Avocado

I am 16 weeks along today and the baby is about the size of an avocado! MmmmMmmM...I love guacamole (okay, so maybe I shouldn't be comparing my baby to my favorite Mexican condiment)! :) I have 168 days to go. I have an appointment next Tuesday for my 17 week check up. Danny will be in New York so he will miss it but hopefully he won't miss much.



Over the weekend we hung out with friends, went out to dinner and went bowling. We also went to the in-laws to visit for a few hours and let the dogs run around. Danny took them down to the pond and let them swim. Sadie still hasn't gotten the hang of swimming yet. She just likes to jump in the water when Eli gets close and grabs the stick from him so it looks like she retrieved it. Lol, silly girl! That's not how it is supposed to work!

I also spent several hours researching baby furniture. UGH! I never knew it would be SOO hard. I seem to be very picky and when I find one I like it either costs too much or the reviews aren't that great. Hopefully I will narrow it down to a few and once we find out what we are having we'll make a final decision. I'm just so ready to get started on the nursery.

I did get a really good deal over the weekend on Craigslist. I got a Graco Pack N Play for $35.00. It regularly retails for $110.00 so I thought that was a steal of a deal! I'm going to let my mom keep it at her house so that we don't have to tote ours back and forth when we go visit. That way she also doesn't have to go buy a crib.

Not much else is going on. I'm so happy to have Danny back home for the week. I'm just ready for another work week to be over!!

Thursday Thirteen

My husband went to high school with someone who is now one of the best photographers I've ever seen! A friend of mine, Kristin, had her wedding photos done by Liz and they were fantastic! Anyway, in response to the "Thursday Thirteen"...I thought this would be fun! :)

1) If money or skill-set was no issue, what would you love to do for a living?

A: I would love to work in the flower business again. I loved working with fresh flowers and doing weddings. Though certain times of the year get stressful and hectic it was always nice to put a smile on other people's faces.


2) If you could fix or put an end to one problem in the world what would it be?

A: I would put an end to poverty. That would take care of hunger, a lot of violence and would make the world a better place.

3) What is one of your favorite traits about yourself?

A: Hmmm...this is tough, I guess my favorite trait is that I love with all of my heart and I give everything to someone that I care about.

4) Share with me the name of one person who inspires you.

A: My aunt Norma who passed away three years ago. She was like Superwoman. Organized, well rounded, creative, smart, family oriented, open minded and as I got older I grew to love and respect the decisions she made in her life. I could sit and talk with her for hours about life, love or nothing in particular.

5) If you could get rid of one type of music forever, what would it be? Band, genre, artist?

A: Nickel Back (all of their songs sound the same to me)

6) If you could choose your talent, what talent would you give to yourself? Why?

A: I would want to have more patience. It really is a talent that I think takes a lot of self dedication and practice.

7) What sort of vacation do you enjoy most?

A: Anything with white sand and beautiful water, my husband by my side and music in my ears. Also, a cold drink in hand but that's not feasible with my current "condition" :)

8) Reach out your arm to your left. What is closest at hand? To your right?

A: Left - Three of my wedding pictures
A: Right - My daily planner and my mouse

9) If you took a six month sabbatical from your work / life situation, what would you do?

A: If money were no issue, I would travel the world with my husband.

10) If you HAD to change your name, what would you change it to?

A: Probably Brooke or Melanie, since those are names we are considering if we have a girl.

11) If you were stranded on an island and could take ONE person with you, who would it be?

A: Well, that's easy, Danny of course!

12) What is your favorite (encouraging) quote?

A: A good marriage is like a casserole, only those responsible for it really know what goes in it.

13) What is the kindest thing anyone has ever done for you?

A: My husband, Danny, accepted me for who I am from day one. He knows me inside and out and has forgiven me for my mistakes, loved me during my worst of days and always been a shoulder to lean on. He balances me and is the piece in my life that was always missing.

Lemon

This week baby Mudd is the size of a lemon! He or she weighs between one to one and a half ounces. I can't believe I am 14 weeks already (okay, it's a day early...close enough, I had to get Danny to take my belly picture before he leaves for NY tomorrow morning). I am out of the first trimester and on Tuesday we will have exactly 6 months until my due date. Really!?!? Where is the time going?

So much has changed in the past few months and it has been a really exciting time. Our partying and hanging out has slowed down quite a bit. We are really just enjoying this down time together as husband and wife. I know that in just 6 short months our lives will be turned upside down and we will have a little life to take care of. And that little life will be our whole life! I can't wait but at the same time I want to cherish every moment of this pregnancy. It has already gone by so fast and I am so grateful that everything has gone smoothly so far. We still enjoy getting together with friends but between Danny traveling, the snow and being pregnant, we haven't had as much time. Hopefully our friends don't think we've forgotten about them, there's just a lot going on and we've been really content with spending time together lately.

