Week 19 and Thankfulness 27, 28, and 29

  

(Full Disclosure: this was taken the day after Thanksgiving, and after eating a pretty substantial lunch of leftovers. Still, oh my gosh, I'm pretty sure I look pregnant now)

Thankfulness: I am incredibly thankful for all these wonderful people coming out to Arizona to celebrate the holiday with us (and really, this counts for all three days, since the past 3 days with them are why I haven't been updating!)

As the holiday is wrapping up and everyone is heading home, I feel so wonderfully blessed by our amazing family, especially with how excited they all are about our little Lyon to be. 

How Far Along?  19 weeks! Can't believe I'm almost halfway!

Size of the Baby? Baby has grown about another half an inch, but gained almost 2 ounces! We're halfway to a pound. 

Sleep? I had one night this past week where I slept the whole night! It was so glorious and made me feel amazing the whole day. Of course last night I woke up at 5 and the night before I was up between 4 and 6. But, that one wonderful night has me dreaming that it may happen again. Otherwise, I think I just need to be content with getting 5-7 hours. That's not really so bad. 

Eating? I think I can officially say we've reached a turning point. I haven't felt gag-y in a week! My appetite still has been a bit on and off, but for the most part, I'm eating pretty well (as evidenced by that bump). Did miss indulging in the holiday wine, but enjoyed my sparkling water with cranberry and mint. Loved the pumpkin pie and the stuffing. 

Exercise: It was a tiring week, with getting ready for having everyone come to visit/stay, but I still got in my five days, plus a bonus day of super intense cleaning. Granted, much of the activity was pretty low key, but I figure getting out there is invariably better than not. 

The biggest push this week was probably actually the cleaning day. I was beyond tired going up and down the stairs so much, hanging Christmas lights, and doing lots of other chores.

Best Moment? Being with our family for the holiday! We really missed Keven and Noemi, who couldn't join us, but loved having everyone else here to celebrate. We had so much good food and quality moments just spending time together - it was lovely. 

Love this family of ours and can't wait to celebrate Thanksgiving next year with our newest addition.

Milestones: I think just being that much closer to halfway. Still feeling those potential (but not definitive) movements. Otherwise, just excited that a week from Tuesday is our anatomy scan!

Mommy Update: I felt very loved (and lots of baby love) with everyone visiting. Lots of tummy rubs (and even some conversations with the baby - my mom wants to make sure our baby "knows" her). Shopping for Thanksgiving was definitely the first time I've felt "pregnant" - super tired and out of breath during my marathon grocery trip. The rest of the holiday was surprisingly relaxing though, in large part because we definitely treat Thanksgiving as a family holiday, so everyone helped out with the cooking. Ed and I were super thankful that the turkey turned our perfect - all 22 pounds of it! Ed may have joked about us having a baby half the size of our turkey. I may have told him that we'd better not have a 11 lb baby. 

Baby Update: As I said in the picture, baby is now half a foot and half a pound, which feels like a big milestone. Baby is now bigger and heavier than its placenta and the ears and eyes are in their final positions. Baby is also sleeping about 20 hours a day!

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday :)

Thankfulness 25 and 26

I made it! I am so, so thankful to be on Thanksgiving break, ready to start celebrating the holiday with family. It's already been lovely having Sabine here - she and Ed did some shopping for the holidays today while I was working, and it has been nice having nice dinners together at our kitchen table.

I am also incredibly thankful that I had an almost normal night of sleep last night! Asleep at 9pm and only woke up once during the night (but fell back asleep pretty easily) until finally up at 5:50. I felt so much more rested today - almost normal! Of course now it's getting close to 9 and I'm wiped. I don't mind the early schedule, though :)

Thankfulness: 23 and 24

Sitting here Sunday night, I am tired after a huge weekend! We are hosting Thanksgiving this year, and are super excited. However, we had a lot of things on our project list that we needed to get done, bot Thanksgiving specific, like menu planning and grocery shopping, and general house stuff, like putting up Christmas lights and painting the upstairs bathroom.

