16 weeks and counting

Or more like 16.5... I've been really neglecting my blogging duties! 


Here's a 15 week picture (1/24/13):

My good friend, Alli, is 5 weeks ahead of me and texted me at work, asking for a picture of my belly. I tried to take the pic myself in the bathroom, but there were too many people going in and out so I felt like a creeper. Good thing my friend Tricia was there to help me out and snap a quick pic :)


Updates:
* we had our 16 week appointment on 1/31. Jeff and I got to hear baby H's heartbeat for the first time. It was the weirdest thing - it sounded like a cross between alien communication and what they hear on those ghost hunter shows when they use those amplifier things. So cool! Baby H's heartbeat was 140, which is totally on point. My blood pressure and sugars were within normal limits as well, even though I had splurged on a coffee a couple hours before (still cutting down on caffeine, but I'm not really a nice person without it. for the sake of my job, friendships, and marriage, I'll keep drinking it in smaller doses :).
* the Down's Syndrome and other genetic testing came back clear. My blood tests for STD's (HIV and such) came back clear as well, for those who were worried ;)
* weight gain at the last appointment was 3 pounds, bringing total weight gain thus far to 3.2 pounds. I've started to get a more pronounced belly so I was expecting way more. Perhaps I'm eating a little too healthy...
* I started seeing a chiropractor twice a week, and the results have been incredible. I went from walking like a super pregnant chick to almost totally normal. I'm going to continue to see her throughout the pregnancy (and maybe after) so that my delivery is as easy as possible. When Mom was in town. we chatted with Michelle at the Sweet Beginnings baby store; she convinced me that seeing a chiropractor was the way to go when she informed us that this particular chiropractor had turned her breech baby and she also had a 30 minute delivery. Sold.
* Jeff and I are going to interview a doula over the next few weeks and decide what birthing class we're going to take. I had been leaning toward the Bradley Method, but the doula our midwife recommended teaches HypnoBirthing/the Mongan Method. After doing research, we'll probably go with the doula and HypnoBirthing so that Jeff can enjoy the experience and not have the stress of being my coach. 
* I made my first belly band today. It was relatively easy, but jersey fabric is so frustrating to work with, as it stretches and rolls up, even after I ironed it. My first try turned out well (i.e. it's wearable), but my next effort will be much better, now that I know what I'm doing and how to manipulate the fabric. If I were to purchase more fabric for this project, I would probably get better jersey fabric than the thin stuff at JoAnn. For $7 a yard, I can't really complain, especially when I think I can get between 4-6 belly bands out of 2 yards of fabric. Belly bands run upwards of $15-20 each, so I'll consider this a win. (side note: how many times can I use the word "fabric" in one bullet point?!?!?).
* Jeff and I went to H&M yesterday to check out some gear and spend my gift card from my in-laws. I picked up a sweet pair of gray jeans and a sweet pair of black jeans, both maternity. They look completely ridiculous right now; I'm pretty sure the fitting room attendant was laughing at me. Seriously, if it wasn't for my thighs, the pants would have been on the floor! They're awesome though, and I'm looking forward to wearing them, especially since I've been lamenting the fact that I didn't buy similar ones at Express back in November. 

What I've been eating:
This has been a major question I've been getting lately. I've really started to research food, even more so than I used to. I've switched most of my fruits and vegetables to organic, and have really been reading labels to check for artificial preservatives, colors, and flavors. I've also become more attuned to whether products are labeled with non-GMO information. I've learned to read the labels on absolutely everything, as manufacturers will sneak some pretty awful ingredients into things you'd least expect. For example, I was craving cottage cheese last week, so I stopped by Safeway on my way home (it was snowing and I didn't want to go out of my way to Natural Grocers/Vitamin Cottage or Whole Foods) and grabbed some. I got home and read the label, only to discover Polysorbate 80 was listed as an ingredient. After consulting my good friend Google, I found that it has been known to cause anaphylactic shock in pregnant women, as well as contributing to an "increased risk of blood clots, heart attack, heart failure, and of tumor growth or recurrence in patients with certain types of cancer" (thegoodhuman.com, pubmed.com). I took it back to Safeway the next morning, of course. Needless to say, we're staying away from any ingredients that have a number in them. I've also been checking into preservatives as well as any ingredients I'm not familiar with; I checked into a preservative in sausage Jeff was going to buy at Target and found on the US government's website that it has been found to be "slightly toxic" but still okay for consumption. Umm, no? We went to Natural Grocers and bought preservative free sausage. The same happened to us with bread, which is why I now bake my own. We're also joining a CSA so we can ensure we know what is in our food and where it comes from. 
My breakfast typically consists of plain yogurt and fruit, oatmeal with fruit, homemade buckwheat groat cereal, or a smoothie. I'm getting a juicer this week (thanks to my MIL who rocks!) so I'll be experimenting more with smoothies :) Lunch is soup, a giant salad, or yogurt. Dinner could be a non-GMO tofu stir fry (watch out for soy products - 90% of them are GMO), a tofu wrap, spinach lasagna, pizza... sometimes we splurge with dinner since Jeff eats "dude food" aka (organic, free-range, nitrate and nitrite free) meat, and I'm so tired that I don't feel like making two meals. 

