Catching up: 4 yr anniversary weekend

Chris and I decided that it was important for us to celebrate our last anniversary as just the two of us.  We haven't been able to spend a lot of time together recently due to our work schedules and the fact that Chris has been working 7 days a week.

Anyway, we decided just to head over to the beach for a 3 day weekend.  This was going to be my first day of vacation since I started my job in July.  Yeah, that lasted until 9:30 in the morning when the texts and calls started.  Why was I not surprised?!?

We dropped Jasmine off at doggie daycare for the weekend and then we were on our way out.  Chris made a turn and my car died in the middle of the intersection.  Yes, my 2011 car died!  Thankfully we were able to coast into a gas station and then Chris got out to push it the rest of the way to a parking spot.  We immediately called emergency roadside service and they said it would be about an hour for the tow truck to arrive.  Thankfully I still had AC and Chris had already determined it was the transmission that went out.

Since we were only a couple of miles from home, Chris decided to run home (literally) to get his car so we could still have our beach weekend.  The tow truck arrived and we followed it to the dealership and said we would call on Saturday for an update.

We were now on the road for our trip!  Whew!  Chris's 92 4Runner to the rescue!  LOL!

We stayed at a cute little hotel in Flagler which is probably my favorite beach.  The hotel was actually pet friendly and didn't have weight or breed restrictions, so we could have taken Jasmine with us.  Flagler beach is also dog friendly and that is where we normally go for our beach days. 

We had a wonderful weekend enjoying each other and discussing the baby and what our future holds.  We took a lot of walks along the beach and just had a relaxing time.  It was wonderful.

Here are some photos from that weekend:

(Please excuse the crappy point & shoot photos, I have no idea what was going on with the white balance.)

Sunset at St. Augustine Beach:

That's right-I went bare belly!  LOL!  I don't have any stretch marks (fingers crossed it stays this way!), so I figured why not?!?

Chris got to play photographer for a quick sunrise shoot.  He told me just to set the camera on auto and he would be fine.  Ummm, my normal camera doesn't have auto, only my back up does.  I did all of the settings for him and then let him go.  We also did a quick prep session of "this looks good, this doesn't, so if I am doing this-tell me!" 

It was actually quite cold that morning (low 50s) and I was freezing!  We had to take advantage of being at the beach at sunrise though.  I was 25 weeks 5 days in this photo.

And there go my rings!

I have decided not to do the weekly updates that I have been doing because I think they are kind of boring.  Obviously I am wearing maternity clothes and will continue to do so!

As of last week, I am not wearing my wedding ring and engagement ring which makes me sad.  I could probably wear them a little bit longer, but it makes me really nervous that they are going to get stuck.  I actually went to Claire's and bought a super cheap (under $10) ring that looks like a wedding ring, but it turned my finger black after a day.

This might sound silly, but I want a ring on my ring finger!  There have been several times that I have actually seen someone look at my belly and then move their gaze to check my ring finger.  I know sometimes I look like I am 17, but now I look like a pregnant, unmarried high school student. LOL!

In baby development this week, I finally felt movement!  Yay!  I never really felt flutters - it went straight to kicking.  I thought once I felt her move that it might seem more real, but nope, it still feels the same.  Chris has begun painting her room and he decided he wanted to paint the ceiling.  He saw this shiny "precious metals" paint and of course decided he had to use it.  So silly!  The walls should be painted sometime this week and then I will begin to make the crib skirt and curtains.

Here are some 22 week photos:

21 weeks (posted 1 day late)

How far along?  21 weeks and 1 day today

Baby’s Size: 7 inches (the length of a large banana)

Baby’s Weight: 11 ounces

Development: Arms & legs are finally in proportion and the neurons are now connected between the brain and muscles.

Weight gain/loss:  I only weight myself at my appointments.

Maternity clothes?  Of course!

Sleep: Work has been super stressful, so I am blaming my lack of sleep on that.  I have also been having very graphic dreams and am typically waking up around 2 am.

Best moment this week?  The fabric arrived!

Symptoms:  Just feeling bigger.  Is that a symptom?

