Pregnancy Journal - First Trimester

I figured that I should document my pregnancy a little bit as it comes to an end, just so I remember the details down the line when our little one arrives :)

August 7 (when we found out) - October 2

How we found out: We found out using a take-home pregnancy test.  It was a little sooner than you would typically take a test, but I was heading down to Nashville for a bachelorette weekend of debauchery (or in my case, no debauchery!) and figured I should probably know before if I had a baby inside me. We were both extremely surprised when we saw the results.  Taylor immediately ran out and bought more tests since we had used the only one we had in the house, you know, to be sure :)
Baby: We didn't know baby's gender and I couldn't feel him/her move during the first trimester, so baby was a bit of an enigma.  We took to calling baby "Gummi Bear" as a nickname because that's kind of what it looked like on the 8 week ultrasound.
Milestones: Nothing really of note here. Obviously getting past 8 weeks and then the first trimester was exciting because the risk of miscarriage and other issues is less, but I didn't really notice much happening with baby in the first trimester.
Crazy News: I found out in September that not only was I expecting, but the only 2 other members of my team at work were also expecting!  One was due in early March and already had her baby and the other is due about 5 weeks after me.  Crazy!
Ailments: I was very lucky not to have much sickness in my first trimester of pregnancy.  Only once did I really get nauseated and have to run to the bathroom, so that was really nice!  I was extremely tired during most of my first trimester, so I got lots of sleep if at all possible!
Cravings: While I wasn't very sick, I did have a frequent stomach ache, which made it hard to eat a lot of foods and almost impossible for me to enjoy a cup of coffee.  That probably contributed to the exhaustion but also helped me to wean myself a little and prepare for the limited intake allowed for the rest of pregnancy.
Mood: Key mood descriptors for the first trimester were tired, scared, excited, curious, awestruck, and a little sick.
Activity Level: Despite being very tired during the first trimester, I was ambitious and purchased a one-month unlimited pass to Pure Barre and used it about 15 times in the month of September.  I often felt nauseated during the class, but it felt good to stay active and I could definitely see an improvement in my body from the class.  I'm hoping to go back to Pure Barre after baby arrives!
Travel: In my belly, Gummi Bear went to:

• Colorado - Estes Park to visit Taylor's parents and celebrate his mom's 60th birthday
• Nashville - for my good friend Candace's Bachelorette party!
• San Francisco - with our friends Kim and Will for the long Labor Day weekend.
• St. Louis - to visit my sister with my mom and celebrate her engagement and tell them about baby!
• Las Vegas - for my good friend Jessi's Bachelorette party!
• Washington DC - for Candace's wedding!

Photos: 

13 weeks

14 weeks

15 weeks

Back to Contents

My Baby Shower

I owe a HUGE thank you to my mom for throwing me an AMAZING baby shower on February 22.  This post certainly won't suffice, but I do want to make sure to record the joy I felt that day and how appreciative I am not just to my mom for organizing and planning the shower, but to everyone else who helped out and to those who came and blessed us so richly with all the baby goodies :)

My mom arrived in town on Saturday February 15, a week before the shower, to spend some time with me and Taylor, other friends and family in the area and also my sister Taryn when she came in on Thursday.  I had the day off on Monday and we spent it buying our new car, which I mentioned in a previous post.  I need to thank my mom for that too, because by her signing on the lease, we were able to use the Ford Z plan and save a bundle each month.  Thanks, Mom!

The rest of the week was busy busy with preparations for the shower.  I even took the day off on Thursday to go buy food and decorate the church (our venue) so that we didn't have to worry about it Saturday morning.  We went with a "shabby chic" meets anything-we-had-laying-around theme.  Thanks to my friend Bekah for letting us borrow a bunch of fun decorations!  The tableclothes were silver and we had yellow, grey and white centerpieces, which happen to match out nursery colors.  We decorated with photos, a sign that said "Oh Baby!" and a set of blocks spelling out baby Eli David's name.  The place looked great when we finished up on Thursday.

Here are some great photos of the decorations and cake that my friend Bekah just sent me! :)

 And here's the adorable gift my mom gave me.  It's a box with some special gifts for Eli from my childhood, namely a DVD called the Animal Alphabet that I used to LOVE (get it, Alligator to Zebra? So cute!).

My sister flew in Thursday night and on Friday, Taylor's mom and sister flew in for the shower, and his brother's wife Hilary drove in from Chicago on Saturday.  It was so nice to have everyone in one place!

