20. The first time I had to wear maternity pants was June 12th. That was the day of the Strawberry Days parade in Pleasant Grove and I was wearing my normal shorts that I had bought the summer before and I had to unbutton them to sit through the parade because it really bothered me to have anything tight around my belly! After the parade we went back to my parents' house and I pulled out my mom's maternity clothes and put on a pair of white capris. They were SO comfortable! It was so nice to have something comfortable on! Later that day we went to the mall and I bought a pair of maternity shorts at Motherhood Maternity. It was so nice! I know it was kind of early to start wearing maternity bottoms, but who cares?! I needed to be comfortable and I didn't care whaat I looked like!
21. On June 21st, I was playing a game on Aaron's phone. I kept losing and finally lost my cool to the point that I was screaming at the phone and calling it sexist and all sorts of things. Aaron took the phone and tried to hide it from me to help me calm down and I started bawling instead and whining to him about how his phone hated me and that he must have told his phone to hate me because I could not beat that stupid level. I finally calmed down after a while, took the phone, finally beat that level, gave the phone back to Aaron, and I haven't attempted to play the game since. It's pretty funny now!
22. 12 week belly pic on June 27th:
23. On June 29th I went to the normal family practice doctor because I felt like I had a UTI. I did so he put me on oral antibiotics. I completed the course of antibiotics and still felt like I had the UTI. I went to my OBGYN on July 12th to have it checked out and it was way worse. He had the nurse give me a shot of Rocephin in the butt and said that it should get better fast after that. I didn't feel complete relief until August 19th. It was awful! The weird part is that my butt and leg STILL hurt once in a while from getting the shot of Rocephin! SUCKY!!!
24. Also on June 29th we went to the perinatologist to have an ultrasound and a blood test to check for things like Downs Syndrome (Nuchal Translucency). Everything came back normal, as expected, and it was super fun to see our baby! It was actually the very first time that we heard the baby's heartbeat too! SO FREAKING COOL!!!
25. Ultrasound Picture on June 29th:
26. During the first trimester I grew very fond of saltines. My diet pretty much consisted of saltines with cheese slices and lots of water. After waking up, I would grab the saltines that I kept next to my bed, eat a few, lay there for 10-15 minutes, then get up. It really helped with the morning sickness. I also had a thing for lemons and popsicles. I have never been a HUGE fan of lemons but ever since early in the pregnancy I have loved EATING lemons. Not just squeezing them into my water like before, but eating the fruit.
27. I was looking forward to my hair thickening with being pregnant and taking prenatal vitamins. It never happened. At least not on my head. My hair was actually falling out and thinning really badly and still is! It's about 1/3 of the thickness it was before being pregnant. The sucky thing is that my legs decided to sprout hair like crazy! It's seriously so thick and it grows so fast! I hope it goes away after the baby is born!
28. Other things that I noticed during the first trimester include being more gassy (Seriously?! Do all pregnant women fart that much?), starting to get pretty moody (still going on...poor Aaron!), having to take naps every day (still happens pretty frequently but I CAN function without a nap!), sciatic nerve pains getting worse (meaning more trips to the chiropractor), my boobs feeling like someone was tearing them away from my body all of the time (I literally held them to move, even in front of people!), and stretch marks on my legs (right under my "bikini zone").
29. I had to start sleeping with a pillow between my legs during the first trimester to keep my hips properly aligned so I wouldn't wake up unable to walk. I still sleep with the pillow between my knees and I worry about what my body would feel like if I didn't!
30. Starting in the first trimester and lasting most of the way through the second trimester and occasionally now, I gagged when brushing my teeth. It was awful! I would brush my teeth then heave over the sink for about 3-5 minutes. I HATE throwing up and heaving! I dreaded brushing my teeth every night and stopped wearing my retainers because they even gagged me. I started sleeping with a bottle of water at the bedside because it sucked so bad. On July 9th, I actually puked after brushing my teeth. I started at the sink but worried about clogging the drain so I ran to the toilet and I couldn't get the rest out! I sat there and heaved and cried! It was horrible! Plus I was irritated that I was throwing up when I was almost in my second trimester. It was only my second time throwing up and I haven't thrown up since, so I can't complain too much I guess!
