Beginning of the Mural

DH drove out early this morning and picked up his cousins. When they got to the house, I made them a pretty awesome breakfast in my opinion...deer sausage, bacon and pancakes. The secret to the pancakes is a little cinnamon sugar, sprinkles or Pampered Chef Carmel Sprinkle. Sorry, off topic! Then the girls and DH got to work working on the mural in the baby room: This is DH's cousin, K, who is the artist in the family.

More pics later when the mural is finished! I'm trying to stay busy and not watch paint dry but I'm so excited to see the final product!!!

Tag-You're It!!!

Kelly tagged me to take this survey so let the questions roll...

Rules are simple. If you follow them, you will 1 million rainbow coins to use however you'd like.

1. Post the rules.
2. Answer the 11 questions from the person who tagged you.
3. Create 11 new questions for the people you tag.
4. Tag people and link them to your post.
5. Let those people know that you tagged them.

Ready...set...GO!

1. If you could go anywhere for a week, where would you go? I'd really love to go back to Couples Negril where we honeymooned at. I was still a hyped up bridzilla mess when we went so I'd like to go back and just chillax and not be so caught up in what was going on at home instead of enjoying my new hubby and the awesome scenery around us.

2. What is your favorite app on your smart phone? If you don't have a smart phone, what the hell is wrong with you? Thanks Kell, DH and I do NOT have smart phones. We would both love them but he's so hard on phones and if I get one, he has to get one so it's a big circle of no smart phones for us. I do have an I-Touch and my niece, sis and I are addicted to Fashion Story (like Farmville but with clothes).

3. If you were going to redo one room in your house, which room would it be and why? DUH! Guestroom is turning into a nursery-yah!!!

4. What is your biggest insecurity? Wow, that's a tough one because I'm not sure which ONE is the biggest-lol. During our time together, my weight has flucuated back and forth and DH does a great job letting me know how sexy and pretty he thinks I am. Although in mind, I think he's totally bananas but I appreciate him saying that.

5. What are the top three Internet sites you visit? Let's see, when I turn on the computer, first stop Yahoo Mail, then my work email then Facebook and Twitter.

6. Do you have a hobby? What is it? When we started this infertility journey, I turned to running as an outlet. It's amazing the world that has opened up for me there, the people I've met and the things I've accomplished. I'm on a hiatus right now but am already looking at races for the fall to get back into it.

7. If your husband could buy you anything, what would you want? A DSLR camera.

8. When is the last time you drastically changed your hairstyle? Definitely not within the past 5 years since I've been with DH. He freaks out when I get a few inches cut off my hair! Right before we started dating (end of 2006), I'd had blonde highlights forever and I decided to go back to my atural brown color and I've stayed the same ever since...although white hairs keep creeping in.

9. What was the last vacation you went on? I went to FL the week after Christmas to visit my mom. DH was supposed to go with me but forgot to ask off work so he ended up staying home. It was a nice, relaxing visit but I missed DH and not spending our last New Year's without a baby together. It was still nice to get to some warm weather and momma took me shopping!

10. When was the last time you cried and why? Hmm...I cried at the AB clydesdale commercial during the Super Bowl. Back in November, I cried when the lady reached her goal on "Extreme Couponing." I've cried lots here and there because I've been tired or overwhelmed. Why? Because I'm pregnant.

11. How do you stay organized? My calendar! I carry it around like my Bible. I put all my appointments, dinner, meetings, daily tasks, etc...in that thing.

My Questions
1. How did you get into the field/profession that you work in?
2. Favorite 80s/90s movie of all time.
3. If you were an actress and could have any role, what would it be and why?
4. Do you know the way to San Jose? If you do, please give us directions. If you don't, give us directions to somewhere else.
5. What is your favorite season and why?
6. Ice cream or snocones? Why and what is your favorite flavor?
7. Favorite book of all times...both as a child and an adult.
8. What makes you happiest?
9. Reality tv: good or bad? Why?
10. Favorite meal of all time.
11. The chicken or the egg?

My Tags
Some of you have already been tagged so if you want to play along, feel free to tag yourself!

Valentine's Day Recap

Hope you all had a great Valentine's Day and felt lots of love! DH did a great job making me feel loved. After he got home at 3am from pushing snow, I woke up a few hours later to chocolate and roses. Fat girl only noticed the chocolates and it took me a few minutes to see the giant vase of red roses behind the box of chocolates!

