Week 13: Chicago and a move

Okay.. this is going to be 2 weeks worth of events because I can't count. oh no. Maybe 3. Something went wrong. Blame it on mommy brain? Done.

We #hotelprius'd our way back to Springfield and dropped the dog off at a kennel. After a quick rest and re-pack, we headed straight to Chicago!

Chicago was filled with great fun and some brand new preggo experiences! Our hotel was far enough away from my parents' that we had to take the L to meet them. Every morning the train was packed with rush hour people. It was enough to let some serious nausea set in. Additionally, since the Mike and Lauren and Co cuties were there, we had some late starts on Chicago activities. Overall, this didn't really matter because we were just there to enjoy everybody's company BUT it meant that breakfast always turned into brunch. Brunch does not compute with 1st trimester people. No no no.
So Chicago was the closest I have been to puking. One morning I woke up thinking, yeah.. today is the day I toss my cookies. I dry heaved a couple times on the way to the train. The first train to come by was jam-packed. I looked at Kaio and was like, NO WAY. So we let it go and waited for the next one. I spent the time by harassing a station worker. I told him I didn't want to puke on everybody on the train. He gave me a plastic bag and some napkins and told me to not worry about the people. He was super nice. THE NEXT TRAIN WAS EMPTY. There can be miracles, if you belieeeeeeeeeeeeve.

Later, I chased Kaio for a half block just for fun and had to stop to think about puking again.
Altogether, Chicago was really fun!

Tiny weird water closet at our hotel. 

Mom and baby cuteness at the Natural History Museum

Scarf ladies

When we got home it was a mad dash to get all the heavy stuff loaded into our trailer for storage.

BUT we had another doctors appointment! Finally! I thought it was supposed to be an ultrasound but it was just a sonogram. Nevertheless, it was adorable. That little fast heartbeat made everything seem so real. Kaio has been telling everyone that is was a boy heartbeat. He could tell. ;)

So Kaio left for Colorado and I had one more week left of work. I would pack pack pack all I could after work but maybe I also took some naps? It was a bittersweet last week of work. I really did love working at that company. I will absolutely miss the people more than anything else.

At this crazy stuffed point, the calvary arrived and helped me with all the last minute packing and cleaning. It was a heaven-send. So grateful for the love and support that is in that Fordland Branch.

 I arrived in Colorado very tired and worn out. But Kaio knows me too well. He must have heard me think earlier that week, "wouldn't it be cool if Kaio put up the Christmas decorations?" I walked into the apartment and it was simply magical. It brought all the joy I had been missing this Christmas season since so much grief and worry has accompanied the season. A real Christmas tree. Lights. Our stockings hung on our fireplace mantel (we have a fireplace!? yay for being in Colorado!) It was adorable and maybe I cried. (I totally did).

Merry Christmas everybody! I hope that you will be able to be near those you love! 

Week 12: #HOTELPRIUS #IMAWESOME

(? I got behind and maybe my numbering system is off... I'm gonna fudge the weeks in the next few posts and maybe no one will notice??)

Wheeeeeee! Road trip! We had a tiny bit of a rough start, what with all the huge life changes we made in the last week... Had to take a tiny pit stop and talk it all out before we could continue. Kaio is great. He never lets any bad vibes linger in our relationship. We talk it out. We listen and get crap done. Then we continue on, happy as clams.

We made it to Armarillo Texas and set up hotel prius for the first time. It was super cold and we had never done it all the way before so it took about 20 min for us to get everything together (none of those minutes did the dog find time to go potty). We were at a Flying J. Many other cars/mini camper type things were around. The only slightly disconcerting thing was a big white rape-y van was next to us and running a super loud generator. But we all lived at it was fun! The doggy had to stay in his little travel kennel because we weren't sure he wasn't gonna go potty all over us.

We made it to Barstow by the next night but had to stop in Arizona because the pup refused to go pee at any of our pitstops. He held it until about 5pm and then he starting shaking. Oh NO. This guy has gotta go! We were only 2 miles away from an exit but he had nothing left. He peed on my lap. Poor little guy. We pulled to the side of the road and he peed for about two minutes. We should have better prepared Drogo for pit-stops. So, we had to stop in Arizona and take a shower. It was $12 for Kaio and I to share a shower stall at a Flying J. It was nice. Clean. And I felt so much better about finishing up that day without pee all over me.

Prius in stealth mode, with the privacy covers on.

Back view

Side view

California was super fun! We stayed with Kaio's dad for a few days and it was really fun! We went to the flea market and had a great game night where everybody came and played Kaio's favorite game, Smash Up. Kaio's dad left for Utah and we spent the next few days, including Thanksgiving, at his mom's. We went to Apple Hill that is about an hour away from Kaio's house. We bought apples and fudge and cider and too many yummy delicious sugary things. Really a lot of the activities we did are kind of a blur. All I know is that we had fun and it was a good time. Oh, we did do a little bit of Black Friday shopping...

Drogo was thankful for the chickens. He defeated one and it made him feel like he was 10lbs!!

BF in Cali 

VS. BF  in Idaho. (These two are ADORABLE)

All the while I am still prego... not having very many issues except the fear of the excessive squishiness to come.

Week 11 and plot twist

Prep week. This was the mad dash of getting things ready to leave for our Thanksgiving trip.

BUT WAIT! Um crazy plot twist in our totally unstable lives... We are moving to Colorado. Kaio got a promotion which means that he has to go on the road full-time. It was a crazy hard decision to make about whether is was the right thing for us and the baby and how everything would work out. We spent  a lot of time on our knees and I made a lot of flow charts and lists. I tried to think about quitting my job this week but I didn't want to let that fester while I was gone on vacation.

Quitting was actually already on my mind. Unfortunately. Before we even got the news about Kaio's promotion, I had finished application and interviews for other companies. I love so many things about my company but there are some things that are just unacceptable. Disrespecting my intelligence. Disrespecting me as a person. I know that I may not have the same amount of experience as other people but I know that I am equally the same amount a person and should be treated as such.

WORST NEWS ABOUT THE WHOLE THING: Kaio only gets Christmas Day off. WHATTTTTT. We were planning on a whole week with my family in Idaho. Ouch. Ouchie. Sad face for the rest of my life.  Sooooo, we took off my remaining vacation days in addition to the ones we already planned to see my parents (just in case there was no way for Kaio to be around during the holidays).

So, this week, what had been the planning to get ready to leave for Thanksgiving in California turned into planning to leave Missouri by the 8th of December (Kaio) and also adding a million more hours in the car by meeting my parents in Chicago after Thanksgiving. Lots of details. No time.

Kaio's task: wrap the presents that are coming with us on the trip. His response.

Week 10: Primary program

Feeling good and great and awesome and maybe stressed.

Well, finally, not anymore.

We had the primary program today and it was great! So nothing else really existed this week except to survive that. The kids did great. There was a little bit of miscommunication of song placement so I maybe (lightly) shoved one of the kids off the stand to go back to his seat. Our chorister's due date was today but she made it and didn't go into labor in the middle of the program! My favorite part of every practice and the real thing was one sunbeam. His line was supposed to be "Temples make it possible for families to be together forever." Ha, he always said "impossible" and it was adorable.

After, I went to talk to the stake primary presidency whom had come to see the program. We talked in the primary room which felt a sauna. It was the first really cold sunday and somebody cranked the thermostat to "the fires of hell". I brought ice cream for the kids for sharing time and it was only a few minutes before it all totally melted. We watched a church video and I relaxed, feeling like I just got a free pass to relax until next year!

The awesome support I get from my mama :)

Week 9: First trimester can suck it

I don't really feel pregnant. Except that I feel inclined to sit every 30 minutes at work... but I'm not entirely sure that is a new thing. I have been feeling super blessed with my minimal pregnancy symptoms! I know I have had a lot of things help me prepare for it.

1. Frequency of pee-stops: I've been peeing my whole life. I'm pretty good at it. AND NOW I DO IT ALL THE TIME. yup.

2. Nausea: Before I got pregnant, I was taking a medicine that would make me feel downright icky for most of the morning. I got the "must be morning sickness" jokes all the time. SO funny, ha. Well, jokes on you punks, I am pregnant now and morning sickness can suck it. It's nothing compared to an accidental double dose of that medicine (yeah... which leads me to my next point).

3. Mommy brain: I've got a pretty good long term memory. But anything that has happened in the last five minutes is free game. This was pretty true before I got pregnant. I've just got a lot of things wandering on up there... I basically just DVR current crap and catch up when I stop thinking about ridiculous things (most likely about the mysteries of turtles and space). ANYWAY, so my mommy brain is really probably the same or only slightly worse but somehow better? I mean better because people give me a break for it now as a cute pregnant thing. Yay!

4. Emotional swings: I am awesome at this one! (At having the mood swings and also keeping them in control...) Only because of extensive training. Growing up with brothers teaches you important lessons. The relevant lesson here is keep-your-crazy-lady-stuff-to-yourself. After much practice and many crazy teenage years, I finally could partition my real emotions and my period emotions. They feel totally different. One is crazy and emotional and irrational. The other is silly and fun and still crazy. It's easy to not give stock to something you know is fake. So when Kaio asks why I'm crying or whatever, it's simple. I'm pregnant. I'm crying. Hug me and I'll probably stop soon.

In other news, trying to get ready for the primary program! It may be a disaster, but with primary you can always count on it to be an adorable disaster! Yay :)

Week 8: Practice #hotelprius

Do I even need to poop anymore? My body doesn't think so.

I've been breaking out worse almost every day but I would say that is my worst pregnancy symptom.

Fatigue is low. Nausea is low. Peeing is up.. but that's not terribly inconvenient since it's something I did everyday before.

And what else? We are getting ready to drive out to California for Thanksgiving! To save money on lodging we are opting for #HOTELPRIUS. It's gonna be awesome. We made window covers for privacy and we did a trial run. It was pretty dang exciting. Kaio even admitted that it was a good idea (finally! ;P)

These are all of our finished privacy windows. For prius stealth mode.

Practice run...

Practice run WITHOUT the flash.... O.O

Week 7: Doctor: "Don't get a big head"

Blaaah week. Some pregnancy symptoms settling in. It was noticeably harder to do crossfit this week. Taking more breaks, using lower weight, and not going too crazy. Working out does help me from getting crazy tired though, which is super nice.

At the end of the week, I had my first REAL doctors appointment where they stole my bits and made me feel altogether uncomfortable. She said everything looked great but that it was just a tiny bit too early to hear a heart beat. I guess I'll just have to wait til next month. Kaio made an appropriate amount of jokes, and most of them were while the doctor was not in the room, which is preferable.

Week 6: "You look cute! Happy Halloween"

First doctors appointment. Lots of questions. Genetic testing? Circumcision? Epidural? ....for real? I'm supposed to know all that crap right now?

It was a super long appointment. Mostly talking. The super fun part was the blood drawing. I was super nervous as a lovely asian lady came in to take my blood. I laid down and pretended it wasn't happening. After what seemed like a long while, I asked if it was done and the lady said yup! almost there. I look over at Kaio. Quietly, he shook his head and said no. *sigh*  I lived. It was fine.

On Thursday night, I stayed up way late working on my halloween costume. My sewing machine decided to blow up. Kaio was super nice and brought me things to help out. I eventually gave up on the sewing machine and just went for the hot glue instead. And it worked out great.

Don't mind the no makeups.. I put it on once I got to work.

