22 Weeks - Wait? What?

I went to the doctor today (I was still insanely nervous. . .stupid white coat syndrome) but for some reason my blood pressure was totally normal 120/80. Go figure.

Anyway, it was the same 'ol stuff thankfully, with one tid bit of new news. My doctor told me that they have moved my due date up to 1/1/11! So I guess that technically makes me 22 weeks. The baby was measuring a little big. I think at 20 weeks, 10oz is average, and Bean was weighing in at 13oz! You'd never think it by looking at my small bump, but woo hoo! Bean must be listening when I tell him to grow.

20 Weeks - And Then There Was. . .

. . . .him.

Healthy and amazing. Everything where it should be and in perfect working order. God we are so blessed.

You Capture - In the Kitchen

When I first heard the assignment I wanted to take pictures of what I thought made my kitchen my kitchen. You know, unique stuff. I don't really care for the photos (it's super hard to take a picture of something in a window), but here they are anyway.

Stained glass panel given to me by my bestie for my birthday, it hangs in the window over the sink.

This is the foam magnet I made for our dishwasher, you don't have to open it up to check to see if the dishes are dirty!

Then after I took the first two photos photos I thought it would be fun to do a little photo challenge! So I took pictures of some of my odd kitchen gadgets. Can you guess what each is used for?

#1

#2

#3

Ready for the answers?

#1 - a pasta measure! Each hole is the amount for 1, 2, 3, or 4 people.

#2 - mini toilet bowl cleaner. . .lol . .NO! But I know that's what it looks like. It's a produce scrubber! If I can't buy organic I always make sure to rinse and scrub my fresh produce extremely well.

#3 - a pastry cutter - this is what I use to cut butter into things when I bake. It's super helpful when I make home made pie crust.

18 Weeks - Daddy Thoughts Vol. 2

18 Week Baby Bump

Surprisingly, Kristen has asked me yet again to “guest blog” about our ever growing Bean. As we are coming to an end of week 18 plus 3 (or 21 weeks plus 4 until launch day), I thought it might be fun to share a little bit of our life with you all.

As we each go through life, it is sometimes very difficult to weigh all the options and choose the right path to take. The things we choose to do truly define our lives just as much as the things we choose not to do. And every so often, we stop and look back down the path. We see how far we’ve come and how much progress we’ve made. And that confirmation helps assure us that we’ve made good choices. We’ve traveled the right direction and are on the right path. Something about it all assures us and makes us happy; makes our lives fulfilled.

Once upon a time (because that is when all good tales begin) not long ago, Kristen and I were living in a second floor apartment located in a lively neighborhood. With its sterile while walls, brown carpet the color of dirt and appliances predating me, it was home…for now. Well living with common wall neighbors and suffering through summers with nothing more than a window AC unit to keep us cool was not our American Dream. No sir.

Through trials and tribulation, we put a plan in motion to search for a house, the perfect house for us. We contacted a Realtor and began a search. We set our price and our Realtor took us from house to house to house to house; not one was the house for us. Well, one afternoon, we were looking at houses with our Realtor and she planned to take us to a house new on the market. As we drove down the street, Kristen was drawn to a “For Sale” sign in the front of another house; a cute brick house, with gabled windows and beautiful landscaping.

“I don’t think that house has shown up on our MLS searches,” Kristen said.

“We can swing back by and take a look,” our Realtor advised. So, we continued on to the scheduled house and sure enough, it wasn’t the one for us. Afterwards, we made our way back to the house with the “For Sale” sign. Our Realtor called the selling agent and found the house was empty and accessible right then. We got to go in and right away, we immediately we were in love. It was the house for us. We knew it was the one for us. The basement, the bedrooms, the fireplace; it all fit perfectly with what we wanted. It was amazing.

After touring through the house, we asked about pricing and knew it might be a bit of a stretch, but we thought we could swing it. Eventually I sat down in the middle of the living room floor until Kristen asked me, “Well, are you getting up so we can go?”

“Ummm..no. I’m staying here. Either we get this house or I am staying with whoever does get it,” I responded.

Several months later, after constant pricing negotiations and mortgage researching, our dream had come true. We had our dream house and were moving in. We had our first meal as a picnic on the floor in front of the fireplace. It was fantastic.

Well, the coolest thing about the new house was the thought that life was progressing along the right path towards a family. We had a house with three bedrooms, so we knew that eventually we knew we would try to fill at least one of the rooms with a little one. After we had several discussions we knew we were going to give it “a whirl.”

We were concerned that things may be difficult. There was history of difficulties getting pregnant in our family histories and it was concern enough to wonder if we be one of the lucky ones. Our OBGYN said the average couple takes up to 6 months. We didn’t know what to expect; we were concerned we would have problems.

We were on our second month of casual attempts when we picked up a pregnancy test. Kristen “did her thing” and she waited. Nothing happened. She went to the computer and left the test on the counter. I was reading through the directions (yes, I read the directions on a pregnancy test. Believe it or not, they are all a little different.) and found we needed to wait five minutes. So I sat and watched the stick. The control line was very blue but there was nothing else. I was patiently waiting for a second line to complete the plus sign. Nothing came.

Three minutes. Nothing.

Four minutes. Nothing.

Five minutes. I stared at the stick and almost thought my eyes were playing tricks on me when I saw 4 little blue pixels. Was it the start of a positive? Maybe it was just a faulty test. I mean, seriously, four blue pixels a positive test does not make.

Kristen asked, “What are you looking at?” (yes, Julie, she had a dangling participle at the end)

“I don’t know,” I muttered. Kristen got very wide eyed and came rushing over.

“What is it?!?!?!” She asked again.

“Do you see those four little dots?” I questioned. “Do you think that is a possible positive?”

“I don’t know,” Kristen hawed. “It’s probably a bad test.”

“I don’t know. Ya’ think?” I challenged. “Maybe you’re right.”

“Maybe we can try another test tomorrow?” Kristen asked hopefully.

“Definitely,” I retorted.

So the day went by at a snails pace. No matter what we did or where we went, the four little, blue pixels were never far from our thoughts. Maybe….just maybe.

Finally, the next morning came. We followed the same routine. We waited the same five minutes. This time, it was different. The same four pixels filled in, but this time they had friends. Maybe it’s real this time. There really is a blue line this time. It was faint and only about ten pixels this time, but it was a line. This couldn’t be a second bad test. It was real. This was life changing.

The following days were filled with more and more tests and darker and darker lines. It was real, it was a wonderful feeling; knowing that this was the beginning of a new part of life.

This was the time that I stopped and looked back on life. This is where I want to be; right here right now. Everything has worked out better than I could possibly imagine. This journey has had its challenges, but it is a road that I am so very happy to be on right.

A couple months go past and we eventually start our visits to the doctor. Everything appears normal, but all in all, life really hadn’t changed. A other than having more than a dozen positive pregnancy tests scattered around the house, there wasn’t much indication of pregnancy, at least not yet.

It was our twelve week visit and we had our moment of truth with the doctor. It was the end of the first trimester, typically the point at which you are at the highest risk of complications. Kristen was engaged in casual banter with the doctor as she applied the jelly and began probing Kristen’s belly and immediately we heard the sound.

Lub-dub lub-dub lub-dub….

It was so strong and beating so fast (166 beats per minute to be exact). At the time all I could focus on was Kristen. She has been diagnosed with what is known as “White Coat Syndrome” which literally means doctors freak her out causing her blood pressure to spike. My only goal was to keep her cool, calm and collected. Not knowing what to expect had really get her nerves strung out, but she held it together. The little heartbeat emanating from her belly began to sooth any of our fears.

It was finally real. There are pieces of me and pieces of Kristen growing inside of her. And soon, that would become our baby; our child. We would be a family. Disney vacations, trips to the zoo, playing in the park. Halloweens and Christmas, birthday parties, first days of school. These are all experiences that I am truly excited to experience with my family.

Again, I pause and look back and know this is where I should be; where I want to be and I couldn’t be happier.

You Capture - Everyday Things

Hm, what's something that I use everyday? Ah yes!

Yeah, you can totally tell I'm a dental hygienist. . . :-D

Little Boo does this every day. (Although I think she's happy to be an indoor cat since it's 95 degrees out now. Ugh.)

And here is the book I've been trying to read every day (and the cat had to make an appearance too)! Baby Bargains has been a very educational book so far; any other suggested reads for a first time mom to be?

*all photos edited in iPhoto

17 Weeks - Bump

I was going to post this picture with Jared's post, but I don't think he's going to get to it until the end of the week. . .and then the picture will be outdated because I will be 18 weeks. :-) So here is my 17 week baby bump.

I know I will be complaining of pain and discomfort when I'm huge, but that's all I really want right now. I feel like I'm still too small for where I should be at. I do exercise, so maybe that has something to do with it, but I'm ready for the belly! Grow baby grow!

Minnesota Vacation

This past week Daniela, Greg, Jared and I all made the 12 hour trek up to our cabin in Minnesota (the cabin is about 10 minutes from the Canadian border). It was a well deserved vacation for Jared and I; it's been two years since we've gone anywhere! Last year we did take a week off, but it was when we bought the house and moved. (side note: I can't believe we've been in the house a year now!)

My favorite day of the trip was probably when we drove into town and saw some of the local sites. First we drove to Lutson and took Daniela and Greg down the Alpine Mountain Slide. To get to the top of the slide you take a ski lift up to the top of the mountain, and then you ride in a plastic sled down the mountain in a fiber glass chute. It's super fun, but I decided not to go this year for fear of wiping out and hurting the baby.

Here is Daniela and Greg at the bottom of the slide.

After the ride at Lutson we drove to Cascade Falls and did a little hiking. I didn't last very long (it started to get hot), but we did get to see a few fun sites.

We ate lunch at a local restaurant called The Angry Trout and had an amazing meal out on the deck. The restaurant uses mainly organic and locally grown food; you can totally taste the difference!

The rest of the trip was full of our usual Minnesota activities: fishing, hiking, reading, sleeping, and lots of eating. Unfortunately the boys were unable to get a permit to fish on lake Saganaga (where you go to catch big fish) and go into Canada, so sadly no whopper fishes were caught on this trip.

I can't wait until next summer when we will have the baby to bring with. It's going to make it an entirely new experience.