The shower began at 2pm.  My friend Tracy drove all the way from Chicago and got there early with a surprise decoration, a diaper wreath that will now hang on Eli's door until he arrives.  The ribbons are in our colors - grey and yellow - and there's even a wooden "E" tied to the wreath that we'll be able to use in the room once we take down the wreath.

Me and Tracy :)

The shower started with a lot of time gathering and chatting before it was time to eat.  We smartly snuck in some photos before the shower started:

Our food was chicken salad on croissants, pulled pork on buns, chips, veggies and dip, and punch and soda. The food was delicious and I think everyone enjoyed it.  While people were eating, they had 2 homework assignments.  First, we played the obligatory "baby bingo" where everyone fills in a bingo card randomly with whatever gifts they think I will receive.  Then, we asked each person to take a card and write a note to either me or Eli at a given point in time in the future.  For example, a note to me when Eli is a week old, or to Eli when he's 2.  I now have notes at various points from when he is born until he turns 21 :)  I can't wait to read them each when the time comes!

Here are some photos of people who attended the shower :)

My cousin Miranda, our close family friend Carole, and my brother's girlfriend Kacy

Taylor's mom, his brother's wife Hilary, and his sister Allison

My Aunt Shari, Miranda, my grandma's sister's Phyllis and Ruth, and Taryn between them

My cousin Kim and my nana

Some of my friends from Ann Arbor!

Aunt Cindy, my grandma's friend Virgina, my grandma Hooper, and my mom's step-sisters Michelle and Janie

After we ate, we played one other game that my mom designed.  It was super funny.  Basically, everyone had to close their eyes with a piece of paper in front of them.  Then, my mom read off a scene involving me, Eli and Taylor in the nursery and then going on a walk.  Basically, they had to draw different pieces of the story.  Then, they opened their eyes and scored their drawings based on whether they drew the things described in the right place.  The people with the highest score got prizes.  Some of the pictures were pretty darn funny! 

One drawing

Laughing at their drawings

 After the game, it was time for presents.  I was absolutely overwhelmed by the generosity of everyone.

Me and my sister :)  She did such a great job taking notes!

 Some cute presents :)

At one point, I had to stop opening and talking and have a little cry.  We got literally everything that little Eli could use (and much more).  From baby monitors to carriers, swings to crib sheets.  He's one lucky boy, and we are lucky parents.

Also, some special thank-yous:

• To my mom.  For planning the shower from start to finish.  For ordering invitations, addressing them, taking RSVPs, planning games and food, bringing photos for decorations, organizing the food and drinks,  for all her thoughtful and generous gifts, for MC-ing the event despite coming down with the flu, and for just being the absolute best mom and future grandma I could ask for.  I know there are countless other things she did that I can't even remember, so THANK YOU, Grandma Lucyk :)
• Thank you to my Aunt Shari and Uncle Jeff - for making some delicious pulled pork and being chauffeurs for my grandma's three sisters so that they could attend.
• Thanks to my sister for taking the weekend off of work to be here with me :)  She highlighted my hair before the shower, helped take care of my mom while she was sick with the flu after the shower, recorded all the gifts I received, and showered Nashville with lots and lots of love (he obviously doesn't get enough of that, haha).
• Thank you to Tracy for driving all the way from Chicago (and back!) in one day.  She left 2 kids and a husband behind (guess I should thank him too, THANKS SCOTT!) to be there and was absolutely amazing from bringin the wreath to helping with the wrapping supplies while I opened presents.  Then, after the shower, she volunteered her SUV to carry gifts to our house and stayed to do a TON of organizing that I definitely would not have been able to do myself.  Thank you so much Tracy!
• Thank you to Taylor's mom, sister, and Hilary for travelling to be there.  It was great to have them at our house to visit for the weekend.
• Thank you to Miranda for driving all the way from northern Michigan only to turn around and drive back up to Lansing for an event that evening.  Also, thank you for all of your advice on my registry, you definitely helped me understand what I really need :)
• Thank you Grandma for supporting the hall rental :)
• Thanks to Bekah (again) for letting us borrow the cute decorations!
• Thanks to Karen Elmendorf and Grace Ann Arbor for the space we used for the shower.
• Thanks to Carole for coming early and helping to decorate, especially for arranging the flowers for the centerpieces so beautifully!
• Finally, if you're reading this and were at my shower or sent a gift, or even if you've just said a prayer for us on this adventure, THANK YOU!

