Winter Break

Jeremy and I are back at home after spending Christmas Eve and Christmas up at my parents' bed and breakfast. It was a whole lot of fun, despite the fact that Jeremy and several others in the family have been down and out with a nasty cold. Poor Jeremy was so stressed and needing a break from work and he's been sicko since his first day off! He's looking a little better today, so crossing my fingers that he gets at least two sick-free vacation days!

In addition to the traditional Christmas dinner, we had some fun events leading up to the big day. The annual Gingerbread House competition resulted in: Snakes on a Plane, good ship vs. pirate ship, and a good old fashioned house. All three turned out awesome and the ships took the grand prize.

Mom hosted a yankee swap/white elephant party at her place, and we ended up with an AWESOME hand-made Hogwarts throw pillow and some not-so-delicious root beer. I think Chandra took the win with an epic purple sparkly Jesus piggy-bank.

I hosted an ornament exchange/yankee swap at my house, and had a great turnout. Tons of really cool ornaments turned up this year and it was quite the competitive swap!

Mom, Chandra, Isabella, Brett and Jermanie all accompanied me on a trip that's been intimidating the hell out of me - registering for baby! It was much easier with their support and I am very grateful that they helped me out! Isabella was a huge help as the scanner-master and got everything scanned perfectly. Once we let Brett hold the scanner for about 30 seconds before it had to be confiscated when he started registering us for Disney Villain dishes :-p

Baby girl is doing great - with Jeremy and my mom both sick a few days before Christmas, Chandra went with me to my doctor's appointment and got to hear her heartbeat. It was a lot of fun and I got to meet the husband in my husband/wife doctor team. I liked him a whole lot better than his wife and am crossing my fingers that he will be the one on call when our girl decides to come! Everything was looking great and now I am sad to report that the next doctor's appointment is the one involving the blood glucose test. Yay drinking vast amounts of orange sugary water and having blood drawn! (For those of you who don't know, at my first OB appointment they laid me down for the blood draw and I still passed out!)

Jeremy and I interviewed two doulas in the past week and liked them both a lot. I think we've settled on one and I am really looking forward to working with her. We will also be taking birthing classes with her starting in February.

As for the great name quest, we are getting closer, I promise. People have been hounding us and I agree, it's time - it's just a big decision and we're trying to make the right one! Stay tuned - I'm sure the big name announcement will be coming soon :-)

Yay!

Just a quick little update - this morning baby girl woke me up with her kicks and I was able to see them on my belly! It kind of creeped me out, honestly. But tonight Jeremy and I were laying talking about baby names and she started up again. Jeremy was able to see - and feel - her kick for the first time! Such a cool moment!

Want to help us out? See if the genie can find a cool name for the little kicker!

BabyNameGenie.com - Baby Names, Middle Names, Baby Name Generator

Over halfway there!

I can't believe it, but we are already more than halfway through this pregnancy! At 21 weeks our little girl is kicking and punching me like crazy, as well as swallowing, digesting and listening to everything we say! Time to start watching our language :-p I've started taking a prenatal yoga class which I love - it's so much better than any yoga class I've taken in the past and I think a lot of it has to do with the instructor. I'm really glad because she is the only instructor in the Springs that offers prenatal yoga. Crazy! She's an RN and used to be a midwife, so she gives tips throughout the class on how you can take things we learn in yoga with us to the birth. It's fun being around other pregnant women one night a week too.

I have so much to do that I haven't even begun to work on - choosing a nursery mural,painting a nursery mural, registering, choosing a name, etc etc! I don't even know where to get started. A friend at work has a baby due about a month before us and they have their nursery completely done and are 100% ready for that little boy to come out tomorrow! Talk about intimidating. Sheesh I need to get my act together!

I know these took me forever to get posted, but finally some pictures from the ultrasound. Everything is so much clearer when you're seeing it on the big screen and she's wiggling around, so I have no delusions that people can actually tell what these pictures are, but maybe with my coaching you can squint and pretend these are pictures of a baby.

This is the bottom of baby girl's foot

And both of her feet side by side

Waving "Hello!"

Doing her impression of "The Thinker" with

her hand on her chin

No question she's a girl!

All her little vertebrae

And her adorable (if slightly skeleton-like) face!

18 weeks and a new kitchen!

