Beach Ball Shim

Remember this?

I do.  This was taken when I was 4 days past-due with the little monkey we used to lovingly call Shim.  Its funny, for 10 months we called this child Shim but one year later referring to my son as 'Shim' sounds so strange to me!  I guess that is a good thing since some people were worried our baby would carry this unfortunate nickname with him/her through their adolescence!  Ha.  How times have changed.

One year to the day that this picture was taken, instead of anxiously waiting 4 more days for my baby to be born, I am anxiously waiting 4 more days to have an official 1st Birthday celebration with Wyatt. 

Tick-Tock .....

We're still just waiting .... waiting on the little shimster to make his or her appearance. Everything is done - room painted, pictures hung, clothes and blankets washed, bottles sterilized, diaper basket filled, toys and gear assembled, car seat in (and inspected). Literally ... everything. Well, except I do still need to wipe down his/her new toys to make sure there are no germs on them but that will take a grand total of 10 minutes to do.

So, the Shim update is there is no update. There is wi-fi in the hospital so I'm sure once there is news to share Ben or my sister will update the blog accordingly.
This is me at 39 weeks. HUGE and swollen! Regarding the whole swelling thing, I asked my sister this morning if giving birth was like popping a balloon. Meaning, does the swelling go down once the baby is out? She said no and that it will take some time. Awesome. Looks like I'll have to continue to deal with flip flops and the loosest-fitting clothes possible.

I do think that when the swelling does subside, I'm going to reward myself with these cute sandals! (Sorry for the tiny picture. I promise they are cute .... you may just have to take my word for it)
Also, just for fun, here is a picture of Ben and his prize fish he caught yesterday. He estimates it was around 6 or 7 pounds!!! Pretty impressive, no?

36 Weeks!

As Ben says, we are busy these days just Waitin on a Shimmy. The nursery is 99.9% complete, everything is washed and put away, we have installed the car seat, put together the pack n' play (that was TOUGH) and bouncer, and tonight we are going to put the swing together. Oh, and finish packing our hospital bag so that when the time comes we'll just have to grab the bag and go. I don't think I've discussed this with Ben yet but we are also going to make a trip to Babies R' Us this weekend to get the last-minute necessities that Shim will need once he or she arrives. The plan is to be totally ready after this weekend but I have a pretty strong feeling that we're going to be waiting around for the next several weeks. My official due date is May 16 and my personal guess is that it will be somewhere around the 20th or 21st before Shim decides to make his grand entrance into the world.

I'm seeing the midwife every week from here on out. This is fun because I like hearing the baby's heartbeat each week and this past Monday I even got to see the baby via ultra-sound! (She had to make sure head was down. That is probably TMI but trust me that is the extent of any 'medical details' that I will ever post on this blog.) Although I will be seeing the doc on a weekly basis, it is a little frustrating that they can't really tell you a whole lot. I mean they can give me the medical facts of my progress, but that doesn't really tell a whole lot .... certainly doesn't do much for predicting exactly when the baby will arrive.

I did decide that this child is most likely going to come out with an addiction to hot sauce. After I ate lunch today, I realized that I have eaten something with hot sauce 3 out of my last 4 meals! What got me thinking about that is the other day at Chick-fil-a when I asked for some to go with my nuggets and the cashier said "be careful ... you're going to give that baby heartburn". I could probably curb my own addiction fairly easily, but I've been eating it frequently throughout my pregnancy and haven't hurt the baby yet so I guess its not really a big deal.

What I am not ready for, however, is to leave my office to be out on maternity leave for 6 weeks. That isn't to say that I'm not looking forward to the time off to recover and take care of my baby, but just that no matter what I do at work to get ahead and get organized for the people taking over I can't seem to get things ready. Oh well. I guess since Shimster is giving me a few more weeks, I will get things to a point where I feel comfortable leaving. I think that is mostly the control-freak in me that wants things to continue EXACTLY my way while I'm out. Most likely it won't, and I will just have to deal.

That is about it for this week's update!

My Favorite Room in the House!

