Cravings

I've had several people ask me lately about pregnancy cravings, just wondering if I've craved anything fun or bizarre. It got me thinking that I should probably record what I have been craving while I can still remember. So far I haven't craved anything outrageous but I have experienced some cravings that definitely hamper my day if they don't get satisfied. I've broken them up into my first and second trimester so far. My first trimester I didn't crave as much because I was so sick, but I still had a few...

First Trimester Cravings:

• Movie Theater popcorn
• Smoothies
• Salad with ranch dressing
• Tomatoes
• Celery
• Carrots
• Strawberries
• Grapes
• Fried chicken from a deli
• French fries

Second Trimester Cravings:

• Pickles and cheese
• Steak
• McDonald's Big Mac
• Watermelon
• Arby's Turkey Bacon & Ranch Marketfresh Sandwich
• Crab salad and croissants
• Grandma C's macaroni salad
• BBQ hot dogs and hamburgers
• Potato chips
• Salted peanuts
• Apples with caramel dip
• Yogurt
• Chuck-A-Rama (probably my weirdest)
• French toast
• Chocolate milk

I think that's about it for cravings so far. It seems like I ate nothing but fruits and vegetables my first trimester because they were the only foods that stayed true to flavor. A lot of my meals had to be homecooked, I couldn't handle anything processed or microwaveable. I still struggle with processed foods actually.

I'd also like to announce that I am over my aversion to eggs! My dad had fried eggs for dinner the other night and as I walked by I thought...wow those look good. So the next day I decided to give it a try and it was great! I'm so relieved because I really really love fried eggs.

My pregnancy at 23 weeks...

I gave my notice at work today and I'm feeling very good about it. I'm getting ready to start school and I need to have all my work done before Thanksgiving break. I'm feeling motivated now but we'll see what happens once I actually get going. My morning sickness is almost non-existent these days which is absolutely wonderful. I've figured out what I want to do for everybody when Christmas arrives and I plan on having gifts done before Thanksgiving break as well. I figure it will be a lot easier to do it now than it will be when I have a three week old baby boy.
I feel pretty good most days and this morning I was thinking about how different my life is right now than it was at the beginning of the year....

I can no longer bend over, Tobi is sitting very low and bending over for anything is agony.

I can't put on shoes unless they're slip ons.

I can no longer cut my toe nails without being extremely creative (I don't trust anyone to do it for me).

It takes me days to save up enough energy to leave the house once.

I can't sit down comfortably.

I can't lay down comfortably.

I can't stand comfortably.

I walk really, really slow.

I can no longer reach far enough to see the bottom of my tummy.

I still can't eat eggs.

I cry very easily.

I'm very...very cranky.

I have to use the bathroom every thirty minutes.

I avoid caffeine.

No alcohol.

I still have a nose like a bloodhound.

And so far, I think that's about it. However, as annoying as all those things are....it's still such a joy to feel my baby move and I'm finally at a point where Jordan can feel him move. He moves a lot these days, especially when I'm eating. I love it. I can't wait for my next appointment so that I can see how much he's grown.

We've also finally agreed on Tobias Wendim Leavitt for his name and while he is little he will go by Tobi.

Yay to pregnancy!

Birthday Fun!

We went to Sean and Brynn's house last night for a nice birthday dinner. Sean cooked spaghetti that turned out totally amazing, and we brought some cheesy garlic bread that turned out pretty good, I was excited about that. We gave Sean and Jayson their birthday gifts and sang the traditional birthday song when cake time came around. We had key lime pie and Sean's homemade blueberry pie (super yummy) and got to just relax and visit with the whole family...well, almost the whole family. Tyler and Kelly were unable to make it due to the fact they were finding out the gender of their baby...which is a girl. We talked with Kelly for a few minutes on the phone and then people decided it was about time to call it a night.

Brynn busted out her way cute baby boy clothes and we went through those...so fun! I love baby anything these days. She sent us home with some way cute outfits and I'm so excited to see how they look on my sweet baby Tobi. He's gonna be such a stud! She showed me the invite she made for our shower and it's totally awesome. Jordan and I get to go next week and register and I'm so excited...I just hope that people actually use the registry, it's so helpful when they do. After seeing our super cute shower invite, I asked Brynn if she would mind helping me with my mom's shower invites and she totally cranked out the cutest invite for me!!! We're going next week to have them printed and then we'll prep them to be mailed. I'm so relieved, Brynn saved me so much work and money by putting that invite together for me.

Thank you Brynn, you're the best!!

Poor Little Puppy

I feel like the most horrible person in the world today.....

because I dropped my sweet little Jessa off at the clinic this morning to get....fixed.

I know, I know, I'm terrible. I took her food away at seven last night and then Jordan and I got up at six thirty this morning to go drop her off. She was SO excited to be going in the car with us, you could tell she felt like the luckiest dog in the world....which made me feel even worse. She's at the clinic now and we get to pick her up at three thirty today. I'm so excited to go get her. I hope she doesn't hate me and I hope this doesn't ruin her on car rides. I have so many worries and I know that the majority of them are coming from my pregnancy. I almost started crying as we drove away this morning it was so hard! I've been walking around the house doing a few things here and there and it's SOOO weird not having her right behind me. She's my little shadow, she follows me everywhere and I'm already missing her a ton. We decided we're going to stop at Petsmart and get her some yummy treats so that we can totally pamper her when she gets home today....poor little puppy.

More Baby Surprises!

The other day was a rough one for me. It was the start of Jordan's work weekend and neither one of us were feeling that great. He was trying to decide if he had enough vacation time to call in...but ended up going in anyway. We figured he'd better save vacation time for when we really need it. My mom came home, in a fabulous mood, and shouted that she had a surprise for me. I knew it was a baby surprise so I hurried into the kitchen to see what she had picked up.

