the johnson family blog

Maternity Photo Session

2012-03-09T07:42:00.001-08:00

It has been so much fun to "train" Stacey to be my second shooter for weddings. While she is a great help and a wonderful addition to the hopefeathers photography team, part of this is totally selfish! I mean, now that she helping me with weddings, I get to take advantage of her for my own photo sessions! This is our first photo session that we've had where I wasn't setting up the camera on a tripod and running back and forth since... I think our wedding! It was hard for me to relinquish control over every little detail, but I think Stacey did a pretty darn good job! This is such a fun time in our lives. We'll never be pregnant with our first kid ever again! Thanks Stacey for helping us capture these memories! Love you!

35 weeks

2012-03-08T22:57:00.001-08:00

Brian is getting used to my groans and moans. I have been feeling pretty good up until this week. Now the aches and pains are almost constant. I really wonder if I will make it to 40 weeks! I just don't feel like Baby Bird will have enough room! Brian is also getting used to me calling the baby "his kid". As in, "Come feel your crazy kid". He knows Baby Bird is up to something whenever I call him/her that. Baby Bird has definitely started to run out of room and really likes to try to stretch out as much as possible. This makes for some crazy belly movements. There really is a tiny human living in my belly!

Even though we got some wonderful gifts at the shower, and we have a couple more showers left, Brian and I decided it was better to be safe than sorry on a couple baby items. We got a 20% off coupon for Babies R Us from a friend so we went to get our stroller/car seat. Brian was so excited that he installed it right in the parking lot! We also put together the stroller as soon as we got home. It's so fun to drive around and see a car seat in the rear view mirror! Only a few weeks until there will be a baby in there!

I am pretty sure that Baby Bird had dropped because I feel a pressure in my pelvis makes me feel like I'm carrying a bowling ball between my legs! Even still, the heartburn is at an all time high! I am snacking on TUMS like they're candy. My favorite craving now is frozen yogurt bites. Basically, you put spoonfuls of yogurt on a baking sheet and then pop it in the freezer. When they are frozen, you've got bite sized frozen yogurts! Healthy, delicious, and it punches heartburn in the face... at least temporarily.

(L) Hubs buying our carseat/jogger stroller. (R) Baby Birds bag is all packed and ready for the hospital.

(L) A few more shirts I made for baby. (R) I wonder which of these shirts will Brian wear when he goes to the waiting room at the hospital to tell our family who we had???

First Official Baby Shower!

2012-03-07T12:01:00.000-08:00

A couple weeks ago some of my dear friends took me to Café Latte for dessert and we all chatted and they gifted us some baby essentials like wipes and diapers (so helpful!!!!). Last weekend Brian's mom and her best friends threw us our first official baby shower. We felt so loved by all who were able to come... and even those who couldn't but still sent gifts! Baby Bird has so many people who love him/her already. What a lucky kiddo! It was really for for Brian to be able to come to the shower with me. He came because there were a lot of family coming to the shower that he hasn't seen in a while, and he was feeling a bit protective of me traveling an hour north to Cambridge this late in labor. He really enjoyed himself and I think will be a little sad to not be at my other showers haha.

The theme of the shower was "Baby Bird" and it was all yellow and grey colors... just like the nursery! There were prizes for those who wore yellow and grey colors. Brian and I both got an adorable boutineer and corsage handmade by Grandma Dina's best friend, Rayla. The flowers are made from baby socks! So creative! Everyone had name tags that were placed inside tiny home made felt diapers to be pinned to your shirt. The food was so tasty! Especially the spinach & artichoke dip made by Auntie Dani. Yum! And the cake was amazing! It was decorated to match the invitations perfectly! We played bingo as we opened the gifts so everyone was involved. It's amazing how much stuff a newborn "needs". We got some really wonderful gifts and now feel like Baby Bird could come early and we'd actually be prepared! Which is a much better feeling than how "worried" we were about preterm labor a couple weeks ago. A big THANK YOU to all who were a part of making that day so special for us! We are lucky to be loved so well by friends and family!

(L) Baby sock corsage. (R) Cute yellow & grey decor

(L) Just when we thought we had the baby room all cleaned and put together, we get PRESENTS! Now to figure out what to do with it all! (R) All our gender neutral clothes- I hope baby looks good in yellow and green cus that's all he/she will be wearing for a while haha.

Maternity Photo Session: Sneak Peek!

2012-03-03T20:10:00.000-08:00

This morning Stacey took us out for a little maternity photo session. It's always weird to be in front of the camera for a change. I'm so used to be in charge! Here is a little sneak peek from the session. I have just started looking through the photos and will be editing more to share later. For now... Enjoy!

34 weeks

2012-03-02T12:40:00.000-08:00

We've hit march! Baby Bird could be born this month, if he/she decides to really come early! If not, we're still only a month and a few days away! Wow! I have gotten to ease off bed rest this week. I am still supposed to take it somewhat easy and I can totally tell when my body is telling me to chill... I get a lot more contractions when I'm up and about. But I have LOVED being able to do some short trips to Target for groceries and Joann Fabric for some crafting supplies. I have especially loved being able to do some cooking. No offense to hubs, he did the best he could, but I couldn't stand another frozen pizza, canned stew or Chipotle run. I'm glad to be back in charge of making tasty balanced meals!

People keep asking me if I have had any dreams about if Baby Bird is a boy or a girl. I hadn't really until this week. And those dreams have been so vivid! I dreamed about a hazy summer morning with the light pouring through the windows. We were all sitting at the table and in a little red high chair was a curly blond-haired little boy in only a diaper laughing and eating pancakes. He smelled deliciously like maple syrup. He laughed and laughed and had his Papi's deep one-cheeked dimple. When I woke up, I was sure that Crosby is living in my tummy. A few nights later I dreamed about a snuggling on the couch for family movie night. The snow was falling outside and laying sweetly against my chest was a sleeping brown-haired girl. She was so warm and still and I could feel her breath against my neck. When I woke up, I was sure that Vivienne is living in my tummy. So to answer all those dream questions: Yes, I have had quite vivid dreams about who is in here... unfortunately, even in my dreams, I have no idea who it is!

For the most part I am still really enjoying pregnancy. I love having my little buddy squirming around in my belly. I already know that I will miss that feeling immensely when he/she is born. But there are some things that simply make me want Baby Bird out! Being able to sleep on my stomach... without waking up 3-4 times to pee ! Being able to walk, not waddle. Being able to put on whatever shoes I want to wear. Not having sausage fingers and toes. Not having to weigh the pros and cons of whether or not it's worth it to pick something up off the ground that my clumsy preggo self dropped. Being able to get up from sitting or laying without groaning. Not having to set an alarm for 3am to remind me to take my contraction meds. Not eating TUMS like candy after every meal. Not bumping into EVERYTHING with the baby bump... that must be why it's called that! Not having the general aches and pains in my back, hips and pelvis. But all in all, these are silly things to complain about when life is being knit together in my womb! What an amazing things our God can do! So excited to meet you, Baby Bird!

Some little onesies that I made for Baby Bird

(L) Bachmann's cafe is my winter happy place! Sunshine, fresh air, plants and a fun atmosphere! (R) Brian and I went here for a "baby date" to talk about our birth plan and what we are excited for when it comes to Baby Bird!

(L) Hubs and his powdered sugar goatee from the oh so delicious Almond Croissants. (R) Some burp clothes I sewed from cheap IKEA wash cloths and flannel.

(L) Brian has been reading "The Hobbit" out loud to me and baby. Baby Bird squirms like crazy the whole time he reads. I think he/she likes Papi's voice! It melts my heart! (R) Some tiny yellow booties I whipped up the other day with some left over fleece. I hope the fit Baby Bird, but I have no idea since I didn't use a pattern.

Here is a video of Baby Bird doing what he/she does best... SQUIRMING!

33 weeks

2012-02-24T21:32:00.000-08:00

33 weeks and we are back to pictures with fruit! This week was actually something that I could find in the store. And since pineapple is my favorite fruit ever, it seemed necessary to include it in the weekly photos. It's hard to believe that Baby Bird is as long and heavy as a pineapple! This week we got almost all the essentials for the baby room. We went to IKEA and got a crib and we also got a dresser/changing table from Brian's mom. Since I am still on bed rest, Brian had to push me around IKEA in a wheelchair! It was so entertaining. I've never left that store feeling so well rested. We also got free breakfast for Presidents Day.

Baby Bump is getting bigger! I know that seems like an obviously statement, but it's crazy to think that we still have several weeks of growing left! This morning we walked into a coffee shop and a little boy pointed at me and yelled, "baby"! Then everyone started to chuckle. It was funny and cute, but I also felt a bit like a freak show haha.

(L) Cradle from my childhood with the new bedding I made. (R) Tiny baby hat that I made for Baby Bird. Hope it's actually cold enough for at least a little bit after baby is born.

(L) Me and the wheelchair in IKEA. (R) Baby's kicks are getting really strong! He/she kept trying to kick off my oatmeal bowl!

(L) Hubs putting together the crib. (R) Baby room getting started!

(L) Baby and I got to sit back and watch Brian put together the crib. (L) Baby room getting even closer! Can't wait for our snugly kid to be here!

Baby Bird Guesses!

2012-02-23T10:37:00.000-08:00

&lt;p&gt;Loading...&lt;/p&gt;

32 weeks

2012-02-16T21:03:00.000-08:00

32 weeks! Wow! There is a lot less to share about this week compared to last. Ever since we left the hospital, we didn't know how "paranoid" we needed to be. Especially as we adjusted to me being on modified bed rest. I was still having contractions even with the medicine so we eventually were sent back to the hospital on Valentine's day afternoon. We were there less than an hour because the contractions stopped, but we were able to get a little more information from the nurse on how "worried" we should be. Apparently, I will have contractions til baby comes and the medication is more to stop those contractions from changing my cervix than to stop the actual contractions. The more active I am, the more contractions I will have. So if I am laying on my left side, fully hydrated and comfortable and having several consistent contractions, then I should call the OB. Otherwise, it's my clue that I need to slow down and take it a little more easy.

