a boy named anno?

Names are funny. I have always liked my name (even through all the the correcting of spelling and saying I am not "Jackie"). So now as we tell people we are pregnant they always ask about names. Or telling us there suggestions... which in most cases is their name. I will give Anna credit though for offering up the male version of her name, which happens (?) to be Anno. I told her I would run it by Joey but not to get her hopes up.
As you all know, I am a planner, so Joey and I had the name conversation long before we were pregnant. Joey always wanted a junior and I was ok with that, as long as we didn't have to do the "Big Joey", "Little Joey" thing. You would usually call the big one Joe and the little one Joey, but I already call the big one Joey so that just sets us up for mass confusion. Also, Joey's middle name is Richard, which I don't like b/c you can make that Dick (which I never understood?!?), and I don't want "Dick" in my kids name...just a personal issue I guess. So I won the middle name battle and it would be James (which gives me a little something b/c that is my grandpa's name). Then Joey could still call the kid "junior" and the rest of the world can call him JJ, which is cute and should be a good name for sports :-) As for the girl, I wanted to do something with my mom's name, but I am not going to name the kid Mary Jule, or Mary...so something with the Jule. Julie and Julia were too common, so I went to Juliet. I could be fancy and spell it Juliette...we'll see. Middle name was easy. Grace. Most of you know that this is my great grandma who passed away right before Thanksgiving this year. I was able to tell her I was pregnant and if it was a girl her middle name would be Grace, so that was nice. We have even discussed names for kid #2, if it's 2 boys or 2 girls. Yeah, I know it's pathetic.
However, I still like names. It's fun to think of names, even if I am not going to use them. When I have lots of other girls names that I like that I will never use (Kennedy, Collette, Ariel, Bennett, Mallory...), but not as many boys names. I like simple traditional ones for boys, girls you can be more creative/trendy...for me anyway.
And if we end up with a boy and a girl...we will all have "J" names...not on purpose!!!

work schedule

I have always had this wonderful idea on how I would like to work. My mom always says that it's not possible because "that's not how the world works", but I still think it could. Here is my thought...what if I still worked my 40 hours a week (or got done what I needed to), but worked the hours when I wanted to work them. First of all, I would not set an alarm. I naturally get up pretty early anyway, but I've always wondered what it would be like if I didn't have to get up. Also, in the morning I would take my time. I would go for a walk/work out, take a shower, eat breakfast, read the paper...then I would start work. Maybe one day I would work 10-6, maybe the next day I would work 9-7 and then only work 6 hours the next day..who knows? Work four ten hour shifts and then take Friday off? I tend to peak around 3 in the afternoon, so starting later might me a good idea for me. Anyway, I know that is probably not something that could work, but who ever came up with 9-5 as the perfect work day? I guess it puts business people on the same clock, but if I don't need to be going to meetings, etc. and I can do everything from my house, what does it matter? Ok, that's it for my random post :-)

cravings

I don't know when the crazy cravings are supposed to start. I haven't had to send Joey out at 2am for ice cream and pickels (the cliche' of all cravings). I have however, become more nostalgic, if that makes sense...like I wanted mac and cheese with hot dogs, I bought some Malt-o-Meal, and I am currently snacking on ants on a log (pictured above!). I think the ants on a log are my attempt at trying to get in some veggies with some protein. I also have been trying to eat a serving of fresh fruit everyday...which so far had actually gone pretty well.

So other than getting back into some things I had as a kid I haven't really had any odd cravings. But now that I think about it every time I hear/see/read about some food I haven't had in a while it sounds good (the zebra cake incident)...not that I CRAVE it, just an "oh yeah, that sounds good" type of thing. So feel free to throw out any idea for some snacks :-)

bump?

