Caution: Laughing Leads to Wetting One's Pants

Let me start out with a very funny story about Lance and I...It starts like this:

It's a nice evening so we go for a little stroll with Sage and take her to a hill at our apartment complex that has a great place for her to run and fetch her frisbee (her favorite play time). So we are tossing the frisbee down the hill and it ends up getting stuck on top of a rather tall bush. This dog is obsessed with this frisbee. Imagine a small child who just realized that their favorite doll is stranded on top of a bush...they run around looking for ways to get it down, look at you with worried eyes as if to say "well, you're the parent, you have to get it down!" So naturally we throw sticks, shake the bush, throw rocks, attempt to climb this pokey bush, and are ultimately coming up empty handed. So here's a great idea!! Let's put (at this time) 6 1/2 month pregnant Kayla on Lance's shoulders and Mom can retrieve the frisbee and we will have saved the day! Terrible idea...While Lance toddles to a standing position with his pregnant wife delicately placed on his shoulders I start laughing because we are going through these extreme lengths to retrieve a completely replaceable frisbee for our pitiful dog who is dancing around the two of us because she is NOT okay with him picking me up like that. I start laughing harder and realize, "Oh god, I'm going to pee my pants...BABE! I'M PEEING!" Yes...while atop his shoulders I am laughing so hard that it's making me wet myself. He quickly and gracefully gets me off of his shoulders before he turns into a human diaper, but it was too late. I had gotten him. Now I was standing there laughing SO HARD that I can't see through my tears. I, Kayla Armstrong, a grown 23 year old woman, had just wet myself on my husbands shoulders and now had completely peed my pants. It was a long, funny, cold walk home to say the least. We got the frisbee down though!

Okay, onto other news:

I'm just about 29 whole weeks along (this Sunday)! A little over 7 months pregnant and feeling pretty great! Minus the back pain and heart burn. Oh and inability to eat more than mouse size meals at one time. I just compared pictures from the past couple months. It's crazy when you see yourself day to day you don't notice how much bigger you get!

Here's my 20th, 24th, 26th, and 29th week pictures side by side

Hey, heyyy baby boy!!

Let's see what's new:

• Ames is kicking quite a bit stronger. My entire mid section moves and dances every time he moves. So amazing
• At my 7 month appointment I had gained 3 pounds putting me at a total of 20lbs for the pregnancy. I also found out I do not have gestational diabetes- whoop whoop!
• Salad sounds pretty nasty to me 99% of the time. I'm trying to get creative with my veggies. Mostly I'm eating them in stir fry, baked, or with hummus.
• Still always hungry. I can't eat a lot at one time but my eating endurance is impressive (pretty much all the time unless I'm sleeping)
• I over did it the other day at work and Lance had to help me off the couch to the bathroom because my back hurt so bad. I have since been instructed to "For the love of god, take it easy, woman!" and I am listening very well :)
• I'm sleeping like a rock most nights. It's rumored that this will change in the coming months, so I'm taking advantage of it while I can!
• I felt him hiccup for the first time this week! It was crazy because it was so low on my body (lower left near my hip)

In other big news...Lance has gotten a new job down in Corvallis. He is 8,000X happier than he was at the other job. I have my old, laughing, smiling husband back. Also! We are in the process of buying a house! We put an offer in on a new house in a subdivision in North Albany and they accepted it!! So let the loan process begin

Excessive Pregnancy Eating Anonymous (EPEA)

EPEA, it should be a thing. This week has been the week of insatiable hunger. I quite literally ALWAYS have something in my hand to consume.  I find myself waking up starving! Breakfast has never been so exciting to me. I also find myself shamelessly going back to the freezer just one more time and eating copious amounts of chocolate chips. This has been the best way to avoid hunger pangs or the pain of being too full. One time I made the mistake of eating a normal size meal and I had to lay on my side for hours waiting for that to digest. Sweet Mother of Pearl there is not enough room in this little body of mine to house a growing fetus, my lungs, and a normal size meal. Therefore, I will continue to eat consistently every 30-60 minutes out of the day :) I've been craving bread and cheese lately. Quesadillas, grilled cheese sandwiches, bean and cheese burritos- those are my comfort foods. If you know me,  you know that cheese typically = farts digestive pain, however, I believe this child is changing me for the better. Ice cream, milk and heavy creams are off limits, but I'm able to eat cheese and yogurt pain free! Ames- I love you for this (and many other things :) )

Also, emotions are fun. I have been inconsistently frustrated, happy, sad, excited, repeat, etc., etc. 

