Feeling the baby move

The baby has been moving all over my uterus. It’s pretty crazy. The other night, I was lying in bed with my hands on my stomach seeing if I could feel him move from the outside. I thought I felt him move but wasn’t sure so I waited a few more times of feeling it before waking Seth up to share the excitement with him. (He had duty the night before so he passed out in bed really early). He didn’t wake up when I said his name, so I let him sleep. Then a little while later, I turned off the TV and he woke up and I told him I felt the baby move on the outside. He put his hands on my stomach to try to feel but baby wasn’t into moving and Seth fell back to sleep. He’s felt it quite a few times since then and it’s so cute to see him! We’ll be watching TV and put his hand on my stomach and when I feel the baby move, I’ll ask him if he felt it. He says, “is that him!?!?”  It’s really cute how excited he gets.

One night last week we had tacos for dinner and I made homemade guacamole. Baby sure did like it because he was all over the place shortly after I got done eating!! I had leftovers the following day for lunch with guacamole again, to see if it would have the same effect and sure enough, it did!! He was really active for a solid amount of time. Too bad Seth was at work though!

Yesterday when Seth got up for work, I kinda woke up. He said to me, “is he awake right now?” and put his hands on my stomach to see if he could feel him. Baby still isn’t big enough that the movements wake me up, so I don’t know if the baby was awake at that time or not. Sometimes when Seth gets home from work, he’ll shake and blow on my stomach and tell the baby to “wake up!! Hang out with us!!” I keep telling him he needs to NOT waking a sleeping baby; that’s parenting 101!! But he’s just excited to feel his baby boy and I can understand that!!!

Side Effects of Pregnancy

For the most part, this has gone pretty smooth and easy. I’ve only actually thrown up a handful of times (although each and every time, I cry and hate it…throwing up is just gross, regardless of the circumstances) but I did have a lot of nausea the first trimester. I constantly felt like I was going to throw up, but rarely did. And for that, I was extremely thankful. I have a friend who had to go on medication her entire pregnancy because she couldn’t keep a single thing down. No thank you!

Besides the nausea being the most common side effect, here are the other side effects I’ve been experiencing.

Constipation. By far the worst side effect. Enough said.

When I brush my teeth and tongue, I often gag. This has gotten better since starting the second trimester, but throwing up was easily triggered when I brushed my tongue. I had to proceed with lots of caution and I’m glad that I can brush it like normal again!!

Sometimes when I brush my teeth, my gums bleed. It’s mostly when I floss though.

Constantly peeing. I’ve always had a small bladder, but I definitely go more frequently now. I currently get up twice each night…I can’t wait to see how much more frequently I get up at the end of this pregnancy!

Craving wise, I haven’t had any of the weird food cravings people talk about. Just strong urges for normal things more often. I can’t drink enough milk and so I have to limit myself. Did you know pregnant women are supposed to drink 2 GALLONS of water each day? That’s literally impossible for me. I have a 32 oz Nalgene bottle that I use to keep track of how much I drink. I struggle to drink a whole one a day. I’m a really slow drinker (I was never good at doing shots!!) and I’m just not a thirsty person in general. If I craved water as much as I crave milk, I’d be doing great. I try to allow myself to only drink milk twice a day, and usually it’s only a glass. I make myself drink water the rest of the time, but it’s just not as good. I also love cheese. String cheese to be exact. And Cheese-Its. (Although, I haven’t bought a box of these in a few weeks!) Favorite fruit is apples (with peanut butter) or strawberries.

I’ve really really been liking sugary, fruity, sour candies.  Sour gummy worms? My BFFs. Skittles? I want to be BFFs with them too. Gummy worms or bears in general will do too. I don’t really buy these, but when I do get the occasional pack, I try to savor them. Ok, let’s be honest. In reality, I devour them.

On that note, I'm 22 weeks today :)

It's a.....

We found out the gender of our baby the other day! It’s a…

BOY!!!

