Tuesday, March 31, 2015

General Updates

We actually have a house update to share!! I mentioned a post or 2 ago that we have purchased all our bathroom tile.  It all came in 2 weeks ago, so we have it at the house and are ready to go! This past weekend, Scott started prepping the tile for the shower.  He added in the 'blocks' in the wall cavities, put down tar paper on the subfloor, then poured in the initial layer of concrete.  It took quite a while for it to dry.  My job was to keep the cats out of the bathroom so they didn't get in the concrete.  I guess you can say we were mostly successful! haha  When Scott was done laying the concrete, I told him to have a seat and watch the cats while I went to the bathroom.  Right when we were switching positions, Tiger decided he was going to run into the bathroom, into the fresh concrete, through it, and then out of the shower!!!  I grabbed him and we rushed him to the mudroom where he was less than thrilled with his bath!!  Thankfully, the Tuesday before Tiger had gone in to get shaved (now he looks funny with just his fur boots, a poof at the end of his tail, and his 'lion' like mane).  After that happened, we put a fan on the concrete to speed up the drying.  Then to be safe, once it was dry enough for the cats to walk on it, we put our moving blankets on top of the concrete just to be sure!

The last two days, during Scott's lunch break and after work, he has purchased the rest of what we need (other than the shower heads) so we can get started tiling hopefully this weekend.

Another piece of exciting news with the house.... we finally have the money in place to get our running water and electric hooked up!!! YEAH!  So in 2 weeks, Scott is renting the trencher to get it all ready for the plumbing and the electric wiring!  Ahh, I can't wait!! 

On the baby front, all is well! I'm still battling with morning sickness several days a week.  I can't believe I'm going to admit this here, but I think it's pretty funny so I will.  Yesterday I was on the phone with my mother-in-law and I told her to hold on because I needed to blow my nose.  Apparently I had to do much more than blow my nose because  my morning sickness hit pretty bad (this was after my dinner) and in the process I managed to pee my pants!  I don't think I've done that since I was 2! haha  But luckily, today was laundry day so it all worked out!

I thought they said once you hit the second trimester this morning sickness stuff all goes away! Well, I'm now 20 weeks and keeping my fingers crossed it goes away sooner than later!  I think my next doctor appointment is in 2 weeks and at that time my doctor will be scheduling my ultrasound - I'll keep you all posted!

In the meantime, I've been working a little at a time on my baby registry.  It's a little overwhelming thinking of all the stuff that you need for a baby! We are trying to minimize the stuff we get because we are so limited on space. Luckily I found several 3-in-one products that should be a huge help!  Once we find out what we are having, I'll be posting our registry in case anyone wants to use it.

Ever since week 17, I've been feeling the baby moving!  And each week I can feel the baby a little bit more and a little bit stronger.  Actually, as I sit here on the internet at McDonalds (because the library is closed), I can feel the baby moving!!

Scott's job is still going great!  He's getting very very busy though with all the farmers either prepping their fields or starting to plant even.  This time of the year the farmers actually set fire to the irrigation ditches to clear out all the weeds.  Scott said they will start the water up in the irrigation ditches in a few weeks - about the middle of April.

I wish I had more exciting news to share, but that's about all right now!  I am taking some pictures of our shower process and I'll be sharing them with you all soon! It sounds like we will be having a very busy April with the completion of the shower plus (fingers crossed) hooking up our water and electric!! I'm hoping to take a real shower by my birthday (end of April) - that would be the best birthday present to date!!!

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

To say that today was an ordinary day would be deceiving you all!  I've been looking forward to this day since before I even knew I was pregnant!

Last night, Scott and I both were awake at 4am and couldn't sleep!  And ever since I woke up this morning I've been so emotional and periodically in tears.  But do you blame me! 

I had my radiology appointment at 9am and it took nearly an hour.  Most of the time it didn't hurt, but there were a few moments where the radiologist pushed on my hips and I cringed!

The fun stuff!! On the baby front, all is doing great! The baby is measuring at 18 weeks and 1 day - exactly what I predicted!  The baby is currently 8 oz.  There wasn't much movement from the baby except for the occasional jerks here and there, but now that I'm typing this the baby is moving around quite a bit! In case I didn't mention this in any blog posts, last week I felt the baby move for the first time!  The first time it only lasted about 5 min (this was last Monday when I was 17 weeks) and felt like a little bug fluttering under my lower belly.

