Baby book

 On September 17 our very first baby gift came in the mail from my mom. I LOVE IT!!! It's a 3 ring binder so you can add or take away pages and the book captures all the important moments of the child's first 5 years of life. I just started writing in it last night and added the first sonogram pictures. So cute! Thanks mom!!!! xoxox

17 weeks

HOW FAR ALONG: 17 WEEKS

WEIGHT GAIN: Still trying to gain back the weight, but I’m almost there. Only 6 lbs to go!!!

SLEEP: Not at all and I don’t know why. I’m not in pain, I’m not throwing up or sick to the stomach. I just lay in bed staring at the ceiling. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. It’s driving me crazy!

MOVEMENT: I feel bubbles and sometimes little butterflies. I hear that’s the baby. But I really can’t tell. It could just be gas bubbles and I think a fart is baby Mann. So I’m going to go with no for now…

FOOD CRAVINGS: Bagels, bagels and more bagels. I want to eat 10 a day. I don’t, but I even dream about them. Any bagel will do, but my favorite is an everything bagel with onion and chive cream cheese. Surprisingly Eddy still wants to kiss me afterwards…that’s true love.

STILL SICK: Yes, but it’s only about once a week. I’m trying to slowly get off Phenergan. I made the mistake of googling it and wasn’t happy with the results. The doctor never mentioned any of it and prescribed me 200 pills like they were candy. I’m on day 2 of not taking any. Wish me luck!!!

SYMPTOMS: Dizzy spells, headache, and acid reflux.Any suggestions on how to help the acid reflux?!?

GENDER: Find out on Oct 10^th!!!!! I had a dream the other night that someone was yelling from across a field that I was having a baby boy. I was so excited when I woke up the next morning and told Eddy. But the very next night I dreamt we were having a zombie baby. I’m pretty sure that washes away any credence to the first dream.

MOOD: Happy! It’s nice to have a life again away from the toilet

LOOKING FORWARD TO: Finding out the sex, feeling movement, and we bought a crib and armoire for the nursery. They both need work so I’m excited to get started. Pics to follow soon.

16 weeks

Sadly I wasn't able to take a picture every week when I was super sick. But with how I looked, you would thank me for not taking any pics. :)

Also, I'm way behind on posting these pictures so the dates on the post won't match the time period of my pregnancy. Hopefully soon I'll catch up. I was 16 weeks in early September...yes, I'm that behind.

This was taken with my phone...as you can see it turned out horrible! But I'm learning as I go so don't judge.

The chalkboard was an idea I got from Pinterest, way back when. A friend of mine was pregnant about a year ago and when we were searching on the site for fun pregnancy ideas, we found Jessica's Blog. This very creative girl explained how to make the chalkboard (a painting and frame I got from Goodwill) and then every week of her pregnancy posted fun little tid bits about the growth of the baby. I LOVED the idea! Especially once I realized I was moving to Texas and would be away from all my friends and family during such a special time. The chalkboard says "16 weeks - Baby Mann is the size of an avocado".

HOW FAR ALONG: 16 WEEKS

WEIGHT GAIN: Still trying to gain back the weight I lost from throwing up so much. I don't have a scale at home but I'm working my way back up to 163 lbs.

SLEEP: Only have to get up about 2 times a night to pee. I’m trying to train myself to sleep on my sides. I’m not doing a very good job though. As a back sleeper all my life I still wake up every morning on my back. This is going to be harder than I thought…

MOVEMENT: Not yet. I can’t WAIT for when I do!!!

FOOD CRAVINGS: Chips and Salsa – I have a confession…I ate a whole bag of tortilla chips (family size) and a bottle of Pace picante sauce in one day. It was AMAZING!!!!!

STILL SICK: Yes, but only throwing up about 3-4 times a week. Significantly better than before. The meds are doing the trick!

SYMPTOMS: Dizzy spells. What is this all about?!?!?

GENDER: Find out on Oct 10^th!!!!!

