Boy!

Apparently I am just awesome with boys, cause I am having another one! I feel mixed about it, but mostly I am just really happy that everything went really well with the ultrasound. That was such a relief! He looks great, all his parts were there and he measured on track if even a little bigger.

We have no boy names at all at this point (other than oh-so-helpful suggestions from my sons like Hoover Dam Hanson, Stanley Steamer Hanson, and the new one: Peyton Manning Hanson) and a barrage of names from my helpful coworkers ;) . I'm sure we will come up with the one that seems perfect for little boy Hanson when its time.

6 days

We had another doctor appointment today. Everything looks good - the babies heart rate was 150, and I was measuring maybe a little bigger than almost 18 weeks, but still within what would be considered normal for now.

I love going there and hearing the heartbeat, and I realize I find myself getting a little paranoid a few days before my appointment. I start thinking, what if there is no heartbeat? What if the flutters I have been feeling really are not the baby? Its paranoia, I know, but not completely unfounded. Although miscarriage is less common this far along, it happens. I can see why people get those home dopplers that you can rent or buy, although I could not justify for myself.

I was really hoping to have our anatomy / gender ultrasound this Friday. My midwife said no, that she does not want us to go until I am exactly 18 weeks - which is Saturday. I called and tried to schedule it for then, but they were full in the morning so I scheduled it for next Monday. I'm a little bummed out right now about having to wait six days, but in the long run it will not seem like a big deal (...I know this, but still its killing me). I am just DYING to find out if we are having a boy or a girl. I know what most people are rooting for, but at the same time I suspect its going to be the other.

I admire anyone that can wait for birth to find out the sex, but it will really help me with some planning and reduce some anxiety when we do find out. So far, the only thing we have bought is a crib. You cannot buy clothes without knowing the sex, there is very little that looks gender neutral. So, now I wait 6 days...

second trimester

I've officially been in my second trimester for a couple weeks now. Other than being really tired today and yesterday (circumstantial, is my guess) I feel great. I still hate that my body is in this in-between stage; my pants are too tight (yay belly band and bigger size pants) and my shirts selection has gotten smaller. Since I finally told my boss about the pregnancy on Monday, I wore a maternity shirt to work today. It was comfy, but again makes me look bigger than I really am. I am fascinated by the fact that my waist and belly are changing, but my weight has not changed at all the last few weeks. I guess everything is getting re-allocated.

Our last doctor appointment went well. Heard the heartbeat again which is always exciting (and a relief). We should be able to find out the sex in about 4 weeks!

11 weeks!

According to our ultrasound a few weeks ago, I am officially 11 weeks along today. I feel great. I haven't had any sickness for a few weeks now and feel pretty lucky that it only lasted about 2 weeks. But boy, those were a LONG two weeks!

I bought some maternity pants the other day because I was getting tired of wearing pants that were too tight (and I was doing this trick I learned where you use a hair tie to keep the snap closed, giving you a little extra room), so I figured it was time. I got three pair and they are super comfy, but still too big as the belly part doesn't really fit and I have to roll it down. So, I'm still in that 'in-between' stage I guess.

We have told a lot of people now. Its been so fun to share, and its nice to finally 'get it out there'. We have told all of our family (a lot of disbelief on the part of my family) many close friends, and Brandon told work people. I plan to put off telling work for at least another week, but I'm not sure how much longer I can hold out. I am glad we made the decision to wait, but it has been kinda hard to do so and I am relieved to be at the stage where we can talk about it with others now.

we are having a baby

Its going to be a bit before I publish this, since we are being pretty closed lipped about it, but I am pregnant! I was figuring we were close to 8 weeks, and had an ultrasound yesterday to confirm and reassure. The tech put us at 7 weeks 2 days, which seems about right really based on my high tech calculations I had done (but won't go into detail here about).

It was SO COOL to see the little flutter of heartbeat on our little blob on the screen. She pointed out which ovary it came from (the right) and everything seems to be growing well. She even did a 3-D picture for us, which is kinda silly cause its just a blob in 3-D and the regular picture actually looks better I think. I really can't wait to show the pictures with everyone, but right now we have just kept them to ourselves.

