Weeks 10 and 11 | Hubby update

Hey family and Friends!

So I'm not even going to apologize for the long laps in time between posts, instead I'll go strait into

Life/HUBBY Update!: 
So I finally got to talk to the hubby! Two Saturday nights ago, he was able to call me and let me know he was doing well, but tired and grateful for a couple days off before going back into training. So we got to chat Saturday and Sunday. Monday he was supposed to go back to training so when he called me I was worried that he had been injured, but he said they had not yet taken the phones away. He did however say he thought he was getting a cold which is worrisome because part of the training he was doing involves continuous deep diving, and with a cold pressure is harder to regulate. So Tuesday came and went and then Wednesday night around 10:30 PM I get a text from him. Its a picture of his ear with blood flowing out of it. Immediately I think blown eardrum. Naturally I freak out and start texting back relentlessly until he finally called me at 11PM and tells me that the Dr at the ER thinks he has a perforated ear drum. AKA, he's being sent home from training because even though physically he's ok, if he were to get his ear wet, he would get uncontrollably sick and then have horrible vertigo and possibly get an infection. He says he will be coming home tomorrow (Thursday.. aka usual posting day) but didn't know what time or how. This mainly because he wasn't well enough to drive himself back from another state by himself, and they weren't sure how his ear would do on a plane. (this is where those who follow me on Facebook saw my post about him coming home and the requests for prayer ((THANKS BY THE WAY FOR ALL THE PRAYERS!)))

So Thursday comes and they decide he will be ok on a plane and I end up picking him up in the afternoon. Poor guy is green. The plane ride was rough on him with the pressure changes and by this time he has a full blown cold. :( I get him fed and in bed. The next day I take him to his work to check back in and they recommend we go to a nearby urgent care to be reevaluated because the hubby is reporting he feels worse. It's a good thing we did because his ear is now infected and so full of puss the Dr can't even see his eardrum. She recommended no work until seen by an ENT (Ear Nose and Throat DR.) So those of you who have EVER had to get an appointment with a specialist know the pain in the butt it can be to get an appointment the same month, let alone the same week! BUT! Luckily, the hubby's dad is a Dr and gave us the hook up. He was able to talk to one of his colleagues and get him to squeeze us in that upcoming Monday.

Fast forward to this last Monday. The ENT sees the hubby, cleans out his ear with his special tools (crazy that the last two Drs did nothing to clean out his ear the whole time!) does a series of tests and calls us back in for the verdict. This again is where we say THANK YOU FOR ALL THE PRAYERS! The Dr informs us that the hubby's ear is NOT perforated! It is swollen and has fluid behind it which is causing the vertigo but with the rest of the antibiotics and some new steroids for a week will go away. He did say also that the ear cannel (before the eardrum for those who did't take anatomy like I did in college) was cut on the top part and two bruises on the bottom of the cannel. This too would explain with the cold how his ear got infected. So since then he has slowly been getting better and is expected to be able to return to work this coming Monday.

SOOOO you can kind of now see why I didn't really have the time to post a week 10 and have been super busy since getting him home from the last Dr appointment Monday!

But as far as updates for me:
Last Wednesday before I got the scary call from the Hubby I had my 10 week appointment at the Dr and I heard the bump's heartbeat! It was 164 BPM and the Dr said she has no worries and says I'm progressing nicely. I remember on a past post I said I gained two pounds, but as of that appointment I guess I didn't gain any weight. I know it's said not to weigh yourself on different scales because they are calibrated differently. So I guess my scale at home measures a little heavier then the Dr's. She did say this is nothing to worry about as the 1st trimester can have a weight gain anywhere from 0-5ish pounds. She also said I was a pretty healthy weight pre pregnancy so I'll probably only gain 25-30 pounds for the whole of my pregnancy as long as I never use the excuse I'm eating for two.