MOOD: Happy! I’m having a baby and I can actually keep food down. Whoo hoo!

LOOKING FORWARD TO: Finding out the sex, feeling movement, and moving into our new home. I’m already starting to gather ideas for the nursery and can’t wait to get started.

Thank you

Around 8 weeks I started the lovely morning sickness. Boy was I in for a treat! For the next two months I just wanted to die. I still don't understand why they call it "morning sickness". It should be called "all day, every day, so bad that you want to drown yourself in the toilet you're throwing up in, sickness". I landed myself in the ER twice and after a follow up appt I was admitted into the hospital - all for dehydration. Turns out I'm one of the lucky ones diagnosed with hyperemesis gravidarum (aka: throwing up 15 times a day). I tried everything I could to help make it better...ginger ale, ginger tea, ginger everything, soda crackers, motherhood maternity suckers, plain toast, the medication Zofran, etc. Nothing worked. The best was when you would tell someone that you’ve tried everything and then they would say, “But did you try saltine crackers, those should do the trick”. Really?!?! OMG! I’m so glad that I ran into you because I NEVER would have thought to try the most obvious thing. But thank you for pointing that out. I’ll race right home and try that. Ugh! But I digress…

I wanted to say THANK YOU to my wonderful husband (this is my favorite picture of him...awwww). It has been probably the worst two months of my life and I couldn’t have gotten through it without him. Don’t get me wrong…I was beyond excited to be pregnant. But while I was in the depths of what it brings, I won’t lie, there were moments that I questioned “what the heck did I get myself into?” But Eddy was right there with me doing all that he could to make it a better experience. Whenever he wasn’t at work, he was right there next to me rubbing my back while I was puking away. He did everything he could to make me laugh at least once a day and constantly reminded me that in the end it will all be worth it! I’m so glad that I married this wonderful man and I know he’ll be the greatest father a child could have.

I also wanted to say thank you to the dear friends I’ve made in the short time I’ve been here in TX. While Eddy was at work they would bring me food, clean my house, or just stop by to check up on me. Military wives are an amazing group of ladies that go out of their way to help each other out. I’m so glad that I’ve met them!

10 weeks

I haven't been the best with taking pictures of my belly but I'm trying to get better. These were taken just to send to some family/friends through text. 

First Ultrasound

July 26th we went to the OB to get our first ultrasound. It was amazing! We got to see our little Mann do a dance for us and hear the heartbeat. Only 10 weeks and baby Mann already has some moves!!! Can't wait to meet this little guy :)

I'm pregnant!!!!!

On Saturday night Eddy and I had some friends over. In the middle of playing our board game I laid down on the couch and fell asleep. It was only around 7pm but I slept through the night and didn't wake up till 10am the next morning. My first thought was, "I must be getting sick since something is going around." I fell back asleep and woke up an hour later. Now if you know me...you know I LOVE my sleep. But this was a little ridiculous. I went into my cupboard and took a pregnancy test, really just for fun. But it immediately came out positive. I started screaming for Eddy to come look. He ran in and saw the test. He said, "Does that say what I think it says?". But I couldn't even answer....I was still screaming and jumping around for joy. He picked me up, twirled me around, then threw me on the bed. You would think he would have been a little more careful with a newly pregnant woman. ;) But we both just started laughing and I told him we had to go to Target right away. We ended up buying four more boxes of pregnancy test (each box included 2-3 tests) and rushed back home to take them all. I only ended up taking 7 tests total that day and I really wish I got a picture. By this time we just sat on the bed in total silence letting it settle in. We were going to be parents!!!! We were actually going to be responsible for another human being. Whoa! I ended up taking a pregnancy test every morning for about two weeks just to make sure the little monster was still in there and it didn't disappear during the night. A little crazy, I know. But every morning I would take the test and then cry like a baby that it was actually happening.

So it was official. On June 24, 2012 Eddy and I found out we were expecting our first child....and we couldn't be happier.