23 Weeks and Feeling Great!

Long time no blog!  I have not been able to update anyone for awhile because I've been caught up in work stuff and other things that have prevented me from spending a few minutes blogging.  I promise to be better about it as I get farther along.  :)

Arthur made a cool video with Finn's 20 week ultrasound.  I love watching it and seeing his little movements and memorizing his face.  Arthur did a great job picking some good Owl City music to go with it.  :)

Here's the video Arthur made.  My favorite parts are at 4:52 and 8:30.



Our next ultrasound is going to be this coming Friday, March 22nd.  This time I've invited my mom to come and record the ultrasound since Arthur's mom came to the last ultrasound.  I do like to involve them so they can start to bond as early as possible with baby Finn.

Arthur and I have also been shopping quite a bit here and there when we see cute baby stuff.  When we were in Vegas, we found some clothes we couldn't pass up at Baby Gap.  Here are some pictures of some of the clothes we got.

We also found some furniture for Finn's nursery!  We looked everywhere for a crib that we both liked.  I was trying to avoid really dark brown wood, and I also didn't like super light wood.  We ended up finding a crib on Babies R Us that had really good reviews and it was the perfect color called Driftwood.

Here is a picture of the crib and dresser set we got:

It took about 2 weeks to have them shipped to the Babies R Us in Midvale.  We picked them up yesterday, and Arthur's dad let us borrow his truck.  It was a relief to finally have them loaded up to get home.  Mike is still our roommate until May, so it will be that long until we can get his nursery set up.  That's ok, though, because we love Mike living here.  :)

Here is Arthur loading up the crib and the dresser on the truck at Babies R Us:

Everything is coming together pretty well!  I'm super excited to start showing a bit more.  I'm wearing maternity pants all of the time now, and I can feel Finn moving multiple times a day.  It's awesome.  :)

How far along:  23 Weeks, 2 Days
How much time left:  16 Weeks, 5 Days

Top two symptoms:  Hunger and exhaustion at night.  I've been eating everything in sight.  My cravings have gotten a lot worse since the nausea went away.  I've had some good energy these days, which is really nice.  Exhaustion at night is pretty bad.  I pass out usually before 10:00 and don't wake up again until 5-5:30 AM.  I know I need to take advantage of the time before Finn gets here, because I hear I won't get much sleep then.  :)

I also had a random symptom the other day, my feet swelled up super big.  It hasn't happened since, and I think it was directly related to eating too much salt at one meal.  I put my feet up and they've been ok and haven't swelled again, thank goodness. 

Favorite thing I ate today:  Lately, I've been eating A LOT of french fries.  For some reason, that's my craving of choice.  :)

Mood:  My mood has been good lately!  Much more positive and focused on the good stuff.  I think it's because I'm feeling better and I have some good things to focus on.

Worried about:  I'm really not worried about too many things, aside from keeping up with work and staying focused on the right things before Finn gets here. 

Excited for:  I'm excited for a couple of things.  I'm excited for the HypnoBirthing class that Arthur and I are going to take starting next week.  It was supposed to start tonight, but it didn't end up happening because the lady that was teaching it had sick kids.  It goes for 6 weeks in a row, every Saturday night.  It's supposed to teach me how to focus through the pain and be as solitary as I can so I can avoid an epidural.  It has some pretty good reported numbers from 2009 - 2013:

• NO pain medications or epidural: 82%
• NO episiotomy: 96%
• NO elective medical labor induction: 94%
• NO labor augmentation with pitocin: 94%
• NO c-section: 92%

Pretty good stats!  :)  I'm also excited for my next ultrasound which is this coming Friday.  I get to see Finn again!  Woohoo!

Vegas Birthday Babymoon!

Arthur's birthday was on February 23.  We had been planning to go to Vegas for his birthday for awhile, and to get the most out of the days we had off, we decided to leave right after our doctor's appointment on Friday night.

We had packed the night before, so as soon as the appointment was over, we said goodbye to Arthur's mom and headed down to Vegas.  The drive was really fast, because I had a nice long nap during the ride.  I have been craving french fries a lot lately, and so we had to stop at Dairy Queen halfway down so I could get some fries.

The first night we had booked at the Westin resort in Lake Las Vegas.  Lake Las Vegas is a man-made lake about 20 minutes outside of the strip.  The resort had incredible rates for one night, because it recently became a Westin.  When we checked in at the hotel, I told the front desk guy that we were celebrating Arthur's birthday.  He upgraded us to a slightly larger room with a balcony.  That's a secret!  If you ever travel to a nice place, tell them you're celebrating something and they might give you an upgrade!  :)

Here is a picture of the resort:

 
The room was nice, but the view was the best part.  You can see we had a view of Lake Las Vegas and some palm trees.

