Belly!

Alright, I think it's about time I posted some belly pictures. Especially since I don't live anywhere near any of my family!! Here you go. Enjoy!

Best Valentine's Yet

And I'm not just saying that because it was my year to plan. We really had a great Valentine's this year! We decided to celebrate on Monday instead of Tuesday (actual Valentine's Day) since Monday is Josh's day off work and we were both working a ton on Tuesday. Monday morning we woke up and went to the chiropractor. We both got adjusted and then Josh had an hour massage (which came with our original Living Social deal that got us started there. I had mine last week). We went to Target, got a couple things and then I dropped Josh off at Morgan and Jenn's to work on a project he is doing over there. He is refinishing some of our furniture (sanding, re-staining). I'm pretty excited about it. 


While Josh was over at Morgan and Jenn's, I got ready. Since I've been pregnant I haven't had many opportunities to dress up or even do my hair for that matter. I was excited to look nice. I curled my hair, did my make-up and even painted my nails! Pink, of course. 

After getting ready I picked up Josh and brought him home so he could get ready. Then we were off. I had kept all of our plans a secret so Josh had no idea what we were doing. We started with dinner. We had a gift card to The Cheesecake Factory so that's where we had dinner. Surprisingly, there was no wait! We did get there just before 5, so that's probably why, but still. I was happy. I was so excited for their food until I started looking at the menu. Then, nothing sounded good. Oh no, not this again. Up until just a couple weeks ago, I had the hardest time with food. Something would sound good one minute, then not the next. Or I would be starving but nothing sounded good. That's how I felt last night. I looked over their 14 page menu probably 10 times but nothing sounded good. I finally settled for something that didn't sound awful. We did get a delicious appetizer though! 

[Avocado egg rolls]

For some reason that food stump put me in a rotten mood. I was so mad that we were at such a nice place and that nothing sounded good. Also, my back was out so I was in a bit of pain (more on that soon). But, we chatted (mostly Josh, I was really quiet) and enjoyed the egg rolls. By the time our food got out I was already feeling a little full and my dinner just looked/smelled/sounded not so appetizing. I was so frustrated. I knew that any other day I would love it and it would be delicious. Grrrr.

I got chicken stuffed tortillas with a creamy tomatillo and cilantro sauce. It sounds perfect for me, but geez, not last night. I took a few bites and starting feeling really nauseous. Josh on the other hand, loved his food. He got a hibachi steak with wasabi mashed potatoes and fried asparagus. He devoured it. That made me happy. I took probably 4 bites of mine and then had our waitress box it up for me. I didn't even order cheesecake! That's how sick I felt. I get so grumpy when I don't feel good, so I'm sure Josh was thinking, geez, this is going to be a long night. But he is very patient and I never felt like he was frustrated with me. He just kept smiling. :)

Josh's picture of me is very artistic. Haha. After dinner I went to stand up and had some sharp pains in my lower back (something I experience much more often with my pregnancy). This was not going to work very well with our next plans for the night but I tried to stay positive. 

Our next stop was IKEA. Josh and I have been wanting to go for some time (since we found out we were pregnant) to get baby stuff (well, mostly to look at baby stuff). But if you've been to IKEA you'll know, it involves a lot of walking. Somehow, I did it. We walked through the entire store and I survived. I tried so hard not to complain at all because I didn't want Josh to feel bad for wanting to look at everything. I wanted to look at everything too! So, I kept my mouth shut and just pushed through. By this point, despite my stupid back, I was feeling much better (sickness wise) and so I really enjoyed myself. Of course the kid section was our favorite. We picked a few gender neutral toys that we both liked. One is this adorable wooden stacker toy, a plush ball and some little animal finger puppets. 

[I just think this toy is so cute!]

While we were in the kid section I fell in love with this adorable bench/toy chest. It was so cute and I loved everything about it. But, it was way out of our price range. It's all solid wood and really heavy and so it's one of IKEA's more expensive pieces of furniture. I parted ways with it and figured I would find something elsewhere that I liked just as much. Our last stop before we left was the as-is section. They have this section at the very end before the check-out full of broken stuff, odds and ends and all the furniture that was on display. And there it was! The bench chest that I loved! There wasn't anything wrong with it, it was just a display one! It doesn't have a single scratch on it. I couldn't believe it. So of course it was marked way down in price and we had to get it! I'm so in love with it and I can't wait to put it in our little baby's room! 

