Week 16 Bumpdate and a Renewing Trip Down to Georgia!

Hello! At week 16, I'm  finally starting to realize how quickly time is flying. In 4 weeks I will be halfway through my pregnancy, and then there will be a baby in our lives! I'm starting to get a little nervous, but I'm lucky to be surrounded by lots of other moms who are patient enough to answer my 500 questions per day. Lately I've been having a lot of round ligament pain (sharp pains in your abdomen from your tummy stretching), and also have been feeling pretty dizzy and nauseous. I think that the dizziness was probably because I didn't drink enough water on Sunday and Monday, I've been feeling much better today (fingers crossed!)

 This past week was pretty busy for me, I went to visit Brendan who is down at Ft. Benning (where we lived before NC ) for training and got to catch up with some of my friends! I couldn't believe how much had changed in Columbus even since we moved in October. They had really built up the downtown area near the river with a bunch of great new restaurants as well as put in white water rafting right downtown! I spent some time downtown with our friends, and got to spend tons of time with my friend Lyndsay who is moving to Huntsville, AL this coming week to take a position on staff with Young Life. This means we will have to find a new meeting place, I've heard Nashville, TN is nice!

Lyndsay and I by the river

the end of the rapids

 It was also really nice to go back to our church that we went to there. It always feels like coming home since it was the first church that Brendan and I really attended together, and because of all the hugs we get from our sweet friends! It was also nice because since I work at our church here, Sundays sometimes feel a little stressed if I think I forgot something or if several people need to talk to me about upcoming activities, so it was so nice to be able to go to church and have nothing to do but worship the Lord and grow in His word.

As much as I love our life here, a part of me will always miss Columbus and our sweet friends there. Luckily as it stands right now, we should be moving back there for about 6 months in a few years for Brendan to get some extra training!

And now for the Bump Update!

Thanks to Evelina who subbed in for Brendan this week in photo taking!

How far along? 16 Weeks
Total weight gain/loss: gained 3ish lbs, although it actually seems like I lost a little weight and am around +1 pound from pre-pregnancy
Maternity clothes? my mother in law sent me this cute maternity top that's in my photo from this week!
Stretch marks? No
Sleep: Sleeping A LOT
Best moment this week: hanging out with my husband and seeing my friends from GA
Miss Anything? having a rough week with craving sushi.
Movement: No, but soon I hope!
Food cravings: Spicy food, I put Siracha Sauce on everything.
Anything making you queasy or sick: bad smells and I've just been randomly feeling sick the past few days, I think I was dehydrated from driving home from GA.
Have you started to show yet: A little bump so far.. which is growing into a medium size bump
Gender prediction: Girl
Labor Signs: No
Belly Button in or out? it's in but its getting pretty shallow
Wedding rings on or off? On!
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy except little things can make me cry, but they can be happy or sad things so crying doesn't always mean I'm sad!
Looking forward to: Finding out the gender, I can't believe that's next week already & feeling the baby move!

Like I said earlier, I seriously can't believe that this pregnancy is going by so quickly. It's also amazing that this little baby can already hear my voice. (I've tried not to sing because that might scare them) I've read that they can hear the dogs too, so it will make them less scared of dogs when they come home which is encouraging. I've even tried to put most of my conversations with Brendan on speaker phone so the baby can hear it's daddy's voice too!

Surprise Baby Shower for a Sweet Friend

Sign Courtesy  of artist extraordinaire, Evelina 

Since Moving to Fayetteville last October, God has placed us in a great church with an awesome community of believers. Around the same time that we started attending, several other young couples started attending too and we formed a small group with them and some other couples that had been going for years.

We meet every other week for a Bible Study, but in truth we hang out much more often than that. We do dinners, play kickball, watch movies, and just do life together. Over the past few months, Brendan and I have gotten especially close with two other couples Brett and Evelina and Kelly and Evan (plus one very special toddler named Ian). All of our husbands are in the army, which instantly makes things easier because there is little explanation needed when I show up at our small group and explain that Brendan is stuck at work or that he's jumping out of a plane. On top of that common bond, these people are real, they are funny, sarcastic, and compassionate. They understand that married life, especially with the added stress of the military is not easy and I don't feel embarrassed to admit to them when Brendan and I are struggling.

