16 Weeks

I don't even know how I got here! 16 weeks pregnant? sheesh!





Belly is growing. Don't mind the crap outfit, we were headed to the beach.


I decided to start our weekly posts at this point because there really wasn't much else to share. I started to sprout a baby bump around 12 weeks or so, but I just felt fat and uncomfortable.

So moving on:

How far along

I'm 16 weeks 6 days right now, however the photo was taken at 16 weeks on the dot. My weeks turn over on Tuesday, so expect another post tomorrow bringing me into 17 weeks.

How are you feeling

I'm feeling really good. More energy, I didn't have a single headache in over a week but then had a few tension ones. I'm still having uterus pains when getting up too fast or rolling over in bed in the middle of the night. My belly has gotten really itchy the last few weeks so I ran out and bought some palmers and it's been a god send. Other then that, I just can't complain.


Stretchmarks

I had them from all the gaining and loosing weight over the last several years. They're really light though, but I can already see a few of those turning a light shade or purple. So I imagine I will have them at some point. My mom had them, so genetics are a fine thing in life.

Weight gain/loss

At my last doctors appointment at 15 weeks 4 days I was up 5 lbs. I've been dreading the scale after we got back from Hawaii so I haven't stepped on. I should have an accurate number for my 17 week post


Movement

I definitely felt some popcorn/flutters all throughout Hawaii. I wasn't sure if they were gas bubbles or baby, but I'm almost 95% sure it was baby. I haven't felt any lately though which makes me both nervous and sad. I'm thinking in the next few weeks baby should get stronger and I should be able to feel actual kicks.


Gender

We'll find out in August!


What I'm loving

I absolutely love being pregnant. It's been such an easy ride for me, and I feel like my body was made to do this. I'm loving that my belly is really rounding out and that I'm getting more pregnant symptoms rather then just not feeling pregnant at all. I'm also loving my husband rubbing my belly. We're both equally excited, and having him tell me so, just makes my heart melt.

BABY DETAILS...

Let's just start off with some facts:

We're having a baby!

Yes, we've known for a while, and no we were not trying to be "secretive" about it but with my track record of a miscarriage x 2 we wanted to make sure baby was good and healthy. Then you throw our wedding in the mix, we obviously had a lot of news to share. So here we are; I'm going to answer the questions we've received thus far, but if if you have any further questions you'd like to know, feel free to ask.


When are you due?

August 7th, 2012. (give or take)



So how far along are you?

Before I was pregnant I didn't get the whole "weeks" thing either. I'm 16 weeks and 6 days as of right now. We haven't had an ultra sound due to some insurance issues (I'll tell that story soon ugh!) but I have had 2 DR. Apts confirming heart beat, and uterus placement. I should get an ultra sound in 2 weeks.

Will you find out the sex?

Nope! From the very beginning we knew we wanted to wait. That moment when baby is born, being placed in my arms and my husband telling me if we have a son or daughter makes me tear up as I write this out. In other words, I would never take that moment from us.


How did you find out?

I had a "feeling" a week before Christmas. I think I even told Carlos a few jokes that he might be getting a Christmas present after all. (we didn't do gifts this year) My period was 3 weeks late so I took a test on Christmas morning and it came back with a plus and an empty second box. I had Carlos come Into the bathroom to help me figure it out. It was inconclusive. I wanted to rush out a buy another test but we had Christmas to do with my family so I held off. My mom later asked me how the baby making was going and I had a faint smile and she knew. Later that night, I threw up for the first time. A week later we confirmed with 2 tests and both were positive. We left for New York for New Years and had our first appointment when we got back where we heard the heart beat for the first time.


How are you feeling?

I feel guilty even writing this because, I had almost zero morning sickness. I had about 2 weeks when we first found out, of throwing up, very tired, lots of acid- yuck. But then it subsided. I was never as tired as I expected to be, but then around 12-13 weeks I got horrible, horrible migraines. They lasted 2 days then I would be fine for a few days and for no reason at all they would pop up. I'm still getting them now, despite the doctor saying they should subside in the 2nd trimester. But other then that? I really can't complain. I have lots of uterus/round ligament pain when I get up too fast, roll over in bed or bend over but it's completely manageable.


