Weekend recap

It's not too late to recap my weekend, is it? I'm going to anyways...

We traveled to Pontiac with a very full weekend of activities planned. Friday night, we went out to dinner with Nick, Adelle, Frank and Jessica and then headed to Bob n Ringo's to meet up with some more of the gang. It's our typical Friday night when we are in town. I managed to stay out till 10:30 or so which is pretty good these days and I knew I was going to need to get a full night sleep for our busy Saturday.

Saturday was the 1st Annual Get in the Hole Golf tourney. Some of the boys organized a day for us all to get together and have a fun afternoon on the course. The plan was to play 9 holes at Wolf Creek and then 9 holes at the Elks. Everyone had to pay for their golf and then we all put in $5 to go into the pot for prizes for the winners. Each players name went into a hat and we drew them randomly so each person would be assigned a partner. Other than a bit of wind, we had a pretty stellar day for weather and the day was super fun. I will admit that by about Hole #12, I was really struggling. Since it was so wet, we had to play cart path only which meant a bunch of walking to retrieve our balls. Plus, you might not realize how tiring swinging a club can be but trust me, it is. It was my first round of the year so most of the muscles had not gotten that kind of workout in a while. After 8 hours on the courses, we all went out to eat and to the bars after. To say I was exhausted is an understatement. Good news is I only yelled at Jake once. Ha! My hormones plus tired/crankiness got the best of me a bit.

And you know the day would not be complete without pictures!































Easter Sunday was another fun day. After church, we had brunch with my grandpa and cousins and aunts and uncles. And we can't forget the intense egg hunt. Joe was on hiding duty (only the true "grandkids" still get to hunt, although I think this may have been my last official year.) Each kid gets an egg with their name on it and I'm sure you can guess that Joe hid mine in a spot that was physically impossible for me to get too. There's only a few pictures since I was on the hunt for my own eggs.




Overall, a pretty fantastic weekend seeing a bunch of our friends and families. Lots of sunshine doesn't hurt either!

15 weeks

15 weeks

So yeah, I've popped. Before now, my stomach has been what I would consider pudge. But just in the last few days, things have shifted to really be a bump. I used to be able to push in the skin and it just felt like fat, now it's more hard. And can we talk about my belly button for a minute? I knew it would change but this is just odd. It used to be really skinny and deep but now it's very wide. It will be interesting to see how it transforms throughout the whole process, although I'm not too enthused about the idea of an outie.

I've noticed a big difference in my clothes, as well. Previously, my shirts would hide my bump pretty well. The outfit I wore today was the same outfit I wore two Saturdays ago (when I was 13 weeks, 2 days along) and there was a significant difference. You may not have even noticed anything weeks ago but today there was no hiding the bump. I've actually been looking forward to this point so it's a welcome thing.



It's only been a few days since I've last updated so I don't have much to add. I am starting to get a very faint linea negra, however. If you don't know what this is, it's pretty self explanatory....a black line. It runs vertical down the stomach and is caused by the increase of estrogen resulting in a skin pigmentation. There is no real reason for it and not all pregancies will get one. It will fade eventually after birth.

Baby name discussion is in full swing. We have only a few front runners so far but I'm trying to hold off on much of that until we know for sure what the gender is. No sense in discussing options if we don't need to. And not to get your hopes up, but we will be keeping the name a secret until birth day. Let's just say we learned our lesson many years ago not to throw out names. This way no one else has any input and once the baby is named, it's final. I don't want other peoples opinion to sway our decisions.



I did get a large item checked off my "To Do" list this weekend which was welcoming for this type A mama. Joe and I spent hours reading Baby Bargains together cover to cover on Sunday. It's basically the bible when it comes to picking out everything you need for the baby. I could have taken a serious highlighter to the book, but instead went the good ol fashion note taking route. The book tells you what you will need and what is a waste of money. It breaks down all the different types of bottles, cribs, monitors, clothes, strollers, etc. There are safety ratings for everything which was the one thing that I wanted to focus on since I'm clueless in that regard. It even breaks down each category with what they consider good, better, best based on price which I know Joe appreciated. We were able to pick out most everything that we plan to buy/register for except the crib. We decided we would shop and find what we liked and then check the book for options before purchasing mainly because there were 5 billion options for cribs and just reading the names wasn't getting us very far. We will go by style and function first, and then hope that it is safe and has all the features we want.




