6 months to go!

Thought this was worthy of a Facebook post :)

If you look at it like Mark does, we really only have a football season of pregnancy left! Season starts soon, well preseason has already started, and then by the time the Super Bowl rolls around we'll be almost ready to have the baby!

I'm wondering if I should be scared that these 6 months will fly by or if I should be anxious because they might creep by. I guess I kinda hope it goes by slowly for me so that we have time to get things ready, plus we want the baby to cook for as long as possible...and hopefully we can catch up on SLEEPING before s/he comes since there won't be much of that going on with baby around.

Can't wait to find out if it's a boy or a girl so that we (well, Mark...because he said he won't let me help) can paint the nursery and start setting things up. I'll feel more organized once we can do that because right now it's a mess in our house!

Getting on my nerves already!

Yes, I said it...this baby is getting on my nerves already. But no, seriously...this sciatic nerve crap is nothing to joke about. Most things I read while Googling said that it didn't start until the 3rd trimester. Then why did mine start well before the 2nd?!

I knew exactly what it was when I read the symptoms online. It's hard to explain or pinpoint exactly where the pain is because it's sort of all over. It starts in the lower back and goes to the butt and then leg. Sometimes I'll have to stop in my tracks and just can't move for a few seconds. I feel like an old lady. Last night I was bending to get something out of the fridge and it took a little while to get back up. Mark thought I was crazy...it's really all his fault though! 

What to Expect has a lot of good resources for symptoms and treatment of sciatica during pregnancy. I might have to try the heating pad and/or hot bath. Ahh that sounds amazing as I type this from my freezing cold cubby at work with these horrible florescent lights that make me sleepy. 

When I told Dr. Kil that the nerve pain was pretty much my only issue he told me that it was just gonna be like that until the baby came. But I have been Googling exercises and stuff so I'll try anything to ease the pain. I sure hope it really doesn't last the whole time because it makes it hard to do anything except sit/lay around and I want to start working out, well walking on the treadmill. 

Oh, and doctor's orders...I need a massage. Babe, get on that...like tonight. Ok, thanks...love you! 

Peek-A-Boo...can't wait to see you!

I almost forgot to tell you!

We entered the Ms. Peek-A-Boo Contest in hopes of winning a free 3d/4d ultrasound. Still can't believe how many likes/votes we got, yay for the awesome support from friends and family, and even strangers! Sorry again for bugging you guys every single day, but it paid off!

Another mom-to-be ended up beating me by a few votes towards the end of the contest but we got 2nd place and still won something!

We won the "quick peek" which is a $75 package and includes 15 minutes, 3 black & white photos, and the gender reveal! I'm sure we can pay extra to get more photos or even a stuffed animal with the sound of the baby's heartbeat in it.

The appointment is on September 7, I'll be 17 weeks exactly. We should be able to find out the gender as long as Baby Savage cooperates and isn't stubborn like his/her daddy.

We asked our moms and sisters to come with us and can't wait to share this moment with everyone to find out if we're having a boy or a girl!

We will announce it to the world soon after we find out, so don't worry...you'll know in less than a month!

We also plan on going back when I'm about 28-30 weeks so that we can see a more clear picture of how the baby is developing and we might even be able to see who s/he looks like by then!

P.S. The owner of Peek-A-Boo, Tiffaney, is awesome! She tried to get me into a vendor event there so that I could sell Thirty-One and she donated a quick peek gender reveal package to our Autism Awareness Fund Raiser in support of my nephew Logan. It's a small world because we found out that she's cousins with my aunt's best friend who I've known my whole life. Go like them on Facebook!

Ahh Buttons!

That sad moment when you pop the button on your pants...

Helloooooooo 2nd Trimester!

We left for our road trip to South Carolina immediately after our doppler appointment on August 9. Our friends, Jonathan and Jennie, met us at the baby doctor and rode with us to SC. 

We joked about how we should get one of these for the road trip so that we didn't have to stop as much...

At the rehearsal dinner, everyone was asking how many times we had to stop on the way down. I said "well, I HAD to stop like 20 times but we only stopped twice". I ended up holding it because I didn't want to have to slow down the progress of the road trip since we had already hit traffic in good ol' Virginia anyway. We were already pushing it to make it to the rehearsal dinner by 6. I was actually proud of myself, and my bladder and kidneys because it wasn't too bad. 

My cousin, Charlie's wedding was on August 10. He and Jenn have been together since 2006. Our family loves Jenn and when he proposed last year everyone's reaction was "FINALLY!" 

So, Baby Savage's first wedding was a little hard on him/her. At least harder than momma had expected. I offered to be their wedding photographer as our gift to them. I didn't realize I was going to be in the 95 degree sunny humid heat for hours taking photos when I volunteered for this. Baby Savage kept reminding me that my back and feet aren't like they used to be...say, 3 months ago. I was completely exhausted by the end of the night. I was literally on my feet from 2:30-9:30 and only sat down to eat really quick. 

It was all worth it in the end though because the wedding was beautiful and the pictures turned out great...plus it was a blast being with our friends and family. Baby Savage danced the Wobble for the first time and as always, dancing with Uncle Bud was the highlight of the night. Oh and of course the dance-off between him and Charlie...priceless. 

This is one of my favorite pictures of the day...

Doppler Fun!

We're super grateful that my friend, Candice, let us borrow her little doppler machine so that we could listen in on our baby's heartbeat at home. It's really reassuring to just hear it beating and know everything is alright, especially with all the past scares and complications.

