Baby E's Name

So, Nate and I have been thinking about what we want to name our babies ever since I can remember. Then when the time comes that we need to decide, we cannot commit. We had a list of names before we knew the sex. Roughly 11 girl names and 1 boy name. When we knew it was a girl, we slowly eliminated them one by one. We are down to, two names, but we still cannot pick which one we want, and we don't even know if one of these are the one. The names that we are contemplating are Alaina *and the spelling of it* and Reese. (still open for suggestions though) I really want to put her name up in her room and start calling her by her name, but this has been the hardest decision of our lives. Such a big deal and we do not want to mess it up. So, if anyone has any other suggestions or a middle name for Reese that is unique please feel free to comment on this :)

Baby Room Progress

I went to Cedar Falls this past weekend and I went shopping down town main street with my friend Liz. We stopped at this really cute shop and I found this metal sign hanging and I instantly knew that was going to be the inspiration for Baby E's room. The very next day I went to Menard's and picked out paint colors that matched the sign. I picked a light purple and a deep pink. I went home that night and started painting right away. I got the paint that is safe for pregnant women to use, and it literally has no odor, so it was great! We decided to make the room mostly purple with one wall pink. Then as we were painting we decided to make a stripe on the pink wall to pull it all together.


The next mission were wall decorations. I was talking around Gordman's and I saw metal butterfly decorations that matched the little butterflies that were on the metal sign that I had purchased. I bought three with anticipations that they were not going to match, but when I hung them up, we really liked it! So I went back the next day and bought two more, and we finished the whole wall. Now my next step is to find bedding that pulls it all together. I really do not want to spend $200 on bedding, so I am thinking that I may try and make the bed shirt and curtain myself. I have not used a needle and thread in years, so this will be interested. How hard can it be? :)


One out of four wall's finished, time for furniture! :)

Doctor Frustrations

Since I last blogged I had a doctor's appointment. This was a real quick appointment that literally took five minutes. I feel like when I talk with the doctor's they really don't ask me a lot of questions other than, "How have you been feeling," and because I have been feeling great, they leave it at that. I feel like they really do not take the time to make the appointment feel different than a regular routine visit (which it is, I just expected a different experience maybe?) I gained 9 pounds at my last appointment, which was a lot, so the doctor instantly started lecturing me on carb intake. He never asked me what I have been doing for exercise, what and how much I was eating, he instantly assumed I have had bad eating habits. It was frustrating to say the least.

This was a video that was sent to me from our future day care provider, Pat Davis. As a future mommy of a baby girl, it brings tears to my eyes. Cannot wait to meet her and to see what she looks like! I think that has been the most fun, imagining what she is going to look like and who she is going to resemble the most. :)

Farrell's and races

So, this weekend was the third annual Run The Flood of Cedar Rapids. I have done it every year, so once again I was signed up this year. I must say this will be the last long distance run I have for a while with no training. Baby E. did not like momma running that far, she was definitely making me earn every one of those 7 miles.

My niece Bailey ran the whole time with me. We finished at around a 12.5 minute mile with a great heart rate. My sister and her whole family ran it this year, so it was a great event all in all.

I have decided to freeze my Farrell's membership. I did it consistently for the first 5 months of my pregnancy, but with being short handed and work and being so busy, I realized I wasn't making it to class as much as I hoped. So, I decided that I am going to start running at night along with my neighbor Ashley. We will stick to 5k's that way I can stay in shape and healthy through the pregnancy, and if I do sign up for a longer race, it won't be so hard. Tomorrow is our first run of the summer, so hopefully I can get a few miles in a night. At this time, I'm not hanging up my running shoes, quite yet!

Blue or Pink?

When thinking about how we wanted to tell our family about, "what kind of baby we were having" (in the words of my youngest niece Emerson), we decided to go with the following idea.

We found out what we were having during the ultra sound, and we called Tip Top Cakes, out of Iowa City, and told them to make a cake with a certain color in the inside. We invited our family to Zeppelin's for dinner, and when we cut into the cake it was either going to be Blue, for Boy, or Pink for Girl.

I purchased blue and pink plates and had everyone pick a color of plate, equivalent to the sex of the baby they thought we were having. Out of 21 people only 5 people picked a pink plate. When we cut into it and it was Pink everyone was very thrilled! This is going to be the first grandchild for Nate's parents and the fourth granddaughter for my side. We could not be more thrilled! People always ask if we wanted one or the other, and honestly, at this point we want at least 5, so we are pretty sure we are going to get both :)

Pigman 2011

Transitioning to the bike

Today Nate did the Pigman triathlon in Palo, Iowa.
Last year he completed it in 1 hour and 34 minutes. This year he was hoping to get it under one and a half hours, and he did! He came in at 1 hour and 28 minutes. He said the swim went really well, the bike was great and the run went well. One of his knees has been hurting him lately, but today he was able to push through it and get a record time for himself!