Baby Bird is still a big baby and, big surprise, my uterus still measured big at this weeks OB appointment! This means that at 36 weeks we will have an ultrasound to determine exactly how big we are talking. That is, if we make it to 36 weeks! Doc said that I will be on bed rest until 34 weeks and then I can slowly add more activity. At 35-36 weeks I can do whatever I want (yay!) and at 37 weeks I can stop taking the medication. They can't predict whether or not Baby Bird will be here early or not, but we are kind of hoping he/she will come sooner rather than later! We want to know who is in there!!! Brian has been suffering with baby fever for the past few weeks. Especially since so many of our friends have had babies recently. He's all over holding them as soon as he see's them. In fact, just tonight he asked our friends if he could smell their newborn daughter because he didn't believe me when I said how wonderful new babies smell and how I can't wait to smell Baby Bird. Now he doesn't think I'm so crazy and he can't wait to smell our baby too! We're a weird family haha.

Baby Bird is still kicking like crazy. He/she is positioned head down so my ribs have become sore from his/her kickboxing. Baby Bird is also responding to Brian's gentle taps and nudges on my belly by squirming and kicking back. He says they are already "wrestling" with each other. Cute!

(L) We got a stroller this week. Hubs had to put it together. It's a Snap-n-Go so that means that the car seat will snap into the base and become a stroller. Perfect for traveling with little Baby Bird. (R) Our local Starbucks found a cute way to let us know which mug was the decaf coffee. We're regulars haha.

(L) The adorable baby shower invite that Brian's mom is planning for us! Can't wait! (R) My medication won't let me eat my biggest craving. It's a bummer. I've had to settle for LOTS of Orange Juice. Yum!

(L) We are still working on rearranging the apartment. This is the only clean area of our place: bed rest central on the couch! (R) The rest of the apartment is in disarray and looks like this! We're hoping Baby Bird can wait for a few more weeks so we can get everything cleaned and together! Especially the Baby's Room :)

Babymoon #2: The hospital

2012-02-11T19:11:00.000-08:00

Remember this last post when I was complaining about my "Braxton Hicks" contractions? Well, I eventually decided to call the doctor. I mostly wanted to call to kind of fill them in on my contractions, not really thinking it was a big deal. But the Nurse I talked to asked a million questions and I told her that for the past few days I had been having 3-7 contractions an hour that didn't really stop with rest and drinking lots of water. At this point, she expressed the potential severity of this and her annoyance that I didn't call sooner. She sent us to the hospital immediately. Brian and I were slightly annoyed to be headed to the hospital at 5pm on a Friday night. Especially since we were under the assumption that they were making a bigger deal out of my "Braxton Hicks" than we thought was necessary.

We were told that Fairview Southdale Hospital (where we are planning on delivering) was full (?!?!) so they sent us to Abbott. When we arrived in the maternal assessment area and were brought into a room where they started a myriad of tests: blood, urine, fetal monitoring, baby heartbeat monitoring. The contraction monitor was indicating that I was having even more contractions that I initially thought. And they were really regular. I was having a contraction every 4-5 mins that lasted for a min. When they checked my cervix they discovered that the contractions were definitely doing something because I am about 50% effaced and almost a centimeter dilated. They also gave me a fetal fibronectin test. This is "a protein that acts as a glue during pregnancy, attaching the amniotic sac to the lining of the uterus. A positive fetal fibronectin test is a clue that the "glue" has been disturbed and you're at increased risk of preterm labor." My test came back negative. This was relieving to my the OB as it indicated that I was not technically in preterm labor and was highly unlikely to deliver Baby Bird in the next 2 weeks. However, because of the consistency of my contractions and the condition of my cervix they wanted me to stay overnight for continued monitoring. I received a shot to try to stop the contractions. It was unsuccessful. Then I was given an oral medication called Nifedipine which I take every 6 hours. This seemed to work well enough that they felt comfortable sending us home the next morning. Baby Bird was a trouper throughout the whole thing. Every attending nurse mentioned how he/she seems so happy and healthy just squirming around. One nurse even had to move the fetal monitor a few times because Squirmy wouldn't stay still. We've got a funny Baby Bird on our hands who seems to want to fly the coup a bit early.

Our second "Babymoon" was unplanned and unexpected. We were given advice from a friend to "enjoy the adventure" of our first overnight stay in a hospital. It was an interesting and exhausting experience. It's pretty difficult to sleep in a hospital bed when you are hooked up to so many monitors and the nurses are coming in and out to check on you and give you medications. Brian didn't have it much easier with his pull our chair bed. We're hoping that the next time we stay the night in a hospital we at least have a lovely little baby to make it worth it!

So that is our crazy story. We're praying this is the only hiccup in an otherwise uneventful pregnancy. I am on medication that I take every 6 hours to stop contractions. I am also on a modified bed rest. This means that I am not confined strictly to the bed, but I can move around as long as I am going from one place to sit/lay to another. I told Brian that I'm pretty sure that this includes going from the bed to the car to Starbucks every once in a while :) I'm going to get a bit stir crazy especially since I can't do any cooking, cleaning or trips to Target. Poor Brian is now in charge of it all! He's been really sweet and has attending to my every desire. He says he's not going to let me out of his sight for a while just to make sure that me and Baby Bird are ok. I'm sure it won't last that long, but I am enjoying the attention for now. My OB will be monitoring me more closely over the next several weeks. I will be on the medication until 37 weeks and then they will just see what happens. If I get more contractions before 34-35 weeks, they will try to keep them stopped for a few days while they give me steroid shots to help Baby Birds little lungs develop more and then they will see what happens. This means that "worst case scenario" we could be parents in just over 3 weeks! Whoa! I am excited to meet our baby, but more importantly we want baby to be fully developed and healthy as much as possible! So stay in there, you little turkey! You're not quite done cooking!

(L) Baby Bird kept kicking at all of the monitors! (R) I wasn't allowed to walk anywhere so I got a sweet ride!

(L) My view in our room for the next few weeks. (R) Not quite where we thought we'd spend our Friday night.

31 weeks

2012-02-11T18:06:00.000-08:00

Brian and I have our first baby shower coming up in a few weeks, so this week has been all about putting the finishing touches on our amazon.com baby registry. It's been a work in progress for the last few months. Mostly because there are so many options for every little thing! It was pretty overwhelming at first. I mean, as a first time mom, I had no idea what we need! Not that I really know what we need now, but I have been asking other mom's for advice and I think that we have narrowed down all the options haha. We also have a registry at target.com, but amazon.com has the majority of the baby items.

This week my "nesting" instinct has hit full force, much to Brian's dismay as I have forced his help. We have been prepping the apartment for our new tiny resident. Our apartment has always been a bit on the cramped side. We love that it has two bedrooms, but squeezing two bedrooms into 620 sq ft makes for small spaces. So we are trying to purge a majority of our things in order to have more space for baby. This week we went through our closets and dresser and ended up giving a few garbage bags of stuff to goodwill. We also went through our many, many books, took some to goodwill and put others into boxes for storage that we won't be "needing" for the next couple years, but aren't ready to give up quite yet. Now we have a couple rows in the book shelf for baby books and toys. Since it was almost 50 deg the other day (!) we even cleaned out the car to make room for a stroller and car seat! We feel so grown-up haha. We are making progress slowing, but surely. I am just hoping that Baby Bird is cozy enough where he/she is right now so that we can get prepared because right now, it looks like a BOMB went off!

I'm still feeling pretty good. The Braxton Hicks contractions have picked up the past few days. I've been having them for a couple months now and they aren't painful, but they are for sure uncomfortable. My doctor told me to call in if I am having more that five/hour. This seems to happen almost every day. I don't want to be annoying an call in all the time, but I also don't know when to ignore them and when it's serious. So basically I am drinking a million gallons of water in case I'm dehydrated, I take lots of warm baths, and try to walk or lay down. Sometimes these help, sometimes they don't. All I know is that it's exhausting! I'm hoping that this isn't a sign that Baby Bird want to come early. Brian seems to think that maybe our due date is off because my uterus is measuring so big and I have so many contractions. But what do we know? We've never done this before!

(L) Jack Frost came to visit one night (R) We STILL have no snow! This has been a really abnormal winter! But I'm glad to not have to worry about slipping on ice or driving in snow!

(L) Brian's mom for us this book. Brian calls in the "Eat poop book". It's been a really helpful "common sense" guide to the first year of baby. I read the first 100 pages the night we got it! It's fun to picture doing it all with Baby Bird! (L) Spring cleaning, aka "nesting" by cleaning our our car, Cortie.

(L) A picture of me that my nephew drew. The squiggly is Baby Bird in my tummy! (R) A tiny little hat I knit for baby. It fits in the palm of my hand!

30 weeks

2012-02-04T10:37:00.000-08:00

We have been calling Baby Bird "Squirmy" for a while now, but, wow, does this kid like to squirm! Every morning he/her wakes me up with wiggles, and every night Brian and I enjoy feeling the baby. We've been wondering what parts of the baby we are feeling, so at our 30 week OB appointment this week we got some answers. Baby was head down (but that could change) and we've been feeling Baby Bird's butt and knees and feet. As soon as Brian heard it was baby's butt we joked that this kid is taking after him and his baseball booty haha. The funny thing is that our Baby Doc told us to count the baby's kicks twice a day. I am supposed to lay down and see if I can feel ten movements in two hours. If I can't, I'm supposed to call. The funny part is that Brian and I can SEE ten movements in less that 30 seconds most days! And that is why we call Baby Bird "Squirmy." Doc even had a hard time finding baby's heartbeat at first because he/she wouldn't hold still! She ended up only getting about 5 seconds of heartbeat, but said it was enough to say it was holding strong around 150 bpm. Another thing we discovered at our 30 week OB appointment is that Baby Bird is still a giant baby. The doc measured my uterus and the number of centimeters is supposed to correlate to the number of weeks we are pregnant (plus or minus 4 centimeters). I am 30 weeks pregnant and my uterus measured 37! This means that either I have extra amniotic fluid (no big deal) or that Baby Bird is a giant! My uterus has been measuring a few weeks big each appointment, but this was the biggest yet! I have another appointment in 2 weeks and if I am still measuring big (which is quite likely) then we will schedule an ultrasound to do a growth scan to find out exactly how big Baby Bird is. While I'm not excited at the possibility of having a large baby (especially after reading this article!), I am a excited to possibly get to see Baby Bird on an ultrasound again!

