20 Weeks-The halfway mark!

How far along? 20 weeks-and if you didn't bust out into a Bon Jovi song after reading this weeks chalkboard you are not a child of the '80s and I feel bad for you!
Weight loss/gain? 14 pounds
Maternity clothes? OH YEAH!!! Dedicated a whole day trip to stocking my closet this week! It's pretty official
Stretch Marks? Nope
Sleep? Sleeping a little more uncomfortably, still having some back pain...and still looking for a deal on a pregnancy pillow
Best moment this week? Realizing we are halfway into this journey already. In hindsight, the first part has gone so fast
Miss Anything? Everything as usual. Most especially, shopping. And particularly, bathing suit shopping. I always usually already have 2 or 3 ready for summer at this point. Preggo bathing suit shopping, not so fun!
Movement? All the time, when her mommy finally takes time in the day to sit down and rest
Food Cravings? Sweets, sweets, and more sweets....the scales reflected that off and on this week. I'm not sure how I'll keep this at bay but I've enjoyed indulging in my cravings when I can!
Anything making you queasy or sick? Not really. Heartburn has been at a high this week....With all the sugar am I surprised? Certainly not!
Have you started to show yet?  YES!
Gender? Girl!
Labor signs? No
Belly Button in or out? In-starting to look sorta funny might I add!
Wedding rings on or off? On
Happy or moody most of the time? Happy! Except I was super tired which made me rather moody intermittently this week. So tired, some nights it was actually painful to do anything prior to dragging myself into bed.
Looking forward to? The upcoming Baby-moon! Getting close!


HALFWAY THERE! WOW! Hard to believe honestly. I say in one hand this has gone by pretty fast, in another it's been just the right speed. I feel like we have taken each step little by little and tried our best to enjoy each little milestone. This blog has helped keep me accountable to that.  I had an eye-opening experience this week. I received my monthly email from "The Nest" When we got married, I signed up on "The knot" which is a wedding planning tool and after your wedding you are automatically converted to "The Knot" This monthly email is just kind of like an online magazine with all things geared to newlyweds and married couples. Lots of fun tips like date night ideas, vacation getaways, good recipes for two, etc. Well, when you get pregnant you have the option to again be upgraded to "The Bump" hence receiving emails of, all things baby! I haven't taken the time to do this so since I still recieve Nest emails, I found it quite humorous to see what this months topic would be. There it was in big bold letters, "Things to check off your list before baby" Of course I was intrigued to click in and see how we had matched up to so called "list" and what our grade would be based on the recommended list of to do's. There were several things that we definitely done, take non kid friendly vacations, buy non kid friendly furniture, say yes when asked to go somewhere/do something no matter what it is. And of course lots of things I would NEVER do, such as skydiving or bungee jumping. Reading this list on this particular week gave me a lot of perspective. It made me really realize how happy I was with the timing of our choice to start a family (shall I say God's choice rather), it also made me appreciate how we spent our time pre-baby. It seems like lately we do a lot of, "Remember when we......and it was soooo fun....and so and so said....and then we......man, that was an awesome time" These strolls down memory lane make us realize how much we've grown and how much we've changed. I'm thankful for awesome memories and fun times with no regrets. I'm thankful that we spent 2 fabulous years enjoying each other and making it all about us without feeling guilty. I'm thankful we traveled. Oh how I love traveling. We have been fortunate enough to visit some pretty amazing places that we may have never seen if we hadn't made ourselves go for it because, what did we have to lose? I'm really thankful for Auggie. I know it's not nearly the same but he's taught us a lot of responsibility that surely will be useful when we are parents (disclaimer: When the baby comes, I'm relatively sure I WILL NOT be thankful for Auggie, so I'm thanking you now Augs, this ones for you). Above everything else, I feel like we have taken each step of our marriage slowly and savored every moment. I feel like we have worked toward making our lives feel "full" and I can't even imagine how much more "full" we are going to feel once little miss joins this crazy clan. I am beyond thrilled. Yet also know that we only have 20 more weeks of just us! So I plan to make as many memories as we can. After all, it'll never be the same, might as well end an era in style!

All deep, sappy, moments aside. This week I went full fledged maternity shopping with Nettie and Auntie Randi. Fun, yet OVERWHELMING. I'm the kind of person who buys things as I need them, not all at once for one whole season. Since I wear scrubs to work during the week all I really need are weekend clothes so I just buy as the occasion fits. Well, this trip included stocking up on basics, a few dressy materials, tops, bottoms, etc. etc....My mind was a little blown. I'm pretty sure at one point my sister was asking me what I wanted out of a certain item and I said, in a rather exhausted voice, "I don't care, whatever yall think, yall just pick it out for me." And I must say, she did exactly that. I was pleasantly surprised when I went through my bag at home. I just cant handle too many decisions all at once!

