28 Weeks Pregnant

Wahoo! Third trimester! T-minus 12 weeks!

To steal a line from my pregnancy e-mail "Your baby is around 16 inches long and 2.5 pounds so pick up a random chihuahua on the street to get an idea of what you're dealing with. Yo quiero Taco Bell!" haha--pregnant chicken

Symptoms I'm dealing with right now: Heartburn, acid reflux, lots of aches and pains, sore ribs, lots of stomach pain and digestive pain, my feet get sore really fast and seem to be a little bigger--ahhh!, so so tired if i'm not working i tend to take a nap every afternoon and im falling asleep by 8 or 9pm, experiencing some pregnancy brain, annnndd EMOTIONS! 

This one totally took me by surprise. I'm usually not too affected emotionally by hormones, and so I always heard stories of pregnant women being super emotional and crying over little things and such but figured that wouldn't be me and I was right. Until about 2 weeks ago. I don't know if I just got a fresh batch of hormones or what but lately I have just felt so emotional and I can just feel my tears right below surface ready to spill over at any moment.

Story #1: It was the weekend, me and Kyle made a delicious breakfast together and were just sitting down to eat, I had grabbed plates and napkins but forgot to grab a fork for Kyle. When he came to the table he saw that he had no fork (and I did have one) he jokingly said "hey you didn't get me a fork, selfish wifey" and went to grab himself a fork from the kitchen, when he got back to the table the tears were pouring from my eyes! Kyle was so confused, he kept saying it was just a joke and i started sobbing and replied I know! And then I cried for a good 10 minutes before I could get myself under control and actually eat my breakfast. Poor Kyle he felt so bad and he has been really careful about what he says around me since then.

Story #2: A few days after story 1, I was in Montana with my mom's side of the family and we went for a hike in the mountains. My mom got some bad information, the hike was suppose to be a relatively short 1.5 miles each way and flat. I thought I could probably handle that and since we left at 10am and figured we'd be back by lunch we didn't really bring anything. The hike ended up being a very uphill 5 mile round trip! By the time we got to the lake I was done. I was tired and hungry and had to pee, and since we were in the middle of nowhere i had to squat and pee outside with all these flies buzzing around me! And on top of that I needed to turn around and hike the whole trail back to the car and then drive for about 40 mins before I could be back at the house and eat lunch. 

It was too much. I started bawling right there on the hiking trail. Since most of the family had already started the hike back, only my parents got see my breakdown. They stopped with me and tried to comfort their pregnant, emotional daughter and about 20 minutes later I was able to start hiking again.

Story #3: It's getting worse. Yesterday I decided to try to talk to my baby out loud and all I got out was "Hey baby girl..." and I started to cry. About an hour later I was writing in a card for Kyle for our anniversary and again started to cry. A couple hours after that I was at the Drivers License Office and they rejected me saying one of my proofs of address wasn't good enough, and I cried. 

It's pretty embarrassing. So a caution to anyone who sees me in real life, I might start to cry at any moment!  

Other than all of that I'm just getting excited to meet my baby! And starting to freak out because we are not ready at all. We don't have anything yet, no crib, no carseat, no baby things and I'm still trying to figure out who/where i'll be delivering with here in Galveston. 

To calm my pregnant self and hopefully avoid another bawl session, me and Kyle have a crib shopping date tomorrow afternoon! And I have an appointment at UTMB Monday, so hopefully we'll start to get things figured out soon!

first trimester in review

With only one week left of my second trimester, i figured i'd better write down my thoughts on my first trimester before I begin to forget!

But oh the first trimester. Not a fun time. Not at all...

The Good: Finding out! Finding out I was pregnant was the best part of my 1st trimester, it was very emotional, exciting, and made me giddy every time I thought about it for the next week.

The Bad: However that giddy excitement only lasted a week, because exactly one week after I found out I was pregnant I had a miscarriage incident. At that point I was 6 weeks pregnant and I began cramping and bleeding. It's a long story but to sum up: after talking to a nurse (on the phone) I was told that this early on there was nothing that could be done so just take it easy and follow up with an OB soon. At that point I did not have a doctor. But 3 days later me and Kyle went to an emergency room because of my increasing symptoms of nausea, feeling hot, hunger and just generally feeling sick. An ultrasound revealed my living, heart-beating away baby! The ultrasound also revealed a second, empty sac. The ultrasound tech said that most likely there had been a second baby that hadn't developed right and that's where the bleeding/cramping was coming from. But due to conditions I was told that I was still at risk to miscarry the baby that was alive and so I was told to take it easy and follow up with an OB soon.

The Ugly: Beginning at 6 weeks I felt extremely nauseous, hot, sick, dizzy, light-headed, no energy, hungry, extreme bloating--I would eat an apple and my stomach would bloat so bad I had to unbutton my pants! And the symptoms got worse and worse every single day until about 8 weeks when the constant, and I mean constant 24/7 nausea finally turned into vomiting. Unfortunately, when nausea is a result of hormones, vomiting does not offer any relief at all, it just made me feel even worse. Weeks 8-12 was my month of death. It was awful. Experiencing all of these symptoms every day and every night, week after week after week after week, plus all of the emotions and constantly worrying about miscarrying my baby added up to me also feeling pretty depressed during my first trimester.

Bright Spot: At 8 weeks we finally met with an OB and we once again got to see our baby on an ultrasound. At that point everything looked completely normal and healthy which was a huge relief!

