Thankful

Thankful. Around this time each year, people all over the world reflect on what they are thankful for in the past year. This year is no different. In fact, this year I feel like my little family has even more to be thankful for!

Every day I am thankful for the man I call my best friend, my soul-mate, and the person who can put a smile on my face no matter what mood I'm in- Eric. (Even though this year I'm not too thankful for the facial hair he has been sporting for No-Shave November!) When I count my blessings, I definitely count this guy twice. I know he is going to be the best dad to our little nugget. 

This year especially, I am more than thankful for our families. Both of our families so graciously opened up their homes to us when we made the decision to move home. Did they have to do that? No. Will Eric and I forever be in their debt because of it? Absolutely. We can't ever repay you guys for all that you did for us this past summer, but please know that we very much appreciated everything.

And on that note, I'm thankful that Eric and I were able to both find jobs that we love that allowed us to move back home. Each day we talk about how nice it is to be home. I don't think that will ever change!

I think I speak for both Eric and I when I say we are thankful for our puppy, Bailey. She may get on our nerves at times with her biting and jumping, but nothing can replace that feeling of her on your lap giving you a big lick on the cheek or the leg hug she gives you as you are walking away.

Another thing we have the privilege of being thankful for is our own house! That's right, you heard me-Eric and I are officially homeowners (well, as of this Tuesday afternoon we will be). We have been unpacking and organizing things all week. Only a few boxes left!

Our friends have always been a huge a part of our lives, and this year is no different. They are always there to laugh with, cry with, and just be there when you need them. I'm extra thankful that I have the opportunity to be pregnant with two of my best friends, Kendra and Ashley, and that my best friend Kaci will get to be the honorary aunt to all of our kids. 

The thing I am most thankful for this year is the little bun in my oven :) Words can't express how I feel about the opportunity that God gave me to bring another human being into this world. Eric and I are already so lucky, and our baby isn't even here yet!

But for now, it's back to watching my Sunday night shows and maybe-just maybe-unpack a few more boxes. Those last few boxes seem to take forever to get through!

15 Weeks

How far along: 15 weeks

Weight gain/loss: Still denying that I've gained any weight. I know that will change after this week!

Sleep: Like a rock! Which is odd because we've finally moved into our house. I thought for sure I would have trouble sleeping, guess not!

Wedding Rings: On! 

Showing: It's official folks. I'm showing! I've noticed that my bump doesn't really go away anymore. To top it off, my mom called me fat this week! (Gee thanks mom). Eric also commented on how I have a bump going on- he loves it! 

Cravings: Mmmm, Jimmy Johns. 

Gender: Still don't know! I got an ultrasound a few days ago, but I told them I didn't want to find out the sex without Eric. Hopefully only another month before we know!

Best Moment this Week: Oh man I have a few. First one was seeing baby on the ultrasound! Words can't describe how amazing that was. Second, Eric and I are finally in our house!!!! Expect a blog post on that soon :)

Looking forward to: Thanksgiving! I can't wait to spend time with my family and eat some yummy yummy food. What could be better than that?

Baby's First Pictures! {Ultrasound Style}

Since first shotgun season was a bust for both of us- we only saw deer on Friday morning and even with our guns they were still too far away- I'll go ahead and skip to the fun baby stuff: ultrasound pictures!!

After hunting Friday morning, I hurried on down to Carbondale to meet Emilee so she could scan me during her lab. As soon as that wand hit my belly my eyes shot up to the screen and I saw a baby. Not a bean, not a blob. An actual baby. That moment has been one of the coolest moments in my pregnancy so far. 

Baby did a lot of chilling upside down, which Emilee told me meant that baby was facing my back. I also found out the I have an anterior placenta, so it might take longer for me to feel kicks. But isn't that just the cutest baby you've ever seen?? Eric and I are so in love already!

I really like this picture because you can see the spinal cord so well. It's amazing that in only 14 weeks a baby already looks fully formed.

Baby is already being prim and proper-crossing it's legs!

It's an alien baby! Good thing baby won't look like that when he or she comes out :)

Last one of baby looking like most babies do on an ultrasound. Can't believe that in 25 or so weeks I'll be holding this little nugget in my arms!

Preparing for Shotgun Season

It's almost shotgun season for this family. Eric has been slaving away on some ground blinds (which I promise to post about soon) and finally has them in the woods. The only thing left to do is sight in our shotguns, or in Eric's case, his brand-new muzzle-loader.

And of course, the day we decide to sight in our guns was the day it decided to snow in November. Since when does it snow in November!? Anywho, Justin came over, we brought Bailey out, and we shot some guns.

We all got our guns sighted in for the weekend. It was pretty cool to see how far away you can shoot and still hit the target!

