15 weeks

I'm 15 weeks pregnant today and 1 week shy of being 4 months pregnant. I really hope the rest of my pregnancy will go by just as fast. I'm still wearing a few of my work pants but I've bought two (2) Be Bands for my growing belly. I bought a black one and a white one. I've been wearing my black one as a camisole since my chest has been so sensitive that even my bras are irritating me. Not fun. I'm still having these little red bumps appear on my skin and they itch just a little bit. I've been using Aveeno body wash and lotion and this has helped with the bumps and my sensitive skin. I've started to stay up later at night so I must be gaining back some energy because I stayed up until almost 11pm last night. I'm still very tired throughout the day and evening though. I enjoy drinking a big glass of milk and eating a strawberry yoplait light yogurt every morning for breakfast. I try to add a fruit (generally strawberries or berries) and a whole grain food in my breakfast. Lunch is still generally pretty light and dinner is whatever is easy and fast to make these days. I enjoy sucking on hard candy's at work like lemon drops, lifesavers, peppermints, and blow pops. I'm sure I'll get a cavity from eating all these hard sugar candy's. Tonight we're going to dinner with some of our close friends so I'm looking forward to getting together and catching up with everyone.

Today's Mood - Upbeat, Positive

Whirl Wind Days

Since last Friday I've been caught up in a whirl wind that is finally winding down. I had an extremly busy weekend celebrating Keith's Birthday, my Aunt Linda's Birthday, and Keith's Papaw's Birthday.

Friday night we celebrated Keith's 29th Birthday and my Aunt Linda's Birthday with my family at home. My Papaw came to dinner with his wife Francis, all my immediate family, and my Aunt Linda enjoyed dinner together. We enjoyed Salmon, Chicken, Corn, Green Beans, Bread, Salad, and Potato Casserole for dinner. Then we sang Happy Birthday to both Linda and Keith and let them take turns blowing out their birthday cake. After dinner we hung out and talked awhile and played with Jacob and Maleea. Maleea (my niece - she is 15 months old) is walking very well now and she is almost running. We looked at my old baby pictures and tried to decide who the baby will resemble most? Keith or I? If it's a girl I hope she will resemble me and if it's a boy I hope he will resemble Keith. :)

Saturday, Keith and I woke up early and drove with his parents to celebrate his Papaw's 89th Birthday. We drove to Rutherfordton, NC (past Shelby about 30 min.) and met the rest of the Grant Family (Keith's mother's side). I think Papaw Grant had a wonderful birthday and really enjoyed being with his family. He loved when we sang "Happy Birthday" to him and he clapped the entire song. So sweet. We left and made our way home around 3pm and on the way home I unfortunately got sick. We were driving with Keith's parents and his nephew Jonathon. I looked over at Keith and touched his arm and said you're going to have to pull over. Well, luckily there was a McDonald's (which was still gross) and I made it to the bathroom and thankfully didn't throw up. I hate the feeling of being nauseous. I came back to the car once I felt well enough and slept the rest of the way home. Ugh. It was horrible. I took a nap when we got home and just relaxed the rest of the evening.

Sunday, Keith and I woke up early and I brought down Keith's Birthday present. Since we have a baby on the way we're not going all out so I bought him a nice pair of Nike running shoes and I'm going to buy him a new shower head as well. I would like him to come with me to pick it out so we'll probably go buy a new shower head this weekend. We watched Le Tour de France as we've been doing together since it's been on and just laid on the couch together and relaxed. The last day of Campmeeting was Sunday (Big Sunday) at 11am so we went to church at the campground in Wesley Chapel. We sat with family and saw a lot of Keith's old high school friends. We hung out and caught up with everyone for a little while and went to the Wingard's for lunch and to celebrate Keith's 29th Birthday with his family. We had a great afternoon celebrating but I was exhausted!!! This was a whirl wind weekend and I'm still trying to catch up on my sleep.

Monday through Wednesday at work have been very busy as well. To much to type about here so I think I'll stop before I write a book. I only hope that things will settle down after today.

Looking forward to celebrating my friend and co-worker Melissa's baby shower tonight and another baby shower for her this weekend! I made a strawberry cheesecake tonight for Melissa and I. We both love those strawberries! Yum.

Can you believe I'll be 15 weeks tomorrow? 1 more week and I'll be 4 months pregnant!

