I Did Not Expect This...

Guys. I'm so bad at keeping up with blogging! I think I'll have more to write about when this baby boy comes. Speaking of this baby boy...

I am 36.5 weeks along in this pregnancy. Christian and I are SO ready for this baby to come! I keep telling myself things like:
"Maybe today is the day" or "Better be prepared if he comes today"

36 weeks prego in this pic

I know I'm torturing myself by thinking those things, but what else am I supposed to think about?! The waiting game is pretty dang hard during the last trimester.

Anyways... I was complaining in my head this morning about the woes of being pregnant, and I thought I'd share the things I did NOT expect during pregnancy. Fair warning:  some things that I say might be a little much for some people... I'll try to keep it G rated. :)

-Being uncomfortable literally ALL the time.  I knew going into this pregnancy that I would be uncomfortable...but I totally underestimated this. Sitting down in a comfy position, then you can't breathe. Cramps in legs. Achey feet. etc. The uncomfortableness varies in severity, but the WORST for me has been not finding a comfortable position to sleep in. My nights go something like this:

     -lay down: pure happiness to be off my feet

     -lay on left side...hip/butt muscle cramps

     -switch sides

     -lay on right side...baby pushes on my ribs (he doesn't like my right side)

     -lay on back...can't breathe

     -go back to left side

     -process starts over again.

-Pepto Bismol Song... We all know the song. Nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea! Yeah...had all that. :) It's mostly been the nausea and heartburn for me. Tums usually makes it go away pretty quickly, so this one's not too bad.

-How much stuff a baby actually needs. Holy cow...so much stuff. Can I just say THANK GOODNESS FOR BABY SHOWERS! There is no way Christian and I would be able to afford this stuff. Stroller, crib, car seat, clothes, DIAPERS, DIAPERS, DIAPERS, wipes, bath, towels, blankets, hats, bedding, bottles, pacifiers, carriers, monitor, etc. You get the picture.

-Mood Swings. All I have to say about this- I am so lucky to have such a loving, kind, "go-with-the-flow" husband. He is a great man to still love me after all the mood swings.

-How much my body changed. For almost my entire life, I've lived an incredibly healthy and active lifestyle. I've almost always had defined muscles and an athletic build. These things are now replaced with cellulite and stretch marks. I'm slowly learning that this is a different kind of beautiful. The stretch marks are almost like badges of honor. It's amazing what a female body can do. Our bodies were made to grow and birth a human. That's pretty amazing. I'll take a few funky looking lines on my sides and belly to have a beautiful baby. :) I know I've changed a lot on the outside, but I can't imagine how smashed up all my organs must be right now! haha.

-Appetite Changes. It's pretty simple. I'm starving one second (so I eat a ton) and absolutely stuffed the next (to the point of nausea). There's rarely an in between. I get hungry and full very quickly.

-Potty Breaks. I don't need to write much about this one. I've never counted how many times I go to the bathroom and pee in a day... But I'm 100% positive it's in the double digits now. I mean, an 8 pound brick is sitting on my bladder. I think that's justified.

-Sleep, sleep, and more sleep. I have always been a pro sleeper. But this past month I will take a solid 2-3 hour nap every day. I'm not upset about this though, because it's obvious my body needs it. It's hard work to grow a human!

-How great of a support system I have. I am so lucky. I knew before that I had a great family and  amazing friends. But sometimes you don't really recognize it until you need them. So many acts of kindness and understanding, gifts, hugs, advice... it's all been so great. I'm a very lucky person, and I know this baby will have so many people loving him!

Look at this chunky monkey! Chubby cheeks!

This post wasn't about me wanting to complain, so sorry if it came across that way. It was just me looking back on my pregnancy and these things stuck out to me. Maybe they'll help somebody or someone can chuckle and relate to this. :) I know all of these things are important and are a part of pregnancy. I'd go through all of these things again ten-fold to have this baby.

Next up: LABOR AND DELIVERY. Bring it on.

BIG Baby Boy

Time is flying by! We're already in the 3rd Trimester, which means...NOT MUCH TIME LEFT TIL BABY HANSELMANN COMES!!! Can you tell I'm just a little excited?

