Today is a bit of a milestone in two ways:
We found out one year ago today that we were expecting a baby!
After almost a year of trying, I finally got my positive pregnancy test. I remember that day like it was yesterday. I got up very early with Adam to take the test before he went to work. He was in the shower and I came in the bathroom after 3 minutes to see the results. The test was very faint, but there were definitely two lines. I'd never had a positive pregnancy test before, so I didn't know what that meant. I googled it. Most info said "a positive's a positive," but it seemed too good to be true! I had a super busy day at work - two photo shoots among other things, so that kept me busy and able to not tell anyone. I spent $40 on pregnancy tests that night, took them all the next morning, and when they showed up positive, I finally told a couple people that next day. I carried that baby for two months and am missing her so much today!
Today's the first day of my THIRD trimester!
I can't believe we made it here. This is the last stage before we get to meet the little guy. I can't believe how close it's getting. Wow. I'll be doing my 27 week update tonight or tomorrow, so check back later for that. :)
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Friday, March 26, 2010
26 Weeks
How far along? 26 weeks
Weight gain: 21 pounds
Baby is the size of a(n): Eggplant
Food cravings/aversions: Cereal is awesome. And chocolate.
Sleeping: As everyone keeps telling me, Bentley's preparing me for little sleep after he's born by kicking while I'm trying to sleep and keeping me up. Especially in the mornings. He's gonna be a morning person like his dad.
Milestones: Bending over is officially difficult. Some of my regular t-shirts that I bum around in during the evenings are too short. And I visited our daycare this week! I felt like it was my first "mom thing" to do. We're having daycare two days a week so that I can hopefully get some work done at the studio. I don't want full-time daycare because I don't think I could handle being away from the little dude that much. We'll see how it goes! The daycare seems like it's going to be great, we know the couple - her hubby teaches 2nd grade at Adam's school, and she has a degree in early childhood education, so I'm pretty pumped about it!
Weird things I read online: Baby weighs about 2 pounds and normal weight gain for mom by this point is 16-22 pounds, and I'm in that range. Woohoo! And Bentley's eyes are starting to open this week. Weird. I wonder if he can see anything other than darkness?
Interesting things that happened this past week/anticdotes: For the past week and a half, I've been getting pains at the top of my uterus that feel kind of like a bruise. They only happen if I'm standing or walking for an extended period of time, but it still made me a little nervous. I called my doctor and they said it sounded like normal stretching/expanding pains, but that the top of my uterus is probably more sensitive to it because of the surgery I had, which makes sense. I'm thinking of investing in one of those belly supporter things for when I have to photograph weddings because the pain tends to go away if I lift or support my belly with my hands.
Things I'm struggling with trying to decide this week: cloth diapers (though I think we'll end up doing disposable), vaccinations, using the BirthCare Center or the hospital, epidural vs. no epidural. So many decisions.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
My Lazy Boys
Just wanted to share a couple super cute photos of the boys. This was one morning when they were not ready to get out of bed.
The big guy got a bath this weekend, and his daddy decided to use my conditioner on his fur. He's the softest cuddler ever now!
I forgot to take a belly photo again today. It was kinda a busy day at the studio...so I will try to remember tomorrow.
And lastly, Adam and I are on a strict budget since we got slammed with taxes, so we've been eating in for all our meals. I cooked the past two nights in a row! I don't know if that's ever happened before. Wowow.
I forgot to take a belly photo again today. It was kinda a busy day at the studio...so I will try to remember tomorrow.
And lastly, Adam and I are on a strict budget since we got slammed with taxes, so we've been eating in for all our meals. I cooked the past two nights in a row! I don't know if that's ever happened before. Wowow.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Eggplant
Lindsey makes me wallpapers for my computer according to what size the baby is, using that size of fruit/veggie, whatever. The one she made for the eggplant is pretty cute:
AND...this time next week, I'll be in my THIRD trimester! How crazy is that?
