19.5 Weeks, Almost 20!

I seem to blog on Sundays because it's usually the day I wake up super early and can't go back to sleep.  This Sunday is no exception.  I was up at 6:10 or so, because KitKat was meowing at the door.  Her new favorite thing is to go outside and play with the deer that live on our mountain.  She doesn't get too close to them, she just likes to watch them and occasionally run around them.

Since she was bawling at the door asking to be let out, I figured I'd just get up and eat something before I started to feel gross.  I made myself some hot chocolate with whipped cream and cinnamon sugar toast.

This week was good, nothing too crazy happened at work.  One thing I really like about my job is that it's very consistent, week over week.  It doesn't happen very often where something will throw me off.  I like to know what my schedule is in advance, and so my current position is really good for that.  I'm definitely a planner.  :)

This past Thursday was Valentine's Day.  Valentine's Day for Arthur and me is usually pretty low-key, and we usually have dinner at home together.  Ever year, we switch off to cook for each other.  Arthur did the cooking for us for the first few years of us being together, because I was never really a good cook.

I was looking through some old Valentine's Day pictures, and I found a few from the past.

Here is us on our first Valentine's Day together.  We hadn't even known each other for a year yet.  Arthur made me a delicious dinner and we opened presents and decorated Valentine's cookies.

We look so young!

Here's another one from a long time later, 2009 I believe.  This was our first Valentine's after we were a married couple.  Arthur made me an extravagant dessert display and we decorated cookies:

In 2011, Arthur outdid himself, and made the biggest display of treats ever.  I don't think I took any pictures of us that year.  Just the delicious treats:

I was in charge of dinner in 2011, and Arthur likes to call that the "Disaster Dinner" because I burned everything and it all tasted horrible.  We switch off every year now to cook, and of course 2012 was amazing because Arthur cooked.  He made beef wellington and risotto.

This year was my year to cook.  Because of the disaster dinner 2 years prior, I was stressing it pretty bad, pretty early on.  I took care to plan the menu in advance, and thought up a few different options in case something went bad.  I ended up on New York steaks, cheese and spinach ravioli, asparagus and sauteed shrimp.  The steaks were marinated all day in a red wine vinegar and Worcestershire sauce.  The marinade recipe was called "Classic Steak Marinade".  It was really good.  Here is a link to the recipe:  http://bbq.about.com/od/marinaderecipes/r/Classic-Steak-Marinade.htm

Arthur ended up cooking the steaks for me on the grill because I think he was a little scared that I would burn them and ruin delicious thick steaks that were not cheap.  He did an amazing job, and they came out perfectly.

We both sat down at the table and ate together.  We opened presents and had dessert.

Here is a picture of our table.  You'll be able to see my fancy dinner and the wrapped gifts we got for each other:

I got Arthur a hoodie and a gift card to the fish store.  I also got him orchids and Reese's peanut butter cups.  He got me the "Holy Trinity" of Valentine's presents.  He calls it the "Holy Trinity" because there are 3 things that every girl needs on every Valentine's Day.  Flowers, Chocolates and a Teddy Bear.

He also gave me a cute "easy to do" scrapbook and filled out the first page.  This, along with the sweet card he wrote for me made me cry.  I was so emotional!

The pictures of Finn made me cry the most of course, and then the picture of my fake belly made me laugh.  Arthur's cute little cutting job of the pictures into heart and oval shapes are the best part.

Arthur is so thoughtful, and always makes every holiday super special.  One thing I definitely want Finn to know someday is how much his parents love each other.  I think that is so important, and I never want him to question what a happy, healthy relationship looks like.

You can see over the years that I've never had a Valentine's Day where I haven't felt super loved and important, and I can definitely thank Arthur for that.  :)

How far along:  19 Weeks, 3 Days
How much time left:  20 Weeks, 4 Days

Top two symptoms:  I've started to feel a lot better.  I have the occasional headache and nausea when I haven't eaten, but for the most part, I'm feeling pretty normal.  The newest symptom I've been feeling is cramps in my abdomen area.  They aren't like period cramps, they are more like growing pains cramps.  If they were in my back, I would worry a lot more... but they are more in the front panel right below my belly button.  I think he's growing.  :)

Favorite thing I ate today:  So far today, I've only had hot chocolate and toast.  My favorite thing I ate this entire week would probably have to be our Valentine's Dinner.  I'm starting to have stronger cravings more often.  Uh oh!

Mood:  My mood has been mostly stable, with the occasional cry fest.  Most happy or sad things make me cry at the drop of the hat if I'm watching them on TV or on the computer.  I have a very low tolerance for dumb people these days.  My ability to smile at people and just let them be their dumb selves has gone.  I am more likely to get grumbly and complain under my breath if someone is driving me insane.  I'm not sure if this is normal, but it is what it is.

