Tummy Tuesday

Still waiting for that bump.... I feel pudgy, bloated, and thick but no baby bump yet... After looking at this picture...there is defiantly a bump, but I am pretty sure that bump shows up every time I am bloated, so I am not considering it a baby bump just yet.

Baby P is now the size of a lima bean, again doubling in size this week! Wow... at this rate there should be a baby bump soon :). His/Her fingers, toes, and eyelids are all beginning to develop, and the tail is disappearing. It is crazy to me that all this is going on inside me... I (well mainly the man above is, but I am helping) am making life... so crazy!!!

As for Momma P- I am still really tired, emotional, and yucky feeling. The only difference I have really noticed this week is I am so forgetful. I can't remember anything! I have never been very good at it but these hormones have really compounded my forgetfulness. It's getting ridiculous. This week I was going to share some so-called "Daddy-isms" with you. A Daddy-ism is something Chase says about the pregnancy that I find worth sharing. But I have seemed to miss place the list I was keeping... Go Figure.

So here are a few that I can remember:
- "I hope you are not one of those weirdos that eats dirt"
- "It's OK hunny, it's just your hormones." (this is his excuse for me when I do or say ANYTHING)
- "You are the best looking pregnant lady here."
- "As positive as your pregnancy test"
- "I can't wait to play fat or pregnant with you"
- "Wonder what you are going to look like in 7 months"- immediately followed by...
- "I bet you are going to waddle"

There are so many more, but I can't remember them, nor can I remember where I put that list.

Wish me luck as I enter Week 9...

SNAKE!

Let me set the stage for you....

Last Friday afternoon the bug guy came to spray our house. When he was done, he called me outside to "show me something." We go out on the front porch and he points up a crack in between the bricks and the roof/gutter. I interrupt him saying... Yeah we know there is a birds nest up there (remember the bird in our house http://peelerplaybook.blogspot.com/2011/05/bird.html that is where is came from.) 

Bug Guy: "Oh, No mam... there is a snake up there."

Me: Ummmm---- Come again?!?!?!?!?!

Bug Guy: "Yes, Mam- I guess the snake found the nest and has been eating the eggs. I went to spray up there and a few feet of him curled back up in there"

Me: Oh, so what do you do about that.

Bug guy: Well, I'm sorry mam, but we don't do snakes.

Me: Oh ok, well thanks... (thinking- really dude, your a pest guy and you don't do snakes??? I sure a heck don't DO snakes either!)

So I call Chase and fill him in on it. Chase is as scared of snakes as I am, so he says to call my brother Robert and see what he says to do about it.

Robert: Well, what kind of snake is it?

Me: I don't know- and I am sure as heck not going to get close enough to look.

Robert: Oh, ok well I can come out tomorrow and get him.

Me: Ok thanks!

So the on Saturday Chase and his Dad get up there and are trying to find the snake. He is long gone.... no sign on a snake anywhere- so I call Robert and tell him not to worry about coming out the snake is gone, and he tells me to put sulfer powder in the crack so he won't come back.

Ok Great! So Sunday- Chase and I head to Lowes to get sulfer powder, and Monday Chase sprays it into the crack... All's Well... Or so we thought...

Now on to the Main Event...

It's Tuesday night, I am sitting on the couch working on my Tummy Tuesday blog and watching TV, Chase has gone to get gas, and Claire (my sister in law that is staying with us) is playing on her computer in the recliner.

I'll blog for a min- then watch a little TV- blog a little more- watch TV a min- Blog a little- I look up at the TV again and I see a SNAKE slithering out from behind the TV up the the stone fireplace!!! I freeze staring at it. Not taking my eyes off of it I very calmly say, "Claire, the snake is inside."

Claire: huh?

Me: The snake is inside. (pointing) He is crawling up from behind the TV. 

Claire: OMG!

We run out side... then realize the dogs are inside... open the door get the dogs and put them in the back yard. I call Chase:

Me: Hunny, The snake is in our house!

Chase: .........

