week 17

onion baby!

average size: 5.1 inches, 5.9 oz.

what's going on with baby: "Baby's skeleton is hardening, changing from rubbery cartilage to bone, and fat is finally accumulating around it. The umbilical cord is getting thicker and stronger, and those little fingers and toes are now topped by one-of-a-kind prints."

AND I FINISHED PAINTING THE NURSERY SATURDAY NIGHT!!!! here are the pictures i took! click them to make them bigger :)

first, let me show you the before photo (and when i say "before", i mean WAY before...like before we moved in! it has all our landlord's junk in it!)

so we took off those curtains, primed the walls, then painted them and the ceiling a light sky blue and fixed up the white trim:

then came the fun part! painting the mural, adding the curtains, and a fun light!

i don't think i even want to KNOW how many stars are in that crib nook!!! wow that took a long time. but, i'm really happy with the way it turned out. i''m not sure why the photo is showing sections of pure darkness, because the whole thing has stars all over it hahaha...i think the corner is in the shadow or something.

and here is the moon that we plan on attaching to the middle of it! it lights up too!!! i think it really completes the look i was going for, and will be a nice night light for when i go get baby in the middle of the night.

a close-up shot of the clouds/curtains :) i actually got the curtains through a seller on etsy! i just looked around at people who made valances, chose a seller who had really nice work, then just messaged her with my idea! i sent her a sketch of what i was planning, and she made them PERFECTLY! wonderfully made, too, out of thick material. not cheap looking at all, and the price wasn't bad for custom work! only $30 total for both of them to be made!

and here is a shot of the yellow "sun" light in the middle of the room. just a cheap $3 chinese lantern that erik turned into a light for the ceiling!

and here are some shots with furniture that we have already. we got a few things for xmas, and couldn't wait to set them up! that dresser was actually mine though, from when i was a kid! i've had it all these years, and actually, erik has the same one from when he was a kid too! we plan on changing out the knobs later on to something that will match the room better.

changing table with cloth diapers and a few random onesies that we have :)

the owl mobile that we picked up while in japan this past summer <3

this glider should hopefully come in handy when i'm getting up in the middle of the night! i love how there are pockets on the sides to hold books.

the adorable baby swing

and the cute crib tucked away in the night sky area :) our friends sara and darin got us that adorable ninja to match the one i painted on the wall! i love it! i just put it in the crib for now (i know newborns can't have anything in the crib with them for a while).

so woo-hoo!!! the paint in the room is finished! i'm SO happy i did all this early because it was getting harder and harder on my back to do (especially the stars! haha). i cannot even imagine what it would have been like later on!

so now, i have given myself a NEW goal, which is finishing this "grass rug" before baby is born:

as you can see...it's more of a runner at the moment hahaha...i'm probably only 1/4 of the way done, but i'm really happy with it so far! after i finish crocheting the whole thing, i have to go back and cut all the loops in half to turn the loops into "grass blades", if that makes sense. i already did it on the first couple of rows because i wanted to see how it would look (and to motivate me to keep working on it haha)

so you can kinda see how it will look once those loops are cut (on the right). i'm liking it so far! this will be another huge project, but at least i don't have to stand on a mini ladder to do it! i can sit on the couch! ;) 

hope you like the nursery! and i hope baby does too!!!

week 16

avocado baby!

average size: 4.6 inches, 3.5oz.

what's going on with baby: "Watch what you say... tiny bones forming in baby's ears mean the little one can now pick up your voice. Eyebrows, lashes and hair are starting to fill in, and taste buds are forming. And, if you're interested, an ultrasound might be able to determine gender."

and here is my bump so far!

i've pretty much just been continuing on painting the nursery. everything in the room part is done, i'm just working on all the stars in the crib nook part now. it's taking a long time! there are thousands of stars in there!!! i really hope to have it done by next monday's post though, so i can show the whole nursery :) 

also! we've been saving as much money as we can, wherever we can, but we spent some of the money we got from xmas on this lil guy!

