5 weeks 3 days

How far along? 5 weeks and 3 days (5 weeks 1 day according to the doctor's wheel, but I'll wait for the ultrasound for an accurate date)

Weight gain/loss? Nothing at this point.

Maternity Clothes? Not yet, but the Bella Band is my best friend.

Stretch Marks? Nope.

Sleep? I want sleep. All the time.

Best Moment This Week? We've made it to 5 weeks and the doctor's test confirmed we're in fact preggers. Big milestones I'd say.

Movement? Still wayyy too soon.

Food Cravings? Spicy foods, and fresh foods. The thought of overly processed/greasy food makes my stomach turn.

Gender? No idea. I'm hoping for a boy, B is hoping for a girl. We shall see.

Belly Button In or Out? In.

What I am Looking Forward To? Our first ultrasound and seeing the heartbeat.

Weekly Wisdom? Make lists. Pregnancy brain has officially set in.

Nursery progress? Not much progress as we're uber busy the next two weeks. However, we've almost decided that we want to put flooring down versus the carpet that's in there. Almost.

Belly Pic:



What the baby's up to this week: Your embryo (looking kind of like a tadpole) is starting to form major organs (heart, kidney, liver, stomach) and systems (nervous, circulatory, digestive). Baby's presence in your uterus triggers production of hCG (the hormone detected by pregnancy tests)... which triggers production of other hormones like estrogen and progesterone... which trigger all those great symptoms you've probably been noticing!

Fruit:



PS: I got my iPhone 4 this weekend, and I LOVE it!

4 weeks 3 days

So, that's right, it's survey time. I think I'm going to make this a Sunday evening post. Let's see if I can keep up with it! Lol.


How far along? 4 weeks and 3 days

Weight gain/loss? Nothing at this point.

Maternity Clothes? Not yet, but I did have to break out my Bella Band already for a few pair of jeans... Stupid bloat!

Stretch Marks? Nope.

Sleep? I noticed my hips getting sore after laying down for more than 10 minutes. But I loooove sleep and want to sleep all the time.

Best Moment This Week? Getting our BFP!!

Movement? Still wayyy too soon.

Food Cravings? Mexican/spicy foods.

Gender? No idea. I'm hoping for a boy, B is hoping for a girl. We shall see.

Belly Button In or Out? In.

What I am Looking Forward To? Our first ultrasound and seeing the heartbeat.

Weekly Wisdom? Don't leave puppies unattended. They'll eat your expensive Macbook chargers.

Nursery progress? I know it's early, but we started moving our "office" into our other spare bedroom. I can't wait to paint!

Belly Pic:



What the baby's up to this week: In week 4, now safe in your womb, the ball of cells (blastocyst) splits in two, becoming the embryo and the placenta. The amniotic sac and fluid are forming around baby, and will act as a cushion for the next eight months.

Fruit: Poppy seed

BFP!!

That's right...



We were lucky enough to get our BFP (big fat positive) after only trying for two months. Technically one after our doctor's visit. We found out last night. We are very excited, but also very cautious. To date, we've only told our parents and a select group of EXTREMELY close friends. So again, I have to ask that whatever is said here stays here until we announce when we're ready. According to whatever calculators I could find, and trust me it was a lot, we're due roughly around May 19, 2011. Monday I'll be scheduling the first doctor's visit. I'm sure the date is subject to change at this point, but hopefully not by much. At this point I still feel fine with the exception of being tired all the time; and craving mexican food.

AANNNDDD, since I'm still uber excited, expect to see a weekly pregnancy survey. Yup, I'm going to be one of those. But hey, what a better way to keep everyone updated when we don't get to see/talk to everyone all the time.

As always, thoughts and prayers are certainly welcome!

Meet Abigail

Miss Abigail has been a treasure. Such a wonderful addition to our family. Here are a couple pictures from the day we picked her up.







Her and Lily get along like the best of friends. Well, maybe more like sisters. Sisters who fight from time to time. Lol.

Forgive me!

