Bump Pictures and Gender Revealed

 Survival Tip #16: A picture really does tell a thousand words.

So, here it is! My bump pictures! In honor of tomorrow marking the half way point of my pregnancy, I thought I would finally share our pictures with you. Vander has been taking a monthly picture of me and I finally uploaded all of them and made a collage. This has been a bit difficult because I hate using the flash on my DSLR because it washes everything out, but it has been SOOOO continually cloudy this spring there was not much sun to help things out. So forgive me for that :). Anyways, let's start with month 1.

Month 1

I had no clue that if you find out you are pregnant the day of your missed period, you are already 1 month along! Crazy. So this is a few days after we found out. Look how happy I am!

Month 2

Ugh. Can you see the look on my face how sick I feel. I tried to smile, but look how pale I am. That is not just Washington weather. That is constant puking for you. I had actually lost 6 lbs at this point. Boo.

Month 3

Okay, feeling a bit better. This was actually a week into the fourth month. I had been on Zofan for one week and it was remarkable! I was finally able to eat and keep food down. At my 3 month appointment I had lost another 5 lbs. so there wasn't any gain in padding, but I had just popped a bit. It was funny because it just happened all of a sudden. I thought it would be a slow, progressive thing, but one day I was really bloated, and then 2 days later the bloated feeling went away and the bump stayed!

Month 4

Remember what I was saying about everything just popping up? Yeah, that continued this month. It feels like every weekend I get a bloated feeling and then I get bigger. I LOVE my bump! It makes me feel more maternal, even though it is a totally physical thing, and it not related to how I interact with the baby. It makes me feel more pregnant, and not just sick.

So here is the collage of all four, to see them side-by-side.

Gender

   And the results are in! We had the best ultrasound appointment. Last Wednesday the anatomy scan took us an hour and we soaked up every minute we got.  Before the scan I had been feeling like we might be having a girl, but I thought that was probably just because I am a girl and I don't understand what it is like to be a little boy :). Then we got the appointment and I started to think we were having a boy. I mentally began to think of the baby using the terms "he" and "his". We found out the gender pretty early in the appointment. I was looking at the screen and thought I saw some boy parts, and started to get a little anxious.  While I was staring at the screen the tech said "See right here (gesturing with the cursor to an area I was not looking at)? That means this is a little Girl."(Did the pictures give it away for any of you?)

    I instantly burst into tears. It was such a primal, out of body urge to cry. Later a second tech came in to confirm the first tech had all the right photos and get a few more. She was looking at Baby and said "Oh yeah, that's a little girl!" At one point I looked over and told Vander that I thought he was going to be the best dad to our little girl. He looked at me with the saddest face and said "I just know she'll break my heart some day." It was so sweet and tender. I really can't wait to see him parent our daughter! 

    We are going to keep her name a surprise for as long as we can, hopefully until she is born, unless we let it slip. Please pray for our daughter as she continues to develop. We cannot wait to meet her!

Baby Update

Survival Tip #15: Take time to slow down and reflect.

First I will So things with baby seem to be going well! We're 4 months along now, or 19 weeks. (I'm counting by 4.5 week calendar months by the way, not 28 day menstrual cycle months. I can't stand the idea of thinking I'll be pregnant for 10 m.c. months!) I finally really popped and have moved from not looking pregnant to having a fair spare tire or "food baby" right in front. I am loving wearing things that show off the bump! It makes me feel so feminine in a whole new way. And to top things off, Vander is so sweet and says he loves the bump too :). I just bought a bikini to wear this summer until stretch marks rear their ugly blotchiness, (I am trying everything I can to prevent them, but you can't fight genetics so time will tell).

We have our 19 week anatomy scan tomorrow and we hope to find out if we are having a boy or girl. I cannot wait to know! At our last ultrasound Baby was measuring about 8 days ahead, but we did not change the due date. I think were are just destined/doomed to have a huge baby. Have I mentioned before that I was 10lb 4oz when I was born? Or Vander was 9lb 11oz? And both my siblings were 10lb+? Yeah, I think Baby Corley is just going to be large and in charge. I was nervous about having my scan at only 19 weeks (which can be early) but with Baby measuring big, I feel more confident the tech will get some good images.

I've been confidently feeling the baby move for about 3 weeks now. I love it soooo much! Sometimes it feels like a kick, other times like a flip and yesterday I finally felt what my mom described feeling: almost like the baby was rapid-fire karate chopping my abdomen. Weird. And wonderful. I have loved every nudge. And I'm so thankful to feel so much movement, especially considering some women don't begin to feel movement until now.  The baby seems to respond to pressure. For example, I will feel it kick at my waistband on my jeans when I sit down. Sometimes I can simulate this pressure with my hand and the baby will kick it. Vander hates when I do this. He's scared I'm going to "pop the sac".