Was it planned?

We've wanted this baby for a looong time. Infertility doesn't allow for much planning so technically no, it wasn't planned. But it was a very wanted and loved surprise!


Do you have names?

We have 2 names for each in which we won't be sharing. I know, we're mean, mean people. We want to keep them sacred and special to us :)


Do you have a birth plan?

We do, and I'll have another post on exactly what we're doing.


Do you want a boy or a girl?

I think as cliche as it sounds we want a healthy baby. My heart lean towards a girl but C leans towards a boy. Either way, we won't be disappointed.


Where will you live?

If you aren't aware of our situation already, we spend 6 months in Oregon and 6 months in California. Baby will be born in California and right after our season in October we'll be back in Oregon full time. We will no longer do the 6/6 split. We plan to open a second location in Oregon for 2013 where I'll stay and manage. C will be back and fourth between both but only for a week at a time.


Are you showing?

Absolutely. My belly popped about 3 weeks ago and hasn't stopped growing. I'll be doing weekly pregnancy posts starting at 16 weeks. I'll include pictures which makes me so self conscious!


That about sums up what we've been asked at this point. Like I said before, we're so excited to be on this journey and can't wait to finally have a baby as the outcome. I know some of you are struggling with infertility and my heart breaks for you to have to read these type of posts. It was hard for me, too. Please know, this didn't come easy for me, and after 3 years of actively trying we got lucky and were blessed.

FIRST COMES LOVE, THEN COMES MARRIAGE, THEN COMES A.....

Miracle baby due August 7th 2012.


More details coming soon....

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

Wishing you all lots of love on this cheesy holiday!

MISHMASH

* We're busy over here getting bags packed, nails done, dog washed, hair trimmed and a Doctors appointment. To say we're busy is an understatement.


* I've had some pretty bad headaches with a few migraines thrown in for good measure and it's pretty ridiculous. I have to lay down every 2 hours to take the edge off and when you have a bazillion and 5 things going on it's just not any fun. But on the bright side, we leave for Maui tomorrow *gulp*



*We're getting our first real winter storm in Sacramento where we have 2 days of rain. In a way I'm kind of sad we wont get to enjoy the little winter we've been thrown, but we're going to Maui. I think I'll live.


* It took us 6 hours of shopping to buy C a pair of nice dinner pants, a belt, some fancy shoes and a few polo's. Normally I'm not one to complain about shopping but ohmygod! I was SO over it. We we're suppose to have a date night with dinner and a movie, and I told him I wanted to go home for a bit where I promptly laid down and took a nap. Needless to say, date night did not happen. For the record, we had to go back out the next day to finish getting him his Hawaii essentials. ughhhh


* We're leaving our house a mess while we leave. We never EVER do this, but we just don't have the time to devote to cleaning it the way I'd like. I'm sure I wont even think about it come tomorrow.


* I need a bigger suitcase. That is all


* I might blind people with my holy whiteness of skin( great visual, eh?) even though I had a rockin' tan this summer. It is no longer. Hold me now.


* I plan to continue blogging through Maui. If I miss a day or two well, it's because I'm either; passed out due to sun exhaustion or my (soon to be) husband is giving me endless massages ocean side ( one can dream, right?)

* Speaking of massages: We got one on the shopping day of hell fun. Everything was going so great until my masseuse FARTED. I mean I tried so hard not to gag or laugh but how embarrassing!! I still tipped her but couldn't wait to get done and get the hell out of there. I can't even make this shit up.


* If I wasn't getting married on Friday and longing for a cute hair style I would absolutely cut all my hair off tonight at my hair appointment. But alas, I want cute hair and cute pictures so I will refrain.



Next post, coming straight from Maui. :)

HONEYMOON

Possibly my favorite part of eloping is knowing we'll already be on our honeymoon. We have 2 full days before our actual ceremony to attend a few meetings
( getting our marriage license, and finding a small delicious cake!) but we'll still get to enjoy some beach and snorkeling time. It's really a win win. We ended up having to book a separate hotel for 2 days since we added that on to our vacation at the last minute. Then we'll move over to our condo. It seems like a pain in the ass to have to pack and unpack for 2 days but we'll make do. Our hotel ended up getting booked through priceline in a ritzy part of Maui.

