I vow to help you love life, to always hold you with tenderness and to have the patience that love demands, to speak when words are needed and to share the silence when they are not and to live within the warmth of your heart and always call it home.

Saturday, January 24, 2015

Bumpdate: 22 Weeks





Size of baby: Papaya (1 pound now!)

Pregnancy Symptoms: Nothing

Things that make me nauseous: Nothing

Cravings: Banana pudding and chocolate

Sleep: 6-8 hours

Exercise: CF 4x's, Yoga 1, Ran 5 miles

Baby Movement: Little bubble/butterfly feelings

Total Weight Gain: 9lbs, no gain this week

Finally our sweet girl weighs a pound!  It's crazy how it takes almost half the pregnancy to reach a pound, then in that same amount of time she'll gain 6-7 pounds.  I'm still feeling really normal and healthy.  This week I had my first chiropractor consultation.  I have had some slight lower back pain a couple months ago, and read a chiro can really help align your body for birth, help with the pain, etc so I thought I'd give it a try.  I've never seen one before, so it's a new experience for me.

We also had another OB check-up this week.  Miss Norah is as healthy as she can be!  Her heart rate was 148, and I'm still measuring about 4 days ahead of schedule.  The next month I take the dreaded glucose test, yuck.

I've also finished these two books, and I really enjoyed them for research and information on a natural birth.  I highly recommend them!



Exercise this month (January) has been really amazing for me.  I definitely went through a slump in December, and didn't work out much but didn't want to either.  This month has been a different story.  Maybe it's because the weight is finally suppose to start packing on (1/2 - 1 pound a week now) so I feel I need to get back to working out to manage the weight gain safely, or maybe because every January it basically fitness month.  I'm not sure, but I'll take the motivation when it strikes!  Now that I'm showing a bit more coworkers are scolding me more for doing things like Crossfit and running while pregnant.  It used to frustrate me, even make me mad, but I've learned just to smile and reply that I know what's safe for my child and I.  As for unwanted advice, I've also already been told not to vaccinate my child because it causes autism, that an epidural is a must, and don't breastfeed because it will make your boobs smaller when you stop bfing.  Thankfully my husband and I are doing our own research and can educate ourselves properly on all these topics, but it does take patience when I'm lectured haha.

A great 2.5 mile run to start my week off!  BTW if you need a great maternity workout tank, Old Navy has a great one (I'm wearing it below).  Room for baby to grow and under $20.




This week I found time to hit the beach for the first time this year.  I can't believe in January it was almost seventy degrees and sunny.  I just couldn't pass that opportunity up!  Plus I want Norah to get used to the sounds of the waves as early as possible.



Boobs and bump



It's crazy to look back at photos from only months ago to see how much we've grown together.  I love it.

Barely hanging on to my old ab cuts!


Goodbye Month 5 in our pregnancy journey!

Monday, January 12, 2015

Bumpdate: 21 Weeks

Pls pardon the all-natural pre workout look


Size of baby: Pomegranate

Pregnancy Symptoms: Finally welcomed flutters in my tummy :)

Things that make me nauseous: Nothing

Cravings: Nothing crazy

Sleep: 7-8 hours

Exercise: CF 5xs, Yoga 2 xs plus 1 session of prenatal yoga! Ran twice, great week for exercise!

Baby Movement: Finally at 20+6 days, I felt her!!

Total Weight Gain: 9lbs

My husband flew back for his second semester of law school in Oklahoma, so back to a normal routine for me!

I miss him already!


I'm really excited to get back to Crossfit, yoga and running.  Especially with me getting noticeably bigger by the week, I don't want to lose my fitness stamina that I've worked so hard for these last couple years.  I just couldn't make myself take hours out of my week to work out when my husband was here and unable to join me.  So back to the grind!  Also since he's been home we've been eating and cooking like crazy!  My body will love the clean eating challenge I'm about to put it through to detox it from the holidays.  My husband also gave me two private prenatal yoga lessons for my birthday!  I'm so excited to try the prenatal version, since I've only been doing the regular classes.  I love that my husband supports me being so physically active during pregnancy.  We've definitely received some scoldings from older family members and coworkers, but it's my body, my baby and we both have researched enough to know what's healthy for Norah and I.


Love my CF maternity shirts!


I bought this pregnancy pillow from a fb spouse's sale group, and was pretty excited to try it out.  I read about them online and really wanted one but not for that hefty price.  I actually bought this from our Lamaze instructor for $20, so I thought I'd try it out!  Turns out it makes a great stand in for when your spouse is away at night!  I should have got one of these a LONG time ago!  It doesn't quite feel like my husband, but it's a great alternative.  Especially with my belly getting bigger, I really appreciate the support in bed.




