Monday, January 27, 2014

Big News

Well, I finally announced our pregnancy on Facebook/Instagram yesterday. So, now it's time to do a blog post :).

Q: How long did it take this time around to get prego?
A: I got my IUD out in August. And found out we were expecting the day after Thanksgiving-November 29, 2013. Parker took us a year to get pregnant, Spencer was literally no time at all, and this time was about 3 months. I had no idea what to expect. Last time I got my IUD out (with Spencer) I got pregnant right away so while not expecting that this time, it was still hard on me every month I wasn't, surprisingly. When you're ready, you're ready and the unexpected that lingers in the air is stressful and anxious! I woke up the day after Thanksgiving thinking, well, I'm supposed to start today, but don't really feel pregnant (like I did last month which was negative...). I have a dollar store test, what the heck-I'll jut take it. Well, there it was! Two distinct lines-I'm PREGNANT! I wanted to think of a creative way to tell Darrin, since I haven't done that before...

Q: How did you tell Darrin:
A: It was Black Friday. We were planning to go to a couple stores that morning around 10am (I found out at about 7:30am). We wanted to just see if there were any leftover good deals after the crowds. So as we got to Home Depot I told Darrin I wanted to take a picture of him and the boys in front of the store to document our Black Friday shopping.

As I was taking the picture of him and the boys I said, "oh, wait-I almost forgot!" and handed him the positive pregnancy test and kept snapping pictures to "catch his reaction on camera". Didn't quite go as planned...


He looked at it confused (so did Spencer-haha!) and said, "What is it?". I let it sink in. He figured out it was a pregnancy test but thought the two lines were negative signs...so he was confused...


Then I finally said, "I'm pregnant!" he looked up in disbelieve with a smile-"really?!"


Then it sunk in a little more and he was excited and sweet :)


Q: How far apart in age will your kids be?
A: Parker and Spencer are 21 months apart. Spencer and baby in tummy will be about 2.5 years apart.

Q: How have you been feeling?
A: I've thrown up 15 times so far. Which hasn't been fun. Despite the nausea (thank goodness for Zofran), extreme tiredness, peeing allllll the time (I swear I get up 3 times per movie), occational heartburn and headaches, I can honestly say I'm doing well! Mornings are tough a lot but overall, the rest of the day I'm usually fine. I have felt sooo lazy though. I'm usually going going going all day getting things accomplished, but since about week 6, I've not had any will or energy to get up for the most part. I drag myself along a lot. Another thing is that up until recently, I haven't really wanted any sweets-they just sounded so gross!

Q: Has this pregnancy been different in any way than the other two?
A: My other two pregnancies I remember often thinking, "why do they call it morning sickness? It lasts ALL DAY LONG!" This pregnancy has definitely been more focused in the morning. But I think I've physically thrown up more this pregnancy than others. I feel like I've had more acne this time around. And the heartbeat has been faster this time than the others. That's all I can think of for now.

Q: Are you hoping for a girl this time around?
A: Tough question. Of course I'm hoping for a HEALTHY BABY! I KNOW that whatever God gives me, I'm meant to have! I love having little boys and another would be fun still I'm sure! BUT, I cannot ignore the fact that I yearn for a girl and have since I was little. I think it'd be so much fun to see Darrin with a little girl, and fun to have all the new experiences that come with little girls. On the other hand, from what I've seen, girls are drama! But I'm willing to deal with that to have one of my own. We'll probably only have one more (that's not even decided yet), so it'd be nice to know I'm capable :). BUT another brother would be so much fun too!

Q: What are your feelings about being pregnant with your 3rd?
A: I can hardly believe I'll have 3 kids before I'm 26 (just before)! Most of my friends my age have 1 or none. But I couldn't be happier! I honestly LOVE motherhood and know that it's my calling given to me by a loving Father in Heaven. I feel SO extremely blessed to be able to have children and I'm doing my best to make the most of it and cherish each child of God I've been given. I have a husband who helps out a lot and so I'm pretty sure we can handle 3. BUT the number 3 scares me a bit. That means we're outnumbered. Everyone says 3 is the hardest adjustment. Getting 3 ready, out the door and in the car sounds hectic. So, mothers of 3, any advice and comfort would be nice :)

