Monday, February 28, 2011

Baby girl, we will meet you by the weekend!

Brynlee, You are doing well in there! After extremely long talks and decision making your dad and I, we have chosen to get induced Friday March 4th at 10:00am! We cannot wait to meet you baby girl! Now treat your mamma good and come out quick, safe and healthy! :) Love you so much already!

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Goodbye Maricopa... Hello Mesa!


Sheppard Ave... You are our future home!

We are so excited to share the news! We are moving! Are we crazy? Yeah probably :) Moving and becoming new parents... well we will take the challenge!

Pulte at Bella Via is the community name and guess what, WERE BUILDING! From ground zero... nadda.. nothing but dirt! :)

So here's the scoop... the house will take 5-7 months to build giving us a completion estimate of August 2011. In the meantime we will of course, have a baby and sell our current house!

We won't be listing our current home till May timeframe giving us 4 months to sell. Our realtor is confident that we will be able to sell in that timeframe and we are in agreement with him on that! With the summer approaching in May, school years ending and the things we have going for us in the current home, it shouldn't take too long to sell. And to our advantage, we won't be a foreclosure or short sale... so an EASY buy for buyers vs. working with banks etc.

The new house is....... AMAZING. The basics are this: 2700 Sq feet. 4 bedroom, 3.5 bath, den and loft. The master bedroom is downstairs while the other 3 bedrooms and loft are upstairs. We loved this feature because we know as we grow as a family we will want to be downstairs and the kids upstairs. The best part is the amazing great room. The loft overlooks the great room downstairs which has 25 feet ceilings. Their, amazing. Huge windows and open floor concept. The house also has a nice big island which we can seat 4 barstools and has a seperate dining room. Two of the bedrooms upstairs also has a jack and jill bathroom so the "kids" can share while the guests have their own bedroom and bath on the other side of the upstairs. This house has everything we could have asked for and more.

Most of you dont even know we have been in the market for a bit now! It has been in the talks for a while. The big decision was to either go the resale home route or new build. After long talks, we decided new build was best for us with the timeframe and being able to "design" our home. For the same price of a resale we could get a new build with everything we chose. We chose a corner lot that is also apart of a culdesac.

I wanted to take a picture of the "dirt" lot, but it was dark by the time we left tonight! So pictures will be posted as the house is being built. And a picture of the dirt lot will be posted as soon as we make it back out there. I gotta have this baby in the meantime!!!

Some people may think were crazy for moving so soon after buying our first home. But with the market the way it is, the fact we can get out of our house now without having to write a check, and the prices of new builds, and interest rates, it really made sense for us. We wanted a house we can truly grow in as a family. Might as well get it now while its CHEAP and the market is still a buyers market!

Were stoked!!! :)

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

A note to Brynlee & Connor

Some of you may have seen my Facebook post this morning in regards to Connor and his 1ST BIRTHDAY coming up!

"Thinking about Connor and his upcoming 1ST BIRTHDAY and how his baby cousin will be here so soon. I cannot wait to see their relationship grow over years. Brynlee has no idea how lucky she is to have such an amazing cousin already. I hope they teach eachother amazing things in life, they can both learn from eachother. And I hope Brynn has half the fight Connor does in her, because he is the biggest fighter I know! :)"


I just wanted to expand on this a bit. And I also wanted it to make the blog for them to read later in life!


Connor was born on March 8th, 2010 and when Ryan and I found out we were pregnant we were happy to announce our due date of March 11th, 2011. My sister and I had talked before I got pregnant and she thought it would be "so cool" if Connor and cousin were close in age. Never did we think the due date would be 3 days off of Connor's birthday!


So how awesome would this be? Connor and Brynlee share the same birthday! My sister and I are twins (as you all know) so for us to share the same birthday and then our first babies share the same birthday would be so neat! I guess that is up to Brynn though and when she decides she wants to come. Either way, no matter what, it'll be close! They will always share that special time of year together. Granted I am sure Brynlee will want her girly parties and Connor to have his parties all about trucks, they will always share a spring birthday.


If I can say one word about Connor it would be: Amazing. He truly is AMAZING. When my sister found out that Connor may have down syndrome, it changed our family and all of our thoughts during her pregnancy. Always the "what if he does" talk. And then when he arrived on that amazing day, March 8th at around 5:30pm... and he did in fact have down syndrome, he changed our life. I think Connor has been a blessing to our family. He has brought our family closer together than ever before. Have I mentioned how much of a fighter he is? Wow. He has had quite the year to say the absolute least. When I see people complain about their babies being sick, I always think of Connor and what he has had to go through, and I think they should be so very thankful. Of course, any baby that is sick with the flu or an ear infection is not fun, but imagine half of your first year in the hospital. And when he goes there these days, the nurses recognize him and stop by to say "hi". He's a frequent visitor. But he's better off there getting better and continues to fight every day.


