17 Weeks!

Before going to bed last night, Steve and I had a discussion on how it seems unreal that I'm pregnant (well, he said that we're pregnant, when I kindly reminded him there's no baby in his belly, but he's right -- WE'RE having a baby!).  He doesn't have the daily reminder of feeling different to keep it at the forefront of his mind, but things are starting to change!

I know I haven't really said much about being pregnant, and that's mainly because in the beginning, not much had changed.  I don't mean to brag about my pregnancy, but I want to share what I've experienced.  I have had a pretty easy pregnancy, thus far.  I was one of the fortunate women that didn't have to deal with pesky symptoms like vomiting, food aversions, and round the clock nausea.

Now I'm not saying it was perfect.  During the first trimester, I had zero energy, I mean ZERO! I had things I wanted to get done, but the couch always called my name.  Just getting up to go get a drink from the kitchen took lots of pep talk.  Once that second trimester rolled around, the energy has come back in full force! (Now it's just finding the motivation. . . ).

I also had to deal with some unexpected symptoms that all pointed towards miscarriage. However, after an unplanned ultrasound, we got to see our little Bean and learn that I just had a bleed in the uterus that would heal itself - whew!  So I guess in that aspect, I did have to deal with some worry and stress that a lot of other women don't have.  I'll take random implantation wound over vomiting any day!

Without having morning sickness everyday, it was hard to wrap my head around being pregnant.  Now, I did have a couple weeks where I'd get nauseous in the evening. Or sometimes I'd have random heartburn.  But day to day, I didn't really have any reminders that I was pregnant.  Sometime within the past week or so, I'd say all of that has changed!

Every pregnant woman wants to have a bump to show off, and I was no different.  I could tell my body had grown, but unless you looked closely, you couldn't really tell.  Sometime this week, I was cleaning in the bathroom and looked in the mirror and thought, "Whoa!  When did that bump show up?!" Maybe it's been hidden from all the sweatshirts I've been wearing.  With the warmer weather, I am now wearing less layers and more t-shirts.  Or maybe Bean just had a growth spurt.  At 17 weeks, my uterus is the size of a cantaloupe!

Oh and another reason why I'm finally "feeling" pregnant.  All along, my abdomen has felt sensitive.  Maybe it was more mental and just having to remind myself there was a baby there.  But now, it's not mental and physically feels sensitive.  I can also feel my uterus growing, I know that sound weird, but I can.  It's even harder to the touch which is so bizarre.  And the best of all??? I can feel little Baby Bean fluttering around!  The best way to explain it is like a muscle spasm, but I know there's no muscle spasm going on.  Everyone else says like gas bubbles or twitches, which I understand.  I just like my spasm metaphor better - ha!  Baby is still to little to feel it on the outside, yet.

I've been trying to take pictures weekly to catch the changes, but I'll spare you all the pictures and show you the first one and the latest ones!

(This was right around 5 weeks, just after figuring out I was pregnant.  I take each picture wearing the same outfit to really show off the changes, so bare with the tight workout pants and tank.)

(17 weeks!  So crazy.  While taking this picture, I noticed some random bulge near the top, haha.  I'm not sure what that's all about, but I guess it just shows everything shifting and changing.  So far, I've only gained 8 pounds.  6 of those pounds were gained by week 10 - proof the placenta forming is a big deal!)

(You would think that I'd be taking all my pictures this way, but not until yesterday did I figure out that if I put my camera on a timer and put it on my dresser, I could do a full body picture.  Let's just say, that pregnancy brain is a real thing!  I'll spare you all the other stories I have of how my brain has stopped working!)

So technically, I could find out now if Baby Bean (whom is named that because it's our little Lima Bean) is a boy or a girl, but my doctor wants to wait until week 20 in order for the ultrasounds to be spaced out.  After waiting this long, what's another few weeks??  Only sad part is that week 20 falls while Steve is on business in Europe -- no I don't get to go this time :-(.  I have an appointment in the next week and I'm hoping to convince the doctor into a week 19 ultrasound.  Ha, we'll see how that works out!

