BumpDate: 23 Weeks

This week has been a good week for Little Man and myself. I am still pretty tired in the evenings after work, but I've started allowing myself more caffeine than I had previously been consuming around 2:30 every afternoon, and it seems to be helping. (Don't worry, it's still far, far below the recommended daily amount.) Other than that, Little Man has been very, very active, letting me know he is growing healthy and strong.

Starting about a week and a half ago, I started having some weird pains on (in?) my cervix. It wasn't the normal round-ligament pain that I am very familiar with, it was more of a throbbing, aching type pain. I made the mistake of Googling it Tuesday night and started to get scared that perhaps my cervix was shortening or maybe I was even experiencing pre-term labor. (I know, I know, Google is the devil when it comes to medical problems!) So I called my OB Wednesday morning. The on-call doctor thought it was probably normal cervical growing pains, but had me come in for an ultrasound just to be sure. Sure enough, the ultrasound revealed no problems - everything looked perfect! On the plus side, we got a few more 4D pictures of Little Man and you can already tell he's going to be a heartbreaker! ;)

My belly is definitely growing at a rapid pace. I reached a new milestone this week: balancing food on it. Very exciting to have a portable table for the next four months.

My belly and some delicious peanut butter pretzels from Trader Joe's.

Another milestone this week was hot flashes. When I was on Clomid, I was very familiar with hot flashes, I thought maybe I got lucky and wouldn't experience them during pregnancy. Not so much. I'll take them though as my pregnancy has been pretty easy since the first trimester concluded. 

This week I also registered! Registering for baby was so much different than registering for our wedding two years ago. With the wedding, it took hours and I analyzed every item I put on the registry. This time, I took my experienced-mama friend Cassidy with me and scanned every item she pointed at. I think we were done with Target and Babies R Us within an hour and a half this morning. I will of course probably tweak it in the weeks leading up to my shower and due date, but I definitely got a good start. 

Here's your 23 week belly picture! Still on the crappy cell-phone pictures as I haven't located my nice camera yet. (I suppose it would help if I looked for it?)

The BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies on the Face of the Earth

The title does not lie.

I was at work last Friday and my co-worker said to me "There are cookies in the break room - you should go get one before they're gone." It was 8:30 in the morning, I nodded and went back to my email and decaf coffee. 20 minutes later I went down to the break room to fill my water bottle and saw said cookies sitting on the table and I have to admit they did look good. So I took one... And then another for the baby.

I brought them both back to my office, thinking I'd save them until lunch. However, they proved to be too tempting and I sunk my teeth into one minutes later.

Oh.
My.
God.

They were amazing. I immediately emailed one of our admins to see if she knew who brought them. After asking around, she let me know the wife of another co-worker made them. I immediately emailed said co-worker and begged him to get the recipe from his wife for me. I thought the chances of that happening were slim to none - if a woman asked my husband for a recipe at his place of employment, I would not get the message for weeks, if ever. However, my co-worker proved to be a model co-worker (or maybe scared of the wrath of a hungry pregnant woman?) and minutes later I got an email from his wife with the recipe.

I told Bryan about them over the weekend and Monday night after work, he begged me to make them for him. I did and they are just as amazing out of my over.

I have to admit - one thing that is not so fun about baking when pregnant is not being able to eat the raw dough. Cookie dough is my kryptonite. Seriously. I buy the cookie dough at Papa Murphys and sit in front of my TV and eat it like ice cream. I haven't had raw cookie dough in over five months. Four more to go.

Because I believe in spreading good things in the world, here is the recipe:

The BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies on the Face of the Earth

1 cup butter flavored Crisco

1 cup brown sugar

½ cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1 teaspoon of salt

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 ½ cups flour
Chocolate chips... The person I got the recipe from sprinkled them on the top. For this batch, I mixed in a bag of mini-chocolate chips, but I think it may have been too much. I think next time I will try the sprinkling trick. 

Mix in that order, scoop onto cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 -10 minutes.

BumpDate: 22 Weeks

Holy cow - it's been four weeks since I last updated the blog! It's been a crazy-busy four weeks as well - two weeks ago in particular was quite possibly the busiest and best week of my life. Not only did I reach the half way mark, but we found out the gender of Baby Ripke AND moved into our new house - within two days of each other. This mama was exhausted by the end of it all, but man, what awesome milestones.

