23 Weeks

Time is starting to fly by! It seems like every time I look at my calendar another week was gone by. Here are some highlights from this last week:
-Got kicked so hard (I'm guessing on my bladder?) that it made my scream AHH outloud. (not sure if this is a highlight)
-Finalized my grades early! (this might be a first)
-Mario got 2nd place at Mineral Wells:)
-got to see my best friend today!
-walked around at pottery barn kids which got me super excited
-dogs did not dig out of the back yard which means we don't have to spend money on an electrical fence

Funny(kinda) story of the week:
-So I was in a jumpy mood and without even thinking I ran from our bathroom to our bed and jumped on it without using my hands...if you've never seen our bed, it's about 3-4 feet off the ground..yes high. Over the last few weeks I guess I've lost some ab muscles...yeah I about didn't make it. It would have been funny to watch my facial expressions when I realized that that was probably not the smartest idea, it kinda hurt! It's crazy how you forget sometimes that your pregnant and that you can't do things that you used to do like jump on a bed without help.

-I did unfortunately miss my first Daniel study this last week due to grading papers and trying to get grades finished. I am love studying Daniel and can't wait to begin Revelation in the fall. I guess Mario (daddy) will be having Father/Daughter dates every Wednesday night come September:) Crazy to think about. However, I (mom) will be having Mommy/Daughter dates every Monday night with my homegirls watching the Bachelor. So excited about Emily being the next Bachelorette!!!! Mario just said that once the baby is here, that show will go out the back door....who does he think he is:) Kind of like people telling me that my dogs will live outside...WHAT? Now, I'm not an idiot, I know that my dogs will not be getting all of the attention anymore and that if they ever did anything crazy (like growl or seem aggressive) that we'd be finding them another home, but geez people, stop telling me these things! They are my dogs and I love them! Okay I'm off that soap box.

Here is the baby bump this week!

How far along?   23 Weeks

Total weight gain/loss: 12+ pounds
Maternity clothes? Pants
Stretch marks? No (not on stomach)
Sleep: Good
Best moment this week:  Seeing my BFF

Have you told family and friends: Yes

Miss Anything? nope
Movement: Yes...ALL the time...you can even see my stomach move
Food cravings: Banana Pudding, Milk

Anything making you queasy or sick: nope:)

Have you started to show yet:  yes, people our now commenting

Gender prediction: ITS A GIRL!!!!!!!!!No longer calling her IT

Labor Signs: No
Belly Button in or out? In (I have noticed that it's kind of flat now)
Wedding rings on or off? On
Happy or Moody most of the time: Both
Looking forward to: talking about names and working on the nursery

21/22 Weeks....Rough Week.

I am blogging this morning feeling very down and upset! This week was rough at school and to top it off, my dogs (which everyone knows are my kids) got out yesterday morning. Sure enough they came back like always. There is a huge field behind our house that they love to go and run around in. Abbie honestly hasn't gotten out in over a year bc she knows she'll be in trouble. Wade has recently started bolting the door but he's our fearlful one and is to scared to venture out to far...so he always comes right back with no hesitation. Well, yesterday after we got home from Mario's race we decided to lay down for a nap. During this time, some friends who were staying with us came back from the race. Sure enough as the door opened the dogs bolted. This time they never came back. We have searched the fields and streets surrounding our area for hours. We even went out last night but they were no where to be found. I think that they either a) went to far and couldn't find their way home or b) someone picked them up. Hopefully someone will find them and turn them in today or tomorrow! So for now, I'm trying to keep my head held high. It's hard looking at their food that they never ate yesterday and knowing that it was in the 20's last night but I'm going to trust that God willing they're just fine!

I think I've decided what I want to do with the walls of the baby's room! This is a huge step for me. So now I have something to look forward to this spring break.

 I am thinking instead of the blues, going with two shades of purple...not sure yet what the contrasting color will be, I love the yellow, but not sure how it would look with purple. I definitely need someone with some decorating skills to help me out:)

Week 22
A week later and the dogs are back safe and doing great. I never posted the earlier one for some reason but that was exactly how I felt at the time. Thankfully Monday morning a lawyer here in Waxahachie who has land with a lot of animals found Abbie and Wade.Unfortunately, Wade ate two of his chickens but the guy was really nice about it!

