Babymoon!

November 2-7, we'll be sailing to and from Cabo San Lucas.  Our last vacation without a baby!!!  Thanks for the surprise, Brent!

14 weeks

13 weeks DONE!

Can't believe the time is going so fast.  I woke up Saturday morning with a very different belly.  I've felt huge the past 7 weeks because of all the bloating I've been experiencing - but that made me look like I just ate Thanksgiving dinner.  Now I have a belly that has a firm bump on it.  It feels different too - when I lay on it or bend over to pick something up.  I can actually feel that there is a baby in there!  What a weird feeling...  I figured I would get my bump earlier than most people do since I'm so short.  It's exciting to actually be showing, but now I realize I have to tell everyone that I'm pregnant now!  One of my clients' parents gave me a funny look tonight and asked me if I had any children (I just started working with this family last week.)  He was looking at my belly as he asked so I told him "just the one on the way."  I'm not used to discussing anything about my self with my clients' families when I go in for the weekly meetings.  I figure if I'm charging them, I need to make all the conversation about their child!  Looks like I'll have to work it into the conversation at my other meetings this week.  As for my full-time job at the school, everyone has been awesome to me lately.  I haven't had to deal with any tantrums, poopy pants, or stubborn children that need to be physically moved from an area. 

In other non-baby related news... there's not much going on.  Brent and I went to our 2nd Sounders game of the season on Saturday (tied 0-0 with Chivas)- we have yet to go to a game where they win!  The rest of the weekend was spent to cleaning out our spare bedroom which will take the next 6 months to finish, for sure. 

12 weeks have gone by...

Whoohoo - we're past the 12 week mark.  I can only assume everything with baby is fine - how do people not go crazy in between ultrasounds??  We don't have another for 4 more weeks.  I was sick this past week - 4 of my coworkers have come down with swine flu and I had definitely had something viral - though not as bad as I thought swine flu would be.  So who knows.  I was sick for 3 days, had a fever (which freaked me out, but apparently never got high enough to hurt the baby), upset stomach, and the usual cold symptoms on top of that.  Maybe I had a mild case of the flu?  Anyway, I'm fine, I am assuming the baby is fine.  I never got dehydrated and my fever didn't reach over 100 degrees.  This did convince me to get my flu shot soon though!

Week 11 - letters to our baby

We wanted a creative way to keep a pregnancy journal as well as photos along the way.  We came up with doing a weekly photoshoot and journaling all in one, and printing a book of all the pages when our baby finally comes.  This one may or may not make it in the book - brent played photographer and I really didn't have the light set up right.  Also, I'm not really showing anything but bloatedness and I don't know that I want to have the memory of THAT!  But I think it's cute with the journal entry and I'm excited to add more pages to this book!

B&B Summer Adventure #7 - the BIGGEST one of ALL!

It's true!  Much to our surprise, a tiny baby Allred is on its way.  

Our first reaction?  SHOCK.  Followed closely by a calming "this will be OK" feeling.  Now we're excited.  We found out on July 31st - the day we were supposed to leave for a 3 day music festival on a farm outside Portland.  Needless to say, I did not feel like packing up and leaving right after I got the news.  4 home pregnancy tests later and a quick trip to the Group Health laboratory confirmed that YES, WE ARE PREGNANT!  Today was our first appointment with a midwife.  The appointment was great and I love our midwives.  I am super happy with our choice of having a midwife catch our baby and can't wait until we can take a tour of our birthing center (Family Beginnings on Capitol Hill).  At our appointment, our midwife spent a lot of time discussing how we're feeling emotionally, how we'll feel in the next couple of months, how our relationship is doing.  I really love the personal relationships we're building there.  And the finale to the appointment - getting to here our little baby's heartbeat for the first time and seeing him/her with an ultrasound.  The heartbeat was loud and clear - a solid 170 bpm. Unfortunately, the new ultrasound machine was not turning on for us (just my luck!) and we got the dinosaur-aged one.  Which means no printed-out picture.  But we could clearly see our little one's cute little body (HUGE head) and a fluttering heart and it helped me to relax about this some.  So far everything looks perfect and we're hoping it stays that way.  

I am halfway through my 10th week and our due date is March 27, 2010.    I am super nervous to tell work - as they do require us to commit to teaching for a full year when signing our contract which I already signed.  I know I can't lose my job because I'm pregnant and I'm sure people will be excited for us.  It's just a little stressful deciding when and how to tell.

Overall, we are incredibly happy and getting used to this idea of being parents.  I am feeling pretty good - the morning sickness seamed to hit its peak in the beginning of last week and I've felt a little better everyday.  My waist size has already changed drastically however, and Im not sure how long I'll be able to keep this from work.  My pants are barely fitting today.  It's all bloat, I'm sure, but it looks like I'm about 5 months along sometimes.  There is a clear little bump even when I suck in lately and that I'll attribute to all my insides shifting around making room for a growing baby.
Here is a belly pic I took last week:

I feel much much bigger than that today.

B&B Summer Adventure 6- camping at Deception Pass

We've had a crazy summer and haven't had a chance to go camping until now - the very last weekend of August. We were lucky to find an open spot at Deception Pass State Park on Whidbey Island. It's an awesome campground because you are nestled between Cranberry lake and the ocean. Katie and Rob stayed a night with us up there. The best part of the trip? Finding this awesome natural sea-saw!!