A DISHWASHER!!!!!!!! wow. i guess it's sort of sad to get that excited over a dishwasher, but our house that we're renting didn't have one, and washing every single plate, fork, knife, spoon, bowl, etc etc etc all the time was starting to take a toll on my back. plus after a while, i'm not sure how close i'd even be able to get to the sink to wash things with my bump getting bigger! so, we decided to get a portable dishwasher, and it is the BEST THING EVER. 

for those who don't know, our house was literally built in 1832. yeah. it's REALLY old. second house built in rootstown old. old enough to actually be on the official rootstown sweater old hahaha...

there it is! upper left! 

so it doesn't have a whole lotta' updates in it. i mean...check out this stove we have from the 40's/50's:

lets just zoom in a bit on the controls for it...

yeah. i would say not child-safe at all. i think it's actually pretty much a toy in their eyes hahaha...the push-button controls read, "HI, 2, 3, LO, WM, OFF" and that's it. that's all the control you have for cooking on the stove haha...so we wanted a little update in the dishwasher department because i know my lower back is only going to get worse as my belly gets bigger, and we're SO happy with it. it cleans perfectly, and holds about 8 place settings. it's wonderful :) 

so that was the big excitement for this week! probably WAY more exciting for me than you, but i wanted to share it! hopefully next week there will be photos of the nursery! 

week 15

orange baby!

average size: 4 inches, 2.5oz.

what's going on with baby: "Continuing the march towards normal proportions, baby's legs now outmeasure the arms. And, finally, all four limbs have functional joints. Your fetus is squirming and wiggling like crazy down in the womb, though you probably still can't feel the movements."

it's true...can't feel movement yet, but i'm so anxious for it!!! hopefully soon!

well, we had our doctor's appointment this past monday, and i'm here to say that we are officially "TEAM MIDWIFE"!

at the practice that we go to, you have the option to choose an OB, or a midwife. both deliver at the hospital, and i like that. also at the practice that we go to, you don't know who will be delivering your baby (very common these days), because you don't know who will be working the night you go into labor. they all rotate, so it's good to meet as many doctors/midwives as possible in the practice so you know a familiar face when delivering. everyone we have met so far has been really friendly, but i chose to have a midwife deliver our baby for a few reasons:

☆  they are all women, and i just like that.

☆ midwives have WAY less interventions during labor. they only push for things like pitocin, if it's really, really needed. i've read too many stories of doctors these days pushing pitocin to get you into labor faster, which makes you have stronger contractions, so you need another epidural for the pain, and this back and forth process could cause complications, which results in the final conclusion, which is a c-section (i am trying to avoid a c-section).

☆ which leads me to c-sections! the midwife rate for c-sections is only 10%, where a OB's is 40%. now, to be fair, OBs see high-risk pregnancies too, so they are going to get more c-sections. however, a c-section for a midwife is the absolute last resort, and that is exactly what i want. i only want one if it's an emergency. 

☆ midwives stay with you the whole time during labor, where doctors just pop in at the end.

☆ they still let you get an epidural if you want one! and i do! that's the only medication i'd like while in labor. i want to avoid everything else, and let things progress on their own.

☆ and lastly, like i mentioned earlier, i can still deliver at the hospital with a midwife, and i like that because if something DOES go wrong, i have that safety net.

so really, after doing a lot of research, i realized a midwife is exactly what i've been looking for! i want someone who will let me do what i'd like for laboring, yet will tell me what i need to do in emergency situations. i understand my "birth plan" may not go as planned once i get to that point because a million things can happen, but i trust that a midwife will have my best interest in mind, and do what i'd like to do, unless there is an emergency. 

also! some of you might remember this wedding cake i made a couple of years ago:

well, the bride's name is maureen, and she JUST got certified to be a midwife! at our doctor appointment on the 10th, while we were driving home, i told erik about it, and said, "that would be awesome if she could deliver our baby, but she is further up north from us..." but then, i saw on facebook that she was putting in her 2 weeks at metro, so i jokingly commented, "you should come work for paragon in the akron area so you can catch my baby!" and she replied, "i'm working for paragon now!!!" so she actually COULD be the one to deliver our baby now!!! how crazy is that?! it would be so neat! i made her wedding cake, and now she could deliver our baby hahaha...hopefully baby has good timing and she is the one on-call that night :) she has a 1 in 7 chance since there are only 7 midwives! had to share that because it pretty much blew my mind this week haha...