Me: Did you hear me?

Chase: uh, yeah... I think my heart just stop for a minute. Do I need to some back?

Me: There is a snake in the house

Chase: Oh ok, well I am coming home, but go get Adam. (our neighbor)

Claire and I decide that we should probably go back inside and watch the snake to see where is goes. Because if we loose him in the house it could be a long night!

I go to Adams, and he comes over about the same time Chase gets back. By this time the snake has made his way into the blinds.

Adam grabs the snake by the head and starts to quickly walk outside with him. Chase said that the snake immediatly curled around his arm and by the time they got outside his veins were bulging out. They laid the snake out and cut his head off with a shovel. All's Well Again...

I think it was a python, water moccasin, rattle snake hybrid.... but Adam said it was just a chicken snake. There is no such thing as JUST a snake, especially a 3ft plus snake.

Tummy Tuesday

No baby bump yet...But I am anxiously awaiting one. I look in the mirror everyday trying to imagine one, but it still looks the same :(  Will someone please remind me of how bad a was wanting to "show" when I waddling around in 7 months. Maybe weekly Sweet CeCe's will give me an ice cream bump before I get a baby bump.

7 weeks and 5 days

Now on to what's been going on with me and our little lumpy blueberry. Week 7 our baby (which is still considered an embryo until week 10 when it is officially a fetus) is the size of a blueberry with arm buds leg buds and a tail- thus we call it our lumpy blueberry. His/her little body has doubled in size in the last week, and he/she is beginning to develop hands, feet, and eye lids. The brain, liver, appendix, and pancreas are also beginning to grow and function. His/her little home (AKA the womb) has doubled in size over the last week although you can't tell from the outside yet.

What I have learned in the last week:

- DON'T GET HUNGRY!!!- If I get the least bit hungry I feel soooo sick. The best way to describe it is when you get sooo hungry that you aren't hungry anymore because your stomach hurts so bad. If I let myself get hungry, then it is at least an hour after I eat before I feel any better. So I just eat all the time. :)

- It hurts to sneeze. I can't find that symptom any where online, but when I sneeze my abs are so sore-like I did a mega ab work out yesterday. But don't kid yourself... I didn't.

- Apparently everyone wants me to have twins???- I hear things like "I was looking at a book about twins, and I almost bought it for you", "Do you want a boy or girl?- How about both", "Don't buy anything yet- we have boy and girl stuff, Hey you may need them both", "I don't know whether I want you to have a boy or girl- How about one of both"- SERIOUSLY?!?!? Why does every one think I am having twins?

-Chase's sister had a baby last Friday, and that gave us some serious baby fever. Her room was right outside of the nursery. I could have stood there all day and watched those sweet babies! I even got teared up watching a new daddy wheel his new baby girl into the nursery and he was just a talking to her. Then he leaned down and kissed her on the forehead before he left.... SO SWEET!

Wish me luck as I enter week 8....

Tummy Tuesday

Tummy Tuesday- (n)- your weekly pregnancy and or baby Peeler update. And best of all a picture! :)

As hard as i would like to imagine there is....No baby Bump Yet!

Today's Tummy Tuesday I will be answering the most frequently asked questions I have been getting lately...

- How far along are you?
    - Today I am 6 weeks and 5 days. Thursday will be 7 weeks.

When are you due?
    - March 2nd. 2012 is a leap year so we may have a leap year baby!

How are you feeling?
    - Up until Sunday I had felt totally fine. No symptoms what so ever... but I was just waiting on them to hit me. I guess since I made it "official" by announcing it, my body thought it was time to start feeling pregnant. The best way to describe how I feel is yucky. I don't have nausea or indigestion- I'm just yucky. It's the feeling right before you get the flu when you don't feel good, but you just can't put your finger on what's wrong. I rollercoaster from feeling about 90%-50% through out the whole day. Some moments I feel fine, the next I could curl up in the fetal position. And I am really tired.... not sleepy tired, just tried. I don't want to sleep all the time, I just want to not do anything. I have no energy.

