12 Weeks

Is it odd that I'm thrilled the little baby in my Babystrology ticker to the right actually looks like a real, live baby this week? For some reason, hitting 12 weeks feels like a major milestone for me. There's really nothing special that happens during the 12th week of pregnancy per se but it still feels like it should be important. Maybe it's knowing that in a week and half, I'll have successfully completed the 1st Trimester. Or, maybe it's finally hitting the 3 month pregnancy mark - I'm not certain. Either way, I feel truly blessed to have made it here.

For entertainment's sake, I think I should mention that I had my first encounter with lightning crotch this morning. Holy OWWW! For anyone out there questioning whether or not what you've experienced thus far has been the ever-famous lighting crotch, believe me when I say that if you have, you'd know. There's no questioning it. Aside from that fun experience, I feel OK. I'm hungry more often than in the past but no where near as nauseous. I wouldn't say that I'm tired exactly, but rather, it's more that I have so little energy that I can barely force myself to breathe by about 3:00 in the afternoon (I'm sure the hot weather has only been adding to this). My belly is starting to harden a bit and is slowly becoming more noticeable. Hopefully, within the next few weeks I'll finally have a belly to actually post some pictures of.

Oh, and Under 200 Day Mark...

I completely forgot to post over the weekend, but Mike and I now have less than 200 days until our little one arrives! The countdown clock to baby is officially ticking.

Move-In Day Scheduled!

We're all set to move in to the new house this weekend! I'm so ready to just have one home to take care of again. This running back and forth each night (not to mention the upkeep on our current home while undergoing renovations at the new one) has proven to be much too difficult.

We're almost officially homeowners!

11 Weeks

Even though I'm actually 11 weeks and 2 days today due to my EDD being changed, I still wanted to squeeze my 11 week post in here. I don't really have anything new to report since I posted so much baby news in my last post and I feel exactly the same as week 10 (except much more hungry), I'll move on to posting the baby development picture of the week.

Total weight gained so far: -1.9 lbs.

Most Amazing Experience

We've got a heartbeat - 167 bpm!

Our NT scan went beautifully. The baby is doing well and continuing to grow as it should. Before the actual scan the Dr. mentioned that he was going to try and listen to the heartbeat with the doppler but not to get worried if he couldn't hear it because I'm still pretty early. As it turns out, we heard it right away! It was amazing when the rapid "thud, thud, thud" sound came over the doppler and the doctor looked at me and said, "Sounds like we've definitely got someone in there!". It was the most beautiful sound in the entire world :)

Then for the u/s, I got teary-eyed as soon as I saw the little peanut on the monitor. The baby didn't want to move around too much at first even though it was in an awkward position for the tech to take measurements. Luckily, after a few minutes the baby was all over the place kicking it's legs and rolling around on it's side. It was probably the cutest thing I've ever seen.

Lastly, my due date got moved up by two days and I'm now due 1-06-10!

So without any further adieu, I'd like to introduce you to Baby M. -

NT Scan Today

It's so funny how this day just sort of snuck up on us. I still remember being at our last appointment exactly 4 weeks ago today feeling like this day would never come. We're going to see our little peanut for the very first time!

I'm very nervous but anxious at the same time. I'm just hoping and praying that our little one is still alive and well in there.

Wish us luck!

Renovation Progress

Here are some updated pictures of our bathroom renovation at the new house. We've replaced the floors, the vanity, the sink (which used to be only a single), the bathtub, the shower surround, and painted the entire room.

Still left to do:

1.) Hang new mirrors (we bought them last night).
2.) Hang new lighting fixture (still need to purchase).

3.) Hang new curtains (still need to purchase).

4.) Paint the ceiling/touch up some paint sections.

5.) Attach shower curtain rod and hang curtain.

6.) Install new lightswitch and electrical outlet covers.

7.) Decorate!

I'm Grumpy

I don't want to be at work today.
I don't want to go to class tonight.
I don't want to deal with students/parents today.
I don't want to answer the phone.
I don't want to talk to anyone.
I don't want to continue to pack tonight.
I just don't wanna.

Like I said, I'm grumpy. Nothing in particular really set me off, it's just that I'm exhausted and have zero patience right now. I also think part of it is that I'm starting to get very nervous for my NT scan on Thursday and I'm also nervous about our appraisal of the new home that has been scheduled for Friday.

This is shaping up to be a very long week. I could already use another mental health day.

:::slinks back into dark hole::::

10 Weeks

Yes, I realize this is a bit late. I ended up taking Friday off from work as a mental health day and Mike took off a half-day then as well. We decided we wanted to get as much of the bathroom renovation done at the new house as we possibly could this weekend (on a side note, it's now about 90% done!).

