14 weeks (June 23-30)

This week I started out feeling a little bloated. Hence the picture below.  Some days I feel like the baby bump is really out there and other days, I don't feel like it's there at all...

This week I also felt a little more cranky-pants than I normally have.  I really had no good reason for it! Stupid little things would just irritate me more than normal. 

We finally had our next doctors appointment this week and this was the one where we would (hopefully) hear the heartbeat.  A lot of people already knew that we were expecting, but we were holding off on making a big announcement or sharing openly with everyone up until this appointment.

On Friday, we went to the doctor and they found the heartbeat pretty quickly and it was a strong 152 beats per minute.  Of course, right after I got up I had to look and see if this meant we were having a girl or boy, because obviously this theory would be right!  Apparently, we're having a girl, which is what everyone keeps telling me anyway.  We'll have to wait another month to find out!

I'm still kind of weird about food...I still don't really care for meat.  If it's in something (like spaghetti or tacos) I'll usually eat some of it or pick it out if I really don't want it.  I still love all kinds of fruit along with any kind of carb. And ice cream.  I feel like I get full a lot quicker, so I don't really feel like I've been over-eating. 

As of the doctors appointment on Friday, I still havent' gained any weight, even though I feel like a fatass.  Some of my pants don't fit as well as they used to so I've reverted to putting a rubberband in the button hole to keep them from falling down or from buttoning them and cutting off circulation.

The baby is the size of a lemon and is about 3.4" long and weighs about 1.5 ounces.  It has almost doubled in weight from last week and keeps on growing!  Right now, the baby is probably sucking its thumb and wiggling its toes, as well as growing a peach-fuzz like hair all over its body to help keep warm. 

13 weeks (June 16-23)

This week we celebrated father's day by having two of my aunts from Iola come up for a visit.  It was a fun weekend and the first time that we've been able to let them know that we were expecting. 

I also started feeling like my pants were getting a little bit tighter this week...a few times I've had to leave a button unbuttoned or use a rubberband in my buttonhole to keep my pants up.  It's been great...in lieu of this I decided I needed a date night (by myself) at Target and Panera.  It was really just what the doctor ordered.  I found a few fat shirts, a flowy dress, and got to eat my heart out at Panera.

I've been getting super annoyed this week that we still haven't heard the babies heartbeat.  When we went to our first appointment back around week 7 or 8, our next appointment was made and we couldn't get in until June 28th (our doctor was on vacation for like 2-3 weeks), which would put me at just around 15 weeks when we go in for our second appointment!  That seemed like FOREVER to wait, especially if you're not sure if things are cooking along ok inside with the baby.

I contemplated going in a few times to have them check, but decided to wait it out. Hopefully everything goes well next week!

This week flew by.  Thursday night I didn't sleep a wink.  I have no idea why. I tossed and turned all night long and finally decided to give the couch a try...that didn't help, so I went back up to our bed.  I still don't think I fell asleep, so Friday was a little rough for me.

Friday I had to work super late becuase we had a community appreciation dinner after work that went until about 9pm.  I had to get up early Saturday to go to Kansas City for a bachelorette party and to meet up with my old co-workers for lunch at Blue Koi (MY FAVE!)

After lunch, I met up with the bachelorette group to go pole dancing.  Just what a preggo wants to do! I didn't participate, but they almost made me pay to just watch! Ugh! Luckily I talked my way out of it and I didn't have to, but I was super annoyed that they'd make me pay to just sit and watch when I clearly had no intentions of doing anything on the pole.  After pole dancing we went back to the hotel to go to the pool--again something I was really looking forward to--getting in a swimming suit feeling like a fat sow!

After we spent some time at the pool and opened gifts we went to dinner at Power & Light and then went to Howl at the Moon.  I managed to stay out until around 11.  It was a long few days for me! I decided early on that I would get my own hotel room with the thinking that everyone else would be coming home later and probably be really drunk.  I think it was a smart idea because they didn't get home until around 3 or 4 in the morning!

I also got to meet my friend Trish and Dan's baby, Nora and she is adorable!

The baby is the size of a peach this week and is about 2.9" long and weighs about .81 ounces.  The head is about 1/3 the size of the body.  The baby already has fingerprints and the vocal cords are already forming

12 Weeks (June 9-16)

Some of the best news for this week is that someone bought our other house in town and we close this Friday, June 14th!  We're so excited to get rid of the extra mortgage payment and all of the bills that go along with it.  Someone must have known that babies are expensive and that we'll need all of that money very soon...

Besides that, I've been feeling pretty good.  Not extrememly tired, even though I've been sleeping like crap and still able to eat pretty much whatever I want. 

This week I'm still obsessed with watermelon and my newest obsession is eating tomatoes with cottage cheese.  I can't eat enough tomatoes!

I did develop this awesome pain in my lower back that has caused me to wake up at night and makes it painful to sit, stand, walk, and lie down.   I finally made a visit to the chiropractor and apparently I have a slipped sacroiliac joint. The good news is that my doctor made my pain level go down a little bit, the bad news is its going to take quite a few adjustments before I feel normal again...

