Home Projects - Baby Edition

Now that we have decided to stay in this house for the next four years and we have a baby on the way, we have more home projects to complete. We will do some of these and my co-worker will help with the others. {I work in construction} I always love following home projects on the blogs I read, so I thought I would share for anyone interested.

Nursery

1. Remove current items in room
2. Deep clean the room {it's currently a dog room}
3. Remove existing ceiling fan & replace with new
4. Remove dog door and patch opening
5. Paint
6. Curtains for window {& new ones for the closet}
7. Hang shelves & artwork
8. Furniture - crib, dresser, glider, lamps, rug, etc.

Backyard

1. New A/C unit!
2. Move dog potty area {gravel} to dirt patch on other side of the house - We obviously don't want those smells wafting through the window into the nursery.  
3. Extend sprinklers and lay sod in the old dog potty area
4. Remove dog fencing
5. Transplant tree to provide shade to the outside wall of the nursery

Entire House

1. Replace can light connectors. Our current ones are constantly going out.
2. Rugs
3. New flooring in living room, kitchen & hallways. Bedrooms & bathrooms already have travertine tile from our original remodel 5 years ago. We would love dark wood floors, but it will depend on the cost.
4. "Spring Cleaning" - throw away/donate/garage sale items we no longer need and organize storage bins & storage areas in the garage
   

Kitchen

1. Finish tile countertops
2. Install trim at base of cabinets
3. Stove hood
4. Hang shelving

Bathrooms

1. New door for master bathroom. Currently it opens into the room and causes problems when Apollo sleeps right outside the door. We need a pocket door or sliding barn type of door.
2. Install bathroom fans   

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Some before photos, because everyone loves photos :)

Future nursery, from outside in the dog run

 that dirt patch under the hammock will be the new dog potty area

the dog room & future nursery. don't laugh, it needs a lot of work!

9 weeks

 Our little Sour Patch Kid, standing on it's head :)

I was joking that I am turning baby into one because I eat them constantly to relieve the nausea.

How far along: 9w1d

Total weight gain/loss: None
How big is Baby: Baby is the size of a grape. {25.3mm}
Maternity Clothes: I look pretty fat in most of my shirts. I wear the same two pairs of jeans every week. One pair I use a rubber band on the button and the other pair are bigger jeans that should last me several more weeks. My sweet Mom gave me a gift card to Motherhood Maternity for Christmas, so I am ready when I need to buy new clothes.

Sleep: I am sleeping well. I typically fall asleep on the couch every day between 7pm and 8pm.

Movement: Not yet. I can't wait!

Food cravings: I can only eat a select few things: Sour Patch Kids, smoothies, waffles, peanut butter & honey sandwiches, tortilla chips and bean & cheese burritos.
Food aversions: Meat and vegetables

Gender: We want to do an elective gender scan. Most places do them between 15 and 16 weeks {early to mid February}. We are so excited to find out!

Symptoms: Nausea. I am gagging & dry heaving all the time, especially in the evenings. Fatigue. Emotional.

Best moment this week: Telling everyone on Christmas! No more secrets :)
What I am looking forward to: My first OB appointment on Friday!

Our Big Reveal

We told the world yesterday! The response we received was amazing :)

This is what we posted:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFKUm0JlVVc

xoxo,
Megan

Happy Holidays!

 

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!

I know this time of year can be difficult with IF. I am thinking of you all.

xoxo,

Megan

Surprise!

We surprised my Grandma {my Mom's Mom} this past weekend at her ranch. I had a custom onesie made that said "I love my Great Grandma" with a picture of a sheep, her favorite animal. I wrapped it up as an early Christmas gift. She was suspicious from the get go :) We attempted to catch some great photos and video, but that was a big fail. Oops. We did get a couple good photos:

 You can see her hugging me on the far right :)

 And Apollo too.

