Thursday, February 7, 2013

11 Weeks Pregnant Update

11 Weeks Pregnant Update



This is a pic from Kelly, one of my best friend's baby shower.  Its a fun photo because Kelly is in her 3rd trimester, her friend is in her 2nd, and in this pic I was in my 1st tirmester.  Its neat to see the difference 

I love Kel, she always gets me to take a pic belly to belly. I will thank her later for all of the memories shes helped capture. I cant wait to have little boys that are 6 months apart. She is studying to be a Dula..so she will be helping me and coaching me through this pregnancy, and preparing me for labor. Shes due any day now! Its the cutest story, she found out she was pregnant on Father's day, and she is due on Valentines day. What a special little baby!

11 Weeks Pregnant Update

So I somehow skipped week 10. I didnt keep a log and I never took a picture. This is the only week thus far that I have really blown it on and missed. But I'm sure it looked pretty similar to weeks 9 & 11. Not much changed until around week 12 or 13 when the nausea started to lift a bit. (Stay tuned to find out more)

How far along:  11 Weeks 

Excited for: Seeing our little bun. My girlfriend Ashley that is the US technician wants us to come in on friday when I'm 12 weeks to see if we can determine the gender early on! SOOOO EXCITED I cannot contain myself.

Symptoms: Same. My legs still feel heavy when I exercise. Stomach cramping stopped a while ago. 

Cravings: OH BOY! I am craving everything fruity and citrusy.  I am all over Trader Joe's fruit leathers, fruit snacks, dried fruit and fresh fruit.  My favorite right now are Oranges and Raspberries. Kelly (in the above photo) introduced me to Cliff's Fruit twists! They are all natural and all fruit, so so yummy! I can eat a few a day (:  I'm not too into chocolate or ice cream right now, which I usually love. Some of my go to fruits right now are: dried apricots, oranges, raspberries, blackberries, pineapple, and strawberries (anything tart is yummy). I Love ANYTHING MEXICAN. Especially chips and salsa (i could down a whole basket and 6 bowls of salsa). Seriously. Its always been my guilty pleasure.  Loving cheese. And also Pizza! (CPK is in my dreams these days), not a normal craving for me..Im usually okay with having pizza ever so often, but it seems im having it 1-2 times a week right now.


Bump Update:  I can feel a little bump where my uterus is, its pretty neat! Some of my bloating is going away, but it comes back certain days when I eat somethign that is harder to digest (like pizza).  

Exercise:  My lower back hurts often, especially when I lift light weights, which I didnt do for 2 months after I found out I was pregnant. I'm just not getting back into the groove of things and building my muscles back up.
 

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

9 Weeks Pregnancy Update


 You can just tell how exhausted I am by looking at these pics (lol)


9 Weeks Pregnancy Update


How far along: 9 weeks 
Symptoms: Awful constipation (I had already had issues with this due to progesterone slowing down your digestive system as well as my growing uterus pushing again my intestines) but now being on Zofran for a week, its been a week since I was able to go to the bathroom.. talk about PAINFUL. My nurse advised me to try stool softeners, supositories, more fiber in my diet, increase my liquids etc. I tried it all, nothing worked.  On day 10 of this horrible bloating and cramping, I tried a water enema as the nurse suggested, even that didnt do anything.  Finallly, I think after trying so many things, I started to get some relief every few days. But not much. This lasted WEEKS. I'm exhausted even more these past 2 weeeks,I wake up so tired even with 11hrs of sleep
My back hurts and I get leg cramps. I think its my ligaments loosening and moving and my increased blood volume.

Am I showing: I don't have a bump quite yet and I'm so far at 2.5 lb weight gain it fluctuates though depending on what I've eaten that day. I tend to carry water weight any how.

What am I missing:  I'm not missing anything really. I jus want to feel 100 percent myself but that won't happen until this baby comes I'm sure.

Cravings: not really, I've been liking sweets again and eating captain crunch and bagels often. 

