Our First Baby Items

Now that we know we are having a boy, we have gotten a few clothing items. It makes everything way more real...to me at least. My parents were in town the 4th of July weekend, spent some time around Colorado, and are back this weekend. When they got here they arrived with our first baby outfits as a gift.



One of my friends, Emily, from our gym is also pregnant, and is due about 4 weeks after me. She was absolutely certain in her mind that she was having a boy, so she went out and purchased a couple of boy items. Well, surprise, she is having a girl! She was sweet enough to pass on her boy items to me since she would not be using them.


I am also soooo excited about my diaper bag that we purchased as my birthday gift last week, and we are waiting for it to come in the mail. It is a Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bag. I had never heard of this brand before, but one of my co-workers is pregnant as well, and she told me about them. I got an amazing deal on mine, and it is the cutest thing ever! It looks more like a messenger bag, but it is silver with yellow accents on it, and it includes a changing pad and case for wipes. The straps also adjust to more like a backpack so it can be easily strapped onto the stroller. It kind of makes me laugh that I'm at the point in life where a diaper bag makes me want to jump up and down with excitement...haha :).

I held Jonathan captive at Babys R Us on Monday for about 2 hours trying to get our baby registry started. It was a little overwhelming when the registry people show you this HUGE list of all the stuff you "need." It's a miracle that any of us in this generation and the ones before us survived, because I know our parents didn't have all this stuff. My big task now is to pick out the bedding so that I can plan all the other stuff in the nursery around it. We did most of our registry, but I'll tweak it once I figure out bedding since I'm a super matchy matchy person. We're lucky enough to have nieces and nephews that are out of the crib stage, so we inherit a crib and changing table, and we are purchasing an armour from my sister-in-law, Amy. We are going to strip it, change the knobs, and make it match the crib. Once we move mid-August we will start setting up the baby's room...very exciting!

As for the pregnancy update, we're just truckin' along, and I'm getting bigger as expected :). I am 22 weeks and 3 days as of today. I can feel him move around much more often and more distinctively. He's also started to develop a little bit of a movement schedule. He is most active in the morning and late at night. I also feel a lot of jolts after meals. I hadn't felt him too much yesterday until I had a chocolate shake, and he went a little bit crazy. He obviously is an ice cream lover like his mom :). I was laying in bed last night after getting back from Sonic, and I saw my stomach start to get a little visible wave and then a huge jolt on the right side where I could SEE him kick from the outside...so neat! I felt bad, because Jonathan's at training this weekend for the National Guard and missed it. Not too big of a deal, though, because I know there's a lot more of it to come!!

It's a Boy!!!

Jonathan and I had the halfway point appointment yesterday where we got to find out the gender of the baby. I barely slept the night before, and I popped up earlier than I had to for our appointment from excitement. The ultrasound was so interesting, because you get to see the development of different sections of the brain, the four chambers of the heart, structures of the heart, valves, he has two kidneys, etc. It's amazing how much you can actually see on all that gray. The sonographer was even able to give us a close up of his nostrils and lips. Midway through the ultrasound I got extremely dizzy, nauseous, and ridiculously hot and had to ask to sit up. I guess I looked like I was losing color, and the sonographer said it's just from laying on my back for a long time and cutting off some blood supply from the weight of the growing belly. I always wondered what the big deal was about laying on your back after the fourth month until feeling like that yesterday. My blood pressure had dropped to 96/58 when the nurse took it. They gave me some time to recover, and then we were able to start over again. So, the very last part of the ultrasound is where you get to find out the gender. She scanned between the legs looking up and there was no mistaking that we are having a BOY! Now the real fun begins in planning for a little boy and preparing myself since I've hardly been around little boys in my life.

How far along: 21 weeks, 2 days
Total weight gain/loss: I pass on this one.
Maternity clothes: All the time, and they'll probably only need to go up in size.
Sleep: I've been sleeping pretty well. I'm usually most comfortable on my back, so it's taking me time to get used to sleeping on my side. I also tend to wake up really early and have a hard time going back to sleep.
Best moment this week: Jonathan is just now able to feel little kicks. He says they're still pretty faint, but he can feel them. A few days ago he put his ear to my stomach and could hear the movement of kicks as I felt them. Kind of weird!
Cravings: MILK...Jonathan calls me his baby cow.
Gender: BOY!
Labor Signs: None.
Belly Button in our out? In, but it's starting to morph.
What I miss: Venti Starbucks coffee drinks and other fancy summer drinks that either have too much caffeine or alcohol.
Weekly Wisdom: If you lay on your back too long after about 20 weeks, you have a good chance of either passing out and/or throwing up :).
Milestones: Finding out the gender, feeling kicks from the outside faintly, and getting scared/caught off guard from how the kicks feel from the inside (they're getting harder and will startle me!)

Jonathan's Back!

Today we have reached the 20 week and 4 day mark, and we are very excited for our appointment on Thursday where we get to find out if it is a boy or a girl. Jonathan is really hoping for a boy to carry on the Nichols name, but I am crossing my fingers for a girl. I have my niece Lydia on nightly prayer duty for a girl, because she is really wanting a girl cousin after having two brothers. I almost feel bad hoping really badly for something, because I don't want people to tell our little boy (if we have one) that mommy wanted something different :). I'll be happy either way, but girl clothes are sooo much cuter to me! I figure God gives you what you need, and we don't really know what we need until it happens all the time.

