Pregnancy Update

I am 14 weeks pregnant today.  Crazy!  It seems like I've known forever, but yet it seems like it's going so quickly too.  I'm officially in my 2nd trimester :)  I hear this one is the best, so I'm pretty excited about that.  I can't complain too much though.  Pregnancy has been pretty good to me so far, compared to a lot of people I guess.  Fatigue was my major complaint, and that hasn't completely gone away.  It has gotten better, but I still have days where I feel like I'm just counting down the hours til bedtime.  The nausea I was having has mostly subsided.  

I am starting to gain weight.  Yes, I'm aware that this happens, and I'm fine with that!  I'm just in the uncomfortable in-between stage where no one can tell I'm pregnant, but it's obvious I'm gaining weight.  I'm ready for the baby bump!  I did finally break down yesterday and buy a few pairs of stretchy pants.  I also got one of those lap bands that I can wear with my jeans that fit, other than the fact I can't button them.  Hopefully that'll work out for me and get me by for awhile!  

As far as food, I'm not really having weird cravings or aversions.  I don't crave strange foods, but I have been going through different stages where I crave a certain food all of the time for a week or two.  One week it was cottage cheese, one week it was eggs, one week it was grilled cheese sandwiches.  And for aversions...there's only one strange thing: my favorite gum was spearmint flavored.  Suddenly, it doesn't taste the same.  Sad!  I guess it could be a lot worse.

I'm starting to get anxious to know the sex.  I know I have about a month left, but I just want to know.  I've taken some gender prediction tests, and they are pretty split.  Most are saying a boy.  Everyone tells me that I should have an instinct.  At first, my definite instinct was a girl.  I had dreams about my baby girl.  Now that has changed to dreams of my baby boy.  So my instincts aren't really working out for me either.  Guess I'll have to just be patient and wait on the next ultrasound and hope that my baby isn't being modest that day :)

Pregnancy really is a miracle!  The changes my body is going through are unreal.  I've never really known all that a woman's body has to go through.  Like I already said, I have had a great pregnancy overall so I'm not complaining.  It is just really strange to feel my body change so much.  It's also an emotional adjustment.  Again, I think I have been lucky as far as mood swings.  Jimmy might argue, but I really don't think I have been too crazy!  I have gone through every internal emotion though.  That part has also gotten better, but I think there's so much to get used to when you're preparing to be a parent.  A baby will change our lives forever, and I know it will be the greatest thing that has ever happened to us!

My BIG Announcement...

....yep, I'm PREGNANT!  And incredibly relieved that I'm at the stage I can tell people!  Now I'll be able to document all of the different stages through this blog.  I'm going to back up and review everything that's happened since we found out.

We found out on March 21.  I had been at church and a baby shower all day and decided to stop and get some home pregnancy tests since I was late.  Not that I thought I was pregnant at all.  I didn't "feel" pregnant, as if I knew what that "felt" like.  I was just taking the test to rule it out.  And then it took about 4 seconds before a bright blue plus sign showed up...Huh?  I was shocked.  We weren't preventing, but I still had no idea that was coming.  I ran downstairs just holding it out to show Jimmy, who shrugged and said, "like I know what that means".  Really?! Think I'd run down here to show you a negative test?  I had to take a second test to convince myself.  Then we called our parents and my sister, who were all understandably excited!  I think they had all started wondering if our only kids would be 4-legged and furry.

We got confirmation the end of that week when I had my doctor's appointment.  Due date = November 20.  I had already decided I didn't want to tell many people until I was late in my 1st trimester.  So then came the hardest part.  My life had completely changed, and I couldn't even talk about it!  I spent a lot of time reading up on what I could do/not do.

