2014 In Review

It's that time again! This year was definitely one for the books. If I had to choose one word to describe the goings on of 2014 it would be abundance. This year has been an abundance of blessings for sure. It has been a very full year with many, many home improvement projects, and some incredibly busy times when I felt pure and utter exhaustion. There have also been times this year that I feel like my heart could just explode from pure joy and happiness. This year has been abundant with love and surprises and it has been full of some very trying times too. Work has been incredibly stressful for both of us and then my mom got sick over the summer and that was very scary and difficult. All in all we are closing out the year with a sigh of relief. We have everything we could ever need in the world.

So... what did we do this year?

January
We spent New Years 2014 at the family cabin with a group of friends, celebrated by 27th birthday with a birthday party at our house, and completed a bucket list item for my MIL by going to a Sharks game. We also began the conversation with my doctor about infertility treatments and started testing to find out why we hadn't conceived. 


February
We started February by spending a very rainy and stormy Friday courtesy Kohler {you know... the faucets?} at the Pebble Beach Pro Am in Monterey. Definite perks of the industry! We remodeled the kitchen, and Nick cooked the most delicious and thoughtful Valentines Day dinner.  He made chicken satay because our first date was at a Thai restaurant, French onion soup because we honeymooned in French Polynesia, and lots of crab and champagne because that's what we always have for Valentines! We went out to Half Moon Bay for a little date day and finished February with Chinese New Year dinner with the family.


Getting rained on at the Pro Am

My Valentine's chef

Sitting on the gloomy beach in Half Moon Bay

March
March was all about my sweet friend Jeanette. We started the month with her bridal shower at her parent's house in Monterey and finished it with her Bachelorette party in San Francisco. I just love this girl so much. Being her Maid of Honor was so much fun, I loved planning these fun wedding events for her! After finding out a little bit about our fertility situation, we started clomid treatments and said a lot of prayers.

Jeanette's Shower

Jeanette's Bachelorette Bash

April
In April we had our annual first A's game of the season tailgate at O.Co with our friends, celebrated Easter in Napa, and went to Stagecoach with some of our best friends in the world. I guess you could say we inadvertently planned our last hurrah as non parents, because....

Stagecoach Fest

May
In the very first weekend of May we found out that I was finally PREGNANT! We hosted Mother's Day brunch for both sides of the family, went to Disneyland, and kicked off our incredibly full of love wedding season with my cousin's wedding here in the Bay Area and then Jeanette's wedding at the Sacramento Zoo!

June
In June we celebrated Father's Day in Napa at our favorite winery at their club members BBQ. We've been going for the last 5 years and it's a weekend we all look forward to all year. Later that month we had Nick's 29th Birthday also in Napa, and I went to New Orleans for my sweet friend Brooke's bachelorette party.

Father's Day BBQ

Brooke's Last Romp in the Swamp

July
I came home from New Orleans with a very nasty bug and was so incredibly sick over the 4th of July but we went to the family cabin anyway. The power went out and we lit tons of candles, BBQ'd with the family and watched fireworks at the community clubhouse. On the 9th my beautiful, amazing, sweet baby niece Nayeli was born! Nick and I headed to Hood River, Oregon to see our friends get hitched. After the wedding festivities Nick came home and I took a week and went to visit my sister and to meet Nayeli.

August
We started August with a houseboat trip to Lake Don Pedro. Shortly after my mom got very sick and we dropped everything to go to Mt. Shasta to help her. After some incredibly frustrating experiences with area doctors we made the decision to temporarily move her down to the Bay Area to our house and she ended up spending a week in the hospital near our house. August was dedicated to her recovery. We celebrated Nick's Grandma's 80th birthday with a family reunion, and found out that Baby M is a BOY!

He's a boy!!

September
In September we headed to Half Moon Bay to celebrate our dear friends and G's Godparent's wedding, we took off to a super smoky Tahoe for our 2nd anniversary, harvested this year's grapes, and my sister and niece came to visit.