Actually, the excitement comes in waves. One moment I'm really excited, and the next I'm terrified. So far, this pregnancy has been pretty easy and not too challenging. I never threw up, never had too bad of aches and pains, and hadn't had any complications thus far. Some people may call me lucky...and I would too. I'm a wuss when it comes to pain, so I think I've been VERY lucky. I've been so excited my entire pregnancy, with not too many concerns- until yesterday. Yesterday was officially my 28 week mark. And to start off the tail end of my pregnancy, Christian and I signed up and went to our first pregnancy class last night. I was really excited/anxious to get this whole process underway. I was like a sponge- listening and trying to retain all the information I could get. The last thing we did in the class last night was watch a birthing video (minus all the gorey details, thank goodness). And that's when it hit me. I'm going to be doing that in less than 3 months...going through THAT. LABOR.

When I was swimming, I was a very hard worker. But you could always see on my face when I was struggling. I don't hide pain well. And watching a woman go through labor made me realize that I am most likely not going to handle that pain very well. It became very real to me. After the class, Christian and I were driving home and I expressed to him my concerns. I told him that I was trying to visualize myself going through those pains and the whole process of actually HAVING a baby. I told him that I know I'll be scared and most likely frustrated with the pain, and that I will be an emotional ball of crazy and I will need him to be positive the whole time. His answer: "I know. I was planning on that."

Oh...Ok. Simple. He knows me better than anyone. He's perfect, you guys.

But like I said, the excitement and nerves come in waves, and right now I'm excited. And just like those HORRIBLE, long sets I swam in practice for all those years, I know I'll be able to handle labor when Baby Hanselmann decides to come. It might not be pretty...but I'll make it happen.

On a more positive note- Baby Hanselmann is HUGE. He is in the 86th percentile for size. But the doctor is pretty confident that he will plateau when it comes to his size. So hopefully he won't be THAT big when he decides to come. But I'm really not surprised he's a big boy. I was only a 6 pound baby, but Christian was a 9 pound baby! So this baby is going to be big, no matter what- but hopefully not as big as they are anticipating. Christian thinks it's great that our baby boy is going to be big. But Christian doesn't have to push him out...so I'm leaning towards a more normal, smaller size. :)  Right now he is a solid 3 pounds and very healthy- and that's what matters!

Baby Boy is HUGE and LOVES to kick/punch mama.

28 weeks! Big Baby = Big Mama.

Baby is starting to get pretty heavy!

We can't wait for our baby to come! Our family will be that much more complete.

FALL IS COMING.

After having a zillion travels and weddings to go to this summer, we are finally back home in Knoxville and excited to get the fall season going! Fall is my FAVORITE time of year for many reasons, but here are just a few:

FOOTBALL.

All things pumpkin flavored.

Cooler temperatures!

Pretty leaves! Especially in Knoxville.

Hot chocolate. I've been drinking it for a while now, but it's socially acceptable now.

Jeans and Sweatshirts.

Holidays!

Family visits.

Evening walks.

Good food.

AND...

The baby getting HUGE.

Speaking of the baby... IT'S A BOY. Which I'm pretty sure I've made clear on social media.  He's getting big too. This week (22 weeks) he's the size of a corn on the cob. And I feel like I'm ballooning...which is good I guess. :) But I can't express how happy we are.  Christian is more than excited that it's a boy, but I'm just happy he's healthy. :) I've had a really easy pregnancy, thank goodness. But I wonder if that means this baby will be a bit of a demon when he comes out...haha.

We are really blessed to have such an amazing family with plenty of baby experience! We are getting a lot of the big stuff second-hand from family, which I'm so grateful for. And, I love the advice that I get from them. 

The main thing I'm nervous about with our first baby, which I'm pretty sure is common, is that I don't know much of anything about how to raise a baby. I know I'll figure it out through help from friends and family and through trial and error...but I don't want to make a big mistake. I don't want to forget something super important. I don't want to lose my temper. I don't want to get frustrated. I don't want to feel overwhelmed ALL the time, especially when Christian will be busy with school. These aren't constant worries, but they're in the back of my mind. I've been told in the past to not worry and to enjoy it when it comes...but how am I supposed to if I don't even know what I'm doing in the first place?