This last weekend my parents came down here from Phoenix to hang out with me and work on the baby room. (But the hubby ended getting all the attention because he was here lol) We did paint most of the baby room though (I'll post pics after we have a gender reveal. I'll have a whole post about the room, its a work in progress now so it wouldn't make sense to post pics of it.) Now most people I told this to think that A: I'm crazy for making the baby room this early because of what can still happen, but as all of you know, I cherish life from the moment of conception. And this is a way of me celebrating the bump in me (despite our disagreement of food right now.. me: I want to eat this.. Baby: I dare you! try it and see what happens!!) and it also gives me something to do with all my free time. B: You can't paint a room without knowing the gender! Well PPTTTTTT to you! It's my house and my baby and I can do what I want! But anyone who really knows me, knows my thoughts on conforming to gender norms when it comes to decorating for baby. The room will NOT be pink if a girl or blue if its a boy, I want this baby to appreciate all colors and not feel pressured to fall into a category of pink or blue..*though when we do a gender reveal.. there will be pink and blue at the party announce it. C: Nesting isn't supposed to happen for much longer; well you may also know, I'm type A personality and kinda OCD... that combined... well... the baby room is getting done is all I can say lol. My mom and I also went through my fabric collection and found some colors for the crib skirt and teething bumpers and some other surprise touches I can't reveal until I make my room post :)

This last week has been nice because the hubby has been home. It's super great to have my favorite companion back. Not to mention the dogs are over the moon with happiness, I really wish I had taped the hubby coming home.. they FREAKED out for a good 20 min... ever heard a dog scream from happiness... well my shepherd did and it took a while to calm her down. And each morning since she does the same thing almost as if to say "I can't believe you are still here!!!!" Bruno.. yeah he just wiggles until he falls over from loosing his balance.. he's more of a quiet happy.

I think I should also note that my dogs have been SUPER protective of me! Mitzi won't let ANY men (except for my dad and the friends from church) near me. And even Bruno has gotten to barking at other people/dogs on our walks!

Symptom Check!

Morning sickness: Nausea has been HORRIBLE these last two weeks. Or more really it has been the heartburn. When I was at the Dr, she prescribed me with 75 mg of Zantac twice a day, and it's.. kind of helping. Most days now I'm ok, but there are still a few where I don't think it worked. Also it should be noted, that since the hubby has come home sick I've puked more because of all the flem he's coughed up... my gag reflex is BAD...

Cravings: I have had moments of I MUST EAT THIS NOW!! For instance the other day I really wanted chili, so we find a place with really good chili, (Texas Road House if you are wondering) I eat it and we go about our day.. by the time I get home I have HORRIBLE heart burn and feel like crap the rest of the day. :( ... this is what "cravings" have been like for me. I want something, eat it and then it bites me in the butt later... sigh

Tiredness: I'm still super tired all the time and really look forward to the second trimester when all this goes away and I have energy again!

Hormones: It hasn't been to bad, except when the hubby called me saying he was hurt, that made me sad and I had to call my mom (at 11:30 PM.. SORRY MOM!) to calm me down.

Hair: I'm getting a she beard! Why is the hair growing on my chin and not the top of my head!!! This isn't right I tell you!! Me and the tweezers have been best friends these last two weeks lol. Please other moms tell me this is normal! I also have not noticed anything changing with the top of my head in the positive. Quite the opposite in fact, my ombre is shot and my hair is fried, sooooo yesterday I got it cut and colored back to more of my natural color! let me know what you think from the 11 week pic!

Belly: I'm now at the point as the hubby says "did she just have a  really big lunch?" awkward stage.. I don't have a solid "bump" that makes it obvious I have a baby. It's more.. oh that girl needs to lay off whatever she's eating or the rest of her body is gonna follow. haha We're both looking forward to when it's obvious so we don't have to convince people there is a baby in my belly. Oh! And my mom got me some super cute maternity shirts that kind of help accentuate my belly :) so THANKS MOM!!

As I'm entering into my last week in the 1st trimester this Saturday (tomorrow!) I really hope that I'll start to notice the morning sickness subsiding and my energy level coming back so I can get back into my regular routine!

Well that's it for these two weeks! Again thank you all who prayed for the hubby last week and this week! We truly believe that it was a help and a factor in his ear not ending up being as bad as the first two Drs thought! See the power of prayer and faith in God does work!