Also on our shopping day I got to eat this...

Mmmmmmm...fantastic! I heart big orange! And here is my goodie bag from the day!

And here's who insisted on assisting me.

What a goon seriously! We also saw The Hunger Games this weekend. SERIOUSLY good movie. I didn't know one thing about it before we went but I can tell you I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. A very interesting, different concept for sure. After that we had dinner with some friends at home and went to Orange Leaf for dessert! Mmmmmm! I can tell that will be a frequent stop this summer. I love it and so do my hips ; ) On Sunday, we took Auggie to The Big Dam Bridge in Little Rock and enjoyed some of this BEAUTIFUL Arkansas spring weather we have been having!












This weekend couldn't have been any prettier! Just made you feel happy to be alive! I so heart spring! And this is how we felt when it ended on Monday morning!



Me too Aug, me too! That's it for this week! I hope to make another non baby post this week to show what all we have been doing to this old house! Some really fun stuff going on here!

Cheers,
20 weeks=half baked!!!

19 Weeks~Happy St. Patrick's Day!

How far along? 19 weeks
Weight loss/gain? 13 pounds
Maternity clothes? Little by little, more and more
Stretch Marks? Nope
Sleep? Sleeping a little more uncomfortably, my back is really starting to hurt at night, may be looking for a GREAT deal on a pregnancy pillow soon-since I passed on one half price this week like a dummy! By the way, my back started hurting that very night, thank you Mrs. Karma
Best moment this week? SHE MOVED!! Orrr....she's moving and I feel it now! HA!
Miss Anything? Patio time and running especially this week!
Movement? That's affirmative!
Food Cravings? Sweets, cakes, pies, pretty much anything that you could find at your local delicious bakery. I made some cupcakes this week that were TO DIE FOR and could have literally buried my face in them, I should be banned from baking indefinitely!
Anything making you queasy or sick? Not really. Considering altering this section to " new things that are driving you crazy that you don't understand". This would include this week the constant watering of my right eye..What is that seriously?? Got to be a hormone thing but it's literally All.The.Time!
Have you started to show yet?  Ladies and gents, we have a BUMP!
Gender? Girl!
Labor signs? No
Belly Button in or out? In
Wedding rings on or off? On
Happy or moody most of the time? Mostly happy but the first of this week was a little blue for me, not sure why but I just wasn't feeling it. Work. Exercise. Cooking. Anything!
Looking forward to? Spring cleaning our house and getting O's "room to be" empty to start on her baby boudoir.


This week we have the sensation of movement! I think I would actually say that this is the first week that I'm definitely sure. Why you ask, because I didn't just pick up on subtle movements...Nope, this was a definite jolt. Almost like a punch. I have to say it was the weirdest most awesome thing I have ever felt! I was truly amazed. So know that I can feel her move it's pretty cool to distinguish her patterns. It seems like she starts getting active just right after I wake up and is usually moving around a good bit until after breakfast. And then it's like it just disappears all together until bedtime. As soon as I lay down for bed I feel her squirming and moving. Definitely cool!


In other news we had a little outing this week with the friendos to celebrate Robby's birthday which was the 14th as well as St. Patrick's Day. Robby's request was to go anywhere with pizza and a patio. I got right on checking into what would suit us best and we landed at US pizza Hillcrest location. Although the patio was too full that night for our large group we still had some amazing pizza and an excellent time might I add. Here are some pics from our night out.

Me and the girls-minus Kristen and Jessica at the end of the table

Had to have a pitcher of green beer on St. Patty's Day

The guys being very festive!

Scenes from a CAT bus stop in Hillcrest

Justin was feeling a little Captain-ish

I really DO love Hillcrest..esp in the springtime!

HAPPY ST. PATTY'S DAY!!!

Always a good time with this bunch! Also as a side note, I couldn't leave out this little milestone. We got to do this for the first time ever!




Yay! This trip also shed lots of new light for dad to be. We did a quick tour of babies r us and let's just say someone was underestimating the amount of supplies a little baby needs. It was pretty hilarious. I gave a nice little one hour informational hands on demo based on the very basic knowledge I have. Mom and dad are learning as we go!
Cheers,
Kelly

18 weeks...here we GROW!

