Should We Tell?

Remember when I wrote a post about not wanting to find out the sex of the baby? And once we had the ultrasound, the tech didn't tell us whether it was a girl or a boy? Technically, I've never lied about it. The tech didn't tell us the sex, but we do know if it's a girl or a boy. I don't know why I've been keeping it a secret, but before telling the blog-o-sphere, I figured I would ask my faithful readers if you guys want to know, or if I should keep it a secret and you find out once we have the baby.

At the ultrasound, the tech asked us if we wanted to know, and I told her no, but I knew my husband wanted to. Remember, Mr. Skinny wasn't allowed in while she did the measurements for whatever reason. Once I told her that Mr. Skinny did, she suggested that she could write it down on put it in an envelope so that if we changed our mind before the baby was born, we could look. Mr. Skinny and I agreed that seemed like the best idea since we couldn't really agree if we wanted to find out or not.

When the tech was looking at the goods, she said it was obvious, and printed out the picture and put it in a frame, like a frame they give you when you get your picture with Santa Clause, not the sealed envelope that I was envisioning.

Once the ultrasound was over, I had to pee, duh, they need a full bladder for the ultrasound and I'm pretty sure my bladder has alway been the size of a pee. Well, I handed the pictures we got to Mr. Skinny and went to the bathroom. When I came out, he had a huge smile on his face, and I knew instantly that he snooped at that picture. So, then I just had to know. I couldn't have him know and not me, so I looked and we started talking names right away and over dinner. We decided to keep it a secret though, since ultrasounds are not the most accurate way to reveal the sex.

A few weeks later when we lost our ultrasound pictures, we went to see if we could get more pictures printed, and they actually did another quick ultrasound. When this tech asked if we knew the sex, we said yes, but had her double check just to make sure, and there were no flip flopping sexes!

Slowly then, we started telling people. First, we told my mom because I knew she could keep a secret. Then we told my father-in-law, who was having a few bad days and Mr. Skinny slipped while he was talking to him, then we told my brother, and decided that we might as well just spill the beans. I'm glad that we did tell, but I'm hoping that the baby comes out what we're expecting! I'm not sure why I've hidden it from the blogging world, but the time hasn't really felt right. I think because I was so determined to not find out that I feel like I'm letting someone down to say that we did find out.

But I'll let it up to you -

Would you want to know Baby Skinny's sex?

Twenty-Eight Weeks.

Dear Little One,

No matter who you ask, we are now officially in the third trimester. You're moving a TON, but I think you know when it's the weekend and you like to relax, too, you don't move as much on the weekends. It's amazing that I can pick up little habits of your already, well, I think I can. You like to sleep in, you're more of a night owl, and you are stubborn. But with us as your parents, the stubbornness doesn't surprise me, we're both pretty stubborn. 

You're about 14-15 inches, and weigh about 2 1/2 pounds or so. You're developing eye color and putting on fat! Your hair is continuing to grow, including your eyelashes and eyebrows. I wonder what color hair you'll have? Your brain is also rapidly developing, as well as your lungs! Grow baby, grow!

It's amazing to see my body change each day. There are still some days where I think I don't look pregnant, but then I look at our weekly pictures, and I can't believe how much my body's changed - and we still have about 12 weeks to go! I get more and more "how are you feeling" questions, which are always welcomed, but I'm always curious to see how people would react if I started indulging them in any complaints I have that particular day. Your Uncle Quentin told me I'm really big and I just laughed and told him we have 3 more months to go and I'm probably going to get a lot bigger!

Week 20

Week 23

Week 28

Since starting to track calories on and off, I think I've steadied my weight gain. I gained 0.9 this week, which puts me up +22 since I got pregnant. I'm pretty comfortable with that number and I know that I'm really trying to focus on healthier foods in my last trimester, with some desserts thrown in, of course! My exercise has been majorly slacking though, I'm not entirely uncomfortable yet, but it's definitely hard to keep exercising with it just doesn't feel like a good idea. Switching sides in bed seems like an Olympic task now, and mix that in with pulling my body pillow with me, I feel like I should get a medal when I actually make it to the other side.

With thoughts of labor and delivery getting closer and closer, I realize that I don't have any fear about it. Between my two life mottos - "everything happens for a reason" and "prepare for the worst and hope for the best" - I'm pretty much covered. Mix those and my strong faith in God, and I'm not scared at all. I know it's going to be painful, I'm not naive, but I'm excited to see what my body can do. I know that every person on this planet is here because someone gave birth to them, and if so many women can do it for billions of years, there's no darn reason why I can't! I love hearing stories from your Grammy about my birth and your Uncle Billy's birth, and your Grandma's about their kids' births. Daddy and I talk about it a lot, and we do have a plan that we'd really like to follow, we're doing our research and figuring out what we're comfortable with and how we want to handle certain situations, I get excited not only to meet you, but to see how amazing my body is.