We ended up ordering the Maui Revealed 2012 addition and are starting to map out some hot spot snorkeling, hiking and restaurants.

A few activities we have booked are the old lahaina luau




We also booked a snorkel and whale watch cruise. I'm pretty stoked for this event, but also nervous. I didnt have a good experience snorkeling in Key West and ended up getting " ocean sick". It ruined the better part of my day however we have a few more days before the actual boat ride of getting used to being in the water with the current. Aside from my fear of barfing, seeing a whale? Awesome!!

I'm still looking to add one more thing in, but it's up for debate at this point. We want to do a lot of sightseeing, swimming, snorkeling ( hopefully) shopping and lounging.

I did book a sunrise bike tour, and later found out some of there safety issues were a problem. ( more on that later!) so we cancelled and got a refund.

We also booked a cabana at one of the top notch resorts, so we can enjoy our lunch and beach time in the comfort of some shade.


We have heard there are some pretty delicious restaurants around the area and we definitely made a few reservations at those as well. We'll more then likely do a review of some sort along the way.

And can I just say I bought some REALLY cute outfits for the trip, so be prepared for a few outfit of the day posts!

THE DRESS

I already had a gorgeous Maggie Sottero wedding dress for my other wedding that I had hanging in our Oregon closet. I had hoped some day to wear it, but alas it's just wasn't going to work for our new plan.

When we fully decided to run with the wind and elope I had exactly 3 weeks to find a dress. I went to hell Davids Bridal and did find one piece that would fit our "theme". But alas It wouldn't be available until June. I was pretty discouraged when leaving empty handed, but decided to hit up the mall. I walked into every store imaginable and left empty handed. Nothing white. Nothing fit. Nothing full length. Nothing available. I texted C and told him it was a lost cause. I was going to get married in a black dress or my under wear. He could choose.

Once I got home, got dinner started, walked the dog and cleared my head, I was able to look online a little bit. I browsed sites like preownedwedding dresses.com, Macys & Jcrew. Last but not least Jcpennys. It was at JCP that I found the perfect dress, for the perfect price and could be mailed to me in 3 days.

I had NO clue they even offered wedding dresses. They don't have much of a selection but what they did have were perfect for spur of the moment elopements, especially beach side.

I bought the dress right away and it now sits in my closet waiting to be worn on February 17th. 2012.




I still need to find the perfect pair of flip flops, and will be hitting up the mall later on Monday to search.


In addition to the dress, I bought a sweet hair flower from etsy

I can't wait to see everything on together!


12 more days!!!

ELOPING IN MAUI

Some people I'm sure can't even wrap their head around the idea of eloping. I was one of them. I thought it was for people that didn't have families or friends.For older couples that we're getting remarried and didn't want to plan a big wedding for the second or third time. I thought I wanted a big dress, flowers, a church,presents, lots of family and friends, a huge gourmet meal, cake, dancing. But look at those things. I mean really LOOK. It's materialistic. Now, don't get me wrong. I don't think it's a bad thing, I think memories are created around materialistic items, however; After 10 years together, 2 cancelled wedding like the one above; I knew it wasn't for us.

We had planned to honeymoon in Maui, so why not get married there, too?

After getting back from our New Years trip to New York, I got right to work. My first process is always finding airfare but because we knew we absolutely wanted a condo I started there first. With only a few weeks to plan and doing so right in the middle of their peak whale watching season it was nothing more then a challenge.

I probably sent 75 emails to condo owners through Vrbo.com with maybe 10 replies. Most of which responding to being unavailable. After no luck on that website I started researching hotel resorts. In the end it wasn't an option. We wanted a kitchen so we could have breakfast and make sandwiches for our beach time. We also wanted a washer and dryer so we could pack less and just wear and rewash. I then started searching on Craigslist. I choose some major cities like San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Maui, & Los Angeles. Sometimes people book vacations, then something comes up so they try and sell their vacation on CL. I ended up finding an angel time share owner who had 7 days in Maui available for the exact dates we were looking for. The only problem is; we wanted 8 nights, not 7. After a little work, she was able to use her credit card points for this particular resort and get us the 8th night in the same room. It was a huge relief to have that part of the trip done.

