Eleven Weeks

11 WEEKS!

Weigh In - 172.8 lbs, a 0.8 lb. loss! I know I'm not supposed to be losing weight right now, but I think most of it is because I have NO appetite, so I am not eating a ton of food, and I normally have to force things down because nothing sounds good or appealing. AND I have been up and moving, walking, cleaning, etc. this past week which is quite a change from being on the couch all the time. So, still healthy.. and at this point I have only gained 4 pounds since pre-preggo weight! I'll have my "official" weigh in next week at the doctor.

According to some websites, I am out of my first trimester at 12 weeks;others say 13 weeks, and some say that the second trimester officially starts at the 14th week. So much variance. Regardless, I'm still taking it easy at least for the next couple of weeks.

My symptoms have still basically been non-existent. I have noticed that I have really bad back pain. I had lower back pain pre-pregnancy, but now I'm noticing it right in the middle of my back. I'm trying to avoid taking any kind of medicines right now, so Brent has been wonderful and gives me about 4 back rubs a day! He's such a sweetheart :). I have been less exhausted recently. I still get tired and have to take breaks, but I've been up and doing things for the past couple of days and have not had any issues. And while I am still having aversions to almost every food, once something is made I can sit down and eat it and it usually holds really well! Now I just need my appetite to come back because as of right now, I am not eating all that much. I am also noticing that most of my clothes are not fitting anymore. Even my sweatshirts, which are normally big, are fitting rather snug in the tummy area - baby bump on the way! :-)

I have made great progress on the house cleaning! Still a long way to go. Megan says that I am nesting already (which I totally deny!) because I have things EVERYWHERE! I just say that I'm trying to organize and sort so that when it comes time to move we have less to do, especially since the farther along I get the less I will be able to help out. This means that I am trying to end my pack rat days... I bought a paper shredder to destroy old documents that have just been laying around, and some HUGE rubbermaid tubs for easier storage.

Speaking of moving, we looked at the house. It was not bad, but neither or us were super impressed. It would require A LOT or work on our part both indoors and outdoors.. so I think we have decided against that one. We found another house in Alma that we are going to go look at in a few weeks once things settle down. We have also found a great townhouse in Mount Pleasant, less that 1/4 mile from where we currently live! It is a 3-bedroom, 2.5 bath with full basement, two car garage, and private backyard - fenced in with privacy fence. This place sounds absolutely perfect! We are going to try and go see it in the next week or so. We never made it by to look at the car, but we are positive that the Uplander is definitely what we want! :-)

Ticker!

If you haven't noticed, there is a pregnancy ticker at the top on the left above our picture! :)

M&M's

OH! To explain the picture in the last post.. I have been eating M&M's like CRAZY, and I thought they would make a neat colorful picture (my attempt at being artsy) ... other than that, it has no real significance. :-)

Rainy Days

I am exhausted. I realized yesterday that there is only two weeks left until I graduate, that means in two weeks we will have a lot of family at our place to celebrate and visit and whatnot. and the place is TRASHED right now. Not terrible, but I'm usually picking up and putting stuff away daily and that just has not been happening. So I have been cleaning and organizing like CRAZY. The laundry was so piled up that I had FIVE loads to do this morning... oops. Good thing I haven't been going many places, because I've been putting the same sweatpants back on for about a week or so now and just changing my shirt (usually one of Brent's) and my undies... it's just more comfy that way. :-)

I did sort through some of the summer clothes. Luckily, last year I bought some flowy type tanks, which should work out pretty well this summer as my bump starts to grow. AND I have a super cute elastic waist black skirt thing that I can wear because I cannot imagine sweats being all too comfortable once July rolls around. I have decided that soon I am going to have to buy a BellaBand to wear around my pants because my jeans just do not want to button anymore, and if I do manage to squeeze them together it's too uncomfortable for me to wear for any real amount of time. I have also been interwebs shopping and I've been eying a few cute summer dresses!!!


Brent and I have also been discussing possibilities for our immediate future. We have talked to the office staff at our complex, and were basically told that if we want a 3-bedroom, we have to be put on a waiting list. The 3-bedroom with the extremely low rent ($480/month) very rarely become available, and our next option would be to wait for the next 3-bedroom that qualifies for the lower rent ($535//month), which are also hard to come by, or move into a regular 3-bedroom, which is available right now, and do become available often with a rent of $694/month. YIKES. Oh, and if we want to move before our lease ends (September 30) we have to pay a $200 transfer fee.

Well, right now we are paying $594/mo. rent, $20/mo. pet rent, plus about $200/mo. in utilities... that's about $800/month, not including our phone bill, Brent's car (which we only have ONE more payment for!), and insurance. SOOO, we were looking at other options.

