"Gerber"

I had the best of intentions on doing a pregnancy post before June was born heck, before she was 8 weeks old! and well... I got busy with other things {like nesting!} and neglected this little blog of mine. Now that June is here and apart of Our Story, I want to be more intentional about blogging since this is my little online scrapbook after all. How I will love looking back at pictures and stories of life with her sweet little self, just like I do about our stories I blogged about before we ever knew her. 

"Gerber" was the nickname Aaron gave our little one since we decided to let the gender be a surprise. So many people thought we were crazy for not finding out, but we absolutely loved the anticipation of it all! I was planning on decorating a gender neutral nursery and registering for gender neutral baby items anyways because we may have both genders in our family one day and I'm all about being practical! And even though we did not know the gender, we still felt so much love for our baby because he/she was our baby.

I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed pregnancy. Now I know I may be eating my words on the next go round because all pregnancies can be different, but... carrying my sweet baby around for 10 months was such a special experience. There were days that the exhaustion was a tad overwhelming or I felt weak and queasy... and carrying around an extra 20 lbs was not easy on my joints or back by any means... but feeling "Gerber" kick and move and watching our little one grow was just so much fun. 

I never realized just how tired I could feel until I was in the throes of my first trimester. I am SO not a napper and while I would still fight it, if I sat still in a comfy spot, I could fall asleep before I knew it.  Those 12 hour shifts at work would be brutal some days and I could easily go to bed each night around 8:00. I had occasional bouts of queasiness but those were mostly on the mornings I worked where I was up before the crack of dawn. I had heard people say they get nauseous if they let themselves get too hungry and that was never the case with me... because I was eating all of the time! haha Before pregnancy, I could blame my appetite on Ironman training and when that was over, it worked out great because I could blame it on pregnancy... now I guess I can blame it on breastfeeding!

I was absolutely ravenous in my first trimester... The foods I craved the most were Little Caesars pepperoni hot-n-ready's, Waffle House all star special and my Mom's fried chicken with rice and gravy and vegetables. I've never been much into sweet treats {except donuts and cinnamon rolls} and they did NOT appeal to me at all until the end of my second trimester. I wanted anything salty, cheesy or crispy. My food aversions were steamed vegetables, pork (except bacon), anything Asian and anything with a sweet, sticky sauce like BBQ.

As far as exercise goes- if I could muster up the energy- I would still ride my tri bike, run a few miles here and there and swim laps. I tried to stay out of the heat for the most part and kept my heart rate in check with my Garmin watch.

The first trimester was the least fun especially because I couldn't actually feel my baby inside of me. People would ask me what I thought the gender of the baby was and mine and Aaron's initial gut feeling was that we were having a girl.

The second trimester was great because my energy came back full swing and at around 19 weeks I could feel our baby moving inside of me. We got to see Gerber on the ultrasound which was so much fun and everything checked in developmentally sound when we did the review of systems. Whew! Thank you Lord.

As far as exercising goes, running was getting to be so bothersome with how many potty breaks I would have to take... so I started power walking which I thoroughly enjoyed because my mom would walk with me most days. Throughout my entire second and third trimesters I had quite a lot of braxton hicks contractions each day, despite being hydrated... it was probably because I was so active all day at work and my days off too for that matter. I couldn't ride my tri bike anymore because my knees would bump my belly every time I would pedal!

In my second trimester the junk food cravings of my first trimester weren't quite as strong and I craved more fruit and healthier things... the aversions stayed the same except that I could now eat donuts and cinnamon rolls and actually enjoy them. 

As I started showing more and more, I kept getting a million gazillion comments that I was "carrying low" and that I was having a boy. My friends, coworkers, patients, strangers...about 80% of people predicted that I was carrying a boy! So then Aaron and I both began to second guess our initial instinct that it was a girl because maybe they were right? Not to mention,  little "Gerber" was SO active... like a maniac. That got me wondering if it was a boy too. The good thing about it was... I did not care what the gender was because I loved that little person so much it made my heart hurt.

My third trimester felt a lot like my second until about the last three weeks. The cravings, energy levels, exercise, etc were all the same. I stuck to power walking and we planned our routes around bathroom breaks! Aaron got me laughing so hard one day that I literally peed in my pants {in a semi-public place!}. 

The last three weeks were a little more uncomfortable and fatigue was settling in at the end of the day... although, it's probably because I was in hardcore nesting mode and I think I had SO many projects to get done and errands to run that I just wore myself down... not to mention three {physically hard} 12 hr shifts a week. I think my Mom went into nesting mode as well because she was my partner in crime... Aaron was like, "What has gotten into you two?!" Ha! Not only did we get the nursery all decorated and organized, but I had my couches recovered and we painted several pieces of furniture around the apartment. I was on a mission!



I worked up until my due date and I'm so glad I did because that means I get to spend extra time with June, and I think it helped her come on her due date. Those last couple of days I worked I was volunteering to run upstairs to pick up blood for other nurses, turn and lift heavy patients and carry equipment down the halls just to help get "Gerber" here in a timely fashion!

And... it worked! My water broke the morning of "her" due date and you know the rest of the story...



I do miss feeling June move in my tummy... That was my favorite part about carrying her... we joked and called her "a worm in hot ashes" because that's how active she was all the time and surprise, surprise she is the squirmiest little baby I've ever held... she never stops moving... {I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree!}



It was you in there miss Junie bug! It was you all along... :)