19

Just in case I'm confusing anyone, because I confuse myself often enough, I'm titling the posts the previous week and putting up the current weeks picture. Why? Just because that's what working for me right now. I'm sure I'll look back and just find myself to be ridiculous. It's fine. I've also decided that I hate taking these pictures. Like hate. I cried to j.rue last night while he was taking this. It was mostly the hormones, really it was, but I'm also inpatient and am unhappy with the growth of my face and arm. Well, both arms, but you just get to see one luckily. So I'll probably keep taking them for documentation, as far as posting them goes, we're still on the fence about that It's really just up to my arms. I'm starting to understand why people start this and then stop around...well, now. But it's okay, right? All in the name of growing a child. I will surely be just fine. Plus, I'm growing a child!

Week 19 was good to me. The day before week 20 she started communicating with me via pokes and jabs. Finally. We were getting breakfast, waaaay later than I was hoping (in other words I was a ravenous beast), and waiting for our table and all of a sudden she decided to put on a show. I reveled in each little acrobatic that she performed. I'm pretty sure she was starving as well because once I started stuffing my face with french toast she quieted right up. Oh and can I just say. french toast. french toast. The answer to all of my pregnancy food prayers. I think I need to be eating it at least once a day. But since I don't cook during the week, (or really ever at all) it will just have to be a weekend delight. On both Saturdays and Sundays. Okay, back to the baby..I didn't hear much from her the rest of the day or yesterday, but every now and then she'll do a little something to reassure me that she was still in there. I really can't believe how much those little movement mean and how real they make everything. They really make the last 4.5 months worth it.

People have been asking me if I'm excited to get to 20 weeks because, you know, that means I'm half way done. It's totally flown by, right? Yes, it has until Wednesday of last week and now I cannot get to the next week soon enough. I only have to basically do this all over again and we'll be there. No problem, except that's a lie and I'm pretty sure that the next 20 will go by in slow motion. The slowest of slow motions. Sometimes I think about it and I'm okay with it. Really I am. Her room is still painted like a circus and even though we've considered converting it, I'm thinking we will get rid of our extra queen bed and put her in a crib. I kid about the queen bed of course. There are just so many house projects that need to be done, sometimes I just find myself begging for more time. 

On the other hand, I still have until October, when it gets cold again. It's just starting to get hot! And I have a whole summer semester to wade through. And I really just want to see what she looks like. SO BAD.

This week is also historic because I think we've 99% nailed down her name. Her whole name. I'm still a little iffy on middle names, but you know, I have 20 weeks to make up my mind.

OUR LITTLE RUE

...is still a she!

J.rue and I went in bright and early for the anatomy scan. Honestly, I haven't spent much time at all worrying, which I've now thanked my lucky stars for. Then came last night. I got about no sleep last night, even with my new pillow pal. I guess staying busy has it's perks, but the night before always about kills me. Worry is not a very good use of time, especially in the wee hours of the morning. Somehow, I still manged to pop right out of bed this morning. We had the DVD (and back-up) stashed in my purse, we had our game plan, and we were ready to roll. We only got to the hospital 45 minutes early, much to j.rue's chagrin. But it didn't take me long to convince him how fun it was to sit in the lobby and people watch, and when that got boring I let him play Candy Crush on my phone, and he was a happy boy. 

When we finally got to go in to the room, my stomach was in knots. Luckily we had the sweetest most patient tech. She told me that the baby was laying horizontal across my body and that her head was on the left side, so of course, we started on the left side. I was hoping for the right side, but you know, I'm not confrontational. We got to look at her brain, her sweet mouth, her lungs and her heart. The heart was the most amazing thing to me. It's so tiny, but already working so hard. Actually, if I think about it too much my head wants to implode. Then we saw that she had ten tiny toes and ten more tiny fingers. I can't wait to kiss each one of those. I really cannot. Also, do you see her nose? How cute is her nose? At least, I think that's her nose. It was so fun spending that time just watching her. Our tech would just hold it in one place so we could look at her face a bit longer and then just watching her wriggle. She is a really good wriggler.

