Home for the Holidays- Part 2

Dec 22-28 we drove to WA to see Anthony's family. We stayed the night in Spokane and woke up to see that the fog had frozen and frosted onto everything. The trees looked so cool!

It was a nice, relaxing vacation.  We got to visit with family, go to church together on Christmas morning and have some REALLY fun surprises with Christmas gifts!

Anthony's parents got me an awesome body pillow for Christmas! This was truly an inspired gift considering how much my back has been hurting lately. This soft and snuggly pillow has made sleeping at night a little easier. Ahhhh, the gift that keeps on giving. :)

They also gave Anthony and me a really nice new camera! So excited!! Now we can take lots of pics and videos of little Peanut!

Home for the Holidays- Part 1

Dec 8-11 We went to AZ to see my Arizona family and meet our little niece, Ramona, for the first time. We went to the LDS Temple in Mesa to see the lights and the spirit of the season.

 It took a few days for Ramona to warm up to us. The last day we were there she finally let me hold her and actually smiled at me! :) Most of the time she looked at me like this:

  

Lil' Mo-Mo in her Christmas outfit for pictures. So cute!

 

Amanda's 24th birthday was on the 12th, so while we were there we got to celebrate with the fam and have a birthday "brinner" (breakfast for dinner) and gorge on a yummy breakfast buffet in our PJ's. 

Betsy, Liam, Laurel

Dad & Nancy wanted their Christmas card picture with the grandbabies. This one is so hilarious! Everyone is so happy and Ramona is screaming in Dad's face. Ha ha! :)

Happy Birthday Amanda!!!!

loves!

Mr. Peanut

Who wants to see pictures of little Peanut Armstrong?! :) Here's our little cutie-pie. He wasn't shy at all to show us he is a boy (in fact that was the first part of him they found when they started the ultrasound, ha ha), but for some silly reason he wouldn't show us his face. He kept swimming around, and every time the tech caught up with him he would cover his face with his hands or duck his head. I guess we'll just have to wait 4 more months to see that little face. We feel so blessed as we anticipate our little man's arrival!

 Playing peek-a-boo. This picture is sideways, but you can see his little lips and nose 

then his arms are up covering his eyes. I love this pic. 

Little feet (or "foos" as Anthony calls them). 

He already has moves like Michael Jackson :)

3D picture of his hands...folded so properly. What a gentleman. 

Little legs and bum

There he is! This is the best profile shot we could get before he ducked and covered again. :)

A Kick in the Gut

Recovery is coming along slowly. I'm going to have a "beautiful" 3-inch scar on the right side of my belly when this is all over. I've definitely made it through the worst part. Thursday night was particularly painful with all the bloating from the gas from the surgery pushing against my stomach, lungs and shoulders every time I moved. And I'm still fighting the last little bit of a cough from my cold, which wasn't exactly fun considering every time I coughed or sneezed I had a burning/stabbing pain at my incision.

I can also say that I've lived through being kicked in my stitches....from the inside! I think all the laying around has made my little martial artist baby restless.

But today is looking to be on the up-and-up. I can now get in and out of bed on my own and walk around somewhat comfortably. I'm hoping to go for a walk today, but it was a warm 1 degree outside last time I checked the temperature! So I'll have to go to campus, a store or someplace where I can walk around a bit and not freeze. :)

Anthony has been a real trooper. It's such a blessing to have him home with me 24/7 while all this is going on. He has catered to my every need and been a real sweetheart. Just don't wake up him up too many times at 2:00 in the morning...he's a little fogged in and not really aware of what's happening. :)

I have a post-op follow-up appointment with the Dr. tomorrow afternoon, so hopefully all is well. We're crossing our fingers that he clears me to travel since we already had plane tickets booked to go to Arizona and see my family this coming weekend. We are anxious to meet our new little niece, Ramona, and also to celebrate Amanda's birthday. Here's hoping. :)

Unexpected surgery

To keep everyone up-to-date I thought I'd add some info about our adventure this week. When we went in for the gender ultrasound appointment the tech discovered I had a large cyst on my right ovary, 11cm to be exact. We met with the doctor who explained that when a cyst is that large and especially during pregnancy it needs to be removed. Alternatives mostly included large amounts of pain, possible risks to baby and needing to do emergency surgery anyway. The 2nd trimester is the safest time to do surgery. We thought about it and prayed about it and decided that we should do it.

