Thursday, September 29, 2011

A Good Cause

This weekend, an organization called Mutual Ground is having an event to raise money for victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse.  I am participating in this in memory of Andrea Will, the sister of my good friend Jessica.  She was murdered by her ex-boyfriend when she was just 19.  By supporting Mutual Ground, we hope to prevent the same fate for another woman in an abusive situation.

If you want to participate, or just make a donation, follow the link below. 

http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/kristinacollins/mutualgroundswalkforhopeandfunrun?utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=share&utm_source=at-facebook&utm_content=eua#.ToSElLvNj6A.facebook

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Kicks and 18 weeks

Today the little one is 18 weeks along and the size of a bell pepper.  Yesterday, I felt what I know was for sure kicks.  How did I know?  Because the peanut was kicking my bladder -- nothing else could make the feeling I had except little feet or hands having a party down there.  So that's very exciting, even if slightly uncomfortable (I have been assured by mothers that I should just wait, what I think is uncomfortable now is nothing compared to what is coming :) ).

New bump picture to come soon!

Monday, September 26, 2011

A Life Saver

This weekend (well, actually, it was Friday, but I was off work, so it counts as the weekend) I went to visit my friend, Jessica, and her two boys (one of which is pictured in an older post, little Mr. Brody who was born a few weeks ago).  In addition to our lovely visit, she lent me a giant bin of maternity clothes.  I finally had a chance to go through them and holy crap, I'm set!  I think there are more clothes in there than in my entire normal wardrobe.  It must also be mentioned that Jessica has a great sense of style, so all the clothes are cute, too :)  Thanks Jess!  What a big help!!!

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Seriously!!

Have you seen a cuter face??

The Cutest

Doesn't she just make you want to snuggle :)


17 weeks and 3 days

I'm a little behind, whoops!  So 17 weeks is half past.  I'm feeling pretty good.  I've had a lot of tummy aches owning to the large amount of gas that has taken up residence in my abdomen.  I'm trying to eat lots of fiber and drink lots of water, which is supposed to help, but I'm not convinced it is.  Good thing for Chris the gas does not (or at least has not yet) translated to stinky farts.  I wish it would though, it would probably help the tummy aches.  I've been gaining weight back, and I think I've gotten to the steady pace I'm supposed to be at.  Flutterings have been happening more often, so that's exciting (whoa, actually just had one right now...must be that bagel I just ate)!  Our ultrasound to check out the development of the peanut and to find out if it is a boy or a girl is only 3 weeks away!  We can't wait! 

Here's this week's belly picture.  I'm really starting to show (however, it must be noted that I was a little bloated when this picture was taken and the maternity jeans I have on seemed to push the bump up a little)

Please excuse my not so cuteness...this was first thing in the morning.  PS..that glow I'm supposed to have, well I think it's a load of crap!  I have no glow...in fact, I just look zitty.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Sixteen Weeks and a Visit from the Fire Department

Hooray, we've made it to 16 weeks.  I'm not sure why this seemed like a big deal to me...maybe because it is divisible by 4?  Who knows.  Anyway, we're here.  The books says the baby should be able to hear my voice now, and there's a chance I could feel it.  I've been laying really still at night waiting for something, but I'm just not sure.  I've felt a few things that could have maybe been the baby, but I just don't know.  Guess I'll have to wait for it to get stronger.  I'm for sure showing now, although a friend at work told me that if you didn't know I was pregnant, you wouldn't realize I was.  You be the judge.  I actually got a picture taken this week.  I made Chris take it right before we left for work this morning.


Hooray for maternity clothes!  I love long shirts!
And now, on to the visit from the fire department.  So, the saga beings this weekend.  At about 10:30 on Saturday night, our smoke detector in the upstairs hallway goes off.  As I was not cooking and Daisy was not playing with matches, this seemed odd.  It said move to clean air, which to me said UT OH, carbon monoxide (as we discovered that the smoke detector was also a carbon monoxide detector).  All our windows were open, so again, it seemed strange.  I called my brother, Christopher, a.k.a. Fire Fighter LaFleur.  He said that if you look on the back of the smoke detector, it will tell you the beep codes.  Well, it said for carbon monoxide, it would beep 4 times, and we were pretty sure it only was beeping 3 times.  He also said we could take it outside to let it air out, and then bring it back in and see what happened, but if we were concerned, just to call the fire department.  So, we took out the battery and went to bed.

Fast forward to last night.  Chris got new batteries for the smoke alarms, put them in around 8 pm and all was well.  At about 9 pm, the dang thing starts going off again, but this time, it's 4 beeps.  So now I'm like the baby is going to die of carbon monoxide poisoning.  Chris tells me I need to relax, that it's probably not a big deal, but I'm good at being irrational.  He resets it and we go to bed later.  Then, at 11:50, that dang things starts going off again.  So I'm like, we have deadly carbon monoxide leaking in our house and it's going to kill us, Daisy and the baby.  I forgot to mention that we also have an ADT alarm system that includes a carbon monoxide detector, but it's all the way in the basement next to the hot water heater.  This detector was not going off, but as it was so far away, I didn't consider it relevant.  Regardless, I had Chris call ADT to see what the likelyhood of one going off and not the other.  They weren't that helpful.  So, I called the non-emergency fire department number (restraint, right!  I could have called 911 right away and freaked out to dispatch), spoke with a nice fire fighter at Station 1.  He said that since it had gone off twice, it was a legitimate concern, and while they did not like to give advice over the phone, if we were concerned, calling 911 was a good idea.  So I called 911 and a few minutes later, 3 gentlemen from the Aurora Fire Department arrived (sans lights and sirens, thank goodness).  Our carbon monoxide level was at zero.  Chalk this one up to a detector that needed airing out.  He did say, however, that they had seen a lot of similar calls with our brand of detector, and that he didn't like that one.  Moral of the story, it's better to be safe than sorry, but it sucks when the fire department is at your house at 12:30 on a Tuesday night.  At least Daisy got to meet some firemen.  And then she pooped on the carpet.  Thankfully, she waited until they left.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Maternity Clothes

