My Pregnancy: Week 12

Baby's now the size of a plum!

First trimester: Check!  The nausea, fatigue, mood sings, and bathroom dashes should soon fade, but (sorry!) headaches and dizziness will probably get more intense.  The good news: You're about to embark on the second trimester, when mood and energy levels generally peak.

As you move into the second trimester, baby shifts into the growth and maturation stage.  After weeks in the critical development stage, almost all of her systems are fully formed.

Between a bit more morning sickness and a whole lot of rainy days, this week dragged on and on for me.  Thankfully, just I had had just about had enough, the sun came out and the nausea ceased (for the most part).  Yay for finishing out the trimester strong!

Dad and I also went shopping last weekend for some maternity basics, so I have been wearing maternity pants all week.  No more uncomfortable jeans for me!

I also had some fun with a Baby Morphing software.  Apparently, these are samples of what we have to look forward to!

Baby Boy #1

Baby Boy #2

Baby Boy #3

Baby Boy #4

Baby Girl #1

Baby Girl #2

Baby Girl #3

Baby Girl #4

My Pregnancy: Week 11

Baby's now the size of a lime!

Your fetus currently enjoys a 1:1 ratio between body and head, and has skin so transparent that blood vessels show right through. But, fingers and toes are no longer webbed, and hair follicles, tooth buds and nail beds are forming -- setting up a significantly more attractive future.

This was probably one of the roughest weeks I've had so far, physically at least. I was feeling pretty tired/headachy/nauseous for much of the last five days, but seem to have turned a corner now. For the most part, it seems like as long as I get enough sleep at night and eat/drink something every hour, I'm good to go. As I'm nearing the end of the first trimester, I'm hoping the trend continues upwards from here.

While I'm not showing, my pants continue to get tighter and tighter. I've succommed to putting a rubber band through my buttonhole in my jeans to give me any extra space I can. I think I may have to break down and do some clothes shopping this weekend.

Not much else to report this week. Just grow baby grow!

My Pregnancy: Week 10

Baby's now the size of a prune!

With bones and cartilage starting to form and vital organs beginning to function, baby is making major progress.  Body length will almost double in the next three weeks, and arm joints are now working.  (soon, legs will too.)

Best week of the pregnancy so far!  I have been floating on air for much of the week.   Last weekend, during a family dinner for the extended family, Jason and I made our official announcement.  The next two days were spent calling, texting, and facebooking the good news.  It felt so good to finally be able to share this news with people.

But as if that wasn't enough, I also had my second doctor's appointment on Tuesday (3/15).  I have been anxiously awaiting this appointment because I was told that this is when I would first get to hear the heartbeat.  Your dad and I took off from work early and went to the clinic.  The nurse who took my blood pressure was kind and chatty enough and I liked her well enough--right up until the moment she told me that I might not get to hear your heartbeat today because I was 9 weeks and 4 days and they don't usually try to listen for the heartbeat until 10-12 weeks.  I was devastated.

After she left to get the doctor (and we waited FOREVER), your dad tried to keep me in good spirits with little success.  Thankfully, when Dr. Allen came in, he gave me an overview of what he was going to do today and said, "You're thin enough that I think we'll be able to get an excellent heartbeat for you."  Way to score some major brownie points doctor!  The exam went really well after that.  My blood pressure was normal.  I was informed that you seem to be growing at just the right pace.  AND we did indeed get to hear your heartbeat.

I can't even describe the incredible amount of joy (and relief) that tiny, fast, steady heartbeat gave me.  It was beating at 184 beats per minute, which the doctor told me was right where it should be.  This was the first time that this whole pregnancy felt real to me.  Yes, I have been exhausted for weeks and displaying all sorts of other symptoms, but this was my first real connection to you.  Even now, two days later, thinking about it makes me so happy.  It truly was remarkable!

I'm Pregnant!

After hearing a tiny little heartbeat today, we figured it was time to make our good news public.  We are expecting our first baby October 13!  We found out back in the first part of February and have been dying ever since!  Everything has been going really well so far.  I don't really get sick, just exhausted.  Doctor confirmed that everything is right on track, which was a HUGE relief to me.  I started blogging about baby stuff right after I found out, but just barely back posted all of it for anyone who is interested in more details.  I even labeled the entries Leila Kay to make it a bit simpler.

My Pregnancy: Week 9

Baby's now the size of a green olive!

Your little embryo has now officially graduated to fetus-hood.  Adding to the excitement, a Doppler ultrasound device might be able to pick up the beating heart.  With basic physical structures in place and increasingly distinct facial features, baby is kind of starting to look like...well...a baby!

This week was a big week for us baby.  Mommy started working full time at her job, and that has certainly taken its toll.  Remember how tired I was before?  Well, that was when I didn't have to be to work until noon.  Now that I have to be to work at 8, I find myself in bed by about 9:30 every night.  I can't even fathom what it will be like once I switch to the 6am shift in June!

Also, while I haven't gained much weight yet, my pants are definitely starting to feel tighter.  I have to unbutton the button on my jeans whenever I'm sitting for very long (which is most of the day since I sit at work).  Maternity clothes are certainly not too far off in my future.

I also had a few headaches this week and Granny D told me that she would get a lot of headaches when she was pregnant with me.  They were bad enough that she couldn't sleep and would spend hours upon hours playing Lode Runner on the computer.  Thankfully, I haven't had any since the beginning of the week and I'm hoping it stays that way.  I need my sleep!