The doctor wanted us to come in (I was 12w6d on August 9) to hear the heartbeat on his doppler. The nurse came in, had me step on the scale, got my blood pressure, and told me to lay back. I guess I didn't really need the doctor for this part because anyone can do it, right? I mean we do it at home, so of course this nurse can do it.

She's pressing super hard and tells me to let her know if it's too much pressure, so I let her know...because I'm a wimp. She apologized but kept pressing just as hard. She was over to the left and then quickly went to the right. I told her we used a doppler at home and the baby is usually right in the middle under my belly button. She continued to search quickly for the heartbeat with no luck. She told us "I can't find it and the doctor is paging me anyway so I'm gonna let him come in and see if he can find it". I'm sorry but you don't tell a pregnant chick, especially one who had a miscarriage earlier that year, that you "can't find" her baby's heartbeat. I thought that was pretty crappy bedside manner and was glad to deal with the doctor instead of her after that.

So a few minutes later, Dr. Kil came in. Always super nice, shook our hands and asked how I'm feeling. I told him the nurse said she couldn't find the heartbeat so I hoped he could. He asked me to lay back, said it's gonna be a little cold, and the exact second the doppler hit my stomach, we immediately started hearing the heartbeat. He literally went STRAIGHT to where the baby was. I started laughing because I couldn't believe how easy he made it look, especially compared to the nurse a few minutes earlier. Mark told me to stop laughing because he wanted to keep listening. You can hear it when I laugh, it's really loud through the doppler speakers. He left it on for a few seconds longer and then wiped the gel off for me. The rate was 155bpm and he said that was normal. He told me everything looked and sounded good and then we went to make our appointment for 4 weeks from then, just for a checkup. Next sonogram with him will be when I'm 20 weeks.

Sympathy Sickness?

Mommy hasn't gotten sick (yet)...only felt nauseous a couple times. The other day, outta nowhere, Mark threw up. Is it sympathy sickness? Apparently it does exist.

Hopefully I'm past the "morning sickness" stage but then again I have a friend who told me she only threw up during her 3rd trimester...lovely. Fingers crossed though! Maybe I'll just be one of those lucky ones.

Gary got sick almost every morning when Megan was pregnant with Logan. So, now Megan is convinced that I'm having a boy.

We can't believe all the myths people say when it comes to guessing the gender. All the Chinese gender calendars say it's a girl for us based on conception date and my age. The heart rate is in the normal range so I'm not sure if it's high or low, and that won't determine the sex anyway. No sickness might indicate a boy to some but others think it's a girl because of that. So you just never know!

Double Digits!

10 weeks down, 30 to go! Seems like forever huh?

We went for an ultrasound on July 23 and got this cute picture of Baby Savage:

S/he was moving all around, doing flips, waving to us...it was really neat to see on the screen! Daddy says it looks like it's a boy because he has a beard, lol. Mommy was more worried about where the legs were!

10 weeks was about the time I started feeling better. I didn't have to take a nap when I got home from work every day like I did when I was 6-9 weeks along. I felt like I started getting energy back and wasn't as tired.

I also noticed that my bladder wasn't as bad as it was towards the beginning so hopefully it'll stay like this until at least the 3rd trimester. Everyone says it's even worse when the baby is sitting on your bladder. I have a small bladder anyway so it sure isn't fun...might as well just live in the bathroom and buy stock in TP!

Pregnant Sisters

It's pretty crazy how all three of us sisters are pregnant together. The funny thing is, if we wouldn't have lost the baby in January, Devon and I would only be 10 days apart since our due date was September 13.

DeeMaw (that's what Logan calls our mom) is going to have a blast with 3 new grandbabies all within 5 months! Logan just isn't gonna know how to act. He's not used to being around other kids, let alone babies. I think he'll be a good big brother and cousin though. He is really gentle with babies and is so lovable and kissy too so it'll be cute.

We had a baby shower for Dev on July 21. Figured it might be the only opportunity to take some pregnant sister photos so we got a few...notice I'm only 10 weeks here and don't really have a 'bump' yet.

 

Devon is due September 3. She's going to her weekly appointments now and the doctor checks the cervix and so far she isn't dialated at all. This is her first baby and it's a boy! His name is Jeremiah Kashan Boone. Her boyfriend, Von is super excited and can't wait. He was ready to put the car seat in the car a month and a half before the due date. I took her maternity photos and they turned out great, she's so cute pregnant. Well, minus the cankles.

Doppler time! We wanted to listen in on Jeremiah's heartbeat.
Cheyenne (Dev's best friend) was all into it.
Jeremiah's heart rate is always around 152. 

Megan is due with her second (of course Logan is her first, he just turned 5). She has a scheduled induction/c-section on October 24. She isn't finding out the gender until delivery. It's killing us but we'll be so excited to find out in the hospital. Of course, we can't believe Gary because he will probably say "it's a girl, no it's a boy, just kidding it's a girl"...so I told Megan I will take my niece/nephew's diaper off just to check for myself! If it's a girl it'll be Kennedy Lynn and if it's a boy it'll be Cash Andrew. 

My awesome friend is letting us borrow the doppler throughout our pregnancy.
Of course it was too early to hear mine but Megan joined in on the heartbeat fun too. 

We are so excited that the cousins will grow up together. They're going to be so close in age, have each other's hand-me-downs, and will be best friends just like we were with our cousins Crystal and Katie!

Fun with the weekly boards!

Everyone knows that my best friend, Laura, has awesome handwriting and always finds a creative way to make things look fancy and pretty. She offered (or maybe I volunteered her) to be my artist for the dry erase board with our weekly updates. I didn't want to do a chalkboard like everyone else so we got the black dry erase board from Hobby Lobby and use the neon markers.

Enjoy!