One of these couples, Evan and Kelly, are amazing. They got married at 19 and are two of the most Christ-seeking people that I know, when I think of Christ-centered families, they are definitely at the top of the list for me.  They have a little boy, Ian,who happens to be the epitome of a happy baby, he loves basketballs, trains, and strawberries. I constantly find myself reminding Brendan (and me) that babies don't pop out like Ian and he is almost two.

When I first really got to know Kelly, she let me know that she was training for a triathlon... while being pregnant with their second baby. I already thought she was crazy.. but she did it, and she did well! As I got to know her and see her interact with her family, and especially Ian, I was taken aback by how great of a mother and wife she was... She also happens to be one of the prettiest people, ( and prettiest pregnant person) I know. (I am so glad that we aren't pregnant at the same time because she would put me to shame!)

One of the funnest and funniest things about Kelly is how much she loves surprises. She loves them so much that she didn't want to find out with Ian if they were having a boy or girl and although they decided to find out what they were having with baby #2, they wouldn't tell anyone! Kelly also told us she was really good at guessing if people were surprising her, and once guessed that her husband was planning on surprising her by bringing out two of her best friends to visit her!

As it got closer to her due date, Evelina and I decided to try to do the impossible... we were going to plan a surprise baby shower! So after getting Evan in on the idea, we started planning... and it totally worked!!! I told Kelly the weekend before that we were having a party at our house for Brendan because he was leaving for 5 weeks, so she thought that's why they were coming over.

Since we didn't know if they were having a boy or girl we decided to do a yellow color scheme and since they already had some stuff from Ian, we just asked people to bring a gift card to either Wal-Mart or Babies R US. Evelina is like basically the best artist I have ever met, so she took care of most of the decorations while I concentrated on food. Here are some photos of the party!

This is Evan, Kelly and Ian

Decorations

Like I said, Evelina is great with artsy stuff and when she came over on Friday to help me decorate, I was blown away by the stuff she made!

this was the dining room/kitchen set up (photo by Evelina)

Evelina made these cool little paper tissue balls to decorate the ceiling

Desk Turned gift table (photo by Evelina)

Towards the end of the day, this sign was a tie between Boy and Dinosaur (which the guys wrote in as an option along with "New Dog")

And our favorite decoration, a photo of Ian telling his cousin to talk to the hand!

Activities

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of party games and neither is Kelly so we came up with two activities that are fun but not forced and you can do them at your own leisure. The first activity was called "Midnight Diapers" where we basically took sharpies and wrote funny sayings on the backs of the diaper so Mommy or Daddy could get a laugh during those sleep deprived hours. The second activity, even the guys enjoyed! We decorated some white onesies for the baby to wear over the first year... because it's always cute when babies wear clothes with funny sayings on them!

The food setup from afar and craft table

Craft Table

These little sign holders Evelina recycled from her wedding worked perfectly to put instructions in for the activities!

Photo by Evelina

Some of the onesies!

Food

We weren't sure how many people would show up so we decided to make some appetizers and Evelina made cute cupcakes with little duck toppers on them (there are still some in my fridge that I may or may not have had for breakfast the past few days). I could have gotten away with making less of most of the stuff, but we had a few people who weren't able to come at the last minute.  Here's the rundown for what was served:

Food
Fruit Salad
Caprese Bites
Spinach Dip
Cheese and Crackers
Veggies
Assorted Olives
Breaded Ravioli with Marinara Dipping Sauce
Cupcakes


Drinks

Lemonade
Iced Tea

Caprese Bites up close (photos by Evelina)

Sometimes I wish I had just a little more space on my counters.

Overall, I think the party went really well and I was just happy that Kelly was surprised and felt loved. One of the hardest things about being a military family is being away from your real family when big life events like this happen. Luckily I've found that when you create your own family wherever you move, life gets a lot easier! Kelly is due in the beginning of August, so if you remember to keep her little family in your prayers for the next few months as they transition to taking care of two little ones instead of one that would be great!!