We got a ton done, and are loving having a house decorated and ready to go. Mother-in-law, Sabine, arrives today, and the rest of the family arrives Wednesday. We still have plenty to do between now and the big day, but at least out house is ready to host :).

Thankfulness wise, I am very thankful that we were both so productive this weekend and that the holidays really feel like they are here!

18 Weeks and Thankfulness 22

Baby keeps growing and growing :)

 

(Best comment this week? "It's adorable, Mrs. Lyon!! Your baby is growing so much!!" from one of the very sweet boys in my class. Definitely made me smile)

Thankfulness: I am so thankful that, after getting about 4 solid hours of sleep, Ed decided to volunteer to go pick up our turkey and indian food for dinner, so I could stay home, cozy on the couch, with the fireplace and some candles going. I feel so much better than I did when I got home from work. 

How Far Along?  18 weeks!

Size of the Baby? Baby has grown another half an inch (I'm noticing a pattern here :) ). Can't believe there is a little baby that size inside of me right now!

Sleep? Ugh. I seem to have a bad pattern of bad sleep Thursday nights. I slept solidly until 2am, then off and on until 4, and I've been up since then. The rest of the week featured lots of waking up early, but in general maybe a little 

Eating? I'm hoping things are on the way up, since I've felt okay the last few days. Fingers crossed! We've been eating better this week, with much less take out and more healthy dinners (super proud that I actually menu planned and grocery shopped this week). May have eaten a bit too much leftover Halloween candy, but I figure I balanced it out. 

Exercise: Very proud I got my 5 days in!

My push was again the hiking - shorter but definitely more challenging. I'd love to find a way to work out at home, as I think I'll get sick of the gym eventually.

Best Moment? Had a wonderful hike with Ed on Sunday! We tried a new trail that I loved. Just enough up and down to make it feel like a real hike, but still very manageable. It was also beautiful weather (and scenery, in a desert-y sort of way). We had a really great time. Very happy about our new Sunday hiking date routine.

Other best moment? Getting this in the mail :)

A lovely friend (who just had her own little one), has started an amazing company, Mama Lana, which makes these wonderful boxes for different months of pregnancy, and has been sending me their packages as a gift. It is so sweet and special, and I can't wait to explore everything. This super cute onsie is our first baby outfit, and it is so precious and little.

Milestones: I am feeling a little more certain about that baby movement :). Other milestone I think is just cooking a lot more and acting more "normal." An unhappy un-milestone is that our anatomy scan has been pushed back a week. Our look forward to date is now December 10th. Only a little over two weeks from now, though, and I'm sure it'll fly by!

Mommy Update: Still feeling a bit awkward starting to look more pregnant. I really enjoy it for myself, but the attention is a bit weird (as are the continued comments about how it looks like I'm having twins, and am I sure it's just one). I think once I hit 20 weeks, I'll feel like it's *okay* to be showing so much and will be more able to embrace being definitely pregnant in public. I am really loving it, though. The idea of being pregnant over the holidays made me very happy and smiley yesterday. 

Baby Update: Our baby just keep growing by leaps and bounds, which is so incredibly exciting. Lots of movement is going on in there, it's swallowing, sucking, hiccuping, and yawning, as well as spinning around lots. Baby is also now covered with vernix, so it isn't getting wrinkly hanging out in the amniotic fluid. It's also continuing enjoying listening up to all the sounds it's hearing. Hopefully this means it's already developing a fondness for Christmas music :)

Happy Weekend Before Thanksgiving! 

Thankfulness: 21

As I sit here with the sounds and smell of rain coming in through the screen door, I can't help but be incredibly thankful for the change in weather. Not only is rain special whenever, but living in the desert, where we see rain very rarely, it's extra special.