31. The first day of the second trimester was on July 11th! YAY!!! 1/3 of the way through!
32. I fell madly in love with apple pie during the first part of the second trimester. When I say "madly", I mean it literally. I went to Smith's one day to do some normal grocery shopping. As soon as I walked into the store, I had the strongest sudden desire for baked apple pie. I ran over to the bakery section with my cart to grab a pie, assuming they would have one in the middle of the day, and soon realized that there was not a single apple pie there. They had pumpkin, rhubarb, and several other flavors, but no apple. I stared in disappointment for a moment, then I realized that the tears were going to flow. I grabbed my cart, hurried over to stand in front of the donut case, and let the tears push their way out. I sobbed for about 5 minutes before calming down enough to call Aaron and tell him how upset I was. He suggested buying pie from another store but I wasn't having it. I didn't want frozen pie either and I was just stubborn about the whole situation. Aaron finally got home from work a little while later and took me to Village Inn to get a baked apple pie. I ate the entire thing in less than 2 days (Aaron only got one slice) and I continued to buy apple pie for a few more weeks. I would eat 1/4 of the pie at one time (covered in spray whipped topping) so I went through a lot of pie. I tried 2 types of apple pie from Wal-Mart and Smith's actually had apple pie a few times too, so I bought that. One of the times I was there, I actually chewed out the lady working in the bakery for not having apple pie. I feel bad about it now but I was so upset that I felt it was necessary. Now I satisfy my apple craving with apple juice and I drink about 1/2-1 full bottle a day. YUM!!!
33. 16 week belly pic on July 25th:
34. We have read the Book of Mormon every single night since June 2008. We have been through it a few times together and each time is more special to me than the previous. We finished it again on July 27th, meaning we were starting again on July 28th. We decided to dedicate this time through to our baby. We wanted to make sure we would be done with it again before she was born so we decided to read 5 pages a night. It can be very difficult sometimes, but we have stuck with it and only have about 30 days left. It's so neat to work on inviting the spirit into our home every day and we hope that we are doing all that we can to prepare ourselves to raise our daughter in the gospel.
35. During July we asked everybody to make bets on our baby's gender before going to the doctor to find out. There were 9 votes for boy and 11 votes for girl between Facebook and our blog. I was surprised because I was convinced that the baby would be a boy.
36. On July 28th we had an appointment with my OBGYN. He had told us that we would be trying to see if the baby is a boy or girl that day so we were super excited and anxious! I was 16 weeks and 3 days along so we thought it would be fairly easy to tell the gender. Unfortunately we didn't find out that day. The doctor said that the baby was sitting "Indian style" so he couldn't see the genitals. We were so bummed! We scheduled another appointment for 1 week later and left.
37. Ultrasound Picture on July 28th:
38. On July 30th, I decided that I couldn't wait 5 more days because we had been planning a trip to Park City for months to go shopping for the baby and I didn't want to go and buy stuff for the wrong gender so I did some research. After all of my research, we decided to go to Fetal Studio at South Towne Mall where they guarantee that they will be able to tell you what your baby's gender is as early as 14 weeks pregnant and if they can't tell, you can go back for free later. We had Aaron's mom and my family (minus Jace since he was on his mission) meet us at the mall and we got to go into a room that's set up kind of like a theater. I had my own TV screen to look at and everybody else got to look at another screen. When the guy doing the ultrasound went over the genitals and there were just little lips and no penis, I was SHOCKED! It was so hard to believe! I had the guy show several different angles so he could convince me. For those of you who don't know, I am the only girl in my family and I have 4 brothers so "girl" was NOT what I expected to hear. I was SO, SO, SO excited though! After 24 years of being the only girl, it definitely is time to have another girl in the family! YAY!!!