First, an updated belly picture for you. I didn't do my fancy photoshopping to this picture like I had been doing - I had to take it on my cellphone as my nice dSLR is MIA since the move. (I also absolutely hate the look of my face in this picture, but by the third take, Bryan was tired of taking my picture.)

I took this picture on Saturday (and today is Monday) and I swear to God, my belly is bigger already - is that even possible?? The last four weeks have been good - Baby Ripke is moving around a ton and I love every minute of it. I still get tired pretty easily, but I can at least get through the work day now without feeling like I am going to pass out. 

On to the news you've been waiting for (if you don't follow me on Facebook) - our gender reveal! We found out the gender of Baby Ripke four days before Easter, so I went to Target and found a couple of cheap Easter baskets and filled them with that fake grass and plastic eggs. In each egg, I put a mini-snickers and after the ultrasound, I put one ultrasound picture in each egg - including the one that revealed the gender. 

We went over to each set of our parents house and told them they would have to open the eggs to figure out the gender. I was counting on two things:

1. I carefully thought out which color of egg to put it in and chose orange. I am fairly stereotypical when it comes to genders and both sets of our parents immediately went for the pink thinking if it was a girl, I'd put it in the pink. When that didn't work, they went straight for the blue. For both sets of parents, orange was one of the last eggs, drawing out the game. 
2. Even when they came across the gender picture, neither sets are experienced with genders and would not even know what they were looking at or for (even though the tech labeled the gender on the picture.) When this happened, our plan was to make them go back through the pictures until they figured it out. 

My plan worked on Bryan's parents, but Bryan blew the surprise on my parents. Well...

That's right - Baby Ripke is a HE! We are both so excited (as we would have been with a girl as well). I already have his nursery all planned out - all I need to do now is shop! 

Well, for nursery stuff anyway, I found some pretty cute hats at Von Maur this weekend I couldn't pass up...

Bryan loves super-heros, Star Wars and video games. He is so excited to pass these interests onto our son, so I got a jump-start for him with these - which is LOVES by the way. 

Hopefully now that I have located my computer cord, I can get back to posting regular updates for you all. Hope your week is off to a great start!

20 Down, 20 to Go!

Ah! As of Sunday, I was 20 weeks! That means as of today (Monday) I am officially  past the halfway mark. 20 weeks also means the anatomy scan, which means - that's right - we find out if we're have a boy or a girl! (Can you tell I am a TAD bit excited?) Our anatomy scan is scheduled for 8:30 am on Wednesday, March 27th. Fingers crossed the little one cooperates and spreads their legs for us that day. (I'm pretty sure this will be the only time I want my child to spread their legs).

I won't be posting the gender on here right away, but I will as soon, I promise. (Seriously, I can't wait to shout it from the roof tops!)

Since we have a few days, I thought it would be fun to take a look at my "gender symptoms" and you all can take a guess at what it can be. Bryan and I seriously do not have a clue. To answer the next question "What are you hoping for?" My answer is healthy, for sure. I am so excited for either gender. After everything we've been through, I am just so excited to finally be at this point.

Gender Symptoms

I highlighted these in pink or blue, in case you are not sure what that particular symptom means. If it's just in black, it means I think it's a wash. 

Carrying High or Low: I'm not really sure, I think low, but I'm also almost 5'10", so I think it would be hard to be carrying high. 

Heart rate above or below 140: Our baby has consistently been between 150 and 170 since day one.

Craving Sweet or Salty: At first, sweets were a food aversion. Once morning sickness passed, it's a good mixture of both.

Chinese birth chart: Based on my age and the month we conceived (29 & November), it's a girl.

The ring on a string over your belly trick: went back and forth.

Presence of acne: Skin is clear!

Morning sickness: I definitely did not feel good from weeks 6 to 10, but I never threw up.

Left breast bigger than right breast: Yep!

More leg hair than normal: Oddly enough, my leg hair seems to have stopped growing...

Sleep on left or right side: Right.

More headaches than normal: Haven't had a lot of headaches.

Dreams of Girl or Boy: I've had two dreams - both times it was a girl!

Do you guys have any more wives tales? Based on the above, it looks like a girl, but I would not bet my life on it. When I initially found out I was pregnant, I was convinced it was a boy - so we'll see!

The Nest is Almost Done!

I've been promising it for awhile, but here are some pictures of our house that is ALMOST done. It's so close, I can taste it. It's so close that I am going to start PACKING this weekend! Ah!