Before my husband left we also finally got registered!


He loved the scanner part!
It was pretty overwhelming, and who knows if people really look at registries or not, but we're glad that part is over and done with!  We've registered at Target and Amazon, but our Amazon list is much more up to date, and so much easier to add to.

Lastly, after 20 weeks and 6 days of just watching my stomach go from flat to pudgy, I finally felt our tiny daughter move inside me.


It doesn't feel like much, in fact I waited a day to even tell my husband just to be sure of what I felt wasn't gas.  I feels like little bubbles bubbling up inside my stomach, but when I put my hand on it from the outside, that's when I feel a slight protrude feeling.  My midwife tells me my placenta is in a spot that is acting like a buffer so that I can't really feel her much, but finally she's big enough to make her presence known.  These movements I feel can only get stronger from here, so I'm looking forward to feeling her grow stronger everyday, and I can't wait for my husband to feel her too!  Such a big milestone for our pregnancy, and one I've been looking forward to since I peed positive in September.

This was a great week despite the slum I was in because of my husband's departure.  Seven weeks until we're reunited!

Saturday, January 10, 2015

5th Anniversary and Babymoon

We decided we had to do one more trip before little Norah blessed us with her presence.  Since my husband and I live 5 states away finding time for trips can be tricky.  We finally settled on an anniversary/babymoon road trip to Asheville, NC!  Of course we wanted to do something big like Greece or Hawaii, but we need to be responsible and save our money.  We are after all having a kid and putting him through law school!  So we settled for a fun, eclectic trip to a town in the Smokey Mts.



The drive up was gorgeous, and we both missed the mountains more than we realized.  First things first, we had to celebrate NYE!





My husband surprised me with very fancy dinner reservations in downtown Asheville to a 1940's swing private dinner party.  The food was phenomenal and we even got a table next to the piano/jazz singer and fireplace.





Afterwards we walked to this huge beer tavern with a live band and rung in 2015 together with local beer (him of course), dancing and a kiss!




The next day we celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary with a McFamily traditional NY Day hike!  A big reason why we chose Asheville, NC!  The hike was about 3.5 miles round trip and a huge elevation spike, so I was a bit slower than usual, but we had a blast!  We loved the exercise and views.  I even had to pee outside hanging onto a tree thanks to my pregnancy bladder!  Ah the memories.














5th Anniversary traditional gift is wood, so he got me a wooden infinity necklace and I gave him a wooden wedding ring with a guitar string embedded!

Day 2 we explored downtown Asheville and shopped until our feet hurt!





Coffee break in a red double decker bus!


Then my sweet husband waited with me to get into this chocolate shop for 35 minutes to satisfy a pregnancy craving.  I don't crave much but this shop was TOO much to pass up!  He's the sweetest.  Did I mention this was at 10p?




 We finished our anniversary by snuggling up as a family on a plushy king sized bed with full bellies.



He was afraid we'd forget about him when we checked out!

Zeus had to hike too!

Our babymoon was great, and true to what we love doing!  We've really grown into outdoorsy people, so we like to tailor our trips to what adventures we can take outside.  We can't wait to have Norah along for our hike next year.  We'd definitely go back to Asheville in a heart beat!

Now for the mushy part of this blog....

I can't believe how incredibly lucky I am to have this man choose me as his wife, mother of his children and lifetime best friend.  I love him so much more now than I did 5 years ago, and I don't see the increase stopping anytime soon.  I'm so eternally grateful for him and the life we've built together.  It's been hard, it's not come without it's trials but it's oh so worth it.  My husband told me right before he left this last time, "If this were easy it wouldn't be worth it."  He's worth every tear I cry missing him, every hour I put into a job I dislike, everyday my heart is heavy because he's not with me, and every missed holiday/anniversary.  He's worth it all because this man is my life.  I love him, and he loves me.  What more could I ever need.

Jan 1 2010



Jan 1 2011


Jan 1 2012


Jan 1 2013 (ish)

Jan 1 2014

Jan 1 2015

We've started out as young college lovers, married our junior year, both graduated college, moved through 3 different states, traveled to 8 countries, survived a year long deployment,  thriving long distance for law school, and finally became pregnant with our first baby.

These last five married years have been, as my husband always puts it, an adventure.  An adventure we'd take again over and over just as long as we're together through it all.  I can't wait to see where our adventures take us in the next 5 years!  Happy 5th Anniversary my love.