Week 16

Ok this has been an interesting week.

And it's only Wednesday!

So on Monday my scale said like 149 or something, but yesterday (midwife day) it was at 148 and at the midwife it was 153 (with shoes & clothes on) which is only a gain of 1 lb since last visit. Janell and I went over my food from the past 3 weeks and I did great on protein but not so great on fruits & veggies. So that's my goal for this month. Keep the protein up but add in healthy fruits & veggies.

So today I made this:

Peaches & cream oatmeal with fresh mango.  This is AMAZING. And took less than 10 min to make. I added a drizzle of honey but I could have left that off cause it's sweet enough without it. I used greek yogurt (peach flavored) so I added extra protein and I have fresh fruit on it and mixed it. 

We (me, Mercy & Bethy) got to hear baby's heartbeat yesterday. It was fluctuating between 134-140. That's the lowest heartbeat of all the kids. Starting to think it's a boy. Starting to think I ovulated early and all my science with why it's a girl is going out the window. But we won't know for sure until next month. They faxed over the order for my ultrasound and I just need to call and schedule it. I will probably do it the first week of May since I'll be 20 weeks at that point.

As fas as books go I finished the audio book which was cool. Listening to it in the car to drive down to Layton was awesome. I will be doing that again. Also finished a Grisham book and now I'm reading Spiritual Midwifery which is an inter-library loan so I have to power though it. Pretty easy to do. I'm at 30 of 100 books for this year's challenge. 4 books ahead of schedule.

Catechism I am on day 93 and about 30 days behind still but I've been reading a few days worth each day.

And I've been doing the cross stitch for Bethy while I listen to an audio book so kind of killing two birds with one stone. 

Had to fix the garage door today which was unexpected and next week the Impala is getting the water pump replaced. Boo. But the birthing center is fully paid for! 

Lastly, here's a selfie of me at 16 wks. Enjoy!

15 Weeks Down - 25 To Go!

Strangers are asking how far along I am. Well, technically, how much longer I have left.

I carry big! Every time, and it sucks a little because I look a lot further along than I actually am.

I'll get a photo next week.

Baby is size of an apple. A stinkin' apple! It just goes so fast now. It's amazing how you don't even realize another week has flown by. I should hopefully feel her move sometime soon. I've been laying quietly and waiting for it, but nothing yet. I don't really remember exactly when I felt the others move but I remember what the feeling feels like. I can't wait! That's my favorite part of being pregnant.

I weighed 148 today so a gain of 1.5 lbs since last week. I swear, the second trimester makes you eat and eat and eat. I have been craving Stove Top stuffing like its going out of business and I will simply not survive if I don't get any. Thankfully Mike got me some. I love that man. :)

Only have gained 10 lbs since before pregnancy. Not too bad since I didn't even know I was pregnant for the first month of that and it was Christmas time and candy all around, etc.

I'm at 26 books read for the year. It's been crazy this week so not a lot of extra reading time. Still reading Birth Matters (a chapter here and there) and I have The Bradley Method on hold at the library and need to pick it up soon. I'm also reading The Chamber by Grisham. It's a long one, but thankfully on my Kindle so I can fly right through it. And I started The Circle on an audio book. Never really listened to an audiobook before and it's ok. I can't be doing a lot of other stuff at the same time or I miss things, but I listened to a lot yesterday while I was couponing. And I have listened to a bit in my car. I was to listen to Atlas Shrugged instead of read it because it's so hard for me to get into reading it. I was thinking it would be a good thing to listen to on the drive down to see the midwife.

On Day 80 of the Catechism which is good. I caught up. If I read to day 100 this week and then the rest the next week I should be caught up by Easter which is my goal. I might not get to ready any today because it's a crazy, crazy day, but we shall see.

Spring Break for Grace this week which means she gets to sleep in. The other kids get to as well. They didn't. Mercy woke me (and probably Bethy) up by singing "Let It Go" as loud as she could.

Oh and Mike and I got smart phones this week. Finally upgraded ours and it's only like $20 more a month for us to both have smart phones. Ok time to start the crazy stuff (laundry, dishes, bills, dinner, grocery list, etc)

Week 14

I'm not quite sure how this happened. I'm in the second trimester already! The first one kind of flew by.

And my official weight today was: 146.4.

