It's A......

Wow - it's almost been a whopping two months since I last posted. I hate being an inconsistent blogger and will try to be better (though anyone who has followed me for a while knows there are two things I always strive to do better: #1 diet/exercise and #2 blog).

While a ton has happened in the last two months, the most exciting thing is that we had our anatomy scan on December 15 and found out we are having a little boy!!!

Joe and I were a bit surprised, because we both had a feeling that the baby was going to be a girl (I was even having dreams about it). But a couple weeks before the anatomy scan I started feeling like maybe I was having a boy after all. Then, a night or two before the scan I had a dream we were having a boy. My subconscious must have been convinced, because without thinking I wore blue to the appointment. (I also noticed a bunch of "It's a Boy!" balloons in the window of the hospital gift shop as we headed toward the ultrasound office.)

When Joe heard we are having a son, he lit up and the first thing he did was wind his arm up like he was going to pitch a baseball and he said something like, "I better get warmed up so I can teach this kid how to play catch!" My heart melted. It was adorable.

I wanted to do something fun to announce the gender online, so the day before the scan I made a pink and a blue picture frame and posted this on Facebook:

As it turns out, our friends and family were pretty evenly split with their guesses. To announce, the next day I posted:

I have to give credit to my mom for the picture frame idea. I was looking for something pretty easy (my lack of energy has made me exceptionally lazy) and inexpensive. This was both! All I did was buy cheap/lightweight wooden frames from Michaels. They were only $1 and were the same brand as these (but fancier, I can't find the shape I bought on the website):

Then I just used a foam paint brush to put Elmer's glue all over the frame and sprinkled glitter on top. That's it! :) 

It's been so much fun knowing the gender of our baby! A couple days after the appointment I flew home to California for 3 weeks and did a ton of shopping with my mom. LOTS of maternity and baby clothes were bought. While it is a little harder to find cute clothes for a boy than it would be for a girl, I've found several things that are absolutely adorable and I can't wait to see him wear. I just imagine holding him close and cuddling him... I truly cannot wait!

For the longest time, I didn't "feel pregnant" (despite the constant nausea of the first trimester and the fatigue of the last 24 weeks). But the last couple of weeks I have FINALLY begun to feel him kick and that has helped some (though I am still in utter disbelief that in 16ish weeks I'll have my baby boy in my arms). I was getting worried that I hadn't felt movement, but it turns out I have an anterior placenta (it's in the front). That means that instead of kicking me the baby is kicking the placenta so it muffles things quite a bit. At this point, the kicks feel nothing more than muscle spasms in my stomach... but last night they were finally just hard enough for Joe to feel them! Seeing Joe's face light up with excitement, shock and pride was so awesome :) He loves feeling my tummy now and I'm sure it'll only get more fun as those kicks get harder.

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An Excuse and a Surprise

Yesterday I promised an excuse for why I've taken such a long break from blogging. Those of you who are my Facebook friends already know, but here it is for my other readers: I've been too busy dealing with fatigue, nausea and barfing. 

That's right - I'm pregnant!

Baby Brier is due May 7, 2015 and Joe and I are so excited! 

Lots of people were surprised because they thought we were waiting until after dental school, but we talked at length about it and realized that we could make it work financially, emotionally, etc. as long as we didn't have a baby during the first 2 years of dental school. From what we have been hearing from friends in D3 and D4, Joe's last 2 years will be much easier since he'll mostly be working in clinic. Yes, there will still be some classes and tests, but nothing compared to D1 and D2. Plus, we have been very good about saving money ever since we got engaged with the hope that we would be able to have a baby before he graduates. I want to be a stay-at-home mom, so the financial aspect of this was considered very carefully.

Anyways, now that I have assured my dear readers that Joe and I are responsible and not totally nuts for having a dental school baby, I'll spill some of the fun details :)

Although it was a few days earlier than a sane person would take a pregnancy test, I realized that it was technically possible for me to get a positive the morning of Joe's first day of school. I went into the bathroom, took the test, and honestly didn't expect much. There was no guarantee, of course, that I would be pregnant. And there was no guarantee that even if I was I would get a positive at that point. So when the "yes+" popped up on the screen, I was gobsmacked. 

I originally planned to give Joe a little back-to-school gift bag with stuff like coffee and pens inside, but now I was able to add something even more exciting! A couple of months earlier I ordered these shirts for Joe and me:

I folded his shirt up and put it at the bottom of the bag. Then I put my shirt on, put a robe on, and slid the pregnancy test up my sleeve.

I brought down the gift bag and Joe started taking out his back-to-school goodies. Then he got to the shirt. He opened it, read it, and looked up at me with a confused look on his face. I took that as my cue: I ripped open my robe Superman-style and pulled out the test from my sleeve. Joe was shocked, and very happy.

The pregnancy started out very easy, and I was thinking that I might escape the first trimester without morning sickness. One of my grandmas had 4 kids and always said she felt her best when she was pregnant - so it wasn't beyond the realm of possibility. Then week 6 hit, and IMMEDIATELY I became exhausted and constantly nauseous. 

From then until week 14 (just a few days ago), I haven't felt like doing anything. For two months I've been in bed or on the couch trying to fight the nausea and exhaustion almost 24/7. You'd think all that time just laying around would mean that I'd have tons of time to blog. Well, technically I did, but I couldn't bring myself to do anything I didn't absolutely have to do. But I am finally feeling more like myself! I still don't feel awesome, and the food aversions are still strong, but I do have more energy. So hopefully I can become more consistent with posting again. 

Despite all of these symptoms, though, I can't actually wrap my mind around the fact that I am pregnant. In fact, I keep joking that I'm like one of those crazy ladies who tells everyone she is pregnant, gets a belly, and then kills a pregnant woman and steals her baby. It honestly feels like that is more realistic than that fact that I'll be giving birth in 26-ish weeks. 

And that's even with THREE ultrasounds!

Yes, you heard that right, I am 14 weeks and have already had 3 ultrasounds. That's because our little bean likes to scare mommy and daddy. At my 8 week appointment, we had a routine ultrasound to determine how far along I was and the baby measured about a week and a half small. So we were referred to the UPenn hospital for a follow-up the next week. 

At that appointment, the baby measured exactly on track, and it seems as if the doctor just made an error or the machine at the doctor's office wasn't as good as the ones at the hospital. It was fun to get to see the baby again so soon, and we marveled at the difference a mere week made in what he/she looked like. Plus, the baby was jumping all over the place, which was funny to watch. The tech called it a "jumping bean."

Ultrasound number 3 was the scariest, because it took place at my 12 week appointment when they couldn't find the heartbeat with the doppler thing. While the doctor had mentioned that sometimes the heartbeat can be tough to get this early with the doppler, it was still terrifying. When she started the ultrasound, though, we immediately saw baby. Turns out, he/she was just jumping around so much that the doctor couldn't pinpoint the heart. An addition to the jumping, this time baby was flailing its arms back and forth. It looked like our little one was having a dance party or something. 

We had already thought about nicknaming the baby "Bean" because that was Joe's nickname as a kid. But after the antics of our little "jumping bean," we decided that it's the perfect nickname until we know if it's a boy or girl.

Speaking of gender. YES, we are absolutely going to find out. The wait to week 20 is driving me crazy, no way could I wait until week 40! I'm wondering if I'll finally start feeling pregnant once I know if it is a boy or girl since it'll be easier to imagine a real baby in my arms in May. I guess we'll see! We should find out somewhere around December 16-18. 

So that's my big news, and my excuse for being a terrible blogger lately. I think it's a pretty good excuse ;)

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