Belly Band, I love you!!!

Well oh well, what can I say? I have officially popped out as one would say. I don't know how it happened but it seemed to happen at some point between 11 pm last night and 7 am this morning. My "skinny" jeans that I have been so proud of wearing the first 11 weeks of my pregnancy have now reached the point of having "the bulge!" I have to say that this makes me quite sad because I thought I could get by for a few more weeks without getting the bulge.....
I had seen something called the Belly Band last week when I was walking the aisles during my weekly visit to Target and I was mesmerized. Why did I not have one of these things when I was pregnant with Evan and Landon?? I could have worn way cuter pants if I would have had this because we all know that "maternity" pants just aren't stylish. Better yet, maternity clothes in general are just so old fashioned and outdated unless you are willing to fork out $60.00 for a t-shirt that your belly will cover for a max of 2 months... I don't know about you, but I just can't do it.....  Needless to say, I purchased the Belly Band because I knew I would get my money's worth out of it SOON!!
Fast forward 4 days and that leads us to this morning.  As I went to pull up my "skinny" jeans around 11 am,  I noticed that they were getting a little tighter in the legs BUT they wouldn't button over my BELLY. I probably could have gotten them to button but I would have had to lay down on my bed, try to suck my gut in, and pray to God that the button wouldn't explode off when I stood back up..... I didn't have that kind of energy so I went to the closet and grabbed the Belly Band.
As soon as I put the Belly Band around my waist, it was instant relief. It was amazing!!! I can still wear my "skinny" jeans.  The only difference is they are unbuttoned with a band over it. No one but myself will know and I somehow feel like I have tricked people into thinking that I am one of those "skinny" moms that will only gain weight in the belly. So thank you Belly Band, I have always wanted to be a skinny, pregnant mom!!!!

Take a look. The first picture is me at 10 weeks and 1 day......

Now look at this picture. It is me today at 10 weeks and 6 days... (with the Belly Band) See the DIFFERENCE?!?!?!?!

Craving of the week!!

I have decided to post my craving of the week each Friday because as we all know I am able to eat this go around and by golly if a pregnant woman can eat, then I'm going to eat.
Now this is a LONG stretch for me because at this point with both of my boys I was barely able to hold down slushy apple juice.
With that said, I am finding it very satisfying that I am able to feed this peanut whatever she/he wants. For the past 10 days there has been something that I just can't seem to function without having atleast TWO times a day. Yes, I said it.... On TWO different occasions during the day I secretly slip into the kitchen and open the refrigerator to get my good ole snack. (I usually do this around 2 p.m and 9 p.m. because at 2 both of my boys are taking their nap and at 9 they are both in bed for the night.)
You may think I am a mean mom for saying this but I have never been one to "share" my food so the thought of me sharing my prized snack with my two vultures of children makes me go into a panic. So... in order to deter from having to go back on what I am trying to teach them (You better share with your brother or else...... and you need to share your toys with your friends at school) I just indulge when I know I won't have to share.
So.... this weeks prized craving of the week belongs to none other than the absolutely most wonderful thing in the world!!! STRAWBERRY JELLO WITH COOL WHIP ON TOP!!!!

Oh my goodness!!! Is that really what it says?? It can't be... Oh yes it is......

After I bought the test today!!

Well oh well..... I said I would wait until Saturday to take the Intelligender test but as I have stated before, I am very impatient. I went to Target today and bought the test and it was all I could do to wait until Aaron got home from work to take the thing.
I read the directions carefully.... several times.... and I followed all of the steps except for one... It said to use your first morning urine... oops.... I didn't do that...  Once again, probably because I am impatient.
So I tinkled in the little cup, put it in the syringe, and then carefully put the pee pee in the cup where it was supposed to go. I then swirled it around for 10 seconds and walked out of the room. I set the alarm for 5 minutes and it seemed to go by pretty quickly..
Then the alarm went off... "Oh crap Aaron!! You go check. I can't do it.. I really can't check it. Go check it NOW!!" So he went to check it.. He didn't know which color meant boy or girl so I just said,"Is it green or is it orange?" Well, take a look... What color do you see?