She told me that I gave her the best Christmas gift she has ever received. She was so happy. The next morning she told me that she had a dream that my Grandpa was holding a baby. It's evident how much this means to her, especially after losing him in 2010.

xoxo,
Megan

8 weeks

Baby was measuring ahead at 8w4d today, and looked so much more like a baby! I can't believe how much baby changes at each ultrasound. We are so in love :)

How far along: 8w1d

Total weight gain/loss: None
How big is Baby: Baby is the size of a raspberry. {19.9mm}

Sleep: I am sleeping really well. I don't even think I move all night. Still having crazy dreams.

Movement: Not yet. I can't wait!

Food cravings: No cravings, just aversions to almost everything, especially meat. I am living off of smoothies, E.ggo waffles and tortilla chips.

Gender: We have a while before we will know. We still need to figure out our favorite boy names.

Symptoms: Nausea. Fatigue. Emotional. Acne.

Best moment this week: Surprising my Grandmother this past weekend. She was beyond happy! I have a separate post for that.

Nick and I are more than ready to tell everyone the news. We are tired of hiding it from people. I realized this weekend that we openly shared our Infertility struggles with everyone, so why should we wait any longer to "tell the world." We are doing something fun to announce. Hopefully it will be ready on Friday so we can share this Christmas weekend. I am so excited to not have a secret any longer! :)

xoxo,
Megan

Overwhelming Emotions

The nausea is getting worse and worse. It's constant, from when I wake up until I fall asleep. Nick and I take it as a good sign, that baby B is healthy {and sucking the life out of me hahaha} I try not to complain about how I am feeling, but nausea sucks no matter what your journey was to get pregnant. It's really tough to make it through a day at work.

I was driving into work today, about to throw up, and realized how much this feeling is totally and completely worth it. I have never felt this kind of joy and excitement. I have been happy about things in my life many times before, but this feeling is different. It's overwhelming. I have been smiling like a fool all week :) I am so looking forward to every single step of this new journey we are on. I can still barely believe this is happening for us.

I am going to be a Mom. Wow.

xoxo,
Megan

7 weeks - We saw the heartbeat today!!!!

We took a photo of the screen for a little better view of baby. Next week we can start bringing in a DVD to record the ultrasound :)

How far along: 7 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: None
How big is Baby: Baby is the size of a blueberry.

Sleep: I am sleeping well, but I am starting to wake up in the middle of the night to pee.

Movement: Not yet. I can't wait!

Food cravings: Nothing, now that I am feeling nauseous. The nausea is worse when I am hungry, so I have to force myself to eat anything I can stomach. My "favorites" right now are cereal, smoothies and bread.

Gender: We have a while before we will know. We have been discussing names though. We have two girl names picked out, but we're not 100% sure on the boy name.

Symptoms: Nausea. Headaches. Fatigue. Mood swings. Acne - it's bad :(

Best moment this week: Seeing that little heartbeat flickering on the ultrasound today was most definitely the best moment this week, if not the most amazing moment of my life. Nick and I feel so much more confident about this pregnancy now. I can't stop smiling!

We decided to start telling close friends. This weekend we are going to see my Grandma, Aunt and cousins. I am so excited to surprise them with this news!!

xoxo,
Megan
  

IF: Always a part of us

Nick and I talk on gchat while at work. Yesterday he sent me a message that said "I have some news. Are you sitting down?" Of course I panicked. I frantically asked him what happened. He told me that a good friend of ours' new girlfriend is pregnant.

Our friend has never been married, he is almost 40 and he has never really wanted children. He was with a girl for 15 years and they never married or had kids. He has been dating this girl for just a few months. We have met her once. Let's just say she is not the brightest crayon in the box. She already has a one year old child, who was also an accidental pregnancy, with another guy. She had an IUD in this time. There's something around a 0.8% chance of getting pregnant with an IUD. They have only had sex just a handful of times, because she had "intimacy issues" since her first accidental pregnancy.

