Baby its warm outside!

The last month has been a good one full of fun times, one night I decided that I missed dancing so I turned on some music and had a dance party, it was short lived since Leyna keeps me short on breathe these days but it was a blast. Erik mostly watched and laughed at Hannah and I.

One Sunday afternoon Hannah and I decided we would like to go on a short non-inclined hike. So we drove up and parked and walked to Bridal Veil Falls. It is the only day that it has snowed and there was not lots of snow but we had fun playing with what was there.

I honestly am taking a guess in the dark but I think this was about 21 weeks for my bundled up bump.

I am gonna miss Hannah while were in California she has been so great through this pregnancy. and my whole life in general.

I spent most of my time trying to find good snow to get a cool snow picture but mine did not turn out so swell.

Hann got a few good ones!

We drove down to California for Thanksgiving. I had not been home for Thanksgiving in 4 years! It is also my parents last Thanksgiving in California. Megan and her whole family stayed the week with us (us meaning Er, Hann, and I). We just had so much fun hanging out with each other. The kids all love Erik and it is so fun to watch him with them all.

We had Thanksgiving dinner and Hannah and Emma made everyone feather hats to wear. We got cards with random letters and had to think of what we were thankful for. I got V I said:

1. my eternal Valentine

2. my prenatal Vitamins

Erik got the letter T....I honestly cant remember what he said besides the Tanner family! My dad came up with some creative Y's such as Yermo, youngsters, the phrase yikes, yamaha, and old yeller. It was great food (Leyna allowed me to eat some potatoes rolls and green beans). Erik enjoyed all the food for us.

We are so excited for next Thanksgiving with baby girl. We feel so incredibly blessed to be welcoming her in just months!

We are so excited to be moving closer to Megans family.

apparently this girls personality is me in every way...makes me slightly nervous to see what Leyna will be like....

Grandpa Possim's special whip cream cherry dessert.

One afternoon we got in-n-out...I enjoyed fries and a shake no burger :( ...and we layed on a grass field beside LAX and watched and raced planes as they flew above us and landed. It was really cool.

Brynn and Leyna will be besties I just know it.

Marshall will protect them both...

Erik and I had Megan leave the babies out with us a few of the nights so that they could sleep better without Emma an Ry waking them up. Every morning we would wake up to them jabbering to each other and they would just play and talk for an hour before we would pull them out to play with us. They are such good babies!

The weather at home was just delightful one day it was even in the nineties! We went out to Newport our last night and watched the sunset and then ate at Ruby's. I got a basket of Frings (fries and onion rings) it was delicious going down! 

This is me showing off little girl at about 22 weeks

I kept trying to get a running and jumping pinteresty picture but erik was struggling with where to grab now that I have a tummy that gets in the way.

. I sure do love Er.

Carl's family was in town, it is always so fun to see them and catch up.

BUMP LIFE:

 

How Far Along: 24 weeks

Baby: is the size of a Canteloupe! I am not sure why, but I was so excited for this one, maybe because it always sounds so good! She is weighing in at a whopping 1.5ish pounds.

Movement: I most often am found in my free time laying on my couch with my shirt up watching my stomach roll about as she rolls around. She loves to move and I love to watch her. Erik has felt her move and I think it kinda freaked him out. He loves to talk to her.

Bellie Button: Its still halfway, I absolutely love the half that sticks out and cannot wait for it to pop out! Hannah and Erik think it is crazy because its halfway out and they are not used to seeing it like that.

Stretch Marks: Not yet, but not to concerned about them in general they will come and I will learn to love them.

Maternity Clothes: I am finding that I feel a lot better in maternity clothes because they hug all the right places on me.

Weight Gain: She is growing and so am I. 15 pounds! I finally hit 130.. technically a pound over but I tell myself thats her pound. Not quite ready to go over 130 yet haha.

Food: She still is keeping it pretty bland. I still am not keeping food down most days but by 6 months I have gotten pretty used to being sick everyday. It makes me excited to meet this little sass. I still love popsicles and eat so many its unreal. I also am still a fan of potatoes and lately eggos. Oh and of course apples!!

This week is our last week of classes, finals are next week and we need to pack our house and move...here is to Leyna giving her mom a break for two weeks so I can get done what I need too!

xoxo,

Em

Whoa..Were Half Way There...