I know in the end everything will be alright, and that Heavenly Father trusts Christian and I to raise one of His children, but it still makes me a bit nervous. I guess I still have 4 months to figure all this out. :)

BIG Blessings!

For the majority of the summer Christian and I have been stressing (in the back of our minds) about finances. We knew this fall that money could potentially be a bit of an issue. We needed multiple things to fall into place. Christian needed an assistantship at UT, which would pay for his tuition.  He also needed a job/some type of income.  I already had a small part-time job in place, but not enough to make a living.

A few weeks ago, two programs contacted Christian and told him that they had assistantship positions available. So Christian emailed them back and sent his schedule right away, hoping that he would get one. Tuition is due on Monday, and we DID NOT have the money to pay it. Sure we could have gotten a student loan, but we were trying to avoid it if at all possible.

Yesterday, Christian called one of the assistantship programs and asked if they knew anything about the assistantships. They told him HE GOT THE ASSISTANTSHIP! He is going to be a TA for the psychology department. I cried and Christian didn't know what to do with himself. We quickly knelt down and prayed and thanked Heavenly Father for this HUGE blessing.  We then celebrated by going out to dinner and a movie.

So today, Christian found out that he also got a job as an assistant coach on the club swim team here in Knoxville. HE HAS A JOB!

Today we have been so happy. We have been praying and fasting for these things for so long, and now that they're here, we realize how blessed we truly are. Our testimonies have been strengthened. We know that God hears and answers our prayers. Even though they might not be answered when we want, prayers WILL be answered.

We know we'll still be poor; all couples at this stage are poor I think. But we won't be in debt. We won't be completely scrounging for money. We will be ale to pay rent, buy school supplies, and buy things we need to prepare for our baby to come.

We...I...can now officially stop stressing. :)

Baby Update- 16 Weeks

This week was my 16 week mark in my pregnancy! This baby is about the size of a dill pickle. It's crazy how fast it is growing! 

Since this is my first baby post, I'll write a little about the beginning and first trimester of this pregnancy.

Christian and I found out we were pregnant at the end of April. Early on a Sunday morning, I felt like I should take a pregnancy test. I had taken a few before, and had failed them, so I tried not to get my hopes up. So I took the test and went out of the bathroom so I wouldn't have to look at it. A few minutes later I came back into the bathroom and saw that it was positive. I was shocked. I walked into the bedroom and just stared at Christian while holding the stick. He saw that I was holding the test and said, "Well, what does it say??" "...It's positive."  We both jumped up and hugged. Then went back to sleep. :) That was when I was 4 weeks pregnant.

Since then I've gone through the entire first trimester. I have so far had a pretty easy pregnancy. I haven't thrown up once. I was just really nauseous and REALLY tired. And I've noticed this whole pregnancy that I've had pretty consistent head aches. But I've always had a problem with headaches, so this one isn't really a surprise. I have had quite a few cravings though... nothing crazy. Just fast food and fair food (crispy chicken sandwiches, soft pretzels, coney cheese dogs, pizza, doughnuts, etc.) But the weirdest craving I had was chef boyardee. I never even ate that stuff growing up. But it tasted SO good.

The second trimester has been very nice so far. I'm still tired a lot and get headaches, but I'm never nauseous, so I feel great. Just slowly, and happily, turning into the size of a whale. :)

16 week bump

Our little baby at 15 weeks.

Still a little too early to tell if it's a boy or girl.

Til next time! :)

Visitors in the Apartment

This is quite a story...so prep for it.

Christian and I were more than excited to move into our apartment in Knoxville. It was the same complex that my older brother and his wife lived in when they lived in K-ville, the management was super nice, and the layout of the apartment sounded great! So we moved in and, thankfully, had help from some people in our new ward. Everything was in the apartment within an hour. Everything seemed to be working out great.

Fast forward 5 days later.... Christian was complaining about how he kept having these tiny little red bug bites all over his legs and how they itched like crazy. I didn't have any...so we didn't worry about it. Later that night we counted about 10 bites on his legs. So we sat down and called parents to ask what it could be. I ruled bed bugs out, since I didn't have any bites and I checked the mattress and sheets. We ruled out mosquitos, because the bites were too small. I looked down at Christian's bites and saw a TINY black bug. I stared at it, pointed at it, and it JUMPED away.

FLEAS.

I freaked. Naturally. I don't like bugs. We both stood up fast and counted 3 fleas on both of our legs. I screamed and ran out of the room. I was too scared to touch anything. I didn't want them on me and I didn't want to get them on anything. I looked around and thought of all the things the fleas could be living in. Our couches, our mattress, MY CLOTHES, the carpet, our blankets. So Christian called our parents again and told them we know for a fact that it is fleas...we have no idea where they came from...but what should we do?  Luckily, we were going to leave the next morning for Indiana for Christian's family reunion. So we ran to Wal-Mart at 10:00pm to buy a flea bomb. We packed an overnight bag for both of us and a pillow and a blanket that I knew didn't have fleas, set off the flea-bomb, and left for Indiana at 11:30pm. Thankfully, it's only a 5.5 hour drive, so it wasn't too bad.

We called management the next morning and told them what happened. They were so disgusted and felt so bad. The people that run this complex are so great, and we're so grateful for their kindness. They said they had no idea where they came from since the last owners didn't have a dog. But we assumed it was just because no one had lived in that apartment for a few months, so they somehow just got in there on their own. But the management said they would take care of everything while we were gone. So we kind of stopped worrying about it while we were on vacation.

Fast forward 2 weeks. We return to our apartment...very timidly. But the management said they cleaned it and got a professional to spray stuff in there. Within 5 minutes of being home, Christian had a couple fleas on him. Turns out the eggs of the already dead fleas had hatched and new fleas were everywhere. So we turned right around and left the apartment. We stayed at a hotel in Knoxville for two days while the management sprayed the apartment again. We told management that we wanted to move out of that apartment and get a new one because of the fleas and because it smelled like smoke (thanks to our upstairs neighbors). Luckily, they had an apartment available in a different building. So we took out all our stuff (I made Christian spray everything with bug spray before we took it into our new apartment) and put it in our new, clean, flea-free, smoke-free apartment. We are so lucky they had this nicer apartment available. I have been taking precautions in the new apartment, and have kind of been paranoid about it. We bought our own flea spray for the carpet, and I have made Christian spray the whole front room twice, just to make sure those stupid fleas were gone!

It's been one week since then, and (knock on wood) we haven't seen ANY fleas!! We're going to try to keep it that way. :)

THE FIRST BLOG POST!!!

I have been tossing around the idea of doing a blog for months now. I've been going back and forth on whether or not I should do it mainly because I was afraid of not being eloquent enough, afraid of what people might think, and if I would have enough to write about, etc. But I finally mustered up the courage to start one! I know I'm not the most eloquent person on the planet --I think others know this too haha, I shouldn't care what people think about me, and we have quiet a lot going on in our lives right now...so I should have enough to write about. :)

SO. On that note- here's what's going on:

Moving: We recently moved to Knoxville, Tennessee. And can I just say: I'M SO HAPPY TO BE BACK IN THE SOUTH. We moved into an apartment, but it was infested with fleas (another blog post for another day). We then moved to a different apartment in the same complex, and are VERY happy with it. 

Baby: I am 16 weeks pregnant with our first baby. We are really excited to find out the gender so we can go crazy with names, decorations, and actually prepping for this baby to come. I know I'm not even halfway done with this pregnancy, but I am so excited to get stuff done and get ready for this amazing blessing to come and be a part of our lives!

School/Work: Christian starts school on August 20th. He's going into the masters program at UT for Sports Psychology. We are hopefully going to get jobs soon and start working. And we're wondering how we are going to pay for everything. Yeah- everyone knows this crazy stage of life. STRESSFUL.

So there's the basic overview. Random posts about our lives and updates coming your way soon!