Recapping a busy February!

Well here we are, February, too, has come and gone (and nary a blog from me, bad Carissa!).  Well, we have been busy, despite what it might seem like.  Here are some highlights from February.

January 31 - February 5 - We traveled to Vegas to celebrate our friend Elliot's 30th Birthday on Super Bowl Sunday.  The trip also got coincidentally combined with a work conference also in Vegas that started just as our "for fun" trip ended.  Some highlights included:

• Seeing my first Cirque du Soleil show, Michael Jackson ONE
• Running in to Ludacris (the rapper) at dinner in the Bellagio Hotel
• Seeing Calvin Harris (famous DJ) at a legit Vegas club called Hakkasan.
• Having a $6,500 table (not paid for by me!) at said club and drinking Fiji water to contribute to the ridiculous spend minimum.  Also, being out until 3am. Sober. And Pregnant.  I should win some sort of award!  Shout out to my friend Amanda, the birthday boy's wife, who is also pregnant, due the same day as me, and stayed out even later!
• Checking out "The D" hotel in Vegas, a Detroit themed hotel.\

• Going to the Pawn Shop where Pawn Stars is filmed and getting to meet Mark, the Administrator of the Clark County Museum, who is at LEAST a D-list star.

• Attending my company-sponsored Super Bowl Party and getting this sweet jersey:

• Eating dinner in the Mandalay Bay Acquarium, right next to these:

 It was a good trip, but 5 nights in Vegas is about the max anyone, let alone a pregnant lady, should endure :)

February 8 - We painted our nursery!!  I don't have any pics yet, but I will post some before and after's in a later post specifically about the nursery.  Suffice to say, I am very proud of us for managing to paint the room from green to cream with no major mishaps!

February 15 - We were supposed to have a 6-hour childbirth class on this day, but it got cancelled because the instructor was attending a birth.  Also, my mom came in to town for 10 days starting February 15.  It was great to have her here for the rest of these adventures!

February 17 - We bought our first new car!  It's a 2014 Ford Explorer and we love it!  Also, we'd be lying if we said that we didn't buy it primarily so that we can fit both of our children in the car at once, baby Smith and Nashville (in the back, as seen below).

February 20 - Got our taxes done.  Not exciting, but still one item off the list!  On this day, we also did our make-up session for our childbirth class.  The instructor came in and gave us an abbreviated 2-hour private session.  Finally, my sister came into town for my baby shower (more on that later!)

February 21 - Taylor's mom and sister arrive in town for my baby shower.  We had a great time going out to dinner and just hanging out with them at our house.

February 22 - My mom hosted a FABULOUS baby shower for me, which deserves a post all its own, which I will write immediately after this one and post later this week.  Mom is the best and I'm so appreciative to her for all she's done.  And I plan to show it by letting her hold her grandson whenever she wants, hehe.

February 23 - 24 - My mom (who had been sick at my shower but powered through like a champ) came down with the flu, so we had a couple of pretty low-key days.

February 25 - I took a one-day there-and-back trip to NYC for work and my mom headed back to Arizona to anxiously wait out the rest of the time until her grandson arrives, hehe.

February 28 - We attended a birthday celebration for my childhood friend Randy.  Everyone else played whirly ball while the pregnant lady watched, but it was still fun!

March 1 - We had our second appointment with our Doula.  For those who don't know, a doula is an experienced birth coach that people hire to assist with their labor and delivery (usually their first when they have no idea what to expect!).  She taught us all about labor, comfort and support techniques, and helped us develop a birth plan to share with the midwives at the hospital.  It was great!  On Saturday we also said goodbye to Baby Blue, the 1986 Chevy Nova that Taylor and I had been borrowing since early September.  We are so thankful to my second cousin Cindy and her husband Mark for letting us use it.  We are also so thankful that the weather cooperated and we were able to squeeze this 3-hour errand in between snowstorms!

Whew, it's been a whirlwind, but we wouldn't trade it!  Coming up on the blog I will recap my shower and do some much overdue 30 Before 30 blogs!

And with 6 weeks (literally, 6 weeks tomorrow!) left until baby, we have a busy March coming up.  I am done travelling for work as of this week (YAY!).  This month we have a baby care class, a breastfeeding class, a Michigan Basketball game, a visit from some good friends, another doula appointment, and one last weekend getaway before baby comes :)  So much to look forward to!  Stay tuned :)

One month of 2014 has come and gone!

