Boy or Girl?

Since we're nearing the time when we hope to find out if this baby is a boy or girl, I thought I'd have some fun with a few of these old wives' tales that are supposed to help you determine the sex of your baby.


1. How does your skin feel?: Soft or Dry

2. What foods are you craving most? Salty or Sweet

3. Did you experience morning sickness? Yes or No

4. Have you had extra acne while pregnant? Yes or No

5. How fast is the baby's heartbeat? Under 130 or Over 140

6. How would you describe yourself during pregnancy? Clumsy or Graceful

7. What happened with the wedding ring test? Spinning or Swinging

8. Is Dad gaining any weight with you? Yes or No

9. Where are you carrying the baby? High or Low

10. Chinese Gender Predictor Test: Boy or Girl


As you can tell, these "tests" are certainly leaning towards a boy for us. What do you think it is?

17 Weeks

How Far Along: 17 Weeks

Food Comparison: Weight of an Onion; about 5 inches in length from head to bottom

Weight Gain: My midwife told me at my last appointment that I'd only gained one pound in 4 weeks and I could up my food intake to make sure baby and I were getting proper nutrition. I'm up a total of 6 pounds now.

Maternity Clothes: I am wearing more dresses and maxi skirts these days that aren't maternity but are very stretchy and loose-fitting. I have gained weight in my hips and thighs so that is making most pants uncomfortable, even if they could still technically fit with a rubber band around my belly.

Stretch Marks: My belly is still stretch-mark free. I can't say the same for my hips and thighs, but that's not necessarily just from pregnancy (thanks adolescence!). 

Sleep: Sleeping pretty well. My bathroom trips are still happening about once per night. Our mattress kind of sags in the middle (probably need to be looking at a new one) so it makes us both roll towards each other and I have noticed in the past week it's a little bit harder to roll myself out of bed to get up in the night.

Best Moment of the week: Starting to receive some fun baby gifts like a cute shirt, bib and burp rag and an awesome rocking chair for the nursery. 

Miss Anything: I miss the days when my body/weight gain/food intake weren't public record up for discussion (and advice/criticism) with just about everybody. It's a bad combination for people to get so personal with a pregnant lady who is overly emotional and highly volatile. 

Movement: Maybe? I don't really think so but there have been a couple times where I thought I might have felt something? I've been having some muscle spasms in my stomach the past couple days which feels weird, but isn't painful. 

Food Cravings: This was the week of burgers and fries. I bet I had that 4 times in the course of 7 days; it was bad. Thankfully I got it out of my system for now and fruit/veggies are sounding pretty good these days. 

Anything making you queasy or sick: Not really. It is more of a smell sensitivity issue. We have a problem with our bathroom towels smelling moldy after just one use and this morning, I could hardly walk into the bathroom because the smell was so bad. I kind of want to just burn them all and start over. 

Have you started to show yet: Yes, but still in that looking more chubby and not really pregnant phase. I saw a picture of myself the other day and noticed my belly sticking out, but not really in the sense that any stranger would be able to tell I'm pregnant. 

Gender: We still don't know at this point. I change my mind just about every day about what I think is going to be. 

Labor signs: Nope.

Belly button in or out: In; not too much change here lately.

Wedding ring on or off: On and still fitting well.

Happy or moody most of the time: Moody! That's not to say I don't feel happy also but I have been crazy emotional the past couple weeks. There have been a lot of tears. 

Looking forward to: Feeling the first real movements! 

Pregnancy brain moment of the week: I went into my bedroom and laid down on my bed, on my stomach. I had the thought, "Whoa. I haven't laid like this in a long time. This is so comfy." After a few minutes of playing on my phone, I realized my stomach was hurting. I couldn't figure out why. About 5 minutes later it dawned on me that "I'm pregnant!" and I quickly turned over and then went through a crazy process of wondering if my baby was ok, wishing I would quit forgetting that I'm growing a child and mostly just being frustrated with myself that I did that. I probably cried, but my brain is too mushy for me to remember if that really happened :) Oh the miracle of life, right?  