Adversions: fish, pizza, soups (I ate too much of it), store bought tortilla chips
But craving restaurant ones? Haha. 

I cooked for the 1st time in 3 wks and I've been exercising like 4-5 days a week light cardio not weights yet,although I want to I'm not motivated to get to my regular gym class schedule. Smells really gross me out right now, even things I use to like. I'm irritated by a lot of smells now a days. 
Still always hungry but not forced to eat as much as I did the past 3 wks with the horrible nausea. I had to eat more to settle my tummy.

8 Weeks Pregnancy Update


8 Weeks



8 Weeks Pregnancy Update:


 How far along: 8 Weeks
Symtoms: Exhaustion. Headaches. Swollen boobs. My digestive system has slowed way down. I will save you from the details but its not fun on my tummy (which at night already looks 4 months pregnant because I get so bloated and full).  Nausea. Food adversions to everything still. Frequent urination (3 times a night). Difficulty feeling comfortable at night.  In bed until 3 or 4pm with nausea. 

Excited this week: We were going to our first Dr. visit and were going to get to see our little baby and hear its heart beat.  We also got to ask the Dr. all the questions we had been wondering about for the last month.  The baby was healthy and perfect, and our Dr. is the sweetest lady, I feel so thankful my sister found her.  

The Dr. asked me if I wanted a prescription for Zofran for the nausea (constipation being a side effect). I turned her offer down because I wanted to be all natural and do whats best for my baby. My dr. advised that if I was miserable enough to call her at any time for the medicine. She knows I am a working woman and that I had been out of work for a month due to the nausea. I ended up calling her 3 days after our dr. visit because I just couldn't do it anymore.  

Zofran:  MIRACLE drug. Saved me.  I could rave about this for so long.  I was able to eat foods I wasnt able to face for over a month. I was able to get out of bed in the morning at 8am again and feel good.  I could work and hangout with my family, friends and hubby and not be in agony with nausea.  It was wonderful to feel a little more like myself again.  

7 Weeks Pregnancy Update


7 Week Pregnancy Update


How far along: 7 weeks, 5 days

Gender: unknown

Maternity clothes: No, wearing my regular clothes

Stretch marks: No

Sleep: Sleep hasn’t been that great since week 4 ½ when I have to get up every 2 ½-3 hrs to pee due to good old progesterone. I have also been having some pretty crazy and vivid dreams.

Miss Anything: I miss being able to wake up and feel good. I miss making healthy breakfasts, working out in the morning, and being able to have a life. Im sick sick sick, and cant get out of bed until 2 or 3pm most days.

Movement: No, but baby has a heart beat now and we’ve seen it twice and it’s the most precious thing!

Cravings: No cravings, more food adversions than anything. I cant look at chicken, cant cook myself anything (not even soup), I Couldn’t look at salad from week 5-7 but around 7 ½ salads started looking a little less nauseating, bread is all that looks good, so im eating lots of it! I feel really unhealthy the way ive been eating but my doctor said whatever I can stomach, I need to eat.

Symptoms: HUGE boobs, pee every 2 hours, head aches the first few weeks, have to eat every hour and half or im sick, nauseated from when I wake up until about 3 or 4 in the afternoon, then I get sick again before bed time, just started throwing up at 7 ½ weeks, not sure if that will continue or not (I only threw up one day in the morning so far).  I get dizzy recently, I have major food adversions, my sense of smell has definitely heightened and I cannot stand pumpkin candles or my hubbys cologne right now or cigarettes.  My abs feel weird when I flex or laugh. My back hurts when I exercise or lay in bed too long. I had really bad cramping the first month and half (like period cramps).  Oh and cant forget, around week 7 I became increasingly more exhausted, I feel like I could sleep 20 hours straight and still wake up tired (ive been sleeping probably 10-12 hrs a day).

Belly Button in or out: In

Mood: Sometimes sad because of the nausea and lack of activity. Im use to being a person always on the go and would work out 6 days a week, and for over 2 weeks I wasn’t allowed any activity due to early spotting (implantation bleeding they think).  I was getting major cabin fever during that time and going stir crazy.  Most of the time im happy, sometimes easily emotional.