Worried about:  I worry about a lot of things, most of them being related to getting ready for Finn to get here.  Things like finding a crib, and getting his nursery ready.  Things like knowing my birth plan and understanding all of the options available to me.  Things like how I will handle telling everyone my birth plan.  I think I will make my 20 week appointment the milestone that will force decisions to be made.  :)

Excited for: My 20 week doctor's appointment!  It's this coming Friday in the afternoon!  I have a longer appointment scheduled so we can have our ultrasound and he can do all of the measuring.  I am so excited.  I would like to record it with my video camera.  That will be Arthur's job!  :)

Announcement Thursday and Friday!

Happy Black Friday!  By the clock, it's actually almost 1:00 AM on Saturday morning, but to me it's still Friday because I haven't gone to bed yet.  It's a wonder that I'm still awake!

I didn't get to blog yesterday because it was such a crazy Thanksgiving day.  Arthur and I woke up early and he started cooking around 8:30 AM.  He cooked straight through until everyone arrived at our house, around 4:00 PM.

I am a terrible cook, so I didn't do much of anything to prepare the food.  What I did was clean.  I cleaned the family room, the living room, the bathrooms and the dining room.  It was a joint effort in that way.  I can't even imagine what it would be like to have to do all of the cooking and cleaning by myself.  I admire my mother-in-law and my mom even more now after seeing how much work goes into one Thanksgiving dinner.

Arthur was a rockstar.  He cooked a 24 pound turkey, mashed potatoes, two kinds of gravy, two kinds of green bean casserole, 4 kinds of stuffing, sweet potato yams, corn, cranberry sauce and 7 different kinds of pies.  Everything was from scratch.  He never sat down once, all day.  He cooked straight through the day.  His only break was to take a shower, and during that time I helped him by watching the potatoes to make sure they didn't boil over.

Dinner was delicious and we had a big group.  It was Arthur's family, including his mom, his dad, his brother Eli, his sisters Sunny and Autumn, his Great Aunt Joan, and his mom's friend from work, Patrick.  Arthur is taking the picture so he's not in it.  Here's our Thanksgiving table:

After dinner, we played a game with the group.  We played Scribblish.  It's a really fun drawing game.  After the game we were either going to play Settlers of Qatan or watch Arthur Christmas downstairs.  I asked if we could take a family picture in front of the tree.  I also asked Patrick (the visitor) if he could take the picture.  I showed him how to use the camera, and I went downstairs with the group.  He took a couple of practice pictures and then it was time for our big reveal.  :)

The first picture is right after two practice shots.  Arthur said "Ok, this one is the real one... everybody say... 'GENEVIEVE'S PREGNANT!'  It hadn't sunk in just yet, but the pre-reaction is helpful to compare the other reactions to.  Thank goodness Patrick was good at photography, because he kept snapping shots and got a bunch of great reaction photos.  

Everyone was thrilled.  It was a great way to document the announcement, and I really loved how happy everyone was.  Arthur's mom cried, and we were excited most to tell her because our due date is her birthday (July 11).

After we told everyone, we sat around for a little while and I answered the normal questions like whether or not I am sick.  It was fun talking about it really openly.

All-in-all it was a great day.

Today I couldn't get up to go Black Friday shopping because I was too exhausted from the day before.  I slept in and lounged around the whole day.  I spent a little bit of time working on my picture frame for my mom.  I printed out a picture of each grandchild when they were less than 6 months old.  I put them each in a picture frame with 4 windows.  In the bottom right corner window, I put a picture of the words "July 11".  Arthur and I wrapped it up and we took it to her this evening.

After we went to Chili's for dinner, everyone was gathered in the living room.  I gave my mom the present and she opened up the frame.  She looked at it for a minute and couldn't understand what the "July 11" meant.  She asked me "What's July 11?  Are you expecting?"  It then hit her and she started screaming.  I looked around at everyone's reaction, and everyone was freaking out.  Adrienne and Leo started to cry and I got up and hugged everyone.  They were all so surprised.  Adrienne was screaming and cheering, she was so happy.  My  mom was also very happy, and was crying.

Brielle and Adam were freaked out because everyone was so happy.  It was great to be able to tell my family because I have been so ready to share the news.  :)

I didn't get any pictures of their reactions because it wasn't really the time or the place to take a bunch of pictures... but the memories are there, and that's what matters.

It turns out that my sister was really sick with Brielle, for her first pregnancy.  She said she also had headaches.  It's comforting to know that she went through those things too.  When we asked Brielle if I was having a girl or a boy, she said I was having a girl.  She also said that I wasn't having twins, just one.  It was cute to hear Brielle get all excited.  I got more hugs from her tonight than I've ever had.  I loved it.

