Catch Up Post

Surprise, surprise, I'm WAY behind on my blog again.  So starting the catch up....

We had a great fall.  I felt a lot better in my second trimester and we tried to make the most of it.  I was able to run 3 miles, 3x a week for my second trimester and part of my third (and finally had to call it quits and switch to walking and biking after 32 weeks).  In October we ran in the Poplar Grove Zombie 5k.  They had the high school drama department dressed up as zombies throughout the course.  My first 5k and lots of fun.

We went to some local festivals.

We had BBQs with friends and made the most of the beach weather while it lasted.

The last weekend of October my high school friend, Sara, flew out for a long weekend visit.  We had a great time with her! The first two days were gorgeous but then unfortunately she was here for two of the coldest days!

We enjoyed beach walks and lots of catching up.  

Friday night we went to celebrate one of our friend's birthday with a 30 beers for 30 years tasting.  Such a fun idea. They even had some root beer and ginger beer there for me.

Saturday we toured the U.S.S. North Carolina battleship.  Tyler and I have been wanting to tour it but were waiting for a visitor to join.  We spent hours going through all the different rooms and then tried to explore the top but I was a big baby in the cold weather!  We ended Saturday night with an awesome dinner at RX, a farm to table restaurant.

Sunday we drove down to Carolina Beach State Park and went on a long hike.  On the way back we took Sara to Wrightsville beach and grabbed lunch with an ocean view at Oceanic.

Such a great visit.  We are so lucky we have friends and family that make the trip out to us!

In November Tyler flew back to MN for his annual boys hunting weekend with my dad, brother, brother-in-laws, uncle, cousin and some family friends.  Even though the airport lost his luggage and he had to hunt in other people's gear for most of the weekend, he still had a great trip.

They got snow on their last morning.

We went on the most amazing babymoon :) Another blog post on that.

We celebrated our second Thanksgiving away from family and although Tyler wasn't on duty this year, he was sick.  Luckily he still had an appetite when our meal was ready.

We continue to take advantage of every nice day with a beach walk.

We went home for Christmas with family and also squeezed in lots of baby showers, friends time and a wedding - another post on this as well.

In January Tyler joined his dad a a quick weekend ski trip in Utah.  Tyler was a huge fan of Snowbird so hopefully I will be able to make a trip out there at some point to check it out!

We also have been very busy getting ready for the baby! Tyler is so excited and sets up everything as soon as we get it ;)  We also made a HUGE pre-baby to-do list and are almost done with it.  Only a few more weeks to go!

And Then There Were Three

We have some news! 

We didn't plan on doing any sort of announcement but being that we can't share all our news and updates in person we decided to include some on our blog for those that want to follow.  I also want to document some of the details. So here it goes: 

How Far Along: 20 weeks and 3 days (but I think this is a little late and we were measuring a few days ahead on the last ultrasound so hoping that this means we don't go too late!)  Our due date is March 12th.  I realized after the fact that on the pictures I put March '15 but from far away it probably looks like March 15th and not March 2015. Oh well!

Gender: GIRL! We would have been happy with either and actually thought boy the last few weeks but I think we both secretly wanted a girl ;)

Size of Baby: Baby is as long as a banana.

Size of Bump: My bump comes and goes.  Tyler calls it the "beer belly" phase.  Some days towards the end of the day it actually looks like a baby bump but most days there is just a little bulge sticking out of my shirt.  I definitely am at the point where I can no longer hide it.  We took these pictures this afternoon after I binge ate at our friends' house while watching the Vikings game.  Not joking, my belly was half this size this morning.

Fun Fact: At our 20 week ultrasound baby consistently measured around 20 weeks and a few days except her arms!  The tech mentioned that the arms were measuring a few weeks farther along which we thought was funny since my arms are abnormally long.

Movement: I haven't felt too much movement yet.  I have an anterior placenta so it should take longer to feel kicks.  I first felt the baby - mostly just feels like pressure - around week 17 but it is not very often.  Tyler started putting his hand on my stomach and saying he feels something but clearly he is not since I was not ;) Today was the first time I felt a lot of pressure and had Tyler feel and he thinks he may have felt some movement.

Symptoms: I am feeling pretty great right now actually.  During the first trimester I felt hungover every day - nausea (never actually vomited thankfully) and headaches, stomach pains, the lovely skin of a teenager, etc.

Weight Gain: Right now I am fluctuating between 4 and 6 pounds or so.  I lost a few pounds right away and then gained most of my weight in two days so I expect to gain similar to this throughout the rest of my pregnancy.

Sleep: First trimester I had more trouble sleeping.  Second trimester I have been sleeping better but have been having crazy dreams.  I usually get up once a night, sometimes twice to go to the bathroom.  I haven't had to take naps but am pretty worn out by the end of the day and have trouble getting out of bed most mornings.

Workouts: I was in pretty good shape prior to finding out I was pregnant but didn't do much during the first trimester because of a combination of being nervous about it and not feeling the best.  Since then, I have been trying to run 30 minutes, 3 times a week, going on walks, lifting 1-2 days a week, and stretching.  I want to start doing some yoga but there isn't any place close to me and I honestly get a little bored trying to do online yoga at home.

Maternity Clothes: Still in my normal clothes.  I think I am going to break out the belly band for work this week because my dress pants are getting pretty tight.

Cravings/Aversions: Oh boy is my sweet tooth going crazy.  But really, I always have a crazy sweet tooth....I'm just using pregnancy as an excuse to give into it.  I told myself at the end of last week (after desserts 2x a day) that I am going to get better!  I also developed aversions to sweet potato fries and eggs.

Missing Most: I am starting to miss red wine and I really miss sushi!  I know they say you can eat cooked sushi but Tyler is worried about cross contamination so we are going to try to make it at home one of these nights.

Nursery: We can finally think about the nursery now that we know the sex! Yay! I want white furniture and plan to take advantage of the black Friday sales.  I want a clean and simple look... nothing over the top.

Most Excited For: The baby actually being here! We cannot wait to be parents.  Also, I am really starting to get excited to go home at Christmas so I can see all my family and friends and they can see the growing baby bump!  Speaking of bump, I'm excited to be at the point where I have an obvious bump so people know that I am pregnant and not just putting on weight around my midsection ;)

Favorite Part So Far: Definitely our 20 week ultrasound!  We had a health scare (some of my levels were elevated) so we had a long 3 days of waiting before getting in to see the specialist.  Everything looks great and we got to watch our baby on the screen for over an hour! She is quite the mover, which shouldn't surprise anyone that knows us.  Also we celebrated with dinner and dessert and then my sweet coworker surprised me with an ice cream cake the next morning and Tyler's dental assistant sent a gift home for me.  It is wonderful to have so much support around us even though we are away from all our family and friends.

Another favorite was telling our family and close friends.  We were able to tell lots of them in person!  I shared the news with my immediate family and a few friends when I was home in July (just 7 weeks at the time) and then Tyler went home for a wedding in September (around 15 weeks) and told his family and a lot of our friends he saw at the wedding.  I shared the news with my grandmas and Solheid aunts and uncles via facetime and then we told the rest over phone or text.  My family sure did a good job at keeping quiet for almost two months!