Week 13: Peach

Dear Bun,

The biggest milestone this week is that we are heading into the second trimester!  You are about the size of a peach now and are developing vocal chords and teeth.  Your head is starting to become much more proportinate with the size of your body now, it is now about a third of your body size.  Last week, I got to hear your heartrate on a doppler at the doctor's office.  It was very exciting, but I can't wait to get another peek at you in a few weeks for our next ultrasound. 

I am still feeling great and starting to get back some of my energy- at least I have not needed any naps this past weekend which is a first!  I still don't have any wierd cravings that you hear about although I do drink chocolate milk everyday.  Lately, I have not been into meat at all- in fact I have been obsessed with fuji apples and sharp cheddar cheese.  We had that for dinner everynight last week.  I know it's not much of a dinner, but I eat about 5-6 small meals during the day, so I think we're doing fine.  So far, I have gained 4 lbs.  The big project for next weekend is going to be clearing out my closet of all my clothes that will not fit me the next few months and making room for some maternity clothes.  I am doing fine by using the bella band on my everyday pants now, but I have a feeling that one day I will just pop and need clothes immediately.  We found out that one of our friends is due with a little one on April 2, and another one a few weeks later, so we will have some lunch buddies while I am on maternity leave.

Here I am at 13 1/2 weeks:

Love,

Mom

Week 9: Green Olive

Dear Bun,

This was an exciting week for us!  We got a first peek at you, heard your heartbeat and told our family! Oh, and I travelled to Seattle for work and did not get sick or have any issues, yay!  You are almost 1 inch long now, about the size of a grape or green olive.  All your essential body parts are accounted for now (but they still have lots more developing to do), your eyes are fully formed although your eyelids will remain closed for several more weeks.  You now have tiny earlobes, a mouth and a nose and you are starting to look like an actual baby!  You also lost your tail and have now graduated from an embryo to a fetus. 

I had my first ultrasound on Thursday and it was very cool!  They had a flat screen tv on the wall and we saw you right away.  The sonographer took several pictures and measurements and said you are right where you should be now.  They gave us a due date of March 31.  Oh, and I got to hear your heartbeat- you were at 167.  Here you are, at 9 weeks gestational age:

After the appointment, we told our family that night.  I think I was on the phone for about 3 solid hours sharing the news with your aunt and grandparents.  Everyone is so excited to meet you, you are going to be welcomed into such a wonderful extended family and we can't wait to share you with everyone!  Keep growing :)

Love,

Your mom


PS Here I am at 9 weeks.  I am definitely getting a pooch after I eat or drink alot of water.  This picture was taken after I guzzled 2 glasses of water.  See the bump?

Week 10: Prune

Dear Bun,

This week you are about the size of a prune.  The most critical portion of development is now complete and you are now developing bones and cartilidge.  Your vital organs (kidneys, brain, liver and intestines) are all in place and starting to function now!  Tiny little nails are forming on your nail beds and your fingers and toes are no longer webbed.  I told you last week that we told our family about you, but you are still our little secret to our friends.  We cannot wait to tell them about you.  Yesterday, we went to a birthday party for one of our friends and there were so many kids and babies there!  You will have lots of friends waiting to meet you in the Spring! 

Here I am at 10 weeks along:

So far, I have gained 3 lbs and I can tell that my waist is getting thicker and disappearing.  Some of my pants are already getting tight and it won't be long before I have to do some shopping for myself!  I am still feeling great- tired and hungry are my main issues.  Oh and my veins are now huge and dark and starting to show more through my skin.  I am already carrying lots of extra blood for the both of us and I read that the now visible veins are normal- just helping to nourish you! The biggest milestone this week is that we are 1/4 of the way through this pregnancy! It seems crazy I have made it into the double digits of weeks and just a few more weeks and will be done with the whole first trimester.