Week 15

I am officially 15 weeks today. According to my Baby Center app on my phone, my baby is about the size of an apple today. However, this app also says that my baby is about 4 inches from crown to rump and that would be a pretty big apple, so let's take that into consideration :)

I know the picture quality is not very good, but the lighting in our house is so bad, this is the one place where we have enough lights to make a decent picture. Maybe we'll find a better option before this pregnancy is over.

How Far Along: 15 weeks

Food Comparison: Large apple

Weight Gain: 5 pounds so far, which I feel really good about

Maternity Clothes: I did buy some work clothes this weekend, but I don't need to wear them yet. I am still in all non-maternity clothes, but I am using a rubber band on most of my pants and am using more of my flowy, loose-fitting tops. I've already got a box filling up of clothes that are too small for me, but it's stuff that already fit me pretty tight. They would probably still fit me, but it would just be uncomfortable.

Stretch Marks: Haven't seen any yet. I'm using a homemade concoction of vitamin E lotion, vaseline, and cocoa butter every day and it seems to be working so far. It helps a lot with my itchy skin too.

Sleep: Pretty good so far. I'm only waking up once per night to go to the bathroom, and sometimes not at all (usually when I don't drink enough water in the day). 

Best Moment of this week: My friend, Rynn, flew in and spent a long weekend with me. It was great to catch up with her after not seeing her for over a year. Part of me was sad she came before baby was born and she didn't get to meet him/her, but I am so glad she came when she did because we got a LOT of quality time together. 

Miss Anything: My brain :) I feel like I developed "pregnancy brain" right away and I am having a hard time remembering the words I want to say in any given conversation. My memory is significantly worse and I feel a little bit "out of it" sometimes, mainly at work when I really need to focus.

Movement: None. I've been trying to feel for any flutters when I'm laying down, but haven't got anything yet. 

Food Cravings: I don't know that I'd really call them "cravings", but salty food and carbs sound good to me just about all the time. I could eat chips and bread for every meal, if my pesky conscience and doctor didn't insist on fruits and vegetables. 

Anything making you queasy or sick: The sushi that got left in my work fridge for a few days was awful. The thought of it still makes me a bit queasy. I am not crazy about the smell of meat, but it's not so offensive that I have to leave the kitchen. 

Have you started to show yet: It depends who you ask. I say yes, I definitely am. Most of my friends say no way. It probably depends what I'm wearing that day, honestly. I have been able to see a little bump since about 6-8 weeks, but I know that wasn't visible to everyone. I don't think I'm obviously pregnant to a stranger yet, but I think they might notice my belly sticks out farther than is usually deemed "healthy" (for a non-pregnant person, of course).

Gender: Not sure! We *might* be able to find out in 4 weeks, but 8 weeks from now is more likely.

Labor signs: No way, Jose. 

Belly button in or out: It's still in, but I've noticed over the past two weeks that it's definitely more shallow than it used to be. 

Wedding ring on or off: Still on, thankfully, since I just got my wedding ring back last week from having a diamond replaced. The jeweler told me most women have to gain 20 pounds before they notice their rings not fitting, so I'm hopeful I can wear mine for a while longer.

Happy or moody most of the time: Happy! I was more moody from about weeks 6-10 for sure, but that seems to have improved greatly.

Looking forward to: Kory's parents arriving this week and getting to spend Mother's Day weekend with them. I'm also looking forward to my next appointment with the midwife so I can hear the baby's heartbeat again. 

Things to remember: I don't actually feel pregnant most of the time. With no baby movement and not knowing the gender yet, it just feels like my clothes are getting tighter and I'm hungrier than usual. 

The First 6 Weeks

(So I wrote this post a couple months ago and just discovered it today. Oops! Let this be the first piece of evidence to show that pregnancy brain is real. )

The 1st half of this story can be found here. Kory left for Guatemala the day after we found out I was pregnant. The next 10 days were HARD. I came home almost every day after work and hung out by myself so I wasn't tempted to tell anyone about our secret. I even skipped our growth group because my friend, Katie, who was also trying to get pregnant at the time (and is now pregnant with me!) asked me pretty frequently if I was pregnant yet and I was nervous she was going to ask me that night.

