Week 18, was a busy work week.  Preparing for a trip to see my in-laws and celebrating my sister-in-laws bridal shower!  Excited to get to work and get it under our belts so we could enjoy a long weekend away with family that always seems overdue.  My Mom and I finished the fourth week of T25 Beta, with one week to go and travels on the horizon, we agreed to wait to finish the last so we could do it together!  Monitoring my heart rate and the way baby and I feel has made all the difference in maintaining a healthy pregnancy and having the ability to workout.  I’ve definitely had to modify a few moves by throwing in some of my birth exercises while Mom continues to do the real thing!  It’s been fun to change it up and accepting it has been easy..my growing baby needs me to be careful for myself and the growth of it!

Week 19, four days of work and time to fly!  Tony and I traveled out of state I was sure to read up on traveling while pregnant, especially on a plane.  Know one ever knows what their body can do when pressurized air sets in, but reading from another pregnant mom’s experience can only help prepare!  I was sure to wear comfy clothes the entire time and might I add, sandals.  Tennis shoes make me feel trapped and my feet sweat, an issue before pregnancy, so I feared what could happen if I had hot feet..everything could get hot real quick!  I even wore a tank-top which before I would never do because planes tend to get a little stuffy and if my sweaty body part touches it I’m grossed out, but ya never know with a baby inside what can happen (Preparing for when the baby is here, right?)..and our connecting flight was a little hopper.  Imagine a very confined space, two seats, a 6″2′ husband and a pregnant wife – prepared for anything!  I was sure to have a sweater, snacks, gum, and a liter of water for every flight.  Thankfully we only had two flights to endure but the more water I drank the more I had to pee, hence getting up and walking around; key for traveling in the air!  Which, our first flight..bathroom was beautiful and roomy!  Perfectly set me up for our hopper that I could barely turn around in..a good laugh for Tony and I as we started to descend.  Speaking of, the descents.  I am not sure what happens BUT as soon as the plane started heading toward our landing strip I was suddenly burping and feeling the burn!  Indigestion.  I was suddenly sipping whatever was left of our water’s, little baby sips seemed to help and as soon as the flight sustained at the next “step down” if you will, the indigestion stopped.  I was extremely thankful and figured that I would be okay as soon as we landed, sure enough, I felt perfect.  Weirdest thing.  I assume as the air changes when the altitude decreases the pressure on my body caused everything to shift up.  All in all, at least I didn’t blow chunks, right?  ABSOLUTELY.  Overall, the only issue upon flying was the indigestion and the poor drunk next to me that caused me a little nausea and profusely sweating, but everything can’t always be perfect so I was happy that our trips weren’t going to be affected by any big changes my body endured.
Our time in North Dakota was fabulous.  The first morning there Tony and I rode bikes to my sister-in-laws house, picked her up and rode on a beautiful trail along the river.  Never a dull moment with the three of us.  The first trip out there we took a similar bike ride but a little further..yikes, not this time..all of our butts were getting a little stiff from the bike seats!  I need to invest in a bike cushion, lol!  It’s always fun to do things that seem to create a ritual, bike riding is definitely one of ours in North Dakota.  And to be sure, I researched and made sure it was okay to ride a bike while pregnant!  If I was off-roading that would be a different story, this was a paved sidewalk/path, given a thumbs up!  A cookout that evening to celebrate by soon-to-be brother-in-law’s birthday.  I love birthday’s that fall right before a wedding, it’s such great timing to set up the year to come!  Back when we had our engagement party, it was the day after Tony’s birthday 26th birthday, and he loved it!  We celebrated him the whole weekend plus our engagement celebration.  The same went for Sara and Andy, a birthday celebration and then the bridal shower..a beautiful day bringing back a load of memories from ours and adding so much more ♥.  Tony always loved to say, “It’s the baby’s first..”  Of course I always chuckled We headed to the lake for a day – of course I will soak up whatever Vitamin D I can at any moment !  A very serene location where I just sat, soaking in the sun and the weekend we had plus our week to come.  Heading home from any vacation is always tough, who doesn’t want to relax all the time?  I was able to take my first pontoon ride, too!  How fun and still so relaxing.  The lake is so different from the ocean in many ways but Tony is showing me how to enjoy the lake like I’ve shown him to enjoy the ocean, water is water and there is just something peaceful about it anywhere.  The next day our flights were delayed and cancelled, we enjoyed one more night of America Ninja Warrior and a delicious Taco Pizza with my in-laws, not upset at all that our flights hadn’t worked out like we thought.  Upon going to bed I told Tony, “There’s a reason we weren’t supposed to get on those planes.”  His response, “Yes, I just keep thinking God is going to put us on the right plane at the right time.”  Not that anything happened to those flights, but what if someone was sick and I got sick?  Or Tony did.  You just never know and we always (my parents prayed over my brother and I before our school days or trips) pray protection over our family and all of our loved ones.  It’s such a peace of mind, especially while pregnant, to know that God is with me at all times ♥.

