Week 19 Update

Weeks 17, 18, and 19 have been fairly uneventful. Lots of working, resting, eating, and growing. I have had a new pregnancy symptom creep up on me, though.... Heartburn. Yuck! I really sympathize with any of you who have acid reflux or indigestion symptoms on a regular basis. I first started noticing it around the beginning of week 17 just at night when I was laying down to go to sleep. It gradually got more and more noticeable as the nights went on, until I wasn't able to ignore it anymore, and had to prop myself up to sleep. Then, after a few nights of minimal discomfort, I started feeling the heartburn symptoms earlier and earlier in the evenings, then in the afternoon. For the last few days, I've been dealing with this from about lunchtime on. I have bought some Tums and take a few of those occasionally throughout the day and drink lots of ice water, which makes me feel a little better. I'm still hoping not to have to take any sort of medicine regularly during my pregnancy, but if it continues to get worse, I may have to start taking some Zantac... which my doctor assured me is perfectly safe. Boo! My in-laws suggested drinking a little bit of milk at night to coat my esophagus. Any other natural suggestions from experienced heartburn sufferers?

We had our 3rd OB appt between week 17 and 18 (Feb. 16). Initially, Brian wasn't going to be able to go because he had a meeting scheduled, but it was moved and he decided to tag along again. I think he feels a little self-conscious going with me to the appointments, but he likes to hear the heartbeat and be assured everything is progressing smoothly, just like I do. This time, we even saw another guy there with his wife! You're not the only one, babe :) The appointment went well. The doctor said everything looked and sounded normal, and my weight is up 5 lbs overall.

We're scheduled for our 2nd sonogram appointment on Tuesday, and I could not be more excited to see Baby B again, make sure everything is still progressing smoothly, and find out PINK or BLUE! Can't believe we're already to the mid-point in the pregnancy. We're announcing the results to our family and close friends that night at a Gender Reveal Party, and then we'll share with everyone else on Wednesday! We'll be sure to take lots of pictures and post some soon after!

Here's a picture from week 19... I took this one myself in the mirror, but I'll try to remember to have Brian take a real one tonight.

Week 16 Update

Weeks 15 and 16 have been good... pretty laid-back, especially considering the ice/snow days. My work follows the Richardson ISD weather cancellations, so we were off Tuesday through Friday last week and we're also off today... there's a chance we might still be home tomorrow too, if it doesn't get above freezing. Brian also stayed home with me, since he's between his job rotations right now and he can do a lot of things from home on his computer. The unexpected days at home have given us a lot of time together and we've tried to use some of it productively. When Brian wasn't on his bike trainer or running hill repeats in the snow (check out his blog: http://watchbritri.blogspot.com/) and I wasn't watching TV or sleeping, we did a good amount of filing, laundry, cleaning, and organizing around the house.

For example... we are turning the guestroom closest to our bedroom in to the nursery. In the past, that room has been a catch-all room, Mia's room, the treadmill room, the Christmas gift/wrapping room, and a few other things. As is the case with so many projects, in order to do one thing, another thing has to be done first. In order to move all of my Christmas decorations out of the closet, we needed to floor the other half of the attic for storage. My handyman-in-training did that last weekend before all the crazy weather started, so we were able to move a lot of things out the nursery closet. Here are a few pictures of the room in the process of being cleaned out...




Pregnancy-wise... I can definitely tell a change in my body. Even my scrubs are getting a little uncomfortable. I need to find another option or I'm going to be grumpy at work a lot. It's kind of weird because my belly is growing, but my weight is staying the same. I have my 3rd OB appointment next week, so we'll see if I gain a few extra pounds before then. The appointment is just for a heartbeat check. We don't have another sonogram appointment scheduled until 2 weeks later. I'm so ready to find out if Baby B is a boy or girl... a lot more anxious than I thought I would be. I feel like once I know if it's a boy or a girl, I won't be in such a hurry to move through this pregnancy. I think it's weird because I'm not typically a negative or worrisome person... but I am a realistic person. I was so nervous early on about something going wrong with the pregnancy that I didn't allow myself to become attached emotionally. I think that knowing if the baby's gender will help me to connect more than I have already. Also, I think I might have been feeling a little bit of movement while I was laying in bed the past few nights, but I'm not totally sure. I'll keep ya posted :) Oh, right now Baby B is about about 5" long and weighs about 5 oz.

