Father's Days to come

Next year we will celebrate Peter's first "real" Father's Day.  This year, in anticipation of all the years to come, I figured I'd share 10 of the reasons I am looking forward to Peter being a father.

1. I think it looks so cute to see my big teddy bear of a husband holding a baby.
2. He's talked about things he wants to do with our child since we found out we were pregnant.
3. He loves to play with our neices and nephews and I can't wait to watch him do that with our son.
4. He has been a great "father" already with reading/learning about our growing baby as well as reading about how to raise a healthy, happy baby.
5. He already serenades the baby on his guitar (plus one stellar performance of Journey's "Don't stop believing").
6. He has always wanted us to be parents and never waivered from that even during those years I didn't.
7. He is going to be an involved daddy.
8. Since he is the perfect balance to me as a partner, I KNOW he is going to be the perfect balance to me as a parent.
9. He knows so much that he can pass onto our son.
10. Peter has a huge heart (don't tell him I told you) and can teach our son to be strong AND tender.

My son sure is lucky to be getting Peter as a father!

Baby Shower

We headed to SLC over Father's Day weekend because my mom and Kimberly were throwing a baby shower for me (and Peter).  Our trip to SLC was short. We arrived late Friday night, had Saturday and Sunday in town and then left around lunch on Monday.  I had some free tickets left from all my work travel on Southwest so we decided to put up with all the stops that you have to do when flying out of Dallas on Southwest in order to not have to pay for flights.  UGH - I was so miserable on the planes and time just crept by.  We had to fly from Dallas to Oklahoma City to Phoenix and finally SLC.  My back hurt the whole time (Peter ended up putting his hand behind my back nearly the whole way to help) and then on one of the legs I had this man sitting next to me that acted oblivious to how uncomfortable the poor pregnant woman was next to him.  He took the armrest, spread his legs into my leg space, and rather than get up once we landed so I could stand up as well, he stayed seated until the plane had emptied out to where we were (2nd to last row).  I was SOOOO close to telling him off but I held my tongue.  Dude was just a jerk.  Anyway, note to self - flying at 29 weeks = MISERY.

Saturday was the shower.  It was just fantastic.  Grandpa and Grandma Blank had their house and yard looking perfect, my mom went all out on the food, and Kimberly did an amazing job on the games and decorations.  They all put so much effort and time into the shower, I am a lucky and loved girl.

Here's the food table - (I love that my mom made Chicken Salad Croissants because we also had those at our wedding reception so I now think they are a staple at these major moments in our lives.)

This is the gift table.  I thought it looked so cute against the backdrop of the "barn door" of the shed.

Everyone enjoyed the food and then after we were stuffed, we played some games.

Kimberly was the master of ceremonies.

Brittney and Shannon playing the "blow up balloons and stuff them up a shirt to create a pregnant belly" game. 

Kaitlyn

Alisa rocked the timed "match the baby socks" game!

Madison playing the "find the baby safety pins in a bucket of rice" game.

Alisa playing the same game, surrounded by Brittney, Tammy, Maryn, and Aja

After all the game fun, we opened presents.  I was amazed at how many presents there were - everyone was so generous (and did a great job of getting little things that we could take back in the extra suitcases we brought.)  This is me and the super cute quilt that my mom made for the baby.

My fantastic Grandma and Grandpa Blank - they are so special to me,

Sharee and baby Quaid, Morgan 

 Group shot of everyone watching the sock matching game.  I love how focused they all are on the game.  I have some competitive friends and family!

 

Mom and Kimberly thought of everything!  Here's mom (and Rebecca) taking notes of what everyone gave me so I could write thank you notes.

Felicia and Morgan carrying the diaper cake that Kimberly made.  She is so dang creative and talented!

Cute baby clothes!  (Man, I look so pregnant!)

Cousins!  Kimberly and Rebecca

Aja

Morgan and Mariah (nieces on Peter's side)

Shannon!

Tricia, Jenna, Rebecca, Tammy, and Grandma

Maryn, Lori, and Kaitlyn

LeeAnn and Brittney

Madison and Felicia (nieces on Peter's side)

Cousin Brandy

Brinley, Kearsten, Grandma, and Megan

Peter's mom - Donna and Alisa (friend from High School)

Part of the group (I did not like being the center of attention especially during the opening of presents). Note Dorothy and Tawny in the back (I wish I had a better picture of the both of them)

It really was a great afternoon.  The weather was perfect, the party was fun, and so many people came!  I was touched by the turnout and the love I felt.  When I was thanking everyone for coming I had such a pregnant woman moment and got choked up.  So through my tears I thanked everyone for coming, their support, and for being so excited about this baby coming to Peter and I.  It means so much to me especially since it's been so long since we have lived in Utah.  I only wish I had multiple days instead of just a few hours to spend reconnecting and catching up with all these important people in my life. 

