Hello, Third Trimester!

As I am sitting down to type out this post, I am currently 31 weeks pregnant. What seemed like an eternity when I found out that I was 5 weeks pregnant has now came and gone. This baby is already completely changing every aspect of life for me, from my eating and sleeping habits to my emotions, all the way to my perspective on different areas of life. It is such a wonderful feeling being pregnant but also very life-changing. Yes, I know, wait until she actually gets here :) The picture above was taken at 30 weeks. Tight doesn't even begin to describe my tummy right now. 

I have learned so many things about Caroline. We have already formed a bond and I have never even met her. For example, she loves when I drink chocolate milk, no matter what time of the day it is. This pregnancy has doubled my love for milk even more that it was, so I am going through a gallon or so a week. She also is not a fan of the light. I catch her rolling and flipping while I'm laying on my side at night, but the second I pull up my shirt to show Kyle, she immediately becomes still. It is so funny sometimes that it makes me giggle. She is so high in my belly right now that I constantly have rib pain. Her little bottom is rock hard and she stays balled up on my right side. That is her favorite place. 

The past few weeks have had ups and downs. I had another episode of extreme heartburn again. This is the second time this has happened (even while taking medications daily.) Thankfully, it lasted around ten hours. No worries-between my ER besties and my mama I was well taken care of. Kyle was at work for this episode, which probably worked out in his favor considering I was helpless. I usually work four ten-hour shifts a week, and now I have realized how hard it is becoming to work ten hours in your third trimester of pregnancy. It can be done, but it's not easy. My ankles have not quite made it to cankles, but they are starting to swell at the end of the day. This is hard for me because I like to work and I like my job so I find it hard to just sit down and rest. I always feel like there is something I should be doing or feel guilty for sitting down. 

Christmas was really special this year with the anticipation of Caroline coming at the beginning of 2015. Of course we received more gifts for her than we did for ourselves which we were extremely grateful for. Little girls are so much fun to buy for. Tomorrow we are going to Huntsville to pick up our nursery furniture and I am very excited! Every step makes it feel more and more real. Here are some pics from the past month…iPhone quality.

We took off for Chattanooga one Saturday for a rock-climbing gym adventure with Andrew and Victoria. You never know what kind of adventures the four of us will have. We had almost made it to the gym when Kyle had to pull over because I was tossing my cookies into a Hardee's bag. I ended up throwing up so much in the bag that I resorted to the sidewalk where I continued to vomit in front of a man walking down the street. Thankfully, he was very sympathetic and the vomiting stent only lasted less than ten minutes. I served as photographer for the day at the climbing gym and watched the three of them climb for a few hours and then we had a great meal at Big River Grille.

I am not a huge fan of selflies but I made myself start taking some iPhone pics so I could look back and remember good memories during this pregnancy. This is before our shopping trip for my birthday. Target for the maternity win. 

Kyle had to work the day after my birthday so I loaded up with Dad, Mom, Andrew, and Victoria and we headed to Chattanooga and had a great meal at Sticky Fingers. Zantac to begin my meal and Tums in between the appetizer and entree. Story of my life. 

This night was so much fun. We had our Sunday School get together at Tim and Kim's for Christmas and laughed the night away. Before we knew it, it was 9:30 and we felt like the party had just started. We played "Rate Your Mate", where I laughed so hard I was sure I wouldn't make it to the bathroom in time three or four times. Those are the best kind of nights. :)

The picture quality isn't that great, but it this after our cousin Wiley and Sara's wedding. We ate wings with Andrew and Victoria after the wedding to celebrate my birthday, which was that night. I settled for my Wing-Stop favorite, Garlic Parmesan wings, which made Caroline very very happy. ;)

December holds many birthdays for Kyle's side of the family so our tradition the past few years has been to pick one night and celebrate at Rosie's. This is after we got home.. we were so excited that we had eaten dinner and it was only 8:30 so we could still go to bed early. The funny thing is that I am serious. :)

My church had an Artsy Amber painting party and mama and I painted these door hangers. It was really fun and I managed to actually do an okay job!

Merry Christmas! This is our last Christmas picture as a family of two before our sweet baby gets here. 

