23 Weeks;

Eep! Another week down!  :)  I am so excited, I am ready for our little  baby to get here! I think I grew a little from last week, but I don't know.  I feel like I am getting bigger by the day.. By the time I hit 8 months I'm pretty sure I will be whale status.  But its okay, it's all worth those rising scale numbers.  I'm ready to go back to the doctor next week, and see how much weight I have truely gained.  I am really hoping that my at home scale is lying to me.  Right now, according to the at home scale, I weigh 156.  Before I got pregnant I weighed just under 140, but we will go ahead and say my PPW was 140.  That is almost 20 pounds, I'm not feeling good about those numbers so early. (Asides from the fact that I have a damn healthy baby punching my insides.)

See those jeans?  Yeah, I coudn't wear them but for like two weeks after I got them because I grew/ the shrunk so it was painful wearing them even when I was so early in my pregnancy.  But tadaaaa, thanks to that belly band thing I can wear them! :D  It's so exciting because I love these jeans.  Oh to the baby statistics!

Nipples already?!  That crazy.  What is also crazy is that her face is fully formed!  Oh my goodness!  Ugh, that just makes me want to get one of those 4d scans even worse!  I want to see what she looks like so badly.  I don't know if I can wait until I give birth!  I NEED TO KNOW.  :p  There is actually a Dr. in Charlotte that does such things, you can get a package deal or whatever with pictures!  PICTURES! 4D PICTURES!  :)  Maybe if we have any extra money lounging around we will do that.  I hope so.  (I don't think Kayden likes this idea, because by the last ultrasound, she doesn't like her picture taken.. just like daddy.. and she just rolled as I typed about the pictures.  In my head, she is rolling away from the top of my tummy to hide. :p)

Other than that exciting news, nothing has happened today.  Caleb has today off because he had Staff Duty last night, but since he got home at 9 this morning and hasn't been to sleep since 530 the morning before.... he is still sleeping.  But he needs to wake up soon!  I got somebody to cover my shift so I can be with him and work on the baby shower invites! I may wait until another day to show them off though, because I still want to tweak a couple things.  I'm sorry, I know you were all waiting in anticipation. :p

<3 Tory

Crafts :D ;

Yesterday, I decided with Caleb's help decided to make our own baby shower invintations... I guess it's more of we decided for ME to make them.  Haha.  I am excited though!  It will make them more special :)  I want to get them sent out by October 1st, so I have a lot of work to do.  I need to make at least 30, while also collecting addresses getting the enevlopes labeled and then getting to the post office to get stamps and mail them.  I took a picture of the supplies so you could see, but the finished idea of the product will be a secret until I make it.  :D  It will be cute, though!

I know the paper might look werid together, but don't be alarmed. :)

I'm excited to get started, in fact, that is what I am going to be doing after I finish this post!  Maybe tomorrow you will get to see the finished product along with my weekly belly update. 

Along with the baby shower invintation supplies, I got a couple of other projects!  When I was littler, my mom taught me how to crochet and I got pretty decent at it!  Well, I quit the hobby, and now I am going to try to pick it back up.  So, I am going to make a hat for Caleb, Kayden, and other peoples babies.  :D  I hope I can pick it back up quick, it will be nice to be creative and crafty again.  I kinda lost my imagination there for a while.  Here is the colour yarn I got.  Caleb picked out his, and we collaborated on Kayden's.

The grey is for Caleb and the teal is for Kayden.


Other than that, today I have been pretty productive.  I woke up with Caleb this morning at around 5:30 am and cleaned until 815ish then got ready for school and what not.  I am very surprised with myself.  I am even more surprised that its 910 pm and I am still awake.  I could deffinitly go to sleep though.  However, Teen Mom Reunion Part One comes on tonight aaaaaannnnddd like I said I want to work on those invites.  Maybe eat some more food.  :D

I hope you all are having a good night :)

<3 Tory

Ahhh, I Can Breathe Again While Wearing Jeans;

It's been a while, but I haven't forgot!  I've just been busy, and everytime I sit down to write an entry... I want to just fall over and go to sleep.  So.. that is basically what happens, almost.

