If you follow me on Instagram, you may have guessed Jon and I were in Chicago last weekend. My parents lived there 30 years, I was born in the suburbs, and all of my family is still up there. We have been dying to get up there for a weekend just to hang out because we haven't seen most of my cousins since our wedding! We actually never went into the city because A. we did all the touristy stuff there about 2.5 years ago and B. it was a frozen tundra!! Getting there was interesting. We had a direct flight on SW to Midway and 3 hours into the 2.5 hour flight, we were told the flaps that slow you down while landing were broken, we couldn't land in Chicago and were being flown to Milwaukee. By the grace of God, we landed safely going 235mph in the cold and snow, surrounded by emergency vehicles on the runway. Talk about scary! Especially since I am still battling sickness/nausea, my mind was mainly set on not having to use the barf bag. Luckily another SW plane was able to get us to Midway 4 hours late but the night kept getting more and more interesting. We used a car service and our driver talked non stop the whole hour long drive about how he is 43, his daughter is 23 and he is about to dump his 21 year old girlfriend. He went on and on about getting arrested at his previous job as a repo man and how he once had a record deal with a metal band until the guitarist overdosed on Heroin on stage. At this point it was the middle of the night and I was thanking God that my husband was a good "fake listener" and conversationalist. Minor setback to the trip but we were excited to finally be there!
No trip to Chicago is complete without a hotdog (I got scolded for eating a burger at Portillo's but I will tell you it was one of the best burgers I've ever had!)
Dinner at Wings and Rings around a keg and I kid you not, when I told the waitress I would like a water instead of a glass for beer, she said "Oh are you not 21? Can I see your ID?". Laughing I told her "no I am pregnant." I will probably get stares over the next few months knowing I look like a 15 year old!
My grandparents have 15 grandchildren in total and have so many wonderful gift giving traditions. The newest is when each of us is expecting a baby, we get to chose an antique rocking chair from their collection (Papa used to antique and they are now collecting chairs). Jon and I picked ours out and it will be at our house this weekend! I foresee many nights rocking baby Hart in this beautiful chair.
My aunt and uncle hosted a joint celebration for Baby Hart and my cousin and his fiance who got engaged on New Years Eve. We are so blessed that so many people love our baby so much! We were overwhelmed with beautiful gifts, hilarious games and great company. Surprisingly the letters from our first and last names makes a few cute baby names :-)
We now have inspiration for our baby nursery!
Baby #2 will be represented with lots of baby #1 gear
Beautiful cake//champagne (virgin for me of course) toast!
Don't be alarmed by the next photo... my uncle made my cousin and his fiance a "shot ski" for their engagement and the guests of honor took a tequila shot...mine was OJ! I think I would have cried if they made me take a tequila shot (not pregnant of course). I am NOT a trooper haha.
Each year, my aunt and uncle throw a Superbowl Party and we were thrilled to be able to join! They have the most awesome basement set up (wish we had those in Texas!) and Jon was glued to the ping pong table most of the time. They don't stop at just choosing squares, there was a coloring contest, mystery prize game (with 22 prizes), bubble gum blowing contest, commercial scoring, and the most hysterical, guess the size of my baby bump! The tie breaker was to guess the circumference of Jon's calves... I die! I was glad I didn't have to guess because I really have no idea how big I am (or Jon haha).
People came pretty close and my cousin was spot on so unfortunately no tie breaker but that didn't stop us from measuring Jon's calves... that are almost 19 inches around. Insane, huh?? Oh and Jon reminded me my belly is now the size of his waist...
(in case you're wondering, I wore sweats to the Superbowl Party... I foresee this happening a lot in the future!)
We made it safely back to high 70 degree weather in Austin on Monday night and Ernie was excited to sniff the dogs on us. If you've read my blog for any time at all, you'd know how close our intermediate family is and it doesn't stop there. We are so lucky to have such a close knit family of true friends. Although we may not see them as often as we'd like, we always have the time of our lives. We are hoping to bring baby Hart up there sometime soon!
Thoughts: 2nd trimester is definitely a lot easier. I'm finding myself with more energy and going to enjoy it before I get too big :-). We traveled to Chicago last weekend and flying was interesting because I am still battling nausea/sickness but for the most part I did good. The belly is getting big and I've noticed it is hard to twist/turn around and bend directly over.
Baby: baby is 3.5 inches long and looking more and more human like. It's liver is producing bile and baby can now pee. This is crazy but if I poke on my tummy and put pressure on the baby, it may start rooting (looking for a nipple to suck.)
Symptoms: like I said above,still battling sickness. I increased my Zofran to 1 pill in the morning and a half a pill at night and it has been great (despite a messed up schedule when traveling). I hope to cut my morning pill in 1/2 over the next few weeks as vomiting should subside. Round ligament pain has been better but I feel so full and stretched this week...belly is growing! Like the books say, I've been having crazy dreams and quite a few sexual ones (with my husband!).
Weight: I found one of those 'real' scales in the locker room at the gym (where you move the weights across the bar) and am going to use that one from now on. I am up 5lbs from my 6 week appointment and finally back up to my pre pregnancy weight.
Sleep: getting about 8 hours each night and waking up twice for bathroom. Despite tossing and turning trying to get comfortable, I have been sleeping pretty hard.
