BABY LUCAS: WEEK 7

You are officially the size of a blueberry!

This week we are finally into the single digits of our countdown until our sonogram. I think I can, I think I can! It's really fun to see the chain get smaller and smaller. The first thing I do every morning is change the number on the chalkboard and take off a link!

I'm still continuing to have nausea (it's usually worse when I wake up and in the evenings), but I haven't been getting physically sick - so thank you! All other symptoms are the same. Some days I wake up and am so exhausted the entire day. I really thought in the beginning I was oddly going to skip all of that, but it has caught up to me!

I did finally buy a belly band and tummy butter to help prevent stretch marks. I'm going to return the pair of maternity jeans I ordered since I didn't like the fit and try to continue wearing my jeans until it gets warmer!

We are taking our first bump photo this Sunday for our 8 weeks photo so I'll be posting that next week. I can't believe we are over the halfway mark of our first trimester and I can't wait to finally be able to tell my parents!

My gut feeling tells me you are a girl, but I could be wrong! It'll make our gender reveal party all the more exciting. I've already started to look into details to help pass the time. I love the theme of "what will you bee" since I secretly already call you little baby bee and I've always called Chris grizzly bear. And we all know both of those love honey :)

Hopefully we will be able to have the party around Easter, which will make that holiday an extra special one.

I just have to say I feel so appreciative to finally be pregnant. I feel like I have dreamed (literally) of this day for so long and have always imagined what it will be like, that it's almost bittersweet in the sense that it's already here and before the end of the year that new stage in our lives will have come and gone. You wish and daydream about these life events (graduating school, getting married, having kids) for so long that once they happen it feels like it went by in a blink of an eye. But the best part is that we will be holding the best miracle we could ever ask for. I can't wait to meet you!

BABY LUCAS: WEEK 6

Finally the time is starting to move a little quicker! It's so hard counting down the days until our first sonogram appointment. 

Nikki had sweet baby Rory on Sunday morning (January 18, 2015) and Chris and I had a little giggle that it was the first of many play dates our little one will have with her when we went to visit her at the hospital.

One of the hardest parts is not being able to tell our loved ones yet about the news. We decided to wait until after our first sonogram to tell my parents and sister. I'm usually the type that is happy to share and over-share things in our life, but I really want to make sure everything is perfect and the baby is healthy before we share the news. Plus, having a photo of our baby bee from the first sonogram when we tell the news is also really special. Chris is a little more cautious than me and is deciding if he feels comfortable telling his family before or after our trip to Cabo at the end of February.

Either way, we can't wait to see the reactions on everyone's face and we have a pretty good idea of how we are going to share the news individually and on social media. :)

This week my handy hubby finished the chalkboard! I'm so excited to start posting updates or making countdowns on it. I think it would also be a great spot to take some weekly photos.

The first trimester exhaustion has definitely hit me this week. Before this week I still had a ton of energy at work and this week I can't wait until it is time to go home. I'm trying to get in some gym time still, but find myself wanting to fall asleep by 8. I've also started to wake up once in the middle of the night to use the bathroom - so it's a good thing I am asleep by 9!

I have no desire to eat any meat that I cook and the cravings have officially started. All I want to eat is carbs and cereal with milk. I'm not sure if that's because I hadn't been eating any grains or dairy while being Paleo, but I gave in this week with bagels and cream cheese and a chic-fil-a sandwich.

Only two more weeks until we get to see your sweet face and hear your tiny heartbeat!

BABY LUCAS: WEEK 5

Hello, little one.

I officially turned five weeks on Sunday, 1/11. I did my first yoga class after finding out I was pregnant and I'm really excited to make yoga my new fitness routine. Thankfully Merritt offers prenatal yoga on Sunday mornings so I plan on attending my first class this weekend so I can see the modifications they suggest.

Monday was great! We got a call from Nurse Mitchell who confirmed my hcg levels doubled (Thursday they were 316 and Saturday they were 889) from my two blood tests and that my iron levels and charts look great. So I can officially breath a sigh of relief and stop worrying about the possibility of a miscarriage. 

