28 week appointment

Hello Third Trimester! So very nice to see you!

Today I had my 28 week appointment. I was scheduled for my glucose test, an ultrasound, and an appointment with my doctor. Excitement all around.

First of all I was SO nervous about the glucose test. People make it sound like it's the worst thing ever. I actually really liked the drink (I got the orange flavor) and the part I hated was getting my blood drawn but that isn't anything new. I'm hoping I don't get a call tomorrow saying I have to take the 3 hour test. Fingers crossed.

Anyways, after beginning the test I got called back for my ultrasound. At first I was really worried because it was the tech who was so rude to me at my first ultrasound. Luckily she seemed to be in a better mood today and was actually sweet and we did lots of looking at baby girl in 3D. The woman probably thought I was crazy as I had tears rolling down my face seeing our sweet girl actually looking like a human! Poor thing has my huge nose and personally I think looks a lot like me but with Brad's chin. I think she's absolutely adorable the way she is but of course I may be biased because I'm her mom. She will always be beautiful in my eyes. I asked the technician if she could tell if she had any hair and of course my fear of having a bald baby might just be coming true. I see lots of bows and headbands in our future!

The rest of my appointment went well. Baby girl is measuring about a week-week and a half smaller than she should be. She weighs a whopping 2lbs 2oz, but my doctor isn't too concerned yet. She did tell me after I get the results back from my glucose test tomorrow, I need to start packing on the pounds so that will be real exciting. I'll have another ultrasound in a month to make sure she is growing more and if not we will go from there, all my other appointments will be every 2 weeks from here on out though. I'm really praying she grows though because my doctor said if not then we will have to discuss a plan for a growth restricted baby. So here's to packing on the pounds so baby girl can get the nutrients she needs to grow and be healthy!

A few thoughts on pregnancy

I realized I never blogged about our 24 week appointment and that's pretty much because those appointments feel kind of pointless after awhile. I spend most of my time in waiting rooms and then talk to the doctor for like 10 min and then we are out of there. The best part is always hearing baby girls heartbeat but they only listen for like 1-2 minutes. My next appointment is the glucose test as well as another ultrasound! I am freaking out about the glucose test but so excited to see how much our little girl has grown!

Anyways, onto some random thoughts about pregnancy. I always imagined it being SO different then what it's been. Not that it's been a bad experience, it's actually been really easy and great, just different from what I expected.

For starters I always see these bloggers doing these cute little pregnancy questionnaires. I always imagined myself doing that but let's be real, my answers would be really boring to read every 4 weeks because not much changes. In fact there have been some days where I don't even feel pregnant.

I always envisioned having these weird cravings and kind of looked forward to seeing what weird combinations of things I would come up with but honestly I don't have cravings, everything tastes the same and nothing ever really sounds super delicious that I have to have it right that second. I have one food aversion and that's potatoes! It makes me so sad because the one time I could get away with eating all the French fries I wanted with no judgement I can't even enjoy them.

I thought I would have an adorable baby bump by now. I mean I'm only 5'2 so I figured I would pop pretty fast. I mean it's getting there but slowly. Haha. I guess I should be grateful for that but sometimes I feel like I'm still in that "is she pregnant or is she just getting fat" stage.

The hormones. Holy cow. I have never gone from so in love to so angry in such a short time span. It's scary and frustrating which only makes it worse. There are sometimes I don't even feel like me.

And this is going to make me sound totally lame but I always imagined registering for baby items being so fun and almost should I say magical. Honestly that's not how it went at all. The people at the store were not helpful at all. It's hard to sit there and think of all the things you do and don't need for a baby, add in all the different brands of things and I thought my head was going to explode.

Anyways, on a more positive note it has been really fun to go through this experience. I'm so grateful that my body is capable of carrying a baby.

Although it's not what I imagined it being like it's more than what I could have ever hoped and dreamed it would be.

My love for Brad has gotten deeper through this whole experience. He's been a total rockstar and support system from the very beginning days where I spent 3 mornings a week hugging the toilet bowl, to the times my loving self turns into a mad woman. He is going to be such a great daddy and loves on our baby girl as much as he can. He is always asking to see her and always wants to feel her kicks. He loves when I snuggle him at night as we are falling asleep because that's when baby girl likes to let us know she's there. He says he would let her kick his back all night long! He tells me every day he wishes she was here already.