The cool day, plus the evening rain, has really made it feel like we're entering the holiday season. I drove home with the heat on, playing Christmas music (I blame Ed entirely - he found the station last week and programmed it into both cars. That boy loves Christmas music!), and felt so happy.

I love this time of year!

Thankfulness/Throwback Thursday: Salt River Kayaking

Today (and yesterday...oops!) I am thankful for the opportunity to try new things here in Arizona. Back in September (I think), Ed and I decided to try an activity that was completely new to us - river kayaking. 

We'd both kayaked plenty in lakes, including Lake Tahoe, where it can get a little bit choppy, but have never tackled moving water. We figured the Salt River, where we were headed, had to be pretty tame, since it is a popular place to inner tube and drink heavily with the ASU crowd. 

It was forecasted to be its normal warm self, so we were excited to be starting at 9:30, before it got too sweltering, and to be on the water where it would surely be cooler. 

The kayak company had you take off in groups, so we headed out into the water with about 10 other individuals. We quickly realized that river kayaking was great, as there was an actual current to help you along! This meant we were moving forward without any effort at all. This also meant we had a huge problem with ditching our group, since the others weren't super interested in paddling (especially the group who were pre-drinking and who brought along an additional six pack). 

We waited behind every so often, usually after the little rapids. Rapids where definitely fun - just enough to get your heart pumping without actually being dangerous. One guy did fall out on a rapid, so Ed was awesome and helped him get back in. It was hard to imagine wanting to go down those in inner-tubes, though. They were definitely more rapid-y than I'd imagined!

The kayaking adventure, all told, was about 2 hours, including lots of hanging out, to make sure we didn't get too ahead of everyone. There were a ton of people out (and lots of litter - very sad at the irresponsibility of the college kids - the river floor was coated in beer cans), and it was obvious that this was a super popular excursion for everyone in the valley. 

Afterwards, Ed and I seriously talked about buying our own kayaks so that we could come back many more times - we enjoyed it that much! It was so nice to be active and cool in the late summer days, and getting to see a brand new part of Arizona. Plus, it was only about 40 minutes from our home, so it was an easy adventure to reach. 

Of course, our little one threw a bit of a wrench in our big kayaking plans. But, who know, maybe next summer we'll fit in a kayaking date :). 

Thankfulness 19: 4 Months!

Today, we're incredibly thankful that we've reached month 4 in this pregnancy :). 

Crazy that we are so much nearer to those next important milestones like feeling definitive movement, Ed feeling movement, finding out the sex of the baby, etc. It's still hard to believe that this is really happening, and we just feel so incredibly fortunate for this wonderful blessing!

I'm also thankful that I got to talk to both my sisters tonight, and that everyone is excited for an Arizona Thanksgiving. Lots to be thankful for these days :)

Thankfulness: 18

It's hard not to come on here and be thankful for sleep every time :).

Okay, I think I will be thankful instead for enthusiastic students. We started our ecosystem in a bottle project on Friday (the kids have to put some living and non living things in an empty two liter bottle for 3 weeks and observe it to learn about what living things need to survive). I haven't done the project in a few years, but it's always a hit, and this year is no exception. I had so many kids thanking me for assigning this project, which always warms a teacher's heart. It is fun to hear about what bug they chose, and what their conceptions are about living creatures (one boy is positive that plants do not need water to survive. We'll see how long his ecosystem lasts....).

Being a teacher is so much more fun when the students are excited about their learning.

Thankfulness: 16 and 17

Slacking again, but it has been quite the busy weekend! Not only was I doing some prep for hosting my first Thanksgiving ever (eek), Ed and and I also had a wonderful date night out to dinner and to see The Lion King. Amazingly, Ed had never seen the actual movie, so this was very much his first Lion King experience. So much fun. 

I decided that the Thanks for the past two could both be from today, as I have some nice pictures to match the sentiments. 