   

I can't believe I am posting a picture of my self in pajamas after waking up ten minutes prior to this picture, but I had to show my new gun. Kyle and I like to target-shoot together but my little Smith and Wesson trigger was hard to pull. Christmas morning I woke up to a brand new Taurus 9mm and a grinning husband that couldn't wait to give it to me. I can't wait to try it out after Caroline gets here. Kyle says that I am slowly converting to a redneck, but I would like to make it very clear that this is not true. I just like to carry a gun and know how to safely use it. 

 And I can't forget my sweet little Libby Lou! She had the best Christmas (her 3rd Christmas with us.) This sweet fur baby got a Christmas doggie that she has played with non-stop since Christmas morning. She also got a stocking at her nana's (my mom's) full of goodies. Words cannot express how much I love her and her sweet little personality.

My mother in law had asked me last month what I wanted for Christmas and specified that it had to be something for me, not the baby. All I could think about was how miserable I was at night not being able to get comfortable so I suggested a body pillow and boy was I happy I thought of it. This pillow has only been in our house two nights and I am in love with it already. It has helped with my rib and back pain while sleeping. I love the monogrammed cover and I even got an extra cover with my name monogrammed for when I am washing this one! Such a great gift. 

Mama got Kyle and I this ornament when she went to the Smoky Mountains in October. It is so sweet and special. I am pretty sure she is right up there with me in the excitement and anticipation of her getting here in February. ;)

Full, tired, and happy on Christmas night. I look so very tired but I want to look back and remember how happy and thankful I was this Christmas. Happy that I got to spend it with Kyle and we both were off work and thankful for my healthy family that cares so much about us. I couldn't help but think about how much God has provided for me and how much we take for granted. I am so thankful for Kyle and his love for me and the baby. God has blessed us tremendously this year and I don't want to take a single bit of it for granted. 

Sweet Caroline

Well, November is nearing the end and this pregnancy seems to be flying by. The first trimester went by so slow and felt like it would take forever to get where I am now. I have been experience so many new things the past few weeks of pregnancy. Not to mention the task of designing a nursery for a sweet baby girl (which I said I was not going to make stressful.) We officially have ordered our furniture, rocker/recliner, a few little things I wanted, and the room is painted so I am starting to de-stress a little. I guess the most important thing is that she finally has a name! Our sweet baby will be named Caroline Reese Page. Kyle has never really been opinionated about anything I choose in our marriage except for this baby's name! Countless nights we have sat on the couch watching a tv show with me reading through name lists. We never really agreed on much, but what we did find out was that we both liked original and timeless names. Some of the names I loved were Katherine, Abigail, Sara, and Harper. Kyle and I had decided that we were in love with Harper, but the more we started looking at girl things, the more we saw Harper as the sample name on so many things so we figured it would be the next big thing. Even though it is such a pretty name. So now that we have decided on her name, it is so much fun to talk about her. And yes, we realize that lots of people will probably call her "Sweet Caroline" but I am okay with that. Maybe the most fun part about her name is that her monogram will be CPR which is very fitting for Kyle and I since we are both in the medical field and we met in the ER. :)

The newest obstacle I am facing right now is sleeping at night.  I realize that I am going to get a lot bigger than I am now, but it is already so hard to get comfortable. It hurts to lay on my right side so I always start out on my left, but end up waking up whenever I turn to my right from rib pain. Then of course I realize that my bladder is about to bust so I have to get out of bed to use the bathroom and try to go back to sleep. Kyle is just going to try to make it through the next couple of months as best as he can. :)

Another thing that I am facing is trying to squeeze into my jeans. I have officially resorted to the pony-tail holder trick for every pair I own. Luckily I wear surgery scrubs every day, so this is only a weekend problem for me. I am very thankful that I am finally getting round and looking pregnant instead of people looking at you and wondering! I am sure that I will have to buy a few things before it is all over.
Our 26 week doctor's appointment was this past week and we got to see her for a few minutes. It is always exciting to watch Kyle react to her moving around. So far everything looks great and we couldn't be happier or more thankful.

My parents came down this week to help paint the nursery. I did not plan to participate since the paint fumes are dangerous, but we did not plan on Kyle being sick either. So my awesome parents (mainly my dad) spent a few hours edging and putting the first coat on while I took care of my sick husband. He is coming back this week to put the second coat on. So thankful for my dad! I have a feeling that he and mom will spoil Caroline just a tad bit. ;) Especially since mom drove to Fort Payne yesterday to buy a Little Tykes kitchen for her that looks just like the one I had when I was little. Mom also has all of my smocked church dresses from when I was a baby saved too, so having a girl is turning out to be very fun.

