14 weeks

14 weeks came and so has the tightening of my pants. I feel so much better! The nauseousness subsided and now I just battle the occasional evening headache.

Some more fabulous news came when my college roommate, from Provo, called and told me that she and her husband would be moving to Pittsburgh. YAY! They moved into our ward and are only a few blocks away. They moved here so that her husband could attend Carnegie Mellon University for graduate school.

I am enjoying Pittsburgh more as the friendships strengthen. The friends we have made out here have become our Pittsburgh family, and I am starting to realize how sad I will be to leave this place. (A year ago I thought that would never cross my mind, let alone escape my mouth)

Sean, me, Kat, and Luke heading up the incline to view Pittsburgh

Summer Trips- Cancun, Mexico

Back in May Sean and I got to meet up with our friends, the Mitchells, down in Cancun. It was so fun to see them, and also to get away from work and school. Our trip was filled, and thankfully we had our very own translator (Sean).

We took the bus to church, and without Sean here to correct me, I think it cost us maybe ten cents.

After sitting through the first two hours, I grew restless. It's hard to sit for two hours when you understand 3% of what is said. It was fun to be amongst such loving people.

We put in our applications to work at the fine, street side, barber shop.

Crystal's true colors came out when she found a bottle of spray paint on the side of the road.

We didn't even have to search for wildlife-- we practically tripped on it.

We went boating

When the music started, so did Crystal's dance moves-- our tour guide didn't wait too long to join her booty shakin moves.

We took a late night dip in the pool.

Sean and Scott learned how to sail.

We went snorkeling

There may or may not have been some smoochin....

We got some sun while eating ice cream in the sand.

We tried bartering, but may have paid more than we should have for these maracas.

We tried to set a new trend in the styling of hair with three lovely orange clips.

But Crystal soon changed her mind and got some braids.

So I copied her

We both agreed that my Medusa's needed shortened.

So we sat on the porch and burned my snakes down a bit.

We posed in the jungle

We posed in the waves

We posed in the sand

We wandered through Tulum before the rain came down in sheets

Did I mention that we posed in the sand?

We had girl talk

We peppered

We got beaten up by the waves

Buried by the sand

We may have flirted a bit with our spouses

I think our favorite part was posing in the sand

Our swimsuits tried to take most of the sand home

Scott won the sand contest, but in all fairness, his shorts had hidden pockets.

We ordered drinks from the pool bar.

We watched as they made Caesar salad dressing with raw egg- yuck!

We got tattoos, sunburns, and ruined our pedicures

Crystal is still trying to convince Scott that a tattoo wedding band goes much better with the hair profession.

We were able to do hair for a wedding party in Playa Del Carmen. It was a lovely wedding, and wonderful trip. If only we lived a little closer to these guys....

Oh, P.S. We took out our weaves

I tried to sleep carefully on my hair so that I could wear it to work the next day-- I must have slept soundly, cause it was not a pretty sight in the morning.

Over dramatic??

I probably deserve an award for being so over dramatic this last week. There are reasons why I was a little over-the-top.

Reason #1

I have watched countless women in my life go through pregnancy. In my mind I saw that they grew slowly, and didn't show until they were like 15 or so weeks along. I didn't know you could show that much at 12 weeks.


Reason #2

I work with a girl who is pregnant with her 2nd boy and is 8 weeks ahead of me. Our co-workers had us stand back-to-back and were shocked by how much larger I was than her. I know that we all carry our babies differently, but again, I was a little shocked.


Reason #3

One of my favorite co-workers is a VERY direct Russian lady. She has a grown daughter and a very THICK accent. She came up to me on Wednesday and said "Whoa girl, you are growing by the hour! Are you sure there is just one?"


Reason #4

After my first visit with the midwives I wasn't impressed. I felt we needed to switch to an OB and forget the whole midwife thing, despite how many people referred us to go to them. I had a crazy dream at 9 weeks about my upcoming 11 week visit. I dreamed that I caught the midwife being unprofessional, called her out on it, and started walking out of the office. She yelled at me and came up with the doppler to hear the heartbeat. She threw the doppler on my stomach in the lobby and said "there, ya happy?" I got angry and took the doppler and put it on the other side of my stomach and said "no, I am not! I am carrying twins, and you didn't even bother to check for a second heartbeat!" Needless to say, we left and didn't go back to them (in my dream), and I woke up feeling strongly that the dream was real and that we were going to have two babies.