One more thing... My friend, Remy (check out her blog: http://thewebbssite.blogspot.com/), and I are trying to be healthy preggos, so we've started going back to the gym 2 days a week to do some cardio and lift weights. It's making me feel better already and the chats are pretty therapeutic too!

I think that's all for now..
Goodnight!

An Announcement Worth Blogging About...

Okay... so not quite a year since the last post... wow, that might be a record :)

So many times, I started to write a new post, but I wasn't exactly sure what to say or know exactly who would even read it. Recently, though, I've had a few requests for updates from sweet friends that we don't get to see enough. As nice as Facebook is for quick posts and random pictures, I guess it doesn't serve as the best place for telling stories and recording memories... This first post might end up being a little long to help us catch up, but here goes...

Although most of you have already probably heard... the Ballards will be a family of 3 this summer! Baby B is due July 22, and we couldn't be more excited! Let's be honest... this blog will probably become mostly about the pregnancy and the wonderful changes our family will be going through to prepare for having a child in our home. Here's a picture from Week 14. My plan is to post a new one every 2 weeks until the 3rd trimester, then every week after that.


Although, I was pretty sure I was pregnant already, I decided to wait and take a pregnancy test on my 26th birthday, November 21. I'm a pretty forgetful person, so I thought that would be a good way not to forget the day we officially found out we were pregnant. I took 2 tests just to make sure, and then left them on the counter for Brian to see. He was excited, and I think we both just said, "Cool, huh?" or something like that. Haha! It was all pretty surreal. I was just over 5 weeks at that point. We had a birthday party for me with my family at the house that night and kept it a secret!

Our original plan was to make an announcement on Christmas Eve to my family, and the night before to Brian's family... But I really wanted to be able to tell them both together, so we planned a graduation party for Brian (yay for no more school!) at our house the weekend before Christmas, on December 19th. Everyone from our immediate families was able to be there, and we couldn't wait to tell them. I had been having morning sickness from right at week 8, and evenings were a hard time for me, so it was difficult keeping it a secret for most of the night. When it was finally time for Brian to open graduation gifts, he said he wanted to thank everyone for their support and encouragement while he was going through school. He said it felt like at this point in our lives we had so many "blessings", and that we had one more "blessing" to tell everyone about. After a pause that felt like a minute, we both yelled "We're having a baby!" Everyone cheered and clapped and hugged... and several people may have been teary-eyed. It was so fun and sweet, and I was so glad I didn't have to keep the secret from my family any longer.

Over the next few weeks, we told the rest of our family members, our friends, and our co-workers.... then made it Facebook official! Everyone was so sweet and excited for us. We were really humbled by all the encouraging words and still covet the prayers from everyone for a healthy pregnancy and upcoming adjustments to life with a baby at home.

Pregnancy-wise... I had morning sickness from about week 8 until week 12. Although, I did feel queasy in the mornings while I was getting ready for work, I felt worse from the late afternoon into the evening. I never actually "got sick", but feeling nauseous for weeks at a time really wears on you. I was extremely tired and, as Brian would attest, I still lack energy in the evenings. I lost a total of about 6 lbs. during that month because I wasn't eating as much as normal. As soon as my morning sickness symptoms started to subside, I started noticing a little belly bump, around week 13. I'm still wearing my normal scrubs to work everyday, but I'm down to only 2 pairs of regular jeans. I broke down and bought a couple of pairs of Gap maternity jeans (the demi-panel kind) and they are now my best friends!

We have started cleaning out the guestroom closest to our bedroom, to make it into the nursery. Brian floored the other half of our attic, so we can start storing more things up there. Once we find out if Baby B is a boy or a girl (I'm taking a poll - look on the side), which should be the first week of March, we will start to make plans for decorating! I can't wait!

So, that pretty much brings us to the present.. Week 15, day 5.

Please comment if you made it all the way through this post! :)