his/her joints and their sweat glands are starting to develop.

One year ago today...

On July 28, 2010, our dear friend Kandice joined her Father in heaven, in a perfectly healed body, at the age of 28. She fought her 15 month battle with Inflammatory Breast Cancer with much more grace and faith than I could even begin to imagine that I would be able to. Through it all she continued to praise God, trust in Him and His plan for her, and to share Jesus with those around her. Even as her dreams of living in Asia and ministering to the deaf community there were taken from her, Kandice continued to work toward sharing the Gospel with those in Asia by supporting other missionaries there and continued to trust in God's plan for her life. Matt and I are so glad to have known Kandice for the time that we did, and we have been continually blessed through friendships we formed with others through Kandice. We think of her and miss her (and her brilliant smile) often.

Here are some photos and videos that share just a glimpse of the amazing person Kandice was. And really, the videos are completely worth watching. Amazing.

Women's retreat through our church, September 2009

Race for the Cure, April 2010 (almost exactly a year after Kandice was diagnosed)

Our old small group, December 2009

At a friend's wedding on July 17, 2010, just 11 days before she passed away





This is a video of Kandice speaking at a youth conference about her trust in God in the face of her battle with cancer. This was 2 weeks before she passed away.

This is a video of Kandice signing, while her mom sings, "You Are More Real" at the same youth conference as the video above. Again, just 2 short weeks before she went to be with Jesus.

We miss Kandice, her laughter, and her passion for sharing the love of Jesus with everyone around her. But we are thankful for the several years that we were able to spend with her this side of heaven. If you are of the praying type, please lift up her family today.

16 week survey

How far along? 16 weeks 2 days
How big is baby? Baby is an avocado this week! 4.5 inches long and about 3.5 ounces!
Total weight gain/loss? I'm almost back to where I was before I got pregnant. Not quite, but getting there. I go back to the doctor on Thursday, so we'll see what the "official" numbers say later this week.
Maternity Clothes? Oh my goodness! I discovered today the wonderfulness that is maternity pants. Why I didn't explore this sooner, I have no idea. Sooooo comfortable! I still have some dresses and a skirt, along with some shirts, that aren't maternity that I can fit into comfortably, so I'm still mixing and matching. The photo today, though, is the first time I've worn entirely maternity clothes. I'm thinking this will be happening more often.
Stretch marks? None yet
Sleep? Still hit or miss. Some nights are decent, and others I'm up every 1.5 hours to go to the bathroom.
Best moment this week? Meeting our friends' new little baby boy, Jude! He's a cutie. And our nursery furniture arriving!
Movement? Nothing consistent, though when I was sitting still last week there were definitely some twinges going on that were like nothing I'd ever felt before.
Food cravings? No real cravings, just whatever sounds good at the moment.
Labor signs? Nope
What I am looking forward to: Hearing the heartbeat again at my appointment this Thursday!
Weekly wisdom: Maternity clothes are comfortable. Wear them. :)
Milestones: Baby's eyes and ears are close to their final positions. Toenails have started to form. And fingerprints are on their way this week!

Visiting family, registering, and furniture - oh, my!

It's been a busy past week or so since the last blog post. Work is starting to pick up a little bit for Matt, and I spent the first part of the week preparing for the thesis presentation I needed to give in order to finally be finished with my masters degree. Though I've had my degree in hand since graduation in May, I can finally say that all of my masters work is completed! Woo hoo! We also went to go see the final Harry Potter movie, which was great! And I drove down to visit my family Friday and Saturday. I got to spend Friday afternoon with my grandparents, and then my mom, stepdad, and I went to some yard sales on Saturday morning. My mom has been buying tons of baby stuff at yard sales - mostly gender neutral clothes, though she has bought a swing for their house. I've got several plastic grocery bags full of sleepers, onesies, socks, and bibs! My mom loves any excuse to go shopping. Seriously - when Matt and I got married she thanked me for giving her another reason to go shopping :) So I figured I'd go yard-saling with them one morning. We didn't find much, but it was good to see my family for just a bit.

Now I need to start going in to school and setting up my classroom, since I only have three weeks of summer left. This summer seems to have flown by, I think in part because I was so sick for the first half of it that I feel like summer break really just started for me a few weeks ago.

