A letter to my daughter

My sweet dear Lucy,

Hi baby girl. You're officially 29 weeks old today (ignore the ultra sound gestation, they don't have my right dates). It seems like it was just yesterday I took a pregnancy test because I had a suspicion I was pregnant. You have grown quite a bit! When I first saw you on the ultrasound you were the size of a blueberry, now you are the size of a squash. In just a few short weeks (10) you will be here. I can't believe how fast time has gone. I have so many emotions that I am feeling right now.

This week brought out even further emotions because we got to see your beautiful face on the 3D ultrasound. It was quite a miracle. You are so beautiful and so perfect. Your 10 beautiful fingers and 10 small toes are right where they should be. Your heart is beating nice and strong (it is quite possibly my favorite sound).

You also opened your eyes! That was amazing to see (and makes me feel good they aren't still fused). Which means you are developing just like you should!

I loved seeing you snuggle up with your arms and play with your fingers. You are so active and so sweet. You are also quite sassy (just like your mom). Today the ultrasound tech tried to get you to show us your full face and you made the cutest angry face. I absolutely loved it, and also wanted to give you a hug and say it's ok you can have whatever you want (I'll eat more chocolate for you).

But after some sweet talk from your mom and dad you decided to give in and show us that beautiful face of yours! 

You have such beautiful full lips that are just so kissable (stay away boys!!)

You also must have the same taste in movies as your parents because you made the most adorable blue steel!

I have so many hopes and dreams for you and as it gets closer to delivery date it seems more real! I pray for you to have your fathers faith in God. He never doubts and has a testimony that never waivers. His kind of faith is the kind of faith I am working on achieving. 

I hope you never doubt yourself. You are going to be a strong and powerful woman. I can already tell with your personality you will do exactly what you want (but hopefully listen to your parents because I promise we know what's best). You can achieve so much in your life! Your dad and I will support you through everything in your life because your happiness is very important.

I hope you find laughter in everything you do. I've never wanted anybody to be as happy as I hope you will be.

I hope one day you find a man who will treat you like your dad treats me. 

I hope you know I will be your best friend your entire life. I love you so much Lucy. I want you to know that you can always come to me and I will never judge you or stop loving you. It isn't easy to grow up but I promise to be here for all the good times and bad. 

Lucy Kay you are my first child, and daughter. I am already so incredibly proud of you. I will see you in 10 weeks baby girl. Until then stay comfortable inside my tummy and keep growing and staying healthy. Your mommy & daddy love you so much.

                                             

Pregnancy update!

So I have been horrible at keeping up with my blog lately, I've been working so much over time and we moved so the blog updates have really taken a toll. The second trimester flew by! I can't believe I am already in my third now. So basically here is a massive picture update!

21 weeks!

22 weeks! This week was our 3rd wedding anniversary! We celebrated by eating a delicious meal and then going to see our favorite jokers live! (The impractical Jokers! Their show is on Thursday nights on TruTV and it is our FAVORITE).

Date night with this handsome guy!

24 weeks! Finally hit the age of viability!!

25 weeks! I LOVE this dress and everything about it! It is so soft and light.

26 weeks! This week we found out some VERY exciting news!

I have officially been accepted into a Masters of Science in Nursing program with a focus on Family Practice to be a Nurse Practitioner! I start the program in February! Which seems crazy because I am having a BABY in December so life is going to be crazy. But after Tyler & I talked about it, prayed about it and looked at everything we figured it was the best choice for our family. There is NEVER going to be a good time to go back to school, especially as Lucy gets older and we start adding more children to our little family. It only makes sense to go now! I should be graduated by Winter 2017 and ready to start working as an NP then!

27 weeks & feeling large & in charge

28 weeks! This week we were supposed to get a 3D ultrasound with our family and friends but that did not turn out so well. She was hidden and not facing the right direction. She was also super sleepy (she is a night lover like her dad). So we try for a rescan on Thursday (which means I will be drinking a cold smoothie!)

We started getting furniture in for the nursery! Tyler put the dresser together & it looks SUPER cute! Btw it is Disney baby because obviously!

The crib is ready to be built!

