Wedding Ring Fiasco

A couple weeks ago Augusta and I were at the gym working out like normal. Since high school I have always taken off all my jewelry. So, like normal I placed my wedding rings in my bag. After working out, we grabbed our bags and were leaving. I decided to put my rings back on and found that they were not in my bag. We went back to the locker room to look for them. Unfortunately I never found them :( I filed an incident report at the gym and also filed a police report. Clint and I checked out several cash for gold shops and a few pawn shops but had no luck. Clint called out insurance because thankfully we had insured my ring before we got married. Unfortunately we forgot to add my wedding ring. After a little back and forth with our insurance (and Clint using his muscle ;) we got a check last week to replace my ring. Sunday Clint surprised me and went to the Andrew's Jewelers and found my exact ring and reproposed to me :) 

When Clint originally proposed to me has placed signs in the neighborhood and was in my dad's driveway on one knee. We never got rid of the signs because they are special. I am glad we didn't and that he got two uses out of them (even though I wished he hadn't needed to replace the ring). On Christmas morning we opened our stockings and he surprised me yet again! At the bottom was a wedding band! So now I just need to get them sized and soldered together. 

Pretty sure that I am a very lucky girl. He is pretty much the best!

Merry Christmas!

 

Week 24 falls on Christmas! So far Clint & I (and obviously the baby) have been very spoiled by our families and friends! We have received many gifts (lots of cute clothes and many other other gifts). We are so grateful and appreciative for everything :)

Sleep: I have been getting up easier (on time) during the week, which has been really hard this year! Over the weekend I normally wake up between 6-8 which stinks! I usually can't fall back asleep but I like to play on my phone until I'm wide awake or Clint wakes up :)

Body Changes: Nothing has changed from last week. I am very glad that I have really only gained weight in my belly and not any where else!

Food: I haven't had any food cravings that last more than a day and definitely not anything strange! A few days I really wanted a cheeseburger and a couple days I really wanted a cinnamon roll!

Symptoms: Other than feeling hungry a lot and having a big belly, you might not realize I am pregnant from my lack of symptoms.

Movement: Out little baby boy is definitely a wild baby! I am now feeling movement all through the day! I can't wait for Clint to actually get to feel it!

Things We Bought/Did: Last Saturday we had our big gender reveal so we were busy planning that and I am really glad we had the party! I had a lot of fun that day!! Here are a few of the things we have received over the last week:

My in-laws bought a wagon for us/the baby for Christmas! I love it!!!

My friends Amy & George got us this cute chalkboard!

Lindsay bought us a different baby carrier! We already received a sling for me to use but this carrier can be carried in front or on the back and can be used up to 40 pounds. Clint is so excited ;)

Clint's aunt gave us this piggy bank! We passed it around at his Christmas after opening it! Gotta start saving for that college fund!

Clint's parent's also got us these cute owl bookends!

Next project: Baby Room!! Stay tuned for that!

House Update

Having the gender reveal party really put me into the decorating spirit this year. Clint has always wanted more Christmas decorations but I usually don't feel like getting too much out. It's a lot of effort putting it out and even more putting it away! I made it a little easier by spreading it out over a few random days here and there. Hopefully something will put away nicely so I can reuse them next year easily.

Mistletoe!

I really like the Merry Christmas garland I got from Target this year! Took forever to figure out where to put it!

Our stockings and Zoe :)

Our tree before any presents were underneath.

With my mom and stepdad in town, we had extra people helping get things ready (mostly for the party Saturday) but we got more things done that had been on our list. Dale helped hang the three frames I bought for our pictures from October. He also hung the butterfly mosaic I made in the bathroom as well as the new towel bar. Mom and Dale both helped Clint with the new shelf he installed in place of the ugly medicine cabinet that was in the wall. Clint got all the painting done too! The bathroom looks great now! 

We also started getting the baby's room cleared out. Here is the furniture too!

 Our house is finally looking more like our home!

We're having a...

Today we had our gender reveal party! We went with a red and green theme because it is almost Christmas. I found several treats that I thought I would try from Pinterest. Most turned out really well! I forgot the take pictures of everything before it started getting eaten (I was running a little late!) so here are some pictures from later of a few of the items:

Christmas Tree and Stocking Rice Krispie Treats

Gingerbread Reindeer Cookies

Smores

Stuffed Peppers - made by the mother-in-law

Candy Cane Punch - picture from Pinterest because it was all gone!

