Half Way!

I'm PREGNANT! Preggers, expecting, fruitful, gravid, gestating, with child, parous.  It's crazy to think that we've already gone from this...

to this...

in just 20 weeks.  Well I guess technically it has been a little less than 20 weeks.  But I was probably stressing the first 5 weeks before we knew we were expecting enough to count it as part of the 20 officially.  I figured I better document a little bit of how the last 20 (15) weeks have gone. I'm trying to keep a journal too, to give to the child, but it won't hurt to put down a few more details here :)

I was only a couple days late with when I was debating with myself VERY early morning on June 5 about whether I should take a test or not.  We'd been trying for awhile and I was pretty sure this month was a wash.  But I REALLY had to pee and I had to decide quick.  So I decided to pee on it and I didn't look for awhile because I didn't know if I could take another negative - even though I was telling myself to expect it to come up negative.  But then it didn't.  WHAT!?!? For reals.  I was freaking out.  And Tanner was asleep still and so I paced in the bathroom for several minutes trying to figure out how to tell him.  I thought I'd leave it by the sink and then he'd see it when he got up for work.  So I went to lay down but couldn't sleep.  So I was about to say something and then he got up to pee.  Flip.  So I laid there thinking and thinking and wondering if he would see it.  But no light went on and I was dying so I got up to just show him.  So I turned on the light and he squinted as I was showing him and he's just like, "What?"  And I said "Look at it."  He asked if that was good, and I said YES!  And then he hi fived me and walked out of the bathroom and got back in bed.  Haha.  Not my best execution.  Oh well.  We laid in bed for the next hour and a half not able to sleep and letting everything sink in.  It was still an EXCEEDINGLY exciting moment though!!

My friend at the hospital offered to do any ultrasounds for me (after all of work found out a couple weeks later).  My first appointment got changed (and I was basically promised they'd do an ultrasound there) and I decided I couldn't wait another second to get an ultrasound, so I called her and she could do it that day.  Luckily Tanner was able to swing by at lunch and this was our first image of the wee thing.

July 11.  9 weeks 3 days.  Heart rate was 151.

Yeah - that was a pretty amazing experience.  We had miscarried at about 7 weeks last fall and this little peanut looked SO much bigger than last time.  We were a couple weeks farther along, but still trying not to get too crazy excited.  We also decided we wanted to wait to tell all our family until we were a little farther along this time around and my sister was getting married in August so we decided we were going to wait till then to make that announcement.  It was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be to wait another 5 weeks!
Jackie did another ultrasound right before we were going home so we'd have a fresher pic to show the fam.

August 6.  13 weeks 1 day.  Heart rate was 163.

We had a double family bbq planned for the 11th of August.  We had cookies baked at a bakery in Bountiful that were shaped like baby things and decorated really cute.  Before dinner started while everyone was just hanging out, I pulled out a tray of them and set them on a table where my parents, Tanner's parents and Tanner were sitting.  Clare started off saying we shouldn't be starting with dessert, and sometime in those seconds my mom figured it out and she screamed and then everyone started figuring it out.  Everyone from inside came outside saying they thought an announcement was being made.  It was so fun.  SO completely worth waiting to do in person!  And the cookies were delicious!

What else.  We were pretty convinced it was going to be a girl.  Only because we both wanted a boy so bad and the Chinese gender calendar said it was a girl and heart rate old wives tale suggested girl.  A little after 16 weeks we bugged Jackie again to do another ultrasound to see if we could see what it was.  Tanner got to come for this one too.  

August 30.  16 weeks 4 days.

 We were completely shocked when we saw the little weiner.  I thought Tanner was gonna be disappointed but he said he was just saying he wanted a girl so he would be prepared when it was.  Psych.  Oh man.  It was so cool.  Seeing him on ultrasound is definitely the best part so far.  I know I'm pregnant, but every time she pops the probe on me and a tiny human shows up on the screen, I'm always surprised...or something...not sure what the word is.  I LOVE it!  I love seeing him move.  I love seeing how much he's changed in the couple weeks since the last ultrasound. 

At first I was thinking he looked pretty gangster - flippin a peace sign.  But maybe it's just more like E.T.