Looking forward to:  Exercising and having energy again. Eating healthy and getting back to a normal routine and a LIFE. Excited to go on adventures with my husband again.

Exercise: As I mentioned, I  was not allowed to exercise for a couple weeks.  I just started doing light cardio again probably 2-3 days a week if im lucky with the way im feeling right now.  I haven’t lifted weights since I found out I was pregnant and cant wait to start again (light weights). My doctor has advised me “giving birth is like a marathon, you need endurance and strength and you wouldn’t run a marathon without training, if you have a work out routine, stick to it in moderation and stay active and healthy 30-60 minutes a day. Its nice to have a doctor who values fitness. (:

Nutrition: Out the door right now. Relying on my prenatal vitamins, which I feel awful for. But I cant stomach healthier foods like veggies and getting the right amount of protein. Its so hard. I always thought id be so healthy all throughout my pregnancies but sometimes in the beginning you just have to make sure you are getting calories and get back to being healthy in the 2nd trimester when you have more of an option and the nausea is gone.

Favorite moments this week:  Seeing our baby’s heart beat at our first real Dr’s visit. My best friend is an ultra sound tech and has been letting me get US’s weekly since week 5, so we’ve been blessed to get to see our baby grow week by week! Once i have work again I wont be able to go in every week so I am taking advantage of seeing our little one right now.

Pregnancy Update.. 5 Weeks

Tummy update + Symptoms and more

Pre baby body (taken at 4 weeks pregnant)


Pre baby Body (taken at 4 weeks pregnant)

 5 Weeks Pregnant (above photo)


6 Week baby belly
 Dinner with our friends, my girl friend Kelly is 6mnths ahead of me (im 6 weeks here)

My first trimester of pregancy was very tiring and busy due to it being holiday season.  For this reason I have gotten so behind on blogging and am now just catching up.  I wanted to do weekly posts on all of my symptoms, cravings, what I was feeling emotionally and physically etc: So here it goes with catching up:

How far along: 5 weeks, 4 days:

Woke up to a little spotting in the morning. (Nothing to be worried about, but of course being a new mommy everything made me anxious because you dont know what is normal.  My Dr. said spotting is a very common symptom that plenty of women experience at some point in their pregancy. Most experience this right after implantation in their first weeks of being pregnant. A lot of women mistake it as a light period and then dont even realize until a month later that they had conceived.

Symptoms: Nausea has begun. Spotting. REALLY HUNGRY. Boobs tripled in size from my prebaby boobs.  Exhausted. 

Dr. advised me to not work out and put me on complete pelvic rest due to the spotting just as a precaution. The nurse said specifically "try to not do anything for 7 days, if the spotting is gone for 7 days then you can proceed with activities and intercourse, etc. If the spotting comes back, wait an additional period until you have 7 days go by without spotting. I decided to take 3 weeks off from the gym until I knew for certain our little baby was safe and had a heart beat.  It was a nice break but Im not going to lie, it was hard to wait to be with my husband (we waited only 2 weeks for that), and I was going stir crazy at home, unable to work because my nausea was so awful.  

Food Adversions:  EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING HEALTHY. I couldn't even open the refridgerator or look at it. My husband had to go out and get me every meal 3 times a day because I couldn't cook or be around food in the kitchen. Every meal and every day had to be something different because the food I had eaten the day before would gross me out and nauseate me even more. This was so difficult for me because I was forced to eat foods I'd never usaully eat, especially when keeping the health of my baby in mind..i was eating fast food like taco bell, chick filet, Dafne's, subway, Del Taco, bagels from ILOVE BAGELS and Bruggers.  All I could stomach was carbs. My sweet mom made me spaghetti, macaroni, etc to try to help out.  
Cravings: none, it was more about "what foods can I tolerate? what is not going to make me puke thinking about it"

On Thanksgiving day we decided to tell our families we were pregnant using a fun homemade video with pictures of my husband and I as babies, kids, teens, and then the story of how we met, our engagement video and photos, and then our wedding..ending the video with the BIG SURPRISE of our babies first ultrasound (my best friend is an ultrasound technician so we were able to see our little baby growing at just 5weeks!)
  