39. Driving to find out if the baby's a boy or a girl:
40. Ultrasound Picture on July 30th:
41. The day after we found out we were having a girl, we went to Park City with my mom and aunt and our good friend, Josie. We shopped til we DROPPED! I literally slept pretty much the whole way home because I was so exhausted, but it was SO worth it! We got some of the cutest stuff! We mainly shopped at Carter's and The Children's Place, which still are my two favorite stores, and we spent a lot of money! I had just gotten the last of my sign-on bonus and had been planning on spending it on the baby and I had so much fun doing so!
42. While we were shopping for our angel on July 31st, she started kicking me hard. I decided to place my hand on my belly to see if I could feel her. I did so I hurried and grabbed Aaron's hand to have him feel. We were both able to feel her! It was so neat to have the first time I felt her on the outside be at the same time as Aaron's first time, especially since he's not usually around when she's the most active. SO cool!!!
43. At the beginning of the second trimester my belly button started pushing its way out. Now it's pretty much all the way out, barely dipping in at the bottom of it, and I LOVE it! I play with it all of the time! I think it's cute! Maybe I'm weird!
44. On August 11th I was working. The night before I had been really itchy and broken out in hives so I had called my OBGYN and he told me to take Benadryl and go to bed. I followed his instructions and woke up with less hives. I itched off and on throughout the day but I decided that it wasn't bad enough to call in sick. After about 3 1/2 hours of working, the itching was unbearable! I called the house supervisor to see if she could find somebody else to come in for me. I was miserable! The itching and hives continued and got worse and worse. The replacement nurse got there around 8:30 PM. I had started having a hard time talking and breathing and while I was giving her report it got to the point that I could barely breathe and I got scared, started crying, and the replacement nurse called the house supervisor and told her that I needed to go to the emergency room. By the time I got down there the hives were covering my chest and neck, feet, lower legs, and my forearms. They hurried and put an IV in and gave me some medications to help me breathe and to stop the allergic reaction. It was CRAZY! I was so scared that something would happen to my baby girl! It was terrifying! I fought to stay awake until Aaron got there but then passed out! They monitored me for a few hours then sent me home.
45. I had to go to my OBGYN without Aaron for the first and only time so far on August 12th. He wanted to see me because of the allergic reaction I had the night before. He set up an appointment with an ENT so we could do allergy testing to see what had caused the huge allergic reaction. He offered to do an ultrasound to see if he could tell what the baby's gender is. He still doesn't know that we actually went to Fetal Studio to find out because we were too anxious but he said it was a girl! It was nice to have more confirmation on her gender, especially with all of the shopping we had already done!
46. The next day, August 13th, I went to the ENT. They took a ton of blood for the allergy testing and that was pretty much it. He instructed me to take Claritin for 10 days to manage the reaction, which I did, and he told me that they would have the results sometime the next week.
47. 19 week belly pic on August 15th:
48. We had our big 20-week ultrasound with the perinatologist on August 19th. Everything was perfect with the baby other than the fact that she was a little bit too small (weighing 9 ounces). Then they told us that I had a placenta previa. I already knew what that meant but Aaron didn't. The perinatologist told us that I needed to be on pelvic rest and that he wanted us to follow-up six weeks later. Aaron was so worried! I explained everything to him in more detail to help him, but he's just a worry wart! What a sweetie!
49. Ultrasound Picture on August 19th:
50. 20 week belly pic on August 22nd:
51. I started having contractions on August 30th. At first I didn't know what it was but I knew that my stomach was getting hard. They became more frequent towards the middle of September and haven't stopped since.
52. On September 2nd we went to a dress store in Layton to buy cute dresses for our princess. We picked out several dresses. It was hard to control ourselves! The best part was finding our blessing dress for her! It was the exact dress that I had fallen in love with at Quilted Bear but it was cheaper! So exciting!!!
53. Our baby girl's blessing dress!:
54. It was early September when I finally got the results of my allergy testing. I went in and the doctor told me that I have pretty bad allergies to cow's milk and egg whites and a more mild allergy to wheat. He told me to try eliminating these foods to see how I did. What do you eat when you're allergic to these foods? I mean, honestly?!