Apparently this is common in pregnant women because the hormones released during pregnancy relax the ligaments of the body to allow for the pelvis to enlarge. It feels AWESOME. Let me tell you.

One of my good college friends had her baby this week! She is a doll!  They didn't find out what they were having so they were surprised last night. I can't wait to go and meet her!



This week the baby is the size of a plum and is measuring about 2.1" long and .49 ounces.  The baby pretty much has all of it's parts and it's main job is to keep growing.  It's also developing reflexes and most likely if I poke my belly, the baby will move--it's opening and closing fingers and curling it's toes.

11 weeks (June 2-9)

This week was only a two day work week for Lincoln and I as we decided a few weeks ago to take a little vacation to San Antonio for a few days! 

For some reason, well this blogger, mostly, I really wanted to go to Charleston, SC.  We looked into it, but flights were ridiculously pricey, so we decided that we could go to San Antonio for half the price and still be able to walk everywhere and eat a lot. :)

We flew in early Wednesday morning, checked into our hotel and ate lunch at Acenar, a cute little Mexican restaurant on the River Walk.  They are known for their hand-shaken margaritas.  Lincoln had one and I enjoyed a delicious virgin mojito.  Birds LOVE this part of town.  They would basically fly right up to your table and eat chips out of your basket.  I made friends with this poor little pigeon who had something caught on its foot.  I felt so bad and really wanted to try to help it, but then I realized that it may try to eat my hand or something so I just continued giving it sad faces and hoped that that would help...

It was HOT the first day we got there.  We walked around the River Walk for a few hours just to get our bearings and to see if there were any places we wanted to try for dinner.  After doing some walking around, we decided it was time for a nap since we had an early flight that morning.  Our hotel had a happy hour every evening which included free drinks and snacks, so we took advantage of that every night we were there!

I knew that I wanted to try Boudros on the River Walk from reading some reviews on Yelp before the trip, so we ate there for dinner.  It was very good, but our server was not, and Lincoln's pretty sure he messed up his order!  They had the BEST tomato, basil salad and I could have been fine just eating more of that for dinner than the shrimp and grits that I got! 

Thursday we got up and walked to the Alamo.  Before we went to the actual Alamo, we went to an IMAX movie about the Alamo so that we would have a better idea of what we were going to see later in the day.  As much as I would like to say I remember about grade school history...I just could not remember much about what happened at the Alamo, so this was a good refresher!

We also walked to the market square which reminded us of the little shopping centers in Mexico, sat at the pool for an afternoon, did the boat tour of the River Walk, took some naps, and ate a lot of good food.  It was a fun little trip and we enjoyed a few days away from work. 

On this trip, my obsession for tomato, mozzarella, and basil salads kept growing, as well as my love of watermelon.  I still didn't eat much meat, pretty much all fruit, veggies, and fish (and ice cream), but I felt really good for the entire trip.  The last afternoon there, I started feeling a little sick and having a delayed flight in Dallas didn't help matters.  Luckily I grabbed a few snacks, otherwise it could have been barf city.

We have gradually been telling more and more people as the weeks go on...we're just waiting for the next doctors appointment for when we'll hear the heartbeat.  After that, we won't have many reservations about making our news public knowledge!

This week the baby is the size of a lime and is about 1.6" long and has about a 1:1 head to body ratio.  The baby weighs in at about .25 ounces and is forming tooth buds, hair follicles and nail beds.  The skin is see-through, but is starting to look more like a baby.  The fingers and toes are no longer webbed and it's moving around fluidly and gracefully in there even though I can't feel it!

10 weeks (May 26-June2)

This week we celebrated Memorial Day by having friends over to our house for a BBQ.  I was a little nervous about what I was going to do about not having a beer in my hand, but I just walked around with a glass of lemonade instead.  I just knew someone would ask me what I was drinking or try to trick me into drinking alcohol because most of our friends had been guessing for awhile that I was pregnant.  Surprisingly, no one asked what I was drinking or why I was just drinking lemonade!

Lincoln and I both thought that we might tell some of our close friends that night, but there was just never a good time to say something when a big group of other people weren't around, so we just waited!

Later in the week, Lincoln called two of his best friends to let them know.  Lincoln called our friend Nick first and his fiance already knew because we golf together on Tuesday nights and she guessed right away when I didn't grab a beer before we started golfing the first night.  She also works in the hospital, so I knew there was a chance that she would find out soon anyway.

When Nick called to tell Chelsea that we were expecting she told him that she already knew and he hung up on her!  This isn't the first time that she's known before him that his friends were expecting.  I guess that's one of the perks of working in the hospital! 

Lincoln later called his friend Griff to let him know and his wife, Kindra had to get on the phone right away with me when she heard our news!  I thought for sure she was going to question my glass of lemonade at the Memorial day party, but luckily it didn't even cross her mind that I might have been pregnant. Kindra and Griff just had a baby in January so we were able to compare stories about how I've been feeling and foods I've been craving or getting sick from.

