18 Weeks Prego!!

Today I have been pregnant for exactly 18 weeks! I would say I really started showing about two weeks ago, but even now, depending on what I wear sometimes it just looks like I have gained weight in my tummy region. Starting last week, I can no longer put a lot of pressure on my tummy- James isn’t able to sit directly on me anymore when we read books because it hurts too much. It sounds weird, but I love these little signs that show that the baby and my uterus are growing and developing! In the past week I have also noticed that my bladder sometimes feels the pressure of the baby and I have to go to the bathroom more frequently. (Sorry if this is too much information, I just want to remember these little details for my next pregnancy). James still loves the baby! He loves giving the baby kisses and can point to the baby and say “gur” for girl.

At night we have a tradition of reading the Book of Mormon together and then kneeling on the floor for night time prayers. Lately James has been wanting to stay on the couch for prayers, but we think it is important to kneel as a family so I have started asking him, “Who do you want to sit with for prayers- mommy, daddy or baby?” He immediately jumps off of the couch and says “baby”, kneels next to the baby, folds his arms and puts his head either on my lap of tummy. I hope he stays this excited about a baby sister!

Here is the first and only (for now) picture that I have taken while I have been pregnant (I will be better about taking more pictures- that is one thing that I regretted with my first pregnancy and I want to be better!):

Just FYI: Before getting this shot Matt had taken about 5 or so other pictures but I didn’t like my smile in them. Right before snapping this picture, he said, “Just smile like you did last night” My response: “What are you talking about? Nothing happened!” (Thus the smirk on my face and my hand gesture) For anyone who knows his dad, he is definitely becoming more and more like him everyday! :)

Boy or Girl?!

I am sure that everyone who is reading this already knows, but on April 26th we found out what the sex is of our 2nd baby! Drum roll please!…….

It’s a girl!!!!

As mentioned in a previous post, the OB-GYN that we are seeing for this baby is different than the one that we saw for James, and he does things differently. He gave us a complimentary ultrasound at 8.5 weeks and he said that he typically finds out the sex of the baby at week 16 instead of week 20 like most doctors. So, on April 26th we went in to see if we were having a baby boy or a baby girl. I have thought from the beginning of my pregnancy that we were going to have a little girl because the pregnancy symptoms were so different (even though in hindsight I know that EVERY pregnancy will most like have different symptoms). I had mixed emotions about what sex I wanted- I wanted another boy so James could have a little boy who is close in age and his best friend, but I wanted a girl because I was nervous that I would never have a girl and I want at least one.

When we went into the room and we could see the baby on the screen, James immediately said “baby!” Throughout the entire event James was very attentive and excited. He kept saying baby every time he saw a different position of the baby. He was a little scared when they let us hear the heartbeat, and he looked up to Matt with fear in his eyes. Matt explained what the noise was and James immediately calmed down, even though I am not sure he understood exactly what a heart is.

Here is the face of the baby along with her torso: 

Here is her hand and arm:

Here is her profile and her hand next to her mouth and nose:

A little bit better picture of her profile (your can see her nose pretty well):

The very left shows her spine and then in the middle are her two legs (the white lines in her legs are her bones):

Here is her crotch. For those that know anatomy terms, the white lines (they are VERY small) that are right in between her legs are her labia- that is what they look for when determining if it is a girl. If they see the labia then they know for sure it is a girl:

Here is her foot:

Easter!

This Easter was a laid back holiday. I was VERY lucky because that Sunday I had the privilege  of teaching the young women in my ward about the atonement, so I had taken time to really ponder the meaning of the holiday. We did have fun celebrating Easter with the typical Easter egg hunts and nice Easter dinners though :)

In the morning we had a little Easter egg hunt for James just in our living room. It wasn’t anything special, but he LOVED it! He found all of the Easter eggs that were hidden and then started hiding them again himself so he could play the ‘game’ again! SO CUTE!

Here is James finding his eggs:

 

 

Here is James hiding the candy AFTER he has already collected everything :)  :

James LOVED opening up the eggs and finding out what was inside of them:

After church we went up to Lehi and had an Easter dinner with some family friends, the Burkers. James absolutely LOVES Bro. Burker and had fun playing with all of Bro. Burker’s grandkids.

Here is a picture of James with Matt in one of their Easter shirts (James had gotten his original shirt and vest dirty):

The Burkers also had a scavenger hunt, but theirs was a lot more traditional since it was outside. James had a fun time finding his “boo” (blue) eggs.

Here are all of the grandkids and James just waiting to go outside and find their eggs! :

Daddy and James:

My handsome boys:

Baby #2!!!