Nothing new in terms to energy levels or symptoms. Chris would like the baby to start growing faster so he can see him/her in my belly, but I am completely fine with that not happening for at least another month :) Currently on my to-do list is deciding when we will start taking my bump photos and I'm starting to collect ideas on how I want to set them up. Luckily, Chris is really excited about documenting them so he will be my camera man!

I did score my first maternity jeans (not yet needed) since they were on sale. I feel like it may be hard to find a lot of unique and cute items so I'll just grab them here and there as I see them.

I can't stop wondering if the baby is a little she or little he! The suspense is almost as hard as waiting for our first sonogram appointment. I decided to make a chain countdown that we can use to countdown the days until our next appointment. We also took on the task of trying to build a chalkboard for our kitchen to document the latest week's happenings. I'll share once it's done!

BABY LUCAS: WEEK 4

Hello, sweet baby Lucas. 

Words can't describe how thankful and happy I am to have you growing inside of me!

This week you are certainly keeping us on our toes! Monday we found out our family of two is becoming a family of three. I took a test early in the morning on Monday and couldn't believe my eyes when I saw two lines. I've had times where I've felt exhausted, but for the most part I am just so excited to finally be pregnant that I am going 100 miles an hour :)

There are times throughout the week I will feel dizzy for a bit or nauseus, but that just means you are doing your job and growing strong! Ever since I have been pregnant I have been having crazy dreams! None about kids or being a mom, but strange, action-packed dreams.

I have been active in going to the gym and am looking forward to yoga on Sunday.

Tuesday night was scary. Before bed I noticed bright red spotting when I went to the bathroom. After researching online we felt the best decision was to get some rest and schedule an appointment with the doctor in the morning. I was terrified, but I knew keeping a positive outlook would keep my stress level down.

In the morning, the spotting became lighter and turned brown (which is good! brown = old blood). I made the appointment to meet with a midwife for that afternoon. We met with Nurse Mitchell for our appointment and I can't say enough how amazing she was. She made us feel so welcomed and at ease and explained that based on how things had been progressing she was 100% confident that everything was going to be fine. About 20-30% of women have spotting in their first trimester.

She went over the new parents information folder and answered all of our questions. We are going to request for her to be our midwife through the entire pregnancy on our next visit. We ended the appointment with hugs and scheduled blood work for two days to make sure the hcg levels were doubling, which signals that you are growing strong. Thursday and Saturday morning I had my blood drawn for testing and I can call Nurse Mitchell on Monday to check in on the results.

I'm confident everything is going to come back fine. I have been taking a test each day to make sure the line was getting stronger, and it has!

We also found out your estimated due date is September 13, 2015! 

We will know for sure once we have our first sonogram on February 5th and they take the measurements. :) I can't wait to see you for the first time!

HAPPY 2015 + A BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!

January 5, 2015. 

Today is the day we found out I am pregnant! I am still in complete shock and my heart feels like it is doing jumping jacks. 

I can't keep this smile off my face!

After three months of actively trying we can finally say our family of two is soon to be a family of three! I can't wait to hear your heart beat, see you on a screen and hold you in my arms. It feels like a dream come true.

This month we began using preseed, which I definitely believe helped us to conceive. I don't create a lot of natural CM and this mimics that. I was temping originally after our fertile week, but stopped once I saw a drop at 4DPO. A drop in temperature can mean fertilization or that the chances of you being pregnant aren't that great. It completely convinced me that this was going to be another month with disappointing news. At 10DPO I decided to take my temp one last time and was surprised to see it had jumped back up - which my temp the previous month at the same time was much lower. I track all of my information in an app called Glow and it suggested I take a pregnancy test at 11DPO. I knew there was a chance I could get a negative, even if I was pregnant. I could hardly sleep with the anticipation of going back to work the next day and taking the test.

When I woke up I went to the bathroom, peed in a cup so I could take multiple tests and as the first test was reading I was for sure it was negative. The control line was so dark. But, as the test got clearer my heart was racing since I could make out a second line. I immediately stuck the digital test in the cup and was second guessing myself until I finally saw the words "pregnant."

I ran into the bedroom screaming Chris' name (never a good idea to scream and wake someone up) and told him the news. His face was so sweet and the entire morning we were in shock that it finally has happened. This is it! Another September baby and Virgo is on it's way and I can't wait to meet him or her!