When Kory got home from his trip, we spent the next week or two sharing the exciting news with friends and family. Kory bought me a really cool baby sling in Guatemala and we used it to tell our family about the baby via FaceTime. It was so fun to see their reactions. The conversation went something like this:

Mandy: "Oh, I'll have to show you my present Kory got me in Guatemala."
(Goes offscreen to put it on.)
Mandy: "It's kind of hard for you to tell, but it's a baby sling...to hold a baby...because we're having one of those."
*Silence*
Parents: "WHAT!?"

We told our co-workers in our staff meetings on the same day and then posted on Facebook that day at lunch and word was officially out.

The first dr. appointment was pretty uneventful. They asked a lot of questions about medical history and answered any questions we had. I was 6 weeks along at this point and I didn't meet my midwife for another several weeks as this appointment was just with a nurse. 

I spent the first 2-3 weeks feeling nauseous just about every day. I never threw up (thank goodness!), but I just felt queasy and like I could possibly pass out if I didn't eat soon. I also felt tired after work every evening. Several evenings, I took a nap right when I walked in the door, which allowed me to stay awake through dinner and for a few more hours.

The nauseousness has since passed and I've been feeling great lately! I am, of course, still really tired, and it doesn't take much to wear me out. A short walk with Sky (10 minutes or so) is enough to make me need to lay down when I get back home. 

This all brings us to today, when we got to see Baby M for the first time and hear his/her heartbeat at 10 weeks! I knew it was going to be an awesome experience, but I had no idea how fun it would be. I expected to see a fuzzy image on the screen. I had no idea we'd get a 3d view of the little babe. The detail in these pictures still amaze me!

Cute little teddy bear

Peek-a-boo is already a favorite game it seems

The ultrasound confirmed I was measuring to the day on my due date, which is October 27. It seems really far away now, but I'm sure time will fly by and it will be here before we know it!

It's a Baby!

The news is out and we're excited to be expecting a baby this October! I've been intending to blog about this for a while, but our ultrasound appointment this past week was finally motivation for me to write out our baby story thus far. There is nothing too graphic in here, but if talk of periods and pregnancy tests weirds you out, feel free to stop reading now.

We found out really early in the pregnancy, which means it's kind of dragged on for a while now. I don't mean that it's not been fun, but I had to wait until 10 weeks to get my first ultra sound, and that was 6 weeks after finding out I was pregnant. That was a long 6 weeks in many ways!

The day we found out was kind of a strange one. It was President's Day and Kory and I both had the day off. He was supposed to be in Guatemala, but their trip got pushed back a week, so we got to spend Valentine's Day and a 3 day weekend together. I had an early morning orthodontist appointment and our plan was to go hiking right after that appointment.

We had been trying to get pregnant for a few months now and I had noticed a pattern with holidays. I got my period on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and MLK Day. I just had it in my head that I would start on Valentine's Day also, but I was secretly hoping I could find out I was pregnant that day instead. Friday morning I got up early before work and took a pregnancy test, which was the last one I had. It quickly came back negative so I threw it away and got ready for work. 

Sunday night, Kory and I were at Wal-mart and I decided to pick up some pregnancy tests for the next month since I'd used my last one. It was weird for me to have not started by now since I run on a pretty regular schedule. Monday morning, I woke up thinking I should take another test just so I could quit thinking about it. I decided to read the instructions while I waited for the results since I hadn't done that in a while. It said to wait 3 minutes, which seemed like forever. I grabbed the test and looked at it, expecting a negative result, but just wanting to know for sure so we could enjoy the rest of our day off together. It was positive. The best way to describe my feelings is to say I was shocked. Not like, OH NO! But more like...Wait. What?! For real?! I actually remember looking in the mirror and my mouth hanging open and just trying to let it sink in. I remember praying and thanking God and then realizing I needed to get Kory awake or we were going to be late to my dentist appointment.

