18 weeks

I hit 18 weeks yesterday and I feel so much bigger than I look. I have taken a picture of my belly almost every week but I keep forgetting to post it, so I finally did! Here I am at 18 weeks:

My stomach is so pointy it seems.

Well if you haven't heard it yet, we're having a...............

BOY! Erik knew it the whole time.  Now we won't have to return any of the outfits that Erik has bought (and let me tell you they are all so cute!).  Here is a picture of the side view of his little face, you can see his profile so well:

And here is our baby boy in all of his glory.  In my opinion it looks like a hot dog, but that's just me. Don't worry, I put an arrow to help you all see:

I drank so much water before I went to make sure my bladder was full, and of course I was hungry so I just had to eat those 2 pieces of toast.  Well after about 20 minutes of poking and prodding, we still weren't able to get a clear shot of what it is.  So she had me go sit in the lobby and drink more water. And then I had to eat some crackers. And drink some juice. And drink even MORE water. By the end of the 30 minute wait I was pacing the waiting room afraid my bladder was going to explode any second.  Normally I go to the bathroom about every 20 minutes by only drinking a few cups of water.  By this point in the day I had already drank almost a gallon of water and I hadn't gone to the bathroom in over an hour and half.  I thought I was going to DIE! And if I didn't die I thought I was going to suffer some serious embarassment by wetting my pants in the waiting room (first the bed, then my pants???).  I could have kissed her when she called us back again.  She took another look, and there he was sharing his goodies with us.  We were so relieved!

We are both so excited about finding out its a boy! Of course I wanted a girl, but I am so excited. He is going to be my little man!

counting down the hours

I finally have the date set for my ultra sound to find it if Baby Payne is going to be a boy or a girl, and it's this Thursday! That's right, as in less than 2 days away!  Erik and I can hardly wait, we have been talking about this for so long it feels like.  I say we're going to find out if its a boy or a girl, while Erik says we're going to find out that its officially a boy.  He is so convinced its a boy, I'm afraid he will tell the Dr to send it back if it comes out a girl.  He has already bought so many boy clothes, we won't even need to have a baby shower.  As much as he talks about how badly he wants it to be a boy I know she will have him wrapped around her little finger if its a girl.  She will be daddy's little princess.

I am 18 weeks tomorrow and definitely feeling it.  Even though I sleep pretty okay through the night, Erik says I'm all over the place all the time.  I stopped wetting the bed (thank goodness), but sometimes I barely make it to the bathroom in time.  My sleeping pill still knocks me out so much I barely wake up for my alarm, let alone my body telling me to wake up to go pee at 2 a.m.  Most of my clothes don't fit anymore, so I rotate between the same 5 shirts that actually do fit.  My stomach has begun to poke out enough that you might be able to tell I'm pregnant, instead of just a little chunky (pictures coming soon!).  My favorite line this week was when a co-worker found out I was pregnant (I don't know what rock he's been under the past 4.5 months), and he told me "I didn't know you were pregnant, I just thought you were gaining weight and didn't want to say anything".  Thanks Simon.

As uncomfortable as I usually am, being pregnant is one of the best experiences I have ever been fortunate enough to go through.   I know I'm not as sick as some women get (although without my medicine, I feel like I'm at death's front door), but it is such a rewarding feeling knowing that someday this baby is going to be part of  this world, and I am going to be everything it needs.  Scary, but rewarding.  I feel a bit strange in my thinking sometimes, like I am almost not doing enough.  My doctor laughed at me a little bit at my last appointment when I had only gained back 2 of the 3 pounds I had lost. She said most girls are worried about how they can stay skinny during pregnancy, and all I was worried about was not gaining enough weight.  I was so worried that my baby was going to be deprived of all of the nutrients it needed.  (My doctor is amazing, she definitely reassures me of all of my random, paranoid doubts).

I felt it move a little bit about a week or so ago and it is so cool! What they say is true, it really does feel like you have the butterflies, or just gas.  But it's so much more amazing than gas! And I can tell the difference between the two.  The other day I had Erik push on my stomach, and I felt it move around a little bit. It was so cool for me, but Erik was still bummed he can't feel it move yet.

Well I know I have been rambling a lot in this post, but it is late so I blame it on the drowsiness. All I can say is how extremely blessed I feel in life right now, and how I am so grateful that Erik and I are sealed together forever, along with all of our children to come!

latest and greatest...DISNEYLAND!

Last weekend Erik and I went with my family to the best place on the planet, DISNEYLAND! We did the "give a day, get a day" service project back in May, and we got one free day to Disneyland.  My family has always been huge on Disneyland. Don't worry, I only rode rides that were pregnant-friendly.

Enjoy! (I usually don't post too many pictures, and I didn't realize how many were in this post until I was finished.  Sorry!):

Erik and I in the parking garage, excited for the day ahead!

Here's the whole family, Rubes is barely hanging on in the stroller, but she was just so cute in it.

Of course Erik and I had to sport the TOMS.  Erik had just painted the ones he's wearing a few days before this.  They were perfect and so comfy.

Ruby and I did a lot of this.  Neither of us could ride many rides (she didn't fit the height requirement and I couldn't ride many without wanting to throw up), so we hung out together all day.  I'm going to speak for both of us when I say we had a good time (Ruby's face definitely testifies of this fact).

Erik made this shirt specifically for Disneyland (details about it later in the post).

Over on Tom Sawyer's island.

Erik and I on one of the few rides I could ride, Dumbo!

Some lady got a little upset after this picture was taken.  I guess we can't ride two people to one horse?? Erik wanted to make sure my horse didn't get too out of control while on the carousel ride.