Yeap, that's right. It is green which means BOY!! Oh dear Lord.... Another boy... That will put it at being just me and FOUR boys(husband included!!)
To be honest, dissapointed isn't the word that comes to mind  because if it is a boy, I will be over the moon about him just the way I am about my two little boys... I think the word that comes to mind is SHOCK because this pregnancy is so different than my other two.
In the end, the ultrasound will be the deciding factor in determining the sex of the baby.... Until then, I may just have to go purchase another one of these things and use my morning's first urine to see if I get a different outcome. (Aaron can't know about this.... He thinks it was a waste of money anyway... haha!!)

10 weeks and 3 days along!!

Baby Myths....

Every pregnancy is different right?? Well, my answer to that is somewhat. You see, my first two pregnancies were almost identical except that with my first I gained 30 pounds and with my second I gained 17 pounds. Other than that, everything was dead on including their gender (both boys) which leads me to question if I am having a girl this time because everything is so different!?!?!
With that in mind, I have found myself completely obsessed with going to different websites and taking different "quizzes" to see if I am going to have a boy or girl. Some of the questions have left me a little stumped though. Here is why.
One question asks if I eat the heel of the bread. You see, I call it the end piece but whatever and I have NEVER eaten it because I think it is gross so how am I suppossed to answer that question?? I just answered no.
Another question asks if my pillow is facing north or south. Now for those of you who know me well, you know that my sense of direction is HORRIBLE. I think a blind man could get somewhere with a map better than I could. How am I supposed to know which direction it is facing when I don't even know which direction I am facing? So, I put south because I like the south better than the north... for many reasons...
Here are some questions that were easy to answer.
1. Are your feet colder than normal- YES.. probably because it hasn't gotten out of the 30's in the past month.
2. Are you more tired than usual- YES.. I have two toddlers and a husband. Who wouldn't be exhausted all of the time.
3. Do you crave salty things or sweet things?- Hello... SWEETS... What woman doesn't love sweets!!
4. Is the baby's heart rate above or below 140?- Above, it was 182
5. How often do you have to pee? Ummm... considering I have already put my bladder through torture two times from pregnancy and now I am doing it again I have to pee ALL of the time.... Even in my sleep. I pee so much it makes my husband have to pee more.
6. Does the hair on your legs grow faster than before? No thank goodness..
7. Do you have more pimples than before? Well, I have really never had an issue with pimples (Thank you God) so when I get one pimple I freak out. At the time of the quiz I had 5 pimples so my answer was hell yes!
8. Does your beauty seem to have diminished with this pregnancy? What kind of question is this? And if anyone dared to tell me that my "beauty" had been stripped of me I think I may just throw a can of whoop a@% on them!!

After taking this quiz my results were- 75% chance of a girl which wasn't solid enough for me so I did something else.
I did the Chinese chart... I don't know why I bothered looking at it because I remember doing it with both of my boys and both times it said I was going to have a girl..... Ummm... I have two boys.. But I took it anyway. It said this was going to be a GIRL.... Maybe just maybe three times is the charm!!!
With that in mind, I still wasn't convinced so I have decided to go out and purchase the Intelligender Gender Test. Now this test is supposed to be 82% accurate in determining the sex of your baby. It says you can take it at 10 weeks. I will probably do it this weekend to give me a few more days of cushion. I will let you know the results!!

Pull it together you walking mood swing!!

