Growing and Growing

So I have this cool app on my phone that alerts me each week letting me know what week I am on and new baby developments.  I thought I would share some of those today because she has come a long way already.

I am 16 weeks!  That means there are only 24 more to go, but who’s counting.  You know what the best part about 16 weeks is?!  This is when I can start feeling movement!!  Oh how I am looking forward to that!  Nothing big at first, just little flutters here and there but I can’t wait! She is about 4.6 inches long (like the size of an iPhone people!) and should weigh around 3.5 ounces.  She most likely weighs a lot more though because at my last appointment two weeks ago, she was already at 3 ounces when she was only supposed to be 1.5.  That worries me… only because I keep seeing people post pics of their newborns that weigh 9 & 10 pounds!!  Umm… for obvious reasons, I would like for this baby to be normal sized.  She is currently growing hair, lashes and eyebrows.  She also is forming tiny bones in her ears so she can listen to us now.  This means that I need to stop singing immediately so she doesn’t learn so early that her mom is a little tone deaf.  Christian on the other hand, needs to start singing to her so she can hopefully absorb his musical talents that we are all a huge fan of. 

How am I doing?  Oh! Thanks for asking. J  I am doing GREAT!! Energy is coming back more and more and I have slept through the night these last 2 nights which means I don’t look like Oscar the Grouch scowling at people all day long.  For a while, I was waking up around 2am and would be wide awake until around 4am.  I was NOT a fan.  If there is anything that people know about me is I must have food and I must have sleep.  Without one of those, I am pretty grumpy.  Speaking of food, I am not really craving anything right now.  Still eat a lot of strawberries and fruit, but not a consistent craving for something specific.  I guess that is a good thing because though I am not full on ‘bumping’ yet, my clothes are starting to get snug.  I have only gained a couple pounds so far so that means the baby is expanding her home.  We all know how a pregnancy belly works… one day you look normal… the next you swallowed a watermelon and you finally look pregnant instead of looking like you just had a big lunch.  Knowing that, Christian took me maternity pants shopping over the weekend.  Some may think that is not fun but c’mon, an excuse to wear stretchy pants for the next 6 months and not be judged?!? Sign. Me. Up!  My one and only complaint about maternity clothes: shouldn’t they be sold at half price since they are only worn for a short period of time?      

On my last post, I mentioned that I am going to have to stay away from stores and limit myself on how many outfits I can buy.  I am happy to report that I have done a good job so far!  I have only purchased a few things.   With that said, this girl’s closet is already filling up!  At this rate, by October she will need some of my closet space too.  I am so grateful for all our wonderful friends and family who have already kept this little one in mind and have made sure she will look adorable.  As for the bigger things… oh man!  There is like a million of everything to choose from and research!  Picking things for a registry will be fun and probably a little time consuming.  Since this is Christian and my first baby together and it’s also been 9 years since Axel was born, we have absolutely no baby items in our home.  Any recommendations about what we should definitely have or even not bother with, let us know. 

Alright… Alright… the moment you have all been waiting for… her name!!  We still have not nailed down her middle name but figured we could go ahead and share her first name which has been decided.  The middle name is taking us some time because we are in between 2 and they both have significant meaning to us.  Before I tell you her name (stop trying to scroll down and cheat!! LOL) I have to tell you how we picked it.  I heard this name a long time ago and it kind of stuck with me.  I ran it by Christian and he was sold.  Once we looked up the meaning and found “intelligence or wisdom of an eagle” we both knew it would be the name because… duh! We are EAGLEstons.  The second best thing about this name is it has a musical meaning too.  An Aria is an elaborate melody sung solo with accompaniment in an opera.  Since Christian is so musical it again only made sense we go with that name.  Ha! You see what I did there… I snuck in the name and you didn’t even realize it until after!  J  That’s right!  Her name is Aria.  Knowing that it’s a girl already made us feel such a connection to this little Princess but now being able to call her by name makes all of this even more real. We love her so much already and can’t believe that we are just a short time away from meeting her.  My next appointment is tomorrow so I should have some more fun updates for you soon.

It's a girl!

Many of you thought it would be a girl and guess what?!  You were right on!  How exciting!!!  How amazing is technology that we are able to find out this early?  Cuh-razy!  Finding out the sex of the baby changes things too.  The baby stops being an “it” and becomes a “she” and I feel like the connection gets a little stronger because I now know more about her.  (This of course would be the same if it were a boy.)  Seems with every ultrasound, you get to learn more, see more and build an even bigger bond and connection.