In baby-related news, Matt and I started our registry this week. We know it's still kind of early for that, but again, we're trying to get things done before we both get super-busy. We figured it was easier to get a start on our registry and add/delete things as needed than to start from scratch later. So if anyone wants to take a look at our registry so far (it's at Babie.s R U.s) and let me know if we've forgotten anything or should make any changes or whatever, feel free. There are still a few smaller things we know we need to put on there (bibs, for example), but any and all feedback is welcome.

Me with the scanner thing registering for our swing, list and Bab.y Barg.ains book in hand (please ignore the fact the my right eye is half closed - the surgeon who fixed my lazy eyelid when I was 11 didn't do the most stellar of jobs, and sometimes when I'm tired or smiling a certain way, my eye looks funky)
Matt scanning our hamper...this photo took several tries until he was happy with his "look." :)

And our baby furniture is here! Like, it's in our house! Matt and one of our friends went to go pick it up today. It came in much sooner than we thought it was going to. We're still waiting on the conversion rails, but it's not like we'll need those anytime soon anyway. They should be in soon-ish, though. But we have three big boxes sitting in our guest bedroom with all our furniture in them! They'll probably be in there for a couple months, until we can get the future nursery cleaned out (a process we started a couple weeks ago, but haven't really touched since), the room painted, the baseboards replaced (thank you cats who sometimes miss the litterbox), and the carpets cleaned. But yay for furniture!

A weekly survey and bump picture will be coming in the next day or so!

15 week survey

How far along? 15w3d (photo is from yesterday, 15w2d)
How big is baby? about 4 inches long crown to rump, and 2.5 ounces - the size of an apple
Total weight gain/loss? I still weigh less than when I got pregnant. How that's possible with this bump, I have no idea, but apparently it is.
Maternity clothes? More and more, just because they're comfortable. I could fit into my regular jeans and use the hairtie trick, but really, why do that when I can just wear looser clothes?
Stretch marks? None yet
Sleep? It's hit or miss. Some nights are decent (last night I actually slept for almost 5 hours in a row!) and some are not (the night before I was up every 1.5-2 hours to use the bathroom or to toss and turn).
Best moment this week? Meeting our friends' twin baby girls! They're beautiful and we're so happy for our friends. They've had a long journey to parenthood, and they're already amazing parents.
Movement? Nothing definitive, but I've felt a sensation like bubbles are popping. According to the internet, that's the baby! I'm looking forward to feeling more solid movements, though, and more frequent ones.
Food cravings? None really. Though chocolate has been sounding good this week. Then again, when doesn't it? :)
Labor signs? Nope
What I am looking forward to: My next appointment next Thursday, and then our next ultrasound on August 10th! I'm excited to see the baby actually looking like a baby and not like a little gummy bear :)
Weekly wisdom: Not sure I have any wisdom this week :)
Milestones: Even though baby's eyes are still fused shut, he/she can now sense light! So shining a flashlight at my stomach would likely cause baby to move around. Also, his/her legs are longer than their arms and baby can move all their limbs and joints now.

(disclaimer: this photo was taken after dinner; my bump is definitely a bit smaller in the morning)

Diaper bag **update**

**Update** I got an email from the store I ordered the bag from. They cannot fulfill the order because the item is no longer available. Boo. They have this style bag in some other prints, but none that I like enough to buy. Back to the drawing board, though luckily we've got plenty of time to find something else :)

I know, I know. I said we were finished buying things for a while. But I couldn't pass this up. When Matt and I were in Chicago last week I found a diaper bag I loved. But oh my goodness was it expensive! Like, there was no way I could ever spend that much on a diaper bag, ever, no matter how good the reviews.
And then someone on a message board posted about a sale. And this diaper bag, that I loved, was on sale for just over half price. So I searched reviews a bit more, and all were raving about this bag, and how well it held up over time and through multiple kids. So I bought one this morning! It should be here sometime in the next week or two! I bought the Petun.ia Picklebo.ttom Box.y Back.pack in Summer Sorren.to. Here's what it looks like:You can wear it as a backpack, a messenger bag, or just over the shoulder. It's got pockets inside and out, a detachable changing pad and spot for wipes and diapers in the front zipper part, a key clip so you don't have to dig for keys, and some other cool features. Plus, the material inside and out can be wiped down with a rag to clean it off.