Okay, that was a long food update, but I've had a lot of questions. I hope you skipped it if you already knew the information, or if you were rolling your eyes because you think I've finally gone off the deep end :)

Side note: I'm going to try to blog more frequently, so that it's not word vomit every time I post!

xo, 
Breezy

12 weeks and counting...

happy new year!
it's been forever since i've posted. the month of december absolutely flew by with an unexpected whirlwind trip to iowa for my dear grandmother's funeral, a blizzard which almost stranded us in omaha, and then narrowly making it back to denver for our flight to portland.
whew. that's a lot even if you're not pregnant.
so, onto january and a fresh, new year!
we had our 12 week ultrasound yesterday and got to see little guy moving around like a little jumping bean (it seriously looked like he was smiling in there!). it was so cool to see him hanging out and actually looking like a human! i had been concerned because i haven't been feeling pregnant so it was good to see that there's actually someone in there :) the ultrasound tech confirmed that he has all necessary parts; at one point, it looked like he was either waving at us or giving us the finger.

(hopefully this video uploads, as i tried to send it to the grandparents last night without success.)
weight gain to date: .2lbs
craving: roasted seaweed, roasted edamame, the little cutie oranges
avoiding: meat (just the thought of it grosses me out, even more than usual)
feeling: okay overall. experiencing insane bloating periodically. still pretty tired and ready for bed around 8pm. i was pretty impressed with myself for making it to 11pm on new year's eve (hey, it was midnight in iowa, right?). 
we actually didn't miss going to the bar, or having a hangover on new year's day. it was nice to hang out with jeff and the dogs, just celebrating at home. we kept saying, "next year we'll  have another buddy." 
okay, i'm getting tired...
xoxo, 
breezy

timing is everything (or how not to tell your husband you're pregnant)

I've never been known to have amazing, or remotely good, timing. I get really excited about something and just have to blurt it out to the next person I see, even if it would have been in that person's best interests if I had kept the information to myself. Like the time a million years ago when I "ruined" Christmas for my brothers: I went downstairs to use the bathroom early Christmas morning and saw that Garrett had gotten the train set he had been dying to get and Greg had gotten the Afterburner video game he had been obsessing over. I was so excited for them that I ran back upstairs and proceeded to screech "you got an Afterburner and you got a train set!" To this day, I can't remember what I got since the crestfallen looks on their faces has recorded itself over that memory on the VHS tape in my head. I mean, they were excited about their presents but they would have been better off experiencing the excitement firsthand.

You would have thought I'd have learned from that, but let's fast forward to Election Day (also known as Garrett and Greg's birthdays this year - 11/6). I took a pregnancy test that morning after Jeff left for work. I wanted to take it sooner, as it's supposed to be done first thing in the morning, but it's a little hard to do things in secret when Jeff and I are 5 feet away from each other at any given time while we're getting ready. We weren't actively trying, but we weren't actively preventing either, so I wanted to take the test to see if I could have wine while watching the election returns that night (I had devised my own drinking game to make this task more manageable). For some reason, I decided that my urine cup would be one that I had gotten years ago on "birthday Thursday" at Drink (which is no longer in existence). It's a small cup so it served the purpose, and it made me a little nostalgic for the smell of douchy cologne, spilled beer, and regret.

I digress.

So I'm doing a little dance to Fleet Foxes on Pandora, wearing my super patriotic voting outfit (red pants, a blue and white striped shirt, a white cardigan, and nude heels), waiting the 5 minutes for one or two lines to show up. One line shows up immediately and a super faint line shows up a bit later. I think to myself, "this cannot be..." I take a picture and send it to Maggie. She confirms that it is positive. I don't believe her (even though Maggie is a credible source, being an RN at Planned Parenthood and all) so I take another test. Same results, same text from Maggie. I still don't believe her or the test. Maggie suggests that I stop at a pharmacy and get one of the tests that actually spell it out for you. This sounds like the best idea yet so I make a mental note to stop at Walgreens on my way home from work (my brother and our friend Dan work at Target Pharmacy, so this was out for obvious reasons). Jeff and I were supposed to work at the polls that night, but he had texted me to let me know that they had enough help, so I figured that it would work perfectly for me to take the test once I got home. I would be alone and could tell Jeff if I needed to when he got home from his volunteer shift. I made a little pin at work (just in case) that said "babies for Romney" so I could give it to him as a part of the surprise. I was also planning on having the dogs run around in shirts that said "big brother" but I got iron-on transfers and we all know how terrible I am at ironing (my Grandma Doris would be upset to learn that I've let the ironing skills she worked so hard to instill in me fall by the wayside).

