T-Minus 10 Weeks!

I cannot believe that in 10 short weeks, we will be holding our little girl. It blows my mind that this pregnancy has gone by so quickly. I'm sure the next 10 weeks will drag on, but I am so glad we have them to prepare for our little addition! In 2 weeks we will get our final (hopefully) ultrasound, and it'll be the last time we see her until we get to meet her in person! Her nursery still has a few boxes in it from the move, 2 filled with Bryce's things, one filled with a down comforter that decided not to keep it's feathers in it anymore, and a laundry basket filled with papers... Oh and a huge vizio box! But besides that, we have gotten our crib, the crib bedding, some clothes, diaper bag, a craft, and other goodies ready to be set up in her nursery. We still need to refurnish a dresser for her, but we have the bare necessities! Not to mention all of the newborn clothes we have thanks to my sister sending us a box full, we are so lucky. It's getting more real that she is coming, but still feels like it's not really going to be real until we have her in our arms!


How far along:

30 weeks!!

Size of baby:
My apps say: A Summer Cantelope, A butternut squash (swear this already was one), A cucumber, head of cabbage, or about 3 pounds (more or less).

Total Weight Gain:
I think I officially hit 15 pounds according to my Doc's scale... except I always have morning appointments and this last one was in the late afternoon. But still it's fine. She is supposed to gain 1/2 a pound a week from here on out, so hopefully I won't go too far over 25! ;)

Stretch Marks:  

I still have the same ones, just small ones on my sides or love handles. None on my belly yet! But they don't bother me like I thought they might :)

Maternity Clothes:
I don't even think this should be a question anymore

Movement:   

Still happening, but it's more kicks and smaller feelings since she is running out of womb ;) But she is still moving a lot, I can tell where her bum is and everything. She rams her head into my bladder and cervix and it's starting to hurt and be super uncomfortable. There is also a TON of pressure, I think she's dropped a bit... oh she's head down by the way, she has been, but I got it confirmed at the doctors haha.

Belly Button in or out?:
It's still in there. My mom thinks it's just going to go flat and never pop out. We shall see.

Sleep:
I wake up throughout the night but fall back asleep extremely quickly. Last night was the first time it took awhile to fall asleep because I had so much pressure near my cervix and it made me nervous that she was going to try and come out hahaha. I also had unbearable chest pains... I was very close to having Bryce take me to the hospital because I could barely breathe and it was causing me to panic a bit. This happens sometimes, but last night was the worst it's gotten. Miserable.

What I miss:

Being able to shave easily. My belly is in my way and it's such an effort to try and reach my legs these days. Same with tying my shoes. I usually just go with Toms haha.

Food Cravings:
Hmmm, well I keep eating pizza. It just always sounds good. Also... My friend Megan had the best doughnuts I have ever eaten at her reception the other day. Best cinnamon sugar doughnuts EVER.... and now I just want them all the time. I've gotta figure out who catered her wedding!

Food Aversions:  

Luckily this has passed for me.

Nausea:
Thank goodness this has passed. I don't really have any problems.

Moody/Happy?
I am quite happy. But impatient... Bryce's computer wasn't finding the wifi and I wanted to throw it across the room hahaha.

Wedding ring on our off?

Still on and I can still wiggle it around, but I don't know how much longer that will hold up.

Symptoms: 

I have been getting acid reflux a lot more. It's very annoying. Tums are my best friend.

Best Moment this week:
I just had a great time in Utah this past weekend. I got to help out a bit with my best friend's bridal shower, I got to hang out with my friend before she gave birth, went dress shopping for one of my best friends weddings with my other great friend, went to my friend Megan's reception and saw Whitney, my maid of honor, there with her cute boyfriend, and it was just wonderful. So many good moments.

Worst Moment this week:
Sunday was rough. I was having cramping for hours on Sunday and feeling a lot of pressure that I was nervous something was wrong. Honestly my body is just growing and my hips are moving and I recognize that, but it still makes me nervous!!

What I’m looking forward to:

Bryce and I have our 3 year wedding anniversary next Tuesday, and I am excited to go out to dinner and just have one last childless anniversary with him :)

Name:

I just made a craft on picmonkey.com (seriously best every) where I designed 4 pictures that I am using to put on canvas (they are being printed now) and they will go on her wall, and one has her first and middle name on it!!! I'm going to ask Bryce if I can just post it on the blog or if we should wait. i'm impulsive these days, so he's my compass for decisions ;) We will see what he says, if you see it below then you have your answer. If not, maybe check back in the weeks to come :)


Here it is!!! What our little girls name is :) this is the piece I am having printed on 4 8x10s of canvas that I spent a long time on. I used ideas from Pinterest obviously lol. PLEASE don't post the name directly on my Facebook. I would rather people who actually care enough to read this stuff find out haha, that way if we change it (not likely) we will not have to announce the change on Facebook haha but oh well! I'm sure someone will. 

