Tank's first Christmas - nine weeks down!

Tank, we visited your Reschly grandparents at their gorgeous Victorian house in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, over Christmas. We got to share the news about YOU with all of your Reschly aunts, uncles, and cousins!

It was a cold week - around zero - so we stayed in the house, visited with family, and got pranked by your older cousins, especially Justine and Maddie! They put a bunch of Post-It notes all over the walls in the room where we stayed, they put Legos on your dad's side of the bed, and they put toys on top of the ceiling fan so when we turned on the light, toys came raining down on our heads! I'm sure you'll get to see (and participate in) more of their pranks in years to come.

Different background, because this one was taken at your Reschly grandparents' house in Iowa!

We made delicious homemade cinnamon bread, but since we forgot to take it on the road to Iowa, we got to chow on it when we got back home.

First prenatal visit!

[Tank, I have been slacking... no blog entries since December, and now it's mid-June and you're almost here! I figured I'd go back, post our weekly "bump" pictures showing how you and I have grown, and add basic facts.]

Tank, we got to see your little gummy bear body for the first time right before Christmas - best gift ever! Your heartbeat showed up like a little pulsing dot, and you did a little dance for us that looked a lot like the gopher from Caddyshack (ask us about that movie later). You measured two days ahead of my LMP due date, so the doctor left my due date the same - July 30, 2014.

Brian and I met with the prenatal nutritionist and Dr. Pierce, my OB, and got lots of info on what to expect in the months to come. We shared the photos and news with Uncle Luke and Aunt Sarah, then we left for Christmas with your Reschly cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents in Iowa (your first road trip - smooth sailing and Mommy didn't get sick the whole week!)

We got to share our news AND your pictures with everyone - cousin Eli was really hoping you'd be a boy since he's the only boy cousin right now and he feels outnumbered.

We loved seeing your round little belly and your tiny finger buds!

You turned around so we could see your spine forming - everything looks great!

Eight weeks down!

Well, Tank, at exactly eight weeks, I hit a new milestone - I barfed for the first time! Your dad was so excited at this sign of pregnancy that he came home that night with a treat for me: red velvet cake from Taylor's Bakery. Other than that, we're just getting ready to visit your Reschly grandparents (and all your Reschly aunts, uncles, and cousins) in Iowa for Christmas. We've got our first prenatal appointment on Monday the 23rd, right before we leave... we hope to see your little heartbeat for the first time!

Tank's first hike!

Tank, your mom and dad love to hike - it's what got our relationship moving to a deeper level, and it still sustains us. We hiked 6 miles through a river the day before our wedding, and 7 miles the day after our wedding! I want to introduce you to the beauty of the outdoors as soon as it's healthy after you're born. Until then, though, you won't have much of a view; sorry!

We went to Marott Park on the north side of Indianapolis yesterday. It had snowed overnight, which made for a pretty walk, even though temps were over 32 and the ground was getting a little slushy.

Mom and a very tiny Tank on Tank's first hike!

This is about as hilly as central Indiana gets

Seven weeks down!

Oh, Tank, you must be working VERY hard in there, because I'm exhausted! People keep asking me if I'm OK because the dark circles under my eyes keep spreading. I'm lucky to have a flexible schedule so I can catch up a bit on my rest... grow, baby, grow! (The photo makes it look like I'm showing - but it's still just a "blump"!)

Custom-made housewarming gifts rock

My dad made us a coffee table as a housewarming gift! This will last us for years to come!

Six weeks down!

Not much to report here, but a new bloaty bump picture for the six week mark... note Sox's paws sticking out from under the door.

I forgot to mention - we also told our parents we were expecting over the holiday weekend. My mom said she knew it (apparently I'd mentioned my boobs hurting while we were cleaning the house before move-in). Brian's mom wants us to have twins because Maddie and Justine were so cute when they were little. We've asked them not to tell our siblings yet; we'd like to wait until the first ultrasound on 12/23 and then tell everyone over the Christmas holidays in person.

First ultrasound (sort of...)

Well, Tank, we had our first, unplanned, ultrasound on Saturday - well, at least I did. I had pain inside my left calf, and I thought I felt a little lump inside the skin. I called Dad (my dad) and then the OB on call, and they both said to come in for a Doppler of my leg in case it was a clot. Because I'm pregnant, I got to wait in the maternity triage area instead of the ER, which on the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend was a huge bonus for Brian and me.

I don't have a photo of the ultrasound - guess they only give you souvenirs when they're taking pics of a baby! - but everything turned out OK. Guess I was just an anxious first-timer pregnant lady with a leg cramp and Google. Fine by me! I was kind of hoping they'd slide the machine up to give us a glimpse of you, but no dice. Guess we'll have to wait another 20 days to see your little heart beating!

Brian and I did get to hear a lady in labor in the room next door until they wheeled her off for a C-section... a little prep for next summer!

