Sacrifices

I had the idea for this post back when I first got pregnant in the early summer. And I'm just getting to it now for some reason. For those who haven't been pregnant and for the men out there, this is just a little insight as to how a woman's life changes when that test comes out "positive".


Sacrifices....

A definition-"to surrender or give up, for the sake of something else"

That's what pregnancy is all about (and if you breastfeed, it continues).

As soon as I got the positive home pregnancy test, a switch flipped and my lifestyle changed.

No more alcohol (like I drank much anyways).

No more caffeine (with Avery this included chocolate-this time around I was a little more relaxed).

No more diet drinks (no nutrasweet, etc).

No more lunch meat.

No more soft cheeses (blue cheese, feta, etc).

.....For the next 40 weeks of pregnancy. And if you breastfeed? Well, the alcohol/caffeine/diet drinks don't come back until you wean. I'll have those things in very limited amounts while breastfeeding, but not like I normally would.

Yep, making sacrifices for the sake of your child-you basically give up your body to grow another human being (how weird is that to think of?!) for the good part of a year.

It's amazing how one little test turns into you not "owning" your own body for roughly 2 years (if you breastfeed). My body becomes my child's during that time.

Yes, it's difficult.

Worth it? You bet!

I will say though that by the end, I'm ready to have my body back. As much as I loved pregnancy and nursing Avery, I was so relieved when she weaned. My boobs were my own again (sorry!) and I could eat and drink whatever I pleased whenever I liked. It was like I was handed a slice of freedom!

I don't know if it's more difficult the first time around or the second. The first time it seems harder at first because your lifestyle changes so much, but at the same time everything is so new and exciting. The second time you know what you're in for, but you know how long it'll be until that slice of freedom comes your way again. I'm down to 8 weeks of pregnancy, but the road is still long since I plan on nursing again. I won't get my slice for at least another year if all goes as planned.

Getting in the Spirit

Since it was such a nice day out yesterday, we decided to take advantage of it and go get our Christmas tree! We've done the tree hunting in 20 degrees in the past and it's just not fun. So when it's 60 out, I'll gladly take it and run with it! We thought of waiting until next weekend, but really, the weather at this time of year is such a toss up. We decided not to gamble and went while it was still nice outside.

We usually go to the same place for our tree, but since we moved, that place is quite a haul for us now. And to have a tree go across the city doesn't sound like much fun. We decided to go to a place within a few miles of the new house to see what it was like and figured it would be easier since it was so much closer.

Gabe's Dad joined us with their minivan so it ended up working out really well.

I can honestly say I don't remember ever being to a tree farm, so it was pretty cool to see all of the trees growing in rows like this: Most of the draw at this farm was cut-your-own trees. They provide a cart (to drag the tree to your car) and a saw for you as well. We opted not to cut our own as they did have some pre-cut trees. They were bringing the pre-cut ones by the truckload so you know they had to be fresh.

Before choosing our tree, Avery had to check out the Santa sleigh and reindeer they had. She loved sitting on the reindeer!

They also have a "live" nativity scene....yep, the sheep, donkey, and goat are all real animals....smells and all!

Close up of the donkey and goat-which took me awhile to figure out was real (the goat):

Gabe's Dad kept Avery over by the sleigh and reindeer while Gabe and I scoped out a tree. I have to say, we picked the first one that looked like it was tall....Gabe stood it up and I thought it looked pretty good. Then I held it and he thought the same. So he dragged it over to see how tall it was (they had a 10' candy cane measuring thing) and it was 9.5' tall-perfect!

They shook off the needles and bailed it up for us....and here is Gabe with his big tree he has always wanted:

Avery finally joined us and ran up to the tree like she was going to hug it:

And posed with Daddy:

We successfully got the tree home and set up in the stand. Now we just need to buy a few more strands of lights (we're used to maybe a 7' tree, not a 9.5' one!) and get it decorated and we'll be all set.

I also took some time this weekend getting our other decorations out as well so the house is feeling pretty Christmas-y right now! Love it!

Thankful

Today is the day we reflect on what we're thankful for.

I'm thankful for my wonderful husband every day. He is the rock that I lean on and my true partner in life. He supports me and loves me for who I am. And he is the best Daddy any little girl could ask for.

I'm thankful for my sweet angel, Avery. Even though she stresses us out sometimes and we get frustrated with her, she is also the light of our lives. I love watching the world through her eyes and I love watching her grow and learn new things. And I love her taking her first bite of cinnamon roll: only to put it down and eat her fruit instead (she does not have my sweet tooth just yet)! And I love that on this Thanksgiving, she drew her first face without any direction from me.

So what if it looks a little creepy?!

I'm thankful for baby #2 who will join us in roughly 9 weeks. I know life will change once again when he/she arrives, but it's all good. The whole thing is a miracle to me and it's amazing what the human body can do.

I'm thankful that we have a beautiful new house to call home. Even though it doesn't feel like home yet, it will. And it will be wonderful.

I'm thankful that we both have jobs in this economy. Some way to bring home a paycheck and buy the things that we need/want. I know there are many people out there who are not as fortunate.