In other news, our rocking chair came in. Matt and one of his friends picked it up on Wednesday, and it's currently hanging out in our guest bedroom since we want to clean the carpets in the nursery before we set things up. It's sooo comfy. And, Matt got a whole printout of coupons while he was there - including two for 20% one item! Depending on when they expire, we are hoping to use one of those to order the ottoman to go with the chair.

3 Years Ago Today...

Yes, there was a tuba serenade at our wedding :)

Happy anniversary to the most amazing husband! The past three years have been full of many things - joy, sadness, laughter, hard work, fun...the list could go on and on. I'm so happy (and lucky) to walk through it all alongside Matt.

(All photos taken by our photographer, Meg.an Wy.nn)

Chicago Getaway and Baby Bedding

Matt and I spent Tuesday-Friday of this past week in Chicago. We just wanted to get away somewhere, but didn't want to spend a bunch of money or be super busy while we were gone. We settled on Chicago because it's close by, there's stuff to do, but we also didn't feel like we needed to rush around to get everything in while we were there since it's so close. We had a great time. We just walked around, did some shopping, hung out in our hotel room, went to the zoo and the aquarium, and just relaxed. We also went to an outdoor concert in Millenium Park and went out to a nice dinner in early celebration of our anniversary that's coming up this week. We took the bus up and the train back, so we didn't have to worry about our car or paying for parking. It wasn't anything super fancy, but it was exactly what we needed - just a few days away from home just hanging out together. And as a bonus, I didn't get sick the whole time we were there! Close calls yes, but no getting sick! Of course, 10 minutes after we walked in our front door Friday night was another story - but since it was after midnight I technically made it 4 entire days without getting sick. Hopefully that means the nausea and vomiting are on their way out. That would be awesome.

Here are just a few pictures from our trip:

Our hotel room

Free concert in Millenium Park

Playing in a fun sculpture

While we were in Chicago, we decided to look around for baby bedding. We'd looked at several places here, but couldn't find anything we liked. Apparently when you don't find out whether you're having a boy or a girl you're supposed to decorate your nursery with animals or trees. We don't really like that stuff (no offense to those who do). We were looking for something kind of fun, bright colors, stripes or polka dots. And we just hadn't had much luck here. So we thought maybe we'd see if we could find some places to shop for bedding in Chicago that we didn't have here. So Matt got on his phone and used Ye.lp to look up baby stores nearby. He found one that wasn't too far of a walk from the train station, so we hopped on a train for a few minutes and headed that way.

We wandered around the store for a while, and though we really liked some of the bedding and stuff we saw, none of it was quite what we were looking for. A woman came over and started talking with us, and then told us they could custom design bedding for us. We spent some time looking at fabrics, which was really fun, but I was afraid to fall in love with something because we hadn't talked prices at this point and I was convinced custom bedding would be way out of our price range. Turns out, it was actually pretty reasonable! Plus, this woman and her sister opened the store 17 years ago, and we're fans of supporting independently owned businesses when we can. So we ordered our bedding! It won't come in for 8-10 weeks, but we should get fabric samples sooner than that so we can pick paint.

Here are the fabrics we're using:

The polka dot fabric will be the outside of the bumper, while the solid green (which is super soft) will be the inside. The green and white fabric will be the cording on the bumper, the bumper ties, and the bedskirt. We'll just use solid colored sheets, and we're talking about paint colors. We really like what we got and can't wait to see it all put together! So all our big purchases are done for now, which is great. We definitely have things to get before Baby B comes home, but we've got furniture, a chair, and bedding all taken care of!