Two last pregnancy things: nose bleeds and puking. I am still experiencing both. I had never EVER heard of pregnancy nose bleeds before getting them. I haven't had one for a few days, but sometimes when I blow my nose (did you know pregnant women make more mucus too?) or when I throw up, I get a nose bleed. It's all about pressure on the sinuses. And I am throwing up but my Dr. prescribed Zofran for me about a month ago and it is fabulous! I am finally starting to put on weight instead of losing it. If I start to feel like I'm going to throw up or already have, I can take a pill at it will usually (99% of the time) stop me from vomiting. I don't know how it works but praise God for it. My doctor decided to run some tests to make sure I am just experiencing unfortunate morning sickness and not a liver/gall bladder/thyroid malfunction. I am at a point where while I detest vomiting, I feel like I could go like this for the rest of the pregnancy. It is weird though to throw up or bending over like that with a growing baby bump. Vander is making me promise to bring a chair into the bathroom when I puke so that I don't squish the baby. :)

So that is all the baby news for now. Pray the ultrasound tech is able to get clear pictures of Baby tomorrow and that if there is anything wrong with the baby that we should know before they are born that it will be apparent. Hopefully Baby will be relatively perfect, but if that is not that we will be accepting of God's will.

Easter and California Baby Shower

*Updated thanks to Josh: 

Survival Tip #14: 'Everything in moderation...including moderation'

Lordy, Lordy! Over a month since my last post! Geez. And it's not like I even have the excuse of being busy at work anymore. Did you know I struggle with time management? Well, I do. It has almost made being at home more difficult, because now all my time is free to my discretion and not structured for me. To top it off, I'm unorganized and a procrastinator. I am working towards getting better at this, but have a feeling this won't be the last time I do such a poor job at keeping my blog updated, but here goes!


So today I'll talk about Easter, and tomorrow I'll give a pregnancy update. From there... we will see how things go.


We were able to go to CA for Easter! It was so nice, not only to be warmer, but to visit with family and friends. Most of the time when we go to my home we are so focused on trying to spend time with family that friends are neglected, but not this time! My sweet step-family threw me and Baby a shower (with a "nesting birds" theme), and I was able to spend time with so many friends I don't get to see often enough! I would have been just as happy if no one brought a single gift and we were able to just eat and chat, but Baby and I were extremely blessed with some great gifts too!

Colleen, Natalie, Alia and Ashley. First visit with them in years!

beautiful decorations

It was funny to register because we are going to find out if we're having a boy or girl, but 1) don't know yet and 2) don't know much about baby things in general! I was able to read some websites (lucieslist.com is awesome), read friends' reviews of products, and ask for a bit of advice, but still have a lot to learn! Tomorrow I have my four-month check up, and from there we will schedule the anatomy ultrasound that will tell us if we are expecting a little girl or boy! It will be so great to be able to envision our baby in a new way, not  that we will know his/her hair or eye color or things like that; I just imagine it will be different.

Back to California. We were also able to spend LOTS of time with family. It is amazing how fast life changes in so little time. The niece and nephews are growing up so fast! I woke up Saturday morning to little Jackson babbling away "Uncle Vander. Uncle Vander. Where's Uncle Vander?"So cute! Melanee was visiting from New Zealand to work on wedding things and visit family. I also really enjoyed bonding with my family as a pregnant woman. Lots of good advice was shared (I wish I had a tape recorder)! Stacey is about 8 weeks ahead of me in her pregnancy, which is fun and exciting!

Can't wait to put this on our sweet baby!

Another highlight, I was able to eat LOTS of yummy food! It is amazing! I indulged in everyone one of my pregnancy cravings I can't get in WA: In N Out and King Eggroll! I pity the people who have not experienced the yumminess. After consuming 6 eggrolls and three #3s in a weekend, I am so glad I do not live in CA anymore; I would certainly be HUGE by the time October rolls around.

*quick aside: I am typing this while watching The King's Speech. It makes me want to use proper language as I type. If I slip into using a voice that does not sound like my own, now you know why.*

We had a lovely Easter. We were able to attend church at CCCM, the church I went to (and worked at) when I lived in CA. Afterwards we picked up Jesse (my brother), had a pizza lunch, and headed off to Rita's for celebrating. More yummy food, the kids had an egg hunt and then the grown ups had a hunt of their own. This year, for the first time, we hid eggs for the grown ups that either had money, candy we didn't want the kids to eat, or nothing in them. It was fun and we actually got Marshall to participate :).

On the way home we were able to grab coffee with my mom in Redding. It was nice to see her and catch up, even if it was just for a little bit.

It was too fast a trip, as always, but it was really fun and we came home feeling really blessed. I didn't take too many pictures this trip, but here are a few more from the shower! It is hard to think to take pictures when you feel crummy.

Melody!

Kim and I in our prom pose