The day after Thanksgiving I remember is right about when the nausea came on full force.   My husband and I went on the search for "preggie pops" and ginger capsules. We finally found them at Baby's R US and Mother's market for the capsules. 






Thursday, January 31, 2013

EXCITING NEWS!!

We are PREGNANT! Yep, we are having a BABY!








The news came just as shockingly to us one early November morning..

I journaled that week just so I could savor the moment and remember it forever, ever since then I have periodically been journaling to keep track of this FIRST TIME EVER PREGNANCY (for us)! Heres what I jotted down:

When I first found out I was pregnant I was in complete SHOCK. I don’t think I’ve really ever been in shock in that way. I was shocked when I got into Pepperdine, shocked when i got into grad school. Shocked when Taylor proposed, but nothing NOTHING compares to this. In that very moment, I couldn't even understand what THIS MEANT?


I was terrified. I thought, “my husband is going to hate me”. "Im ruining OUR plans",  "we haven't prepared". I don’t know how I blamed myself, when it definitely takes two to make a baby.  I guess I let the enemy take over... fear filled my thoughts instantly. I leaned my head against the bathroom wall and prayed. I prayed for protection, I didn’t really have words but I knew the Holy Spirit knew what I needed, and I remember praying for my husbands reaction for when I walked out the bathroom door to go break the exciting/terrifying news. 

I came out and starting BALLING.  I was overwhelmed with all sorts of emotions, as well hormonal i'm sure. I called for him in a quivering voice.."baaabe". He came rushing toward me and held me in his arms the moment he saw I was crying. “Whats wrong, whats wrong. Babe talk to me,” he said frantically.  I couldn’t say anything. I was in shock.  The words eventually came out after what seemed like forever, “I think im pregnant”.  "What do you mean? How? How do you know?" He didn’t understand, so I led him to look at the two tests, clear as day, on the counter. I burst into even more tears, anticipating his reaction.  He remained completely calm. He took me by my hands and sat me on the floor. As I cried tears of fear and worry, he held my hands in his, looked me in the eyes, and said ever so calmly, ”when I married you, I had every intention of being the father of your children.. yes, we didn’t plan for this right at this moment but God did and we need to accept that and be grateful for this blessing. I want you to be excited. Im going to do everything I can to protect you and take care of you”.  Talk about PERFECT.  Husband, yes, you are perfection. I am such a blessed lady.

      "You’re just saying this cuz im crying and emotional?” 

       "No Tess, I mean it. I feel completely at peace. This is Gods plan.  Lets go to the store and get another test, a digital one, so we know for sure and we can take it from there". 

 We ate breakfast, I calmed down and then we got into the car to go to the store.  After we picked up the digital test he pulled up to our house and told me ”when you go inside I want you to take the test, and whatever the results are I want you to be happy, don’t look back, just look forward knowing God has  plan and we can be excited, He's got us hunny.”  

