Let's Take A Poll!

Well, we are only a few days away from finding out if Baby Smith is a boy or girl! I thought it would be fun to create a poll and see what you all think. 

Is Baby Smith a Boy or Girl?

Boy

Girl

Do Quizzes

I can't wait to share with you all on Friday afternoon!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Hello, 2nd Trimester!

We have finally made it to the 2nd trimester and we are so excited!

I think I am finally beyond the sickness and now I am feeling pretty great. My energy has returned and I am more motivated to get things done around the house. I am also excited to finally get my hair done, my doctor recommended that I wait until the 2nd trimester to get it colored and I followed his recommendation. I am so excited to get rid of these few gray hairs that are popping up haha.

Sleep is not that great, I sleep for a few hours at a time and then wake up for about an hour and then repeat lol. I am usually up by 6am most days, if I spend any longer than that laying in bed my back starts to hurt. 

My appetite has returned! I am finally eating things again that I previously could not like red pasta sauce. I am so happy I can stomach it again because I love me some red pasta sauce haha. 

I am wearing maternity jeans the majority of the time, they are the most comfortable things ever. I am also loving maxi dresses, with our warm weather it's nice to throw on a maxi dress and go.

We find in a week if Baby Smith is a boy or girl and we couldn't be more excited. We have names picked out and we can't wait to finally call him/her by the proper name! 

Have a great day everyone!

Running Can Keep You Warm!

A few months ago I sent off some of my favorite race shirts to a friend of mine who makes amazing quilts. I have been anxiously waiting for its arrival and let me tell you I was not disappointed! She made an American Flag quilt for me a few years ago and I'm always impressed with her work. 

I absolutely love how it turned out and now I can be reminded of some of the best races we have done and keep warm at the same time.

It has a permanent place on the couch now. Next up she will be making us a baby blanket when we find out the gender. :)

You Are Not Alone

Since we found out we were expecting I have been asked a few times if my desire to help those struggling with infertility/pregnancy loss has gone away or if we are going to just forget about what we have gone through. More often than not this question catches me off guard because it could not be further from the truth. 

For the last 7 years infertility/pregnancy loss has been a huge part of our lives and it has been something that we have embraced because it was part of our journey and it made us who we are today. While I would not wish a journey like this on anyone it showed us just how strong we are and that anything is possible.

It is not something that goes away just because you are expecting, it makes you even more grateful for the gift that you have been given. Every day of this journey I think about the babies we lost and I think about this precious little one who is thriving and how we will explain to him/her one day how much we fought for them and how we did not give up.

I want to be an advocate for those who are going through this, I want to be a sounding board and listen to what they are going through and offer advice if they ask for it. I don't want to forget the journey that brought us to this moment. I still have fears because we are now in uncharted territory with this pregnancy but we are blessed and we know it.

We have several friends that are experiencing this right now and being there for them even if no words are spoken is so important to me. It can be difficult to talk to someone who has never been through something like this and I will forever be grateful to those who reached out to us and loved on us during our journey. It still means the world to us.

To those who are going through this, you are not alone. There is a support network that is always there for you, there are people cheering you on and loving you! 

Some Thoughts

It's finally Friday! It's 8:30am here and I have already taken my car for an oil change and picked up medication for Emma, I like productive mornings like this. Kyle is finally heading into the field tonight, this rotation has been interesting from the start haha. However, he will be home Sunday night because he will be escorting some distinguished guests in the "box" for a few days early next week.

Despite all things baby here are some things that are happening in our neck of the woods.

*I registered for classes all the way through the end of July, I want to get as much done as I can before my due date, and then I will start back up on October with only 5 classes left! Woo!

*My sister and the kiddos will be here the end of March and I can't wait! We are keeping the kids for their spring break (we have them for a week every year) and it's going to be a blast!

*Sweet little Emma will likely be getting all of her teeth pulled next week. Dachshunds are known for having teeth problems and her vet recommended pulling the remainder of her teeth. She doesn't chew her food anyway lol and it's going to be better for her in the long run. So I am all for it.

*Fishy has become a lot more lovey with me, we think he knows something is coming. A few times last week he hopped up on the couch to cuddle with me:

*Kyle is only 3 classes away from graduating with his Masters in Psychology. I am so proud of him, he has worked his butt off and this last year has been a challenge with spending 2-3 weeks a month in the field and getting school done.

Not much is planned for the weekend here probably lots of attempts at napping and maybe some netflix.

Hope you all have a great weekend!!!

New Things!

When we first found out we were expecting we knew there was one thing we had to do and that was get a bigger car for me. I have a Toyota Corolla and while I absolutely love it, we knew that trying to fit a car seat and all the added elements that come along with baby would be tricky so we decided a new car was the right way to go.

Kyle and I both have paid off vehicles so the thought of having a car payment has me stressed out, obviously we can afford it but it's just overwhelming to think about. Kyle will be taking my car because it is a 2009 and his current car is a 2003, so we will be trading in his car when the time comes to purchase. Plus, thanks to our tax return we will have a good down payment as well, we are trying to do this the smart way instead of just jumping into. I don't want an outrageous car payment, because we will be getting Kyle a new car next year.