Our initial reaction is shock. Holy crap, he's going to have a baby?!?! Weird. Next is that awful, shitty feeling: how does that happen when others of us who are ready for children have to wait years, inject ourselves with meds that make us feel like crap, and spend nearly $7,000 in treatments just to have our chance at being parents? That's when I realized that, no matter if I am pregnant or not, our IF journey will always be with us. I am sure the pain and frustration will dissipate with time, but we won't ever forget what we went through to get here.

xoxo,
Megan

Music Friday - Freestylers

Cracks by Freestylers (ft. Belle Humble) (Flux Pavilion Remix)

xoxo,

Megan

Our Home Situation

We have been in our current home for five years. We moved in at the end of 2006 after we remodeled. We have always said that, at the most, we would live at this house until our children started school. Our neighborhood is on the border of a very nice area and a pretty crappy one. We would never put our children in the schools.

We live here because this house was given to us by my in-laws after we put in all of the labor to remodel it ourselves. We do pay them some money for living there as well. We are extremely grateful to have a house of our own and no mortgage. When we sell this house, we will use most of the money as a down payment on our next home and likely pay out Nick's parents so we can stop paying them a monthly payment. It's not just the area that bothers us. It's that our house is just barely 1,300 sq ft. More so than that, our master bedroom is literally the smallest bedroom I have ever seen. It gets frustrating when Apollo's bed takes up the tiny bit of floor space left. This is looking way down the road, but if we have a 2nd baby before we move, it's going to be a tight squeeze.

We were planning to move this upcoming summer because, on paper, we would have owned the house for two years in June. Any sooner, and we would have had to pay capital gains taxes. However, we have now decided to stay longer ::cringe:: There are several reasons and we know that waiting will be best, as hard as it is. 2016 is the absolute latest we will live here. Baby B will be 3 1/2 years old at that point.

We have nearly four years to finish everything on this house, pay off all debts and build up a nice savings account. Gotta look at the bright side of things! We definitely want to try and get everything finished up before baby arrives. The first two things on the home list for me: the nursery {which is currently Apollo's room} and a new A/C unit. I will be 9 months pregnant in the dead of summer. A/C has become a priority :)

xoxo,
Megan

6 weeks

The gestational sac is much bigger now, and the arrow is pointing at the rings of the yolk sac. The doctor told me that we should see the heartbeat next week. So excited for that!

How far along: 6 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: None
How big is Baby: Baby is the size of a lentil bean.

Sleep: I am back to sleeping through the night, but now I'm having really crazy dreams.

Movement: Not yet.

Food cravings: Nothing very specific now that I am feeling nauseous after meals.

Gender: We have a while before we will know.

Symptoms: Fatigue. Acne. Mood swings. Not only are the "ladies" super tender, but I have grown one bra cup size already! Certain smells are making me gag now, and I am beginning to have waves of nausea after meals, especially in the evenings.

Best moment this week: Seeing baby again at today's ultrasound, this time with Nick by my side :)

Nick was out of town for work most of the week. Apollo and I went for a nice walk on Friday. Saturday morning my Mom and sister picked me up for a day of shopping. We haven't done that in forever. I sure needed it! 

I am starting to feel, uh, weird I guess? That's the only word I can think of to describe it. My emotions have been all over the place. One minute I am super happy and the next minute I am crying. I was really spacey during the first half of our shopping trip. Then my Mom walked away while I was telling a story and I started crying LOL. I was shocked at my own reaction, but I couldn't really help it. I guess it's to be expected with all of these hormonal changes. People aren't exaggerating when they talk about crazy pregnant women, huh?! ;)

xoxo,
Megan

Music Friday - Florence and The Machine

I am loving her new album!
This song I especially enjoy because of the lyrics. I think it speaks to anyone struggling, whether it's IF or just a rocky time in your life.

Shake it Out by Florence and The Machine

Happy Friday readers!

xoxo,

Megan