My lovely baby bump, check it out...

Here you go! It has been awhile since I have had a good belly shot on here... these were taken a couple of weeks ago (I was 22 weeks at the time!) You can tell I have made quite a bit of progress in the 10 weeks since my last belly shot!! I need to take one more soon... I am amazed at how much bigger I am even now from these pictures!!! I think I am growing literally everyday!




I guess growing every day is no surprise as I seem to be hungry ALL the time! I even wake up HUNGRY! It is silly for anyone to ever ask a pregnant woman in her second trimester, "are you hungry?" The answer will ALWAYS be yes!! We went to a birthday party this past weekend for a friend and I seriously camped out by the food table for hours. I couldn't stop! So, I am petrified to see what the scale says at my next appointment on Wednesday! I seriously feel like I have gained a ton of weight since my last appointment! The worst part is my underwear seems to be shrinking (that can be the only logical explanation!) I just don't get it!! As one of the chapters in my "Girlfriends Guide to Pregnancy" says, if this baby is in my stomach, why is my butt so big?!? It is an interesting phenomenon. I guess I could feel a lot better about this weight gain if the growth were soley in my belly. Unfortunately, that just isn't the case right now! So, I fear the scale! I also fear the blood pressure cuff too... that could be interesting! Just when you think things might start to subside too, everything gets NUTTY all over again!

All in all, as I wrap up week 24, I have to say that I am truly loving being pregnant! I actually find myself thinking about how excited I am to do this all over again. I know, I know, I am probably putting the cart before the horse, so to speak but I am really enjoying things right now. The most exciting thing is that Pip has become much more active. At least I can FEEL more movement now than before. Some days is is fairly constant. Just two weeks ago, Will and laid in bed for a long while on Sunday morning just feeling Pip move around. It was a VERY active morning. It was also the first time that Will really felt any good flips or kicks. It was pretty exciting. Now, we can lie on the couch at night and watch my stomach bounce around. It is really crazy. Sometimes it is so hard to believe that there is a little person in there... a little person made up of me and Will! It is such an overwhelming and wonderful experience. I find it hard to describe. So, there you have it! My reflections on 24 weeks of this crazy rollercoaster.... I guess all I can say is that I feel really very blessed to even be on this ride in the first place!

Little People, the Milkman and the American Dream

So, I am going to try and squeeze in another post here while I can (even though I REALLY should be working right now!!!) There is just so much going on and I want to get some stuff down before things get too busy again!

As I mentioned in the last post, there is so much happening for us right now! This year has been so incredible! It is funny because before we started this year, we set out 3 goals for ourselves: a baby, getting Will's business off the ground and a house. We had been pleasantly surprised that we were moving ahead so quickly with two of the three. Obviously we were quite excited when we found out about Pip back in February. It was also pretty amazing to see Will's summer calendar book up quickly with weddings and portraits galore. I never dreamed that we would actually be three for three by the end of the year... turns out, we most likely will be!

Last week, we went into escrow on a very little house in La Habra! I fell in love with it almost immediately. It is a small, two bedroom, one bath and is an older home (built in 1937) and is really well-suited for that era, which we suppose was full of little people and milkmen as the shower is way too small to house anyone larger than 6' (thank goodness Will is JUST about that tall... could be comical when my parents come to visit though. I keep envisioning the scene in Elf where Buddy is showering in the elf-sized shower... that will be my 6'8" dad in our new bathroom! Even so, it has a ton of charm... everything from the little white picket fence to the front porch and hardwood floors were completely enchanting to me. We were also impressed by the large backyard (so we could always add on someday). One of my favorite features is the little door in the kitchen that has another door to the outside wall... in it, a glass milk bottle as well as a little dial you can turn to let the milkman know exactly how much milk you need for the coming week. It is adorable and I hope the current owner leaves the milkjug for us! We hope to close escrow on the 10th or so (which, will be rough since we are supposed to be on our "babymoon" in Maui that week! ) It is all happening VERY fast but we are so excited. I am particularly excited to think that we are going to have a HOME of our own. I can already envision Pip's (USC) room... Pip learning to crawl around on the hardwood floors, playing outside on the nice big lawn with our dog (yeah, eventually we WILL have a dog!!!) or even spending lazy summer afternoons on the front porch (which is BEGGING for a porch swing) drinking lemondade while Pip plays in the sprinklers... it is all very Norman Rockwell, I know but it gets me through the STRESS of this home buying process!
It is pretty crazy because every time I feel like there is an end to the tunnel with my current stressors, something new pops up!! We are just really looking forward to getting through FAM JAM (my HUGE work project right now) and then closing on this house... I can't wait to celebrate with my virgin Pina Colada in Maui! Aloooooooooha!! :)