I'm thankful for family-those related by blood and those that aren't. We had a larger than usual turn out for dinner today and it totally reminded me of Thanksgivings as a child-more people than you can cram at a table, kids having their own tables, etc. And I loved every minute of it. The more the merrier to me!

I'm thankful for my friends as well for they have had a place in my heart for years now. Even though we don't see each other that much anymore, we can still talk as if we saw each other yesterday. I miss them all dearly and wish that we all lived in the same area again so that our kids could grow up together. But, life has separated us all and we try our best to keep things going.

And I'm thankful for health-that all of our family and friends are healthy. You don't realize how good you have it until you hear of someone else's story. And health is one thing that you really don't have much control over. But we're all hangin' in there as of now.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you have many, many things to be thankful for this year.

Happy 4th Birthday Bianca!

Saturday we went to my Sister-In-Law's house for our niece's 4th birthday. Her actual birthday was the week before, but they had the party this weekend.

Avery napped very late so we had to wake her up for the party. And for some reason she HAD to wear this tu-tu there. In the year and a half we've owned it, she's worn it one other time. But Saturday, she insisted on it! So this was her get-up for the bash:
My Brother-in-Law's parents came and brought their 2 new dogs with them so Avery was having a blast chasing them all around the house! And she loved getting kisses from them too!

We had a great dinner-pulled pork, potato soup and some salads. After dinner I got Avery to give the birthday girl a big hug:

Then they brought out a pinata for the kids-Dora of course!

It was one of the ones where you pull a string (instead of hitting it).
Bianca took the first pull since it was her birthday:

And she got it on the first try and the candy all came out! Avery was clueless as far as what to do-we kept telling her to pick up the candy and she would just stand there watching Owen and Bianca-it was funny!

Then it was time for presents. My In-Laws always buy each kid a toy so that they don't feel left out on another kid's birthday. So Avery tore open her gift and got a new doll!

Here's Bianca modeling a pair of hello kitty earmuffs that she got:

And tearing into another present:
Then it was time for cake-princesses of course for Bianca-she loves them!
And she loved when we sang to her-she was totally into it!
Make a wish!
Happy 4th Birthday Bianca!! We had so much fun at your party!

30 Weeks-Baby #2

I'm a few days late in updating, but Wednesday I hit the 30 week mark. Only 10 more to go!

How I'm feeling/sleeping: Well, I've had an ear/sinus infection for the past 2-3 weeks and I'm just about over it, finally. Just finishing up my last few days of antibiotics so hopefully it's gone for good! It's made sleeping very challenging because I couldn't breathe at all and was up numerous times a night coughing. Not fun at all!

Appointments/events: Had my monthly appointment last Friday. Somehow I lost a pound from my last appointment, which caught me by surprise (according to my scale at home I gained 2lbs)....so for their record I'm up 12lbs now overall. Baby sounded fine and all is going well. I now start my biweekly appointments which is crazy! Although it'll be 3 weeks between my appointments because they couldn't get me in the week of Thanksgiving so it got bumped out a week.

Cravings/Aversions: Still not eating oatmeal. Everything else is fair game. No strong cravings for anything though. Still eating too much junk food!

Movement: Of course! Baby had hiccups for the first time the other day that I noticed as well!

Avery's thoughts: She's still convinced it's a girl and there's no telling her otherwise! She told me today when I picked her up from daycare "I missed you and baby, Mommy!" So cute!


Here are my photos from this week. The blue shirt on the left is me with Avery at 31wks and the yellow shirt is me on Wednesday with baby #2:

Backsplash

One of our missing pieces that needed to get done was our kitchen backsplash. We had all of the materials bought, it just needed to be put in place.

The one guy we use to do a lot of improvement type of things was actually available this week and came and got it done in no time! And we love the way it turned out!

Here's one area next to our fridge: And over the cooktop:

We are very happy with it and I think it really tied the whole kitchen together! Love it!

Moving Day!

So yesterday was the big day....moving day!

Our POD was supposed to be picked up at 8:30am and we were woken up at 7:45am by them! Nice and early!

Gabe's Dad showed up around 9am to take Avery for the day-we didn't want her to be in the way of the movers and this way Gabe and I could get some stuff done while she was gone.

Before she left, we took a family photo outside of the old house:

The movers showed up around 9:15am and got right to work. We had one truck and three guys and man, did they hussle! We were only going to have them take the "big" items (99% furniture), but we ended up having them take some boxes too because they moved so darn fast! They had all of our furniture packed up in just over an hour-it was amazing!

Here's the truck in our driveway:

I forget what time they completely finished packing up, but I'd say it was in under 2 hours easily. Then we headed to the new house:

And they were just as quick to unload! Basically the entire job was done by 1pm-so about 4 hours or so, which was way faster than we expected.

Once they left, Gabe and I took my car and headed back to the old house-we stopped at Wendy's for lunch then went back and packed up my car. We came back to the new house and got a few things arranged. Then we took both cars back to the old house and did another big load. Gabe took the cat and I was on Avery duty.

I went to my in-laws to get her around 4:30 or so. She seemed excited to go see Daddy and Jerri the cat at the new house.

