Halfway There! Update

Wish I had started doing this sooner! I will definitely update this every few weeks from now on.

Pregnancy Update

How far along? 21 Weeks

Total weight gain: 10 lbs gained (20ish to go!)
Maternity clothes? only maternity pants, everything else I'm wearing is still regular (okay, really it's all Forever 21)
Stretch marks? no (fingers crossed, my mom didn't get them...)
Sleep: over thought it at first and have found I actually sleep better with only my head pillow and one knee pillow!
Best moment this week: having people finally notice my belly! I love not looking just kind of chubby anymore
Miss Anything? having a will to exercise, going an hour without peeing (WORST), an occasional margarita, being able to shave my legs/put on boots without it feeling like a workout
Movement: lots of movement! Titus is very active and here's the thing, I'm not afraid to admit that it feels really weird like an alien is trying to escape from my body. Of course I love feeling him move, but it's also kind of freaky!!
Food cravings: CONDIMENTS! I have been craving mustard, marinara, Heinz 57... I will choose my meals based around which condiment I can use with it lol. I also drink like 3 glasses of milk a day and have recently picked up a craving for Nutty Bars!
Anything making you queasy or sick: too much perfume/hairspray smell, chugging too much water or eating too fast in the morning
Gender: Boy!
Labor Signs: HA, no thankfully!
Symptoms: A little heartburn, occasional tiredness, lots and lots and lots and lots of peeing
Belly Button in or out? still in!
Wedding rings on or off? on, they seem looser than ever, maybe just because it is cold?
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy! I am feeling really great right now
Looking forward to: the Holidays! it will be so fun to have pictures of me with Titus in my belly to compare to next year when he will be almost EIGHT months old!

GENDER REVEAL

Okay everyone! Here it is. Once and for all, you are about to find out what we're having!
On Tuesday Garland and I went to the doctor for my 20 week checkup (yes, I said 20 weeks, am I seriously halfway there?! ashrfskddlsfjkalsfjslrijeoisdlkfjraslvnlvmdlfvkawefo) and we got to have an ultrasound to see our little strawberry! As most of you know, we had an early ultrasound done at my job at 16 weeks and had an inkling of what our baby would be. But since it was still early, we wanted to wait to announce it until we were really REALLY sure. As expected, the 20 week ultrasound confirmed our earlier thoughts!


Here's what's really cool (hold on, I promise I'm getting to the good part): They gave us a video of the live ultrasound so you can see Baby Autry moving in real time! It is so amazing to be able to show our friends, family, and cell kids what our baby is really doing (pictures just don't do it justice and can be really confusing). Unfortunately, I am not tech savvy enough to get it straight off the disc and onto YouTube (this takes some file converting that I am no bueno at) so you will have to deal with the iPhone version (that's what these smart phones are made for, right?).


So..... The video is about a minute and a half and it shows things like the head, arms, legs, spine, feet, and of course..... A WINKY!!!! Baby Autry is A BOY! So on May 1st we will welcome Titus James Autry to the world.
Watch and enjoy :)

Unplanned Pregnancies: Are they Unwanted?

The other day I was reading my Glamour magazine and came across an article that highlighted a study about the attitudes of young women toward unplanned pregnancies. It was surprising to me to see that so many young women did not want to get pregnant, yet still chose to forego any contraceptive methods. It was even more surprising that their reasoning was, "well, if I get pregnant that wouldn't be the worst thing." The study showed that because our society is so career oriented a lot of young women don't feel like they can start a family anytime soon, but yet they still have the yearning for a family. By pushing women so hard to be equal to men in every respect, are we pushing their natural instinct to parent out of focus? If this is true, then the ones who are really going to lose are the children coming out of these unplanned pregnancies.

Study published in Glamour Magazine: Are You Playing Baby Roulette?

Study done by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy

Surveyed 897 women between the ages of 18-39

• 50% of American pregnancies are unplanned, and ¾ of those pregnancies are in women 29 and younger.
• Women with a college degree are more likely to experience an unintended pregnancy than those who haven’t attended college.
• The number of unmarried women who had sex in the previous three months with no contraception rose by 36% between 1995-2008.
• While 86% of unmarried young women feel that pregnancy should be planned, only about half are using birth control consistently (however, 88% said it is important that they not get pregnant right now).
• The study found that young women have a strong longing for motherhood: More than half of them said they would like to be a mom right now “if things in their life were different.”
• And even among those who said it was important to avoid pregnancy, 20% of women (and 43% of men) admitted that they’d be at least a little happy if they found out they were going to have a baby.
• Women who conceive through a one night stand are most likely to abort (19% of never married women who have an abortion say they had “no relationship at all” with the father).
• 65% of women said that one reason they didn’t use contraception when they had sex was that their partner would “be there” for them if they ended up getting pregnant.
• “There’s this expectation that you’re with the guy you’re going to have children with anyway, so if you start a little earlier, it’s not a problem—maybe it will even accelerate the wedding bells.”
• 60% of cohabiting couples who have a baby break up within five years; if the pregnancy was unplanned, the odds that you’ll part ways roughly doubles.
• 44% of women ages 18-29 have the misguided belief that “it doesn’t matter whether you use birth control or not; when it is your time to get pregnant it will happen.” A majority also believed the following misconceptions:
• Long-term use of hormonal methods like the Pill will likely lead to cancer
• The IUD is bound to cause infection
• Contraception in general, even the pill, is highly ineffective
• 59% of women think they could be infertile and therefore cannot get pregnant
• National Center for Health Statistics reports only 8% of 18-29 year olds actually are infertile
• Mothers to be who have an unplanned pregnancy are less likely to get proper prenatal care

Baby Kicks!

