"Peanut"

I'll start from the beginning...

On our way home from Cancun on the plane, I was SURE I was getting cramps because of my period coming up.  They were so bad.  But even the next morning it still hadn't shown up.  So when we woke up, I told Austin I was going to take a pregnancy test to just rule that out.  I go in to take it and it was positive!  I ran in and told him and we couldn't believe it!  I wanted to tell him in some cute way, but I told him I was taking it...so that plan didn't work out.  I probably wouldn't have been able to keep it a secret anyway.  This post is titled, "Peanut" because for some reason that's what we've called him from the very beginning.  

How we told the fam

We told our family earlier than we thought we would, but since it was around Thanksgiving we thought that would be a fun time to share the news.  

For Austin's parents, we told them a few days before Thanksgiving that we got an Amazon Prime package delivered to our house with their name on it and we'd bring it by sometime that week.  They thought it was weird but with my amazing packaging skills, it looked legit!  I wrapped up a little pair of baby shoes with a paper that said "Baby Facer coming soon...July 2016" and put them in a tiny box with a bow, then put that box in the Prime box.  We took it over there and I filmed Austin's mom opening it.  They had the funniest guesses of what it would be...we were dying.  The funniest part was she sent Austin's dad downstairs to get ice cream while she was opening it, so he wasn't even there when it was finally opened.  I love her reaction -- she rips her coat off.  So dang funny :)  Since Austin's sister, Sarah, was on a mission in France, we told her on Christmas on Skype and her reaction is hilarious, too.

For my parents/family, I made this cute little onesie to put on my sisters brand new baby that said, "This lil turkey is going to be a big cousin."  I was planning on taking him out of the room, changing him real quick, and bringing him back to give to my mom.  It didn't go that smoothly...haha.  After we'd eaten, I waited for the perfect time to hold Jake so that I could take him out while everyone was just hanging out.  While I was holding him, it smelled like he'd pooped, so I told Lindsay I'd go change him.  She had to put some medication on him though, so she wasn't letting me.  So I went out with her anyway while she changed him, then I stole him and took him into the extra bedroom and started to change him, but he started screaming!  I would start changing him for a second, then calm him down, then change, then calm...until I heard Lindsay say, "Where's Jake?  I can hear him crying."  I felt like a horrible aunt!  After a few mins Lindsay and my other sister Amy came in and were so confused.  "What are you doing??" "Um, just changing him a little bit.  You guys can leave."  They could tell something was up, so when I finally got him changed and came out (with him swaddled in a blanket to cover up the fact that he had different clothes on now) they looked at me suspiciously.  I wanted to give him to my mom, but she wouldn't quit doing the dishes!  I had nieces and nephews begging to take him from me but I had to wait for my mom.  She finally sat down and took him from me but didn't notice the onesie until Lindsay and Amy pointed it out.  I didn't film it, but here's a cute picture my sister took when my dad came over to see.

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Symptoms

The first few weeks were just pure exhaustion and hunger.  I had to be eating pretty much all the time or else I'd feel nauseous, but I wasn't throwing up too much.  The only time I'd throw up is in the morning after I showered, but not every time.  I was eating everything in sight and sleeping every chance I could.

When I hit about 15-16 weeks, I started to feel normal again.  I had been taking Unisom (half in the morning, half at night) to help with nausea and I kept taking it, not wanting to risk being sick. I stopped taking it somewhere around the 18th-ish week and haven't felt sick since.  Since around week 8, I have had heartburn pretty bad.  I went through a lot of different medications before I found my best friend: omeprazole. I have been taking it faithfully for about 4 months and I hate my life on the days I forget to take it. 

Since about week 26, I haven't been able to wear my wedding ring, so I bought a cheap one from Claire's that I've worn since then.  I've received lots of compliments on my gorgeous $13 ring ;)  Around the same time, my feet started to swell at night a little bit.  Starting about week 28, my feet have been suuuuper swollen and I haven't seen my ankles for a very long time.  The past week or so (36-37 weeks) they've been really bad!

Besides my dang feet, I have felt surprisingly normal this entire pregnancy.  I've just recently started having to get up in the night to go to the bathroom, but it's only once a night and I sleep great most nights.  (Maybe it's because I have an awesome support pillow and I get the bed to myself?)  This whole pregnancy thing been really easy for me and I've been super lucky, which I'm so grateful for.  I just hope all they're all like this!

Cravings

The first craving I remember having was vegetables and dip.  I brought a big container of sour cream and made my Hidden Valley Dill dip at work and ate vegetables all day long.  Around the same time I wanted hummus and pita chips, so those were on my desk frequently.  When I was nauseous, it was Goldfish, Ritz, Mac & Cheese and any cracker I could find.  Mostly carby, unhealthy things.  I'm sure people thought I was crazy because I always had food at my desk.  Always.  The Mac & Cheese and Goldfish obsession lasted a reaaaally long time.  I remember being so frustrated with food though, because not a whole lot sounded very good but I was SO hungry most of the time that I just had to force myself to eat.  I got in the habit of doing that so I think that helped with me not getting very sick.

Once I wasn't so sick anymore, my smoothie/Slurpee/popsicle/anything cold and/or frozen kicked in.  I was stopping at Costco multiple times a week after work to get a berry smoothie.  Our freezer always had some sort of frozen treat, and we made a lot of runs to 7-11 for Slurpees.  One of the weirdest cravings has been Diet Coke.  I didn't like it before I was pregnant, but one day I went to get a drink at work and have never been so drawn to Diet Coke...and it tasted SO GOOD.  Since then it's been my drink of choice most of the time, especially with lime.  So bizarre.

Umm, don't mind the sock and nail clippers on the table...haha what the heck?

Right now I'm mostly craving lemonade, and that's about it.  Frozen, regular, any kind that's not the regular Minute Maid fountain kind.  I can't get enough.

Gender reveal

We were SO excited when we found out it was a boy.  We secretly wanted it to be a boy, so it's good it worked out that way :)  I'm excited because in my family, my brother and his wife just had a baby boy a year and a half ago, and my sister just had a baby boy in November.  They'll all be about a year apart, plus Lindsay's baby will be in the same grade as the lil peanut, so that'll be really fun.

For Austin's family, we made a cake and had his mom cut into it.  Her reactions are the best...haha.  Here's a little video of it:

For my family, we got a bunch of blue silly string and wrapped it in white paper.  We gave one to all the kids and had them spray it to find out.  We obviously already knew before both families.  We couldn't wait for them!

Here's a cute video we got from our 20 week ultrasound of him giving us a thumbs up!

Here's some progress pics along the way.  I wasn't very good at doing it...it's too hard to remember!  Also, Austin has been in Illinois/Indiana/Alabama this summer, so my lack of pictures is mostly due to my Instagram husband not being here.  Also, from the end of April to the end of May I was crazy busy with Quilt Market and I don't think I took one progress shot that whole time.  But here's a few.

6 weeks/3 days

10 weeks/3 days

16 weeks/1 day

20 weeks/3 days

28 weeks/3 days

Somewhere around 32 weeks...haha

33 weeks/5 days

36 weeks

Well, if you read this whole post, congratulations!  I had to include everything so I wouldn't forget. :)  I'll be 37 weeks tomorrow (so crazy!) and since both my mom and Austin's mom will be gone over my due date, my Dr will be inducing me on July 7th. (which happens to be my grandpa's birthday!) That's two weeks from tomorrow, people!  Austin will be coming home on July 3rd (yay!!!) and we can't wait for our little peanut to get here.