I went in for a mini-laparotmy and cystectomy yesterday at noon. They gave me a spinal injection to numb me (like they would for a C-section) because it's safer for Peanut, so I was awake during the procedure. They also gave me some sedatives to keep me calm, since I was still awake. It was the strangest sensation to be able to feel the doctors and nurses touching me, but I couldn't feel any pain. Crazy! I could hear them talking throughout the procedure and there was Christmas music playing. My doctor even belted out a few verses every once in a while. :)

We are happy we got it taken care of now because come to find out the cyst had actually slid down under the uterus, which thanks to a little "invention" tool one of my doctors had created they were able to get to it and get it out. Also, it ended up being a dermoid cyst which means that instead of just being filled with fluid it was actually had hair and sebaceous fluid in it....barf!!! I know, it's really disgusting. So I'm super glad it's out of me! On the upside, there was a possiblity I would lose the ovary due to the size of the cyst, but my doctors were able to save part of it. Nice work Docs! So now I'm taking it easy and recovering.

And the Votes Are In!

The day finally came to reveal our lil' Peanut's gender. Anthony and I went to the Dr. on Monday morning for the ultrasound. The tech was able to see Peanut's gender right away....definitely not shy. :) We kept it a secret for 3 1/2 days until the families were gathered for Thanksgiving dinner, and asked them to make their guesses for boy or girl. 

Arizona family shows their votes with these cute signs Kelly made. Kelly is taking the picture, which is why she isn't in it. Her guess was for a boy. My mom in TX also guessed for a boy. 

Washington/Armstrong family shows their guesses using pink and blue flowers. 

Lots of guesses for a boy! :)

We made cute shirts to announce our baby gender. It was quite the challenge to watch what we said and not "slip up" by saying gender specific pronouns for 3 1/2 days before our reveal!

And Drumroll.......

IT'S A BOY!!!!!!

We are soooo excited! We are thinking up names that start with a "C" so that our little family can be ABC. :) I have a feeling though that "Peanut" is going to stick as a nick name. A big thank you to our families for their fun participation in our reveal! 

Sick and Waiting

Anthony is on his way home from Washington right now, and wouldn't you know it, I'm sick in bed. :( Just a cold, but still taking me down for the count. My first experience of being sick while pregnant....and hopefully my last. So I'm spending the day resting and drinking lots of fluids and hoping to feel well enough that when Anthony walks in the door late tonight I can greet him with a smile instead of red-nosed and whiny.

This does however, give me a chance to catch up on some reading. I'm working on reading the Book of Mormon cover to cover before Peanut's arrival. I started the beginning of August, after Education Week, and when I found out I was pregnant decided it would be a fun goal and could offer some valuable spiritual insights to read it all while growing this little child of God. It's been difficult some nights though to read more than just a few verses before crashing into bed. So I have some catching up to do if I want to meet my deadline. :)

It's the 5-month countdown da-na-na-na, da-na na-na-na (sung to the tune of Final Countdown).

Peanut is due April 13th, exactly 5 months from today! And exactly one month after my own birthday (March 13th). April 13th is also the anniversary of when I was baptized, the anniversary of the passing of my Grandpa Ray (Dad's dad) and the 103rd day of the year. So lots of things to commemorate that day. :) Anthony also has a spring birthday, April 4th. So we are going to be a March and April family! I was checking the calendar though, and April 13th falls on a Friday next year (dun dun dun). I hope that doesn't turn out to be bad luck for us.

Anthony will be coming home next weekend (Yay!), and will be followed by the rest of his familia later the next week so we can all celebrate Thanksgiving at our house. We are getting really excited because we'll be announcing Peanut's gender on Thanksgiving day! We are also, of course, very excited to stuff our faces with delicious food. :) So I have lots of projects and shopping on my list of things to do this week. There's excitement in the air!!!