Brynlee, I hope you learn from Connor. I know you will. I know you will teach him amazing things, possibly even how to walk one day! You guys will probably be developing at close rates for a while so I hope you guys learn from eachother. When you get older, I want you to know and understand how amazing of a guy he is. He has down syndrome, yes, but that only makes him more awesome! The kid always has a smile on his face even when he feels down and out. He can light up the room that anybody walks into, and I dont see this changing, ever. I hope you guys love eachother endlessly.


Oh and your Aunt, Savannah. She has the same one word as Connor does, AMAZING. To be doing what she has done as a single mother is nothing short of that word. So learn from her too!


I cannot wait to see thier relationship blossom, I really cant!

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

38 Week Belly...

Remember my last post... watermelon belly? Well here it is! Looks like quite the watermelon if ya ask me! :) When they say that the last few weeks of pregnancy is the hardest it is no joke! Tick tock... the countdown is truly on... any day now for Miss Brynlee! We cannot wait! :)





Friday, February 18, 2011

Watermelon Belly


According to thebump.com Brynlee is the size of a watermelon. Yes, you heard me right, a WATERMELON. And that is exactly what it feels like, like I am carrying a watermelon around on my belly.

When I first got pregnant I was posting weekly what "fruit" Brynlee was the size of... I always found myself looking ahead to the next week, like what fruit will she be next, and it always made me excited when I saw she would be a raspberry next, and then a date, etc etc... I did look once to full term and saw it was the size of a watermelon... and I never thought I would get there!

Now here we are, in our 38th week... and she's the size of one! A yummy juicy watermelon!!! :) I had some this morning in celebration of her watermelon size by the way. Not only is she the size of one, but I also feel like one... the swelling is getting out of control! My weight has stayed at exactly what I wanted gaining right around 30 lbs! Docs are happy about it and so am I! Hopefully since I have maintained being active throughout pregnancy that after she's born and I can work out again, I can shed these pounds!

I cant believe how soon she is going to be here! It still seems very surreal to me. We are headed into a 3-day weekend and have lots of plan to enjoy it! Tomorrow night we are headed back to the improv with two amazing friends Breanna and Mike, to see Harland Williams, should be a ton of fun! Sunday I have a bridal shower for my cousin to be Jessica Jacobs! And Monday we have a doctors appointment... thinking progress :)

Soon enough we will have this sweet baby girl in our arms, and we cannot WAIT! :)

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Friday, February 11, 2011

Some final thoughts on pregnancy....

Being that Brynlee can realisticly come any day now, I wanted to get out some final thoughts on pregnancy. In 2010 I printed my blog into a book, and I plan to do that for each year that I blog so that she can have some memories to look back onto, I would have loved if my mom did this for me! I am sure the blog will change many times over the year as the family grows, we move into a bigger house etc, but it will be so neat to show her one day!

So on that note, I wanted to share some final thoughts on my pregnancy so one day when Brynlee reads this, she can know how I felt.

I can sum it all up into one word, pregnancy is NUTS. It is one of the craziest things I have ever experienced in my entire life. From the day I found out I was pregnant, I dont think I realized what I was in for. You hear all these things that happen during pregnancy, but I always thought, that wouldn't happen to me... oh yes it does! From losing the appetite in the first trimester, all the scary fears of miscarriage, to not sleeping through the night, swollen feet, headaches, itchy legs and all that in between that I know I am missing, it happens! My feet are currently the size of sausages. And my ankles, well, their no longer there. It's sad. by the end of the day, I have imprints from any pair of shoes I try and wear. And thats about enough on the complaining.

Pregnancy is a gift. It truly is. We were put on this earth to recreate and the fact that I have been blessed to do that, is amazing. When we went on our honeymoon, we had the mindset, that we would just start trying, and see how long it took. Never did it cross my mind, that it could happen that fast. And within 3 weeks of our wedding date, we had a positive pregnancy test. Of course, I didnt believe it, so I took like 10 tests to really confirm it. And then the day we found out it was a baby girl, oh man, that was the best day of my life. People always say, they dont care either way, but I think we all have in our mind what we want it to be. And I always knew I wanted a little girl first, and so did Ryan. So we were blessed again with a sweet baby girl! Through all of the trips to OB triage for blurry vision, preterm labor etc etc. they were all worth it. I had a very textbook pregnancy for the most part, with some things throwing me off of course, but that is to be expected. I was lucky to not have many complications along the way, and to hear at every ultrasound how great her heart looked, and how amazing she was developing. Again, we were blessed.

Sometime in the next 20 days, we are going to be blessed with greatest gift of all, our sweet baby girl! I cannot wait to meet her. I cant wait to see what she looks like, what color hair she will have, and eyes! Ryan always said, he hopes she gets his skin color and hair, and my eyes. Whatever she has, she will be beautiful.

Brynlee, we cannot wait to meet you, in the next 18 years, try not to give us too hard of a time. We hope that we are the best parents that we can be. We hope that we raise your right with good values. We hope that we teach you about drugs and sex and you know right from wrong. We hope that we lead you down a path for a great life and to bring us grandbabies someday. We love you so much and you're not even here yet! Get here fast and make mommy have an easy delivery!

For all those aspiring moms, or moms to be, or MOMS already, thank your lucky stars every day. That we get the chance to create a life. A little life inside of us that will soon change the world in some way!

