Pregnancy Productivity

This week I finished painting the nursery :) I LOVE how it turned out

We went with a tan base on all four walls and then charcoal gray stripes on the accent wall that will be behind the crib :)

And then we'll have red accents throughout the room :)

After I finished painting I moved all the baby stuff back into the nursery where it belongs. We now have baby clothes hanging in the closet, and the changing table set up and organized with diapers, diaper cream, baby lotion and soap, as well as health stuff like our thermometer, nail clips, all that jazz. I've got his toys in his toy box, and we got his carseat and stroller set up. The carseat even has toys dangling and a little carseat cover on it already. I was on a roll; I wanted to get everything that we had set up right away! 

I also finished filling out my FMLA paperwork. After going back and forth about whether or not we could afford day care (even at my center) we've decided that we will be better off paying the ungodly daycare cost than having me stay at home or even getting a part time job. It was a tough decision, and one that caused a few disagreements, but we've decided that baby will in fact come to work with me and my amazing husband will pick up a second job to help afford the cost. I really hate that he has to work two jobs just so we can afford day care, but we would lose more with me quitting my job. I think it's horrible how expensive day care costs are. I've always heard how expensive it was, but I never knew how expensive until we started looking into it. And the worst part is there's no help in paying the cost (if you have a full time job). Ridiculous.  So anyway, I'll be going back to work 6 weeks after baby boy is born. Soon? Yes, extremely, but me not working is going to be tough on us financially and since he's coming to work with me I get to be with him all day whether I'm working or not, so I might as well help bring in some money (especially since the holidays will be right around the corner!). 

So that's my pregnancy productivity this week. I'm hoping I can talk John into setting up the crib this weekend so I can add that to the list. I love seeing the nursery come together. It's starting to look just like I pictured! :)

Productivity

This week work is really slow. I've only been doing half days going in at 12:30 and as much as that will suck come next paycheck, it's been nice to get stuff done that we really needed to get done.

Here's my productivity list:
- Almost finished painting the nursery

it may not look like much yet, but underneath those five coats of white paint is a very ugly dark brown, and those walls were a boring white. drastic changes here guys

- Put up our fireplace mantle  (a project I wanted done as soon as we moved in over a year ago...)

that mantle was unfinished wood that I stained. I think I did a pretty good job

- Registered for the hospital
- Sent in our financial paperwork for the hospital
- Started filling out my FMLA forms
- Did a project for my classroom

On top of keeping the house clean! Our house always looks like a hurricane went through it by Tuesday, but now it's  Thursday Eve and the house still looks great :)

I've been stressing about getting all of the above done, and now it's finished :) well, okay the nursery isn't finished, but we're sure gettin there!

Oh and in other news, John finally felt little lamb kick!!! For weeks every time John's tried to feel him kick Pierce stops. He could be kicking up a storm and literally as soon as John would put his hand on my tummy, he would go completely still. Tonight we were lying on the couch and I pulled John's hand to my stomach and told him to just wait and it happened :) John felt it :) not once either, he felt him multiple times! Every time  Pierce would kick John would say something like "there he is" "there's another one" "he just kicked" lol it was so cute :)

I also bought my maternity swimsuit for Maui tonight. Some haters have said some very blunt things to me recently about me going to Maui while pregnant, things like, "you're going like that??" while pointing at my belly or "why are you going to Maui? you don't exactly have a bikini body". After these comments I had full intentions of getting a maternity bikini and flaunting my big prego belly, but I couldn't find one that didn't break our bank :/ Too bad too because I would have rocked that bikini even if I am 6 months pregnant! But the one I bought is still pretty cute I think, even if my belly will be covered ;)

see? cute :)

16 days till Hawaii!!!

This week is turning out to be pretty darn good

Happy To Announce

Pierce Robert Merrigan 

We are now halfway through the pregnancy with a very healthy baby boy weighing in at 11.4 ounces!!

A Little John or A Little Me?

We had our big ultrasound on Thursday and it was one of the best days during this pregnancy so far. We don't have the results back yet, but we'll have them Monday. I was so excited to see our little bundle!! Baby went from being a little dot on a photo to an actual baby!

My friend went with me to see the ultrasound because John is in Utah for a friend's wedding. I was extremely  upset that John couldn't be there, I cried. But he was on speaker phone with me when she revealed the sex :)

I can't reveal whether baby Merrigan is a boy or girl yet because John and I are going to do a gender/name reveal on Monday when he's home. But I am super excited and immediately went out and bought gender specific items :)

The ultrasound was surreal. It's amazing how much you can see with just that little wand. I saw the brain, the heart, every vertebrae of the spine, we even saw arteries...how crazy is that?! The baby was moving around a lot, kicking and rolling, but I couldn't feel anything. I told the technician I was worried that I didn't feel much movement (and wasn't feeling any at the time) so she looked at the placenta and come to find out I have an anterior placenta, meaning that the placenta is in front of the baby blocking me from feeling a lot of the movement. This isn't a bad thing necessarily, just where the placenta happened to land, and she said that all that means is that it'll take longer for me to feel constant movement. Which kinda sucks, because I love feeling the movement whenever I do.