About this time I remembered taking a test on Friday. I thought you were supposed to wait 1 minute for results but I had just read to wait 3 instead. I headed back into the bathroom and pulled the first test out of the trash can. It showed two lines, though the second was very faint. It was positive also! I was just not patient enough. I had a positive test 3 days earlier, but had no idea. I feel certain this sort of thing happens in some movie...but I can't remember what movie it is. Have you seen it? Can you help me out?

We had gone back and forth about this hike. It was raining and pretty cold. Kory left for Guatemala the next day and wasn't totally packed. Our house was going on the market soon and we needed to get a few more things in order. I went to wake Kory up and told him, "I think we should hike today." He said, "Ok." I said, "I think we should hike because it's only going to get harder for me to do that in the next 9 months." He sat up in bed and had the same shocked look on his face. We had a few short moments of hugs, kisses, smiles and then I told him he needed to get up and get ready so we could make it to my appointment. We rushed around packing for the hike and got out the door to the dentist.

After my dentist appointment, we headed out of town to the North Umpqua River and went hiking on a trail we hadn't ever hiked before.

About 45 minutes into our hike, we got a call from a realtor wanting to show our house. I was really confused because it wasn't even on the market yet! There was, however, a sign in our yard and I guess that is all it takes. Our realtor encouraged us to let them show the house, even though it wasn't on the market. The problem was that our house was a mess!

We had left in such a hurry that morning that the house was not show ready AT ALL! I had just taken a load of clothes out of the dryer and thrown them on the un-made bed. Kory had been packing and had things strewn around the whole house. Most of all, there were two pregnancy tests sitting out on the counter! We couldn't let them see our house this way. We rushed off the trail, headed back into town and cleaned the house faster than we ever have before.

After cleaning the house, we went to lunch with one of my best friends, Abby, and drove around looking at some houses that were for sale. We spent the evening at home talking about the baby and getting Kory packed to leave for Guatemala the next day. I was pretty bummed that Kory had to leave right after we found out, but their trip delay was absolutely an answer to my prayers. I had prayed so many times that Kory wouldn't be out of the country when I found out I was pregnant. I knew I wouldn't want to tell him over the phone and it would be SO hard to keep it totally to myself for almost two weeks.

We promised each other that we would wait until Kory got home to tell our parents before we told anyone else. It's really hard to keep such a fun secret to yourself! This is getting pretty lengthy, so my next blog will detail the next six weeks of my pregnancy.

March 14 in 2014

1. Eat {more} vegetables.

I did ok this month, but not great. I did try a new vegetable: parsnips. Our friend gave us some from his mom's garden and we used them in smoothies. I intended to roast them also, but I forgot and they were kind of rotten by the time I remembered.

I did have a significant victory in learning to like broccoli! We had it roasted twice and I had it in my yakisoba noodles several times. I feel like I can say with certainty that this vegetable moved out of the dislike category!

2. Learn to drive a stick shift (again).

Check! This happened in March! I would still like to get a little more practice, but I feel confident that I can do this now. There were a few stalling out moments, but it was when someone got behind me and I got so nervous with them waiting on me. To be fair, I was in parking lots the entire time (it was several that join together and I got up to second gear, so it was still good experience), and next time I hope to get some actual street practice. 

3. Read books.

I'm still working on The Signature of All Things. It's been very slow going for me, but not because it's bad writing. I really enjoy it and just need to take more time to read it, preferably NOT when I'm in bed and about to fall asleep.

4. Print and make albums with the pictures I take in the year.

Nothing happened here in March.

5. (Continue to) memorize the book of James.

I am not feeling good about this goal. I feel like I should have picked this goal or #10, but probably not both. I'm just not able to do them both well.

6. Crochet a blanket for Kory

Kory has now decided he doesn't want this blanket. It is understandable as we have quite a few already, and he feels like it would be too much work for me, considering he might not use it a lot.