Now let’s talk about when we found out and how we decided to do our gender reveal.

So we found out on Friday.  The appointment was not rescheduled this time and I was so nervous/excited all day.  Why nervous?  I have no idea, but I was literally shaking in the waiting room.  When we started the ultrasound, this little girl was dancing, practicing acrobatics or something because she was ALL over the place. Just moving and flipping around.  (I wonder if she managed to steal some of that chocolate I was eating before the appointment. Haha.)  J  In the room we had Christian, Me and Axel.  Attending via FaceTime we had my mom, dad and little brother.  It was Axel’s first time seeing an ultrasound and I think that’s when all of this really hit him.  There was actually a baby inside mommy’s tummy!  He was able to recognize some of the things he was seeing too which was building his excitement. “Look! That’s the spine… I see its spine!  Is that a leg?  That’s so cool!”  It was fun watching his reactions.  After the baby stopped flipping around, the ultrasound tech, Carrie, was able to start looking for parts… or lack thereof.  When she found the right angle, she let everyone take a second to see if they could figure it out.  We could barely figure out what we were even looking at so she started to type…”G…I…R…” and my mom started screaming!  Hahaha!!   Carrie did some double and triple checking while we all celebrated and then let us know that she was going to try and get some cute profile pictures of our little girl.  This baby girl had different plans.  Once we saw her…uhhh…parts she clearly wanted to get confrontational with us because she was ‘looking straight at us’.  She looked like a little alien and when she started opening and closing her mouth, Christian was like “That’s creepy”.  LOL It really was.  She moved her hand up and down, to her mouth, put it on her head and wiggled around but never stopped facing us.  So much for the cute profile picture, but we got to see our active baby girl and couldn’t be happier.  Since we were able to find out, we called Christian’s dad right after the appointment and arranged a mini gender reveal party at his house the next day (Saturday).

 

 

I was given a great idea for a gender reveal by a co-worker: fill a big balloon with confetti and have someone pop it.  Sounds good to me!  So we went to a party store and was given a better idea… fill a 3ft balloon with little pink balloons and ribbon.  SOLD! I mean who doesn’t want a 3 foot balloon!?! Oh! I know… my car! I drive a Toyota Corolla and in no way did it have room to fit a 3ft balloon through any of the doors.  Christian was going to make it happen though.  He squeezed that balloon through the doorway while sending Axel and me into panic mode. Like full on panic.  Both of us hate the sound of balloons popping so we were screaming and taking cover.  The 45 minute ride was a little nerve wracking too.  Axel was in the back pressed up against his door trying to be as far from the balloon as possible, bracing himself for the ‘POP’ at any moment.  I was driving like a turtle trying not to hit any bumps causing this balloon to shift in any way.  And Christian… he was laughing the entire ride.  When we got to the Eaglestons, we set up a few decorations along with some snacks and goodies that I had baked earlier that day. We left the giant balloon in the car just in case.  After the grandparents showed up, we invited everyone outside to watch Christian take the balloon out of the car just in case it popped.  We didn’t want to waste the awesome surprise! J  Luckily, with some gentle prodding the balloon made it out! Phew!  After gathering back in the house, we took another poll.  The general vote: girl!  We had Christian’s dad be the official balloon popper.  His first attempt was a little too gentle and the balloon barely moved.  The second attempt was a full blown success…get it?? Full BLOWN? C’mon, you know you laughed a little.  The initial reaction was silence as everyone took a second to take in the many pink balloons that popped out of the big one.  Then… pure excitement!!  And that excitement just continues as we share the news with more friends and family.  Here is the video of the reveal.  (You can only see it on a computer.  If you try on a phone or tablet, it won't work.... sorry)

 

 

We have been so blessed this year and are so grateful for this baby girl coming into our family.  She is already so loved.  My goal at this point is to stay away from all stores.  I am also going to work on a limit of how many outfits I am allowing myself to buy before she is born.  I have to remind myself… it’s a baby not a baby doll to dress up and change every 5 minutes. I remember with Axel, I bought him so many clothing items that he wasn’t even able to wear some things.  I am most looking forward to the daddy/daughter bond that Christian and our baby girl will develop.  Being a daddy’s girl myself, I know it will be something special.  In the upcoming weeks I should start to feel some flutters of movement and I can’t wait!  It’s the coolest feeling to feel your baby move.  It’s also a little creepy if you think too much about it. Ha! We have a name picked out for her already but we are nailing down which middle name we want to go with so as soon as we make that decision, we will be happy to share it with all of you.

