A Little Babe

Hey bloggy. Yes! We are expecting a little baby girl this summer! Due July 2nd. What a great time of year! I am stoked to have a baby born in the summer. Both Dave and I have birthdays in June, and it is just so fun with the bbqs, bonfires, surfing, sun stays up late, etc. I am excited to have that for our little girl.

We are feeling super blessed these days. I have been pretty lucky with this pregnancy so far. I am feeling good. The time went by soooo slow for me the first 20 weeks. But since I've passed that mid-way hump, things have started to pick up pace. Plus my belly has finally started to grow, so it makes things seem more real. I am 24 weeks right now, only 16 to go. 

Baby girl kicks a lot. She is going to be an active one. What a cool feeling it is. I already feel like a mama bear protecting this little girl. Especially when I drive, I get easily frustrated with bad drivers. Don't they know what I'm carrying here?! Haha.  

Other than the baby news...we really haven't been up to too much. I am still working full-time, and Dave is still in hard classes (only one semester left after this one! yes!). We are surviving the coldest winter I have ever experienced. It is finally starting to warm up here a little bit.

We are making plans for the summer...and dreaming of what life will be like. 

Recent Happenings:
- A couple weekends ago we got to be in California for Skee and Roxy's wedding. Such an amazing time. They are so rad and a perfect pair. It made for the perfect weekend with family, a sunny beach day, and the temple. Lovely.
- My sister and Luke & Kari got into BYU-Hawaii and will probably be going there. Woo! Stoked for them. This just means that Dave and I and our little babe will have to save up to visit. We miss that place.
- We are just trying to plan out the summer! It's going to be a good one.

Luckily I have been keeping a regular written journal the past few months. The below posts are catch-up posts documenting some of the things that have happened throughout this pregnancy.

Second Trimester

I am typing this at 24 weeks, so I am almost done with my 2nd Tri, but here goes:

How I've been feeling:
Less nausea, more hunger!
Less energy, more sleep!
Less fears, more excitement!

Aside from still feeling tired...wah wah.... I am feeling pretty normal. I feel super lucky, and feel that  I got a fairly easy pregnancy so far. Though I hear that from 20-30 weeks you feel your best anyways. My favorite thing about this trimester has been feeling baby move! I started feeling movement at around 16 weeks. By 17 weeks I could definitely feel little nudges on the outside of my belly, and they have just gotten stronger since. It's an amazing thing, and makes me feel such a bond and connection with our little babe. Dave started feeling the nudges around 18 weeks. Pretty sweet. He loves this little babe so much already.

Another exciting milestone was finding out the gender! We waited till our 20 week u/s to find out. And man...it was a hard wait! Honestly, before getting pregnant I pictured myself having a boy. In both of our extended and immediate families, the vast majority have an oldest boy, and this is just how I always pictured it. I also pictured a house full of boys and maybe 1 girl. Maybe it's because I'm not the biggest girly girl, and pink isn't really my favorite (despite what I'm wearing in the picture above! :). And I think I was scared about raising a girl...like I wouldn't know how to be good at it. Boys are easy: sticks, dirt, bugs, etc. But girls? So tender. Anyways, as this pregnancy progressed, both Dave and I were leaning towards the idea that it was going to be a girl. And so did most of our family. It was so weird. But it was good. We had time to warm ourselves up to the idea and get really excited. I was starting to get so excited at the idea of having a little girl, that if it was a boy I would have been super surprised. (We would have loved it either way FYI)

So the u/s tech tells us "Yep, it's a girl." And it just felt right. I guess I was more excited than I thought, because on our way out of the Dr.'s office I yell "We are having a little girl!" and started waving around our u/s pictures on our way out the door. People thought I be crazy. Pregnancy does that to people.

No I'm not that crazy. So far crazy pregnancy hormones haven't really been an issue. I feel pretty mellow most of the time. I think it has been easier for me to cry...at videos and other things. But nothing too much. This was something I was really worried about before getting pregnant, because controlling hormones is something I struggle with during that nice time of the month or when I am hungry. So I am SO thankful that I feel even better pregnant. Phew! I know Dave is happy about this. He's a trooper regardless, but I know it has been a relief to not have a psycho pregnant wife! So ladies...there is hope!

