the beginning of the baby gear

After reading reviews and product specifications and articles and more reviews, Nick had figured out which stroller/carseat system would be best for us and we started looking around at prices, colors, etc. Nick looked around at all sorts of stores and online retailers and...

Lo and behold, we found exactly what we wanted, almost brand new, with minimal wear and in the color we wanted on Craigslist. A travel system with a stroller, carseat and carseat base that retails for around $350 was listed by a woman outside of Atlanta. She was willing to sell her whole system, with less than 6 months of use under its belt, for $125. On the plus side, she was also willing to meet us halfway between Athens and Atlanta and the carseat doesn't expire until 2017 so we know it'll last as long as we need it and that it meets all current safety regulations! 

I love the color and it'll be great for a boy or a girl. Heck, the baby won't care what color it is anyway so we figured we should get something we really liked :) There's a little wear on the front of the stroller but everything seems to work perfectly and the woman we bought it from included both of the manuals as well so if anything confuses us later, we can look it up. 

It was definitely weird driving home with a carseat in the back but we did manage to joke that it would be great if the baby was as quiet in the carseat as the imaginary baby was during that ride home :) 

When we got home, we laid everything out on the floor so the dogs could check it all out. Buster, the beagle, completely freaked out (which shouldn't surprise you if you know about Buster's quirks but for those of you who may not understand, he really doesn't like it when his surroundings change) and he still hides around the corner anytime the guest bedroom door opens and he catches a glimpse of the stroller. He's such a wimp :) Maverick, the chihuahua, on the other hand was perfectly happy to welcome the stroller to the family. Evidenced by the following: 

He walked right over to it, sniffed and jumped up in the seat. Then promptly posed for a photo :) In my biased opinion, cutest. chihuahua. ever. 

Anyway, it feels a little weird to already have baby gear in the house but we are really happy we found such a big chunk of necessities for over half the price! We've started to keep a list of all the other items that we run across that we'll need later on down the line and we're having fun picking out a highchair and bottles and all that fun stuff. 

We should have our next belly photo up later this week, can't believe we're already past the 10 week mark!

much love, L&N

Happy 4th of July!

I hope everyone had a great holiday! We didn't do much, just relaxed at home, did some grocery shopping, and made a really yummy peach cake with some fresh picked Georgia peaches :) Then we spent the evening distracting our wimpy dogs from the fireworks outside because they freak out every time they hear the boom. 

This photo is the beginning of our little project to document my growing belly. For these next few weeks we'll probably only take a photo every 2 weeks since there aren't really any noticeable changes yet but once we get into the second trimester we'll probably do every week. We also decided to include some "pregnancy stats" in each of these posts so we can look back and remember how everything progressed. 

STATS:

Foods I'm craving: lemonade!, protein (mostly chicken), spicy sauces (Nick's spaghetti sauce, Thai food) and pizza

Foods I can't stand: any kind of mayo-based salad (chicken, tuna, pasta salad, etc.), soda (except ginger ale), and really sweet stuff

Symptoms: exhausted (I swear I could sleep for 12 hours a day), nausea, irritable, stuffy sinuses, really sore boobs, and stupid things make me cry

Maternity clothes: not yet (but I'm starting to feel that my normal clothes fit a little different)

Weddings rings (on/off): on

Favorite thing this week: taking our first belly photo! 

much love, L&N

8 week appointment

Last Thursday, we went for our 8 week prenatal appointment and ultrasound. It's been really great to get to go to the doctor every couple weeks and see what's going on but now we have the typical one month wait before the next appointment :( I'm already counting down to the 12 week appointment because we'll really be able to see some major changes at that point.

Here's the ultrasound photo:

Still doesn't look like much, but the blob is definitely bigger! Marvin's measuring right on schedule (actually a couple days ahead of where he should be...maybe we have a giant on our hands) and the heartbeat was 159 bpm; right where it should be.

It really is cool to see what's going on and to hear the heartbeat but it still feels a little like nothing's going on in there (for me, at least). I mean, I get the nausea and the fatigue and I know that's because of Marvin but there are times when I think, "Is there really anything happening in there?" I think when it starts to look more like a baby it'll feel more real when we see the ultrasound screen :)

We've started talking about finding the perfect OB and picking out nursery furniture. I know, it may be a little early to be worrying about nursery furniture but we're graduate students (meaning limited funds) who like to plan for things like this ;) We're currently seeing a doctor who is part of a practice with three other doctors and they have a policy that requires all patients to rotate through all the physicians during the prenatal period, without getting "assigned" to one doctor. That also means that when you go into labor, you end up with whatever doctor is on call. We decided that this set-up would have been OK with us if we liked all the doctors equally but after meeting a different doctor last week, we've decided that we don't like her as well. This means we're on the hunt for the perfect doctor! We're going to tour a midwifery center here in Athens in a couple weeks and we'll be getting recommendations from friends as soon as we share the news. Hopefully, we can find someone we're both comfortable with and who fits with what we're looking for!

much love, L&N