18 Weeks & 3 Days!

Time seems like it has really begun flying! I'll be halfway done before I know it! I've got quite a bit of updates...

First, my trip home to Colorado. The trip was amazing. I, no joke, would not leave my mother's side. I didn't want to go anywhere except stay at home with my family. I've missed them so much, I didn't want to miss a second of seeing them/getting their love! I did break away a few times though, but boy do I miss them already.

Here's a handful of pics of my family:

And the beautiful Pikes Peak:

*Sigh* Oh Colorado. There's no place like home. I was in tears the drive back, when it was hitting that I was leaving. The next day I woke up annoyed by the fact that I was in Ohio again. I think I've just not had proper rest since arriving, but Ohio has been wearing me down already! We got back home at about 12:30 am, went to bed, the next morning Joe went to work (crazy man), I sat on my butt for 2 hours and then started unpacking/doing laundry. Then grocery shopping. Then dinner. Then more shopping. Shower. Didn't go to bed until almost 11pm, then woke up at 5:30am, started daycare at 6:15am, made pumpkin scones for Joe, whent on with the day... after daycare.. fixed my car's dead battery problem, went to a baby shower, didn't get home until some time after 10pm, then showered, got ready for bed and woke up again at 5:30am for another day of daycare. I'M SO SLEEPY! I cannot wait to go to bed tonight. And not have to wake up early. I am really pleased with the weather though, cold, rainy & gloomy. I love it. Cozy comfy weather.

Back home we had an awesome baby shower, I will do a second blog this weekend with all of the cool new items that my little Baby Beckham got (with pictures!!). The baby shower was lots of fun, it was nice to have the family together, eat, talk and laugh. What more could you ask for?

*Sigh #2*

So this upcomming week, I've got quite a bit of a busy (in a good way) week. I have a standard check up appointmenet (I have them about every 4 weeks) on Monday, I will be 19 weeks on Tuesday (yay), an interview on Wednesday, daycare all day Thursday, an appointment at 8 on Friday morning for the ultrasound full scan where they will be checking all of Beckham's organs and make sure he's all healthy and nothing's wrong... and then I have a Baby Care Workshop from 9am-2pm! That's going to be a long one. My husband's taking off the day so he can go with me both for the ultrasound and the workshop. I'm excited. Lot's of baby stuff to do! I have to go look for some dress tops this weekend for my interview. I'm thinking to get a babydoll style top and a blazer.. that way I can kind of hide my little bubble a bit. I think I'm slightly past the point of looking full and officially looking pregnant. My belly button has already popped out,  you can see it through my shirts! Kind of embarassing. It made me very uncomfortable at first.. but now I'm ok with it and used to it! :)

Hmm... symptom wise... I've been "stretching pain" free for over a week now. Thank goodness. I've not had any headaches for over a week... No weird pubic bone pains for over a week... The only thing I'm noticing is that the past 2 days, I have been so extremely hungry. I've eaten so much the past few days, lol. I've decided that little Boo is having a growth spurt and that's why I've been so hungry. I keep thinking about holding him... hugging him.. kissing him.. holding his hand. I can't wait to see him. He's been moving around in there quite a bit.. Joe actually felt him on early early Thursday morning (like 3am eaerly) before we got up for our flight to CO. I was laying a little oddly and twisted.. I felt the thumping stronger than I've felt yet and grabbed Joe's hand and put it on my lower tummy and asked him if he could feel it. He felt it!!!!! So crazy, I think that's so early for being able to feel the kicking from the outside. I've not felt it that strong since. I think he moves around mostly when I'm sleeping and maybe that's why I haven't noticed it stronger during the day. I don't know, but it was pretty awesome!

I already started decorating for Halloween... actually, I started a couple weeks ago. I put Halloween garland on the stair banister and changed the soap despenser to a Halloween one. I've been holding off on doing the rest.. I'll wait till it's October. But I'm SO excited to decorate my house! I'll take pictures as I get more fun going on.