Until next time!

Bre and the Bump!

Mommy Haul!! (First trimester)

Mommy Haul!

So since I've found out I'm expecting I have made a few purchases and thought I'd share what I've gotten! (Warning, this is a LONG post! If you want to skip the Haul and just want the promo codes and deals that I got click HERE)

Firstly, I'm a stomach sleeper (or as my husband says, I'm a face down in the pillow "are you alive?" sleeper). This is not aloud as the belly gets bigger so I was determined to train myself to figure out how to comfortably sleep on my side. So, I went to buy buy baby with one of my mommy friends and bought a Snoogle:

Ok ok, I know the price is a little crazy: $65.99 BUT it wasn't that much in the store!.. it was like $55.00.. still a little pricey, but I had a 20% off coupon so that helped a bit and I also had some leftover birthday money so technically it didn't cost me anything! The cool thing about this one is it came with a removable cover, so I can take it off and wash it when it smells bad. This particular pillow comes either with the pillow case for $55, or you can get one without a cover for $50 (the pillow is actually colored) and then buy covers for $30... so obviously the deal was to buy the pillow that had the case anyway.

The next thing I got was some belly bands. As you may have read in my last few update posts, my pants aren't fitting so well. I saw on youtube that future mommies can do this:

the good ol' put a hair tie on the pants

But, if my shirt were to ride up people would see that my zipper is down!! So through some research I found a great site and coupon code for *FREE belly bands! The company is bellybuttonband and they are unique because instead of a normal belly band just using tension to cover the belly and keep the pants up, this one has button attachments to actually secure your pants!

Its especially great becasue not only does it extend the life of the pants through pregnancy but it goes low enough to completely cover my zipper and give a layered shirt look:

The most best thing about this was the cost it was to me! Normally the bands that I bought are about $20 each so naturally buying 2 would cost me $40 plus tax and shipping and handling, BUT I had a promo code! So I got two of the bands for free, or one maternity band ($40 value) free! and with the code I also qualified to get every additional band for 7 dollars or additional maternity band for 10$ each. See: 

So I ended up buying two bands, and two maternity bands: total value of $80, my cost was only $20. Then I paid like $16 for shipping so it was a super good deal! 

When I got my confirmation email, it came with a bunch of promo codes for their sister sites and I was super intrigued and thought it had some great deals, especially the breast pads

I ended up getting five *free packs of 4 reusable breast pads. This only a TINY assortment of the color choices available. The only thing I paid for was the shipping and handling which was about $15.

And here is a code for the belly bands they gave me after I ordered the breast pads

For all the direct links to these deals please follow THIS link

I also went to target and bought a couple things there. My mom gave me a target gift card for my birthday and I've been saving it for a special trip. So I went a couple weeks ago and got a few mommy must need items. First I got a pair of maternity shorts so I can survive the Arizona summer as my belly grows. I also got a pair of yoga pant a size to big so I would have something comfy to grow into. And finally I got a 32oz water bottle so I can get my recommended amount of water each day (64 oz). I have also found that putting fresh fruit in with my water helps me end up drinking more  because it adds a great refreshing flavor. So far I've tried strawberries, strawberries and blueberries, and watermelon in my water.

That's it for now! As I get more thing and find more deals I'll keep you all updated!

Week 9

Week 9!

Hey Family!

Life Update:
Firstly I'm so sorry for the delay this week. But honestly pregnancy has caught up with me. :/ Let me start by giving a review of the week though! So this last weekend was as my family calls it: Resurrection Sunday (Easter) and I got to go up to Phoenix to visit with the family. Along with me, my sister and her husband were also able to visit for the holiday so Mom and Dad had a full house! I can proudly say I didn't puke the whole 5 days I was there!.... ok well I did end up puking the day I left but I think that's because I overdid it on Easter dinner. I had been doing so well and then all the delicious food was presented to me and the old Bre came forward and said "EAT IT ALL!" I was pretty miserable the rest of the day but figured I'd be fine by the next day... well the next day the bump had its revenge..

So since Monday (the day I ended up heading back home) I've been miserable. Super nauceous and just feeling like all around crap. Since then I've been just trying to take it easy and not overdue it.

The Hubby: 4 more weeks!!
It has also been super tough without the hubby here. On the plus side, he has now finished week one of 5 and only has four more weeks. On the down side: I still haven't heard from him. It's kind of weird because he and I have gone way longer then five weeks without seeing each other,  however we have never gone this long without talking to each other. Even when he was in the original 5 month training for his job three years ago, he was still able to call me everyday. So this is kind of weird that it has been over a week and I haven't heard a thing from him. :( But as they say with this training: No news is good news. I also look forward to hearing from him sometime soon. I do know they he gets four days off at some point, what I don't know is when those days are. Or if they are all together or spread out. So for those who do, please continue to pray for him as he continues in this vigorous training process!!

Bump Progress:
At the time of this posting I am 9 weeks 5 days! The baby is now approximately the size of a grape or  about an inch to an inch and a quarter in length. Now all those body parts that were forming the last few weeks are now fine tuning. The arms and legs are lengthening, the fingers and toes are getting bigger. And because of this, the baby is now staring to gain mobility of the arms and legs! The baby's heart now has the four needed chambers to pump blood to all the body.  The best part of this fine tuning is that if I were to have a sonogram, the baby would look like a baby! My next Dr's appointment is next week and if I get to do a sonogram the baby just won't be a blob, it will actually look like a baby!!

Symtom check!
Hair: Ok so first off I just want to kick the person that lied and said that pregnant people don't loose their hair and end up having model hair. This is a lie! I still loose hair every time I brush my head and my hair isn't doing some crazy magic model type styling on its own. It is however growing pretty quickly. When my hair is down now, it almost hits the bottom of my back. I do plan on cutting it after it gets a little bit longer though. I really think it's time for the ombre to go away, but I don't want to cut off all the blond quite yet because if I do at this point my hair will be back at my shoulders. I've also had crazy hair growth not on my head! Honesty time! I've always waxed my eyebrows and occasionally my lip (don't judge too hard, I'm Italian and I've accepted my fait of needing to wax the lip) but usually I can go a couple month in-between eyebrow waxing. Now, its been maybe three weeks since my last wax and I'm having trouble keeping up making sure there are two brows instead of one!

Indigestion/ Heartburn: this one has been my big kick in the butt this last week. With the nausea I've been experiencing super bad heartburn where I have a burning metal taste in the back of my throat, and at this point I'd rather have the nausea. With the heartburn I can find anything to make it go away and at least with the nausea I know it would go away if I would stop trying the mind over matter and just go throw up. Indigestion has been a pain too. I feel like I've never burped this much in my whole life. haha I've started using the phrase "you can't take me anywhere" because I all have eaten HOURS ago and then I go to the store to buy something and end up burping up a storm!

Weight Gain: This one isn't too bad! I know I'll be gaining weight throughout the pregnancy so I'm ok with healthy weight gain. So far I've gained about 2 pounds from my pre pregnancy weight. However I did gain some weight before I got pregnant over the holidays (I like to tell myself some of it was muscle) so at my current weight this is the heaviest I've ever been. All but one of my pants need to be worn with a belly button band (I promise to actually do a post on it this week!) but only because I can't fully button them. All of my shirts still fit for the time being, but I have been slowly making a little stash of mom cloths for the future months. (this is the post I was supposed to do earlier this week but ended up not feeling well enough to do them, I have all the stuff and will post later I promise!)

Hormones: So I haven't yet had crazy hormonal mood swings (at least I don't think I have). But, I have reacted to sad movies or a sad book; these are things I really didn't have a problem with beforehand. BUT!! My hormones are totally against my skin!! I've been breaking out like crazy on my chin! I try no to wear makeup because of my allergies and reactions I usually have to wearing makeup. And this is how my skin looks right now! It looks like my pores are all clogged from wearing  bunch of makeup, but I haven't been!!

