10 Great Things About Being Pregnant

I stumbled across the blog Pregnant Chicken a few months ago, and the author CRACKS me right up!  I love reading her posts.  One of her most recent entries was called 10 Great Things About Being Pregnant.  Chris and I both laughed out loud when we read it.  I agree with just about everything she said, too!  I think my favorite is that you "don't have to suck it in". :)  Also, Chris couldn't get over how friendly people were to us when we were in Jamaica.  It is totally true that for some reason people love a pregnant lady, and they are totally friendlier and think you are cute when you have a bump.  

To prove that point, here is a conversation I had with a random lady in our hotel lobby in Jamaica:
Random lady:  Oh!  Hello!  I saw you and your husband on the beach.  You two are just so cute.  Is this your first?
Me:  Yes, it's our first.  We are very excited!
Random lady:  Oh my gosh that is just so cute.  How far along are you?
Me:  Almost 7 months.
Random lady:  Oh!!  That's so great!  What's your name?
Me:  Amanda.
Random lady:  Awwwwwwwww!  So cute!

Me: ?!?!?!?!?!?!

Haha so odd, but people think a baby bump is adorable.  And apparently your name is also adorable when you're pregnant???  I guess I better soak it up now because I bet moms of rambunctious toddlers are not always found so "cute". ;)

You can check out her whole list of great things about being pregnant here:

http://www.pregnantchicken.com/2011/7/1/10-great-things-about-being-pregnant.html

28 Weeks

We are back in the mitten after a great trip to Jamaica!  It was exactly what Chris and I were hoping for...lots of sunshine, relaxing, and time together.  This is a picture of me (and baby) :) on the beach in front of our hotel.  I'm 27 weeks in the picture.  

Now that we're home it's go time on the nursery and getting ready for baby!  He will be here in 11 short weeks (or less!).  This pregnancy is flying by!

• How far along?  28 weeks - hello 3rd trimester!
• Baby size:  Baby is the size of a head of cauliflower. We just had some testing done at Beaumont on Wednesday and the technician said measurements found that baby is 2 3/4 pounds, and around 14 inches long.  That seems so long to me!  How does he fit in there?!
• Maternity clothes?  Oh yes.  I am starting to want to buy regular clothes when I'm shopping.  I keep thinking, "I could just buy this for 3 or 4 months from now..."  
• Stretch marks?  Still none!
• Sleep:  The baby is moving a lot when I am trying to fall asleep, and sometimes even wakes me up when I'm actually sleeping!  I can't say I mind though - his little kicks are so cute. :)
• Best moment this week:  There have been lots of great moments, so it's hard to pick just one!  Our whole trip to Jamaica was fantastic.  We had a 4D ultrasound on Monday that was AMAZING!  Also, the baby's furniture arrived today, so that was super exciting!!
• Miss anything?  Being able to walk a short distance or bend over to pick something up without getting winded. :)
• Movement:  Yes!  It is becoming stronger and stronger.  Also, baby had the hiccups for the first time the other night!  So crazy.
• Food cravings:  Mexican food and lemonade.  Oh, and fruits and veggies.  (<-- Who am I?!)
• Anything making you queasy or sick:  Nope.
• Gender:  Sweet baby boy!!  Both ultrasounds this week confirmed it!
• Labor signs:  No!
• Symptoms:  Back and feet are super sore, and I am pretty sleepy all the time!  Also, the amount of times I am going to the bathroom each day is seriously unbelievable.  It's like every hour!!
• Belly button in or out?  It's popping out slowly but surely...noooo!
• Wedding rings on or off?  On.
• Happy or moody most of the time?  Happy!
• Looking forward to:  Organizing the baby's room now that all the furniture has arrived!  
• Diabetes update:  My A1C was 6.2 at my last appointment!  A few points up from last time, but still in a great range.  We also got some good news at Beaumont on Wednesday that the baby's heart looks healthy and normal!  Fetal Echos are prescribed for diabetics because heart defects are one of the most common birth defects associated with diabetes. We had a bit of a scare a while back at our first Fetal Echo when they found some abnormal measurements.  We were told not to worry, though, and that they would recheck in 6 weeks.  Thankfully our prayers were answered and everything looked normal at this last appointment! 