Fun Candy Cane paper straws to go with the Candy Cane Punch

Fried Pickles - made by the husband! Picture from Pinterest because these were gone fast!

 

Funfetti Cupcakes - iced  by my stepmom

I also made Peanut Butter fudge but I forgot to get it our of the fridge! We also had some fruit and veggies, brownies, my mom's special ranch flavored-oyster crackers, chips and salsa & queso, meatballs, and a few other random things. LOTS of good food!!

 My printer was giving me lots of issues today so I had to have my mom handmake the voting cards. Originally I wanted to use a Polaroid camera to have people cast their votes but you can't find 600 film anymore and the new Polaroid camera's film is really small. So my mom searched around and found a Polaroid POGO printer that prints 2x3 pictures that are stickers! You hook your camera up to it with a USB cord OR you can use your cell phone enabled with BlueTooth! So everyone cast their votes and it was tied 14 for boy and 14 for girls!

Zoe's picture was placed on the board after the reveal so her vote wasn't counted :)

To do the reveal, we blew up balloons and filled our skylights and then covered them with Styrofoam wrapped in wrapping paper. We then tied a string to one end and pulled the string. We have two skylights so we both had one to pull.

We double wrapped the green paper one because it was kind of thin (which is why it doesn't look as pretty). Unfortunately, Clint's board didn't work out. The string came through the board (because he didn't tape it on the other side like I suggested ;) Red balloons would mean girl and green balloons would mean a boy. Here is a video of the big reveal!

So we are having a BOY in April!

For those that were able to share in our big reveal - thanks so much for coming!! Also thanks to my family that helped out!! We are so excited and can't believe that we will meet our little boy in about 16 weeks!!

Week 23

Today is week 23! I am excited for this week for a few reasons! I start winter vacation after school on Friday :) Definitely ready for a break! I am also excited because my mom gets here late tonight!! On Friday my sister gets here too! Then finally on Saturday we are having our gender reveal party!!

Sleep: This part has been getting better lately! I haven't had to wake up in the middle of the night hardly at all which is nice because I am rested. I've been making sure to not drink too much water right before bed so I can sleep all night as much as possible. 

Body Changes: Other than my growing belly, I have noticed that the dark line below my belly button has started to show up! The first couple days I saw it I couldn't tell if it was an indention from my pants. But it's definitely not!

Food: Last Friday I over indulged in sweet/junk food and had my first bad reaction to that! Worst stomach ache of my life! Definitely learned my lesson! This Christmas season I will definitely need to be better so that doesn't happen again!

Symptoms: I have been sciatic nerve pain free for about two weeks! I think the baby finally moved off of it! Score! 

Movement: I felt the first 100% kick the other night! I could even feel it on the outside. The other movements I thought I was feeling may have been movement as well, but this one was way different! All morning today the baby has been jumping around! It's so strange to feel but pretty cool!

Things We Bought/Did: We had my dad's side of the family Christmas last Saturday and my aunt bought us the swing we wanted for the baby! I got it put together while Clint finished painting our extra bathroom. It is so cute!

Our house is officially decked for the holidays! When I post pictures from our party I will be sure to show off our decorations!

Week 22 & the Heartbeat

Zoe knocked the board over which made it smudgy. Also not sure why it looks so crooked!

Sleep: The last week has been a lot better than the previous couple. My sciatic nerve hasn't been hurting as much. I have tried using my body pillow more that I got a while back. I lay it right behind me so that I sleep on my right side or i wrap around/hug it to sleep on my left side. Some mornings I wake up far from it or find it on the floor! Mostly it helps though!

Body Changes: Nothing really changed from last week other than the size of my belly. From the scale at the doctor's office yesterday, I have gained 7 pounds. I am really hoping to stay within the 25-30 pound range by the end but of course, we'll see!

Food: Drinking a lot of water is definitely been hard for me since I became pregnant. I was never much of a water drinker to begin with so it was hard to just initially drink it at all. I actually started out pretty good and then in the middle didn't drink as much. The last couple weeks I have been doing better again. I hate having to go to the bathroom a million times a day but I know it's best to drink lots of water! I heard that dehydration is one of the biggest causes of early labor and obviously I don't want that!