Ironman Steve

Nate's dad Steve, got a full knee replacement seven weeks ago, and today he finished the triathlon as well! He is still on track to complete Ironman Wisconsin with Nate in September! His dedication to rehab has been phenomenal!

Brian finishing strong

In other great news, our friend Brian Davis competed again this year in the triathlon, and he did outstanding! He beat last years time by 18 minutes and beat his goal this year as well! Brian has done so well with nutrition and training and we were so happy for him and his success!

My Daddy's an Ironman

Nate is has been training to compete in Ironman Wisconsin on September 11th of this year. His training has started to increase and he is doing such an amazing job.

For those who do not know what Nate has signed up for, Ironman is a 2.5 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride and a 26.2 mile run, all back to back. A total of 140.6 miles in one day!

I can honestly say, when I see the dedication, training and time that he has put into this, I have married an amazing man. He is getting stronger every day and I am so proud of his progress! With the Ironman being one month before my due date, I am thinking of renting a scooter to make sure and be there during every transition of that race. What an amazing thing for baby girl to say, "My daddy's and Ironman."

Baby's First 1/2 Marathon

There have been so many people, bless their hearts, that have given me advice on what to do and what not to do when pregnant.

At the end of the day the only advice I have really take to heart, is to do what feels right. So, as the half marathon that I was signed up for, fast approached, I asked myself if it felt right, and it did.

I have stayed active through Farrell's, but had only ran once since I was pregnant. My philosophy with health, is it is 90% mental. So, I thought running 13.1 miles would hold true to that philosophy.

I must say that there is a huge difference running pregnant and not pregnant. Not only was I constantly checking my heart rate, but I felt the sensation to pee the whole time!! I stopped at mile three because I thought I just could not hold it any more. 15 minutes later it was my turn, and I realized that it was more just the sensation from the baby bouncing then a reality.

As I started on my way again, I instantly felt like I had to go. I realized that it wasn't going to go away, just to keep running. As mile 7 came along, I felt that I should slow it down a little bit for the baby's sake. By mile 11 I was hating life and talking to my baby girl asking her to help mommy complete this, as I was doing it for her and to prove to myself that I can.

Just under three hours and a great heart rate, I crossed the finish line with Nate cheering me on, and I can say that I had the first bonding moment with my baby girl. After my 30 seconds of hating life, I went right over to the massage table and laid there thinking, what the heck did I do that for!?

Our baby has a face

Leading up to our first ultra sound, everything was pointing to our baby being a little boy. All the old wives tales, theories, even a psychic told me that our baby was going to be a boy.

I went in for our first ultra sound and found out I was four days ahead of our original estimation, so I was 19 weeks 4 days along. As Laine moved the wand around on my tummy, instantly there our baby was on the screen. We could not take our eyes off of the little heart beat and seeing our baby move. It was so incredible how our baby was moving and I couldn't feel any of it.

After a few pictures, Laine asked if we wanted to know the sex. We were not so sure if we did yet, so we told her to keep looking, and making sure that our baby was healthy. I heard her say, "perfect" and I could not stop the tears from forming. We decided at that time we wanted to know. She said, "It's a girl."

How two people became a family of three

Nate and I knew we wanted to have a family right away. Married in September of 2010, we thought the sooner we could have a baby the better.

It was January 2011 and I was planning on visiting my friend Liz in Cedar Falls for a girl's weekend, and I thought that I should take a pregnancy test, just to ease my mind as I went out that weekend.

30 minutes later with a glass of red wine in my hand, I remembered to check the Clear Blue. As I stared at the word "PREGNANT" I could not hold back my smile.  I looked at my tummy and at that time I said, "Little embryo I am so proud of you for swimming so fast, you are already a good listener and I promise to be a good mommy." At that moment I was already in love.

The past few weeks I was thinking of unique and clever ways to tell Nate that we were pregnant. Needless to say, all those ideas went out the window as I ran into the kitchen where Nate was at the kitchen table, and I just held out this blue stick and smiled. As Nate realized what I was doing, he instantly stood up and gave me a huge hug! Behind all the emotions we were both thinking the same thing, "We need to go to Wal-Mart and get more!"

Three positive pregnancy tests later, we were ALMOST certain we were pregnant.

The next morning I went to Planned Parenthood to have a urine test. It was right next door to my job, and I knew the doctor's office would schedule an appointment a few weeks out, and I had to know! So, I went in, and sat in the waiting room, all smiles and excited. As I looked around, no one else was happy at all. :)

When I went into the doctor's office with the nurse, she was SO excited to hear that this was exactly what I wanted! When I said that we were trying, she looked at me, and said, "Wow I never hear that, I am so excited that I get to help you!" After two more positive pregnancy tests, I was 99% sure that I was pregnant!