Then it was time for the verification. I really really really thought there was a good chance that that was a little boy in there and he was just really good at hiding his goods. Lo and behold the legs were crossed, indian style, just like her daddy and uncle like to sit. We tried everything, moving the chair up and down, bouncing (with a full bladder, so fun), prodding her with the doppler thing. She was not impressed with the prodding. Every time the tech would put pressure, she would kick her left leg and promptly move it back indian style. Oh, she's not going to be stubborn at all. Finally the tech decided to take a break to show my results to the doctors and about 5 minutes later we tried again and she finally cooperated. Though, I'm sure she thoroughly enjoyed the theatrics that she caused. She also wouldn't sit still long enough for the doctor to get a heartbeat during my appointment later that morning. Such a stinker already.

So, I now believe that she's a girl. Even though I already ordered her some stuff last week. Which will be here tomorrow. Drool.

Random and kind of dumb story: As most of you know, I'm adopted. I actually have a really cool story, so if you don't know it, ask sometime! I've never had a problem with being adopted. My mom just made sure that I always knew. She did such a good job with that. Anyway, the only thing that I ever missed was not having someone look like me (this is where it get's a little dumb, sorry.) People always say my brother Cale and I look alike and even my mom sometimes, which I love. I really do. But I want my someone to look just like me. I don't know if that's totally kind to wish on another human being, but I still am. Especially since I'm getting the girl I never thought I would. But if she looks like her daddy that's okay too because Jeremy and I have been mistaken for siblings, while holding hands and kissing, once or twice. So whatevs, I guess we'll find out once autumn comes. 

She obviously likes to have that left hand up in the air. I'm just glad she doesn't find the need to stick any part of it in her mouth. I'm also grateful that the unicorn horn on the top of her head has disappeared  I still hadn't quite figured out how to make that one work to her advantage.

18 - REVIEWED

I really did kind of mess up on the post titles, because really, all I'm going to do is talk about week 18. So, I'm changing the titles starting today, because there's not time like the present, right?

Speaking of presents, we found out we're having a:

...and we are so excited! I'm still in shock though. We have our anatomy scan this coming Thursday morning, so I almost didn't say anything until then, because I really can't believe it. But that would be rude, so there just might be an updated post Thursday afternoon. I was positive it was a boy. POSITIVE. Not 10 seconds after we started the ultrasound had started the tech said, "it's a girl!" really, before she said anything else. She didn't even ask if I was ready, and I wasn't. I made her show me about 4 times, and of course I couldn't really see anything. I pretended to, but lesbehonest, I don't really get ultrasound pictures. Apparently, I even have a picture of her lady parts, but I would have been ticked if my mom put up a picture of mine on the internet, so I'm assuming she wouldn't be too stoked about it either.

So, Thursday evening I walked out of the doctors office in shock. I had imagined ordering boy clothes, sitting on the beach with a 2 month old baby boy, getting his room ready, and playing boy type games with him. Not once did I picture having a girl and doing all of those things with her, especially my first go-around. But, of course, J.rue and I are just as excited as can be. She already has him wrapped around her finger and he's already calling her by her name. It's one of the sweetest things.

Also, the clothes. I'm going to have a serious problem. One that will need to be curved quickly. Now I just can't help but sit and daydream all day about all of the time we'll be spending together and all of the sweet moments that will be had, just me and her.

She's also started moving a lot more. Those little flutters make everything so much more real.

Besides the best mother's day present ever, I got to spend time with all of the women that I love most this weekend. I really couldn't have asked for a better one.

ITSA

Well, we found out what we're having last night and the tech sounded quite sure of herself. We will have out anatomy scan in a week just to make sure of that and other things, but I think we feel pretty confident we're having a...

Actually, I'll tell ya Monday.

Because it's just more fun to build the suspense, right?

Happy Mother's Day weekend!