We haven't looked in person yet but I have been browsing online and there are so many cars that I like haha.We had originally planned to wait until June to look in person but I think March is looking better right now.

Here is what I am loving at the moment:

2016 Honda Pilot

2016 Toyota Highlander

2016 Toyota Camry

As you can tell we are partial to Honda and Toyota because that is what we have now and they are amazing cars!

I'm excited to make a choice and check off this giant item from our to-do list.

Weekend Wrap-Up!

Friday night Kyle and I headed out for our date night and we had the best time! As I talked about earlier in the week we signed up for a wine and paint event. Kyle grabbed a bottle of wine and I grabbed a sprite lol and off we went.

Before the painting started we had an amazing dinner provided by the hosts. Once the painting started everyone let loose and had a great time. There were 20 of us and we all laughed and joked it was a lot of fun.

We absolutely love how our paintings turned out and we have plans to hang them in the nursery.

 Sunday morning Kyle had to head to work about an hour away so I decided to get up early with him, follow him there so we could have breakfast together at Cracker Barrel. It was the best decision ever!! lol. The closest Target is in the same area so I stopped there to do a little shopping.

We have been loving the weather here lately, there is nothing better than temps in the 70's! I am just hoping that we don't dip back down to colder weather.

Overall, it was a pretty good weekend even though Kyle doesn't get the long weekend like most of you but that's ok.

I hope you had a great one!

Week 12

Well, we have finally made it to 12 weeks! For us this is huge and something we have never experienced.

Baby is continuing to make his/her appearance and it's amazing to see my belly grow each week. I think I have finally peaked when it comes to morning sickness, I feel good most days but right now I am battling a cold which is not fun at all.

Yesterday we had our 12 week appointment and it was just supposed to be a simple appointment and going over medical history plus listening to the heartbeat. My doctor is amazing and decided instead of using the doppler which can sometimes be difficult to hear the heartbeat with he opted to just do an ultrasound.

We were over the moon when this little sweetie showed up on the screen! We saw his/her feet moving and we even got a wave! It was incredible, Kyle and I were speechless the whole time. The heart rate was a healthy 150 and it was glorious!

After this appointment I scheduled our early elective gender ultrasound and in 3 weeks we will find out what Baby Smith is! We can't wait. 

What a journey this has already been and we know it is going to continue to get better! 

Happy Thursday!

Let's Paint!

With Valentine's Day coming, tips for gifts and celebrating are all over the place. Kyle and I haven't purchased gifts for each other since our 1st year of marriage. We typically don't make a big deal out of the day but we wanted to do something fun as more of a date night rather than celebrating Valentine's Day.

I found a Wine and Paint event happening this Friday and I figured why not! I have done one of these events before but we have never done one together. I was sold when included in the cost was dinner, you can't beat baked ziti, salad, bread, and dessert.

Neither one of us have an artistic bone in our body but it will be fun to tackle these paintings. :) It gives us something to look forward to and hopefully this week goes by fast haha.

We don't get a lot of date nights because of his field schedule so it will be nice to have this quality time together to just have fun and enjoy each others company. He goes right back into the field the following Monday for another rotation. We keep reminding ourselves that he only has 2 more rotations of being in the field. :)

Do you celebrate Valentine's Day?

Happy Monday!

Week 11

We have made it to Week 11!! Each week for us is a huge victory and it's pretty amazing!

We have our 12 week appointment on the 10th and I am definitely anxious to make sure baby is doing good in there.

I have gained maybe 5 pounds which I am totally okay with, my normal clothes (mostly jeans) don't fit so maternity jeans and maxi dresses have been my favorite clothes of choice. 

My sickness has been coming and going lately, some days I feel good and some days I just feel like I'm sitting on a boat which is how I feel this morning.

One huge milestone is that I am finally done with my progesterone supplements as of today! With a history of recurrent loss like I have had my RE (reproductive endocrinologist) put me on progesterone supplements just as a precaution. We have now made it to the point that I don't need them. I am so excited!

In about 4 weeks we are planning on having an early elective gender ultrasound, even if baby doesn't cooperate it will still be fun to have more pictures of this sweet babe.

Here is to more amazing milestones to come!

Have a great day!

A Weekend In Review

I feel like this weekend went by super fast! Friday night Kyle and I had dinner with some friends and it was so nice to go out and interact with other people haha. With not feeling good the desire to leave the house is really not there. We had an awesome time so hopefully we can do it more often.

Saturday we checked off a huge item off our list and that was getting our taxes done. This money is going directly towards a down payment on a new car for me! Eekk I am so excited! :) 

Sunday morning I hopped in the car bright and early to head off to Florida. My sister has a business trip this week so it's just me and the kiddos. I love being able to spend time with them one and two lol.
 

We decided to head out to Olive Garden for dinner and roam around Target. Of course we ended up in the baby section and I picked up some of our first items! Yay! The little wolf is from Kylie and Grayson, they wanted to get it for the baby. It plays music too. :)

We ended the night with a little nail fun! My sister has the whole gel manicure set up, uv/led light, a ton of polishes basically I felt like I was at a nail salon. I love how they turned out!

Today it's back to the grind with 2 new grad school classes starting. Here is hoping they aren't too painful.

Hope you all have a great weekend!