Baby Shower.

Can you believe that it has been a week and a day since our baby shower and this is the first time that I've had a chance to sit and write about that awesome day! It was a lot of fun and thank you again to my parents for putting the whole thing together and inviting everyone into their home. Josh and I very much appreciated their generosity, love and support.

Josh and I couldn't believe how much we got at the shower! We weren't expecting so many wonderful gifts. We were really feeling the love that day. It took me a week to organize and put the gifts away into their new homes. I think it also made everything seem a little more real. And can you believe that we received over 1400 diapers?!?!?!?! Oh my gosh! And they are split pretty evenly between the 'newborn' size and sized 1 and 2. So we are pretty set for a little while. I couldn't believe it when I organized and counted them. That is a ridiculous number of diapers and I love it!

Thank you everyone for your kindness, generocity, love and support. James is going to be one lucky little duckie! <3

Seeing everyone that was able to make it to the party was awesome. There were people that I hadnt seen in a very long time. I tried to catch up with everyone at some point through-out the afternoon/evening, but there were about 40 people there at one point, making it difficult to to get to everyone. So I do apologize to anyone that I didnt get a chance to sit down with. Again, I was blown away by the amount of people that came to celebrate with us  :) 

 
 

The food from Silvergreens was delicious! And by the looks of it at the end of the night, everyone agreed with me  :)  Silvergreens is one of my favourite places to eat in Santa Barbara. The cake was also amazing. I love carrot cake and again, everyone agreed with me :)  It was very pretty and also very delcious! I do believe the whole entire cake was eaten in the week following the shower.

I was completely exhausted for about 3-4 days following the shower. I slept a lot and took naps. I was much like Brutus after all the excitement hahaha. Now the next milestone in this journey is the birth of our son. I can't believe it and I cant wait!  <3  Bring on parenthood!

From One month to Six!



Can you believe how much I have grown in these past six months?! I have gained a total of 14 pounds since conceiving and most of that has been in the past month and a half. And I am only going to keep growing!!!

I honestly had no idea how small I was before getting pregnant until looking at these two photos side by side. It makes me confident that I will be able to lose all of my pregnancy weight by working out and eating right :) 

So far I have done well to stay in the healthy range ... I was on the lower end of the weight gain until about month 4 due to morning sickness, but I quickly caught up and am now smack dab in the middle of the recommended weight gain :)   Oh and I can no longer take photos in my bathing suit bottoms because ... well ... they no longer fit :-/ hahaha!

This morning I stood on the scales (as I do at the same time every week to ensure that I am gaining the weight I need to gain) and was quite shocked to have passed the 120 pound mark ... I am now at 121 pounds! For me that is a lot because I am a petite person who has never weighed more than 108 pounds. So I said to Josh, "I'm getting fat."  .... to which he replied, "Yes, but it's a beautiful fat."  .... One of the many reasons that I love my man  :)  He always knows how to make me feel better  :)  I love you!!!  <3

Anyway, I am going to go and not eat ice cream .... wait, do we have ice cream? .... mmmmm ice cream  :-D

It's a Boy!

Today we went to our ultrasound and it was awesome! The technician, Nicki, took all the measurements and said that everything looks great and also annoucned that we will be having a baby boy  :)  As soon as she said it, I looked at Josh and we both smiled. We cant wait! He will be James Thomas Epps.

We chose the name by putting both of our dad's first names together and I think it forms quite a solid name. It sounds strong :)

Nicki had pointed out James' penis to us but then decided to add some arrows and a title just incase we forgot what we were looking at. Josh gets a laugh everytime he sees this picture.  :)

I cannot wait to welcome baby James into the world in April  :)  He is our little boy and boy are we lucky that he is coming into our lives. Sometimes I still cannot believe that we created something so wonderful. I cannot wait to meet you my little Peanut ... but in the meantime, you stay where you are in the warmth and grow and thrive as you have been already. I love you xoxox



There you are little Peanut.

Some days I find myself stopping to look in the mirror. I lift up my shirt and turn sideways for some physical proof that my little baby is growing inside me. So far it's really only been hip widening and bloating (I am only 12 weeks and 1 day), but today was the day.

I went to the doctors office this afternoon for my follow-up exam following Tuesday's car accident. I peed in a cup (again), the doctor checked my cervix (not my favorite exam) to make sure it was still completely closed and we did an ultrasound. We did do some ultrasounds in the ER on Tuesday, but I wasn't allowed to really watch at that time and they didnt explain anything that was on the screen. Today the screen was pointed straight at me.

There was my little peanut on the monitor, looking right at us. The doctor pointed out the little face and dark areas where the eye are. It was as if he/she was saying, "What?! Would you just let me rest already???"  ... or .... "Hi mom, I told you I would be fine." - I also got to see the little flicker that is the heartbeat. And then the doctor turned on the sound so I got hear the heartbeat and wow is it strong! The doctor even said, "That is a pretty perfect heartbeat." .... That's my little peanut  :)

It put my mind as ease. Just a few days ago the thoughts of losing my child was unbearable, but he/she is much stronger than I gave him/her credit for. The doctor did give me some print outs of my little peanut and I cannot wait to share them with you. But first, Josh must see his little baby. I really can't wait to show Josh tomorrow when he gets home. And I cannot wait until the Tuesday when Josh gets to hear the little heartbeat too.

I find myself rubbing my tummy and looking at my stomach in the mirror more now. I still can't believe that there is a little person in there ... one little person that can make me feel so much love. --- I just cant wait to meet you, my little peanut  :)