It's official, I have a tiny baby bump! It grows quite a bit as the day progresses and after meals. Can't help but to rub it or rest my hand on it!
I’m sitting at a little coffee shop called Cups across the street from our
apartment as our internet is turned off.
This week is our last official week in this apartment! Trevor’s missing about half of it as he’s
still in California.
He’s been working so hard the last few days! First, he drove the 17-hour, 1,000+ mile
drive to Southern California by himself and with only taking a short break
every 2 hours or so. He planned to rest
Tuesday night and pick up the commute in the morning, but he couldn’t sleep in
the car and his earlier trek was too hot so he chose to drive all-night for a
little relief from the blazing sun.
I’m telling you, this man can do anything. Has he ever framed a window and installed
it? Nope, but he did it within a few
hours last Thursday. He’s not a
construction-buff and yet he installed insulation, dry wall and mudding to the
shed on Friday and Saturday. Today’s
objective is to prime and paint the walls then install laminate flooring and
baseboard moulding. Basically, he’s been
busting his ass and I couldn’t possibly be more proud of him.
Meanwhile I’m over here struggling to muster enough energy
to pack up our stuff. Progress has been
made but it’s such a struggle for me to bend over repeatedly as I feel sick and
lightheaded afterwards. Regardless, I
have to somehow finish packing the whole apartment by myself before Tuesday
because we’ll only have 5 days left here once he gets back. It’ll all get done, I’m not worried. I just wish I had the energy (and permission
to lift heavy boxes) in order to finish quickly.
But, I gotta say, I LOVE moving! Are you someone who likes to move too? It’s such a refreshing experience. With the exception of high school, I didn’t
stay at any school longer than 2 years at a time. Moving so frequently allowed me to meet new
people often, hone in on social skills, and looking back I realize it was then
that I developed an interest in self-growth every year. If I didn’t like how I treated people or the
type of people I hung out with at a previous school, I would make more conscientious decisions at my next school. Also I
wasn’t the best student and my grades didn't really improve until high school, but I
always made an effort to try harder at a new school.
That passion for new beginnings and adventure is still alive
and well in me and I’m looking forward to the next chapter in our lives! We probably won’t be moving back to Fort
Collins, so this is a bittersweet goodbye for now. Only God knows what our future holds!
5 June 2017: Prenatal
Sickness, Progenity DNA Results + Gender Reveal!
The night I posted last week’s update I ended up getting
sick again. Word of caution to my
pregnant friends: If you’re sensitive to
the DHA in your prenatal vitamin, be aware of when you take it. I was so exhausted Sunday night that I went
to bed early and woke up around 2 or 3 in the morning realizing I hadn’t taken my
prenatal. So I took it. I was already in bed, I knew I wasn’t going
to get up for any reason (other than to pee), and so I figured it was fine. WRONG!
The nausea was unruly when it hit my empty stomach. Looking back I should have taken a set of
prenatals without DHA, which I also own. Thankfully
I had a designated “puke bucket” trash can nearby because I would not have made
it to the bathroom in time. Every
woman’s body is different and can tolerate different things. But if your body is sensitive like mine, you
might want to have a set of DHA-free vitamins to take whenever your schedule is
off.
As previously mentioned, Trevor and I chose to have genetic
testing done to find out the baby’s gender before the 20-week scan. We’re so glad we did! It’s allowed us some insight into health
risks, and of course, we know now if we’re having a little boy or girl!
What we didn’t expect was to find out that I’m a carrier for
a degenerative disease called Spinal Muscular Atrophy. Which,
ironically, is the exact rare condition of a little boy I worked with named
Aiden. Side-note on Aiden: His middle name is Trevor and he’s a little
cowboy from Wyoming! He struggled to
trust me the first few days of camp, but we became very close by the end of
it. I had such a deep connection with
him and, for some reason, felt as though one day I might have a child with
SMA. I know, it’s weird.
If it’s discovered that the mother is a carrier for any
condition, Progentity offers to test the father free of charge. At first Trevor did not want to be
tested. Based on our faith and values,
we would never terminate a pregnancy based on disability, so further testing seemed irrelevant at first.
However, we chose to have him complete it in order to become more aware
of what to expect. If Trevor is also a
carrier, our baby has a 1 in 4 (25%) chance of developing SMA. If Trevor is not a carrier, then the baby
will not have it. It’s still possible
the baby could become a carrier, like I am.
We have yet to hear back from the OB regarding Trevor’s results. We have our last appointment with this clinic
on Wednesday so I’m anticipating we'll find out then. To be clear, we are still very excited about
having this baby and we’re not worried at all.
God knows this child by name and He will provide for our baby's needs.
After drawing Trevor's blood for testing, we picked up the
two envelopes detailing the baby’s gender!
During the drive home the envelopes sat in my lap and I wanted to take a
peek! Trevor wasn’t as pressured to look
although he admitted he wanted to know.
As you may know, a friend is putting together a baby shower/gender
reveal for us and we were going to wait 3 weeks to find out what we’re having
but… we decided to look!
We spent a few hours considering our options. If we waited, we could be surprised with a
bunch of our Fort Collins friends surrounding us. The only downside I could think of was, if
the baby was a girl, I believed I would need extra time to process the news because
I felt very strongly that the baby was a boy.