BUT ANYWAY -

I can finally wear jeans and not feel like I am slowy squeezing my insides into a ball of internal doom.  Well, not that bad because I did the whole hair-tie shindig.  (You loop it through the button hole and then hooked the double hook onto the button, if that makes sense.)  Even with that my zipper can't zip all the way, and its just really uncomfortable.  Especially to sit.  :(  But anyway, you may possibly be wondering how I can now suddenly wear jeans?!  Well I got this:


View the glory.

 I got it at a Motherhood store in the mall.  The lady that worked there half way tried to talk me and another woman out of it because apparently for other ladies (unless they were in their first trimester) they ripped, squeezed their tummys and were a pain.  It fits me perfectly though, and I am a big (according to the masses) 5 months.  The fabric is soft, and it feels nice.  The only problem for me is that when I sit, it rides up.  However, its not so much of a big deal that it makes it not worth it.

I wore it at work today too.  Apparently, according to a couple of the ladies that have worked there a while, you don't have to wear a belt or tuck in your shirt.  I was slightly peeved that the managment failed to tell me this, and he supposed online handbook is non-existant, because that stupid belt has been causing me pain for a while. -.-  It worked awesome though!  I just fold it half pretty much and tuck my shirt under the folded over part.

Here it is in action.

Another exciting thing that happened was yesterday, the hubs and I had a dinner-movie date night!  We went to eat at On the Boarder, and watched Warrior.  (The movie about the two brothers who fight each other in a UFC tournament.)  It was fucking amazing.  I loved it, and so did Caleb.  Great story line.  The ending wasn't much, but it was good for how the character's personalities were.  I highly recommend this movie!

It is now bed time again, we had another cookout and watched football and movies.  It was a lot of fun and we had a lot of food but it deffinitly wore me out.  :)

I hope everyone else had as good of a weekend as I!

<3 Tory

22 Weeks;

I am finally home from work, after sitting around 2 and a half hours after I got off.  Only because Caleb is out in the field and it's sad coming home to an apartment that is husbandless.  :'(  I should have just come home though, because while I did have nice conversation with my co workers, I ate entirely way to much.  I feel like I could explode.

On to the important things: 22 weeks!

My hair was not working with me today, stupid humidity.  I miss the whole temperature being in the low 60s thing that we had going on in the middle of last week.  -.-

Pregnancy wise though, nothing much else has been happening.  Like I mentioned in a previous post, the baby is kicking more often and harder.  My ribs have been hurting, when I sit in my desk at school and I am leaned forward slightly to look at my book or to write.. It sucks!  Definitly something I could do without. 

There is my update!  :D  Now, I must try to clean and then proceed to crash only to drag myself out of bed and go to school.  Good news is that Caleb should be home by the time I get home from school tomorrow!  And then an hour later, I have to go to work.  Ugh.

<3 Tory

So Many Tiny Clothes;

Caleb, our friend Gut, and I went to Target today and picked up our first couple of completely girlie outfits for our little girl.  We found a couple of really cute outfits and we got some tan boots.  It's hard to pick out just a couple out of the million of other cute clothes.


We've already got an outfit picked out for her first pictures.  <3  It's a black and white outfit and we need to find some black boots and probably some black leggings.  It's so adorable.  Caleb loves it too!  I think it is smaller looking than the picture, but its the same thing!

Image from Targets website

I also went through 3 boxes and 2 grocery bags worth of clothes that a friend from work gave to us before we knew we were having a girl.  I still went through it all and picked out some cute things that girls could wear.  :)  I got a box full out of all those clothes, bibs, hats, and nighties.


I know the baby is going to be small when I first have her, but its crazy to look at some of these clothes and think "Wow, a baby can fit into this itsy bitsy teeny weeny onsie."  It's mind blowing, really.  I can't wait for our baby to get here so I can put her tiny self into these tiny clothes!  :D


... And holy shit, I just had my hand on my belly (I was looking around on the target website to add a picture of the outfit we got for her first pictures, because I am lazy and don't feel like going through the whole taking a picture and uploading it process) and the baby kicked it and I felt it from the outside too!! Caleb felt it yesterday or the day before too!! 0.0 That is madness, I can't believe they are getting that strong already.


I hope you all had a good weekend, and please wish us luck for signing up for housing tomorrow (hopefully!) !! 


