Week 12 Heartbeat

If you are a believer in all of the gender prediction myths, here is some information:

  • Heart rate: 159 bpm in week 12
  • Craving: salty and veggies
  • Acne: yep, I’ve got it
  • Morning sickness: tons of it
  • Clumsy/Graceful: clumsy…not something new for me

I don’t really believe in any of the gender prediction myths, but I’d love to hear what myths anyone out there has heard before.

Baby #2

On March 13, Peter and I found out that we are expecting Franza baby #2.

When I was pregnant with Emma, I started having ptyalism (lots of saliva) in about the 6th week. At first it was just annoying, but then it would start to make my stomach upset.

In week 4 this time around, I mentioned to Peter about how “spitty” I felt, but I figured it was just a salivary gland that was acting goofy. I was pretty sure my period was coming on Friday, and I was starting to get excited about having a delicious, homemade beer. He made a lighter, wheat beer specifically for me, and I was going to reward myself with a nice glass of beer after the crazy work week I had. I’m not a big beer drinker so this was an odd request, I’m sure.

I felt really PMS-y, and Peter even commented that I was really moody. Friday passed, nothing. So no beer for me. Saturday passed, nothing. Again, no beer. On Sunday before church I took a pregnancy test and was shocked when I saw a light line. “Peter, come tell me if you see what I think I see,” was about the same thing that I said to Peter 4 years ago when I had a positive pregnancy test with Emma.

Sure enough, a line. We were kind of shocked–probably more me than Peter as usual. It wasn’t a surprise by any means, but it is still crazy when you see a line appear!

Because I assumed it would take a while, I had purchased a pack of little pregnancy test strips off Amazon for like 4 bucks. So now I had 14 extra little strips. Naturally I took a test every day for a while and watched the line get darker each day. When a dark line appears, it makes you want to walk out of the bathroom and do a mic drop. Bam! Passed THAT test.

test 13luad

 

I had been to the doctor a month before for my annual checkup, and my doctor told me everything was looking fine and dandy regarding my health. I think she was a little surprised to see me back in her office a month later. Here is the first picture of the “monkey in a hole” as Meem would say:

first

Getting Ready for Christmas

I used to (like before last year) LOVE the holidays. Now I am slightly terrified of Christmas. Last year, I was 9 months pregnant, went into labor on Christmas Day at 12:30am, and had a baby at 4:06 pm on Christmas Day. So this year…I am a little unsure of what is going to happen. What is Christmas like with a baby? Will I enjoy it the way I usually do? Will it be better? What is it going to be like having people at our house this year? Will everyone behave themselves? Will I feel so stressed on Christmas or will I enjoy it?

I just am such a big Christmas fan normally, and now I feel like this paranoid wreck about it. For 28 years, I had an expectation of how Christmas Day was going to go…and it usually followed the family traditions, so nothing was out of the ordinary.

Now this is going to be the 2nd Christmas in a row that I have no idea what the heck is going to happen. Slightly nervous.

In an effort to get excited about the holidays again, I decided I am going to dress Emma in holiday clothes as much as possible. Because…why not?
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You’ll Poke Your Eye Out

On Thursday night, I was working at the dining room table…when all of a sudden, Lennon decided to go into super stealth mode toward the stairs. Her ears perked up, and she ran with a purpose toward the steps.

So I looked over and saw a little furry body hopping down the stairs. It was Tubby, the sugar glider. This sugar glider loves to get out and test his fate.

Tubby (on the left)  
Tubby before his diet

I ran to the steps and grabbed Tubby, yelling to Peter to grab Lennon, and at this same time, Lennon jumps toward my hands, scaring Tubby…so Tubby proceeds to jump on my face. Yes, face.

And wouldn’t you know that I haven’t clipped his dagger nails in a few months, even though I keep telling myself, “I really need to clip his nails.” Just in case you don’t know what their feet look like, here is a great pic I found online; it really showcases the talons of death well.

Where do his nails land, you ask? IN MY EYE. Like actually ON MY EYEBALL. At this point, I don’t want to pull him off my face, since his nails are like little hooks, so I just have to wait until he moves off of my eye. 
We called the eye doctor at 8:30 pm, hoping he had an answering service that could tell me what I should do. Luckily, my wonderful eye doctor was on call, and he called in some eye antibiotic gel that night. So I saw in Rite Aid with one eye closed — I could’t really open it because it would just start pouring tears down my face.
My watery eye 🙁
Me moaning on the night of “the incident”
My eye doctor was able to see me first thing the next morning and gave me more antibiotic gel. So yea… for about 1.5 days, it was almost impossible to open my eye. Luckily, all is healing well, and I don’t look like a cyclops anymore. However, I do have this awesome M-shaped scratch in the middle of my cornea. Wee!
The day after…disregard my messy kitchen.
It has been cleaned since then.

My favorite part of this story is how both the lady at Rite Aid and the nurse at the eye doctor’s office both looked at my file and said, “Happy Birthday!!” Hahaha! For some reason, this makes me laugh :).

Happy Birthday to Me

Today is my birthday, and it has been a pretty nice day so far!

This morning we went to Wawa for breakfast. When I came into work, my coworkers had decorated my office, and Heather bought me delicious Starbucks drink, a Birch Box, and a balloon. My parents sent me a beautiful bouquet of flowers, a gift card, socks, and snuggie. Peter got me a fabric steamer, which is really like a gift for the both of us :). Matt bought a box of fun school supplies and a gift card, and Jerry and Rachel gave us a nice giftcard for Italian food. What awesome family and friends I have!