Happy Halloween!

The last 4 years we have gone up to Alpine and carved pumpkins and enjoyed the BBQ that Erik's parents and neighbors put on for Halloween. It was pretty nice weather this year and we enjoyed ourselves some hot chocolate and hot dogs!

When we got home we got to skype with these little cuties! They went as a themed How to Train Your Dragon family....except Emma of course was Olaf. We love our skype sessions with the Tanners and are so excited that they are moving closer so we can visit often while we are living in Glendora.

I got to play with these two cuties a few times over the last month. Kai is walking and getting so big so fast! These girls make me so excited for our little girl!

Tyler had us all get together for a pizza party with martinelli's to celebrate G-PA. It was a fun night and although I didnt get a picture of the whole gang. Everyone living in Utah participated. I am sure Gramps was enjoying the fiesta in spirit.

Erik also has had a few great rides in the Courier. It is so cute how excited he gets to drive with Tyler in it. I think he will be sad when Ty gets rid of it. Its so fun that Tyler finally moved down to Provo so we can all hang out more!

Erik and Zach performed at Acoustic Explosion at The Wall at BYU. It was way fun, I always love to see Erik perform and he has a blast performing. It was fun to hear a few other local bands as well.

Bumpdate:

Erik has tried to be better about getting me to go on walks..so I think in the last month I have made it to the gym a few times to walk while he actually works out. This picture was about 19 weeks I was rocking more of a bloated gut then a bump...

Sweet note from Erik left on the toilet. He is the greatest, I don't know what I would do without him. Leyna and I are the luckiest. Also woke up to this book as a surprise from a friend, its been fun to look through and see baby growing.

Joanns had a pretty decent sale so I grabbed some flannel for $2 a yard and some minky and made a few blankets for the babe. 

We also have started to collect clothes for little miss Leyna. I ordered some AWESOME headbands from a few etsy shops and am hoping I can master making those while I am in California. Because a girl can never have to many bows or headbands!

I have wanted to make a little quilt for the baby. I finally found a pinterest picture I liked, bought fabric, and just went for it. I love the fabric and am getting over the fact that none of my lines match up. I am thinking she wont notice and am pretty satisfied for it being my first. I am hoping to have Mama Swens help me quilt and bind it. 

20 week Bump! 

How far along are you?  20 Weeks and 1 day. I have officially popped. A few of my friends even said that you can now tell that I am somewhat pregnant! Everyone loves to feel my hard tummy. Erik is amazed on a daily basis that I know have this hard stomach that sticks out.

How am I feeling?  I am still throwing up almost every day. Week 19 gave me a few really solid days which was so great. Week 20 was not so generous I have not done much besides try and get outside once a day or open my window in my bedroom so I feel like I am outside. 

Maternity Clothes?   LOVE them! I have been wearing maternity pants and leggings since about 13/14 weeks. Just last week and today got some tops that I like. I basically don't want to ruin all my regular clothes but don't feel the need to buy to many maternity clothes. Don't judge my outfit repeats.

Stretch Marks?  No stretch marks but I figure everyone does everything they can to avoid them and I am just going to roll with it I don't know that lotion will help me avoid them. I am only 5'3 and I weighed a whopping 115 when I got pregnant so I don't have anywhere to go but out and Im thinking stretch marks may be in my future...I try to think of them as beauty marks that my babies leave for me so lovingly.

Total weight gain?  Over the last month I gained the same amount of weight that I gained in 16 weeks! Putting me at a whole 8 lb's for the halfway mark! 

How big is baby?  Leyna is 6.5 inches long and 10 1/2 ounces! Apparently comparable to a banana. 

Sleep?  She has been moving quite a bit! Last night I woke up in the middle of the night, apparently she didn't like however I was sleeping because she was just having a party in my belly. It took a while for me to get comfortable again and her to calm down enough for me to fall back asleep. I try to get as much sleep as I can but I am just slightly uncomfortable and wake up often to pee or get sick so I nap through the day.

Best moment of the week?  Seeing our little babe. We got to go to the Dr this week and it is always so fun to see her and watch her grow and develop!

Food cravings?  Still really bland or healthy food. Green Apples and Caramel are my daily treat I crave them all day every day. I also have been enjoying Bagel Bites as a nice change from potatoes and English muffins. I love cooked peas, green beans, and carrots for snacks! 