"What in the world is wrong with me?" I have been asking myself this question numerous times a day, almost every day of the week. I can never seem to pick a mood and stick with it. 
For instance.  This morning I was laying in bed starring in awe at my 21 month old over how adorable he is when he first wakes up and walks into my room to give me a big ole hug and then BOOM!!! He decideed to drop the water that was sitting so peacefully on my nightstand and where did it go?  Onto the carpet where it splattered everywhere. That was all it took.. Those measly 3 ounces of clear liquid sent me into a full blown rampage. "What in the world are you thinking Landon? You should know better than to pick up my cup and try to carry it across the room! I can't believe you would do something like that. Oh my gosh, seriously?!?!?! My day can't get any worse!"
If he could talk back to me in full sentences he would have probably told me to shove it. Instead, he looked at me with with tears in his eyes and said, " I'm sorry mommy."
Oh Lord.. That's all it took.There they went. I started balling my eyes out in those big crocodile tears and in the midst of not being able to speak from the uncontrollable panting and snot blowing, I somehow managed to pull it together for 5 seconds and said, " I love you too and Mommy is sorry buddy."
Looking back on it now, I laugh but it wasn't funny this morning. Or was it? Hell, I don't know.
All I know is that these hormones are likely to 1- drive to insane to the point where I indulge in the not so good for you food and/or 2- make me homeless before the end of the week if I can't get them under control... (Aaron really wouldn't do that... There would be way too much hell for him to pay  if he even mentioned it.)
~Ashley

Dear Nacho Belgrande Gods!!

As I approach my 10 week mark tomorrow I am finding many differences in this pregnancy compared to my previous two. The most surprising is that  I am actually able to stomach more than 400 calories in a day. This has lead to gratification and misery on many levels. I actually have "cravings" and they are the most random, obnoxious cravings that I never thought I would have. I feel like an anorexic who has just discovered food! If I feel like I am craving it I want it, and I won't quit thinking about it until I get it. My most prized craving has been a bean Nacho Belgrande from Taco Bell. I even throw in an occasional Chicken Chalupa in hopes that I will eat that first and then become too full to devourer the entire bean Nacho Belgrande.(That has yet to happen.)
I know that this is my last 6 1/2 months to almost feel guilt free about indulging in my not so good for you food but I also know that the more weight I gain, the more I will be cussing myself when I have to sweat like a pig on my elliptical machine for hours at a time.
I have come to the conclusion that in order to "protect" myself from that happening I need to force myself on the dreadful scale at least 2 times a week.  This will insure that I don't die on my elliptical machine after giving birth.
So, I did it. I got on the dreadful scale this morning.... Much to my surprise I have only gained 3 pounds in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. Thank you Nacho Belgrande Gods. After staring at the scale in astonishment for a minute my pride quickly turned to anxiety when I came back to realty. (Ummm... Ashley. Your baby weighs an ounce at the most..... That's right.. ONE ounce....This means that the other 2.9 pounds have come from you just being a couch potato and eating whatever you want..)
Some of you are probably thinking, "Get over it Ashley. You are pregnant. EAT!" What you don't know, is that my metabolism is HORRIBLE and it will literally take me sweating my rear off for endless hours just to lose 2.9 pounds.... I mean ENDLESS hours... Just the thought of getting out to the garage to wipe the dust off of my elliptical machine hurts my head and my heart..
With that in mind, I quickly got dressed this morning and ran out to the grocery store and bought all kinds of fruit and "healthy" snacks that will hopefully divert me from taking a left turn 3 minutes from my house to the Taco Bell.
Just in case I cave in once in a while here is my prayer to you Nacho Belgrande Gods.
Please oh please let whatever weight gain that may come from my indulgence to you end up in one of the following places: my chest or my stomach. That way people will think I am a normal, healthy, pregnant woman. Do NOT go to my chin, arms, thighs, hips, back, or feet. I will disown you for life after I give birth if you do this to me. Amen!!

Oh my goodness.. My mouth is watering all over again... (I am forcing myself to the refrigerator to get a bowl of grapes!)

 

The start of a new beginning!

