{Baby} 17 weeks

It's taken me a bit longer to do this next belly post due to a couple of busy weeks with the Browns (friends from high school) visiting Utah and us, our trip to Denver, and recovering from that trip. My belly hasn't changed too much since the last post, but all of a sudden in the last couple of days, I can tell that things are really going to start growing pretty soon!

I've been feeling stronger and better, although I was incredibly exhausted from our trip to Denver and all the driving that went with that (8 hours one-way). Thank goodness for my Zofran to help with car sickness and for a husband who understood when I just needed to rest and find something else to eat that wasn't what we packed in our cooler. I guess you could say that's where the hot chocolate and Coke cravings came in. Those are always my comfort foods during long car rides when I don't feel so well. Maybe it's the caffeine?!?

Lately, I've been having a few funny and weird dreams. Usually, I don't remember my dreams (or even recall if I have them), but I had a pretty vivid one the other night. I had to tell Michael about it, because of the sheer unrealistic qualities it possessed. The basic premise was me and Michael at the doctor's office a few weeks after having twins (I'm only pregnant with one child). Anyway, all the doctors and even Michael were "oo-ing" and "ah-ing" over one of our twins, while I was stuck trying to worry about and take care of the twin that came out less than perfect. And by less than perfect, I mean the baby had two heads! Hahaha, makes me laugh just thinking about it. Anyway, I spent the dream trying to get everyone's attention because of this deformed baby in my arms, because this baby was the one that needed medical help and attention, not the picture perfect sibling. I was a little stressed about it all in the dream and woke up thinking, "Whoa...that was crazy". Good thing something like that happening is VERY unlikely, impossible even!

Haven't felt the baby move yet, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time (seeing as I'm new to this whole pregnancy thing). Will all these updates comes emotional highs and lows. I find myself breaking into tears whenever I get stressed about something. Not too often, mind you, although I've always been a crier and tender heart....but it surprises me at times and I usually end up thinking, "Why am I crying over this?"

As usual, we feel very blessed and are looking forward to finding the gender out soon. I think things will fly from then on. Crazy to think we are almost halfway!

Denver Zoo

 This past weekend, Michael and I took a trip to Denver for his cousin's wedding. We decided since we hadn't gotten out of Utah in a while, that we would use the opportunity to make it a mini-vacay and spend a long weekend there. We stayed in a nice hotel that gave us warm chocolate chip walnut cookies, swam in the pool, and spent some quality time with the Randall (Michael's mother's) side of the family. 

On Saturday, we decided to spend the afternoon at the Denver Zoo before heading to a family barbecue that evening. Most of the pictures we took are from the zoo, because I'm afraid that's when we actually remembered to take out the camera. And besides, nobody really wants to see pictures of us just bumming around in the hotel room at other times, so enjoy these photos of our zoo adventure!

 Michael told me to stop in front of the entry sign to the zoo because he needed to document "Baby's First Trip to the Zoo". That man is pretty cute and thinks of everything!

 We watched the sea lion show when we first arrived, which was incredibly cute. They clapped, imitated different species' swim patterns (the human version was hilarious...lots of splashing), and the fat guy in the bottom picture bounced around on his tummy. It was a hot day and all I wanted to do was jump in the water with those animals and swim with them!

 You can tell we're not even close to being the height of a polar bear when it's on its hind legs!

 We loved the giraffes.

 And this camel's humps were not standing upright. Not sure why, but let's just say that our dirty minds made some funny jokes about that fact.... ;)

 We saw the elephants, and this one I affectionately named Dumbo. Can't help it every time I see one.

 We almost missed the rhinoceros, but caught it just at the last minute, while it was eating a late lunch. I'm still in so much awe at that animal. It's the closest thing we have to a modern version of the dinosaur.

 Hungry, hungry hippo!

 I know it's blurry, but this orangutan was inside his pin for dinner and while we were sitting by the glass decided to come all the way across from the back wall, to look right at me and Michael! Everybody in the building became really excited and crowded around to take pictures. Mr. Orangutan would just look at all of us with the sweetest eyes. Pretty cool for it to come that close!

 I told Michael that we HAD to see the penguins since we missed their show a few hours before. We found them at the end of the day (finally) and couldn't help but hope that they would start dancing like in Happy Feet!

 Leopards just hanging out.

The coolest part of the Zoo day was us finding out that a new baby snow leopard was born just 3 months earlier. The lady who volunteered at the zoo told us that this was incredibly rare for a cub to be born in captivity, especially since the species is endangered. What a miracle for this to occur and for us to watch the adorable little Misha (cub's name) play and pounce around with her mother. There were moments where you could just tell the mom was thinking, "calm down little one...don't pounce on and eat my tail!" It's funny the similarities between parents, no matter what species they may be!

{Baby} 14 Weeks

Let's see, we've had some fun updates since 2 weeks ago. First off, my belly is starting to poke out more, especially when I wear the right clothes (hence the dress picture this time). If I wear jeans or other shorts, mostly I look a little pudgy, but I am starting to have to use the rubber band trick from time to time. It is so fun to finally see things growing! Some women freak out about getting bigger, but I can say I am excited for these changes and watching what my body can do to support this little baby inside. It really is amazing to think about!

We had our 14 week appointment the other day with Dr. Rasmussen, who was filling in for Dr. Hebert while she was on vacation for a week. A little history about Dr. Rassmussen, he was one of the founding members of the IMC Ob-Gyn Practice and has "retired" but basically comes in every once in a while to help out in the office. He was the cutest older man and sweet as can be. He had amazing things to say about Dr. Hebert as he knew her throughout her entire residency. He told us that she is very "old school" as in she prefers women to have vaginal deliveries and doesn't get "c-section happy" like some other doctors out there. Of course, if c-section is needed, I can't be in any more capable hands. But, it was so validating to hear this from one of the founding members of the practice that our doctor is going to be in-line with what I'm wanting to do.

Here follows a few more updates from our appointment. Once again, I am "super healthy" and everything looks great. Basically, they expect this to be a very normal pregnancy based upon all the test results and info they've gathered so far. My blood count was excellent and I have Rh-positive blood, so there will be no need for the antibody shots in my behind during my pregnancies. Also, Dr. Rasmussen talked about how active our little one is already, basically paraphrasing from Dr. Hebert's notes at the previous appointment. He said that is a very good sign and that I might be able to feel baby moving around sometime soon. But, of course, since I don't really know what to feel for as I've not had a baby before, it might take a few weeks before I really can tell when it's the baby moving in there! Michael actually kissed my belly last night and said, "I got to give the baby its first kiss!" Yeah, that was way cute!

We got to hear that cute and fast little heartbeat again...I can honestly say that I yearn to hear/see our baby at every appointment and fall more in love each time it happens. We scheduled our 20-week ultrasound and will be able to see much more detail and find out the gender in about 5-ish weeks from now! I'm so looking forward to it. I have my feelings about what the gender will be, but I'll wait and see before I let my suspicions be known!

As for me, the nausea is beginning to subside and I've gotten a good bit of my energy back, especially this week. I'm currently in the process of doing "pre-nesting nesting" as I like to call it. Getting the house all organized to prepare for all the baby things to come so I can decorate and put together the nursery. We are so very blessed to be in the situation we are in, to have a nice home to bring the baby home to, and to be able to feel comfortable in this new journey of our lives!