Is Peanut a boy or girl??

If you haven't noticed our slide bar yet, here's a head's up. We will be announcing lil' Peanut's gender on Thanksgiving day!!! We are getting super excited and have a few fun things planned out so everyone can get involved. Check back soon for details.

Growing the Incredible Hulk

So at 17 weeks and 4 days I literally woke up to my very own pop-out belly. It was weird, because I woke up at about 4:00am and my tummy felt really tight and hard. I went back to sleep and 3 hours later woke up with a baby bump and 4 beautiful (of course I mean that sarcastically) purple stretch marks. I must have eaten a lot of spinach or something because lil' Peanut grew like magic....or like one of those sponge toys you soak in water and triples in size overnight. :)

I'm hungry a lot these days. Sometimes I even wake up in the middle of the night because I'm STARVING! I learned after a few days that if I eat dinner twice (once at 6pm and then again at 9pm) I can ward off the midnight feedings and catch a few more Zzzz's before getting up for work. I'm also considering purchasing paper plates, which I guess shows how much I hate doing dishes, because I eat more frequently but most definitely don't do the dishes more frequently.

But I do deserve some credit for household chores. The dishes may not be done, but the bathrooms are oh so clean! :) It's been interesting having Anthony gone for the last 3 weeks. I really thought I would have gotten more projects on my to-do list accomplished, but somehow laundry, paying bills, and taking out the trash all by myself don't seem very big or satisfying to cross off my list. Guess I'll need to kick it into high gear this weekend.

October

So much happened in October, it seems the month just flew by in the hurricane of events going on in the Armstrong home.
1. On October 14th we got to hear our little Peanut's heartbeat for the first time. It was so exciting! And a big "thank you" to Kelly, who gave us the idea of audio recording the heartbeat. When I'm having a stressful day I like to listen to it. It makes me smile!
2. Anthony has moved on from his job at Melaleuca. We went through a roller coaster of ups and downs when, after 1 1/2 years of working in our positions, management decided one day that there was a "conflict of interest" and that we could no longer work in the same facility. It was really out of the blue. Anthony was told he does a great job and was one of their best supervisors, but couldn't work in Rexburg. Because it wouldn't work for him to work at their corporate office 40 mins away we decided it was best for Anthony to move on to new things.
3. On October 21st we celebrated our 6 year anniversary!
4. Anthony is now working in Washington at the family orchard. With the change in jobs it opened up a chance for him to go back to his roots and help out for harvest. Ultimately, we'd love to end up in Washington, so this could be a jumping off point for him as he is considering what he wants to do in the future.

As the first trimester drew to a close I started to feel much better. My energy levels came back up and the morning sickness went away....hooray!! I hear the 2nd trimester is the best part of pregnancy, so here's looking forward to enjoyable holidays!

After the Storm...Comes the Sun

September 7th, 2011-
8 and a half weeks along and feeling sick all of the time. We were getting ready for Anthony's synoplasty turbinate reduction surgery at the end of the week (that's a fancy way of saying "break his nose and fix his deviated septum"). On Wednesday morning we were getting ready to go in for Anthony's pre-operative appointments with the Dr. and the hospital. I was nervous. Not just for his surgery though.

The last two days I had woken up feeling fine, no queasy tummy, no sore chest, no running to the bathroom. And it wasn't just the mornings that were different, all day I was feeling better. In a normal mind this would be a good thing, but for me, I was worried. My paranoia had me calling my mom and reading all kinds of things online (FYI- don't read advice online. It's all a bunch of people who don't really know anything and freak you out with their assumptions.) I had read several places that losing preganancy symptoms could be the first sign of a miscarriage. I knew there was no way I could spend the next week taking care of Anthony after his surgery with this kind of looming grey cloud over me. So I set up an appointment with my doctor for later that day.

After Anthony's appointments I told him I could either take him home or he could come with me to my appointment. He immediately got nervous and wondered what was going on. I told him about my worries with losing my symptoms and that since I was already 8 weeks along it was a good time to go to the doctor anyway. We were both scared that we may be getting bad news.