Isn't it just adorable!? I seriously love it so much. We don't have a spot for it so it's in our living room right now. Ha. We'll figure something out. That bench seriously cheered me up and made my night so much better. Really it was Josh because he was the one that helped me decide that we should get it despite not having a room for it or a place to keep it until we do. I'm so glad he convinced me to get it. I just love it. 

Well, we got home from IKEA and I had made a bunch of chocolate covered strawberries! My favorite! We ate some of those and opened our little gifts from each other. I got a bunch of chocolate from Josh and these adorable coupons to use whenever I want. They were so well thought-out and so sincere. He's just the sweetest! I got him chocolate as well and the Steve Jobs book that I know he's been wanting to read. 

We watched a movie (really stupid, dumb Twilight movie, ugh) and snuggled the night away! ;) It was seriously the best Valentine's though. I know it sounded super negative at first but I think that's what really made it so great. My amazing, fun, adorable husband has this incredible power to make me so happy despite feeling nauseous and having horrible back pain. Even though I planned the night I felt like he made it so great. I am so lucky to be married to such a great guy. He is so selfless. I couldn't have asked for someone better. He understands my needs and always makes sure to fulfill them. I love you Joshie! You are my best friend and I can't wait to spend the rest of eternity with you! 

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! 

{P.S. My last post had 169 pageviews!! Definitely a record! Apparently, people love babies! Woohoo!}

Big Announcement!

I thought my 12 week mark would never come but FINALLY, it has arrived and I get to tell the world that I AM PREGNANT! I We are so excited. 

I'll start at the beginning. Josh and I decided that as soon as I graduated we wanted to get pregnant. And since it takes most people a little while to conceive we started trying in November (a little over a month before I finished student teaching). But, my ovulation week happened to fall right on the week that Josh visited SC. So we pretty much knew it wasn't going to happen that month, and it didn't. But December was our lucky month. I was so determined to get pregnant that we bought ovulation testers and we made it happen. I say lucky, but I really don't think luck had anything to do with it. I think that Heavenly Father knew that I had wanted this from the day we got married and that I had patiently and determinedly finished school despite wanting a baby all through it and he blessed us to get pregnant QUICK! Our conception date was right at the beginning of December. So I was technically pregnant during the last couple days of my student teaching and had no idea! :) 

As soon as my period was going to come I took the first test. It wasn't the normal pregnancy test you get from the drug store. It's just the stick that's inside of it. Since we've never been pregnant before, we weren't sure how to read it. And using the ovulation sticks just a couple weeks before totally confused us. On the ovulation stick you have to have two SOLID lines. A faint second line means you are not ovulating. So when I peed on the pregnancy test and saw a faint second line I didn't know what to think. I was pretty sure I was pregnant but the paper diagram didn't have an option for that scenario. Josh didn't want me to get my hopes up, so we said we would go out and buy a real one the next day. I took another one of those that night and had the same result but a tiny bit darker. The next day we bought one from the grocery store and got a very, very faint plus. I was convinced. Josh didn't seem convinced but has later admitted that he was mostly worried about me getting my hopes up and then finding out we weren't. But I think the fact that my period never came was a pretty good sign that we were!

The next step was telling the family. We found out On December 18th, one week before Christmas. Since it was so close to Christmas we decided to wait and tell everyone on Christmas morning. That was seriously the longest week of our lives. We were so excited and could barely keep the good news in, but we did it. 

We figured out times with both my mom and Josh's family to see who who was on a schedule. Josh's family is two hours ahead of us so they got home from church and very patiently waited for us to get home from church so that we could skype them and open presents while "being together". We opened our gift exchange gifts between everyone and then Jane was getting fussy so they said they were gonna go and put her down. But we had sent them a special gift to open. When we said that they started screaming because they thought we had said we had something to tell them and thought we were pregnant. But we shook that off and told them, "no, no we got the family a present to open." Ha. Laurie opened it. It was a baby bib. It took a second to figure out what it was then they all looked at us and started screaming again. It was pretty hilarious. They seemed very excited. The first thing Hannah and Chandler wanted to know was when they could tell everyone. At this point I was only 5 weeks along so they had quite the wait ahead of them! 