2nd Trimester begins... :)

It's official!  I have started the 2nd trimester.  Woot Woot!  That means this little guy/girl is a third of the way baked. :)  The baby is now about 3.4 inches long and weighs about 1.5 oz.  Isn't that insane?!  It's like I take miracle grow for vitamins or something.  My cravings are shrimp (yes, still want shrimp fajitas) and fruit.  I have OJ every morning and strawberries and watermelon seem to be calling my name.

Oh! Speaking of OJ, let me brag about my wonderful husband for a minute.  So a few weeks ago, I started this routine of having a muffin and OJ every morning.  We have a little store downstairs where I work and I would run down there as soon as I got in, grab my juice and muffin and was as happy as a kid on Christmas.  But after a week.... I noticed a camera in the little store (it's an automated pay system so there aren't people in there)... and for some reason... I got SUPER embarrassed.  I called Christian and was like "these people think I am a fatty! They see me in there every single day and I am never going back."  Christian as level headed as always reassured me "Babe, you are giving them business.  They could care less".  This didn't work for me.  I said I wasn't going down there again even though I really really wanted my OJ and muffin.  (Side note:  I had been a bit on the over reactive, moody, emotional side due to my awesome hormones.  I am happy to report that it is starting to balance out. I am so happy about that because there is nothing worse than knowing you are acting irrationally and not being able to control it very well.)  So after work, I go home, hang out with my family and go to bed.  The next morning, I woke up, got ready and went to go pack my lunch.  When I opened the fridge... there was OJ galore.  All handy for me to grab and go!  And when I looked at the counter... muffins!!  My sweet, patient and loving husband had gone to the grocery store after I went to bed and stocked up on these things for me!  He knew that I was stubborn enough not to go into that store again. Ha!  it made my morning... week... month!  He is just the best and I am so lucky that he is mine. <3

 

So last week, I mentioned that I had an appointment on Friday to find out if we were having a girl or boy.  Well... that morning, I received a call saying the ultrasound tech was really sick and needed to reschedule her appointments for the day. WHAT?!  Sick?! Doctors and people who work in hospitals don't get sick!! HA! just kidding.  Of course they do!  Which is why I was totally ok with rescheduling to this Friday.  Let's just hope this little one cooperates and let's us see.  :)   While we wait to find out officially, I thought it would be fun to share some results to old wives tales I found.  I don't really believe that any of these actually work but I still like doing it.

Looks like we are pretty even here! With girl being slightly in the lead.  Any predictions?  Let us know, would love to hear them!

From the beginning...

Like most newlyweds, I had every intention on starting this blog to post fun stories about Christian and my new adventures and experiences.  Of course 3 and a half years later you can see just how good I got at making it actually happen.  HA!

By now you have heard the great news though… we are having our first baby together!! Woo Hoo!! I figured since this baby will be “Newly Eagleston” as well and we have a lot of family that lives so far, we could attempt to start this blog thing again.  This way, we can give our friends and family updates without making everyone on Facebook suffer through a million posts they really could probably care less about.  So let’s get it started!  Let me first say that I write how I talk so please excuse any random babbling.

I will start from the beginning which will probably make this a super long post.  I promise not all of them will be like this, but we have 13 weeks to cover.

We found out I was pregnant on Feb 6^th and it’s been a so hard to keep this secret!  The reason we decided to wait had a lot to do with Axel.  He had been praying for a brother or sister every night.  So I had a realistic talk with him (as I usually do) and told him “ok, there is a time in pregnancy where it’s possible that a baby could not make it.  When we get pregnant do you want me to tell you as soon as I know and if something happens we get through it together OR do you want me to wait until the ‘safe zone’ to tell you?”  His response was a classic Axel response.  He said “No, wait until everything is ok.  It would hurt my heart too bad if I knew something happened.”  (I know… sweetest kid ever!)  So his request was granted.  It wouldn’t make sense to tell everyone except him so we opted to tell just my parents and Christian’s parents.  (Side note: I am SO proud of my mom for keeping it to herself.  She was going to explode at any moment!) 