It's simultaneously hard to believe and a total relief that one month of 2014 is already behind us!  The last month has been both eventful and uneventful at the same time!  Starting 2 days after Christmas, we've traveled to Sea Island, Georgia for my good friend Jessi's wedding, to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic for our "babymoon" and (Taylor and I separately) to New York City for work (me) and fun (him, go figure:).  We have had 14 days with low temperatures below zero (many of them -10+ below zero!) and have gotten over 34" of snow, easily beating the record of 29.6"set by the "Blizzard of '78" that I've heard so much about my whole life!  The University of Michigan even cancelled classes 2 days ago for the first time since said Blizzard because of -30 degree windchills.  BRRRR.

On top of all of that, I have been sick with a variety of ailments, most of them unrelated to my advancing pregnancy (29 weeks, 11 to go!), but certainly not helped by it.  It started with a cough around Christmas that got really bad on our babymoon (bummer).  I also got motion sickness on a scuba/snorkel trip on our babymoon and was sick on NYE and had a slight fever the next day.  The cough was persistent for a couple of weeks after we got back and then early last week, either from coughing or possibly from a combination of trying to get active and prenatal yoga, I pulled a muscle in my chest.  Turns out it's VERY PAINFUL to pull a muscle in your chest, especially when you have a cough!  That lasted a few days and has now migrated right-middle side of my back where it's more of a sharp pain whenever I move or cough the wrong way.  The good news is that all of these seem to be clearing up, and it's a good thing too, because tomorrow we leave for Las Vegas!  That's right, this is actually my second trip to Vegas during this pregnancy.  We planned the trip around a friend's 30th birthday, but coincidentally, my company also planned an event there early next week, so I will be staying Friday - Wednesday.  I'm just excited to get home because when I do, it will be February 5, only 10 weeks left in my pregnancy, 10 days until my mom comes to visit, 2 weeks until my shower, and 2 weeks until we get a new car!  Lots to look forward to, oh, in addition to that little thing they call a BABY!!!

So here are some photos from the events I've described here (just the ones that are photo-worthy because a lot of them are not!)

At Jessi's wedding. All the girls (except the bride).  The twinkling is something Google adds when you upload, crazy right? 

The beautiful bride and the groom!

All the ladies with the bride

The MOH, Kelly, was pregnant too :)

View from our room in Punta Cana, DR.

Celebrating New Year's Eve (trying not to look sick)

Taylor eating some good-luck grapes with a conveniently placed firework in the background!

Beautiful beach

 And here's a belly photo in case you're interested.  This was taken on Monday (I think), when I was 28 weeks and 5 days pregnant.

30 Before 30: Buy a House!

Spoiler Alert: Here's our house!

And here we go, the next (much overdue) post!  Taylor and I decided late last year after he secured his full-time job that we wanted to start looking at a more permanent place to live.  Apartment living, especially with a dog who needed to be taken out on a leash every few hours rain or shine, was getting old.

We also felt like the slump in the housing market and the low interest rates wouldn't last forever, so once the new year hit, we decided to start thinking about it.  We first dipped our toe in the water by going to an open house on a Sunday afternoon.  Here's the house

It was cute, cheap, and had a lot of potential including an addition off the back that gave it a 4th bedroom and a big family room with a fire place.  However, after thinking about it for a while, we realized that unfortunately the neighborhood just wasn't what we wanted.  It's on the edge of a somewhat rough area on the Ann Arbor/Ypsi border and just wasn't quite what we wanted.

However something very good did come of the open house!  We met our realtor Jaimie, who was holding the open house.  She was very sweet, young, and definitely understood what we were looking for, so without much looking around, we started working with her in January.

Before our first day out with Jaimie, we did a "just for fun" day of open houses around the highly-desirable Burns Park neighborhood of Ann Arbor.  It was a good reality check and helped us to figure out what we wanted.  We started watching the MLS listings and when we had about 5 or so houses we really wanted to see, we set up a Saturday to go out hunting in the snow with Jaimie.  

Our first day of house hunting was fun!  We saw about 4-5 places.  One of them I was very excited about because of its location and price. We had the viewing all set up, but when we got there, it turned out that they had already accepted an offer, in about 3 days on the market!  Crazy! 