55. On September 11th we went out for breakfast and I ordered scrambled eggs. I always carry my Claritin with me since my reaction, just in case. A few hours after eating, I started breaking out in hives on my hands and forearms. I hurried and took some Claritin and it went away. We have decided that I am definitely not okay to eat eggs since then. It's not easy!
56. We were sitting in church with my family on September 12th and Aaron took a picture of my feet. I hadn't even noticed but they were HUGE! I was seriously retaining fluids and it showed! If you look in the dictionary for "cankles" I am pretty sure that the picture he took is right there next to it! At least I made it past halfway before swelling up like that though!
57. During the second trimester I craved pizza and other greasy foods. The most specific foods that I loved were BBQ chicken pizza from Papa John's, chicken strips from the hospital, chicken sandwiches and fries from Chick-Fil-A, and onion rings from anywhere. I still love these foods and usually eat chicken nuggets or chicken sandwiches at least once a day, especially since the frozen bags of them went on sale at Smith's for super cheap!
58. In the middle of the first trimester I went to a pool party for Memorial Day. I was super excited because I had bought a new swimsuit during the winter and I couldn't wait to wear it! It fit pretty nice and I was super cute in it, at least I thought so. On September 13th (3 1/2 months later) we went boating with family. I put on my swimsuit and got very sad. I had only worn it once and it didn't fit very well anymore! My boobs were falling out, it was rolling up on my belly, and my butt looked ginormous! It sucked! I hope it fits next summer because I LOVE it!
59. On September 17th I woke up early and I was bored so I started looking at carseats and strollers on KSL for fun. One listing was for the brand and color of carseat and stroller I wanted with 2 bases for only $95! I was SO excited! As soon as Aaron woke up, I showed it to him. He loved it too so we called the seller and arranged for me to pick it up. I ended up having problems and not being able to pick it up but my mom picked it up for me. The carseat is in great condition and the stroller is okay but the fabric on the stroller is pretty worn but for $95, who cares?!
60. Okay so here's the story of why I couldn't pick up the carseat and stroller combo. The morning of September 17th I started having contractions every 15-20 minutes and they were lasting about 5 minutes each. After laying in bed like this for over an hour, we called my OBGYN and told him what was going on. He was concerned because of the placenta previa that I had been diagnosed with so he told me to go to the hospital to have NSTs (Non-Stress Tests). Ogden Regional was full so I had to go to McKay Dee. We were worried because of insurance but since Ogden Regional was on divert, they accepted my insurance. They hooked up the monitors to monitor the contractions and the baby's heart beat and had me lay in bed for a few hours. It was funny because our baby kept kicking the monitors and anyone in the room could hear it because she was kicking so hard. She HATES having anything on my tummy! I love it! I put things there just to get her to kick! Anyways, after monitoring me for a few hours they sent me home. They told me to take it easy for a few days, which sucked because I lost hours at work, and to only go to church for Sacrament because of the swelling I had the Sunday before. Ever since, I have been very careful not to over-do it because I still have frequent contractions. I have had a few that were so painful that they literally woke me up in the middle of the night, almost in tears! This has happened a lot lately! It's a hard thing to get used to and I get a ton when I am working because I have to walk around a lot so I try not to work too many hours because all the money in the world isn't worth having problems with the baby. Speaking of contractions, here we go again!
61. We went to the Just Between Friends sale in Spanish Fork on September 23rd. They were having a special night for first-time parents so we got more options than the people who came the next day. I saw a stroller in the same brand but different fabric as what we had bought off of KSL for only $45! I was so excited! I showed it to Aaron and we decided to buy it. The stroller frame was in a lot better condition than the one from KSL and I found out that you can buy the replacement fabric for only about $65 for the whole stroller. You have to understand that this stroller/carseat combo is normally $300 so considering that with this stroller we were only at $140, we were still sitting pretty!