We also all went out to company lunch today, but I could only eat a tiny bit before I was stuffed. Then dinner was a night out for Italian with the gang. Great night!

Thank you to everyone who gave me birthday wishes, gifts, and/or made this day a special one. You guys are awesome!

How Do You Do, Third Trimester?

Today marks the beginning of the third trimester. I’m not sure how I feel about that yet. Everyone says the second trimester is the best, because your energy has returned, and you’re not that big that you can’t move or breathe. I’m starting to feel the weight of my belly lately. I know I may not look that big, but an extra 15 pounds can really make a lot of difference when it’s in the middle of your body!

My legs are still killing me in the middle of the night. It is really quite pathetic…. Trying to put pants on in the morning is probably comedic relief for Peter. Just lifting my leg high enough to put it into a pant leg is torture, so there is lots of moaning and groaning. Luckily the lower back pain has subsided (for now), so I am crossing my fingers that I might have a few weeks without this stupid leg pain, too.

Peter and I bought some white curtain’s for the baby’s room this weekend and hung them up with a new curtain rod. They look wrinkly for now, but I think I am going to put the word out there that I’d really like a fabric steamer for my birthday :).

If you are easily offended stop reading now! While we were hanging up the curtains, I sneezed and peed a little. It was the first time that happened, and it made me laugh really hard. Peter thought it was funny, too. I guess I should carry an extra pair of underwear with me now — especially if this becomes a daily occurrence. *Crossing fingers — please don’t let this be a daily occurrence.*

My little owl lamp arrived in the mail, and it is perfect for the room! It lets off just enough light that changing diapers will be fine, but it’s not too much light.

This weekend we went to visit some friends down in NC, and we had a great time. It’s so nice to see them being successful with their pizza business. The place seems really popular, and the food is delicious! If you are ever in the OBX, stop by Pizza Stop. Yum!

Also, my grand-mom and I went to Panera to pick up some pastries, and I grabbed a Pumpkin Spice Latte while we were there (decaf). It was pretty good!! I would rate it higher than 7-11 lattes and somewhere below the Starbucks ones…but totally good enough! I highly recommend trying it. They also have delicious pumpkin muffins if you are a pumpkin-lover, which I am.

Week 26-27 Belly Pictures

Jeanne has been asking for belly pictures, but I still have not gotten used to my growing physique. So here are a few pics of this past week.

Week 27 – Day 1
Blurry but you get the idea 🙂

Week 26 – Day 6
Yes, it’s a bathroom pic.
My mom wanted to see my new shirt.

Week 26 – Day 7

By the way, after months of wearing Old Navy clothes that have been way too big and haven’t fit me right…I think it was totally worth it to buy a few good essentials from Motherhood Maternity. Now I feel like a somewhat normal woman again :). It’s just not Fall without cute sweaters!

Rachel’s Bridal Shower

My future sister-in-law’s bridal shower was today, so everyone was running around like crazy trying to get things in order. There was TONS of food (as usual), cute decorations, wonderful guests, and lots of laughter.  I hope Rachel had a good time and enjoyed herself. Here are some of the details of the day:

  

Vacation

Peter and I went down to Jacksonville/Daytona Beach/Orlando a few weeks ago for a week vacation. It was a lot different from any other vacation we’ve had, because there was no planning! We literally said, “We’ll go to Daytona Beach,” and that was the only plan (besides seeing family, of course!). However, I do think it was Peter’s plan all along to rent this car:

We didn’t have any specific vacation plans, but we thought it would be fun to head to a Disney park while we were there. We ate, we swam, we relaxed, we tourist-ed. A great time was had by all!

We even met a nice old man, named Herman Dixon, who helped us find our way to the Kennedy Space Center. I guess I should explain… Apparently the street address that Google Maps gives you for the KSC takes you to a marsh. Then the address on the KSC website brings you to the actual Kennedy Space Military Base. So when we arrived at the base, Herman gave us GPS coordinates and showed us on our way. What a nice fellow!

We also went to Animal Kingdom, which changed their hours of operation on the day we were there, so we had to rush, rush, rush through as many things as we possibly could to get our money’s worth. We saw a bird show, went to the Lion King, rode on a train, played with goats and pigs, walked through a menagerie, ate Disney pizza, watched a parade (for about 2 minutes), saw gorillas/bats/antelope, watched It’s Tough to be a Bug, went to the little animal laboratory, watched some animal videos, and walked our butts off.

At one point, I looked down, and my ankles were actually a little swollen. Yikes. Peter kept calling me “mastodon feet.” Such is love. Actually, I know it is love…he even carried my purse all day for me, because it was super heavy (filled with water bottles, etc.).

Taking Care of Sicky

We went on vacation last week, and this week Peter has been sick, so it’s been a little busy :).

I figured I would take a minute to blog before we head out for Friday night dinner. Vacation was great! I will make sure to post some pics and write a few stories at a later date.

We came home to a well-painted room — thanks, Dad! — and it was filled with clothes — thanks, Mom F.!  Peter had painted the spare room, but he left a little bit of detail work for my dad to do. My dad is the master of painting walls right around the ceiling, so you don’t have paint on the ceiling.

Also, I found this cute little lamp that I think I might order. We have a fan in the room with a good, bright light, but I figured this lamp would be perfect for slightly lighting the room in the middle of the night when diapers need changing.