Celebrating 28!

For the first time in a very, very long time, I had a birthday that left me feeling very spoiled and taken care of. It's not that my birthday isn't normally lovely, but usually we don't make a huge deal out of it. Usually we go out to dinner, I'll open a few presents, and leave it at that. However, this year, my parents decided to drive out, and magically my birthday transformed into a whole weekend of celebration.

The first treat was having my parents grocery shop and cook a wonderful dinner for us Friday, meaning that I got to totally relax after a long day of work. It was especially lovely since I hadn't slept well the night before, so not having to cook was a gift in itself. We all took a quick dip in the pool (which might be the last time this season - it was chilly!), and had super yummy chicken enchiladas that very much remind me of meals at home.

After dinner, it was time for presents! Opening presents in front of Ed and my parents was definitely reminiscent of childhood birthday celebrations, but it was still pretty fun. 

I was gifted a spectacular afghan made my very talented sister, Ashley.

My mother in law gave me gorgeous seat cushions for our new kitchen table, and my parents gave me matching place mats and a platter (that we'll get to use when we host Thanksgiving this year!). Can you tell what my favorite color is?

The final treat of the evening was a delicious birthday cake, complete with candles. I honestly can't remember the last time I had a cake with candles, and it was fun. There is something so fun about the taste of birthday cake. 

The next day we got to make a long awaited and very exciting purchase - pots for our front porch! We have such a huge porch, and it looked so very empty. Ed convinced me that we should wait until after the summer, so my birthday seemed like the perfect opportunity. We saw a coupon in the paper for a nearby place, so off we went!

We ended up with the tall, beautiful green pots. Then we needed some plants to fill them, so we headed to our favorite nursery. My dad may have  been jealous of the price of our succulents, but that's what you get for living in the desert. 

Planting would have to wait, since after we got home, the pots had to be treated to make them last longer (thanks Dad and Ed!), and then we had dinner plans. 

Here's a sneak peak of how the porch turned out:

Now, I was supposed to choose a restaurant way in advance. But with the craziness of everything, it didn't happen. Long story short, we ended up choosing from a slightly more limited selection, and I ended up putting it in Ed's hands. His choice? The Compass, a restaurant at the top of a hotel in downtown Phoenix. I am not really a heights person (flying phobia anyone?) but thought I could do it. Then I found out it was a revolving restaurant, and just about lost it. My family convinced me it would be fine, so off we went. 

The views were pretty spectacular (sorry for the blurriness! The price of a spinning restaurant)

We timed it perfectly, so we got to catch the sunset and enjoy the night sky.

All the seats faced outward, so we all got a great view.

We were all super impressed with the food, and had a great experience. 

And, I got yet another birthday candle! I wasn't going to have dessert, but they brought me ice cream anyways, and it was perfect. 

The next morning, my dad and Ed filled our pots, we had a final breakfast together, and then said goodbye. Heading into it, I wasn't sure about turning 28, but I have a feeling that it will be a lovely year. 

9 Weeks

{Originally written 9-24-2013}

(It is amazing how intensely tired I look in these. Hoping to feel more rested soon!)

How Far Along?  9 weeks!  We are now closer to that magic 12 week mark than we are to when we found out we were pregnant, by a long shot. By some sources, it's also now considered a fetus, not an embryo

Size of the Baby? A grape (or olive, but grape is cuter). 1 inch long!

Sleep?  Mostly decent, thanks to this great cool down we're having in temperature! We can actually sleep with the air off and just windows open. Unfortunately, I did have one night where I woke up at 1:45 and couldn't ever go back to sleep. Made for a very, very long day of teaching, but I got through it. 

Cravings? Not really. I've been more sensitive to food aversions this week, so I've been eating a lot of toast. My mom did make pumpkin bread when she was out, so that has been super yummy. 