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October
In the first days of October we decided that my mom was finally ready to get back on her own and we moved her back home. And, we wrapped up wedding season with a family vacation to Pismo Beach for Nick's cousins wedding.

November
November absolutely flew by We had two baby showers in a row, took our maternity photos, escaped for our pre holidays cabin trip, and celebrated Thanksgiving in Napa.

Diapers & Beer Shower

Baby food tasting at G's shower

Thanksgiving

December
We prepped for Christmas early and had the house fully decorated the week before Thanksgiving so that we could dive right into December without having to worry about getting all of the Christmas decorations up. We spent all of December soaking in all of the Christmas fun that we possibly could. We took Nick's grandma to see the 60th anniversary of White Christmas at the theater, went to a neighborhood church's amazing Christmas play, drove around to see Christmas lights, and hosted a Christmas PJ brunch for 20 of our favorite friends. My co workers threw me a sweet little baby shower dinner after work, we successfully attempted to turn our breech boy, and I officially started my maternity leave! Of course we had a wonderful Christmas and everything that comes with it.

We are ending this year on the highest note. We are waiting to meet our son any day!

Happy 2015!

See 2013

A Very Upside Down Boy

This is the story of how we got our stuck, breech boy to turn.

I haven't talked much about how he was positioned, but basically since we've been able to identify where he was at by feeling him, his head has been directly under the bridge of my ribs. He wasn't flipping on his own and my doctor felt like the likelihood that he would was very slim. Basically our options were to schedule a C-section, or to go ahead with an external version procedure and hope for the best. After trying basically every single method in the book to turn him on his own, and a few long discussions we decided to go ahead and try the version.

I had my last day of work last Monday and I had to rush from work to my 37 week appointment. We did a quick ultrasound to confirm that stubborn G was still breech. He was, in fact, and we scheduled an external version procedure for 7:30am on Tuesday. That night we kind of frantically packed hospital bags, just in case something happened during the procedure that might have prompted baby boy to join us sooner than original anticipated.

Tuesday morning we woke up at 6:30 to head to the hospital. They hooked me up to all of the monitors, my IV, and we settled in to wait for the doctor to show up. She came in and took another quick peek with the ultrasound and then gave me a dose of a muscle relaxer to help move things loosen up so that I didn't start contracting while she turned him.

The muscle relaxer made my heart race a little bit but I didn't ever feel very affected by it. Not long after the injection they went ahead and started to turn him. Basically all she had to do was push and pull on my stomach in a clockwise motion. It was incredibly intense, absolutely uncomfortable, and painful when they got him transverse. Nick stood up by my head and rubbed my arm, I couldn't look at him and stared up at the ceiling and concentrated on not holding my breath. He said it was an amazing thing to watch and could actually see the entire outline of Grayson's body as he turned. It only took a few more seconds and he was in position! Success rates of an ECV procedure are only about 50% so we are absolutely counting our blessings that it worked for us.

Now I'm settling into my new found freedom in maternity leave, sleeping in, and making lists of things I want to do before G joins us!

Maternity Photos

We spent the morning with our new favorite photographer, Lisa with Ellevor Photography, back in November at this beautiful park in Livermore. The park was filled with tons of families taking their Christmas photos, it seemed like there was a photographer around every corner posing a family and we actually had to wait in line at one point to take photos on the bridge. Pretty funny.
Sometimes getting everything ready for a little photo session can be stressful, picking outfits and what not, but this time everything came together so easily. We didn't even have to buy Nick a new outfit. I just pulled stuff out of his closet. Done and done.

I'm so happy that we will have these photos to remember this pregnancy by. And how special for our little boy that he can someday look back and see what it was like when we were waiting for him.

Here's some of my favorites...

Bump Date | 37 Weeks

 

Okay so I started this post at 33 weeks and couldn't motivate myself to clean the dang chalkboard sign and do another one.. that stupid chalkboard. If we make it to 40 weeks, that will be my last one.

How Far Along? 37..  Blow my mind.. we are officially full term!