Here are some of the pics from our 4D ultrasound this week!  It was the coolest thing.  It made me even more excited to meet our little guy.  He is so darn cute already!

This is how baby was positioned for the first 10 minutes of the ultrasound...hand AND foot in front of his face!  We were worried we might not see him at all!  

Finally he decided to move and be photogenic for us. :)

The hand still made it's way into a lot of the pictures, though.  I think it's so cute that he sleeps like this!

Life is tiring in the womb!

My favorite picture - I love this adorable smile.  Can't WAIT to see it in person!!!

25 Weeks

Here I am at 25 weeks. 

It's been a while since I posted, but there hasn't been too much to say (which is a good thing!).  :)  Everything seems to be progressing normally with Baby Wallbank! 

• How far along?  25 weeks 
• Baby size:  Rutabaga (what?!).  In case you were wondering - like I was - how big a rutabaga is, it is 13 and a half inches long and about a pound and a half.
• Maternity clothes?  Yes!  Just got a box of goodies in the mail this week that I am excited to try on.  It is oozing with spring colors...I am so ready for warm weather!
• Stretch marks?  None - yay!
• Sleep:  I've been tossing and turning quite a bit.  Between that and having to go the bathroom several times in the night, it doesn't make for the best night's sleep.  I am pretty tired most days.  I guess the baby wants to try to give me a little taste of what's to come... :)
• Best moment this week:  I got my hair done and finally decided to go ahead with regular all over color.  I have been doing glazes to keep things safe for baby, but I am only a few weeks away from my 3rd trimester and have read it is totally safe, so I went for it.  I am so glad I did.  I was rocking an ombre color - without meaning to!!  Now we are back to good old all over dark brown.
• Miss anything?  Not really!  
• Movement:  Lots and LOTS of movement.  So cool. :)
• Food cravings:  Chicken quesadillas and anything salty.  
• Anything making you queasy or sick:  No.
• Gender:  Boy!
• Labor signs:  No, but Andrea let me feel her stomach while she was having a contraction the other day.  So crazy!
• Symptoms:  Back is sore and I'm getting hungrier by the day. :)
• Belly button in or out?  It's pretty much flat.  I hope it doesn't pop out!  Yikes!
• Wedding rings on or off?  On.
• Happy or moody most of the time?  Happy!
• Looking forward to:  Our "Babymoon" trip in ONE WEEK!  Jamaica here we come!!!
• Diabetes update:  I can't believe how much insulin I need!  I feel like I am changing my pump every other day.  Things are still going really well with my blood sugars, although my thyroid continues to be a problem.  I think it is definitely contributing to my constant sleepiness!  I go see my endocrinologist next week, so we'll see what he says.

Hope everyone has a GREAT weekend!!

21 Weeks

 Time is flying by!  We are more than half way through the pregnancy, and baby boy will be here in a little over 4 months!!! 

Here I am at 21 weeks. The bump is growing quickly!!

21 Weeks

This past week I celebrated my 28th birthday.  It was a great day...one of the best yet!  I have a feeling 29 will be even more special though! ;)

I celebrated with my family on my actual birthday.  We also celebrated my sister Jodi's birthday.  My mom made a delicious dinner - stuffed lobster, steak, cheesy potatoes, veggies, and GERMAN CHOCOLATE CAKE. :) Jodi and my fave!  We were all quite stuffed!!  Thanks Mom for all your hard work. <3  Here are some pics from the party with my wonderful family!

Andrea at 7 months pregnant and me at 5 months pregnant!

Yum! :)

Check out this awesome cake!

Cake time

Some pretty cute party guests!

In addition to all that birthday fun, my hubby planned the most awesome surprise for me.  I am a pretty tough person to surprise, but he managed it!  With the help of his trusty party planners, Molly and Lynsey, they planned an awesome birthday dinner for me.  It was such a fun night!  Thank you to everyone who was able to be there to celebrate...and everyone who was there in spirit! :)

Surprise!!!