I really didn't think I'd cry. And I was doing really well at first. But then I saw those cute little baby toes and I couldn't help myself. They are the most precious baby toes I've ever seen in my life. While the technician was trying to get a 3D picture of the face the baby wasn't really cooperating- moving, rolling, not facing the camera, putting his/her hands in front of his/her face whenever she went to take the picture haha she was wiggling my belly trying to get baby to turn the right way...it was kind of funny. And when she did that baby rubbed those adorable little eyes like (s)he was tired...and I cried again.

I've loved this baby since I found out I was pregnant, but it's amazing how much closer I feel to the baby after actually seeing the little face, and the little hands, and the little feet. Now this baby is a definite sex, and now this baby has a definite name....it makes it so much more real.

I can't stop staring at the ultrasound photos. Trying to wrap my head around the fact that right now, as I type this a little baby is actually in my tummy....my baby with that cute little face, and those adorable little toes....that there is an actual human being inside of me that gets tired and rubs his/her eyes. A little baby that looks like me or John...or hopefully a mixture of the two....

So without further ado, here is our little baby

I'm tellin' ya...there's something about those feet that get to me every time...

<3

does baby look like a little John, a little Piper, a little of both?

I'm so excited to meet this little one. To be this baby's mommy. This is one of the best things that's ever happened to me and that will ever happen to me, hands down. I feel so blessed and honored that God has made this little human specifically with John and I in mind, to make the perfect addition to our little family, to teach us and to hopefully help us be the best parents we can possibly be. 

I love you little lamb <3

our Memorial Day Weekend

I have had such a good Memorial Day weekend and it's not even Memorial Day yet.

Friday night after work I went out to dinner with a great friend. Much needed girl time! Then John and I tried to watch a movie together but both ended up falling asleep in the middle of it. Ooops.

Saturday we woke up, lounged for a little bit, I skyped Lizzie Doll, took Duke to the dog park for a while, brought him back home then John and I went out to lunch, then it was off to a mini golf date. Mini golf brought back so many memories of when we started dating. I was working at a mini golf course at the time, John would come visit me at work and I'd let him have free games.....sometimes I'd get off work and we'd play a round together. We used to go mini golfing quite a bit but haven't been since we moved out here. I loved it! I had a blast :) We made a bet on who would win....if I won I got a massage (a legit massage) and if he won he got...well, something else. Let's just say we both won in the end hahaha

Today we did some house work, I worked out, we went and looked at a daycare (that's not going to work out), then went out to lunch, came home and went on a walk with Duke, and then we went to a dinner at Tina's with the boys and our cousin Chelsea who is in town from New York.

I feel like I've been so busy this weekend and so active, I love that feeling!

We'll see what tomorrow has in store! :)

Happy Memorial Day everyone! And thank you troops for all of your sacrifices!! <3

First Belly Photo and a Pregnancy Question

Instagram has seen it, Facebook has seen it, it's about time the blog has seen it too

My first belly photo :)

I feel like my stomach grew overnight. Although I could see a difference in my belly before, not many others could and then BOOM everyone started commenting on how I'm showing and people have been touching my belly since. 

We get to go in for our ultrasound next Friday and we're hoping we can get an early prediction on the gender. I'm a little nervous for this appointment though. At my last appointment my doctor told me I had lost weight. She said she wasn't concerned yet, but that I needed to focus on gaining it. I figured I had lost weight because I was so sick at first and could hardly eat, but I feel like I've been doing so much better ever since. I eat breakfast, lunch and dinner; I eat small snacks every 2-3 hours, I really don't know what else I could do. With this mindset I hopped on the scale a couple days ago and have only gained one pound out of the few that I lost :( 

I feel healthy, and by looking at my belly our baby is clearly growing, so should I be worried? I'm not sure. So I'm a little nervous for our appointment. 

Do any of you  moms have suggestions for gaining healthy weight? Did you have this problem, and should I be worried? Any tips would be much appreciated :) 

Our First Big Purchase

We are the proud new owners of this beauty :)

I'm so excited to have such a big item already. We have a lot of little things, but this was our first big purchase. This was a gift from my grandma (so technically not our big purchase). We are so thankful for this crib, it's a much nicer one than we could afford on our own. 