Well.... I have decided to start a blog for a couple of reasons. The first being that I am pregnant with my third and last child and I want to capture memories that I have lost with my first two children. Second, I love reading my friends' blogs about their families and how their lives have changed from the not so responsible high school days that I remember. Third, I am a stay at home mom who just needs some adult interaction and for some reason this makes me feel like I am accomplishing something.  I guess I am working it into my schedule... And last, I want to share this precious gift from God with all of my family and friends so that they can see just how my life is changing over the next 7 months... I promise this is the only post that will seem like a novel!! So..... here we go!!!

        Last year was a hectic year for my family... My grandma passed away after a horrible battle with cancer in January and my husband took a promotion with his work that left us in a bit of a "pickle."We knew that with him taking this promotion he would be gone during the week and come back home on the weekends until our house sold. Although I had high hopes that our house would sell quick, I was realistic in knowing that with the economy the way it was(is) that it was more than likely that we would be separated for quite some time.            Well... I was right. He left on February 1st and our house sold on August 22nd. That may not sound like a lot of time to some of you but I assure you that it felt like a lifetime to me. This meant that I was home alone with a 2 year old and a 10 month old all week long with no family anywhere around. I had to keep the house spotless at ALL times because I never knew when  someone wanted to pop in and take a peek inside the mess of a life that I was living. Needless to say.. I was miserable. My kids missed their dad, I missed my husband, and I really missed my sanity. 

        Thankfully August arrived and movers came and packed us up.... Then we moved into a hotel for 8 weeks... Yes, I said EIGHT weeks. Why?? Because there was a lapse in the time between when our old house closed and our new house closed. Not to mention that our new house needed work done on it before we could move in. So, although my kids had their dad back and I had my husband back, my sanity had yet to return. For eight weeks it was the free"hot breakfast bar "food in the hotel for breakfast and McDonalds, Taco Bell, Papa Johns, Chic Fill A, Bojangles, Sonic, and almost any other fast food place you could think of for lunch and dinner. Not to mention that I was "stuck" in a 300 square foot hotel room all day every day with two toddlers.. 

        I was at my near death when I got word that we could move in. You would have thought I had hit the jackpot!!  I am pretty sure all of my neighbors thought I was crazy because the very first thing that I did when we got the KEYS was pull weeds at 8 in the morning.. ( I haven't pulled weeds since and probably never will again..As my stepdad would say, "I'm just too prissy for that!!")

       So all of that craziness led me to believe that 2011 had to be a much better year!! This is where our "bundle of news" comes in. Aaron and I had talked about having another baby but hadn't really agreed on when the time would be right. I said NOW and he said in 6 months. After talking and griping and talking and griping he finally decided to hear me out. My main reason for wanting another bundle of joy NOW was that I wanted all of my children to be close in age. Evan and Landon are not quite 2 years apart and although it was tough at first I look now and am so thankful that they are close in age. They play together and entertain one another and they are just best buddies. They also fight like brothers and I have had to learn to let them get "tough" as Aaron would say. Anyway, seeing how close they are and how much they get along made my ovaries start talking to me and hence made me convince my husband they needed another sibling. 

       Don't get me wrong... I had my doubts too. My first two pregnancies were horrible. I mean HORRIBLE!!! I had morning sickness for 5 months with both of them, I was put in the hospital for severe dehydration from puking so much, I was put on bed rest with both of them at 32 weeks. I developed preclampsia with my first born, therefore I was transferred to bed rest in the hospital for the last 10 days of my pregnancy with him. I was also induced both times and had to receive the epidural THREE times on each pregnancy because my spine and the needle apparently have a love/hate relationship. 

     But even after the horrible morning sickness, peeing my pants ALL the time, high blood pressure, prickly needles 2 times a week that ended up making me look like a drug addict, bedrest, and that stupid epidural, being able to hold my babies in my arms for the first time made it all worth it. I swore that I could and would do it all over again if God would allow me one more chance at Mommyhood.