How far along? 19 weeks
Weight loss/gain? 12 pounds, Dr. B was really happy with it and so was I
Maternity clothes? Hence the reason for this weeks chalkboard title, the search for maternity basics definitely began this week
Stretch Marks? No but I had a minor freak attack when I could've swore I saw three in an area I haven't even gained weight at. Jason assured me I was a lunatic and after I checked and re-checked, I realized they were marks from the way I had been sitting that morning. Pregnancy has made me crazy!
Sleep? Still sleeping well, and feeling extra tired this week for some reason
Best moment this week? Finally getting some response when I tell my patients I'm pregnant. Such as, "I thought you might have been but I hated to ask" maybe approaching the end of weird chubby phase pregnancy
Miss Anything? The usuals : ( 
Movement? Still not 100% but I think we are getting closer to making that connection. The feelings are becoming a little more noticeable
Food Cravings? Sweets and fruits like crazy as normal. I also was really hungry for mexican this week. which I ate. and made myself feel terrible later. Goal accomplished!
Anything making you queasy or sick? Nothing major food wise this week, the HH's (headaches and heartburn) have been at an ultimate high this week
Have you started to show yet?  Yes! I can definitely tell a difference this week
Gender? Girl!
Labor signs? No
Belly Button in or out? In
Wedding rings on or off? On
Happy or moody most of the time? Happy! 
Looking forward to? Tackling planning and the continuance of warmer weather. This time of year makes me giddy!


Well...here I am, in my first complete maternity outfit, jeans and top! I have had to start searching for a few pieces to start my collection. My stuff that still fits just doesn't seem to accentuate the right areas if you know what I mean. Tends to be too tight in all the wrong places. I bought my first pair of maternity jeans in white because first of all, I love white jeans, and second, spring and summer is a comin' and I think I will get so much use out of these. I have also bought just a couple basic tops such as this one in the picture because I can wear it casually and also wear them to work with my scrub pants. I'm still waiting to get my new pants in from the scrub shop but can't wait to see how they work. I got to order any color I wanted since we can wear colors of our choice at my job. At the hospital we had a choice of two colors so that's about the only colors I have for scrubs and have still been wearing those same two colors for the most part since I switched jobs. Scrubs are EXPENSIVE and I'm CHEAP, haha so I make them last till they have literally no life left in them.

This week we also had a checkup at the doctor and my official anatomy scan ultrasound. WOO HOO! ; ) I have to admit it was a little underwhelming seeing as though we had just seen her a week or so before. In addition to that, she was head down and really hiding her face a lot. It was hard to even get a decent face shot. But the great news was that anatomically she looked great. I had worried about her kidneys because of my kidney issues I was born with and just seeing so many ultrasounds day after day just makes you that much aware of what can go wrong developmentally. Needless to say I was watching that screen, viewing her head to toe with a fine tooth comb. Happy to report that everything looked great and she weighed an estimated 7 oz! Yep, 7 oz is about all I can blame on her from my 12 pound weight gain. But I wouldn't have it any other way. Just knowing she is growing healthy and on track was the most important info of the day! 

This week we also took a trip to Louisiana to see my wonderful family. Me, Jason, Randi, and the kids went to mine and Randi's grandma's (who I call mom, who Brady calls "mommy's granny") and had a delicious lunch and then headed over to my Uncle Dennis and Aunt Cindy's for an afternoon of visiting and kids playing. My cousins Kyle and Kim were like mine and Randi's best friends growing up and we spent so much time together as kids. Kim has three children Ella, Addison, and Sam and Brady and Aiden LOVE playing with them in Aunt Cindy's backyard. It was a little chilly in LA but we sat on the porch the whole afternoon watching them play. We always have the best time there and I am always sad to leave. Every time I think, gosh how awesome would it be if we just lived a lot closer to each other. The kids always have the best time and the adults lots of laughs as well. Great memories from that backyard for sure!

Well, that's about all I've got. Hopefully, some plans will start to formulate soon and I will have some more exciting updates!