Allright, well that's all I have for right now!! I hope everybody's doing well and enjoying the first day of Fall! Yay for Fall!!!
<3

16 Weeks & 2 Days!

Wow, 16 weeks! In less than 4 weeks, I will be halfway done with pregnancy! That is amazingly mind blowing. If you've been reading my blog (or Facebook) you know I'm headed home for a vacation soon.. But I will now be there in 1 week! I can't help but count down. I'm dying to go home. I wish we set up our trip for longer than 5 days :-/ major bummer. I know I'm not going to want to leave. I'll be dragging to come back to glorious ol' Ohio.

I've been getting headaches daily, and they're making me insane. Earlier this week, I went to bed with some Tiger Balm rubbed on my temples to try to relieve my headache... Unfortunately, no go. I mean, it was so awful that I kept waking up from sleep about every 15 minutes and it was progressively getting worse. I finally came downstairs and was drinking loads of Chamomile Tea because I was told long ago that Chamomile helps.. Now I've found out that actually, Peppermint tea works much better. Anyways, Tiger Balm, Tea, cold cloth... Nothing was helping my headache. I was actually praying that Joe would wake up (I had been officially up with the headache since 2 am) so that he could go to the store and get me some peppermint tea/Tylenol.

Now, I've been avoiding having to take any medication whatsoever since becomming pregnant. I've been putting off Tylenol for as long as I could.. but I was desperate at this point. The level of the headache honestly needed some Eccedrine PM, if not stronger. So I finally gave up on waiting, got in the car.. looking like hell, and drove to 1.Starbucks and 2.Grocery store. I never realized how much noise driving actually makes. Awful, awful, awful. Basically, I didn't end up getting rid of my headache until some time between 2&4pm later that day.

I'm really terrified that I'm going to have an experience like that again. But at least, this time I already have Peppermint Tea and Tylenol. Which doesn't really do a thing. Tylenol sucks. Sorry Tylenol. You suck.

The only other symptom I'm still dealing with is the Ripping Tummy Syndrome. I've named it myself, because Round Ligament Pain doesn't seem to give the pain justice. It happens at least once a week and I have to curl into a ball to give myself relief/comfort. Not cool.

Anyways....
I'm glad tomorrow is Friday. I'm not glad that I have to wake up at 5:00 am though. Early mornings for work really get to me. Especially on a Friday. Hopefully it will be an easy day. Today was thankfully an easy day. Thankfully. I'm thankful.

And.. here's some exciting news: My at home baby shower is officially scheduled! The Sunday while I'm in CO (I think the 18th) I will have a mini shower with family while home. I'm excited. I made a registry online with Target. I'm only putting furnature sort of items on the registry because I think I'm too picky when it comes to baby clothes, and I don't like Target's clothes. All of the baby boy items are baby blue. I can't describe how much baby blue annoys me these days. Which I know is silly.. because I'm having a boy... and it just goes hand in hand.. But I really don't like it. It looks like pukey cutsie icky prissy-ness to me. I'm saving my clothing purchases for Baby Gap and the BX on base. They have some super cute boys clothes. Did I mention I'm completely in love with Baby Gap? I've already gone in to look at clothes 3x in the past 4 days. I'm in love.

I can't wait to see my little man. I keep daydreaming about him. I also sing to him throught the day & rub my belly and tell him that I love him. I love him very much :) I hope he's feeling good and happy in there.

Allright, well I'm going to go grab a snack and get ready for bed. Early day tomorrow & it's already almost 9! I have a grandma's sleep schedule these days.. But I don't really care. It feels good.

I hope everybody out there is doing well <3 I'm sending you love and happy thoughts!!!!!

xoxox

13 Days Till Vaca! (+ Belly Pics)

In 13 little days I will be in the air headed to Colorado! I'm sure I've made it clear how excited I am and how much I have been missing my family already, but I'M SO EXCITED!!!! I'm also excited to go to a few of our favorite restaurants while there. Even more excited to walk into my Whole Foods! The two Whole Foods that I've been to here in Ohio are terribly small and not at all like the others I've been to. I love my Whole Foods back home. I love how it smells, I love the layout, I love the people who work there.. and obviously the foods they sell. That's probably the first place I'm going after I stop by the house. Who knows, I may even stop at the one in Denver first.. since we'll be there anyway :)

In other news.. thank freaking goodness it's Friday! I'm ready to have some time with my husband all to myself this weekend. I know it's going to be miserably hot, but I plan on blasting the AC and having a few nice cuddle nap sessions. All I've wanted to do this week is cuddle up watching TV/a movie and fall asleep with my Joe. I've been very exhausted and very... hmm.. clingy? lol. I'm rarely (seriously.. especially being preggo) like this, so I don't think he minds.