I sent out my costume to all the family and the grandmas were the first to respond. It was adorable because they didn't quite get the reference and just told me that I looked cute like wonderful lil grandmas. It was so fun to get floods of love and support from everybody.

At work, our costume contest was at 9am. That was a long hour! But super fun to see friends and coworkers get so excited about it!

In the afternoon, I posted the news on facebook and got even more love and support from friends and family!

We had Trunk or Treat that night for church. A friend (and avid facebook user ;) made the news widespread before we got there so there were lots of hugs upon our arrival. :) And I like hugs.

Week 5: Steve is a no-show

Oct 20.

(WOW. YAY!)

Okay, so I marked my calendar for when my friend Steve was supposed to arrive this month. Steve is pretty consistent. I can rely on that guy to definitely show up on a specific day, sometimes even down to the hour, which is his main virtue. But not today. No Steve.

I spent about an hour when I went to bed that night about how accurate home pregnancy tests are. Pretty much everybody said if you can stand to wait a day after you miss you will get a good result. Test in the morning, blah blah blah. Okay. So I knew I could do it the next day.

BFP:

Everybody talks about the big fat negative. Which does suck. But I'm gonna take a minute here to say WHOOP for the Big Fat Positives in the world. I peed on my little purple indicator (and really the whole stick because I was nervous) and set it down to think about it. Once I set the two minute timer on my phone I tried to keep my eyeballs occupied but I don't think I even lasted 30 seconds before I snuck a little peak at the stick. But before I did, I made sure to tell myself, hey, it's not done yet, and even if it is a negative, it is what it is supposed to be. So when I glanced over and saw a very prominent, very certain + positive + I nearly screamed! What? Neat!

I took a picture of the positive after the timer was up and neatly disposed of the pee stick. And then, what? Went about my day like nothing happened? Yes. Awful. Had to go to work and pretend that I was incredibly cheerful because I woke up on the good side of the bed today. I did lie that day. I told Kaio and Deidre that Steve had come and gone. No baby for this month.
 I had to lie to Deidre because she pretty well knew when my period was supposed to come partially because she is nosy ;) but mostly because she is super excited that we were trying to get pregnant.
I lied to Kaio because I was afraid he would start asking questions or get suspicious while he was gone in San Fran. And I really wanted to surprise him and tell him in person!

It was only three days from the time I found out to the time Kaio came home so I had a chance to do some fun "reveal" things for him. I but a hamburger bun in our oven. I made a cute little paper oven that I put a mini bun in. Also, I realized that I happened to have two elephants and two teddy bears hanging around the house so I bought little babies for them and put them around the house.

Kaio came home and Friday and noticed the teddy bears but didn't ask why they were there. Much MUCH later that night, he decided that he wanted something sweet. When he looked at the oven for inspiration, he noticed there was something in the oven.
"DID YOU PUT THIS HERE?"
"What is it?"
"There is a bun in the oven, did you put it here?"
"No, did you?"
.....
"Jessica, is there a bun in the oven?!?"

Aaaaand, then he lost control. The first emotions were mostly anger and confusion. Once he found out that he was the only one who knew, the happiness and excitement sunk in. We went out for a treat to celebrate and it was a really fun weekend.

Week 1-4:

These weeks aren't real in the whole scheme of things. Kaio was gone for my two week wait,  so it seemed to last forever. Like usual.

So I just went about my business, trying to pretend I wasn't dying until the two weeks were up. My only maybe hint that I was pregnant was that I nearly puked before a company softball game. I really did feel like hey, maybe this is the month but it isn't fair to say that I knew anything was coming for sure... considering how many times I've "cried pregnant" and prematurely peed on sticks. FOR SOME REASON early pregnancy symptoms are almost exactly the same as period symptoms. So you can't blame me if I "for sure" thought I was pregnant on those months where I forgot to take my birth control pills one or two (or three or four) days in a row!

Think happy thoughts. waiting waiting waiting.