I guess with all the excitement from our appointment last Monday I forgot to mention Valentine's Day. It was pretty low key. I made a nice dinner on Saturday and on Sunday we went to the movies together. We saw When in Rome which was really cute. I love romantic comedies! Danny also got me a dozen of red, white and pink roses. They were beautiful! He wrote a heartfelt note on the card that brought tears to my eyes. I'll keep the specifics for just us, but lets just say I have a keeper. :)

Danny is getting ready to leave for New York again tomorrow. I am headed to VA Beach on Friday with my friend Mickey for our annual scrapbook retreat. I will be gone all weekend and unfortunately I will miss seeing Danny when he gets home on Friday. I'll get to spend the evening with him on Sunday but then he is leaving for NY again that following Monday. That's nearly two whole weeks without him. I've never gone that long since we've been together. This whole travel thing is getting old really quick!

Here's my 14 week belly picture update!
Keep growing baby Mudd. We love you!

So I'm taking bets on the estimated due date (EDD) and whether we will be having a boy or girl.

So far the following people have weighed in:

Cierra - EDD August 6th - Boy
Co-Worker - EDD August 15th - Girl
My Brother - EDD August 17th - Girl but hoping for a boy
Liz C. - EDD August 18th - Girl
My Hubby - EDD August 21st - Boy
My Dad - EDD August 22nd - Undecided boy or girl
Kristin - EDD August 25th - Girl
My FIL - Girl
My SIL - Girl
My MIL - Girl
Dorsey - Boy
My Mom - No EDD - Just wants him or her to be healthy!

If you'd like in on the fun let me know. :-P

I on the other hand still have no inclination of boy or girl. Statistically with the Mudd family I'm thinking boy, but other things make me think girl. Heck, I don't know! I've never done this before. Well, we have about 6 weeks until we find out! SIX WEEKS!?!? Oh my gosh, I will be half way through my pregnancy in SIX WEEKS! Someone please slow time down...

The Sweetest Sound

The sweetest sound in the whole world is hearing your baby's heartbeat for the first time! I was so nervous going into our appointment. Though I've had no signs or symptoms of anything being wrong, I was just scared to death. The nurse put the doppler on my stomach and I gave her about 1.5 seconds before I started to panic, but before I knew it there was that swoosh, swoosh, swoosh coming from the doppler and tears were welling up in my eyes. What a relief! The baby's heartbeat was at 130 beats per minute, the nurse said that average is anywhere from 110 to 160 bpm. Danny asked what the old wives tales are for the heartbeat, and much to my surprise the nurse said that a lower heartbeat means you are having a girl. I always thought it was the opposite, I guess we will just have to wait until our next ultrasound to find out. Anyone taking any bets? We should find out in about 7 weeks what we are having. I'm 13 weeks today and I go back to the doctor's during week 17. Then again at week 20. So exciting!

A friend of mine gave me the book "Your Pregnancy Week by Week" today so I have some reading to catch up on.

I received my first order of cloth diapers in the mail this past weekend. They are adorable! I can't wait to see how they work. I know we have some time (and I shouldn't be wishing dirty diapers upon myself) but I'm really excited to try them out. I hope that I can stick to my plan and that they work out for our family. Again, only time will tell.

Danny and I are so excited for this journey, I want to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers and I am so thankful for this little blessing. I feel like the time is really going to start to fly now so I'm going to try my best to document my pregnancy so that I don't miss anything looking back on these posts.

My Latest Obsession..

So my newest obsession has been cloth diapers! Yep, I said it...cloth diapers. I know, you are probably thinking she has lost her mind. BUT, I've been doing a lot of research on cloth diapers and the consensus is that they aren't that bad. They are better for the environment, better for your baby's bum, cheaper on the wallet and did I mention they are adorable? I know not many people will support my choice to try cloth diapers, I've already mentioned it to a few people and they look at me like I'm from another planet. I don't think you should judge a book by its cover though, and don't knock it until 1) you try it or 2) you do your homework and have some facts to back up your reasons for not going the cloth diaper route. Don't shame me for wanting to be the best mother I can be. It may or may not work out for us, but you know what? I'm going to give it a fair shot, so wish me luck!!

I made my first cloth diaper purchase today (whoo hoo!) and I am so excited! I went with Smartipants one size all in one cloth diapers. Since we don't know what we are having yet I bought the neutral color pack. Even when we do know what we are having I think I will only buy a few gender specific diapers so that we can reuse for the second child (if we decide to do so). Anyway, I got one white, one yellow and one green. The reviews are great and they are made in the USA. What's not to love? They should fit from newborn to potty training, between 7 to 35 pounds. How versatile! They allow your baby to breathe and the word on the street from other cloth diaper moms is that your baby will have less diaper rash! And we all know that a sore bum makes for a cranky baby.