She pulls out a Bebe Sounds Monitor and hands it to me.

SO COOL!!

For those of you who don't know what that is....it's a small sound monitor connected to headphones that you put on your belly to hear the baby's heartbeat and movements. We've tried it out the past couple of nights (that's when I'm most relaxed and he moves the most) but I couldn't find the heartbeat myself. I'm carrying him extremely low and I remember that the tech had a hard time getting his heartbeat too. The monitor has an extra chord so you can record the sounds you hear, so as soon as we can catch his heartbeat I will be posting it here for all to enjoy. I'm pretty sure it will be a lot easier when he gets a bit bigger.

Thanks Mom!!

Baby surprises

Baby showers and babies have always been my favorite thing in the world. I love shopping for baby gifts and I'm so excited that it's finally my turn to be having a baby. I've had so many people tell me that they are making me things for our little boy and it makes me so excited and so happy that people are sharing in our joy. I had a very busy day yesterday at work letting everyone know what we were having and work is still very tiring for me. As I was driving home, I was stopped waiting to turn left and I began to feel the *poke* *poke* *poke* that is becoming more and more familiar as each day passes. It just made me smile as I thought "ope...he's awake and playing". I feel him moving so much more lately. I used to just feel him at night when I was relaxed and the past few days or so I feel him moving a lot more during the day. It's funny because it actually makes me more tired. It's no wonder I've been so sick with him moving so much.

I got home and my feet were sore and I was really tired....but happy. I greeted Jordan and flopped down on the bed with a big groan. He just smiled and said he had a surprise for me. I was totally alert. "What! A surprise!" He hands me a bag and inside is the cutest little boy outfit!! And!! Matching shoes. And!! Matching socks. I almost starting crying, I was so happy. I gave Jordan the biggest hug and told him that our baby would be leaving the hospital in this outfit. So I'm happy to announce that our little boy got his first outfit yesterday thanks to his wonderful daddy. I was so proud of Jordan for picking everything out on his own and doing such a great job. I keep looking at this little outfit and I just can't wait to see my baby in it....to hold him and cuddle him and love him.

I really believe that this is the greatest happiness I could ever feel.

It's a BOY!

I had my 'BIG' ultrasound on Monday this week and it was so much fun! I was so excited that I didn't sleep well Sunday night, even after taking my nightly half of Unisom and had crazy dreams about it. Monday I woke up early and waited so patiently for Jordan to wake up. I watched some TV, played some games....anything to make the time go by faster. This was worse than waiting for Christmas morning! Finally Jordan woke up...but we still had a couple hours to go.
We played Super Mario Brothers 3 to pass some more time and I totally kicked his butt! It was great. We haven't played games like that together in a while, so it was really nice and as far as passing the time....it totally worked! Before I knew it, it was finally time to go. We drove to American Fork (that's where my Doctor's office is) and got there at the same time as my parents...pretty good huh? I checked in and waited for my name to be called.

I hadn't actually been to the A.F. office yet, all my visits so far have been in Orem but because they use a different ultrasound machine on this visit, I had to go to A.F. After a really short wait....WOOHOO....they called me back. They took my blood pressure as usual and said it was kind of high. My doctor just kind of smiled and asked me if I was excited. I told him I was so they decided to take it again after just to make sure. The ultrasound room was so much cooler than the one I usually go to. They had the machine but hooked up to the equipment was a totally cool big screen t.v. that totally took up a whole wall! It was great!!! I got to see my baby in style this time.

He started the ultrasound by looking at my baby's brain to make sure that everything looked good there. The ultrasound was in 3D which was AWESOME! He would apply just a tiny bit more pressure and instead of looking at the roundness of the top of my baby's head...we were looking at the brain...and you could see everything! It was perfect. My doctor was really funny and told us that the brain was almost fully developed which was a sign of it being a girl, because boy's brains don't develop until they hit fifteen or sixteen. It was funny. Then he noticed that the hands were up by the face and told us that was another sign of it being a girl because boys hands are usually playing with something else. He was a funny guy. He wasn't my normal doctor, he was another one who works in the same office, but he was pretty cool.

He then moved on to show us that it was a boy and pointed out all his 'goods' so that we knew. Plus he took about six pictures for us, which was also awesome, I love pictures. We got to see everything on our baby, from his fingers and toes to his stomach and kidneys...it was crazy! But everything was healthy and developing very well so that really put me at ease. I worry a lot about the health of my little guy. They took my blood pressure afterwards and it was normal. I had to laugh though because they have to do another ultrasound next time to look at his heart some more. They said it looked great but they couldn't get all the views they wanted because he was moving around like CRAZY! It made me laugh and I'm so happy to be getting another ultrasound for sure next time, then I'll get to see him four weeks bigger!

After the ultrasound we got to visit with Sean and Brynn (they just live down the street from the office) and tell them the good news. Brynn was so suprised because she totally had our baby pegged for a girl. It made me laugh, I love Brynn and her endless amounts of enthusiasm. She said she had pulled out Ellie's old clothes and everything and now she had to put them back and pull out Noah's. But she was still very excited. Noah made us the cutest little pink and blue cupcakes to celebrate the news, it was a really nice visit. Not to mention that Noah is king at guessing baby genders....he's been the right the whole time and he never changed his guess. What a smart little dude.

I sent out lots of texts and many phone calls to let everyone know that we were having a little boy. I spent all day at work yesterday telling everybody and talking about how excited we are. It's so nice to know what we can look at now and actually start buying things. We've finally decided how we're going to do our nursery and I'm SO SO excited. It's going to be super cute and I'll post pictures when it's done!

So I guess I'll wrap this up now and just let everyone know one more time....

IT"S A BOY!!!!!