After skyping with Josh's family we called my mom. We also sent her a bib. We had some small talk and talked about Christmas Eve and Christmas morning so far and then we had her open her gift. She couldn't figure out what it was either at first but then I think her reaction when something like this, "Is it a bib? Wait, no! Are you pregnant! What! Ah!" It was so fun! She was so excited. Her baby is having a baby she always says. 

After my mom was all my siblings. We went in order, oldest to youngest. 

Jamie was first. I told her by telling her what I got my mom. My mom had told her about this mysterious package that I said couldn't be opened til Christmas and so Jamie was excited to find out what it was. She was really excited. The kids were excited too. Well sort of. I got a YES from Spencer and a NO from Taylor. Taylor was worried about her getting replaced by my baby. Nonsense! Taylor wants a girl, Spencer wants a boy. I think they decided that twins would suffice. One boy and one girl! :)

Joe was next. Both Joe and Karen got on the phone without us even having to ask, perfect! And then we just told them. Their reaction fit them perfectly. Joe was so excited, but not in a jump up and down way, more like a calming, "that's so great" way. Exactly how I imagined it. They were so excited for us and Karen has birthed babies in Provo so I was excited to get some advice! 

Last, but not least was John and Sara. John was the only one on the phone so he put us on speaker. I think I had to repeat it like 4 times with all the kiddos there but they were so excited too! John's reaction was kind of like Joe's. I was half expecting some crazy remark but he seemed very excited. 

Telling my siblings was so much fun. It was so cool seeing how each of them reacted differently. Christmas was certainly our best so far. We are so excited about our big news and sharing it with family was so much fun! It made it seem a little more real. 

Christmas night trying so hard to look pregnant! Pretty sure that is a food baby

When I was up in Washington for Alyson's wedding I started getting my first signs of morning sickness. It was the worst when I was up there (and the flight home, forget about it!). But, I actually feel very blessed. My mom was sick, throwing up with all four of us and my sister was on bed rest/in the hospital because she was so sick with her two. I have yet to throw up (and planning on keeping that way). I felt nauseas from about week 6 to week 11 and now I have days where I feel sick but most the time, as long as I keep food in my stomach, I feel good. My biggest symptoms in order of annoyance: nausea, sleepless nights, back pain, acne, indigestion, lack of energy, lack of appetite, having my appetite back but never finding anything that sounds good, and headaches. Actually move those headaches way up to the top of that list. I get tension headaches almost nightly and they are awful.

But! Don't get me wrong, every last symptom has been worth it! It was just hard for the first few weeks when you don't even feel pregnant but your body is being bombarded by crazy symptoms. As I'm approaching my second trimester most things are calming down though, which I am infinitely thankful for. 

On January 31st we had our first Doctors Appt. I had a really hard time deciding on this aspect of the pregnancy. At first I wanted to have a nurse midwife. I like the idea of a midwife. But I'm not completely interested in having my baby (at least this one) naturally. It actually scares the crap out of me. I respect women who can do it but I have probably the lowest tolerance for pain humanly possible and I think I would be so absorbed in the pain that I wouldn't be able to focus on what was happening, the whole miracle of bringing a baby into the world! I knew I wanted to have the baby in a hospital so I started researching doctors in the valley. I found one office that had great reviews. It's a group practice. They have seven doctors that rotate through the office on different days. I wasn't sure how I would feel about this because I really wanted my pregnancy experience to be more personal but after praying about it and going to our first appt, I feel really good about it. I like being able to see different doctors. 

At my first appt they did all the normal stuff. Blood work, urine sample, pap smear, pelvic exam, etc. All the blah stuff. But we also got to hear our little baby's heartbeat. It was the most amazing sound. I've heard baby heartbeats before, but ours just sounded so much better. I looked at Josh and just couldn't believe it! It was really happening. What a miracle. The doctor we met with that day was great. He talked all about how miraculous this was and how my body was created to do this. 

The heartbeat was strong and everything is progressing really well. It seems we have a healthy little baby on our hands....or...in my stomach! :)   

Well, I think I've filled you in on every little detail possible. Of course I will be updating the blog with pictures of my growing belly (that is not quite growing yet) and whatever else is baby related! We haven't bought much baby stuff since we don't know the gender but that hasn't stopped my mom or Josh's mom from doing so. We have already accumulated more stuff than we have room for! And we are already buying diapers (we buy a pack every time we go grocery shopping). So there you go! Josh and Danna have finally done it! They've made a baby! :) And we couldn't be happier!