15 Week Bumpdate and a Visit from my Parents

Hello! 15 weeks down and still chugging along! The past week has been a pretty busy week in the Fox household. We had a surprise baby shower at our house for one of our church friends on Saturday, which I will be dedicating an entire blog post on later this week, Brendan left for a little over a month, and my parents stopped by yesterday on their way to Florida.

Last week was crazy for Brendan at work and he ended up going in Tuesday and not coming home until Thursday night, and then he had to pack and leave to go down to Ft. Benning, GA for the next 5 weeks for a course, so our last week together we didn't actually see each other too much. Fortunately I plan on making two weekend trips down to see him to help break up the time we are actually apart. It's funny, I was talking to my friend Hunter last week, whose husband is also at Benning for a different school and we discussed how even when our husbands aren't deployed they still end up spending a ton of time away from home. Between IBOLC, Ranger School, time in the field training here at Ft. Bragg and this other school, out of our two years of living together he has probably spent 10 months if not more of them gone. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, but it's just funny how different our normal is than some of our other married friends.

The night before Brendan left we were able to have a nice dinner together and watch a movie (Brendan fell asleep during that part)

My friends down here are so nice and thoughtful. Sunday, which was the first day that Brendan was gone and usually my hardest day while I start to get into my routine of being alone, I was definitely not alone. After church, I went to lunch with friends, then went for a walk with a different friend, then went over to friends for dinner. I was so busy all day I didn't really have a ton of time to be sad that Brendan left. During the week it's pretty easy because I work during the day and go for walks with friends or have church activities in the evenings, then obsess over baby stuff at night, plus I really like reading books and usually do that for a few hours.

Last night, my parents stopped over in Fayetteville on their way down to Florida. They just retired this year and recently sold their house up in Connecticut and are on their way to starting a new life in retirement in the Sunshine State. I know it's a really tough move for them because our neighbors in Cheshire are amazing and like family, plus my mom's two brothers live close by in Connecticut, but they'll adjust... and probably have visitors at least once a month. Personally I'm excited especially about two things: 1) They will be really close to Disney and I love Epcot. 2) They have a lot of pools for me to float my pregnant-self in when I come to visit!

Here are a few photos from their visit:

My mom and I at their hotel

My dad more excited about the baby bump

Us in Downtown Fayetteville after eating some dinner

Of course they had to come to our house and spend some time with the granddogs, this is Abigail

and Carrie sits like a human.

And now for the moment you are actually interested in!

Thankfully my parents were here to help me take my photo this week (my Mom won the contest and it only took her two photos)... notice the bigger chalkboard?

How far along? 15 Weeks
Total weight gain/loss: gained 3ish lbs
Maternity clothes? still 2 pair of maternity jeans and a top
Stretch marks? No
Sleep: Sleeping A LOT
Best moment this week: tie between seeing my parents and seeing Kelly's face at her surprise party
Have you told family and friends: Yes!
Miss Anything? I really really miss sushi, and pepperoni, and soft cheeses, oh.. and wine still. I've started putting my cranberry spritzers in wine glasses
Movement: No
Food cravings: Everything I'm not supposed to eat plus fruit, pasta, and mozzeralla cheese
Anything making you queasy or sick: the smell of trash cans and for some reason after missing out on morning sickness the entire first trimester it's been showing up randomly this trimester
Have you started to show yet: A little bump so far.. which is growing into a medium size bump
Gender prediction: Girl
Labor Signs: No
Belly Button in or out? In, although it's getting shallower.
Wedding rings on or off? On, although out of the two of them, I have a feeling that the engagement ring will come off first, its a little snug!
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy except little things can make me cry
Looking forward to: Finding out the gender (TWO WEEKS FROM FRIDAY!) & feeling the baby move!

So that's really it! I still feel pretty good although my back tends to get sore by the end of the work day, I think I need to remember to get up and move away from my desk more. I'm excited to spend this weekend in Columbus, GA with Brendan and my friends down there!

Keeping Spirits High While Pregnant

All Aboard the Hot Mess Express!