What's Going on? Well, according to my app baby he's 6.5 pounds and the size of a winter melon? I've never heard of a winter melon.. ever.   On Monday though, our doctor told us that I'm measuring at 34 weeks, so he's a little smaller than average. Which is completely normal considering neither Nick or myself are very big.
He's breach at the moment and doesn't seem to have any intention of turning. We have an appointment on Monday to take a peek at him and make sure there's nothing that's "keeping" him in that position. Assuming he's just being stubborn, we will be going into the hospital early Tuesday morning for an ECV procedure to turn him. We are praying that he cooperates and turns.... and then stays that way until he's ready to make his arrival!

Weight Gain: 16 pounds from my weight at my 8 week appointment.

Stretch Marks: No, still not a one!

Maternity Clothes: Yep mostly. I'm down to about three pairs of pants that I can wear in public, maternity leggings, my maternity skinnies, and a really comfy pair of Candies work pants that seem to be made of magic. They fit me perfectly pre-preggy and fit me perfectly now. I'm mostly in maternity shirts except for a few that are still working.

Nursery: Done! Everything came together so beautifully, it seriously takes my breath away every time I walk in there... which I do several times a day just to peek at it and soak it all in. Everything is organized, hung, painted, and has been assigned it's place. I am so, so in love with his room.

Purchases: We bought the crib mattress right after the baby shower and then I went just a little bit crazy on Black Friday buying clothes. We now have a fully stocked closet!

Movement: Yep he's a pretty wiggly guy. He's starting to shift around more slowly since he's probably starting to run out of room. He moves his head back and forth right along the bottom of my ribs and likes to jab his elbows up in there too which is definitely not the most comfortable sensation. I'm really really going to miss feeling him from the inside. Lately every time I feel him I get a little pang of sadness knowing that this pregnancy is almost over.

Symptoms: Same old heartburn and reflux. If the old wives tales are true, I'm not growing a baby... I'm growing a small gorilla. I had some acupuncture done last that was supposed to help relieve some of the heartburn and reflux and I think it actually worked. I've been able to cut my Zantac intake in half.
Also, let's talk about the swollen elephant legs I've grown out of thin air. Normally, my feet are skinny, boney, funky little feet. They are definitely not the body part I'm most proud of. Those boney little piggies have turned into hogs. My feet are pretty much overflowing out of my shoes by the end of the day. Let's just say I'm looking forward to being allowed to live in slippers and Ugg boots starting next week.

Sleep: Doing okay.. I'm waking up almost every night wanting a snack though. Seriously, I'm up and munching on something in the kitchen in my jams around 2:30-3:00 on any given night. I've never done that ever before in my entire life. There is something pretty peaceful about it though. I guess my own midnight feedings are getting me ready for G's midnight feedings? I'm wide awake at night but it is sooo hard to wake up in the morning.

Cravings: milk. milk. milk. Give me all the milk. And apple juice. And apple sauce cups... and pudding cups... and jello cups, apple slices. Anything that you might find in an elementary schooler's lunch box. I want it.

Food Aversions & Morning Sickness: Still being really picky about meat, nothing has changed there. Sometimes I like it, sometimes I'm a vegetarian. I don't even know anymore.

What I'm Missing: Sleeping on my stomach.  Being able to snuggle my husband comfortably, being able to fit my feet into my shoes, being able to eat a granola bar without feeling like there is molten lava in my chest. Not feeling like a turtle stuck on it's back when I'm trying to get out of bed. I'm getting complainey but I feel like I've earned it.

Best Moment {since my last bumpdate}: My baby shower! Nick's mama and sister threw me the sweetest most perfect shower. I feel so lucky knowing how truly loved this little boy is already.

Looking Forward to: Maternity leave. Monday is my last day! I'm so ready to be at home, finish the last minute baby prep and then spend endless time snuggling our little boy.