Cravings/aversions/eating: ate my body weight last weekend in Chicago and loved every minute of it. Still not up to eating plain chicken but have eaten it in salads this week. I didn't restrict myself from any sweets this week and thoroughly enjoyed it! Eggs have been weird throughout the whole pregnancy, I can eat them in breakfast tacos and casseroles but not plain like I used to.
Workouts: we were gone for 4 days so I didn't do much this week. A few walks, and 2 days in the gym with light weights.
Clothes: I wore my first maternity shirt last weekend and loved it! I wore tights under my jeans all weekend and used a rubberband to expand the waist. I bought my first pair of maternity pants/capris last week and I think I will be sporting them in the next few days. I don't know how the heck my bras are fitting me anymore because my girls are growing like crazy.
Random: baby's heart rate has been high!! I have a hard time believe in gender prediction based on BPM because I've seen it go both ways but last night it averaged between 157-167...such a STRONG heartbeat. I am so glad we got the doppler!
To add to the stache collection! A college girlfriend sent these to baby Hart... I am dying!
We celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary yesterday so Jon took my weekly selfie with me :-)
I'll share more tomorrow but there was a "guess the size of Ruthie's bump" at our family's Super Bowl party and I just had to show y'all this picture. I scarfed down 3 pieces of pizza 2 minutes before measuring and this is the biggest it's ever looked!! Foot in mouth moment when Jon told me my tummy is now as big as his waist haha.
We found out we were pregnant on November 24th
and waited an entire month to tell our family. Let’s just say that was the
longest month of our lives! A few people asked me why I didn't tell my mom
beforehand and I get that, but we waited for a few reasons. 1. We wanted to
whole family to be together. Our family is super close and wanted it to be
really special and with Christmas right around the corner, I knew I could wait.
My big sister and her husband live in Dallas and my little sister lives in
College Station so Christmas was the first time that everyone would be
together. 2. We wanted to see our baby before
we told people, just in case. Our entire pregnancy has been a true reflection
of God’s faithfulness because we thought I was farther along so we got to see
our baby at 6 weeks, the day the heart started beating, and at 8 weeks, the day
after Christmas. 3. It was actually pretty fun to keep it between us for a
while, it was our big secret!
So we agreed that we would use a Christmas gift to tell our
family we were pregnant and have my mom open it since my dad was the one to
open a gift to find out my sister was pregnant last year. I bought a cute v
neck shirt from Target and we ironed on pretty white letters that said Mimi
(what my niece and our baby and future babies will call her). We would have
loved to put “Mimi x2” but couldn’t find a cute 2 so to make it obvious that we
were pregnant, I taped a picture of our first sonogram below the letters. I wish I would have taken a picture!
We were planning on telling them Christmas morning as to not
stir any suspicion asking my mom to open a gift on Christmas Eve but I was so
sick Christmas Eve morning and knew we had to tell them that night in case I
got sick at their house (and since I fall asleep so early, it would be nice if
they knew!). Luckily, we decided to open gifts from siblings to siblings and
after we were done I said we had a family gift for everyone that we could
“play” tonight (we are huge game people so no one seemed shocked). It worked
out perfectly because Cori also had a family gift for everyone so no one was
suspicious. Jon was determined to get it on film and I am SO glad he did! My
mom was all propped up in a chair because of her foot surgery and I sat across
from her. To set the story, my dad was planning on grilling steak and shrimp
and was prepping at the sink while we opened gifts (the sink is open to the
family room) and I thought he was about to go outside to start grilling so
that’s what I say in the video about dad going outside.
I could watch this video over and over again day after day
because it still brings me butterflies. Surprisingly I was really calm while
she was opening. I love how she held it up for a few seconds and Tomi says “It
says Mimi” and then she got it! The gift was to Mimi from Ernie so she said she
thought it was just a shirt from him so thank goodness we put the sonogram. The
next few minutes were an exciting whirlwind and I apologize if you lose hearing
from all the screaming but everyone was just thrilled! The fun thing was
everyone being so surprised. Obviously you can’t be shocked when a married
couple announces they are pregnant but no one expected it!
If you remember back to my Christmas highlights, you will
remember that my parents gave us an all inclusive vacation this summer which we
are still shocked and giddy about! Funny story….the Wednesday before Christmas
my dad calls me and asks if we can go on a vacation July 31- August 4th.
Um….1 day before I am set to give birth. Let’s just say I had the meltdown of
2012 and was bawling my eyes out thinking I would have to spoil the Christmas
surprise. Luckily my salesman hubby swooped in and told an elaborate lie to my
dad about how we wanted to try for a baby in the New Year and if we could do it
earlier it would be better. Well that worked! And my doctor will let me fly
through 34 weeks and I will turn 33 weeks on our trip. Praise God! It will be
an awesome babymoon!
We spent the rest of the night eating, playing games,
watching movies, and talking about how we became pregnant, how I told Jon, due
dates, names, etc. It was so surreal and fun. We waited until Christmas morning
to tell grandparents/aunts and uncles and we got those on film too! Jon went home to Cleveland the first week in January and got to tell his family/friends in person which was fun for him. We are SO
excited for the next few months and finally getting to meet our sweet baby in
August but it has truly been a gift to share this news with all of our family
and friends. Life is so much better when you are surrounded by loving,
encouraging, supportive people.
Here’s a few pictures we sent friends on Christmas to share
the big news!
How cute is my niece, y'all? Let's hope baby Hart is as happy as Embry! And I get so excited thinking about this years holidays with two little cutie cousins.