My mom also called my Grandma Frazer (her mother) and I got to tell her.  My mom also called my Aunt Zebby and told her.  It was cool to know that my family knows.  I'm not going to announce it on Facebook, because I really don't think it's the place for me to tell people.  I will probably tell people individually, as the opportunities come up.  I'm not an extremely public person, so the individual method will have to be what it is.

The announcements were a success overall.  :)

How far along:  7 weeks, 1 day
How much time left:  32 weeks, 6 days
Top two symptoms:  Headache and exhaustion.  I took a lot of Tylenol yesterday because my headache was so bad.  My nausea can be controlled by eating.  Exhaustion comes in with not getting enough sleep and feeling generally gross in the morning when I first wake up and not being able to go back to sleep.  :\

Favorite thing I ate today:  Leftover mint chocolate Oreo pie!!  Yummo!

Mood:  Calm, not overly emotional.  I have been able to keep my emotions in check pretty well these past few days. 

Worried about:  Keeping this pregnancy healthy so I can make it to my due date.  Now that I've told everyone, I feel an extra pressure to make sure that I'm not miscarrying.  I know it's completely out of my control, but I can still focus on the positive things I can control, such as my diet and activity level.

Excited for:  Christmas.  Everyone talked about gift ideas when we told them today - and it was fun to think about some of the different things we might get for the baby.  :)  Hurray!!!

Movie Sunday

It's Sunday!  It's also my day off.  I am feeling better today than I've felt in awhile, but I'm still really tired.  It's chores day, and I'm struggling with getting started.  Mostly because of how tired I am and because of my back hurting.

I went to bed last night at around 11:30 and woke up the first time at 5:30.  I was proud of myself for sleeping for so long.  My normal wake up time is 3 or 4 AM.  I went back to sleep downstairs until 9:00.  I appreciated the few extra hours.

Arthur made me breakfast, and I appreciated that.  That was one of the many reasons why I married him.  He is such an amazing cook, and even if he makes something simple like eggs cooked in bread (called camel eyes), it is absolutely delicious.  While we ate breakfast, we watched a movie, "What To Expect When You're Expecting."

I really enjoyed the movie.  I laughed a lot, and it made me feel less alone on some of the dumb symptoms.  There are like 5 different pregnancy stories, and every one is different.  One person who is adopting, one person who isn't expecting a baby, one person who is trying, one person who is the girl we all hate, etc.  It's fun to watch some of the things that I am always thinking that I think no one else thinks.

After the movie, I started the laundry and since then I've been thinking of starting my chores.  Chores are a bugger.  I'm so tired and I don't feel like moving much at all.  I know that I was like that before I got pregnant, but now it's even harder to get myself going.

So, I took a nap earlier this afternoon for 1 hour.  It was nice to fall asleep and feel like I was more awake for the rest of the day.  So now I'm eating some lunch and I'll then go finish up my chores for the day.

After my chores tonight, Arthur and I will eat dinner and maybe watch Dexter.  It's a new week, and it's a short week since Thanksgiving is going to give me 2 extra days off (Thursday and Friday).  :)  Hurray for paid time off!!  :)

 How far along:  6 Weeks, 3 days
How much time left:  33 weeks, 4 days
Top two symptoms:  Exhaustion and slight head pressure.  It's better today!!  :)

Favorite thing I ate today:  The camel eyes Arthur made me for breakfast.  So good!

Mood:  Today I have felt physically better than I've felt in awhile.  It kind of scared me after we watched the movie today, that I wasn't feeling like crap.  I'm used to feeling awful all day long.  I have been drinking more water, and maybe that's helping.  My mood overall is ok, maybe still a little bit lazy.

Worried about:   The decrease in symptom severity today.  I looked up "symptoms come and go" on some of my pregnancy message boards and it looks like it's pretty normal.  I still worry that if my symptoms go away then I might miscarry.  I am still staying positive. 

Excited for:  I'm really looking forward to eating Thanksgiving Dinner.  Arthur makes the most delicious mashed potatoes and stuffing.  Sometimes he makes me Thanksgiving Dinner during the year with a smaller sized turkey/turkey breast, since he loves it.  I enjoy it even more on the actual day.  I'm also looking forward to shopping on the day after Thanksgiving.  I love going out early and seeing the angry people grabbing stuff and pushing through long lines.  So awesome.

The End of the Beginning

I titled this entry "The End of the Beginning" because this is the end of the first week of knowing that I'm pregnant.  The fact that I got through the first week is amazing to me.

Today was a very long Friday.  I woke up early and had to be to work early.  That is tough on a Friday.  I had back-to-back meetings all day and I was just really looking forward to coming home and decorating the family Christmas tree with Arthur.

After work, I drove home and met up with Arthur.  He had to deliver a birthday cake that he made for his niece, so we had to go back out.  We delivered it and then went to Babies R Us.