We headed to dinner at our favorite hibachi restaurant that we only go to on Valentine's Day and then came home for a s'more pizza for dessert-yum! We were both stuffed. I asked DH to snap this belly shot for you all, so here's your Valentine's Day present from me. Baby A and I at 27 weeks:
Love to you all for all your support throughout our journey!

Crib Time!

Guess what DH and I did this morning before I went to work and the snow hit the Midwest. We put together the baby crib!!! Okay, he did most of it, I just held the parts up they wouldn't fall over. Here he is hard at work:
The Black Buffalo had snuck up from downstairs so he came in to inspect what was going on.

Ta-da!!! Finished product.

DH and I both dislike having our pictures taken so we always end up having our mouths open or our tongues sticking out. This was my niece's crib and it needs a new mattress. It was fairly easy to put together. It also turns into a toddler bed when we're ready for that. So woohoo!!!!!!! Crib-check! Mural is getting done this weekend and then I'll post a preview of the nursery even though it won't have much else going on in there yet. Great job DH, now get to puttin' that dresser together!

Random Thoughts

This post is a mish-mash of my thoughts right now...enjoy!

My Body
Despite not having a big bump, I'm at that point of pregnancy where I'm just tired. It could be coupled with the fact that I have a lot going on at work right now, I've started "nesting" and I have 4 showers (not my own) to attend in the next few weeks but this girl is tiii-red! Lately, when I wake up in the morning, my feet are super sensitive. I guess because I've been laying flat all night so the blood flow isn't as good. It takes about a couple hours to get moving and then I'm fine. My fingers are also swollen in the morning when I get up but that goes away mid-morning as well. I told DH to keep an eye on my nose and if that gets swollen then we need to call the doc ASAP. Along those lines, I had knee surgery back in high school. It rarely gives me problems but here lately, I can't straighten my knee all the way and it's just really sore. I feel as though I'm kind of limping. Guess this is because of the extra weight.

Sorry if this next part is TMI but my nipples are getting darker which is expected with pregnancy. But then I noticed the other day, that my areola is growing and not in a regular circle like normal, just some dark spots here and there. Guess I just never paid that close of attention before.

When I change clothes, I can totally see a belly and it looks big. I guess I just hide it very well with the baggy clothes that I wear. I'm going to do my best to take a picture next week before our Valentine's date and I'll post it on here.

Other Pregos
They stress me out for a variety of reasons! One, some people due after me already are working on things that we hadn't even begun yet. A lot of this is due to the fact that I was so paranoid about everything being okay that we really didn't start working on stuff until we had our 21 week u/s.

I've also tried my best to not "flaunt" my pregnancy. I haven't made any status annoucements on Twitter or FB. I haven't posted any u/s pictures either. Occasionally, I'll tweet a question or something. Having dealt with infertility and having friends that are in the same boat, I'm trying my best not to upset anyone. Having said that, at the same time, I'm a bit "jealous" of all the other pregos out there because they tweet and do statuses about their pregnancy, babies, etc...

Nesting
DH says I'm nesting. My mom says DH is nesting more than me. I told DH wait until the nursery is ready and then he'll REALLY see some nesting. Just last night, I went through four boxes of "stuff" and got rid of 2!!! We're making SLOW progress but we're making it. I'm really excited for DH to get the dresser put together and the closet finished in the nursery so I can start putting stuff away. I've also started buying diapers on my weekly grocery trips so we'll have a good headstart by the time Baby A gets here. My grandma is also buying diapers weekly!

It also seems like every time we get a box out to go through it, it's full of MY stuff. Then DH wants to get rid of everything! When we FINALLY get a box of his out then he doesn't want to get rid of a thing. I've asked him to just get my boxes down for me and I'll go through them but he insists on going through them with me. I get a little bit of a big head when I see all my sports and academic awards/trophies; most of the conversations on those boxes include, "What, what?" or "Didn't know your wife was so awesome, did you?"

Okay, that's all the random thoughts for now because DH is yelling at me to come go through boxes! He's already telling me his Boy Scout stories, guess it's his turn! Oh and this is what happens to the poor Black Buffalo who wants to go through every box we open. He gets to try on whatever we find in the box!

The Pups Post

After my 25 week post, a lot of you had questions about what we were doing with the puppies. So let me explain our thoughts, reasonings and plan.