This weekend we'll be going to a BBQ and I'm going to be making some Vegan Cake Pops. Joe asked me if I can make Rum Cake Pops.. and I replied with a 'hmmm.' I'm going to look up if it has already been done (I'm sure it has) and see if there's anything in particular I need to do, like add more flour since the rum tends to make the cake extra moist. We shall see! I will be taking pictures so I'll definitely be posting those pictures...

But for now, I just have a few belly shots:


I kind of like this one.. You can almost kind of tell that I once had abs! Haha. Which are now feel like they are ripping into pieces.



15 weeks, 3 days!




So, if you read my last post...  You read about my shit (edit: HAHA. I mean SHIRT) problems.. How throughout the day, it bunches up and I have to keep tugging on it so I don't have the Pooh Bear action going on?? Well here's what I'm talking about:


Basically all of my shirts do this these days.

I've been also having to stick to sports bra's lately. And the ones that originally fit my little XS boobs no longer fit them quite properly. All of my bra's annoy the CRAP out of me! They're uncomfortable + aren't supporting me right. I'm going to have to go shopping for new ones soon.. I'm just trying to delay it. I really don't love the idea of spending 40$ on a bra (or bra's) I'll only wear for x number of months, but I know I'm going to have to do it.

So a couple days back, I decided that I was going to re-read Breaking Dawn before the movie comes out.. just as a refresher type of deal.. not to mention that it's my favorite book of them all.. but today I decided that since there's quite a bit of time between now and November, I'm going to hold that one off until probably the end of October/early November. I'm thinking for now I'm just going to re read Eat Pray Love. It put me in such a happy/peaceful mind state when I read it.. and left me feeling more aware of myself, my feelings and helped me properly deal with situations. I've been struggling with anxiety so much since becoming pregnant, that I think reading it again will help bring me that awareness to myself. I think it will be good, plus, even though half the book is underlined with my favorite parts (I obviously loved the book completely), you always catch something new the second time around. I'm excited about it, I'm going to start reading it at nap time #2 today when I have a big more quiet and can focus.

I'm hoping today will be an early day and my kid goes home early. I'd like to get some things done today before the weekend. One of which will be water marble nails which I've just discovered. I'm quite lame I know, but it looks freaking amazing. I've been on a nail kick recently. I got them done back in May and then stopped when I realized I was pregnant.. Even though I've read that it's fine. But anyways, learning how to do your own nails is so much more fun and convenient. And cheaper. In Colorado, what would cost 25-30$ to get your nails done, here costs 50-65. Insanity. Freaking Ohio, man.

Well that is all for now. I hope everybody has a FABULOUS Friday and an amazing weekend, and also a fun and safe Labor Day!!

<3

Basically 15 Weeks

Update time!! But first, I hope everybody is doing beautifully well on this lovely Monday.

I'll actually be 15 weeks tomorrow, but whateverrr! My baby will be as big as an orange! WOW!

Today I went to for what was originally supposed to be my 4 month appointment... though I'm obviously not quite 4 months just yet! My blood pressure has gone down a bit, closer to where I normally am.. 100/60-something. It's usually in the low to mid 90's, but has more recently been in the 105-110 range. Which yes I know, is healthy... but did cause concern for me when I first became pregnant. But then again, what doesn't cause concern for me these days? She said my weight gain is steady, I'm measuring perfectly, and that I'm doing really well. She also said that I should begin to feel the baby move soon. Apparently thinner women (I don't get why all the Dr.'s mention that I'm thin/small/skinny... I swear... I am no where near thin these days lol.. but I guess it's nicer than the alternative!) begin to feel the babie's kicks much sooner than other women. So I'm excited that in about a week or so I may possibly begin to feel my little Beckham. As far as weight gain, I haven't seen this number on the scale since I first moved to Portugal in 2008! BUT I know that it's the baby and I'm healthy, so it's totally fine. I feel good, the baby is good, that's all that matters. One thing that IS interesting though, is that even more of my tops are beginning to not fit me. At first, it was the big boob growth that was stopping me from wearing a few of my tops... now though, they start to bunch up under my bra and expose my lower tummy. They're obviously long enough, they just slowly keep on inching their way up, and I have to keep pulling my shirt down over my pants and stretching it over the belly. I told my husband I feel like Pooh Bear. Hehe. :)