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

The latest and greatest...

Today was the appointment. The appointment we had been waiting on for over a week. Where we knew we wanted to discuss a planned induction.

Let me first start out by saying, this plan was in no way something for me or for Ryan. This plan was something for Brynlee. All we want is her to be safe and healthy, and if that means getting her out early, we will do it. Anything it takes, right?

So we went in with an open mind, we knew we wanted to hear the doctor out and see what she had to say but we also knew what we wanted. So here goes!

Appointment started oh 30 minutes LATE. Of course, the one appointment you want to start on time, starts late :) Always happens like that. So we were expecting to meet with Dr. Grayson (male) and ended up meeting with Dr. Kimbro (female). I was happy with that, would rather have a female anyways, no particular reason. So she comes in and says she will be doing our appointment since Dr. Grayson was busy, no biggie. So she asks if we had any concerns etc. So we started the "talk". I told her about all of my feelings up until now, everything in my pregnancy has been rather textbook per say. I've had a few trips to OB triage, but who doesnt in first pregnancies? We dont know what to expect or whats normal to feel. But I did express my concern for the itchiness and how it scared me to hear that word; stillborn. Who wouldnt naturally freak out?? So there were tears during this appointment, and we went over everything that I've been feeling.

The end result? I am able to get induced on March 3rd if we chose to. As of right now, I am 50% effaced, 1 cm dilated, and my cervix is "anterior". So there is definitly progress and all signs of labor. As of right now, we will most likely go with the induction on the 3rd, thats if she doesnt come sooner. My thoughts? she is coming sooner than that, I have always thought she would be here early and the doctor didnt seem to disagree. So thats it friends! Being pregnant is crazy, and the hardest thing I have ever done. There are so many emotions, opinions, judgements and things we all deal with, but at the end of the day, I just want our daughter here, and healthy.

Here's to hoping, SHE picks her birthday, just like I always wanted!! :)

Thursday, February 3, 2011

A February Baby?

So a lot of people have probably been wondering whats been happening lately... so here I go with an update! I dont post EVERYTHING on Facebook because some people are frankly, too nosey. And a lot of people give advice and it turns into a big headache for me. Sooo heres the happenings as of lately for all my fellow blog readers! :)

For about 2-3 weeks now I have been dealing with itchy legs. I never thought much of it because I know that my legs are swollen and expanding with water retention so I just blew it off. Plus it says its very normal for right now. But then, about a week ago, my feet started to itch and the itchiness of the legs started to ween off. And when I say my feet itch, lets talk about the bottom of your feet itching... like the skin you CANT itch no matter how hard you try. So I tried everything from oatmeal baths, cortosone creams, benadryl, lotions after lotions with no relief. I finally called my doctor on Tuesday morning after getting about an hour of sleep because I was up all night with itchy feet. (and crying basically all night because it hurts so bad).

So they wanted me to come in Tuesday for some blood work for something called Cholestasis. Cholestasis is a liver disease that occurs during pregnancy for no known reason. It really doesnt affect the mother, with the only real known symptom being itchy feet and hands. The harm is more in the baby after 38 weeks. In I went, at about 10am. They told me that the blood work would take a day to get the results back. On top of that, Brynn was measuring small at about 33 weeks when I was 34 and 4 days. So they had me in yesterday for an ultrasound.

Brynlee is looking fabulous. Ultrasound tech said she has tons of hair, just like we always imagined her :) She was measuring a little small, but nothing at all to be worried about. Their estimating she weighs 5lbs 5oz right now. So cute! We got to see all her little fingers and toes, and of course, as always, she had her hands in front of her face. I swear she doesnt want to show off her cute face till she gets here! Wants it to be a surprise for mom and dad!

Anyways, back to the results... well after thinking I was getting them yesterday, we finally got a call at about 3pm today. And they still dont have them back yet. The nurse said that they sometimes take a bit longer for the bile acid tests so nothing as of yet. She asked if the itching had let up at all, and I told her not at all.

So we have an appointment Tuesday at 11:45. We should have the results back by then. The rundown is this, if I have cholestasis, they will induce me between 37-38 weeks to risk no harm to the baby. But on the flipside. If the itching doesnt let up, Ryan and I have decided to request an induction at or around 37-38 weeks. Neither of us will be able to hand weeks 37-40 not knowing if she is okay in there. Oh and did I mention they used the scary word? Cholestasis has an increase chance of stillborn after 38 weeks. Yeah, you heard me right, stillborn. So now you might understand why are going to be requesting an induction either way. (as long as the itching doesnt let up of course).

So to give you an idea of when that is... February 17th-24th would be the week of induction if I have cholestasis, and most likely the week she will be born, if the doctors agree with our decision. I will keep you guys updated!

This is not at all what we planned for as I was hoping for a drug free- no intervention pregnancy, but I guess they say in pregnancy, only expect the unexpected. And who woulda ever thought itchy feet would be the cause of all this? So weird, I know! We cant wait to meet you baby girl, and see all that long beautiful hair of yours! Were bringing our hairbrush :)