It is official that Shim's room is now my favorite room in our whole house. Mom worked hard last week and the week before painting the nursery and getting it ready for Shim's furniture to come. I had the furniture delivered Saturday afternoon, and then of course went straight to work putting things away and organizing. Mom and Dad came down yesterday and hung the valance and curtains that Mom made and the little elephant and giraffe you see by the windows. We've still got some shelves to hang and a few more finishing touches, but for now ... here it is!
That valance isn't solid black - you can't tell from this picture but its a small black and white checked fabric and I really think it just completes the whole room. My dad thinks this room looks like a boy's room, I personally think we did a good job of keeping it neutral.
Now that the nursery is (mostly) complete, it is pretty much a waiting game until Shim arrives. My sister and Ben both say the baby is coming earlier than the due date, but I'm not so convinced. I guess we'll all know soon enough though!

And now for me. I am 35 weeks as of yesterday, and to be totally honest I'm not all that uncomfortable yet. I mean my feet do hurt if I stand on them for too long (my limit is about 10 minutes, ha!), and I'm having trouble putting on my shoes if they lace up or buckle, and it isn't easy to roll out of bed but other than that I can't really complain a whole lot. I've been lucky that this pregnancy has been fairly easy on me, so I can't really say that I mind it. I actually think I"ll miss being pregnant once I have the baby! So. As of yesterday, here I am.


And, just because Shim and I get most of the attention I will also include a picture of Ben hanging out in Shim's glider. That thing is so comfortable! Ben is starting to get pretty excited in these final days -- he is the one who keeps saying that we need to go ahead and pack our hospital bag! If you know Ben at all, you know that he really doesn't do a whole lot in advance so the fact that he wants to go ahead and get this bag ready is saying quite a lot.

Easter Weekend

This past weekend begun with Mom starting to paint Shimmy's nursery! After agonizing over the 'perfect' yellow we finally found something that we were both happy with and she took off down to my house and went to work on the room. When I got home for the day, she was nearly finished and I was sooo happy with the yellow we chose. She hasn't quite completed the room yet -- one wall is in need of touch ups and then striping. I also got a call from the furniture store saying that everything was in so I think we'll arrange for delivery at the end of the week. I will be SO GLAD to have things in place in the room so that I can start getting all Shim's stuff organized and ready. I'm beginning to freak out a little bit that we only have about 6 weeks and I'm far from ready. Hopefully I'll have some significant progress made by this weekend and if so I"ll post pictures.

Ben and I got up Saturday morning and headed up to the lake. The weather was supposed to be really nice and I was in desperate need of a little sun. We got there about lunch time and I laid out in the dock in all my fat, pregnant glory while he fished. I know this is terrible, but I didn't wear sunscreen despite my sister's advice. I figured I would only be out for a couple hours and I really never do burn. (Please spare me the sunscreen lectures .... I know better but I just am not always as cautious as I should be) Well, I was wrong. I am so red and have a total wife-beater tan line!
After about 2 hours we decided it was probably too hot out there for Shim and went into town to hit up the local Wal Mart and Dairy Queen! All Ben could talk about was how I looked like a local with my jorts and 'I Can Grow People' wife beater ... he even insisted on taking a picture of me once we got inside the store with some of the local "scenery". For fear of finding my picture on peopleofwalmart.com , I am not posting that photo! Anyway, we had a nice afternoon and despite my little sunburn I was happy to have had a few hours outside on the lake.

Sunday, we went over to the farm to celebrate Easter with our extended family. We got lots of baby questions/predictions from the folks over there. Most are predicting that Shim is a boy -- that actually seems to be the most popular prediction these days even outside of our family. My cousin, Nicole, who just delivered baby # 4 on Wednesday was there with her kids so Ben was able to get some baby practice! (Which was a good thing, because when he saw one of Shim's onesies he was amazed by how small they were!)

I'm glad that we both got a little reminder of just how small they are before we have ours in just a few weeks! Here we both are holding little Wurth McKenna on couches that are probably older than we are. (And for those of you who know me well, yes, I do have a difficult time sitting on these nasty couches but that is just the way it is at the farm.)
This second photo is me (obviously), Wurth, my Grandmother, and a couch from 1972. See what I mean about being sunburned though?!!