So yesterday was 15 weeks. To steal a picture from Elizabeth (and technically I didn't ask her for this, but it is available on facebook so I think that's fair game), here she is at 15 weeks:

My issue is I naturally have a belly that looks like that. Even when I got skinny for our wedding, I still had it in my tummy...that's my deal. So in trying to decide if it's Jaclyn belly or Baby belly I have been doing what I call my Lindsey test (she told me that she could really tell when she couldn't suck in anymore). So I have been sucking in and then seeing what's left and I think there is a little bump. Also, I remember visiting Meghan (who has always has a flat tummy) at about 12 weeks and one minute it would look like nothing and the next minute (well, morning or night) it would look huge...ok, not huge, but way more noticeable. So last night after we ate dinner I was like whoa, there is some Baby belly here. And this morning when Joey and I had some waffles and then I went to get ready for work, again, a whoa, there is some Baby belly here. So I think the Baby likes food...so the baby takes after his/her dad! Anyway, I will not be publishing any pictures of me until I am TOTALLY sure that it's all baby and not me!! I have been wanting an excuse not to suck in for a long time! whoo hoo!

Biggest Loser

Ahhhh, I love this show! And this year Brent and Kristine are watching it, so there are some more people I can talk to about it. Mom can only watch it when dad is gone b/c he hates all reality tv. Joey and I have watched last few seasons together and I think he likes it now (I also think he secretly likes the Bachelor b/c he couldn't go to sleep when I was watching it late on Monday!).

I think I like the Biggest Loser because it's a reality show where almost everyone succeeds. Only one person wins the money, but it's so cool to see the people get off of their medications and the pounds start to melt off. The product placement and ads are a bit "wayne's world" this year, but I get it. I also love Bob (maybe b/c he reminds me of my old hair guy, Craig?!?) and LOVE LOVE LOVE when he yelled at Joelle this season. Why is the work f*ck so funny sometimes? In other character news, how can you not love the orange and brown kid (and his dad)? And I also like the green girl (though her partner at home is not as impressive).

So yeah, this season will be fun b/c as I sit watching all these people lose weight, I will be gaining it (hopefully I won't have any double digit weeks)!

shopping...kind of

Ok, this is a picture of my new best friend Casey (and me and her new baby Emily!). She has moved up my friend ladder by being SO GENEROUS in letting me borrow her maternity clothes. And let me clarify that when I say clothes...I mean 5 TUBS of clothing! I think I now have more maternity jeans than regular jeans! It's so nice to not have to spend tons of money on clothes...that just leaves more to spend on baby!!

In other baby news, not much to report. I am feeling better and eating more, so that's all good. My weight is still the same, but with my new pace of eating I am sure it will go up! My next appointment is Feb 2nd (Brent, that will be easy for you to remember), and that is a regular 16-week one, so nothing special there. Oh, I did get the results from the NT scan last week and everything looks great and my risks are super super low for the stuff they screened for at the ultrasound. So that's a plus. Now we're just really waiting for the 20-weeker when we can find out the sex!! It's funny to hear people guess and be so sure...like they know. Funny!

i think the wand has arrived...

So this week I have finally felt better. I've been hungry/eating and I have only been tired from the long week at work! So I am going to go ahead and say that I am officially entering my honeymoon second trimester! Yay!

Yesterday was 14 weeks. That's pretty cool. Meghan sent me a lovely picture of the world's skinniest girl with the "14 week bump" and we both laughed. I am still debating if I have a bump, or just my natural...insulation :-) I don't think I'll be posting any bump pictures until it is not a question! However, I am really excited to get a bump so I don't have to suck in! I will be getting some maternity clothes from a friend this weekend, so that will be fun. Maybe I'll take reverse pictures that people who lose weight do...that would be funny!

Ok, that's all I have for now. Maybe something eventful will happen this weekend that I can share next week! Stay warm!

immunity

So you may have noticed the name of the blog is baby immunity but not really get it. Long story short, this baby gets me immunity from pretty much anything. It started in DW when I got my dad to go to this attraction that I knew he wouldn't like (there was some audience participation). Afterwards he was not so happy but I told him he couldn't be mad at me because I had a baby. It worked! So that is how the baby's first name came to be.