Speaking of amazing, I have one exciting update, and a few complaints this week.

Side note: Pregnancy can be filled with TMIs, and I want to be honest about how I'm feeling and any complaints that I have. I know I am incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to carry a child, but I want my child to know how I felt, and I want to remember at what point in my pregnancy X started happening, so I'm going to honest, and hopefully everyone is okay with that.

I started leaking! I know that it's sort of silly for me to be so excited about it, but being a visual learner, I loved actually seeing proof that my body is prepared to feed a human being. I feel like superwoman because my body knows how to produce this food. I know that I can see my belly growing and a baby kicking, but I don't think it's really going to hit me until you're born that I actually grew and housed you for 9ish months. I think it also hit that it's real, and that there's not that much time until you actually join us!

Now for the complaints. I'm getting uncomfortable, you are chilling up in my ribs little one, and I would prefer if you would move a bit. I feel like I'm poking you with my ribs each time I bend over or slouch my back while I'm sitting. I love the moving and the kicking, and I can usually tell where you are because my stomach is hard there. On Saturday, my belly was lopsided, you really like to hang out on my right side.

Yesterday, I got heartburn and indigestion, but that was a little my own fault for laying down right after I ate. My last complaint - constipation. I feel like the past few days all the pregnancy symptoms that I thought I evaded have hit full force. Pregnancy made me, um, regular but this past week was terrible, and I'll just leave it at that. I think you're trying to tell me to eat my veggies and fruits and lay off the cheese and crackers and not-so-healthy stuff. Thanks for the reminder.

We're still working on getting the room finished. Daddy said that hopefully we'll have 3 of the 4 walls painted by this weekend, and then we just have to get the last color and paint the last wall, then hopefully we can get the room all ready for you! Your Daddy is working so hard to get the room done, even though he doesn't like painting, he's doing it all for you. He's going to be a wonderful Daddy and he already loves you so much! I can't wait to see him hold you!

One last exciting update - our childbirth classes start tonight! I'm really excited to have a ton of my questions answered about hospital procedures and how everything's going to go. Hopefully, I'll write an update of our class on Wednesday. Our classes go on for 4 weeks, each Monday night in the month of March. I also have a doctor's appointment on Wednesday, I get to meet the 4th of 13 doctors that might deliver you - fun, fun.

Keep growing and moving little one!

I love you!

Momma

Twenty-Seven Weeks.

Blah, sorry I skipped out on Monday, I was running around like a crazy person doing a ton of errands! I had to get paint for our room, got some cute clothes for the baby, grocery shopping, and a dentist appointment! I was one busy momma-to-be! I even debated on not posting today because Mr. Skinny is home and my brother came home early for the "snow" which is just rain now. But we played Monopoly, but now my brother is sleeping and Mr. Skinny is painting. So I'm blogging while cooking!


Dear little one,

We're in the home stretch now! Well, that is if you think the third trimester is the home stretch! And if you think that 27 week is the third trimester, a lot of what you think rather than solid fact this week. Oh well. I happen to think that it is, so we're going to say we're in the home stretch!

You, little one are about 14-15 inches long and weigh about 2 lbs - the weight of a cauliflower! You're waking and sleeping at regular intervals, and I can most certainly tell when you're awake! Moving around all. the. time. But I love it dearly! You're probably opening and closing your eyes now, and look like a miniature whatever you'll look like when you're born. I wish I could peer inside of myself and see what you look like.

Momma only gained 0.3 last week, which is good because I definitely need to control what I'm eating, and for the most part, I've been good. When I'm home, and on weekends it's a lot harder, but I'm definitely eating good when I'm at work, which is better than I used to be. My total pregnancy gain is 21.1, I think. Exercise has been slacking, too, I'm trying to figure out a schedule in the morning, and I just can't get it.

Our next doctor's appointment is on Wednesday, and I'm looking forward to see how much you've grown and making sure that you're on track. It's so comforting to know that each week you get bigger and more likely to be strong enough to survive if something happens and you decide to come early.

I did find out the results of my glucose test, and I failed the one hour by two measly points! I bet if I hadn't eaten lunch right before my appointment, I probably would have been fine and passed the first one. It's nice to know that everything is okay though.

My lenten sacrifice is going well though. I only ate meat on Sunday, and then I cooked it last night, and we're having knockoff Chipotle tonight, so meat again. Maybe Friday will be my other vegetarian day this week since they'll be leftovers for tomorrow's dinner I'm sure.