First, I'm so thankful to have quality time with Ed outdoors. I'd honestly forgotten how nice hiking with him could be. After having three consecutive weekend hikes, on trails that were manageable, I'm feeling like we're rekindling a bit of our bay area selves. We now have a standing Sunday date to go hiking somewhere together. Ed has been a good sport, but has definitely lamented the lack of outdoor activity together this past year, but I really got scared off of the trails after a few bad experiences after we moved. I'm finally able to give them a second chance, and am so glad I did. We had a wonderful 3 mile hike today and had such a great time being out in nature together. 

I am also so, so thankful that the weather has "changed." Granted, it'll probably heat up again for a bit, but we had a weekend with highs in the low 70s. Eating lunch out back after our hike this afternoon was amazing. It reminded me of the entire weekends I would spend outside last winter and spring and made me very excited for all the great weather to come. 

So, in general, I'm feeling appreciative of Arizona right now. This is when it finally hits its stride out here, and I'm really hoping to take much better advantage of it this winter!

Week 17 and Thankfulness 15

Weeks continue to speed by! Loving that we're getting closer to 20 :)

(As my principal said, I'm starting to look like there's a human growing inside of me! I'm also looking super tired. That'll go away someday, right?)

Thankfulness: Again, super thankful for Friday. Also, though, I'm thankful that my husband and I share a love of music. His concert band performed with a high school band at a concert last night, and it was so nice to get to hear both groups. Watching the high school band brought back a lot of good memories of performing in the orchestra - the kids all looked so cute! And it's always fun to see Ed's group. Their sound was wonderful. My heart *may* have swelled a little getting to see him lead the group in the tuning and hearing him with the solos he had. So proud of him for being in this community band, and doing such a good job with it. I really look forward to attending concerts with our little one some day and really hope they also develop a love of music. 

How Far Along?  17 weeks!

Size of the Baby? Baby has grown another half an inch and 2.4 ounces this week! I wonder if this growth spurt is why I felt bigger and sicker this week?

Sleep? Tired, tired, tired. I woke up last night at 2 and got super hungry, so I had to get up and get a snack. Didn't fall back asleep until at least 4, so I am exhausted today. I've had a few other days where I'm not sure how much I got back to sleep after my 3am wake-up, but know I was awake before the alarm went off. Next week will be better, right?

Eating? Still felt sick at least half of the days. Got to admit, I'm really sick of feeling sick. Thankfully, I can still make myself eat, but gagging all day while teaching sort of sucks. I just keep telling myself that eventually I'll have a good day, and that it's all part of the process. Really hoping things turn around this week, though. 

Exercise: I did awesome with exercise this week, if I do say so myself. Here's my breakdown from DailyMile!

I made my goal of 5 days of exercise and pushed myself with a 4 mile hike and 3 miles to and from the gym. Hope I can keep it up!

Best Moment? Visiting Prescott and going on our hike. Or maybe just spending time with Ed in general being active. I loved our hike and our gym trip together. Being active together has sort of been a foundation of our relationship, but hasn't always happened with injuries (and morning sickness). So, it's nice to have this back for right now. 

Milestones: I *may* have felt the baby move this week. Still not sure, but I felt some distinctly different sensations this week that I couldn't really place. Belly is also feeling much more pregnant and big. 

Mommy Update: Honestly, I'm just really to move into that nausea free, energetic 2nd trimester. I am so thankful that I have been better than a few weeks ago, but I'm still having trouble handling all my work stuff with feeling less than ideal. It will get better though, and I am so thankful to have all these reminders that our little one is growing. Very excited that we'll know if we're having a little boy or girl in 2 1/2 weeks!

Baby Update: I am amazed by how much our baby has grown this week (and will continue to grow in the next few weeks). It's bones are turning into real bones, gaining fat, and getting a thicker umbilical cord. It's practicing sucking and swallowing and its brain is regulating its heart. Getting so big and independent :). Can't wait to see you soon on your next ultrasound, baby, and see how much you've grown. 

Happy Weekend! 

