My Baby Sister's HS Graduation

I can hardly believe that my baby sister Annie graduated from high school last night!  And yes, there were many recollections on how it has (somehow) already been 10 years since I graduated.  Crazy!  We are so proud of Annie though!

 As her graduation gift, I made her a money tree.  Too bad it won't replenish itself!

My Pregnancy: Week 13

Baby's now the size of a peach!

Your fetus is forming teeth and vocal cords... savor this, their non-functional phase. Baby is approaching normal proportions, with a head now only one third the size of the body. Intestines are in the process of moving from the umbilical cord to baby's tummy. (Much more convenient.)

Out of the first trimester and on to the second!  My stomach and gag reflex have not been my best friends this week.  Usually my nausea only kicks in when I haven't eaten in a while.  I eat some food and it goes away pretty quick.  Not this week.  This week eating food made me nauseous and there were only certain foods that I could get down easily.  Even soup wasn't wanting to cooperate with me!

We were skyping with Jason's parents this week and his mom got all excited when she saw my belly and said that I was starting show.  First person who's really noticed/said anything.  Other than that, I'm still plugging along in spite of the exhaustion.  Hopefully that will start to ease up in the next few weeks.  I've got too much to do to feel so tired all the time!  I do think I'm starting to feel some little kicks and flutters.  Can't wait for those to get stronger!

Birthday Time!

Yesterday I turned 28 years old and Jason made sure to make it a day to remember.  I do have to give him just a little guff because midway through the day, we were chatting online while he was at work and I was complaining about stuff that was piling up on me and he said something like "don't worry, it's your birthday soon."  I informed him that it was already my birthday and he sheepishly admitted that, although he knew the correct date of my birthday he had thought it wasn't until Thursday.  He quickly made up for this little slip up though!

Before he came home from work, he sent me two gifts.  The first was a personalized computer game called Kaysie's Krazy Kwest.  I was the main character and after I beat all of the levels, a birthday message from Jason popped up on the screen.  Pretty nifty!

The second was Rascal Flatts' new album.  I had mentioned that I wanted to get it, but I forgot to look and see when it came out.  Jason remembered and bought it for me.  I think I listened to it at least twice before he even got home from work.

Once he got home, he brought home all sorts of birthday decorations, dinner from Los Hermanos, and some yummy cupcakes.  He decked out the house and then had me dress up like a queen.  Leila has proceeded to dress up her and myself ever since.  

After dinner and more gifts, Jessica came over to watch Leila so that we could have a night out.  The original thought was to go to a movie, but I wasn't really sure I would be able to stay awake in a dark theater, so we ended up at Trafalga to go mini-golfing instead.  Brought back the memories of many birthdays past spent in much the same manner.  Jason won, of course (as much as I like going mini-golfing, I'm really not very good) and we got our Dippin' Dots and played a few arcade games after.  

Not quite ready for the night to end yet, we drove down to Guzzles to visit Annie at work and get some yummy drinks.  Happy birthday to me!

Wild West Days on the Heber Valley RR

Yesterday, we joined my family up in Heber to ride the Heber Valley Railroad.  They were doing Wild West Days so they had staged gun fights, mustache painting, a magician, and a tee pee set up at the depot.

Then, once we got on the train, they had train robbers and cowboy sing-a-longs.  Mom even got called in to participate in the robbery for a bit.  They were threatening to take her as a hostage.  Leila liked the train, but wanted to wander around more than sit in any one place for very long (go figure).

Once we got off the train, Grandma spoiled Leila with a pony ride and she LOVED it!  One wasn't enough and we had to drag her away kicking and screaming.

We wrapped up our evening with dinner at Dairy Keen before heading home.  It was a great little outing together!

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.

You would think I would have learned the importance of sticking to a daily routine by now because whenever I don't, I pay for it with nausea and/or headaches for hours after the fact.  Case in point, last Sunday Jason was kind enough to let me sleep in.  As a result I didn't eat breakfast until 10 and then the rest of the afternoon/evening I was incapacitated.  Good thing it happened while Jason was home.

In other news, we officially let the cat out of the bag this week and let everyone know we're expecting.  Which means no more "secret" blog posts and a little more sympathy when I'm just feeling bleh.