Cheers,

Kelly 

17 Weeks

How far along? 17 weeks
Weight loss/gain? +9-10 pounds, will find out for sure at next weeks appt.
Maternity clothes? Still loving the one pair of maternity leggings and two maternity camisole tanks I bought. They are SUPER long and sooo comfy, I could live in them
Stretch Marks? Nope
Sleep? Sleeping great other than the sinus/allergy crap I'm dealing with this week
Best moment this week? Finding out Little O is a girl! Happy to be saying "her and she" instead of "it"
Miss Anything? The beautiful weather we are having and Spring coming makes me miss so much...SHOPPING, running, happy hour...even still, my favorite time of year is approaching!
Movement? Sometimes I think I feel it but I'm still not 100% sure and now that's become my latest concern. I find myself worried about her almost more now than before
Food Cravings? Brownies, ugh! Always a favorite in my book but lately I've wanted to literally skip dinner in exchange for a few brownies
Anything making you queasy or sick? Oven roasted turkey. random. But Jason bought oven roasted instead of smoked at the grocery store this week and I couldn't even make it through one sandwich...there's a big difference in case you didn't know.
Have you started to show yet?  Little baby bump. Definitely poking out there
Gender? Girl!
Labor signs? No
Belly Button in or out? In
Wedding rings on or off? On
Happy or moody most of the time? Happy! Planning is starting, Spring is coming, our social calendar picks back up this time of year...who couldn't be happy?
Looking forward to? So much! Planning the nursery, picking a name, and feeling the baby move indefinitely


17 Weeks and moving along. We did the big gender reveals to family and friends this week and had just so much fun doing that. I know that every single child is special but I know we won't ever forget all the special things we did and announcements we made for our first baby ever. This is such a big time for any couple in their lives and I am having the most fun documenting each step. I hope she appreciates reading back on all of these things later in life. I also hope that I continue to be dedicated to it through her life and the lives of her siblings. I know how that goes though and life tends to take us by storm and things don't work out the way we hoped. But for now, I can hope! Not too much to tell this week other than that #1 I have become a sweets maniac....NOT. GOOD. FOR. THE. WAISTLINE. I've always had a sweet tooth but it seems it's kicked into overdrive lately. I'm trying to let myself enjoy some pregnancy conveniences without going overboard. What in the world was I thinking when I ordered those girl scout cookies...haha. So I wanted to share two items that I have found to be super delicious yet still decent in the calorie department.

Ok, these things are FAB!! Anyone who loves strawberry will crave these after one bite. They are only 80 calories and super filling and taste like fresh strawberries. They are even made with fresh fruit frozen in. LOVE THEM. Now if I could just stop eating one a night...even at 80 cals each, I'm sure I don't need one every single night.

And THESE! Mmmmm mmmmm mmmm.....A co-worker turned me on to these and I've been hooked since. I love chocolate and raspberry together and this gives me a great chocolate fix. And at 140 cals for 3 cookies, I don't think that's too bad at all. Plus it has 8g of whole grain. I also hear the cranberry citrus is good but I don't like cranberry. I am tempted to try the blueberry brown sugar one but I love these so much I don't know if I can. Oh and watch out, they are kinda pricey. $3.50 a bag at Walmart I believe. Don't worry, we will still be making the splurge, they are that worth it! Trust me!

And since I got off on my sweet tangent above and forgot to mention #2....that would be, the fact that I am totally frustrated with maternity clothes. This includes but is not limited to: how to buy them, where to find them, why are they so stinking expensive, why can't I just buy bigger sizes in regular clothes, and why should I buy things now that I will just have to re buy later when I get bigger. As of right now I can still wear basically my whole wardrobe with the exception of a few work items. I can tell they have very little life left in them and it's about time to upgrade. Jeans are the same, still fitting but starting to get snug. And right now I'm just sorta at an awkward phase between looking chubby and looking pregnant. I think it's going to work itself out soon enough for sure but this week left me sorta frustrated in the clothing department...namely on the search for work shirts to wear with my scrub pants. I did order a couple new scrub pants to get me started so I'm excited to see how those work out! Any tips anyonw? I could sure use 'em! I've been grilling my pregnant patients on all of their cute maternity finds : )

Since we found out the gender lots of people have asked "well, have you already started going nuts shopping?" and the answer is, no, not really yet. I've bought a few things but I'm still kinda figuring all of this out really. However, I had to share one outfit we received. One of my oh so sweet co-workers from the hospital bought Little O the most precious outfit as a gift to us for finding out the gender. She left it for me at the hospital when I worked on Friday....

Oh my goodness! I about died!! How CUTE! And I have to add that this is also her very first tutu! How special is that? Totally love it! 

Cheers,

Kelly

It's a................