I'm going to say it's because I gave up sweets for Lent. Or because I'm tracking my food and so I think about what I eat because I have to write it down. I'm still in my size 10 pants. Hooray! Which is also good because I don't have any maternity pants right now.

Baby is the size of a lemon. Crazy that she's that big (I'm just assuming it's a girl. We'll find out in 6 weeks).

Had another person ask me if I still had doctor appointments even though we're using a midwife. I kindly explained that my midwife does all my prenatal care. In fact, she does more than my doctor ever did. And now I have 2 friends who are also pregnant. Sometimes sharing your story is the best way to get people to hear how amazing midwives are!

I'm a quarter of the way to my yearly goal of 100 books. I'm currently reading Birth Matters by Ina May Gaskin and The Things We Do For Love by Kristin Hannah.

I'm also on day 65 of Catechism. I'm behind. Hoping to catch up today. After Laundry-poloza. That's about it for this week! Next week is Spring Break for Grace so hoping to do some fun stuff!

13 Weeks

Still feel great but I have popped! I need some maternity pants. The ones I have are too big but my currents pants, while they still fit, make me look like I have a super muffin top instead of a baby in there. But I have had a few comments from people who knew I had lost weight and now I look like I've gained a ton. So I look pregnant! I also get comments about how tired I look. Well....I'm tired! Baby D is size of a pea-pod now and if she is a girl, she has all her eggs already. In a weird, creepy way, I might have some of my grand-children in me too. Think about it.

1) - Save, save, save. I need to have $6,000 - $8,000 saved up by September.  If we work hard and stick to a budget (that's hard for us!) we can do it. We're at $1000 right now, so only $5-$7k to go. Half of the midwife is paid for. I could have paid it all at once but I want to get through March and I didn't want to transfer money right away. AND, jut found out I'm getting a raise at work. And our budget is rocking this month! And having two cars is great! Especially since we have only put gas in the van 1x since we got it. Hooray!!

2) Not gain too much. I'm on maintenance mode. I just weighed myself: 146. Without clothes on. I was 152 last week at midwife....with clothes and shoes on. BTW, best prenatal visit I have ever had. Janell went over diet, all the required tests and optional tests, my entire history, explained what she was doing and why. I wish I would have known about midwifes when I was pregnant with Grace. She also discussed nutrition with me and gave me a food journal. I did good until Saturday when I was at work all day and then too tired to thing when I got home. I'm starting fresh this week. Giving up sweets for Lent has helped a lot. 

3) Stay organized. Bills are organized, kid's rooms are organized, basement is....eh. Keep it this way Mike did some cleaning in the basement, which was nice. It's always a work in progress.

4) Sell a lot of stuff like Nintendo stuff, foosball table, etc. Sold 2 more games!

5) Get the garden going really good this year. Peanuts are sprouted. So are bell peppers and jalapenos! Mike just started tomatoes and I have a friend who is giving us some strawberry shoots cause our strawberries did nothing so far.

6) Can LOTS of apricots. And salsa. And pickles. 

7) Read 100 books. I've already done 4. And it's only the 13th. 21 books done! I just finished Ina May's Guide to Pregnancy which was inspiring and informative. I also finished The Book Thief and I cried. But it was kind of a fast book and pretty good. Now I'm on Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah and I have a few birthing books as well. 

8) Read the Catechism of the Catholic Church. I'm on day 52 so if I read 8 days worth today then I'm where I wanted to be. It was a long weekend. 

9)  Spend more time with my kids instead of near my kids Mercy is obsessed with Mario on the Wii U so we play a lot of that. And baby dolls. 

10) Bethany's cross stitch  Haven't touched all week. Bad Briana!

12 Weeks

Baby Dicus (Probably Baby Frankie) is 12 weeks now. Baby is the size of a lime! A LIME! Crazy to think she's so big (I'm just assuming it's a girl).  Only 28 left to go, which really isn't a lot. Tomorrow is my first midwife appointment and I'll get to hear the heartbeat. I'm excited! I feel like I popped the other day and now I have a belly. In fact, a really drunk guy at work asked me what I'm having. So I officially look pregnant, and not just fat. Almost at 4 months, which is crazy that it's going this fast. But I feel great, other than a stomach bug a few weeks ago and a few vision/migraine probs. Going to talk to midwife about it tomorrow. Update on my goals for this year...

