23 Weeks!

Pregnancy Highlights

How Far Along: 23 Weeks!

Total Weight Gain: 14 lbs

Maternity Clothes: Just shirts...like I've said before I'm sure I'd be in maternity pants if I HAD to wear them, but I just use my belly band and yoga pants for now. I'm really loving a maternity jean skirt that someone gave me though right now.

Best Moment this week: Seeing my belly twitch and move when she's moving!

Gender: Little girl:)

Movement: Lots of movement! I feel her on and off everyday and can't get enough of it! The other day we were extremely low on groceries and I was desperate and ate some wheat (I know, it's a gamble and a risk, but I didn't get sick this time) and little girl went CRAZY from 6pm to midnight. Either she's not used to me eating it, or her little body doesn't like it as well. Either way it was fun to feel her move so much as long as she was ok:) We love being able to not only feel her from the outside now, but SEE her move as my belly twitches sometimes! So cool!

Food Craving: Not any huge cravings as my detest of certain foods seems to be disappearing. I had a small steak the other day and the garlic bread in our fridge keeps screaming my name! I guess you could say I'm back to my normal pallete of tastes:) I have noticed that I've wanted more vegtables lately, but that's probably because I wasn't able to eat them for so long and my body wants to play catch up.

What I miss: I actually saw a Mike's Margarita in our fridge the other day and thought how good that would taste right now. I really haven't missed drinking all that much, but I think it was just a fleeting moment...it was probably the day when the heat index was in the 100's!

Sleep: No changes...I am blessed with being a good sleeper. I do still wake up 2-3 times a night to either go to the bathroom or flip to the other side, but I'm sleeping again in seconds.

What we are looking forward to: A fun trip to Detroit Lakes with some Bismarck friends! We were all going to be in the area at the same time (well, we live here I guess) and decided we should meet. We are staying at a hotel on the beach and I am hoping for some awesome weather!

Symptoms: Just baby kicking and a few round ligament pains here and there that are so short lived I forget when I even have them.

Sneak Peak

Lamp shade for her dresser lamp
Curtains to keep her room dark for sleeping

Bedding that you can only use half of, but I don't care:)

Polka dots to decorate one of her walls

One of her storage dressers

Just a few things to give you a taste of what her room will look like!

What's Growing Part 4

Here's a few more flowers blooming right now! The bottom flowers aren't always that vibrant, but they are a bee haven. We usually have anywhere from 3-7 big bumblebees hanging out in this area quietly working on these flowers. We also have birds in the little red birdhouse as my Mom and Dan caught them making their nest this spring. Haven't seen them since, but we think they are still there.

22 Weeks!

Here we are already at 22 weeks! Things are going well as my belly is growing AND the biggest indicator of this is we've gotten to see her move from the outside. Yep, on a few occasions we can see my whole belly twitch when she kicks. She's growing!!! It is so amazing and by far one of the most fantastic things I've ever seen. I love trying to think about what her movement is if it's a kick or a left hook:) Dan has felt her now quite a few times too, which makes everything so much more real. I'll post some pictures this week of a few items that will be in her room as a sneak peak for what's to come! No new news......still cleaning, organizing, yet not making my husband AS crazy as the past two weeks:)

Colors for Baby's Room

Here is the color palate for our little girl's room. We are so close to having everything cleaned out of her room so that we can start decorating. It's so much fun to think about and plan for!!! I have four and a half weeks left before I have to go back to work and knowing that I'll be bigger and how busy I will be we are trying to get as much done before then as possible. All of her furniture will be black. Her bedding is black and white. Her curtains are black and sheer gray. There will be all kinds of accents in black, gray, and a touch of pink. Can you tell we are both not nuts about pink? Not that we don't like it we just appreciate it more as an accent color. Dan is even going to work on a painting for her room, which I am the most excited about! Finally her walls are already painted a soft blue-gray. Over a year ago Dan and I decided to paint the guest bedroom since it was stark white. We chose a light gray since it was a neutral color and would work for a boy or a girl if we ever had a baby someday. As the paint was coming off our rollers it appeared Pottery Barn powder blue! Moral of the story is it's REALLY hard to pick out gray paint! I promised Dan we'd do everything we could to keep the color no matter if our baby was a boy or a girl, as he would have had to be the one doing all of the work, but then we found out she was a girl and at first I wasn't so sure. I shouldn't have doubted with Dan's amazing abilities to work with colors he's now convinced me and I think it's going to look fantastic!

Meeko's New Bed

My cousin Katie had an extra bouncy chair for the baby that they gave us, but it looks like she is not going to get to use it. I had this upstairs for awhile, but seeing as to how much Meeko likes it I put it downstairs so that he can sleep on it at night. If I can't find him he is always here! When I was organizing the basement he'd lay in it and watch me too. He can't get enough and it's so cute!

21 Weeks!

Pregnancy Highlights

How Far Along: 21 Weeks!

Total Weight Gain: 13.5 lbs

Maternity Clothes: I wear them when I actually have to look presentable, which isn't very often since it's summer. Mostly if I do it is some type of shirt, but even my shorts and the belly band are not going to make it too much longer.

Best Moment this week: Starting to feel her more often AND from the outside. My mom and Dan have both been able to feel her, which was so much fun.

Gender: Baby Girl Dornfeld....you'll have to wait to hear her name until she is born. This is something we are keeping a secret. So far we have two names that we are debating between.

Movement: Feeling her move sporadically everyday now. I love being able to feel her while standing up and walking around, but I still feel her the most if I am laying down.

Food Craving: Hmmmm...in the last two weeks I had some crazy and intense heartburn and at times was afraid to eat. I gave up a few things that I thought might be causing heartburn, but now that it's under control I've added them back in. Some of my aversions have lifted. I can now eat a grilled chicken breast.....with melted cheese on top of course.....yummy!

What I miss: Nothing:) I am so happy to be pregnant and am soaking up every second. I'm sure there may be some weeks where I don't say that, but for now that's how I feel.

Sleep: Still the same....I have to switch sides every couple of hours, but I'm starting to barely even wake up anymore and sort of do this without having to miss out on any sleep. For awhile I wasn't getting up at night to go to the bathroom....that lasted about a week and a half as I am now up again at least once a night.

What we are looking forward to: I think Dan is looking forward to me being done organizing the basement storage room. I am on a mission and in my organization world things get messier before they get better! I have been unpacking the "randomness of Dan" back from seminary. I swear either his drawers were random or the movers that packed him in 2006 were on something when they did so. A typical box includes a battery, a paper clip, an old card from some person in some congregation, five unopened bills (yet, I'm sure it got paid) a picture of one of the nieces, an empty cd cover, an ice scraper...etc. You get my drift:) I guess I am looking forward to this being done too because it means more room for furniture from little girl's room. This means getting closer to getting her room empty and able to start working on it.

Symptoms: Not much....I still gag occassionally. The heartburn that seems to be in control, but other than that my only symptom is movement and I could deal with that one every second of every day!

The Story of a Raisin

One day I was at Cashwise in Bismarck. The yogurt covered raisins were for some reason calling my name. I bought a little bit more than I had wanted because the dispenser was touchy, but I thought I could share them with my family over the week. They were a hit. The only problem is I had SO many that on my way home there was about a huge fistful left. We NEVER buy raisins so it was unusual to have them in the house. Upon arriving back to Paynesville Dan and I noticed that there was no food in the house so we made a trip to the grocery store. When we got back we found that Riker pulled one of his many little tricks that he's been doing lately of getting into food, ripping it to shreds, and eating the entire contents. Well, this day he found the raisins. It was a lot of raisins and they were expensive so at first I sort of laughed since our dog ate about $8 dollars worth. I don't know what compelled me to write this as my status update on facebook, but doing so probably saved our dog's life. Apparently, and we had no clue about this, but raisins are very deadly to dogs. There is a protein in them that they cannot digest and it can cause acute kidney failure in almost 50% of the cases. My good friend Jodi from college used to be a vet tech saw my update and commented and texted me right away. It had only been an hour since he had ate them to we still had time to act. She told us to give him some hydrogren peroxcide to make him throw up the raisins. We called our vet to verify and he said the same thing and to do this right away. Sure enough, not minutes after getting three tablespoons down his throat he was returning my raisins....and yes, it was ALL of them! Thank God for facebook, otherwise poor Riker might not have made it. LOCK your rainsins up if you have a dog!!

The clean-up is a whole different post:) ha! j/k.....I took my contacts out so I couldn't see it and didn't gag once even though Dan did most of the work.