Thank you so much for all your work making the night so special girls!

Such a fun night with all of you! <3

Ok, on to the weekly stats...

• How far along?  21 weeks
• Baby size:  Length of a carrot (seems so long!)
• Total weight gain:  A lot...we'll leave it at that :)
• Maternity clothes?  Mostly maternity tops and bottoms!  I've ordered a few things for our spring break trip from Old Navy and was pleasantly surprised!  They have some really cute basic dresses that'll be perfect for the beach. 
• Stretch marks?  So far so good.  Still using all my trusty stretch mark creams!
• Sleep:  Like a baby.
• Best moment this week:  So many wonderful moments!  All the birthday fun and surprises were so great.  I was really overwhelmed with love!
• Miss anything?  We were enjoying some delicious cupcakes from Lynsey at the birthday party last night, and everyone's wine was looking very yummy with the dessert.
• Movement:  Baby boy is doing karate in there!  He is moving ALL the time.  I love it! 
• Food cravings:  Still loving fruit.  And basically just food in general. :)
• Anything making you queasy or sick:  No.
• Gender:  Baby boy!!  We need to start thinking about names soon!
• Labor signs:  Yikes!  No.
• Symptoms:  My back is still sore, I am peeing every 20 minutes, and I'm pretty starving all the time.  But I can't complain - I am still feeling pretty good!
• Belly button in or out?  In but it looks really weird.  Old belly button piercings sure don't look as "cute" with a baby bump. ;)
• Wedding rings on or off?  On.
• Happy or moody most of the time?  Happy!
• Looking forward to:  Some exciting things the Wallbanks have in the works right now!  Hopefully I'll be posting some more good news soon!!!! :)
• Diabetes update:  I went to see my endocrinologist last week.  I just love my doctor and his nurse practitioner!  I've had a great experience at their office.  And my A1C was down to a 5.8!  5.8 people!!! I have never been so low!  My goal was 6.0, so I exceeded that - yay!  Not to toot my own horn, but I am pretty proud of myself! ;)  All the hard work will be so worth it when baby is born healthy and perfect!!

Cribs, Bottles, and Strollers - Oh My!

This week has been busy but lots of fun!  It was mid-winter break and I had a few days off of school, so  I spent a lot of time in baby stores or shopping online at baby websites. :)  It was a bit overwhelming at first, but I think we are finally getting a handle on things!  

Chris and I decided to register at Buy Buy Baby for the typical baby necessities like a stroller, car seat, bottles, Pack and Play, etc.  The first time we stepped in the store, we must have looked like the stereotype of first time parents to a T; we both just stood completely still in the entryway looking around slowly at all the STUFF.  Holy cow.  It's a lot of stuff!!!  We didn't realize how much stuff a little tiny baby needs!  I did a lot of registering online because we were just totally overwhelmed in the store.  I loved being able to Google things, or read reviews on Amazon, or check out what my favorite bloggers had to say about different brands.  I even solicited help from some of my Facebook friends for some items.  I would highly recommend doing some of your registering online to have all those resources at your fingertips!  

In case any of my friends reading this need to register anytime soon :), here are some sites I found helpful:

• www.lucieslist.com  (Thanks to my friend Jill for passing this along!  The mom on this site reviews all kinds of baby gear and is very helpful.)
• www.babygizmo.com (This site does lots of reviews on strollers and other big ticket items.)
• http://www.mamaneedssushi.com/2012/01/registry-posts-i-found-helpful.html  (This blog lists links to several other blogs that are all about registering!)
• www.youtube.com (I have watched more tutorials on how to operate strollers than I would like to admit.  YouTube has been my best friend - you can see reviews on practically every baby product on there!)

I am planning to take one more trip down to Buy Buy Baby in the coming weeks with my trusty mom advisors (my mom, Abbie, and Andrea) to help me with any last items we need to register for.  I am sure I have forgotten a few things!!

We are also planning to register at Pottery Barn Baby.  They have the cutest bedding and furniture!  It is a bit pricy, but we are hoping to use the same furniture for all seven of our future kids.  Just kidding. ;)  But really, we hope to continue to use the crib and changing table with any future Wallbanks after this one!  