We have pretty much settled on a name and have been calling him by his new name all weekend. I’ve also started feeling him move around and he’s been using my bladder as a trampoline. It’s awesome, yet totally weird, feeling him move inside of me. It’s surreal really. It feels like popcorn popping inside my belly. He’s pretty active throughout the day. (He’s actually moving right now – maybe he can sense me talking about him?!) The movements aren’t strong enough to wake me up at night though. We were bowling on Saturday night (one of Seth’s favorite activities) and the baby was moving around. Seth was excited that the baby seemed to like the noise of the bowling alley. 

Which leads me to....

Sunday morning I woke up with a bladder infection. Ever had one of those?? They SUCK soooo bad. I really didn’t want to go to the ER…last time I went, it was a 6 hour wait. It was terrible and people in the waiting room were annoying. Sunday evening, it was getting worse each time I went pee and it became pretty painful. And I had to go every 5 seconds, but literally it would be a teaspoon of pee. I called the ER room and asked if there were a ton of people and about how long a wait would be (apparently, I thought it was like calling ahead for a reservation at a restaurant) and was disappointed that she couldn’t give me an answer and all she could say was “it’s been steady.” I figured a bladder infection would be low on the list of priority things in an ER room. Eventually, I sucked it up and went to the ER, where I was pleasantly surprised when I checked in that I would need to go to the Labor and Delivery ER room because I’m 20 weeks pregnant and if there’s any pain in the ab or girly part areas, I have to go to that ER room. After getting lost in a creepy, quiet, dimly lit hospital on a Sunday evening, I found a janitor who pointed me in the right direction to where I was supposed to go. There wasn’t a wait whatsoever and I was in a room immediately! Hallelujah! I was feeling the baby move so I really wasn’t concerned that he was in danger, but I was in pain and that’s the only reason I went, instead of waiting to go to my regular DR on Monday morning. I got some meds, got lost in the hospital again on my way out and then was home at about 8:45 pm. I was only there for about 3 hours and I’m so thankful that it wasn’t all night long like the last time. Seth was home though, so I was bored as hell in the hospital by myself. We were in the middle of making a bunch of cookies for some of his friends that are deployed and I was making mac and cheese for dinner, using a recipe I was sooo excited for! He said he would finish the baking and cook dinner while I went to the ER.

i parked here. because i could! and because i knew it'd be dark and late by the time i left 

I saw this recipe on pinterest on Saturday morning and we decided to make them on Sunday. They didn’t turn out nearly as pretty as they are in the pinterest pic but they are very good. Very rich too. Ours turned out ugly. 

proof ours were ugly!

We put a little dab of brownie mix on the bottom of the cupcake pan, but clearly the original picture indicates just put the Oreo on the bottom. We also overfilled them so they overflowed from the cupcake pan and were really difficult to get out. Oh well, they tasted good and Seth’s coworkers are enjoying them for a while.  

Saving Money

I attempted to cut Seth’s hair last night. You know, just give it a little trim so he didn’t have to pay $15 to get a haircut. He figured we could save $30/month if I learn to cut his hair. Apparently once upon a time, I made a comment about how it can’t be that hard to cut his hair and he asked if I wanted to go to the PX to get some clippers with him. We stood in the aisle and debated over different clippers and then settled on a set.

Do you KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO DO A FADE TO ARMY STANDARDS?! It’s stupid hard. Seth started this venture out with hair. Now he’s bald. Honestly. That’s how hard it is. I’m not even kidding. He was getting annoyed with me (because helllllo, I’ve never actually GIVEN a haircut according to Army regulations, but it looked easy enough when I’d go to the barber shop with him), and I was getting annoyed with him because he was getting annoyed with me. Then he gave me the Army regulation number that is for the haircut. I practiced fades on his hair for what seemed like eternity (in one evening, mind you) so I can eventually learn it. After practicing (and messing up) fade after fade after fade, he told me to just shave it all off.

But lucky for me, he said we can give it another try this weekend! YAY!!!! Please note my sarcasm. And lucky for him, the evening ended in me in tears because I failed him and his hair cutting needs when he started citing the Army regulations for haircuts. All in an attempt to save a little money.