I wanted to post some pics from the ultrasound I had today. I will not be the person who posts them on facebook; I will just be putting them here for the 4 people who read this! My mom came with me for this one (Joey is not a bad husband, I told him not to take off work for this one) and she loved it. It was nice to SEE the baby b/c right now there is not much that is making me "feel" pregnant and then I just wonder if it went away...but it didn't, so here is baby immunity's internet debut...

here is baby immunity waving to you to say "hello"

and now that you know each other better, here is baby immunity mooning you

That's all for now. Hope you're all enjoying the awesome weather!

next christmas will be busy

So on Saturday we had Elizabeth's shower at my aunt's house (for the record, my aunt Debi is also Noelle's mom). Anyway, with me being pregnant that brings the total number of pregnant cousins to three. So next Christmas there will be lots of babies around...it's getting to be like the early 80's when we were all the babies. In the coolness of us all being pregnant we also realized that our moms were also all pregnant at one time (not with us- that would be crazy- but with our younger siblings). So we took a picture. Of course my mom had to be the one to cry at the mention of taking the picture. This is going to be a long few months :-) Yay!

spreading the word...

The title of this post sounds religious...anyway...here are some of the ways I told people about our pregnancy...

Myself. Knowing that you can take early pregnancy tests 5 days before your expected period, I was ready. Enough temping, enough charting, enough peeing on ovulation strips, get me a baby already! Plus, if I wasn't going to be pregnant, at least I would get to take some tests! So I took a test on the 4th (I was expecting my period on the 8th). The tests were the same brand as the ovulation strips I had bought online. For the ovulation strips to be positive the two stripes had to be the same color/shade...so I didn't know for sure if the pregnancy test had to be that way. The pregnancy test showed the control lie and then I saw another faint line...was this enough? I know it measures the HCG or something, but was it dark enough? or does it show up lightly as a control like the ovualtion strips? I read, read, and re-read the directions and it appeared that I was pregnant. However, I waited (yes, I waited) two more days to do it again. Same result. So then I used one of my "good" pregnancy tests from the store and it again said I was pregnant. So I felt prett confident. However, it was like 7 in the morning, Joey was already at work, and I was alone. So I jumped up and down and danced a little and was trying to figure out if it was real...

Joey. Joey was the first person I told. You might think this is obvious, but I think he was always a little worried that my mom would be the first one to know :-) The day I knew I had happy hour at night so I didn't see Joey until like 8:30. I had always wanted to think of a fun way to tell him, but I had never really planned one and I had to tell!! So...he was downstairs putsing around and I kept trying to get him to come up. I was at the top of the stairs waiting for him when he finally came up. I said I needed to call the doctor to make an appointment and he said, "why?" I then showed him the pee stick (as anyone would) and said, "to make sure I am pregnant." We hugged and then I think we jsut sat around in disbelief...

Casey. Casey is a friend through a friend. She has a baby on Nov. 7th and I went to see them in the hospital. She asked how baby making was coming, and what are you supposed to say when you're holding a cute little girl? I was like, "actually, I am pregnant but I am not telling anyone b/c I just found out like 2 days ago". It was nice to have someone not in my immediate circle to talk to about it for the weeks that I was keeping it from people! I didn't tell Joey that I told Casey :-)

Guy at hotel. So for our anniversary we went to the St. Paul Hotel and park of our package was wine and cheese delivered to our room. So when the room service man came up to open and pour the wine Joey said, "just one glass" and I blurted out "I'm pregnant." Joey laughed but I said I needed to tell someone.

Grace. Some of you know my Great Grandma Grace from our wedding. She got sick before it and wasn't supposed to make it. Well, two and a half years later she was still around, but at the end. Mom and I made it down there for one last visit and I was able to have a moment alone with her and tell her. It was pretty special. It was nice that she was awake/with it/lucid when I told her too. She knew what it meant, so that was cool.

Andrea. I hardly ever get to see Andrea in person anymore and I knew the holidays weren't gonig to make it any easier, so when we went to a shower together the weekend before I left for DW, I told her. I didn't tell her until we got back to my house, but it was super fun to finally tell someone who would have a fun reaction! She was genuinely happy for me and that was great. She also said I can use her maternity clothes, which is also great!

My Fam. Covered this one in a previous post. This was the best.

The kids. Every year I go to get Santa pictures with Alex and Mychal. I always said when I had my own kid I would take a picture with them and my kid, so I thought this would be a perfect time to tell them. However, a lot of irresponsible parents waited until 2pm on Christmas Eve to take there kids to see Santa- the line was like an hour long. Crap. So while we were thinking of what to do I said I needed to go back to Macy's for something. I took them up to the 2nd floor to the kids section and asked what they were going to buy me. Alex got it pretty qucikly, Mychal took a second. It was pretty cool. They were happy and excited (which is good for a 17 and 20 yr old!).