Have you had any cravings?
    - Not really- I really wanted a frosty on Sunday- but I saw a commercial and it looked really good- so it didn't come out of no where- but maybe not all cravings do?

Do you want a boy or a girl?
   - To tell you the truth, before I got pregnant Chase and I wanted a boy first. We wanted both sexes, but defiantly a boy first. I thought it was a cop out to say, "either one, as long as they are healthy." It is ok to prefer one over the other- That doesn't mean you are going to be disappointed if you get the other, it's ok to have a preference. But now that I am pregnant I've had a change of heart. We defiantly want to have both sexes still, but the first one doesn't matter. Yeah, it would still be cool to have a boy first to look after his younger siblings, but if we had a girl first I could breath a sigh of relief that I would get to do the huge bows, monogram everything, smocked dresses, paint her fingernails, etc. So we would be ecstatic to have either one.

Do you think it is a boy or a girl?
    - At first I was thinking boy, but everyone is saying it's a girl and the Chinese gender predictor (which claims to be 50% accurate mind you) says girl- So Who Knows???

When do you find out?
   - Doc said we will do the first ultrasound at 20 weeks. That is early to mid October.

This concludes your first of many Tummy Tuesday's!

"Parent" vs "Mother"

In all the congratulations we have been getting lately, the word "parent" keeps coming up. To tell you the truth it kinda of caught me off gaurd because I haven't thought of this as be coming a parent- I've only thought of this as be coming a mother.

I know that makes no sense- but it does in my head.... It's taken me a few days to figure out why.

Having a child automatically makes you a parent, but it takes much more to be a mother or father.

"Parent" to me is just a role.

"Mother" and "Father" means responsibility. It's the choice to be a disciplinarian, care giver, and nurturer. It comes with feedings at 3am, finding a good day care, tough love, time-outs, instilling strong Christian values, and waiting up to make sure they are home at curfew among numerous responsibility.

You hear terms like "Mother's instinct"- not a "Parent's instinct"

Don't get me wrong- the word "parent" doesn't have a bad connotation in my head- it's just not how I have thought of myself up to this point.

I pray Chase and I will not only be parents to our child, but a Mom and Dad to our baby.

First Baby Present!

I went to Mary Leigh and Nick's after work to keep the boys so they could go out to eat for Nick's birthday. When I pull into the driveway, they were playing outside. Bates runs up to me and says ANNA! PRESENT! ANNA! PRESENT! BABY!!!! He leads me inside and gives me this...

MY FIRST BABY GIFT! A SET OF BABY DICE! (ML qualified that Bates picked it out)

Thank You Mary Leigh, Nick, Bates, and Brodie for my first baby gift!

Telling the Our Families

Chase and I found out on Monday, and we decided to wait until the weekend when we were going to see both of our families in person to tell them. Let me tell you... it was so hard to keep it a secret!!! It is such exciting news it was so hard to keep it to ourselves. I called the Dr and she said that it would not be a good idea for me to go rafting that weekend since it could jar my insides, so we knew we had to tell Mary Leigh before we left to go rafting so she could pack clothes to raft, and I would stay back and keep Bates and Brodie.

We invited Mary Leigh, Nick, and the boys to go eat Sweet CeCe's with us Monday night... It doesn't take much to convince the Brown's to go eat ice cream. We tried to think of a funny way to tell them like- "We will have to make this a weekly trip for the next 9 months" or Chase joke around that I am pregnant like he usually does when a group of us get together- then say "No, Really"... but we just got our ice cream- sat on the bench and when the rafting trip came up I just said- "About that... Mary Leigh, you can go rafting in my place", then she said "Are you Pregnant?"
Me: "Yes"
Mary Leigh: "I knew it!!!!!"
Nick: "Congratulations!"

So for the rest of the week only Chase, Mary Leigh, Nick, and I knew... At least we had someone to talk to about it!!!

On to telling my family...