For the record, he looks much better with hair. This hair. The hair that was all over the bathroom floor. And now in the trash can. Mixed with tears and pride. I'm not a barber. Nor a hair stylist.

News train - a first class ticket!

We got approved for the house AND they accepted our offer!!! We close in a few weeks. I never thought I’d be so excited to move, but I am!! I just want to be moved in and settled and have separate, designated rooms for an office, a guest room and a backyard for Patrick!!



Also, while I’m on the news train and it’s Valentine’s Day, I should also mention that I’m pregnant :) We’ve known for quite some time (ok, a long time…early November!), we only told family our exciting news. I was too scared/nervous I’d jinx it if we told everyone right away. I’m now 19 weeks (as of today!!!) and in a safer zone and we feel more comfortable telling people. I really want to start blogging more regularly so I can document it as the time goes on.


So far, it’s been a fairly easy pregnancy. The first trimester, I constantly felt like I was going to throw up, but I only threw up a handful of times (thankfully). I have higher levels of iron than the average woman, so I haven’t been nearly as exhausted as all my pregnant friends said I would be. We are going to centering classes at the hospital and they’re fun! Tomorrow is our second class and I’m excited for it. It’s a monthly 2 hour class and the spouses take our vitals (blood pressure and weight – that’s always fun….not) and then we get to hear the heartbeat. The class is with other people who are due right around the same time (we’re all due in July) and we have a reunion class after we all have the babies and the babies get to meet each other!! We also talk about regular topics and as we get closer to our due dates, we take a tour of the labor and delivery rooms, apparently get on the table and practice labor positions (I already told Seth I’m SO volunteering to do that!! I may or may not be joking).


When I first found out I was pregnant, I immediately thought it was a boy. I don’t know why, but I just did. Everyone on Seth’s side of the family (except one of his sisters) thinks it’s a boy. Everyone on my side of the family thinks it’s a girl. At the suggestion of a friend, I held my wedding ring (and engagement ring and promise ring all at separate times) over my palm with a strand of my hair to see what it reveals. Going in a line suggests it’s going to be a boy, going in loops suggests a girl. Each time I try this, it consistently goes in a line. The Chinese calendar (based on my age when I conceived the baby, and the month that we conceived) suggests it’s a girl. We have names picked out for each gender that we’re pretty firm on, but we’re not going to share them until the baby is here. (Enjoy the suspense!!) We will be finding out the gender though, and we can’t wait for that. We go in 10.5 days for that appointment!!! We went to Lowes (right after our offer on the house was accepted) and picked out paint swatches for a boy and girl’s room (no, I’m not having twins…we just have the colors picked out for whatever gender it is), our bedroom, an accent wall in the entry way, the living room and possibly the office.


It’s going to be a very exciting year and we can’t wait!!

(also, if we are friends on Facebook, I haven’t ‘announced’ it on there yet, so if you could not mention it, I would appreciate it. K thanks!!!)

Happy Valentine's Day :)

House Hunters

We’ve recently decided to start searching for a house to buy in the area. Lots of things are impacting this idea of ours and we’ve been looking online at all sorts of houses in our price range. We applied to see what we could pre-approved for earlier this week and we’re still waiting to hear back. Last night, we drove by a house we saw online and realized the neighborhood was ghetto, run-down, dirty and just gross. There was trash on people’s lawns, lawns weren’t taken care of, the houses just looked dirty and old and we decided hell no.