So then comes Christmas where I would be 11 weeks...a little before the 1st tri is over, but a perfect time to tell people. I did NOT want to announce it at Christmas Eve with 30+ people there. On Christmas Eve I did tell two of my aunts (they had issues with conceiving and we had some nice talks, so I wanted to tell them individually and in person). I also let me mom tell Debi (Elizabeth's mom). On Christmas Day I told my Grandpa Erickson...he was really happy and even called a few days later to congratulate us again. You never know what you're going to get from him, so this was nice.

Meghan. Ok, so I didn't hold out until I knew if it was going to be a boy or girl. That was my original plan, that or 13 weeks, just to hold out longer. BUT, my mom said I should be the better person so I called her on Christmas and told her. She was happy and it was fun to get to talk to her. I know that I was a little bitchy when she told me she was pregnant b/c I felt blindsided, but in reality that's my issue and not hers. However, she is Meghan and knows my issues and still likes me, so we're all good.

Daverns. We were going to tell them when we took them out for dinner on the 27th, but thought Christmas Day would be nice too. So we waited (and waited) until everyone left and then Joey handed out cards. This did not go as well as Joey had planned, and there may have been some yelling, but I think it's better we did it then rather than wait until the dinner b/c Joey would have just been more stressed out.

Fastners. Although Debi already knew, I had wanted to tell the rest of the Fastner clan. Elizabeth and Bryan weren't at Christmas Eve b/c he is an important doctor, so we had to wait until Christmas Day. We got over there late and jumped into a match game that they were playing. One of the questions was "What was the last thing your partner did to knock your socks off?" I wrote my answer and Joey was the one who had to guess it. So when we got to that question I said/hinted, "Joey, we can win the game with this one!" He said, "Is it something I gave you?" and I said, "yes." Then he asked if I wanted to say it and I was like that is not how the game goes (a la Elizabeth yelling out "chili!!!"), so then he knew it was ok for him to say it and he said, "a baby." So that was a fun little way to tell!

Laura, Mark, Katrina, and John. We had some friends over for New Year's, and were excited to tell. For our wedding, Laura made us this AWESOME quilt, which is kind of her thing. Well, her thing for her friends babies is knitting a sweater. So after they had been there for a while I went over to her and said I am ready for my sweater. She kind of looked at me confused and was like, "what?" I said, you know, like for out wedding we got the quilt, now I want my baby sweater! So yay, now she knew! She also called her mom and midnight and her mom asked what she could start making me :-) I love talented people!

Amber, Matt, Brenna, and Darnell. We had dinner plans with Matt and Amber and then Amber invited her sis and newly-future-bro-in-law along. I knew we had planned on telling Matt and Amber about the baby, and now I felt bad that we had to steal some thunder from Brenna and Darnell (or maybe I watch too much Friends...). Anyway, when the waitress came and we were ordering drinks I said I'd start with a water and Amber, as if on cue, chimes in with, "and then a fancy Margarita?" and I said, "No, Joey is drinking for two." It was perfect. Pretty funny actually, as the waitress was there for it.

Lindsey. Getting together with Lindsey is like getting the cable guy to be on time. But I finally set up a play date for my mom to meet her kid. She had been over for about an hour and then had to change Joey (her kid, not my husband). She asked if I wanted to do it and I said I didn't need to do that for like 7 more months. The fact that I made Lindsey do math to figure this all out may not mean much to you, but is hilarious to me. So then she came over and hugged me and my mom and dad and we all were happy.

My Grandma and Grandpa. I didn't want to tell my mom's parents at Christmas, then they were sick over New Years, then I wasn't feeling well for a few days and my mom was going to bring my grandma out so I said she could tell her. It went well and I will see her Saturday and Elizabeths shower.

Anna. I have been trying to set up happy hour with Anna before her Maui trip and it just wasn't going to work. Then I had this WEIRD dream with calling her and getting voicemail, but the message was to me and, well, it was crazy...so I called her at work the next day and just told her.

