It's starting to get real!

Last weekend our crib and changing table were delivered!  If there's anything that says "You have a baby coming in a few months" it's having a crib in your house.  Chris and I spent last Sunday morning putting them together.  Now we just need some bedding and a mattress!

My coworkers at the middle school threw me a wonderful shower this past week.  They have been awesome!  We got a Rock n Play, a diaper bag, an umbrella stroller, and some cute outfits for Pickle.  He's going to be decked out in baseball outfits all the time!

Bump Updates =)

6 months down, 3 months to go!
So I pretty much suck at taking weekly bump pictures.  I'm lucky if I get one a month.  So far I'm feeling pretty good, but tired pretty much all the time.  I'm starting to hit the uncomfortable point.  I went to the doctor last week and she measured me at 28 weeks, which was 2 weeks ahead.  I'm guessing my height might have something to do with that?  She said it doesn't actually change my due date.  If I measure 3 or more weeks ahead next time then they would do an ultrasound.
At my next appointment I'll see my new doctor.  I'm really sad that my doctor is moving and have to change over halfway through my pregnancy, but I keep telling myself that everything happens for a reason.  I've heard great things about my new doctor.  She was actually who I asked for when I first started going to the practice when I moved to KC, but her calendar was pretty booked at the time and I went with a different doctor (who also moved away).
In other news, Chris and I bought Pickle's crib last weekend!  It's supposed to be delivered sometime Saturday.  We can't wait to start getting the nursery together.
Pickle has been moving and kicking up a storm.  He loves to kick me in the bladder, which is especially not fun when I'm in the middle of teaching and can't make a beeline for the bathroom.  It's so much fun though when I get a chance to relax after school and I just watch him kick and flip.
Here are the past 3 bump shots I've taken over the past month and a half.

22 Weeks

23 Weeks

27 Weeks (6 months)

Ultrasound

Click here to view these pictures larger

We had our 20 week ultrasound on Friday and found out we're having a boy!  We couldn't be happier.  I went to the doctor today and she said he looks healthy!  

My department had a gender reveal for me this morning and we cut open a cake to let everyone know what I'm having.  

I look super tired in this picture…but it was 7:00 am...

IT'S A BOY!!!

Honeymoon Part 1

Our original plan for our honeymoon was to go somewhere tropical and all-inclusive in June after school let out.  Well, we quickly found out that that wasn't in the cards obviously.  So after looking around, I asked Chris if he wanted to go to Phoenix over Spring Break for our honeymoon, knowing he'd quickly catch on that that meant Spring Training.  We decided to drive since flights were pretty high and it would give us a chance to see more, since neither of us had ever been to the Southwest.
Accompanying pictures can be found on our Shutterfly site:  http://thewygasfamily.shutterfly.com

Day 1: Saturday
We were originally going to leave after church but there was a threat of snow, so we decided to head out of town around 2 and drove to Oklahoma City.  My friend Zach used to live there so I sent him a message on Facebook asking for a good place to eat.  He suggested a delicious pizza place called Hideaway Pizza.  We were definitely fans!

Day 2: Sunday
Drove to Amarillo.  We stopped along Route 66 along the way in Shamrock, Texas  When we got there we decided to check out the zoo.  It was really small, but their exhibits allowed you to see the animals up close, which was cool.  After that, we grabbed lunch at Whataburger.  I wasn't all that impressed, but I'm also not a big burger person.  We decided to go ahead and check into the hotel after lunch and asked the front desk for some suggestions on things to occupy our time.  I'm glad we did because she suggested that we check out Palo Duro Canyon.  I wish we had known about all the trails though because we didn't bring water (stupid on my part) thinking it was more of a get out, look, take pictures, and get back in the car type of thing.  That's what we ended up doing because I didn't want to risk getting dehydrated.  They had all over the map how you needed to take a half-gallon of water per person per mile of trail.  We decided it would be better to just drive to the different lookouts and skip the trails.  It was definitely worth it.  Absolutely beautiful scenery.  That definitely got us hungry and Chris was dying to try Texas BBQ.  He was convinced that he wasn't going to get any since it was Sunday and many places are closed.  After some research i found one that was open and we went to Dyer's BBQ.  It was yummy.  I had ribs and Chris got the brisket.  After dinner we headed back to the hotel and got ready for the next day.

Day 3: Monday
We woke up super early…like 5:30.  I guess we were excited.  We thought we'd try to see Cadillac Ranch on the way out but we left around 7 and it was still dark.  We had no idea how to get there or if you could see it from the highway so we missed it.  We figured we'd see it on the way back (we did).  This was a long day of driving but very scenic.  When we got to New Mexico we stopped at the rest area that had a visitor's center and the lady there gave us a list of Route 66 stops in NM.  Some of the towns didn't have much, but it was kind of fun to imagine how it was when it was a popular travel stop.  We did stop in Santa Rosa, NM, and went to the Route 66 Auto Museum.  I thought a car museum was appropriate for a Route 66 trip.
After that, we headed on to Albuquerque.  There was a restaurant that I had wanted to check out there but when we got in town I was so hungry and had to go to the bathroom so bad I couldn't think straight so we went to the first restaurant we saw in Old Town.  It was pretty good but spicy.  Since I have an obsession with old churches, we checked out the San Felipe de Neri Church across the street.  It was built in 1793 and is one of the oldest buildings in Albuquerque.
From Albuquerque, we headed to Flagstaff and made several stops on the way (mostly so I could go to the bathroom).  I enjoyed taking pictures of scenery from the car.  Chris couldn't get over being in the mountains since he had never seen mountains before (unless you count the Ozarks).  My favorite stop had to be Petrified Forest National Park.  I almost wasn't able to convince Chris to stop because we had been on the road so long by that time and had made quite a few stops.  He was glad I convince him though.  The scenery was amazing!  I had to get out and take pictures at every lookout point.  After that, I agreed that we wouldn't stop anymore (unless it was for the bathroom of course) until we got to Flagstaff.  We were both pretty tired so we just grabbed dinner and went to bed.

