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I truly do apologize for being MIA this past week. It's the longest I've gone without blogging in forever . I don't really have a valid excuse (although 3 out of town weddings and 1 week in Bermuda all in the same month probably is decently valid!) but it is what it is. I'm back and I'll be catching up ASAP! I missed posting on Friday as we were at the third (and final...for awhile!) wedding! I'm THRILLED to be into my second trimester and here's what's going on in week 12 of this pregnancy journey: Baby Growth: Blitzen is now the size of a lime and just over 2 inches long. So exciting! He or she now has reflexes and if I poke my belly Blitzen will move in response (even though I can't feel it yet)! If we could look inside my belly, here is what Blitzen looks like: Belly Picture: We were at the beach on Friday, which is when I officially hit 12 weeks, so we made due and snapped a picture before lunch. I LOVED the cute stickers Danielle had t...
I know everyone is excited for our news and I've been getting comment after comment wanting to know MORE. You know me, this pregnancy will not be lacking in details :) I was planning to start in order and do our trying to conceive experience ( not hardcore details there though...SOME stuff is sacred, right?) first then how we found out and shared our news, but I know you guys wanna get to the good stuff so I'll come back to the conception goodies later. On Thursday, March 31st I decided to take a pregnancy test. I kinda had a feeling that I was pregnant (there were some early symptoms...moodiness and acne. Yuck!) and Zach would be out of town until that night so I thought it'd be neat to get to surprise him. I wasn't supposed to even start my period until sometime that following week but figured why not? The test said it had early results and it worked :) I had actually planned to take it the morning before and forgot when I woke up so before I went to bed Wed n...
I heard many, many horror stories about the postpartum period. I am not saying that I have had a textbook postpartum period, but this is my experience! I'm now 15 days past the date of delivery so I feel like it's the appropriate time to cover this stuff! I'm also including things you should buy for this stage as I wish I would have bought more in advance instead of having to rely on other people to run errands and get this stuff for me! Stomach: Everything I read before having the baby said that I'd look about 6 months pregnant after he was out of me. Well, I looked more than 6 months pregnant for sure because at 6 months, you could hardly even tell I was pregnant! I think all pregnant women want to know what the post-pregnant belly looks like! Well, you know me, I don't care...so here are some pictures of the belly after the baby :) This is 2 days after delivery: This is 5 days after delivery: And 15 days after! Not too bad...when I take him on walks no...
Tomorrow I will be 39 weeks pregnant! I usually don't take pictures of my tummy every week but this week you can really tell a difference. If you compare these to the ones taken last week you can tell that the baby is lower for sure! Some changes I have noticed this week: My hands feel numb a lot and look a lot more swollen. Especially after I go walking. I haven't even tried to wear my wedding or engagement ring for a couple weeks now. I've gotten more stretch marks. I now have some on each side of my stomach and several small ones on my chest. Like I mentioned above, the baby has dropped more. Zach and I got back from walking Sunday night and I lifted up my shirt and felt an "emptiness" at the top of my stomach. Where I used to feel the baby's butt and legs pressing against me, I instead feel stretched skin over an empty void then, if I feel lower, I can feel the baby. So I thought that was a good sign! My feet, like my hands, are swollen. I do not eve...
I had such a nice relaxing day yesterday and decided to continue the trend and go to bed early. I took 2 more primrose oil capsule things then we did the acupressure again and I was in the bed by 10! I woke up several times during the night but unlike usual, where I feel miserable, I just felt at peace. Very nice night and some awesome sleep! Got up at 7 and got ready for the dr appointment! Had about 5 contractions on the way to the doctor, about a 20 min drive, but again nothing serious. I didn't even want to mention it to Stacy but of course Zach wanted me to! I've gained 2 more pounds (putting the total at 36...yikes)! When we got in the room I didn't plan on telling Stacy anything about the "tricks" we've tried but she was sooo cool about it that I couldn't help myself haha She did another internal check and she said I'm still only 1 cm dilated, -1 station (which disappointment me but she said that's still awesome), and 90% effaced. How ...