The night we checked in, Arthur and I didn't go out and do much, we just hung out around the hotel.  They had some fire pits and some comfortable couches by a fountain.  Here is a picture of some of the fountains we sat by to relax:

The next day was Arthur's birthday.  We went to this place called The Omelet House for breakfast.  Arthur had a lobster omelet and I had an omelet with mushrooms, green peppers, cheese and bacon.  They also have delicious breakfast potatoes and banana nut bread.  We found it on Yelp, and it's a local place.  Arthur have started doing that in cities we've been to a lot of times because we get tired of some of the mainstream places.  It's a great way to enjoy some of the local food.  :)

After we had breakfast, we met up with Mike and his girlfriend to go get our tickets to see a show that night.  Arthur and I always use the Tix 4 Tonight kiosks in Vegas so we can get discounted tickets.  We love to see shows in Vegas because we're not very big on gambling or other stuff.

After we got tickets to a show (more on that later), Mike, his girlfriend, Arthur and I went to Shark Encounter at Mandalay Bay.  Arthur and I have been there a few times but Mike hadn't ever been.  We went through and got a bunch of pictures of the fish and I think Arthur had a great time.

Here are some pictures of the Shark Encounter.  This one is of the walkthrough shark tank tunnel:

Here's Arthur and me posing with a photo bombing shark:

Here are some cool Jellyfish we saw:

After the Shark Encounter, Arthur and I went to the Palms hotel to check into our room because I needed a nap.  Once again, I mentioned to the front desk person that we were celebrating Arthur's birthday, and he upgraded us to a renovated room in the main tower.  The room was really nice, but kind of weird too.  There was a weird mural on the wall of eyes that you can see a reflection of in the TV as you are sitting on the bed.

We had a view of the other Palms tower from our room, and we were pretty high up:

After I had a nap, Arthur and I left to meet up with Mike at the Excalibur to see our show called Tournament of the Kings at the Excalibur.  Arthur and I have seen the show a bunch of times, and it never gets old.

We played some arcade games for a few minutes while waited for Mike and his girlfriend.  We won a weird little blue stuffed animal.  It was fun!  When Mike got there, we went into the "arena" and waited for them to bring our food out.  Yes, it's a dinner theater!

Here's a picture of us waiting for our food.  We were in the Norway section, cheering for the king!

We finally got our food.  It's a delicious and random meal of a whole chicken, potatoes, broccoli, a biscuit and the most delicious tomato soup you've ever eaten.  The best part?  They don't give you utensils!  You have to eat with your hands!

We totally enjoyed the show, and cheered a lot.  It was a good time.  After the show, we gambled a bit with Mike.  Mike convinced me to try the Blackjack table.  I put down 20 bucks and I won back 80!  Not bad for my first time playing.  :)

The next day, Arthur and I got up and went to another local breakfast place to eat.  It was called Babystacks and they specialize in making all different types of pancakes.  I ordered the Red Velvet pancakes and Arthur had the Rocky Road pancakes.  They were amazing!

After breakfast, Arthur and I went to the new Cosmopolitan casino.  It was amazing!  They had these incredible chandeliers made out of crystal. 

We also went the Aria to get tickets to see Zarkana that night.  It is a new Cirque du Soleil show.  After we went there, Arthur and I went to check into our hotel for the next two nights at the Hard Rock.  I took a nice nap for about an hour or so, and then got up and got ready to go to the show.  The room at the Hard Rock was really relaxing, and the beds were really comfortable.  Yes, I said beds.  Even though we got a nicer room on a higher floor, all they had when we checked in were rooms with two double beds!  Ugh!!

We were planning on going to eat at Gordon Ramsey's new restaurant called Burgr at Planet Hollywood, but we didn't end up having enough time to do it before we had to be at the Aria for the show.  We planned on going after the show instead.

We had a snack at Planet Hollywood at a restaurant that had lobster fish and chips style with fries and stuff.  I ordered just french fries and Arthur got what was called a Lob-sicle.  It was an entire lobster tail on a stick, fried and served with a lemon and tarter sauce!  It was 14 dollars!  He loved it so much, he said he would have paid double for it.  :)

We got to the theater and got a drink and some popcorn.  The show was amazing!  We had ok seats, in the middle, but really far back.  It's because the show is really new and the seats were kind of expensive.  Thank goodness for my blackjack win!  :)

Here is a short clip of the show so you can see some of the cool stuff we saw:



After the show, Arthur and I were really hungry!  We walked across to Planet Hollywood to find Gordon Ramsey's restaurant.  We walked around forever and finally found it close to the front.  I was so excited!!  I had been wanting to eat at one of his restaurants for so long.  We waited about 20 minutes or so, and they had a texting system to let us know our table was ready.  I got a text and we walked back and got seated really fast.  The menu had different types of burgers, but everything was really simple.  I ended up with an American Burger with lettuce, tomato, pickle and cheddar cheese.  Arthur had a Farm Burger with an egg on it.  To me it looked gross, but he loved it!  We shared some french fries that had truffle oil and Parmesan cheese on them.  The menus were the best part!  They were hilarious!

