Part 7: 20 week ultrasound

June 6, 2012

During Darren's last week of school we got to have our 20 week ultrasound to find out the gender of our bundle of joy!

I was actually really nervous going into this ultrasound. I wanted everything to look perfect and have no surprises.

Darren and I were split on what the baby would be, but we knew one of us would be right!

And Darren won!

 

I wasn't too sure about posting this picture, but Darren wanted me to...guess he's a proud papa!

During most of the ultrasound he had his hands up by his face and tried repeatedly to get one of them into his mouth...

Everything ended up looking pretty good. During one scan his renal pelvis was measured to be a little too big, but apparently that's fairly common with boys and should resolve itself. (I guess it could've been measuring big due to a full bladder...). My midwives weren't worried about it, so they didn't even have me go back in for another scan. They said they'll have his pediatrician check it out when he's born and go from there. There's nothing they can do before he's born anyway.

It was fun to see our little guy for a third time and get started on name ideas! Which, by the way we will be keeping under wraps until he's born. We've got it narrowed down to two, but haven't decided on one for sure.

Part 6: My Birthday!

June 1, 2012

Pregnancy hormones wreaked havoc on me the morning of my birthday...

I had been craving cinnamon rolls for a few days, so I decided they would be the perfect birthday breakfast! I had every intention of starting the dough in the bread machine the night before, but my pregnant brain totally forgot until I woke up that morning.

I was totally bummed, and let a few tears flow, but got it all together and made them anyway. It took a couple hours, but I was so excited when they were in the oven making our apartment smell fantastic.

The timer went off and they were'nt quite done, so I put them back in for a couple minutes. Or what should have been a couple more minutes...once again, pregnant brain struck. I didn't set a timer, figuring I could watch the clock and pull them out on my own. Yea, pretty sure they were in there for at least another 5 minutes until they were nice and crispy brown. I cried. Again.

What a way to start off your birthday, right?! Especially since I was hating the fact that I'm now 2 years from 30. Well, it didn't get any better for a while...

Darren stopped by on his way from one school to the other to pick up his lunch, but he ended up not going back to work. While he was home I was getting a glass of water and somehow when I went to put it on the table I knocked it over and spilled water all over the floor. I lost it. It was not the day I had wanted and I felt like the day was going horribly wrong (As I write this now I'm actually laughing). Guess those hormones can do some funky things to your emotions :)

Since Darren decided to stay home for the afternoon he went out and got us lunch at Panera, and surprised me with these flowers when he got home...

It was so sweet. I'm pretty sure I cried for a fourth time, but this time they were happy tears!

For dinner we went to a local pizza place....

We'd never been there before, and it was actually pretty good. Definitely helped to redeem the day.

After dinner we went home for cake!

I was pretty specific this year with what I wanted: chocolate cake and vanilla frosting with those little chewy candies inside. Darren thought the combination was a little weird before he made it, but it was delicious! He did a great job.

After cake I opened the presents Darren got me, which I guess I didn't get a picture of. Anyway, he got me two baseball jerseys: a Washington Nationals Ryan Zimmerman red one, and a San Francisco Giants Buster Posey Orange Friday one. They actually hadn't arrived (from China) yet, so he printed off photos of them and wrapped them up. It was so fun to get them a few days later. I haven't worn them yet, they looked kinda funny to me over a huge belly.

The day didn't start off the best, but I will say it was one of the most memorable birthdays I've had. I'm just glad that I'm already laughing about how things went :)

Part 5: April Ultrasound

April 13, 2012

I had to go back for another ultrasound in April, at 12 weeks, to make sure that the bleed from March had resolved itself. We weren't about to complain though, since it meant we got to see our little guy again!

Profile shot

It was really fun to see him again, and this time we were actually able to make out more of his features. Everything continued to look great, and my due date became more flexible (according to his measurements, but not according to my doctor). He's either a big baby, or we'll be delivering in mid-October instead!

Part 4: Easter

April 8, 2012

We spent Easter down at my parents' this year. We went down a few days before since Darren was on Spring Break. I swear we did stuff, but apparently I didn't get any pictures on our camera.

The day before Easter we dyed eggs with my siblings. We did have an Easter basket that we took down with us and got out Easter morning.