Granny D has also been busy doing some organizing in her house.  She is attempting to unbury the changing table that she used with all of her kids so that we can use it.  They also offered us the cradle that Grandad made for me.  Yes siree, you are going to be one spoiled baby!

Excursion to Midway

We have been failing at our resolve to get out of the house more, mostly because I just haven't been wanting to lately, but that all changed today. Several weeks ago, I read a newspaper article about this guy up in Midway who makes ice castles each year as a sort of hobby. This year, since it had become so popular, they moved the location to the center of town and started charging a minimal fee to enter (so that he can save for sons' missions and a daughter's wedding). Since I heard about it, I wanted to go. The only trouble was finding a time to do it. Every time we scheduled it, we'd wake up to bad weather. Go figure. Thankfully, today was different.

Midway Ice Castles

It is pretty incredible what this guy has done. From what I could tell, he basically has these sprinkler type contraptions set up throughout the lot that are constantly going at different rates. He must move them around and have a few other tricks to create all of the icicles, tunnels, etc., but everything was made completely out of ice.

This was used to create...

This!!!

Some Incredible Icicles

You could walk through a couple of the towers

After we wandered through the towers of ice, Jason decided that he wanted to try and find the city cemetery. His mission mom passed away a couple years ago and he wanted to pay his respects. So we found a store where we bought a bunch of daffodils and went in search of the cemetery. Upon finding it, we were worried that we wouldn't be able to find the actual gravesite due to the snow and having no clue where it would be. But find it we did. Jason told me about how kind this lady was and how she "didn't have a mean bone in her body--except for when things were unclean." Rest in peace, Hermana Smock.

My Pregnancy: Week 8

Baby's now the size of a raspberry!

Baby is growing like mad, putting on about a millimeter every day and continuing to straighten out in the trunk.  Though you can't feel it yet, baby is moving those little arms, legs, and (now only slightly) webbed fingers and toes like crazy.

Life (and baby) seem to still be progressing well.  The newness of being pregnant is wearing off.  As excited as I am about you, it is hard because I don't feel that pregnant yet.  Does that make any sense?  I mean, I am certainly experiencing symptoms that make it impossible to forget I'm pregnant, but I guess it doesn't feel real yet.

We aren't telling many people, so my coworkers are thinking something's wrong when I have to get up to get a drink of water every half hour.  I am still so early that I can't really do a lot of planning, shopping, etc.  I haven't even heard a heartbeat yet.  Basically, I have to try and continue living my life the same as I always did but with half the energy and a huge secret.

But now I sound like I'm complaining.  I'm not.  I am still thrilled to be pregnant.  I am glad to have the wonderful support of your dad and our families.  As hard as it has been for them to keep their mouths shut, I'm glad we told them so that I have people who can share in my excitement.

One of the symptoms that I haven't mentioned before are my dreams.  I am not one who usually dreams often and when I do, I almost never remember them.  And when I do remember them, I wake feeling exhausted because the dreams are so intense.  Like I said, before I was pregnant, such dreams were a rarity.  They now happen almost nightly and almost always have a nightmarish tinge to them.

Just last night I dreamt that Aunt Annie was two years old again.  Naturally, that meant that I was twelve.  We were in Yellowstone and preparing for some big hike.  Annie threw a tantrum insisting that she be allowed to come.  We gave in.  Once we got to the start of the trail, she started crying, saying that she didn't really want to go.  But it was too late to take her back to camp, so I volunteered to carry her.

We started on our hike (which turned out to be a walk through the campground) and we were doing fine.  Then Annie decided she wanted to walk for a while.  I set her down and she instantly took off at a run.  Before I knew it, she had turned into a squirrel.  She kept running along, far outpacing the rest of us.  Then she saw a potgut and freaked out.  She instantaneously turned into a bird, picked up the potgut, took it far up into the air, and dropped it--killing it instantly.

The group was in shock and she landed, once again becoming the squirrel.  This same bizarre transformation took place several more times and the same scene followed with different potguts.  By now, the entire group was chasing after the bird/squirrel (sometimes she never transformed completely before switching back again), trying to stop the potgut slaughter.  I almost had her in my hands when I woke up.

Strangest thing about this is that it wasn't the first time my dreams have turned toddlers into animals.  A few weeks back, I dreamt that my cousin's daughter turned into a duck while we were at Disneyland.  She would swim round and round the Rivers of America while we frantically tried to catch her without getting in trouble for being in the water.  I'm sensing a theme.

Puppet Craftiness

I tend to start way more projects than I actually finish in one fail swoop, so I seem to end up just rotating through them all since I have such a short attention spen. My current project is sewing puppets.

See, back in my high school child care class, I made a set of paper bag puppets--one for each letter of the alphabet. Each one even had a little poem/song that went with it to help teach children the letter sounds. I still have those puppets, but as I began pursuing my teaching career, I quickly realized that they wouldn't last long. This was a shame because they took FOREVER to color, cut-out, and put together.

To make a long story a bit shorter, I decided to try and create a more durable version of these puppets using my new sewing machine. I'm only finished with the first six so far, but I'm liking how they are turning out and wanted to share.

A bit of an improvement, right?