I plan on blogging more this weekend... everything is going fine, and Finn is happy and healthy growing in my belly. There aren't a lot of updates about the pregnancy these days, as I consider this time the "quiet growing period".
I found this video on YouTube, and I thought it was such an amazing story of faith and love. I don't claim to have struggled with infertility because Arthur and I only tried for 8 months. I do know the pain month over month in the middle of the journey that happens when you worry if you are one of the few who won't be able to have kids.
I cried for this girl when watching this video not because I know her pain, but because I felt her pain. I loved the second video she posted after, because it proves that there is a reason for everything.
Watch this one first, and then the one below it second:
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!
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!
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!
Today was a special day. Today I felt the first little kicks from baby Finn when I was at work. In the afternoon, he usually wakes up a bit and I can feel little bumps against my pants waistline. I usually will stop what I'm doing and put my hand on my stomach to see if I can catch the bumps with my fingers. For the first time today, it was a deliberate little kick on the three fingers I was using to push into my stomach. It was the most amazing feeling!
Tonight, while Arthur and I were eating dinner, Arthur asked "When do I get to feel Finn?" It was so cute. I put my hand on my stomach and couldn't feel anything, so I figured that he was not moving at that time. I know what usually makes him bounce around, which is sugar. So, I took a big swig of my cherry Koolaid and waited for about 5 minutes. I started to feel a few little bumps in my stomach, so I put Arthur's hand there, and pushed in. I felt a few from inside of me, and asked him if he did, too. He did!
He asked me if it was gas, but I told him it wasn't. LOL.
He kept his hand there for 10 more minutes, and felt a bunch of little "kicks".
Today was back to work after a long weekend. I had a nice 3 days off, and I think I really needed it.
Yesterday, I spent the day relaxing and doing chores. Arthur spent the day off at my parent's house, helping my dad. My dad is remodeling their master bathroom and adding in one of those walk-in bathtubs. They're not in major need of it, but I'm sure someday they'll appreciate having it. Arthur helped my dad put some splash walls around the sides and bottom of the tub. My dad paid him, and my mom got him a Subway sandwich. He was very tired when he got home, but he still was a trooper and did it. I am always amazed at how hard he works, and continues to work.
For example, today he spent the day at the dentist, and then came home and is remodeling our laundry room. It's pretty crazy down there, and even though I like to watch him work on putting up wood framing and plumbing, I can tell he doesn't want me to bug him. So, I'm up here blogging. :)
Last night was kind of dumb, sleep-wise. I went to bed (passed out on a sheet-less mattress) at 9:45 or so. Arthur got me up briefly to put the sheets on the bed. I fell back asleep until 1:45 AM for my first potty break. I woke up again at 4:00 AM with my alarm blaring. Apparently in my half-asleep state, I told him to set my alarm for 4AM and not 5AM.
I went back to sleep for 45 minutes and then woke up to my real alarm at 5AM. I had some tea and cereal and was still too tired to function. So, I went back to sleep around 6AM and slept until 7:15AM. I got ready and left for work at 8:15. Arthur had a dentist appointment this morning, so we went separately.
At work, I had a fairly busy day, but I was able to get through it ok. I didn't have whole lot of time to eat, so I stuck to granola bars and some leftover pizza. I had to work until 6PM and got home by 7. Arthur traded me cooking nights, so he made me sweet and sour chicken and jasmine rice because I'd had a long day at work.
I also took a few minutes tonight to call my cousin, who is in the hospital after surgery. She is ok, she is just dealing with some issues related to breast feeding. She is very strong, and I am very proud of her for staying so positive, even though it's really tough for her. She told me that she reads this blog, so I figured I'd say hello to her and tell her that I'll be thinking of her over the coming days. She is such a great mother and wife, and I admire her for being so strong. She was a little worried that her experience would scare me, but it doesn't at all. If anything, I love to hear experiences of others so I can be prepared for anything when I move into that phase.
How far along: 19 Weeks, 5 Days How much time left: 20 Weeks, 2 Days
Top two symptoms: I have been feeling a lot more "movement" these past couple of days. I can feel little flips, or pops in my lower abdomen. I always try to figure out whether or not it's gas bubbles, or if it's little Finn swimming around. I think it's him, but just to make sure, I always put my hand on my stomach to see if I can feel him through my skin. I feel like my mind plays tricks on me, but it's possible I've felt a few little taps on my had here and there. Other than that, I dealt with exhaustion related to not sleeping well last night, and some foggy brain.
Favorite thing I ate today: Arthur got these fat nectarines from Costco, and I've been eating one a day or so. They are so good!
Mood: Today my mood was mostly good, I was focused on getting through the day and that helped me get past how tired I was. I also had a mood lift at the end of the day when I got to talk to my cousin. :)
Worried about: I wasn't too worried about much today, which was nice.
Excited for: Still counting on looking forward to my ultrasound on Friday. I'm extremely excited to see Finn again and hear the good news from the Doctor about how well he is growing! :)
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! :)