AND...this time next week, I'll be in my THIRD trimester! How crazy is that?
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Love Story: Part 8
It sounds exhausting now, but somehow, Adam and I found a way to see each other every weekend while I was at K-State.
I became so comfortable with that two-hour drive, stopping in Abilene for gas and a Dr. Pepper, singing my heart out to Incubus (strangely, my favorite band). I started to know the landmarks, if I didn't make it to the bright red barn by such-and-such a time, I was driving too slow.
There was one time that I remember so vividly. I'd been having a bad week. It was Wednesday or Thursday, and I wasn't going to be able to see Adam til the weekend. Talking to him on the phone just wasn't enough. I was walking back from class one day, and as I rounded the corner to my dorm, I looked up, and Adam was sitting on the porch of my dorm, waiting for me. He'd brought supper. He needed to get back, so he didn't stay more than 10 minutes.
He spent 4 hours in a car for 10 minutes of time with me, just because I was having a bad week.
Ohhhhhh....I just had to marry this man.
November of my freshman year was our 2 year anniversary. I still couldn't believe I'd made it two whole years in a relationship. Whoa.
I came back to Wichita for the event, and we got all dressed up and went out to eat at a super fancy restaurant. Adam gave me a little silver necklace with a cross, and once again, he must have good taste in jewelry because I still wear it every day. I even wrapped it around my bouquet stems at our wedding because I wanted it close (but couldn't wear it since it didn't go with my dress...).
I'm sitting here, wracking my brain as to what else we did on that anniversary, and I can't remember. So I got online to ask Adam if he remembered, and his response? "I think that was the anniversary that I took you on a surprise trip to Russia."
I can always count on him. :)
After the holidays, Adam's family invited me on a vacation to Florida. I was SO excited. I still remember the dates. January 4-11, 2004. So much uninterrupted time with my man! It was going to be awesome.
Our flight got in to Florida late that evening, and Adam and I planned a short detour trip down to the Everglades to go camping with his brother and his wife. We drove all through the night. We finally got to our spot, set up the tent, and it was miserable. Muggy, hot, mosquitoey. Ugh. Adam tried to take a nap in the tent, but there was no way I could sleep in that miserable-ness. He was unsuccessful too, so he got up and we decided to take a little boat tour on the river. That was awesome. We saw all kinds of crocodiles (or alligators...I don't know the difference) and took lots of pictures. By the time we were done with our tour and got back to camp, the decision was made to forget the Everglades and head back to Orlando, where the rest of the family was staying (in comfortable, air-conditioned rooms).
We spend the next several days having an AMAZING time. We stayed in a condo that was all decked out and had a jacuzzi tub. We went to Universal Studios and Disney World. We visited the beach and attempted getting in the cold cold water. We even went to some dinner show about pirates and I got to compete in the show and have my picture taken with a pirate!
(I had to throw this picture in...look how skinny I was! I just can't believe it. This will be my motivation photo after the baby's born, I think.)
After heading back home from our trip, we had a blissful, event-free year. I came home for the summer and got a job doing lawn care/maintenance for a nursing home, while taking college classes in the evenings. Adam worked for the City of Wichita and saved every penny so he could graduate debt-free, so that when we got married, we wouldn't have that burden.
Oh yes, we were talking marriage by this point. You know how you just know? We just knew. There was no one else. Everyone said we were too young.
What did they know.
In the fall of 2004, I moved back to Manhattan. It was really hard, once again. And once again, we began our weekly trips back and forth. I lived in an apartment with 4 other girls. My best friend Rachael (you should remember her by now!) lived with me, and her boyfriend lived 2 hours away in Kansas City. So we bonded over our long distance love and nightly phone calls. She ended up marrying him too. :)
Many of you know that I'm a wedding photographer, and the story of how that all came about plays into our love story a little bit. At the end of my freshman year, before I came back home for the summer, I was trying to think of a cool summer job. I was an art major and wanted to do something that I could put on my resume.
