Week 15

It has been awhile since I have blogged...well honestly, I had forgotten to blog. My mind is nowhere like it use to be. I forget things left and right, which is another symptom of pregnancy (so I have been told).

So I am 15 1/2 weeks today...or something like that! My belly is growing and I officially have a little baby bump! :) I do not have any news from the doctor as I do not go visit her until next Thursday! Next weeks visit will consist of the baby's heart beat. I will find out the sex on May 1st and honestly cannot wait! I am pretty sure it is a boy but I could be wrong. Sometimes I second guess myself when I get to over analyzing it! :)

In other news, I have gotten back into exercising a little bit. I guess something is better than nothing! It is a slow process but it is starting to come back. Some other good news, it looks like we will be in NC June 15-24 to see friends, family, attend our High School Reunion, get Maternity pictures taken, have a baby shower, and do various other things. It will be loads of fun but busy!

I know this is short, but I will write more next week after the doctors visit! :)

Weeks 11 & 12

I know, I know. I am behind. The past two weeks have been extremely busy with work and being sick. Now that things are starting to look brighter I have finally gotten the chance to sit down and write.

Week 11 was a decent week other than being sick. Baby Old was the size of a Lime, but now that we are in Week 12 Baby Old is the size of a Plum. It is getting pretty big! The doctor said Baby Old was perfect and healthy with a heartbeat of 158. According to the scale I have not really gained weight but my mid section is no longer a pretty area anymore. I guess that comes with the belly. :)

Things are getting better. I do not get sick anymore (knock on wood) and my energy is slowly coming back. I am still pretty exhausted at the end of the day but I am still pretty productive.  Only a couple more days and then I am done with the first trimester (4 to be exact!!!) The time is really starting to fly by. I should find out the sex in about 5 1/2 weeks...so around May 1st! I cannot wait! I thought I had a feeling I knew what it was but I really do not anymore. Maybe that will change.

Other than that, things are going well. Thanks for all of your encouraging words and advice. I have appreciated it! :)

Week 10

Week 10 is already here! Time has really flown by. Two more weeks and the first trimester will be over! I cannot wait! I am still waiting on my energy to return! :)

This week was a pretty stressful week. We ended up moving over the weekend which was lots of fun (note sarcasm). Very thankful for friends that helped us move since I was working pretty much the entire time. Without them it would not have happened. So thank you!

On Sunday I started getting sick with a Sinus Infection, which I am sure was due to the cold weather that came out of nowhere! It was literally 70 degrees on Thursday and then like 30 degrees on Friday. It was crazy! Luckily it is warm again.

So on top of that, my sweet Grandma Hi-Ho passed away on Monday. She had fought for many years and finally was taken to be with her God. I know she is in a much better place, but it still really hurts. She was such a great human being! She loved to clog, help people, laugh, cook, and serve her Lord. She was married 57 years to my Grandpa Hi-Ho and was a great role model in every aspect. I only hope I am privileged enough to see 57 years of marriage.

It is really hard to lose a relative. As I write this I realize that this is the second grandparent I have lost in a matter of a year and 4 relatives I have lost within the last three years. That's tough. Family will not be around forever so if you do still have family you should really cherish those moments. When they are gone...that is it. All you will have are memories.  No more cooking together, or chatting about when they where young, or getting advice from what I would consider an expert on life. Cherish the moments, even if they are stupid to you. They will mean wonders later.

I'll get off my soap box now...

Back to pregnancy and the wonders of the 1st trimester....what are we kidding? Wonders? I mean yes it is neat how my baby is growing, but there is nothing happy about the actual physical and emotional toll it has on your body. At least for me anyways.  LOL! I am hopeful though that I get my energy back soon. Everyone says it comes back so I will take your word on that. :)

Oh, did I mention that Baby Old is the size of a prune? Yeah, pretty neat, huh? Oh...and there is no more tail and we have toes and fingers now! Yay! Our baby looks like a human and not a tadpole now! Good news! :)

Well besides that....everything is good. James is good. Ella is....well lazy and sleeping beside me as we speak. Everything else in the Old World is good! :)

Week 9

Today marks week 9! Woohoo! The closer to the end of the first trimester the more excited I get. I will say that since I have been to the doctor and and have gotten some medicine, I have felt a ton better. I still get sick, but not as often as I did beforehand.