as for our appointment this past week on the 10th, everything is still going great. the midwife checked the heartbeat and found it right away with the doppler. sounds healthy! and we scheduled our big sex-reveal ultrasound for february 21st!!! so only about a month more to go until we find out if we're having a boy or a girl! can't wait!

week 14

here we are at week 14, and baby is now the size of a lemon!

average size: 3.4 inches, 1.5 oz.
what's going on with baby: "Your adorable little fetus is busy with thumb sucking, toe wiggling, and (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 the body for warmth."

crazy how much is going on in there each week!

but as for this past week, not much has gone on with us pregnancy-wise! i'm absolutely THRILLED that my 9 straight days of bad headaches (with one migraine thrown in for fun!) seem to be over with. all pregnant women can really take for pain is tylenol which does absolutely nothing. i tried a bit of caffiene, cool cloths, warm heading pads, hot showers...everything. nothing seemed to help! in my pregnancy book, it actually said that headaches are really common around this time, so i guess that's why!

i've been working more on painting the mural in the nursery since my belly is starting to get a bit bigger and i want all the painting done before it gets harder to do! once it's finished, i'll be sure to post pics. i'm really in love with it!

we've also started meal planning for the week. i know...you're thinking, "YOU DON'T MEAL PLAN?!" because it feels like we're the only ones on earth who don't haha...but, we are really trying to save money wherever we can, and this will help tremendously.

it was 10 for $10 on pasta...don't judge.

for the 7 years that i've known erik, every night we would walk to the grocery store, get what we want to make for dinner, and make it. now, we decided what we will do is look through the giant eagle ad on wednesday, figure out what we'd like to make for the upcoming week based on sales, and then go shopping on the weekend for it. so one main trip (again...like most people lol), and then if we need random things like a zuchinni during the week for a pasta bake or whatever, we could go and pick one up. we're also doing "pasta thursdays" each week because pasta is super cheap! and we always had spaghetti on thursdays growing up and i LOVED IT hahaha...yeah, i'm italian. we will probably also buy one of those cheap rotissary chickens each week because they are only like $5, relatively healthy, absolutely delicious, and last for more than one meal! can't beat that!

so yeah! trying to be smarter about meals and cooking. once baby is here and later on once he/she starts eating solids, i also plan on making all our own baby food. i like knowing exactly what my baby will be eating, and talk about another money saver! won't be hard to do, either. especially since when we plant things in our garden this year, we plan to keep baby in mind, so we can plant fun things like sweet potatoes!

sorry this blog post has been more about figuring out meal stuff and saving money more than baby! but, not much has happened this past week, so i thought i would share other things going on. next week will be much more interesting, i hope! we have a monthly doctor appointment tomorrow (so excited to hear the heartbeat again!), and at the end of it before we leave is when we schedule when our ultrasound will be to find out if we're having a boy or a girl!!! it will be scheduled for sometime around mid-february! so excited for that!!!

baby journey!

i had been thinking of starting a blog for this pregnancy for a while, and when my friend mallory asked me if i was planning on blogging, i figured now is a great time to start since it's the first day of the 2nd trimester and a new year!

i really enjoy looking back on my two blogs from japan and remembering little details i might normally forget, so i'm hoping i will get the same benefits with this baby blog. here we go!


