A Week Late and Likely a Few Dollars Short

It's been an interesting two weeks and that has a lot to do with how all of a sudden I feel like my temperature is up and everything I do, even waking up, is making me exhausted.

Here's last weeks bumpdate shot.

So my most recent symptoms include swelling, often from too much standing, exhaustion, as previously mentioned, and lots and lots of kicking! Tonight was the first time Pete felt the baby, and it was quite magical for the both of us! Tears in my eyes kind of magical! I can't believe there's really a tiny human inside of that tummy of mine, even though as I'm typing this I'm 20 and one half weeks. Which is more than halfway, so I really should believe this by now.

Another thing that has been going on for me recently is that I joined Rodan + Fields and now sell their wonderful skincare. Checkout these results!

And look who endorses these products! One of my all time favorite people in the world, Ellen Degeneres!

Check out my website at https://keighleyjohnson.myrandf.com/ if you're interested in any of the products!

18 Weeks and Definitely Growing!

Today was our 18 weeks anatomy scan and good golly! There's a baby inside of me! It's felt pretty real for a couple weeks now, but I totally had a 'fast forward to the future' moment this afternoon in that exam room. I could see my baby squirming around, throwing his/her hands in the air, legs cross-cross-applesauce sitting square on my bladder, and it was so surreal!

Good news: baby is 100% normal!

Bad news: we still don't know the sex. And you know what? That's fine with us because we've decided we don't want to know! There aren't many real surprises in the world, but this? This is something everyone can guess at but nobody can know until the end, when baby is well and truly cooked and ready to make his/her grand appearance.

Here's what I looked like at 18 weeks:

And here is what baby looked like:

And this:

And I totally saw this:

That's all for today! See you next week!

BONUS!

Here's the announcement we posted on FB, as well as the growing bump!

All credit for this goes to the hubs! It was his adorable idea!

Taken this evening. I am a rose.

Other bump pictures can be found here!

17 Week Movement! and more reveals...

Before I wasn't sure, but I am SO sure now that I am feeling tiny baby movements! It's weird to describe: kinda ticklish, a little flippy, like someone is making pancakes, and mostly comforting! It's nice to know, when I can't see or hear what's going on inside me, that everything seems to be okay.

So in an effort to wrap up the family telling, here's how we told my siblings:
We were in VA visiting for my brother's college graduation (eek!), and we were all together kinda camping in a cabin, mostly because all the hotels were booked. It was the night before my brother's graduation (please note: I was NOT trying to steal any thunder...people keep getting mad at me for that. I was just WAY too obviously emotional and excited!) and we were all sitting outside having pizza for dinner. I kind of casually brought up Christmas vacation for 2014 and invited my brother and sisters to come up to RI. My sister (I honestly don't remember which one, but my mom has it on video somewhere) asked 'why?' 'Because I'm sure you'll want to meet your new niece or nephew!' Little did I know, my brother had been too focused on his girlfriend to hear what I had said, and I was sobbing by now, and my sisters were looking at me like I had two heads (in the happiest way possible) so I had to ugly-crying repeat myself. I don't think the three of them have ever squeezed me tighter. The best/worst reaction to a pregnancy announcement of all time? My sister Aileen: 'So there's a baby under all that fat??' Thank, sis.

How we told Pete's siblings:
We happened to be going to NH to visit Pete's parents/babysit for our nephews the weekend after we got back from VA. This was great because it meant that my parents didn't have to keep the secret from Pete's parents for too long. We told them as described in previous post...first of Pete's sisters to find out was his eldest sister, Amy. We were with her boys, babysitting, while she was at a Kentucky Derby party. When she got back, Pete just laid it out for her: 'We're having a baby!' As she's 13 years older than Pete, she immediately cried and hugged her baby brother and was all emotional and such. It was super sweet and had me in tears too! We told our BIL and nephews. It's fun to tell kids about new babies because you never know what kind of reaction you're gonna get. From the boys, we got 'Okay' and 'Where is it?' Cute! We then went straight from one sister's house to the others, because one couldn't know for too long without the other knowing. Andrea, who has our two nieces, was just having a chill night at home with our BIL, Scott, and the girls. She was telling us about how she had been going through all the baby stuff the girls had grown out of and was gonna pass it on to her friend who was having a girl. Pete just said, very naturally in the conversation, 'Well don't give it all away!' She looked at us for a second, and Pete added 'We don't know what we're having yet!' More tears, more baby brother hugs, and some very happy in-laws!

I wish we had videotaped all these, I really do, but as I said last week things get too exciting and spur of the moment. Plus, a camera or phone pointed at someone's face will often give you away! Also, we told way too many friends to tell all those reveals. Needless to say, it was a ton of fun, and I was super relieved to hear that everyone was excited for us! Yay! I'll be back next week following an anatomy ultrasound, where we will check-up on baby's growth and NOT find out the gender!