We had a 4 hour ride to Gatlinburg to come up with a neat way to tell them, and what did we come up with... Nothing... We hoped maybe someone would set Chase up for a pregnancy joke- then say "No, really this time!" Chase made 6 pregnancy jokes, but no one caught on because he jokes about it so much....William even started in on making the pregnancy jokes not knowing we were being for real. So we got out my phone and showed them a picture of my positive pregnancy test. And said "We are going to have a baby!"
Mom's reaction: ......Speechless...... (I think this maybe one of the few times my mom has ever been at a loss for words)
Dad- YAY Annie! Congratulations! (and a big hug)
Maw Maw- OH YAY!!!
Paw Paw- *Smile*
William- Is it for real this time?
Emily- (big hug) Yay! I am so happy for yall!
Robert- Congratulations Annie!

But we had to tell them to keep it a secret because Chase's family doesn't know yet, and we don't want it to leak.

Up next Chase's family...

When we got back from Gatlinburg we meet them in Waverly for lunch. Again we tried to think of a neat way to tell them. We hoped Chassity would have her baby this weekend so we could ask them if "they are ready to do it all over again in 8 months", but no such luck. So Chase just asked how Chassity was- and after their response about anxiously waiting- Chase asked them if they were going to be ready to do it again in 8 months. Immediately they both look at me for confirmation since Chase jokes about me being pregnant all the time, and I nodded yes. There were lots of hugs, "I am so happy for yall", "Congratulations", and maybe a few tears :)

On our way back home Chase called his Grannannie & PeePaw, his sisters, and Dane & TaTa- and I called MiMi and Peanut to let them know. Dane and Tata want us to have "twins... twins... twins... twins..." MiMi was glad "Chase's curly hair is now in the gene pool", and Chassity offered to let me borrow her maternity clothes, SCORE! Every one was so excited for us, but we are more excited to not have to keep it a secret any more.

6/27/2011

I will remember this day for the rest of my life.


Something happened today that will totally change the course of our lives...


Every decision we make from here on out will be affected by what happened today...


Life as I have known it will change...


Today I found out we are going to have a baby!


Today started off like any other Monday- Chase's alarm went off- snooze- alarm- snooze-alarm- and he finally rolls out of bed and hits the shower. I get up and head into the kitchen to make him a lunch. Most days I am up and ready by the time Chase even gets up, but Monday's are Chase's early days at work so he has to get up and leave before I normally even get up. So I pack his lunch, and send him off like any other Monday... but this Monday was about to be life altering.


Most Monday's I would get in the shower as soon as Chase left, but this morning I took a pregnancy test first. We had been quote un-quote "trying" for about 3 months now... and of the last 3 months this month was the one I was most certain I was not pregnant. Yeah, it was possible but I was almost certain we had missed it. I didn't feel any different, I didn't have the keen since of smell, I was not sick to my stomach, I had no signs I was pregnant- Other then my period was about 6 days late. I had taken 2 pregnancy test a few days earlier (one the morning before we went to Arrington Vineyards since I knew I would be drinking wine) and the other about 2 days prior. Both negative.... So I wasn't getting my hopes up. I had one good pregnancy test left in my stash (the others were dip-stick ones I ordered in bulk online), so what the heck.... I'll try... What could it hurt....


So I took it....


Waiting...


Waiting...

Waiting...

Waiting...

Finally the results are in....

In that very second a flood of emotions over came me... All at once I was Excited, Anxious, Joyful, Nervous, Happy, Exhilarated, and Worried. But above all else I wanted to call and tell Chase!

I wish I would have really thought of a cool way to tell him, but I was so excited! I didn't have time to think! Option one: call... No... Option two: send him a picture of the pregnancy test... ok so I should have kept thinking, but I didn't- Option 2 it was...

About 30 seconds after I send the text my phone rings... The first part of the conversation went a little like this:

Me: Hi Daddy!!!!

Chase: Really Anna Marie, You sent it to me in a text.... :)

Ok- Sorry- I should have come up with something better but I was too excited to keep thinking.