That is all for now.. just wanted to update and write a little so I could look back and read in years to come what was going on at this time of my pregnancy. I will try to post more pictures next time!



21 Weeks and Counting

I can't believe I have reached my 21st week of pregnancy and that I am over halfway there. I never thought that time would speed up like this. The past few weeks have been new experiences for me, so I thought I would do a blog post on most everything that my friends and co-workers have been asking me! 

1. Have you been craving anything? 

Oddly enough, not really! Most women tell pregnancy stories of craving things that they never ate before they were pregnant. The only thing I have experienced is having a very increased appetite and wanting things that I already ate, like Japanese food, boiled peanuts, pickles, etc.

2. Can you feel her kick?

Obviously from my last blog post I am already feeling her kick, but over the past week she has turned it up a notch. Most of my mommy friends tell me that towards the end it will get to where you wish the baby would get out of your rib cage. :) Yesterday I ate some sliced apples and apparently she thought they were good because I actually felt her twisting around in there! It was the first day that I could lay my hand and feel some slight movement. Kyle was at work so I was sad that he couldn't share it with me. 

3. How are you feeling today?

As with most expecting moms, I  am guessing every day is a new journey. The past few weeks I have been quite energized throughout my days at work and home, but a few days have been rotten. Last Monday Kyle and I ate at Buffalo Wild Wings and apparently the three garlic wings and fries that I ate didn't agree, so for about 5-6 hours that evening I had the worst heartburn I have ever experienced. I tried Zantac, Pepcid, Tums, Pepto Bismol, milk, sitting in the recliner, drinking water, sticking a peppermint in my mouth...you name it, I tried it. We actually didn't have Pepcid at home so at 10pm while it was pouring down rain Kyle rode with me to Walmart and I took a Pepcid in Walmart parking lot I was so desperate. I ended up driving to the emergency room at midnight where my friends were working and signing in because I was crying so hard from the pressure in my chest and thankfully they gave me some IV reflux meds along with Viscous Lidocaine (the nastiest but most relieving medication ever) and I went home to get some rest. The heartburn returned an hour after I got home and I didn't end up sleeping but an hour that night. The pain finally resolved the next morning, but I certainly am going to watch what I eat and take Zantac more religiously than before.  I actually have heartburn quite frequently but this was nothing like I have ever experienced. So thankful for those awesome friends and Dr. Foley for helping me out when I needed it the most! 

4. Have you started nesting?

Okay let me be honest here, before I got pregnant, I didn't even know what the term "nesting" really meant. And I think most pregnant women usually do this later in pregnancy, but I have for sure had some nagging feelings about my house! We have three bedrooms in our house and we are currently in the process of "cleaning out" the nursery. The main problem I have with our house is that we do not have enough storage, so right now I am being driven crazy with the fact that we need to get some things out of one closet into storage in the garage so that we can move my winter clothes out of the nursery closet and get ready to start painting. This runs through my mind at least 5 times daily. I don't think this is really considered nesting, but I also came home from work one day and removed everything from my fridge, cleaned every shelf and and drawer in the sink, and re-arranged everything. I clean my fridge regularly, but not impulsively. It was pretty funny. 

5. Are you wearing maternity clothes yet?

No, but I probably need to! Since I wear uni-sex scrubs in surgery I don't have to wear jeans or dress clothes but just on the weekends. Last week was the first struggle I have had when I wore slacks and a flowy top to church and my pants came unbuttoned twice during the worship service at church! I couldn't help but laugh. 

6. Do you have a theme for your nursery?

I'm not actually theming her nursery, but I am going to (try) to help make my custom curtains and bedding! Pretty excited about that! I know that she will probably be sleeping in our room for the first few weeks/months so I am not in too much of a rush to get her nursery completely done.

I will leave with a few pictures. This is our sweet little girl at her 20 week anatomy ultrasound. She is measuring up just right and we are so thankful for a healthy baby. This ultrasound was done on her dad's birthday and was a special day for us. We couldn't get over how big her lips are already! 