62. Kid-to-Kid had a nice lightweight stroller that works with the carseat that we bought for $80 (normally $150) so we bought it! I know, I have an addiction to buying strollers, right? Well, I think I am finally DONE!
63. At the end of the second trimester, I finally bought some maternity shirts. We went to the Burlington Coat Factory and they had some dang cute shirts on sale! I bought 4. They all have fun sayings on them too! The sayings are "Hey! What's Kicking?", "Love brings out the child in me", "Pregnant is the new skinny", and "Baby makes the belly go round". I LOVE them!!! I am pretty pround to say that my first time wearing a maternity shirt was at the end of the second trimester! Yay for me!
64. I started having a hard time breathing in the middle of the night during the second trimester. I broke down and bought a pregnancy wedge...BEST MOVE EVER! I sleep so much better now! That little pillow has become my best friend. I sleep on my left side most often so I put it under my left side with a normal pillow behind my back, the pillow between my knees, and two pillows for my head. Aaron teases me that I sleep in a pile of pillows, but whatever works!
65. While in the second trimester I fell in love with having my belly rubbed! Aaron teases me that I'm like a dog because of it, but it feels WONDERFUL!!! Who would've thought?!
66. I noticed my linea negra (the darker line up the middle of my tummy) and lots of peach fuzz hair appearing on my tummyduring the second trimester! So weird, but I love it! I think pregnancy is so much fun! It's so neat to watch the changes that my body goes through as it nourishes this sweet baby! It's the best!
67. At the end of September we decided to paint one wall of the baby's room. We painted it blue! It's so cute! It wasn't easy getting it to this point though. So, we painted the wall one night. When we did the touch-ups, they didn't match at all. Frustrated, we went back to Lowes. They tested the two cans that they had mixed for us and they weren't the same color. They replaced the bigger can of paint with paint that was an exact match to the smaller can. We repainted the wall (after days of me begging Aaron to do it!) and it finally looks perfect! I seriously LOVE the color! It's so unique!
68. On September 29th we had an appointment with the OBGYN. While he was doing the ultrasound our baby girl started kicking hard. It was so cool because we saw her leg moving and I felt her really well at the same time! So crazy! She's getting big!
69. My most embarrassing pregnant moment so far happened on October 2nd. It's normal for me to leak pee throughout the day (at least with being pregnant it is) and I have grown accustomed to it. I woke up that morning and went to the bathroom then got back in bed. After laying in bed for about 5 minutes, I had the urge to poo. Frustrated, I tried to ignore it. Moments later, it pushed through and I pooped my pants! YUCK! I hollered for Aaron to help me and he came running up the stairs. When I told him what had happened he laughed at me. He then helped me to the bathroom and got clean clothes for me. I jumped in the shower, still disgusted, and haven't pooped my pants since. Yup! I'm a big girl now!
70. The further along I get, the more I feel and see my baby girl moving! On October 3rd, Aaron was able to see my tummy move with her movements for the first time. Ever since then we have seen it move a lot! Today I felt and saw an entire extremity moving along the left side of my tummy! It's so neat! She is so wiggly! She actually moves so much that she wakes me up in the middle of the night! It's so funny though! I enjoy every moment of it! Even when she hurts me...I just love knowing that she's okay in there!
71. On October 5th we had our follow-up appointment with the perinatologist for the placenta previa. They did a really good ultrasound, told us that she weighs about 2 pounds and 1 ounce, and got a few cute pictures for us. The perinatologist said that the previa had cleared with the expansion of my uterus and that everything looked great! It was such good news! It's crazy to think that she is bigger than some of the babies in the NICU now! It just makes it a lot more comforting that if she does come early, she will most likely be in pretty good shape!
72. Ultrasound Picture on October 5th:
73. I didn't notice stretch marks on my tummy until the very end of the second trimester. I only have a few on my left side (2 or 3 small ones) but my right side has more, especially right around my scar from my appendectomy. They aren't super obvious but it sucks to have so many because of my scar. Oh well! They will hopefully fade after she's born anyways!