Once we found out we were having a boy, I immediately started Pinterest-ing nurseries.  I found some adorable nautical themed nurseries and thought that would be perfect for Baby Wallbank!  Chris used to sail growing up, and I think boats and nautical themes are so cute for a little boy.   Here is some of the inspiration I found for the nautical theme:

I love the baby blue walls and navy curtains.

This is the bedding I like from Pottery Barn Baby.  The navy would tie into the navy curtains.  The sheet has little navy blue stars on it - my favorite!

The bumper and quilt. 

There are tons of cute nautical things on Etsy like this little shelf.

Chris liked the nautical theme, and so I thought we were good to go.  Nursery was planned!  Then, I went to Pottery Barn Kids with my mom at Somerset this weekend.  I was showing her all the bedding I picked out, and she loved it all.  But then I saw this adorable little set on one of the cribs in the store and fell in love.  I have no idea why - I don't necessarily love lambs, but it was just calling my name!  

This is the way they show the room with the lamb bedding.

Here is a close up of the bedding.  It's called "Sweet Lambie".  Isn't that adorable?!

I love this little lamb rocker!!  They have a stuffed lamb that the baby can use as a chair, too.
So cute!

Here is some more of the Sweet Lambie collection.

There aren't quite as many cute things on Etsy with the lamb theme, but there are definitely some!

Chris is being so sweet, and he keeps saying he likes both ideas for the nursery so we can go with whichever one I like. :)  But I can't decide!!  I always pictured the nursery to be either pink for a girl, or blue for a boy.  I wasn't expecting to like this neutral colored set.  

If you're reading this, I need your help!  Which nursery theme do you like?  Baby blue nautical nursery, or neutral lamb nursery?  I'd love for you to comment and help me decide!!!!

Thanks for reading everyone. I'll post a belly picture again soon - Baby Wallbank is growing fast!!

What an Eventful Week!

It has been such a special week!  First, we found out what we are having at our ultrasound on Monday!!  Baby Wallbank is a...

BOY!!!

We are so excited!!  I have to admit, I was very surprised when the ultrasound tech said it was a boy.  I think it was mainly because everyone and anyone I knew said we were having a girl!  People who swore they are never wrong on their predictions were all saying girl.  I almost wanted to ask the tech, "Are you sure?!  Because everyone I know says we are having a girl." :)  

Both Chris and I are thrilled about the news.  I've had a few friends ask if I was disappointed, or if I was hoping for a girl.  It is no secret that I am a girly girl, and love all things girl!  However, I couldn't have been happier with the news that we were having a boy!!!  I wasn't the slightest bit disappointed.  Now, with that being said, if we were on baby number 3 or 4, and we didn't have any little girls yet, I would definitely be wishing this was a girl!  But I am thrilled to have a baby boy for our family's first little blessing.  He will be perfect! <3

Also this week, I felt our baby boy's first kick!  It was so cool.  I was laying in bed on Monday night and felt a little tiny pop in my stomach.  It almost felt like a gas bubble or what you feel when you are hungry.  I thought I was probably just imagining things, so I didn't think much of it.  Then the next night, I was laying in bed again, and felt the same thing.  Except this time, it happened several times in a row in the same spot - pop, pop, pop!  Then it would move over to the other side of my stomach!  It was definitely baby boy moving around in there.   Since then, I feel him kicking all the time!  I was in a meeting with my principal (Kat :)) on Thursday about my evaluation (a pretty important meeting!), and he kept kicking me!  It was tough not to smile or get distracted. :)

Finally, one other cool thing happened just today:  I got baby boy's FIRST clothes in the mail!  My sweet friend Angela and her husband, Ryan, sent this awesome package in the mail.  Thank you so much guys!

It is full of the cutest boy outfits from Baby Gap!  They are all fish themed.  The fish hat is seriously adorable.  And there is a little hoodie with the ears on top - I LOVE those on little boys. :)

This onesie says "I love Mommy".  It melted my heart!  I actually started tearing up when I saw this one.  I already love this little boy so much!!!