Overall, I loved this stage, and I am looking forward to the last stretch! Oh and my belly has tripled in size. Talk about last stretch. Woo!

First Trimester

Thoughts on my first trimester:

This is such a weird time in pregnancy. I was overjoyed at the thought of being pregnant, but at the same time I was feeling pretty lousy and you can't really share the excitement with too many people.

Luckily, morning sickness was not too big of an issue. I instead felt nauseuos all day, but didn't throw up too often. Maybe only 4-5 times the whole trimester. Plus I felt it a lot stronger at night as opposed to the morning. I was SUPER tired. Our bed was my favorite place to be. The smell of any food was overwhelming. I didn't get pregnancy cravings, but rather I had super strong food aversions. But, thankfully, I was able to continue working full-time which was a great blessing. I really don't think I had it that bad compared to other stories I've heard. But there is a thought in the back of your head like "will I ever feel normal again?" Luckily at around 12 weeks, nausea subsided and I was feeling more myself. I didn't get that second trimester upswing in energy though! I am still waiting on that!

Good things about first trimester:
- Finding out we were preggo
- Sharing the news with family at Thanksgiving
- Watching my belly start to grow
- Dave being a HUGE support. He honestly took over doing the dishes that whole trimester. He helped with laundry, cleaning, and filling up my water bottle :) He's always been a great partner, and I'm so thankful for that!
- Seeing Dave get so excited about having a little baby to squish and to hold
- Planning for the future
- Meaningful prayers and purposeful living
- Appreciating the little things...like eating something that actually tastes good!

Telling Dave

So before I took a pregnancy test, I already had a feeling I was pregnant. So I stopped by Target and bought a little pair of white newborn socks and a test. I didn't tell Dave because if I was pregnant, I wanted to surprise him. That night at around 2:15 a.m. I  woke up and took the test. Lo and behold 2 little lines appeared bright and clear - I was pregnant. This just confirmed what I had been feeling the past few days. I tried to go back to sleep, but couldn't. I was so excited and happy. I was going to tell Dave first thing in the morning, but then I realized he had a big OChem test he was going to study for, and I knew that if I told him, it would be nearly impossible for him to leave and go study. So I decided to wait. And wait. And wait. We had planned to spend the afternoon/evening up in Park City, so it would be perfect to tell him right before we left so we could have the drive to talk about it.

So how I told him the news:

I hid the little newborn white baby socks in Dave's sock drawer. They are the same type of socks as Dave's but a million sizes smaller. So cute. He had some clean socks hanging up to dry, so I figured I would just ask him if he could put his socks away and then he would see the little baby ones.

So, Dave gets home and I ask him if he could please put his socks away. So he takes the socks, puts them in the drawer, and didn't notice a thing! Dang! Haha. So then I say, "Check your sock drawer again, I think you missed something." He gave me a confused look, and then started rummaging around. It took a little bit, and then he pulled one little sock out. The look on his face was priceless. He looked at the little tiny socks for a moment, and then turned to me and said quietly, "Are we having a baby?" My eyes filled with little tears, and I couldn't really say anything. Then he started yelling excitedly, "Court! Are you pregnant?" All I could do was nod yes. Tears found the corners of Dave's eyes. We just hugged each other close and couldn't stop smiling. We felt so lucky.

Our whole drive up to Park City we just talked about the baby and how excited we were. There was a moment about half-way through the drive when Dave said, "I'm gonna be a dad." He said it quietly and with wonder, and once again, tears welled up in his eyes. I married such a sweet man. I am so blessed to have a husband who gets excited about having a baby and being a father. He will be a great one, I know it.

So I took these pictures over Christmas break, and I am just getting around to posting them. It sums up our vacation quite nicely. LOTS of surfing, family time, and good ole Christmas traditions. It was so much fun. Thanks mom and Mindy for making it awesome.

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is going surfing on Christmas day. It never gets old. Just cold. Oo boy this year it was cold. But so so fun. And yes I was about 15 weeks preggo and surfing. So little bean has already surfed tandem. :) Just getting her ready.