I had a random thought: wedding photographers would need extra help during the summer since that's their busy time, right?
So when I got home that summer, I went through the Wichita yellow pages and called just about every photographer, asking if they needed help for the summer.
No one did.
But a few of them kept my info, just in case things changed.
I ended up with the lawn care gig that summer. Not so much art-related, but we all pay our dues.
Fast forward. It's January, 2005. I get a call from a Wichita photographer, asking if I'm still interested in a job. I said YES! I was already driving back to Wichita every weekend to see Adam, so I could just work while I was there and then keep that job for the summer. She wanted to meet me, see a portfolio.
I happened to be taking a darkroom photography class at K-State that semester, and I'd been getting all A's. My teacher loved me. His name was Adam. So I asked this teacher-Adam to help me put together a portfolio of my best work. I was so nervous...this was a job in the creative industry! I just HAD to get it.
That week before my weekend trip home for the interview was a tough one for Adam and I. I don't remember the exact issue, but we were fighting. I think the distance was just wearing on us and I was being a stupid girl and saying stupid girl things. The phone call the night before I was to come home didn't go well. I told him that I was so mad at him, I didn't even want to come home at all that weekend.
"But you have that interview this weekend, you have to come home, right?" Adam says.
"I guess. I'll just talk to you later." Hmph.
The next day, after I finished classes, I began my drive back to Wichita. I was still in a bad mood, still being a stupid girl. I called Rachael.
"Adam's making me so mad, and now I have to spend the weekend with him, and act like nothing's wrong, and I just don't even want to drive these whole two hours..." and I'm just an annoying, oblivious, dumb girl.
"But you have that interview this weekend, you have to go home, right?" Rachael says.
"I guess. I'll talk to you when I get back." Hmph.
I spent Friday evening with Adam and was reminded why I loved him. It really was the distance that was getting to us. Once again, I was the stupid girl who insisted on living so far away from the most amazing man ever. It's always my fault somehow. (Don't tell Adam I said that.)
Saturday morning, February 5, was my big interview. I got dressed up, arrived early and drove around the neighborhood so I wouldn't be TOO early. The interview went well...the photographer's only concern: me living in Manhattan and coming back every weekend to Wichita. I assured her that I came back nearly every weekend anyway, since my boyfriend lived here. "Well, what if you two break up?" she asks. "Not going to happen," I say.
She didn't get it. He wasn't just my boyfriend. No one got it. Boyfriend wasn't the right word for what we had. That had annoyed me for awhile. People who'd been dating a week and barely knew each other were called boyfriend/girlfriends. We had so much more than that. Dumb. Whatever.
Adam and I spent Saturday afternoon and evening together. As I walked out the door of my parents house that afternoon to head over to Adam's, my dad was sitting on the couch, and he asked what our plans for the evening were. He had a peculiar grin on his face. I told him I didn't know, probably just the usual dinner and renting a movie or something. I left.
At Adam's, we did plan to go out to dinner, and I was getting hungry early. I kept bugging Adam.
"Where are we going to eat? Can we go now?"
"Not yet Gina. Just hang on."
"But I'm huuuuuungry. Let's just go. Why can't we go?"
Fine. We finally went. Little did I know that that particular evening would change the rest of my life. Change the course of history. :) Adam would no longer just be my "boyfriend."
To be continued...
I became so comfortable with that two-hour drive, stopping in Abilene for gas and a Dr. Pepper, singing my heart out to Incubus (strangely, my favorite band). I started to know the landmarks, if I didn't make it to the bright red barn by such-and-such a time, I was driving too slow.
There was one time that I remember so vividly. I'd been having a bad week. It was Wednesday or Thursday, and I wasn't going to be able to see Adam til the weekend. Talking to him on the phone just wasn't enough. I was walking back from class one day, and as I rounded the corner to my dorm, I looked up, and Adam was sitting on the porch of my dorm, waiting for me. He'd brought supper. He needed to get back, so he didn't stay more than 10 minutes.