I have been so sick! Not throwing up ever (although I wish sometimes I did), just a really precarious stomach not unlike a next day hangover stomach (i'm sure there are those that can relate). I had about 1 1/2 weeks of feeling just horrible, not eating made me feel crappy, eating too much made me feel crappy, and eating anything was the same. Water made me feel sick. I usually drink a lot of it, so that was hard and also made me dehydrated. I started taking B6 pills and trying really hard to eat small meals and not drink with my food (SO hard for me!) and I have felt a bit better the last few days. I'm not sure if its the vitamins or what, but I am thankful that instead of constantly feeling nauseous I just feel it mildly a few times a day. Amanda says she heard on NPR that the sicker you are, the higher your babies' IQ. Uh huh.

I have been EXHAUSTED. I feel totally lame cause we just moved and there are still so many things to do around here and its all I can do to go to work and come home and stay awake until bedtime. BCH has certainly taken on a heavier load around here and I love him even more for it. I don't remember feeling like this with my other pregnancies; I am worried that my age is going to really make this a tough one if its killing me at this point. Hopefully I will get that second trimester surge of energy I have read about.

We have our first appointment with our midwife, Lindsay, in about two weeks and I hope at that point everything is on track. If so, I think we will start telling people then. I can't wait!

Our house - in pictures!

I'm not so great at uploading pictures on this blog, but here you go. Please ignore the few random boxes that are in some of the pictures - still got more things to put away, but we have made some great progress so far. This is the master bedroom. It has a walk in closet, which is really an add on room, but it was too messy looking to take a picture of.
Upstairs half bath. It overlooks the back yard, and its nice to have a second bathroom for Nathan.
Nathan's bedroom upstairs. Its a decent size room, despite the slanty ceilings
Kitchen. You can't really tell from this picture but it has an old cast iron one piece sink / drawers. Its pretty retro cool. The cupboards are really old as well but they are in decent shape and have a nice charm to them.
Back yard. Kind of a ghetto cement patio. I plan to put in a garden off the back of the house (on the left side of the picture) but this year my tomatoes and peppers get to grow in pots.
Front view of the house. The yard and landscaping is really nice; a lot of great shade plants on the west side of the house and these bushes provide great privacy for our fabulous porch.
Porch. The previous owner rebuilt it using Trex board about five years ago. He also left us this nice bench. We look forward to many many hours of porch time here.
Our 100+ year old house comes equipped with a boiler and radiators. This terrified me when we initially looked at the house, but supposedly radiant heat is a better heat. Now we just need to figure out how to turn it on and control each radiator. Most of our radiators look like this one, which are original to the house, and are pretty cool looking.

Dining room. Almost every floor in the house is hardwood. The floor is a little wavy in this room (BCH says it undulates) but its not too bad and our inspector assured us it wasn't a structural problem. Our hardwood floors are REALLY creaky though (no sneaking around the house at night, thats for sure!)

Living room. The fireplace is not as bright red as it looks in this picture, its just the lighting. But it is red. I hated it initially. But its grown on me, and we found this really nice rug that mostly matches. I would like to paint it a slightly different shade of red. Also, that faux painted wall is going to be re-painted. Its pretty awful looking.
Another angle of the living room. It has a really nice window bay and a lot of light coming in all the windows. Our furniture looks pretty good in here. I love this room!

There you go - not pictures of everything (bathroom, walk in closet, 3rd bedroom, mud room and basement were not included). We have some more things to change, like painting, as well as installing a dishwasher in the kitchen and creating some more counter space. But so far we are loving it even more than we thought we would.

Settling In

Our new house is finally feeling like ours. The closing / recording / possession did not go as we had hoped, and we ended up moving on Sunday of Memorial weekend. Luckily, we have some great family and friends that made it go quick and smooth (for a move, at least).

One cool thing is we keep getting checks in the mail. Interest reimbursement from the title company, car insurance overpaid, appraisal fee paid back for all our loan troubles, deposit on our rental place refunded, it just goes on! Its been awesome because we have been able to get some nice stuff like a new tv stand, an awesome rug and coffee table for the front room (the whole house is hardwood / tile so we need a lot of rugs), and a nightstand so far. We plan to install a dishwasher, build a cabinet around that, and buy a butcher block table for more counter space. And of course there are a lot of 'house' things we don't own yet and need; such as a ladder and yard tools.

A week of cleaning and unpacking and now I feel home. I LOVE this house. Everyone that comes over says they love it too. This house feels like US. I love that we own a 100+ year old home, with its high ceilings, boiler, creaky floors, and odd additions. I love that I have this with Brandon, and that we are making steps like this together. Building a home for my boys, and for our future.