I had such an awful weekend dealing with all of that I decided that I needed a personal day from school. So Wednesday I took off and went with my friend Kara to lunch and out for a spa pedicure (thanks for the invite!) We had a great time catching up and just enjoying some time away from our homes/school.

How is pregnancy going::: I'm sure that everyone goes through this at some point in their pregnancy, but honestly I just feel Fat and Gross! I'm in that awkward phase where people don't know if I'm pregnant or have just gained some serious weight. I have also started getting stretch marks which I didn't think would happen to me (who do I think I am) :). My sweet husband just keeps telling me, it's all worth it bc of the sweet baby girl growing inside me and of course I know it, it's just hard experiencing body changes. I am feeling great though and have an awesome appetite. A couple of weeks ago I started experiencing these horrible charlie horses in my calf muscles and nerve pain doing down my legs behind my knee. I have starting eating bananas all the time to hopefully help with this. Other than these symptoms, we are enjoying watching/feeling this little girl move around in my tummy. I put some Phil Wickham music to my belly the other day and she went crazy. I don't know if she liked in or not? All I know is I got kicked/punched for like 5 minutes in a row. I loved just watching my belly go crazy!

We did finally talk about names the other day and I think we have both decided on a name we like! Once it is final, I'll be sure to post! Here are some catch up pics of my baby belly. Sorry, no head shots, it's always late when I remember that I havn't taken any pics.

                                                  HALF WAY THERE....20 Weeks!

                                             21 Weeks

                                                   Front view...21 Weeks

                                           22 Weeks

                                          22 Weeks

We have 3 weeks until spring break! During that week, I will want to start working on the nursery, registering for baby items, cleaning out closets, a deep house cleaning, catching up with friends, and the list goes on. Can't wait!

Have an awesome week, it's supposed to be in the 70's once again! LOVE IT!

The next time I...

It is definitely Monday!  My race season is officially in full swing.  I haven't had a Monday like this in a long time.  It's the type of Monday where you are coming off of a really tough weekend of racing and you're exhausted and your legs hurt...a lot!  Enough complaining, I chose to ride and race my bike right?  Even still, I've got a little extra "hop" in my step. I've got a bit more "float" if you will. I placed decently in yesterday's race taking 8th place.  Generally thoughts of the race would consume my trip back home.  I'd ask things like, how could I have done better?  What were some things I did well?  Who beat me that I felt shouldn't have?  Who didn't beat me that I can say I'm proud to have beat?  Yesterday's drive home was different.  I stopped and thought to myself, when this race comes around next year, I'll be a daddy!  I went to the dentist last Monday and that's what got this train of thought started.  When I went to schedule my next cleaning, the lady said "you know the next time you visit us you'll have a little girl". It hit me...hard! Man what a feeling!  So that's the way I've been thinking about things here lately.  I'll take an event and think to myself, the next time I do this or that, will I be a daddy?  What a joy  What a blessing!  And from what I've been told I still have no idea.  I'm ready.  We're halfway!  Keep journeying with us!  Keep praying!  Thanks for reading.

19 Weeks

If I could sum up week 19 in one word it would be...Wow. What a week! Here is a shortened version of how my week went:
Monday: girls night with some of my friends
Tuesday: Parent night/Math night at school
Wednesday: Daniel Bible study
Thursday: Got to see our baby! Also babysat 12 kids ages 4 mo-10 yr with my homegroup
Friday: Drove to waco to pick my mom up (who wrecked), then to friends wine/cheese party
Saturday: Gender Reveal Party