The rest of the ultrasound went great!  I literally saw the baby's heart beating which I still think is completely crazy!  The technician took lots and lots of measurements from the head, heart, arms, legs, spine and even internally with the kidneys and bladder.

Now for the part I know I've been most anxious about.... the gender!  After tearing up through most of the ultrasound, at last, the technician finally took pictures and showed me what he was only 60% sure of!  Maybe it's my mathematical side, but 60% isn't good enough for me to order the gender reveal cards.  So you all will have to wait another 4-6 weeks to wait too! 

We did get our first photos of the baby! I have to admit, it still basically looks like a blog to me, but to see our baby on the screen and see it move around was something I'll never forget!  Unfortunately Scott wasn't there to see it but in less than 20 min I'll get to share everything with him too!

One more appointment to go to this afternoon - just a regular baby checkup.  If I have anymore updates with that I'll add it as an addendum below.

Afternoon appointment update: all went well!  I'm no longer dehydrated, in fact the nurse said I'm completely on the opposite end and fully hydrated! I'm still having issues taking my pre-natals so I will be heading to look for gummy vitamins in town before heading home.  But all is well! Next appointment in 4 weeks!

Monday, March 9, 2015

Fun Filled Weekend!

Well our idea of fun filled included shopping the tile for our bathroom!! About 3 weeks ago, I was bored waiting on Scott to get off work so I ran into Cody, did our grocery shopping, and then I stopped at a few furniture/appliance stores just to browse.  I discovered that one of the stores actually sells flooring!!!  I don't mind making a trip to Billings to go to Lowes/Home Depot or any of their specialty stores, but I don't want what everyone else has from the chain stores.  Maybe I'm crazy, but I envision our house being unique, very personalized, and with details that make visitors notice.

Well, I fell in love with the tile selection at our local store in Cody!  And I have pictures of the tile that I'll upload next week, but for now I'll just explain it to you.  First, our shower is 40" wide x 8' long - it's a walk in shower that will have a traditional shower head at the end wall and a water fall shower head up above (that one's for Scott!).  For the tiling, I wanted light colors with accents.  On the floor, around the outside, like an outline about 6" wide, there will be river rock pebble tile.  On the inside will be 8x10 squares of this sandstone in an ivory/off white mixed color.  That same color will be on the walls in 12x12 squares but to accent the walls in a horizontal stripe around the inside of the shower will be this accent glass stoning that also has some marble in it.  I'm really excited because the colors really turned out well together!

Price - To frame up the wall, create the floor of the shower (concrete included), it will be about $250.  I think Scott still needs to buy the wire mesh and he's getting that local because Billings only had large rolls that wouldn't come close to fitting in my car!!
Tiling - This only includes just the tile.  We still need to go get the cement backer board, screws/nails, grout, etc.  But just the tile was about $1,000.  Really, I don't think that's too bad considering how big our shower is and that we got 3 different types of tile.  Or maybe I'm crazy and that is expensive!  The river rock stone was about $9/12x12, the white/off white tiles were $2.50 each, but the decorative glass/marble was the expensive one!! Scott said the receipt had ~$36 per piece (it alone was $400 of the total).  But Scott said if we would have gotten similar stuff from Lowes/HD it would have been at least $1500 for the tile based on his estimates.

Some other fun stuff.... That same day that we picked out and bought our tile, our friends in Cody - Amy and Larry - messaged us that they had something to give us!!  What a huge surprise!  We met them and they surprised us with a baby gift (Yellowstone onsie and Yellowstone booties!!!) and the coolest house warming gift!  Amy is an avid photographer and they gave us a framed picture she took of a momma bear and its cub!  Thank you so much Amy, Larry, and Charlotte!!!  You guys really have us spoiled!  For everyone else, I'll get a picture of it to share with you all next week!

After we got home that day, I went over to visit with our neighbors Jacky and Rich.  They have 4 female goats, all of which are/were pregnant, and just a few weeks ago they were surprised with their first baby!!  They named him Remus and let me tell you he is a character!  He's discovered his legs and loves to 'dance' around the place.  He's so ornery!  And he's still so small we can pick him up and love on him. Plus his fur is SO soft!  Think maybe I can convince Scott to get a goat?? :)

Otherwise, not much new.... Everything on the baby front is going great.  I'm 17 weeks today and still haven't gained any weight.  However, I just might have a baby belly picture to share with you soon.... maybe!

Have a great week everyone! I'll be posting lots of pictures and have more updates for you next week!