14 weeks

I was laughing so hard after I took these pics because there is literally no bump. Well I dunno, is there? There's definitely something that wasn't there before. My stomach feels so different and weird. Paul and I both agree that I look bigger but I asked my family over Christmas if there was any bump and all of them said no haha. I think any bump Paul and I see is just french fries anyways. But still! I want to document. Also my shirt is inside out.. also crazy shower hair don't care.

How far along? 14 weeks today!

How big is baby? Let's check the 6 different apps I have on my phone.. Okay.. A large lemon, troll doll (haha), beet, house mouse, small apple, 3.4 inches long and 1.5 oz.

Weight gain: About 4 pounds

Symptoms: Waiting for that burst of energy everyone promises during 2nd trimester! I just want to take naps all day. I fell asleep during the new Star Wars movie. Also headaches.. I get headaches everyday now. But so does Paul soo..

Sleeping: Usually really well at night but some nights I'll wake up at around 4 or 5 and will be up for an hour. Usually my bladder will wake me up and I literally have to force myself to get out of bed and go to the bathroom.

Food Cravings: I think I'm over my obsession of potatoes. I still like them but I'm not craving them anymore. Hot apple cider is good. I dunno.. I'm not really obsessing over anything right now. I'm still a giant hungry monster. I'm not the biggest fan of eating but have to eat a meal every 2 hours or I am one cranky individual. Trust me, do not deprive me from food or there will be problems.

Food Aversions: I thought for sure I would hate beef but it's actually chicken I can't stand. I'll eat chicken nuggets or fried chicken. But I've accidentally ordered a few chicken burritos in the last few weeks and it just grosses me out. Not many other specific foods that I can't stand, though. I've been pretty picky about my food for sure but I'm not going to puke if I see certain food I just won't eat it.

Miss anything? Some really good sushi. But I also think that the whole sushi thing is a myth and I'm not too concerned if I go and eat some once in awhile. Same with cold deli meats. I'm pretty sure more pregnant women have gotten sick over not washing their fruits and vegetables compared to cold cuts. But what do I know!

Gender: We both still think it's a girl and have our name picked out. The only reason I'm hoping it's not a boy is because I cannot for the life of me figure out a good name. The little man will probably end up being named (here comes the eye rolls..) Ringo. Which isn't bad. But I'm not completely sold on it yet. Paul likes it. I like Jude better. I got my first eye roll and mumble when I told someone our girl name. Come on people, it's not like another persons name is going to kill you. Keep the eye rolling to yourself, thank you!

Maternity Clothes: No but living in my leggings and Pauls underwear! haha If anyone has any advice on maternity garments let me know!

Movement: When we saw our little bean during the ultra sound it was just chilling there but wiggling its arms and feet. I'm praying praying PRAYING for a chill baby. Knowing our personalities I'm thinking he/she will be a calm child. (PLLLEASSEE be anti-social and shy and a home body and calm and not a crazy person!!) I haven't felt any movement yet though. A couple times I THOUGHT I felt a little tickle but it was most likely gas.

Random: I've become like the biggest clean snob there ever was. Thinking about germs that are everywhere grosses me out and don't even get me started on people hacking and sneezing around me. I'm sorry I'm sorry! I don't know why I'm being such a weirdo about cleanliness.. But in all honesty it's not the worst thing to be a snob about.

What I'm looking forward to: I have an appointment on January 4th and I'm excited to hear the heart beat. I think the next appointment in 4 weeks will be the anatomy scan where we find out the gender. Exciting!! Also not really baby related but I'm looking forward to Paul getting his first real job and for us not to be homeless anymore! I can't wait to get into our own place again.

Best moment this week: We went to Rexburg for a couple days and seeing my niece and nephew was definitely the highlight of Paul and I's life. We both love them SO MUCH. Kids gross us both out so much but for some reason T and B don't make us want to wash our hands every five seconds haha. I've always told my sister and Paul that I can't imagine loving even my own child more than I love Tanner and Bree. I hope my child gets their sweetness and spunk. Also being around them really made me feel even more excited for my little babe to come. It's kinda weird to love someone that you haven't even met yet.

10 weeks 5 days-First prenatal appointment!

I went into my first prenatal appointment SO nervous and SO scared. Doctor offices are just so stressful to me! But I left feeling so so happy and excited! I already love my doctor and the staff. They made me feel extremely comfortable and taken care of.