Jonathan is back from Special Forces Selection, and he made it so close to the end but got injured. Right now he's in the re-evaluation phase to figure out if he wants to go for it again or if he wants to pick a different job within the National Guard. He's been looking into flight school and a few other jobs. Right now we are getting ready to move into a new apartment, I'm trucking along at work, and Jonathan is figuring out next steps after completing Selection.

19 weeks

Today I have reached the 19 week mark...almost half way there!!! I wanted to post a picture for people who don't see me all the time :) I barely ever take pictures of myself, so it's a shocker for me even to see how much bigger I have gotten. I guess when you see yourself everyday you don't realize how much you have started to change. Once Jonathan gets back in town on June 26, he won't have seen me for 3 weeks, so I'm interested to see if he'll be surprised by how different I look from 17 weeks pregnant to 20 weeks.

Yesterday evening I had a little bit of a scare. Amy, Jayne (sisters-in-law), and I went to Tokyo Joe's, because I wanted sushi and they sell cooked sushi. While eating the shrimp roll, my tongue started to go numb and swell up, which has never happened before. I pride myself on having no allergies :). Luckily, some paramedics had pulled in to get some dinner, so one of them evaluated me for free while Amy went to the Walgreens next door to get Benadryl and check with the pharmacist if it was ok. I also called my obgyn to make sure everything would be ok with the baby. I had no idea whether or not having an allergic reaction would do anything to the baby. The doctor said benadryl was fine and to just stay away from shellfish until I could get allergy tests after pregnancy. I found it a little bit funny that I may have had a reaction to shellfish, because Jonathan has a raging allergy to shellfish that requires him to carry Epi pens. Now I'm carrying part of his DNA and I suddenly react to shellfish possibly. The doctor said a baby does not cause allergies, but I thought it was a funny coincidence!

Fun Pregnancy Survey

I tried a prenatal yoga video for the first time 2 days ago, and I realized I am not really a yoga person. Deep breathing and stretching just don't really turn my mind off or do anything for me. However, yesterday I got an amazing facial that Jonathan gave me as a gift before he left for Special Forces training since I've been having some breakout issues since getting pregnant. That was much more of a relaxer for me than yoga could ever be. The girl who did my facial is 23 weeks pregnant with her first baby, so it was fun to talk to her a little bit about what pregnant life will be like about a month from now. Amy (my sister-in-law for those who don't know) and I went to Gap Maternity yesterday also to make some exchanges, but of course I walked out with 4 new shirts. Overall, it was a great Saturday!!

I found this survey on a friends blog, and I thought it would be fun to do...

How far along: 18 weeks and 4 days
Total weight gain/loss: +14 poinds
Maternity clothes: I bought maternity pants at about 12 weeks and love them. They are so comfortable! I've been going in between maternity tops and nonmaternity, but most of my nonmaternity tops aren't fitting anymore.
Sleep: Great! The first 3 months I fell asleep at about 6 p.m. each night. Now, I'm on a normal sleep schedule like pre-pregnancy, but I fall asleep a lot easier.
Best moment this week: People commenting on how pregnant I am looking.
Movement: I had thought I started to feel it around 16 1/2 or 17 weeks, but the doctor said it's probably a little bit early. I'm not so sure, but I haven't felt much for about 2 days now.
Cravings: Watermelon and chicken fingers.
Gender: Unknown. Set to find out on July 1st.
Labor Signs: None.
Belly Button in our out? In.
What I miss: Being able to suck in my stomach to get between tight spots.
What am I looking forward to? Just about everything! I'm looking forward to finding out the gender and getting to feel those first big kicks.
Weekly Wisdom: Stretch those hamstrings and don't sit in one spot for too long to help with back pain.
Milestones: Making it out of the first trimester successfully after a kind of scary one, and upgrading to medium maternity shirts instead of small in preparation for the big stretch.

Getting this Blog Started!

I'm so excited to get this blog started, and I'm hoping that I can stay consistent about posting. We have a lot of exciting things going on right now that can be completely life changing. Jonathan is down at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina right now at Selection for the Special Forces with the Army. The Selection process lasts for 3 weeks, and he just left on Saturday June 5th. It's a lot of physical tests, rucking around the woods with 70 pounds on your back, land navigation in the pitch black night, obstacle courses, and academic tests while totally sleep deprived. So overall it sounds like a blast!! We're not able to talk at all since they took away his phone, so I'm just praying for him every day that he's doing well and doesn't get injured. He's been working sooo hard for this and has gotten himself into amazing shape.
Another update in our lives is that we are having a baby! I'm 18 weeks and 1 day pregnant right now, and the baby is due around November 10, 2010. Jonathan is hoping this due date sticks since that is the Marine Corp birthday :). We have our 20-week appointment (which will be my 21-week mark) on July 1st where we get to find out if it is a boy or a girl. I would put an ultrasound picture up with this post, but our last one was a month ago, so I'll hold off until the next appointment. I just started to feel the baby move with little flutters about a week ago, so it is all starting to become more real now.
So, those are the major things right now, and we'll keep everyone updated on how Jonathan does at Selection and baby progress.