I would be remiss if I didn't post this adorable picture of Ellie in her Easter outfit! She looked so cute, I think. Sadly, I don't believe this silk daffodil is a prop. I'm pretty sure it was "planted" in our lake neighbor's yard. (I can't make this stuff up!)

And finally ... one of all 4 of the cousins after their easter egg hunt. Caris, Gavin, Ellie, Liam, and Wurth.
Oh! One more. Me, Ben and Shim at 34 weeks. (My sister told me this dress was too tight. It is a maternity dress though! If you think so, oh well. I am fairly limited in my maternity clothes and I WILL be wearing it again over the next 6 weeks!)

29 and 30

Mom mugged on me last night a little bit for not having blogged since late February so I thought its probably time to post a little update! Honestly, things with Shim are progressing but my doctor's appointments are pretty short and painless these days and there isn't a whole lot to report. Of course that basically means this has been a low-maintenance pregnancy so I'm very thankful for that.

Ben and I did a little 29 week belly photo shoot last weekend and I meant to post a picture earlier but just never got around to it. We'll do another one at about 35 or 36 weeks but for now I really love this picture

As we're getting closer to our closing date (this Friday!), I have had lots of little projects to accomplish. These are the things that I thought I'd have a whole extra month to work on so it has been a bit of a rush getting them done. One of those projects was to sand, prime, and re-paint and old desk and chair that I've had since college. Mom did a major, major portion of the painting but I put quite a bit of time into it as well. I basically monked the paint job on the chair but everything else turned out pretty decent. Especially considering this is my first DIY paint job. Obvy, this is a desk so it will go in our home office and my vision is that eventually I'll find a fabric that I like and re-cover the seat cushion and make a window treatment to match that. This isn't exactly a top-priority project though so who knows when or if I'll actually accomplish that! Anyway, here is a little sneak-preview of the new and improved desk.

Ben and I had our walk through at the house yesterday and really, for the most part we're happy with the way things have turned out. Like anything in life, it isn't perfect but we love it and think it will be a great home for us. I wish I had an up to date picture, but I'm sure I'll have plenty of them as we get moved in and decorated. (Awesome! No-brainer blog material!)

And lastly, I have a 30 week picture for you. I mostly took this because I loved my outfit yesterday!

Heeeed

This past weekend, I took one final little getaway to visit a friend in DC. It was a little girls' weekend that we had planned a month or so ago and I figured this would be my last opportunity for a while. Despite my sister's concern about me flying at 28 weeks prego, I went anyway and Shim and I were both just fine!

Erin and I flew up to DC on Friday afternoon and Tracey picked us up from the airport. We changed clothes and went to dinner at a cute little bar/pub type place in Georgetown. The snow was still EVERYWHERE but fortunately it was all piled away so that you could still walk on the sidewalks and streets. Anyway, we had dinner and then just went home to watch some Olympics and relax a bit. We were lazy and slept in on Saturday and spent the afternoon shopping, and went to see The Blind Side (so, so good). That night we enjoyed a nice seafood dinner - best crab cakes I've had in quite a while! We also took the one and only picture from the whole weekend that night.

Notice Erin & Tracey enjoying their wine, while I jealously drank an Izze!

We had a little time on Sunday to relax and since it was such a pretty day we were able to walk to a little restaurant to have brunch before having to go to the airport. It was a fabulous weekend but of course it just went by way too quickly!

Monday morning was back to reality for me. I had another doctor's appointment and was pleased to learn that I had only gained 3 pounds since my last visit!! This was good news considering I got a little talkin' to about my weight gain on the previous visit. Anyway, I had to take a glucose screening test and BARELY passed that. But passing is passing, right?

I saw the Midwife this time, who I actually liked a lot despite my pre-conceived opinions before meeting with her. She spent a lot of time with me to make sure I didn't have any questions and thoroughly reviewed my file to discuss a couple of issues (nothing major - just things specific to my pregnancy) that she noticed. One of those non-serious 'issues' was the fact that she noticed from my last ultra sound report that Shim's head was a little on the large side. This isn't a big deal - it just means that the baby's head could be larger than average. This made me laugh mainly because last time Ellie was at her doctor her head circumference was larger than the average as well. I guess it runs in the family?