We eventually made it home safe and sound.  Upon walking upstairs my Mom’s first reaction, “Oh my gosh look at your belly!  You have a bump now!”  She’s feeling my belly and my Dad just smiled and gave me warm hug and kiss..as if I was still 15 years old coming home from church camp.  Some things never change and I am perfectly okay with all of it!

Week 20, a challenge on the horizon.  What’s the challenge at 20 weeks you ask?  Staying strong I our decision to not find out the sex!  Our appointment fell on a Monday morning.  Sunday I woke before Tony and decided I wanted to make us a breakfast.  When he woke up and joined me he added to it with his own touches to our breakfast and we sipped our coffee just happy to be together making breakfast..it rarely happens from our work schedules.  With our Pandora Jack Johnson radio playing peacefully in the background Tony asks, “What’s the plan for tomorrow?”  Straight faced and wide eyed I say back, “What do you mean what happens tomorrow?”  This started our conversation of are we sticking to it and not finding out?!  After wavering back and forth we remembered why we decided to wait.  It was such a surprise when we found out that we were pregnant!  The overwhelming emotion that we created a little baby living inside of me, the excitement and fear we both shared allowing us to fall in love so much more..all in God’s timing.  We had no control, of course yes we used methods to prevent pregnancy, maybe not the pill because I am anti-medicine and yadayadayada..but for seven months our method worked perfectly!  A little change in the routine that confirmed our worries that I had a hormone imbalance that could lead to infertility..God blessed us with a baby!
**If I hadn’t of been concerned and went to the doctor, in the years to come who knows when we would have been blessed because my estrogen was as high as a menopausal woman which on top of infertility could have lead to estrogen based cancers..who knew at 24 estrogen could be so crazy?  Well after being on birth control for only six years, might I add that I cycled on and off after every year, your hormones don’t remember how to produce properly and imbalances often occur. 
In Tony and I’s personal plan we weren’t supposed to start trying until the end of 2016, well instead God wants us to have a baby to celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years with!  And to keep the surprise going, trusting in God and His plans – we confirmed our decision to not find out the sex.  Do we study the sonograms looking for any clues?  Absolutely.  We would be neglecting our pictures if we didn’t 😉  It was a tough sonogram to get through and I will say afterwards I felt a tad down like I made a terrible decision..but when I got home and had a moment to remember why we made our decision, I was instantly happy knowing God has already blessed us so much with our pregnancy and boy or girl our baby will be perfect!  136 heartbeat and a tech that told us the spine and brain are beautiful, we have a lot to be thanking God for!
The doctor told us within the next few weeks Tony should really be able to be feeling the baby move and I am so excited to share it with him!  My parents are anxiously waiting too..my Mom has no problem walking up and pushing all over my belly and I have to laugh at how emotional it makes her!  I am extremely thankful to have the relationship with my parents that I do.  And I am so happy to be able to share each change I endure with pregnancy with not only Tony but my parents!  God has blessed me tremendously with such a unit to grow up with and it excites me to have Tony by my side and now a little one to bring up with the same family dynamics ♥.