Can we say CrAzY? Yes, I think we can! Thursday after school, Mario and I headed to the doctor to see our baby for a whole 30 minutes. It was truly amazing! The first part of the sono was the tech taking measurements of the brain, femur, umbilical cord, ect. Then, we got to just hang out and watch our baby do a 360 inside me, clap its hands, try to suck its thumb, and stare at us on the screen. I won't lie, I watch the video pretty much every day:) I love it~! It was then time to find out the gender, which we didn't want to know. We closed our eyes and waited for the sono tech to say, "okay we got it". That didn't happen! She told us that the baby was not cooperating and that I needed to roll over on my left side. I did so...nothing! She proceeded to tell me to cough a couple of times...nothing! We then pressed on my stomach....nothing! I told the lady that if the baby would not cooperate that I was going to get up and do a cartwheel behind her bc we had a gender revealing party and we HAD to know:) Finally, after coughing a few more times, I heard the computer a clicking away. I asked her if she got a view and how sure she was. She replied with "Yes I did and I'm 110% sure". After we left her room we met the doctor to go over all the information. We were informed that I have a low lying placenta which they need to watch. This means that I get another 30 minute full anatomy sono next time:):):) They just want to make sure that as the baby grows, my placenta moves up. Worse case scenario, if it didn't, I would possibly have to have a c-section. No big deal. Everything on the baby was Normal...awesome news!

Saturday our family and closest friends came over for lunch and to find out the sex of our baby with us. You can see the pictures below! We had so much fun. That night, after the party, Mario felt the baby move for the first time. She kicks and hits me everyday typically around 7-8 at night. Sunday, I must have felt her 100 times, I don't think she slept at all that day! Thank you to everyone who came Saturday to celebrate with us, it will be a day that I will never forget.

Go to the following website to see the full Gender Revealing Video...thanks Greg! Thanks to Ashley too for the pics!  YouTube: Mario & Christen Gender Revelation

 <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/e2y6WTwUTMI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

                                 Some Fun Myths....according to them we were having a Boy!

                                                       The BOY TEAM...notice mario:)

                                                            The GIRL team....notice me:)

                                                                       THE CAKE!

                                                            WE'RE HAVING A GIRL!

                                                                     SUPER EXCITED

                                                 I made Mario zip up his jacket...to hide the blue:)

                                                                 HAHA...my favorite picture

                                                                   PRECIOUS

                                                            My granny and papa:):):)

I'll post more pics later all our family and friends (computer is running slow right now). I will be 20 weeks tomorrow! Oh and by the way, my friend Becca who I have blogged about since the beginning who is having twins found out this week that one of the babies is a GIRL! Can't wait to find out baby B in a few weeks.

How far along?   19 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: 6 lbs (107 to 113...doc seemed happy)
Maternity clothes? Pants
Stretch marks? No
Sleep: not so great this week, I think she is waking me up with all her kicking
Best moment this week:  Seeing our baby and finding out it's a girl

Have you told family and friends: Yes

Miss Anything? nope
Movement: Yes...ALL the time...you can even see my stomach move
Food cravings: Pickles (daily) and Milk

Anything making you queasy or sick: My back pain (not sick but it HURTS)

Have you started to show yet:  yes, people our now commenting

Gender prediction: ITS A GIRL!!!!!!!!!No longer calling her IT

Labor Signs: No
Belly Button in or out? In (I have noticed that it's kind of flat now)
Wedding rings on or off? On
Happy or Moody most of the time: Both
Looking forward to: talking about names and working on the nursery

18 Weeks

I am so thankful to be writing you this week feeling 100% now!! I have been able to cook this week, walk on a regular basis, and the best thing about it all...being able to EAT! You'll notice in my weight gain below that I have obviously been eating. :) 

Last night after Bunco, myself and several friends went over to another friend's house to hang out and talk. As we were talking and laughing, I felt this strange sensation like a mix between a little little thump or someone blowing a spit bubble in me and popping it. It definitely caught my attention but I wasn't completely sure if it was the baby or not. As I sat real still listening to my friends talk, I tuned in to my stomach to see if it would happen again and sure enough it happened two more times. It was definitely our Baby that I was feeling. It was so cool! Obviously your supposed to start feeling the baby move around this time but it caught me by surprise for sure.

This week a couple in our homegroup brought their 6 week old baby to our house (gp was at our house this week). I wasn't nervous about the dogs being aggressive but you really just never know how dogs are going to react to such small, human beings who cry. Abbie of course was so excited and wanted to lick Nora's face and be next to her at all times (we ended up putting her outside). Wade on the other hand was a little timid at first, hiding behind me his mother:). When Mel (mom of baby) put Nora on the ground to change her diaper, Wade just rested his sweet little head on Mel's leg and watched the whole time. He is such a loyal dog who I know will be so protective of our baby in 5 1/2 months. Am I worried about Abbie? Nope, not at all. It's kind of like having guest in your home, dogs get excited and Abbie just wants to be around you and lick you and make you feel welcome. When it's just us (and when it's us and baby) she is quite honestly, the laziest dog ever who keeps to herself. I know that she is going to love the action of a new baby in our home, but she'll get used to the baby fast! 

This Thursday we go in to find out it this little 'rascal' is a Boy or Girl. These last 3 weeks have been really confusing for me. This WHOLE time I could have sworn to you that it was going to be a girl but now I really don't know. I am now 50/50. I have had 3 girl dreams and 3 boy dreams. The boy dreams have been in the last 3 weeks so I guess that is where my confusion is coming from. Either way I will be so happy. I don't care! 

Here are some pictures of our life lately!

                              Abbie and Wade chilling with me on the bed: Abbie yawning:)

                                                      17 weeks...starting to round out

                                                              18 weeks

                                          This little guy Wade makes me laugh...so cute!

                                     My handsome little husband and Wade hanging out.

How far along?   18 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: 6 lbs (maybe more?)
Maternity clothes? I can no longer wear my jeans...time to shop today!
Stretch marks? No
Sleep: still amazing!
Best moment this week:  feeling the baby

Have you told family and friends: Yes

Miss Anything? nope
Movement: Yes
Food cravings: Pickles (daily) and Milk

Anything making you queasy or sick: My back pain (not sick but it HURTS)

Have you started to show yet:  yes, people our now commenting

Gender prediction: Girl for me...Boy for Mario (we'll know next week)

Labor Signs: No
Belly Button in or out? In (I have noticed that it's kind of flat now)
Wedding rings on or off? On
Happy or Moody most of the time: Both
Looking forward to: Seeing our baby on Thursday!!!

Time. Is.Flying!

OK, I haven't contributed to this thing in a while so here we go!  I am extremely excited right now because I am minutes away from heading to Fredericksburg, TX for my team training camp.  I will be out there through the weekend and putting in some solid miles with teammates.  After camp the racing begins, so that is really exciting!  I've put a lot of hard work into this Winter knowing that my season will be short this time around, and I am totally OK with that!  On the home front, the second trimester has been lots kinder to Christen.  She has been feeling better overall, but still not 100% on any given day.  Even still I've really enjoyed seeing Christen more comfortable on a daily basis.  She has been eating more which has been great to see as well. She's taken to eating some crazy things at times like Taco Bell, which she never eats, and candy when I am having some, which is another rarity.  I can only hope that she craves something that I really like to eat so we can both pack on some lbs. together!  Another cool thing has been watching the little bump develop.  We've been reading about how fast the little rascal is growing but yet we couldn't see it.  Now it's becoming more evident and it's awesome to watch.  For now we have taken a pretty nonchalant approach to picking out names and planning what the baby room should look like.  I'm sure that once we find out gender we'll start rolling on some of that.  As always, thanks for reading and your continued prayer.  This pregnancy has opened my eyes to so many wonderful things that God is doing in my life and the lives of Christen and I as a married couple.  We have enjoyed the journey and I'm sure the best is yet to come!

17 weeks!!!

I will be 17 weeks tomorrow! Crazy how fast time flies. Here are some things that I've experienced these last 3 weeks.

Weeks 14-15 :: crazy pains in my stomach at night when I would stretch. I tend to stretch out a lot when in bed, but that quickly stopped me!
::still sick and not eating a whole lot.
::no longer tired:-)
::cravings-soda (oops)

Week 16:: started gaining some weight meaning I'm beginning to eat:-)
::only sick (throwing up) one day this week!
::stomach has started taking on a round shape, still small but there is a bump which does not go away. I used to only have a bump at night after a full stomach but now it's there when I wake up.
::Back pains...no fun

We still don't really talk about names but I think that once we know the gender that will change. I did clean out the baby's closet over Christmas bc I know how quickly things will approach! We will hopefully know jan 28th what this little rascal is:-) Wish I could post more but I'm doing this fm my phone which is taking forever!!! Have a great week.