As for me, I am feeling pretty good. I am starting to slow down and get a bit more tired. This is probably because sleeping has become more difficult. It's hard to get comfortable so I toss and turn and when I finally do fall asleep, I wake up a couple hours later with a painfully full bladder. This cycles 2-3 times a night. I'm actually starting to wonder if I'll get more sleep with a newborn than while pregnant! When I do sleep, I literally dream about orange juice! I can't get enough citrus. Oranges, orange juice, cereal and soup are my big cravings these days. I'm glad to say nothing makes me feel sick. I also have permanent cankles. It doesn't matter how long Brian rubs my feet, how long I sit with them elevated, or how much water I drink, my ankles are swollen. Doc says it's normal and I just have to get used to it and wear comfy shoes. Bring on the slippers!

(L) Baby Bird is set with his/her baseball fan clothes for the summer! Maybe he/she can wear them to some games?!? (R) Brian playing his favorite game: "I wonder which part of the baby this is moving now?"

Happy Birthday to me :)

2012-02-02T20:10:00.000-08:00

This week I turned 28. In the words of my younger hubby, I am officially old. He surprised me with a birthday/babymoon night away. It couldn't have been more perfect. I felt so loved and cared for. He also got me an adorable Jonathon Adler Skip Hop diaper bag. We stayed in the Ann Bean Mansion in Stillwater. Our room was in the tower! It was so cool! We had a lovely king sized bed, a cozy fireplace, a whirlpool tub and our own private tower with a table for two so we played Stratego. After dinner in the town, we enjoyed some time chatting, reading, and giggling together back in our room. It's so fun to think how our lives will change in the next couple months. We really got to cherish one last little getaway before Baby Bird comes. The next morning was my birthday and we had a scrumptious breakfast by our fireplace. Then we spent the rest of the day relaxing and shopping and watching movies. It was pure bliss! We ended my birthday with a free drink at Caribou Coffee and by playing cards. All in all a lovely day!

29 weeks

2012-01-31T13:35:00.000-08:00

I passed the glucose test! Yay! It was pretty awful. It snowed that morning so the traffic was terrible. We were 30 mins late which added an additional 30 mins to my already terribly long wait of 3 hours without eating! A big deal for a hungry preggo. The glucose drink was twice as sickingly sweet. I was so dizzy and nauseous You have to sit in the waiting room for 3 hours and have your blood drawn 4 times. If you fail it twice, then you have gestational diabetes. I passed the first 2 tests and then failed the third. I was so glad that I passed the final test with flying colors! We celebrated by getting Chipotle and I was so hungry that I actually ate the whole thing by myself because I wasn't able to eat anything that day until 1pm! That night we had a tour of the birth center at our hospital. It was really sweet to be able to picture where this is all going to happen! Next time we are there, Lord willing, we'll be finding out who has been living in my tummy for the past several months. Brian even won a drawing for a free baby blanket.

28 weeks

2012-01-23T13:57:00.000-08:00

For some reason, this week we never got around to taking "good photos" of me and Baby Bird. In fact, technically I am already in week 29 and I haven't posted from last week! Therefore, Brian took some pictures of me on my iPhone and we are going to just go with that haha.

I have really been cherishing all of the uninterrupted time I have on my hands these days. While raising support to do ministry full time has been an emotional roller-coaster, I have really treasured the hours of time Brian and I have had to make coffee and read our Bibles in front of our (fake) fireplace. We found a fireplace "movie" on netflix.com and have been snuggling up in front of a crackling fire haha. It's been such a joy to have this time because we know that in a few weeks our lives will be changing and we won't have the ability to spend hours in prayer or reading! I was reading in Jeremiah the other day and it hit me that before Baby Bird was even a thought in our minds, the Lord knew him/her! Jeremiah 1:5 - "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you." It made me tear up when I read that passage. Lately, Baby Bird has been squirming even more than usual. Because he/she is running out of room, I am able to feel every roll of the knees, elbows, feet, and little bum. It's awesome. But each time, I can't help but wonder, "Who is in there?" I wonder if it's Crosby or Vivienne? So when I read this verse, I was in awe of the fact that the Lord not only knows who is in my belly, but He planned it from the beginning of time! He has numbered the hairs on Baby Bird's head. He knows the moment Baby Bird will be born. He has planned each and every day of his/her life! Brian and I have been praying continually that the Lord will draw our baby to himself and that Baby Bird will treasure what Jesus Christ has done.

In addition to the rolling and wiggling, Baby Bird has been getting a lot of hiccups. It's totally adorable. It's a little rhythmic reminder of our squirmy baby. Baby Bird has been getting a real treat lately and has been the recipient of lots of spur of the moment songs from Daddy. Brian loves to make up songs on the spot and sings to Baby Bird often. They are usually quite silly and ridiculous, but it's really adorable. I love the time that we have spend both enjoying our baby roll around. I've still been getting a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions. Sometimes as many as 15-20 a day! One night I have about 6 or 7 in a row with in an hour and started to get nervous about labor! It was 11pm and I had no idea if I needed to call the doctor and what number to call! It was kind of a wake up call for Brian and I to start thinking through a plan. Neither of us are real big planners so we need to step it up a bit. Labor and birth doesn't really seem like something we should "just wing it" haha.

This week has begun the "great apartment rearranging of 2012". We have a two bedroom apartment but it's ~~super~~ SUPER tiny so we've been trying to decide if we will stay here or move. And if we move, when? We finally decided that we should try to stay here with the cheap rent as long as possible. This means we have a LOT of rearranging to do! Our second bedroom has been a guest room/movie room since we moved in. Now we have to get rid of/store some unnecessary furniture in our living room so we can bring our couch and TV wardrobe into that room. We moved the TV wardrobe into the living room last night. By "we" of course I mean Brian did the work and I sat at the kitchen table and watched as I snacked on a clementine orange. I can't wait to get the baby room all to myself so I can decorate and feel like we're really going to have a kid! The only thing I have done so far is sew some yellow zig-zag curtains. I have loved dreaming about the finished product of the room by "pinning" a lot of ideas in my nursery pinterest board.

Last week I had my glucose tolerance screening test at the OB. This is a standard test for all preggos. Basically, you have to fast all night/morning and when you arrive at the doctor you need to drink a bottle of this icky, super sweet, lime glucose stuff in 5 mins. It kinda reminded me of a Sonic Limeade that all the ice had melted in. Slightly carbonated, but mostly a sickly sweet lime drink. Then after an hour they test the glucose levels in your blood to see how your body is breaking down sugars. In the meantime, I had an appointment with the nurse. Baby Bird's heartbeat has continued to be around 150 bpm at every appointment. We are also still on track to have a "giant" as baby bird is measuring at 31 weeks! When they tested my blood I ended up failing my glucose tolerance test by 1 point! So bummed. This means that for the next 3 days I have to carbo-load at every meal (like eat a TON of carbs) and then have another test first thing Monday morning. The drink is going to be twice as sweet and I have to stick around for 3 hours (!) so they can test my blood every hour. If I "fail" this test then I probably have gestational diabetes. The nurse said she doubts I do because I was only 1 point over and that they need to do the 3 hour test just to make sure. It's kind of funny to have a doctor request for me to eat such "bad" foods! I have to meet a certain requirement of carbs each day and I don't even think I can handle eating that much food! Yikes! It just feels like a bummer to "fail" at something even though it has nothing to do with me of what I've been doing. It's just my body having a hard time processing sugar. I definitely took it personally at first and Brian had to remind me that it's not my fault haha. He's so sweet! So fingers crossed that I pass the 3 hour glucose test on Monday!

(L) Reading The Meaning of Marriage by Tim Keller at Starbucks while sharing a Salted Carmel Mocha (yum!). We've only read the intro so far and it's SO GOOD! (R) The curtains I've sewn for Baby Bird's room.

(L) Stacey and I are our niece's 6th birthday party! We had ice cream cone cupcakes that were so good! (R) The crazy mess from the beginning of the apartment rearranging (still in process).

(L) Cozy "fireplace" snuggles with coffee and Bible. (R) Next year someone tiny and adorable will wear this sweater!

27 weeks

2012-01-12T13:24:00.000-08:00

Big milestone this week - THIRD TRIMESTER! We are now only 3 months away! We tried an experiment this week. We held a flashlight to my belly to see what Baby Bird would do. He/she kicked and moved away! I'm sure we were interrupting a baby nap and possibly even a lovely dream. Baby Bird has enough brain activity at this stage that specialists speculate that he/she could be dreaming when he/she sleeps! Since we figured we were already being annoying parents to our child, Brian figured he's hold his iPhone up to the belly and play some music. He first played some rap which must have bored Baby Bird (much like his/her mommy) because there was absolutely no reaction. As soon as Brian played Over the Rainbow by Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwoʻole, Baby Bird was kicking and squirming and even kicked the iPhone three times. We took that as a sign that he/she liked it and was dancing around haha.

