Life at 28 Weeks

I really suck at this blog thing.

I have this cousin who has the most adorable blog that I stalk every single day.  She lives in Idaho and has the two most beautiful baby girls, and I love looking at it and seeing what they have been up to and watching those sweet babies grow up.
My cousin has always been one to take pictures of and document EVERYTHING.  I've always looked up to her for that, and aways wanted to be more like her.  She's pretty amazing.
We have a baby of our own coming in just twelve short weeks.  TWELVE.  I've been absolutely horrible at documenting this pregnancy.  I keep blaming it on our busy, busy life - but I can't make excuses anymore.  This pregnancy has flown by, and I know that once baby is here, it's going to go by even faster and be even busier.  If I don't get it together and blog/journal/take pictures of this amazing adventure, in twenty years I'm going to wake up and hate myself.  I want to be able to look back at this time - what is sure to be some of the very best times of our life - when Clay and I are old and gray, sitting on our porch drinking lemonade in the country and saying "remember when?"  When Grandpa Clay says "Grandma Kortney, remember in 2013 when we *insert memory here*?" I hope I can say "Why yes darling, here's a picture."

Since I haven't posted anything since we've announced our pregnancy, let's rewind a little.  And by rewind a little, this is going to be a super duper long post.

The first trimester of pregnancy was pretty mean to me.  I threw up all day, every day, and only until now, the beginning of the third trimester, have actually started gaining any type of weight or enjoying food at all (this has been a sore subject between my doctor and I).  I have a picture on Clay's phone (who is the only reason pregnant pictures of me get taken, by the way), of me at 9 weeks pregnant.   Besides the pictures we took the day we found out we were pregnant, this is the only picture I have of me in the first trimester.  And let's be honest, there is nothing there.

Thanksgiving, Christmas and the second trimester came, and I slowly started to feel better (thank goodness!). I started to notice a little bit of a belly around the time Clay graduated POST the second week of December when I was about 15 weeks.  But I think I was the only one who could notice it.  And it didn't look like a prego belly, it looked like I was stuffing my face with ice cream and potato chips every night and just getting fat.  I have a few pictures of this day.  However, none of a belly.

Clay's Uncle Jeromy was able to come present his certificate to him at graduation, it was really cool.  I love this picture.  

Clay and Jeromy.

Clay and I (and our 15 week old fetus).  I have the biggest crush on my husband, he's pretty hot.

Clay and his ma Ginger and pa Bill. 

Clay and Collin, Matthew and Ciara.  Bekah had a test at school this day and couldn't make it.    Cynthia and Collin's squeeze, Miranda, as well as Aunt Amber and kids, Uncle Vaughn, Chelsea and Nanny were all there too.

I started feeling what I thought was movement about 17 to 18 weeks at the beginning of the new year.  I started to have a tiny bump, but (of course) don't have any pictures.

On January 15th, we had our anatomy ultrasound.  We were pretty back and forth on finding out the gender of our baby.  I wanted a surprise.  Clay didn't care whether or not we found out one day, but would change his mind and want to know the next.  I finally made an executive decision, and decided that we would find out what we were having - mostly because I thought it would be fun for Clay since he had never been to an appointment with me, hadn't felt the baby move, etc.  Now, I'm so glad we found out the gender.

We got to our appointment, and we were sitting in the lobby waiting for our name to be called.  Clay was convinced baby was a boy.  The Chinese Gender Calendar said boy, the baby's heart beat said boy according to the old wives tales... But I've had a feeling in my gut that baby was a girl since we first found out we were going to be parents.  I never came out and said "this baby is a girl", but every time Clay would talk about his son, I would mention as casually as I could that there could very well be a baby girl in my belly.  Clay decided we were going to place a bet on baby's gender.

We were finally called back, and the ultrasound tech placed the wand on my belly.  She immediately pulled it off, asking "Do you guys want to know the gender of your baby?"  We answered yes, and she put the wand back down.  I started laughing.  The first words out of Clay's mouth were "That's not a penis."  The ultrasound tech said "Honey, that's because that's a baby girl."  Let's just say, I won the bet.  :)

Here is the profile of our baby girl.  