Bailey absolutely LOVED the snow! She loved it so much, that when we were shooting, we had to tie her up so she wasn't running around digging where we were aiming. And much to Eric's liking, our girl is not gun shy. The first shot startled her, but after the shot was fired she ran right up to Eric to see what was going on. Every shot after that didn't phase her one bit. Eric already sees a rabbit dog in our future.

Here she is just digging away. Bailey loved running around in the snow and digging her nose in the ground any chance she got. Eric and I can't wait until the house is finally ours and she can run around all the time. 

On a different note, the Stratus bit the bullet this weekend. We were driving home from sighting in the guns. I was in the Impala with Bailey and Eric was following behind. I left before he did so I didn't notice when he wasn't following me so closely. I got home and was unpacking the car and taking care of Bailey when mom tells me that Eric is on the phone. I ask Eric what's going on and he says that he is in the ditch. 

So I put my shoes back on and head down the road to find him in the ditch with his front end over a culvert. As a side note, this car does horrible on snow and the tires were in dire need of replacing. Eric said he started sliding and just slid right into the ditch.

We got a hold of the tow truck (their first tow of the season-yay!) and they pulled us out of the ditch. Unfortunately, when they were pulling, the culvert was pulling back. The bottom of the bumper got ripped off and a large piece of our car was now dangling down on the pavement. I'm assuming it was the radiator, but don't quote me on that because I know nothing about cars. We both knew that it would cost more to repair the car than it was worth. Let the car shopping begin!

Luckily, it didn't take us long to find a nice used car to replace the Stratus. We are officially an Impala family now! At least now we have a car that will handle the winter weather and will be safe for our little one on the way. A blessing in disguise!

14 Weeks

Finally made it to the second trimester!

How far along: 14 weeks

Weight gain/loss: None that I know of, though I haven't weighed myself in a while...

Sleep: I've been sleeping pretty good this week. I find myself waking up on my back a lot. Should I be worried I'm not sleeping on my side more??

Wedding Rings: Still on and loose. 

Showing: Ok, I think I might finally be starting to show, as long as I'm wearing a shirt that's tight around my midsection. Eric told me earlier this week that he thinks he sees a bump going on. Just today at work one of my co-workers commented on my baby bump. I still think it's mostly fat with a little bloat.  

Cravings: Nothing really this week. I have been gravitating towards sweet, fruity things, like the strawberry-banana smoothie from Solid Grounds I've had twice in the past week...

Gender: Still up in the air on this one. Eric and I call baby a girl, but would be very excited either way. Very much anticipating our 20 week appointment when we can hopefully find out!

Best Moment this Week: Hearing baby's heartbeat any time we want to. Thanks to my awesome boss, I have a little doppler that I can use to check on the heartbeat any time I need some reassurance. I promise I don't check it every day!

Looking forward to: Friday when I can see our little bean again!! My good friend Emilee is in Ultrasound Tech school at SIUC and she's going to do an ultrasound for me. I'm so lucky!

13 Weeks

How far along: 13 weeks

Weight gain/loss: None yet!

Sleep: I've been having trouble getting comfortable in bed lately. This is going to be a looooong pregnancy.

Wedding Rings: Still on. And with this cold weather we've gotten this week, they are actually really loose. 

Showing: Still not yet. This is a more accurate picture of my lack of a baby bump, as apposed to my food baby last week. 

Cravings: DQ chicken strip baskets. I could eat them every day. No lie. 

Gender: Kaci says she is 60% sure that I'm having a boy, Kendra is guessing I'm having a girl. I'm just going to go with baby, that's a safe bet. 

Best Moment this Week: We set a closing date on our house!! Very much looking forward to having our own space again. 

Looking forward to: Officially being in my second trimester next week! May will be here before I know it!

12 Weeks

I knew I wanted a way to document my pregnancy and see exactly how much my belly is growing, so I took a cue from one of my best friend Ashley's blog and decided to do a chalkboard week tracker. 

How far along: 12 weeks 2 days

Weight gain/loss: Haven't gained any yet! Though I'm bloated beyond belief-I swear that bump in the picture is a combination of a food baby/major bloat. Next time I'll try to take the picture before I eat a big meal :)

Sleep: Sleeping really well, aside from having to get up 3 or 4 times in the middle of the night to use the restroom.

Wedding Rings: Still on!

Showing: Just a beautifully bloated belly. Without my hands around my bloat it doesn't look like I'm showing at all. 

Cravings: Anything chocolate. Sweets are my weakness so far this pregnancy.

Gender: No ideas yet! Eric is hoping boy, I'm hoping healthy baby.

Best Moment this Week: Hearing baby's heartbeat (in the 160's) at my doctor's appointment on Thursday! Nothing beats that sound. Also, finally telling everyone-this was one secret that was so hard to keep to ourselves!