Symptoms: Nothing has been bother me lately or really the whole time. I hope this section stays short!

Movement: I can finally add this section! I have been feeling small movements on the sides of my belly the last few days. Can't feel them from the outside and they don't last very long, but it's finally something!

Things We Bought/Did: Old Navy had a bunch of clothes on sale this weekend in addition to 25% off so I spent about $50 and got 7 things! Can't wait to get them in the mail! We also put the crib together over the weekend! I can't wait to start getting the room together!

Yesterday at our doctor's appointment I recorded the heartbeat! The first time we heard it, it was 160 bpm, the second time was 148 bpm, and this time it was 159 bpm. 

I tried to upload just an mp3 of the heartbeat but can't figure that out. I also tried uploading the sound file to youtube but it made me make a video. So pardon the corny video but enjoy listening to the heartbeat! There are a few times where it sounds like scratches on a record - that is when the baby is moving!

21 Weeks

Here I am in week 21! I think I am going to start using a weekly list/format for my updates! If  it bores you, let me know!

Sleep: I have been sleeping pretty good the last couple of weeks. I haven't been waking up to go to the bathroom either which is nice when it's cold outside of the blankets! I have been waking up for the last week with bad pain from my sciatic nerve, although it usually goes away within an hour. I still would rather not see a chiropractor. Let's just see if it gets worse.

Body Changes: I finally bought some Burts Bees Belly Butter last weekend. I had been shopping around for a while for a cream/lotion to use on my belly but they all smelly so bad. One reason they stink is that they smell like coconut, which is not my favorite scent. Well I just decided to buy one since my belly is definitely getting bigger. My fingers are crossed that I don't get stretch marks but if I do, I hope they're minimal! 

I also went to the dentist today for the first time since becoming pregnant. I had read a lot of things about your gums being really sensitive and to be careful about your teeth so I have tried to keep good dental practices these last few months. So far my gums hadn't bothered me at all but when the hygienist was cleaning my teeth, they sure were sensitive! I also had a cavity :( When I was reading different message boards, there were tons of women saying that they had 4-6 cavities while they were pregnant so I need to take extra care!

My ankle that I sprained a couple weeks ago has been bother me the last few days so tonight I am taking it easy! I really hope that I didn't do something to the ligament!

Food: I am the point where I am hungry every couple of hours but I can't really eat a whole lot because I get full fast. I have started to pack more snack for school that are easy to eat (and don't tease the kids too  much!). I have ate a ton of trail mix and better cheddars :) I also bought some strawberries, grapes, and pretzel goldfish! Last week I did some grocery shopping at Super Target (which I don't normally) but I bought the Target brand of fruit by the foot and they are SO GOOD! And not as sugary.

Symptoms:Other than crappy acne and sporadic sciatic nerve pain, everything is going great!

Things We Bought: I bought the baby's first stuffed animal today! Too bad Zoe thinks its for her! She whined for 15 minutes after I tried to get a picture of it.

Looking Forward To: I go to the doctor again on Monday so we should get to hear the heartbeat again! I am going to try to record it this time. We'll see how that turns out. We're also getting closer to our gender reveal party, my mom, step dad & sister getting here, and Christmas!!

Leave me some love!

Baby Gear

Picking out baby gear is exhausting! Friday after the dust had settled at most stores Clint and I decided to go check out Babies R Us and Buy Buy Baby for any deals. We wanted to make a decision on furniture because a lot of selections could take up to 12-18 weeks to come in. Originally we bought a cute refurbished dresser. However, it would need painted and the drawers needed all new gliders. Clint has been working hard on the Farley house trying to completely fix it up as well as several home projects; he is not feeling up to doing work on a dresser right now. We are definitely keeping the dresser and I have been searching online/Pinterest (and waiting for my mother to visit) and I want to make the dresser into a table that we will put in the front entryway or in the dining room. Not sure yet! 