Anything else? Well.. we had a little bit of a scare during week 31. I woke up with some bleeding, called the doctor, and was told to go immediately to Labor & Delivery. Completely hysterical, I called Nick who lucky didn't pick up on the first call. That gave me a minute to calm down, get dressed, and get in the car. I called him again and told him I was headed in and he left work to come meet me. I got checked into a room, gown on and everything and settled in just as Nick walked in the room. They hooked me up to some monitors and ran some tests. We ended up spending half of the day listening to G's heartbeat and waiting for test results. Luckily, everything was fine, the bleeding stopped and they sent us home.

It's happened again once since then but early on in week 35 and the doctor wasn't too concerned. I didn't have to go into the hospital this time. We are both starting to wonder if these are small signs that he might be joining us sooner than originally anticipated! {I secretly hope so!}

Thanksgiving

We had such a lovely, long, Thanksgiving weekend.  We got off a little early Wednesday, packed up the car and headed to the Napa house. I made my pumpkin pie and then we sat down with takeout pizza and put my feet up while everyone else did their prep cooking. This baby has turned my ankles into chubby little stumps lately!

Thanksgiving morning we woke up to the sounds of the coffee grinder and got back out into the kitchen to finish prepping dishes. This year I made the Pioneer Woman's cheesy green bean casserole {and will be for every year to come here on out. It was so good.} Then, it was parade time! I love watching the parade and watch it on TV every single year. I can't wait to snuggle up with my little boy next year and watch it with him for his first time!

My MIL couldn't wait to get the tree up and did a Thanksgiving tree this year.

The family arrived in the afternoon and after the first bottles of wine were opened and a few appetizers we started the annual guys vs. girls challenge. Usually it's some kind of scavenger hunt or relay race and it can get pretty competitive. This year each family member wrote a bit about what they're thankful for, what they want to accomplish in the next 3 years, wishes, goals, dreams, etc. on a scroll. The scrolls were placed in two separate wine bottles and buried at the end of the scavenger hunt. In three years we'll have some fun little time capsules to open on Thanksgiving!

 

I let everyone else worry about running back and forth and potato sack racing and made myself in charge of taking photos this year. The last thing anyone wants to see is this giant pregnant girl jumping around in a potato sack.

The guys, or Gobbles {their team name} won as usual. But as usual, I'm pretty sure they cheated.

 



The weather was gorgeous and we decided to set the table outside. 

The next day we woke up early and went to Target to spend way too much money. You will never, ever catch me in a store on Thanksgiving night, but bright and early Friday I'm all over Target, egg nog latte in hand. Except.. this year Target stores aren't carrying the egg nog. Really? Ever thought about going to the cold case barista boy?! That might have been the disappointment of the decade.

 

After Target and left over turkey sandwiches we headed up to Calistoga to get our Christmas Trees. Nick found the cutest little family run lot. They had a little gift shop, snacks and cider, and best of all, snow! Well soap snow at least but it was pretty fun to play in.

He's definitely the handsomest tree cutter I ever did see!

This baby bump is starting to take charge. I'm definitely starting to feel pretty round. The guy at the gift shop joked that I was trying to steal wreaths under my jacket.

The farm has this cute little bell that you're supposed to ring after you cut down your tree. It was fun to hear the bell ringing while we were hunting.

After tree cutting we went to Yountville, the little town we got married in, for their town lighting and Christmas parade. We ended up getting appetizers and some how missed the parade but it was fun to be in the cute little town as they lit it all up for Christmas. It started pouring rain and we went to dinner at an amazing little Italian restaurant. A local favorite that might be our new family favorite. After dinner we put on a Christmas movie and everyone conked out on the couch.

Saturday morning we woke up and headed home. Our friends have an annual Friendsgiving party and this year everyone had to dress as their favorite reality stars. Nick and I went as Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar and it was ridiculous. We didn't take any pictures and I'm so sad but our costumes were pretty spot on. Sunday morning we slept in and then decorated the tree and I finished up decorating the rest of the house. After some terrible football we headed over to Nick's parents for annual turkey soup and to help decorate their tree.

We put up Christmas so early this year that it really helped this weekend feel more relaxed. Nick has already had the lights up on the house for a week and that made it so much easier too.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!