It was really fun to spend time with my family, and to eat a yummy Easter dinner together. Too bad I don't remember what else we did...

We did get another picture for the bump album though.

11 1/2 weeks

Part 3: March

March 2012

The very beginning of the month we had a little scare though, when I noticed some blood one morning, at about 6 weeks along.

My midwives' office is fantastic though, and scheduled an ultrasound for me that afternoon. Darren was able to meet me at the office right after school and we got our first look at our little guy!

Everything looked good to the ultrasound tech, so they sent us home with our first picture and we felt SO much better.

Other than that, nothing much happened in March. At least I hope so, since that's the only picture I have for the month :)

Part 2: Cakes!

February 2012

I've wanted to take a Wilton cake decorating class for pretty much the past 10 years. I signed up for one when I was at BYU, but it was cancelled because not enough people signed up.

I didn't get around to trying again until my parents gave me a gift certificate for one for Christmas!

I signed up for one starting in January, but once again it was cancelled. I was hesitant to try a third time, but decided to go for it. This time it worked!

The first week we practiced frosting cookies, and then each week after that we had a cake or cupcakes to bring in and work on.

Week 2 - Borders

Week 3 - Flowers and Cupcakes

Week 4 - Everything!

I really enjoyed having something to look forward to every week, especially since I was miserable most days with morning sickness starting the middle of the month.

I want to do the next few courses, but I actually think I could manage those at home on my own. It was nice to have somewhere to go, but it was super easy and I probably could have taught myself with just the student manual. So glad I did it though!

Rewind, Part 1: Valentine's Day

So, I'm avoiding writing "Thank you" notes from our baby shower in California, and I finally got all of our pictures on the computer from the last 6 months, so...I guess it's time I updated this thing! Get ready for a bazillion updates over the next few days/weeks...

February 14, 2012

This year for our Valentine's Day celebrations, Darren and I decided we'd keep it relatively low key. We went out to dinner the Saturday night before, and decided to do dinner at home that night.

I decided to make a gift for Darren this year, and it took me weeks to do. I finally finished it a day or two before, and hid it in our closet.

We had planned on doing gifts and cards around dinner time, but as the morning evolved, our plans changed a little...

About 4am I got up, like I usually do, for a bathroom break. For really no reason (other than we had been trying for a few months) I decided to take a pregnancy test. I really didn't think anything would come of it. I wasn't late yet, so I figured it'd be too early to tell anyway. Boy was I wrong...

I swear I stopped breathing for a few seconds. It was one of those moments that you hope will come some day, but then you're staring at this stick in your hand and that moment is here, and you have no idea what to do.

I didn't want to wake Darren up, so I just set it on the counter hoping he would see it when he got up. Then I started wondering if it would still say "pregnant" when he got up a couple hours later, and on top of that there was no way I was sleeping knowing I had such huge news for him.

I think I was able to wait about an hour before I woke him up and told him I had something to show him. Of course, I didn't turn on the bedroom light so he couldn't see anything. Haha. He took it into the bathroom and came right back and gave me a huge hug. We were both so excited (and scared!) for this new change.

We both tried to lay back down and go to sleep, but that didn't happen. We decided to get up and I gave him the gift I had made him...

I am a pack rat and keep literally everything with any smidge of sentimental value, so I made him a scrapbook of everything we'd done in the preceeding 3 years. It was fun to go back and see how many baseball games we'd been to, how many moves we've made, and everything else we've done together.

The flyer for the FHE activity where we met, the putt-putt score card from our first date, and the movie ticket stub from our second date.

He surprised me with this beautiful flower arrangement...

Funny story about the flowers...Darren had ordered them from a florist online and asked them to be delivered during the day on the 14th. Unfortunately the florist was going to be super busy that day and decided to deliver them on Sunday, the 13th, without calling and asking him if that was ok. He was super upset, but I was surprised anyway, so I loved them!

He also had a photo of the Oakland Temple, taken by our wedding photographer, enlarged so we could hang it in our living room.

I had been wanting to do this for a long time, so I was thrilled when he went and did it for me! I love having it on our wall, and knowing it was taken the day we were married.

It was definitely a Valentine's Day we won't soon forget.

As a bonus, here's the first pregnancy picture we took a week later...

2/22/12, 5 weeks