I don't know about other moms-to-be, but with my hormones going haywire and my body changing, sometimes it's difficult for me to feel good about myself. Most of the time I feel like a complete mess and often, I find myself struggling to feel beautiful. I once saw a shirt that said "All Aboard the Hot Mess Express," and I feel like I should probably own one in every color for the amount of days I think I should wear them as a public apology to society.

Over the past few months I have started come up with some little things that seem to make me feel better. Some of them are a little silly but they really do make me feel good.

Beauty

Let me be clear: I know that beauty is not external but internal and that I am beautiful in the eyes of my Creator no matter what, but sometimes when I look in the mirror I feel like a mess on the outside so these things are things that I do solely for me, not for anyone else.

Keeping My Hair Under Control- I don't know what it is about going and getting my hair cut, but I get it cut once every six weeks and it really brightens up my day and makes me feel beautiful. It might be because I finally found a hair stylist that I love (if you live in Fayetteville, NC get an appointment with Lisa at Tangles, shes hilarious and gives you exactly what you want, I hardly have to use two sentences to describe my vision. She's like a mind reader!) Also, I try really hard to make a habit of doing my hair every day before I go out, whether that be just blow-drying it, styling it in a pony-tail, or (on a very rare occasion lately) curling it. I've found that on those days where I decide to roll out of bed and let my hair do whatever, I feel sloppy and discombobulated.

because no one wants to see me like this all the time

Keeping my Nails Painted- there is something about looking down at my nails and seeing them all the same color and not chipped that really makes me feel put together for some reason, so I try to paint my nails once a week in a fun color... summer is the best for that because you can get away with loud orange or cool mint! I don't go and get my nails done all the time because that gets expensive, but I swear, I never liked pedicures until i became pregnant. Now I would honestly go just to have them massage my feet!

Face- While sometimes I can get away with showering at night time, the one thing that really gets my morning going that I have to do every day is wash my face with an exfoliating cleanser. It makes my skin feel like its glowing when I'm wondering where that elusive pregnancy glow is hiding. I also try make sure to put makeup on every day just because I feel a little bit more polished. My makeup routine takes less than five minutes and my husband is thankful for that because I tend to spend the time that some people spend putting on makeup changing my mind on outfits 4 or 5 times before leaving the house. I use Garnier BB Cream as a foundation and moisturizer because it's sheer enough to not hide my freckles but gives me enough coverage to even out my skin, Clinique Bronzer to make me look less like a vampire, a little bit of blush, mascara (I switch between Lash Injection by Two Faced which I use almost every day and They're Real by Benefit for when I want them to be super long!), and tinted lip balm and I'm out the door.

No Sweat Pants Allowed- One rule that I think probably stems from living in New York City for a while is that if I'm leaving the house and I'm not on my way to the gym or something equivalent, I don't wear sweats. I know that this seems stupid and that there are TONS of cute sweat pants and workout clothes out there, it's just a mental thing for me. I love dressing up and wearing dresses and cute tops, and since I will only have this bump until January, I need to try to dress it up as cute as possible!

Like I said, it's better if I save my sweats for the gym and couch time

Other Little Things

Sometimes I just need a time out, and I find it hard to take one. When I get home from work, there always seems to be something that I need to do whether it's grocery shopping, cooking dinner, doing laundry, sweeping the floor for the 56th time in one week... I just feel like I can never sit down which leaves me feeling drained. A few little things throughout the week can really make a difference in my mood, even if they seem silly.

Fancy Drinks- My husband and I are social people. We like to have people over, go out to dinner, and spend time with our friends. Sometimes when we go out to dinner I stick with water or Sprite, but every once in a while if we're going somewhere nice and everyone is ordering drinks I order myself a Shirley Temple or something fruity and non-alcoholic (DUH) to blend in and not feel left out. When we have people over our house I usually make myself a fancy lemonade or fruit smoothie. Some of my favorites are: Strawberry Basil Lemonade, Watermelon Smoothies, and Cranberry Spritzers (which if you're feeling really fancy you can put in a champagne glass!)