Q: Are you doing anything different this time around?
A: Yes. With my other two I have had OB's. It's been OK but I haven't been overly pleased with either experience. This time I am looking for something different. So, I'm finally trying out a midwife! So far so good! I have been playing around with the idea of going natural (on purpose! If you don't remember my going natural NOT on purpose story, see here. ) this time around. For a few reasons: 1) If I can do it unprepared under pitocin, I can do it while being prepared without pitocin, right? 2) The recovery last time was AMAZING! I felt so great afterwards, could walk around, and besides being chubby and all, just felt great! 3) I feel like doing it un-medicated is more of an in-body experience as opposed to the out-of-body experience with an epidural. When going natural, I was really THERE 100%-it was such an emotional, spiritual and incredible experience. When I did the epidural with Parker, it didn't go as planned and was kind of miserable. Don't get me wrong, going natural was crazy and I felt like I was going to die and swore I'd never do it again. BUT, again, I wasn't prepared. AND if I end up feeling like I need an epidural in the end, then so be it. Not the end of the world! But I think shooting for non-medicated is what I'd love to do this time.

Belly shots in order of 8 weeks, 10 weeks, and 12 weeks.


Also, Darrin and I went on a little trip for our anniversary! We went to Bryce Canyon for the long Martin Luther weekend. 3 nights, 4 days without our littles. It was SO much fun! We stayed at Ruby's Inn. With taxes and all, we paid $50/night and they upgraded our room for free to a King bed and HUGE jetted tub next to the bed :). It was lovely and relaxing! The pool was just across the hall too which was nice. We went on a few hikes, nice drives to GORGEOUS lookouts, and even got to go to a star-gazing show thing where they did a presentation and then took us out to a bunch of nice telescopes to see amazing stars and plants! So amazing!

Why should you go to Bryce Canyon in the winter you ask? Maybe we just got lucky, but it was SUCH nice weather! Blue skies, hiked in JACKETS with snow boots (didn't need snow shoes), BEAUTIFUL snow covered red rocks, not crowded, cheaper.

Our actual anniversary isn't until this Saturday, but we wanted to take advantage of the long weekend! Happy 6 year anniversary to my amazing, loving, devoted, HOT man of mine!




Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Christmas

I'm a bit behind these days but can't not post about our Christmas! Christmas was a lot of fun. I didn't feel like we did a ton of Christmas-y stuff this season though. Darrin got a whole home theater system/projector/screen etc for Christmas (early) so we were so busy trying to get it all put up before Christmas. We did go to see the Christmas lights downtown with friends, go to our ward Christmas party with Santa there, our elf on the shelf, "Snow" made many appearances, did an advent calendar, went sledding in our backyard behind the 4-wheeler, made gingerbread houses twice with different sets of friends and put up all the Christmas decor. So, still had a lot of fun but there was more on my "list" I would have liked to do :).

Parker was SO much fun this year! He was so into all of it and I knew Christmas morning would be so magical :). Spencer (and Parker) got really into finding Snow the Elf each morning which was fun too. We also hosted the annual Tew Christmas Eve party (all my extended family on my Mom's side which was about 50 who showed up) which was a GREAT turn out and turned out to be a great time!

Christmas morning Parker and I were up earlier than Dad and Spencer. So we made a yummy German Pancake breakfast and then woke them up to eat breakfast. We ate, then opened stockings. Parker was so excited about each individual thing in his stocking. I must have said, "wow!" 100x just for his stocking :). Then we did gifts with the main gifts last. Spencer was a lot more into opening gifts than we thought he'd be. The boys got games, aprons, superhero capes, toys etc and their main gifts being a Razor scooter for Parker and a wiggle scooter for Spencer. Darrin got his yearly homemade calendar, a desktop fooseball table and chest protection for the 4 wheeler besides his whole home theater. He generously got me a new laptop (given to me early since mine broke), rice cooker, Nivea hand cream, lots of snacks I love, solar lights to line the front walkway and a NEW PHONE which I LOVE! We are SO so so blessed!

After our own Christmas we headed to the Potts for Uncle Richards stockings and giving the Hamilton's their gifts. Then off to Simon's for a talent show, Nativity and gifts followed by a fabulous dinner. It was a lot of fun.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Onto Pictures: