11 Week Update!

How far along? 11 Weeks 3 days 
Total weight gain/loss: Same as last week. -4
Maternity clothes? None yet but I plan to borrow/buy some soon. My pants are starting to get a little uncomfortable, I've been wearing my legging everywhere.
Stretch marks? No. I bought some stretch mark cream so hopefully this stays a no for the whole 9 months!
Sleep: Still tired and sleeping well. However, I have started waking up at about 5am and can't get back to sleep. I also have been getting uncomfortable and I toss and turn.
Best moment this week: We went to BuyBuy Baby and loved looking at all the baby stuff! Can't wait to start registering and buying things =) I bought a baby book and started filling out what I could!
Have you told family and friends: Yes!
Miss Anything? I miss feeling like myself (not so tired, eating regularly..etc) but I know it's all worth it!
Movement: None yet, can't wait though!
Symptoms: Still not eating like normal and still occationally dizzy. New symptom this week is mild headaches that are only relieved with a little caffiene.
Food cravings: Adding to last weeks list, Popsicles, salsa & chips, bread
Anything making you queasy or sick: Meat of any kind, yuck!
Have you started to show yet: Same as last week, bump gets bigger as the day goes on. I take my bump pictures at the very end of the day so it's the biggest, I don't care if that's cheating :) 
Gender prediction: I was thinking girl but now I'm unsure. Ahh can't wait to find out!
Labor Signs: No
Belly Button in or out? In
Wedding rings on or off? On
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy!
Looking forward to: We get another ultrasound this week! We can't wait to see baby again!

10 Weeks

How far along? 10 Weeks 3 days
Total weight gain/loss: I haven't gained any weight. I've actually lost about 4 lbs (down from 122 lbs to 118 lbs) since becoming pregnancy. 
Maternity clothes? None yet
Stretch marks? No
Sleep: Sleeping great, still occasionally taking a nap during the day
Best moment this week: Celebrating with my best friend at her Bachelorette Party! =)
Have you told family and friends: Yes!
Miss Anything? Eating like normal again & eating normal foods. Going all night without having to get up to pee!
Movement: None
Symptoms: Still having dizzy spells from my low BP. I had an episode at work today where I nearly blacked out. I've been drinking water by the gallon!
Food cravings: Salty chips, cheese, cereal, pasta (I could eat mac and cheese at every meal), salads.
Anything making you queasy or sick: Meat of any kind
Have you started to show yet: My bump at this point is an accumulation of food and bloating. At the beginning of the day I have little to no bump but by the time I go to bed I have quite the little bump =) I'm definitely ready for the real deal!
Gender prediction: Girl - 10 weeks until we can find out!
Labor Signs: No
Belly Button in or out? In
Wedding rings on or off? On
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy!
Looking forward to: Finding out the gender, feeling the baby move & getting a bigger bump!

Coming Soon: Baby Blackburn & 9 Weeks!

Surprise! We're pregnant!

After a missed period, countless NEGATIVE pregnancy tests, blood work and a longer than normal wait. We FINALLY found out we were expecting by phone call from the doctor while we were in Maine for a friends wedding. Needless to say we are very excited to welcome baby Blackburn next February!

I naively thought I was going to be one of those women who skate through pregnancy unscathed. Then the nausea hit, and it hit hard. I spent the majority of 2 weeks (weeks 5 and 6) laying on the bathroom floor, bed, break room floor...etc with a garbage can and the worst feeling I've ever had that I was going to vomit at any minute. Everything you read says nausea peaks at week nine and usually disappears around week 13. Which might as well have been 5 years from now, since there was no way I was going to survive that long. Alas, week seven hit and the nausea subsided! Praise the Lord! I guess my body started tolerating my high hormone levels and decided, in fact, I would not have survived so it starting doing something about it.

The nausea is gone now. I do get frequent tummy aches but that is nothing like the nausea I experienced and I don't even feel nauseous when I get them, more like a belly ache. I have had trouble eating a large amount of food. I try to eat frequent small meals to stay full but sometimes nothing sounds good. I get really full after eating only a little bit of food and I've had a minor weight loss, which is completely normal my doctor says. The most recent symptoms I've been battling are exhaustion and lightheaded/dizziness. The exhaustion is like nothing I've felt before. I literally could sleep all day every day. I take 2 hour naps often and when I don't, I'm passed out asleep by 8:30pm. The lightheaded/dizziness is due to low blood pressure from the changes in my blood volume and supporting baby's blood volume. These two symptoms are WELCOMED as long as that nausea doesn't comeback (I can handle anything after that!). They are also completely normal and just a sign that, indeed, baby is growing! Yay!

We had our first ultrasound at week 6.5 and we got to see the little nugget (looks more like a blob but it's a baby I promise). We got to see the blood pumping and even got to hear the heartbeat! It was very cool and exciting. Here is the first look at baby!

Ultrasound 6.5 weeks

We just got home from our second doctors visit and we got to hear baby's heartbeat again on the Doppler. Definitely they best moment of the week! =) I am 9 weeks 4 days as of today. 

I plan to do weekly updates with my chalkboard (Inspiration here and here). I don't have much of a bump yet so for week 9 I just have the announcement board! I will start next week with bump pictures (hopefully I have a mini bump) and a weekly questionnaire so I can track my bump and how I'm feeling over the next 7 month! Wow I can't believe 2 months have already past!

Basement Renovation: Trim, Doors & Cabinets

So we have been SLOWLY working on the basement in between our other summer adventures. 

We have been doing odds and ends and it's awesome to see it all coming together. 

We hung the doors and leveled them. Then we had to frame them with the trim we painted. 

This is the HVAC room that was framed out and the bi-fold doors still need hung. 

We put all of our face plates on the outlets and switches, as you can see in this picture above. 

Sneak peak at the cabinets! =)

Cabinets are in and they look awesome! I am super excited about how great they look with the paint and tile. 

All of our lighting is in now with the addition of our bathroom light! The bathroom is almost done, just needs toilet and vanity/mirror. 

Chad is currently working on hanging all the trim. The parts of the basement that he has done look so good! It starting to look more like a finished basement and less like a construction site. 

This Weeks Costs

Bi-fold Door Frame - $17

Lumber to frame windows and doors - $64

Outlets - $10

Switch & Outlet Plates - $9

3 Dimmer switches - $38

Bathroom light - $84

Bar Track Light - $120

Cabinets - $1,319

Free Things that were we already had

Labor

Nail gun

Nails
Saw

This weeks total - $1,661

Project total - $7,875

Things I learned this week:  Finishing a basement is tedious, especially in the summer when there are so many other things going on! 

What's next? 

1) Finish trim

2) Hang bi-fold doors

3) Caulk nail holes & trim

4) Paint & hang quarter round

4) Paint trim and doors

5) Set Cabinets

6) Install Vanity, Mirror and Toilet in bathroom.

7) Finish and install window boxes and frame windows

8) Build and install shelving units 

9) Install stair railing.

10) Build and install the bookshelves

11) Install fireplace

12) Countertop

I am not a professional and all my advice and tips are purely from my own experiences. 

Project {Garden}: Part 2

Sorry for the hitatus, we are in dire need of a new computer and I dread everytime I have to get on the old one we have to do anything at all. It takes nearly 20 minutes to open the internet these days. Nonetheless, I'm still here and a basement post will be happening soon, I promise. Until then...

Project Garden is in full motion these days! Everything is growing well and, fingers crossed, I might actually get some veggies this year!

My hostas are up and looking great, survived last year! The onions are bigger than ever and I even have a tiny strawberry! =) The only thing I have taken advantage of so far is the cilantro and it's delicious. Unfortunately, I think it has started to bolt, which essentially means flower, which essentially means no more edible parts will grow...

I planted my tomato and pepper plants a couple weeks ago and they are already bigger! I went ahead and put the cages on them now. Last year, I waited until they were bigger and I think I may have put the cage into the roots a little oops.

I went ahead and put up a fence to keep the bunnies out. This makes it pretty difficult for me to pull the weeds because I'm short vertically challenged. Usually I just fall into the planter box getting myself completely dirty ask Chad for help and he can reach the stuff I can't. Hopefully it won't pose to big a problem once I need to pick the plants.

We laid grass seed in the UGLY area in our backyard!! yay! This is what I am most excited about. It is SUPER patchy and pretty ugly still but its growing and that's all I care about. It has been about a month since we lay the seed. We are super luck because we got a TON of rain that week too and it seems to be growing well. I know that we will have to seed it again but this is definately a start!

I think we are done with yard work for the year. The mulch we put down last year has held up pretty well and we don't need to do it again this year. Besides, we have other things that are taking priority at the moment (hello, trying to finish a basement here...)! Getting a shed is DEFINATELY needed but may not be in the budget this year. We will have to wait and see! =)

Basement Renovation: Tile & Painting Trim

Happy Mother's Day to all you mom's out there, especially my amazing mom who has made me who I am today. Make sure to tell your mom how much you love her today and everyday! 

Finally, another basement post! I know you have been patiently waiting for us to get back to work on the basement =). And we did just that this week. 

We started off the week laying the tile in the bathroom, and by "we" I mean Chad and my dad.

After we let it set up for a couple days we came back and grouted, and by "we" I mean me.

It's a messy job! I was the grout-er and Chad was the cleaner. He went behind me and wiped all the grout lines clean! We let that dry, gave it one more thorough cleaning and the bathroom has a floor! 

As mentioned in my last post, we have been SLOWLY painting trim and doors. 

Most of the doors will be easier to paint once they are up, but we decided to paint the sliding closet doors before they are hung

I am happy to announce all the trim is painted and the closet doors have one coat. (too bad it all needs a second coat once hung, including 6 doors) But I won't think about that right now. No, now, I'll be happy about it being done (for now)...

Saturday we got a lot done. We started out by laying all the tile in the bar area! First, we my dad lay down a layer of thin set mortar. Then I would hand him a piece of tile to lay. (See I was vital to the process!) He used the spacers to make sure each tile was exactly the right space between each other.

It looks so good and it's really exciting to see it all come together. We used a wet saw that (of course) my dad has, to cut the tile pieces that needed cutting and other than that there really  weren't many tools needed. Just a lot of hand and knees labor!

Once it was all laid we had to let it dry so we moved on to project #2 for the day: hanging doors. We had to actually cut these doors down because they were too tall.

 Then we hung them in place, shimmed them to make them level, and nailed them into place.  We only got two hung before we called it a day, we were worn out! Okay, I was worn out, everyone else was fine I'm sure.

Sunday, we tackled grouting again. This was actually much easier because the tiles are larger than the bathroom tiles. It didn't take us much time at all! Don't mind my underwear  messy hair in the picture below...

Chad cleaned the tile and it was done! It looks amazing! It will dry a lot lighter than you see below and I'll be sure to post a good picture once it's dry! 

This Weeks Costs

Tile - $280

Thin Set - $28

Grout - $28

 5 Regular Doors  - $205

2 glass french doors - $670

Trim - $160

Door Shims - $4

Free Things that were we already had

Labor

Buckets

Grout float

Trough

Putty knife

Nail gun

Nails
Saw

This weeks total - $1,375

Project total - $6,214

Things I learned this week:  How to lay tile and grout. How to hang a door and make sure it's level. How much I hate painting, again.

This weeks plans: We want to get a second coat on the closet doors and get all the doors hung. Hopefully we can get the trim hung or at least some of it. We bought our cabinets, they look awesome. So hopefully we can get those set, now that we have a floor to set them on! I could go on, but I won't! Hopefully we won't take another month long break! 

I am not a professional and all my advice and tips are purely from my own experiences. 

Weekend Recap

We have been SLOWLY painting trim and this weekend we laid the tile in the bathroom. It still needs grout so I will show you pictures once it's complete.

We tilled the backyard up and laid grass seed. Hopefully with this rain we got, we will see something start growing soon.

Hopefully this week we will be back in full swing on the basement. We should be able to get the bathroom grouted, the tile laid in the bar and that grouted as well. Also, we can finish painting the trim and doors and POSSIBLY get started on hanging them.

In other news, we spent the weekend with Chad's parents, brother and sister. We had dinner at the Moerlein Lager House.

Then, we walked around the banks a little bit and enjoyed the views and the weather. The Flying Pig Marathon was going on downtown this weekend and they had some pre-marathon festivities. We snapped a photo with this awesome guy! 

Finally, we visitied the new Horseshoe Casino downtown. It was a lot of fun.

Sunday, my adorable, not so little anymore, :( niece had her 1st communion. Isn't she cute!?

We had a good time celebrating with our families this weekend! I'm looking forward to the amazing weather we are supposed to have this week/weekend! Also, the coutdown has officially begun for vacation!