Daisy is pretty jealous that isn't her toy box but I think she is doing well because she doesn't just take from it :)

My biggest pregnancy craving lately has been bacon & donuts. YUM

I am so excited to see what the rest of the third trimester brings us! I love being pregnant, and everything about being pregnant! Even though it's hard to watch that number on the scale go up (& up & up) it is all worth it for Lucy to grow and be healthy. I love feeling her kick around and move all the time. And as much as I can't wait to meet her at the end of December I know I will miss this amazing feeling of being pregnant. But I know that no matter how much I love being pregnant and carrying her inside, nothing will be greater than carrying my sweet healthy girl in my arms and kissing her cute chubby cheeks.

When we went to the doctor at 27 weeks our ultrasound tech was super amazing and did a little 3D session for Tyler & me! It was fantastic for us to see her face. So here are some pictures from that!

Halfway!

HALFWAY! Can you believe it?! I am 20 weeks! That means I have 20 weeks to go! (well technically less because I am being induced a few weeks earlier).

So to celebrate my ever growing baby bump I took pictures. I am loving my transformation. I know most people have a hard time with gaining weight (which trust me I HATE the scale) but I don't think there is anything more beautiful than a changing body to support another little life.

I am so excited to keep growing for this sweet baby girl. I see a lot of premies at work so all I hope for is that she is healthy and stays in as long as possible, even if that means I get tons of stretch marks, have shortness of breath, pee when I laugh, and gain more weight. All of that stuff is easy to change after she gets here.

One of my friends, Amanda Gibson, offered to take these beautiful pictures which of course I couldn't turn down! I am so impressed with these pictures I can guarantee you that she will be taking all of our family pictures now. She is very sweet and makes you feel very comfortable in front of the camera. You can find more pictures from the company she works for here!

I found my beautiful dress at my FAVORITE maternity store. They make such high quality clothes and for a reasonable price. This dress isn't being made anymore but you can find a similar one here.

Now here are the fantastic pictures to enjoy!!

The Girl with Kaleidoscope Eyes

I have been listening to the Beatles non-stop for the last week, mainly Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (obviously)! And I am thinking Lucy is a big fan of them because she dances constantly when they are playing. 

On Friday I hit my 19 week mark!

This week my belly really just popped! I feel like I have been showing my entire pregnancy, but this week made me realize I haven't had a bump until now! I think I have shown so early because I am short, and Lucy has been measuring a little bit bigger than the normal. 

19 weeks has been SO much fun though. There have been some crazy pregnancy symptoms. There are so many weird things that happen to your body, but luckily I have some awesome family members that are more than willing to answer all of my questions.

Tyler & I had a pretty awesome weekend!

Saturday we went over to one of Tyler's brothers house and ate some delicious chicken salad & played with our cute little niece and nephew. We always have so much fun over there & always end up eating our body weight in delicious food.

 On Sunday we went over to my parents house and went swimming. It was so much fun. We played catch & ate too many otter pops with my cute nephew Jack.

Luckily my SPF 50 prevented me from burning. That has been another awesome pregnancy change, my skin is SO sensitive. If I step outside for more than 10 minutes without sunscreen I will burn.

On Monday morning we went to Babies-R-Us and registered for my shower! It was so much fun but so hard to pick out everything! Especially because we needed to remember that the big stuff needs to be gender neutral because one day we could have a boy & I sure don't want to buy new swings or pack and plays because everything is pink! 

Tyler's sister came home from her mission in Japan! So we spent the afternoon making some posters to welcome her before we went to the airport. Pictures of the group will be uploaded later because I unfortunately forgot my camera so I have to wait to get the pictures from everyone else.

My awesome origami skills.

OK! So last week I wrote about the CMV scare I had, today I got a call with my official lab results! The test came back negative which means I have never been exposed to CMV and my baby is perfectly healthy. I have never been more grateful for anything in my life. I could not imagine how I would feel if I had exposed my little girl to anything that could hurt her. Now I can relax and just keep imagining how beautiful she will be.

Also we talked to my high risk doctor and it turns out I will be induced before my due date! The doctor said he feels more comfortable with a controlled labor situation when his patients are on blood thinners. So baby girl will be here some time towards the end of December. Hopefully after Christmas but before the New Year, but I don't have an official date yet.