First Trimester Cravings: My very first craving was for a quiche haha, after that it was anything that I thought I wouldn't throw up, mostly white carbs and fruit. Toast, potatoes, french fries, tater tots, mac and cheese, crackers and cheese, chips, grapes, watermelon, hot dogs, smoothies, and tuna fish sandwiches.

No-Nos: Water. I could not drink water during my first trimester, it was just too plain! Even the thought of drinking water made me nauseous, so I mostly did watered down juice, flavored sparkling water like La Croix and some carbonated drinks like Izzes and rootbeer.

Pregnancy Super Power: My sense of smell was out of this world! I've never had a very good sense of smell but wow it's really picked up since getting pregnant! In my first trimester I would wake up in my bed upstairs with the door closed and I could always tell what my mom was having or had for breakfast. One time I was upstairs getting ready and i could swear I smelled a donut. I went downstairs and there on the counter inside a plastic bag was a single donut my dad had brought home from the grocery store! The downside of course is that smells bothered me a lot more and often made me feel even more nauseous. Even Kyle would smell too strongly sometimes, not a bad smell, just his normal smell, but it was just too strong so he had to sit away from me, haha.

The Really Good: My first trimester did end eventually! I made it through, and more importantly my baby did too!

How I spent so many of my first trimester days.
In bed with my crackers, throw-up bowl, and a cold wash cloth.

The excited dad-to-be with our 8 week ultrasound picture!

Baby Bump Progression Weeks 12-22

12 weeks
this was still during my sick stage, can you tell? blahh

14/15 weeks can't remember which, but I was starting to feel better!

16 weeks
starting to get those first few flutters in my tummy 
and found out it was a GIRL that week!

17 and half weeks

And that was the last day I was able to wear that skirt--getting too tight!

19 weeks

20 weeks
and BAM i felt like overnight my stomach popped!
Its funny to compare this pic and the 17 and half weeks pic, since i'm wearing the same shirt you can really tell the difference!

22 weeks
and feeling her move all the time now--i love it!

our next adventure

This handsome guy is officially back in school. 

We've talked about PA school since we were dating, it was always Kyle's plan. After Kyle graduated last year he began applying to Texas PA schools, we moved to Texas to get residency, and Kyle got a great job in a local hospital to a) earn money and b) gain health care experience.

Our number one choice was always the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, or UTMB. It was a great school, it was the shortest program, it was the least expensive program, and I thought it'd be fun to live by the ocean:)

Kyle sent in his applications in July, a couple weeks later UTMB offered him an interview in August. There were 60 people being interviewed that day, and this was only one day of many interview days, and they only accept 85 students. At the end they told everyone that they should start to hear back in a few weeks. 

2 days later someone from UTMB personally calls Kyle and tells him that they were so impressed with him during the interview process, that they wanted to let him know right away that he'd accepted and they hoped he'd choose to attend UTMB.

WOW! That was a great day! And I was one proud wife. 

In the next few weeks Kyle received other interview offers, he only went to one more, the school in his hometown of Fort Worth. It was a great school, great program, buuut it's 8 months longer. In the end we still felt Galveston was the best choice. 

And this past Monday Kyle had his first day of PA school.

This Friday we'll be moving into our apartment down there--island living for the next 2 years! Needless to say, we're excited for this next chapter of our lives!

Fun in Fort Worth

A few weeks ago we drove up to Fort Worth and spent some time with Kyle's family. While we were there me and Kyle took a tour of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing or where they make money. It was pretty cool seeing sheets and sheets of 100 dollar bills being created!
They also talked about how there's an agency and their only job is identifying damaged money and giving people refunds. They had a story about a guy in Idaho, who's cow ate his wallet, so the guy killed the cow and mailed the stomach and innards to the agency--ewww haha! And the agency was able to determine how much money had been in the wallet and issue the man a refund.

Kyle's older brother and wife and their 2 kids also joined us for part of the weekend and it was fun catching up with them. Kyle's younger brother bought a bow and some arrows so the guys had fun shooting a target in the backyard. And on Saturday night the guys went out to see the new Star Trek, while the ladies stayed home, watched soul surfer and had some fresh warm cookies with ice cream:) It was a fun trip!

Doesn't my nephew just have the biggest bluest eyes! So cute!!

the three brothers

playing in the backyard

this picture makes me melt

date night

Last week we did a date night at Genghis Grill with Alisa and her hubby Kevin, and Morgan and her husband Wesley. We've loved hanging out with these 2 couples, and will really miss them when we move away from Katy next month! All these pics were taken with my iphone so they're a little blurry.

Morgan and Wesley

Me and Kyle

Alisa and Kevin and their basketball-sized baby:)

Me and Alisa, I'm 16 weeks in this pic and Alisa is 35,
 you can definitely tell she's further along than me!

Filling up our bowls

Alisa had never been and didn't realize how many options there were,
she ended up piling her's up sooo high, haha!

happy birthday to my hubby

Kyle turned 25 last week! To celebrate we went out to dinner with my folks and per his request I made a home made carrot cake. His big present this year was a bike! He'll be using it to get to and from school every day starting in about a month. We also usually do some clothes shopping around his birthday but Kyle really hates shopping and hates going to the mall. So I went to the mall by myself and picked out a bunch of new clothes for him, wrapped them all up and then he opened them on his birthday tried them all on, kept the ones he liked and I returned the rest. He didn't have to step a foot inside a store, he called it the best birthday present ever, haha!

The birthday boy and his new bike!

I love this man more and more every year!

Blowing out the candles on his yummy carrot cake
right before heading off to work:(