Today's Mood - Tired

14 weeks

I'm officially 14 weeks pregnant today and starting my 2nd trimester. So many things have changed over the past 14 weeks. Here are a few things that have changed for me over the past 14 weeks:

• My sense of smell has changed so much. It's incredible how much your sense of smell changes when you're pregnant. I can smell everything around me now even things I wouldn't think would have a smell.
• My skin is amazingly soft. It was very soft before but now it's really soft. I've had a few red bumps to pop up here and there but my Doctor advised me that they are sweat bumps.
• My finger nails are strong and very shiny. I've stopped nervously biting my thumbs and Keith is so happy about this. I have a bad tendency to bite my thumbs really for no reason except that I've done this since I was a little girl. It's a bad habit and I hope it doesn't come back.
• My hair is growing faster and thicker and it's very healthy and shiny. I've already had about 2 inches cut from my hair but you can't even tell. My hair is also becoming very wavy. I generally take my showers at night and when I wake up in the mornings I have wavy hair. I have to straighten it about every morning and before my hair was pretty straight.
• I feel like my body is growing everywhere. Mainly my tummy, chest, and feet. I'm happy about the tummy and chest growing but I'm not happy about my feet growing. That means I have to buy more shoes which would be a good thing if I didn't have to buy a bigger size.
• I've noticed that my eyes get very irritated or sore if I don't take my contacts out earlier in the evening and let me eyes rest. I've started wearing my glasses earlier in the evenings than before when I'd only wear them before I went to bed.
• I get winded a lot easier these days. Walking up a flight of stairs, exercising, filing at work, and just running errands can cause me to become out of breath or winded. It's unreal.
• I'm still wearing my regular work pants, some of my jeans, and some regular work shirts. I'm looking forward to wearing my maternity clothes soon.
• My dreams have become so real and they last a long time. I've been dreaming about the craziest things. I dreamed I was bit by two snakes while riding my bike down a mountain - I've dreamed about this twice, my baby was stolen from the hospital, Keith cheating on me, and me cheating on Keith, nightmares about work, Keith being out of town when I have the baby (I have this one a lot and it really upsets me), all my dreams have been very vivid like I was really there? I'm almost scared to go to bed at night because I'm worried about what I may dream about next. I'm always happy when I have a dreamless night of sleep.

Those are the basic changes that I've experienced thus far. At 14 weeks my baby is about the size of an apple and weighs about an ounce. Isn't that amazing. I have a little apple in my belly. I've also notice that my belly button isn't as deep as it used to be. I think it may pop later on in the pregnancy. I only hope that the 2nd trimester will go by just as fast as my 1st trimester.

Today's Mood - Excited about reaching 14 weeks!

I felt the baby!!!

Yesterday, Keith and I celebrated our two year wedding anniversary because Keith will be out of town on Tuesday, July 21st which is our anniversary date. As part of our day of celebrating we went to the movies and we watched "The Proposal" with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. I highly recommend this movie for anyone who hasn't watched it. It's Hilarious. I was laughing so hard at this movie I literally was not breathing and Keith kept leaning over and telling me to stop it. haha. I think I was starting to embarrass him but he was laughing too. At one point in the movie when Sandra Bullock was singing and going around the fire with Grammy...I was laughing so hard that I felt the baby. I think the baby was thinking...."Mommy what is wrong with you? You are shaking and moving all around". Or the baby was laughing with me. Either way I think the baby was doing flips and having a good time because I was so happy. Keith still doesn't believe that I felt the baby but I believe I did. ;) It only lasted a few seconds and it felt like butterfly wings in my belly or little fingers tickeling me. It was an amazing experience and I can't wait to feel my baby moving around inside me more!!!

Today's Mood - Vibrant

13 weeks

Happy Friday!!!

I can't believe I am 13 weeks pregnant now!!! The time has really flown these past couple of weeks. It's hard to believe that I'm in the last week of my 1st trimester. I can't wait to feel my baby move which should be any time now. I have my next doctor's appointment scheduled on August 6th for my 16 week check up and then I'll return two weeks later (18 weeks) to find out the sex of the baby which is going to be so exciting!!!

I've been keeping very active over the last 13 weeks. I generally exercise 4 days a week at the Childress Klein YMCA uptown conveniently located in my building. I walk Mondays and Wednesdays with my friend Sherry (we usually walk 2 miles) and Tuesdays and Thursdays I meet with a trainer and work on toning my arms and legs. My friend Sherry is also pregnant and she is just one week behind me. Sherry and I go to the same doctor's office and are schedule to deliver at CMC Pineville. Small world huh? We keep joking that we're going to be in the hospital at the same time. I keep Fridays open to eat lunch with the girls in my office and we enjoy lunch together and catching up on the week and what we have planned for the weekend.