And now, what you all have been waiting for, pictures of our new home (can't you just see it all decked out for Christmas?!?! I can!!!!)

The Big Day

Hello again! It has been SO long since I posted! Things are going well here in pregnancy-ville, although, I have to admit that life is incredibly hectic! Let me see where we are at...

Well, on May 30th, we finally got to THE BIG DAY--- Ultrasound day! We were so excited to see Pip moving around in there! I was particularly looking forward to it because I started to experience REALLY bad pains in my side just two days before we were scheduled for our ultrasound. I was actually quite worried by them. They were so painful that I could barely walk! I started to notice them in the evening and then woke up around 3AM in a ton of pain. Will woke up too and we debated for a long time about whether or not we should go to the ER. I thought they might be "round ligament stretching pains" which happen because your belly is starting to really grow (which mine CERTAINLY is!) and the ligaments that support your growing uterus begin to stretch and can be painful. The problem was that everything I read indicated that such pains really only lasted a second or two and were triggered when you moved. I seemed to have them even when I was lying in bed in a fairly neutral position. Eventually, I was able to fall asleep (on my side with a pillow between my legs) and then felt a bit better in the morning.

That afternoon, however, they came back so I called the nurses line. They assured me that it did, indeed, sound like round-ligament stretching and that I could try warm or cool compress and take some Tylenol to try and manage the pains. I wish I had known what to expect with these! I guess not every woman has them but these were really bad and they caused quite a bit of concern. I spent a lot of time trying to feel Pip just to make sure that our little bean was still moving around and happy in there!!

By the time our ultrasound appointment arrived, I was feeling quite a bit better and it was nothing but reassuring to finally really SEE Pip again. Will was not allowed to go in with me at first (something about how they needed to get the "official" pictures taken first for the doctor and THEN we could play... of course, Daddy wasn't very happy about this but he did very well!) My ultrasound tech was very nice. SHe immediately commented on how active our baby is (I told her that he/she takes after dad!!) She mentioned this several times so that is a little worrisome :) But she also said that really active babies often means that they will be strong and healthy babies, so that is a good thing! She also commented on the size of Pip's legs and arms! She said this baby is going to be very tall (wonder where that would come from?!?!) At first, Pip was turned head down and backside up, which made it difficult to get good pictures (this is also what made it so difficult to get the heartbeat last time!!) She tried to do a few things to get Pip to turn around but baby refused. At that point, she referred to Pip as stubborn (again, not sure WHERE that would come from!!) So, she had me run to the restroom to see if that would get Pip to move... sure enough, when she tried again, we could see Pip had turned around and was MUCH more photogenic :) Before she got Will, I could see Pip hanging out and sucking his/her thumb. It was so cute!!

When Will came in, we got to spend several minutes just watching Pip and she took a couple of really good shots. This ultrasound maching was MUCH clearer than the last one. We made sure to tell her right away that we had no interest in finding out the sex and she did a good job of keeping that from us.

Here are a couple of our favorites:




At one point, she also said, "Oh look! Your baby is giving you the peace sign" Will and I both looked at each other and told her it wasn't the "peace" sign, it was the USC Victory sign!! She tried to capture it but the picture didn't turn out so great. All in all, it was a very exciting day!

I am having trouble believing that I turn 24 weeks tomorrow. It just doesn't seem possible! I remember being 6 weeks and feeling like every week was taking an absolute eternity... now, I wish I could slow time down a bit because I feel to busy to truly ENJOY this process of being pregnant. It is so odd! There is a lot going on with the Parris clan right now, which contributes to the craziness, but I will have to save that for another post :)

Off to eat (again!)