It's been so fun to set up her nursery and I love that there are pieces in there that my mom and I have made together, and seeing her dresser that Brad spent Christmas break sanding and painting makes me so happy. I love that in her drawers there are pieces that I wore as a baby.

Most importantly I'm so grateful for the spirit she is bringing into our home already. I get emotional just thinking about her and what she will be like and what kind of trials she will face in her life. I want to protect her from heartbreak and hurt but I know I can only do so much, I know she will have to face these things. But I want to be the best mom I can be for her. I want her to know most importantly that she will never have to go through those things alone, that I will always be there to lift her up.

She is teaching me so much about the love that my Savior and Heavenly Father have for me and I hope to return that favor to her as she grows. I find myself drawing closer to them throughout this pregnancy as I pray for her each day  and try to better myself so that I am intune with the spirit and can provide her with the things she needs.

We are only 14 weeks away from due date and I hope the rest goes by just as fast as it has been. We can wait to bring our baby girl into our home and family!

It's a new year so you know what that means...

I love even numbers so I think this year is going to be a really good one. Every even numbered year great things have happened. We got married in 2012, I graduated college and Brad started Dental School in 2014, this year we are having a BABY, and in 2018 Brad will graduate from Dental School. So you can say even numbered years are kind of our thing! ;)

Anyways, I've spent the last week really thinking about goals to make for this new year. I really want to improve not only individually but as a wife and well now, mother. I'm all about people holding me accountable so I thought I would share here on the blog.

My top goal is to be present. This is something I really struggle with. I could spend all day scrolling on my phone with all the different social media feeds. Honestly I don't know why this is so hard for me because I get nothing out of it and really it doesn't do anything to increase my relationship with those I am actually with.  But I'm really going to try this year to put my phone down more during the day.

My second goal is to create a more Christ centered home. As I'm preparing to become a mom I have thought and prayed each day about how to make sure our little one knows that she is loved by her Savior and what that really means. I also want to deepen my personal relationship with Christ and I know as I do things to make sure the spirit can be felt in our home both of those will happen.

My final goal is to take more pictures and to increase my photography knowledge. I figure both of these will kind of happen naturally this year as we are adding a new member to our family. I love pictures just for the purpose of looking back on things we did throughout the year and I would really like them to be quality pictures not just ones I snap through my phone. It sometimes feels like such a pain to tote around the big camera but the final outcome is so much better.

Those are my top three goals that I really want to improve on throughout this next year, of course I have some smaller ones that I will be also working on the side. If you have any tips on how to improve on any of these goals please share in the comments, we all know I could use all the help I can get!

Happy New Year and may this next year bring about a new you! :)

A Year in Review {2015}

It's crazy to think another year is almost come and gone. Before we close the book of 2015 I'd like to take a look back on each chapter (month) of this book! It was a great one here in the Schmidt household!

January: This month we celebrated Brad's 28th birthday by eating at Hall's Chophouse courtesy of my bosses! It was probably the second best steak we've ever eaten (first being the space needle steak). This month we also found over 15 starfish during our walk at Folly Beach! This may be a totally lame highlight of my year but it makes my list!

February: I hosted our first annual Valentine's Dinner! I had such a blast planning and decorating for this  party! I can't wait to start planning the next one! :) Brad planned our celebrations for actual Valentine's Day this year and they included a sunrise on the beach and trying out a great brunch spot, Lost Dog cafe!

March: This was such a crazy month for us! We spent a lot of time in the car between driving to Georgia for various reasons! Brad attended his first dental conference, the Hinman.

April: Thanks to our apartment complex we got to attend my first ever hockey game, supporting the Charleston sting rays! It was so fun because we had great seats and it was free and that always makes the best kind of date nights!

May: Brad took a break from studying and we got out and enjoyed the great weather by going to see the ghost busters film on one of the squares downtown. It was so fun to hear music before hand, grab some food from the vendors and just enjoy time with one another. We also attended one of our friends cinco de mayo party and had a great time and enjoyed yummy food!

June: In June I got to host a bridal shower for my cousin Shae! It was so fun to take on that task and I had a blast planning it! (I love parties!)

July: We celebrated the 4th by picking blueberries in the morning, having a picnic lunch with some friends, then going to the fireworks later that day with different friends. It's a Fourth of July I'll never forget because it was SO rainy and stormy! Then we were back in Georgia again for my cousins wedding! It was a hot but great day! We also celebrated 3 years of marriage, most days it feels like we've been together for a lot longer than that. It was a super low key celebration but that's what happens when your anniversary falls on a Sunday!