So it looks like maybe I can turn my crocheting efforts towards baby items at this point.

7. Can 3 foods.

I have been looking through my canning cookbooks I got for Christmas to get some ideas. My current thoughts on what I might can include green beans, tomatoes, and possibly pickles.

8. Do puzzles.

We are getting SO close to finishing this giant! It's continuing to be pretty difficult at this point with so many of the pieces looking the same, but I have no doubt that April will be the month we finally finish this puzzle.

9. Make my blog prettier. 

Nothing this month, but I did get a comment last month with a great idea so I need to check out that website and see what I can do to spruce things up around here. 

10. Read through the entire Bible.

I'm still going, but it's a struggle. One of the main reasons is that I am so tired these days and reading puts me to sleep very quickly. I've tried reading while blow drying my hair, on my lunch break, right when I get home after work...so far, nothing is working really well. I'm giving myself grace and will continue reading when I can.

11. Eat more whole foods and, therefore, less processed foods. 

Hmm...I didn't do a lot of cooking in March. I have been SO exhausted in the evenings after work and Kory has been great about picking up the slack. I'm looking forward to the 2nd trimester energy boost I keep hearing about!

12. Get my braces off.

My most recent appointment brought good and bad news. It looks like I could get my braces off earlier than expected, but it means I have to wear rubber bands again. My new goal is to have my braces off before the baby arrives, so I'm still feeling positive about that happening.

13. Brush up on my Spanish.

I think I only worked on my Spanish one day this past month. I'm not too upset about that because I feel like it was a productive month anyway. Plus, I was really tired, and have lowered my expectations for myself a bit since discovering how worn out I am most days. 

14. Move out of our house.

Well, this is the 2nd biggest news in our lives these days. It's a long story, but we are keeping the house. We took it off the market in March and will continue living here. We do not plan to fix the foundation, but we do plan to do some repairs on the gutters/drainage situation and hopefully fix some of the seasonal settling we're experiencing.

We have a letter from a certified engineer stating that the home is structurally sound and all the damage was done in the first 10 years the home was built, which means it's not getting worse every year, like we originally thought. Finding out we were pregnant was a big part of making this decision. We started listing the things we wanted in a house...quiet neighborhood, big back yard, etc. It didn't take long to realize we already have that house! It's refreshing to not have to think about packing, selling, moving and buying a new house while I'm pregnant. I'm excited to be staying here as I really do love this house.

To someone on the outside, it might seem like we just went in circles for a year. To us, God did incredible work on our hearts and taught us trust and faith in very real and significant ways. The ways God grew us over the past year mean that this was not wasted time. Thanks again for your prayers and support as we dealt with this house situation. We feel like God led us to this house 2 years ago, and we're grateful He's allowing us to keep it now.

This goal will now transition to one I set last year and never really achieved because we found out about the foundation damage: Make our house feel like a home.

February 14 in 2014

1. Eat {more} vegetables.

This month was a huge success in the vegetable department! I have heard over and over that roasting vegetables is the way to go, but I finally had a conversation (via FB) with Alisa from Family Meal Blog that motivated me to actually try it. At her encouragement, I roasted cauliflower with olive oil, kosher salt, fresh ground pepper, and a tiny bit of sugar. I decided to roast some zucchini also because I knew I liked zucchini and if the cauliflower turned out gross, I'd have something to fall back on.

Well, of course, Alisa was right (we all should trust this gal when it comes to food!) and I LOVED the cauliflower and zucchini both. I roasted them at 400 for about 10-12 minutes, until the edges started browning. I actually had the vegetables as my meal that night because I was so focused on that project that I didn't really plan anything else. I did balance it out with some chips and dip though, so don't worry about me getting too healthy over here.

I also tried making Sweet Potato Fries for the first time this month. I put way too much oil on them, so even though I put some corn starch on as Alisa suggested, they were still way too soggy. I also didn't do a great job chopping them to be the same size, so the smaller ones got a little burned, but the thick and chunky ones were quite tasty. I definitely want to try these again!