1) - Save, save, save. I need to have $6,000 - $8,000 saved up by September.  If we work hard and stick to a budget (that's hard for us!) we can do it. We're at $1000 right now, so only $5-$7k to go. Completely done! We have money for baby & for maternity leave saved. But not stopping there. It'd be nice to save enough to pay off the Line of Credit after baby is here. We have a great budget for March and we aren't going out to eat at all for Lent, so that should help.

2) Not gain too much. I'm on maintenance mode. I just weighed myself: 146. With clothes on. And after breakfast. But the good news is, I'm less than I weighed when I got pregnant with all 3 other kids. So that's a good sign. And I was around 140-144 when I got pregnant this time. Not bad for 3 months down. I gave up sweets for Lent so that should help. I hope!

3) Stay organized. Bills are organized, kid's rooms are organized, basement is....eh. Keep it this way Getting there. Basement is looking better now that I got some yardsale stuff out of there. I'm waiting for nicer weather to do more.

4) Sell a lot of stuff like Nintendo stuff, foosball table, etc. I have sold about 12-14 games and I have made about $500! It's awesome! 

5) Get the garden going really good this year. We have started in the house and have some sprouts! Mike bought a grow-light and we're going to get the sprouts under there and keep them going. So far we have peanuts (yup, peanuts!!) and jalapenos. But we also have bell peppers and strawberries working. Oh and marigolds. Blech. We're going to grow lettuce in a hydroponics setup this year and try that out. But it's still early and even though it's in the 50s lately, I know there is a ton of snow still to come. 

6) Can LOTS of apricots. And salsa. And pickles. Obviously I can't do this yet, but I will. I'm excited!

7) Read 100 books. I've already done 4. And it's only the 13th. I'm at 18 so far, and ahead of schedule. I've been reading some birthing books (Business of Baby is great, I recommend). And I won a prize with the Winter Reading Program and library and signed up for Spring Reading Program. 

8) Read the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Another thing I'm doing for Lent is catching up on this. Slowly, I'm getting there. I'm about 50 days behind schedule so I need to do about extra days each day. I'm on Day 36 today. I should be at Day 92. My goal this week is to read Day 60 by next Monday.

9)  Spend more time with my kids instead of near my kids Going good. We have played a lot of Legos. And puzzles. And I know every song on every episode of Bubble Guppies. Oh, and it's been nice out so lots of time on the play set. 

10) Bethany's cross stitch  It's started! I can't do it when she's awake though cause I don't want it to get ruined. 

Good start to the year so far!

Countdown till September

31 weeks left.

That's so many, and not so much.

Until baby #4.

:)

Yup, we're pregnant again and I'm pretty stoked about this.

We finally are going into a pregnancy with a plan! We have money saved for maternity leave,
and money saved for the birthing center. Yup, a birthing center. No hospital here! I have a doula. I have a plan.

I'll hear Baby D's heartbeat on March 11th and I can't wait.

Until then....I'm just going to glow!

2014 Goal Update

So January isn't even over yet....

1) - Save, save, save. I need to have $6,000 - $8,000 saved up by September.  If we work hard and stick to a budget (that's hard for us!) we can do it. We're at $1000 right now, so only $5-$7k to go.

DONE! As soon as I file our tax return this week and we get our money back, we will have $7000 in the bank in addition to our $1k emergency fund. DAMN! Thank goodness for tax returns (which is really our money, I know, I know) and for work bonuses :)

2) Not gain too much. I'm on maintenance mode.

3) Stay organized. Bills are organized, kid's rooms are organized, basement is....eh. Keep it this way

4) Sell a lot of stuff like Nintendo stuff, foosball table, etc. Halfway there. Sold the foosball table last week. Slowly getting Nintendo games on Amazon and so far I've sold 2! 

5) Get the garden going really good this year.

6) Can LOTS of apricots. And salsa. And pickles.

7) Read 100 books. I've already done 4. And it's only the 13th.

8) Read the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

9)  Spend more time with my kids instead of near my kids

10) Bethany's cross-stitch birth announcement. Yup, still need to do that. 

I feel really, really good about this year. Really good.

And we just bought a new dishwasher cause ours was old and dingy and broken. Found a scratch n' dent at Darrell's Appliance for half off and it's stainless steel. Also, Mike's computer blew up (thanks to the kids) and we needed to buy a new power supply unit and that is also purchased. Just need to buy a battery for the van. /sigh. Left an interior light on and it killed the battery. Such is life.