I bought a few on sale maternity tops after my appointment because I am getting annoyed at the constantly having to tug at my shirts. I've also gotten a few stretchy & long wife beaters over the past week. Those tend to stay in place as well. I'm still hesitant about actually wearing maternity shirts.. And many of them I can't actually fit, but some of the ones that have rouched sides fit pretty well and will have room for my growing belly.

Also!!!!!
This has nothing to do with pregnancy but it totally made my day! I found the most amazing boots today at DSW! :) I'm in love with them and they made me so happy today, so why not throw it into the blog? Haha.

My next appointment is on Sept 16th (I think) and then I have my 20 week scan (to check all of the babie's organs and such.. as well as confirm that he is a boy) on Sept 30th. Those are perfect dates because I will be back from Colorado by then and with a few appointments to look forward to. These days I feel as though I desperately need these things to look forward to. It causes some extra excitement, and the sort that makes me feel happy. Happy is always a good thing.

Starting tonight I'm going to start going to the gym pretty regularly. My husband and I have decided to make some commitments to being more active starting this month. It will be good for him and I, as well as the baby. :) I need to get into the yoga habbit as well. I've been super busy with daycare the past few weeks, but am getting a break between now and Sept 15th when I leave for Colorado (YES!) So I can ensusre that I'll actually have the energy to start getting a little physical action going.

Symptoms....... let's see. Headaches. Major headaches. I'm still also dealing with the exhaustion. I can't seem to kick it quite yet. Hopefully my energy comes back soon! That's pretty much it though. I've still not taken Tylenol for my headaches, I'm trying to do the Chamomile/Peppermint Tea + Tiger Balm thing to keep it under control.

Well, that is all for right now! For those of you who are FB friends, you know I'm taking a break from facebook... but I'm still going to link this to my facebook. Plus anyways, I don't have to log in to post it :) I post it from here!

I hope everybody has a great night! I'm off to get ready for the gym! Wish me luck.. <3 <3

"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage."- Lao Tzu

14 weeks! and 3.5" little guy!

Well, if you haven't heard by now, we're having a boy!

I found out last Monday that we were having a little boy while doing my ultrasound. I'm super excited and I really can't wait to meet him!

A little info about my growing little boo: "In theory, your uterus' ability to expand (14 times in size, 20 in weight) is awe-inspiring; in practice, it kind of hurts. When the aches and sharp pains hit your belly, think about this happy news: By now, your risk of miscarriage has gone way, way down.Your adorable little fetus is busy with thumb sucking, toe wiggling, (not so cute but equally amazing) making urine, and breathing amniotic fluid as the liver, kidneys, and spleen continue to develop. Lanugo (thin, downy hair) is growing all over her body for warmth."

I think we saw him sucking his thumb in the ultrasound.. I'm not entirely sure, but his hand was by his mouth for quite a bit. It was awesome to see his heartbeat again, and see him move around. It's so amazing. Nothing can properly express how neat it really is. I can't wait to see him and hold him and play with him!!

As far as new symptoms.. I think I've been experiencing the round ligament pain, which isn't very fun at all. Sometimes I feel like my stomach is ripping, others I have random sharp stabbing pains in my lower lower abdomen. Not very fun :-\ I think he's doing a lot of growing, the past few days I have been starving!!! I'm hungry every 45 min to an hour it seems like. I've also experiencing some serious headaches the past few days. On the positive side, I do usually have a bit more energy than I did in the beginning (though I still wouldn't say I've had a huge increase of energy... I'm still waiting on that), I'm not nauseous anymore and I think my sense of smell is becoming more manageable. I can still smell everything but it isn't as threatening as it was when I was nauseous.