He spent 4 hours in a car for 10 minutes of time with me, just because I was having a bad week.
Ohhhhhh....I just had to marry this man.
November of my freshman year was our 2 year anniversary. I still couldn't believe I'd made it two whole years in a relationship. Whoa.
I came back to Wichita for the event, and we got all dressed up and went out to eat at a super fancy restaurant. Adam gave me a little silver necklace with a cross, and once again, he must have good taste in jewelry because I still wear it every day. I even wrapped it around my bouquet stems at our wedding because I wanted it close (but couldn't wear it since it didn't go with my dress...).
I'm sitting here, wracking my brain as to what else we did on that anniversary, and I can't remember. So I got online to ask Adam if he remembered, and his response? "I think that was the anniversary that I took you on a surprise trip to Russia."
I can always count on him. :)
After the holidays, Adam's family invited me on a vacation to Florida. I was SO excited. I still remember the dates. January 4-11, 2004. So much uninterrupted time with my man! It was going to be awesome.
Our flight got in to Florida late that evening, and Adam and I planned a short detour trip down to the Everglades to go camping with his brother and his wife. We drove all through the night. We finally got to our spot, set up the tent, and it was miserable. Muggy, hot, mosquitoey. Ugh. Adam tried to take a nap in the tent, but there was no way I could sleep in that miserable-ness. He was unsuccessful too, so he got up and we decided to take a little boat tour on the river. That was awesome. We saw all kinds of crocodiles (or alligators...I don't know the difference) and took lots of pictures. By the time we were done with our tour and got back to camp, the decision was made to forget the Everglades and head back to Orlando, where the rest of the family was staying (in comfortable, air-conditioned rooms).
We spend the next several days having an AMAZING time. We stayed in a condo that was all decked out and had a jacuzzi tub. We went to Universal Studios and Disney World. We visited the beach and attempted getting in the cold cold water. We even went to some dinner show about pirates and I got to compete in the show and have my picture taken with a pirate!
(I had to throw this picture in...look how skinny I was! I just can't believe it. This will be my motivation photo after the baby's born, I think.)
After heading back home from our trip, we had a blissful, event-free year. I came home for the summer and got a job doing lawn care/maintenance for a nursing home, while taking college classes in the evenings. Adam worked for the City of Wichita and saved every penny so he could graduate debt-free, so that when we got married, we wouldn't have that burden.
Oh yes, we were talking marriage by this point. You know how you just know? We just knew. There was no one else. Everyone said we were too young.
What did they know.
In the fall of 2004, I moved back to Manhattan. It was really hard, once again. And once again, we began our weekly trips back and forth. I lived in an apartment with 4 other girls. My best friend Rachael (you should remember her by now!) lived with me, and her boyfriend lived 2 hours away in Kansas City. So we bonded over our long distance love and nightly phone calls. She ended up marrying him too. :)
Many of you know that I'm a wedding photographer, and the story of how that all came about plays into our love story a little bit. At the end of my freshman year, before I came back home for the summer, I was trying to think of a cool summer job. I was an art major and wanted to do something that I could put on my resume.
I had a random thought: wedding photographers would need extra help during the summer since that's their busy time, right?
So when I got home that summer, I went through the Wichita yellow pages and called just about every photographer, asking if they needed help for the summer.
No one did.
But a few of them kept my info, just in case things changed.
I ended up with the lawn care gig that summer. Not so much art-related, but we all pay our dues.
Fast forward. It's January, 2005. I get a call from a Wichita photographer, asking if I'm still interested in a job. I said YES! I was already driving back to Wichita every weekend to see Adam, so I could just work while I was there and then keep that job for the summer. She wanted to meet me, see a portfolio.
I happened to be taking a darkroom photography class at K-State that semester, and I'd been getting all A's. My teacher loved me. His name was Adam. So I asked this teacher-Adam to help me put together a portfolio of my best work. I was so nervous...this was a job in the creative industry! I just HAD to get it.