"Rufio" (the babes nickname these days) is the size of an orange this week! It seems like a big jump from lemon to orange but maybe that's the explanation for my belly pop this week. S/he is getting more proportional as the legs grow larger than the arms. Proportion is good! The organs, nerves, muscles and joints are functioning. (Phew!) S/he is breathing in amniotic fluid and starting to form taste buds. The eyelids are still fused shut but the baby can sense light. If we were to take a flashlight to my stomach, the baby would likely move out of the way. Isn't that crazy cool! I wouldn't be able to feel it or anything yet, but I'm making a note to myself to do a little experiment with this when I can. Nothing like torturing baby before s/he's even out of the womb!


We have a fun weekend planned so stayed tuned for a recap after the holiday!

14 weeks

14 weeks, 3 days

This might be a short update because it was a pretty dull week in pregnant world.

I added two more bouts of upchuckage on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning to bring the total up to three for the entire pregnancy. Not too shabby, I'd say. Since Wednesday, I've seen a significant drop in my so-called nausea. The garbage doesn't make me gag, same with cleaning dirty dishes like before. I'm hoping that's a sign that I'm in the clear. Although, I've really gotten used to it and it's not the worst thing in the world since Joe takes over those duties when I can't.



I don't think I've mentioned one of the strangest side effects of pregnancy that I've encountered....dreams. Man, are they trippy! Many do not make any sense but they are very real and specific. Many weeks ago, I had a dream that my dad tagged along on our sister vacation and about a week later, I found out that my mom booked a ticket so she could come with us. That's some sort of physic powers right there. No baby dreams yet though.

I don't have another doctor appointment until May 4 when I'm almost 17 weeks. I've been avoiding the scale so I continue to think that I'm down 2 pounds. I doubt this is the case but we'll find out for sure when I see Dr. Bennett. Cravings this week would probably fall under the fruits and veggies category. I went to town in the produce department when I was at the grocery store this week, that's for sure. (Rachel, I can see you nodding in approval all the way through my computer screen.)

I've not taken the plunge into maternity wear yet. My winter clothes are fine but now that warmer weather has been around, I know my capri's and shorts are not going to cut it much. Hopefully, the bella band and the rubberband trick will last me for another two weeks. I would like to hold off until as close to 17 weeks as possible. It's a total arbitrary date but something that I have in my head. Luckily, my summer shirts are still fitting really good so I don't think I will have to start doing maternity tops for quite a while. (I've just completely jinxed myself, I know.)





The week of the lemon! S/he should be reaching close to 3.5 inches by now. Thumb sucking may be in full swing at this point and I will be completely honest, I don't think there is anything much cuter than a little thumb sucker. I don't want to deal with that in real life but it's still cute, nonetheless. Facial muscles are starting to develop so baby can squint, frown, grimace, etc. I wonder if s/he can already do the "Eckhoff" look that my sisters and I do quite well. It is inherited after all. The neck should be a bit more distinct when previously the baby just looked like a head sitting on top of the body.

Joe has started talking to the baby. It's not in any sort of cute way though, trust me. He presses his mouth against my stomach and sort of growls. My husband is weird, you guys. I told him yesterday that he was probably scaring the thing because the sound he makes is creepy. He actually said that "he" (the baby) would be able to know what he was saying like Harry Potter does with the egg in the water during the Triwizard Tournament.......Um......

Yes, you heard that right. Joe thinks the amniotic fluid is some sort of translator. Gotta love him!

(okay, so that wasn't so short. whatevs)