Sleep used to be one of my all time favorite activities! Like for real. We recently got reconnected with some long time family friends in CA and the mom told me that when she taught my preschool class and asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said a pillow. I used to wait for my parents to leave after tucking me in and I would get up, change into my clothes for the next day, make my bed, and sleep on top of the covers because that meant that I could sleep an extra 10 mins the following morning because I was already ready for school! Sleep is becoming less and less my favorite. Falling asleep is easy. I have fallen asleep in every movie we have watched the past 6 months. Staying asleep is the hard part. My preggo friend, Katie, tweeted it perfectly last night: "So. Sleeping at 7 months pregnant is like being a fish out of water #floppy". Basically, I am surrounded by every pillow we have in our house and I flop from one side to the other. I also wake up with sore hips and back a couple times a night to pee. I hear it's only going to get worse. It's a good thing that God has designed it this way to prepare us for the midnight feedings, because otherwise it would be even harder to wake up and feed the baby. But considering I don't think I've slept a whole night since being pregnant, it might not be so bad (yes, I'm naive). All this to say that the other night I couldn't fall back asleep after hitting up the potty, and I laid there feeling baby wiggle. It's one of my favorite things because it's nice and quiet and baby and I get to hang out and have some special time bonding and praying. This night, Baby Bird had the hiccups! It was the first time I have felt them and it was so funny! Maybe this is a result of all the spicy foods I've been eating. I usually have quite the "northern white girl palate", but since getting pregnant, I can't have things spicy enough! It's totally worth the heartburn that comes after. Lately, we've been on a spicy asian soup kick. Yummy! And I also can't get enough Clementine oranges and orange juice. Well, pretty much any fresh fruit. We have a bowl in our fridge full of pineapple and berries so I can snack on them when I get a craving.

Baby Bird has also been squirming like crazy. I took a couple videos that kind of show him/her kicking from the outside. This is nothing compared to what we've seen, but he/she seems to get camera shy and stops when I pull out my iPhone.

(L) Pregnancy Brain: I turned on the wrong stovetop burner when making eggs and fried the bag of cheese instead. (R) I've been enjoying my quiet mornings of coffee (decaf) and reading my Bible. Soon my mornings wont be quite so cozy and still.

(L) I finally have started sewing things for the baby! This weeks job, yellow zig-zag curtains while watching a sermon from Mark Driscoll. (R) Brian and I got to see Beauty and the Beast in 3D with my sister-in-law and our niece and nephew. It was so fun and brought back a lot of childhood memories. We both got chocked up. Brian had stayed up all night for the all night of prayer at church and came straight to the movie. He was exhausted. I just have pregnancy hormones and the nostalgia was enough to make me tear up haha.

Our Christmas - 2011

2012-01-09T07:05:00.000-08:00

A post on Christmas seems a bit overdue considering that we're nearly mid way through January, but I didn't want to forget these special memories. We were in California for Christmas. It was the only time my Dad will get to see my baby bump! Next time we see him, we'll have a new grandbaby for him to hold! Wow! Christmas Day was characterized by yummy food, playing games, and hanging out with family. Exactly what Christmas should be.

The yummy breakfast wreath we found on Pinterest.

We played Ticket to Ride a few times while we were down there, but we actually ALL got dad a new game for Christmas! So we played two new versions of settlers AND an "It's a Wonderful Life" trivia game.

The whole family together. Brian, Me, Mommy, Daddy, Stacey and Aunt Vicki.

Daddy always read the Christmas story to the grandkids each Christmas. Because Eliot and Olivier weren't there, he read to Baby Bird. It was really sweet.

And of course, here are a few photos from our trip to Disneyland. I didn't want to lug my nice camera around all day because I knew I'd get tired enough lugging around a kid in my stomach. So here are a few pics from Mommy's camera.

Everyone else thought it would be so funny to leave me in a row on the tram by myself as a way to poke fun at how much room me and the baby bump take up.

They think they are soooooo funny!

Our friend who works at Disneyland got us this button. All day, ~~employees~~ cast members were congratulating us.

On the jungle cruise.

Waiting for everyone else to ride Indiana Jones. Mommy waiting at the exit with me because Baby Bird and I couldn't be shaken up that much by riding along with everyone else. Thanks Mommy!

26 weeks

2012-01-08T14:13:00.000-08:00

No fruit or vegetable this week. Apparently, Baby Bird is getting so long that there aren't many options left! This week was a hothouse cucumber. Not quite sure what the difference between a regular cucumber and a hothouse cucumber, but I figured we might as well skip the produce pics this week.

This is the last week of my sixth month of pregnancy! This is the last week of my second trimester! Where is time going? Baby Bird has been a lot squirmier this week. So much so that we've been calling him/her "squirmy". The kicks and punches are stronger. It's becoming easier to tell where the baby is in my belly. Brian loves to play "find the baby" and gently pushes on my belly until he finds the hard spot where baby is hanging out. He was touching my belly as we watched a movie the other night when I felt baby squirm and he looked over at me and said, "What the?!?" Apparently he felt the baby roll over and move, not just a swift kick! He was pretty shocked and in awe of the tiny person living inside me! Baby Bird seems to be most active in the late evenings and also the mornings when I'm waking up. And it's nearly always kicking on the right side of my belly. One morning, I was holding my tummy as I woke up for a little mommy and baby time, and I felt Baby Bird stretch out a little hand or foot and push! There was a tiny hard spot pushing out against my hand for about 20 seconds. It was crazy! I am noticing that I am a tummy rubber. I feel like I am constantly touching my tummy. It's getting bigger, and baby moves so often, it's difficult not to! But my justification is that baby is developing a sense of touch now and will even respond to my touching and gently pushing on my belly.

This week, Brian and I traveled to Chattanooga, TN with over 200 college students from Campus Outreach Minneapolis for a national New Years Conference. It was really awesome. It is always a "fire hydrant" of information pouring at you and you can only drink so much while the rest flows over your head. The theme was One Life. We had speakers like Matt Chandler, John Piper, Harry Reader. Brian and I were able to spend the week with students which was so refreshing after the past few months of raising support. We loved the dinner dates, gospel centered conversations, and processing the talks with students. If you want to read more information about the Conference and even hear some of the talks, visit: conationalconference.com

Pregnancy wise, it was an interesting trip. We took a coach bus all the way from Minneapolis to Chattanooga. That is an 19 hour trip. We stopped in a hotel somewhere in Illinois on the way down. When we got to our room and I changed into my pajamas, I looked down at my feet and I was astonished! I no longer had ankles! My calves seamlessly transitioned into fat feet! Swollen is an understatement! Brian was beyond sweet and rubbed them as I slept with them elevated on pillows. They were fine the next morning, only to swell again during our second traveling day. It was pretty much a battle all week as we spend most of our time sitting in sessions, or on our feet walking long distances. Traveling home was a whole different story. We drove straight through without stopping for the night! For the most part, it was okay. We watched several movies, played games with students, and ate fast food for every meal (yuck!). I expected the aches and pains in my back and the swollen ankles. The hardest part came around 2am when I simply could NOT find a way to sit that was comfortable... let alone be able to sleep! I shed a couple tears in a pity party for myself and then Brian reminded me the truth that we have so much to be thankful for. We played the "Polyanna Game" and listed the blessings. While that didn't help my aching back and sore ribs, it did give me some perspective. In the end, I think I was able to sleep a couple hours. This has made adjusting back to "normal" life somewhat difficult as we feel jet lagged.

It sure is good to be home... mostly! We got pretty spoiled spending a week in sunny, warm, Southern California and then a week in the mild and generally warm weather of Chattanooga. So when the windchill was 3 degrees our first day back, we spend a lot of time snuggled under blankets with hot tea. When we did venture out, I donned my maternity jacket. I feel as though I look obviously pregnant in my regular clothes. I'm glad that "is she just fat?" stage is over. But I still feel like it's hard to tell in a jacket. Well, apparently I've reached the stage where I'm obviously pregnant no matter what I wear! A woman I've never met ooed and awed over my preggo-ness when I was wearing my coat. I feel like the "wow, you must be due any day" comments are just around the corner! I have heard that the third trimester is uncomfortable physically and emotionally as everyone feels the need to comment on your size. It time to prepare for that I guess haha. It will all be so worth it in the end. The last two days, we have had two friends give birth to their new babies! The whole process is so exciting! Only a couple more months until we get to meet Baby Bird!

(L) Balancing oatmeal on my baby bump. (R) Watching a 3D movie on mom and dad's TV and enjoying theater style popcorn!

(L) Mom and Dad's pretty Christmas Tree. (R) Mom, Stacey and I got matching coffee mugs so we can think of each other when we drink from them wherever we are!

(L) Last photo of 2011. (R) First photo of 2012.

(L) Attempting to sleep on 18 hr bus ride. (R) Holy swollen ankles!

(L) Matt Chandler speaking to 5000 Campus Outreach students. (R) New Years Eve Party with 5000 college students!

Baby Bird will be named...

2012-01-03T08:23:00.000-08:00

One day when I was about 12 weeks pregnant, Brian and I were on a road trip and I mentioned how we should probably start to talk about names for the baby. I meant that we had some time... as in a few months to decide. Brian decided that we should just make a decision right there on the spot. We had chatted about our favorite baby names (a favorite past time of mine) since we got married, so we had a general list to work from. In fact, my sister Stacey and I have had a running list of our favorite names since I was sixteen years old. Within ten minutes of discussion, Brian and I had decided on our favorite boy's and girl's name and thus Baby Bird was named! I never thought it would be that easy! Since we have told our families and several of our dear friends, Brian has finally given me permission to share our names with ALL! Consider this a late Christmas present to you!

Since Baby Bird is due near Easter, we really wanted to choose names that were meaningful. Both names are our prayers for the child. We settled on Crosby Giuseppe Johnson for a boy. Crosby means "dwelling near the cross". Our prayer is that Crosby would cherish the Lord and love the fact that Jesus came to die on the cross in order to eternally save sinners such as him. We chose Giuseppe as a middle name in memory of Brian's brother Joey who passed away a few years ago. Giuseppe is Italian for Joseph.