Ah! <3  Tory

I Should Have Listened;

When people told me to never get into the food industry to start with.  I swear, if I would have only looked harder, and found a retail job.  Which is probably equally as stressful, but I would probably not want to kill myself as often.

Yesterday was fund raiser night at my work, and man.. it was PACKED.  With two hostesses, and two busboys and limited servers.  I'm pretty sure everyone wanted to punch everyone in the face.  Oh well, we got through it alive, with no tears.  Until I got home.  I wanted to put the trash out because I thought I had made it home in time to do so, but then I was scared that we would get another complaint so I didn't.  Then I cried about it.  Then I tried to make dinner, an easy dinner of tuna sandwhiches and fries.  Cats got into the tuna, and I lost it.  -.-  Caleb came home to a mess of a wife, lets just say.  But he came bearing a cherry blow pop, so after a hug and getting the sucker into my mouth all was right in the world. 

Tonight was not as bad, thankfully... but it still didn't change my deep desire to go back in time and change what side of the job spectrum I had gotten myself into.  (Not saying I wish I didn't make the friends I made at all of these jobs, obviously, if any of you people are reading this and slowly getting offended for no reason because you know that I don't mean it anything like that.)

December 14th, also known as last day at work because I am starting my maternity leave a month early, you could not come any faster.

<3 Tory

21 Weeks;

First week of the second half of pregnancy is down!  :)  I'm starting to feel little kicks more often again.  After I had felt them the first time and the couple of days afterward, they kind of disappeared for a week.  They are back now, hopefully to stay!  It's comforting in a way.

I am giving into the need to start wearing dresses more, because like I had said a post or so ago... it hurts to wear jeans!  Even with the hairband giving my belly more room.  The comfort is so worth it.

A BANANA!  Can you believe it?  I can't.  It's crazy.  And do you see that she already has all of her eggs, already?  Insanity!

I want to go baby clothes shopping some more!  Now that we know what she is I am looking forward to the little onsies or whatever that say "Mommy's little angel" or "Daddy's little girl" or whatever sort of things of that nature I can find.  But.. unfortunatly, I will need more money than I have at the moment.  I've already done my splurg for this pay check.

Oh!  Speaking of money!  My finacial aid went through at school!  So, no more worrying about meeting the dead line!  I am glad that I don't have that hanging over my head anymore with the already stressed feeling about school in general.  At least I know my classes won't be dropped and I won't have wasted money.. because it is all paid for through finacial aid.  :D

We got a complaint about our trash in the mail today, somebody had taken a picture of it and sent it into the office.  It was on a Sunday.  The trash over the weekend had collected, and oh I am sorry.  Who ever complained I think it was ridiculous.  (Sun - Thurs a trash man comes to our apartments to collect the trash, that is why it was sitting outside the door to begin with.)  I will start walking my pregnant ass all the way down to the fucking dumpster with these 3 bags of trash and die on the way, just so you will be happy.. Even though the trashman is going to come pick it up in a couple hours.  You say drive it?  I say fuck you, I am not putting trash in my cadillac.  I think it's stupid, I dont' complain about anybody else's shinnangians in this stupid complex.  Their trash can sit outside and their music and play as loud as they want and I don't say a damn thing.  Maybe I should.  I just feel like they should have said something to me first, and we would have taken care of it if it was bothering that person that much. 

This makes me want to live on base, which is something that has been thrown up in the air for an idea.  It would save money while Caleb is deployed, and we would have a bigger space than we have now.  We would only move though if it was one of the refurbished houses, not the black mold filled gross houses.  (Hell would freeze over before I would put my child in a house like that.  No, no, no!)  I'm kind of excited about the prospect, honestly.  But we will just have to see, I will keep you updated.

I hope you all are getting through your week without being so stressed. :)

<3 Tory

Unmotivated, and Frusterated ;

I am so sick and tired of school.  I really am.  Mainly because I feel like its becoming pointless.  I'm not going next semester and when I do go back in the summer, who knows if I will even still want to pursue the Medical Office Administration degree.  I really want to slam my head against a wall when I think about it.  I don't understand how I got to this point, I've never really liked school and it hasn't been as high as it should have been on my priority list.. but its never gotten to the point where I feel like I am just wasting my time and money.  I wish I had a solution of how to fix this, other than just to suck it up.  (Which is what I will end up doing more than likely, because I need to have an education for me and to help provide for our little girl.)

