17 Weeks!

How far along? 17 Weeks
Total weight gain/loss: Again, no idea, my next appointment is coming up this Monday though.
Maternity clothes? I am finally at the point where the hair-tie trick doesn’t work on my skinny jeans anymore…so we’re back to bigger jeans and sweatpants until I’m big enough for my maternity jeans.
Sleep: I usually sleep on my side, but I have been making an effort in the last few weeks to NOT sleep on my back, so that I’m ready for when I shouldn’t be sleeping on my back. But I’ve been waking up with these weird cramps in my hips and legs down to my knee on the side I’m sleeping on. So then I switch and wake up another couple of hours later to switch again because the cramps have moved to the other side… weird? I know. 
Best moment this week: Hm…that would have to be putting up our Christmas tree and putting presents underneath! (yes, I’ll have you know that I’m ALL done with my Christmas shopping – just waiting on 2 things to come in the mail and then I’ll have everything wrapped too! I know, I’m so good ;)
Miss Anything? I miss wearing a belt. Random, but a belt is too tight, but then my pants are loose in the back so any top tucked in comes back out really easy and it’s driving me crazy!
Food cravings: SALAD! I’ve been eating lots of salad. I was a big salad eater anyway, but that’s been my go-to for the last 2 weeks. It helps that my mom introduced me to this life-changing-good new salad dressing she found at Wegmans. Seriously delicious. It’s called Garlic Expressions. And there are like 7 full cloves of garlic floating around in the bottle. OH yum. I just have to smell it to want to eat something with that deliciousness on it. My mouth is watering just typing about it. But I just had a salad like an hour ago…
Anything making you queasy or sick: Nope! Hurray!! Loving this new I’m-not-sick-all-the-time thing. 
Have you started to show yet: My little bump is a little bigger! I’m excited for it to get bigger. I’m kind of tired of people telling me I don’t look pregnant, because um, hello?! My waist does NOT look like this normally! ;)
Belly Button in or out? In
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy! Very grateful I’m not crazy hormonal (though we might need to ask John to validate that statement) At least…I don’t think I’ve been hormonal…maybe I’ve had a few moments…but don’t we all? ;)
Looking forward to: We are down to a week and a half until we find out what our baby is!!! But, I suppose I should tell you all now…we’re not telling ANYONE until Christmas. It’s going to be a fun Christmas surprise for our families – I of course have something super cute planned out. So get your ranting and raving about it out of the way because if my mom can’t drag it out of me before Christmas…trust me, no one can ;)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Were you getting bored of just weekly photos on the blog too? Good, because I missed this past week. I was a little busy eating, baking and shopping till I dropped. Everyday. Which will also explain the appalling lack of photos of the week. So sorry. I’ll be back to weekly pregnancy photos next week. And then I’m going to have to get a little creative until Christmas…because I got nothin’ else blog-worthy going on. ;)

Anyway, we had an awesome Thanksgiving weekend with my family in Virginia. I actually went down with my mom last Friday since she got the week off of student teaching and didn’t have to go back up for those few days before Thanksgiving Thursday. Those few days before John joined us Wednesday were filled with shopping and baking and crafting. My parents splurged and got a 12ft (fake) Christmas tree for the family room (with its 18ft ceilings) to decorate this year. The thing is HUGE. And since it was the only 12 footer Lowe’s had left – it was the display – it didn’t come with a box or a bag to store it in. The nice Lowe’s guy gave them $50 off…but how they end up storing when it comes down after the holidays remains to be seen. ;) We decorated early in the week because of some plans (which I will tell you about in a minute) on the Friday after Thanksgiving and the house needed to look all spiffy and decorated. But seriously, did I mention the tree is huge?! I mean, I’m only 5’ 1” but this should help give you some perspective on the ginormousness of this awesome tree:

Isn’t it beautiful?! It totally looks like one of those fancy trees you see in fancy hotel lobbies ;)

Mom and I had a girl’s crafting get together with some friends and neighbors and we made cookies and ornaments and a personal favorite – Hershey’s kisses trees!