 What I Miss? Not feeling nauseous. This has now become a all day kind of thing, possibly due to the progesterone supplements, but it is harder to be a normal person when I feel gross all day. Thankful it isn't worse, though! Still missing my energy. I'm also missing being active - I was told to take it easy since I'm taking the supplements, so no gym for me. 

Best Moment? Celebrating my birthday! My parents came out and I felt super special. I was worried about this birthday leading up to it, because I thought it would be another year not pregnant, and am so thankful that I got to turn 28 with a little baby finally growing.

Milestones: Our first ultrasound is tomorrow! Just hoping to see a happy and healthy baby in there. 

Mommy Update: After being super upset and emotional last week, I'm feeling surprisingly happy and optimistic. I'm trying very hard to trust in this experience and am enjoying it. 

Baby Update:

Baby is making huge progress! It can move around now, has grown all the essential body parts, has more distinct facial features, muscles are developing, and has no more tail (goodbye shark baby, hello human baby!). 

Happy 28th to Me!

I am 28. A whole 10 years past 18.

It has been a great ten years and I can definitely say I am much happier at 28 than I was as a late teen. 30 definitely seems much closer, which makes this age feel much more mature. I may be rambling a bit, because apparently I was so excited about my birthday that I woke up at 1:45 and didn't fall back asleep until almost 5. I am so thankful that my parents are visiting for my birthday and will be arriving this afternoon, and that they will be making me dinner, since I definitely won't have energy for that. It will be a really nice weekend, and the first time I've celebrated my birthday with my parents since probably college.

I'm fairly certain my students will be very sweet to me today, as they were already being excited about my birthday yesterday. I used to be sort of quiet about my birthday with my kids, but I've reached a point where I've decided it's fun to celebrate. Of course I told them the best present they could get me would be to all do their homework, so we'll see how well that works :).

In any event, I am feeling happy about this coming year and very optimistic that it will be a great one.

8 Weeks

How Far Along?  8 weeks (and 2 days)! Crazy that that means two months in, and only one until 2nd trimester. 

Size of the Baby? A raspberry. It made me feel a little funny eating raspberries with my yogurt this morning. I told Ed, and he couldn't even eat them. 

Sleep?  I haven't had quite as many insomniac nights, though last night I was probably awake for a good hour. In general, though, I've been waking up a couple times during the night but have been able to go back to sleep. 

Cravings?  Ed attempted to satisfy the doughnut craving, but bought three doughnuts I'd never eat. It actually worked pretty well to deal with the craving though, because one bite of one reminded me how crazy sweet they are. We both were craving some sushi this week, so we tried a new place just a couple minutes from our house. I was a little sad to only get cooked/veggie rolls, but it definitely was still satisfying, and the ginger was good for my stomach. I have been reading that if the fish is flash frozen, it's okay to eat raw, so I may look into that for future sushi expeditions. 

 What I Miss? Feeling trusting of everything. We had a bit of a scare this week, when I got my blood test results back and my progesterone levels were on the low side of normal. That's basically the number that shows how safe and nurturing that baby's environment is. I had about 24 hours of completely losing it, but am now on the other side feeling more trusting that things will be okay. I'm now on a 200 mg progesterone supplement for the next couple weeks. The placenta should be taking over pretty well by then, so things will get back on track. 

Best Moment? Telling my principal? I'm not sure it was the best, but it's nice for the main people at work to know now. It was sort of inevitable, as I broke down when I got to work right after I found out about the blood test and a woman I work with (who is more acquaintance than friend) ended up finding out, so I figured I should tell my boss ASAP. I figure either way, I'll probably need her support, so it made sense to tell. Earlier than I was planning, but not much to be done about that. 

Mommy Update: All about the same. Lots of feeling sick and feeling like I want to be sick, but no actually getting sick, which I guess is good. I've been a bit more moody and sad this week, which I'd expected to get at some point. Mostly just tired, though. Very, very tired. The supplements I'm taking also have the side effect of tiredness, so all together it's pretty intense. 

