We're having a....

little girl!!!! We had our "big" ultrasound on Friday and saw that she is for sure a little female baby. I could only see the screen when the technician would turn it towards me every now and then but Kris saw that our lil Haylie Grace was a constant mover and a shaker, just like when we hear her heartbeat. I'm feeling her kick and move around quite often now so I can also vouch that she moves A LOT :) So far, we've decided on Haylie Grace as her name but we know that may change as we get to know her better or when we see her.

We went to the ultrasound with my mama and since mom had problems seeing what was going on in my niece's ultrasounds, I was super happy to see her jump and exclaim "I SEE A BABY!" when the technician first put the ultrasound thing on my belly. She had no problem seeing her grand daughter this time!!! She also brought us a couple of adorable outfits that are similar to what I wore as a baby.

Here's the newest picture of our baby. As you can tell, she's not very bean (or beanette) like any more!


We can't see her facial features yet, but I think she already looks like Kris or Kari based on her facial structure. She's super adorable and I can't wait to see her again on another ultrasound in 2 weeks when we're hoping to be able to see her nose and lips. Kris' mom will be accompanying us to that one and I know she'll love it as much as we do. :)

As far as my body goes, I have got this adorable lil belly that I can't keep my hands off of! I haven't weighed myself yet this week and I'm honestly a little afraid to. I know that I should be gaining between 1 and 3 pounds a week right now, but I've been so impressed with the scale showing lower numbers than I've seen in years I'm slightly scared to see it look more normal. I know how ridiculous that sounds, but it's the truth. On the always positive aspect, I am LOVING how often I feel Haylie move around! I can't wait for Kris and our family and friends to be able to feel her move!

Starting yesterday, Kris' schedule changed from nights to "days" and he now starts at 3 am. That is a huge difference for our sleep schedule!!! I've found (for the last two days) that I love getting up in the morning with him. I make his lunch while he's getting ready which makes me feel incredibly happy that he's eating healthy and not wasting money on crap-food soaked in grease. We started changing our sleep schedule on Friday and I've yet to be able to get up earlier than my usual noon and STAY up. I'm working on it tho... :)

OK, that's all for now. I'll get a new belly pic this week or weekend.

Update from Valentine's Day

Let me just say an immense sorry to everyone that has to deal with me and baby-crazy-ness. I'm completely obsessed with Bean and strange body changes and "mothering" Bozzy and babies in general. Thank God Kris also is slightly baby-crazy and is extremely patient!

Today was Valentines and Kris and I celebrated throughout the weekend with quality time with another and a nice family dinner at his parents' this evening. Have I said lately how much I love my in-laws? I know I haven't expressed lately how much I love buffalo steak! I can't usually even look at red meat but oh my goodness, the buffalo steaks that Steve makes (and Kyle made once) are sooooo amazing!!!

Kris and I are still doing quite well. I'm completely stuck in the honeymoon stage and probably am thinking way more of him than he deserves, but whatever, I'm happy dangit! :) Kris seems to be in the honeymoon phase but with me so sick and all, he's taken on the role of provider and care-taker and house-keeper (a lot of the time, NOT all the time).

Kari's been taking belly pictures of me but earlier this week my belly looked even smaller than in the previous weeks. I took a picture on my own later that night and noticed if I sucked in, you can't even tell i'm pregnant. This of course eventually created a pregnancy semi-melt-down about how i'm not even really showing yet and not gaining enough wait and our poor baby doesn't have enough room. Yeah, that was fun.... Now, the belly is "back" and Kris teases me saying I was smooshing the baby when I sucked in and it doesn't count. When I'm thinking more logically, I'm actually very happy with the weight situation. I lost 10 pounds in the first trimester because I was so sick and have not managed to gain that back yet, BUT I have gained a pound a week for the last three weeks which is what my doctor wanted my minimum weight gain to be. I'm also getting much better at eating and keeping food down. Since my appetite shrunk so much while I've been sick, I can usually only eat small meals so I force myself to have a small meal or good sized snack every few hours. I am still dealing with a lot of morning sickness and exhaustion, but thankfully it's now only like 3 or 4 days out of the week, not 6 or 7. AND i'm able to keep most meals down!!! I'd be very happy if I never have the urge to throw up again!