That night I had a rough time sleeping, probably because of how dry the air was or maybe I was just not liking some of the smoky air.  I tossed and turned, and ended up on the other bed because of how small the beds were.

The next day I got to sleep in and eventually got up to go to breakfast.  Arthur found another local place called The Egg and I.  It wasn't too far from the strip, and they are famous for their delicious egg meals.  I ordered an egg panini, it was so good.  They had this funny system they used to get the waiter's attention.  You would turn this little egg sign on your table around so it looked sad, then the waiter would know you needed something.  I didn't use it because the waitress explained to me that the system is good for customers, but bad for servers.  :P  I realized that they probably don't like people using it much.

Thank goodness for Yelp!  It was easy to find places to eat that were the normal strip joints.

After the Egg and I, Arthur and I went to Tix 4 Tonight again and got seats at the new America's Got Talent show for that night at the Palazzo, which is an extension of the Venetian.  We decided to head over to the Venetian early so we could trade in our tickets.  We looked around the mall a bit at the Venetian and because it was Chinese New Year recently, they had some really cool decor for the holiday.

Heres's a cool dragon:

Here's a Dragon Kite and lanterns.  It reminded me of Tommy Tricker!

There was also a really cool (probably expensive) car and some weird water tornado things in glass.  Interesting to look at, for sure!

We also got some Gelato at the Venetian and relaxed a little in the shops area by the canal.  It was nice to not rush around and actually enjoy the vacation part.  :)

We ended up going back to the hotel for another nap since I seemed to need one every day that I was in Vegas.  We got ready and decided to grab a snack and then head to the show.

The show was awesome, we ended up getting front row tickets.  My favorite part were the dogs that performed cool tricks.  Here's a video with some of the acts:



After we saw America's Got Talent, we drove back to Planet Hollywood to eat at our favorite restaurant in all of Las Vegas called Lombardi's.  They have the world's most delicious Fettuccine Alfredo I've ever eaten.  They make their pasta on site and the sauce is to die for.  I don't even like Fettuccine Alfredo, and that's all I ever order there. 

After we ate, we went back to the hotel for our last night in Vegas.

The next morning, we woke up and checked out of the Hard Rock.  We have a tradition to go to the Bellagio and eat at Cafe Bellagio for breakfast before we head out and go home.  Arthur ordered the Lobster omelet and I got a club sandwich with french fries.  So many cravings for french fries!

After breakfast, we got in the car and headed home.

It was such a great vacation, and I really had a blast!

Halfway!

I've put off blogging for a few days because when I got back from vacation on Tuesday, I blogged that night.  I spent a whole hour typing up an amazing blog, and I accidentally hit something on the keyboard that deleted the whole post!  When I went back in, it autosaved with nothing on the page... so everything was lost.  So, I'm trying this again.  :)

On Friday, Arthur and I had our 20 week doctor appointment with an ultrasound.  Because I wanted to record the ultrasound, Arthur invited his mom so she could handle the video camera while Arthur and I focused on the ultrasound.

I had to work until 2:30 that day, so I rushed to American Fork after work after my last meeting to make it there by 3.  Arthur, his mom and I went in and sat and waited for our names to be called.  I had some apple juice and some Mike & Ike's to help get Finn moving a bit for the ultrasound because I heard that makes it more exciting when you're checking him out.  :)  They called us back and we went into the room.

There was an exam bed with paper on it for me, a big ultrasound machine, and a big leather couch for Arthur and his mom to sit on.  I got comfortable on the exam bed and looked at the big screen on the wall.  It was nice that they had a TV mounted there, so it was pretty similar to Fetal Fotos.  The ultrasound tech got started and we were able to see baby Finn on the screen!

She said that everything looks good, and that he's healthy.  His heart is normal, and he is measuring slightly bigger than 20 weeks.  Because he is measuring only 5 days older than 20 weeks, he didn't change my due date.  It's still July 11!  Arthur's mom was really happy because that's her birthday.

Here are some of the pictures from the ultrasound:

This is his arm.  You can see his little hand has 5 fingers!

Here's his profile!  His nose is looking super cute.  He definitely has Arthur's upper lip.  ;)

Here's his junk proving he is a boy!

This is Finn's long leg.  She measured his bones and said his legs look great!

I have another appointment in 3 more weeks to check in on how things are progressing.  I'm very excited to see him again!  :)

After the appointment, I was super relieved that everything is looking normal.  I have announced my pregnancy in phases, to different people at different times.  I haven't made an official "all friends" announcement on Facebook because I have over 500 people there who are from all different parts of my life.  I wanted to wait to make sure that everything is looking good before I made a 100% public announcement.

I had been thinking of different ways to do it, and I found a fun picture online of a onesie that made me smile.  I posted this and got a bunch of likes and comments, so it sounds like people are pretty excited for Finn to be here!