5 months!

I literally became a pregnant lady overnight! Up until this past week I had the easiest pregnancy. Zero complaints. About a week ago I suddenly felt like my body was hit by a truck. It hurt to stand up, walk, and move at all! Since the pain was so severe and so sudden I called my OB and went in the very next day. My Doctor said it was perfectly normal and caused by my ligaments stretching to make room for baby. Also, that the pain will probably stay the remainder of my pregnancy. Awesome. To explain just how pathetic I was, Glenn pushed me around Target in a children’s shopping cart while we went to Target afterwards. I was walking slower than an eighty year old woman and it was worth any embarrassment. I’m not one who deals with pain well, so I have been visiting the chiropractor, icing 2-3 times a day, taking pilates, and sleeping with a pillow between my legs. I am determined not to be miserable. Any more pain managing tips are welcome! I have been feeling a lot better and don’t have too much pain until the evenings. The other night I was so stiff and sore again that my husband piggy-backed me up the stairs to bed. That is he picked me up and I informed him I needed a glass of water, then my phone, and to shut the curtains, and, and, and… poor husband just trying to be nice. We were laughing so hard by the time we made it upstairs and he was all keeled over. There is a perk of all this ligament stretching. Baby girl has decided to make an appearance this week and I finally have a noticeable baby bump! Along with my newfound baby belly, I have a disappearing belly button. I seriously looked down in the shower and was like, huh, I had more belly button just yesterday.

And for the happy news. I am finally feeling baby girl move!!! Last Tuesday night we were relaxing on the couch watching a movie and I felt this repetitive jabbing in my lower abdomen. I kept quiet at first because I didn’t want to be a tease and have Glenn feel nothing. After a couple minutes I was confident it was baby girl and I grabbed Glenn’s hand, placed it on the exact spot, and just smiled when baby girl kept moving for her Daddy. Glenn did a little happy dance on the couch. Now I notice baby girl moving all the time. She is especially awake and active in the evenings. I love knowing that my baby girl is healthy and active and growing. I am so excited for every pregnancy milestone and I am getting more and more excited to meet her every day! I just want lots of massages in the meantime :-)

I just want to take a second and say how blessed we are with wonderful family and friends. I know how happy baby girl makes Glenn and I. But, I really love the happiness and support from our family and friends as well. Completely out of the blue my sweet friend Stephanie texted me from JoAnn’s that she saw the cutest fabric and wanted to know if it was a print I liked. She made me the cutest car-seat cover and brought it to church like the next day. I don’t think she knew just how much that meant to me. And just a couple days ago baby girl got a package in the mail from my parents with a cute outfit, some hooded towels, and washcloths. It made my day! Thanks for all the love! I appreciate these sweet unexpected surprises so much. It makes me realize that this baby will be showered with love, and also how loved I am. These parents to be can no longer resist the clearance racks at Target. We always have to look. We ended up buying this super warm baby snuggle wrap thing that obviously she won’t need until next winter, but how could we resist, especially for $6! Baby girl is starting to accumulate some stuff and it’s just one more thing that makes it so real. Just four short months left!

 

Have you seen my green bell pepper?

I am in my 20^th week of pregnancy! I am so happy to be at the half way point. It is crazy how fast I got here, and how our baby girl will be here so soon. Other than my urge to pee every hour, I have truly been blessed with the best pregnancy I could ask for. In other pregnancy news, over the past few weeks I have started suffering from a ridiculous case of pregnancy brain. I have read that this is fairly common because pregnancy shuffles what gets your attention. Between surging hormone levels, new priorities, and baby constantly on my mind its normal that memory may suffer a bit. I just feel really silly sometimes for forgetting the simplest things. Here is a glimpse into my forgetful mind lately:

I was at Cheesecake Factory for a surprise birthday party the other night and someone asked me how old I was. Simple question, right? I didn’t know! I had to stop and think about it, try and do the math, and then still wasn’t sure of my answer and had to double check with Glenn when he picked me up.

I was taking a shower and seriously couldn’t remember whether or not I had already washed my hair. Normally this is the first thing I do in the shower, and I washed my hair maybe for the second time, maybe first time, I really didn’t know.

This past Saturday Glenn and I decided we needed to wash our car. He asked me to run upstairs and grab some rags and towels. I go upstairs, come back empty handed. Run up a second time, come back with towels. Sparing me a third trip up the stairs, Glenn finally goes and gets rags to wash the car himself. Since I clearly never remembered what I was doing up there.

Where is my green bell pepper?! This is the pregnancy brain moment that has bothered me the most. I know we bought a green bell pepper. I use them all the time, so even if I don’t have a current plan for how I’m using it, we buy it anyway. I was making crab cakes to bring to a Mardi Gras party, went to start chopping my green bell pepper, and it’s gone! I have no recall of using my green bell pepper, and yet it’s nowhere to be found. I’m still going nuts over my ‘missing’ pepper, and continue trying to figure out when and what I cooked with my green bell pepper. If you see it please let me know ;-)

Just cause I like us.

20 weeks, 3 days.

Happiness is a choice.

I have been thinking a lot lately about what it means to be happy. I have come to the conclusion that happiness is a choice. If you are stuck in a negative mindset, then you will only focus on the difficult and annoying, and ultimately be unhappy. On the flip side if you look for the positive in your life and in your relationships then you will always find that you have so much going right in your life. Simply, I believe that you will always find what you are looking for. It’s a choice to have a positive mindset and be happy! I wish I have some magical way of cutting out those negative circuits in my brain, but I don’t. “Happiness is a choice” is kind of becoming my new mantra.

We had a really difficult January financially and I allowed it to stress me out and consume my thoughts. We were literally out of money practically the second the month began. All I could think at times was how in the world will we survive this month? Struggling along with an empty bank account for the month felt impossible, and I just thought once January is over I will be so much happier. This was just one of those months filled with a lot of extenuating circumstances and unexpected expenses, like a $450 vet bill to retrieve our dog, an insane power bill, Glenn needing a crown at the dentist, and desperately needing to buy a new car. It’s no wonder we had no money. Honestly, when I look back on my January now I don’t think about our finances. I think about watching the 49ers win all their playoff games to make it to the Super Bowl. I think about homemade pizookie and redbox movie nights with my husband. I think about hours competing against my husband in virtual golf. I think about inviting our friends over for a barbecue and James Bond. I think about the snow. I think about my husband calling me to come downstairs right this instant, and my soaking wet fresh out of the shower self throwing on some pajamas and running downstairs to see my husband standing in our half inch of snow, scooping me up in my bare feet and dripping hair and kissing my face! I think about hearing our baby’s heartbeat, and learning we are having a girl! I think about a whole month I was able to spend every day with my husband and our sweet puppies. That right there is my happiness.

You will never know in advance what days will be difficult, but in the midst of those gloomy days are so many more happy ones. I was being spoiled and not recognizing that my happiness is a choice. My happiness was available to me right then and not just when our bank account was a little fuller. My happiness is my attitude. I understand that bad days are inevitable. Life will knock you down, and it’s ok to be sad sometimes. How we react to those days and choosing to focus on something positive rather than magnifying the negative is what matters. Happiness is a choice, and I am happy. This was my life lesson the month of January.

*On a side note we had an amazing lesson in Relief Society about a week ago. We discussed the talk “Of Regrets and Resolutions” given by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf. I loved it! This talk touches on letting yourself be happy in your life. This talk kind of fueled the fire in brain and brought on some of this deep thinking of mine. Go read here if you are interested. http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/of-regrets-and-resolutions?lang=eng