The rest of the conversation (after a lot of smiling in silence, "REALLY!?!?!" 's, and "I told you so" 's) was about what to do next- getting an appointment with the Dr- how we are going to tell our families- Questions to ask the Dr., When I might be due, etc.

After we hung up, I just kept staring at the test- PREGNANT

Now I guess I have to start getting ready for work (only 20 minutes later then planned).  This was how  my morning went.

Shower- Look at the test...

 Yup- Still says Pregnant.

Dry my hair- Look at the test...

Yup still says Pregnant!

Put on make up- Look at the test...

Get Dressed- Pull the old test out of the trash

Yup- they are still negative....

OK one more look before I walk out the door for work...

Yes! It still says PREGNANT!

Needless to say it was a long day at work... I couldn't wait to get home and celebrate with Chase! First thing I did when I got home was show it to him! Look how proud!

And Proud Mommy! Maybe 5 week along...

Last but not least... Proud Sister Libby :)

***Disclaimer: This post was written on 6/27/11 to capture the moment, but sorry I won't publish it until after we see the Dr. on July 8th :)

Harvell Family Vacation

It had been a long time since my entire family had been on a vacation together, so we decided to get together over the long 4th of July weekend this summer in Gatlinburg. Growing up, my family spent many long weekends camping, hiking, rafting, or canoeing- so what a better way to spend quality family time together then go to the mountains as a family again!

Chase and I left on Thursday morning and headed east following Mary Leigh, Nick and the boys- First stop, Cookeville... We can't go through Cookeville with out a trip to the dirtbike store. :) It was so cute seeing the boys so excited about seeing "CYCLES!!!!!"

Then we ate lunch with our "other family" the Bohannons (well most of them, anyway). They were our parents while Chase and I were in college. It was so good to catch up with them, and seeing the girls.

Then it was off to Gatlinburg...

We headed straight to our hotel to check in- then everyone (minus Robert and Emily who were not there yet) loaded up to go eat at the Apple Barn. No trip to Gatlinburg is complete with out a dinner at Apple Barn.

Yummy!

Then we headed back to our cabin where Robert and Emily arrived. We hung out a little while before hitting the sack. We had a big day of shopping ahead!

Can I get a Whoop Whoop for 50% off the entire store at Banana Republic and Gap with a an additional 15% coupon!!! Major Score! Lets just say we did our fair share of boosting the economy that day...

That nights dinner was at Bubba Gump's.

Then it was on to walking the strip.

and moonshine tastings... yes you heard me right.... white lighting, corn whisky, grape, apple, and peach.

They will light you on fire!!!!

On Saturday most of the group went white water rafting. MawMaw PawPaw and I stayed back with the boys since they could not go.

The rafting group had a good time, no one fell out and they only saw 1 snake... apparently a water moccasin per Chase because any snake in or near water is an extremely poisonous water moccasin. They bought the cd of pictures. I will post those when we get them.

Bates, Brodie, MawMaw, and I had quite a fun morning as well... Ate breakfast. Went for a walk in our PJ's. Went swimming, got in the "hot pool" aka hot tub. Walked the strip. Napped 2 hours (well Bates did any way). And played in the creek.

Sunday morning we all got up and ate breakfast as a big happy family (minus the Brown's that over slept)- then us kids went for a hike in the Great Smokey Mountains. We hiked 1300 feet in 2.1 miles to the top of the chimney tops with 2 toddlers on our backs. (I use the term "our" loosely seeing as I did not actually carry either one of them)

Yes- that is Chase RUNNING up the mountain with a 25 pound toddler on his back!

What a view at the top!!!!

I was not allowed to scale the rock face to the very top, but a camera did!

Group shot at the top of the mountain

Then we loaded up and headed the 2.1 miles back down the mountain. It took us a mere 35 minutes to go down the same trail that took us 2 1/2 hours to get up!

We had such a fun trip!!! I was great spending some long over due quality time with the family. It was a wonderful weekend was full of laughs,  good stories, and great memories.