Bedroom Overhaul

The blog, a lot like my life, seems to be feast or famine.  Generally, when I'm absent on the blog it's because I'm too busy with life happening.  Once life slows down, I'm able to catch back up on the blog.  For the past week and a half, I have been knee deep in a bedroom overhaul.  And no, it's not for the baby.  The nursery is still sitting empty and white.  In a few more weeks we'll find out the gender and decide on the color scheme for the nursery!

Okay, but back to the overhaul -- we are now enjoying a brand new (well it seems that way) master bedroom.  I didn't have plans to redo the bedroom anytime soon, but Steve felt otherwise.  Ha!  I liked the colors that were already on the wall, especially since it happened to match our existing bedspread and curtains nicely.  Steve felt the room was boring and dull and wanted a change.  We both realized that if we --haha, who are we kidding -- if I*** didn't do it now, it wasn't going to get done for a very long time (like baby's 3rd birthday).

Before:

(So maybe Steve is right and that the room was boring and dull.)

(How lucky were we that the brown on the bottom of the room was identical to our curtains we bought in TN?!  I was set on this room staying these colors, but now I can't imagine going back.)

(Because our walls are plaster, when the house settles -- or as holes are put into the walls -- the plaster tends to crack leaving these lovely lines all along the walls.  I would chisel away all the raised parts, fill it in with my joint compound, and sand it all before painting.)

In Process:

(First thing was to pick new colors.  3 samples from Lowe's later and we had settled on the 2 colors -- the color for the top is the one on the right, and the color for the bottom is, well, on the bottom!  The colors were picked out a few weeks prior to the project officially being started.  So we just dealt with the random color splotches for awhile.)

(Once the project was a go, I had to go around patching up all the random holes & cracks around the room, as well as box things up and move furniture.  Don't worry, all heavy lifting was done by Steve!)

(This picture was from before the bed was moved.  We slept with the bed in the center of the room for about a week.  Even though the bed was only moved a few feet, our whole sleeping mojo was thrown off.  I also got sick of having to move around between all the furniture -- couch not pictured.  Those things alone are why I gave this project 100% of my attention for so many days in a row.  I just wanted my room back!)

(Next came the color.  I painted the bottom portion in 1 day.  I didn't tape the trim off since I knew I was going to repaint the trim.  I just made sure to not get too much paint on it.  I spent the next couple days painting the light blue on the top.  Then it was time to tape off the hole room - which was a day in itself.  And then finally after a couple of days of trim painting -- all the painting was done! Or so I thought. . . Then I remembered I hadn't painted the doors, so that still needs done.  You can see in this picture out he door frame is a clean new white and the door itself is an old yellowed/ivory color.)

(Taping off isn't perfect.  Since the walls are imperfect, the tape doesn't seal at all the edges -- even though we popped for the expensive Edge Lock.  Not worth it.  The $6 tape does the same job the $3 tape does.)

(Because we are both a little OCD and perfectionists, I went around the entire room with a little paint brush fixing the tape splotches by hand.  Ahhhh, clean crisp edges now!)

(Remember that picture in the "Before" section with the big crack??  This is that same corner!  The crack is completely hidden and the wall looks awesome now!)

After:

(The room now looks completely different!  Originally, I was going to repaint all the brick, but after realizing only myself - and now blog readers - would ever know I chose to let the bricks remain the old color.  And after all -- who paints brick?!) 

(I need to put the pictures back up above the bed, but other than that - and still painting those doors -- the room is done!  Ahhh it's so nice to have the bed back in its spot again! Mojo restored :)!  I personally like the brown curtains and bedspread against the blue walls.  We'll see how long they last.  Steve isn't sold on the color scheme yet.)

(After walking through a maze of furniture, tools, outlet face plates, and other random items for a couple of weeks, our room feels so much bigger now!)

(And one more shot of the empty book cases.  The little one is going to graduate to the nursery and we're not sure yet what to do with the other one.  All the books that it once held are in boxes in our upstairs room -- ha!)