"PREGNANT". No doubt about it. It showed up within seconds on the digital test.  At this point I was so thrilled to see that I was.  We smiled, hugged, kissed, were tearful (this time, happy excited tears of joy).  We went back to the store, got prenatal vitamins, iron, and body butter..  We walked over to barnes & noble and picked up “what to expect when you’re expecting”.  We wanted to look forward and be excited! No more tears, no more not trusting the Lord.  My husband was my rock that day. He always is. He keeps me grounded, he reminds me to believe in God and believe His plans are far greater than ours.  Together we threw our plans to the wind and gave them to Him.   Together we realized kids have always been what we want, it just wasn't the timing we thought our first baby would come by.  But its also not the timing of two parents who have been trying for a baby for 5 years and have yet to conceive.  So let me just say how grateful we are. We know this is by far the biggest blessing God has ever given us in our marriage and we couldn't be more thrilled.  We haven't looked back since that split second that I allowed the enemy to flood my mind with fear. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon thinking of fun things like baby names, and talked about what our future would be like from now on.  We knew everything was going to change.  I started to get more and more excited as the day went on.  The days following were surreal..is this really happening.. all the pregnancy symptoms came on FULL FORCE.  Waking up 3-4 times a night to pee.  Exhausted and could barely walk, let alone work out.  HUNGRY all the time, even right after i had eaten. I researched every vitamin and had to stop taking most things.  Morning sickness came at around 5 1/2 weeks. I was and am in complete protective mommy mode. 

I was not ready for this. Nor did I think I could be a mom any time soon, but the moment you find out you are pregnant you truly do become a mom. I think its different for men, I think they need to feel the baby move or see it before they understand how real this is.  We started reading all about the changes our baby goes through weekly as it grows, as well as what mommy goes through each week.  We pray morning and night with our hands on our new famiy member. Its nuts, and happened so quickly but we both feel at peace now and feel so so so very thankful for this precious gift of life.

Ive been reading baby blogs... I have become a mommy-blog-aholic! I read so many blogs now all about pregnancy, what they went through, and find it soothing to be amongst women who have experienced exactly what I am experiencing. I find it so facinating! So I have decided to blog, as often as I can. This way other pregnant women can relate and read my story, just as I read other's and feel more sane along this crazy journey. AND, I will have a neat diary of my entire pregnancy to look back on one day. 

So here it goes..

<3



I hope our story of fear, excitement, love, laughter, and hope can be inspiring to someone else.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

HONEYMOONING IN ST. LUCIA


                    HONEYMOONING IN ST. LUCIA















 The night after out wedding we set out to St. Lucia for our honeymoon.  We stayed for 6 nights, 7 days and had the best time together. It was so nice to be alone with each other as husband and wife. We had the nicest time relaxing in the ocean, lying on the beach talking about our future, hiking, going on walks along the shore, watching the sunset with our feet in the water, eating an incredible amount of food, going on once in a life time excursions, and just enjoying being newlyweds. We were able to soak it all in and start our journey together on the most beautiful, fun, stress free note a couple could dream of.  We didn't want to leave and talked about staying on the island forever.  I know if we didn't have two incredible families we would be leaving behind, and wonderful friendships, we would easily move away just the two of us to a remote island where we could just enjoy one another and slower paced, more relaxed life.  We talk about going back to St. Lucia all of the time and hopefully will plan a trip back soon.

The most fun of the trip: going zip lining
The most romantic: having a suite to share with my new hubby
The most beautiful thing I experienced: The breath taking sunsets along side of my husband
The best food: Dinner-Gordon's on the Pier (had to have butler service to eat here... we got on the list by a dear friend)  Lunch-Barefoot by the Sea
The best company: OF COURSE MY HUBS
The best entertainment:" The Queen" our tour guide for one of our excursions.
The most memerable moment: The entire trip! I will never forget anything about this trip. I would say a very sweet moment that sticks out in my mind is when the two of us were lying by the pool and Taylor pulled up the song (on his phone) he surprised me with and wrote me for our wedding. I had only heard it at our wedding in front of 230 guests so I wasnt able to fully take in the lyrics at the time. Now by ourselves, married, at the most beautiful place in the world, I was in tears on a lounge chair listening to the most incredible thing i'd ever heard.
The worst part: Leaving. Although, we were so excited to live together, begin our lives, move into our new place, etc,it was still really hard to leave.
The most intersting: we went on an excursion to see the drive in volcano (SOOO FUN, and the mud bath is the best part of it all), afterwards you get to go eat lunch at a tiny little restaurant in the jungle and have some home cooked carribean st. lucian food. SO SO YUMMY & SPICY!

 There you have it! We can't wait to go back!