So I went in and my doctor immediately could tell I was so nervous haha so after he went through the normal questions he jumped up and said "Alright now for the fun part! We get to see your baby!" In the ultrasound room I was so nervous that we wouldn't be able to see the baby for some reason but as soon as he started there popped up our tiny little bean! It's just so weird seeing a living THING inside of my body! We listened to the heart beat and that's when I had a few little tears haha. I looked over at Paul and he was just so cute and excited (Probably a little scared too). We actually SAW the heart beat too! A tiny little flutter. It was at 170 which makes me think it's a girl just from the myth that if the heart beat is super fast then it's most likely a girl. But who knows! Then we saw the little thing wiggling it's hands and feet and that totally freaked me out haha! How crazy and amazing is this whole thing?? The doctor measured the baby and bumped the due date up just a little bit from July 2 to June 29th.

THAT is a BABY inside me! What!

 I just kept saying "That is so cool" haha. I had no other words! 

We ended our perfect day with temple lights and a slice of cheese cake from the cheese cake factory! 

9 weeks

I cannot believe how blessed I've been so far throughout this first trimester! I've only had a couple close encounters where I've felt like I was seriously going to barf. One of those times was in THE BEST Mexican restaurant in AZ. The other time was in the temple doing sealings haha. But both times I survived without throwing up.

I've felt dizzy and HUNGRY. I'm like this giant hungry monster all the time. Even when I'm not pregnant I'm a hungry monster but this is 10x worse. Almost every hour I have to stuff my face with something or else I do get sick. My goal everyday is to eat. and eat a lot! I haven't had much food aversion which is SO nice. Sometimes meat grosses me out but that's pretty rare. I CRAVE potatoes! It first started with french fries (mmmm Wendeys..) and then thanksgiving came around and I could not have enough mashed and baked potatoes. So good.

I've gained a little weight (prob from all those dang french fries) and I go back and forth with being sad about it haha. I'm naturally small so this is a big change for me but I know that it's for the best of both me and baby! My garments are getting tight so I've been wearing Pauls to bed (ahhh so comfy). I just bought some new leggings but I don't know what I was thinking because I'm pretty sure they are going to be too tight around the belly in even a couple weeks. I wear T shirts everywhere even when I'm not pregnant so I'm not concerned about maternity clothing much.

I have to pee a lot. haha. The most annoying thing ever is when I've tucked myself into bed for the night and all of a sudden I have to run to the bathroom. Also at 3am. On the dot most nights.

Speaking of night time.. I'm having seriously the crrraaazzziest dreams. My boobs hurt like no other so the other night I had a dream that before I went to sleep I put baked potatoes on them to sooth them. hahaha. I should probably try it out now! I threw up on Jenny Rammells shoes in one dream haha. I also dreamed that we wrapped our baby up like a little burrito and she was soooo cute!

I haven't been super emotional.. yet. I think today has been my worst day. But it could just be a off day too so I'm not sure if the hormones are kicking in or if it's just normal Karie. I haven't cried in a long time it seems like but today I did. Mostly because I'm so stressed out about finding a place to rent in the next month or so. Also wishing we didn't have to mooch off of family (we live in my brothers basement for the time being while Paul finishes up his school). It's a crazy time in our lives!

I've been pretty open about telling people that I'm pregnant. Mostly because I'm trying to convince myself that I am actually pregnant haha. It still does not seem real. Sometimes I feel like I'm lying when I tell people. Hannah was the first one that Paul and I told. I'm pretty sure I told her the day we found out haha.  So far Price family knows, Ragar family knows, Hannah, Jenny, Kylie and Lani. Oh the nice sealer in the temple knows. But he knew before I even told him!

Paul and I both think it's going to be a girl. We already have our name picked out (Pauls favorite girl name) but if it's a boy I have no name ideas at all. Pretty much all the nieces and nephews say it's a girl which I think is super funny. One of our little nephews said "It's a girl but I want it to be a boy" haha!

Well my first appointment is on the 5th of December. It seems so late but people tell me that's normal. I'll be 10 weeks. I can't believe I'm almost done with my first trimester. Seems so weird. My biggest fear is that I'm going to go into my appointment and they'll say "Oh you're not pregnant at all! and you never were!" Like I was never pregnant haha!