Now let’s get into the excitement… the symptoms.  So at about 5 weeks the dreaded morning sickness hit me.  Fun fact about me: I HATE and I mean HATE throwing up and will do anything and everything in my power to avoid it.  The nausea came in waves but I managed to survive it since I found a few things that cured it for me… pickles, pink lemonade and mint gum.  When one wouldn’t work, I would move on to the next.  If the three of those didn’t work, I immediately put myself to sleep.  A trip to the toilet just wasn’t going to happen if I could help it at all.  Christian was my rock during this time.  I was more of a ‘suffer silently’ type.  No one wants to hear someone complain all the time and since no one knew, I kept it to myself…. Except for Christian.  I would let him know when I felt bad and BAM… a bowl of pickles showed up next me.  And I think he bought every pink lemonade in existence to figure out which one I liked best.  He’s amazing!  Even though I did get sick often, it was WAY and I mean WAY better than my pregnancy with Axel (which I was constantly going to the hospital for dehydration because I couldn’t even keep water down).  Throughout the entire process of morning sickness I just kept reminding myself… sickness equals a good sign… there is still a baby in there (more about this shortly).  I think the hardest part about it all was having to work through the sickness and exhaustion.  I mean c’mon, we should get 2 leaves, one to get through the first trimester in the comfort of our own home, and then after we have the baby of course.

Around 11 weeks, my symptoms started to really subside.  Instead of getting happy about that… I got ridiculously paranoid.  Why am I not sick?  Why do I feel like I have a little more energy today?  Is something wrong?  UGH!  This paranoia is 100% due to the fact that back in September I had a miscarriage.  I know… I know… you just sighed and felt sad because you didn’t know.  It was something I didn’t feel like I wanted to share.  For the most part, I am a pretty private person when it comes to things like that.  I realize now that I should be more open about it.  So many women go through it and they too keep it to themselves and suffer silently.  We shouldn’t have to.  We should be able to have full support because it is SO NOT easy!  It’s one of the hardest losses I have ever had to deal with actually.  We were sad but in the end I prayed the hardest I have ever prayed for help to get through it.  I also turned the faith switch on and thought ‘Heavenly Father has a plan and a baby couldn’t happen for us right now so I just need to have faith that it will happen again and that He knows what’s best for me’.  Funny how when I turned it over to Him, all got better.  I started to look at things differently.  Christian and I had been trying to have a baby for 2 years with no success… BUT this was a sign that it could and would happen for us.  Anyway, back to the paranoia.  So when the symptoms started fading, I immediately thought everything was wrong again.  I was soooo anxious for my 12 week appointment and it was a week away!!  Ugh!

So we finally get to our 2^nd ultrasound at 12 weeks.    And guess what?!  There was the sweetest little heart beating on the screen letting me know “I’m ok mom!”  I was so happy and got to enjoy the rest of the ultrasound.  One thing we noticed is that the baby is STUBBORN already and it’s only 2.5 inches big.  Sucking on its thumb/hand already and didn’t stop no matter how many times the ultrasound tech poked and pushed.  She even had me cough hard and wiggle around.  Baby would move but never took the hand away from its mouth enough for the tech to get the picture she wanted.  I thought the picture still turned out cute.

 

So after that appointment, we were given the green light and decided it was time to tell Axel.  On April 2^nd we gave him an Easter egg from us with a little note inside saying “Baby Eagleston hatching October 2015”.  It went right over his head.  He was like “ok… great… thanks?”  We had to explain what it meant and then he was excited.  Now he can’t wait! He took pics with the ultrasound pic and off went the announcements to our closest friends and family members that live far away.  We wanted all of them to know first before making a general announcement.  Family members and friends in TX received an egg like Axel’s but of course they were able to understand it when they read it.  Haha!

This brings us to today!  I am 13 weeks which is the last week in the first trimester.  Baby is about the size of a peach at this point (2.9inches and .5oz).  My morning sickness is almost non-existence… woo hoo!!  My current symptoms right now are more exhaustion and acne! ß I mean I look like a 12 year old all over again.  I am craving shrimp fajitas… like ALL THE TIME!  And watermelon too.  But shrimp fajitas… mmmm!!  Not showing yet.  Let’s be honest, I am a little overweight so it’s going to take a little longer for me to show.  We are looking forward to finding out if it’s a girl or boy on Friday!  The ultrasound tech said it may be a little early still but we will try and look.  If we find out, we will definitely be following the same pattern and letting family and friends know first before making an announcement about it.  Love you all!!