Baby Update:

Baby is starting to lose the webbing between its fingers and toes and is developing taste buds, eyelids, ears, and a nose. It has elbow and knee joints and should also be moving around a lot. It's also losing the tail from last week (so shark baby may not be the best name for it any more). We will hopefully get to see our little one in less than a week on our first ultrasound! 

Father's Day

We were lucky enough to also get to celebrate Father's Day with my dad this year. 

We had a great breakfast of Farmer's Market fruit and pastries from Paneras

Afterwards, we headed to Crystal Cove for a lovely hike.

It was a nice decent before we hit the beach.

There were some great tide pools that we really enjoyed checking out.

The trail narrowed at a couple points, but we didn't mind. 

After maybe 45 minutes, we reached a popular stretch of beach that was super busy. 

Further down, we found some even better pools to explore. 

I was super excited to see some anemones. 

At some point, the end of the beach came into sight. My mom optimistically said we should just go for it. It ended up making this a 6ish mile hike, but it was worth it to make it all the way. 

We had fun watching some surfers, though it freaked us out a bit watching them perilously close to those rocks. 

It was a bit of a long walk back, and we all ended up with some sunburn, but it was a great way to spend the morning. 

That afternoon, we exchanged gifts!

Our first gift didn't entirely work out (as it never got delivered), but someday hopefully it'll be fulfilled. It's a pass to all CA state parks (from Kortney and us). 

We also gave my dad a poster to fit the theme. 

You might recognize this as the one we have in our living room. My dad was born in Marin, so we thought this would be a good fit. It now looks amazing in their office!

Unexpectedly, we ended up with a gift of our own. To celebrate our third anniversary, my parents gave us a gorgeous pair of wind chimes. They have been such an amazing treat to listen to, especially during our monsoon season. 

It was a wonderful visit!

7 Weeks

{Originally written 9-12-2013}

When I was just dreaming about being pregnant, and then the year we spent actively trying, I read more of these kinds of posts than I could count. I so loved seeing other women's journeys to become parents and their excitement along the way (as well as getting some idea of what it might be like to be pregnant). So, I'm going to be keeping a kind of weekly *baby journal* on here, to look back on and keep track of all the amazingness. If this isn't your thing, feel free to skip it! 

Even though I'm just sharing the news now, I already have a few of these created, so we're going to backtrack to week 7. 

How Far Along?  7 weeks! We found out at 3 and a half weeks, so it feels like we've known forever, even though we aren't that far along :)

Size of the Baby? A blueberry. Still so tiny, but growing by leaps and bounds every week.  

Sleep?  Waking up a lot during the night (5 times last night!), and just super duper tired. I'm hoping to get some extra sleep this weekend. 

Cravings?  I saw a sprinkle donut while watching tv last night and can't stop thinking about it. If it's still on my mind this weekend, we just might indulge.

 What I Miss?  Feeling like I have enough energy to teach through the day. I am so very zapped after lunch, and it's hard to push from 12:45 until 5pm and stay *on* and in a good mood. I also miss having nice evenings with Ed. He's been getting home late this week, so I am going to bed around when Ed is getting home. Hopefully that'll get better next week!

Best Moment?  Going to our first doctor appointment and having the nurses wish me congratulations! Still waiting on the blood test, but I should hear soon.

Mommy Update:I've been definitely feeling more symptomatic this week. I told a coworker, just so that she could cover my class in case I had to unexpectedly run out of the room - my stomach hasn't been horrible, just not feeling great. The tiredness has been the hardest. I've been going to bed by 8:30 most nights, which has meant less quality time with Ed. We're looking forward to the weekend. 
We are also very excited about telling Ed's side of the family about the baby this week!

Baby Update:

According to my weekly updates, we have a "shark baby" this week :). Basically, the babies bones are forming, and are currently made of cartilage. It also still has a tail and little paddles for the arms and legs. But, it's heart should be beating strong and major organs are all developing. It's gaining about 100 new brain cells every minute. Ed's pretty excited to think about there being two hearts being inside of me right now. 

So happy!