After some tests and measurements the nurse sat both of us down and started going through a checklist of what to expect while we're expecting. The list seemed to go on and on and we were wondering at what point she would get to the part about addressing our concerns we had actually set up the appointment for. She didn't. Instead, the doctor came in next. She was actually the nurse practitioner available that day, not the OB I had seen in that office before. She was very nice and pleasantly reviewed our expected milestones over the next several months. She told us about what our 20 week appointment would cover, tests we need to decide if we want, and if it's a boy, whether or not we would consider circumcision. All the while Anthony and I were giving each other worried glances wondering to ourselves, "does she know why we're really here?" After over an hour of instructions we finally spoke up and asked for the ultrasound to make sure everything is okay now....before we plan too far into the future. The doctor agreed and we started the ultrasound.

You know how in the movies, when the main character is going through a dramatic climax, they slow the shot down and everything goes in slow-motion? Like the moment is so intense each second lasts forever. I can't say for sure, but I think I may have held my breath while the doctor searched through the squiggly blackness on the screen and struggled to find anything. My heart started to race and my palms were sweaty as Anthony griped my hand tighter. Then...there on the screen...was our little peanut and the blip blip of his beating heart.

"Strong heartbeat," said the doctor.

Relief washed over me and I turned to look at Anthony. All the worry, all the emotion couldn't be contained and he started to cry. This of course was more than I could stay composed over and I started to cry too. As we both sobbed out loud and wiped streaming tears from our eyes I asked the doctor, "this is normal right? Couples usually cry when they see this first ultrasound?"

The doctor replied, "it's usually just the mom that cries, but you guys are so sweet I can't help but cry too." And she wiped tears from her own eyes.

We all laughed.  And she printed off the picture of our healthy lil' peanut.

Sharing the News With Kelly

Many of you reading this blog probably already know that my older sister, Kelly, is also pregnant. Kelly is due mid-October and we are so excited for her and Jason. On Kelly's 32nd birthday she found out she was having a girl, Ramona Marie. And of course, any of you who know Kelly know that she loves a good countdown chain. So I couldn't resist incorporating her countdown for Ramona in my announcement to her about our pregnancy.

On Sunday, August 28th Kelly was just 52 short days away from Ramona's due date. I chose this date to tell Kelly about our little bundle, because on Sunday, August 28th I would be also be at 52 days...just counting from the opposite end. :) Like two ships passing in the night. It was the perfect point of exchange.

For weeks I didn't call Kelly because I was so excited to share my news I was worried I would spill the beans early and ruin my genius announcement idea. So on Sunday the 28th you can imagine the anxiety and excitement I had as I called and the phone rang.......rang.........rang. It took FOREVER before she answered. And, of course, I couldn't just blurt it out, I had to wait for the right moment in the conversation to refer to the email I had already sent her just seconds before calling, which meant there would be a lot of talking before I could get to the good stuff.

Anthony was sitting across from me, ready with the video camera. After about 20 minutes of our jabbering he started to realize it could be a long wait before I could lead into the announcement. And then, at last, my chance came up.
Betsy- "Kelly did you know it's only 52 days until Ramona is here?"
Kelly- "Oh my gosh, that's so crazy"
Betsy- "Anthony and I are so excited about it we wrote you a poem. You need to pull up your email and read it."
Kelly- "Send it to me and I'll read it later when we're driving back home"
Betsy- "Uhhhhhh....no, you need to read it now." 

It took some persuading, but she was eventually convinced it would be in her best interest to read the poem now. (A little back history here....Kelly and I love to celebrate holidays, or really anything, in poem. It's just our thing. And, well, we're good at it. I mean really, I don't understand why Hallmark hasn't heard of us yet.)
So Kelly opens her email to discover this little jem....