Food aversions?  Still NO red meat or mostly any type of meat. Sometimes I decide I can handle a hot dog or some chicken and then I usually don't keep it down for more then a few hours. 

Belly button in or out?  My bellybutton is innie but the top is definitely starting to make its way out. Its so crazy to watch my body change.

What I miss?  In-N-Out!! hands down.

What I am looking forward to?  The Christmas season, I just love it.

Our Sweet Little Girl

A little over a year and a half ago Erik and I felt like we needed to grow our family. We were so thrilled and nervous at the thought of having a baby. We soon realized that it may not be so easy for us to conceive. This was hard and a lot of long days and negative tests. We started looking around for a specialist after almost a year and we feel so blessed to have been recommended to Reproductive Care Center. We made an appointment with Harry Hatasaka and that is the best decision we have made thus far. He was a little magician and so proactive about our family growing. We felt cared for and felt like we were always moving in a forward direction. Not making a negative test easy but making it one more thing that we could figure out and lead us closer to bringing a sweet spirit home one day. Our Plan was to start to look into adoption this Fall. We met with a close friend in July and started looking into it earlier. We were pretty saddened when LDS Services closed a portion of their adoption making it hard for us to show that we could pay for adoption. We continued on and adjusted medicine and checked out everything we could. It was hard to feel like I was the reason we could not bring children into this family and I so badly just wanted my body to work the way that it was supposed to. We took a much needed two and a half week break to California. It was so great to just get a way from everything and relax together.... And apparently thats just what we needed. When we got back up to Utah I tested:

July 24th:

Erik had left early to pick up his parents from the airport. We were staying at his house and I could not wait it was 6 am and I decided I would test. This may be way to much info for everyone but I have to write it somewhere. I learned with infertility to always pee in a cup incase you had a bad ovulation or pregnancy test. So I tested and sat the longest three minutes of my life just praying so hard. I had no symptoms at ALL so I was trying not to be to hopeful. I looked down and I could not tell if I saw a cross. Well I am way to impatient so I took my cup of urine and got in my car and drove to the nearest walmart where I purchased a digital test and a first response test. I then sat in my car testing and praying again. I couldn't wait the whole 3 minutes again so I peaked. The words Pregnant were showing on the digital test. I could not believe what I was seeing. I obviously started screaming, while parked at walmart, and called my mother (it was 5:30 am there) she was awake and said she couldn't sleep! I let her know the great news and we celebrated a little over the phone. I then hung up and got Erik a little gift. I went back to his house climbed into bed and waited for him to get home. When he came up I gave him his little gift and he was honestly SO confused at first and then was like "you tested, were going to be parents??" We were beyond thrilled and so grateful to our Heavenly Father for trusting us with this little spirit. 

That day and every day since we have celebrated

Surprising Erik!

Red Robin Celebrating! Baby doesn't let me eat onion rings anymore so I am grateful I got those in!

I just kept taking pictures through the day because we couldn't stop smiling.

We went to Trafalga since thats where we met and fell in love three years ago!

I then decided we needed to get ready for a cool announcement! Luckily Utah has construction ALL the time so we asked Hannah to come snap a couple pictures of us next to this lovely construction sign!

These last two were us showing off our baby bumps and showing how thrilled we are!

I ended up posting one of those and just altering it to say Baby Bump Ahead, we got an outpouring of love and excitement when we announced. This sweet little one is so loved by so many.

This picture is from the day that we went up to Sandy (Reproductive Care Center) to get some blood work done to make sure numbers were rising as they should, We also stopped off at Nordstroms where I found a cute diaper bag for myself. Erik let me get it since we got the call while in their that confirmed I was definitely pregnant! It also helped that it was the anniversary sale and like half off!

We celebrated at a Real Soccer game

about a weekish later we had an appointment to see that a baby was inside me. We have felt so spoiled that we were able to see baby so much before I was even out of my first trimester. I guess thats an infertility perk. There is the little nugget at 5.5 weeks! Harry told us that it was a fetal pole at this stage, Erik and I decided to call the baby Tad after a tad pole. Everything looked great and we would come back to see a heart beat in a few weeks.

Hannah surprised me with flowers. We had told a lot of our family pretty early on!