Speaking of bed…it's bedtime.  Parts 2 and 3 to come!

18 weeks

Here's a belly shot from 18 weeks taken on March 6th!

I need to get better about taking pictures and blogging, at least for myself to be able to look back on.  I've been feeling pretty good for the most part.  I've had some soreness the past few days, which I think is from being in the car so much.  I go back to the doctor on Friday and we have our 20 week ultrasound right before my appointment.  We can't wait to see if Pickle is a boy or a girl!  It's been fun feeling little flutters and very tiny kicks.  I can't wait for Chris to be able to feel them too!  

We just got back from vacation and had a great time!  Details of that will be in a separate post.  

I'm back!

It's been forever since I've posted on here.  Now with little Pickle on the way I have a reason to start back up again!  It has been a crazy year.  From wedding planning, to the wedding, to planning for a baby we've been busy!  My car decided to die on me a few weeks ago and we had to buy a new (to us) car.
Here are a few pics:

 5 weeks

 8 1/2 weeks

Pickle's first baby picture! 15 Weeks

16 Weeks

The first couple months were a bit rough.  I was pretty much exhausted all the time.  Moving was definitely not fun.  I wasn't much help.  I think I'm finally starting to get more energy but it depends on the day.  

Last week at the doctor's we were surprised with an ultrasound!  My doctor was on maternity leave during my first two appointments so I had to see a different doctor.  At my last appointment the doctor said that based on my blood work I was a week earlier than I thought I was.  So last week when I saw my doctor I asked about it so she decided to go ahead and do a dating ultrasound.  We have an active little one!  When she was checking the heartbeat, she had to keep chasing it around with the doppler.  When she finally found it we got to hear a few kicks!  During the ultrasound the baby was all over the place.  It was so cool to see.  Of course when the ultrasound tech tried to see the sex Pickle finally calmed down and went to sleep…with his/her legs crossed!  I guess we're just supposed to wait until our 20 week ultrasound to find out!  

It's been a while...

I'm really bad at this whole blogging thing. Apparently I have not updated since August. Oh well. Beware, this post may come off as complaining, and I'm sorry, so if you don't want to read the rest stop here. Just need to get stuff off my chest.

The past couple months have been pretty crazy. January was busy getting packed and moving at the end of the month. In the middle of February I got a call at 6:15 in the morning from my mom saying that my grandpa died and I needed to come home. A couple weeks later during spring break I'm at a friend's house watching the finale of the Bachelorette when my mom calls again wanting to know what was wrong with my dad because my sister just posted on Facebook that he was being rushed to the hospital via ambulance. This was about a month after he had a bad accident because he passed out while driving and hit another car head on. I finally got a hold of my stepmom and it turned out that he had a bad asthma attack and was unresponsive to the EMTs for about 15 minutes. He was in the hospital for a few days intubated under heavy sedation.

Lately I feel like I'm just waiting for the next thing to happen. I've been having a lot of trouble with anxiety. I haven't felt this way since college. I keep having these weird dreams at night where I'm really anxious, but when I wake up I don't know what the dream is about. I just feel like I have this crushing feeling in my chest and my shoulders are super tense. Some days I have to hold back everything to keep from crying. Cause when I cry, I can't even tell you why I'm crying. I don't know if it's because of missing Grandpa, or just general anxiety. I just hate this feeling. Chris thinks I should go to the doctor. I worked so hard to get off of my anxiety meds that I really don't want to go back there again. I just want to get through this. I've turned down two chances to go out of town. I could have gone to Table Rock this weekend. Next weekend is the annual parent advisor meeting in Fulton. I thought about going to both, but I just needed some time at home for a weekend. I've had something going on almost every other weekend the past 2 months and I've just needed to relax. But then when I'm home the anxious feeling is stronger.

I keep thinking about the strange coincidences around Grandpa's death:

1) My grandma passed away on Ash Wednesday in 2005. It was the morning after Ash Wednesday when the nurse checked in on Grandpa and found him.

2) I couldn't sleep the night that he died. I woke up at 4:00 am thinking that I should be up and something was wrong. It turns out that the nurse found him around that time.

3) We had just moved him to the nursing home on Wednesday.

4) A couple months ago my mom came to see him and when she tried to get him to go to lunch, he told her, "I can't. Mom's (as in my grandma) been sitting in that chair all day and she's driving me nuts!"

5) My brother prayed at church that Wednesday night that Grandma would come and take care of Grandpa.

Power of prayer? I think so. I tried to go to church a couple weeks ago but I kept crying because they did the same responsorial psalm that they did at the funeral.

This time of year at work is always crazy too because we start talking about next year. I can't go into specifics of course, but there are a lot of things up in the air. I picked up 2 new kids on my caseload, so I'm going to the elementary school every day. It's a lot of extra miles on my car, but I really like working with the younger kids. Generally my patience lasts longer the younger a kid is. Kind of funny how that works.

Sorry for the long rant. I think I'm done now.