So, with that, Shim has now acquired a new nickname. HEEEED.

I never post you tube videos on my blog because I don't ever watch them on other people's blogs but I can't resist posting this scene from So I Married an Axe Murderer! (Thanks to Ben for helping me to post this video!)

Shimster stuff

I am now 24 weeks along, and my belly is HUGE. I think I say this each week but it continues to grow with each passing minute. I can already tell that I'm not going to be very comfortable the last 5-10 weeks of my pregnancy! Here is a picture of my belly as of last night. (No stretch marks ... yet. But I'm sure those are coming).

I don't really have a ton of baby updates. I have another Doctor's appointment next week but honestly those are always just quick checkups to make sure things are measuring correctly and my blood pressure is okay. I never have much to report after my appointments but I guess that is a good thing! I'm feeling kicks and lots of movement from Shim and at this point have his/her routine pretty much figured out. At the risk of sounding cheesy, I really really love to feel each movement that Shim makes. Sometimes I even shake my belly a little bit if I haven't felt him in a while. I just like to know that he's okay in there! Ben doesn't really appreciate it when I do that to our child - he says the baby will get me back tenfold after it is born for all these months of me pestering him/her! And Ben is probably right.

I did decide on all of Shim's room decor and Mom ordered all the furniture last weekend! (Thanks Mom -- Shim will love it, I know!) I think I am most excited about the Glider that we picked out -- it is soooo comfortable. Hopefully it will make those late-night feedings a little easier to bear. I bought all the bedding and really like what we ended up choosing. The room will be yellow and the wall with the crib on it will be (large) black and white stripes. Sortof a french theme, I guess. Becky did a little rendering of the room and here is what she came up with! (Gives you a little bit of a visual since I won't have any of this done until the LAST minute)
The house is still progressing along. Neither Ben or I have had a chance to see it since we had our pre-drywall walk through with our builder late last week but I intend to go by to check on it today. I'm guessing that by now all the brick will be complete and the house will be dried in. As of last Friday, the builder felt that he was on target for an early April closing date so that was good news. I have heard that things slow down quite a bit once the house is dried in. Here is a picture of Ben and I at the house from a few weeks ago.

Oh! One more thing, and this is totally off-topic, but did anyone besides me notice Barry's terrible makeup last night during his State of the Union Address? He was ORANGE! I think they got a liiiiiiiitttttle carried away with the foundation. Totally not his fault, but I just felt the need to point out that he looked like a pumpkin!

Kicks and Backaches!

big ole' belly
Originally uploaded by katie_longmire

*** I apologize for my terrible spelling error. Can I just blame pregnancy brain?

As of Sunday, I am 21 weeks along now and I have started to feel Shim's little kicks more and more. I started feeling little, tiny flutters a few weeks ago but now we've moved along to more discernible kicks. Sometimes in the bladder and those aren't so comfortable, but the ones in my stomach almost tickle. I tried to let Ben feel it one night when Shim was really active, but I still don't think you can feel anything from the outside yet.

Along with the kicks has come a new little friend. Backaches. I'm not sure if they are caused by the baby's position or just the extra weight I'm carrying, but they are persistent and painful! I called my cousin yesterday afternoon (she's my doctor that I don't pay) to describe my symptoms and see if I was overreacting or if I needed to call my doctor. She has 3 children and one on the way so besides having medical expertise, she is also pretty familiar with pregnancies. She suggested that I call my doc, and see what they say. So I did and they gave me some sound medical advice:

SUCK IT UP - APPLY HEAT AND TAKE TYLENOL.

At least I did learn that Tylenol PM was safe to take, so I guess that is a good thing. I know I shouldn't complain. I have had a healthy and easy pregnancy up to this point and I am grateful. BUT. IT. HURTS!

The house is still progressing. I guess it is basically on schedule, and we are really hoping that it stays that way! We have a few weeks leeway, but not much at all. Mom and I went furniture shopping the other day and I have a pretty good idea now of what I'm looking for. If it actually gets completed before the baby is born, I'll definitley post pictures. I'm excited now that I have an idea in my head of how we'll decorate -- which wasn't easy since we don't know the sex.

19 Week Update (Because I Can't Think of a Creative Title)

I'm finally calming down from our hell week last week. I literally had to leave work early every single day for something related to the baby, moving, or closing on our condo. We also were supposed to have a meeting with our builder, but fortunately Ben took the reins on that as I just couldn't miss any more work that I already did. On top of that, I was trying to finish packing up all of our belongings in a very organized fashion so that I would be able to find things as we needed them. I started out pretty organized, but got pretty sloppy in the end in an effort to get everything moved out. My parents came down a few times and ended up being a TREMENDOUS help. I tried to do as much as I could by myself, but one pregnant woman can only do so much! On top of that our buyers were pretty nit-picky about things so I ended up having to fight with an HVAC company to get them to come back out and re-do work they had already done in order to satisfy the buyers. (More on them later) Everything ended up working out smoothly and we closed without a hitch so it is a relief to have that off our plate!

Ben and I went to the doctor last Tuesday for my 2nd trimester ultrasound. This is the big one where they do a full anatomy scan of the baby to make sure everything is healthy. This is also where you would be able to find out the sex of your baby, but of course we didn't chose to do so -- they told us when to look away and we both did! So that means there is no going back now -- Shim is officially a Shim (she + him) until May!! Anyway, the doctors say that everything looks great with Shim and even though we really had no cause to be concerned it is still nice to hear that from a doctor!

I need to get some better 19 week belly pictures done, but for now here is a picture of me this morning.

Now, I KNOW that I am getting bigger. I think I've gained about 10 pounds, which may be a little on the high side considering I'm only 19 weeks, but I think most would agree that it is typically best to not point that out to any pregnant woman. Fortunately, I haven't had too many people make annoying comments to me, but the few I have heard have reeeeelllly set me off! For example, I was at a family Christmas lunch the other day and someone who I hadn't seen in a while said:

"So you're only 19 weeks, huh? Do the doctors say you're going to have a big baby?"

Now, I'm fairly certain she wasn't trying to insult me. BUT was that really necessary to say? I think not! I was polite in my response but I had to bite my tongue to keep myself from snapping!

There are 3 people in this world that can get away with making fat, pregnant comments or jokes to me: Mom, Sister, Doctor. Anyone who doesn't fall into one of those 3 categories should probably stick with more generic comments.

Other than that I feel like my pregnancy has been fairly boring - no major cravings other than cookie dough. I got so excited yesterday when I was reading a sugar cookie dough recipe because I didn't see where it called for an egg but then I realized that had to be a mistake - I highly doubt there is a such thing as an eggless cookie! Although I say my pregnancy has been uneventful, I will admit that I have a major case of prego-brain. The other night after dinner with some friends I went to leave and couldn't remember where I had parked my car. I literally walked the parking lot, in the cold, for 10 minutes searching for it! I've also noticed that I've been a little more ditzy/forgetful than usual but apparently that is something everyone experiences. (Right????)

17 Weeks Update

When thinking back to some of my friend's pregnancies and also my sister's, I remember I always looked forward for their weekly blog updates so that I felt like I knew what was going on in their and the baby's life (even if I already knew, its just fun to see the blog update with pictures). But with my pregnancy, I just don't feel like there is all that much to update from week to week. I mean, my belly is definitely getting bigger as evidenced in this picture


and I have my regular doctor's appointments and stuff like that but no major news. Its maybe a little harder that we don't actually have our house yet so it isn't like I have little nursery updates to talk about. I'm pretty sure we're going to close on the house about 5 minutes prior to Shim's arrival so that means we're going to rely HEAVILY on Meme (my mom) and Aunt Kimmie to help us throw it together!

I do have my big ultrasound appointment on the 15th, and this would be the time to find out the sex of the baby. But we aren't finding out so this appointment is mainly an anatomy checkup to make sure Shim has properly functioning organs and such. Speaking on the sex of the baby - if you have a second go to the poll on the right hand side of this blog and vote whether you think its a boy or a girl if you haven't already!