That week before my weekend trip home for the interview was a tough one for Adam and I. I don't remember the exact issue, but we were fighting. I think the distance was just wearing on us and I was being a stupid girl and saying stupid girl things. The phone call the night before I was to come home didn't go well. I told him that I was so mad at him, I didn't even want to come home at all that weekend.
"But you have that interview this weekend, you have to come home, right?" Adam says.
"I guess. I'll just talk to you later." Hmph.
The next day, after I finished classes, I began my drive back to Wichita. I was still in a bad mood, still being a stupid girl. I called Rachael.
"Adam's making me so mad, and now I have to spend the weekend with him, and act like nothing's wrong, and I just don't even want to drive these whole two hours..." and I'm just an annoying, oblivious, dumb girl.
"But you have that interview this weekend, you have to go home, right?" Rachael says.
"I guess. I'll talk to you when I get back." Hmph.
I spent Friday evening with Adam and was reminded why I loved him. It really was the distance that was getting to us. Once again, I was the stupid girl who insisted on living so far away from the most amazing man ever. It's always my fault somehow. (Don't tell Adam I said that.)
Saturday morning, February 5, was my big interview. I got dressed up, arrived early and drove around the neighborhood so I wouldn't be TOO early. The interview went well...the photographer's only concern: me living in Manhattan and coming back every weekend to Wichita. I assured her that I came back nearly every weekend anyway, since my boyfriend lived here. "Well, what if you two break up?" she asks. "Not going to happen," I say.
She didn't get it. He wasn't just my boyfriend. No one got it. Boyfriend wasn't the right word for what we had. That had annoyed me for awhile. People who'd been dating a week and barely knew each other were called boyfriend/girlfriends. We had so much more than that. Dumb. Whatever.
Adam and I spent Saturday afternoon and evening together. As I walked out the door of my parents house that afternoon to head over to Adam's, my dad was sitting on the couch, and he asked what our plans for the evening were. He had a peculiar grin on his face. I told him I didn't know, probably just the usual dinner and renting a movie or something. I left.
At Adam's, we did plan to go out to dinner, and I was getting hungry early. I kept bugging Adam.
"Where are we going to eat? Can we go now?"
"Not yet Gina. Just hang on."
"But I'm huuuuuungry. Let's just go. Why can't we go?"
Fine. We finally went. Little did I know that that particular evening would change the rest of my life. Change the course of history. :) Adam would no longer just be my "boyfriend."
To be continued...
Saturday, March 20, 2010
25 Weeks
How far along? 25 weeks
Weight gain: Okay, here goes...whoo whoo (those were deep breaths)...20 pounds.
Baby is the size of a(n): Eggplant
Food cravings/aversions: While in Branson, I was loving sweet potato fries and pizza. Since I've been home, I've been trying to eat healthier, and my turkey sandwiches and carrots for lunch have actually been really good! Plus I've discovered sugar-free chocolate Snack Packs. YUM.
Sleeping: Still not the greatest, but it could be worse.
Milestones: Adam's able to feel the baby move a lot easier now. Since last Friday, he's felt him quite a few times. I've also been having a lot of back pain (which was inevitable because I've always had a weak back), so I've been seeing a chiropractor. We'll see if it helps. He told me I shouldn't use a heating pad, which was the only thing that was helping! Bummer.
Weird things I read online: He's starting to prefer one hand or the other - so he's already becoming a lefty or a righty!
Interesting things that happened this past week/anticdotes: There was one evening where I felt like my belly was almost vibrating. I kinda wonder if he had hiccups. I haven't felt it since, so I still don't know for sure. It's really becoming more evident how big he's getting because I'll feel him move on both sides of my belly. He also doesn't like it when things encroach in his space. Like if I'm too close to my desk and it's digging into my belly, or if I have my laptop (or a dog) on my lap and part-ways on my belly, he starts kicking it.
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