Speaking of medications...I was given two meds: Zofran for the daytime and another one for nighttime. I cannot remember the name. My doctor told me that it may be wise to cut the pill in half because half a pill will knock her out for 8 hours. Well boy was she right. Let's just say that I woke up on the toilet one night. I am not sure how I got there or how long I had been there. It was quite humorous!

This week Baby Old is the size of an Olive and no longer has a tail! That is exciting! :) I enjoy reading each week what is happening to our Baby. It is pretty neat if you think about it.

Life is going well. Still not really exercising but my doctor says I should get my energy back in about 3 weeks. I look forward to that time! I miss working out but the energy is still really lacking. I have not really been craving anything substantial, in my opinion. I am still not eating totally healthy but I have read that is normal as well.

Well that is all for now! I will write again next week! Have a great week everyone!

Your First Picture

Today was the best day so far! It was the first picture of Baby Old. Since I have been so sick it has been really hard for me to be excited about being pregnant. Don't get me wrong, I am excited, but this first visit made it so real!

Baby Old looks like a gummy bear right now. As soon as the ultrasound started Baby Old started wiggling and the doctor was able to see and hear the heart beat. The heart beat was 173! It was really fast and a really neat thing to here. It made it all very real for me. It brought tears to my eyes. The doctor said that Baby Old was perfect!

Although I have been extremely sick still, I was able to get some medication.  After seeing Baby Old, all the sickness in the world is worth it. :)

I know this is a short post, but I wanted to give a quick update! Oh, and the due date is now October 2nd! :)

Week 7

Today marks 7 weeks! It is going by pretty fast (except for mornings). I would like to say that the morning sickness has resided, but unfortunately, it has made permanent residence in my life. I thought things were changing because the last two days I have been able to manage it. I was still very nauseous but I was able to keep things down. Today was a different story. It is back in full force. I am so terrified because James graduates tomorrow and I want to be there so bad, but I can not imagine being in a car for 2.5 hours with no escape. I am going to pack everything in my house and take it with me in hopes that God will grant me just a few hours of peace so I can see my husband walk across a stage as he accomplishes another goal so early in his career.  I have been to all of his graduations so far and I do not want to miss this one.

I just realized today that we go to our first appointment 1 week from today. I am pretty excited! I cannot wait to hear/see the baby (or what I will refer to as a blueberry right now....or so that's what my book says).    :)

So with being sick, I have somehow managed to gain 2 pounds. Not sure how that is possible....of course I haven't checked my weight in a couple of days. No baby bump yet, although it looks as though I have one because I stay bloated-which is normal from what I have read.  Foods that I cannot be around right now are Eggs and Burgers. I was eating eggs almost everyday since I was on the Paleo Diet (which has been postponed until I stop throwing up). Now, the thought of eggs makes me want to throw up. The grocery store is also a pretty horrible place for me to go to right now. The smells hit me wrong.

Ella is doing well. She stays pretty close to me at all times of the day. Although right now she is looking pretty defeated as I gave her a bath because she smelled so bad. Now I need to work on her breath because it makes me want to throw up every time I get a whiff of it. Gross!

We are still trying to work out dates to go to NC in June. Hopefully we should know in the next week or so. When we find out, we will let everyone know.

I hope everyone has a great week. I will write again next week!

Morning Sickness has Arrived

So yesterday marked 6 weeks-sorry for the delay in posting. I have been extremely busy and sick. For the past week I spend my mornings sick and my afternoon/evenings at work. I am still extremely tired and am having a hard time sleeping through the night because I go to the bathroom about 5 times each night. LOL! I do have to laugh at that. I have always had a small bladder and I can only imagine how much worse it will get over the next couple of months.

This post probably isn't a very peppy post because I am honestly not feeling peppy...but rather sick. I can't seem to find any foods that will sit with me and I have tried just about everything. Hopefully this will all subside soon.

On a good note, James graduates next week so it will be good to have him home. It has been rough on some days having to take care of Ella (she is high maintenance-LOL!) and things around the house and work. Not to mention that our house is going to be torn down in the near (undetermined future). Sigh...