So now that the room is all done, I'm back to life slowing down again.  Until the next project!  There's a few more rooms that need to be redone in the house, just not sure if they will be pre or post baby.  We'll see how things go with the nursery and yard work that have priority.  

***Note:  I did research on painting, etc while pregnant.  I used special paint that had no VOC (volatile organic compounds) and no odor (okay, the wet paint had a little odor, but it dried without it -- which was so worth the extra expense!). I also made sure to wear a respirator both while using the joint compound & sanding as well as during the painting process.  I also had the windows open while paining to make sure there was lots of air circulation.  I painted at my own pace and would take breaks if I got tired.  The only thing that I would change would be to give myself more time and not just a week to get it all done; but that was mainly due to the fact that we didn't sleep as well in the chaotic mess.  

Living with a Local Celebrity

One of our friend's brought the attention of Steve's syrup hobby to a local newspaper reporter.  Last week, she came over (along with a photographer) to interview Steve for the paper.  Here is the online version of the  story:

http://www.limaohio.com/news/local_news/article_b23f8310-a3a2-11e2-8ca6-001a4bcf6878.html

(The print version- which looks way better - is a full page spread on the front page of the region section of today's paper!)

The Good & Bad of April

We're already a few days into the month of April, and it's already shaping up to be my least favorite month.

So bear with me as I try to organize and share all the happenings -- Let's start with the bad, after all, who wants to end a post on a sad note?

The Bad of April (thus far):

• April 2nd -- My Papaw passed away after being in a nursing home for 10 years.  He was diagnosed with pnuemonia about a month ago and finally went home to be with the Lord.  We had been prepared for years for this day to come, but it is still hard to accept.  

(Mammie, me & Papa up at the lake.  I got a special weekend vising their trailer on Lake Shafer with just my grandparents and cousin.  I think I was 10 in this picture.)

• April 5th is the 3rd anniversary of my grandma's death.  It was unexpected, but there is rejoicing in her finally having peace and being in Heaven.  Still is hard for all of us who miss her (especially my grandpa).

(Grandma & me the Christmas of my Freshman year in college)

• With papaw's death earlier in the week, his viewing was set for April 5th.  Making a it an emotional day for both my mother and father.  On that morning, my mom was cleaning up in the kitchen putting dishes away.  She slipped on some water and twisted her ankle.  I took her to the doctor and discovered she had broken a piece of her tibia (leg bone).  Not what she had planned for the day.  After being casted, we headed to lunch with my grandpa and to visit my grandma's gravesite.  We had just enough time after that to get home, changed and to the funeral home for the viewing the rest of the evening.  

(Mom & April -- after the cast was put on but before April nearly shot her out of her chair -- ha ha.  My mom was a trooper the rest of the weekend!  She isn't on crutches and able to walk on her leg, well maybe more like hobble.  Only bad thing is it's her right leg, meaning no driving for the next month or so!)

The Good of April:

• One of my best friends's (whose name ironically is April and the aid who helped put mom's cast on) birthday is on April 4th.  Steve was given Friday off for bereavement so we headed into Indiana on Thursday night.  I got to see my friend on her actual birthday and celebrate with her.  
• Even though the circumstances weren't the best (although we were rejoicing in Papaw's being with the Lord), I got to see a lot of extended family I hadn't seen in awhile.  I also got to see all of my close family again which is always a plus in my book!
• Before heading to Indiana, I had another baby appointment.  Steve wasn't able to go (which was fine since I knew this would be a quick appointment).  They just asked for an update on how I was feeling, took my vitals, and searched for the heartbeat with a little hand held device.  It took a little bit to find the heartbeat, but they had warned it would be hard this time since the baby is still small (around 3" or the size of a peach).  At first all that could be heard were my heart beat with random bleeps interrupting.  At first the nurse thought the baby was kicking, but it kept happening rhythmically so she decided it was hiccups.  She finally found the heartbeat and it registered at a solid 165 beats per minute.  We both got a clear bill of health and I was sent on my!
• Beautiful Weather! We returned back to Lima with blooming tulips, the sun shining, and warmer weather! I totally love winter and snow, but probably love Spring even more.  It's very exciting to watch all the new buds on the tree and the promise of new life all around us.  Now to prepare for the storms (which actually falls under both the good and the bad - ha!). . . 