THE COUNCIL OF THE OLD WIVES

There's pretty much and old wives tale for everything. They're there to give their opinions on sickness and health, for better or for worse. Good thing they're wrong most of the time. But, that doesn't mean they aren't FUN! Especially when trying to guess the gender of your unborn little rue. Over the past few weeks I've been collecting these tales and comparing them to me. Some of them I've decided chose to pass on, like anything really involving urine, pee stick tests are bad enough. The best one I found was peeing in a cup of DRANO. Apparently, if it turns green you're having a girl and if it's blue you're having a boy. Unfortunately, DRANO can also do things like burn off your fingers or anything else that gets too close (lady parts eee). If you have been brave enough to try it, by all means, let me know. Just because I'm not ballsy enough to try it myself doesn't mean I'm curious.

So without further ado:

• The carrying low is kind of a guess. I'm not showing a ton yet, but if I had to say one or the other, I would say low.
• I've always had to be on my left side to fall asleep, so I don't know how much ground this one holds.
• Honestly, I felt that my morning sickness sucked, but it went away almost completely around week 14 and I only had a few bad days. Compared to most women I've talked to, I had it easy.
• I've been dry as dry can be over the past 4 months. It could be because it's been winter though?
• I've had a total of 3 baby dreams since I've been pregnant and they've all been boys. Before I was pregnant I also had one, my mom and my SIL Melinda was sharing my birthing bed. Melinda and I were both in labor and my mom was hunkered down right in the middle of us. Melinda's baby also came out a beautiful little girl angel, mine came out a wrinkly, grouchy, little old man. But in baby form. My dreams have no legitimacy whatsoever.
• I'm moody. I cry at least 3 times a week because I think someone or something doesn't like me anymore, or about my arms and how they're growing flabbier by the day. It's a hard life I live.
• I read that motherly and fatherly intuition are right a lot of time time, so we had to take this into consideration.
• At my 14 week appointment little rue's heart beat was 143 bpm, so I mean just barely over the line and still on the slower end if you ask me.
• My headaches come raging in like a beast every evening.
• I want salty: chips, mac n cheese, pizza, tacos, arbys, tamales, pizza, you know?
• I've tried several Chinese gender predictors and they've said both, so I did 5 different ones and 3 out of the 5 said girl. This might be the most unscientific experiment I've ever done. Even more so then when I tried watering plants with water, juice, and milk and stunk up our garage for a solid month.
• I just tied a piece of floss to my wedding ring last night and held it over my stomach. Has anyone else heard of that? When I held it up higher it swung back and fourth and when I put it closer it did circles. I felt a little ridiculous, but I'm sure I'll be doing it at least once more before we find out.
• My hair has always been on the thin fine side, and I have noticed it's a tad bit thicker than usual. Hallelujah! I'll take it.

So, after much rigorous testing and recording, the old wives are almost split among themselves, but as the majority stands...boy. We'll find out tonight!

And then promptly head over to Baby Gap.

PINS & NEEDLES

Just so you know, this post is basically as dumb, if not dumber, than yesterday. My mind is just so focused on tomorrow at 5:30 that my fingers can't come up with very good words. So, you might just want to stop here. Unless you have a really boring desk job and honestly have nothing better to do. Also, I'm looking for pregnancy pillow advice, so if you have any, please comment and share. Thanks.

My limbs are starting to go numb. Morning, evening, and night. During the day I've resorted to restless legs, because I've seen varicose veins, ouch. The nighttime is not so easy. So, I've been researching different kinds of body pillows. No matter what, they seem like they will take up a significant amount of bed. I'm getting to the point where I don't care. I've always been a side sleeper, but I think I was also part back sleeper as well, and since that's really not the best option, you know numb limbs and all. It also may be time to kick the fur kids out of bed. Yes, our dogs, both, sleep with us. We're gross, I know.

Anyway, this is what I've found:

Boppy sleep wedge

Leachco Snoogle Total Body Pillow

Leachco Back 'N Belly Sleep Pillow

Cozy Comfort Pregnancy Pillow

Number 4 is very tempting, but I don't want to take up our whole queen, so I'm leaning more towards the 3rd. I need some solid back and front support. My only question is, where in the heck do you store this while it's not in use? Maybe it will make for a nice TV pillow.

Told you, dumb post. Tomorrow's will be better, promise.

