8 months!!!

I can not believe it, and I know I say that every month but seriously I am 8 months pregnant. It has been many, many years that I have wanted to say that!

Things are going so well and have gone so well over the past month with the pregnancy. Only a few little things like, tired all the time, and lower back pain have been ailing me but, hey that is what happens when you pack on pounds and carry another life inside of you. I find it a sign that I am having a good healthy pregnancy.

Mason is so active and loves to kick me all the time. I keep thinking he is going to kick right out of me because he is such a strong baby. He loves, loves, loves music and does not love Archer trying to walk all over him. I play the piano for him almost everyday playing Chopin, cause I don't like to play Mozart and well Classical is Classical and I love Chopin. He loves to move around at first then goes silent while I finish playing. He goes crazy after I eat and after I walk on the treadmill at the gym. I do feel a little funny going to the gym still cause I am only getting bigger and the point of the gym is to get smaller, but I am still trying to go as often as I can and when I am feeling well. It does wear me out for the rest of the day but I am doing something good for me and Mace.

I start birthing classes in just a couple of weeks so that will be exciting. I also got a tour of the hospital after my last monthly check-up and that was very surreal for me. It was weird thinking that in just a few months I will be in there and will have a new little life to take care of. My last prenatal appointment went really well. The doc is happy with my weight gain, which I am indifferent about, and he said that the contractions I am having a perfectly normal and he is glad that I am having them cause they are getting my body ready for D-Day. Also he said that the size of my uterus is right on track and everything is perfect! So perfect in fact that at 30 weeks pregnant I am still having appointments every 4 weeks when usually they change to every 2 weeks. I am just so glad that everything is going well.

This last weekend I had the baby room and the other bedrooms and guest bath painted along with having our pergola stained out back. The baby's room is all ready for Mason to get here. I will post pix but I am waiting for some other artwork to arrive before I post the final pix of Mason's room up.

I will stop teaching next month and will have a few weeks off before the baby gets here so I can prep everything and me for it and also spend some time with Matt when he gets home. But really this past month didn't fly by is kind of crept by and I am enjoying being pregnant and getting to know what Mason likes.

~32 Weeks Pregnant~

30 Weeks

I just wanted to post a fun pix! So Matt requested that when I take my weekly pix to send to him that I use the same shirt so that he can "really" see the changes in my belly and it is a good control. So I thought I would have fun and wear one of his regular T-Shirts. I sent this pix to Matt and the first thing he says is, "YOU'RE STRETCHING MY SHIRT!!!" No I did not take offense to this because that is exactly why I took the pix and I wanted to see what he would say. He then said how HOT I looked pregnant and that it was actually a really great pix and he could really tell that, yes I AM PREGNANT! Anyways I just wanted to share our fun little story and the pix!

I am starting to get excited because in less that 10 weeks Mason will be here. I am a little nervous too for the the big changes that will happen in my life as I don't really know what to expect. I still have to have the baby's room painted and put the curtains up, but really I am almost done. I am starting to get that nesting itch because everything I look at in my house just doesn't seem clean enough to me, but I am trying to put off cleaning until I really can't stand it anymore. Not "cleaning" cleaning but the DEEP CRAZY Cleaning that I know I will get.

Things are still going well with the pregnancy. Just getting stronger Braxton Hicks contractions especially when I exercise. That is really how I know that yep this is really happening!

This past Sat, my Studio had the 4th annual Spring Recital. All of my students did so well performing. I even played my horn as a duet with my two players so the parents got to hear me perform. Mason got in on the action too, cause I had a contraction during the first duet. But all the kids did so well and we all had a fun time. Now that the recital is done, and symphony is done, and I was released from being a counselor in the Relief Society, I feel like I can actually relax and take a deep breath. It is kind of weird but nice.

Matt is doing well and looking forward to being a daddy. We are hoping and praying now, and I am telling Mason everyday many times during the day that he needs to arrive while daddy is here. Matt is going to be deployed to Iraq on the 21st of July so we are hoping that he is here for the birth. He will be, he will be here for the birth! So if you could keep us in your thoughts and prayers for that too.