1st trimester wrap-up:

we found out i was pregnant at the very end of october. i had been charting my temperatures even though it was our first time trying because i know it doesn't always work on the first go, and i wanted some data points for the next month of trying (yeah...for those who know me, know i'm a super planner...). but, it worked first go! and actually, maybe the only reason why it worked is because of my charting. i was easily able to see my temperature go up, and therefore able to figure out my most fertile time. those calendar apps on phones aren't really the best because they base your cycle off a 28-day cycle, and that is definitely not true for most women. so, when you are planning on trying for a baby, i HIGHLY recommend charting so you can be more in-tune with your body.

before our home pregnancy test, i started getting little clues here and there that i COULD be pregnant, but i didn't want to get my hopes up because so many early signs are the same as PMS signs. we ordered a pack of First Response Early Result pregnancy tests (the most reliable from what i've read) on amazon (cheaper than the stores), and waited for them to arrive. the next day i became too impatient because at this point i COULD have missed my period if it were super on time, and we went to the dollar store 2 minutes away to pick up a test. now, don't be fooled by "dollar store home pregnancy test" or the fact it's literally only $1 and called "BABY TEST" hahaha...these things are actually really accurate! so, off we went, spent $1, waited the 3 minutes or whatever the test directions were, and looked down together at this:

a super duper extremely faint positive double line!!! you see, when you get pregnant, you get this extra hormone (hCG) that shows up on pregnancy tests. so...you either have it, or you dont, and it will either show positive (if you have it in your system) or negative (if this hormone is non-existant). you can get false negatives on a test, but a false positive is uber rare.

we were really shocked and excited at the same time! it was actually just a really weird moment to see such a thing, and to think things are going to change! the ones we ordered from amazon came 2 days later, so i tested again, and yep, i'd say POSITIVE!

we told both sets of parents and siblings right away, but wanted to wait a little bit to tell extrended family because we of course knew things could happen and the baby doesn't always stick. seeing the baby (and heartbeat) for the first time at 7 weeks really helped us feel a lot better about it though!

we decided thanksgiving would be a good time to tell extended family, and it went over wonderfully. everyone was so surprised and excited for us (it was hard for us and our parents to even keep the secret this long!). then finally on december 8th we heard the heartbeat for the first time at our doctor's office. it was really so strange to think that that little thing is inside me!


a few random fun things from first tri:

cravings:
nothing too weird i guess. things i like, i want more of, or sometimes if i hear something, it sounds AMAZING and i NEED it right away. also, i'm finding i am craving textures in food, over flavor sometimes.

nausea:
from about week 6 to week 10, nausea was around. i never threw up, but i would get waves of nausea all day, and was turned-off to food completely. everything sounded bad.

mood swings:
the day after xmas we put together the fisher-price starlight papasan cradle swing because we got it as a present from erik's parents and we wanted to see how it looked in person (and when i say "we put together the swing", i mean "erik did, and i handed him stuff").

he gave me the tray part to hold while he put together another piece and i started to cry. "this is the first 'baby tray' we've gotten for our little baby!" i said. it was ridiculous hahaha...i guess the combination of the red fisher-price logo with the tray and the little plastic stars for baby to play with was just too much and out came the waterworks >_<

our kitties:
kahlua, our siamese, has always been a mama's boy. always cuddling with me, and wanting to be near me, but somehow now he has UPPED his time with me. i didn't think it was possible, but he rarely leaves my side anymore, and is a super-cuddler now. i swear he knows i'm pregnant. sadie, our other cat, has pretty much stayed her independant self. i think poor kahlua's heart is going to break when we come home from the hospital with our new little one...i'll have to make sure to give him a ton of attention still!


things i love so far in early pregnancy:


the bellaband - SO NICE. i got one for xmas, which was perfect timing because my jeans were starting to get a little snug

this little guy really helps out with that! my jeans can be unbuttoned and no one will know! it just looks like a cami underneath my normal shirts. love it!

the snoogle body pillow - my lower back had juuust started to hurt a bit around xmas time, so luckily i got one of these!

i slept with it the night after xmas, and i felt like i was in a little cocoon or something hahaha...i was in like a little ball of comfort. i know these explanations are weird, but if you ever get one, you will understand!


i think that pretty much wraps up 1st tri! i think i'll update this blog weekly with any interesting things that happen in the past week. by the way, baby right now is the size of a peach and it's forming it's teeth and vocal cords! :)