Sorry I've been so busy trying to get ready for Thanksgiving that I didn't get my kitchen pics up sooner. We've been slowly moving things over to the new kitchen and LOVE it. The stove is so fun to cook on and it's so nice to be able to talk to people instead of being stuck off by myself in our old cramped kitchen.

Old kitchen - and yes, that's where the dogs like to be when I'm cooking

Old pantry - I am SO happy to have room to store our food now!

Annnnd the New Kitchen!!!

:-) We love it!

And of course, the belly shot, because i know you all are just dying to see it :-p

Baby has been moving around a lot this week - I started feeling it last week but wasn't entirely sure that's what it was. Now a few times a day when I'm sitting or laying down it will start wiggling around like crazy! I love it! Now I'm eager for Jeremy to be able to feel it too, it's so cool I want to share.

We go in this afternoon for the big ultrasound and baby BETTER cooperate and show us what it is! I'll keep you all posted!

My Little Pony

When I "came out" at work at 12 weeks, I decided not to mention anything to the students, and to just wait until they noticed and asked me. They're pretty oblivious as a rule, so I figured it would be awhile, but apparently I accidentally outed myself this week when a student thought I was referring to my belly as "My Little Pony"!

I was helping rotate the fourth graders through the hall, and in order to remember who was supposed to go where, the specials teachers and I use the acronym "My Little Pony" to remember - Music, Library, PE. I was explaining this to a student when I heard a gasp and frantic whispering and shrieking from the end of the line. Being the responsible educator I am, I hurried to hush the little buggers up, only to be asked "Are you having a baby?!?!?!". Confused because this was so sudden, I said "Yes, yes I am." One of the little girls said "Why do you call it a pony?!" I was sooo confused. Apparently I had been pulling the pregnant-lady-unconscious-belly-rub when I said "My Little Pony" and the girl thought I was referring to a baby! So now, of course, the baby has a new nickname until we figure out it's real name!

16 weeks and 27 years

Yikes! Turning 27 today is making me feel ollld! I always imagined myself onto my second kid by now, but at the same time I don't feel like any other time would be as perfect as now to start a family. Jeremy took me out to my favorite - The Melting Pot - last night to celebrate and it was, as usual, delicious. Burgers for lunch and then tonight a bunch of family is getting together at the Inn for biscuits and gravy with fried eggs . . . mmmmmmmm! Yes, yes, my birthday is pretty much focused solely upon eating, but in baby's defense - this has pretty much been the case every year, pregnant or not.

It's also Baby Grolnar's birthday, he is turning the big 1-6 (weeks, that is). This means he is the size of an avocado all curled up, but if he stretched out and you made him stand up he'd be around 7 inches tall. I'm supposed to be able to start feeling the kicks and acrobatics anywhere from now to 20 weeks. One of my books said first-time moms are more likely to feel them closer to 20 weeks, but another said slender moms usually feel them sooner, so we will see. I can't wait!

This week has also seen huge leaps in our kitchen construction project. We are having an entirely new kitchen built in what used to be the dining room and all that's left to do is finish some wiring and tiling the counters! Mom and Dad are amazing at tiling, and this week they are going to try and knock it out before Mom leaves for London. We got the tiles in yesterday and they are gorgeous. I can't wait to post pictures of the finished product!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from the J's and our little orange! 15 weeks today! Woohoo!

Second Trimester - Woooohoooo!

Welcome, family and friends!

Due to popular demand, here I am starting a baby blog! So those of you who are fascinated by the growing Grolnar family, your dreams have come true!

Things are going pretty good so far - the past couple of weeks the nausea has subsided and I'm starting to enjoy everyday life much more. The baby still craves sweets like nothing else - I can't believe how badly I want candy! I feel like I'm 8 years old! And the Halloween candy displays everywhere are not helping.

Today a library sales rep totally made my day by asking me when I would be able to find out the baby's sex. YAY! I finally look pregnant - not just like I drink too much beer! It's funny how much something like that can completely turn your day around.

This week Jeremy came with me to the doctor and he got to hear the heartbeat for the first time, so that was a lot of fun. We scheduled our big ultrasound for the day before Thanksgiving and I can't wait!

Yesterday was Costume Day at work, so here's me dressed up as a pregnant hippie! Pictures of my much cooler but less school-appropriate costume will be up next week.