We chose Vivienne Ruth Johnson for our girls name. Vivienne means "full of life". Our prayer for Vivienne is that she would love the Lord Jesus as her Savior and be full of eternal life that springs up out of her as she shares that joy with others! We chose Ruth for a middle name after my mom's mom, Grandma Ruth. She is my only living Grandma and loves the Lord dearly. I can't wait for Vivienne to meet her great-grandma namesake in Grandma Ruth! We also love that Ruth is a Godly women from the Bible and that the name means "friend".

While we have no idea the gender of the baby, it is fun to think that someday we will meet either Crosby or Vivienne! Brian says he is going to use that as motivation for me when I am in the throws of painful labor by saying, "I wonder who will come out? Crosby or Vivienne!" We had a friend who didn't know the gender of their baby but had a boy's and girl's name picked out. She said that as she was pregnant, her and her husband would switch between the boys and girls name when talking to the baby. This made her feel sad when only one of "them" came out! So, while we have our names picked out, we are still calling the baby Baby Bird (or "squirmy" as of late) so that we keep in mind that we are only having one kid haha.

25 weeks! Christmas!

2011-12-25T16:08:00.000-08:00

Christmas is here! This was a big mental landmark for me. For some reason, I have been saying that once Christmas comes and passes, then Baby Bird will be coming right around the corner! This is partially true. While we still have 3.5 months still Baby Bird's grand entrance, I think that the holiday season and the turning of the year to 2012 make it seem like baby will be here before we know it! We still have ~~so much~~ EVERYTHING to do! We need to take birthing classes and visit the hospital and get a make-shift nursery ready in our tiny apartment. One thing is for sure, Baby Bird got the goods this Christmas! Mama & Papa Pitman were so excited to have us and Baby Bird here in CA for Christmas, that Baby Bird got the most gifts! He/she got lots of adorable onesies, the softest stuffed racoon ever, and a Baby Björn carrier so we can snuggle baby close when we're on the go. Brian is really excited to go on campus to meet with guys "Hangover style" with the baby in the front pack haha. We had lots of fun with Mommy and Daddy and Stacey and Aunt Vicki. We got Aunt Vicki a really fun Dodger Gnome that she was so excited about. Mommy and Daddy got FOUR new games (two new settlers) that we are excited to try before we leave tomorrow. Plus, they also got a White Christmas DVD and Tangled in 3D! We watched Avatar in 3D this week! I wish we had time to do it all! We are so thankful to have a wonderful family that we enjoying spending time with. It actually makes it so hard to leave. Next time we see them I will either be a ginormous preggo, or we'll have a newborn! Wow!

We got to spend time with our good friends Tim and Stephenny and their boys Solomon and Delano. We've already decided that if Baby Bird is a boy, they will all be best friends. If Baby Bird is a girl, she'll have her pick of the boys to marry. A win-win situation! We've gotten quite used to this lovely 70 degree weather we've been having here in Southern California and aren't really looking forward to the frozen tundra. Especially after all the lattes Mommy, Stacey & I have enjoyed in the sunshine!

This next week, Brian and I will be traveling 18 hrs by coach bus with over 200 college students to Chattanooga, TN for a National Conference with Campus Outreach. There will be 5000 college students there! I am a little nervous for the long bus ride considering I am a hair shy of 6 months pregnant. Hopefully, I don't get to sore and restless and can sleep on the bus! One blessing (?) is that there will at least be a bathroom on the bus!

Merry Christmas!!!

2011-12-25T10:31:00.000-08:00

Though I am sure you are all enjoying some fabulously fun time with family and friends (just like we are!), I thought that I would take a second to wish you a very Merry Christmas from me and Bluejay and Baby Bird! Being pregnant at Christmas is so wonderful! It makes the real meaning of Christmas so much more real. I love that Jesus Christ was born a tiny baby; fully God AND fully man! I am thankful that he was born and lived a sinless life so that he would one day die on the cross at Calvary for that I can be forgiven of my sins! What a wonderful, miraculous plan our Lord had! Because of Jesus' life, death and resurrection, we can have eternal life! I am reminded of this truth every time I feel our little baby kick inside me and I think about Jesus kicking inside Mary all those years ago. Wow!

Merry Christmas to ALL!!!

24 weeks

2011-12-22T21:08:00.000-08:00

We've made it to California for Christmas. It's been really fun to spend time with my parents. This is the first and only time that my Dad has seen my baby bump! Next time we see him, we will have a little baby! Wow! The flight wasn't so bad, but I'm definitely feeling a bit big and uncomfortable for airplane seats. We also flew in to L.A. at 11pm (which feels like 1am to us) and then drove the 1.5 hrs to my parents home. It was exhausting! We went to church the next morning and saw dad giving announcements in the service. He was excited to "meet the baby" after the service. Mom and Stacey and I have had lots of (decaf) coffee dates and Christmas shopping excursions while Brian and Dad play golf. We've been enjoying fresh squeezed orange juice in the mornings and walks with views of snow covered mountains! It's been so great to have warm weather, sunshine, and fresh air! We even had the chance to go to Disneyland! It was so much fun. We went with some good long-time family friends. It was crazy to think that this is our last time going to Disneyland without kids! I lasted longer than I expected being on my feet all day, but it was still difficult. My ankles were so swollen and my back ached after nearly 12 hrs at Disney. We got to go on all of the kiddo rides and go into the shops that we normally skip over on the way to roller-coasters. Brian was really cute and came up with the idea of buying Baby Bird a stuffed Mickey in remembrance of his/her first trip to Disneyland. He's going to be a great Papi! After Disneyland, we had dinner at In-n-Out! Soooooo good! Too bad we don't have those in Mn because I foresee some cravings in the coming months. We have also gotten to spend some time with our friends Tim & Stephenny and their boys Solomon and Delano. They are so much fun! They gave us a really sweet gift for Baby Bird- some grey and yellow jammies and Baby Birds first Bible! It's an awesome Bible too because it goes through the whole Bible and says how it all points back to Jesus Christ. We are so excited to read it to Baby Bird!

23 weeks

2011-12-16T07:30:00.000-08:00

Today we had an appointment at the baby doctor. We went in a week early because we will be leaving this weekend for Christmas in Ca! Everything is great with Baby Bird. In fact, apparently my belly is measuring a few weeks BIGGER than it "should" for my due date. This means that Baby Bird is basically... a GIANT! My OB casually mentioned that I should pay extra close attention when reading books or taking classes about labor to the subject of a C-section because it is a possibility if Baby Bird is still a big kid as I near the end of pregnancy! Whoa! Not quite sure why our baby is so big since I'm only 5'1". It must be Brian's fault haha. The OB did say that it's nothing to worry about and that Baby Bird could have just gone through a crazy growth spurt the past few weeks and it will taper off in the next few months. Which would definitely explain the aches as my tummy has been expanding! I've also had my first Braxton Hicks contractions this week.

Baby Bird is a funny baby already. Our ultrasound tech was the first to mention this, and I'm realizing more and more how true it is. Baby Bird is very particular about his/her space. This means lots of kicking and pushing when I wear pants or skirts with any sort of waistband and also when I rest my hands or arm on my expanding belly. He/she also likes to "hang out" in my belly where ever he/she wants. This usually means as low as possible. And let me tell you, those kicks feel really strange! Lately, he/she has been curling up in a little ball on the lower right side of my belly. I'm told that Baby Bird still has plenty of room to move around, but I guess he/she really has a mind of his/her own. Baby Bird also likes to kick in response to Brian's voice. Whenever Brian gets close and talks to my belly, Baby Bird will kick him in the face. It's so funny and cute! He really loves to "pet" my belly at every chance he gets and gets such a thrill when he feels the baby kick. This really is the best season of pregnancy! The aches and pains are minimal, and Baby Bird makes his/her presence known constantly. Brian has also been so sweet and has started to rub my feet at night. He's also taken on doing the dishes and the laundry! How lucky am I?!?!

This week we took our Christmas photos. While it's not the fun snowy photos we usually take, these brown Christmas photos hold the memories of our last Christmas as a couple. Next year we will be a family!Visit my photography blog to see more pictures.

Baby Bird's first ornament! His/her ultrasound pic!

22 weeks

2011-12-08T13:37:00.000-08:00

These weeks are just flying by. I think it's a combo of the holidays and the excitement about Baby Bird, but December is going by so quickly! Baby Bird has been moving like crazy. I think that he/she must be a big fan of Christmas like his/her Mommy and is dancing for joy! In fact, we've been watching my belly move. At first it was super weird and made me feel like there's an alien living in my belly. But now we think it's pretty cool. In fact, the other day, Brian saw my belly move from across the room! We've loved watching movies at night because that's when Baby Bird is really active and I lay with my head on Brian's lap while his hand rests on my tummy and we both enjoy feeling our baby!

The belly is growing! My belly button is starting to look really weird and is pretty flat. I think it's only a matter of time before it pops out haha. The hiccups are also totally out of control. Brian says I sound like a pterodactyl! But I suppose it's true when daily I hiccup so loudly that it literally startles him. I wonder what causes them. Maybe it's acid reflux? Or my insides getting all squished? Either way, it's kind of embarrassing haha.

I am feeling great- almost like normal. It's getting hard to bend over, but other than that, things are going well. I even feel more normal when it comes to cravings. I am enjoying chicken again, I don't feel like I need a pickle several times a day, and I still enjoy red meat, but don't crave beef jerky all the time. The one thing that is still a bummer is that anything sugary makes me feel awful. Especially ice-cream! I've gotten sick every time I've had any. Major bummer.