One more thing to add. One of the reasons I wanted to wait to announce it until the baby was born in the first place is because I didn't want anyone to say "oh I know a Harper who did this" or think I stole their name for their future baby or something... So please don't say anything negative, this is her name and it is beautiful and we love it and have had it on our list (aside from the middle name) since before we even started to try and have children. When the baby is born and already named, people can't really say anything because she is already named. I've just been so excited to tell everyone that I thought I would share and already I'm starting to wish I hadn't... People with the best intentions can often be blind to hurtful things they say. I'm also hormonal and so I take everything a bit more to heart. Sorry for the rant. This obviously wasn't in my original blog because I didn't think it would be necessary. 

30 Weeks Picture:
 

I know that It seems like I always wear this but I swear I don't hahaha. It's my go to pull over!!

29 Weeks!

This last week was a bit crazy. We finally were able to move to our own place, a townhouse. It was harder to me because it was just a few miles down the road so we just kind of moved everything over in bursts. I'm more of a "let's knock it all out as fast as we can" person. Whereas Bryce thought it was the easiest move because we DIDNT have to do that. But since I'm pregnant and can't do too much heavy lifting, we went with Bryce's thought process lol. Anyways we got it all done by Saturday and have spent the last few days unpacking! :) 

Another thing going on is my work life. I had to cut back one of my days at work, and it was happening all as we had just signed a contract for a new townhouse that we now would be barely able to afford. Well we prayed, and the next few days I was offered to sub a few days at my other office. It was a relief. That week I transferred money over to my tithing fund. And then I got a text from another hygienist at my second office asking if I wanted to start working her Wednesdays until maternity leave. It was a big relief. Things would still be tight while my other job had been cut back for a bit, but we could make it. Then I paid my tithing again. The next day I got offered more days to sub for someone at my first job. Other people call it a coincidence. But Bryce and I had faith in the Lord, faith that it would all work out, and I know that's where these extra hours are coming from. I feel so beyond blessed and grateful to Him. Just thought I would share that story! On with the bump date!! 

How far along:

29 weeks, 11 weeks left! Wowza!

Size of baby:
A Hawaiian Pineapple! About 3 pounds :) or 17 inches! Woo! Though we all know she's probably way smaller. Still exciting haha.

Total Weight Gain:
On Sunday it was about 12 or 13 pounds. I have 11 weeks left and I'm sure I'll be packing them on as she gains more weight too! 

Stretch Marks:  

Some small ones on my side, I've been bad about putting on oil and lotion so I'm pretty sure that's not helping haha

Maternity Clothes:
I mean clearly I'm still in them haha. 

Gender:
We are getting the nursery more ready since we just moved in and all her clothes are basically pink and then a few gray with pink lol. Oops.

Movement:   

She is moving so much! Apparently now it's supposed to slow down a bit. It's just fun to play with her! She will push up against my belly and I will follow her foot around and she will try and escape my hand. And this morning I caught a video of her moving all across my belly. It only captured a bit but I will post it!!

Belly Button in or out?:
Still way in. It's slowly getting shallower. Last night I had a dream it stuck out two inches and had a hole through it. I was terrified hahaha

Sleep:
Still sleeping! Just using the bathroom more frequently. I think the biggest thing that keeps me waking up is I try to not have my arms bent when I sleep and change sides often so my hands and wrists don't have problems the next day at work.

What I miss:

I can't think of anything specific which is a good sign!!

Food Cravings:
My closer friends know that I am more of a salty eater and that I don't like straight chocolate or anything way rich, but I have been craving sweet things a lot more lately. Like fruit snacks, Rice Krispie treats, peanut m&ms (still not straight chocolate haha)


Food Aversions:  

Not really anything!

Nausea:
None! Like I don't have to eat every two hours or anything, I just get normal hungry/nauseous when it's time for dinner and such and I haven't eaten much for the day. 

Moody/Happy?
I am very happy! There is so much to be happy about :) 

Wedding ring on our off?