Crazy Dreams: I had heard rumors about pregnancy and "crazy vivid dreams" but thought it doesn't pertain to me because in my 26 years of life I woke up probably remembering may 5 of them. So, I thought oh, no I'll get to skip this crazy dream phase. BUT! In this last week I've had some pretty vivid ones that I can actually remember! And I've come to the conclusion that, my subconscious is angry lol. As for those who know me in person, you would all probably agree that I'm a pretty happy person and am pretty positive too. However, in my dreams lately I keep getting into horrible heated arguments with people; and the weird thing is, it's people I only know through my husband. Now this may just be a projection of me missing him but it totally sucks waking up angry and having to remind myself that I really didn't just have a fight with someone and everything is ok haha.

Sleep: So because of these crazy dreams I also wake up not feeling very rested. In turn I'm back to taking naps (more like I'm working on something and then wake up not realizing I passed out for an hour). And then, because I take these naps, when bed time rolls around, I have trouble falling asleep.

Out of Breath/Tiredness : This is more to do with my stamina. I would never describe myself as a super fit person (especially when you compare me to my super buff husband) but I've never had an issue going on hikes, or just doing daily chores. But lately just going upstairs in my house really winds me and I have to rest for a minute before I continue on with whatever I was going upstairs to do. Also, I used to be able to take the dogs on super long walks and now I have to do more short walks because I just get exhausted. Always being an active person makes me a little peeved at the moment that I just don't have the energy to do the things that I would otherwise normally be doing. This is a symptom I really look forward to going away in the second trimester!

Well that's it for this week!
Bre and the Bump

Week 8!!

Week 8

Sad Day:
I have to be honest and say this weeks post will not be as exciting  as my last couple posts. I will try but this has been a rough week in the McCabe home. Not baby wise though, so don't let your brain go there! The sad news is my hubby left yesterday. :( OH!! Don't let your brain go there either! If you've been following my posts you know he has a five week training for work out of state. So, we have been working this last week on getting him ready and making sure he has all his ducks in a row. I dropped him off at the van yesterday with the rest of his work buddies and bid him goodbye.

So here are the sad parts:

I don't know when I'll be able to talk to him again... The first week for sure I should not hear from him. Last year I heard from him on the third day, and that was to let me know he had gotten the stomach flu and was being sent home. On one hand I was happy to hear from him and on the other sad his opportunity had to wait till this year. Now he's gone off again (in MUCH better health this time!) and the hope is I don't hear from him for at least a week. But it totally sucks because Easter is Sunday and I'll probably not be able to hear from him!

Next sad thing: as soon as I got home from dropping him off the pups have been searching the house for him. They finally gave up and have been sulking ever since! I really think the pups are taking it really hard. He hasn't been gone too long and I feel they KNOW he's going to be gone for a long while. I think I'm not doing too bad because my entire relationship with the hubby started out long distance with us living on opposite sides of the city.  Also, when he got this job we were not living together for the first 5 months of our marriage, so what's 5 weeks? lol

Sulking Bruno

Depressed Mitzi 

So for the next 5 weeks I will have a countdown: 5 MORE WEEKS

Back to the bump!!

I'm 8 weeks 4 days as of today!

8 weeks 2 Days

Baby McCabe is the size of a gummy bear this week! (I'm holding one in my left hand above for reference) Big news this week is the gummy bear is growing some fingers and toes! They are still webbed, but every week the "alien" (as it's father fondly refers to it) is looking more and more like a baby. The long tail of the spinal chord has pretty much all been absorbed into the body and is no longer a tail! (no more tadpole!) Also, the heart has divided into the chambers and is pumping at approximately 150 bpm. And finally the baby's nerve cells in the brain are rapidly making connections. - lets do a quick check.. ehhem...
At 8 weeks pregnant, the baby is technically six weeks old gestation and has the following: a heartbeat, nervous system, brain, arms, legs, fingers, toes, early developments of a face... It's crazy to stop and think sometimes about how creation works. God is such an almighty and powerful being and yet, in something as small as a gummy bear (roughly 1/2 inch to 3/4 of an inch) He has created such an amazing small delicate living being. -the pregnancy emotions kick in now and I have to just sit and appreciate  the gift He has blessed me and my hubby with.