29 weeks

One more week and I'll be able to count the number of weeks left on my fingers.  Scary.  It's interesting to me to have such a big deadline looming in front of me.  It's like a big cosmic clock is ticking down the time to when my life is going to change - in a BIG way...FOREVER.  How often in our lives do we get the benefit of knowing exactly (okay, I know I don't know exactly when this baby is going to come but close enough) when a life changing moment is going to happen?  Not very often.  It seems that most of the time, a big moment happens and I go "WOW, that was big.  My life isn't going to be the same after that."  I almost think I prefer it that way.  Not knowing a big life-changing moment is coming up saves me the brain damage of stressing, planning, re-thinking, over-thinking, questioning, expecting, waiting, etc.  Sure, I'm able to better prepare because I know it's coming but is it worth all the other stuff?

• Some of the symptoms that have gone away - headaches, congestion
• Symptoms that remain - frequent trips to the bathroom, losing my balance, fatigue, restless nights, weird dreams (had that at the beginning, then they went away, and now they are back), losing my train of thought or inability to think of the words I want to say, teeny tiny heartburn, more stretch marks
• Newer symptoms - easily worn out by silly physical activity...for example, breathing heavy after vacuuming 2 rooms - 2 rooms!  seriously?!, sweating and tired after helping out reset product in a store for 30 minutes,

The baby is incredibly active.  I was reading in a book that I should be counting his movements twice a day to make sure I feel him at least 10 times in one hour.  Most of the time I can get to 10 in a matter of minutes.  I remind myself to enjoy or at least treasure what it feels like to have him moving inside my belly because many don't get to experience it and it certainly is an awe-inspiring sensation. 

 I walk like a pregnant lady for sure now.  We still don't have a name picked out. 

I am having a baby shower in SLC this weekend.  I wonder if getting all the baby stuff is going to make this feel more real...  At this point, even though I know I'm pregnant and can feel the baby moving, it still seems like it could not be real.  In fact, I could go and have someone else open the presents and admire what they got because it's certainly not for me.  Other people have babies.  Not me.

I wanted to give Peter another shout out for being a great husband.  He doesn't complain when we are all ready to leave the house, I stand up from waiting for him to be ready, and he then has to wait because naturally, I now feel the need to visit the restroom before we leave.  Normal husband might get irritated because this happens everytime and you would think I would have learned by now to plan that last trip to the restroom, but Peter just shakes his head and waits patiently.   Also, I struggled with my mood this past week and was all over the place, but mostly in a teary, easily hurt, quick to anger place.  For the most part he was a champ and took it in stride.  I forgive him for pointing out, in these moments, that I might be overreacting a little since I was pregnant.  TIP:  Don't tell a pregnant woman this, it's not going to help diffuse her craziness.

I'm in Indianapolis today for work.  This is only my second business trip of the year.  That's NUTS considering there were times in the past few years I traveled 11 out of 12 weeks!  What's even more crazy is that this will probably be my last trip of the year.  I am not going to fly anymore after we get back from Utah and then I plan on being on maternity leave until the end of November which only leaves December, and there are no projects for the team I am currently running in the month of December.  A year ago I would have said it would be impossible for me to only have 2 business trips in 1 year.  It ended up really being a blessing to be the Director of Retail Operations on the Walgreen's CCR team.  I have been able to learn a lot, expand my skill set, but haven't needed to travel.  While I miss it, especially all the frequent flier miles and the perks that come with higher status levels, being out of town this week reminded me that it would have been rough having to travel a lot while pregnant.  Flying is uncomfortable, dragging luggage through an airport is awkward, it's harder to eat healthy, who knows how comfortable your hotel bed will be, and it's easier to work harder and longer because there's not much else to do.

Here's a picture I took tonight in my hotel room - My hair is done and I don't want you to think that I only look the way I looked in the Mavs shirt.

Champions!

The Dallas Mavericks won the NBA Championship!!! WAHOO!

We had a lot of fun watching each of the games with the Mejia family.  The games with the Miami Heat were really good games to watch and the teams were well matched.  Very exciting stuff.  Poor Joe was the only one at our viewing party cheering on the Heat, so I don't think he always had a good time.  :)  This is the first time we've lived in a city where a team won a national championship.  The parade is supposed to be sometime next week.  Hopefully we can go.

Here's me in the T-shirt we got at the game we went to a few weeks ago.  I wore it on the night they won Game 6 of the series and sealed the deal.  (Yup, I'm pregnant.  Now you know for sure.)  You can't see what the shirt says, but it says "The Time Is Now".

Hayden helped with the cheering - "Let's go Mabs" (Mavs) and "Beat the Heat"



Double Date

 

This past weekend we enjoyed one of the things we won at the Casino Night silent auction.  We used up the pack of 4 theater tickets and went to see a musical.