That's all here! I will post again soon at 8 months!!!! CRAZY!

7 months Pregnant!

I can not believe that I am 7 months pregnant. I am trying to do a post every month so that I have a record of it and so you can see how much I have changed in the last month. I am excited for April to be done and over with. This week is concert week for me, my final concert week of the season, and the Studio Spring Recital is a week from Saturday too! Once these are done I will finally feel like I can RELAX and take it easy for the first time since I have been pregnant.

Monthly facts:

I am suffering from Seasonal Allergies, again, and I can't take anything for it so it kind of sucks but they hit later in the season than normal.

Mason is super ACTIVE! He likes to attack me from the inside out, and flip around, and do all sorts of fun stuff that makes me wince all the time.

He LOVES music! If I play music on my computer he goes crazy. Playing in Symphony and Ensemble he goes crazy for just a bit and then sleeps thru the rest of the rehearsal unless there is a low "boom" then he wakes up and goes crazy! He also likes to migrate to the right side of my belly when I am playing, which is the side that my bell is on. I think he likes the sound. Sometimes he even likes to thrash around to my playing. It is very amusing to feel his movements.

I was sleeping well at night up until just a couple weeks ago, and now I am back to how I was in the first trimester, having to get up all the time in the middle of the night, and I know that it is only going to be getting worse.

I also just started to have lower back pain too which isn't fun but I know that my body is doing what it is supposed to and is getting ready for what will happen in 2 months.

Also my belly just totally shifted in the last week. It is lower and more full now than it was last week. I feel like I actually look pregnant now and not just carrying around a little extra fluff.

Archer is also adjusting to being a big brother. He has been super protective of me over the past few months, more so than normal and he really does like kids. A friend of mine brought her little boy over and he is 9 months old. Archer went an got his fav toy and brought it for the little boy to play with him. It was totally cute!

Well, that is all I can really think of for now. I am really enjoying being pregnant. All these crazy changes going on with me are amazing to experience that the human female body can do them for just a short amount of time and then go back to how it was after the baby is out. It really is a miracle the process of making a child. I am so thankful that I get to experience this for myself! Till next time!

~28 Weeks Pregnant~

6 Months!

I seriously can not, can not believe it. I am 24 weeks pregnant. 6 months! After years of trying and wishing and hoping it is still hard for me to believe that I am pregnant. Yes I know I can feel him moving, all the time but still it is weird thinking that in just a few months from now my life as I knew it is going to be completely different.

I am still trying to stay active. I am exercising 3-4 days a week, trying to up it to 4-5 days a week, but there is always something stopping me or making it difficult for me to get to the gym. I am staying busy with teaching, playing in the Charlottesville Symphony, and the UVA Horn Ensemble, also with my calling in church. I only have one more concert series left for the Symphony and the Horn Ensemble's concert is in a few weeks. The studio's spring recital is also just a month away so we are busy here with preparing the student's for the spring recital.

I also have a doula that will assist me during the labor and birth of Mason. A doula is just a birthing assistant who is trained in the art of helping women birth their baby, by helping the mother thru the different stages of labor and also helps the spouse to know what to do to assist the mother. She makes sure that I am comfortable, well as comfortable as I can be. And will assist in Nursing the baby after he is born. I am so excited to have someone tell me exactly what my body is going through and how to get thru it. Right now, I am still wanting to do a natural un-medicated childbirth, but if I induce the labor that might change. We shall see what happens in aprox. 111 days from now. Anyhew, here is a pix of me at 24 weeks. I am going to try and post a pix of me and the changes every 4 weeks.

Info about Mason:

He is SUPER Active. I guess starting at 28-30 weeks I have to start counting his kicks and the goal is to have 10 kids in 2 hours. I did that today and I had 10 kicks in less than 10 minutes. He is still pretty small and has plenty of room to move around in but still he is very active. He kicks me when I am not at the gym. The other day at the time I usually go to the gym and had been for a couple days in a row, when I wasn't there he started kicking me like crazy. So hopefully he will be a health nut when he is older. He loves music and kicks me like crazy during Symphony especially when the lower instruments start to play very loudly.