Along with the crib, my grandma also bought our little lamb a super cute baby book, a silver keepsake thingy, Ute booties and Razorback booties (for our Arkansas peeps). It's safe to say she's a little excited for her great grandbaby :)

My sister brought me all of our old Dr. Seuss books. Some are a little worn, but I love that we have the same ones I grew up reading. I'm also going to get mine and John's favorite books from when we were little to go in the nursery. His was "The  Little Fish That Got Away" (surprising? not in the least) and mine was The Berenstain Bears"The Spooky Old Tree". Those are two must haves that we still need to get. But I digress...

John and I get to go in on Friday for our next appointment. I feel like we've been waiting forever for this appointment to come! Our last one was 7 weeks ago, that's soooo long to wait to see our baby! I can't wait to hear that little heartbeat again. That sound makes my heart melt :) And hopefully with this appointment we'll be able to have a better estimate about our due date.

Gender Prediction

I think it's pretty safe to say that whenever a girl gets pregnant she starts day dreaming about who her baby will be, what they will be, what their personality will be like....and part of this curiosity in the first few months is wondering, is it a boy or is it a girl? Unless you're one of those people who doesn't want to find out, then you wonder for 9 months! Just the thought of that stresses me out haha

I've been sooo curious to know whether little lamb is a boy or a girl that I've gone so far as to look up all the ridiculous baby prediction myths (knowing full well that they're not scientifically accurate). Needless to say I get pretty mixed answers. According to the Chinese calendar I'm having a baby boy. According to my cravings and extensive nausea it's a girl. And then I stumbled upon a scientific study for gender prediction.

This study had a 97.2% accuracy in the prediction of boys and 97.5% accuracy in the prediction of girls. Basically you need to have a very early ultrasound (around 6-9 weeks) and if your baby is on the right side of the picture (that means it's actually the left side of your uterus because the image is mirrored) then you're most likely going to have a girl. If your baby is on the left side of the photo, chances are high that it's a boy.

According to the study, it looks like little lamb is a girl :)

This picture makes me smile, and giggle a little bit because I can't distinguish anything....she/he is so itty bitty! Well...was itty bitty, this was almost a month ago. 

Our next ultrasound is in two weeks and I can't wait to hear the *swoosh swoosh* of the heartbeat again :)

Although John and I are hoping for a boy, we will be ecstatic if baby is a girl. All we really care about is that little lamb is healthy :) 

Baby Merrigan

It's time to come clean blogger friends. You see, I've been keeping a secret from you...

Yes, it's true. John and I are pregnant :)

I found out I was pregnant the night before my birthday (Happy Birthday to me!!), but we were so scared that we were going to lose this one too we didn't tell anybody. We kept our faith in God, our fingers crossed and our mouths shut until we were able to see the doctor and hear our little one's heartbeat. So a few weeks ago we went in to my OB and sure enough we heard the "swoosh swoosh" of the heart- 120 bpm and everything looks great :)

My doctor and I disagree with how far along I am, but there's a bit of confusion because I got pregnant only two weeks after my miscarriage. Apparently you're super fertile after a miscarriage- who knew. So the confusion lies in me not having a typical cycle in between pregnancies, but I'm pretty positive I'm 10 weeks (doctor thinks I'm 8 but I don't think that's possible). Our due date is either October 8th (if I'm right) or October 21 (if the doctor is right).

So far this pregnancy is completely different from the last one, which is a very good thing!

For the first couple weeks I felt great! Aside from extremely sore boobs I didn't feel much different at all. And then BOOM, the nausea hit like a ton of bricks and has yet to go away. I'm nauseous 95% of the time- morning, afternoon, night, my body doesn't care. I'm not craving anything because most foods make me sick. My boobs, well, they still hurt like a mother. I get tired very easily; I'm ready for a nap by noon everyday and crash when I get home, but you know what? All these symptoms mean high pregnancy hormones, which  means a healthy baby. So if me being sick and exhausted means my baby will be healthy, I'll take this all 9 months long.

John is very excited. He was scared and nervous at first and didn't want to talk about the baby in fear of losing it, but once he heard the heartbeat it was a different story.

We've named baby, but we've had names for a while.

We have nursery themes picked out, we just have to wait a few more weeks till we can find out the gender.

And we're getting a crib soon :)

So that's where we're at. We have a very healthy baby, a very nauseous mommy, a very excited daddy, and all the other details are slowly getting taken care of as well :)

Stocking Up

I bought some really cute stuff today for my baby stash, wanna see? Of course you do, it's cute baby stuff, who doesn't want to look at cute baby stuff? I bought....

