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!

BumpDate: 12 weeks

I mentioned on Monday that I am officially into my 12th week. Being how it is now Tuesday night, we'll say I officially have five days left in the first trimester. I think a lot of people are excited to be 12 weeks because that is when a lot of people go public. Since I have a big mouth and since we've been going through treatments for so long, it was never really a secret. I am excited to be out of the first trimester just because it's a milestone. 1/3 of the day done, 2/3 to go. Last week I was excited because on the app I have on my phone, it showed that I have less than 200 days to go - that was a milestone to me, to be out of the 200's. Only 95 more days until we are out of the 100's.

This week, mama is feeling less sick, sickness is pretty much confined to evenings after dinner, which is much more manageable, but still makes it difficult getting chores around the house done. In the daytime, the nausea has given way to wanting to eat Everything. In. Sight. I'm talking full meals every two to three hours. While this sounds fantastic to some people, it's kind of a pain to need to think of that much food each day. I'm still eating out a lot as a result. This is something I want to change soon - maybe I'll actually plan some meals and grocery shop this weekend?

Oh wait, no, I have to paint our new house. Maybe for my birthday.

Here's the latest belly picture. Now, keep in mind I take these at night, when the bloat is at it's worst. However, as I said last week, the bloat would not be there without the baby, so it counts! But it's definitely bigger than last week, right? (Pay not attention to the black bra under the white shirt and the greasy "I've worked al day, stopped to order paint, taken care of the dogs and managed to make a frozen pizza for dinner" look.) It's been a long week.

Wait - it's only Tuesday.

My Dryer Died and it's the Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me

Sunday night I was doing laundry in the condo we are currently renting while our new house is being built, when the dryer suddenly starting making a REALLY bad noise. Like, I thought Wrigley was back from the dead and trapped inside the moving dryer. B called our landlord and it turns out our condo is the last condo of his with washer/dryers and once they're done, he's not replacing them.

So here I sit with two loads of wet laundry and no dryer. I'll for sure be making a trip to the laundry mat in town tonight to get those dry. This however does not fix the situation we are facing for the next month and a half until our house is done.

Let me add to this story by saying that ever since I got pregnant, I have completely stopped all household chores. I run a Swiffer over the coffee tables once an inch or so of dust has built up and B will get the vacuum out once the dog hair has coated the carpet, other than that, it's been take-out and seeing how long we can go without doing laundry.

So you can imagine how excited I am to have to sit in a laundry mat for approximately three hours every 1-2 weeks.

I should note, I am starting to feel better and am getting a very small amount of energy back. Still doesn't mean I want to spend that energy sitting in a laundry mat with college kids and my town's finest.

Enter - laundry service! I just talked to B and after giving him my sob story and cost comparison, he gave me the go ahead to send our laundry out - at least for a couple of weeks to see what the actual cost is.

Oh my God. The dryer dying is the best thing that has ever happened. to me!

PS - does anyone else LOVE Someecards.com? If you know me, you know sarcasm is a second language to me and I find I connect with a lot of the cards on Someecard's site. :)

When in Doubt, Pretend it Won't Happen

I bought the book "What to Expect When You're Expecting" this weekend. I had put off purchasing it for fear of jinxing things, but now that I started my 12th (yes, that right, 12th!) week today, it was time. I brought it home, flipped through it and landed on month three, which I am almost finished with. Then, being the masochist that I am, flipped to the labor and delivery section.

BIG mistake.

We are just going to pretend that in August, a pretty stork is going to painlessly bring me my baby while I am asleep. That in my mind, is how children are born.

That is the only way I am getting through the next six months.