     So in October we decided that we would give it a go but were cautious to let family and friends know because we didn't want to feel "pressure" of always hearing, "Are you pregnant yet??" November came and gone with ONE big, fat pink line... (For those of you not familiar that is a negative sign for being pregnant.) Although I was a little dissapointed I knew that I couldn't expect to get pregnant right away. So another four weeks rolled around and I decided to take another test. (4 days before my missed period.) There it was, VERY faint, but it was there. The second line had appeared. When I showed it to Aaron I didn't get the response I had wanted. He said, "Ashley, you are crazy. There is no second line there." (For those of you out there like me who have taken your share of pregnancy tests in hopes that the first one was wrong you know what I mean when I say IF YOU ARE NOT PREGNANT THERE IS NO FAINT LINE.... NOT EVEN THE LEAST BIT OF A FAINT LINE.) So I pretended to somewhat agree with him and told him I would take another test in 3 days.... Well I couldn't wait three days so I took another one the next morning... Same result.. Faint line.... And other the next day.... Faint line.... This meant that I had now used my entire three pack of tests... (Damn it Ashley! Now you have to go and spend another $20.00  for two reasons... 1- you are impatient as hell and can never wait... and 2-your stubborn husband believes that a faint line is not a line...) So off to the store I went and bought another 3 pack just in case I decided that I needed to pee on a stick two times in one day..... Much to my surprise I didn't. TWO days later, the day after I missed my period I took another one... BAM!!! Clear as day, there were TWO lines staring back at me and I was ecstatic... He was too but I think he was a little more cautious than I was... Side note: the other two pregnancy tests that were left in the package are now gone.. I randomly decided that I needed to pee on those too.. Why? Because I couldn't let them go to waste.... It's not like you can return two tests and get your money back!!

       We decided not to tell ANYONE until Christmas because I had devised a cleaver way of breaking the news to the family. Now I found out on December 9th that I was pregnant and it is VERY hard for me to keep secrets so this was a disaster waiting to happen BUT I did it... I held the can of beans without spilling it!!! Well almost, but that is besides the point...  Christmas Day arrived and my anxiety grew stronger throughout the day.. My cleaver plan of how to tell my family I was pregnant was to have them play a game. This game consisted of homemade cards that each had a word on it and they had to unscramble the words to form a sentence.The team to unscramble their set of words first got a point. There were 7 groups of these sentences and there were 4 teams. The first set of words for them to unscramble was a breeze. Unscrambled it read, "Rudolph the red nose reindeer had a very shiny nose." The second- sixth sets were just as easy all relating to Christmas..... The last sentence to unscramble was the "spilling of the beans" I guess you could say. Unscrambled it read," There will be a new bundle of joy arriving in late August!" As everyone tried to figure it out I was so giggly inside. Finally, my mom of all people started shouting," I know what it is.. I know what it is... Ashley is pregnant.. Oh my GOD!!!" Then the shouting and screaming began.. It was priceless! I will post the video on here when I figure out all of the technicalities of this blog....

       Fast forward 5 weeks and that is where we are today. I am getting close to being 10 weeks pregnant and we had our first ultrasound two days ago. We saw our little peanut moving her/his little paddles (fingers and toes) around and even jumping a little bit. The heartrate was perfect... 182 beats a minute and my heart just melted when I heard that angelic sound. It still brings tears to my eyes thinking of how perfect and precious this little life is and to think that she/he is just a growing in my belly.... What a great gift from God!!          And for those of you wondering.... I have NOT been sick at all.. No throwing up for me. I am giving the credit of this to my sweet, dear grandma who is now in heaven. I believe she had a good, long talk with the man upstairs and told him that I was not allowed to be sick this time. So Thank You Grandma!!! You truly are an ANGEL!!  

         I hope you enjoy my little stories throughout the next 7 months on how my crazy life  is getting even crazier!! I hope you can relate to some, laugh at some, and maybe even cry at some of the stories that I am sure are yet to come!! Until then..Here are a few pictures to enjoy!!
~Ashley

 6 weeks pregnant!!! No big change yet

 7 weeks pregnant.. still not much.

 8 weeks... There is a little bump forming!!

9 weeks along..

Our little peanut at 9 weeks and 2 days old!!