I've been doing daycare from home the past week and am doing it again this week. I'm not sure how long this will last to be honest. It sounds like a great opportunity in the beginning, but I can't be lifting babies that weigh over 30 lbs regularly.. And unfortunately, my 'regular' is over 30 lbs. It puts too much strain on my lower abdomen and I can notice some serious discomfort from having to pick him up. It scares me, and I don't want to danger the health of my baby/myself while I'm pregnant. It's also a lot of added stress and hassle to be open for business 50 hours a week.

I'm trying to convince myself to stay in it until September comes. I will for sure stop doing daycare after I get back from my trip to Colorado.. Which is in 23 days!!!!! I can last 23 days I think! or so I hope :) I'm certainly counting down the days!

I need to start looking to decide if I want to do a theme or how I want to set up the baby nursery. I don't want it to be anything too over the top. I don't like clutter!

That's really all for now, I don't have many updates at the moment!!

<3

A 'Girl' Officially Feels Right

For the first time since finding out I was pregnant, today it actually feels right to say that I have a girl. Obviously, that doesn't really mean anything. Not until proven by an ultrasound.. but it does actually feel right to say. I hope I do have a girl. I would love to have a baby girl. I'd love a boy too. Honestly, I just want a healthy baby.. but before when people would ask me... I would just say I have no idea because I really had no idea! Well, I suppose we will have to wait and see! Next appointment is August 15. I hope we do another ultrasound! :)

A bit of backtracking...

I found out about 2 weeks ago at my appointment that I was actually about 2 1/2 weeks earlier along in my pregnancy than we all thought I was. And I suppose that is a good thing, it just means I found out earlier in my pregnancy. At 3 1/2 weeks to be exact! Now I understand why the pink line was so faint on my first test! I was really barely pregnant. But, the appointment went well, and I got to see my baby for the first time.

Here's my little love:



Isn't that cute! I see little feet and little arms! :) My baby was actually still 9 weeks (the next day being 10 weeks) when we did the ultrasound. The heart rate was 169 bpm. It was amazing when she showed us the heart beating on the screen. All I could think was "That's my baby! I love you baby!"

Whenever I'm feeling 'off' I just look at the picture print out and it makes me feel whole. Like no matter what may happen in my life, it will be ok. I'm so happy to be pregnant! :)

In other news.... get ready for the eye rolls.

FCC apparently magically made a license appear (eyeroll) after having just told me that it would probably be another few weeks (eyeroll) before I would get it. So, that's a plus. I'm going at about 2:00 pm today to pick up the license.... after MONTHS! Man. I also just interviewed this morning and was basically hired through a temp agency that is hopefully connecting me with a job. A decent job with good pay. Actually comparable to when I worked at T-Mobile even.. and I haven't made that much money since! So I'm excited about that too. It's nice to have options. Even though too many options overwhelm me.. But I still think I need options right now.

On Monday, August 8th, will be mine and Joe's 1 year Anniversary! Can't believe it's already a year. A year ago tonight I was anxious in bed waiting for it to be tomorrow so that I could hop on a plane and head off to Vegas to get married. Crazy. I kind of wish I could go back.. if I could know then what I know now. I think it would have been a much more relaxed trip. With more fun and more drinks. I was just a big ball of anxiety at the time. A hot sweaty big ball of anxiety. We will actually having the Anniversary dinner tomorrow night. Not sure where.. it's a 'surprise.' I just hope it's the type of surprise place that I can actually eat at.. lol. I think I still want to officially celebrate at home on Monday... because tomorrow I'm not going to be like.. ohhhh Happy Anniversary even though we didn't get married today! That's lame to me. So.. I won't do it. But.. I will enjoy (hopefully) a yummy dinner with my husband in a hopefully fancy restaurant. I'm actually just pretty excited to be able to wear a fancy dress and do my hair/make up and all that jazz. Being a sweaty bum all summer gets old. Speaking of sweaty... I hope it rains so that I'm not sweaty gross in my fancy dress.

That's about all of the exciting news that I have at the moment... I do hope everybody is having a great day!! Sorry there was such a gap in between my postings.. I was bummed at first about finding out I was 2 weeks earlier than anticipated. May be silly to feel that way... but I was! But I'm good now. And happy to see my itty bitty protruding belly. I love it :) it makes my day to touch my belly and say 'I love you baby! Hope you're dong ok!"


Take care everybody!
<3

Heartbeats & Preggo Shopping

Well Hellooooooo!

:) I'm in a fabulous mood today. I heard my babies heart beat! Why wouldn't I be!!

Fyi, this post is very 'girl' oriented.. so if you're a guy.. you may not want to read it. It may make you feel a bit uncomfortable. Just a warning. Ok, I warned you.

Anyways, the appointment went well. Quite painful for a portion of it, but it went well. We started of with listening to the heartbeat though, so at least I had that joy to get me through the exam. It took a while for her to find the heart beat, but she found it! It was so fast! She/Joe and I were so excited to FIND it that she didn't record how many bpm there were lol. Plus, Joe distracted her for a second. ;)

It was beautiful. We also found out that my pelvic bones are wide enough for a baby to pass through, which honestly was a concern of mine because my mom actually had the problem of her pelvic bones being too small and she was unable to deliver me naturally. Horror stories. I also found out that I have a tilted uterus.. Which was odd. She said it shouldn't have any impact and it will get pushed forward as the baby grows. It can cause more back pains during the pregnancy though.

I've oddly been already experiencing back pains (maybe now I understand why) but I thought that it was something having to do with the osteopenia I was diagnosed with back in the day. So a few days ago I actually bought some Citracal Petites and have been taking calcium again. I checked with the midwife and she said that it is good for me to take calcium, better for the baby. And well, if it's better for the baby, then I'm sold! Citracal and Prenatals it is! When she was checking for the heart beat i literally felt like she was squeezing my bladder.. I actually had to get up and pee as soon as she finished haha. Awkward. So, I'm wondering if the uterus is behind my bladder and its pushing my bladder up? I don't freaking know. It's weird.

I also found out that my labs were great, I have awesome Iron levels. Go me. I'm thankful for knowing how to be vegan / vegetarian the 'right' way to ensure I get proper nutrients. I'm super proud of myself for that. And yes, I am bragging. But I totally deserve to!

Yesterday I finally bought a new bra. I've not been able to find a 32 C anywhere at all! I've seen them online at Victoria's Secret.. and I'm sure they must have a few at the store.. But since I'm early in and I'm positive I'm going to expand and grow some more, I really don't feel like dropping $40.00 on a bra I can only wear a few months in my life! So I searched and searched and searched through Target and found this one. $10.00. It's still a 32 B, but since there's no actual 'cup' or 'plunge' like all the other bra's I have, my boobs actually fit without nipples popping out and boobs overflowing. YAY. I'm so thankful. I have a few 34 B's but when I wear them, they're still too lose width wide and they don't support me properly.. and since mine are so achey and sore all of the time.. I need some good support.

I also got a belly band.. which is super cool. A lot of my jeans these days give me a funky looking muffin top and they are so uncomfortable to keep buttoned up. Not that the weather would let me wear jeans right now... (freaking heat) but when I do, I can leave them unbuttoned and this keeps them held up awesomely. I actually went to one of the pregnant lady stores in the mall to find one.. it was the same price as at Target but was a One size fits all type of deal and it didn't do anything at all for me. Target has 2 sizes at least, and this one's perfect! I was super excited and tried it on with a pair of my favorite jeans and it was magical! I looked cute in them again! haha.

I bought one more thing..... although I won't be wearing them anytime soon hopefully...

Yes... those are maternity pants. BUT...

They were on clearance..

They fit my butt....

And they were only 13 bucks!!

I had to do it. It made too much sense to not do it. They'll get used eventually!









Well, that's pretty much all I've got. I've had so many updates the past few days.

OH!!!! I'm getting an ultrasound on Monday!! July 25th :) So I will update you then!!

Hope everybody is having a great day! I send lots of love and happiness your way!