Love,

Mom

Week 12: Plum

Dear Bun,

Sorry for missing the "week 11" update- I was traveling last weekend and last week, so I did not have much time. Last time I wrote, you were the size of a prune and now you are a plum around 2 inches long! The biggest thing going on with you this week is that you are developing reflexes. Your fingers can now open and close and your toes can curl up. Your mouth is also moving and they say that if I poke my stomach, you will squirm in response although it will be a few weeks before I can feel you. I am going back to the doctor tomorrow and am heading right into the second trimester, very exciting!

I am still doing great, and am starting to get more energy.  It was hard traveling last week- I was in meetings from 7:40am to 6:40pm and had late dinners every night, so I was very glad to get home on Friday and get some rest.  Still have not had any sickness or any weird cravings.  I think I am starting to "show" at times though.  When I wake up in the morning, my stomach still looks fairly normal, but after eating or drinking something, the belly really starts to come out!  Two of my co-workers figured out that I must be pregnant last week because they said I had a glow and a little bit of a bump that I never had before.  Most of my pants do not fit anymore, so I got a bella band which I wore last week, or have been wearing dresses.  Here I am at 12 weeks, 3 days *(my weeks change on Thursday's but since I am usually busy during the week, I find it easiest to do these posts on the weekend, so I am technically more than 12 weeks in this pic)*
 
 

Love,

Mom

Week 8: Raspberry

Dear Bun,

This week, you are about the size of a raspberry or kidney bean.  Webbed fingers and toes are poking out from your hands and feet and you now have eyelids that almost cover your eyes.  Nerve cells are branching out connecting to each other in your brain forming neural pathways.  You are growing about a millimeter every day and apparently you can now move your fingers and toes. 

Last week, I had to travel for work, and did surprisingly well.  I was tired, but did not get sick or nauseous, thankfully.  Tomorrow, I we are off to Seattle and hoping that that trip goes well also.  I still feel pretty good.  My symptoms are still that I am very tired, and hungry. The most exciting thing about this week is that we get to take a peek at you!  We are going to the doctor to have our first ultrasound.  We are going to tell your grandparents and aunt and uncle about you then too.  Your dad is out of town this weekend, so there won't be a bump watch picture since he always takes them.  I will make up for it next week. 

Love you,

Your mom

Week 7: Blueberry

Dear Bun,


This week, you are the size of a blueberry.  Your brain is hard at work developing both hemispheres and is generating 100 new cells per minute.  Your hands and feet are emerging from developing arms and legs.  Right now, you are still considered and embryo and have a little tail that will disappear soon.  In about a week and half, we get to take a peek at you during our first ultrasound.  I cannot wait!  We decided that after that appointment, we would tell our immediate family, and then tell our friends a few weeks later.

As for me, I am feeling super tired.  It's hard work growing you kid. On Friday night, I slept for 11 hours and still took an afternoon nap!  I am also going to the bathroom all the time- apparently that's because of a few things: HCG (pregnancy hormone) increases blood and urine flow, and my more efficient kidneys get rid of waste quicker since I'm now peeing for two. Also the uterus is pressing against my bladder which always makes me feel like I have to pee. The other symptom I have is nausea.  I have not actually gotten sick yet, but I have very strong food aversions and always feel a little sick after I eat.  Right now, the 2 things that make me want to throw up are eggs and black beans.  I started wearing Seabands sometimes when the nausea gets bad and they seem to help.  They look really stylish too so I usually end up wearing a light sweater or something so no one sees my sweat bands.  Your dad jokes that I should tell people I just sweat alot but I don't think that would work so well.  Hopefully it will be better in a few weeks, and I'm pretty sure your going to be worth it.  This week and next week, I'm going to be flying with you and really hoping I don't get sick on the plane.  I will be wearing my Seabands for sure no matter how many looks I get.