Just a fun fact that I bet you didn't know about disposable diapers...Did you know that you are not supposed to just fold those dirty diapers up and toss them in the trash? You are actually supposed to dump any solids in the toilet and flush it down just like you would a cloth diaper (it even says this on the disposable diaper box). Can you believe that? Who knew? I know that no one who uses disposable diapers actually does this, but it is unsanitary for human feces to end up in the land fill. Did you know that it can seep into the ground and get into your water supply causing disease? Okay, so maybe that's a little extreme, but it could happen! AND it takes up to 200 years for a disposable diaper to decompose in the landfill. When you consider up to 7,000 diapers per child from new born to potty training, that's A LOT of diapers. I told you....I'm obsessed!

It's so fun (and a little overwhelming) researching cloth diapers but I've learned a lot so far and I'm excited to see where this road takes us. :)

12 Weeks Today!

Today I am 12 weeks along. :) Which means I am one week and one day closer to our next appointment! I have been feeling a little bit better as far as the exhaustion goes. I seriously get winded just walking up the stairs, but I have had more energy to do house work and be productive. Not that I really have done much with all this snow but hey, at least I feel up to it if I want to do something. We've been snowed in since Friday and I've stayed in PJs since then. Ahh, the good life! I've been having mild to severe headaches lately. Just another pregnancy symptom. For the most part they are bearable, but at times they get so bad that I just have to go lie down with the lights off. Milk is my new best friend. Did you see that super bowl commercial? Ha, ha...I'm a "milkaholic." Before I got pregnant I would have a glass of milk maybe once every 6 months. Now I have at least one glass a day and I actually crave it which is so weird for me. We use to buy a half a gallon of milk and we would usually end up dumping it before we could drink it all. Now we buy a gallon of milk and it's gone within a week. Sometimes Danny doesn't even get the first glass before I finish it off. Oops!

My belly is starting to grow a little bit, for the most part it has just been bloat but it should be bump soon! I haven't had much else going on with the whole pregnancy thing. I did get a little emotional last night after the super bowl. Seeing Drew Brees hold his son with tears rolling down his cheeks made me well up a bit. I felt like a complete weird-o for getting emotional, I even felt like I could cry just watching the confetti fall from the sky. Holy hormones!! I cried twice last week while watching TV when Danny was in New York. Luckily he wasn't here to give me that look of, okay, she has lost it! I really can't help it though and it's not like I'm bursting out with uncontrollable tears, it's just a few. Okay, so the whole hormonal thing is a little new to me. I'm just hoping that all these symptoms mean mommy and baby are healthy. :)

The weatherman is calling for another 6-10" of snow tomorrow through Wednesday. My car hasn't moved since Friday and it doesn't look like it will be moving anytime soon. This has to be some sort of a record breaking winter for our area. I just know I will be glad when it is over!

Well, time to wrap it up and head to bed so I can get to work for a little bit tomorrow before this next storm hits. Here's my 12 week belly...it's only going to get bigger from here so I guess I might as well get used to it. I'll save the bare belly pics for Danny and I. I don't think you want to see all that! :-D

This angle makes me look H-U-G-E! Oh my!!

Snow, Snow and More Snow...

Guess what!? I'm snowed in for another whole weekend. This is becoming quite the routine these days.

Danny came home from New York on Friday. He had to get an earlier flight to avoid delays and cancellations at the airport due to the storm. I didn't care what time he had to get a flight, as long as he got home safety to me. It was so nice to have him back home!

We have been complete couch potatoes today. You would think I would have some motivation to clean the house or be productive, but there is something about the snow that just makes me lazy.

Tomorrow is the Super Bowl, Saints versus the Colts. We obviously don't have any plans with this much snow, not that we had any plans otherwise. I plan on making some hot wings and a few finger foods for the game. The only thing that will be missing from the menu is beer (well for me at least)! Currently our satellite is out so we've been watching Netflix. If it doesn't return by tomorrow I guess we will be heading outside to throw snowballs at the satellite dish until we knock all the snow off. Talk about Redneck! Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do.

I will be 12 weeks on Monday (pictures to come soon)! Which means only a week and a day until our next appointment and only a week and 4 days until I am out of the first trimester!! Crazy! We're still just continuing to pray that everything is okay and I think I ask Danny at least once a day if he thinks I'm really pregnant. Lol, I guess it just hasn't really sunk in since I don't feel pregnant. Just hoping we hear that swoosh, swoosh at our next appointment.