I apologize that it's been so long since I last posted. Apparently I make a horrible blogger. However, our summer is starting to wind down, so expect more posts in the near future.

In the mean time, here's a brief run down of the last couple of months:
July 10 - Carrie and Steve's wedding = a trip home for me while B worked
July 17-22 - Vacation in the Outer Banks, NC with a stop in Virginia Beach (look out for a post with pics!)
July 25-Aug 6 - B had AT and was away that whole time
Aug 8-11 - B was in the field and my birthday was in there. He came home to surprise me and we got to spend my birthday together for the first time ever!
Aug 14 - My girlfriend Jessica's wedding = trip home
Aug 21 - Our good friends Trevor and Lindsay had their Stag and Drag, and us being the best man and maid of honor, of course we attended! = trip home

Well, that brings us up to now. This weekend is another trip home, but this time B has drill and I have a bridal shower to attend. Also, we're getting a puppy this weekend! We've named her Abigail (Abby for short), she's a black lab, almost 8 weeks old, and a tank! Lily is going to love having a play mate! I'm so excited to finally bring her home on Sunday.

After this, we have a bit of a break before we have weddings two weekends in a row the end of September and the beginning of October. Tis the season for weddings! Other big news: I will be meeting with an admissions rep at a local college to discuss going back to school and getting a degree in photography! B has been an amazing support with all of this and he's finally giving me the push I need! Love you babe!

Last tid bit of excitement: we met with my doctors on the 16th and we have the green light to start TTC!!! I can't wait for the day I get to post our big announcement!

Phew! I think (hope) that covers it all...

Lily

It's funny how one word can sum up our dog perfectly. If someone asks about her and what she's like, we simply say, "She's Lily!"

Our lovable furbaby is a rescue dog from our local humane society. She joined our family in October 2009 after having been born at the shelter, adopted by one family, then subsequently returned due to financial issues. We do not know how long she was there before we found her, but things did not look well for her future there. I truly think fate brought us to her.

At the time, we were still living in our townhouse about 40 minutes away from where we live now. Our first stop that day was actually at a shelter about a mile away from there. The shelter was small, and offered more cats than dogs. And the dogs there weren't exactly what we were looking for. So, we made a trip to the humane society near our current home hoping that since it was obviously bigger, we'd have more of a selection. I can't tell you how long we were there, but it was definitely no short trip. This humane society was 80% pitt bulls, which we were not allowed to have in our townhouse. This made things difficult. We started looking at smaller dogs, thinking it would be more sensable. There was a jack russell terrier that caught our eye, but once we had him in the "meet and greet" room, we discovered he liked to pee on everything, including B's pant leg. We looked at a couple other dogs, and when we thought we had found one we liked, we sadly found out that an adorable little boy had seen him first. We were beginning to get frustrated and had pretty much decided to leave, when I suggested we take one more stroll through. There, out in her own crate, in the hallway, separated from all the other dogs, sat our Lily. B grabbed her kennel card, looked at me, and I knew. She was perfect. A little over a year old, knew basic commands, loved car rides, enjoyed baths, and was good with children. We took her to the "meet and greet" room, and she was so well tempered. She was perfect, and she had to be ours! And she was! We had the humane society fudge her kennel card because she is half black lab, half pitt bull. They simply said she's a lab/terrier mix, which isn't a complete lie as pitt bulls are terriers.

She is truly a member of our family. She is loving, playful, lazy, and sometimes a little stupid, but that only makes us love her even more. Lately, I've noticed how she's like us! Yes, a dog acting like humans. Hear me out. I have a mild (okay, maybe not so mild) case of OCD. One of the things I HAVE to do, is make our bed before I get in. It can be messy all day long, but it has to be perfect when I crawl in. B makes fun of me for this, of course, but it only makes him love me more ;). Monday night as I was making the bed, I noticed Lily "making" making her bed. I died! She has a blanket in her bed in our room, and wouldn't you know she was moving it around to get it just the way she likes it. She truly is our dog!