My official big ultrasound isn't till the 7th of October - 22 weeks.  So grateful for Jackie to be willing to do these so we aren't dying of impatience all the time :)

A couple weeks later she found me and said we should look again just for fun.  Not gonna turn that down.  

September 13.  18 weeks 4 days.

I love how long his little legs look.

 Here are some random tid-bits of personal pregnancy info.

• I was trying to be vegan for a couple months before we found out and at about 6 weeks vegan things made me want to puke and all I wanted was meat.  So that kind of went out the window and might be out forever.  That's a whole different story. 
• The whole first trimester really wasn't bad.  I never puked.  I just had a somewhat constant feeling of "blah".  Food didn't sound good but anytime I started eating all was ok.  
• I didn't feel too tired - seems like second trimester has been worse for fatigue for me. I do get really out of breath really easy which feels embarrassing.
• My boobs have definitely grown and have been super tender since the VERY beginning.  That never happened the first time.  
• I don't feel like I pee all the time - but some days it does seem a little excessive.  Nothing consistent enough for me to feel like it's a big pregnancy change.  
• I think I've been less moody since becoming pregnant.  I'm pretty sure Tanner would agree with that :)
• Very early on I started having CRAZY dreams. Lots of pregnancy related bizarre ones, but almost on a nightly basis I have really vivid and wild, memorable dreams.  
• The "blahness" went away almost right at 13 weeks.  I've been totally fine with any and all food since.  
• Smells never really bothered me.  
• I haven't had any really bizarre or intense cravings.  Ice cream - although that is nothing new.  Things definitely sounded better than others in the first trimester (hence the Arby's and shakes and other meat and inappropriate foods).  And I never threw up so of course I gained far more than I should have first trimester.  Oops.
• I had been running fairly consistently up until the last week or two.  I guess what I am experiencing is a pretty early onset of pubic symphysis diastasis.  (my pubic bone relaxing and starting to separate in anxious anticipation for birthing). I have had pain in my pubic bone for awhile (5+ weeks) but running was still okay.  The last time I ran I could barely walk or lift up my legs without almost excruciating pain.  That was the end of running.  Even fast walking is very painful so I'm finding other things to do.  
• We already have 4 boxes of diapers and quite a few outfits (most were bought before we were even pregnant the second time), and some matchbox cars.  You know - the essentials.  
• I felt him move for SURE one week ago.  19 weeks exactly.  I was feeling stuff a little before but wasn't convinced.  Last Monday I was convinced.  He's actually kind of squirmy right now.  Seems like he's a little more active at night.  Awesome!  This will probably be my new favorite part of being pregnant.  Tanner hasn't got to feel it yet. Hopefully soon enough. 
•  I've been reading up a lot on the natural childbirthing way :)  That's the goal.  And I'm hiring a doula.  Weird maybe, but I am way excited and feel really good about it.  So we'll see how it goes.  
• Due February 10.
• Tanner is incredibly excited and it is so fun to talk to him about all the upcoming adventures that will be parenting.  
• Heartburn.  Oh you devilish heartburn.  That has probably been the most obnoxious thing.  I have had bad heartburn for quite a few years.  I do feel like it has gotten much worse though since being pregnant.  Maybe we will end up with a hairy child.  They say there's actually science behind that - because progesterone loosens the stomach sphincter and also causes hair growth so...miracles could happen!
• I started feeling like my belly pooch was more pronounced at about 13 weeks.  But I could still hide it and it really wasn't obvious until basically last week.  Even still sometimes I think it just looks like a gross, fat, too many donuts belly. 
• I really think I've breezed through this first half without feeling too terribly different or debilitated :)  Can't wait for the second half and can not wait to meet the little man and see what he looks like and what kind of personality develops out of him.  I feel like my joy is full right now - can't imagine what it will feel like in another 20 weeks!