We were close by another really nice house we had seen online and really liked but saw that there was a back up offer on it, but we decided to drive by anyways. It was in a gated community and we couldn’t remember the address, but we decided to drive around anyways and see if we could find it. Sure enough, we did find the community it was in! And the gate was open! We walked into the office right around 5 pm and it looked like the lady was closing up. Another guy who worked in the development was walking in at the same time and said we could come on in and we started looking at the community map and the plots of land. Seth pointed out the biggest lot and said it’d be an awesome one. We started talking to the lady and she said that they did have a few available houses that we had been looking at that we could tour. And one of them was even on the lot that Seth liked on the map! We hopped in our cars and followed her up the street to the house. It’s safe to say we fell in love with it pretty quickly (it’s a 4 bedroom + a den/home office, 2.5 bathroom, 2 car garage, large back yard, master bath with a walk in closet). It was pretty much everything we were looking for. We have an exceptionally large kitchen right now, with an island, that we love. The kitchen in the new house is a bit smaller, I think, but it might just be the layout. There isn’t an island, but I think we could easily make it work. We also currently have a pantry, and there’s a pantry (albeit not as big) in the new house.  We back to the office and the lady asked if we wanted to make an offer/write up a contract. We made an offer on it (which includes all of the closing costs include, a new refrigerator, a landscaped backyard (right now it’s just dirt) and a wooden fence to finish off the backyard.  I got an email last night at 10:30 from the lady (I’m not sure if she’s considered a realtor, she just works for the property development) that said our offer had been accepted!! We applied for the loan online to see if we could get pre-approved for the amount that we need. Even though she asked us if we wanted to write up a contract, to take it off the market to other lookers, I didn’t want to do that if we can’t get approved for the amount needed. I really don’t think we’ll have a problem, but I don’t want to tease myself. Ok, honestly I’m already in love with the house and it’s already a tease and I’m going to be very very sad if we don't get approved.

Right now, we’re anxiously awaiting a call back from the lender. We have an appointment tomorrow to go back and look at the house in the daylight and write up a contract, assuming we get approved. The lady also put early March as our possible closing date, assuming we get approved. The backyard would be perfect for Patrick too!! There is a little hill in it that he would love to tear up and down and roam free. There is a big flat spot by the back door that would allow for a hot tub too! It’s a house we can definitely grow into and we really want it.

Here’s to hoping it’s ours soon!

Oh, and P.S. Patrick was with us last night when we went on this adventure. The lady invited him into the office after we toured the house and she fell in love with him  (he’s a charmer, what can I say?!) When she emailed me, she addressed it to Seth, Stacy and Raymond!!! She called PATRICK Raymond!!! So today I’ve been calling him Raymond and he doesn’t seem to mind.

Here’s a picture of RAYMOND!!!! He also goes by Ray, for short. 

Oh hi, remember me?

I haven't blogged since November. Whooops! But rest assured I've been reading your blogs :)


Married life =  busy life basically. That's my (lame) excuse for not blogging. It seems we live at Lowes these days. To be clear, we're not home owners, but Seth is all into wood working now and has been buying stuff up the wazoo to support his new hobby. 


We went home to Michigan for a week and a half to spend Christmas. We stayed at Seth's parent's house. Ironically, my sister was in Michigan for Christmas too. (This is what my parents get for moving to CA earlier this year. We were going back to MI all along, and, well they up and moved across the country, and our plans stayed the same. Their fault!) This was the first Christmas I didn't spend with my parents. It was different, but a good different. We had a lot of fun in Michigan and I got to see most of my old friends and coworkers. I surprised one of my all time favorite co-workers at work when I showed up to her retirement celebration. She turned around, and saw me and gave me a big hug and her eyes got a little teary eyed and she said, "You came out here all the way for this?!?!" It was really sweet and I got teary eyed too. Working from home, I really miss my coworkers. I've adjusted to working from home and it's not nearly as bad as it was at the beginning of the school year. But I do miss the people interaction. Seth comes home sometimes for lunch, and I always have Patrick to keep me busy. Oh boy does that little dog keep me busy.


It's been a pretty decent start to the new year and we're looking forward to 2012! We have a lot of things planned and it's sure to be a good year. :)


I think I might have a give away coming up, too. My first one, and a company contacted me but I'm still thinking about it. 


And on that note, Seth just said to me, "do you want to go to Lowes?" So off to the store we go. We have a fun evening planned of homemade pizza and then baking a checkerboard cake for our friends' daughter's 1st birthday tomorrow. 


I'll be back soon! I promise. 
(my fingers may or may not have been crossed).