It's on :) still not getting any swelling. I'm sure as it gets later and I keep eating salty things that I'll swell up a ton. 

Symptoms: 

Just lots of kicking and those pesky stretch marks. Oh my gosh. Charley horses. I got 13 in the span of 10 minutes the other night. I've had charley horses but rarely more than one, and these would come one after the other. I was dying. I was used to them because of dancing and I would get them a lot, but seriously 13?

What I’m looking forward to:

Chelsey's baby shower is this week so I get to go down to Utah! Hoping my friend Kirsta has her baby while I'm down there! Then we have our 3 year wedding anniversary on March 3 :) 

Name:

Something tells me that you guys will be seeing it on here in the next couple of weeks. We call her by her name all the time, we refer to her room as "blanks room" so it's really sticking. Like I said it could change if she doesn't look like her name but we can just update you then haha. 

29 weeks video:

You see the most towards the end :)
 

29 Weeks Bump Tracker

Hello 3rd Trimester! 28 Weeks :)

I really don't know how to measure how many months I have left. Technically as of February 5th, it was 3 months.... But February is a short month, April has 30 days, etc. I mean are we going by months having 4 weeks in them? Because if so its 3 months to go from right now. But if we are going by 5 week months, it's only a little over two. So this is why I go by weeks. The months thing really makes no sense. 

But I can't believe I'm in my third trimester! I'm sure it'll fly by just like the rest of my pregnancy, especially since I have quite a few Utah trips to make before then! One of my best friends is having her baby shower, One of my old roommates and best friends of mine is getting married, then I have my baby shower in Utah that same weekend, then I have to do continuing education courses in Salt Lake literally 3 weeks before our little girl gets here. HA we will see what happens... 

Today while watching a video on what week I am of pregnancy, Bryce and I found out that if our baby was born right now she would have a 90% chance of survival. That is absolutely amazing and quite comforting to me as well. But stay in there little one, we have a lot to do before you get here!!

One more side note. Last night at an event for my Dad, I got on an elevator and this woman goes "wow, you are DUE aren't ya?" Um I still have 12 weeks left thanks lady. I really don't feel that huge, just kind of average... Maybe it's because I'm short so I look bigger? Idk but man it was awkward. 

How far along:

28 weeks 

Size of baby:  
A coconut, a butternut squash, or something else that escapes my memory (common these days). A little over 2 pounds! And up to 16 inches, but I'm sure she is not quite there yet lol.  

Total Weight Gain:
I haven't really bothered to look, I think I hit 10 pounds now, which I think is great for still having 12 weeks left. I'm supposed to gain 25-35 so I feel good about where I'm at :) 

Stretch Marks:  

I have some small ones on my side! They are tiny but I notice them. I'm not bothered by them though, they are just little marks showing me my body is growing! Woo! 

Maternity Clothes:
Pure bliss. Is there anything better? I don't ever want to put normal jeans on again to be honest hahaha. 

Gender: 
I'll just say what we are doing since we know her gender. We are pretty set on a name, her initials are HEB, we can just call her heeby hahah ;) jokes guys, jokes. We painted a huge letter then a bunch of small letters down the H with her full first name. The letter is gray and the tiny letters are pink. Those are our nursery colors,gray and a pale pink. We also might throw in like a Tiffany blue or teal kind of color since our place has teal throughout it.  

Movement:   

She is ridiculously active. Today was sweet because I felt her pushing against my tummy and I could feel her foot side swipe across my stomach and follow it. It was so cool! I think she may have flipped but I'm not positive and I know 30 weeks is really when a lot of them flip so I'm not counting on it. Her movements just feel so different than ever, much stronger up higher and it feels like her head might be sitting on my bladder now. But hey I could be crazy lol. 

Belly Button in or out?:
Still way in. It's slowly getting shallower or wider or something lol. 

Sleep: 
Sleep is still great, I wake up a lot to go to the bathroom but I fall back asleep quite fast. She's always having a party when I wake up but apparently I sleep through it pretty easily. 

What I miss:

Being able to shave my legs easily. I have this huge belly and man it's hard to shave nice and easy! It's like a barrier. Unfortunate for poor Bryce lol. 

Food Cravings:
Rice Krispy treats. But I think those always sound good haha.  


Food Aversions:  

Not much these days :) some seafood smells way too strong but not awful. 

Nausea:
Basically gone, sometimes if I go way too long without eating I get a little nausea but not terrible! Oh and when I am doing a really deep cleaning on a patient for 2 hours straight I'm a bit dizzy. But if I just get up and grab a drink of water I'm fine. 

