TheBabyHarveyGame!

Come on over and play:

http://www.expectnet.com/games/TheBabyHarveyGame

Maybe I will have a prize for the winner...wait, I know... we will name our child after the winner. Ok, probably not that but will you play anyway?

Thank you Anne for the fun idea! :)

158 bpm

a heartbeat. the undeniable signal of life. a beautiful miracle!

today, we go to hear our sweet babe's heart beating fiercely a mile a minute! it was going 158 beats/minute! (which matt made sure was totally normal by asking our doc what "normal" is)

i can't quite explain it, but i will try. this ride called pregnancy has been a series of stages-both mental and physical.

first, i saw the POSITIVE on the stick i just peed on and could hardly believe it was true! it really did take a few days for the thought alone to sink in.

over the next few weeks, i convinced myself to believe i was actually pregnant. (and the ridiculously sore boobs for weeeeeeks on end helped me believe it.)

then after what seemed like an eternity, we finally get to go to the doctor for an ulrasound at 9 weeks! this was unreal to actually SEE with our own eyes a tiny human inside me. we also got to see the heartbeat...which was a little flicker on the screen going really fast! i cried.

and now today...4 weeks later and back at the doc (13 weeks now), we got to hear the heartbeat for the first time. incredible. we knew it was beating all along and we know we are growing a baby, but something about that audible reminder of life in there was absolutely amazing! at that moment, i felt a connection to this little being, and i felt like i can't wait to meet him or her.

we also got to meet our OB today, dr. goldstein. I love my nurse practitioner, but was very excited and anxious to meet our doc today! he came by great recommendation by my friend joy olson, and now i see why. he delivered baby olson by chance because he was on-call and joy said he was amazing...especially because their little guy had a tough entrance into the world. dr. goldstein is older and has probably delivered a bazillion babies! he was so nice and caring and made us feel like he had all the time in the world for us. thank you so much joy for having titus when you did so dr. G could be our guy, too! :)

oh yeah, and somewhere in that time frame above, my pants started getting tight and uncomfortable. but somehow i lost one pound in the last 4 weeks? weird.

that's all for now!

i gotta quit

i gotta quit watching reality tv.

ok, the only reality tv i watch is the bachelor/bachelorette. but this is getting ridiculous! i don't know what it is about that show that draws me in. maybe i find something enjoyable about watching strangers falling in love with each other in a matter of weeks in exotic places.

i just get too wrapped up in it, and i get all emotional! (no, i know what you're thinking. not because i am pregnant. i was extremely emotional last season of the bachelor and i was not pregnant then!) i am a little sensitive about the emotional thing, considering the other day i cried in the car at a country song i have heard a thousand times. oh brother. but that's another story.

you see, i am a little fired up tonight (hence the blogging) after the finale of the bachelorette because i reeeeally liked the guy who didn't win the girl in the end. i liked him all along (from SD too!) and it came down to him and one other guy (who was also cool) but i just liked the one who didn't win more. so i turn off the tv shocked and bummed and a little mad, because i have been waiting in suspense all week to see who she picked-hoping she picked the 'right' one. as if i know who the right person is for her? hardly.

why am i so upset? i am already married to my best friend and don't have to live her life. and she is totally happy! gosh, the whole thing is just stupid how wrapped up i get, hence back to my point: i think i need to quit watching the show. we will have to see who the next Bachelor is for the next season. i have a feeling i am not going to be able to quit the show.

i suppose there are worse things. maybe i should just get a hold on myself and my emotions.

12 weeks!

i am officially done with my first trimester.

nuts!

some days, i feel like i am showing more than others. it is kinda weird! but don't worry, according to babycenter.com i should be noticing my "waist thickening."

lovely.

and they say "you may be showing already, especially if it is your second baby." oops. first baby. oh well...bring on the baby bump early!

here is my 12 week photo. (i only made matt take about 7 and this is as good as it gets)



can you see the bump? trust me, it's there. and i can't suck it in anymore!

delaying gratification?

how do people wait 40 weeks in order to be surprised at birth with a boy or a girl?

that amazes me.

good thing we are having a baby in this day and age with all this technology, because we are dying to know what we are having. it's a good thing matt is the same way. we can't even wait until 20 weeks like normal people, to find out from our doctor! so following the footsteps of several of our friends, we are going to try to find out with an extra ultrasound as early as we can, between 13 and 14 weeks! (provided of course that baby is not being shy and cooperates by showing the goods.)

i think it is cool when people wait until birth, but i also think the surprise of finding out when we do will be just as sweet.

i'm kinda bad at delaying gratification. i'm also kinda bad at surprises. drives me nuts!

sneak preview

I told you I took "before" pictures of my new classroom. It is still a work in progress, but I hope by the end of next week it will be done and ready for September! (I plan to go in for a couple hours here and there...don't worry, I won't be working all next week.)

Here is a sneak preview for you of the mess I had on my hands:



and because this is a nice bulletin board (not faded at all), it was so nice of the previous teacher to not take it down. euw.


of course i care about fairness.caring.trustworthiness.respect... but that hot mess went straight in the garbage can!