Rewind time:

In December Matt and I started discussing when we would like to have our next baby. We wanted to have a baby, but we weren't sure when would be best because we didn't know what the future held for us. At that time (in December) we were planning on going to dental school starting August 2011, but at that point we hadn't been accepted anywhere and didn't know if/where we were going to live for the next year. If Matt didn't get into dental school, we would have a lot more issues to manage, and with all of these questions, we didn't know when to try to have a baby. At the beginning of January we decided that we should just move forward in faith and not let the doubts hold us back from continuing to create our family. Around February 10th we found out that we were pregnant and we were so excited! We had previously gotten James a shirt that said, "I am the big brother". I wanted to tell our family by taking a picture of James wearing that shirt and then mailing the picture to them... but Matt couldn't wait! That day we skyped with both sides of our family and had James wear that shirt while talking to them on the computer. When both families found out they were all very excited for us. Since telling our family I, for the most part, did a horrible job of letting people know that I was pregnant. Typically people wait until they are 13 weeks pregnant before letting people know, and I let most people know when I was 16 weeks. It wasn't that I was not excited- I was thrilled and still am, but part of me just thought, "do people really care?" I know that my friends do, but those thoughts were still there.

Anyways, so blog world- we are pregnant! When I was almost 9 weeks pregnant (8 weeks and 5 days to be exact), we went in for my first prenatal appointment with a new OB-GYN. I had no idea that we were going to be able to see the baby in an ultrasound that appointment (with James we had to wait until week 20), but since this doctor had the equipment in office, we did a complimentary ultrasound! It was so fun to see the baby- at that point in the pregnancy I thought that the baby would be too small to see, but we could clearly make out the baby and even see a small part on the baby's body beating... the heart! The baby looks like a bean, but I thought it was so neat since I wasn't expecting it!

Hello Blogging World!

I have been a horrible blogger lately.... and I think about it frequently. I think about it because this is the only form of a journal that I keep and everyday I think, "These memories that I am making now aren't too special, but I want to be able to look back at them someday with my kids". So, this is my attempt to get into blogging again. If this blog starts to seem too detailed or too boring, feel free to stop reading- I am doing this more for me than anything else (and to keep the grandparents updated).

You know your a mom when...

So for part of date night tonight (once James was asleep), Matt and I watched a movie. I love movie nights with Matt because 4 times out of 5 he lets me choose a chick flick.... and I am a HUGE chick flick gal (in college my roomies teased me for watching Flicka 3 times in a row when it first came out because I loved it so much). I love predictable, feel good movies all about love. So tonight, when I picked, "Life as We Know It", I was looking forward to that 'feel good' feeling. If I would have seen this movie two years ago I would have loved it- it wasn't too predictable, it had a lovable main girl, and two great guys. For those that don't know the movie is basically about two 'godparents' that become guardians of a one year old little girl after her parents die in a car accident. The movie focuses on the two adults and their relationship with one another, mixing in outside relationships along the way. They have to figure out what they expect from each other and basically the movie is all about them. Like I said, if I saw this movie two years ago, I would have loved it, but not tonight. I was happy with the ending, but I was bawling throughout the movie. ...I even thought to myself, "I am worse than my mom!" (-when it comes to being emotional for movies- she would cry at hallmark movies and we would tease her) The tears started following once the parents died and continued throughout the movie. It is mind boggling how much love you can have for your little child and how devastating the thought is of not being their for them as they grow up. Later in the movie I continued crying; not for the main character who was struggling on which guy she loved, but for this little girl who didn't have a strong father figure in her life to be a steady and constant figure in her life. Like I said, this movie had a good ending, but I gained a whole new appreciation for something that I am sure the movie makers didn't intend. I am so grateful for this little boy in my life and am honestly amazed at how I find myself on a daily basis saying, "Wow I love him SO much!". I am also so grateful for a husband who is my rock of strength and love, and I am even more grateful for the outstanding father he is to James. He drops everything to lay on his tummy with James and color, or goes outside anytime James wants to kick the soccer ball around, and James always knows he can go straight to dad when it wants to wrestle and be tickled. I am so grateful for these blessings in my life. Lately life has been handing our family some hard things to go through and its easy to forget about these humbling moments within my home. I have so much to be grateful for and wouldn't change our situation even ad mist these trials!

Play time with Kristin and Ashley

Aunt Kristin was in town visiting this past week, and today we went to the park and played! James loved it and it was great weather to be outside! He mostly enjoyed wandering around on his own the most, but he learned how to play 'airplanes', how to put the wood chips on the slide (a bad habit but he liked it), and Matt tried to teach him how to roll down a hill (it was an unsuccessful attempt, but at least Matt got a little dirty). Here are some pictures :)