I'm linking up with:

Thankfulness/Throwback Thursday: Ed's Family

Last week, I talked about my thankfulness for my parents and getting to share our special news with them, so this week it only made sense to share how special it was to share our news with Ed's side, even though it was a bit less smooth than we'd envisioned.

We knew from the beginning that we'd wanted to wait and tell Ed's mom on her birthday in mid-September, as Ed had come up with the idea of mailing her a baby themed birthday present to share the news. By happy coincidence, Ed's brother and wife were going to be here visiting, so we thought it would be perfect if she was on speaker phone when she opened her gift, so they could all find out together. 

We had a lovely breakfast with Tom and Irma, and then it was time to make the birthday call. We were of course very excited, but were doing our best to play it cool. Below is what the present was supposed to look like. If you can't tell, it spells Oma, which is the German word for grandmother. 

I say supposed to, because this is where the wheels fell off of our little reveal. Sabine opened her present and said, "oh...a nice frame! Thank you!" We prompted her to look inside the frame and she let us know that she didn't see anything particular to look at. There was a bit of teasing on Tom's part about her inability to see anything after we told her it was supposed to spell something and she still couldn't. Finally we realized that the pictures had shifted in transit and weren't readable at all. 

Obviously this wasn't going well. Tom and Irma were flying to Europe in a few hours, and at this point decided they were going to go and get ready. We somewhat stressfully convinced them to just stay a little longer, hoping we'd eventually successfully reveal the news.

So, we moved onto plan B. Ed explained that the frame said Oma and had 3 spots, one for Matthew, one for Meagan (our new niece and nephew), and one for her newest grandchild. "That's nice," she replied, obviously not getting it. Ed tried again, emphasizing the last part, but still, no realization. 

Finally, I blurted out: "Sabine, we're having a baby!"

At this point, Tom and Irma realized the point behind this whole morning and got excited. Sabine however, still feeling the effects of some earlier teasing and all this confusion, responding with, "Just stop. Stop playing around and teasing!" Finally Tom jumped in and told her we really were serious. It took Tom's reassurance, but she finally realized that we weren't just teasing, we were actually telling the truth, and then she got very, very happy.

After a much more confusing reveal than we'd ever thought possible, everyone finally knew our happy news, and Ed's family couldn't have been more thrilled. We called Ed's other brother and his wife later that day, sharing the news by telling them the whole convoluted story of how the rest of the family found out, and finally, all of our family members knew. 

So, it wasn't quite the perfect, straightforward news sharing moment we'd pictured, but it was incredibly special nonetheless. Ed's family is so supportive of everything we do, and has been especially sweet about our upcoming little one. They raised a fantastic son and I'm so lucky to have them in our lives. 

Thankfulness: Day 13

Today, I am thankful for nice time with Ed. We ran (well, ran/walked) to the gym, did some weights, and then mostly walked home (with a little running for good measure). It was nice to be active, but even more so, it was nice to spend a good quality hour together, especially on the to and from from the gym. It was a beautiful evening, in the higher 70s, and lovely to be outside.

I will also be thankful once the weather cools down! 92 yesterday and 85 today. I hear it's supposed to keep dropping and can't wait for it to feel like fall :).

Thankfulness: Day 12

Today, I'm thankful for this guy:

Today, he turned 33! This is the 7th birthday of his we've celebrated together (wow!) and I just love him more with every passing day. 

I love that he loves to be outside and stay active, and that he gets me to push my comfort levels so that I can enjoy all that beauty, too! And I love that he's patient when I want or need to go slower or shorter than he wants. He takes such good care of me on the trail and off. 

(starting the registry! No, this isn't our stroller - too short :( )

And, I love how excited he is about our little one's impending arrival. He's so sweet about our baby and I am so glad to have such a wonderful partner in this next life step. He's going to be such a good dad when our little one arrives!

So, Happy Birthday honey! This next year is going to be an amazing one :)