These were taken this morning before church… and I had to share because it was too funny not to. Kyle likes to pick at me constantly, and one of the things he does to make me mad is keep holding the picture button down on my iPhone when I ask him to take a picture.. so there are always 10-15 pictures I have to go through and delete. This morning we used my iPhone 6 for the first time and of course, he held the picture button down and the result was quite entertaining. You can see when I figured it out. :)

Happy Fall Everyone!

The Sweetest Kicks

I knew that once I got on here to start posting about being pregnant that it would be addicting, but I just have to share what happened last night! Kyle and I had been at home yesterday afternoon discussing names that we liked and finally decided on our daughter's first name. It was such a fun moment finally deciding and saying "Yes, we are done, thats her name!" Then singing her name while walking around the house. I am guessing she heard all of this and decided that she liked her name because around two o'clock in the morning when I was working in the ER, she kicked me for the first time and it was so very surreal. To me it felt exactly like it should if a little person is inside of you and kicks you from inside. My friend Tawnya, who is three weeks ahead of me, got to watch my face light up in amazement and then I started to shriek. :)

All of that sickness and awful fatigue feeling that came with the first trimester is now forgotten and replaced with a wonderful feeling of actually being a mother to a tiny, kicking human being. It is a wonderful life today. 

Baby Page On The Way!

Words can not express how happy I am that fall is finally here! It is by far my favorite season and I love everything that comes with it. But the best part of this fall is that I will be experiencing my second trimester of pregnancy this fall/winter 2014. I decided that I would do a blog about my pregnancy thus far because some of my favorite blogs to read are about pregnancy. I read them even before I became pregnant. :)

One of the questions people ask when you are pregnant is whether or not you planned the pregnancy. My answer to this question is yes. Kyle and I were married in December of 2012, which means this December we will celebrate two years of marriage. While Kyle isn't that much older than me, he will be 30 in the next couple of weeks (he might kill me for posting this) and I will be 26 in December. So knowing that we wanted more than one child (if God allows it), we decided that we would start trying before we hit two years of marriage.

We began trying this past May and found out in June that we were pregnant. This is something I struggle with posting (because I don't know who is reading this) so to anyone out there that is having fertility issues, my heart longs and reaches out to you. I am thankful that God saw fit to provide a child to us almost immediately and will not take that for granted. Kyle and I went to Louisiana the first weekend in June and the day we woke up to go home, I felt different. I don't know how to explain it, but my stomach felt weird the whole day. A week passed by and we were doing our usual Sunday morning routine of drinking coffee and getting clothes ironed for church when I just felt weird. I obviously was a few days late so I went to Wal-Mart and picked up a box of 2 pregnancy tests. When I got home and took the first test, I really couldn't believe my eyes. So I walked to the kitchen with my heart fluttering and drank a whole bottle of water so I could take the second one. Meanwhile, Kyle is sipping coffee while playing Candy Crush and watching the news. I took the second test and when it came back positive as well, my heart raced so fast that I could not hardly stand up. I slowly walked into the living room and sat on the edge of the couch with shaking hands holding both tests and asked Kyle to look at what I just did. He glanced over and did a double, maybe triple take. Looking back now it is so funny. He asked me what two lines meant and I started laughing and told him it meant that I was pregnant. His face turned white as a sheet as he sat there and processed everything for a few minutes. We started laughing and talking about how we couldn't believe this was really happening. Needless to say, we went to church and Sunday School but couldn't concentrate a lick the whole day. :)

These are the first two tests I took!

And these are the others I took after church just to make sure! ;)

The next few weeks were not the greatest. I found out so early that I was pregnant that my first trimester went by (what felt like) so slow! Not to mention the sickness. I started getting sick at seven weeks. The first time was the worst. I was rushing around the house getting ready for work and had brushed my teeth and grabbed my purse to go out the door when I passed the garbage can outside. I got a faint whiff of the garbage scent and before I knew it, I had projectile vomited in my front yard. After that day it was like I had turned on a switch. I threw up in the shower some morning, while brushing my teeth, while putting my shoes on. It became so hard to get out of bed in the morning. I tried eating crackers while laying in bed and taking Zofran, but it only helped some mornings. I also became extremely fatigued during the days. I would come home from work and fall on the couch and sleep until the next morning. Heartburn settled in as well, and I had to start taking Zantac. To be completely honest, the first trimester was not that exciting for us.

This is baby Page at 8 weeks! I had an ultrasound very early due to some ovarian cyst pain that was quite worrisome. We were completely amazed when we saw this. I will never forget that feeling. 