Bismarck Babymoon

Who wouldn't want to go to Bismarck, North Dakota for a babymoon?  Total destination location :)  Haha.  Just kidding.  We didn't really head down there planning on it being a babymoon, but then we realized it just might be the last time we get away by ourselves before February.  It might not be, so if not we'll have a babymoon part two.  The real reason we needed to go down was for some church meetings. Then it ended up that Tanner could take Friday off, so we decided to make a weekend out of it.  Tanner had been wanting to try out the golf course down there - Hawk Tree (number 1 in North Dakota).  And we wanted to look into some baby items.

We actually started off the weekend with an Asian dinner in Williston.  Basil's is a new sushi/Asian place here that we had heard lots of good things.  Keeping my brain and taste buds on Williston standards, it was REALLY good.  Pricey, but delish. 

Tanner bought me this shirt - among many other maternity things.  He's basically awesome and has great taste.  He may have to take over completely with dressing me :)

We didn't mess around - it was our first dinner date just us for quite awhile. 

The next morning we had a doggy date with some friends in the ward.  We wanted to wear out our dogs.  I didn't take any pics - should have - because they were crazy and quite entertaining.  We'll definitely have to be doing that more often!

Then off to Bismarck.  EVERY road within a hundred mile radius or more has construction going on.  Ever single road out of town included.  It's awesome.  But we made it and first stop was the mall.  Tanner got some "essential" golf items.  And then we went to Target and tested out some strollers and other items and got a good idea of things we want and need. We can't help ourselves with little things though - we got some clothes and toys and our 4th box of diapers and Tanner picked out the wee lad's first hot wheels and match box cars.  It was all I could do to keep him from getting  a wagon and big wheel too.  We thought we'd get a crib but weren't stoked on any there.  Then this upgrade also happened - another reason this should be our last getaway ;)

Definitely a necessity.  Our other one was on the fritz, unfortunately.  Painful - but oh so awesome.  After shopping we had dinner at The Toasted Frog.  I'd heard really good things about it and we both wanted to try it so we did.  And I don't think I've ever heard Tanner comment on how amazing his meal was before.  He had filet mignon and I had a yummy "lavosh" - some thin crust/cracker pizza with cheese and no sauce.  It was really good too (and still way cheaper than our sushi outing - we miss living in a normal thing priced city).

I luff him.

After dinner we went back to our hotel (the same Radisson I stayed at in December for my ATLS conference - love it).  We went and sat in the hot tub (my legs soaked) and would have swam more but the pool was so darn cold.  Oh well.  It was relaxing.  The next morning was golf.  Tanner loved the course and my limited golf experience still told me it was a pretty awesome course.  I had fun watching and driving the cart and holding clubs, etc :) I'm nowhere near ready for a course like that!

Lots of cool elevation change.

The range balls were included in the price.  I've never seen them all set up nicely for the golfers before. 

Someone left a cigar in the cart, so why not?  (jk - he didn't really smoke it)

Good lookin' sweater, eh??

All the bunkers were filled with coal.  They looked cool. 

Then we rushed to our meeting after grabbing Taco John's bean and cheese burrito's and shoveling them in our face in the church parking lot.  The meeting was really good for me.  I got good ideas for helping me teach better and get the kids more involved in the lesson, etc.  I'm really glad I went.  And we had a ton of fun together.  It was an awesome weekend.

Parental Visitation

My parents had mentioned they were going to come visit us sometime here as soon as we told them we were moving.  That time has now come and gone.  So sad.  But it was awesome.  We had such a good time while they were here.  They arrived on Saturday, August 31.  When we were in Red Lodge for our anniversary, we drove along the Beartooth Highway a couple times and LOVED it.  We both knew my parents would love it too so we recommended they take the scenic route.  So they left Friday and got here Saturday and both said it was worth the extra hours.  I didn't doubt it would be :)
Saturday was pretty mellow and short - they didn't get in till about 8.  But we had a yummy dinner and chatted until they were ready to crash.  Sunday was a church, nice dinner, relax, game type of day. 

Good ol' Mexican Train.  One of Tanner's favorites.  Lucky for him he won 2 out of the 3 times we played. 

Monday was Labor Day and after the boys went golfing, we all went to the lake with our dogs and friends - the Merkley's, Althoff's and Andelin's.  It was a glorious day.  The water was so warm.  We were practically the only ones who didn't wear our swimsuits.  Don't know what we were thinking.  It was pretty hot out and the water felt so good, we ended up not being able to resist the temptation and then it just didn't matter we didn't have suits!