We got home (Gabe had been home at least an hour with the cat) and I asked how the cat was doing. Gabe said "she's laying in the box of china." Somehow she wiggled herself into the box (which was closed) and there she stayed for about two hours! Avery was loving it because Jerri was too afraid to move so Avery got to pet her all she wanted! Here she is giving her kisses:

Silly cat!

Gabe finally took the cat out of the box to see what she would do. Anytime we'd leave the room, the cat would meow like crazy! We had the door from the house to the garage open and Jerri went and hid under Gabe's car for a long time. I went out there and she came up to me and I petted her a very long time. That seemed to calm her down and she slowly followed me back into the house. She did keep meowing a lot and I was paranoid that she was going to keep us up all night.

Avery on the other hand did great-she went up and saw her bedroom all set up and just grinned from ear to ear saying "I love my new room!" She went to bed super easily-it was a piece of cake! Here I thought Avery would have a tough time and Jerri was the "problem child".

I'm happy to report that the cat calmed down enough to sleep with us at night and really was quiet for the most part-thank God!

Overall it was a good day-busy, but good!

Now the fun of unpacking begins!

Last

Today was it....the last day in our house...our home.

I had an OB appointment in the morning so Avery accompanied me there. We stopped for cupcakes on the way home for our special dessert tonight.

Avery had lunch then went down for her last nap in her room: And a wonderful one it was-almost 3 hours! She hasn't done that in a very long time!

Shortly after she got up, Gabe came home and we got dinner ready.

Here's Avery waiting for dinner:

Our last meal-huge salads with chicken on them:

Avery had half of her cupcake at lunch and half at dinner (the girl HAD to have it at lunch-haha!). She goes right for the frosting too!

Then it was time for her last bath at the house and she did great!

We got Avery ready for bed and to sleep, then Gabe and I enjoyed our yummy cupcakes once she was asleep:

We've been buzzing around trying to pack up a few things here and there. We're heading to bed on the early side since we have the POD place coming at 8am to move the POD and then the movers arrive at 9am! Busy day tomorrow!

Two Nights

That's all that we have left in our house.

Two more nights.

It is the weirdest feeling-exciting, surreal, nerve wracking, and sad all at the same time.

I've been in this house for six years now. Gabe has been here ten.

We met when he lived here.

It was where we first lived together.

We got engaged in this house-in the living room on the couch by the fireplace.

We got our first pet while living here.

We got married while we lived here.

We started our family here.

It's weird to leave it all behind and start over somewhere new when you have all of these memories.
And of course I keep thinking of all of the last things we'll do here-Avery's last bath tomorrow night. Today was my last day to wake up and get ready for work here. Tomorrow will be our last dinner here, Saturday our last breakfast. Our last mornings of getting showered and dressed for the day. And of course tomorrow will be our last night sleeping in our bed in our room.

I know I will shed some tears-heck, I'm tearing up just writing this! Yes, I'm excited to move on, but I'm sad to see our home go. I love our neighborhood and our neighbors and I will say it has been an incredible 6 years here for me.

It will be an adjustment at our new place just because we're not in the actual city anymore. No more Wegman's, gas, or pizza right around the corner. No more easy access to the expressway. No more 5 minute drive to work for both of us (that I'm going to really miss!).

But with that, we will acquire more space, a bigger yard, an up-to-date house, a better school district, and our favorite-a garage!

And of course we'll create many more memories in our new house-our kids will be raised there! Heck, I don't even know if Avery will remember our current home. We'll have pictures to show her, but I doubt she'll actually remember living here....which makes me sad.



The next few days will be stressful, but I'm going to cherish our last moments here together as a family. And hopefully I'll take some photos of us enjoying our last day and night here tomorrow.

Done!

Our house is officially done!

Today we went for our final walk through to look things over and I must say I'm in love with it! I didn't really get to inspect everything because we were there on our lunch breaks, so I had to look at things quickly. I haven't been to the house in a few weeks so there was quite a bit I hadn't seen yet (carpets, hardwood floors, granite, sinks, faucets, lights).

This is the sink in the half-bath downstairs (wall color Behr "Pale Daffodil"):
Laundry room sink (wall color Sherwin Williams "Interactive Cream"):

Kitchen-stove area and pot filler (wall color Sherwin Williams "Macadamia"):

Kitchen island:

Family room (wall color Sherwin Williams "Macadamia"):

Full shot of the kitchen:

Dining room (wall color Sherwin Williams "Compatible Cream"):

Office (wall color Sherwin Williams "Smokey Blue"):

Stairs (wall color Sherwin Williams "Interactive Cream"):

Master Bedroom (wall color Olympic "Cosmic Rays"):

Master Bath sink area:

Master closet:

Master shower:

Baby's room (wall color Behr "Pale Daffodil"):

Guest room (wall color Sherwin Williams "Compatible Cream"):

Avery's room (wall color Behr "Jamaican Sea"):

Full bath (wall color Behr "Pale Daffodil"):

I think it's safe to say that we are very pleased with how everything turned out! Now we're just waiting on our closing which hopefully will be in the next few days!! YAY!