I'll leave you with a couple pictures of Lily and some of her "Lily-isms"

How she prefers to sleep:


Her favorite ball:


She loves to people watch out the window:

Landscaping!

One of the downsides to purchasing a home in the winter that my husband and I stumbled upon, was the landscaping. Apparently it's an unwritten rule that you have to wait until late spring/early summer to see what treasures (or not) await you. Well, whether it was intentional or not, we did just that. I will say, we had some very pretty tulips come up in the spring, and recently had some beautiful lilies bloom. However, we had some very, well, large "decorative" grass take over the front flower beds as well. They were half dead and made the house look smaller than it actually is. That all changed this weekend.

B's parents and sister came to visit with us this past weekend, along with their two dogs and his brother's dog. Yes, we had four dogs running around our house, but that's another post for another day. In the week leading up to their arrival, my mother in law asked if she wanted me to have her bring some plants down to put around the house. As hesitant as I was, I said yes, and I'm so thankful I did. Since B had to work all weekend (again, another post for another day), the three of us, with his sister supervising, completely redid both front flower boxes, the area around a tree in the front yard, as well as two corners in the back yard. It looks pretty good if I do say so myself! And hopefully, it looks even better next year!

Before:


After:


Just a side note, that porch is a "spare" front door if you will. I have no idea why, but we have two front doors. The covered porch leads into our dining room where our table blocks the door. Before the end of summer, I hope to put a couple chairs and a little table out there, and repaint the rails. Oh the joys of homeownership.

first post/our story

Welcome to our blog! I must say, I've been meaning to do this for about a month or so now, so I'm very excited to start. For those of you who don't know, here's our story:

My name is Liz, and I'm a twenty-something newlywed. My husband is Brandon, who is also a twenty-something newlywed. Go figure! We currently live in our first home (woohoo!) in Central Pennsylvania where B works for the Pennsylvania Army National Guard and I work with credit unions from all over the state, including some from Ohio, New York, Connecticut, and Vermont. We got married in September 2009, and I don't think we've slowed down since. We got new jobs, moved away from home, adopted a dog (expect to hear a lot about her), got even better new jobs, bought a house and moved again, and traded-in vehicles and bought new ones, all in an eight month period. Whew, I get exhausted just typing it!

In the middle of all of that, something that will change us forever happened. While we both had the desire to start a family, we knew we wanted to be more settled before we made that next step. Someone else had other plans. In March 2010, we found out we were expecting. Both of us were overcome with such love, joy, and hope for the future. We were going to have a baby!

Everything progressed normally. I got had morning sickness (all day sickness is more like it), cravings, food aversions, and other common symptoms that I'll spare you from. I even started to get a tiny bump, and although it was more bloat than bump, I loved it all the same. We went for our very first appointment and ultrasound when I was what we thought was 8 weeks and 1 day along. The ultrasound informed us that we were in fact only 5 weeks and 6 days along. Our midwife assumed we were off on our calculations, and saw no reason for concern. She booked us another ultrasound the following week, just to be sure everything was going the way it needed to be. So, the following week, Thursday, April 8, we went for our follow up. This time, the ultrasound reveled that we were now 7 weeks and 1 day along. Growth! We had one final follow up scheduled for the following week, just to be sure. We never made it to that appointment.

After a long, emotional, painful weekend, on Sunday, April 11, we lost the baby. Words simply cannot describe the emotions we felt that weekend. Or even that first week. Two months later, I still have days where I can't describe what I'm feeling.

This blog is not to host a pity party. It is not to evoke sympathy. This is to document our story as newlyweds (however late in game I may be) and our miscarriage is most certainly a part of our story. If just one person can relate to anything written here, I will be overjoyed. We have decided that we would like to try and start a family in September (God willing), so while some posts may be day to day happenings, some may be miscarriage related, and some may be baby making (G-rated of course) related. To all of our friends and family who may stumble upon this, please do not share with anyone what you may read on here. We wish to keep any future pregnancy "less public" to those who know us outside of the internet world, and will share when the time is right for us. Until next time.