I'm actually starting to feel much better. The nausea has died down quite a bit and for the past few days, I've had more energy than I've had in almost a month. I'm just crossing my fingers that it stays this way.

I'm anxiously counting down until Thursday's doctor's appointment. It's my NT scan and we'll finally get to see our little peanut for the very first time!

I've also started wearing maternity clothes. While most of my pants still fit (I typically size up in all of my pants so they're more comfortable anyway and still fit just fine), most of my pre-pregnancy tops show too much of my growing pudge for my comfort level at this point. I'm thanking my lucky stars that my SIL gave me a huge box of her maternity clothes from her last 4 pregnancies. She has a ton of nice fall clothes in the bunch so I'm thankful that I'll have a good collection going once I really start needing maternity clothes.

Only 3 more weeks left of the first trimester now!

Home Buying Update

We picked up our sales agreement from the lawyer yesturday afternoon and it's all signed and ready to be dropped off at our credit union today! Now on to the next step...scheduling the appraisal.

Bathroom Renovation

Our first renovation project with the new house is underway! While I don't have any true "before" pictures, I've taken some of the progress we've made so far. Now that the new tub and shower surround are in, we still have to:

1.) Replace the vanity.

2.) Install a double sink.

3.) Replace the outdated lighting fixures with recessed lighting.

4.) Install the new flooring.

5.) Replace the outdated mirror with two seperate framed mirrors.

6.) Paint the room from top to bottom.

7.) Decorate (new shower curtain, new valance for the window, etc.).

We've got our work cut out for us! (P.S. - Don't mind the mess. At the time I took these pictures, the bathroom had been under construction for a good week so there's crap everywhere.)

9 Weeks

There's not a whole lot to report this week. My nausea is still here although it's not quite as strong as it used to be and I'm still ridiculously tired all day long. My stomach is starting get thicker in the sense that I now look like I've packed on a few pounds even though it's really just water weight (at least that's what I'm telling myself) from the bloating. Lastly, my appetite still hasn't completely returned. It also seems really weird to me that my last period was over two months ago now. I'm completely enjoying not having a visit from AF every month!

On the home front, we're currently just waiting for our lawyer to finish drafting our sales agreement. Once that's done, we just need the inspection and appraisal and we'll be set to close. We've been working on completely gutting the bathroom this past week and will finally be putting it back together and painting this weekend, so hopefully I'll have some pictures soon!

Here's the little peanut this week (thank goodness it's finally starting to look like a baby!):

Our Big News

We're in the process of buying a home!

I can't believe it - it was very unexpected and somewhat snuck up on us. For those who have been following my blog for awhile, we're buying my BIL's house that I wrote about a few months ago. Originally, he wasn't ready to give up the house yet but once he had sold practically everything he owned to make the mortgage payment on one income and was still struggling, he and his ex-fiance (who no longer lives there) decided they'd offer it to us. They're only asking that we pay them enough to completely pay off their mortgage - about 40K less than what the house last appraised for - so that they can just wash their hands of the whole thing. They've been apart for about 4 years now so they both feel it's time to move on. Also, my BIL will be moving into and eventually buying the home Mike and I currently rent from my MIL since it will be much less expensive for him.

We started the process a few weeks ago, but I didn't want to post until I was certain the deal would go through. Since we weren't thinking of buying a home for a few more years, our finances weren't 100% where we wanted them to be so we were a bit worried as to whether or not we'd be approved for a (good) mortgage. As it turns out, we were and the PITI payments on our house will work into our budget just fine, even though it's scary going from our currently measly rent payment of $220/month to a $1,000/month mortgage payment! Things will be a bit tight for about 2 out of 3 months of my maternity leave, but as long as we continue to save all that we can between now and January, we'll be all set.

Since the home buying process is almost complete, Mike decided that he'd like to start going over to the home now to start the home improvement projects that we'd like to do so that the home can be just about finished when we move in. Normally, that would make me hesitant since the title to the home isn't officially in our name yet, but BIL is very trust worthy and has decided to work on our home a bit as well in the meantime - I feel 150% confident that all will work out fine.

With that said, Mike and I spent the weekend tearing out the bathroom for a remodel. We forgot to take the camera with us so I don't have any before pictures to show just yet, but he's going back tonight while I'm in class to work on it some more. I'll be sure he takes some then.

Eeek! I'm so excited! I can't wait until we officially move in - I can't wait to finally be out in the country!