I was frustrated the other day because I was so hot, this frustration turned into fighting back tears before a perfectly wonderful weekend with my husband. 

The day progressed as this; wake up in the morning (at 5:30 because I have to pee and lord knows I can't fall back asleep after that) and we have a lovely walk to Starbucks and I get to enjoy a delicious Decaf Soy Pumpkin Spice Latte, we relax and watch some of our favorite TV show and he goes to Crossfit. Naturally, I stay in bed and cuddle with Sage until he gets back, but then my back starts to hurt, Ames isn't kicking as much as he normally does, and I get too hot. So, now Lance is back, I have a headache and a backache and I'm hot, cue frustrated internal conversation in my head. Calm, rational Kayla tells irrational pregnant Kayla that it's time to take a couple deep breaths and shake it off. "GIRL, YOU DON'T KNOW MY LIFE!" is what I'd like to say out loud until I realize, Hey, Crazy lady, you're fighting with yourself. Morning shower, make up, clothing tussle ensues, I finally get myself dressed and ready for the day and by this time the outside temperature has increased since I took Sage potty at 7am and BLOODY HELL IT'S FREAKIN HOT. That then makes my halfway decent outfit increasingly uncomfortable, cue the potential tears. Finally, Lance reminded me that the cute hat I had on was probably making me warm so if I took that off, I might cool down. Praise the good lord that I have him to be my realist, otherwise I might have died of a heat stroke and we never would of enjoyed our day at the Pumpkin Patch with the Holcombs.

6 1/2 months!

The weeks are starting to blend together now, I feel like I"m in a little bit of a stand still and my tummy has grown a whole lot lately.
I have developed this awesome pressure discomfort under the right side of my ribs. According to The Google Interweb- That pressure is from my organs being "rearranged" in my body. As if pregnancy wasn't weird enough as it is, now half of my intestines are up in my rib cage. I can really only feel this when I sit down. Speaking of sitting down, ouch. The middle of my back KILLS if I sit for too long. Luckily my job has me on my feet a good portion of the day but, that too hurts my back. No mercy.
Still no stretch marks on the belly, thank goodness, but my breasts are now road maps. Oww owwww, I know.
Little man has been super active lately. I can feel him up quite a bit higher now and you can see my whole belly move when he does. A couple times a day he will push some larger body part of his up against the outside of my stomach and then kick in the lower quadrant of my stomach. I love watching him, I could sit and watch all day.

Cravings thus far: Plain yogurt with frozen semi-sweet chocolate chips. Oh my heavens. It is delicious. All I need is 1 Tbsp of yogurt and a handful of chocolate chips. Repeat various times throughout the day :) Also, sparkling water, plain old sparkling water and soy, decaf, half the sweetener, Pumpkin Spice Latte (yes, I'm that girl- sorry nice baristas) - Soooo delicious!

Now, it seems like so many of my dear friends are pregnant with me at the same time and I was lucky enough to spend a Saturday with one of my oldest friends, Shanda, while we celebrated her newest baby, Wyatt. This little guy is her second and she's exactly 10 weeks ahead of me.

Heartburn, I loathe you.

Well today I am 24 weeks! 6 month point. Only 16 more weeks to go before we get to meet our sweetheart. Most days I feel fantastic! It's weird that getting off the couch or getting up from stretching on the floor is growing increasingly difficult. Today, I've felt like total garbage. Lance hasn't felt 100% either- so we are wondering if maybe it's food poisoning. Either way, it's been an extra lazy Sunday.