I seriously hope that my fatigue starts to ease up a little soon.  I'm tired of constantly feeling, well, tired.

AF Canyon Picnic

Yesterday afternoon I was feeling a pretty bad case of cabin fever and needed to get out of the house.  So, I decided that we were going to go up the canyon and have a picnic for dinner that night.  I made some french dip sandwiches and rice and brought along some chips and some leftover Sarah salad that my mom had brought over the day before.  Once Jason got home from work, we set off.  The original plan was to go up Provo Canyon, but as we started driving, we heard there was a major accident on the freeway causing major delays and we noticed a dark rain cloud hovering right over the entrance to the canyon.  So we turned around and made our way to AF canyon instead.  We stopped at the Sawmill picnic area ate our food and then took a walk down by the river.  It was the perfect little outing to curb my cabin fever!

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.

It has been a good week for us, little one!  It started off on Sunday, when we told our immediate families all about you in honor of Mother's Day.  For the Ziebarths, I mailed Mama Z a card with instructions that she wasn't to open it until we called her on Mother's Day.  Grandma Larsen got the same card but I gave it to her during our Skype call with my missionary brother Jared.  One and all were very excited for us!

Besides riding the high from that, I also got to have my first official doctor's appointment on Monday.  This appointment always makes everything feel so much more real.  The part I was looking forward to the most was hearing the baby's heartbeat.  I had a few moments of pure panic and worry when the doctor couldn't find it right away.  It took a little bit, but eventually he got it, just a little higher in my stomach than he was anticipating.  Because I'm carrying higher than he thought I would be at 10 weeks, he did an ultrasound to make sure that we had the correct due date.  So, I got to see my baby too!  When he took measurements, he gave me the all clear and we kept my due date of December 5th! What a great day!

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.)

Last Sunday I woke up with a major case of morning sickness and ended up going back to bed just an hour after I woke up.  I slept for a couple of hours and woke up feeling a little better.  So, we went to Primary and by the time we came back home, I was exhausted all over again.  I ended up taking another 2 hour nap that afternoon and then sleeping soundly through the night.  I'm ready for this first trimester to be over so that I can get back some of my energy!!

I've been having some stronger cravings lately too.  When I was pregnant with Leila, my cravings would last like a week.  So I would want the same "treat" every night for a week and then move on to something new.  This time I get really strong cravings that last until I satisfy them and then I move on to something new.  So far I've craved fried zucchini, a snow cone, salads with Italian dressing, strawberries and cream, and bacon.  Sort of an eclectic pallet, huh?

My dreams are starting to get more intense too.  I am not one who dreams often, or at least I rarely remember them.  And when I do, I wake up feeling exhausted.  However, pregnant-me dreams all the time and, since I'm already constantly exhausted, I still wake up feeling exhausted.  Last night's dream involved me being in some foreign city on a high school field trip with a bunch of other girls when an earthquake struck and I had to try and get everyone out of our hotel before it collapsed on us.  Very intense, to say the least.

Leila and Her Baby

I did a little photoshoot with Leila to get ready for announcing our upcoming addition to our family.  I gave her a baby doll and a bottle and just started snapping pictures.  She was so sweet!  I can hardly wait to see her interact with her very own brother/sister.

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!

I had my first case of pregnancy throw-ups this week.  Unfortunately it happened just as I was finishing up a delicious meal on Pier 39 and I had to find a bathroom rather quickly.  This only happened twice when I was pregnant with Leila (both times right after eating) so I'm hoping that it continues to be a rare symptom.

My body also REALLY hates when I mess up my sleeping schedule at all.  First time I noticed this was coming back from New York and trying to run on like 2 hours of sleep.  No bueno.  Same sort of deal coming back from San Francisco because we had to get up super early.  I felt nauseous most of the day and got motion sick really easily, even when I was driving!  Maybe its a good thing I'm not doing any more travelling for a while.

While we were on vacation, I also noticed that my jeans are getting really tight whenever I sit for very long.  I had to start undoing the button and will probably switch over to my "fat" jeans soon.  And then maternity pants aren't too much farther off!