It was really fun looking at the cribs and the clothes and different accessories.  We didn't buy anything, we were just browsing.  We both commented that we can't wait to find out the sex of the baby so we can start to buy stuff.  There is some unisex stuff, but most of it is either blue, green, pink or purple.  I need to have brown stuff, but haven't decided on a decor theme yet.

Pregnancy-wise today, I felt good.  Not too tired.  I find that if I lay down at any point during the day, I almost instantly fall asleep.  I have to try to remember to stay up and awake until it's actually bedtime.  :)

Tomorrow is going to be fun, Arthur and I are going to finish putting up and decorating the tree.  I love the cool breeze and the sunshine through the windows while we listen to Christmas music and hang ornaments.  It's one of my favorite moments of every year.  I usually do a lot of watching, but that's OK. 

How far along:  4 weeks, 1 day
How much time left:  35 weeks, 6 days
Top two symptoms:  Full/sensitive breasts and tired

Favorite thing I ate today:  Pizza Hut Bread Sticks.  OMG!!!!!

Mood:  Today I felt like I was not on the ball like I normally am.  I felt foggy and a bit disconnected.  I think it's because it was a Friday and I just didn't feel like working.  Overall, I was in a mediocre mood.  Not too happy and not too upset.  I'm finding more and more that it is easy pick out where the stress comes from in my life.  I need to avoid those areas and focus on the things that make me the most happy.  :)

Worried about: I stressed less about my period coming today than I normally do.  I think I worried about how I'm going to figure out telling my family on Thanksgiving.  We are going to be at our house this year so telling both families would make it pretty chaotic.  I wanted to keep it intimate, because I didn't know everyone was coming here.  We'll work it out, it will just have to take some bending from someone, somewhere.

Excited for:  Shopping online for baby stuff that I know I want, and not just stuff that is on display at Babies R Us.  I know that when I see the theme I want, I will grab it up.  I think I just need to know if I'm having a girl or a boy.  Sigh...

Happy Halloween!

Today is a spooooooooooky day!  Well, not really.  Today is the first holiday I get to experience being pregnant.  I don't really have a fancy costume, Arthur and I are going to wear our bowling shirts from the eBay Bowl for Kids Sake event.  I'm really busy at work today and I hope I continue feeling good.

I have been battling a small cough for the past few days and this morning I can feel it moving down lower.  That's a good thing.  I really don't want to get sick, especially now that I'm working so hard to be more healthy.

Yesterday at work, I was really hungry.  I ate 4 small meals on to top of breakfast and dinner.  Arthur and I went to Walmart last night after work and we got a bunch of groceries.  I appreciated waking up this morning and having so many options for food.  I enjoyed an open-faced peanut butter and banana sandwich for breakfast, as well as an apple.  I'm trying to eat as much fruit as I eat in vegetables.  Thank goodness it's not my night to cook tonight.  :)

So far when I'm waking up in the morning, I'm not getting sick.  However, yesterday when I arrived at work, the smell of the breakroom made me really nauseous.  I always imagined morning sickness as waking up sick and having to run to the bathroom before even peeing.  That isn't the case.  I feel the same regardless, every morning.  I'm sure that will change in the coming weeks.

I read a blog of someone who I work with who is also pregnant, and she had a good idea to check for changes in how things are going, while documenting them.  I don't want to record my weight or anything like that, but I would like to record my symptoms and how I'm feeling every day if I can write every day.

How far along:  3 weeks, 6 days
How much time left:  36 weeks, 1 day
Top two symptoms:  Leg pain and bloating

Mood:  Generally happy most of the time, but when something get stuck in my mind that is upsetting, I can't let it go until I address the emotions.  It's like my "bottling up" emotional thing is speeding up from days to minutes.  I guess that means my patience is going away and my emotions are getting stronger.

Worried about:  I worry every day that my period will come and I will miscarry.  Even though I know I'm doing everything I can to keep this thing inside of me, I still stress that something will mess up and I will have to start all over.

Excited for:  Telling my family and friends we're pregnant.  The top two ideas are to get a picture frame with 4 squares in it and put pictures of all 3 grandkids and leave a square blank with "Coming July 11" or something like that.  I would put an ultrasound picture in square 4, but I won't be able to have one until I have my appointment on December 14.  We want to tell the families on Thanksgiving.  This will work for both sides because there are 3 grandkids on both sides, so our baby will be the 4th.  :)
The other idea is to get everyone together for a picture and have Arthur take it and he will say "Ok, everyone say CHEESE!"  and then say "Oh, it didn't take.  One more."  and then say "Ok, everyone say 'GENEVIEVE'S PREGNANT!'" and capture the reactions on film.  :)  Both fun ideas, but I like the 4 picture frame one better because it's not so obtrusive and surprising.

I'm not sure if I'll keep this "fill in the blank" stuff going, but I liked thinking through these things.  Then, there can be a bit more structure to my blog.  :)

Ok, time for work.  Bye for now, and Happy Halloween!