Here I am at 7 weeks:

Love,
Mom

Dreams

Dear bun,

Since finding out about you, I have been having some very vivid dreams about you.  In the first one, you were a girl, and you were about 6 months old and I realized I had never taken a picture of you yet.  Oh the horror! Now, I'm going to go ahead and warn you- you will probably have your picture taken every day.  I like to document and remember things and the best way for me to do that is to photograph them and write about it.  Ok so last night, you were a boy and you were just born- but for some reason I did not have anything ready.  No, stroller, carseat or anything.  In my dream I had you and I was holding you in a blanket running around Babies R Us (the worst place ever) trying to pick out basic things for you.  I was so unprepared!  Both of these dreams are so silly but very like me to be worrying about these things in my dreams. 

Love,

Mom

Week 6: Sweet Pea

Dear Bun,

It seems so surreal to say "I'm pregnant." I have grown you in my heart for years and now I grow you in my body. I have always known that I could not wait to be a mom, and here I am just months away from meeting you. You still have lots of growing to do though. In fact, at this point, I have not told anyone about you except your dad. We are waiting a few weeks to tell our parents, and then a few more to tell our friends. For now, it's our little secret and I could not be happier.

I am feeling pretty good, except for being really tired. It's hard to wake up some mornings and I would love to be able to take an afternoon nap everyday, but that's only for the weekends. Oh, and I have a really huge appetite these days and I find that I have to eat something small every few hours. There's a lot more going on with you though. Right now, you are growing like crazy. You are about the size of a sweet pea, and you are starting to sprout eyes, ears, nose, a mouth and chin. Your little hands are still webbed at this point and blood is starting to circulate through your tiny body.

I am going to try and take weekly "bump" pictures as well. This is mostly for you and my family since I know this will be hard for them to be away while we grow. I am already thinking about how many more phone calls I am going to get once I tell my mom (your grandma) about you. I think she will probably check in on us daily. Kidding mom, kind of. So here I am, 6 weeks along- no change yet.

Love,

Your mom

Ice Cream

Dear Bun,

You are being pretty good to me so far... last week I came home and saw this in the freezer.  How did you know Mint Chocolate Chip was my favorite?

Love, 

Mom

The Big Announcement!

So, on July 27th, we found out we are going to be parents!  Right now, I am about 13 1/2 weeks along and we have a due date of March 31, 2011.  Since I try to document our lives as much as possible to help preseve memories, I decided to use this blog as the channel for my pregnancy journal.  This will also help keep our family updated on what's going on and will allow me to share pictures with everyone.  Hopefully, once we have our bundle in March (or April) I will be able to publish this as a gift for the baby. 

I have been keeping weekly updates since week 6 and will publish those right after this.  I usually update them on Sunday's so next Sunday will be week 14 and I will be all caught up and in "real time" - everything I wrote up until this point has been hidden since we did not tell people right away. 

Here are some questions I have been asked, and maybe some that you have been wondering too:

Was it planned? We decided to start trying in July (mom, you can thank John, I wanted to wait another year or so) and got pregnant the first month.  So, while we knew it was possible to get pregnant, we figured we would have at least a few months before it happened. Wrong.  This is one of the reasons we did not tell people right away, we wanted to get used to the idea ourselves before sharing it with family.  Of course we are excited for this wonderful blessing, it just happened a little quicker than we thought!

How did you tell John? I always knew I wanted to do something a little more creative than just show him the pregnancy test, so I thought I should enlist the help of our first "baby."  I decided to make her a shirt so that she could tell him the news. 

I called John upstairs because I had to show him something.  Morgan and I were at the top of the stairs, and I had the pregnancy test, the flip, and was holding her.  Anyway, he came up and read her shirt and his response was "so we're getting another dog?" Um, not exactly John.  It still took him a minute and then I showed him this and I think he finally got it:

Of course, I made us get a family picture right afterwords:



Are you going to find out the sex? Absolutely, I don't like surprises.  Plus I want to start shopping.