I am a lot calmer this week. I called the midwife and didn't hear back until five hours later. I missed the call cause I was working. The nurse was the one who called and assured me that they measure for multiples when they do the first visit, by way of an internal exam- so fun. She said I measured normal. I calmed down a bit.

Sean and I also worked an event with the armed forces this weekend. We were sent to Akron, OH to conduct the periodic health assessments for the service men and women of the Navy and Navy Reserves. We get to work with a few Physician's assistants each time we do these events, so I was excited to pick their brains. They told me that usually small girls panic when they start getting big. They told me that there were two possibilities with my size at 12 weeks. They said that possibility #1 was that I started retaining the liquid that I need to retain, rapidly at first, but it will subside and be retained gradually from here on out. Possibility #2 is that there is more than one in there, and sometimes the second one gets overlooked.

I am calm, because I am thinking I just retained a bit more water. I am also glad, cause I skipped the chubby phase, and people aren't afraid to ask me about my pregnancy, they just see my tummy and it's obvious. For that, I am grateful.

12 weeks

I am glad I started telling all of my co-workers about my pregnancy last Thursday, cause when I came to work on Monday, this is what I looked like....

That would've been a hard explanation on Monday. We didn't have any dark backgrounds to take the picture in front of, so I improvised--with my jacket. And, I may have spilled several things on my shirt.

I am slightly worried about my size. Okay, maybe I am more than slightly worried. THIS IS MY FIRST PREGNANCY! Pregnant tummies aren't supposed to be that big at 12 weeks with your FIRST! This is what 5 months should look like-- according to all the books and websites. What is my large tummy going to look like when I am 30 weeks? People are coming up and touching my belly at 12 weeks already-- the next 28 weeks have me a bit worried. Are people going to come and talk to my stomach because I am, oh I don't know how to say it.....GIGANTIC?

The questions that are flying through my mind are:

Am I healthy?

Have I eaten too much mac n cheese?

Am I on track to gain 70+ pounds?

Is there just one in there?

Are they going to put me on bed rest?

Is the baby just laying funny?

Is my due date wrong?

Are there going to be clothes that will fit me in my third trimester?

What can I possibly squeeze into today to go to work?

But, the question that is stuck on repeat in my mind, currently, is WHY HASN'T MY DOCTOR CALLED ME BACK???!!! I want to go in and make sure I am healthy and that something isn't severely wrong.

I am driving myself crazy!

Sean's Day

Today started out like any other Wednesday for Sean. Alarm went off. Wife groaned and turned over. Snooze was hit a couple of times. Showered. Ate breakfast. Teeth were brushed. Bus was caught, and he was off to his tooth-filled playground by 8.

The day got a bit more interesting at around 9:10 when Sean was rushing down the hill to an appointment. He realized he needed to use the bathroom. He walked into a building that wasn't so familiar, and found the bathroom. He wasn't too aware of what was going on around him when suddenly he looked down. In the stall next to him were a perfectly manicured set of feet. The polish looked perfect and fresh. The sandals were a bit feminine.....wait a second! Sean heard the giggles, chit chat, looked back down at the toes and it clicked..... Sean had his first, and hopefully last, visit to the ladies room. The poor guy had to sit there for a while, while women came in and out. Finally, the coast was clear and he high-tailed it out of there.

When Sean got down to the appointment, his wife was wondering why he was late. He blushed and had a huge smile on his face as he told her what had just occurred. They both had a good laugh, and fortunately for her, she is still having a good laugh.

His story helped calm his wife down. Her heart started racing again, but Sean's hand in hers helped calm her down a bit as the midwife couldn't find their baby's heartbeat with the doppler. Tears filled the wife's eyes, but Sean's hand was reassuring, and he mouthed that everything would be okay.

The midwife came back with the ultrasound machine and lubed the wife's stomach up with goo. They could see the baby and its little fluttering heart. The baby's legs were kicking and its arms were moving around as if to say "Ha Ha, my dad went to the ladies room!"

And that was Sean's day from the time he got up to 10 am.

We are very happy to become parents at the end of February,  and I am very happy to stop feeling so sick in another week and a half, and to hopefully stop wanting macaroni and cheese (one of the only things that sounds good).

We are eleven and a half weeks along and finally calm knowing that our baby is alive! (For the record: Sean was calm the whole time)