I finally bought some maternity clothes this weekend, and I am asking myself, "Why, oh WHY didn't I buy these a month ago??"  And I am totally over-riding my uncomfortableness with leggings because they are the MOST COMFORTABLE THINGS EVER (and totally derserve all caps).  As long as I have a shirt on to cover my behind, I am so down with the leggings, even if I do still feel a little uncomfortable.  I'm pregnant, I get to do what I want :)  But seriously, I think I'm going to have a hard time giving up maternity jeans after I'm done being pregnant...they look totally like normal jeans, but surprise, they have a soft elastic waist instead of an uncomfortable one...and no more fumbling with a button and zipper!  Think about those times when you really have to pee and just can't get your pants unbuttoned.  Not a problem in these jeans!

I also got a few cute shirts, however I totally forgot to get what I really needed, work pants.  Although I'll probably have to order them online anyway, since the maternity section at my Old Navy, which I'm lucky to have at all, is very, very small.  At least I know what size to get.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Fifteen Weeks!

One more week down.  I think I have returned to feeling fairly normal.  Obviously, there are a few changes (I get up once a night to pee and my pants don't want to button, for example), but I no longer feel a need to sleep 16 hours straight or like returning the food I had previously consumed.  So, this is good.  I was told that the second trimester was good, and I was hoping it would be true!

So, to return to the pants issue.  I think I'm just going to have to suck it up and get some maternity pants.  I've been wearing one of those bands, but it really doesn't work for me.  Due to my build, which is, as my husband decided, like the top half of one person and the bottom half of another stuck together (which is totally true), the band does not want to stay on my bottom half, but roll up to my top half, thus rendering it completely ineffective.  Every time I stand up, I have to pull it back down and readjust everything.  But I don't know if maternity clothes will work quite yet.  I'm still in that stage where I don't look pregnant, just like I had a big lunch or maybe I drink too much beer.

We took a belly picture last night, but when I put it in here, it was all blurry, so we'll have to try again tonight.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Busy, Busy Weekend

Whew, what a weekend!  Chris and I had a fun-filled weekend full of activities. 

Saturday, we were off to Indiana for his friend Danielle's wedding.  It was a beautiful backyard wedding.  There was a picture perfect "chapel" made in the trees with candles hanging from the branches.  We all sat on bails of hay with quilts on top for the ceremony.  For the reception, there was a huge tent with tables with the cutest centerpieces -- there were about 3 inch sections of a huge log in the center, and then vases with a couple different flower arrangements.  Our table had huge green hydrangeas, so pretty!  And we had an excellent taco dinner -- I wish I could have eaten more!  And after dinner, we lit chinese lanterns that floated into the sky.  Such a great night!  I only wish I hadn't forgotten my camera so I had some pictures...so I stole some from Lisa :)



Sunday, we were up early to head back home.  Kelly's wedding shower was at 11:30 (thank goodness we gained an hour coming back).  We got home around 10:15.  Bethanne (who had stayed with Miss Daisy the night we were gone) and I got ourselves ready and headed out.  We had a great lunch and some fantasic present opening.  And there were some VERY tasty cupcakes :)  Again, forgot my camera, so no pictures.

After that, we went back to my house, and a little rest, changed, and headed downtown for Kelly's bachelorette party.  So fun!  Bridget got us a fantastic room at the Dana Hotel, and we headed to Sushi Samba Rio for dinner.  After that, it was back to the hotel for some quality girl time and more presents!  Two of us are pregnant, so Kim and I got to sleep on the bed, which was pretty much like sleeping on a cloud :)  The next morning, we had some breakfast and headed home.

Another exciting development this weekend...my friend Jessica had her baby! Brody Lucas McCabe was born September 10, weighing in at 10 lbs 1 oz and 22 inches long (my mom said I was 22 inches long at a year!).  I went to visit her Monday afternoon and see the little guy.  What a cutie pie! 

Look at those cheeks!!  Don't you just want to pinch them?!


We had some nice visiting time, but then I headed home to get Chris and celebrate another occasion.  It's my mom's birthday today!  We took her out for birthday dinner Monday night.  She wanted Mexican, so we headed to El Taco Grande.  She even put on her pary shoes and ordered a margarita (that was only half drank by the end of the evening).  I was falling asleep at the table, so we headed out soon after we finished eating.

What a weekend!

Doctor Visit #4

NOTE: Totally forgot to publish this last week, it should have been up on Friday....aaaand I also didn't take a 14 week picture...15 week will definitely be done!

I had my next doctor's appointment today.  All is looking well.  I'm gaining back the weight I lost in the first trimester (my good eating skills are helping out with that.)  My uterus is where it should be (poking out up above my hips) and the baby's heart rate was 156.  Chris got to come with this time, so he got to hear the baby's heart beat for the first time.  He was amazed at how fast it was and how much different it sounded from mine.

My next blood test is coming up...this one to test for spina biffita.  And I got the go ahead to schedule our 20 week ultrasound!  That's the big one...they'll count fingers and toes and tell us what the sex is.  Chris can't wait for that!

You can definitely tell something is going on now.  If you saw me on the street, you might just think I had a pudgy tummy, but if you know me, you can tell I'm showing a bit.  I haven't taken my 14 week belly picture yet...I'll try and get that done today :)