I'm still totally turned off from any kind of meat, especially chicken, which is super weird.  Before I got pregnant, chicken was about the only thing I would eat! Now I can occasionally eat some ground beef and shredded chicken if it's in something...otherwise, I'd just rather eath something without any meat in it!

I'm slowly starting to eat things other than carbs, which is a huge improvement! 

We also celebrated my sister's birthday this week and I had to pretend to order a beer while we were out to dinner so some other friends wouldn't catch on.  Luckily, my brother in law is sneaky and downed both beers for us. 

One of my college friends had their little girl this week; she is so cute and tiny!

Later in the weekend we met up with some friends from college in Lawrence for dinner.  They were really excited for us and have the cutest little boy who loves dancing and rocks at going down stairs on his belly at lightening speed!

This week the baby is the size of a prune and is about 1.2" long and weighs about .14 ounces.  At week 10 the baby is working it's arm joints and cartilage and bones are forming.  The vital organs are fully developed and are starting to function.

8-9 weeks (May 12-26)

I'm still not feeling the greatest.  We had a food day at work and I was able to eat pretty much everything that everyone brought in without feeling too bad.

I had to tell work this week because we were planning on going to the wineries in Weston, MO for someone's birthday and I knew that if I didn't drink wine that everyone would for sure know that something was going on!  I also figured that I could be the designated driver after hitting up a few of the wineries!

We went to two wineries and then went to a brewery for dinner.  I had a crab cake and a little salad and felt fine on the drive home.  And then, all of the sudden, I felt TERRIBLE. I was up all night with stomach pains and ended up having to miss work the next day because I felt so bad. 

It didn't feel like any kind of pregnancy sickness that I'd felt in the past few weeks, it felt more like food poisoning or something along those lines. It wasn't fun, whatever I had! I stayed in bed with the dog most of the morning and made it to the couch around 11 am and had some toast.  Lincoln came home to check on me at lunch and I had a little soup and took another nap.

Finally around 8pm I started feeling somewhat normal again.  I had more soup and some gatorade and was able to sit up-right to watch some TV later that night. 

Later in the week we told Lincoln's sisters that we were expecting.  We decided to wait to tell our nieces and nephews until we hear a heartbeat. 

Other than not really feeling up to eating much else besides bread and cereal, I've been feeling pretty good.  I haven't been that tired; I usually fall asleep on the couch around 9-9:30, and I get super sleepy after lunch, but otherwise, the tiredness hasn't really affected me too badly.

This week the baby is the size of a green olive and measures around .09" and weighs about .07 ounces.  The heartbeat is getting stronger and it's developing mroe distinct facial features.

7 weeks (May 5-12)

Waaaaaaaaa. I feel like crap.  ALL. THE. TIME.  Morning sickness is a big fat lie.  It's all day.  I don't know what's worse, feeling like crap and not puking or just getting straight to the puking.  Either way it sucks.  I still haven't puked, but feeling naseous all day long is terrible.

On top of feeling like crap all day, at work I might add, I get home and want to do nothing more than lie on the couch all evening.  I've been making myself at least take the dog for a few longer walks during the week, but otherwise, I just don't feel up to anything! 

Thank goodness my husband is the best.  He's been on top of mowing the yards (yes, we still have two houses), helping me clean, do laundry, and pretty much cooking for himself, since I can really only manage to eat foods from the carb family.

This week we visited our doctor for the first time.  I have to admit I was a little nervous! I didn't think I would be, but as soon as they started taking my blood pressure, the nerves hit!  I wasn't exactly sure what was going to happen at this appointment, so I think that made me a little bit nervous. 

Basically at our first appointment we just met with our doctor, he explained a few things, and that was about it.  He said that he normally doesn't like to check for the heartbeat this early as it can freak everyone out if you don't hear it right away.  We set up our next appointment where we would get to hear it though!  Unfortunately, that appointment is over seven weeks away!

With mother's day coming up at the end of this week (May 12th), we decided it would be a good time to fill our parents in on our little secret.  We had brainstormed a few ideas of how we would tell them...I came up with an awesome idea using some of our family pictures we just had taken.  We told my parents first.

We went over one evening after my parents had invited me over for a drink...we were chatting about something and they asked what I wanted to drink.  Instead of answering I handed my mom a framed picture of the pic below.  All my mom could say was: "what?! are you serious?! is this for real? seriously? is this real??!" Then she showed my dad and he replied "well, good congratulations! It's about time, people have been asking...you're not getting any younger you know..."  "So, when can I start telling people?" 

After explaining that it was too early to tell people, my dad finally agreed to keep our secret for a little longer.  We also had graduation parties coming up that weekend where I knew alcohol would be involved, so I knew if I didn't tell my parents prior to the parties that they'd know something was up!

Friday evening we took Lincoln's parents out for dinner for mother's day and invited them over to our house before dinner.  We gave his parents a similar picture, but one of just Lincoln and I.  His mom was like "Oh, that is nice.  Oooooooooooooooooh!"  It took a minute for his parents to see that there was an extra child in the picture. :)