Moody/Happy?
Very happy :) I get a little moody randomly or get butt hurt easier than usual, but overall I'm just always happy :) I get a little depressed when I'm just at home all day long but besides that I'm pretty great. 

Wedding ring on our off?

It's on! Haven't gotten swollen feet or hands yet. I'm sure it's coming. 

Symptoms: 

Lots of kicking, my belly is huge, I'm getting Braxton hicks a ton now. My tummy gets SO tight and hard as a rock. I didn't realize what it was at first, I thought her whole body was just pushing up against my belly but nope, just contractions. Thank goodness Chelsey told me what to expect or I would've flipped haha. 

What I’m looking forward to:

Moving into our townhouse this week, our 3 year anniversary is in 3 weeks,Chelseys baby shower, my baby shower, and then we get to see our baby girl again the week of my birthday. Then my birthday. Then my Idaho shower. I'm telling you there is so much to look forward to that I think these 12 weeks will fly! At least until the end haha. 

If you were wondering where my 27 weeks blog post is, it doesn't exist. It was basically going to be the same, so instead I did a "when we found out we were pregnant" kind of story. So go to the last post for that gem. It's long. Haha but there are embarrassing selfies and an even more embarrassing video. Just classic. 

28 Weeks 

I will post another later! But this is all I have!!

When I Found Out I Was Pregnant

I don't think this is a very common thing to post about- at least I haven't read very many blogs about it... But I thought it would be fun to share my little story. Some people ask "how did you know you were pregnant? Did you have symptoms?" And I kind of tell them what the circumstances were and such, so I thought I would type it all down. I don't even know if I've written it in my journal... And this definitely is something most people would keep in their journal, but since I have no filter anyways, I thought I'd post it.

To begin, Bryce and I were coming to a turning point in our lives. I was getting close to graduating, and Bryce and I would be moving from Utah back up to Idaho where I would begin my career as a Dental Hygienist, and Bryce would be going back to working on his Health Care Administration Degree. I was at the point where I was constantly thinking about babies. It was embarrassing... We had discussed when we thought would be a good time to start a family, and we wanted it to be after I graduated. After praying about it and not feeling anything holding us back (besides those nerves... I mean we were talking about creating a human life that we would be responsible for FOREVER...) we decided I would stop taking my birth control at the end of my cycle right before I graduated.

The main reason I was more on the anxious side to get started was because almost all of my friends were having a hard time getting pregnant, so I thought "this might take MUCH longer than I am thinking it will.." After all, some friends had been trying for a few months, some over a year, and some for a few years. I had also had some friends (quite a few, unfortunately) miscarry. I was terrified that this too would happen, so it was almost like in my mind, it would inevitably happen and we would have to try all over again... It didn't happen, but in my mind I overthink absolutely everything.

So graduation comes and goes, and Bryce and I are back in Idaho. I was supposed to be starting my cycle in a few days, and I thought "hmm, it's probably negative, but let's check!".... Big fat negative. Oh well, I told myself, I will have a lot of negatives in the future, I should probably get used to it. The day I was supposed to start came around, and I thought for sure if I took a pregnancy test that day, it would show up positive. Another negative.. "Enough torturing yourself, Car!" I told myself. But then another day went by and it hadn't come... and then another day. So I woke up and ran to the dollar store (hey, those things are pricey, and I figured since I was a few days late it would definitely show up).... I actually had to use the restroom so I went in the dollar store and... STOP READING HERE IF YOU DON'T LIKE DETAILS.... after I was finished, my heart sank. Well, there's the red.... guess I don't need to take that test. I folded a pad out of toilet paper and headed home. But the rest of the day there was nothing... no spotting at all... so I thought okay let me just take one more test. Negative again. THAT'S IT. I'M DONE. It's coming and that's all there is to it. Two days later mine and Bryce's friends were getting married, so I decided not to take one more test because I didn't want to be grumpy on their special day lol. Maybe if I was a week late I would take another, but not any sooner. So the rest of the weekend I tried not to think about it.