As far as symptoms, I have been very lucky.  I have been exhausted.  A level of tired that I never knew existed.  I felt like I couldn't sleep enough.  I had nausea, but usually minor and at night, so that was convenient.  Once I felt nauseous, I just laid down and usually felt better...and usually fell asleep:)  I have only thrown up 4 times and that was all during my 7th week

I'm now 12 weeks.  I started telling people after my 10 week appointment when my US looked great and my doctor said everything with Baby J looked healthy.  I had to change doctors due to my insurance changing, and had an appointment with my new doctor on Friday.  That was the day that Jimmy and I got to hear the heartbeat for the first time!  I wasn't prepared for that emotion, but hearing that sound was just the sweetest thing I have ever heard!!  Oh, it was precious.  And we did another US and our baby has developed little arm and leg stubs, and it was squirming all around while we watched.  Again, precious!

So now I am just dealing with getting fat :)  I KNOW it's going to happen, and I'm ready for it.  I'm just at that uncomfortable in-between stage where it's not obvious that I'm pregnant at all, but I'm definitely bigger.  And my clothes fit, but not well.  I've even had to do the rubber band trick with a few pairs of my jeans.

And yes, we plan to find out the sex of the baby.  I have to plan things!  It's hard to do these things without knowing the sex.  I'm SOOO ready for this.  We will be thrilled with either sex, and I really have had feelings both ways, so I have no clue at this point.

But we are super excited!  I think I have gone through every emotion possible, which is apparently normal.  I'm ecstatic, I'm scared, I'm nervous, and I'm in love.  But I know that we will be awesome parents.  We have been blessed in many ways, but I know that this beautiful addition to our family is the greatest blessing that God can give us.

Happy Birthday to Griffey

Here comes another sappy dog post!  Today is the day we celebrate Griffey's birthday!  We're not exactly sure what day he was actually born.  Our vet estimated how old he was, so I just picked a birthday for him.  Every dog deserves a birthday :)


The day I met Griffey was very sad.  He was dropped off along with 5 brothers and sisters at the church early one morning.  They were all in terrible shape, covered in fleas and ticks and visibly sick and starving.  Ugh, my heart just broke for these poor puppies!  But Jimmy and I did NOT want another dog.  Cassius was handful enough.  So I quickly devised a plan to get one of them for my parents, who were looking for a dog.  I decided to take one home and take care of him until my parents could get prepared to take him and love him.  It was actually very easy to choose which one I wanted.  Griffey ran up to me and licked my hand and wouldn't leave my side.  And could you really resist these eyes?

Precious!  I brought him home and spent over 2 hours trying to kill all of the fleas and getting them off of him.  He was so exhausted he could barely keep his eyes open.  And who could blame him?  He was completely malnourished.  I just wanted to cry looking at him.  After his bath, he got to meet Cassius, which I was pretty worried about to be honest.  Cassius is so spoiled and does not like sharing attention with anything else.  He didn't really know what to think about Griffey.

They smelled each other out for a few weeks!  Anyway, poor Griffey was SO SICK!  He had almost every type of worm and sickness possible and spent the first 2 months with us on medications.  He never acted sick though.  This dog doesn't show any of the normal sick-dog signs.  He was always still just as active and wagging his tail as much as ever!

He quickly became healthier though and started to bond with Cassius.  We thought having 2 dogs would double our work load, but really it was so much easier for us!  They just keep each other entertained and play constantly.  And although he was tiny compared to Cassius at first, we had a feeling that wouldn't last long!

He soon equaled Cassius in size and was even stronger.  I came home one day to this.  Not that we have the strongest fence ever, but he didn't seem to have a problem tearing right through it.  This hasn't stopped to this day.  He keeps breaking the top of our fence off.  It looks pretty ghetto right now and if anyone has any other suggestions to get this to stop, we'd love to hear them!


Needless to say, my parents did not end up with Griffey because we fell in love with him and couldn't give him up.  But we aren't completely selfish!  One of the other poor puppies needed a home, so Griffey's brother, Yogi, is now living with my parents.  They look like twins!


As much as we were entertained by just having one dog, having two has made our lives so happy!  They play together like brothers should, wrestling and fighting almost all day.  But they have their moments too.  I catch them snuggling sometimes and I know they love each other :)

So happy birthday to Griffey!  Our baby.  Our calm dog.  Our big, strong dog.  Our dog who will lick your face off if you'll let him. We don't know what we'd do without him!