Okay, so feeling the baby kick is unbelievable. I first felt the baby at 15 weeks when I was laying in bed and  it did a 180 flip in my tummy. It was the weirdest feeling! Definitely felt like someone turned my stomach inside out. Around 16 weeks I started feeling light flutters that I knew were tiny kicks but were hard to even notice because I didn't pay that much attention.
The first time I REALLY noticed was when I was seeing Twilight: New Moon! I have a few theories on this: 
1) I felt the baby kicking stronger because I was sitting still and had a little caffeine
2) The baby loves vampire movies and was really excited
3) The baby hates vampire movies and was desperate to get out of there


At 17 weeks the kicks were really noticeable for me and I was feeling them all the time! It was so amazing to be able to track my baby's movements based on where I was feeling kicks, and I can tell you, that kid is MOVING.
Which brings us to week 18. At 18 weeks 1 day I was out to dinner with my family when I felt some pretty strong kicks under my ribs. It was so strong I put my hand on my stomach and was surprised to notice that I felt it from the OUTSIDE! I thought I was going crazy because the doctor told me you don't usually feel kicks from the outside until 20-24 weeks. I immediately grabbed my sister-in-law-to-be's hand and put it on my stomach and she immediately felt it too. Whew! Not crazy. I grabbed Garland's hand at the same time and that sweet daddy's face lit up like the Fourth! He was so surprised/shocked/giddy that he just sat there and smiled, it was top 5 cutest things I've ever seen :)


Since then I have noticed 2 things: 1) I feel the kicks the strongest when they are up by my ribs, and 2) my abs are SORE! I feel like I did P90X and I need to stretch my belly all the time. So weird! I have also reached the conclusion that while it has been so cool to feel the baby kick so strong so early that this could come back to bite me in my late pregnancy. I have a feeling I'll have some sore ribs from some major kicks!

Unforgotten Blessing

I have a super cool job, I'm just going to say it from the get go. One of my favorite parts is that we offer limited ultrasounds to clients who qualify to check for gestation (how far along) and a heart beat. During these ultrasounds, I get to sit in the room and shadow, and even though my presence is a legal requirement to protect the patient's rights, I get excited anyway because I get to watch the excitement and see the surprise over such a little life! Most of the time these ultrasounds are a moment of realization that there really is a baby growing and it can already do so much.
However, every once in a while the ultrasound does not go as planned. The couple I shadowed today was so excited to see the baby and even though she thought she was 10 weeks, the baby was only measuring at 7 weeks. Everyone thought she may have just miscalculated when she got pregnant, but as the ultrasound went on we realized we couldn't find a heartbeat. It was SOOOOO overwhelming to watch this heartbroken couple mourn the loss of their child. I found myself pulling my cardigan over my belly to make my own pregnancy bump seem less noticeable. Somehow it felt like bragging just to have such prominent proof of the life growing inside me that would no longer grow inside of her. 
Even though I know that statistically 1 in 4 pregnancies end in miscarriage, it was still surreal to see a couple's first, raw emotional response to the news. I found myself praying and praising God that my baby has lived. Today gave me a renewed thankfulness and appreciation for the miracle God has given me. We prayed so long for this baby and after we passed the initial high risk miscarriage stage it has been easy to see that it was only by his hand that we are going to be blessed with a baby in May.


So today, I lift up his glorious name and humble myself in thankfulness at the foot of his throne for even considering me worthy of such joy.

"My prayer was for this child; and the Lord has given him to me in answer to my request."          
1 Samuel 1:27

Boy or Girl....

We did another ultrasound! I know, I'm beginning to sound like an ultrasound junkie, but not knowing the gender was killing me! This time, we did it at 16 weeks, and although both times we've tried to find out it has been developed enough to see, our little guy/gal has been shy!


The exciting news is that we got a better peek today! We actually got a hint about our baby's gender :)
Drum roll please.........
We're having a                          !!! Sorry to get your hopes up but we're not revealing it yet! I know, I know, this was so mean! But I haven't blogged in a while and since this is the most exciting thing happening in our neck of the woods, I knew I needed to document it. But until we have it confirmed and we're not just "pretty sure," we're keeping it to ourselves :)


In other news, I felt the baby move for the first time at 15 weeks and 4 days! It was weird and incredible all at the same time. I was laying in bed flat on my stomach, trying to fall asleep. All the sudden out of nowhere, it felt like one side of my stomach turned completely inside out. Kind of a combination of the feeling you get when you go over the hill of a roller coaster and like someone was moving a rolling pin under my skin. It was totally crazy! I know the baby had to of been doing a total 180 or something because it definitely wasn't "butterfly kicks" like everyone describes having around this time. Guess it's going to be a sleep tosser just like it's momma!


That's all for now, the "official" gender announcement will happen in mid-December :)

No! Please No!!!!

Okay, bear with me here. I know there are lots of scary things about being pregnant/delivering a baby/parenting an infant, such as:

• Registering (I have no idea what half of this stuff is)
• Stretch marks
• Pregnancy complications
• Heartburn, constipation, headaches, nausea...
• Contractions
• Pushing a baby out of my body
• Not being able to push a baby out of my body and having it surgically removed
• Recovering
• Not sleeping
• Paying for a baby

But can I tell you something? I am not boycotting a c-section, or the lack of sleep, or even the not so enjoyable symptoms I've had so far. You know what I would be willing to pay money to avoid more than anything else?

Chubby face.

I know, I know. This is totally shallow and if in return I get a healthy baby it's worth it (blah blah blah). But seriously, can't a lady not want to have her face look like a giant balloon animal? Is it too much to ask that if everything else on my body is changed forever that at least I don't have to look like I just got my wisdom teeth removed for the last few months of pregnancy?

I know this is unavoidable, and if it happens, it happens; I'll make due. But still, I'm allowed to not like it, right?