The following Monday, we headed down to Utah. Bryce and I were going to be going on a trip to Hawaii with our best friends Charles and Chelsey. Chelsey had found out she was pregnant the previous month, so we were thrilled to have a last hoorah, and celebrate graduating, and get excited for that cute baby. On the trip down I still hadn't started. I was officially 6 days late. So I asked Bryce if he thought I was, and he goes "I think there's a 70% chance you are." Well when Chelsey found out I still hadn't started my cycle, she flipped out telling me she still had a pregnancy test. "You can take it RIGHT NOW!" She exclaimed. I told her I would take it the next day. She was very excited because this was a fancy digital test... I'd never taken a digital but I figured that'd be the worst to actually READ "Not Pregnant" on a screen. Nevertheless, I promised her I would take it first thing the next morning since I would be a week late.

I literally could not sleep all that night! The thought that everything could change, or that everything would stay exactly the same, was driving me nuts. Finally at 3:30 am, I decided that it was stupid for me to wait, it had been far enough past my cycle that it would show up by now for sure. So I got up and grabbed the test. I went in the bathroom, did my thang, then waited. I set a timer. Or counted.. I can't really remember. But I looked at the screen after that long 2 minutes... and it said "pregnant". I didn't think it was real. I stared at it for about 3 minutes to be positive... Then I took a picture to make sure it really said it. Then I took 10 more pictures. Then I just sat there on Chelsey's bathroom floor, thinking that it didn't seem real, but these tests don't really lie.. at least when they say positive... I then ran into the room we were staying in and grabbed a shirt I had made.

SIDE STORY: I had made this shirt before we moved back to Idaho. I knew that in Orem there were some printing places and cheap t-shirts, I think it's called Tiger Lilly, and I had them make a shirt that said "Napping for two" that I had seen I think on pinterest or Etsy. When the guy was making it, I was NOT pregnant (well I could've been about to be... it was right after graduating but right before boards... so literally days before that could've been it...) ANYWAYS, he goes "I'm guessing you're pregnant?" And I was not about to explain to a stranger that I was a crazy person who was not pregnant, but was making an announcement shirt for when I was... so I lied. "Haha yeah" oh my gosh I felt so guilty.... back to the story though.

I changed into my t-shirt I had made, went back into the bathroom, took a picture or 5 in it, then took a video. I haven't even watched the video since. But I'll post it in here... it's probably me just being like oh my gosh oh my gosh and being embarrassing but whatever. After all that, I went back into the bedroom and DIDN'T tell Bryce. I thought I would go to sleep, we would wake up, he would see my shirt, and it would be all cute.

That was the worst I had slept! I kept dreaming that I would wake up and the test actually said "negative".... Finally 8 o'clock rolled around and Bryce was up! I sat up and he saw my shirt, and said "really???" and I smiled and we just hugged for a long time. And laughed. No crying, but it was just so surreal! It felt like a big fat lie, but it was real. I asked if I could go wake Chels up and tell her, so I ran to her bedroom after Charles was already up. The minute I walked in, she woke up and smiled and then saw my shirt and pulled me in for literally the biggest hug in the world. Probably the longest too. She really is the greatest friend, she was genuinely so so happy that I was pregnant, and I was so so happy that I could share such an exciting moment with my best friend! We were going to be pregnant together (though from afar) and have tiny humans together. Isn't that the dream!?

So that's my story. That red from the dollar store was implantation bleeding. I can literally calculate when everything happened going off that... It also happened a week after it should have, which explains why my little girl measures 6 days behind when they go off of the first day of my last cycle. I ovulated later than I should have because I was off birth control and my body was trying to figure out what was going on. But it was such a happy and unreal day for me.

I should explain a bit more... I had cramps like crazy. They felt just like menstrual cramps. So that's why I kept thinking "it'll come tomorrow" etc. Then after I took the test, I was STILL getting bad cramps.. The entire way down to Vegas that day, I had cramps and I was terrified I would be miscarrying. So if you are newly pregnant, please know this is NORMAL. If I didn't have Chelsey, I would have had about 15 breakdowns. She calmed me down and told me what was normal.

Anyways, I hope that someone thinks it's a cool story to read, or maybe it'll just be cool for me to read one day. As I sit here with my little girl squirming everywhere and kicking up around my ribs, I feel so so elated with joy. I love being pregnant.

One thing I wanted to say. We got pregnant extremely quickly, and I know that does not happen for most people. I don't ever want to say "yes, we are really blessed it happened so fast" because that would to me be saying those who don't get pregnant right away or for year aren't "really blessed". I believe 100% in the Lord's timing. He knows us perfectly, knows us from beginning to end, and is constantly blessing us in ways that we can't understand. Always trust in His timing. He is a perfect being, and our timing may not always be in line with His.

Now for the embarrassing pictures and even more embarrassing video that I just watched for the first time: