the key

thoughtful thursday
print by theloveshop

16 weeks: love our friends and family

this whole pregnancy we've been blessed with the kindness and love of our friends and family. becoming pregnant is a wonderful thing all on it's own, but it's also slightly intimidating since your life forever will be changed. it's funny that we are 26/27 and both of us are clearly able to have and take care of a child but we both still are thinking, "whoa, this is really happening?! we're going to be parents in six months?!!" of course we are not going to be perfect parents and will make mistakes along the way, but it'll be a fun new adventure, with A LOT of adjusting. :)

family and friends make this whole process so much easier, and I'm so thankful we have such wonderful people in our lives. with their excitement, well wishes, notes, advice and celebration you truly become more and more "ready" and excited for what's to come!

I started off this week with a fun brunch with a few of my favorite people. I hadn't seen some of my friends since new years so I was looking forward to this day for a while—I literally like a lil kid was counting down the days :) we met up and as always the 3 hours was filled with great stories and a lot of laughter. aubrey brought baby caela which amy, tatum, heather and I could not get enough of her. her lil cheeks are the cutest not to mention she is basically the cutest baby ever. so we just slid her around the table so each of the aunties could get their baby fix. :) I haven't been around newborns/babies much but holding caela, making her smile and getting loving cuddles is just what I needed. it just made me so happy and excited for our baby.

overall, I'm feeling pretty good. at random times I still feel a bit off, but really don't know the one cause other than my hormones being crazy with me. and those times are not everyday and only last a little while, so... much better!

can't wait for this bump to keep growing :)

cravings: i love ranch dressing now, which is really strange because I haven't really liked it since I was 12. still love fruit.
aversions: I can't think of anything that repulsed me in the past week. :)

what's baby up to?
we need watch what we say... tiny bones forming in baby's ears mean the little one can now pick up our voices. eyebrows, lashes and hair are starting to fill in, and taste buds are forming. and, if we were interested, an ultrasound might be able to determine gender.

a beautiful ripple effect

thoughtful thursday
quote by christine mason miller

tricking your wife into march madness

hello everyone. so this is all about march madness and how much fun you can have with it. michele is not much of a sports person. I have tried to get her to like more and more sports and increase her weekly exposure to it. when we first started to date, michele really never watched any sports. there are sports families and there are non-sports families. and when michele and I married, the non-sport family merged with the sport family. even though michele did not grow up in a sports family she is still competitive.

michele started to get used to watching football (or leaving me home to watch football) once a week on sundays during the bears games. every once in a while when a blackhawks, cubs, bulls, or UNH hockey game is on she will watch parts of the game with me. this however, is the first time in our relationship that michele has gone full throttle sports!!! it is awesome.

the key for march madness is that you have to fill out a bracket. without a bracket it means nothing. If you can get your significant other to fill one out you are half way there. the second part is the wager. make sure that whatever pool or wager you make it is large enough that they will want to spend time researching at least a little bit about who will win which games.

the last part is key not only because they put a good amount of time into the bracket (so they don't want to lose), but also they will actually do really well in the pool so they will keep watching!

michele came home a few days before the tournament with papers that had different ratings on all of the schools, plus she had background knowledge. I was shocked! then she filled out her bracket on her own, which was great because I couldn't influence her. now that the tournament is on she has been excited about every single game. I am not kidding she is probably going to win the pool...

now the only thing left is to see how to make the cubs, bears, bulls, blackhawks, and UNH into a tournament during their regular seasons...

welcome baby adela rose

big congrats to my cousins basia and dan on their new family of three! baby adela decided to come a bit early as we all were anticipating a march 29th delivery—but such a wonderful surprise. she is the first great grandchild on our side of the family :) mom and dad are doing great and we can't wait to meet her.

welcome lil baby girl adela rose!

i love pugs

etsy: sea urchin studio

so i was browsing etsy and came across these alpha animal prints and totally fell in love. they are whimsical, fun and perfect decor for a nursery. they come in girl and boy colors so we may just be using these in our future project. :)

you can find the store here: sea urchin studio

15 weeks: my jeans still fit!

ok, so my jeans still fit... barely. things are getting a bit tight, but it's not to the point that I can't stand it. luckily gap had their "gap give and get" event this week, which gave me the opportunity to build up my maternity wardrobe. I got a whole bunch of fun stuff and can't wait to feel the comfort of full-panel jeans... sexy. I love that I had a great excuse to shop for new clothes— i just have to go through and donate a whole bunch that falls in the XS category.

I had another baby check-up this week on st. patty's day. I didn't gain any weight from last month's appointment, so my doc suggested i try to gain a 1/2-pound a week. I'm still down 2 lbs from my pre-preg weight and not really sure if I could eat anymore than I already am. I will admit I'm eating a lot healthier—adding more fresh fruit and veggies to my diet—so that may be keeping my weight down right now. eating a bunch junk food is really not desirable which i'm sure will change. :) I guess the key to putting on weight during pregnancy is to do it slowly and controlled—hopefully i stay on track!

they also took three more vials of blood. ugh. for those of you that know me well, I'm a gigantic baby when it comes to needles. it really doesn't hurt all that bad, I'm just really uncomfotable when it's happening or light-headed and need to get over it. I'm up to six vials now and i've been poked at every appointment now. I fainted once a couple years ago with my mom in the room and she used to laugh at me and say I don't know what you're going to do when you're pregnant! I've survived thus far mom! :) you'd be proud! I'll leave my fear of the epidural to a later post :)

I'll have another check up in three weeks and my 20-week (ultrasound) is may 2nd! can't wait to find out what our lil baby will be!

cravings: still fresh fruit esp. honey crisp apples and pineapple, california rolls and fish tacos
aversions: coffee and beer are now tolerable, strong lotion/perfume/cologne still makes me queasy, thick greek yogurt grosses me out.

what's baby up to?
continuing the march towards normal proportions, baby's legs now out measure the arms. and, finally, all four limbs have functional joints. our fetus is squirming and wiggling like crazy down in the womb, though I still can't feel the movements.

the signs of spring are here

it's so funny to think about the weather in chicago. when winter comes everyone bundles up in misery and suffers the negative degree chills from the end of november to early march...

but then we feel the warmth of the 60-degree sun and some how we literally melt in happiness and choose to forget how horrible winter has been to us. mark and i are literally are doing cartwheels of joy from this weather—we both love being outside and the spring/summer sun is just what we needed! I was at my dad's yesterday and my mom's crocuses and snow drops are blooming—spring is here in my mind!

this spring (even if it lasts a blink of an eye) and summer are going to be amazing. hopefully not too hot, or else it may turn really uncomfortable quickly for this preggers.

yay for great weather!

made us laugh

14 weeks: baby bump has arrived

first of all i just want to say happy birthday to my sister!

so i started off last week with a screening ultrasound and blood test. my sonographer was super nice and made me smile throughout the appointment. baby was jumping around on screen and holding it's hands up by it's face. it's amazing to see your baby (even though still so small) have such distinct features. i couldn't stop smiling the entire time. i also got to hear baby's heartbeat and it was at a healthy 144 beats per minute. i wished mark was there but of course it's really hard taking off for so many appointments—so annie (sonographer) printed out many pics for me to take home with me. here are two from the appointment:




my horrible headaches came back mid-week, but for the most part i've been feeling a bit better this week. nausea is hit or miss, but it's not everyday so I can't complain there. we also got our results back from the testing done monday and everything came back great!

i also have noticed that i'm getting a baby bump. i feel like i woke up yesterday and there it was. it's been really hard for me to tell—it's not like i started with a flat stomach :) haha but now for sure it's a lot more obvious. at least marky thinks it's cute!

it's amazing to think that something is growing inside me—that my body and i are in charge of making this lil life. it's somewhat intimidating and exciting all at once. it'll be a couple more weeks until i could feel baby kicking and i can't wait for the day!

cravings: fresh fruit
aversions: the smell of beer, strong cologne/perfume/lotion, or hot coffee

what's baby up to?
our adorable little fetus is busy with thumb sucking, toe wiggling, and (not so cute but equally amazing) making urine and breathing amniotic fluid as the liver, kidneys and spleen continue to develop. lanugo (thin, downy hair) is growing all over the body for warmth.

chinese gender chart

so we're really excited to find out baby's gender—but of course we've got a couple weeks to wait patiently. in one of my preggers books i saw this gender chart:

the bump's chinese gender chart

from the looks of this chart we have a lil girl on the way. :) but of course this chart is all in good fun—although they tote it's 90% accurate. for those of you who already had babies is this chart right for you?

our BIG news!

so it's been two months of keeping this to ourselves and it's time to share our very happy news...

we're going to have a baby!