This was such a special appointment. We invited my Grandma Edginton to come with us since she would be leaving for a mission in Hawaii. This appointment we got to see our baby's heartbeat. We have a cool video of the heartbeat but I am not to great with videos and blogs. Baby was just over 8 weeks old and everything in my body was looking awesome. My body may have been slow to work for conception, but it had made a beautiful home for sweet little one. We also started calling baby Bud then since it had little buds for arms and legs and they just looked so cute! This is our graduation bag since we now were pregnant and on our way to be being parents. I am so grateful for Dr Hatasaka and all he taught us and helped us through his staff is amazing and we feel so lucky to have worked with them.

I talked Erik into going to Build-A-Bear! We made a soft furry friend for little one. 

Erik took care of making sure the bear was properly fluffed!

 We decided a little Cinnabon would be a yummy end to the day!

by 10 weeks symptoms actually hit! I couldn't keep down any food besides

1. english  muffins

2. green beans

3. potatoes in any form

4. Popcicles

Everything else comes back up even 17 weeks in. Which probably explains why I haven't gained more then 4-5 pounds and im almost halfway!

My entire family had decided it was a girl. On the way to California we listen to lots of music and Erik often tries to show me that Billy Joel is the best. A song came on that he didn't really know and I was like this one is awesome I love it. The chorus began and I think from all the Femara that was being pumped into my body I had some extra emotion because I started crying and realized that this would be our baby girls name. It goes:

There's nothing else I can do

Cause Im doing it all for Leyna

I don't want anyone new

Cause Im living it all for Leyna

There is nothing in it for you

Cause Im giving it all to Leyna

In my head I literally realized that at some point we would get pregnant and it would be a girl and she would be my Leyna. My one that I gave everything up for and did everything that I could for her. It was so cheesy and Erik admitted it was a cool song but wanted me to realize it wasn't about a baby girl.  Anywhoo most of my family decided it was going to be Leyna. So they all called her Leyna which was one more reason that we kept up with our little names like Tad and Bud so we wouldn't be swayed. Aunt Hannah got this little outfit for baby at about 10 weeks. We also met with our new Dr at 10 weeks and saw baby moving a TON and waving its little hands and legs. We decided they looked more like little Finns now and we started calling baby Finn.

Megan Came up and we all showed off the babies we were wearing. This was I guess a 12 week bump picture. More like bloated and full of Waffle Love and Sodalicious.

Erik and I spent Week 12 shopping for a Baby Boy and Girl outfit. I was still kinda holding on hope for a boy. I needed my Leyna but I actually wanted 5 boys and 1 girls when we started on this trek.

This is my 14 week bump! basically non existent. but not completely flat!

We took baby to a concert and I could just tell that they loved it! Erik cant wait to start in with music.

When I was 16 weeks my bump was actually visible, and this was before I ate dinner! What we have decided is it pops out when it feels like it and definitely more at night.

I made this cute pregnancy t-shirt with my mother-in-law!

Hopefully I still fit into it at 40 weeks!

Gender day:

We invited Hannah and Max to come with us and find out the gender so that they could wrap the outfit for us! We were so excited and I listened to everyone and had juice and sugar and caffeine and let me tell you little babe decided she was going to have some fun with us. She wasn't even just crossing her legs she was bending her knees out and putting her feet in front while waving her hand at us. She is such a little Drama Queen already. I had to continue to roll around go to the bathroom jump around get stabbed for 30 minutes with the little wand that is not to comfortable. We finally ended up getting a good shot and me and Erik looked away while she showed Hannah and Max. We then went outside and waited for them to wrap it. Erik said he thought it was a girl I had not given hope on my boy but when we unwrapped the outfit I was not surprised. We knew little Leyna had decided to make her way into our hearts long ago and in just a few months our home! 

Bump at 17 weeks

So glad I could share this with them, wish that Megan lived closer!

Me and Hannah left from the appointment and drove to San Diego for a girls weekend where we ate bomb food ( I actually don't eat to much but I did manage to eat strawberries and whip cream).

We jumped on our bed, swam, and just had the best time reconnecting and hanging out just girls no kids (besides Leyna of course).

We also went shopping. This was the first time in my life I literally didn't even look in my section I was so excited to buy stuff for baby girl that I just stocked her future closet and not mine! So fun shopping for a little one.

We cannot wait to meet her and already lover her so much. 

xoxo 

Em and Er