First off, we have two LARGE dogs. The Black Buffalo, a 100 pound black lab and the Princess Pup, a 60 pound whatever you want her to be (seriously, everyone who sees her has an opinion what she is!). These two are like my children. The Princess Pup has been around longer than DH. Notice, I say MY, not our. I'm the major dog lover in the family. I always grew up with large inside dogs; DH grew up with large outside dogs. Being that the Princess Pup was around before DH, there wasn't much discussion as to whether the dogs would be inside or out.

I love having them in the house especially when DH is gone hunting or working late, they make me feel safe and ALWAYS make me feel loved. Sometimes I think they can read my emotions and feelings better than DH! However, there is some drawbacks...they shed...a lot...year round. They also bark at every person, animal or strange sound that goes by the house. Plus our house is not huge, it's a one-story ranch and with large dogs, at times, we can all be walking on each other.

The Black Buffalo actually came from a home that had 2 small children. The little girl learned how to walk with him because she'd stand up and hold on to him until she was ready to take those first few steps. He's so funny because it's like he knows how to act around different people. If an adult comes to our house, he's a jumper but if my niece or a small child comes over then he's gentle...still in their face but just out of curiosity. My niece always spends a week with us each summer and the Black Buffalo always sleeps in bed with her.

With the Princess Pup, children or adults, if you're a stranger then you're going to stay a stranger. Someone comes in the house, she barks and runs to the other room. If you stick around for awhile, she'll eventually come out and visit. She let's my niece pet her and lay with her but she's a momma's girl and would much rather be with me than anyone else (DH is a close second).

As stated above, I'm also a HUGE dog lover! I refuse to be one of those moms that has a child and then the dogs get no attention. That's why I REALLY want new carpet in the basement so we can spend time with them in the evening (the carpet now is thin and gross and been there FOREVER). We kennel them during the day while at work and I do NOT want to keep them "locked up" (meaning not in their cage but still just in the basement with no contact) all night too.

So our decision to move the dogs downstairs to our basement was a reluctant one on my part but a no brainer to DH. I know it'll make DH happier and I know it's best for the baby with the dog hair and noise plus it'll hopefully keep our upstairs (where people actually see!) cleaner which is good since I know having a baby limits your time to do daily tasks like vacuuming, dusting, etc...

I also want our baby to grow up with dogs and have that love for dogs, the friendship (I know that sounds silly but those of you with pups know what I mean), and not fearing dogs. I also wanted to transition the dogs before the babies get here so they don't resent the baby if we did it when s/he arrives. I have a feeling that Baby A and I will be spending most of my maternity leave downstairs with the pups (it's SOOO much cooler there in the basement) or taking walks with them (one at a time!) if the weather permits (MO summers get pretty toasty!).

I really didn't do any research on this topic. I wasn't told to seperate the dogs or anything. DH and I just made the best decision for our family. It was more or less based off how we know our puppies and their behavior. I think every family has to make the right decision for their family and you're the one that knows your pets best.

Now before you go feeling sorry for the dogs, as I type this post, the Black Buffalo is sprawled out over the couch in the basement while the Princess Pup is curled up next to him!

The Bump

Okay, so everyone is asking if I'm showing or if I have a bump and yes, I'm now 26 weeks pregnant and alas, no real bump in regular clothes. At night when I'm laying down or in my pajamas, I totally notice it and so does DH. If you see me in person and I'm wearing something to show off the bump then you might think I'm showing. DH does, my SIL does, some co-workers do but I'm not really embracing the bump. Why? Well, because if you don't know that I'm pregnant then you would just lean over to your friends and say, "That girl should NOT be wearing that, she totally looks pregnant!" Plus, in general, I'm not a tight clothes wearing girl, I'm much happier in a hoodie or loose sweater which DH refers to as frumpy old woman clothing. He's loving the maternity tops because my boobs are HUGE in them.

Anyways, I was starting to get really concerned about this. Not so much the showing part, I've heard pregnant women complain about that enough, but I was concerned about the baby. At my appointment last week, I asked the NP and she said, no worries, that the baby was measuring on schedule and that my uterus was growing as planned so that relieved a lot of worry. She also told me that I have very LONG torso so the baby has more room to go up and down instead of jutting out. I found this funny since at all of five feet four inches, long has NEVER been a word to describe me except maybe sometimes my hair. She also mentioned that since this is my first pregnancy, that my muscles are still tight holding my belly in. I love to hear that I have muscles in my stomach! You all know I don't do ab workouts but I sure love to laugh so I count that as my ab workout that's made my muscles "so strong." Now that I know, I'm a long torso-ed lady, I feel better knowing that the baby is good so as long as that's right then I don't care about not showing.