We were bummed, but not deterred.  After seeing a few of the neighborhoods that had houses like what we were looking for, we narrowed down a little further the areas that we were actually interested in.  And then we waited.  Basically, once you see everything in your price range, you just have to wait for new houses to come on the market.  Then one day, while I was in New York for work, a listing popped up that looked just perfect.  I e-mailed our realtor and we went to see it the next day when I got home.  Before we even got to see it, they already had 3 offers and one more coming in and had set a deadline for any more offers of the next day. So when we got there that Thursday night, it was decision time.

The front of our house

And. We. Loved. It.  Hook line and sinker I wanted it, it was mine, give it to me now.  :)  It has 3 bedrooms, 2 upstairs original rooms and a basement bedroom with attached bath that is a perfect "inlaws" suite.  The hard is big, and the whole back half of the house has an 8-foot addition that makes for a nice large master bedroom, bathroom and a HUGE kitchen complete with breakfast bar.  The house isn't huge, just 1,600 square feet, but it was perfect for us :)

We headed straight back to Jaimie's office and put together an offer.  They were asking $175,000 and given that they had multiple offers, Jaimie suggested that we go in at Asking Price and include something I had never heard of called an escalation clause.  Basically it said that we would beat any verified offer (meaning they would have to show proof of it) by $1,000 up to a ceiling price, which we set at $190,000 (I told you I wanted it!).

We put in the offer and waited.  They came back a couple of days later saying that we were their top choice offer, but with some conditions.  First, they has invoked the escalation clause to $186,000 because they had another offer at asking with an escalation clause to $185,000.  They also put in a note that we would agree to pay this price regardless of appraisal.  Now if you've ever bought a house, you know this is unheard of, but apparently this is what happens in a market when houses are going up in value quickly but appraisers haven't yet caught up to what the market is willing to pay.  You see, banks won't loan more money than the appraised value of a house, and typically that works in the buyer's favor because if the house appraises lower than the accepted offer, then get to negotiate down.  However, with this clause they were basically saying that they wouldn't negotiate in anticipation of a low appraisal and wanting to make sure they still got their money.  We decided to accept this point with a $10,000 cap meaning that we would only pay $10,000 over appraisal.

And then we waited for the appraisal.  And waited.  And waited.  FINALLY it came back right at asking, $175,000.  Which was kind of the worst case scenario for us because 1) we would have to come up with the full $10,000 out of pocket and 2) we didn't get much of a break on the price.  Womp Womp!  So at this point, despite being the one who insisted we get this house from the beginning, I decided to play hardball and try to see if we couldn't work something out.  So I asked our realtor to go back to the sellers and basically plead for mercy and split the difference with us.  Since they were getting the absolute best scenario and were anxious to close, I felt it was only fair. We asked them to meet us at $181,500 and they agreed.  So that was our final price.  

The inspection went well, with only a small electrical issue noted, and we closed on our first house and the single greatest expenditure of our lives on March 16, 2013.  My brother and his friend helped us move that day for some pizza, beer, and $50 each and before we knew it, we were homeowners! 

Here are some pictures of our little abode:

Living Room

Another view of our bedroom

Our bedroom and my favorite picture!

Kitchen

Basement entertainment room

Downstairs guest bedroom

Downstairs guest bathroom

One of our favorite things about this house is our back yard, which has quickly become Nash's beloved domain:

He is so good about just hanging out out there and has never jumped the fence or anything!

Some of our favorite memories in our house so far:

• Our housewarming party in April that my mom came for
• Having campfires in the backyard fire pit that the previous owners left for us
• Cooking out on the 4th of July with our friends Susie and Sundar and setting off (legal) fireworks in the front yard
• Learning to love to cook in my big kitchen
• Getting tile installed on our steps landing, our much-needed first home improvement
• Hosting our families and lots of friends for graduation, holidays, football games, reunions, and just for fun
• Exploring the neighborhood with Nashville
• Playing tennis on the court that you can see from our backyard!
• Growing tomatoes in our garden (and failing at every other thing we planted)
• Laying in the hammock that we got on our trip to Honduras in March
• Decorating for our first Christmas! - Another thing I love about having our own house in a real neighborhood is the ability to decorate for Christmas.  Here are our first-year Christmas lights:

Our House with Christmas Lights!

And here is our first Christmas Tree, which we chopped down ourselves this past weekend:

At the tree farm!

Sorry for the delay in posting this, but I hope you enjoyed learning about our new little home.  First major project, nursery! :)