Symtom Check!

BUMP: oh common! those of you who told me last week's picture was just "gas," look at this weeks! I wouldn't say I "popped" but there is a pooch for sure all the time, and unlike my husband I am NOT gassy ALL the time (we'll get to that later). Most of my "skinny jeans" are not wanting to button :( since I refuse to buy new cloths this early on, I actually ordered some belly bands.

Morning sickness: I have to agree with last week, it really hasn't been that bad. It may be however that I have found that yes I'm sick feeling in the mornings, but that's how I ALWAYS feel with an empty stomach. So, I've been trying to make sure I eat smaller meals and snacks more frequently and that seems to be helping. I still have been having random bouts of nausea that hit me out of nowhere but not nearly as much as the first week of blogs. (yay for mind over matter!!)

Heartburn/Metal taste: So kind of adding to the morning sickness would be heartburn or a really gross metallic taste in my mouth. Most of the time when I'm not feeling nauseous, I have a weird metal taste in the back of my mouth that kind of burns... this usually leads to a puke session but I'm getting better at not letting it happen! Then comes the heartburn, it's not as bad as it was when I first was pregnant and since I've been better about eating foods. BUT! Mexican food... yeah that gives heartburn... Why baby WHHHYYYY!?!?!?

Cravings: Yep!! They are here! Waffles waffles waffles, I'm pretty sure I can eat them everyday, if I wasn't the one having to make them. I've eaten quite a few of these (don't tell my OB!), but earlier this week I had waffles.. and pasta... and didn't realize what I had done until after I had eaten it... So I'd say that was a weird combo (baby liked!). Baby still hates Mexican food. :( at this point I'm ready to give up on it until the second trimester. *tears* I just hate wasting good food!

Exhaustion: This I think will be with me for a few more weeks, or at least until this trimester is over. I've been fighting taking naps during the day and try to go on walks, but the walks are getting really hard. This is especially true when here in Southern Arizona its been in the mid 90's all week. When I do take naps, they have been super short because as soon as I would lay down I would think of a million things I need to get done for the hubby before he left!

Sleep/Pee: This has been hard; as tired as I have been I'm having a hard time sleeping. Part of this is due to not being able to get comfortable and the other is my bladder! Two weeks ago I was averaging about 2-3 bathroom visits a night, now.. no less then 5! No matter what I do! I've been trying to not drink too much before bed.. still have to go 5 times. Here's the sucky part: I'm a light sleeper, so when I'm up, I'm up; and it takes me at least 30 min to get back to sleep... times that by 5 and I'm getting ditched out of like 3 hours of sleep each night! Well I guess it's back to college sleep hours with baby sleep prep 101?

Uterus/Cramps: I have really been noticing mild cramping when I'm laying down in my lower abdomen. Upon research I learned that from conception to now my uterus has more then doubled in size; it's now roughly a little bigger then a grapefruit. And as it expands, the uterus fills with more fluid (hence my clothes not fitting as well now). The baby book my friend gave me also says it's totally normal and I'll probably be feeling this the most through the first trimester as it gets bigger stretching ligaments and moving more north into my belly region.

Gas: This one kind of sucks. I've never considered myself a super gassy person (that would be my husband), but the gas I have experienced this last week is bad. Not in the frequency, the smell.. still not as bad as my husband's (he should win an award) but bad for me. Luckily most of the time I'm not in public when this happens!

Breakouts: My poor skin! You may have noticed in this week's picture that I have broken out around my chin. :( I've never had perfect skin, but I think the baby hormones are messing with my complexion because they literally just showed up! I don't normally wear makeup if I'm going to just be around the house, so my skin has been pretty good lately. But, suddenly all these breakouts are appearing, no matter how much I wash my face. This is also a reason I didn't "makeup" my face for the pic. No use clogging my poor pores more then they need to be!

Well that's it for this time!
Until next time (later this week!)

Bre and the Bump!