Ughhhh. [slams head into wall]

On the brightside, I started creating a baby registery last night at Target.  It's pretty fun.  It's like a huge wish list!  I love it.  There are so many cute baby things.

I've got baby shower on the brain.  Helen is going to help me with it, because I want to do it in November (3 months out) instead of just a month out like a lot of people seem to do.  I think it would be for the best because of the holidays and so many people are going to have to travel to get to me.  I want to do a fall/halloween theme for it, because it would be fun and not as pink.  Helen didn't seem to fond of the idea, because she said it was about the baby and not about me.  But.. I really think I will end up going with a fall theme because it just seems like fun :)  We will just have to see.  We've got two months before the weekend I picked out, so we have time to plan and decide.

What did y'all do for your baby showers, if you have had a baby?  Or what did your friends do if you have friends or family that had one?

Also, look how cute my furry four legged children are:

Cleo and Pandora
They love each other :)

She only loves me on her time -
So I have to force snuggles upon her.

<3 Tory

**UPDATE**

I couldn't wait until tomorrow to share this.. I just ordered a boobie beanie.  Oh my goodness, its the most awesome thing in the world. 

Picture from "Bring Back Boobie Beanie" Facebook Page!

I didn't get any of these particular ones.  But the "Ivory"  beanie to the left is the main colour and then mine has a medium brown nipple and its for a 0-6 month old! I am so excited.   Ahh, I've never seen something so cool for babies to wear asides from the batman outfit onesie for the baby.  So awesome.

If anyone else wants one of these you can go to http://www.boobiebeanie.com/ to order it !

:D

Panda Shirt and Planning;



Incase you were unaware.  They are just my thing; always have been, always will be.  Kinda like Batman.  He's pretty badass too.  I plan to have these likes rubbed off on my little baby until she can decide for herself whether or not pandas and Batman are really as cool as I claim.

Also, if you were confused.  Yes, Batman onsies even though she is a girl, will be bought (a couple have already landed in my posession) and put on her.  Blue bows will also be bought to ensure that people know she is a girl and not a boy.  I have this thought out.

Anyway, back to the point.  My mom found this shirt and sent it to me.  I love it, its so cute and its really comfortable.  She got it at Cafepress, if anyone wants one too. 

If you can't really tell what it says, it says:
"There's something cuddly inside..."

So cute.

Other than receiving this awesome package, nothing has really happened today.  I got off work early again because one of the girls I work with is really nice and let me be the first out when I was supposed to be the second.  I probably shouldn't get in the habit of this and collect all the money that I can, but...  I think it will be okay if I just do this a couple times.  Next week I have a lot of hours anyway, so I will make up for it. 

Also, today I started coming to the realization that I need to start planning what I am going to do next semester for school/work/anything having to do with when the baby comes, for when Caleb gets deployed in May.  I have been putting off thinking about all of these things, because I just don't want to think about it.  Well, except for school, I think I am pretty much decided that I am not going next semester because just to much will be going on and I know that my efforts won't be there.  They will be in my baby and spending as much time with Caleb as physically possible.  Even though it is still 8 or so months away, if I don't start thinking about it, I will keeping putting it off and then, POOF.  Our little girl will have popped out. 

I talked to a couple people, including my mom, I think as long as Caleb is okay with it.  I am going to go ahead and start my maternity leave a month early, and start before the Christmas season.  So I can be free to visit family according to Caleb's schedule and get through the last bit of school.  As for returning to work, that is still up in the air... Caleb made a comment last night that me working would just be paying for daycare so it would almost be pointless.  My mom agrees.  I think they are right.  The only problem with this is... I HATE having to touch Caleb's money.  To have to depend on his money for every single thing is going to kill me.  Needless to say, I am probably going to have to find a stay at home job so I can get things for myself that doesn't have anything to do with our baby.  (Because she will obviously be an exception, if she needs it, she gets it no matter whos pocket it comes from.)  Maybe it will be just something I have to just get over.  I don't know.  It will get taken as it comes.