Our little bean at ten weeks! I couldn't believe that something this small was making me throw my guts up every morning. :)

Whoa now! Big difference, right? Baby Page at 14 weeks. Kyle's face was so sweet when he saw this picture. It was like he finally understood that a little person was "really" in there! 

Thankfully at 14 weeks, most of the nausea ceased and the fatigue went away. I know that some people experience this for their whole pregnancy and I can't imagine what that is like. It could still come back for me since I am only 18.5 weeks so far, but I'm hoping not.

At our fourteen week ultrasound we were told that the baby might be a boy because there was some tissue that looked like it was developing between the legs that looked like little boy parts. Of course it wasn't confirmed, it was just a possibility, but we went home on the thoughts that it probably would be a boy. Lets be honest here, every expecting mother has a tiny hope of what she hopes her baby would be, but honestly doesn't care as long as its healthy. My first wish was for a girl, but when we were introduced to thoughts of a boy, I started to get into boy world. I picked out some cute fabric for bedding, I started looking online at clothes and nursery things and realized that we would definitely have fun with a boy and better yet, come out lots cheaper! :) Kyle even started talking about taking our son hunting, playing tee ball, etc. It was fun!

But this past week, we had an ultrasound that confirmed that actually, I am carrying a baby girl! It was such a surprise to us that we couldn't believe it at first. Kyle kept asking the ultrasound tech if she was sure because he was in shock. We have really switched into girl mode this week, though. Kyle is excited to have a daddy's girl and I am excited for dresses, bows, and monograms. Most importantly, we are most thankful for a healthy baby girl so far. My anatomy scan is in a couple of weeks so we still have a long journey ahead. The best part is having tons of energy during the day and feeling so much better in my second trimester. The most asked questions now is what are we going to name her and I have no idea. My usually laid-back husband has turned out to be quite opinionated about names, so deciding on a name together should be quite the task!

I will leave you all with this sweet little bottom :) Those three little white lines would be her little girl parts and the two white circles at the bottom are her feet. She was literally "showing her tail."  I hope this isn't indicative of a future little sassy girl! ;)

Well, I think this is about it for my first pregnancy post. Praying for a wonderful second trimester and a healthy anatomy scan! Until later.

God has got this... now where's your faith?

I became inspired by Sunday School this morning. So inspired that as I am walking around the house five minutes ago changing bed sheets and washing clothes that I knew I had to sit down and write out how I felt. Have you ever had a lightbulb Christian moment? Where something so simple that you probably hear about a thousand times at church just somehow, well, clicks?

Ironically enough, we are in the book of 1 Peter for our Sunday morning sermons as well as Sunday school. As we are reading about loving others no matter what and having awesome and powerful faith throughout the darkest trial in your life, something just hit me. 

I know that God is sovereign and that His will is just. I know that he knew what was going to happen in my life even before I was born. So why, oh why, do I pray for certain outcomes? Why even pray at all if God knows what is best for me? After all, His timing is always right. Why should I ask him for certain things? This is a hard thing for me to dissect in my head. Until it just hit me through our lesson. This Christianity thing is all about ME. My efforts, attempts, faith, prayers, act of worship, etc. towards God. God is always going to be the same (something we hear relentlessly growing up) and it is just coming to me! He desires for me to pray to him to that I can see how my faith is growing/not growing! Yes, ultimately this is about HIM in the sense that Jesus gave his life for us. But the relationship aspect is all ME. He is always holding tight to that rope and his grip never lets up. We have to decide if we are going to climb that rope higher. Just like someone pointed out in Sunday School this morning, God knew that Isaac was not going to die that day that he commanded Abraham to die. That was God's perfect will. He just wanted Abraham to realize how far his faith extended and how he would be blessed for having that faith. 

Thanks to God for revealing even the simplest of things to me. Now time to apply it to my life. 

Beach 2014

Every year I am so excited for summer because it means that a beach trip is nearing. We did something a little different this summer and went to the Atlantic Coast to Daytona Beach with some friends from church and it was so much fun. Daytona Beach is cleaner than the gulf and the sand just isn't as messy. We ate seafood at some great restaurants and of course enjoyed our long days on the beach. We also stopped by the racetrack and it was pretty awesome! Here are some pictures from our trip.