I feel like last week wasn't too exciting baby-wise. I do love the stronger kicks though. We're still remodeling our room, and we're onto the paint now, so there's a lot of Mommy has to stay out while Daddy paints going on, which is fine. I like having the excuse. Hopefully you'll be better than me and get your daddy's hark working ethic.

Our childbirth classes start next Monday, so we have that to look forward to!

Keep moving and growing little one!

Love, Mommy

Fill in the Blank Friday.

1.  I started my blog because  I needed something to keep me accountable while I was trying to loose weight. Now though, I have a feeling it's going to more of a Mommy blog - hope you don't mind!

2.   One thing I love seeing on other blogs  people overcoming obstacles or reaching a dream that they've had for a long time.

3.  Something I love about blogging  seeing myself change over the time I've  had a blog, as well as what I was feeling when things happened and where I was in my life at a particular time.

4. A favorite blog post of mine is probably  I have no idea. My blog is more a diary of my life. I guess my pregnancy updates are my favorite right now. 

5. Something my friends in real life know about me that I've never before mentioned on my blog is I don't think I have any secrets, well I'm sure I do, but nothing that I purposely keep separate on my blog.

6.  My new favorite blogs to read are pregnancy blogs and mommy blogs. Hope no one is surprised at that! 

7.  Some things I tend to avoid doing on my blog are posting controversial topics and posts, or posting an extremely negative post. 

Pick a question and answer it about your blogging experience!

Lenten Sacrifices.

I'm sure this isn't the first blog post you've read about giving up something for lent, and I'm almost positive it's not going to be your last. Sometimes, I feel like lent is a chance to break up those New Years resolutions that we all put on our ourselves, the eat better, be a better person, workout more resolutions. Considering that my New Years goals were pretty broad, this is sort of true for me, too.

Since lent is really based on a religious practice, a lot of people think we're crazy to give something up for 40 or 46ish days (depending if you go by Sundays are the exception philosophy), but it's to focus on the ultimate sacrifice that He gave. One that makes me teary eyed each time I think about it in my pregnant hormonal state. Since I am pregnant this year, and don't know exactly where I'll be in 46 days, I wanted to be an easily bendable ish sacrifice for myself.

My mom would give up sweets nearly every year. She never made us give up anything, but once I got old enough to realize what lent was really about, I always toyed with the idea of giving something up. Last year, I kind of mentioned on the blog about going vegetarian 2 days a week. This year, I'm going to be following the same routine, although trying to step it up. Since I am pregnant, if I get a craving for a big juicy steak, I'm probably going to indulge, but Mondays & Wednesdays will be vegetarian nights in this house. Honestly, only my mom and I are on board with this idea, and I'm sure the men in the house will complain about it each Monday & Wednesday. I'd really like to try to be a vegetarian the majority of the next 46ish days. If I eat meat, I'm going to try to only do it at dinner time, which shouldn't be too hard.

Being a vegetarian is something I toy with quite often, mostly because I don't agree with how the animals are treated that I'm eating. Ideally, I'd love to only eat meat products that I know where the came from, and be a vegetarian in all other cases. Hopefully, some day I'll get there.

In addition to going meatless as much as possible, I found a devotion that's specifically about lent, and will be reading that each morning. Moreso that just sacrificing something, I want to really focus on what this time is all about in my relationship with God. I've been pretty good about reading the devotions from my woman's Bible, but I want to focus on these next weeks and what that means to me. I want to grow closer in my relationship with God and be the best Christian and follower of Christ that I can be.

Tell me:


What are your feelings about lent?
Are you giving anything up this year?

Twenty-Six Weeks.

Holy cow little one!

Time is just absolutely flying! Weeks go by in the blink of an eye, and I know it's just going to speed up every day. I'm trying to savor each day and continue to be amazed at each kick and punch, but it's hard when I'm getting so excited to meet you! I can't believe it's the last week (controversially) of my second trimester.

This was a baby-filled week, I feel like. I had a doctor's appointment on Monday, which was fine, and while I was there, I went for my glucose test, but I didn't know that I shouldn't have just eaten lunch in the car of the parking lot before I went in. I knew I had to do the test at some point in the next few weeks, but I figured I might as well just do it while I was at the hospital instead of driving all the way back up there. So I did it, no big deal. The glucose was fruit punch flavored and I thought it was going to taste like cough syrup, really think and gross, but it wasn't bad at all. I chugged that down and was very thankful I had my book to read. After an hour, they drew the blood and I was on my way.