Only other pic I'm going to post from the ultrasound.  These are the legs that kick the crap out of me day in and day out.  This is my favorite picture from the ultrasound.  I love it!

Here I am at 20 weeks.  I'm starting to look pregnant and not just fat! Yay!

Here's Clay after the initial shock of having a girl has worn off and the excitement has kicked in.  :)

We came to the decision that I will continue to work two days a week after our baby girl is born.  Luckily for us, those two days a week that I will work are the two days a week Clay has off.  That means I get five days home with her out of seven days a week, and that when I do leave her to go to work, she won't have to be with a babysitter!  This was my biggest concern when I found out we were prego, and such a relief and blessing to our little family.  To make this possible, we decided to move to a smaller apartment unit within our complex to save some money.  We made that move the beginning of February.  We are also in a new ward, where the bishop seems pretty gung-ho about finishing up our sealing paperwork.  Hopefully we can get sealed shortly after our baby is here!  Anyways, the first room we put together was the nursery.... it's not finished yet, but the main furniture is up.

My husband is a babe. 

SiSi was pretty needy when Clay was putting the crib together.  It's like she knows in a few weeks, she's not going to be daddy's only little girl.  

I love when SiSi decides to cuddle with baby girl.

Proud daddy with the finished product.  Well, sort of finished.  Still need to get a mattress and fix the bedding.

And here is baby bump at.... 23 weeks (?).  

A few days after we moved, Clay's grandma Jane passed away.  We were blessed to be able to make the trip to Arizona to say goodbye and to see our family there.  I've started having back problems, so we decided to break the trip up as much as possible over four days.  Our half-way mark was Vegas, so we stayed there two out of four nights.  It was as much of a "babymoon" as he and I were going to get and Clay's first time in Vegas, so we decided to get a suite.

Clay in his giant bed.

And his giant tub.  I didn't get a pic of the giant shower or mirrors tho. He was fond of those too.

However, he was not impressed with the "beautiful view of Vegas" we were promised.

He gambled for the first time ever....

...and won $50.00 with the first dollar bill.  

And we enjoyed what could very well be the first...

...and last time we are in Vegas alone together. 

And here is Vegas baby bump at 24 (?) weeks.  

Now, we are 28 weeks along.  12 to go.  Still a lot to do.  I'm starting to get a little panicky and very, very excited.  We are so busy between work, school (hopefully Clay's last semester for awhile), friends, family and life in general that I wonder how we are going to get it all done.  Clay has been working a sickening amount of overtime to help get us to where we need to be for when I take maternity leave.  (Note:  I'm married to the most amazing man ever.  I think he will only have three days off this month, and I have yet to hear him complain.  He comes home every day and kisses my belly and asks how his daughter is doing, and it means so much to me.  I still haven't figured out how I got so lucky. He's going to be an amazing daddy.  I can't wait to see him hold our baby girl for the first time.  I better stop being gushy, I can already feel the tears coming...)

We do have a name picked out.  Kudos to you if you are lucky enough to know it.  We are pretty set in stone on the name - it is, after all,  hanging on the wall in the nursery - but just in case (she comes out a he?), we aren't posting it on a social media/public forum until she's here in our arms.   

Yesterday, the computers were down at work.  The first five hours of my shift were soooo slow.  But it was so fun for me, because I felt like I was hanging out with baby girl all day.  I sat and played Angry Birds on my phone and watched my belly move - something I've just started being able to notice.  It's the craziest thing.  This little girl is SO active.  She's moving all day, every day.  I already know she is going to have the funniest, craziest personality. I seriously can't wait to meet her and be her mommy.  And if life doesn't slow down the second she's born, I'm going to try my hardest to make it.  I want to remember every second of our first child - our first daughter's -  life here with us.  

I think that's enough fun for today.  I'll leave you with this last picture, taken yesterday, courtesy of my dear sweet husband.  

28 weeks.

Until next time.  :)