Labor signs?: Nope

Movement?: Still nothing

Belly button in or out?: In!

What I miss: Nothing this week.

Food cravings/aversions: Chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate. 

What I'm looking forward to: Having the room painted.

Milestones:  Baby movements are supposed to be more coordinated now as opposed to jerky twitches.  However, I haven't felt anything so I have no idea!

What I look like this week:

Mushy lovey-dovey stuff

For those of you who know Chris and I, you know that we aren't a super lovey-dovey couple.  Does that mean we love each other any less, of course not!  We just have different ways to express it.  Here is how I know Chris loves me a lot:
1) Walking the dog at night because I am deathly afraid of snakes.  FTR, we have never even seen a snake where we live now.
2) Refusing to let me vacuum because it hurts my back.
3) Being strong enough to stay with Victoria in the last moments of her life because there was no way I could do it & crying the whole way home because it was so hard.  I am crying now just thinking about it.
4) Giving up his one day off a week countless times to be my assistant at weddings, engagement sessions, newborn sessions, etc and not complaining one bit.
5) Insisting on being the one to put clean sheets on the bed because I always hurt myself attempting to get the sheets on our gigantic mattress.
6) Believing from the very beginning of the pregnancy that it was a girl because he knew that I wanted a girl.
7) Getting teary eyed when he was telling people that we are having a girl and that he didn't realize how much he wanted a daughter until we found out that we are.
8) Being the cat box cleaner.  Seriously, what a guy.
9) Loving my animals as his own.  Seriously, our cats are pretty naughty and we have had some rough patches with them.
10) Loving me no matter what.

Of course there are more, but pregnancy hormones now have me crying, so that is all for now.  Here is one of my favorite photos of us:

20 weeks

How far along?  20 weeks

Baby’s Size:  Fruit - size of a cantaloupe  6.5 inches

Baby’s Weight: 10 ounces

Development: Her uterus is funnly formed and practicing acrobatics.

Weight gain/loss: +1 lb from pre-pg weight

Sleep: Nothing has changed.

Best moment this week?  There were quite a few: we now have the furniture & crib mattress.  I also found & ordered the fabric for the curtains and crib skirt.

Symptoms: Having to go to the bathroom all the time!

Labor signs?: Nope!

Movement?: Nothing really.  However, at my appointment today, the midwife was showing Chris the difference between the head and butt and how to distinguish the limbs.  As soon as the midwife "cupped" her butt, she flipped around.  I could feel this on the outside since I was pushing against her.

Belly button in or out?: In

What I miss: Nothing really - just the usual rare steak and sushi

Food cravings/aversions:  Sweets, especially Steak n Shake milkshakes (strawberry or chocolate)

What I'm looking forward to: The fabric arriving

Milestones: Halfway there!  According to the midwife, she now has a 92% chance of survival outside of the womb if heaven forbid something were to happen.

What I look like this week: (I changed my hair too.)

19 weeks (posted 5 days late!)

How far along? 19 weeks

Baby’s Size:  6 inches (the size of a large mango)

Baby’s Weight:  8 ounces

Development: Vernix is now covering the baby's skin.  Kidneys are now developed enough to produce urine and hearing is well-developed.

Weight gain/loss: I don't do this week to week but rather by appointment to appointment.

Maternity clothes?  Yep and I am going to start taking this one out b/c it will be maternity clothes from here on out!

Sleep: A luxury like always.

Best moment this week?  We found out that it's a girl!  We also now have all of our furniture thanks to my step-dad.

Symptoms:  Hunger, hunger, and more hunger.

Labor signs?: Nope

Movement?: Still nothing, but I am hoping it will be in the next couple of weeks.

Belly button in or out?: In

What I miss: Rare steak!

Food cravings/aversions: Still craving sweets, especially chocolate.

What I'm looking forward to:  Having the baby room cleaned out.

Milestones: A rep at work congratulated me without me having to mention anything about being pregnant.

What I look like this week: (Oh and my face always look fatter with my hair down!)

It's a ...