I will post the rest 'before/after' style and can't wait to share my new digs when it's done!

keeping it real

since this blog is called, "a day in the life" i thought i should capture some happenings around here.

buddy finishing off the jar of peanut butter while we are laughing at how determined he is. aaaand how his lips curl up bearing teeth when he is licking. not to mention the foaming of the mouth.




zoe letting matt stack all her babies on top of her back

matt snuggling with his leading lady



i mean really, what would we do without our dogs?

matt's new murse

for those of you unfamiliar with the term, let me define it for you.

murse = man purse

if you know my husband at all, you would know that he is never thrilled to hold my purse for me. i need him to hold my purse for a variety of reasons at various times and locations. he complies begrudgingly, but usually holds it far away from his body and is thrusting it back at me, before i am actually ready to have it back. thank you. geeesh! i usually say "cute murse" as he is holding it, which probably doesn't help.

today, between the hours of 8am and 7pm (nice short window there) UPS was bringing matthew a new toy. he was prepared to wait all day for the man in brown, because his package required a signature and he wasn't about to let the man walk away from our door still carrying his package. thankfully for matt, they came mid morning and he didn't have to wait until 6:55pm.

matt was sooOooOo excited to show me his new toy AND the "carrying case" it came with. I told him his "carrying case" closely resembled a murse. but did he care? nope! because that murse had a brand new range finder inside. he immediately trotted off to the golf course with his murse over his shoulder to go show off, ahem...try out....his range finder.

maybe i'll put his range finder in my purse next time i want him to willingly take on the task of holding it.

look how excited he is!

transformation

a massive transformation is what i need in my new classroom. i wish they had an extreme makeover-classroom edition. They should have that! i would totally sign up.

it was a complete disaster as of this morning, combining my stuff just plopped in the room everywhere and all the left behind crap (not so thrilled about that). now it is just a minor disaster, thanks to an entire morning devoted to cleaning, getting trash/old nasty furniture out, bookshelves moved, and my furniture set up. The beginnings of how i want my new room is taking shape nicely! matt came with me, to move all the heavy stuff and i i finally got vision of the set-up that utilizes my space the best. as much as moving rooms sucks, it is a good way to get a fresh start and purge crap you've been holding onto for years and not using!

don't worry, i took before pictures. and i can't wait until i am done and can take after pictures!!

...lil peanut...

There were two things I personally wanted to accomplish before having kids: 1.) finish grad school with a MA, and 2.) run a marathon.

It's a darn good thing I ran the marathon this year, because we've got a peanut on board! Yep, that's right...take a look for yourself :)



We decided to start trying after our anniversary this year, and were pleasantly surprised with how soon it happened (and a little shocked and in disbelief for a while!) It was so surreal and hard to comprehend at first! I took 3 tests just to make sure the first one wasn't lying :)

The day before the marathon (May 30) I woke up at 5am and knew I wanted to take a test. It was a few days before I was actually supposed to miss my period, but I was just too curious and felt like I might be (ie. sore boobs for 2 weeks-what?!) So....5am, I wake up, and go pee on a stick.

Matt is soundly sleeping in bed. In the next room over, I anxiously await the little blinking hour glass trying to look away and not stare at it. When it read PREGNANT and there was no 'NOT' in front of it, my heart started beating sooOoooOoo fast! I couldn't believe it, i wasn't sure I did believe it!

Nonetheless, I went straight back to get in bed with wide eyes and a pounding heart! Matt stirred and I quickly said "hi!" and he groggily answered "hi babe." I said "are you going back to sleep?" (as if he wasn't clearly still sleeping to begin with) and he said "yeah, I am tired...are you okay?" to which I quickly replied, "yah. I'm great. but I don't think I can go back to sleep!" Then I just blurted out "I'm pregnant!" It was adios to all the cute ways I had previously thought about telling him when the time came. It was 5 o'clock in the morning, and I certainly wasn't able to wait for him to go back to sleep for a couple hours! He flipped over, opened his eyes, looked at me and said "really?!" Then, he said "Yes! My boys can swim!" That's my baby daddy right there. We shared some time of excitement and almost disbelief and then more excitement!

The whole time I was running the marathon the next day, I was thinking to myself, "dang, I'm awesome. I can't believe I am doing this pregnant!" (haha) and "I get to tell my kid that they ran a marathon with me in the womb!" :)

the same verdict :)



daddy to be


me


It was so hard to hang out with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law all day at the expo and not tell them! We just wanted to confirm it, and believe it ourselves before telling everyone!


we got this cute idea from our friends, dust and kimmie, to have our four-legged kids help us with the announcement to our families! Bud and Zoe were champs for sporting the BIG BROTHER and BIG SISTER t-shirts I made for them (even though they hated every minute of it).




Both our families could not be more excited! I am almost 10 weeks, and I am due February 4th! I will keep you posted with info and photo documentation of me expanding as the babe grows :)

oh blog, how i have neglected you recently.

it's funny because i really thought i'd post more in the summer because i have more time. i have gotten so far behind now, it takes some serious energy and time investment to get caught up. and, boy do we have a lot of things to share! lots going on lately! if you read my blog, just wanted to let you know i still remember the URL address and will get all caught up very soon!

promise.

hope everyone had a great 4th of july!

like a glove

i was so proud of my parallel park job, i had to bust out my phone and take a picture so i could remember it always. and i'd be lying if i said i didn't also fully plan to brag to matt about it with photo evidence. i got in the spot the first try. both cars were still there when i was ready to leave and that was a different story. it took about 78 point turns to get out. for your viewing pleasure: