It's a......GIRL! & 18 Week Update

After our 18 week gender and anatomy scan on Friday, we finally found out that Baby C is a SHE! The little lady is still due September 24th, but weighs in about 3 weeks heavier. Her legs and head are much longer and larger than the rest of her is measuring, she can thank her dad and I for that. Typically the anatomy scan lasts 10-15 minutes but she was so active (& uncooperative) that we got to see her for over a half hour! Considering she was merely a shrimp at the last ultrasound we were just a little excited about our extended time with her ;)

Little lady!

Of course we couldn't wait to share the news with our family and friends. Due to Justin's work schedule, we had to wait SIX HOURS after the appointment to tell anybody which may have been worse than not knowing at all. The fun ensued as soon as he was home and we somehow ended up with about 67 pink outfits. We cannot wait to see her face, toes, and already chubby belly in person. Knowing there's a baby coming gets you excited, but seeing their little face and body with both of your features makes it so much more exciting!

As far as the 18 week update goes, see my feet? I can't.

How far along? 18 Weeks, and still perpetually late at posting.

Total weight gain/loss? 9 pounds. See face, belly, and boobs for the packed on pounds.

Maternity clothes? Yes! My old yoga pants and t-shirts aren't cutting it anymore.

Stretch marks? No

Sleep? Great!

Best moment this week? I don't know if it ever loses it's excitement, but feeling her actually kicking.

Miss Anything? Beer & (heartburn free) salsa.

Movement? Yep!

Food cravings? Egg bacon bagels and sweet tea are still my ultimate favorites.

Have you started to show yet? Yes

Gender prediction? Girl, and we were all right!

Labor Signs? No

Belly Button in or out? Halfway in, halfway out. See ya bikinis.

Engagement ring on or off? On

Happy or Moody most of the time? Happy! 

Looking forward to? Getting our apartment mid May and setting up the nursery! So many plans in the works, post to come :)

17 Weeks & Exciting news for Pittsburgh PRC!

As we're well into our 4th month, we often find ourselves looking back saying how quickly the time since we first found out about Baby C has passed. Then on the other hand how it feels like forever since we walked into the infamous RV, hands shaking, and left excited about our baby on the way. No matter how long you've been trying (or not trying at all for that matter) it is still incredibly overwhelming and a little scary to get the confirmation that you are in fact carrying another little human inside of you. Never for a minute did we doubt our decision to carry and raise our baby. While that may be an option for some, no matter our circumstances or the timing of things, babies are a blessing. 

That being said, we still visited a pregnancy resource center before seeing a regular OB and are so thankful to have had Choices Pregnancy Center be with us the day we found out. Like most pregnancy resource centers, their services for expecting moms (pregnancy testing&ultrasound) are free of cost. The only reason we could see them when we did was because they had a mobile unit (you guessed it, the RV...) located near us as opposed to their home center over an hour away. Today, we got the news that our local Pregnancy Resource Center has raised enough money to have their own mobile unit! This allows them to cover the areas that Choices center can't. That means more healthy mommas & babies.  I cannot contain my excitement!

As for our babe.....

How far along? 17 Weeks (17.5 at posting....)

Total weight gain/loss? 5 pounds

Maternity clothes? My jeans no longer button so here's to hoping for (maternity) shorts and dress weather.

Stretch marks? No

Sleep? Great!

Best moment this week? Feeling baby C move like crazy whenever I lay on my stomach!

Miss Anything? Hard apple cider. This may be my answer every week until October.

Movement? Yep!

Food cravings? Homemade egg bacon bagels. All. Day. Long.

Have you started to show yet? Big time! I'm so happy it looks like a baby and not a sloppy belly anymore.

Gender prediction? Still feeling girl, but the closer we get to finding out the more I don't know.

Labor Signs? No

Belly Button in or out? In

Engagement ring on or off? On

Happy or Moody most of the time? Happy! 

Looking forward to? FRIDAY! We find out if we're team pink or team blue! :)

16 Weeks

First off, thank you for all of the social media love! We had a great holiday weekend and loved getting to share it (despite the fact that Justin and I couldn't manage to get even one together). As for the 16 week picture, I'm late on posting it....again. How do people actually keep up with this on their second child? I suppose I'll gain these "Mom superpowers" at some point along the way. As for now, the weekly fat girl picture...

How far along? 16 Weeks 

Total weight gain/loss? 4ish pounds. 

Maternity clothes? Nope! Maxi dresses have been a life saver with the random heat wave.

Stretch marks? No.

Sleep? Great! I now require a nap to make it through any normal day.

Best moment this week? Hearing baby C's heartbeat at our OB appointment & booking the gender scan!

Miss Anything? Being able to get off of the couch without looking like I'm having a seizure.

Movement? Yep! Anytime I lay on my stomach the little man or woman goes crazy. Probably pissed it's being crushed.

Food cravings? Salad, chipotle, and anything sour.

Have you started to show yet? Big time.

Gender prediction? Girl. 11 days until we know for sure.

Labor Signs? No.

Belly Button in or out? In, but looking a little suspect.

Engagement ring on or off? On

Happy or Moody most of the time? Happy! 

Looking forward to? Going to bed tonight.

15 Weeks & Spring Happenings

How far along? 15 Weeks (I'm currently 15 weeks 6 days, but am a little late posting the picture)
Total weight gain/loss? 4 pounds, feels like 40!
Maternity clothes? Nope! Although it is getting a little hard to button my prefatty jeans...
Stretch marks? No.
Sleep? Sleeping a lot more than I used to, aside from peeing all night long.
Best moment this week? Getting to walk in the warm sun.
Miss Anything? Hard cider. And being able to lift anything other than upper body at the gym...
Movement? I've felt little he or she quite a few times, always after Justin plays guitar!
Food cravings? There's been a major cravings switch this week. Even though I was so sick I only wanted carbs and fried food. Now it's all fruits, vegetables, and chipotle.
Have you started to show yet? Yes. Baby popped out big time this week.
Gender prediction? Girl...It started off boy but recently switched teams. Justin still thinks girl.
Labor Signs? No, and not looking forward to that part.
Belly Button in or out? In, but looking a little suspect.
Engagement ring on or off? On
Happy or Moody most of the time? Happy! Unless I need food.
Looking forward to? Our OB appointment tomorrow!

I hope everybody had a great Easter Sunday! As for us we spent the day at church then back to my parents house for dinner. We had a great day with Justin's family and mine all together under one roof. Usually we get started on holiday fun earlier, but this year the party didn't start until the day before. Most of our Saturday consisted of crafting manly Easter baskets (is there even a thing?) & dying Easter eggs.

Our kitty Dexter just being Dexter.

And spent some quality time with my big brother....who seems to be resembling Gomez from the Aadams family?

My mom and I topped off the holiday weekend with a walk around the local lake on a sunny Monday. This of course left us wishing for green trees and kayaks to float in. As most of the wedding planning is nearing the end we're looking forward to warmer days and the 16 week check up tomorrow. We'll get to hear baby C's heartbeat and attempt to convince the Dr. to send us for the anatomy & gender scan 2 weeks early. Hopefully this time next week we can report pink or blue, as for now we're forever stuck on team green. Cheers.

Update! And....do those rainboots come in infant sizes?

Whew! Over the past couple of months it seems as though the only thing that hasn't changed is my laziness with blog posts. Last summer (2014) while at an old friends house we reconnected with a middle school (?!) friend of ours, Justin. I don't know if it was the fact that it was 11pm and I'd had the worst 4th of July in history or if it was that we we're both heartless idiots but man....did I hate this kid. Somewhere along the line (about 2 weeks) I went from hating to liking him and the rest is history.

I got him onto mountain biking and we went every waking second. We were even that matchy couple.

It didn't take long for us to fall in love, or me to fall in love with his PA half of family! (Hello down south, John and Sandy!)

As winter set in at it's coldest, I officially took over as store manager of the bike shop I'd been working at. This was taken at a group ride, one of the last rides Justin and I would take for awhile. We didn't know it at this point, but a crucial member of our family was already with us!

Somewhere along the line (January-ish) I was enjoying a nice hard cidar (or 2...oops) before bed. I may not be a barstool warrior but I felt dizzy. Really dizzy. The next day I woke up....still dizzy.....that prompted me to hit the drug store. I knew there could only be one thing.

Sure enough! The first test and the next two confirmed that we were indeed expecting! I tried to contain the excitement to tell lover boy in some cute way, but ended up blurting it out in a target cleaning aisle. How does one contain this excitement for days, or even weeks? We immediately scheduled a visit to check on our little one.

That lead us to Choices Pregnancy Center, a great organization to help out newly pregnant parents. What an experience that was. Due to our location, they automatically transferred us to their "Mobile unit" as opposed to their normal office location. The baby mission quickly turned into a secret mission when we were told we'd receive a call an hour prior to our appointment. Um, okay? I'm pretty sure the lady on the phone said "We'll be in the RV parked on the side of the road by the park in Oakland (in the city of Pittsburgh). We'll only need to remove a kidney from each of you....bring cash". Okay, so maybe the kidney part wasn't true. But everything else was spot on. On a cold February day, we roamed the streets of Pittsburgh looking for said RV. Sure enough, there is was across from the drug ridden park and sketchy 7Eleven....nice. Long story short, we made it to the RV and got to see our little man or woman! This wasn't our first sonogram photo, that was done at 4 weeks and 6 days but didn't look like much. This was from our second RV voyage at 7 weeks 6 days.

We started having a lot of fun with this baby idea. This is what i refer to as my last "healthy" picture for the months to come. Almost three weeks after peeing on the stick I was overwhelmed with morning, noon, and night sickness. I'm talking 15-25 pukes a day people. On top of that I've also had insanely low blood pressure, on bad days around 80/60. Between that and barfing up everything, I was couch bound for about 2 months. I ultimately had to leave my job as I could no longer lift bikes or work the hours due to illness. For lack of a better word that sucked....big time. But baby's health had to take number one. 

The next month or so was filled with a lot of the same. Justin worked extra hours and worked on his master's degree from home, after every long day he'd still come and stay with me. What a champ. Sometime in March he knew I was too sick and altered some secret plans of his. One night after barely dragging my butt out of the bath tub he met me in my room with a laptop. And a video. And a......

Ring! It was truly the most magical, surprising moment of my life (as you can tell by the unpolished nails, any girl that has hers painted is lying if she claims she "had no idea"). We were so excited we facetimed his parents who live the next street over, called his dad and mom in Florida, and called all of our friends. It was official! The Culotta's would be a family with one name this summer. We immediately jumped into planning mode. We'll be married June 6th, 2015. Outside. In the park we fell in love in and spent our days mountain biking in. Perfect!