I am still very excited about our child. It makes the bad times easier to swallow. We go to our first doctors appointment in a week and 1/2. I am very excited about seeing our child for the first time and hearing the heart beat. :)

I have to go for now, but I wanted to write a quick update. I will write more next week! :)

Bun in the Oven

So I have decided that I will be blogging about our pregnancy. All of our family and friends are far away and I figured this would be a good way for 1.) Me to express myself and 2.) For family and friends to feel apart of our pregnancy. I can't promise you the blog will be worth reading or interesting, but none-the-less, entertaining, I'm sure.

I officially found out I was pregnant on January 24th, but I knew I was about a week before then. My body just felt strange and I have to admit that I am pretty in-tune with my body. I had some terrible cramping, and I couldn't sleep, and I was tired. Which is completely unlike me. I am normally on-the-go constantly. I am not the type to just sit around. So I guess I had a hunch.

So I am pregnant. I am tired. And I feel completely lazy. All I want to do is lay on the couch before going to work. Which drives me crazy because I like to be doing things. Don't get me wrong. I am so excited about being pregnant. I couldn't be happier, however, I just want my energy back! LOL!

Besides being tired, I have felt alright for the most part. I have gotten sick a couple times and night time for me is the hardest part of the day, but I am just trying to take it easy.

James and I are both excited about this new journey and cannot wait to share it with everyone! There will be many more blogs to come! :)

Reflection

I know as most of you see this post you are probably sighing because this is what everyone does on January 1st. We talk about regrets and what we plan to do differently...AKA...make resolutions. Yes, I intend on putting my resolutions in this blog, however; I will not be writing about regrets...rather moments from 2012 that have forever changed my life.  So sit back and read if you want, or don't. Either way, these are the top moments from 2012 in my life.

In April James left for Boot Camp. It was one of the hardest times of my life but also one of the best. I was lucky enough to have supportive friends and family that we there through the whole process. James going to Boot Camp was the first step in a new direction. A new life. A happier one. Not just for me, but for him. You see, for the previous year and a half, I was able to use my degree, he was not able to. So to know he was starting something that he worked so hard for, made me happy. It was the beginning.

Working at the CDL, now NDCDC was the best year ever. Yes, it was tough at times, but I met some really great friends who I will cherish for the rest of my life. I also worked with an age group that I had not had much experience with and discovered that I love infants. It was a real "eye-opening" year. So I would like to say thank you to everyone that played a part at the CDC. Love and miss you guys.

This year also had hard moments, but I like to look back on it in a different light. My grandpa passed away and it was really tough. James was in boot camp so I felt pretty alone. It wasn't his fault. It was just a really hard time for me. I had to face new challenges that I knew would one day happen-just did not know it would happen at that moment. In retrospect, it made me look back and realize that life is fragile. You should spend as much time with loved ones as you can. They will not be around forever. Enjoy the moments you have with them. They do not last forever. I will never forget the memories I had with him. He was a good man. I was recently reminded of him when I set up my train around our Christmas tree. He gave me that train and every year I will continually put it up for him.

In September I faced the biggest challenge. We moved to Alabama. A new place. No job. Very frustrated. But since the moment we arrived in Alabama we have met nothing but nice people. Everyone is super nice down here and very different from North Carolina. NC will always be near to my heart, but AL is home now. We have met some really great friends and I have been fortunate enough to earn two jobs, one working with the Boys & Girls Club and one working with the Youth Center on post. I am very fortunate and count my blessings.

In November, James lost his childhood pet. He tore me up knowing he was hurting. It was even harder knowing his sister was having a hard time and there was nothing I could say or do. Being 12 hours away can be hard sometimes. Although it was tragic, he is in a better place now.

While 2012 had good and bad, and happy and sad moments, there is not anything I regret. Regret would mean I did not make the choice at the time. Rather I did. I do not regret anything. I only learn. That is life and I will continue to do things that I will "learn from." If you regret things then you are not living life. Just learn from your mistakes and move on.

Now to the part that everyone hates reading. While this blog isn't really for anyone except me. Rather I am writing this so that I can be accountable for my actions and try to stick to them as best I can. None of my resolutions are terribly hard...they just take discipline which I know I can do. So here are my 2013 Resolutions:

1. I will limit my intake of red meat
2. I will exercise at least 3 days a week.
3. I will watch the words that come out of my mouth

Pretty simple list this year, but none-the-less, will take work. And to me, that is all that matters. I am going to try my best. That is all I can do.

So here is to 2013. I wish all of our friends and family a very Happy and Prosperous New Year!