Fail.

I'll admit that the last several months I sucked at blogging. My goal in February when I found out I was pregnant was to create a lovely baby blog so that I could remember every little detail. I've always been a very organized person who loves creating memories and scrapbooking and sharing all the interesting details in my life. Well, I'll be the first to admit that the baby blog was a fail. This blog was a fail. I really needed to start fresh. We have a new camera that I'll admit I've hardly used, although Lee uses it all the time. I am six months pregnant now, which means there's a lot to catch you all up on. I'm going to make a goal for myself to try to blog more..at least once a week when I can find the time between, work, school, and planning for Baby Hammarback.

We'll start with the obvious. The pregnancy. I am now currently 23 weeks pregnant! Hard to believe! Almost 6 months a long...its ridiculous. This pregnancy has flown by so fast. We found out a few days after Valentine's Day that we were pregnant and then found out our due date was Halloween. The distance between those two holidays seems like an eternity. The fact that its July and that I'm well over the halfway point in my pregnancy is insane to me. We found out on Memorial Day weekend that we're having a sweet baby boy! :) I'm really happy to be having a boy. I love little boys. When I worked in Daycare, all of my favorite kids were boys. I would also love to have a girl in the future, but of course I have no control over that. To even SAY or THINK about already having a second child is crazy to me. Obviously, Lee and I want to wait a few years in between children, but a few months ago I swore I never wanted to be pregnant again after this one. I was sick for 5 months straight. MISERABLE. Its crazy how quickly you forget all that when the good stuff starts...

In the last month or so I've felt pretty awesome. I've been able to stop taking my phenergan and unisom at night. Even when I was feeling better, I still had to take it because if I did actually miss a dose, I would be sick. For the last few weeks I haven't had to take the medicine..this is a huge deal! I've also finally been feeling him move for the last few weeks. Its crazy! Some days he moves all day long and others he's a little more quiet. I love him so much already and whenever I feel him move, I keep praying he wont stop so I can keep feeling him! Lee can already feel him moving too, and he loves it! Lee is overjoyed to be having a baby. He's going to be such an amazing dad...we're both hoping that October gets here with a quickness!

We chose the name Bauer Ross. Bauer is a name that has stuck with me since I was sixteen years old! I had a little boy in the preschool class I was teaching named Bauer. He was the sweetest, cutest, little boy and he was my favorite student that year. I cried when he graduated to Kindegarten. That name has never left the back of my mind. Our runner up was Madox. We love the name Max but hated Maxwell or Maximillian so Madox seemed like an excellent choice. It was originally our first choice, but Lee's cousin who was also pregnant, had her heart set on Max as well so we went with our second choice, Bauer. Now that we know its a boy and know his name, Bauer seems like the natural choice and we LOVE it!

We've been steadily starting to make room for a nursery. We live in an extremely small/cramped apartment. We chose this place so that we could save up for a house. The plan is to move out of here as soon as possible when our lease is up in March, but with the baby expenses, we may have to renew and go month to month. Lee is taking his PE exam in October which will greatly increase his salary, but we don't know if he passes, when that will actually go into effect. Also, the test date is October 28th and my due date is October 31st, so we're cutting it pretty close to baby time. If he doesn't pass or isn't able to take the test, he wont be able to take it again until NEXT October. He's started studying for the exam and I think he'll pass..its just going to be a tense time! Lee's mom is coming to stay with us the week before and the week after my due date to help out and my parents and grandparents are coming down to stay in a hotel the first week of November. Hopefully Baby Bauer will be here by then! As far as the nursery goes, we are having to make room. Our second bedroom was basically an office/storage room for us. We are having to move everything out of that room into our "dining area" and will have to give our dining table to my dad until we have a house/bigger place. Yes, its going to be insanely cramped but hopefully worth it for Bauer to have his own special space. Its my first baby and I cannot see myself NOT giving him a nursery, even if he is only in it for a few months. We took advantage of this long weekend to get things organized, taken to the storage unit and moved to the dining room. We've chosen a paint color and furniture but we haven't bought anything yet. We bought an old dresser on Craig's list for 30 bucks and my dad is painting it and staining it the way we want it. It will be our changing table as well. My grandparents gave us money to purchase the crib that we want, but we have yet to purchase it. We will be getting a lot of this done in the next few weeks!!

So much has happened since my last post...we had a great Memorial Day. John came up from NC to visit us for the weekend. He came with us to the gender ultrasound and we spent some time at the beach and hanging with friends. We had a fun night out at Rudee's Inlet with friends...one of the first weekends I was starting to feel good. We've gotten to spend a lot of time with Seth and Julie and their kids. Julie has really become one of my greatest friends. We have so much in common and she and I love spending time together. Lee and Seth have also become the best of friends and I'm so thankful to have them here. I'd be miserable without them. We haven't been going to our church in the last several months. Mostly because I've been really sick and now that I'm not sick, I cherish my sleep. Plus the church has been having a lot of "internal" problems. We plan on starting to go back to church again. There is a new pastor and we're hoping things are starting to turn around there...we need this in our life, and we want Bauer to be raised in our church.

July 4th weekend was eventful! On friday night we went to Ocean View to see the fireworks over the bay! Saturday we spent the day organizing the nursery and had a date night at Lucky Oyster (our fave) with Seth and Julie! Sunday we spent the day cleaning and organizing the nursery..again which carried into Monday. Last night, the 4th, we went to Seth and Julie's to celebrate the holiday! I cooked pulled pork BBQ in my crockpot all day yesterday, and made festive cupcakes and homemade BBQ sauce. We had coleslaw, potato salad, corn on the cob and watermelon...what a feast! Lee changed his first diaper! He changed Dax. I was so proud of him. He said it was hard....poor guy didn' t even have an wetness or poop..it was just a change before bedtime. He's in for a treat isn't he??

Today I had the day off..which was a good thing because I needed some rest. I've been on my feet for the entire weekend and I'm feeling the effects. My whole body hurts and I woke up with my first pregnancy leg cramp last night...ugh lovely. Any advice on the leg cramps would be greatly appreciated! I've been drinking as much water as possible and today I've done a lot of resting and putting my feet up. Its starting to get harder to move around...really. I didn't think this part would come until later in the pregnancy, but seriously, this mama cannot stay on her feet for long..its exhausting. I do my best to get in a good walk everyday after work but its pretty crazy!

Anyways, I think that's pretty much the latest update from the Hammarbacks. I'm going to do better, I promise. Love love love!!

XOXO,

Megan