5 weeks

I've been late before, took a million tests before, had "symptoms" before... so I knew Paul would sigh when I told him I was buying more pregnancy tests. He's been a good sport through these past 11 months.

So it was Halloween night and we had quite the spooky night already with hot dogs, trick or treaters, and candy. It was about to get even scarier... I knew it wasn't the greatest idea to take a test at night ('they' recommend taking tests in the morning) but I couldn't help myself and did it. 2 dark and distinct lines showed almost immediately.

I wasn't really shocked. I had already figured I was pregnant. I had times before where I thought I could be but this month was different. I felt different... and my boobs freakin hurt like a mother (haha!). My boobs and I have great communication skills.

When I showed Paul the test he was right in the middle of coding for his big project. He looked confused/shocked/worried/scared out of his mind/happy-ish. He said "really? Seriously?", gave me a few funny faces, and then went back to coding. hahaha. Here are some pictures of his reaction..

  

So far I have felt super good. A little faint and dizzy but that's kind of normal for me so I'm not really sure if that's a real symptom. Like I said above, my boobs are killing me. I don't really feel like any of this is real yet just because there is nothing to show for it (except my boobs). I downloaded a couple pregnancy apps and they are telling me this alien inside me is the size of an appleseed, a dot snail (what the heck?), black peppercorn, a lavender bud, a BB pellet, or a sesame seed. So the point is, the thing is teeny tiny. 

Boot camp

Here we go! Off on another crazy adventure! I've decided our life has been one giant roller coaster. But it just continues to go up up up! We aren't too crazy excited to live in the valley because of the traffic and smog but who knows.. maybe we'll end up loving it.

Paul has been talking about coding ever since he took a hard coding class at BYU-Idaho. It was a required class for his accounting major and he never would have taken it if he hadn't first decided to go into accounting. Turned out he loved it and was really, really good at it. He continued to study accounting although he would talk about the idea of switching to coding. so many details so little time... Long story short.. He got an awesome job here in St. George that involved accounting and bookkeeping. How awesome! We thought this was going to be a great opportunity for him to work under a CPA and gain experience. Well it was a great opportunity to learn that accounting is the most boring job on the planet. No doubt about it, Paul is really great at finances.. I think that's why he finds it so boring. Because he solves and completes his work in half the time it takes his co-workers to. It might also be because accounting has no room for creativity. If you know Paul you'd know that he is a creative genius and hiding that behind a list of numbers would be a mistake. Paul is excited to code because it allows him to create anything he wants!

Paul applied to Dev Mountain (a coding boot camp) in Provo and quickly got in. I am so impressed with his skills already. He completely rocked the application and he is ready to take on the heavy load of work for three months. I on the other hand will be very sad to not have my husband's full attention for that time but I know that this will be something that will positively affect us and our future. Wish us luck!

You're doing it wrong

June was pretty much the craziest month we've had in a long time. I opened up my 2nd Etsy shop in May and got a few orders here and there, but probably the first week in June is when it all of a sudden took off (for a new etsy shop, anyways). It's been crazy to say the least. I'm learning something new every day.

When I very first started, I posted a cute little bear cut out on my Instagram. It was blue and had some quote like "I love you beary much". Something like that. I had seen several of these kinds of bear signs on Pinterest, Instagram, and other sites and I wanted to see if I could make my own. I did, and it turned out even better than what I had seen in internet land. So I posted it up to my new business Instagram and got a lot of love! And I also got a lot of hate. One lady bravely commented below my picture telling me how unoriginal I am. She told me I had stolen the idea and how pathetic it was. This was truly heartbreaking for me. I never meant to "copy" anything. There were a million different cut out bears out there but this lady accused me of stealing hers.

I thought about it and got so angry. I thought, "she has no right to tell me anything like that! There are a million other cut out bears exactly like what I had made." AND THEN I thought, "well why the heck would I want to create what everyone else is creating anyways?" So yeah, I took the bear down. Not because she accused me of stealing HER idea, but because the idea is everywhere! and why would I want to brand myself with what everyone else is doing?

Do you watch Casey Neistat on YouTube? If you don't you should. 

So anyways, I'm learning. And I'm working hard at this whole "be original" thing. (and BTW it's harder than you think). I'm not there yet but it will come with time and a lot of work. And while we're at it, let's throw in another Neistat quote. "The most dangerous thing you can do in your career, the most dangerous thing you can do in life is play it safe."