Symptoms this week:

• Walking up stairs makes me slightly winded. Well, winded enough that I need to walk around slowly before talking to anyone otherwise I sound noticeably out of breath ha...
• Sleepy throughout the day. I wake up feeling pretty good, but I could easily nap throughout the day if I was allowed. 
• HEARTBURN! It is increasingly worse if I eat something super sweet, otherwise it just hurts after dinner. Tums do the trick for the most part, but I really dislike popping them like a drug addict. 
• DROOL! What the heck- I never knew that my saliva production would increase so much. I wake up in a river of it. Also, I sleep so hard at night that I'm sawing logs, so when I wake up it feels like I've been yelling at a Spice Girls concert all night. 
• If it's hot outside I swell up like a balloon, feet, hands, face. I'm so thankful that we are going into the colder months. I made Lance agree that the next one would be conceived in August so that we avoid all hot months. Props to all the mamas who deliver from June-September. Mad Props. 

Catching Up

I missed blogging for week 22 and 23 and now I'm creeping up on week 24! Yikes.
Well let's recap on week 22 and 23

Week 22

• Flew to Denver for our dear friend's wedding. It was gorgeous! I had the honor of being in the wedding party and it was so much fun getting together with all of the girls and preparing for the big day all weekend. We have a pretty great group of friends and all of the bride and grooms new and old friends seemed to mesh so perfectly. We stayed at a house in Boulder and it was gorgeous. It was a 10 minute walk from their downtown area, so Lance and I walked to get breakfast on the morning of our 2 year anniversary. Honestly, I couldn't have thought of a better way to spend it than with some great friends, great food, and awesome dance moves. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• As far as pregnancy symptoms go- week 22 was the week of extreme energy. I managed to stay up every night past 9PM (little victories guys, little victories) AND I even made it past midnight on the night of their rehearsal dinner. 
• My boobs continue to grow like tiny mountains, sorry, TMI. That's also where I've gotten my first stretch marks. Yikes, they're very prominent. 
• Ames is active as ever. Kicking around all the time, mostly active in the morning. 

Week 23

• Lance and I get up anywhere from 5AM-6AM on a daily basis. Even when we have a day off we aren't sleeping in much later than 6:30 or 7. This inevitably means that by 8:30 we've fallen asleep on the couch-whoops. Okay, I say "we" but in reality, he's fallen asleep with me maybe once...he's usually the one waking me up to go to bed. 
• Again, with the boob talk- I apologize. ITCHY, ITCHY, ITCHY!!! Cocoa butter to the rescue.
• I had another ultrasound so that they could get better pictures of his heart and all looked well! He is weighing in at about 1.6 lbs and was a total stinker. He was so cozy and balled up in there that he decided whatever way she needed him to face, he would face the opposite. 
• He's still most active in the morning and now when he moves you can actually see my belly move with him. He's getting stronger! 

Last weekend we went to the OSU VS San Diego St. game (Beavs won!!!)  and we, wait for it, WATCHED IT FROM A SUITE! Holy coolness my friends. Our brother in law rocks.

He's going to be the best dad ever :)

No Sleep? Why not!

Well we've hit 21 weeks and there haven't been too many big changes this week. I'm madly in love with feeling this little boy kick. It is the best feeling in the whole entire world. This week I went one day without feeling him and had a small panic attack. I was reassured by my wonderful mother that "he's sleeping a lot at this stage because it's hard work growing up! And he's still pretty small." I'm awfully lucky to have her to talk to about all of these things. The next day I felt him and all was right in the world. Last night we had dinner over at Lindsey's and he was up moving around enough for both her and Lance to feel. Also, we had waffles this morning for our Saturday breakfast and apparently, he's a big fan! He has been kicking and twirling in there all morning. Lance and I are in heaven.

Excuse the lack of hair/make up prep- it was early..

So the past couple nights I have woken up several times in the middle of the night for potty breaks and then by 3:30am I am WIDE awake. What's fun about that? Well I manage to doze off for about 15 minutes just before our alarm goes off at 5:00. I guess I'm practicing for when he actually gets here. Neat. 