2. Learn to drive a stick (again).

Not yet. Hopefully soon.

3. Read books.

I'm reading a really big book this month (500 pages) so it's kind of slow going for me. I'm really enjoying it, and it's not a difficult read at all. I just find myself falling asleep so easily when I read that I don't get very far before dozing off.

4. Print and make albums with the pictures I take in the year.

Nothing this month.

5. (Continue to) memorize the book of James.

You know what they say about the best of intentions... I had such a hard time keeping up on my daily Bible reading and that I got nothing accomplished here. The real solution is for me to watch less Netflix, so we'll see if I can make that happen in March.

6. Crochet a blanket for Kory

Nothing yet. 

7. Can 3 foods.

Still waiting for summer...though I'm getting more concerned that I might not have a garden (since I don't know where we'll be living), so I might have to can something from a local farmer's market if that is the case.

8. Do puzzles.

I'm still chipping away at this bad boy. It's going much slower now because SO many pieces look just alike. I wasn't feeling too great about my progress but then I looked at how much I had accomplished in January compared to now, and I'm feeling a little better about how it's coming together. I spent a lot of time working on it when Kory was gone to Guatemala for almost two full weeks.

January:

February:

9. Make my blog prettier. 

I don't really know what I want my blog to look like, which is part of my problem. I did get tired of it being so plain and white, so I added a cute background and updated a few font colors. I am not visually gifted at all, so I will probably need some outside help to get the blog to look really amazing, but the goal was "prettier", so I think I have accomplished that for now, at least.

10. Read through the entire Bible.

I didn't do so well in February. I feel like I spent the whole month playing catch up. About half-way through the month, I realized that it was real work to get through my reading each day and I wasn't really enjoying it at all. Job was quite a chore for me in January, and Exodus was proving to be the same in February. Rather than follow the "rules" of this plan perfectly, I jumped ahead many months to give myself some New Testament reading. My goal is to read the whole Bible in a year's time, so it doesn't really matter to me anymore if I do it in order, as long as I'm reading every day (well, 6 of 7 days a week) and have finished the whole thing come December 31, 2014. 

11. Eat more whole foods and, therefore, less processed foods. 

I had an epiphany recently that the best way to reach this goal was simply to cook from scratch. Duh! I know that might not be surprising to you at all, but it was a light bulb moment for me to realize that there were many things I didn't even know how to make from scratch, because I just always bought them in a can. This was the month to begin the learning. First up, I decided to make beans, as in good old pinto beans. I was going to do them in the crock pot, but then I got too impatient and just made them on the stove. I made a bean and cheese burrito with them and it was really good...homemade beans, hand-grated cheese, now I just need to learn how to make tortillas myself!


This has become one of my go-to foods lately: a Chipotle-inspired burrito bowl topped with Yumm! Sauce.

My favorite version includes chicken, rice/quinoa, black beans, tomatoes, cilantro, cheese, avocados and Yumm! sauce. It's definitely a good way for me to get some more vegetables in my diet and eat healthy, whole foods. 

12. Get my braces off.

Another month and another good appointment at the orthodontist. He doesn't plan to have me wear rubber bands anymore (thank goodness!) and he said things are looking good to get them off in the not-too-distant-future. The only other excitement in this area is that they got a new mint green color for bands and I'm really digging it!

13. Brush up on my Spanish.

I'm up to Level 5 on DuoLingo. I have no idea how many levels there are, but since I'm still practicing sentences like, "I read books", I have a feeling there are a LOT of levels to go.

14. Move out of our house.

Well, February was kind of a frustrating month in this department. We had a lock box with the front door key for realtors and a sign up in our yard for weeks, but the house still wasn't for sale officially. We had to wait weeks for the engineer to write us a letter ensuring the house's structural integrity.

Finally, right at the end of the month the house went on the market. We had a great initial response with 7 house showings in 6 days. No offers made yet, but at least people are looking. We'll take that as a win for this month!