Baby update and Valentines

I have been horrible about blogging lately...so here's a little baby catch-up. (And this is really more for me to help remember things, so sorry if it's only interesting to me)

    Back to the beginning: We got pregnant last May and miscarried in July when I was 11 weeks along. We had to wait a few months before we could try again. Needless to say, I was very eager to become pregnant again, which resulted in me making up symptoms and wasting like 4 pregnancy tests the month of September. Poor Ben was a good sport when I cried every single time it came up negative. October came and I knew it would be hard on me if I wasn't pregnant that month because my sister-in-law was having her baby on the 29th (I know that seems dumb, but I just knew it would be hard seeing their cute little baby). Anyways, the 28th came, and I hadn't felt any symptoms and just really didn't think I was pregnant. The "tell tell" sign hadn't come yet, so Ben called from work and told me to take a test. I didn't want to and told him it would "just make me sad". Ben convinced me, so I took a test while on the phone with him, waited the awful 3 minutes or however long it is, and sure enough, there was a plus sign! I was in shock, and didn't know if I should believe it since it was such a faint line. So of course I immediately took another, and another faint plus sign appeared! We were so thrilled and just couldn't believe we were actually pregnant!

     I took another test the next morning just to be sure, and then all of the doctor appointments began. Because I had miscarried before, my doctor had me do blood testing every couple of days for the first little bit to make sure all of my levels were where they needed to be. We had an ultrasound November 26 (around 8 weeks) and my parents got to be there for it, and then another December 6. It was so exciting to get to see our little baby and so reassuring to me.
     The first 4 months of my pregnancy were less than pleasant. I was so nauseous and worn out. I threw up a ton and ended up having to go on pills and this weird watch thing to help control my nausea. I hated all food and the only thing that ever sounded good was Mr. Freeze popsicles. I would eat like 7 a day. Luckily I am past that stage, and now everything (especially chocolate) sounds good. I did throw up again the other day, and ended up breaking the toilet paper holder because I was holding on to it as puked over the toilet, but usually I am puke free.

18 weeks

      We had a little scare around 18 weeks. I had a horrible pain on the right side of my abdomen. It felt a lot like kidney stone pain (I've had my fair share of those) and the doctors office told me to head to the ER. I probably wouldn't have been as freaked out if we hadn't miscarried before, but because of that I worry pretty easily about those things. After 5 hours at the hospital, everything turned out to be fine. 
      On February 11 (19 weeks) we got to have an ultrasound to find out the sex of the baby. Ben was thinking boy, and I (along with every female in my extended family)j was thinking girl. Well the girls were right...it's a GIRL!

      We immediately went shopping and picked out an adorable pink polka-dot outfit. I can't even describe how thrilled I was to be surrounded by pink clothes! That night we bought her crib and dresser. Such a fun day!
     It was around 18 weeks (I think) that I started feeling fluttering, although I wasn't convinced it was the baby. Now there is no denying when she moves. At about 21 weeks Ben felt her move, which was very exciting. She moves around all the time now, which I love.

Valentines Day- 19 Weeks and 3 days

       Quick Valentines recap: I made funfetti pink cookies for Ben to take to work for valentines and to announce that we were having a girl.  Then we had our second annual Valentines dinner at P.F. Changs, which was delicious as always.Ben was cute and had written a funny poem for me which he read at dinner. Then we did a little shopping to top off our date .

        Finally this forever long post has come to an end. Things are great over here, I'm 23 weeks, my stomach is growing at a rapid rate, my belly button is pretty much all the way out at this point, and we are loving getting things ready for our little baby girl to come in July!

22 weeks