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The first weekend of February I drove over to Seattle for weekend with my girlfriends and their babies. I am at a loss for words on how to describe how much these women mean to me. This was the first time in forever, virtually all of us were together, and as per usual a great time was had by all! Things may have mellowed a bit now that 3 and a half (me) are mom's but no matter what we do you can guarantee there will be laughter and great memories made.

Now on to the pictures:

Megs and Stone checking out Cooper



Jbass, Stone, Fuller, Dawn and Cooper catching up



Cooper getting some snuggles from Auntie Fuller

Auntie Jamie feeding Coop

I love this pic- Dawn and Stone doing what we do best :)

Love these Faces!

Megs, Dawn, Stone

Jamie and Fuller

Happy Megan

The whole team (minus Landis)!

Fuller, Stone, Jax, Sienna, Megs, Cooper, Me, Jamie and Dawn

These ladies fill my heart with such joy and happiness and I am eternally blessed to have them in my life. I know they make me a better person on a daily basis. I love them oso much!

Bump it up...

Now that I have officially reached the six month mark I thought it was time to post some new bump pics.

I finally feel like I am starting to look pregnant and not just bloated and fat :)

At this point baby is is:

as big as an eggplant

about 9-12 inches long

approx 1.7 lbs (or more!)

has a heartbeat of 157 bpm

 

Sorry for random/ugly backgrounds in these {iPhone} photos as well as the gap in weeks. 1-its awkward to take a picture of your stomach by yourself. 2-we don't have a full length mirror in our house (dogs broke the old one and have yet to replace it) so I have to remember to either take one at work or take one when I'm at my mom's house

A couple notes about the past 6 months:

• 2nd trimester kicks the 1st trimesters ass! If this is what pregnancy felt like the entire 40 weeks I could do it over and over again.
• Around the 13th or 14th week my nausea went away and my energy sky rocketed.
• I have not noticed any significant or weird cravings. There have been times that something sounded real good and if I ate something else instead I was not nearly as satisfied;  however I have not wanted anything I would not normally eat.
• The only food aversion I've noticed is beef. Can not handle even thinking about having a hamburger.
• Smells are definitely more pungent. I can tell when Jim eats or cooks with Tuna fish, peanut butter, or pot stickers for hours afterward. (i really wish we had some sort of kitchen fan)
• I thought I started feeling him move around week 19 or 20. I knew for sure it was him around week 22.
• He is moving and grooving all the time now and it seems like the majority of his body is settled on my right side. At least that's where I'm feeling the most discomfort.
• My celiac disease seems to have virtually disappeared with this pregnancy. Not sure if that is normal or not but I have not noticed any of the side affects I normally do when I eat/drink certain foods. *here's hoping this is a perma change post pregnancy*
• Around week 17 or so i started having severe back and hip pain and it has continued since. I would say this is the most uncomfortable thing I've experienced with pregnancy, thus far. I did get a Dr referral for massages but have yet to find a place that takes my insurance.
• The heating pad and the bathtub are my best friends and constant companions.
• Accomplishing normal, everyday activities are starting to become a tad more difficult: Tying shoes, bending over to pick something up, lifting things, pushing heavy shopping carts, all require a little extra effort.
• I have a suspicion the nausea I felt during the first three months wants to try to creep back into my life. Fingers crossed its a temporary thing  and does not take over full force again in the next couple weeks.
• Winter pregnancy bonus: I don't even have to PRETEND like I would be helping with the snow shoveling this year:)

So there you have it the past 6 months of my pregnancy at a quick glance. We are working hard on cleaning, organizing, and setting up the house. I finally feel like we are making some forward progress and will hopefully have some pictures to update with soon. Oh and if you are wondering what we were up to over the holidays please check out Megan's and Jacquee's blogs and they both had great recaps and I would have just stolen their pictures for my blog anyway :) Hope everyone is enjoying a happy new year...here is to a happy healthy 2013 filled with more blessings than you can count!!!

An early Christmas miracle...

Sienna Rossano Myers was born December 15th, 2012 to Dawn and Dave Myers.

What more is there to say besides she is perfect in every single way!

Welcome to the world Sienna, I can't wait to meet you and hold you and snuggle you and drown you with love!

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

We (namely I) decided with everything going on this year to tone down the decorations this year and just take it easy. Thankfully I have a husband who decided to ignore Scrooge (me) and take it upon himself to add some festive cheer to our house this year. Here is the result. Great job Jim and thank you. Even though I did not have the energy to do any of it I certainly appreciate the look and feel of the Christmas spirit alive and well inside our cozy little house!

SO HAPPY...