I'll wrap up the post with a few more ultrasound pics.  I just thought they were all so cute.  I can't wait to meet him!  About 140 more days to go!

Cute little profile

A tiny little foot :)

Thanks for reading, everyone! <3

18 Weeks

It's hard to believe I am almost half way through my pregnancy!  It has flown by so far.  And I have a feeling once we find out if we are having a boy or a girl, it will really go in warp speed!  Once we know, we can really start SHOPPING. :)  I can't wait to start getting the nursery planned out!  

• How far along?  18 weeks
• Baby size:  A bell pepper!
• Total weight gain:  I haven't weighed myself since last time.  It was getting sad.
• Maternity clothes?  All maternity pants, and some maternity tops.  My mom and I went to the maternity store at Somerset the other day and went a little crazy.  We were laughing pretty hard in the fitting room with the pretend bump that you can strap onto your stomach!!!  Some of the dresses and things looked cute on me right now, but then I'd put the fake 7 month pregnant belly on and it was NOT so cute! :)
• Stretch marks?  None.  But my stomach is definitely growing quickly.  It is so itchy!
• Sleep:  No problems here. :)  
• Best moment this week:  Chris was gone last weekend at a bachelor party in Whistler, and then he was gone for work a few days this week.  So it was great when he finally got home on Friday!!  Sleeping at home alone is not my favorite thing.  I am not sure how we did it for 2 years while he was at business school!
• Miss anything?  We were out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant with some friends last night, and the margaritas were looking pretty tasty!  
• Movement:  Not yet.  Hopefully soon - all the books say between 18 and 20 weeks.  I worry sometimes that I am moving around so much throughout the day at school that I might miss it!
• Food cravings:  I've been craving a lot of fruit lately.  Last night I told Chris all I want for Valentine's Day is one of the Edible Arrangement bouquets full of fruit.  Yum!
• Anything making you queasy or sick:  Still not loving coffee.  I tried to choke down a decaf from Tim's at a meeting this past week, but it was not going so well.  I hope I start to like it again after baby is born! 
• Gender:  We find out TOMORROW!!!!  I can't wait! 
• Labor signs:  No.
• Symptoms:  I am having some sharp pains in my lower stomach which really freaked me out at first.  I called my trusty mommy experts (Andrea and Abbie), and they said it was probably just my ligaments stretching out.  I ended up calling the doctor, too - just to be safe!  I guess I am not the only one who got a little nervous about the pains.  Abbie said she actually went to the emergency room when she was having them, and my friend Becky said she paged the on call doctor at her office!  I can see why they would have been worried.  It was a scary feeling!
• Belly button in or out?  In. It's starting to flatten out a little...looks weird!
• Wedding rings on or off?  On.
• Happy or moody most of the time?  Happy (most of the time - I had a few moody moments this week). :)
• Looking forward to:  Finding out the sex of the baby tomorrow!  I hope Baby Wallbank isn't being shy and will let us see if he/she is a boy or girl!!
• Diabetes update:  My blood sugars have been a little all over the place the past few weeks.  My blood sugar has been high in the middle of the night, but then I wake up low.  Poor Chris gets woken up every 10 minutes when my sensor goes off telling me I'm high. :(  I am planning to upload data from my pump and send it off to my doctor today so he can help me straighten it out.  

A little life update:  Chris and I have been looking around Port Huron for a new house for about a year now.  We have gone through quite a few homes, and don't love any of them.  We are kind of picky since we do love our current home, but we just need more space!  We ended up finding one we LOVED in Shorewood.  Everything about it was perfect - the size, layout, decorating, etc.  We could have moved in and not changed a thing!  Unfortunately the house went on the market on a Thursday, and sold on Saturday for asking price - and not to us. :(  I was pretty bummed.  I was really starting to picture our little family living there!  But I guess it just wasn't meant to be.  We are going to keep looking, and in the mean time we are talking to some builders about the possibility of building our own house.  The odds of moving before Baby arrives are slim to none, but knowing it is a possibility in the near future is very exciting!