Gender Reveal & Weeks 18 and 19

Well, the secret is out! Baby GIRL is joining our family! We are so excited. It was really funny because Brian totally predicted it and kept saying he thought it would be a girl. I kept agreeing but when the doctor told us it was a girl, we were both kind of taken aback! I guess we both subconsciously assumed it would be a boy due to the trends in both our families, but like usual, we're never like anyone else haha.

I have to admit I am so excited. Little girls clothes are so cute and I keep finding more and more that I love for the nursery that is strictly "little girl-like." My parents are beyond thrilled, as I knew they would be. Especially since my dad was already texting me every week asking "how is my granddaughter doing?" He thinks he's funny.

It was so fun to have family and friends over for the gender reveal and Lindy and Sabra did so much for us! We had balloon popping with blue and pink paint inside for the kids to play with, super cute blue and pink food, mustaches and bows for everyone to wear their guesses, and then when it came time for the big reveal, we had pink confetti in black polka dot balloons that we let go and everyone shot them down with BB guns! We are so lucky to have had so many family and friends come out and support us and Baby B. We're already feeling the love so much and we're so blessed.

Week 18: Baby is the size of a sweet potato!

On Friday when we had the gender reveal BBQ, it was actually my first day of week 18, so that was an exciting start to announce it to the rest of family and friends! Even though I didn't actually put it on social media until Sunday... It was a super busy weekend though and Brian and I spent most of Saturday down in Salt Lake for my friend Jordan's endowment in the Draper Temple. Every time I think life is settling down, it proves it's not! But oh well, it keeps us on our toes.

This week I started really noticing all my slowly developing aches and pains. My round ligaments are apparently stretching..? And they love to give me random sharp pains all over my sides which is just super awesome. I feel like my whole body is ballooning and I'm a tub of lard because I haven't been able to work out like I used to before. I'm trying to be okay with it but I would be lying if I didn't say I hate it AND my uber round face. It's no bueno.

Week 19: Baby is the size of a tomato (what the heck, that's smaller than a sweet potato in my opinion...)

Either way, baby girl is definitely getting bigger and it's getting harder for me to hide the bump. On Friday, the first day of week 19, we were down in Salt Lake again for Jordan's wedding at the SLC temple and for the first time, someone that didn't already know asked if I was pregnant. Granted I had just eaten about 5 lbs of Brazilian food at Tucanos, but I was happy someone finally noticed!

This week's chronic pain is in my back which I think will be a continuing trend thanks to my scoliosis. The right side of my back will begin aching so bad and feel so cramped by about 7 or 8 pm every night that Brian has to massage it out or I literally writhe around on the bed in pain and can't fall asleep until he does.

The great news is I can finally cook again! I made a delicious dinner of lemon pepper salmon and parmesan garlic asparagus tonight complete with peach cobbler for dessert. But the most exciting thing to happen this week is that we finally got the crib and glider and set those up! I spent a lot of Friday night and Saturday morning moving everything out of Brian's office to make room to make it into the nursery and Brian set all the furniture up that morning. Now we get to start on the fun part: decorating! But it is somewhat comforting that I don't have to worry about anymore of the big furniture, other than a dresser, despite the fact that we have a lottttt of other things to get. Baby steps!

I also got in the autumn spirit with the cool weather front that came in and started doing a little decorating. Out with the summer, in with the fall! I just love boots and sweater weather. I'm excited but also nervous because I feel like the next 4 1/2 months are going to fly by and baby will be here soon! We are so excited and I'm so blessed to have Brian. He's so supportive and enthusiastic about this that it makes me even more excited. We have so many wonderful things going for us!

Read More

Normal Life These Days & Baby: Weeks 16 & 17

Week 16: Baby is the size of an avocado!

Baby news... This week has been interesting. I have a day where I feel wonderful and then the next I'm totally exhausted. The nausea hasn't been bad at all and I'm able to eat more, even though my diet cannot be considered healthy in any way. I've decided I don't care how much weight I gain for this pregnancy and I'll take it as it comes. The first one is a learning process anyway, right?