Babies R Us had a Black Friday deal that scored us a free crib. We bought 2 dressers (one long one and one tall one) to get the free crib (that converts to toddler bed and full size bed for the future). I'm not sure if we want both dressers in the baby's room right now. We can always use the tall dresser in our 2nd guest bedroom until we have another baby...way down the road :)

We also looked at strollers for quite a bit. My aunt in St. Louis is being very generous and purchasing the stroller & car seat of our choice. I have been looking online for a while now but it was good to check them out in the stores. Originally we saw two we liked but when we looked again at the second one we didn't like the stroller as much.

 

This is the Britax B-Agile and B-Safe travel combo. This set is a bit more pricey. It has excellent reviews on all the sites I have looked at. Clint isn't too keen on getting an all black set because he thinks it will be hot. What do you all think? The two things we both don't like is that you have to buy the tray for the baby separately and you also have to purchase a separate holder/organizer for the handlebar (drink holder and such). For the price of the set you would think these things would be included. The stroller is 16 pounds and folds with one hand (you pull a heavy dutty strap from the middle of the seat); both of which are big pluses! The car seat carrier weighs 10 pounds which is just a little heavy. I am looking into getting a carrier that you wear to try to share the load.

There are a few others we have looked at but I just can't commit! Any advice or suggestions?

We also looked at high chairs and play yards/pack and plays. These choices were hard to make! One - I like things to match :) Some things also have so many features/choices it's hard to decide (or decide to go without). We also want colors that aren't overly boy or girl for the future. I really like black and gray as well as turquoise and brown.

We are going with the Graco DuoDiner LX Highchair. It has really good reviews (easy to clean!) and it transforms as the baby gets older into a booster. I know we don't need it right away but if we get this now we don't have to get it later! If we don't receive one as a gift, we'll just get it when we need to.

 

We saw this pack and play at Babies R Us and it is so cute! I love the owl mobile and the colors :) We will be using this for the first few weeks for the baby to sleep in our room.

We also looked at baby monitors and a carrier like I mentioned above but I'll save that for later. I would love come input or suggestions if you have any!

Halfway There!

Today marks 20 weeks or halfway through! I can't believe I am already to the halfway point. The first few months were full of fun thoughts and planning. Now I am starting to feel the need to get ready! We bought our furniture last Friday and we started looking at different items that we actually need (stroller, car seat, pack and play, baby carrier, and the list goes on). I started a post all about the baby gear but I am not finished with that yet. It is so hard to make decisions! I love having reviews available but sometimes I think I look too deep into them which makes buying hard. 

I told my students last week that I was pregnant and word has started to spread to kids in other grades. It's so funny to see students staring at my belly! Since I told my own students there really hasn't been any other talk about but we'll see if that changes as I get bigger!

So far I have gained about 5-6 pounds (depending on the day!). I still really haven't felt any definite movement yet although there has been a few times I wasn't sure. I'll keep waiting (since there isn't really any other choice).  I haven't had any food cravings or mood swings or pains or really any other things that have changed since becoming pregnant. Seems weird but I'll take that over any complications! So for now, just enjoy the pictures!

19 Weeks

This weekend Clint and I were pretty busy. Friday night we went to a Pacer game with my dad and stepmom. They won 7th row tickets right behind one of the goals and they were great seats! The game was close until the Pacers blew it wide open in the 4th quarter and ended up winning by about 20. We have never really liked NBA games but we both had a lot of fun!

 Saturday I spent all day trying to fix my half-broken computer :( Yep, it was only working correctly for about a week! So I am in the process of saving important files but it is very slow and/or freezes often so it's taking a while. Then I will reboot :(

I also ordered several things! From the pictures we just had taken, I ordered a large print to hang over our bed, 3 medium prints to hang somewhere, one canvas to hang in our bedroom, Christmas cards, and invitations to our gender reveal party! One bad note - yesterday morning I realized that I forgot to put the date on the invite! FAIL! We'll see what I can do.

Sunday we headed to Menards to buy a new bathroom vanity, faucet, and floor for our extra bathroom! We took the old vanity out to put in the house that Clint is fixing up to rent; it was ugly and the floor is uglier! We are nearly finished! I grouted yesterday and now Clint just needs to install the faucet and put the toilet back in. I would really like it painted before Thursday but we'll see!