With that, I will now sleep on it and maybe think more tomorrow.  I have to open, so.. I gotta get those hours in.  :)

<3 Tory

Catch Up Time;

Since nothing special happened today, (Not including the fact that I got off ridiculously early :D) I am going to fill this post with pictures from the weekend that I want to share!

But before I start, does anybody have an recommendations how how to go about further personalizing this?  Any useful websites I could poke around?  I used to be pretty good at the whole creating layouts thing, but... that has been many moons ago.   Not that I don't like the owls.. but they really just.. have nothing to do with anything.

Saturday - Dinner with Helen

Caleb and I met Helen half way in Hamlet to have dinner!  After a day and a half of begging Caleb to come with me because he didn't want to feel like the 3rd wheel.  (Which he did not of course.)  We ate ate this resturant called FATZ, and it was pretty delicious.  We didn't leave until around 1 in the morning after getting there at 8pm.  Needless to say, there was a lot of catching up to do.  I wish Helen lived closer.  I do indeed miss the days where it took all of 5 minutes to walk to her house.

This is also the night where I felt our little lady kick for the first time.  These pictures were taken only hours before.  Hehe.







I don't know about you, but I think that the picture of Caleb and Helen is freaking hilarious.  The look on his face, and then her in mid-laugh makes me happy.  My husband is such a goofball, and I love it.  I am going to document all the faces he can make so I can show them to our daughter while he is deployed.  That way she gets a sense of who her daddy really is.  <3




Sunday - Monday (And Tuesday, but that is up to date!)  Ashley came to visit!

Having Ashley here was a lot of fun, we just hung out and watched TV or did fun things.  Monday when she got here, we watched Splice with the husband and Gut.  That move is werid.  Enjoyable, but really werid.  I still need to take it back, come to think of it.  -.-



It was so much worse than it looks. 
That fan worked wonders though, kind of.


On Monday, it was Labor Day so both Caleb and I were off from everything.  Which was amazing, but while he was getting his hair done and such Ashley and I went to the pool for a little while.  This led us to have the wonderful idea to have a little cookout for Labor Day.  This nice cookout was to be on our apartment porch... in the daytime.  Somebody should have said hey, you should deffinitely wait until night time so the smoke wouldn't be so visable.  This is a big deal only because having a grill on your porch is... lets say, looked down upon in North Carolina.  Regardless of the drama that we went through to get the burgers, they were dank.  Red Robin seasoning is the best!  Yes, you can buy it.  It is $3 at your local Red Robin.

Not only did we have a small cookout, it was a nice collection of people.  Old friends Michael and Raven were up from driving Gio from Indian Trail, back to Fayetteville.  I hadn't seen either of them in at least 6 months. 

Then of course, you should know on Tuesday we found out the amazing news that our little baby is a girl, but you know that ;)

<3 Tory

20 Weeks;

Heck yes!  Half way there, already!  Soon, I will be all the way there and will be having this little girl!

I am starting to become in desperate need of a band to put over my pants or shorts to cover the fact that I can't button them.  My stomach is deffinitly not slowing down on this growing.  But thats okay.  :) 

As for baby movement updates, I finally felt two little kicks last Sunday morning around 1230 am.  We were still out from when we went out to eat with Helen, just sitting outside talking about everything that we could even think to talk about pretty much and I felt two little pops almost back to back!  I was so excited!! Caleb tried to feel but she stopped once he put his hand on my stomach... she seems to do that.  But he did think that she felt her move around afterward!  She will kick every once and a while since then, I will feel at least something everyday.  She was kicking a couple minutes ago when I was watching TV.  <3

Also, as you can see:  my baby is bigger than the average baby!  Hooray growth!

As I may or may not of mentioned Caleb and I were not very good at picking out, deciding, and agreeing on girl names.  However, we did come up with one and agree on it last night/ this morning - Ayden Jade.  I think it is really pretty!  However,  who knows if that will be the actual name when she is born.  :p





Oh my goodness, I am so excited.  I love those pictures so much, they make me so happy!!