We invited my friend Chad and a date to come with us.  We had dinner at a restaurant downtown (I got to enjoy some YUMMY gelato, which I have been craving since Rome, for dessert) and then walked the couple blocks to the theater.  The musical we saw was Pippin.  None of us had seen Pippin before and it was an enjoyable show.  Plus the theater was in the round and we had front row seats so we were right there where the action was!  (Side note - sitting two and a half hours in theater seats is not so much fun at this stage in my pregnancy).

We also made our first big baby purchase this weekend.  We seem to struggle to make a decision on so many things (in all honesty it's more me that struggles than Peter).  I am tired of stressing about these decisions so we bit the bullet and spent some money.  Here's the stroller (Graco Signature Series 3 in 1 Modular Stroller) and car seat (Graco Snugride 35 - Logan) that we bought.  The stroller is pretty dang cool in my opinion, check it out.  2 things off the to-do list!

 

Happy Birthday to Me!

I had the BEST BIRTHDAY EVER this year.  Seriously, I felt so loved and appreciated and special.  It was awesome.  This is not normal on my birthdays because, like so many people, my birthdays as a child were always so great that once I became an adult I still wanted them to be as special and they never lived up to my expectations.  My poor husband is aware of my high expectations and I think probably sometimes thinks "why bother, it's not going to be good enough".  You would think I would just grow up and not need my birthdays to be such an abnormally special day, however I still cling to that dream and each year hope that it's going to be a fantastic day.

This year however, I was not disappointed.  I was not hurt.  I didn't cry.  I didn't sulk.  (Man - I can be such a baby on my birthday!)  Peter got this one completely right!  He really gave me a day that showed how much he knows me and loves me.

I had to work on my birthday.  So, on the way to work Peter stopped and got me a Jamba Juice for breakfast.  Yummy smoothie!  Great start to any day.

At work I got a call from the receptionist saying that I had a delivery that needed to be picked up at the front desk.  How fun is that?  I've been in this office nearly two years and never had anything delivered so I felt pretty special.  When I got to the front I saw this awesome fruit bouquet!  Here it is as it was delivered, all cute and wrapped up, and then an "after" picture that I took at home when I was digging into it.  Kimberly, Ty, and Kaity had sent me the bouquet.  What an awesome sister - plus a great gift considering how into fruit I am right now!!

Then, about an hour later, I got another call from the receptionist saying that I had another delivery.  What?!  2 in 1 day?!  Pinch me!  Peter had sent me flowers!!!  I am always telling him how much I would love to get flowers at work but then in the same breath telling him not to do it because it's not worth the extra money compared to just buying a pretty bouquet in the stores.  Anyway, they were arranged in a decorative gift box and came complete with birthday balloons.  So beautiful!  And I could tell just by looking at them that Peter had picked this arrangement just for me.  #1 - It had lilies in it which are my favorite and #2 - there were no carnations.  (That's a story from a past birthday gone wrong but suffice it to say, he knows I don't like carnations.)  I loved looking at the flowers all day and enjoyed having them in my office for the rest of the week as well.  The card was perfect - it just said "Happy Birthday Sweetness". 

After Peter picked me up from work, we went home and he told me what he wanted to give me for my birthday.  Shoes!  But not only did he want to give me shoes but he was willing to go shopping for said shoes with me.  Maybe there are some husbands out there who love to go clothes/shoe shopping with their wives but mine is not one of them.  So again he showed his thoughtfulness and he was really focused on doing what makes me happy.  We shopped at DSW and I ended up getting 4 new pairs of shoes.  Peter was a great shopping partner and grabbed boxes so I wouldn't have to bend down as much and also gave opinions when he liked and didn't like things.  He didn't rush me or try to get the shopping over with as soon as possible.  He didn't complain when I changed my mind or wanted to look at an aisle we had already looked at.  He was, seriously, an amazing shopping partner. 

Oh yeah, before we left to go shopping, I had turned on the news because the weather was pretty crazy and someone at work mentioned something about tornado warnings.  The weather on the news did look bad but it didn't look like it would hit the DFW area so I wasn't too concerned.  While we were shopping, I got a call from my mom who had heard about the bad weather from Brittany and wanted to make sure I knew what to do in case of a tornado.  Of course I knew - the first time there was a tornado watch after we had moved to Texas, I did all kinds of research and freaking out.  I'm now more calm about it.

After shopping, we drove to downtown Dallas for dinner.  The weather looked pretty stormy in some areas but while driving we didn't hit any rain and only some wind so I wasn't worried.  Peter surprised me by taking me to a restaurant that we had never been to - Sambucca (first brownie point since Peter hates trying new places).  It had a cool, upscale, more refined menu (second brownie point because typically Peter doesn't like the more upscale/fru-fru-y food). AND there was live music (third brownie point).  My perfect husband had clearly put some thought into choosing a dinner location that I would enjoy.