For those of you who don't know, we dug the hole for our house in July. Yes, that's right, nine months ago. The original plan was to be in our house by Christmas, but we had a lot of set-backs along the way. For anyone who is thinking about building the house, patience, patience, patience. I have never talked to someone who built a house and they moved in by their original deadline. Granted, ours took a little longer than normal because B did a lot of the work himself, but it was worth it because it allowed us some upgrades that we otherwise would not have been able to afford.

For your viewing pleasure, here are some updated pictures of the new place:

Installed today - carpet! It feels so homey having carpet finally in the bedrooms finally!

We went with hardwood floors throughout. It took Bryan awhile to convince me to do this because I thought it might be difficult for a baby to learn to walk on hardwood, but then I talked to several people who have hardwood and little kids and none of them had any trouble. I'm glad we went with hardwood, it looks amazing!

The entry way - I love our front door!

My fabulous kitchen with tons of cupboard and counter space! I can't wait!

The master shower - I am pretty proud of B for this. He's never tiled before and I think he did a pretty good job for his first time!

Vanity in master bath (bad cell phone picture)

My extra-large mudroom! In our last house, we didn't have a laundry room, we had a laundry closet. I am so excited to have a dedicated room. Eventually there will be a counter with some drawers and a custom, built-in kennel for Josie. 

That's it for now! Hopefully we don't have any more set-backs and we can start moving in within a couple of weeks and be completely out of our condo by the end of the month!

BumpDate: 18 Weeks

Well, here we are - week 18! Two more weeks and we're half way through. You may have noticed I skipped week 17, and I have good reasons. Week 17 was (hopefully) the worst week of my pregnancy as I came down with the stomach flu. I have not been sick with the flu since I was in grade school and it was HORRID! So horrible in fact, I ended up in the Emergency Room Wednesday night due to severe dehydration and needed an IV and some drugs to make it so I could eat again. Bleh.

As you can probably guess, taking a picture was probably the last thing to do on my list. Along with showering or getting off the couch.

Luckily, by Saturday I was feeling better! I was so hungry by that point that all I wanted to do was down a giant plate of spaghetti. So B and I made the trek into Cedar Rapids to a place called Zepplins where I gorged myself with parmesan french fries and a big plate of spaghetti. Later that night, I had my first experience with heartburn. At first I chalked it up to the fact that I hadn't really eaten anything aside from rice and toast since Tuesday and my stomach was just not used to actual food.

Then Sunday I had a sandwich from Subway and it was back with a vengeance. Dinner that night was pancakes and the heartburn was even worse. I am hoping the wives tale that says if you have a lot of heartburn, it means your child has a lot of hair is true. (I am not holding my breath though as my mom had a lot of heartburn and I was bald until I was 2).

Luckily today was a regularly scheduled appointment with my OB. After he heard that pancakes were causing my esophagus to burn, he told me to go get some Prevacid. Hoping this takes the edge off as I am not sure how I will be able to tolerate this for five more months.

Other than that, things are going great! Baby is squirming around in there and I know I can definitely feel it now. As you can see from the picture below, it's also growing at a respectable rate as well!

Hope your week is off to a great start!

BumpDate: 16 weeks

We're a couple of days into week 16 now and baby is definitely making his or her presence know. I broke out the maternity pants for the first time this week - definitely need to thank my friend C for talking me into buying them when I was just seven weeks. It was nice to have them there when I was ready to take the plunge.

I am also pretty sure I am feeling the baby move. I wish someone else could feel it and tell me for sure. But it happens so often and it's the exact same thing/feeling each time that I think it has to be. If it is, the baby is most active in the evenings and when I start eating. (He or she must love food like it's mommy.)

Other than those two tidbits, it's been a pretty quiet week. Our house is progressing faster now - which is good because I am noticing that I am wanting to clean and organize more, which I think means I am starting to "nest". It's pretty annoying to be a mama bird with no nest.