TUESDAY TALKINGS

The first night I found out I was pregnant I started a journal for little rue. I thought I was so on top of it, I had the red leather journal with the embossed heart and I just thought it would be perfect. Well, if things keep going the way they are I'm pretty sure that journal could be used for every pregnancy I have. My goal was to write once a week, but then it just didn't really happen. Maybe that's why I feel like I need to write every sordid detail of my life on here. Sorry about that.

We, over at Ruesch Manor, have an exciting 2 weeks ahead of us. Today, my MIL and SIL are flying in today from Hawaii, my FIL flies in on Saturday, that same SIL gives her farewell talk on Sunday (plus it's mothering day), Sister SIL will then we taken to the MTC on Wednesday, MIL & FIL fly out on Friday, and one of my favorite cousins and her family drive in Friday afternoon for the weekend. Of course there will be lots of food eating and family jaunts in between all of that. Are you still with me? Basically it's going to be pure chaos, but we couldn't be more excited.

Speaking of food eating I heard on the radio today that if a person post pictures of their food on instagram rather than the people you're with, it should be assumed that said person has an eating disorder. Either they are obsessed with food or don't eat enough or something? I'm thinking I fall in the obsessed with food category. What can ya do?

My dumb poll isn't working. Yesterday it was, but the internet is trying to take all of my joy away I suppose. It looked like we were neck in neck for results.There are still some girl believers out there. On Thursday we'll be putting some old wives tales to the test. They're actually quite mixed, so we'll have to see what happens!

Yesterday, I spent the majority of the evening cleaning out my car. I'll just admit it right now, I'm a clean person, but I'm a clean person that has to work hard to be a clean person, you know? So, my car got a good scrubbing, my small spoons were put in their rightful silverware drawer (I had 5 little spoons floating around in my car! 5!) and my sun visor was screwed back in. Did I ever mention that for about 4 months my sun visor was hanging by a single screw and didn't hold itself up properly? J.rue kept bugging me to fix it. I didn't. Surprise! Have I also ever mentioned that the sun visor actually fell off when j.rue was driving in my car? Did I also ever mention that he was so mad at me while this happened that I was sure his eyeballs were going to pop out of his head? Not because of the visor coming off mind you. Just bad timing on the sun visors part. I also laughed when it happened, which made it worse. Also, sometimes I'm a bad wife. Good story, right? I bet you're glad you've made it this far. Oh, and I'm not done.

J.rue came home last night and said (and I quote), "I have a wacky idea!" Usually, this is never a good thing. Last night's did not disappoint. J.rue wanted to go and see Iron Man 3. bad. My first instinct was to laugh in his face, but I'm not a bad wife all the time. So, deals we struck up and we were off to see the 9:05 PM showing. Did you know that all of the 9:00 PMish showings of Iron Man 3 were in 3D in our nearest 5 theaters? They were. I got nauseated because of it and missed the best part (the end). But no one can say I'm a bad wife all the time. no one! Also, I just need to avoid movies for a while. I would like to say that spending the time with j.rue was nice, it just doesn't happen much during the week.

Today, I forgot to put on deodorant and take my allergy medication.

I'll be visiting Smith's Marketplace during my lunch.

Okay, I actually do think I'm done now. Mundane life details? Check. See you tomorrow folks!

18

This week is the week! I can't believe I'm only 4 days away from finding out who will be joining our family. I'm all for surprises Let's be honest, I hate surprises (unless it's a brand spankin' new car with one of those big magnetic bows on top or a trip to Greece) and there is no way I could wait 9 months to find out if one of our little Rues was a little boy or girl. It's just the planner inside of me. J.rue asked what I wanted for Mothers Day and I told him that I wanted to make a beeline to Baby Gap after our appointment on Thursday and pick out an outfit for rue. He rolled his eyes and said we could do that anyway, so I'm still thinking about presents. Maybe a pregnant lady wrap around pillow? Sleep does not come as easily these days. Again, I'm sure that's something he'll say I could get anyway, because no one likes a sleep deprived pregnant wife, I'm sure, but clothes and such aren't sounding very appealing right now.

So, I'm putting up a poll on the left, just up a little. I'd like to know what the general public is guessing. I know that  99% of you actually could care less, but polls are fun right? Do it for me? Please. And thanks.