We've been enjoying several of our favorite Christmas traditions. Each year we walk around Grand Ave for the "Grand Meander". We get breakfast with Santa, visit the shops, see a reindeer, enjoy soup samples, and try chestnuts roasting on an open fire. It's really fun. Next year, we'll be bringing our son or daughter along! So cool! Our apartment is all decorated and the advent calendar I made is up. This also makes each day go by fast! It's almost Christmas! There is also a photo below of me and Baby Bird at the gym. It's getting too cold to walk outside, so I've been using the treadmill. I looked down the other day and realized that most of what I saw was belly with a foot popping out with each step! It made me giggle- so of course I had to take a picture.

21 weeks

2011-12-01T14:52:00.000-08:00

It's still hard to believe that we are in the second half of pregnancy! I guess it's really time to get going and make a registry, take birth classes, and visit the hospital. Baby Bird will be here before we know it! We survived our first of the two holiday travels we will make this year. We have family all over the US and we are trying to be able to visit many before Baby Bird comes and makes traveling a bit more difficult. We've been home from Colorado for three days and I already miss seeing mountains! Good thing mountains are right outside my parents home in CA as well. It will be strange to have Christmas without snow, but at least there will be snow capped mountains in the background. We are also hoping to go to Disneyland when we're down there because it will be all decorated for the Holidays. Because of this, I have started "training". I'm going to need to build up some stamina in order to stand and walk around Disneyland all day. For the most part I feel great, but I do get some pains in my right hip and my lower back gets sore the longer I stand. I've also started getting round ligament pain when I stand too quickly or sneeze. I've been feeling Baby Bird's movements for a while, but they've just felt like little flutters. Now I am starting to recognize a pattern of when Baby Bird is most active and I can definitely feel some strong kicks and punches. After dinner last night, I had a paper plate balanced on my belly. When I felt baby kick, I looked at the plate and saw it wiggle and shake! Brian and I were quite entertained by this for at least an hour. I can't wait to meet whoever is in there kicking me!

These are a couple pictures from our time in Colorado. Brian's dad and his step-mom took us to a historic hotel called The Broadmoor. They just happened to be having a white light ceremony where they lit all the trees around the hotel. It was really pretty.

20 weeks - Halfway Point!

2011-11-25T10:11:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that I'm already halfway done! It really seems like yesterday two pink lines appeared on that pregnancy test! It has probably seemed to go quickly because it took a few months to actually "feel" pregnant. Now, it's definitely obvious! I have had more strangers ask when I'm due lately. None of my "regular" clothes fit anymore except for a few yoga pants and leggings. But I can't complain because every time I feel our baby kick, my heart smiles! I wouldn't trade that feeling for having a waistline anytime soon. It's pure bliss! This week, two pesky pregnant symptoms have also appeared. Cue heartburn and hiccups. If I get too hungry or too full, I hiccup. Brian says he can't take me out in public anymore because it's embarrassing. I think he's exaggerating. It seems like everything gives me heartburn except for the things I crave: soup and beef jerky. I swear this baby might come out all brown, wrinkly and heavily seasoned like jerky!

Happy Thanksgiving! This is the best holiday to celebrate when you're pregnant! The combination of tasty food and maternity stretchy pants is perfect! Brian and I are actually in Colorado Springs celebrating with his Dad and Step-Mom. It was actually almost 70 degrees on Thanksgiving day! So we've felt pretty spoiled. The altitude took preggo me longer to get used to than normal. I spent the first day we were here feeling winded by just sitting on the couch. It made me feel pretty lame, but the OB told me it would probably happen because of the higher altitude. I have been feeling baby move from the outside over a week now, but I haven't been able to catch baby kicking in order for Brian to feel it. Well, on Thanksgiving night, baby was delightfully squirming and kicking in joy from the yummy Thanksgiving meal, so I grabbed Brian's hand and put it on my tummy. Within 30 seconds baby kicked and he felt him/her! What a neat Thanksgiving present from baby bird!

Last week, Minnesota had the first snow of the year. Brian and I celebrated that day by having a "winter wonderland" date. We grabbed buy one get one free holiday drinks at Starbucks and went to and outdoor mall that was having a "Christmas Extravaganza". You know a true Minnesotan by the fact that they go to an outdoor mall on the first snow simply to see reindeer, get free mini donuts, see fireworks and Santa Claus, and get some good deals in stores. But it was really fun. Brian held my hand the whole time so that I wouldn't slip. This could potentially be a long winter for this off-balance preggo.

We also caved and began the Christmas season just a bit early this year. Normally, we like to wait until after Thanksgiving, but due to the snow and the fact that we're out of town for Thanksgiving, I wanted to put up our tree and decorate early so that we come home to a Christmasy home! We had Stacey over for lunch and put some Christmas vinyls on the record player, and decorated the tree.

19 weeks

2011-11-19T19:27:00.000-08:00

According to my iPhone apps, Baby Bird is technically the size of a mango this week. But finding a mango this time of year is rough! So I ended up guesstimating an approximately similar sized autumn produce instead and came up with an acorn squash. We had our official 20 week ultrasound at the OB this week (a few days early). We were just as giddy to see our baby this week as we were the first time. Our ultrasound tech was really nice and pointed out all of the important parts (except the private ones because we still want to be surprised!). Apparently our baby is pretty entertaining, even to a professional like her, because she kept laughing and saying that we are going to have our hands full. Baby Bird was squirming like crazy! At one point he/she did a full somersault and switched positions entirely! Sounds like Baby Bird will someday be challenging Brian to a back-flip contest. Baby Bird also opened his/her mouth and one point stuck out his/her tongue! The mouth was actually opening and closing for a lot of the ultrasound... just like a baby bird! Our tech also thought it was pretty funny that our baby kept his/her legs straight and stretched up beyond the head. We have a flexible gymnast swimming around in my womb. This explains all that I've been feeling from our squirmy guppy. In fact, I felt the slightest little kick from the outside the other day. Now I've been trying like crazy to get Brian to feel it, but so far no luck. We told our ultrasound tech that we wanted to be surprised about the gender of our baby, so she told us that she would tell us to look away when she got to that "area". I guess our baby was so wiggly that even though she was careful to not show us, she didn't even get a good look. So, there is still no one in the world who knows what our baby is... except God :)

Baby is about the size of a mango and according the the ultrasound, weighs 10 oz. That's almost the weight of a can of soda! All in all, I am feeling really good and super happy. I am loving the little kick reminders that there is a baby growing inside me. This is my favorite time of year. And it feels like things are finally slowing down so I can enjoy this process! So happy! As for cravings, I still would rather have red meat over anything else. Also, salty foods are awesome. Particularly Pumpkin Seeds. I'm usually a big fan of chocolate, but now anything sweet makes me feel shaky and nauseous. Basically I'm the opposite of the stereotype of pregnant women eating lots of ice-cream. I had three peanut butter M&M's this morning and I'm still feeling icky this afternoon! So needless to say, I am VERY MUCH looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner this year! Especially the turkey and stuffing. Yum! Baby Bird is going on another adventure next week as we fly to Colorado to spend Thanksgiving with Brian's dad.

18 weeks

2011-11-10T09:40:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was easily in the top five favorite days of my life! Let me start from the beginning. We have a supporter who volunteers at a crisis pregnancy center called New Life Family Services. When we told her we were expecting, she mentioned that they were training several new ultrasound technicians and they needed pregnant "models". Not that I'm feeling particularly "model"-like these days, but I called and made an appointment because we couldn't wait to see our baby. Our "real" ultrasound is performed at our OB office next week. So we considered this a sneak preview! Brian and I had a little breakfast coffee date and we talked about how crazy it will be to see our baby and how real it will all become. We laughed and flirted and had fun. Even though the minutes seemed to drag on in anticipation, we finally arrived at the clinic for our appointment. As we waiting in the waiting room, we had a surprise! One of my favorite brides from last year was training in as an ultrasound tech! She was going to leave for the day, but when she saw my name on the schedule, she decided to stay. So fun! Talk about role reversal. I took precious pictures for her on one of her favorite days. And now she has returned the favor. We ended up with 13 perfect pictures of our guppy :)

Seeing our baby on the big screen was like nothing I could ever have imagined! I am so in love with Baby Bird! I was up every few hours last night (to pee and also drink water to "trick" my stomach into believing I wasn't really hungry, which only led to more peeing) and also looking at pictures of the baby while thanking God for such a miracle! I'm more emotional about it now than I was during the ultrasound. I've been feeling our little guppy squirming around for a few weeks now. Apparently, I was able to feel it earlier because of how my placenta is positioned? All I know is that our baby was definitely showing off for the camera with all sorts of fun dance moves. It was almost hard to get a good 3d shot of baby's face because he/she was moving so much. But we got to see ten tiny fingers on two little hands. How cool is that??? Baby also crossed his/her arms to tell us that he/she loves us already. Yeah, I'm a cheeseball. Brian and I couldn't be more proud. We were flying high all night long. And to think, next week we get to do it all again! Yay! Another reason why yesterday was so fun: we got to see the first pictures of our baby AND we got to see the first snowflakes of the winter! I was ecstatic! Nothing stuck, but just to see those big fat snowflakes falling was icing on the cake of an already perfect day.

And since I've already been asked a few times- No, we didn't find out the gender. And no, we won't find out next week either. It's funny because I was the kid who looked for my Christmas presents every year because I hated surprises, and now we are purposefully choosing to have the biggest surprise of our lives!

In other baby news, some friends of ours had been storing the cradle that me and my siblings used as babies in the basement. This week we went to retrieve it. It needs some TLC, so we are hoping to get it painted this week. I also got some fun yellow and grey fabrics to redo the bedding. That was my job today while Brian was deer hunting, but he just texted me that he got a deer this morning! He's happy. I don't know how much I like venison meat, but I know baby and I LOVE venison jerky! He says if baby is a boy, he's buying a tiny blaze orange fleece for hunting next year. And if it's a girl, she and mommy can have craft weekend while he's off doing the manly hunting and providing for his family haha.