The dogs were in absolute heaven.  Samson would not stop playing fetch in the water. We are both convinced he'd drown before stopping. 

The next couple days were really mellow again.  Tanner had to work all week.  I came down with a stupid cold.  And we like relaxing :) Tuesday was the grand Williston tour.  It was sad because my mom LOVES quilting and I was excited to show her Williston's own quilt shop.  But apparently it went out of business and it's last day was the Saturday they got here.  Bummer.  We also did some reading and napping and talking and crafting.  My mom brought up a cross stitch project I had started back in high school and I got kind of back into that.  I was a cross stitching fool in high school.  Betcha didn't know that about me. 
Merkley's had us over for dinner on Wednesday.  Delicious pulled pork sandwiches and I made an awesome cheesecake.  And we played games.  Perfect evening.  My parents were so happy to put names to faces up here.  And they were great sports meeting everyone.  They love that kind of stuff cause they are awesome like that.  Friday we actually got motivated to leave the house :)  We went and hit a bucket of balls.  My mom even got into it too :)  And messed around on the putting green.

And to complete the Williston experience, we needed a trip to the local bowling alley :)

 

 Our final hoo-raw was a trip to magical Medora, North Dakota's number one tourist attraction :)  We left early Saturday morning.  It was supposed to be pretty rainy all weekend so we were quite concerned how that was going to play in with our hiking and musical attending adventures.  First we wandered around town and saw the sights and went to lunch.  Weather was perfect. Cool and overcast and slightly sprinkly.

Then we headed into Theodore Roosevelt National Park and drove around the whole park and did some of the smaller hikes along the way.  Again - weather was PERFECT.  Last time T and I were there it was SOOO hot and we couldn't even enjoy it that much.  It was gorgeous and lovely and so much fun.  It started getting ugly right as we were leaving.

Just enjoyin' a fig newton

Competitive boys trying to throw rocks across the river...

When we got back to the hotel (we stayed in the fancier Rough Riders Hotel - so nice!), it started POURING.  Not looking good for the musical.  We still got on our stuff and headed to the pitchfork fondue.  It seemed to clear up while we were there.  But then waiting in line for food, it started dumping like crazy.  Yikes.

 Not the classiest food - but the steak deep fried with a pitchfork actually turns out pretty good.  It's a tasty meal and an enjoyable experience.  Then after we were done it cleared up a bit.  So we wandered around and waited for the musical to start or it to start pouring again.  Spoiler alert - it didn't rain again.  Major answers to prayers!  I really really wanted my parents to get to see it, especially since we had driven there and paid and everything.  Not that it's that phenomenal...but still.  I just wanted it to work out real bad.  And it did.  And we were extremely grateful!

 Heading down the escalator...

The musical was totally different from when we saw it last year, which was nice.  Not enough testosterone from the guys in the musical, but I guess what do you expect.  It was fun.  My parents really liked it, and the half time show - Cirque Zuma Zuma was SO cool!  African acrobatics and such.  Pretty amazing.  I would have rather watched that the whole time ;)

This chic was INSANE.  Like a rubber band or something else that isn't human.  So cool!

Overall, very fun.  And then we drove back early on Sunday for Tanner to go to his meetings and we had a nice dinner and played some games and then that was the end.  I miss them already. It's nice having them around and it was nice to hang out without the chaos of what is usually our trips home.  I even think they had fun!  My dad said they would for sure come back!  The only bad thing that happened is on a walk at my favorite place here, we came back to shattered out passenger windows in Tanner's truck.  Not cool.  But overall it could have been a lot worse had there been anything valuable in there.  And we scored some sweet pretzels from the most thoughtful person I know...

(one other thing that happened that Tanner was SUPER happy about...his uncle inherited him a sweet record player that my parents delivered.  Tanner has tons of vinyl and loves it so having a big sweet player that's easily accessible is a very happy time for him.  Thanks to them for helping bring it up and get it set up in our spacious abode!)