Baby News- 14 Weeks

When we first found out we were having a baby, I wanted to keep a strict journal everyday logging every moment of this experience. However, life gets crazy, and in our case... insane. So when I realized I am already 4 months pregnant and still haven't written much about it or even taken a picture, I decided it's time to blog! 

So how do I sum up the past 14 weeks? Well, at 5 weeks I took a pregnancy test and miraculously it was positive, even though I didn't have any symptoms besides horrible acne that decided to suddenly appear out of nowhere. I was so excited thinking, "heck, if being pregnant is this easy, it's going to be great!" Then week 6 arrived.... and with it came the miserable nausea and vomiting along with the complete lack of energy to even get out of bed some days. I had gotten into a really great exercise routine before I found out I was pregnant and had gotten up to running 5 miles and doing weights etc. So I was pretty bummed when that all had to stop because I couldn't sum up the energy to get my butt off the couch :(. I tried a few times to run and it always ended terribly so I gave up on it and just had to keep telling myself, "it's okay, you're pregnant!"

This continued the entire first trimester along with other uncomfortable symptoms that I won't go into detail about. Basically, I found myself constantly wondering, "What the heck is so wonderful and miraculous about this?! It sucks!!!" Eating became a chore because I knew that I would just throw it up anyway, and sleeping was hard because the constant nausea wasn't easy to ignore. I was mad at other women (yes you Mom) for making pregnancy sound so wonderful because it had given me false hope that there could possibly be a bright side to this situation.

And then, at 11 weeks we went to our first OB appointment. It was at that moment when we saw our little baby on the ultrasound monitor, and with the sudden rush of tears and emotion that came over me, I knew it was all going to be worth it! I could have sat there for days just staring at the screen, watching in awe as the baby moved around and seeing its little heart beating. I couldn't believe that miniature human was inside of me! Because I wasn't showing at all, a part of me was so worried that the doctor was going to tell me that I wasn't really pregnant and that it is all in my head. So imagine my relief when I saw proof that I wasn't crazy!! After the appointment, Josh and I went out to breakfast and all we could talk about was that amazing experience we just had and how crazy it is that we are going to be parents and how adorable our baby already is! It was a very emotional day for both of us and I will treasure it forever.

It has been a couple of weeks since then and I am already starting to feel better (Praise the Lord!!). The nausea/vomiting comes and goes but it is so nice to actually have some energy again and to have a few days of feeling normal! I am hoping that this will continue and the second trimester will be much more enjoyable than the first.

As far as cravings go, for some reason I am dying to eat tuna fish and tomato soup! I could eat it breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day if I allowed myself! The problems is, tuna fish contains mercury and that's not something you want to eat in excess when you are pregnant so the doctor told me it is fine as long as I only eat one can a week. This is so sad but I cherish that can and I dream about the next week when I can eat it again.... yes, I sound like a crazy person, I know.... And then there are oranges. That's a craving that seems to be subsiding now, but earlier in the first trimester, I ate a whole bag of Clementines by myself in two days!!

**At 14 weeks I am finally starting to show a little bit, but I mostly just feel bloated. The baby is the size of a lemon and weighs about 1 1/2 ounces. He/She can now grimace/squint/frown, suck his/her thumb, and is urinating! I'm going to be starting a new job the first week of February so I hope that I will continue to feel better and I don't find myself running out of a patient's room to go throw up. I haven't felt any kicking or movement yet, and sadly, the acne prevails!! Most acne medications are harmful to a baby so there is very little I can do about it. I just have to hope my face will someday go back to normal and doesn't scar too badly. It has been hard on my self esteem seeing my face look like a pizza but I have the most amazing husband who swears up and down that I am the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. He might be a liar, but he is pretty dang good at it ;). 

"Rock of Ages, Still Rollin'......"

If you aren't a Def Leppard fan, the title of this post won't mean much to you. But for the rest of you 80's rockers, I chose this as the title because that's how our life feels. One minute we are up, the next minute we are down.... but in the end, we just "keep on rollin'" and the party continues. Have I confused you yet? Well keep reading and you will start to understand.

We left our home, jobs, and family like a couple of crazies and moved to North Carolina for a wonderful job opportunity.

At the UNC Homecoming Football Game

About two weeks later, we found out we are going to have a baby in July!

the cute little squirrel's first ultrasound picture :)

Then about a month after that, things started going bad at Josh's work and our faith was tested more than ever before, but we had to "keep on rollin'." We spent our first Christmas away from home/family and it actually turned out to be a really great party! We spent Christmas Eve at a church member's home with the rest of the Branch who had no family to go visit. The food was great and the company was even better! Josh even got to play one of the shepherds with the kids in the nativity pageant they put on for us adults....I'm sad I didn't take pictures because it was pretty dang funny watching him up there with all the kiddos. We will never forget their love and hospitality and are continually grateful for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and all it has done for us in our lives. We invited the missionaries over on Christmas Day for lunch and that too turned out to be pretty dang awesome! It was hard for me to be fighting morning sickness and still trying to cook and be a good hostess but it all worked out perfectly and Josh helped out a lot. It was hard to be homesick when we were constantly surrounded by amazing people.

Opening our presents on Christmas Morning!

The boys loading up on food!

Our guests for Christmas. They had awesome personalities and we had a  lot of fun talking for hours and eating way too much food.

Then a couple of weeks after that, I was offered a job opportunity as an Inpatient Dialysis RN in Las Vegas! It was an answer to our prayers for many reasons. The main one being that we could raise our baby close to family!! This kid is going to be so spoiled by my parents and sisters, and Josh's family will only be a 45 minute plane ride away! That's so much better than 2,000 miles away. Another reason we are so excited about this job is the HUGE increase in pay! I'm not going to give numbers, but let's just say that Nevada is pretty dang nice to its nurses ;). Just days prior, we were feeling really down and wondering why life was taking the strange turns that it was, and if there was anyone upstairs listening to us. Well, I can attest that there was! Now we have about two weeks to pack and move all of our stuff...again... and then......................

LAS VEGAS HERE WE COME!!!

So now does the title of this post make any sense? Our life has been one big crazy party! Sometimes the party was so exciting and wonderful that we couldn't believe it could ever get any better, and other times the party was so lame and sucky that we wished we could ditch it and find another party to go to. But in the end, we kept "Rock and Rollin'" and here we are! Onto the next adventure!