Here's our appetizer - Buca Beignets

Dinner - Peter got a steak, I got tilapia and then we got a side of cheesy potatoes au gratin.  Everything was yummy!

Peter ready to dig in!

This is the desert that we ordered - Butterfinger Bread Pudding.  Holy cow - delicious.

When we sat down for dinner the weather was still pretty good.  We were close to a wall of windows that looked out on the patio so we could see what the weather was like outside.  My goodness how quickly the weather changed.  The wind picked up and then the lightening started.  I didn't start getting nervous about the weather until the tvs over by the bar stopped their regular programming and were just showing doppler radar with the weather guy pointing to stuff.  We were too far away to hear his words but there was a lot of bright reds and pinks on the radar (not a good thing).  Then the people behind us starting talking about how tornado sirens were going off somewhere.  People were getting up from their tables and going to watch the tvs.  I could tell at this point that there was some serious weather going on in the DFW metro area.  My anxiety wasn't helped by the fact that the music (which earlier I was so happy to enjoy) was at this point so loud that I doubted I would hear the tornado sirens outside if they went off.  Plus, the girl that was singing was choosing some angst ridden songs that put me more on edge. 

It ended up being almost a sensory overload with the intense, moody live music combined with the nervous energy of the other diners, the crazy lightening, and the red-dominated doppler radar.  At that point I hard a hard time enjoying my dinner and not moving away from the windows to a more remote part of the restaurant.  I joked that Peter really went all out for this birthday because he had even booked a light show as entertainment.  Here's a short 20 second video to show you what the lightening was like.  Just pay attention to how often there are flashes of light (I'm sure I could have gotten an even better video with lots of flashes of the actual lightening rather than just the light however I was trying not to focus so much on that part).  It was CRAZY!!!

We finished dinner and I checked out the radar before we left to make sure we wouldn't be driving into anything major.  It looked like, at least, for the next 20 min or so, that we could drive home without hitting anything.  On the way home, we were listening to the radio and the Emergency Broadcast Signal went off and was followed by an actual alert!  (I've only heard it as a "test" - never anything real!)  We later learned that in fact, a tornado did touch down about 5 miles from where we were having dinner.  What an exciting night/day, right?!

 

A few days later we also celebrated my birthday by having cake and ice cream at Brittany's.  I can't remember the last time I had cake/ice cream/candles!  It's so much fun to have family in town!

This is a pic of Peter and Landen.  I thought it was so cute, I had to include it even though it has nothing to do with my birthday.  Look how cute Peter is hanging out with a baby!

1 Trimester to go

I have 12 weeks and 5 days until my due date.  That's not very long! 

I go back and forth between wanting the time to speed by so I can stop having to deal with all the not-so-fun things that come with being pregnant and then wishing there was more time on that count down clock.  We feel like there is so much we need to do and I don't feel ready yet to be a parent. 

I am tired.  All the time.  I enjoy weekends because I usually get a nap in during the day which is nice.  I've noticed the comments at work are either about #1 - reminding me that I get to go through a hot yucky summer before my due date or #2 - I look tired.  It's so hard to sleep!  I try and be a good host to the baby and sleep on my side but I wake up with the shoulder I'm sleeping on hurting.  That or my thigh muscles in my right leg have been really really sore.  I think I've figured out that it's because of the pregnancy pillow I'm placing inbetween my legs (as suggested by the "books").  However if I don't use the pillow I find that I wake up with a backache.  I can't win.  :)

Something that has made me laugh is that I've noticed a couple times in the last week I've hit (softly - don't worry) my belly on a door when I'm opening/closing it or on chair as I walk by.  I'm clearly not used to having a belly all the way out in space like this belly is.  My pregnant belly is now so big that when I try to wear some of my "normal" clothes, I have to change back out of them because it just doesn't work anymore.

I've had a little more heartburn but still nothing too bad, maybe 3 tums a week.  My feet are now swelling.  I found my first stretch marks on my belly. 

The baby is moving a lot!  I feel him the most in the later evening and in the morning if I lay in bed after I am awake. 

The dilemma of the week is baby bedding.  We actually found some we liked at a store here in Frisco but it's more than we want to spend.  I struggle to find anything I like.  I feel like everything either has animals on it or cars/planes/boats and I'm just not a fan. 

Irritated

Okay, see?  This is what I get for finally going "public" about this blog.  I screw it up.  So tonight, I was going through some old blogs and noticed some typos.  OH NO TYPOS!  Of course I have to fix them!  So I go in and "edit" those blogs.  However, now I've noticed that because I did that, it's moved my blogs around and posted them with today's date instead of the original date.  THEY ARE OUT OF ORDER!  I am so irritated.

Anyone have advice on how to easily fix this?!  Or am I going to have to go in and "edit" the blogs to get them in the right order again?