I'm am starting to finally get excited about food. I've been very picky the past couple of weeks and I've basically been eating a lot of the same foods over and over again. I generally eat an English Muffin for breakfast with strawberry yogurt, sliced strawberries and a large cup of milk, lunch is usually a toasted turkey and swiss sandwich from subway, and dinner has been something with hamburger meet, cereal, rice and shrimp or rice and soup, and I try to get vegetables in my dinner as well. I just haven't had a big appetite. Today, I've been craving pizza and I'm really excited about dinner tonight. I've been telling my little baby "bubbies" all day that it gets pizza for dinner. Keith and I are going to Brixx Pizza tonight and my family is meeting us. I have two coupons good for a free appetizer and a free entree. I think we'll enjoy the spinach and artichoke dip with warm pita bread for our appetizer....YUM! I can't wait. My parents and brother have been in the mountains for a week so I'm looking forward to seeing them and catching up on what they've been busy doing over the past week.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Today's Mood = Sleepy and Hungry

Maternity Shopping

I made plans to go maternity shopping today with my friend Vanessa. Vanessa and I have been friends since the 2nd grade and it was so good to catch up and visit with her today. We met at McAlister's Deli at the Arboretum and enjoyed lunch and talked about our families together. Vanessa has three little girls and a lot of experience with maternity shopping and what I should buy as compard to what I want to buy. We drove over to Destination Maternity in the South Park area together and shopped there for almost 2 hours. She was a big help with picking out clothes for work and clothes for relaxing on the weekends. I found a lot of great deals (most everything I bought was under $20 or $9.99) and I bought a great bra too. Vanessa bought me two books as a surprise...she is so kind. We had a great time shopping together and I'm glad she and I were able to meet up and enjoy lunch and shopping today.

Today's Mood = Happy

Not Feeling So Well

Last night I wasn't feeling so well and I didn't know what to cook for dinner so Keith made some hotdogs and he ate some chips and dip. Before he started cooking the hotdogs I made a bowl of cinnamon toast crunch cereal since I couldn't figure out what to eat and I wasn't that hungry. I ended up eating a hotdog as well and I think that was a bad idea because I felt horrible after that. I ended up going to bed around 7:30pm and slept until about 11:45pm. Keith and I both woke up and I asked him to get me a glass of orange juice. Being the good husband that he is he went down (this is after I asked him 4 times) and made me a glass of orange juice which took 15 minutes because he was watching a dog outside that was loose in the neighborhood. I was thinking what in the world is taking him so long because I felt like I was dying of thrist (not really but it felt that way). I drank my orange juice and we went back to bed...I only had to get up once to use the bathroom last night which was good.

I woke up this morning and ate some strawberry toasted strudels and a big glass of milk. Yum. The baby loves those strawberry strudels. I treat the baby every weekend with the strudels and during the week I usually eat strawberry yogurt and an english muffin with strawberry jam. I may even bring a container of fresh cut strawberries to work for a snack. This baby loves strawberries!!! Back to today...after breakfast Keith and I laid on the couch together and watched le tour de France. It's amazing to watch those men climb those mountains in record time and act like they're breathing just fine. I would for sure have fallen off my bike and down the mountain. haha. For lunch I ate a peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich with some wheat thins and cheese squares and a glass of water.

I had a hair appointment today with Debra from Sheer Energy and since I'm almost finished with my 1st trimester it's safe to highlight my hair especially since the color doesn't touch my scalp and it's placed on foils. I freshed up my highlights, trimmed my hair, and caught up on the gossip with Debra. We always have a great time catching up together. I drove to Once Upon A Child in Pineville and looked at some of there maternity clothes and found a cute pair of white capri jeans and a pair of dark long jeans....total purchase = $18.00. I think I found a good deal. I went to the grocery store later this afternoon and bought a few miscellaneous items that Keith and I need. Unfortunately when I got home I was a sick Mama. I had diarrhea really bad and I couldn't understand why? I think it was a glass of chocolate milk I had before I went to the grocery store? Still not sure but I'm starting to feel a little better now.

Keith is making ribs tonight and I have to be honest that I'm not sure if baby will like them or not. I hope the baby does though because I've been really picky lately and it would be nice to branch out and eat other foods. I think I'll make some vegtables and mashed potatoes to go along with our dinner. I know the baby loves green beans and potatoes so I should be fine.

Looking forward to having a great dinner with Keith and watching a movie later tonight. I rented Marley and Me at the RedBox earlier today. I hope I don't cry but with all these hormones it's almost a given.

Today's Mood = Tired

3rd Doctor's Appointment

I had my third doctor's appointment this morning. I was so excited that I could hardly sleep last night and it also didn't help that I had to get up twice to use the bathroom. I'll be glad when that stops for a little while.

The doctor's appointment went very well. He told me that my blood, pap smear, and everything else looked great. I have an A- blood type which is the same as my Dad. I believe an A- is a rare blood type so at least I know my Dad and I share the same. I also found out that Kim (my sister-in-law) is also an A-. Small world.