Happy Easter!

So I know this post is like a week late, but a lot has happened this past week (which you will catch up on with an update tomorrow).  But before you're caught up on a crazy week, let's rewind to Easter:

We headed into Indiana on Thursday night.  Steve really likes to travel in the evenings.  Even though we have to drive facing the setting sun, he really likes to be able to go to sleep and wake up in the place he's going to be at all day.  (I sort of agree, if you have to wake up and travel 3 hours in the morning, but they time you get to where you're going, you're sort of foggy from all the travel).

Friday we just hung out at my parents' house with my good friend April.  She's way more than a friend and practically a sister.  She hangs out with my parents probably more than I do - ha!  Later in the day, my sister brought over her 3 girls (who were on Spring Break).  The rest of the day consisted of Easter crafts, baking, laughing, watching cake challenges on Food Network with the little girls, and I can't remember what all else. I think dad and Steve just entertained themselves with computer gaming.  When we return home, Steve pretty much fends for himself and hangs out with my dad, letting me soak in all my family time.

Saturday was crazier.  I woke up early and met my good friend Brianna in Kokomo.  I left my car in a parking lot and joined her and her 5 month old daughter in their car to drive 2 hours North to Mishiwaka.  Our friend Courtney from college was having a baby shower.  I wasn't going to go, being since it was Easter weekend.  But it worked out perfectly.  Almost all of my friends from college were able to make it.  So not only did we get to see a very pregnant Courtney and celebrate her baby; but also got to have a little mini college reunion, see everyone's cute babies, and share in pregnancy stories.  Among our little group, their were 5 little kids (not all there at the same time) and 4 pregnant women!  I am so glad I went and got to see all these great ladies that helped me through college! (Most of these ladies are from the group we get together with each year, too).  It was especially great to catch up with Brianna during our 4 hours together in the car & playing with her sweet baby April, too!

(Yay for Courtney's baby & seeing friends :)! Alice & Libby, Jessica, Becca (with Victoria peaking by the chair), Me, Courtney, Brianna & April, Sarah (Trey made an earlier appearance).)

(Two little cuties!)

I got home after 5 on Saturday for a family dinner.  Everyone was finishing up (we had a big lunch earlier and I wasn't hungry) and I got to see my Mammie, brother & niece.  We were supposed to have our annual Easter egg hunt, but it didn't work out.  So instead, we just sat around talking.  Eventually, I got roped into a game of Clue with Emily, Allie, & April (Allie & April were a team).  Emily had only played once before and did a pretty good job; however, she forgot to check her cards a couple of times which made Allie predict a bad conclusion.  We called the game done and everyone winners - ha!

(Allie, Gabbie, & Emily opening their Easter buckets)

On Sunday, we headed to church with my parents.  My oldest sister is in charge of the kids church each week.  On this specific week, my other sister and mom were also assigned to help out.  My dad was on praise team and also worked in the sound booth.  That gave Steve & I the decision to sit alone in the service or help out in kids church -- we chose the kids!  They were understaffed so it worked perfectly.  He and I were in charge of snack -- decorate your own cupcake!  I would take the kids to the bathroom first, allowing him to set up napkins, drinks and cupcakes for the kids to return to.  Then we helped with the icing and sprinkles, talked with them as they ate, then we all cleaned up.  I think there were 4 rotations and most everything went smoothly!  After church, we went over to my grandpa's retirement community for an Easter lunch.  There, my parents, sister, aunt, uncle, grandpa, Steve & I, enjoyed a pretty good Easter meal.  After we were done eating, we said our goodbyes.  Steve & I headed back to Lima (while my parents had to go to my brother's in Lafayette to help him with his car that had broken down the night before).

The best part about Easter was rejoicing that our Savior Lives!  We do not serve a God that is dead, but one that is alive and present in every aspect of our lives.  We are so thankful for Christ's sacrifice and hope that you, too rejoice in his resurrection!  Happy Easter!!