What sex would you prefer? Of course we want a healthy baby above everything else, but yeah we have a preference, and it's not the same gender, so one of us will get what we want :)


Do you have names picked out? I have tons, but I love baby names- I have been obsessed with finding the perfect names for babies and it all started with my dolls- so I have been naming my babies for about 20 years now, ha!  I always have a rotating mental list of potential baby names- this will be a post of it's own once we find out the gender- but it will be a timeless classic name, that's not too popular or trendy.

How are you feeling?  This is actually the first question people ask me, and so far, I have no complaints at all- I was very tired the first few weeks, got nauseous once or twice when I smelled something, but never got sick or experienced morning sickness. So far, so good! 

What are you craving? I wish I had a crazy answer here like you always hear about- women wanting pickles and ice cream or something, but I haven't had any real cravings I don't think.  I do drink chocolate milk every day and all meat sounds bad to me.  I have been living off of cheese, fruit, and nuts.  I also want to eat sweets more than I usually do.  So maybe instead of cravings, I have just had aversions.

How are you decorating the nursery?  Once we find out the gender, I will be all over this.  So far, I have just been collecting images of nurseries for inspiration, but I don't have anything set.  It will not be gender neutral- if it's a girl, it will be girlie (not pink) and if it's a boy it will be boyish. 

When are you due? March 31, 2011 although my mom was 2 wks late with both me and my sis, so I expect to be late.


Ok, I think that's most of the questions I have gotten, I'll keep updating weekly with the progress.  Please pray for a healthy baby and pregnancy!

12 weeks to better photography: landscapes

This week's lesson is on landscapes.  I usually don't photograph alot of landscapes, I think people are much more interesting! But, since I'm going through the whole 12 weeks of this, I did not want to skip over it.  I think the #1 rule when shooting landscapes is that you want a large depth of field.  Here are other tips:

1. Use a wide angle lens to include more of the setting
2. Find a bird's eye view- Here is a pic I took from an airplane as we were flying from San Juan Islands into Seattle:

3. Locate a focal point- This was taken last January in Sarasota

4. Consider composition & the rule of thirds- this was taken on our honeymoon in Belize- this was right outside our cabana!

5. Pay attention to the time of day- sunrises and sunsets are a great thing to capture and always seem to make landscapes more appealing- this photo below was taken of Ayers Rock in Australia- world's largest monolith.  It was taken before sunset, apparently this is the best time to see the colors come out on the rock and die-hard photographers were really into it.  I was just using my point and shoot at this time but I still think it's a pretty neat shot.

12 weeks to better photography: portraits

This week was about portraits, something I found useful because I love pictures of people (and dogs).  I learned some great tips for taking photos of individuals and groups.  My favorite tips are below:

For individuals:
- consider your subjects height- if they are taller than you, have them sit or squat so that they are directly in front of you, or looking up at you * I need practice with this because whenever I take a picture of John standing, I always seem to be angling it up at his neck/chin which is not the most flattering for most people.
- keep the background simple so it does not detract from the subject, or use a backdrop (fabric, large roll of paper, or artwork) or natural elements (barn door, brick wall, or a grassy field)

For groups:
- take the same number of photos as there are people in the group to have a better chance of a good photo of everyone
- take both full length and a relaxed head and shoulders shot that allows you to see everyone's expression


The assignment was to take a portrait of an individual or group, or convert a photo to black and white (since b&w is especially nice for portraits)


This week, instead of me pulling out my camera*, I grabbed some photos from our wedding that I think illustrate good portraiture.

*ok, I got lazy

Welcome Fall!

My favorite time of year is starting and I have almost made it though the awful NC summer!  I love getting out all my fall stuff and burning pumpkin candles to ring in the season.  Confession... I have had fall stuff up since mid-August, but since it's now September and football has started, it seems ok to share the pictures now. So, here is some fall love, from our house to yours!  Looking forward to a great season of crisp apples, changing leaves, football, sweaters, cider and cozy nights burning candles at home.

Sidenote- I have a slight addiction to Slatkin & Co candles from BBW and accidentally brought home 5 fall candles.  I love them.

Happy Fall!