You know what I really really really miss and never thought I would? Cookie dough and cake batter. Those aren't things that I eat all that often but just the fact that I am unable to eat them right now drives me crazy. It is one of the few cravings I've had and the only one I'm unable to feed. I don't really miss wine or beer unless I'm in a social situation or if I've had a particularly long day. I do sometimes wish I could take a mucinex or sudafed but I wouldn't say those are things that I necessarily miss -- just necessities during this sinus season but I've been able to get through without them.

Only other update is the fact that our whole life is packed up in boxes. I literally spent all last week packing things up room by room. I'm to the point now where there isn't a whole lot I'm going to be able to do until the very last minute which is rapidly approaching. I'll be so much more relaxed once we get through the closing. Then maybe I can stop to enjoy the fact that it is Christmastime!

30, Pregnant, and Homeless

Geez! We have been so, so so busy. This post might get a little long, but I'm going to try to update what we've been doing for the past couple weeks! We have so much going on, and I really just haven't had much time for blogging.

A few days after my last post, I turned 30. I've been telling my parents for years that I was 'pushing 30' but now it is official, I am old. However, just because I'm old doesn't mean that I can't have multiple birthday celebrations like we used to do in college. Ben's parents were even sweet enough to drive down to Atlanta for the family celebration! We enjoyed a fabulous dinner at La Grotta -- even Ellie joined in the fun! Here is one of the only pictures we have from the night. Notice my new Tahitian pearls? Ben did a FANTASTIC job on my gift (and so did his mom as she was the one who shopped for them!)


In the midst of all my birthday celebrations, we have also been frantically looking for a house. I hadn't wanted to mention anything on the blog until our contract was binding, but we ended up getting an offer on our condo and are scheduled to close on December 17. Although it is a good thing that we have a contract, it also really put the pressure on us to find something.

The weekend of my birthday, Ben and I were driving to meet our realtor at a house that we both really liked but I knew it wasn't going to work for us. We both really wanted to make it work, because we were just so discouraged about everything we had found up to this point and this was a really great house. Anyway, on our way to the house we drove past a neighborhood that we have both always loved. Long story short, the old builder went bankrupt and had built out (and sold) about half of the lots. A new builder came in and bought the distressed land and is about to start construction. The downside here is that there is no standing inventory so that means we have to build! That sounds like so much fun to everyone, but the reality is that when you build, you wake up in the middle of the night worried about silly things like where to put cable jacks and whether or not you chose the right tile in your bathrooms so it really isn't all fun and games. The upside is that we will end up with a great house that we both really love. As of now, our tenative closing date on the house is April 8.

Just in case you forgot, Shim is due to enter the world May 16. So, yeah we're literally going to close on our house and move in about 5 minutes before Shimmy is born! Awesome. At least I won't be expected to do any heavy lifting! But yeah, just to reiterate I am 30, pregnant, and (almost) homeless. That sounds like a really great TV show doesn't it?

Shim Shady

I've been slacking on my blog again. And I need to get better at doing that because I'm not keeping any kind of pregnancy journal or anything (yet ... I'm sure my sister will fix that as soon as she reads this post) so I'm thinking this blog will be a journal of sorts for me. Like I said earlier, I'm sure this won't all be baby stuff but we'll see. That is pretty much the main thing happening in the Longmire household right now so it is on our minds all the time!

We're still looking for houses. Still a stressful process. Everyone says we'll find the right house but that hasn't happened so far. Our Realtor sends us emails every day with new listings and we just don't seem to like many of those. We're looking for a certain thing and in a certain area and I'm thinking it maybe we need to relax our criteria a bit. Problem is, we want something that we both really love. We don't want to settle. A house is a major investment so why should we buy something that we're not both 100% in love with?