Okay, so I have to leave you in suspense for just a minute.  As some of you may know, I said that the baby is a boy because according to all of the old wives tales, it was a girl.  Chris was guessing girl.  Only 3 other people said girl and everyone else said boy.

During the ultrasound, the baby was super stubborn and uncooperative.  No big surprise there!  Our plan was not to find out the sex during the ultrasound, but rather have the tech print out a picture and put it in an envelope.  Then, during dinner that evening, we would open up the envelope. 

The baby looked great - heart, spine, umbilical cord, etc, looked great.  Then when they went to check the sex, they turned off the monitor so we couldn't see.  The tech said that the baby had its legs crossed and was moving around a lot.  She thought she got the sex, but wasn't 100% sure.  Fantastic!

The midwives wanted my cervix checked, so the tech was hoping to be able to see more during that scan, but of course, the baby had it's legs crossed and there was no way to tell.  The tech decided to try one more time with the regular ultrasound and she did a lot of pushing after I did some moving around.  The tech then said, yep, I definitely got it.  Yay!

I will say that watching the ultrasound was surreal.  The baby was literally stomping its feet.  We could not get one shot with both feet in the photo.  The baby was also punching and just moving around a lot.  I was laughing pretty hard (which I am sure didn't help at all) and the tech was laughing too.  She said that she likes doing scans like this because it makes her job more fun.  : )  So far I haven't felt any movement which is supposedly because I have an anterior placenta (meaning it is in the front).

Then we were done and left with the envelope in our hands.  Our plan was to go home, change, and go to dinner.  C was walking the dog while I was changing and then I heard him come inside, yell something, and go back out.  Come to find out, an unknown dog walked into our garage!  We had no idea who this dog belonged to as it did not have a tag but it did have a collar.  We decided to walk around and see if anyone recognized him.  We had never seen him before, so we did not know if he was from our neighborhood or not.

Everyone that saw him said they had never seen him before.  Fantastic.  There was no way we were going to leave him outside and we couldn't really bring him in our house because Jasmine is not dog friendly with 100% of dogs.  We decided to run to the vet (it is now 5:35 pm) to see if he has a micro-chip.  We get there at 5:55, have him scanned, and of course he has no chip.  Ugh!  We drive home and decide to just crate him in the garage while we go out to dinner.

Dinner was great.  The server asked if we were celebrating anything, so we told him what we were doing.  His guess was boy.  Before dessert came, we decided to open up our envelope.  There were 2 printed photos in the envelope.  The first one I pulled out said "3 line sign," so I immediately gush "It's a girl!" and C looks at me totally confused.  Then I pull out the second photo that says "girl" and he goes, see, I knew it was a girl.  Ha!

Now I feel comfortable sharing "what I wanted."  I definitely wanted a girl which is another reason I thought it was a boy!  C knew that I wanted a girl, so being the good husband that he is, willed it to happen.  : )

The other funny story from our dramatic day is that I was on my cell with my mom to let her know the results.  All of a sudden we see cop lights behind us and I ask C if he is getting pulled over.  Sure enough, he gets pulled over.  I ask C if he ran the stop sign and he says, "yes, I think I did."  Great, just great.  The officer comes up to our car and asks C if he knows why he is getting pulled over and C replied, "yes officer, I think I didn't come to a complete stop back there."  The officer tells him he is correct and asks for the usual license, registration, and insurance.  The officer asks if there is a reason he ran the stop sign to which I lean over and tell him that we just found out the sex of our baby and I was on speakerphone with my mom letting her know.

He then comes back to the car and says that the fee for running a stop sign is $160 something and 3 points on your license.  Fantastic!  He then says that he is giving us a warning, so "make sure you stop at all stop signs,"  told us congratulations and to have a safe night.  Whew!  Score one for our baby girl!

Oh, so back to the unknown dog.  We pull up in our driveway and there is a post-it on our garage with the address of the owner (who is on our block).  C walked the dog over and the owner was very thankful.  C said that the owner is an elderly person who doesn't walk the dog, so that is why we never saw him.  C gave him the suggestion to get the dog tagged and microchipped in case that ever happens again.

All in all, it was quite the eventful evening!