Most 3-bedroom apartments in Mount Pleasant are college-student oriented, and have rent payments set up on a per person basis, and most complexes are not kid friendly. We decided that maybe a house would be a better option, and maybe something just outside of the city... away from the college life, but close enough we can still access everything in a short drive. We also figure that since Brent is getting promoted, we will probably be in the area for at least a few more years if not longer. It will just be easier on us since he has a gauntleted job here, rather than moving away and us both being unemployed with a baby(no, thank you).


Well, after looking around we found a house that we both really like!
It is in Alma... which is about 15 minutes from Mount Pleasant. It's a smaller community, but very nice. The house is 4 bedroom, 1.5 bath, with a full basement, and comes with all appliances (which were put in new in 2006). We sent an e-mail to the realtor and plan on going to look at it on Monday!


We have also decided on a car! We both really like the Chevy Uplander LT.
It is technically a passenger van, but we like how it more resembles an SUV and not a soccer-mom vehicle, because quite honestly I am not to the point where I could drive one of those right now (haha). We found one on a dealer website here in Mount Pleasant. The price of the one we found listed for $12,900 and is a 2006 with 77,500 miles on it, which is expensive but if we have an idea of what KIND of car we want we can have everyone else keep their eyes open for one as well. We are planning on going to look at the car on Monday as well! It does get good gas mileage (18/city and 25/hwy), has seating for 7, and has a DVD player in the back for Bean! We feel like this is really the car for us right now, so hopefully we can find one for a good price!

Things are starting to look up for us as we slowly figure things out and get what WE want situated. In 7 days May will be here, I can't believe how fast this year is flying by... and May will not be a slow month:

May 1 - Brent's last shift at Wal-Mart EVER.
May 5 - 2nd prenatal appointment! (12 weeks!)
May 8 - GRADUATION!!!!
May 15 - Coheed & Cambria concert!
May 19 - Mandy's birthday!
May 19 - OFFICIALLY IN MY 2ND TRIMESTER!!!!
May 25 - LEAVE FOR MISSOURI!!!
May 31 - HOME FROM MISSOURI!!!
June 1 - Brent is officially promoted to Assistant Manager at GameStop!
June 2 - 16 WEEKS! :)

I've been feeling a little better. I still get a little nauseous in the mornings, but I have energy to get up and do things throughout the day. I'm still really emotional, and have been experiencing some pregnancy rage (poor Brent!!!), which usually leads to me crying more. Food is starting to sit better. Not everything, but I managed to eat a good three meals yesterday, which is an accomplishment. Nothing still really sounds appetizing to me, but I usually end up nibbling off of whatever I make for Brent and at least it isn't upsetting my stomach so hopefully that part is on a downward slope and will be completely over soon! I still haven't experienced any throwing up, nosebleeds, or headaches... which is good, apparently I am one of the "lucky ones" according to the moms on a pregnancy website I am a member of. Things seem to be going more smoothly in general, so we are pretty happy about that. :-)

Now we just have to wait until Monday and hope everything works out in regards to the house and the car - fingers crossed!

TEN weeks!

I am officially at 10 weeks. So close to being out of the crazy first trimester! YAY! I'm hoping that things will get easier as far as my eating habits and my crazy emotions... doubtful, but I can hope. :)

Today also marks the day that Bean is officially a fetus and no longer and embryo! She's about the size of a plum - 1 1/2 inches long, and weighs about 5 grams (or .18 ounces).

Megan also let me in on a cooking secret yesterday... if I want to make cookies I can substitute bananas in for eggs (1/4 cup banana = 1 egg)! That way I can still indulge in a bite of the cookie dough if I want. :)

I am also officially off of bed rest today. Unfortunately I woke up feeling like poo. My tummy hurts and I can't find anything that will sit well. I'm hoping that I find something that at least sounds good because I feel like the substance will make me feel a little better. I was also stuffy and had a headache :(. Brent decided he would just stay home from work today and take care of me. I love him! If I start feeling better later I want to try and go for a short walk. I am going to try and walk every day... this will be good for me!

Since it's Wednesday, it was also weigh in day.
Current weight = 173.6 lbs. Only a 0.4 lb. gain since last week! This is good since I haven't been eating very well and I haven't done much exercising or moving around. This makes me happy!

It looks like it's going to be another gorgeous day! Looks like spring is finally really here. :)

Catnip?

Kenji thought it would be fun to try and eat my popsicle from the wrong end. Silly kitten.

I've been going through about 10 popsicles a day, not so much for the sugar because right now the sound of anything sweet does not sound appetizing to me at all, but more for the fruity coldness of it. yummm. and for some reason the cat seems to LOVE trying to attack the plastic wrapper while I'm eating them.

More Names

While we are still very open to suggestions and input from everyone about baby names, here is what we have come up with so far:

GIRLS:
Alexandria Morgan Johnson
Morgan Verity Johnson

BOYS:
Dexter Dean Johnson
Gavin Dean Johnson

We have decided that if we do have a boy his middle name will be Dean.

Our top choices right now are Alexandria and Dexter. :)
This could obviously change, we do still have 30 weeks to go...