Not a whole lot of Shim updates today. I went in a few weeks ago for my 1st trimester screening -- just a quick blood and ultrasound test where they screen for chromosomal abnormalities. At my first appointment, Shim just wouldn't cooperate and get into a good position for the doctors so I ended up having to go back about a week later for another ultrasound. It turns out it was a good thing, because Ben was able to make it to this appointment and see Shimmy on the monitor. This was a more detailed screen and also Shim has grown significantly since the very first ultrasound so we could see his fingers and nose, and all the details of his little body! He even had the hiccups while I was having my ultrasound! I have a picture to share, it isn't the greatest quality because I couldn't get the scanner to work right. I took a picture with my regular camera so sorry about the flash -- you can't see well enough in the no flash picture. And he/she doesn't have a club hand even though it may look that way in the picture. (I'm pretty sure both hands are above his face)



In case you haven't already figured this out, Shim has lots of nicknames ... he/she started out as just plain ole' Shim and now his or her nickname has morphed into about 12 variations of Shim and depending on who we are talking to Becky-Rebecca or JoBeck. When I refer to it I tend to call it he. That is more because I don't want to refer to my baby as "it" all the time and less because I really have any inclination as to the sex. We'll all find that out in May!

That is all I've got for today. Fingers crossed we'll find a house soon so we'll have a home to bring Shimmer home to!

Announcement

So, I think the cat is pretty much out of the bag on this but some people said that it wasn't 'official' until I posted this on my blog.

I'M PREGNANT!

That is another reason I haven't been blogging for the last month. Obviously, Ben and I and our families have known this news since early September but we didn't want to make any announcement until we had reached the 12 week mark. Now that we have so I am making the news totally public.

I'll be totally honest - Ben and I were both in complete shock when we found out. We were happy, and of course wanted everything to be okay and for the baby to be healthy but it isn't necessarily the best time for us to have a baby right now. But once we sat down and thought things through rationally, when is really a 'good' time for a baby? That sounds terrible, I know. I'm just being totally honest here as to what our initial thoughts were. (Probably our child will read this one day and need lots and lots of expensive therapy because of those statements) Anyway, we were happy but maybe just slightly overwhelmed and of course our families were ecstatic.

Now that we've had some time to digest everything we are thrilled! I'm getting as much sleep as I possibly can right now because I know I'm going to have to give that all up once the baby arrives. I have already had several doctor's appointments and ultra sounds and everything looks to be great with the baby. Right now baby is the size of a lime and I think that is HUGE compared to the poppyseed that it started out as! I was actually able to hear Shim's (that one of his/her nicknames for now) little heartbeat which was so amazing. I was telling Ben last night that I cannot believe there is another human inside of me -- with a heart and lungs, and fingers and toes and everything else! Its just crazy to think about.

We decided that we will not find out the sex of the baby before delivery. That seems to drive everyone bananas, but to us just seems like it will be a fun surprise at the very end. I also think it is fun to hear people's predictions and we'll see if they were correct in the very end. I laugh at people now when they tell me their opinion because I have ALWAYS done that and Ben would typically respond "well you have a 50/50 chance at being right ... you're bound to be correct some of the time". Now that is what I think when people make their prediction to me.

As for my blog, I really do intend to blog more regularly. I do it for fun, and for my own entertainment so it is something I would like to keep up with. A few people have mentioned that they think my blog will change tunes (less cussing, less bitchiness, less shallowness) and I'm sure it will to a certain extent but I really do intend to keep this blog about me and just whatever I want to write about. Although I'm sure that will include quite a bit of baby stuff too!

This post is getting long.

We did our first 'belly' pictures over the weekend. I won't share them all because there was one pose that we took especially for Ben's blog -- so stay tuned over there if you're interested in that. Also, my mom made fun of me and said I was sticking my stomach out, so you be the judge! I think I'm starting to look kinda fat though! (And this is terrible lighting, I think. I'll have to work on that!)

This is my last paragraph, I swear. So I went to another doctor yesterday morning for my 1st Trimester Screening and when I checked in there was a vigilante nurse who asked me several questions: "do you have a fever?" "have you been around anyone with a fever?" "do you have a sore throat, runny nose, etc?" Well, I HAVE had a little sore throat, and some sneezing. I mostly think it is sinuses but I had to be honest with her. So I said that yes, I did have a bit of a sore throat and I'm pretty sure it is just sinuses but maybe it could possibly be a cold. Two seconds later, I looked like this :