52 DAYS!!!

It's a special day, number fifty-two
And here is a story about me and you
You've had a countdown for quite some time
And we both like to celebrate in rhyme

So Auntie Betsy would like to say
She's so excited about the baby on the way
The countdown for Ramona is so much fun
And in fifty-two days you'll be done

But you see dear sister, fifty-two for me
Means you'll be the Aunt of Armstrong number three
The special part of our day fifty-two
Is the beginning for me and the end for you

It was received by a "SHUT UP!!! Oh my gosh, can I tell Jason!?!" on the other end of the line. :) Just what I wanted. You can always count on Kelly for the perfectly fulfilling dramatic response. :)

Like Mother Like Daughter

So for the past couple weeks I've been nauseous...all day, every day. On the up-side I held my record for not throwing up all the way until last night. Cursed toothbrush.

I had an interesting phone call with my Mother tonight. But first let me explain some of my first baby symptoms. Food is no longer appealing, just a necessary daily task. When I don't eat I feel sick. When I do eat...I still feel sick. Many foods I used to enjoy now make me gag at the thought. Fortunately, I have a very kind and patient husband who doesn't expect me to cook anymore. Otherwise the poor man would be living on a diet of toast, Life Cereal and yogurt. Which leads to my next observation.

Strangely, this once dairy-avoider now day dreams about Dairy Queen blizzards, frozen yogurt and milk. At one point I tried to trick myself into drinking 1% milk, but I wasn't fooled. I had to go back for the 2%. I have also discovered that grocery shopping is now not only a chore, but a challenge. The place is a breeding ground for smells and textures that make my stomach churn. I had to look straight ahead and hold my breath as I walked past the butcher block.

So now back to the conversation with my Mother tonight. She is so excited that now she has 2 pregnant daughters. She called to check in and see how I was feeling. I gave her the updates and took the opportunity to complain a bit about the sensitive sniffer and the non-stop burping. Mom proceeded to tell me how she felt the same during her pregnancies and specifically how walking by the meat in the grocery store made her run for the bathroom. If that weren't coincidence enough she also told me that all she wanted to eat when she was pregnant was bread and Dairy Queen ice cream. Hmmmm....It seems this pregnancy will be similar to hers. But alas this story has a sad ending. At first I was comforted by the similarities and that she could help me know to expect. Then I found out that she stayed sick ALL 9 MONTHS.

Bring on the blizzards and toast my friends. It's going to be a long winter.

The Traveling Show

July 2010, Exactly one year ago, Anthony and I found out we were pregnant. The day before I left for Salt Lake City for a work convention I took a test, and was confused to see the negative sign with as late as I was. 5 days later I came home and took another test which turned out to be positive! We were so thrilled we couldn't help but tell the family right away. Sadly though, a week later I miscarried.

Since then we have quietly continued to try to get pregnant again. Each month anxiously reading into every upset stomach and peak in my temperature. As life started to pick up pace again this summer the idea of a baby still lingered, but not as strong. We bought our first house and started looking into getting a puppy.

Life really got busy at the end of July. We started moving into our new home, my Mom came from Texas to visit and go to Education week with me, and again I started to gear up to go to convention, this time in Minneapolis. The stress was piling on and I was feeling more and more tired each day. My mom even joked that maybe I was pregnant and that's why I needed so many breaks. I laughed at her joke, then secretly started counting back days in my head. My mom left early on Tuesday, August 2nd. As we finished up a couple trips to the new house I decided it couldn't hurt to take a test. Positive.

I left for Minneapolis Wednesday morning at 4:00am. It was a long 4 days of working, walking, bathroom breaks every 2-4 hours and feeling nauseous anytime I drank something other than bottled water. At 11:30pm on Saturday I stopped at the store on my way back home and bought 3 more tests (better to be safe). Even with little sleep I woke up at 6:00am and quickly took another test. Yep, still positive. I joined the now awake Anthony back in bed and asked him what he was doing up so early.

"These last couple days I've gotten used to getting up early so I can move stuff to the new house before I go to work."

"Oh," I responded. "Well I'm up early from the morning sickness."

-LONG PAUSE-

"We're pregnant!?"

I answered with a smile and a hug.

Everyone says it happens when you stop trying. After a year of waiting we had to laugh...it's exactly one year later. Apparently we can only get pregnant in July. Who knew?