He is measuring a little bigger than my original due date of July 26th. In January based on the size of him the Docs moved my due date to the 20th and now based off the ultrasound on the 2nd of March he was measuring for the 18th of July. We shall see when he makes his debut.

His room is almost completed. The closet organizer has arrived and in Mid April I have a company coming out to paint his room, the guest room, the office and the guest bathroom. Plus finish staining the pergola for us. After that everything will be up on the walls and ready to go. The wall color will be a light yellow and there are apple green gingham curtains, lamp shade, and basket covers. Also the furniture is espresso in color, well you saw the pix of the furniture already.

I had my first baby shower in AZ earlier this month and I am so grateful for the wonderful gifts that we received and all the gift cards. I have 2 more big ones here in VA and the Horn ensemble is also having a end of the year party/baby shower for me after our concert. Crazy. Mason is already loved by many and excited by all. Thank you everyone! Here is the pix for you to see with my changes.

~24 Weeks~

20 Weeks

I can't believe that I am actually writing this! I am 20 weeks pregnant and halfway there. I am soooo excited to meet our little guy. Oh and that's right GUY! He is a HE! Yea! Matt is super excited and is calling him his "Man Child".

A Couple of fun facts with this pregnancy:

I started to feel like I was pregnant, and not just fat at around 16 weeks.

I felt him kick for the first time, and knew it was him kicking on Feb 12th during my symphony concert. I had just finished my solo and my heart was going crazy fast and hard and he gave me a big, WHOP telling me to calm down, mommy, or good job mommy! Either way it was special and I am so excited that it happened. Since then, I have felt him almost everyday because I know where to feel it now. I love it.

Last Friday night on our date I felt the first somersault, and then again right after that. It was really fun to feel him playing inside.

Today March 2nd, we found out for sure that he was a HE and we have the pix to prove it.

I have been feeling great, just the normal stuff associated with pregnancy have been making me take it more easy, like tired all the time, but I really do, do a lot of things everyday. Other than that, no morning sickness and feeling great now! Alright, here are the pix you are all waiting for.

~IT'S A BOY~

~16 Weeks~

~18 Weeks~

~20 Weeks~

Moving Right Along

I really am trying to be better at updating this and keeping everyone in the loop on things going on. Not too much has changed. We find out if the baby is in fact a boy or a girl on the 2nd of March, so that will be a big post. We have, however, finished cleaning the baby's room. We also have assembled the bookshelf that will sore the diapers and wipes for the next few months. We also just set up the crib. It is so much bigger than I thought that it would have been. But it is so nice and matches the bookshelf really well! It is now starting to make things set in that it is actually happening. As my belly is getting bigger, and I think that I felt the baby for the first time last week, this is really happening! It is such an exciting and weird feeling knowing that in 5 months my life is going to be totally different and we will have a new little miracle in this world.

Second Trimester

So I am in my 12th or 13th week now. It is kind of unknown at this point because of an ultrasound I had done on the 7th of Jan, it put the size of the baby as being in the 12th week, which bumped my due date up a week. So I am under the impression of the new ultrasound, hence if you watched my tickers at all, they jumped one day by a week So my new due date is the 20th-26th as we are calling it in our house. Only cause we know the exact date that the baby was "created" due to the procedures that we did.

Anyhew. I am glad that the first trimester and all the worries that come along with it are finally behind me. I have been worried about "something" happening, but I try everyday to be excited about actually being pregnant. I didn't have ANY morning sickness at all, seriously! I had maybe 2 days that I felt sick, but I think I brought that on my own from lack of eating or just worried. I am done with my progesterone pills now and the baby is very happy and healthy.

No I haven't felt the baby yet, however, I do try to everyday, but I just don't know what I am looking for. I do know that it is moving and kicking me cause at the ultrasound on the 7th I totally saw it judo chop kick me! It was actually really funny to see. Tomorrow I am doing the NT ultrasound scan to look for down syndrome, I already know that the baby is fine however it is, I just want to see it again, and they might be able to tell us if it is a boy or girl! YEA! We shall see. Well I also wanted to post the first little pix of our baby plus my first belly shot. Enjoy!

~12 Weeks~