Hard to believe we're almost half way done! Can't wait to meet you, Baby Bird!

17 weeks

2011-11-02T11:51:00.000-07:00

The big changed this week seem to be the size of my belly and my appetite! I think my bump grew like crazy in the past few days. Or at least it feels like it. I read that my uterus is now the size of a cantaloupe! My center of gravity has definitely shifted and I have been running into all the doorways in our apartment. I feel so clumsy! I'm also still quite forgetful. I feel lucky if I get to appointments on time or remember ingredients in recipe's I've made a million times. Speaking of food, something crazy happens to me after 6pm every night. I feel great all day and content to eat breakfast and lunch like a normal person. But after 6pm, I am ravenous! I need to have dinner AND a few snacks before we eventually go to bed! It's crazy! My biggest cravings continue to be red meat and sour fruits. According to the old wives' tales, this points to baby bird being a boy, but who knows! Brian has been making venison jerky in our apartment today and I had to leave because it was making me too hungry! So I am sitting at Starbucks enjoying my first gingerbread coffee in a red holiday cup. I am also listening to Christmas music. I think that baby bird is going to be a Christmas lover like his/her Mommy because I can feel him/her squirming around & dancing in my tummy.

This picture actually belongs with last week's post, but for some reason it got deleted? So here is baby birds first picture with Aunt Stacey!

16.5 weeks

2011-10-28T21:50:00.000-07:00

Busy week for Baby Bird and me! I'm a little late in the weekly updates. So this is the 16.5 week update. Mom was here this week. We scouted out the fall colors. We had lots of fun grabbing coffee and shopping. She helped me pick out my first pair of maternity jeans and a few maternity tops. She also got baby bird a little Mickey Mouse onesie in hopes that we visit CA next summer and take Baby Bird to Disneyland. Our little baby clothes & shoe collection have been slowly growing. Mom also bought me some orange Mums because I am going to be a Mom!

I had my first stranger ask when I was due. Granted, she was the cashier at Target where I was buying a maternity tank top, but I felt like I had gone through a preggo right of passage. My preggo brain is getting worse. I swear all my blood has left my brain to go to my uterus to grow the baby. This leave me without any brain capacity. As we were lying in bed the other night, I realized I forgot to turn off the oven. Five hours after dinner, poor Brian had to get out of bed and turn it off for me! Crazy Preggo Brain!

The best part about this week: Brian and Mom and I were watching the movie Tangled, when I started to realize that I was feeling something in my tummy. I felt weird saying it, but I told them that I think I was feeling the baby move! Turns out that now that I have recognized the little butterfly-like flutters in my tummy, I have been feeling them more and more! Now I find myself concentrating on my tummy every time I am sitting or laying still. That's when I feel it! And my heart soars!

15 weeks

2011-10-21T10:18:00.000-07:00

Week 15! Yay! This was a big week for Baby Bird. He/she is the length of a naval orange and has begun to develop reflexes. For instance, if we were to shine a flashlight on my tummy, Baby Bird could sense the light and swim away! If we push on my tummy, Baby Bird will squirm and move! Brian and I shot a wedding last weekend that had a live swing band. It was really fun. We didn't want Baby Bird to miss out on the fun, so we would gently push on my tummy and say, "Dance, baby, Dance!" Brian says if Baby Bird is a boy he wants to practice his quick reflexes in the womb so that he'll be a great Baseball player someday haha.

I was able to spend the afternoon with my 3 year old nephew and 5 year old niece this past week as well. Kids are so funny. I told my nephew that his baby cousin was living inside my tummy. He assured me that it wasn't his cousin, but just a baby. I told him it was his baby cousin. And he adamantly replied it was just a kid baby. He said the baby won't be his cousin until he/she is old enough to play with him haha. After reading a story to my niece about what some kids want to be when they grow up, I asked her what she wanted to be. She told me she wanted to be a baby carrier like me when she grows up! So cute!

We had a baby doctor appointment and got to hear the heartbeat again. This is quickly becoming my favorite sound in the whole wide world! Because my mom was in town, she was able to accompany me and hear her grandbaby for the first time. We made a little date of it and went to my favorite indoor cafe which is on the way to the Baby Doc office. The cafe in Bachman's is awesome because it looks like a little french cafe in the middle of a flower store! It's perfectly refreshing on a cold and dreary day. Plus they have the best quiche and almond croissants in the world!

If you listen to the end of the video, you hear the doctor say that the sound of the heartbeat was getting louder not because they turned up the volume on the doppler, but because Baby Bird swam up to see what all the fuss was about. I think we've already got an extrovert on our hands who heard the sweet (heart) beat and didn't want to miss the party!

14 weeks

2011-10-14T12:09:00.000-07:00

Baby Bird is the length of a lemon now. He/she is growing & developing so fast! It's been really fun to work our way through the produce section of the grocery store.

Hooray for second trimester! It really does seem that overnight I have gotten back to my regular self. I didn't realize how "off" I was feeling, until I started feeling more like me. I would describe my first trimester as "foggy". I was so sleepy and easily confused. And now the fog has lifted for the most part. Yay! I have actually cleaned our home AND cooked dinner every night this week! I even made chicken, which used to gross me out.

My mommy is here for a visit! This could be contributing to my boost in energy and motivation. We're such a team. I love that I cook dinner, and she does the dishes. We've been going for long walks every morning in the crisp fall weather, drinking (decaf) coffee and chatting about everything. We also had a traditional girls date with Stacey at Caribou Coffee where we played a game called Nurtz. We've been dreaming about Baby Bird and whether or not it's a boy or girl. And we've been talking about how the next time Mom comes to Minnesota for a visit, it will be April and she'll be days away from becoming a Grandma again! Wow!

13 weeks

2011-10-06T15:07:00.000-07:00

As I near the end of the first trimester, I am realizing that it's true what women have been saying, this IS going by even faster than I thought! How are we already done with 1/3 of the pregnancy? Wow! My guess is that it's about to speed up even more with the holidays approaching and the rumored fantastic second trimester. I've heard it called "the honeymoon season" of pregnancy. I'm praying that's true. Not that my first trimester was particularly rough. Especially in comparison to my dear friend, Katie. But it will be wonderful to feel more like ME again. I'll gladly leave this utter exhaustion and nausea behind! No more chewing on ginger root and daily three hour naps! No more gagging while brushing my teeth! No more getting excited at the thought of eating chicken and the feeling absolutely disgusted by it once it's on my plate! No more planning on cooking but then telling Brian he can just eat a Ramen Noodles because I can't get out of bed! Hopefully these are or will be things of the past soon!

Now that Baby Bird is public knowledge, I am loving the questions I get asked. People keep asking if we know what we are having yet. I'm barely showing at all! That means this kid's parts probably aren't showing yet either, haha. We've also been asked if this was planned by several people. This cracks me up. Baby Bird wasn't a surprise. We were a little surprised by how quickly the kid set up camp in my uterus, but even still, it was planned. If Baby Bird were a surprise, I'd probably feel so sad and irresponsible every time someone asked that. Oh silly questions. I've heard from other preggo friends that the questions they get asked are often hilarious or offensive. Guess that comes with the territory. Since I'm barely showing and more in that "chub-chub" phase, I am looking forward to a stranger asking me when I'm due. That's like my secret cue that I actually look like I'm having a baby and not that I've drank too many Pumpkin Spice Lattes from Starbucks (mmmmm...).

Cravings: Still red meat. Steak in particular. We ended up getting a mini Webber grill from Target the other week. The tiny kind that almost looks like it's a toy. It's perfect for a few steaks and some veggies wrapped in tin foil. Plus the weather has been PERFECT for grilling this week! We've already had steak once and I'm already craving a second! I've been told I could be craving red meat because of the iron. So when I want it bad, I'm totally going to use it as leverage for the Baby needing Iron! I am also not at all interested in Chocolate or any sugary things in fact. This is also weird.

As I said before, I'm in the chub-chub stage. This means that I don't look pregnant, but I don't look normal. This also means that I can't wear maternity clothes, but my normal clothes don't fit either. I've been keeping my eyes open at Goodwill for some maternity clothes as I'm sure I'll need them soon. I've picked up a few things. But I've pretty much been living in yoga pants, or dresses and leggings. My mom is coming this week for a few weeks and I'm so SOOOO excited to hang out with her! I'm sure we will do lots of coffee dates and shopping for me and Baby Bird! Since my parents moved to CA, they will only see preggo me twice before the baby comes. So I'm pretty much willing this bump to pop while she's here.

And I think that's that for this week. See ya in my second trimester!

12 Weeks

2011-09-29T16:52:00.000-07:00

Baby Bird is 12 weeks and the size of a large plum! Our little travel bug has now been to Minnesota (obviously), California, Iowa, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia (all from that crazy road-trip), and now Wisconsin and Illinois! All that since conception! Maybe we should slow down a bit. Last weekend I shot a wedding in Wisconsin and then we found out that a dear friend was staying in a hospital in Chicago, so we made the quick 1.5 hr detour on our way home to stop by and see her! Even though it was all totally worth it, I am beyond glad to say that I don't plan on getting in a car for a multi-hour road trip for the rest of my pregnancy!

I can't decide if it's because of the back-to-back weekend road trips, or the pregnancy, but my lower back has been ~~killing~~ KILLING me for the past two weeks. It's probably a result of both. Because of this, Brian has become the sweetest husband ever! A couple days ago, he went to his friends apartment across the hall from our place to watch a sports game (I don't even know what sport?). I threw myself a pity party and started to cry big, fat, irrationally hormonal pregnancy tears because I couldn't get comfortable in bed and my back was so sore. So Brian came back, had me take a warm bath, lit some scented candles and gave me the best back rub ever! It was quite sweet. I am definitely hoping that this back pain will go away soon and not last the next six months, but my guess is that it's here to stay and I need to learn how to deal with it. I bought a maternity swim suit so that I could swim at the gym all winter long. It's supposed to be better for joints?