4th of July Week

I spent my time on the river with my cousins, saw my Dad, and spent time at the lake with my Mom and Ron
Can you guess what this guy was up to? This is Dan using his security face to strike funny poses for kids on his mission trip to Chicago. He traveled with his brother's church and two great groups of students. They went to Wisconsin Dells, were lucky enough to hear a Stuart Dornfeld sermon, enjoyed a week of getting to know each other, and then came home. I missed him SO much and am happy to be home.

I enjoyed a weekend at home in Jamestown, Bismarck seeing family and friends, and then another weekend in Jamestown with my Mom and Ron. It was a fantastic, relaxing, and fun time except for some crazy heartburn. Thankfully I think it is now under control and we were able to enjoy a few days out on the water!!!

20 Weeks/5 Months!

We are halfway there!!! I can definitely tell these past two weeks the difference in my shape. The pants I have on (yes the ones that I wear almost everyday...shh) cannot fit up to my belly button anymore, but have to be worn far below. The most exciting milestone going on with our little girl this past week is I started to feel her from the outside when my hand is on my stomach. My cousin Jill asked if I could yet, and I said no, but we were laying around watching a movie and she was going crazy. Sure enough I checked and I can now feel her from both the inside and the outside. When I went home to Jamestown on my way home from a week in Bismarck my mom had the opportunity to feel her too. She moved about three times and only I could feel it, but then she gave a huge kick and Mom's eyes got huge....she felt it. So much fun. This is something we are looking forward to this week, for Dan to be able to feel too! I'd say this past week movement has been pretty consistent as I feel her on and off everyday!

19 Weeks!

Pregnancy Highlights

How Far Along:19 Weeks!

Total Weight Gain: 11.5 lbs

Maternity Clothes: I caved:) I washed my capri yoga pants one night and had nothing to wear! HA! I had to go to a board meeting and look halfway persentable so I threw on a pair of maternity capri pants....they were pretty comfy I must say.

Best Moment this week: Seeing our little one on the ultrasound machine again and hearing that all of her measurements and parts look very healthy! Also, finding out that SHE is a SHE! We feel so blessed to be having a little baby girl:)

Gender: Wow! I thought this week would never come when I'd get to post an answer here! Girl, girl, girl!!!

Movement: Yes! I think I can finally say that I've had moments of feeling little tiny jabs and kicks from the baby. My belly will twitch and skin will feel like it jumps. I feel like if my hand would have been there I would have felt it from the outside, but of course whenever I do that baby doesn't move. I will usually feel her when I'm laying down on my left side.

Food Craving: Since it's hot outside I am craving ice cream! Dan bought me some pudding pops the other day and I ran out in two days:) I had a "little" help!

What I miss: Sleeping in the same room as my husband. We keep trading this cough back and forth and can't sleep at night so one of us always sleeps in another room to allow the other one to sleep. We are also headed in opposite directions for the next 9 days so it'll be awhile yet. I miss you Dan!

Sleep: Yes, but with the help of my body pillow...nights look a little bit like this.....Left side sleep 2 hours, wake-up and turn from achy shoulders, right side sleep 2 hours, wake-up and turn and then repeat. It's not so bad. It's good practice for when the baby comes.

What we are looking forward to: Picking out bedding and neccesary items for baby's room! We strolled through the target baby section the other day looking at little girl's clothes to see if we had the same tastes in what our little girl's style will look like....at least while she's young enough to not care:)

Symptoms: Mostly feeling great these past two weeks except I've had some really bad heartburn settle in the last couple of days. Ouch! Nothing is really touching it to make it go away so I'm praying it's not something that is going to be chronic this pregnancy...ufta...hard to breathe. I love the little kicks and jabs much better than this:)

It's A..........................

Well, 60% of you said Boy, while 40% of you said Girl..........we are so happy to announce that Baby Dornfeld is a...............

Girl:)
We are beyond thrilled, although we'd be typing the same thing if it were a boy. It's so much fun to be able to refer to her as she:) She's measuring right on target and all of her organs and parts look great. When the ultrasound tech got done measuring her head he said, "well we just ruled out about 10,000 abnormalities"....whew! Everytime Dan called someone in his family to tell them the tears would start to fall. Wow, it's so emotional! I told my mom our appt. was in the afternoon, which it wasn't, and then sent her pink flowers at work today. We are just going to soak this whole experience up:) Now what to do with that blue room???