However, the next morning I got a call that I failed my test. The nurse said that my sugars were "slightly elevated". I was a little worried about it, I didn't think that I would have a problem. I posted it to Facebook and twitter and got a lot of encouraging responses. It was one of the times I was very thankful for social media. The nurse told me that I had to come back and do the 3 hour test. The worst part though - I had to fast for it. I was not happy about that. A 3 hour test plus I couldn't eat or drink anything since midnight the night before? That sounded terrible, and let me tell you, it was. I asked your Grammy to take me to the hospital, just because I wasn't comfortable to drive myself without any food in me. I'm so glad I had her with me to talk and time pretty much flew. The glucose this time was a LOT sweeter, holy cow! I normally love sugar things, but this was super duper sweet. It was a super sweet flat sprite - lemon lime flavored. I felt like a druggie afterwords with all the holes in my arm from them drawing blood a total of 4 times! Surprisingly, I'm still not black and blue, and I'm still waiting for the hospital to call. I'm going to be optimistic and say that because they didn't call first thing, that the results of the test were good, but I don't want to set myself up for disappointment.

So that was my excitement of the week. After the test on Saturday, Grammy took me to get our stroller and car seat! Since Daddy and I don't have a ton of space in our room, we decided to just put the car seat and stroller in the car. It's a pretty big stroller, it takes up pretty much my entire trunk. I think we might have to take Daddy's truck when we go to the beach this summer, just because I know all your stuff would take up so much room! Grammy and I had a blast walking around Babies R Us and looking at all the clothes - dreaming about what we would bring you home in. Grammy was going to buy an outfit, but we figured Daddy should be involved in that too, even though I don't think it matters to him. So now, you have a crib, and you have a carseat and stroller, so we have the basics if you decide you really want to come early, but I think the whole family would much rather you stay put for a few more months.

Now back to the weekly update! My sources say that you can be anywhere from 13.6 to 14.8 inches and weigh anywhere from 1.5 to 2.5 pound range - that's crazy! You must be crunched up in there, there's not that much room! You can also probably hear everyone talking now, your hearing is that developed, but your Grandpa Oliver is planning on teaching you sign language, which is fine with me!

My belly is expanding, too. I think every day I tell Daddy to look how much bigger my belly has gotten. You're getting a lot more active, moving around for a long time rather than it just being a few movements. I get worried when I don't feel you a lot during the day, but then you always make sure I know you're there at night - you must be a night owl like me - Daddy is most definitely a morning person!







My eats haven't been too good, and I've been gaining too much weight. I'm actually going back to tracking my food during the week. I still have about 14 weeks to go, and I've already gained just shy of 21 pounds. I'm still weighing myself daily, and I've switched to taking the average of the week and adding that as my weekly weight. I think that works better for me. My water consumption is good, and I had a few days last week where my eating was really good, especially after finding out my blood sugar was high. Daddy's really trying to watch me now and help me out to only eat the good stuff, but weekends I still eat whatever I want. This weekend was bagels - Grammy and I went to Panera after the test on Saturday and I had a delicious cinnamon crunch bagel with honey walnut cream cheese, so Grammy decided to bring a dozen bagels home, and I then ate 4 more bagels between Saturday and 
Sunday. They're SO delicious! That was certainly my craving for the week. Last week was cake, and this week was bagels. If we had money I would be buying Panera salads every day, too, so delicious!

I also haven't walked at all last week, I'm all dressed and ready to walk today, and I'm going to do some yoga too. I only did yoga once last week, and I really need to do that. It's so hard to come up with a schedule in the morning before work and try to cram everything in - Bible devotions, walking or yoga, getting dressed, breakfast, packing lunch. I could just get up earlier, but I'd much rather sleep! 


Guess that's everything for this week, keep growing, and I promise to work on feeding you a little better! 


Love, 
Mommy

Fill in the Blank Friday

1.   If money wasn't an issue, the first thing I'd cross of my life list is traveling the world, or paying off my debt, but I guess if money wasn't an issue than I guess I'd have no debt. Or, I'd have a ton of kids, and be a foster mom.

2.  Um, everything. But maybe put tartar sauce on my buttered noodles and broccoli is something I like that other people think is weird.

3.  If my life were a movie right now, the title would be  Knocked Up. Bahaha!

4.  Three things I am looking forward to this month are nothing really. Today is the anniversary of Pop Pop's death, so I don't think I have anything to look forward to. 

5.  My favorite song to sing in the shower is I can't pick one, I do love singing in the shower though.

6.  If I found out that the production of   Strawberry Chapstick  was ending this month, I'd go out and buy as much as I could tomorrow.

7.  One thing I'll never grow tired of is  going to Walt Disney World.