pregnancy week 7!

still feeling great, with the exception of some occasional queasiness and a little worn down.  and my work out at the gym was particularly hard the other night.  i still feel pretty normal, but i had a couple of days where i felt like i was non-stop eating and couldn't satisfy my hunger.

i still have not gained any weight, although the bloat is no joke.  i feel so bloated!!!!  i haven't been sleeping well at night, don't know why, but that is annoying and makes me extra tired during the day.  i have been catching little naps when bowie goes down.  it is nice to get cuddled up under the blankets with my dog and take a rest.  i feel guilty not being more productive, but growing a tiny human is hard work!  the dreary rainy weather also makes it easy to wanna be lazy!

this week i also had my first doctors appointment.  my doctor was excited as she walked through the door and said "well that didn't take long."  my due date is june 30, 2018 and the baby had a strong heart beat of 154 bpm.  you can imagine what a relief that was to me.  for the few days before my appointment i would get this tight chested anxious feeling come and go throughout the day, and i realized that i was really nervous for my appointment.  because of our recent loss, the doctor will have me take a couple extra precautions.  i will start taking 1 baby aspirin daily to thin my blood (to prevent clotting) and i will take progesterone as well until my placenta takes over.  i should be able to stop both of these right around my 2nd trimester.

here is a picture of our little gummy bear...i was shocked at how this really looks like a little person with arms and legs and a spinal column.  i have had a lot of ultrasounds and at this early in the game i feel like the baby looks more like a bean a little blob.  but seeing these pics made it really sink in that i am pregnant.

we left feeling very happy, excited and encouraged.  we plan on telling family around christmas time.  i will be 13 weeks along at that point and our next appointment will be right before then, so hopefully everything will continue to remain on track and healthy!  grow baby grow!!!

week 7 milestones:

~baby is the size of a blueberry
~brain is growing fast
~head is much larger than body
~baby's organs are forming and a tiny digestive system is beginning to link up with mouth
~cartilage is beginning to create arm and leg buds

here we go again...pregnancy weeks 4-6!

i have been feeling so hormonal lately, like raging!  i can get bad PMS, but nothing like this.  i decided to take a pregnancy test and i haven't missed my period yet, but i thought i would take one anyways.  to my surprise (more like shock) a very faint line came up.  i immediately texted jarad and sent him a pic to see if he could see it too.  i hadn't gotten my new glasses at this point, so i thought maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me, but he saw it too.  so for the next week i took a new test everyday and they continued to get darker and darker!

and then eventually the test line would pop up before the control line and was darker than the control line, at this point, it started to sink in that i am pregnant...again!  in fact this will be my 5th pregnancy!

it feels like not that long ago that we had to deal with our miscarriage.  my head was very practical about it, but it took a lot longer for my heart to heal.  in fact, longer than i thought or expected, and i don't know if it ever will.  it was our 3rd miscarriage, but our first after bowie.  my 2 previous miscarriages were very early on, but this one was different and undetected which really made for a mind game.  i was days away from being out of my 1st trimester when we got the sad news, so we both took it pretty hard.

having just recently dealt with that, you can imagine how reluctant we are to get overly excited as well as spill the beans to anyone.  this will be particularly hard since the holidays are coming up and we will be seeing family.  but i hope everyone can understand how we would feel hesitant to share.  we want to have a couple of doctors appointments first and probably get through our first trimester.  this will be around christmas time, so it may make for a great surprise!

aside from all those mixed emotions, i am feeling good, just raging hormones!  i don't have any pregnancy symptoms yet, feeling pretty normal these days.  as i have done before, i will continue with my weekly updates and start belly pics!

week 6 milestones:

~baby has a 2 chambered heart
~heart starts beating after day 21 of conception
~spinal cord is forming
~growing a thin layer of skin
~baby is the size of a grain of rice

dinner party!

made some good ole comfort food for dinner tonight, but made it with a twist.  pot roast (my sisters way), smashed potatoes, turmeric

roasted carrots and green beans with almonds.

here is how i did the pot roast:

~trim fat and sear meat (flavor with S&P)
~dice and brown onion
~add packet of liptons onion soup mix
~add 2/3 -3/4 of a bottle of red wine
~2 bay leaves
~sprig of rosemary
~3 whole garlic cloves

i cooked at 300 for 4-5 hours, until meat was falling apart.  then i took my emersion blender and blended the gravy together with some wondra flour (removing the rosemary and bay leaves first)

and thanks to my mom for the pretty place mats and napkins!

testy chef...

we have enjoyed having jarad home all week as we wrap up this holiday season!  and today we checked one off of our to do list and tried a local favorite restaurant "the testy chef."  it is a tiny place open for breakfast and lunch and is a local favorite.  we weren't impressed with their food and most likely won't be back, but it was fun to get out as a family and try something new. 

happy new year!!!

From our (growing) family to yours,

Wishing you happiness, health, and success in 2018!!!

With Love,

Erin, Jarad, Bowie, Wilfred (& baby boy due late June 2018!!!)

 

 

merry christmas!

this is a christmas that will be hard to beat!  lots of family to celebrate, white christmas, bowie was so excited over the presents, it was our 1st christmas in our home, we didn't have to travel and we got to share the news about our baby boy!  we sure did miss jamie and ryan, and i get emotional at the thought of holidays being hard to plan to be all together with us being in washington, but we will take this one year at a time! 

unfortunately my mom came down with the stomach flu the day after they arrived but luckily she was a 24 hour bug and no one else got it.  but we all did get a nasty cold.  it was so special to watch my baby cousins bond with their baby cousin!  having all 8 of us together around our dinning room table was something i will cherish forever!  it means the world to me that my family traveled to be with us!  here are some of the many memories made over that week!  and be sure to watch the video of our white christmas, even wilfred enjoyed it!

christmas eve!

the family is here and some of them went out sight seeing during the day.  they got home just in time for some snow!  we were going to head down the hill and take a tour of jarad's office, but with more snow expected i think we will be in for the night.  hoping this is the start of a "white christmas."