Brian the DIY king

Our garbage disposal at the Little Flower house has been dead for a long time, and since we moved back in earlier this month, it's been a bigger and bigger hassle living without one. Brian finally got fed up and decided to use his engineering degree and man card to investigate (and I carefully read how-to books and instructions alongside him). Turns out the cheap flippers who "fixed up" the house before I bought it put in the smallest capacity disposal available, which probably led to the early death of said disposal. So Brian found a bigger disposal on Amazon, and installed it with only two trips to our awesome 10th & Arlington Ace Hardware housed in an old movie theater. Behold the process:

And it works great now! Go B go!

Five weeks down!

Be careful what you wish for...

Because I'm a planner who's been hit with a 280-day, largely uncontrollable and unknowable situation (hi Tank!), I've been worrying about every twinge and feeling. Lately I'd been worrying that I DIDN'T have as much nausea as I had two weeks ago - this despite all the advice reminding me that many pregnancy symptoms come and go, and that morning sickness typically sets in around 6 weeks. Well, this morning I woke up feeling icky. Problem solved. At least I'm not barfing, and I can still get my required calories and food groups down. Once I get a full stomach, I almost always start feeling better.

No baby bump yet; still just my gut...

Who IS this girl?

I have always been a terrible eater. When I was little, I was so picky my mom basically gave up trying to get me to eat a balanced diet. As an "adult", I've often subsisted solely on breadsticks and cheeseburgers for weeks at a time. Even over the last year, as I've lost 41 pounds, my diet (except for cheat days where I pigged out) was really repetitive (frozen Weight Watchers or Lean Cuisine meal for lunch, frozen meal for dinner, same yogurt for breakfast every day), which made "points" counting easy but probably didn't do much for my nutrient balance.

But then came the positive pregnancy test. I found a great, free website, http://www.choosemyplate.gov/supertracker-tools/supertracker.html, from the USDA that will let you track foods you've eaten and tallies up your calories and food groups. My nutritional needs are customized for my first trimester. I don't think I've ever eaten this well in my life! I hope Tank appreciates it - I know I do!

Our wedding photos made it into St. George Weddings!

Our wedding and photos made it into the St George Weddings blog! To access the blog, go to http://stgeorgeweddings.com/audra-brian-zion-utah-wedding/

Zion Overlook I Do’s {Audra & Brian} | Zion Utah Wedding Photography

Tyler Rye Photography has sent over a great Zion Wedding today and we are excited for you to see it…

Audra and Brian live in Indianapolis and in her words we live in Indianapolis where everything is flat, so the scenery around Zion was the reason they chose to get married in Zion. Audra and Brian really like going on hikes together and just being out doors. They fell in love with Zion and knew this was the place they wanted to be married. Their ceremony took place on the edge of a cliff over looking the beautiful Zion National Park. The clouds offered perfect soft lighting and made the ceremony even more perfect. But the weather is unpredictable in Southern Utah, and 10 minutes later it started to rain. But we are loving the images we do have to show off…and the rolling clouds in the background are gorgeous!

PHOTOGRAPHY: Tyler Rye Photography
FLORAL: Bloomers Floral
HAIR & MAKEUP: Sarah Gardner of Varsity Cuts
OFFICIANT: Steve Masefield of Zion Weddings

I Found a Reason

For Tank... and for B

Well, THAT was fast!

So in my last post I said I wanted to restart a blog because we were going to start trying for a family. Since I'm 38, we thought the process might take a while. Well... wrong. Starting a week or so ago, I began having some of the typical symptoms of early pregnancy... dizziness, breast tenderness (sorry), peeing constantly (sorry), and fatigue. Though I wasn't even late, I couldn't wait any longer, so Sunday, November 17, I woke up early to pee and decided to take the test. The instructions said to wait three minutes, but within 90 seconds.... BAM!

 Poor Brian was still asleep and couldn't figure out why I wanted him to read the test result... "NOOO! I've got two more minutes to sleep!" Once I convinced him to look, though, we were both thrilled and stunned. We went out to dinner with Mom and Dad and Luke and Sarah that night for Luke's birthday, and it was soooo hard not to spill the beans!

I am not very diligent at blogging

Three years without posting... no one is following this... ah well! I got married just over a month ago, and my husband B and I are wanting to start a family, so I thought it might be nice to keep some sort of record for our future kids, and I suck at journaling.

We're both 38 with no kids so far, so we're sort of coming late to the party, and we're old enough to be kinda terrified by the prospect of being responsible for a tiny little life. Also, we like being able to do whatever we feel like doing on the weekends, and being able to sleep through the night, etc. We've got friends with kids in high school and friends who are just now getting pregnant, so we're getting "advice" - mostly horror stories - from all sides.

Regardless, we're excited to start thinking about expanding our family, however long that may take.