Looking forward to: This pregnancy acne to go away. I feel like I'm in high school again! Also looking forward to looking pregnant and not just bloated/pudgy.  

First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage, Then Comes...

BABY!

That's right everyone, I'm pregnant!! 

Eric would prefer I say that we are pregnant, but I'm the one carrying this baby, so I think I'll stick with I'm. That's not to cut out the fact that he had a huge part in the pregnancy, because he obviously did. He isn't the one who's had to deal with nausea, a sore body, being extremely tired, increased breathing issues, and having trouble sleeping, though.

In all honesty, I've had a pretty easy pregnancy so far (knock on wood!). I've had no vomiting, and my nausea usually goes away as soon as I can snack on something-goldfish have been my best friend the past 12 weeks! My asthma has gotten slightly worse, but I think I'm finally getting it under control again. As far as troubles sleeping, I know that will only get worse as I get closer to my due date, so I guess I should be thankful for the sleep I am getting now. 

Back to the subject of Eric- I will say that every day I fall more and more in love with that man. He has been my rock, my shoulder to cry on when mood swings get the best of me, the one who will fill up my water bottle when it's empty, rub my back when I'm having a coughing fit, and generally do whatever I ask him to do. Do I deserve it? No. But I am extremely thankful for it, and I let him know that all the time. I can already tell he will be the best dad to our little bundle of joy. He talks to baby every night, usually telling her/him to give me a break and let me breath or stop making me nauseous ha! Regardless, it's one of the sweetest and heartwarming things I have ever seen. I can't wait to see how he interacts with the baby once it's out here with us! I'll find out in about 6 months I guess :)

How did I find out? When I missed my period in August, I thought for sure it meant I was pregnant. I took a test the week after my period was due, but it was negative. Those darn irregular periods from my teenage years were back. The next couple weeks, I took a few more tests, all negative. So when I missed my period again in September, I just thought that my cycles were doomed to be irregular. 

I planned on calling my OBGYN to see what they could do about them since Eric and I were ready to start a family. I decided I should take one more pregnancy test, just in case, since I was sure they would ask if I was pregnant. What the heck, I thought. As I sat waiting for the test to come back negative, I looked up the phone number to call. Much to my surprise, when I picked up the test I saw two pink lines staring back up at me. I almost didn't believe it! In fact, I took a couple more tests just to be sure. After it finally sunk into me that I was pregnant, I had to plan on how to tell Eric. 

I ran to the store to grab some onesies and glitter glue. I thought it turned out really cute! Only problem was, I worked until 6:30 that night, then we ate with my family. Eric finally said he was going to take a shower. Perfect- I'll have this sitting on the bed when he comes back to the bedroom! I got things ready, turned the light off, and very impatiently waited for him to come back to the room. When he came in, he didn't notice it right away. Then I see him staring at the foot of the bed where the onsie was placed. He finally says, "Noooo..." with a huge smile on his face. I could barely contain my excitement when I told him it was true! I don't think we stopped smiling, hugging, and kissing each other all night.

Now the next question was how and when to tell our parents. We decided to wait until after my first appointment so we would have an ultrasound picture and a more definite due date to tell them. The appointment went great! We got to see our little bean, and we even heard his or her tiny beating heart at 133 beats per minute. If that doesn't take your breath away I don't know what will. I decided to make little picture frames that read, "Hi, Grandma and Grandpa! Can't wait to meet you May 20, 2015. Love, Baby Schackmann."

I wrapped them up all nice and cute. Now how would I explain giving presents to our parents for no reason? That was actually easier than I thought! Since both of our parents have so graciously opened up their homes for us to move back in until our house is ready, I would tell them that this present was a thank you for all they have done. First up was Dan and Theresa, then my mom and dad since dad got home late from work due to the storms. 

Of course, both sets of parents said that we didn't need to thank them, a present wasn't necessary, etc. But when Theresa and my mom opened the box and saw what was inside, they stopped talking and gave us one of those big-eyed, puppy dog faces that made them look like they were going to cry with happiness. Our dads were both thinking, what could be in that box? Once they saw what it was too, everyone was overjoyed with excitement. Lots of hugs, congratulations, and even more hugs ensued. I think that both of our parents are a wee bit excited to be grandparents!

We've told our immediate families, grandparents, and a few close friends. Now that I've had my 12 week appointment, we decided to tell the rest of the world. Look out, this Schackmann family has a lot left in store for you.

Eric and I could not be any more excited to start this crazy journey called parenthood. Luckily, we have some great role models to look to when we don't know which way to go. This baby is so loved already.

(First and last pictures taken by the wonderful Kendra Crane of Kendra Crane Photography. One talented best friend!)