 

Yesterday was semi-eventful! I was chatting with Emily and Augusta and randomly sprained my ankle. I was just standing there and all of a sudden my ankle turned sideways and made the loudest cracks I have ever heard! Emily even heard it across the room. Our school nurse brought me an ice pack and I chilled in Emily's room for a bit and then drove home. Luckily I drove the truck so I didn't have to use the clutch (it was my left foot).  This morning it hurt something fierce, so I decided to head to the dr. just to make sure it wasn't broken. He didn't say it wasn't broken but he was pretty sure and he wouldn't do an x-ray since I'm pregnant. So he gave me a much better ankle brace than what I had. We'll see how it feels!

 

Today I hope is much better! I am 19 weeks...almost halfway!

Still haven't felt any baby movement but I hope I can soon! The Dr. said in about 2 weeks I should since the placenta was out front where you feel most movement. Fingers crossed :) Not much else to update! See ya!

Gender Reveal

Last Wednesday at my doctor's appointment I had another ultrasound! It is so awesome to see the baby and watch it move. We got to see all the important parts like the heart (and watch it beat!), the kidneys, the spine and ribcage, and we even got to watch blood flowing by the heart. We also learned the sex of the baby! 

Thumbs up! Everything's going great inside mommy's tummy!

Can you tell if it's a boy or girl??

  We originally thought that we might try to keep this a secret until we had the baby but we have decided to do a gender reveal party in December. (I know that sex and gender are not the same thing but I don't want to call it a sex reveal party :) One reason I want to have a party is because my mom and sister live out of state (California) and they won't be here for most of my pregnancy and/or a baby shower. So I decided to let them have some fun with me! I have a few ideas already for the party and I am getting excited! It will be right before Christmas so definitely expect lots of red & green!

18 Weeks!

like my new pj pants?!

18 weeks down and 22(ish) to go! Tomorrow we go to the doctor and we get to do another ultrasound! I can't wait to see how big (and more like a baby) the baby looks now!! Hopefully we also get to find out the gender too. Of course, most of all we hope that everything is going well and our little niblet is healthy!

At 18 weeks along, the baby is the size of a bell pepper! It is about 5 and a half inches long and weighs around 5.3 ounces...still so tiny! The baby also has fingerprints! Better not let the police catch you now little baby! 

I am less tired everyday except Fridays it seems. Last Friday I fell asleep about 8:30! That may be in part to getting 4 new students in a week (I now have 25 students!). I cannot sleep in on Saturdays and Sundays; I have been getting up between 7 and 8 - even if I go to bed late. Better get used to it I guess. Weird thing is that Monday-Friday I can't get out of bed ;)

Not much else to share tonight but I keep meaning to blog in between my regular Tuesday posts. I don't want this blog to only be about babies :)

Week 17!

Today I am 17 weeks along! I am finally starting to get a little belly...although it kind of looks more like I ate too much for dinner! Next Wednesday is our doctor's appointment and I am really excited to see another ultrasound!

I received several maternity tops for my birthday and have bought a few myself but hadn't really needed to wear them until this week. I only have one pair of maternity pants (that Lindsay got me for my birthday but I need to exchange for a different size). I have been using the hair tie around the button method for the last week but my pants are starting to be a little too snug at the waist! I don't even want to talk about dress pants! You can't use a hair tie to get them to stay together so I think I might have to do some shopping. I did a couple new pairs of comfy pants because clearly those are important!

The worst symptom I have had to deal with recently is acne! It has started to attack me! Face acne is never good but just imagine have cleavage acne!! Ugh!

I have never been much of a drinker, just a margarita after school on Fridays but boy do they smell good! I may have to break into the margarita mix that Augusta bought me for my birthday (alcohol free!)!!

I have been able to sleep through the night way better than I did early on, although I am getting up at least once a night to pee! Getting out of warm blankets in the dark is no fun! I also have not been to tired like I was when school first started. I'll be glad to have more energy now!

Well I am missing election coverage so I'll wrap this up now!

Pictures

First note - my computer is working!!!!!!! I am beyond excited!

Second, we received our CD with our pictures that we had taken a few weeks back. Here are a few that I liked.

There were definitely some that I really liked but unfortunately not a whole lot that I did like. Part of the reason I think was the weather and the fact that Clint has the worst smile for pictures. He hates fake smiling! Also, long hair and high winds do not mix! Oh well! I can probably bug my sister to take some that I had in mind.