                                                                       this car seat cover 
                                                            (hat included! the hat sold the deal)

                                                               and the blooming bath
                                                                      (in turquoise)

I typically don't like the gender neutral stuff so I pass on anything that I feel should be related to the gender, but I didn't like the gender specific car seat covers anyway and then I saw this one and it's just too stinkin' cute to pass up. And the blooming bath, I figured if it's a girl she'll still look girly in a blue flower, and if he's a boy well then at least it's blue! haha

I also bought a moby today (in the color "slate") but those aren't "cute" so no picture needed. 

I also bought this diaper bag a few months ago, but wanted to share it with my "cute baby stuff"

When it comes to diaper bags I feel like it doesn't need to be gender specific because baby isn't the one carrying it around- I am, so I went ahead and bought one that I wouldn't mind toting around everywhere. The whole gray being a gender neutral color thing is a coincidence because I'm a sucker for gray. It's pretty :)

Puppy Birthdays

Today is Duke's second birthday.

Here's how we celebrated:

birthday boy bandana...super cute!!

 

  puppy safe cupcakes with yogurt frosting and carob cookies

 new toy- the everlasting treat ball

And lots of loves from mom!

Happy birthday baby boy!!

A Little Sunday Humor

This is all too funny and way too true not to share

Does this mean I'm not alone in this battle? Haha

Photo of the Week

I can't stop laughing. I become overtaken with hysterics every time I look at this picture. Meet my in-laws. 

Best photo bomb ever!

I couldn't help myself. I had to:

And on that note, goodnight everyone!

Photo Story Telling

Our 2012 Family Vacation to the Oregon Coast and Camping Trip in Central Oregon
 

 

Ending the Week Right

After the week I had I decided to take today off. Off from everything.

I didn't clean. I didn't cook. I didn't study or do homework, laundry or run errands. I didn't even answer my phone.

But you wanna know what I did do?

I slept in.

I Skyped Lizzie Doll and hung out with her for about 3-4 hours (I lost track).

I ate Captain Crunch for dinner.

I took Duke to the park and we watched the baby ducks swimming across the pond. Duke tried to chase them.  And then we sat some more, relaxed in the sun, smelling the fresh cut grass, and watching two kids try to fish in the duck pond with just a stick and line.


It was a pretty damn good day.

Sweet n Sour Chicken

John and I tried out a new recipe lastnight that I saw on pinterest and it's a-mazing!! It was so good in fact that I can't not share it with you guys

picture from original blog (but mine looked just as good ;))

Ingredients for the chicken:

3-4 boneless chicken breasts (we used two chicken breasts for the two of us and there was plenty)

salt + pepper

1 cup cornstarch

2 eggs, beaten (we used 3)

1/4 cup canola oil

 

Ingredients for the sauce: 

3/4 cup sugar

4 tbs ketchup

1/2 cup distilled white vinegar

1 tbs soy sauce

1 tsp garlic salt

 

Season your chicken with salt and pepper to taste. Then, cut up the chicken into cubes and dip the pieces into the cornstarch and then the egg (Yes, cornstarch and THEN the egg. John didn't think I was reading it right, but I was). Pour the oil into a pan and  cook the chicken on the stove until brown (don't cook it all the way through). 

 

Once browned, place the chicken pieces into a 9x13 baking pan (don't forget to grease your pan!). 

 

Pour your yummy sweet n sour sauce on the chicken and cook in the oven at 325 for 1 hour. Check on your chicken every 15 minutes and stir it around. (We didn't actually need to bake it for a full hour, just 45 minutes, but every oven is different). 

And voila! 

This recipe is soo good! 

Check out the original recipe and others at Life as a Lofthouse

 

Total Recall Photos

I don't post in my blog for weeks and now it's 3 in one night?

I apparently have a problem with moderation. That, and procrastination. Mostly procrastination.

Here's pictures of what we've been up to lately....

 here's a picture of our guest bathroom. I actually REALLY love how it turned out

our bathroom still needs work. We'll eventually paint the walls a beige color and definitely update that hideous mirror

 These were at our party. thank you pinterest. everyone thought these were so cute

 sour patch kid cupcakes AND cookies and cream cupcakes. SO good!

 waiving my great grandpa's old flag :o)

some of our delicious dinner

 Happy 4th Everyone!

and drum roll please.....

 The newest addition to our family, my beautiful niece Kennedy

I Win

My husband melts my heart. There's no other way to put it.

I have this picture frame that I write on for him...inside of it it has a piece of paper that says "I love you because..." and then I'll write reasons why I love him on the picture frame. I've been doing this for a long time and I change it about once a week.

Today I came home, walked into the bedroom and saw the frame put on my dresser with a note to me, and this is what it said....

I'm not even kidding when I say I stopped dead in my tracks and almost started crying.

I don't deserve him. I really don't. He's so good to me. I hope he knows how much I absolutely adore him.