Which, maybe I wouldn’t have needed as much time as I was imagining, I
just figured I would have a hard time believing that result, haha. The other reason I wanted to wait was to
include my mom in the gender reveal. The
plan was to send her one of the two envelopes and she would be the first to
know the baby’s sex. We waited until we
spoke with her on the phone to tell her our new plan. It was important to me to ensure she didn’t
feel left out. On the contrary, she was
very supportive of our new decision.
We chose the more intimate route. The main reason (other than just wanting to
know ASAP!) was we won’t have any more private moments (regarding this
pregnancy) for just the two of us. Due
to the deployment, we most likely won’t get to share the birth experience
together in the same room. Thankfully we
have tremendous support from loved ones who are eager to fill in the gaps, but
we needed this last moment for ourselves.
We drove up to Horsetooth Reservoir, then hiked and climbed our
way onto the top of the mountain. While
holding hands, we traversed the hilly mountaintop until we found a safe, flat
rock perfect for two. We sat close as
the strong winds crashed against us. It was
a gorgeous day and as always, the view was amazing!
We sat there for a few minutes taking in the panorama and
embracing the moment. I eagerly reached
for one of the envelopes I had placed in my back pocket. Within that time Trevor had his phone out and
began filming.
We had talked about not
filming this moment, but I’m so glad he did. We will publicly announce the gender after the party next
Saturday, but because you’re a loyal reader we would like to share the news
with you now!
Without further adieu, we’re expecting a…
The gender reveal party is still on! Only change is we will be leading the gender reveal portion of
it now. Trevor wants each of our friends to
get a chance to reveal the sex so we’ll fill up several balloons with
different gender-neutral colors (or white paint, not sure yet) and then one or
two variations of the color blue to denote we’re having a baby BOY!
It’s also worth mentioning, we decided on a name! If you’re someone I talk to every day then you
already know it! But if not, wait a few
more weeks and it will be revealed to you!
It’s a strong name we have loved even before this pregnancy and we’re
thrilled to give it to our son.
I have had daydreams of this little boy. Picturing a little brown-haired, brown-eyed boy with a great smile and a laid-back personality like his dad. The way he was lounging in the womb during our ultrasound appointment made me think he'll be like his daddy. Can't wait to meet you, son! Brings tears to my eyes thinking of how much we already love you.
After Horsetooth, we drove to Loveland to pick out an outfit at Carter's! Shopping for baby clothes with my husband at Carter's has been a dream of mine for a few years now. As some of you may know, I worked as a supervisor at Carter's for a few years and I couldn't help but daydream of the day Trevor and I would be shopping for our own little one. Gotta say, I have always been drawn to the little boy outfits. Even though we're having a boy Trevor couldn't help but meander over to the girl's side of the store (have you seen how cute those outfits are?! C'mon now!). We're thrifty shoppers so we got a few things from the clearance section (extra 20% clearance price right now!) and an Indiana-Jones-esk button down shirt for our little man. It goes with his baby fedora! Now we need dark brown shorts to complete the outfit! We've planned to have him wear this the day we pick daddy up from the airport post-deployment!
Then we shared a pizza at East Coast Pizza in Loveland. I'm not a big pizza fan but it wasn't too shabby. We called mom while we were eating to reveal the baby's gender. She's very excited to have a grandson and she loves the name we picked for him.
Miss you, my love.
Both Trevor and my mom have texted me pictures of them eating In-N-Out together. What did I do to deserve this level of torture?
Apartment Pictures!
Will try to upload more in a few days! It's 6pm, coffee shop is closing so I gotta run!
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| Anna :) |
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| Note: Ever since week 7 or so, I began taking these pictures on an empty stomach. |
Week 14 Updates
1. Size of the baby? From head to bottom, baby measures 3.5 inches, about the size of a lemon! And weighs about 1.5 ounces!
2. What's developing this week?
Total in first trimester: 5 pounds.
Total altogether: 6 pounds.
4. Movement? Nope.
5. Sleep? Getting better, still waking up a few times to pee.
6. Symptoms?
- Morning heartburn a few times this week.
- Occasional sharp pains which radiate to the chest. Towards the end of the week.
- Nasal congestion.
- Lower back pain. Maybe from all the packing.
- Headaches & eye pain.
- Increase in regularity! Haha, what a funny thing to get excited about but all the mommas who read my blog get it. It's a beautiful thing! Advice for newly pregnant ladies: Raisin bran, drink TONS of water, prunes (or prune juice) and grapes.
- An official tiny baby bump! So fun!
7. Cravings and Aversions? Been eating a lot of applesauce, not really craving it though. I did crave Panda Express once this week but the drive and time I spent waiting wasn't worth it. Aversions to frozen meals are still very strong.
8. Best moment this week? Cuddling with my husband atop a mountain while we discovered we're having a little boy! Thank you Anna for suggesting we do this. You're an incredible and wonderfully supportive friend. Love you!
9. Prayer requests?
- Once again, please pray for safe Travels for Trevie as he flies home Tuesday night.
- Prayers that this little baby continues to grow and is healthy!
- That we would be present during packing and saying goodbye to our home at C-17.