I didn't anticipate that Jeff would be home when I arrived. Apparently, there had been a major computer glitch at Roxborough Intermediate (our polling place) so he had to come home and enter everything. He was super stressed because he was supposed to be checking voters off of his master list but he had to enter information before he could proceed. He takes all job responsibilities very seriously, even volunteer responsibilities, so I left him hunched over the computer and making calls to the party chair. I bounded upstairs like a kid trying to hide a forty from her parents and proceed to take the "high tech" pregnancy test. Of course, it screamed "PREGNANT!" It didn't have the exclamation point, but it might as well have. As you can probably guess, I couldn't contain my excitement. The logical part of me calmly said to wait until he got home after the polls closed. The completely irrational side of me didn't even stop to argue with the logical side. I grabbed the pregnancy test and the "babies for Romney" button and ran downstairs and told Jeff that I had gotten him something and handed him the button. When he looked up at me, I showed him the pregnancy test and told him to "check it out." (keep in mind that Jeff was super insanely stressed about not getting information entered correctly and missing voters as they check in, and I had just completely derailed his train of thought. If Jeff was a computer, the words "cannot compute" would have been scrolling across his screen). All he could say was, "Oh yeah?"

Oh yeah? The phrase that my dad used to say when he wanted to ponder what you were saying for a bit before he gave a real answer. Jeff uses that phrase for the exact same reason.

Once Jeff regained his ability to make a more coherent thought, he hugged me and had me help him enter voter information. He had to go back to the polls, so we decided that we would chat about it when he got home. We were both cautiously happy - freaked out about the thought of being responsible for another human but excited about the possibilities.

We've had about a month now to let it sink in. We've seen the little guy on the ultrasound and have decided to nickname him "Bob." Both of us are enthusiastic about the future and nervous at the same time about everything. I'm sure that's to be expected :)

The moral of the story - if you want a positive reaction to awesome news, wait until the person you're telling is completely ready to hear it!

And, of course, pics. I didn't get a pic of the button I made, but I'm sure you can visualize it.

this is why I was confused. dark line and super faint line.

much better ;)

hey, so here's the latest...

I feel like first blog posts are those awkward, "I just met you and now I have to make small talk with you and gosh, I sure hope you like me, but if you don't, you don't" type of situations. I'm BriAnne, nice to meet you. Okay, that wasn't too awkward (I hope). I've decided that it's almost necessary to have a blog these days, just to keep people updated. Our families live approximately one million miles away and some things are just not FB appropriate, be it due to length or content. 
So yesterday marked my 8th week of pregnancy. Up until then, I had passing bloating; I was puffy one day but it was gone the next. Today, I'm not sure this bloating is going away. I feel (and look) like I ate an entire large pizza, only I didn't. I ran errands and I swear people were looking at me like, "wow, that girl needs to cut down on the beer." Yeah, it's like a little Buddha beer belly; the one I spent all summer trying to get rid of. 
I can't really complain too much: I can still fit into my skinny jeans (except the red H&M ones. it has to be a special no-bloat date to wear those, but that's H&M... you can't gain an ounce and still fit in their pants). I haven't been vomiting or too tired during the day. I'm pretty dead on the couch by 6pm (poor starving Jeff), but it's not too bad during work time (with the exception of a few afternoons). Some days, I want to eat everything and the next day I want to eat nothing. I'm craving yogurt (specifically plain Fage and mango Noosa), cottage cheese (specifically AE, which I can't get in Colorado), and cheese. I gag at the smell or thought of fish (Whole Foods about got me today with the seafood smell as I walked in) or beef (but that's pretty much all the time).
And now, here are some pics (I know my mom, mother in law, and Iowa friends are dying to see!) :)

four weeks and 3 days (11/11/2012)

skinny jeans are still baggy

six weeks and 3 days (11/25/2012)

still rockin' the skinnies

(I look like crap. It was Sunday.)

eight weeks on the nose (12/6/2012)

I suggested that we stop taking pics on Sundays ;)

I'm looking a little round - in my defense, I had just eaten a huge dinner (or there's something growing in me, whatever :)

*something else worth noting - my boobs blew up between week six and eight. the average chick goes up two bra sizes during the course of being pregnant. sweet.*

Okay, so there's that. You're pretty much caught up.

I'll ramble atcha later!

xoxo

Breezy