Milestone: I'm 97.6548% sure that I felt little rue move last night. I even made Jeremy stop our prayer to tell him. Sorry about that. So, I know what I'll be doing each evening from now on. My heart burst just a little bit when it happened and I'm sure that I'll never be the same.

Up to this point my times exercising are still at a solid 4, my arms are my proof, oi. But, don't worry that my exercise DVD is in the xbox and my work-out clothes are out  on the couch ready to roll. This drought really does need to end.

Saturday, I got to spend a good couple hours with one of my besties from high school, Brooke, who is starting her own eye lash extension business. You can find her page of FB here or on her blog here. You should totally schedule an appointment. She did such a great job, and even better was the long uninterrupted chat sesh that went down. It needs to happen much more often, okay Brooke? Here are the results, I'm in love. Plus, it takes my make-up application time down from 8 minutes to maybe 3. What more could a girl ask for?

We spend Saturday night with our regulars, James, Melinda and Brookie, and visited Boondocks and (tried) to have a fire. We actually did, and we roasted some delicious marshmallows, but it was quite windy in Kaysville, so the fun was cut short after 2 chairs were blown into the fire. It was quite the ordeal. We just love them to the ends of the earth (J,M&B that is - the wind can suck it).

Sunday was family pictures with my side. We'll just say it involved lots of shades of uncoordinated green and wind. So much wind.

Also, during church I got to hold the sweetest new little baby and it finally hit me that I'll actually have one before the year is over. Little rue will be that small and that sweet. Okay, I still can't actually imagine it. It doesn't seem real. Only during tiny moments like that. It just seems like I'm getting fatter and perpetually not feeling at the top of my game. I pray every night for things to go well.

Thursday you guys! 

PAINTIN'

Last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday was dedicated to the painting of Ruesch Manor.

I might have mentioned a time or two that I was agonizing over what colors to paint my living/dining room. Literally agonizing. I decided that I wanted to do most of it grey, but do you know how many different variations of grey there are? Do you? About infinity, that's all. I didn't want it too cool, but I didn't want it too taupey  It couldn't be too dark or too light. Literally months you guys. Basically since I got our couch...in January? My poor sister-in-law, Melinda, has bore most of the brunt. I would pretty much call her every day  (twice a day) and make her talk to me about colors and what-ifs and the such. And guess what? She still answers the phone when I call. I hope everyone gets to have a SIL like her one day. Having no sisters is less sad when you have one like her through marriage.

I also talked to my mother about paint colors often, only, she wised up and stopped answering her phone most of the time (we're actually doing the same thing with family picture colors now. I'm a handful.) But once when she forgot to check the caller ID she casually mentioned just getting it done Saturday, it was Sunday, so I had exactly 7 days to pick out my perfect gray PLUS an accent wall color. So, we met up at Lowe's on Tuesday evening and my patient mother walked around the paint section with me for an hour while I went back and forth. The paint man even asked if we wanted him to bring over chairs from the lawn and garden section. He was joking, I seriously considered it. Finally, she just picked a grey and it's name was Gravity and then we fell in love. Well, almost. I went home and tried him on my wall and then we fell in love. The accent wall came a bit easier. I reeeeeaallly wanted to do a bluish green peacock color, but j.rue was not having it. He was going more for a BYU blue, no thank you. Again, my mom just picked out a blue, not quite navy, kind of peacock, and I don't know what BYU blue is, but j.rue was happy, I was happy, and my mother got to go home. Our accent wall goes by the name of Fine China Blue.

Thursday came and again the SIL to save the day. She taped up my dining room like nobody's business while her sweet hubby (the other j.rue) chased around our favorite toddler and moved furniture. My j.rue was in the kitchen assisting a dishwasher install. The fur children were all out of sorts. Melinda taped while I washed and spackled the walls. Really, I don't know what I would have done without her. I got the first coat of fine china up on the wall and we deemed it a day and went to bed.

Friday was the second coat of paint and then to bed.