After the doctor and I talked for a little while it was time to hear the heart beat. This was so amazing and a surreal experience. The doctor said it may take a while to find the heartbeat since the baby is still so small and right when he said that you could hear my little baby's heart beat just beating away. He said that was faster than he thought and said that my baby wanted to be heard. I was thinking that's probably about right. The baby had a very strong and good heart beat. I was very emotional after the appointment and I couldn't stop smiling. What an amazing feeling.

I called my sister and cried with her as I told her the good news about hearing the heart beat. I called Keith and was emotional with him as well...for the record I did call him first but no answer the first time. haha. I called my Mom and Dad and discussed the appointment with them and it was just a really great morning.

Finally I could tell my co-workers which has been very difficult to keep a secret. When I got into work this morning I went straight to the receptionist JJ or "Aunt JJ" and shared my good news with her. She and I were both crying. The news spread around the office the rest of the day. I still can't believe I'm 12 weeks pregnant. It's an amazing feeling to know that you're going to be a mommy. I just can't wait. I'm glad that I can share my good news with everyone now and I'm looking forward to this wonderful pregnancy journey over the next 6-7 months.

Today's Mood = Estatic and Blessed!

Baby Crib

Yes, I'm crazy and I already bought a baby crib. I couldn't pass it up when I saw it on craigslist. It's an $800 crib and I bought it off craigslist for $150. It's a Young American Starlight White Sleigh Crib. I basically fell in love and I had to have it.

I ate dinner with my Dad, Mom, and brother Wednesday night and after dinner David drove his truck and I drove my car with Dad to go meet the couple I was buying the crib from. They were running a little late so we relaxed in the sun for about 20 minutes and let the time pass. When they arrived the guy looked at the girl and asked her if she grabbed the instructions and the tools to place the bed together and unfortunately she didn't. Ugh. I didn't know what to do. I looked at my dad for some advise and finally I decided that they looked safe and I would follow them home and get the instructions and tools to place the crib together. I gave my home key to my Dad and they drove on over to my house with the crib.

I drove 30 minutes into the country...deep country...I mean I was surrounded by corn fields and it was beautiful. I was thinking this might not have been a good idea as we kept making turns and there is no way with my pregnancy brain that I was going to remember all these turns. We finally made it to their house and she ran in and grabbed the instructions and tools. I paid them and headed home. I was lucky that I remembered the way...I even suprised myself...and made it home around 8pm. Dad and David had already left my house and left the key hidden for me to get back into the house.

It was a crazy adventure and a long night but at the end of the day I have a beautiful crib and I can't wait to put it together and start decorating the baby's room.

Baby News

We're having a baby!!! Keith and I are so excited! I found out I was pregnant on Tuesday, May 12th. I had a motherly intuition that I was pregnant the Saturday before Mother's Day but Keith and I decided to wait and take a pregnancy test. I wish I would've taken it earlier though so I could've celebrated Mother's Day. I took my first pregnancy test Tuesday morning (May 12th) and it was positive and I took another test Wednesday morning and it was positive as well. I was so happy that I told Keith, my Mom and Dad, and my sister and brother on Tuesday after the first one. I made a doctor's appointment for the following week and after it was confirmed that I was pregnant I told Keith's family, my Grandpa's, my Aunt's, and cousins Jenny an Chelsea. I went and bought a cake for Mr. and Mrs. Wingard and the cake said "Congrats MaMaw and PaPaw". Everyone is very excited about the baby news.

It's hard to believe that I'm almost 3 months pregnant now (2 days shy of 12 weeks). The first 3 months have almost flown by!!! I've mainly craved anything with strawberries which would mainly be strawberry jam, strawberry toaster strudels, fresh strawberries, strawberry yogurt, and strawberry smoothies. My least favorite thing has been chicken which is so odd to me because I used to eat grilled chicken just about every day. I can hardly even smell chicken now because it makes me sick. Another draw back has been being very tired. I sleep a lot these days. I take naps every weekend for about 2-3 hours on Saturdays and Sundays and on the weekdays I am generally in bed by 9-9:30 when I used to go to bed around midnight or 1am which is a big change. Over the past 3 months there hasn't been a lot of nausea which has been very good and I'm glad that I haven't throw up once....I came close but it didn't happen.

Now, I'm looking forward to my 12 week doctor's appointment which is this coming Thursday and I can't wait to hear the heartbeat. Keith and I saw the heart beat together back on June 4th but it's been awhile and I can't wait to see and hear my little baby again.

Please keep Keith and I and our little baby in your prayers over the next few months.