Now onto the funnest part of this blog! BEAN!!!! So many people are calling our baby "Bean" now that it's stuck quite forcefully and Kris also sometimes calls the baby that. I am in my 19th week and find out on Friday what the gender of lil Bean is. Hopefully. My mommy will be accompanying Kris and I to the ultrasound and I am SOOOOO excited! Even if we're not able to find out Bean's gender, I'm super happy to get the chance to see my baby looking like a baby. I doubt we'll be able to really see what the baby looks like yet as far as features go but it will still be so sweet! Last time I posted a note, we had seen the baby's heartbeat, but not heard it. We've now heard it twice and both times I giggled like crazy. The first time we heard the heartbeat the nurse was also giggling because Bean would not stop moving around! The second time the baby was still moving a lot but my regular doctor only smiled and chuckled a little, not full on giggled.

Uh oh, it sounds like Kris has a stereo system hooked up to his laptop upstairs or he's playing a movie on the laptop REALLY loudly... I better go and make sure he's not going overboard with cords around the bedroom or has a new surprise tv or something.

Good night and God bless ya'll!!!

"Modern" Women

I'm watching Dr. Phil right now and can not stop laughing. It's about "modern" women and right now the topic is about women who make more than their husbands/significant others. Dr. Phil warned ahead of time that it would be very politically incorrect since he has feminists, women believing in "traditional" roles of men and women and comedians on the show. I'm finding myself laughing at both the comedians and the serious responses.

I grew up in what I consider a matriarchal family (both immediate and extended) so I always considered myself independent and liberated so I naturally thought I would fall into the feminist category. Well, over time, I found that I'm much more interested in equality and separating responsibilities and all based on strengths and loves regardless of gender. Since I'm crazy about kids and actually like the idea of being a home-maker, I'm sure a year or two down the road I'll look like a perfectly "traditional" housewife. I do not consider myself any less liberated or independent because I'll be the one at home chasing kiddos. If anything, in our situation, I'm the more liberated one because we both want to be home with our kids!

At this time, Kris is making much more than me (since I'm not working at all) but for the first year or two that we were hanging out and dating, I made more than him. Since there wasn't a large difference, it never made a difference to me, but it had come up in previous situations. When you're in your early twenties making 30k+ in a cushy desk job while many of your (same aged) peers are just graduating college or doing retail and entry level work, I often dated guys that made less than me. I honestly had no problem making more and would have no problem if I had much more education or work success than Kris. When I was dating, I would not be able to date a "deadbeat" but when if he was a student or a hard-worker that just didn't have a great paying job, it wouldn't make a difference what number was on the paycheck. Kris is the perfect example of that. I knew I wanted to date him from the time we first started hanging out. At that point he was in a non-paid training at Boeing and I was making decent money at a cushy desk job. That feeling did not change when he started getting paid at Boeing and proved to be a MUCH harder and more dedicated worker than I am, or when his pay surpassed my own.

Coming up is the part that I really wanted to watch the show for! "Should women give up their quest for 'Mr. Right' and settle for 'Mr. Good Enough?" HELL NO! You may never find a Prince Charming with a white horse that cooks and cleans and wants to give you all the children and jewelry and vacations you could want, but you shouldn't settle for someone that has you wishing for more. This isn't the happily married Jenn talking, this is the divorcee talking. If you go into something wishing for something else, you will leave it for something else or be miserable wishing you had. The asterisk to idea is the people that have simple wants, such as companionship, love and commitment with few other priorities. When you're open-minded then it's easier to be happy with what you have instead of holding out for something else.

OOOH, they just made an excellent point! It shouldn't be about settling, EVER, it should ALWAYS be about compromise. We all know (or should know) that Prince Charming is a myth and a fairy tale, but Mr. Right soooo is not. I know it's weird having me give opinions on some love stuff because I lucked out so much with Kris. It's 2 years this month since our first kiss and already we're married and starting a family. We both lucked out so much by both falling in love with each other rather than one or the other and wanting to progress our relationship in the same ways. BUT remember before you discount me! I was divorced at 23 and have a lot of ex's. I know a LOT about what doesn't work in a relationship or love.

OK, those are my thoughts and my working on blogging more. Feel free to let me know what you think :)

God bless!