This morning, on our day off, I woke up 5:30. I had a crazy pain in my belly button and then I felt him kick and I was up for the day :)

Pregnancy hormones have been fun. I can efficiently go from zero to sixty in record time. For example, an alarm of sorts went off for about 20 minutes this morning and it was the most god awful screeching one has heard in some time. Instead of ignoring it and proceeding to get up and get ready for work 45 minutes before my alarm, I sat and cried. I cried from lack of sleep, I cried for feeling overwhelmed, I cried because last night I was so hot that I felt short of breath/was sweating from every ounce of my being, I just cried. It's not typical of me to react in such a way- yes, I am a sap and I do cry....but not over car alarms. That's not the first overreaction perfectly rational incident that I have encountered over the past couple of weeks either. I'll spare any details since they all kind of end the same way- overstimulated/ frustrated/ exhausted = crying. And i'm not a pretty crier.

And finally, shortness of breath. I think that the heat has a lot to do with it. I had a walk at Portland International Raceway to end Alzheimer's yesterday. We took some of our residents and I drove the bus to pick up some other Activity Directors and their residents. It peaked at about 90 that afternoon and over the black top it was scorching. We probably only walked an eighth of the track because that was about all our residents could handle. So when I got home after a 7 hour, action packed, hot day, I was wiped out. Like fall asleep at 7:45 kind of wiped out. Also, the past few nights after I eat dinner (it has been well into the 90s lately) I feel like my lungs have shrunk 4 sizes and I'm struggling for every breath. My first reaction: take off all clothing because the heat is going to make me cry ;)...reaction number two: take large breaths, attempt yoga to get things to move around in there, sit straight up on the couch, lay down on the couch, stand up and walk around, lay on the floor and rub ice on my face, sit criss cross in front of a fan, lay on my side, lay on my other side, and finally....cry :) Do you see the trend here?

Lance and I have graciously been handed down many baby supplies/furniture/etc. and we are beyond thankful for everyone helping us out and being so unbelievably generous. We were given a changing table from his sister, Lindsey that we painted blue (it looks more blue in the picture than it actually really is) and we went to Home Depot and got a peg board for diaper storage/decoration. It feels pretty awesome to have a few things coming together in his room.

All in all things have been going very well, I just know that I'm going to want to remember these stories later on because eventually they will make me laugh. Eventually.

Kickin' up a Storm!

Well we are half way there!! 20 weeks down and 20 more to go before we get to meet our little sweetheart. Knowing that he is a boy is kind of crazy- from time to time I still catch myself calling him "they" before I remember- We actually know what we're having!! So exciting. This week has been pretty good, no crazy symptoms, just itchy skin, chocolate cravings, and pregnancy brain. Fun fact: If I wear a belt with my clothes you can some what tell that I have a belly! It's great! 

We have been talking about names and I think we are settled on Aemes (Ay-mms) Wilde. We aren't setting it in stone until we see him. Some of the other names we thought of were Wesley Lyon, Dash Steven, and if Lance had his way, he would be named Enzo (yes, like Enzo Ferrari). If little bug was a girl we had Sawyer, Leighton, and Harper picked out for names. We'll save those for if we have a girl on the next round :)

I celebrated my birthday last Saturday and it was wonderful. I spent the whole day relaxing with my husband and my dog, had food with family and friends, and ended the evening with swing dancing in the living room with my sweet hubby. The next day my mom, Nana, and I went shopping and I got new maternity clothes from Old Navy. Naturally, since Carters is right next door from Old Navy, we stopped there next. Needless to say, this boy is going to be STYLISH! 

Baby Armstrong was an active one this week, in fact, he gave me the best birthday present a mommy could ask for- he kicked hard enough for daddy to feel him! I can definitely tell that he is getting stronger because I feel him much more frequently now. 

So those cravings though....Random...

Spicy, hot sauce with my savory foods (lunches and dinners) and sweets whenever possible. And by whenever, I mean that if I could have them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, I would consume my weight in chocolate cookies, brownies, candy, you name it. Thankfully, we have not stocked our house with any of those so I have to refrain. I can't say that I would go as far as to make the Kit Kat Lasagna below- but I'm also not above trying something similar.

Maybe it's all of the sugar cravings making me dopey, but for some reason when I'm formulating sentences sometimes, I sound like a 2 year old trying to express my needs and I just can't. I stare blankly just searching for the right words and then BOOM it comes back to me and I carry on until another simple word slips my mind. It's like I'm drunk on pregnancy. Shiza.