When I walked into the dr. yesterday the first thing Stacy said to me was. "as of tomorrow you're full term!" I hadn't even realized that! Isn't that amazing to think that is Clover came today she or he would be healthy and not considered early? Today is a pretty significant day. I'm due exactly one month from today (less if you count the days but by the date it's one month away!). I'm 36 weeks pregnant and starting my 9th month of pregnancy. It's truly hard to believe that it has been 9 months. Everyone I have talked to says pregnancy feels like it lasts forever but honestly the time had flown by for me! It seems like just yesterday we found out we were pregnant and now we will be parents at any time! Here are the latest pictures of me: I've been experiencing lots more changes with my body: Pain: My lower back has been hurting A LOT more than usual. Especially whenever I go from laying to standing, it's horrible. I also have a lot o...
For those of you who don't yet know, I'm a little "crazy." When I found out I was pregnant I really wanted to have someone in the delivery room with us to capture all the special moments through the lens of a camera! For as long as I can remember I've been obsessed with taking pictures of everything so I can remember it all and duh I want to remember all the moments of giving birth (well more the after giving birth part) of our first baby. I know I won't be able to take the pictures (duh again) and I know Zach will be WAY too emotional to do it (and would I want to risk being mad at him later for him missing something? no!). So we started hunting for the perfect person to do it for us! I originally thought of Javon, our wedding photographer. Not only is he an AWESOME photographer but we love him and he loves us so I thought he'd be willing to do it. But Zach, understandably, didn't really feel comfortable with a guy being in on such an intimate event...
I can't believe that in six weeks I'll be a MOM! It's so exciting! What is even crazier is that sometime during this week while Courtney was pregnant that she delivered Colt. It's hard to believe that if I did go into labor that little Clover could be 100% fine! Hopefully that won't happen but still it's neat to think about that! Here are the latest pictures of me :) I'm trying to take new ones every two weeks as my tummy is getting bigger and bigger and bigger... When Mom brought me my baby album to pick out a baby picture of me for Clover's room I noticed a couple pictures of her from her eighth month of pregnancy. I saved them to put up here as a comparison once I got to the eighth month marker! Do we even compare? No! She looks awesome and so so so tan. It makes me wish it was summer right now so I could be that tan, but then again who wants to be pregnant through a Valdosta summer (especially when I don't have access to a pool)? I had my...
Today I am officially starting my eighth month of pregnancy! Pre-pregnant life I thought people were pregnant for 9 months so I'd be pumped right now thinking it's almost over! Don't think so fast...the way the calculate all this junk now means I still have 8 weeks (2 months) left to go and I am STARTING my eighth month, the baby is born at the END of the 9th! Anyways...Here are some of the latest belly pictures (taken this morning) Here are the changes I've been noticing: I don't know if it's just because I've been sick this week but I wake up in the morning with really sore legs. Like I ran a marathon while sleeping or something. I've heard of the night leg cramps and I have woken up to some of these before but I'm not sure if that's why they are sore in the mornings or not! I can feel a lot of movement. I can distinguish between hiccups (which feel like a heartbeat to me) and kicks (which feel more like punches honestly) I've gained...
I realized the other day that throughout my pregnancy I haven't really had that many "pregnancy symptoms" or at least if I have had them I haven't noticed. Well, those days are over. I'm in the third trimester now and am being hit like crazy with a million different things to deal with here! First here are some updated belly pics. I'm going to try to take these more often because I think there are much more drastic changes in the size of the belly now! I'm 30 weeks and 2 days in these. Here are some of the changes I've been noticing lately: Baby's Movement: Before it was just kicking, and sometimes I'd feel a tough one to the ribs or something but now it's not really kicking it's JABBING. At pretty much any given moment if you felt my tummy you'd be able to find at least one really tight spot where Clover is pressing a foot or hand or something really hard against the wall. I can also feel hiccups (in the lower belly sinc...