Saturday I woke up bright and early, bought my paint, finished the taping (3 rolls of frog tape later) and sanded the spackle (least favorite) and then we got started painting. It was quite the job, but my mom and I had a system down, I did the trim and she followed with the roller. I think we got the hallway, living room, and dining room done with 2 coats in 4 hours, with only a tiny bit of paint on the rug and a HUGE paint spot on the blinds. What do ya do? And then we sat. My pregnant back and hips were not pleased with my activities of the day. They actually moaned and groaned at me until today. Rude.

For those of you who have visited Ruesch Manor, you know that it's not the roomiest. Having all of the furniture pushed to the middle, and in our room, and in the basement, and in the bathroom, made me a little panicky on the inside. Not comfy. Sunday, j.rue helped me move everything back to it's rightful place and hang up the curtains and a few other things. Let's just say the final product will not be documented today, because, well..it's not final right now and there is gobs of empty wall space. I'm actually okay with this because it hurts my heart a little bit every time another hole is put back into my freshly painted walls.

So, thank you to those who helped and even those who were willing. We're done! for now...

17

Is it just me or is this pregnancy thing going by pretty quickly? At least the overall count-down. The waiting to find out what little rue is, not so much (11 days!), but every Sunday morning when I wake up, I just can't believe it. Oh, and no bump picture this week, I really do think that's going to be an every other week thing. I'm just not changing that quickly. However, I did make a huge ball of tape this weekend. That was exciting.

The 16th week wasn't a bad one, not at all. I am getting some of my energy back, as in I can stay up until 10:30 now without feeling like I'm dying, so that's nice, especially for j.rue. Besides that, there wasn't any exciting baby goings on. I'm still shocked and baffled that I have an onion sized person inside of me and I cannot feel him/her move. Maybe I'm mistaking the tiny movements for gas bubbles, but I'm pretty sure they're gas bubbles. Too bad I can't lay still long enough to actually try to feel any movement. That's my goal for week 17, to lie still, for maybe 10 minutes? Ugh, that's just such a long time to lie still and do nothing else.

Last night I had a cray cray dream (but lesbehonest I have crazy dreams every night) that I was at Harmon's checking out, but Harmon's was also my doctors office and I was hoping to meet with Dr. Sharp to convince him to tell me if my baby was really, in fact, a boy. The cashier happened to be one of the advisors that I work with and I was mentioning that I was hoping to see Dr. Sharp. She said she couldn't help me there but after she rang up my head of cabbage she would gladly take me back for a ultrasound. Then, fast forward I was sitting at one of the tables in Harmon's eating a banana split ( a banana split sounds soooo good right now) and she brought me out a binder with pictures of the baby inside. I opened it up and lo, and behold, we were having a boy. The ultrasound picture looked a little ridiculous, or maybe or son is just very well endowed. I'm thinking my subconscious just made it really obvious for me to interpret because really, I don't even pretend to know what to look for on those "it's a boy!" pictures with the arrow pointing to who knows what. Then I had a slight panic because I wasn't supposed to find out until May 9th with j.rue and the grammies. I decided that I would pretend that I didn't know. I'm obviously very selfish subconsciously. Also, now that I've had dream confirmation that it's a boy, I've just gotta know!

Not that this is related, but right before I walked into Harmon's, I was helping the police catch a drug dealer that was living in my house (?) and I took her brick of cocaine over to the police station and while I was walking home these two guys who were "lady kidnappers" tried to catch me with those things dog catchers use, you know the long sticks with the loop at the end? I made it home. Oh yeah, and Eva Longoria was waiting for me. I think I've been watching too many desperate housewives re-runs. Have I ever mentioned that I am terrified of getting kidnapped or that someone is hiding behind my shower curtain?

Oh yeah, I also painted my whole living room/dining room/hallway on Saturday. Don't worry I wore one of those really comfortable mouth masks (some of the time) as to not infect little rue with paint fumes. Yeah, those aren't very fun to wear.

So, I feel kind of bad because these posts are super Chelsea-centric and less so babycentric. I'll try to do better, but until little rue starts communicating through kicks and jabs, there's just not much I can do. I get those weekly email updates, so I do know that his/her rubbery cartilage is turning into bone, so that must be exciting for them. I on the other hand, should start producing copious amounts of various bodily fluids any day now. Just in time for summer. Goody.