14 week survey

How far along? 14 weeks 1 day
Total weight gain/loss? Not sure. I know I'm still down from where I was when I got pregnant, though the weight has to have redistributed somehow since I've definitely got a little belly going on :)
Maternity clothes? Some, yes. Kohl's had a big sale, so I bought 3 dresses and a shirt yesterday, all for 50-60% off. Another friend just gave me 2 bags of clothes today. Dresses (and a couple skirts) are still my go-to options for clothes - they're just so loose and comfy!
Stretch marks? None yet. Hopefully it stays that way!
Sleep? Not great, but not awful. I slept pretty well when Matt and I were in Chicago this past week (more on that later), and I've done okay the two nights we've been back home. I just have trouble sleeping on my side - it makes my hips hurt.
Best moment this week: Going 4 days in a row without getting sick!!!
Movement: None yet. I felt some small flutters this week, but I'm not positive that was baby.
Food cravings: Nothing in particular. I'm still eating a lot of cereal. Most days it's just whatever I think I can keep down.
Labor signs: Not for a long time!
What I am looking forward to: Feeling movement and our next ultrasound in August!
Weekly wisdom: Drink lots of water and rest when you need to. I think part of the reason we enjoyed our time in Chicago is because I drank tons of water and made sure to find places to sit down and rest on a regular basis so I didn't get too hot or tired.
Milestones: According to several baby development sources, Baby B's intestines have now moved to the inside of his/her body (hooray!) and he/she is now able to discharge urine :)

Nursery Furniture!

We have nursery furniture, people! Well, we don't actually have it, but it's ordered!

We started looking around at furniture this past week, just to start getting an idea of prices and to see what we liked. We'd already set our budget and wanted to see what we could find. Well, we found a furniture store that had a brand that got great reviews. They carry lots of different styles (and other brands). We found a set that we liked. We tried a few more furniture places but ended up not finding much else that we liked. So we went back and ordered our furniture on Saturday to take advantage of their 4th of July sale. The crib we bought is convertible, so we can change it to a toddler bed, a daybed, and a full size bed. Probably not with this kiddo, but with the next one. Anyway, in order to do all that converting you have to have conversion rails - which of course are extra. So the deal was if you bought your furniture and mattress, you got the conversion rails for free. Sold.

We bought the Mun.ire Ess.ex set in si.ena, which is a darker cherry toned stain. It's beautiful! Here's a photo, courtesy of Goo.gle Ima.ges, of exactly what we bought. Well, almost exactly. We did not buy the hutch/bookcase thing that sits on top of the dresser. But otherwise, we ordered everything just as it is in this photo:

We also ordered a Natu.rePed.ic foam mattress. Both the furniture and mattress brands got great reviews in Bab.y Bar.gains, so we're feeling really good about what we got.

So we bought that Saturday. Then, I went to Bab.ies R.Us today and ordered a chair for the nursery because they had a coupon for 20% off one piece of nursery furniture. Saving money? Yes, please. Matt and I had already scoped out their chairs and loved this one.

This comfy chair that rocks and swivels will arrive at the store in 7-14 days.

(photo from Goo.gle Im.ages)

We'll eventually order the ottoman that goes with it, but since my coupon was only good on one piece of furniture I decided to wait and see if I could snag another coupon sometime in the next few months to use on the ottoman.

Next on the baby agenda: start cleaning out the room that will be the nursery; find bedding we like so we can pick paint colors!

13 week survey

How far along? 13 weeks 2 days

Total weight gain/loss? I'm down about 5 pounds, thanks to being so sick. Luckily, my doctor isn't worried about my loss and said that it should turn around soon.

Maternity clothes? Some. Not a lot. Mostly I've just been wearing loose skirts and dresses. But my friend just gave me a bunch of her old maternity clothes, so I'll probably start wearing some of those soon.

Stretch marks? None yet

Sleep: It stinks. I haven't been sleeping well at all. I keep waking up to go to the bathroom or because I just can't get comfortable. I miss sleeping on my stomach.

Best moment this week: Hitting the second trimester! Oh, and buying our nursery furniture! (another post on that coming soon!)

Movement: None that I can feel, though when I went to the doctor this past Thursday and she was using the doppl.ar she said that the static we heard while listening to the heartbeat was Baby B moving around!

Food cravings: None really. It's more just a waiting game every day to see what I think I can eat and keep down.

Gender: We'll find out in January! Matt thinks it's a girl, I think it's a boy - we'll be happy either way :)

Labor signs: Nope, and there better not be any for a long time!

Belly button in or out: In

What I am looking forward to: Eating without worrying it's going to come back up. And feeling movement - hopefully within the next month or two!

Weekly wisdom: Your doctor's office is used to people calling with questions. It's okay to call. They don't think you're annoying or high maintenance. (This is what my doctor's nurse told me this week.)

Milestones: Second trimester! Woo hoo!