Jim and I found out on Friday (November 16th) that our little baby is in fact a boy! I think Jim was in a little bit of disbelief at first. So far the first child for each of Jim's siblings has been a girl and of the 5 cousins there is only one other boy so we were a little shocked we got one on the first try :) Everyone else (minus Jim's family) was sure we were having a boy, but I for one had no clue either way. Every time I dreamed about the baby it was a girl and whenever I would accidentally slip and call it by a gender it always was a girl. So much for women's intuition I guess :)  In all honestly, I was hoping for a boy first. Clearly I would have been happy either way, but I like the idea of having a boy to take care of and protect any future siblings. I'm sure it has something to do with having older brothers growing up.

Now that we know the sex I can not wait to start getting things organized and ready for him. I have been making lists and plans of everything I want to do but so much of it depended if it was a boy or girl. Yet another reason I am overjoyed its a boy is: everything I pictured in my mind was for a boy. I just could not wrap my head around pinks and purples and tutu's and hair bows, I mean I would have, and I am sure I would have loved it but in my mind what I pictured was so BOY

I am sure Jim is less than thrilled with the plans I have for the nursery (and the rest of the house) but it's just too much fun to dream and think of what we need and what I want to do and how I want everything set up. I mean you never know if we will be blessed with another child so I am taking this as a once in a lifetime opportunity and planning accordingly. Now, don't get me wrong I am not planning on going all out and spending millions of dollars we don't have on this kiddo. No sir, I am a proud bargain shopper and plan to use things we already have and throw a coat of paint on it to make it like new. I have been checking out blogs, and etsy and pinning away on pinterest for inspiration and ideas. That said, I did find one new piece that I just could not live without. I have been searching high and low for a large dresser that we can also use as a changing table in the nursery. I finally found this guy yesterday and fell in love! Its the perfect size and exactly what I was looking for. I knew it was meant to be when I took my mom to see it and we ran into the owner/seller of said piece and we happened to know each other. She gave me a great deal and I just couldn't say no.  Sorry Jim!



Sienna's shower...

Last weekend I got to head over the mountains for a baby shower for Dawn. Dawn, and her husband Dave, will be welcoming Sienna into the world sometime in Mid December and I for one am so excited. I feel like she has been pregnant FOREVER! This trip was also the first time I got to meet Cooper. I cant believe it took almost 7 weeks to meet this little guy! I took full on advantage of the baby time and pretty much stole him for the entire shower. He was so chill during the entire shower and did not make a peep while all of us girls ooh'd and ahh'd about how adorable he was. I love him! and Harper! and Sienna! Here are some quick pics of all our time together.

 Dawn and I. She is 34 weeks and I am 14. I hope I look that good in 20 weeks!

Auntie Stone getting her first high 5 from Cooper

Harper and Cooper got some quality time together too! Cooper will soon have another girl competing for his attention...

...though I hope Sienna is not as forward as Harper ;)

Almost all of us girls together again. So weird to think that in 6 months there will be two more babes in the mix. 

Me getting some baby practice in. Coop makes it look easy!

It is always a great time whenever any of us gals can get together but adding these babies into the mix has been an such a bonus. We have been through so much together over the years and it is amazing to see where life is bringing us now. I am so excited that we can all share the joy of parenthood together. Watching Megan and Jacquee (and soon to be Dawn) as mom's is incredible and I feel very blessed to be able to observe them, learn from and lean on them when needed.

Finally....

Its been a long journey to get here but Jim and I are happy to FINALLY let everyone know:

we are expecting our first child (Boy or girl?) in Early May!

I have been chomping at the bit to write this post but waited until Jim felt comfortable enough with the whole process. With him things can take awhile. Hence us being married 6 1/2 years before this announcement could be made :) He always joked that it would be 5 years before we even talked about kids and I always thought yea right, 2-3 at the most. Well well well who would have thought Jim was right  (see I can say it)! We started talking about it a year and a half ago, and had some issues once we decided yes we were actually ready to be parents. So fast forward another year and a half after our first discussion and here we are at 13 weeks, 5 days!

Some things to note thus far about my pregnancy:

I found out I was pregnant on August 23rd (day 13).

I woke Jim up from a dead sleep to tell him. His reaction was priceless.

We told our family and closest friends that same day.

The first trimester was not fun.

I have been nauseous and tired since day 3 of my pregnancy.

So far we have had 3 ultra sounds and baby is looking and sounding great!

S/he has a heart rate of 156

The second trimester seems to be going a little better...more energy, less nausea.

Good, solid, sleep has been hard to come by for the past month or so.

We could not be more thrilled to say that we are FINALLY going to be parents!!!