There was more shopping and decorating, and my mom confessed that she can’t go out shopping with me anymore because I make her buy all sorts of extra stuff. Not true. I only make suggestions ;)

John joined us Wednesday night and it was so wonderful to have him with us! Thursday was of course, our Thanksgiving feast. My dad got a smoker for his birthday and smoked the turkey this year. We did have to put it in the oven after a few hours, but it turned out super tasty. We stuffed ourselves silly and without even bothering to do the dishes (though we did put the leftovers away) we all crashed and took naps. We cleaned up afterwards ;)

It was a good thing we took our naps, because we had a crazy night of shopping! Now, I don’t think I would normally go out Thursday night for Black Friday shopping (weren’t we supposed to be thankful for what we already have on this day?!), but Mom and I were on a mission. And I am still feeling quite thankful for all my blessings ;) Walmart had some sales events happening Thursday night on items we were specifically looking for. My laptop shorted and crashed several weeks ago (would have had to replace the motherboard for the price of a new laptop – blech), and I was desperately looking for a good deal on a new laptop. Bingo! Walmart was selling HP laptops for a killer price starting at 10pm Thursday night. Mom was looking for a specific gift (that I will not mention) for a member of my family (who will remain anonymous) and a printer. Both of which went on sale at Walmart for a limited time Thursday night.

So Walmart on Thursday night it was. And it was crazy. There were people and pallets of product EVERYWHERE. The biggest challenge was finding where they were selling the laptops and printers and things because nothing was sold in its normal spot. And the poor Walmart employees really had no idea where anything was. I found my laptop at the jewelry counter. And I got the very. last. ticket. They had a limited number of laptops and was giving out that same number of tickets and I got the last one!! Feeling pretty thankful about that too ;) So I scored my new laptop and just finished getting all my favorite programs and files and things on it today. Hurray!

Once we got back from Walmart, we still stayed up for an online sale for my Christmas present from my parents to go live at midnight. I’m getting a Silhouette CAMEO!!!!!!!!!

I. am. so. excited. You know my lovely cricut machine? That I cut all my vinyl on? It has had a good long life (it still works) but I’m getting an upgrade! The CAMEO is like the Lamborghini of die cut machines. And the site had 50 machines to sell at their awesome Black Friday price. And I got one!!!!!!!!!! Only to get an email later that morning saying my order was on hold because my credit card had been denied (crazy Black Friday purchases) and would be processed as soon as I gave them the correct info (it was correct). THEN I saw on the Silhouette website that they had a better deal. So we canceled the first order and bought the one from the Silhouette website. So we didn’t even have to stay up till midnight. Oops. ;) Oh well. But overall, I’d say the evening/stretched to the next morning was a SUCCESS! So excited about my new toy coming in the mail in a week or two!!

Friday was the reason the house was already decorated for Christmas. It was time for our annual Come by for Pie party! (I made this for the invitation on Photoshop :)

We had a cute little poem to go with it too. Because we’re cool like that. And I suppose I’m obligated to mention (this is for you, Amy) that we had more than just pie. We had cheesecake and banana bread and sugar cookies. But they didn’t fit in the poem! ;) But the pie party was a success, unless you count my apple pie’s filling overflowing onto the floor of my parent’s oven and smoking up a storm…AFTER guests had arrived. *how embarrassing!* The pie was fine…the oven is not… so sorry mom… :S But we had a wonderful evening visiting with friends and eating pie..and cheesecake, and banana bread, and cookies… ;)

Saturday was cleaning up and relaxing and after far too long, I got my hair cut. My bangs are now once again under control. Thank goodness! We spent the afternoon going to see Wreck-it Ralph and we loved it! Then it was time to pack up and get ready to go home the next day.

I am feeling so grateful for my Savior, my friends and my family this year and especially for this amazing opportunity to have our baby. We are so very blessed and I hope all of you have had a wonderful holiday weekend!