Here's your week 16 picture:

Dirty Thirty

Monday, February 18th was my birthday. My 30th birthday to be exact. Ug. Not going to lie, I was dreading this birthday. I remember my mom turning 30 and I thought she was so OLD at that point. (I was 7). My original plan was  to do something that involved a lot of adult beverages. Well, Baby Ripke put a damper on that. (Remind me to thank him or her later.) Instead, my mom and I went to Des Moines for a lot of shopping. We should have taken some pictures, but obviously, that slipped my mind. We hit up a lot of stores and each of us bought some furniture for each of the houses we're building. (Yes, my parents are building as well.) Then we spent the remainder of the trip looking for maternity clothes for my expanding waist line. Luckily, we hit the jackpot at Old Navy and I may be breaking out my new maternity skinny jeans this weekend. :)

We ended our Saturday with a trip to PF Changs and dinner with one of my good friends, T. (Again, should have taken pictures). After dinner, all three of us saw the movie Safe Haven - a must see! Sunday morning we headed up to Ankeny to meet up with my aunt, cousins and their families. It was great to see everyone and being around the little kids got me even more excited for Baby R!

Monday was my actual birthday and also a work day. Ironically enough, my counterpart and office mate also has the same birthday as me, so it was fun celebrating together. We grabbed lunch with another friend and indulged in some cupcakes. Monday evening we headed over to my parent's for dinner and some dutch apple pie. (yum!) 

29, like the year 2012, was a challenging year. There were a lot of positive things that happened, but forever in my mind, my 29th year will be over shadowed by fertility treatments and heartbreak. However, at the same time, it was also the year we found out that Baby R was on the way, and for that, I will forever look at my 29th year and smile. 

The dirty thirty has a lot of exciting things coming up and I'm excited to get started. I can't believe next year at this time we'll have a six month old! 

BumpDate: 15 Weeks

I know you have all been on the edge of your seats waiting for the latest BumpDate. If you can't tell, I skipped week 14. Why you ask? Because I woke up the day I turned 14 weeks and I swear my bump had disappeared! I was so bummed. I chalked it up to losing all my bloat and thought I probably wouldn't show for a few more weeks.

Turns out, it was the calm before the storm. It's like my uterus inhaled really deep Monday and by Friday, had completely pushed out. (Well, actually I think up. I know where the baby is and it's not where my bump is. It's just pushing my stomach and intestines out of it's way.)

Monday I could button my pants, by Friday, not so much. I think I am officially in leggings and other forms of spandex until I fit into my maternity pants. I am hoping it's relatively soon. In true Katie fashion, I have already built up a nice supply of maternity clothes, but am rather limited on what I can wear with leggings. I'll probably be wearing the same five outfits to work for the next 2-3 weeks.

Updates from this week - we had another doctor's appointment during week 14. They're so short and sweet now. Doctor just checked Baby R's heart beat, answered some irrational questions I had and told me when to come back! (March 11th is our next regular appointment.) He also had me schedule my anatomy scan!!! Not revealing the date, but it's soon and I can't wait to stop calling the baby "it".

Other notes from the week, I think I MIGHT have felt the baby moving or shifting around. I am 90% sure that I did, but it's still so early, it's pretty sporadic in between episodes. I can't wait until I feel it moving around 24/7. (Watch me eat my words shortly after that happens...) We also made the pregnancy "Facebook Official" this week - that was a lot of fun. Finally, I think I am starting to FINALLY get some energy back. The nausea seems to be 98% gone (still don't feel awesome if I don't eat) and I have not been dragging by 2 pm every day.

Without further delay, here is this week's bump picture:

BumpDate: 13 Weeks

Heeeellllooooo Second Trimester!!!

That's right, we (the baby and I) made it through the first 12 weeks. And - seeing how it's Wednesday already - almost half of the 13th week. 

Making it to the second trimester is such a huge relief. Don't get me wrong, I know something can go wrong at any second, but knowing that my risk is so miniscule now, is a huge weight off my shoulders. I have found myself obsessing less over every twinge and pain and I haven't been poking my boobs as much. (Probably should provide some context there - every time I get nervous that something is going wrong, I poke one of my boobs to remind myself that they're still extremely tender and thus, I'm still pregnant.)

I went in earlier this week for a fetal heart check and the baby's ticker is still strong as ever - in the upper 160's! We have another appointment next week on the 13th. Then we'll have one four weeks later and two weeks after that we find out the gender!!

Any guesses?

The second trimester has also proven to bring some much needed relief from morning sickness. Last week, I was still battling it from time to time, but this week is much better. Other than some round ligament twinges and the fact that I haven't recovered all of my energy yet, I'd barely know I was pregnant!

Here's an updated picture. I was kind of sad that my bump didn't look bigger, but then I compared it to my 11 week picture and you can definitely tell a difference. Can't wait to take another one next week!