74. October 10th was the start of the third trimester! YAHOO!!! Almost there!
75. We started buying diapers during the first trimester and we still buy them pretty often, but I am proud to say that I have not paid full-price for any of the diapers we have bought so far. I love coupons!!!
76. When I first found out I was pregnant, I planned on gaining about 15-25 pounds. I was gaining weight at first but after gaining about 4 pounds, I lost a lot of weight (unexpectedly) and got down to ten pounds less than my pre-pregnancy weight. I stayed under my pre-pregnancy weight clear until I was about 22 weeks pregnant. That was when I finally started gaining weight! It was crazy! Now I weigh about 14 pounds more than my pre-pregnancy weight, which is great, but it was crazy how I went from struggling to gain weight to gaining it quickly. My baby is nice and healthy though and that is what matters the most!
77. When we first found out that we're having a girl, we had decided on two names that we liked, Adrianna Christine and Ashlyn Judy. It was so nice having two names to choose from. As time passed, I started feeling more and more that these names weren't right for our baby. Just a few days ago, I finally finished going through the girls' names in our book one by one. I have a fairly big list still so we have some narrowing to do. It's so much harder than I thought it would be!
78. I honestly am very sad to say that our sex life has pretty much not existed since I got pregnant. We had sex twice during the first trimester and I got a nasty UTI and as soon as it was feeling better (literally, the same day), we found out about me having placenta previa and I got put on pelvic rest. We literally went 4 1/2 months without having sex thanks to these two complications. It sucked! It's like we're starting out new again. We literally found out 10 days ago that we can have sex again and it's weird to think about "doing it" again since it's been so long. We will get back to normal though, I swear!
79. I have to wear compression stockings when I work to help keep the swelling down. They help a lot! I am tempted to wear them all day every day!
80. Aaron has gotten more used to my moodiness and he has been super supportive throughout the whole pregnancy! I couldn't ask for a better husband and daddy for my baby girl!
81. I am at the point that I am considering only wearing maternity clothes because all of my shirts show my belly and I can't button even my biggest pants anymore.
82. I think I have gone through more toilet paper in the past 24 weeks than I have in the past 24 years! I literally went from going 3-4 times a day and never during the night to going every 1 1/2 to 2 hours all day long and 1-2 times a night, depending on how tired I am. Thank Heavens for Charmin!!!
83. Over the past few weeks my hands have swollen to the point that my fingers literally turn purple when I try to take off my rings, expecially at night. It makes me feel claustrophobic!
84. I can now feel my uterus just barely under my rib cage. It's crazy to think about how big it has gotten!
85. I tried to paint my toenails the other day. At 27 weeks it was nearly impossible! I have officially decided that from now on I will be getting pedicures or having ugly toes. I can live with that if it means not making myself sick from trying to bend over that far!
86. I haven't had my hair cut or colored since April 23rd. That's pretty much my whole pregnancy! I have tons of regrowth! Out of nowhere, I got a phone call from a friend today offering a cut and color for super cheap so on Monday I will be transformed into a much prettier pregatron (that's my Transformers name!) and I can't wait!!!
P.S. I hate trying to compile a blog this long, especially with this many pictures!
8. On May 18th I had a little bit of spotting but I called the doctor's office and they said to make sure it didn't get worse. I didn't have anymore spotting after that (PHEW!).
13. In late May, I started having to pee very frequently. Before I learned to control it and sleep through it, there was one night that I woke up 5 times during the night to go. It was AWFUL!
19. I had it coming, I just didn't know when. On June 10th we were driving to my parents' house to visit for my dad's birthday. I was eating some chili Frito's as we were driving and I started to feel really, really sick. I had a bowl with me, thank goodness (I didn't leave the house or even a room in the house without one for several weeks), and I utilized it well. We were in the carpool lane when it started coming out. It splashed all over the dashboard and me because the bowl was nearly overflowing by the time we finally got over to where we could stop on the side of the road. Aaron emptied it for me just for me to refill it and have him dump it again. It was awful! I didn't throw up anymore after that but I felt like garbage the rest of the day. 