Ruby has this new obsession of sucking on your face when you hold her. She would have tried to put Mom's entire face in her mouth if she could.

And we move to Erik's shirt. He was so excited to make it!  We took many pictures throughout the day of Erik next to random people.  It definitely made our day fun, and trying to make sure the person didn't see us taking the picture was part of what made it so funny. Queue roll of pics:

(this is our brother in law Nick, married to my sister Ashley.  He looks like he could beat the crap out of you but he's really a nice guy, I promise)

Aubs, perfect timing of the camera click.

Random mustache man.

Asian man. Enough said.

Old lady. Erik loved her for this picture.

We especially love this picture for the bromance that is happening and the love-child it looks like they have.

We went to the beach the next day, I wish I had taken more pics of the day of but there wasn't too much going on except for some napping, shopping, and a lot of this:

Erik and I around the campfire we made at night.  Hot dogs, hobo dinners and s'mores, yum!

i'm going crazy

I lost my bra this morning. I couldn't find it for the longest time.  I'm not the girl that will take it off the minute they walk in the door. No sir. I put mine on when I get out of the shower in the morning and I don't take it off until I know I'm crawling into bed. I hate more than anything taking it off only to realize that I have to put it back on because someone is coming over, or I forgot I have to run an errand. And let me tell you, with girls like mine, when they hang low they definitely wobble to and fro. It's just not comfortable.
So at the end of the night I always take it off at the foot of my bed and hang it on the knob of my dresser drawer, that way I know where it's at in the morning. Well this morning I get out of the shower and open my drawer to put my g's on, and my bra was gone. My first thougt was "hmm, that's weird". So I searched everwhere around the dresser, around the bed, under the bed, in all the drawers. After searching for a while I start getting really frustrated thinking that when I push that snooze button in the morning, I don't schedule in an extra 15 minutes for bra-searching time.
I decided to start getting ready, hoping I would suddenly remember something like "oh ya, I took it off in the kitchen and left it on the stove while getting a drink of water before bed" or "I hung it over the shower door while brushing my teeth".  But the epiphany never came.  I knew I had to leave for work soon, so I tried searching for an old bra that doesn't make me look like I have 80 year old boobs.  As I was getting dressed I called Erik and was going to leave him a nasty you're-so-not-funny-hiding-my-bra,-you're-definitely-in-big-trouble-and-will-be-hearing-about-this-when-i-get-home-because-now-I'm-going-to-be-late-for-work message, when i opened my closet door to put my shoes on and saw my bra sitting there on the top of all of my shoes.  I have no idea how it got there, but finding my bra was worth being late for work by 5 minutes.

someone should put me in diapers

So I am 9 1/2 weeks along now, and definitely feeling it.  Lately I have been having a really hard time sleeping.  I get super uncomfortable, tossing and turning.  I am usually a stomach sleeper, but now it feels like someone is poking me in the stomach every time I roll onto my stomach.  I usually wake up for hours at a time and can't fall back asleep.  So my doctor prescribed me some anti-nausea medicine that makes me super drowsy so I can sleep better at night. Well Wednesday night was the first night I took it, and I slept like a baby. It was amazing.  I fell asleep right away and never woke up once.  At about 7 o clock in the morning I had a strange dream that I was going to the bathroom. The only weird thing about my dream was that I could not figure out why gravity wasn't working, because instead of my pee stream going into the toilet, it was running up my back.  I was seriously confused until I woke up and realized I wet the bed! Usually my body wakes me a up at least once a night to go to the bathroom, but my medicine knocked me out so much I didn't even wake to know I had to pee!  Thank goodness Erik was already at work because if he was home he would have freaked.  When I told him I wet the bed that morning he laughed at me for so long and still won't let me live it down.

Last Thursday I had another ultra sound and it was so cool! Our little baby was waving to us as if it knew that we were looking at it. We also heard the heartbeat! I didn't think we would be able to at 9 weeks so I was so surprised when she turned it on. I definitely cried. It made being pregnant so much more real to me. I really feel like there is something growing inside of me now. It's such a scary/good feeling knowing that my baby is 100% dependent on me. I already feel like I'm bonding with my baby! Erik and I always try and think of what it will be. Erik wants a boy (of course) and I obviously want a girl. I have a feeling it will be a boy though, and the heartbeat was a bit faster (174) so i think it will be a boy. We won't find out for a while though! Here is the video of my ultra sound that Erik took, enjoy!

Beachin', Again

We went to the beach again this past weekend, except this time we brought along some good friends of ours.

Taking the ferry to Balboa Island

Us with Amber's cute headband.

Of course we had to ride bikes.

A hottie on Balboa Island. Later at that exact spot an old guy gave us the birdie. Thanks.

The "Epic Burrito" equals dinner plus breakfast

Amber flew home the next day to go to one of her BFF, Karissa Jarvis' Endowment session.

Ha get it?

Amber forgot her hat, score.

Something is very wrong with this picture... 

Beach fire time

We showed up with NO wood, lighter fluid, food, anything, but ended up bumming everything off very generous people.

Thank you trash can.

We also found some perfect working kites in the trash. So we used them and then took them with us. And yes we totally felt like bums.

Newport Beach Temple. Beautiful.

Above the front door. 

Sad and awkward with out Amber.

Bonus: Part of Amber's sister Aubrey's graduation present. Hubba-hubba.

Ruby

Until Jümey is born, our niece Ruby has title of Cutest Baby In The World. Seriously though, She is THE cutest baby on Earth.