August: This was probably the best month out of the year for us because we found out we are expecting a baby come April 2016! We are still over the moon excited and I don't think that will ever change! My friend, Katie threw a great surprise birthday party for me to celebrate turning 24. Seriously she's the best!

September: I honestly have zero pictures from this month! So I can't even remember what happened besides announcing to social media that we were pregnant! Other than that I spent this month going to bed super early (I'm talking 7ish some nights) and throwing up about once every three days. Pregnancy sure is glamorous. Brad of course was busy with school and picking up my slack! He is seriously the best!

October: Such a fun month and I'm pretty sure it's because it pretty much starts all the holiday celebrations! We went to a pumpkin patch with some of our friends from the apartment complex and it was SO fun! They have a hayride that you can feed cows on when they take you out to the pasture, they seriously come right up to you! We left the patch without a pumpkin but still had a great time! We had our ward trunk or treat and then we went over to some friends house for a party on the actually day of Halloween!

November: Another month that I can't really remember much of. This is why I should take more pictures! My mom came out for thanksgiving though and  we enjoyed a lovely thanksgiving meal with our dear friends the Meree's and McGauleys! After that my mom and I did some serious Black Friday shopping! I love when my mom comes to visit!

December: I feel like this month is so busy for everyone. For the majority of it I felt like I was a chicken running with my head cut off and had one too many emotional breakdowns! On the 4th we found out that little baby b is a girl and I've had such a fun time getting things ready for her nursery and buying clothes for her! Brad and I got to enjoy the week of Christmas with my family and now it's back to reality where my days are filled with working.

We are so thankful for all the many things we've been blessed with this year and can't wait to see what 2016 has in store for us! But if 2016 wants to fast forward to April we won't be mad over here, can't wait to have our sweet girl in our arms!

Happy New Year friends! May it bring you love and happiness! :)

20 week appointment

Yesterday we had our big 20 week appointment! I'll just go ahead and get my one complaint out--the wait at this doctors office is obnoxious! The total time we were there came to a little over 2 hours!!

Anyways, moving on! We were scheduled for our ultrasound first so we got called relatively quick to get that done! It was our big anatomy scan so I was looking forward to finding out the gender of our baby and spend more time making sure everything was developing correctly!

After my last appointment and all the craziness that happened I was nervous to see what my heart rate and blood pressure were. Blood pressure was great again at 124/68. . I wish I didn't get white coat syndrome but I totally do, so my heart rate was close to 100 again but my doctor said as long as it's under 100 we are good. And of course you always get weighed, my nurse usually doesn't tell me how much I've gained so this time I asked her because I was curious how much weight I had gained since becoming pregnant. I weigh myself about once a week at home but I know it's not always accurate. Thankfully she replied with a smile and said "there's no need to worry about weight gain with you, you've only gained 4 lbs total so far". Whew what a relief. I know weight gain is going to happen, as it should to make sure baby is getting what it needs. So I'm not too worried about it.

Back to our sweet baby...In case you missed the announcement on social media, we will be welcoming a sweet baby girl into our home! Brad will be outnumbered but he's going to love every single second of it!

 Let's just say baby girl is mighty comfortable in there! I even ate some candy before hand so that we would be able to find out the gender. She cooperated for that but other than that she just wanted to sleep I believe! She is already face down and head down which is great news! Although the doctor says she will probably flip a few more times before its time to deliver that seems to be her favorite position. The ultrasound tech had to keep shaking and poking my stomach to try to get her to roll over for one of the measurements. She got baby girl to roll over but she only stayed like that for 2-3minutes and then was back to her former position. I loved watching our baby girl on that screen and listening/seeing her heart beat.

Our baby girl loves to have her hands by her head! She had one up at the side the whole entire time. I'm wondering if this is really common in babies? The little girl I nanny did the same thing in her ultrasounds and continues to sleep with a hand always by her head. I'm interested to see if once our baby is here if we will see her little hands poking through her swaddles.

The cutest thing to me was the fact that she had her little ankles crossed. I don't know why I think that's so adorable but I do. We got some great pictures of her little feet!

Apparently she has the perfect spine! (We may be biased because we already think she's perfect) the technician kept going on and on about  how perfect it is. We got to take home a really neat picture of it too. Kind of nerdy but way cool how detailed it is.

My favorite pictures are always the profile shots. From what we can tell we think she will have my nose. It looks wider at the end and Brad has a really narrow nose so we think it's mine. I guess we will see once she gets here. It's so crazy to compare each ultrasound picture to the last, because she's growing so fast!

We are so glad that everything is developing right on track and feel so blessed to be welcoming a healthy little girl! According to the measurements so far, she is measuring about a week smaller but my doctor says that's it's because...hello I'm only 5'2. And that I'm smaller than the average person. So here's to hoping for a smaller baby because let's be real I'm terrified about delivering this girl!

A letter to our baby girl

Dear Little Girl,

We are so thrilled to be welcoming you into our little family. I never want to forget the day we found out we would be welcoming you, our baby girl! Yesterday this pregnancy became so much more real to me. I can't stop wondering about who you will look like and who you will become. Of course I did that before but I had no idea if you were a boy or girl! All of my friends had me convinced that you were going to be a boy, but I should've listened to my momma gut because I had two dreams where you were a girl and my goodness you were beautiful. In my dreams you look a lot like your Aunt Colby did when she was a baby. 

No matter what you look like you will be so loved by so many people. I pray that you and I will share the same relationship as your Honey and I do. It's the sweetest kind that could be found on this earth. I pray that I will not only be your mom but your best friend! The first one you will always want to call and tell stories to no matter how special or routine they may be. 

I already know you will have your dad wrapped around you sweet little finger. He has spent this whole pregnancy wishing for a girl! He longs for the evenings he can come home and spend time snuggling you,  so we really hope you like to snuggle because there will be no shortage of that going on. 

We really can't wait for you to be here! We can't wait to be able to hold you in our arms, kiss on your sweet little face, and listen to the coos that will fill our home.  

We love you more than anything sweet girl! 

Love, 

Mom and Dad 

16 week appointment

Seeing as today I am 18 weeks and 4 days, I have to apologize for getting this up so late. It's been a little crazy around here and I'll explain why in this post.

The day before my appointment I started having some cramp like pain on my left side. I was really nervous because that's not a great sign during pregnancy. I knew I had an appointment the next day and I didn't want to be THAT person who went to the hospital when anything felt a little off. So I sucked it up and figured if it didn't go away I would just ask my doctor about it the next day when I went it, but of course I was anxious about it all night.

When I first got to the doctor I checked in and then waited to meet with the OB nurse. She gave me a huge new mom packet with pages and pages of new mom information about the hospital I would be delivering, classes they recommend taking, and a few parenting magazines. Before I got done talking with her she went over my last blood tests, took my blood pressure and I was off to wait for my doctor. Everything checked out fine with the nurse but I was still nervous about the baby because I had the cramping the night before.

Once I got put into a room a woman came in with the heart Doppler and found the heart beat immediately. I was so relieved that I started crying. The nurse even made a comment that is was a strong and steady heartbeat. I was at peace knowing that our baby was okay.

After about 30 more minutes of waiting my doctor came in and was like we need to talk. All of a sudden I felt my heart start racing. My OB nurse had written down that my heart rate was in the 130s. My doctor expressed her concern because once it gets into the 140s it can start affecting the baby. I was trying so hard not to cry but I was so worried and my mind kept imagining the worst things happening. She took it again and it had gone down some. I told her maybe it was just nerves because I was really anxious about the pain I was having. She checked things out and turns out it's just my uterus stretching to accommodate that sweet baby of ours.

One thing I really love about my doctor is she is really about preventative care. She ordered for me to get more blood work done on top of the normal tests to see if we could figure out what was causing the tachycardia. So we got that done and then she sent us off to the hospital to get an ekg. As soon as I got in the car I lost it. I started bawling. Being pregnant is already emotional enough but add in the fact that your body could be potentially hurting your baby and I was a blubbering mess. I'm so grateful Brad's been able to come to every appointment, but especially that one because I needed him.

We finally got the results back a week later and everything came back within normal ranges and we are chalking that whole thing up as first time mom jitters. We are so relieved and thankful that it isn't anything serious. I have to really monitor my heart rate and take it easy if I feel it going up but that's not hard to do.

Our next appointment is our big 20 week anatomy scan and we seriously can't wait to find out what we are having! We even have a little countdown on our calendar on the fridge! If you have a guess leave it below! :)