I forgot to take a picture this week because on Sundays (when I usually take photos because I'm actually dressed up and looking semi-professional for church) I was dying and exhausted and didn't make it out of bed until 4 pm. Probably because I attempted to do too many things the following day. But I was highly pleased with our Labor Day weekend project of painting cabinets! Originally we were just going to do the kitchen cabinets but then I convinced Brian to do the bathroom cabinets as well, since the project wasn't as time consuming as we originally feared. 

I did so much research trying to decide what the best way to paint them would be.. There wasn't anything particularly wrong with the cabinets, in fact they were in almost perfect condition, but the problem was the color. When we bought our house and ripped out the disgusting carpet and linoleum in the downstairs and replaced it with our beautiful dark hardwood flooring,the contrast between the light oak cabinets and the dark floors drove me insane... because I'm OCD like that.

I covered for a co-worker and worked all day Saturday, so when I got off work on the 3rd, Brian and I met at Home Depot and got the supplies and our paint selection! I had looked at so many different options for milk paint vs. sanding and painting vs. deglossing and painting, etc. After talking with a guy about what he's seen work best for people, we opted for the deglossing and painting, which worked out amazingly! Because you're supposed to paint within a certain number of hours after stripping the cabinets, we wound up taking all the cabinet doors off, stripping the base and fronts and backs of cabinets, and painting everything with once coat Saturday night. We got everything finished up on Monday (Labor Day), including both bathroom cabinets which took probably 20 minutes each total. I am SO happy with how they turned out! I'll have to post before and after photos here.. 

Week 17: Baby is the size of a turnip! (Which what size is that really? Turnips are all shapes and sizes.... but whatever)

This week has been so much better. I've still been tired, but it's been more manageable. I taught Young Women's on Sunday and we had a birthday party for Grandpa Daylong on Monday. AND I remembered to take a picture. Saturday I even got a little motivation to do some crafting for Halloween and I re-potted some festive autumn mums to decorate the porch. I cannot wait until it starts getting cold and I can decorate for fall and Halloween! I am soooo excited for colder weather, probably because being pregnant and sick during the summer was a terrible idea. Never again if I have control over it.

Let's see what else has been going on... Brian is back in school finally starting his last year. So that also means he's back to working 2 jobs: his internship and the insurance office. It's nice that they wanted to keep him on at his internship and he actually added another position with them in their finance department on top of the contracts work he already does. Brian being Brian is still determined to work full-time with them on top of school and doing the health insurance for the office, so he puts in 12-13 hour days in SLC on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Sometimes it's rough not seeing him as much but I work late on Wednesdays anyway so it's manageable. 

Every week I try to organize the garage and spare bedroom more and more so we can combine the office stuff into that room when we start planning the nursery! Our crib came in the mail and I've ordered the glider, so I'm getting so excited, but I haven't actually cleared out what will be the nursery... I'll start adding photos once that happens.

In even more exciting news.... WE FOUND OUT BABY'S GENDER!

On Wednesday, I had a GREAT day. First I had a dentist appointment and was told I still don't have a cavity, which I'm extremely proud of ;)

But then we had our baby appointment! At first, our doctor wasn't going to do an ultrasound, for the first time since we've started going there. but I had to know.... especially since we had a family BBQ planned for Friday! So we were able to hang out for an additional 20 minutes after our appointment and find out! I'm not going to lie, it was stressful planning the gender reveal party!

First, we waited until Wednesday to buy all the food in case we didn't find out and had to change the date of the party. I work Wednesdays and Thursdays evening shifts, so I was up early every morning and up late every evening making food and getting ready.

Luckily I have the best mother-in-law and best friend who did SO MUCH to set up for the party and have all the props. Sabra made the cutest bows and mustaches on pins so everyone could "wear their guess," we had a photo booth, paint balloon popping (with blue and pink paint), and then the big reveal! We put confetti in black polka dot balloons and let them go and people shot them with BB guns! Which then led to blowing up multiple balloons and letting everyone shoot them with the guns.

We will be revealing on social media tomorrow Baby B's gender, so stay tuned!

Read More