15 Weeks!

 

How far along? 15 Weeks
Total weight gain/loss: No idea, won't know the new numbers until Dec!
Maternity clothes? Still normal clothes, I'm so glad I get a few more weeks of regular jeans :)
Sleep: I'm not waking up at 4 starving anymore, so this is definitely an improvement
Best moment this week: Making it through my first full week without getting sick! Hurray! But another super awesome thing would be when I experienced a very strange sensation in my tummy the other day and realized later after reading in one of my pregnancy books that that could have been baby MOVEMENT! How cool!!! (Just humor me, I could have that totally wrong, but I'd much rather think of it as movement than some really weird bubble of gas doing somersaults in my stomach...)
Miss Anything? Not really missing too much this week...unless you count snow this early in the season!
Food cravings: Still nothing specific, but I've noticed my go to snacks are salty, like chips and salsa, pickles, french fries, etc.
Anything making you queasy or sick: Nope, not really! And I can't even express how happy I am to be feeling a little more normal!
Have you started to show yet: I have a little bump! Yay! Though I suspect it might have less to do with the baby, and more to do with all the extra calories I'm packing away because I'm still hungry all the time. Oh well...at least I'm starting to look a little more pregnant :)
Belly Button in or out? In
Happy or Moody most of the time: Feeling very happy now that I'm not sick all the time! Woo hoo!
Looking forward to: Spending Thanksgiving with my family and getting closer and closer to finding out what gender our baby is!!!!!

14 Weeks!

HURRAY! I'm officially in my second trimester!! I'm definitely pretty excited about that! :) I tried freehanding (is that a word?) my chalkboard design this week (I had been using a stencil for the numbers and "weeks") and I can definitely use some practice...but maybe by the end of the pregnancy I'll be a pro! 

How far along? 14 Weeks
Total weight gain/loss: I think total gain is about 5 pounds so far. I am typically 105, now I'm almost 110.
Maternity clothes? Nope, but I discovered the hair tie trick so that I can wear my cute jeans a little longer! HURRAY!
Sleep: Blech. And now I wake John up too when I make my several bathroom trips. So sorry my love.
Best moment this week: We heard the baby's heartbeat on Monday!!!!! It was soooooo cool. John said "it sounds like an alien!" Well...it is a little creature... ;)
Miss Anything? Not having to burp like 50 times after I eat.
Food cravings: Hm...no cravings this week. Except for wanting to eat that clearance candy...but I was like that before I got pregnant :)
Anything making you queasy or sick: Nothing in particular, although I don't think my tummy appreciated my choice of snack this morning (a granola bar and then about 15 minutes later, a pickle. What?! It's what I wanted at the time!) so it was definitely saltines for lunch today until tummy decided to forgive me.
Have you started to show yet: I'm getting a little bitty bump! You can't tell too much because of my sweater, but it's very exciting!
Belly Button in or out? In
Happy or Moody most of the time: Still happy :) John's pretty glad I'm not crazy hormonal!
Looking forward to: Thanksgiving and feeling better!

13 Weeks!

Alright. So I'm late again. Because my chalkboard is Halloween-y...and that was yesterday. Oh well. Here goes ;)

How far along? 13 Weeks
Total weight gain/loss: Still don’t know as my appointment was canceled due to the hurricane. Oops.
Maternity clothes? No, but I can only wear a certain pair of jeans because they are the only ones that don’t feel too tight…but they are still a little big for me, so they sag…ew. ;)
Sleep: Still not fabulous, but that’s pretty normal for me…
Best moment this week: It was going to be hearing the baby’s heartbeat at my doctor’s appointment on Tuesday, but since that got canceled, I have to wait until Monday. Oh well.
Miss Anything? Feeling normal (ha!)
Food cravings: I really wanted sour skittles this week. And I finally got them when all the Halloween candy went on clearance at Target. Hee hee
Anything making you queasy or sick: I guess I should clarify from last week that the only thing that actually makes me queasy it being too hungry. When I said eating made me sick, it makes me bloated (as in gassy (sorry if that’s TMI) as in I’m burping all the time (my sister-in-law would be proud))
Have you started to show yet: Not really…the only time I look like I am is after I’ve eaten. And I’m bloated. Bleeechhhh ;)
Belly Button in or out? In
Happy or Moody most of the time: Pretty happy, I haven’t really gotten moody, but it can sure get you down when you feel like crap all the time…
Looking forward to: *Hopefully* feeling better by next week! I’ll be in my second trimester! Woo hoo!!