So I think I have covered most people, and now that it's 13 weeks I feel pretty safe. I won't be changing my facebook status or anything. Sorry about the amrathon post, I am impressed if you got all the way through it...and also wonder why you had so much time...

magic wand

ok, i thought that the 2nd trimester is the honeymoon phase. my 12 weeks was up last thursday and this week #13 has not been a great week. i actually stayed home from work yesterday. poo. i want my energy back...where is the magic wand??

telling the fam

well, some of you know this story and some of you don't...so read at your own choosing...

We told my parents (and bro and sis-in-law in) Disney World. For those of you who are really good at math, you will realize that this means we knew about 5 weeks BEFORE we told. For those of you who know I sit 10 feet away from my mom and tell her everything (even the stuff she doesnt want to know) you should be AMAZED that I was able to keep this a secret...especially with the grilling from my mom thinking that I was pregnant (which, to here credit, she was right). So then we jsut had to think of the perfect way to tell.

Before the trip we went through a bunch of different ideas. Joey's was to get on a ride and then have me walk right off it (b/c I couldn't go on it) and then he would turn around and say I was pregnant, and then off on the ride "weeeeeee!" I did not like that idea b/c it kept me away from everyone during the ride and I would be all alone. So scratch that one. We also had the idea to read the warnings on the ride before we went on and then say, "oh, I guess I can't go on this..." and the chaos would ensue. Scratched that one. So we thought we would buy Mickey ears and have them stiched with "mom" and "dad" and then ask my parents to take our picture and see who noticed. Mickey hats are like $13 a piece, plus $4 to stich them. Scratch that.

So we woke up our first morning there and went to Downtown Disney hoping to be inspired. They have a pin store there where you can buy a bazillion different kinds of pins. Well, they have these new "make it yourself" ones where you can put in your name, but they also had #1 grandma, #1 grandpa etc. So we decided to buy pins for everyone. Then we had to decide how to give them out. We decided to do it after lunch at Earl's (highly recommend Earl's!) in Downtown Disney. After we were done eating I asked if anyone wanted dessert, which they did. So I pulled out the pins and gave them to my mom and dad. Joey said I was crying when I got them out- which was probably true. My dad got up right away to come and give a hug and my mom yelled out "are you serious?"...which now is funny to me b/c what kind of a mean joke would that be? Anyway, not to overshare, but b/c I had to lie to my mom about not being pregnant, then next time I would have been able to find out if I was pregnant would've been in DW, so she thought I'd literally peed on a stick that morning and told. So when then next thing I said was, "I am 9 weeks today" she yelled- quite loudly- "You're a liar!" So I am sure people around us all thought there was some sort of domestic dispute b/c people were crying, my mom was screaming and calling me a liar...it was pretty funny. Joey had a good view of watching it all happen. At this point I think Brent was still wondering where his dessert was. Then I pulled out an ultrasound picture that I had and my mom thought it was fake...yes mom, I brought some other lady's uterus to show you! So that was cool. Brent and Kristine were able to figure it out pretty quickly and we gave them some pins as well. During the trip we had to be careful not to have to pins in the picture since we weren't telling everyone yet. So needless to day, DW was another success and we spent a lot of time looking at babies, kids, strollers, etc. in preparation for next year!

So it was a success! I am AMAZED that I was able to hold it in that long, but I wanted to prove that I could, plus I knew it would surprise the heck out of everyone (Joey had only given me a 50/50 chance of making it to DW). I think my mom said it nicely, "I am glad you lied to me, that was fun!"

so now i have a blog...

ok, here i go. i told noelle that when the new year came i would start a blog. now that i can rant and rave about more things it's probably the right time. by the time i actually tell any of you who will read this, the news should be out that joey and i are going to add a little one to the fam. this is pretty exciting, as it was a long time coming. good news is that baby immunity is due july 17th (you would've thought i had planned it).

now i am just waiting to get fat (meghan doesnt like when i use the word fat b/c it's not actually "fat" that you gain, but since it's my blog, i will be calling it fat! hehe). i am 12 weeks as of yesterday, and besides feeling pretty tired a lot of the time i guess i have been pretty lucky with not being sick. i maintained my weight during the first tri, and now i am just waiting for my belly to pop out. i think i have a permanent 3-4 month pregnant belly, so it might take a while for me to notice the difference!

i don't have too much else to say right now...i think in my next post i will tell you how we told everyone we were expecting- there are some good stories!