This is one of my favorite watermelon smoothies, I will probably post my recipes in a few weeks

Taking Some Time to Read a Magazine- After I make my fancy cranberry spritzer, my favorite thing to do is grab a magazine, sit on the couch and just pore over the pages. Brendan used his Delta SkyMiles that were about to expire to get some magazine subscriptions and asked me if there were any on there that I would like to order... I almost died when I looked down at the list and saw that Real Simple was one of the ones we could order. Every once in a while when I'm in the grocery store, I would pick up a copy and read it over and over again looking at the recipes, deciding which books to add to my ever growing Books I Want To Read list, so when I had the opportunity to get the magazine every month I was so excited! My first one came last month and I think I have read through it 6 times, I swear sometimes it takes the littlest things to make me happy.

Walking around a Bookstore and Getting Some Fun Reads- My parents lived in Connecticut about 20 minutes outside of Yale when I was in high school and college, and one of my favorite things to do used to be driving into New Haven and going to their used bookstore on campus. You could find so many books there and they were so inexpensive! One day I actually picked up an entire volume of History of France books that were published in 1890 for less than $100 (I was a French Major in college if you were wondering why this excited me). I recently discovered that at the top of my street, there is the hugest used bookstore I have ever been in. It's amazing. I have been able to pick up a ton of books off of my list that were just stuck on there because I didn't feel like spending $15 at a normal bookstore or just never got around to ordering them off Amazon. Lately, I've been really into reading about English History. This is another way for me to relax and decompress, I went through a season where I was only reading very serious books and while I still think it's important to mix those in, sometimes I think it's also important to read something where you can just turn your mind on autopilot and just enjoy the book without having to reflect too hard on it.

Lately, I have been making my way back through CS Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia in between other books

Spend Time With my Dogs- Carrie and especially Abigail may not be the smartest little pooches but they are definitely a bundle of laughs. They act like little humans most of the time, especially Abigail who is partially a hound so she "talks" to me.

Now they know they're not supposed to go on carpet, but Abigail, the dumb one likes to test her limits by resting her head on the carpet in our room while I'm getting ready for work

Just one more photo because these two are too cute to handle

I'm sure I will be adding onto this list later, but these are a few things that make me feel ready to face the world despite my crazy hormones! What habits do you keep that make you feel like a million bucks?

14 Week Update!

Hello! 14 weeks pregnant and no big updates. Since Brendan is leaving for about a month for some training this Saturday, we he spent this weekend moving some heavy things out of what will become the baby's room so that while he's gone I can start decorating. 

Although we don't know if it's a boy or girl yet, either way we know the room is going to be forest themed for a few reasons. The first reason is pretty obvious, our last name is Fox so having little foxes in the room would be super cute. The second should also be pretty obvious if you know me... I have a slight obsession with moose and have a million stuffed moose and think that they would go perfect in the forest themed room! Since we are renting our house and we will probably be moving (thanks Army) within the next 2-3 years anyways, I don't plan on painting. Luckily the room is already a pretty shade of light green that will be perfect regardless of if it's a boy or girl! I do have a few projects to keep me busy while Brendan is gone including re purposing an Ikea Expedit shelf into a changing table, organizing some closet storage, and researching/registering for baby stuff... I'm sure that my addiction to Pinterest will continue to add more to this to-do list.

I think I'm going to get a bigger chalk board, I need more space to doodle, I feel like I'm cramming things in all the time

How far along? 14 Weeks
Total weight gain/loss: gained 3 lbs
Maternity clothes? still 2 pair of maternity jeans and a top
Stretch marks? No
Sleep: Sleeping A LOT
Best moment this week: Watching DVDs on the couch with Brendan
Have you told family and friends: Yes!
Miss Anything? Sushi, Wine, the second cup of coffee
Movement: No
Food cravings: Fruit, Sour Patch Kids, Lemonade, Pink Berry
Anything making you queasy or sick: the smell of trash cans and cleaning out the fridge
Have you started to show yet: A little bump so far
Gender prediction: Girl
Labor Signs: No
Belly Button in or out? In
Wedding rings on or off? On, although out of the two of them, I have a feeling that the engagement ring will come off first, its a little snug!
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy!
Looking forward to: Finding out the gender & feeling the baby move!

I'm not fat, I'm pregnant!