Moving onto airfare. What a joke that was. One day I saw a ticket for $450 round trip. I waited to book the ticket because we were still negotiating our condo, and then later kicked myself in the ass. The next week prices ranged from $800 to $1200 round trip per person. I held out for 2 weeks and finally booked our ticket for $600. I'm still kicking myself just looking at this.

I'm still working on our rental car because, things can't be easy, right?


All of our wedding items have been booked, and yes I'm going to share with you what we're doing and how we're doing it. I wanted to categorize each post into different topics because I feel with such a small wedding the things we've planned are each very essential in what we did.


This time around I never logged into the knot I went with my gut instinct and planned exactly what WE wanted instead of what was popular. I'm not a DIY bride, I didn't interview multiple vendors, and I wont be testing a cake. It will be me, The boy I fell in love with 10 years ago, a beautiful beach, and a Hawaiian pastor.

I couldn't be more happy.

NEW BLOG, NEW MEANING.

I'm not sure what my opening line should really be at this point so let's start with; HI! Long time no see? welcome back? All say the same thing, really.

I took a much needed break from both writing a blog and reading some blogs. For many different reasons I felt ashamed. That's not easy for me to admit, nor can I really justify the exact reasons, I just knew my life wasn't what I needed or wanted and I became in denial that women who I read blogs of every day had become perfect. They had perfect homes, perfect husbands, perfect babies, perfect bodies, perfect everything. I think we can all relate and say some people really do portray themselves as "perfect" I'm just not one of them. I tell my real truth. It isn't always pretty, or glamorous. It isn't always conventional or "right" for lack of a better word, but it's MY REAL TRUTH.


I'm moving forward. I have BIG things to document that mean something to me. I want to remember these things, and let my friends and family see a glimpse into our everyday. I hope along the way I can help someone like myself that maybe didn't have it all together. Maybe they were stuck in a rut of screaming on the inside and longing for what was on the outside.

So this is our starting point. A few changes to be made; I plan to document as much as time permits me. We own a very time intensive business and that brings home the rent money and bills come before blogging.
Carlos plans to document a bit as well. I think seeing a blog of a day to day life should be seen from 2 different sides. We're both very different people, who happen to love a lot of the same things. I'm really excited to see what he posts about! ( I reserve the right to say he has a very, sarcastic sense of humor, and he will probably not allow me to see his posts before hand. Don't say i didn't warn ya ;) )

A few facts as of our right now;

* We still live in Oregon however we live in California for the moment ( make sense?). Let me explain further; in August we had no location for our business. It's always up in the air year to year, so we knew we'd be down in California for at least 3 months while building, operating then tearing down said business. In September we came across the best location we could have asked for. A year round one for the next 3 years ( or more!). The only problem was: It needs a TON of work. So now we're here for the year developing. Which is both a good thing and a sad thing. I miss my home.

* We had both talked about eloping in Hawaii last year since a traditional wedding just wasn't for us. I think with the stress of our business, the cancelled wedding and the miscarriage it was still too soon. In December we both sat down and talked about our future plans, and he threw out the Hawaii elopement idea. I love this man for the rest of my life, so of course I absolutely jumped on it. The timing is right, and we couldn't be more excited. February 17th 2012 at sunset on a secluded beach we'll be married. Talk about bliss. ( more posts on the topic to come soon.)

* I lost 25 lbs on weight watchers from August to October. I was so proud of myself and just came easy for those 2 months. Then life got in the way and while I haven't gained any weight back, I still have 35ish pounds to go.

* Living in a 1 bedroom apartment isn't cute or fun or practical. Especially coming from a 2000 sq ft home with 4 bedrooms. I don't recommend down sizing.It was suppose to be for 3 months and now we'll be here a year. The joys of business ownership.


Welcome to our life. I hope you enjoy our journey as much as I love living it.


Krystie