THAT'S RIGHT.....It's a GIRL!!!!! Our little sweetie finally decided to show her stuff, makes sense that she was just being ladylike and shy all that time! We are super thrilled and actually a little surprised! I was definitely thinking this would be a boy and boy was I wrong! Since this is the first girl on my side of the family we will be experiencing some new adventures. And we already have a niece on Jason's side of the family who is super excited and is going to make a great little friend and, later, babysitter to our girl. The picture above shows how we revealed to everyone. I absolutely LOVE this picture! Thanks to my BF Jessica for being our photographer and making it look all professional. It's exactly how I hoped it would be. Here is a picture right after we got all the pretty pink balloons. Definitely an exciting moment for us that I don't want to forget.

After we took the photo we set the balloons free as a sort of symbolic measure....symbolic for what? I'm not really sure, but we did it anyway!

So, as soon as we were finally able to confirm the news. We headed to tell the grandparents and totally caught them by surprise. We kept it to ourselves just exactly when we try to make our next attempt at finding out simply because, at this point, we weren't sure when we were going to get our final answer. So we went straight to the cupcake store and brought three little pink cupcakes all wrapped up like this



And inside the boxes held these sweet little treats!



First place we went was to tell my mom, Nettie, that is. My goodness.....talk about a happy woman. Do you think these pictures capture it????





: ) Such a happy exciting moment. We had so much fun surprising her and even better that we met her at my grandma's so she got to get in on the fun as well. Next stop was to Lorraine and Doyle's, AKA Nana and Pa. Pa was asleep getting rested up for work but we still surprised nana with her cupcake and she was very excited! She also informed us that she had already bought Little O her first Christmas dress, before she even knew the gender! : ) We visited for a short minute and headed out the door to get back to Benton. Next stop was to see my sister. She had invited me over anyway for a girls night just to get some takeout and visit for the night. This worked out perfectly since I planned on making a surprise stop by there anyway. Randi and I ordered takeout from the local Mexican place and I knew that I didn't wanna just whip it out in the middle of our getting the dinner process so I tucked away her cupcake and prayed we wouldn't get on the topic of the baby....WRONG-O...of course we did. No secret here that our little baby had proven to be quite stubborn so of course, sister wanted the details on the failed attempts....it was literally killing me, I wanted to scream out, but I KNOW NOW!!!!!!!!!! Instead, I waited for the perfect moment to catch her off guard. As we were cleaning up our dinner mess and about to head to the couch for some visiting. I told her it was time for dessert and pulled out the cupcake box from my bag. "Guess whaaaat, the gender of your niece or nephew lies in this box....." Naturally she ripped right into it and started jumping up and down like a little girl with her biggest Christmas wish lying right under the tree! It was AWESOME!!! So wish I would have had a video of that one. But it was a special moment for both of us! We spent the evening hashing over the details and such and just enjoying some girl time.....just the three of us ; ) Lastly, we shared with Leslie, Jeff, Zack and Allison by making a quick visit to their house. We thought it would be fun to wrap the surprise up in an envelope and let Allison unwrap and announce it. Everyone was super excited that we could finally put a gender and maybe somewhat of a personality to this baby.

The VERY last reveal was to our wonderful friends. Friends like family that is. For this we decided to have everyone over for dinner and a small reveal party. Nothing extravagant. Just an intimate little gathering with several Papa John's pizzas delivered and a crock pot of cheese dip! I decided it would be fun to get my girls in on the action so I re-used our little box from the picture, stuffed some more pink balloons inside, and let them rip it open to reveal the surprise. They were ALL on pins and needles as they had been dying just as much as me to know what the baby was going to be. After all, we spend so much time together this baby already has about a half dozen aunts and uncles from this crowd alone, along with built in cousins and best friends. We needed to know if there was going to be one more boy to add to this mix or else another little girl. Right now we have 3 girls and 2 boys. Here are some pictures from the reveal.

The box with the surprise inside

TA-DA!!!  The big news is out! I have to say that even though the vote was split, or actually mostly boy on this particular night, most people were guessing girl. Even Jason. Looking back now, I remember talks Jason and I would have about children and he would always say, our first child is gonna be a girl. I would sarcastically reply, "ooookay....how do you know?" His reply, "I just know, you'll see" Guess you were right babe...I must say, what else is new? Pay attention now little O, this will be the exact thing that drives you crazy when you're 16 years old!

To sum it up, I think this picture captures it all. I went back to the chalkboard at the end of the night and snapped this pic of the altered result. I love the little "so excited" message one of the aunties added ; ) yes, sweet darling, you are loved! Are we excited? Of course. Are we nervous? Most definitely!!

Cheers and Tutus,
Kelly