Baby Birds big cravings this week: pickles! I feel like such a pregnancy cliche! Brian teases me about the three different kinds of pickles we have in the fridge. Baby Bird also loves red meat! Which is strange because I've always been a bigger fan of chicken. I keep telling Brian this is totally his miniature person in my belly because meat is his favorite food: no matter what kind! Maybe it's a boy?

According to Baby Center, "Your baby's fingers will soon begin to open and close, his/her toes will curl, his/her eye muscles will clench, and his/her mouth will make sucking movements. In fact, if you prod your abdomen, your baby will squirm in response, although you won't be able to feel it. His/her intestines, which have grown so fast that they protrude into the umbilical cord, will start to move into his abdominal cavity about now, and his kidneys will begin excreting urine into his bladder.
Meanwhile, nerve cells are multiplying rapidly, and in your baby's brain, synapses are forming furiously. From crown to rump, your baby-to-be is just over 2 inches long and weighs half an ounce."

11 Weeks

2011-09-22T18:21:00.000-07:00

Baby Bird is now 11 weeks old! This week had milestones. Our little travel bug made the 18 hour, all night drive to Atlanta and back for a good friends wedding. Brian was a groomsman, and I wasn't about to miss seeing him all handsome in his tux. So we drove in a 15 passenger van with 9 other people (all boys) down to Atlanta. We stayed there for about 30 hours, and then made the long drive back! Lets just say that the wedding was awesome, the drive was awful! I discovered that Sea Bands are amazing, McDonald's breakfast is not, and cold water and ice cubes are still my best friends. I think that Brian, me and baby bird are all still recovering from the hectic weekend. This has involved lots of napping for us both and nausea for me. I had my first morning sickness right of passage (puking) this week as well. I figured I would at some point and have honestly been surprised that it took me this long. The unfortunate part was that I ended up throwing out my back in the process which was already sore from the road trip. I spend yesterday hobbling around and sleeping even more than usual (three hour nap AND twelve hours at night). Tomorrow our little travel bug heads out on another adventure. This time, we are headed to Kenosha, WI to shoot the wedding of a good friend. I hope that all my rest has allowed my back to calm down enough for a busy weekend!

Another milestone that baby bird has reached is that we were able to hear the heartbeat! It was amazing! I mean, I knew there was a baby in there, but to be able to hear the heart beating??? Fantastic! It has made it so much more real. Brian recorded it, so there is a video at the end of the post. I have only listened to baby birds heart like a million times a day so far. I just love it. I love our little baby bird!!!! We are so thankful that the Lord is knitting our baby together in my womb.

Milestone number three... Brian and I have decided NOT to find out the gender of baby bird. In the words of a friend, "God has given us a gift. Why spoil the surprise?" Because of this, we have chosen one girls name and one boys name and we are 90-95% sure these names will not change! We're still keeping the names a secret for a bit... maybe even the whole time. But we are excited to say the least!

Milestone number four... the secret is out! While we told family and other Campus Outreach staff about baby bird, we were trying to keep the secret until we had heard the heartbeat. Now that we have, we're shouting our joy from the rooftops!!! We want everyone to know and share our joy that, Lord willing, we will have a baby in April 2012! Yay!

Baby bird is the size of a small lime! This is in length, not weight or roundness. According to Baby Center, "our baby, just over 1 1/2 inches long and about the size of a lime, is now almost fully formed. Her hands will soon open and close into fists, tiny tooth buds are beginning to appear under her gums, and some of her bones are beginning to harden. She's already busy kicking and stretching, and her tiny movements are so effortless they look like water ballet. These movements will become more frequent as her body grows and becomes more developed and functional. You won't feel your baby's acrobatics for another month or two — nor will you notice the hiccupping that may be happening now that her diaphragm is forming." Pretty neat, huh?

10 (and a half) Weeks!

2011-09-15T12:29:00.000-07:00

It's weekly photo time again! I "slept thru" the times that Brian and I had set up to take photos for a few days, so this is technically 10.5 weeks. I've been doing a lot of sleeping lately. I usually nap for an hour or two a day and am often in bed by 9pm! I've also been super busy with shooting weddings, family sessions and engagement sessions and then with editing them all! No wonder I'm one sleepy preggo! And it may seem strange to you Californian's to be wearing boots, a sweater and a scarf, but this morning it was 37 degrees when we were had breakfast at the Neighborhood Cafe with Stacey!

When we were having a little date at Starbucks this week, Brian told the baristas that we were expecting a baby and they were so happy for us they bought our drinks! I guess it pays to be a regular! (We can count this as baby birds second official gift haha). We also met with an old friend this week who, after Brian telling him about the baby, looked at me said he could tell. I decided to take that as a compliment. Although, I really don't think I'm that obvious yet.

We are leaving for Atlanta this evening. We are driving. 18 hours. In a 15 passenger van. Full of me and 8 boys! I hope they don't hate me for all the potty stops we'll need. I have packed a snack bag and ginger ale in case I get nauseous. It's been a few days since I've been too sick, so hopefully I can make it a few more!

What is that little black thing I'm holding in the photos? Well, apparently baby bird is now the size of a prune! I can't wait to get to the more fun bigger foods! Olives and prunes aren't exactly cute for a size comparison. According to Baby Center, "your baby has now completed the most critical portion of his development. This is the beginning of the so-called fetal period, a time when the tissues and organs in his body rapidly grow and mature. He's swallowing fluid and kicking up a storm. Vital organs — including his kidneys, intestines, brain, and liver — are in place and starting to function, though they'll continue to develop throughout your pregnancy. If you could take a peek inside your womb, you'd spot minute details, like tiny nails forming on fingers and toes (no more webbing) and peach-fuzz hair beginning to grow on tender skin. In other developments: Your baby's limbs can bend now. His hands are flexed at the wrist and meet over his heart, and his feet may be long enough to meet in front of his body. From crown to rump, he's about 1 1/4 inches long. In the coming weeks, your baby will again double in size — to nearly 3 inches."

Week 9

2011-09-07T12:49:00.000-07:00

Week 9 has come and so has the hint of a baby bump! While it still looks more like a beer belly, I'm so excited I'll take what I can get! Apparently our baby is the size of a green olive! According to Baby Center, our "new resident is nearly an inch long and weighs just a fraction of an ounce. The baby's essential body parts are accounted for, though they'll go through plenty of fine-tuning in the coming months. Other changes abound: Your baby's heart finishes dividing into four chambers, and the valves start to form — as do the tiny teeth. The embryonic "tail" is completely gone. Your baby's organs, muscles, and nerves are kicking into gear. The eyes are fully formed, but the eyelids are fused shut and won't open until 27 weeks. The baby has tiny earlobes, and the mouth, nose, and nostrils are more distinct."

What does that mean to me? I am so tired! So far I have avoided the horrible morning sickness, although I do get nauseous in the afternoons and evenings when I am too tired or hungry. What I haven't escaped is the exhaustion! This kiddo is zapping my energy! On Saturday, I went to Target to pick up envelopes for hubs. While sitting in the parking lot I figured I'd close my eyes for just a second in order to work up the energy needed to run this errand. I woke up an hour later rather confused! I took a nap in the Target parking lot!

While Autumn is just around the corner, this kiddo wants to get a jump start on the cozy cool weather by causing me to crave soup all the time! Baby Bird also doesn't seem to like Mexican food (much to hubs disappointment), eggs, and sometimes chicken. The kiddo sure loves salt though. Especially salty pretzels. They help with afternoon nausea. Especially when paired with ginger ale. Baby Bird and I decided that going to the Minnesota State Fair while pregnant is both awesome and awful. Awesome because we got to eat bites of everyone's food all day long so we never got nauseous! Awful because it was a long day with a lot of walking and no naps! Hubs made fun of me for trying to lay down on a bench for "just a couple seconds".

We are looking forward to hopefully hearing our baby's heartbeat next week! Next week we will also be taking Baby Bird to their third US State. So far we've been in Mn, Ca and next week we head to Atlanta for a friends wedding (technically this will stack up more than the third state as we will be driving from Mn to Ga). Baby Bird already loves to travel!

Week 5

2011-09-07T12:31:00.000-07:00

When we were in Santa Cruz, La (baby birds first traveling experience!), we decided to take the first of the weekly photos. Basically this is a "before" photo as I clearly haven't begun to show.

Baby Birds first present

2011-09-07T12:08:00.000-07:00

The first day that we were in CA, I just knew I couldn't hold the fun news in and that we HAD to tell my family. So as we were sitting down for lunch, Brian started asking my Dad all about his favorite hobby: Making Bread. After a couple questions, Brian said, "So, do you have any bread in the oven now?" To which my Dad replied that he didn't. Then I said, "Well, I have a bun in the oven!" My Dad got it right away, but it took my Mom and sister a second because they were kinda chatting at the moment I said it. Once they caught on, they were SO excited!

After we told my them about the "bun in the oven", Mom bought us some Tiny Toms for the baby! We love Toms and can't wait to see our kiddo walking around in these red shoes! We took a picture of Brian holding them because we were bursting with the news and wanted to tell his Mom and Tom before we got back to Mn. So we took a picture and emailed it to them. She screamed on the phone.

Big News!

2011-09-07T11:47:00.000-07:00

We're Pregnant! Two pink lines appeared on my half birthday, Aug 1, 2011! This was also the day that we left to visit mom and dad in California. We couldn't wait to tell them about the "bun in the oven".

When I took the test, I knew I wanted to surprise Brian so I made him accompany me to our favorite local coffee shop because I told him I had a gift for him. A few years back I found some cute baby shoes at Goodwill and knew they would come in handy at some point. I wrapped the pregnancy test and the baby shoes in a Toms flag and took a little video of him opening his "gift".