Yup! That's right! In case you have been seeing some photos of me and wondering if I have forgetting to do sit ups, I'm not getting fat... Brendan and I are expecting a little baby Fox come January!

Over the winter, Brendan and I decided that as much as we loved our fur-babies (dogs) Carrie and Abigail, we would love a human baby even more, so come spring we decided to start trying to make that a reality! The first month, I bought a total of 9 pregnancy tests which I started taking the moment I could find out if I was pregnant.. the first 6 were negative and I resigned myself to wait to try again next month. About a week later, I was feeling really tired and not myself so I decided to take one more test. I walked into the bathroom calling over my shoulder to Brendan that I was about to waste another $3 to confirm I still wasn't pregnant. Then about 3 minutes later, I ran out of the bathroom screaming with this in my hand!

May 8th: PREGNANT!

Brendan and I were both shocked and super excited. It had taken my mom a really long time to get pregnant with me so I had assumed it probably wouldn't be that easy for us. As we sat down for dinner that night, we could hardly find the words to thank God for this miracle. Often, we're still speechless, but every night before we go to sleep Brendan grabs my hand and says, "OK let's pray for baby," and we lay silently speaking words of praise to God for this gift of life.

We decided at that point to wait to tell our parents until they both came to visit for Memorial Day. The next several weeks were very hard because I am the worst at keeping secrets. In fact, even my parents were surprised I lasted 2 weeks without telling them.  I called my parents when they were on their way down and asked them to put it on speaker because I had to tell them something (completely different) and they thought I was telling them I was pregnant then, meaning my parents don't think I can even keep a secret for 2 hours! Naturally, since I couldn't spill the beans to my parents, I told my best friends and my grandmother, Nanny. Nanny actually guessed I was pregnant before I told her and ruined the surprise, but its ok.

We had our first doctor's appointment on May 23 and at that point Baby Fox was so little that you could hardly tell it was there, so Brendan has nicknamed the baby "Spot" which our families have also adopted. Since Spot was so small and they weren't sure what the due date would be, we had another appointment 2 weeks later so they could get a better idea of when we should expect our new addition  (January 17!).

At the next appointment, we confirmed that there was one Spot there (although Brendan secretly was hoping for twins), and Brendan informed me that Spot had graduated to Peanut in that photo, but the name Spot had already stuck.

8 Weeks! 1 x is the head the other is the bum!

I've decided to do a bump board and am torturing Brendan weekly by making him take photos of the same thing. This is the first week I did!

of course in this one you can't actually see the drawing of the lime! but It's true, no margaritas for 7 more months!

My first trimester was relatively uneventful. I didn't really get sick, I just was EXHAUSTED all the time and pretty emotional. Usually, when Brendan goes to sleep early, I have trouble sleeping but some nights I would roll into bed before him... at 7:45.

This week officially marks my second trimester and I've started to have a little bit more energy which I expend sweeping and vacuuming dog hair and cooking. We went to the doctor on Monday and listened to the baby's heartbeat which was awesome! On August 9th we find out the gender, although Brendan won't be there so I am going to TRY to have them put it in an envelope so we can find out together.. but once again I'm bad at keeping secrets.

I missed week 12 so you'll notice a pretty big difference in bump size here!!

I saw this little survey on another blog and thought it was a pretty good way to track how everything is progressing so I'm going to start using it too!

How far along? 13 Weeks
Total weight gain/loss: gained 2 lbs
Maternity clothes? 2 pair of maternity jeans and a top (thanks Mom!)
Stretch marks? No
Sleep: Sleeping A LOT
Best moment this week: Hearing the baby's heartbeat!!!!
Have you told family and friends: Yes!
Miss Anything? Sushi, hot dogs (especially around holiday weekends!) and wine.
Movement: No
Food cravings: Fruit and Lemonade
Anything making you queasy or sick: the smell of trash cans and cleaning out the fridge
Have you started to show yet: A little bump so far... looks more like a food baby to me.
Gender prediction: I say Girl, Brendan doesn't have an opinion.
Labor Signs: No
Belly Button in or out? In
Wedding rings on or off? On
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy!
Looking forward to: Finding out the gender & feeling the baby move!