<3,

Tory

Drumroll, please! ;

Yes!  You see correctly!  It is indeed a little girl!  Caleb and I are still in shock, we were really thinking it was a boy.. but we are MORE than happy that it is a girl!  Watching her in the ultrasound was so adorable.  She is just like her daddy, I have come to the conclusion.  When the ultrasound technician was trying to get a good picture of her face, she would NOT have it at first.  She would cross her little arms over her face, and then eventually she gave up and let us get one :)  And that is EXACTLY how Caleb is.  We also got a picture of her playing with her feet.  She is so amazing already.  <3

Along with being so amazing, she is also big!  The UT was saying that she must be loving what I am feeding her because she is already 11oz, and so the due date got pushed forward five days, putting it at January 24th! 

I will share some ultrasound pictures and weekend tomorrow, but today has been a busy busy day.  Therefore, it is BEDTIME :D

I hope y'alls day was at least half as good as mine :)

<3 Tory

Cranberry Juice is my New Best Friend ;

I liked it before I got pregnant, but these past couple of days I have freaking LOVED it.  It's awesome, and healthy!  I'm glad I found a juice to  be craving and obsessed with instead of soda.. I really needed to get off that kick!  :/  It was dehydrating me out, like a prune.  I know the wee babe wasn't to excited about it.

In 30 minutes Caleb and I will embark on the hour long journey to Hamlet to meet up with Helen to eat dinner!  I am excited.  I miss my dear friend.  I am excited to show her my belly button... if that doesn't sound werid.  It's just so odd seeing it flattening out!

Speaking of my belly button, Caleb helped me FINALLY get that maternity belly button ring in.  It didn't really feel that great, but now I am sure that my belly button ring won't eject out or rip and I wouldn't have wasted 20 dollars and a live long "I swear I will never get my belly button pierced."  (I used to think it would be really werid, because you know when you poke your belly button really hard it feels... not norma?  Well I don't like that feeling. So.. I thought getting it pierced would be like that feeling and it freaked me out.  Until Helen got one and talked me into getting one. :D )


You can also see my belly button deformation here.  <3

Baby movement update:  I think I have felt some action going on in there.  Just like little pops that obviously aren't gas bubbles.  It's awesome!  But its only when I am laying down to go to sleep.  I have to be reallllllyyy still.  I think I can also feel like where the baby is in there.  Like, I feel like there is a mass in my stomach in certain places.  :D  But, I have been able to feel that.  It's still awesome :)

Well, its time to leave to go feast with the bestie and hub a lubs. 

Here is a picture of him for your viewing pleasure:

Shhh, he's "working".  Yes, that is what he refers to game time as. :p

<3, Tory.

Asia Is On My Side ;

That's right.  I said it.

I was looking at this Chinese Birth Calender, which is supposed to have a ridiculously high success rate and it said that Caleb and I were having a BOY! <3  His Korean step-mother had also channeled into her ancient Korean knowledge and thinks we are having a boy too.  (This was determined mid-July so it wasn't to to recent but still...  Hooray!

Anyway, the Chinese Birth Calender is pretty interesting.  It's this big chart, and you find your age that you will be when you are going to have the baby and then you find the month that you concieved the baby and BAM!  It has either a M or a F.  (For anybody that wants to check my chart using skills, I will be 20 and I concieved in late April.  Even if I am remembering wrong and I actually concieved in May, the little letter is still the same :) ) 

Regardless, we fill find out the real answer SOOOON :D

Until then, I have a lot of events to fill up my time to make it go faster.  Tomorrow I work in the morning and then I get to clean all day and run errands with the husband... maybe.  Either way I get to spend all my time with him because he has a four day for Labor Day!  Saturday, I work again and then have a dinner date with Helen.  Then Sunday I work in the morning again, and my friend Ashley is coming up and spending the night and then Monday Mrs. Patti will meet us here and visit.  :)  Hopefully I will have pictures of all of these events to share, since I am lacking tonight.  My apologies.  .... did I mention that my husband also has a four day this weekend ;) ! AHHH!  I am so excited about that. Seriously.

Baby movement update - Still nothing big.  I thought I felt a little one today.  But its so light.  I can't tell if it actually happened or if it is in my head because I want to feel something big so bad.  :(  It's honestly kind of making me paranoid that something has gone wrong.. I will be put at ease though on Tuesday when I see he or she move around.  I know that I may not feel anything for another week or so.  Ugh!

I hope everyone has a goodnight, it is bed time for me.  Gotta be rested to work in the morning so I can be bright eyed and bushy tailed.  Hah.

<3 Tory.