happy 2nd trimester!

well, we have finally made it to a pretty pivotal point in pregnancy... the 2nd trimester!! it's kind of like a miracle... I have been feeling better for the past few weeks as far as food things go, but I've still been SO tired. like go to bed early, take a nap every day, and still feel exhausted tired. but this past week (even considering spending my mornings at VBS with 1000+ children) I haven't even taken a nap every day! and this weekend, we even cleaned the house and I did laundry and then today-- get this-- I WENT TO THE GYM! it's really nice to start having some of my energy back! I feel like I am actually a productive member of society (or at least our house) and I'm not just surviving every day.

I had another big pregnancy milestone this week that I was not so excited about. I spent most of the week either wearing yoga pants, or stuffed into some other pants and wishing I was wearing yoga pants... so I had to bite the bullet and get some maternity pants. I was seriously dreading it! I don't know why, but I just felt like I shouldn't need them at this point and they would not be cute at all. however, I will eat those words, because they are AWESOME! I got a pair of bermuda shorts at target (actually 2, but I have to go exchange them because the size was mislabeled) and some awesome jeans at old navy! not only are they SUPER cute, but I can actually breathe during the day, which is kind of a bonus. :)

so that's about all that's up with me and sprinkle here at week 14! we probably should have taken another picture for this week, but we forgot, and now I'm all gross from working out... so we'll try and remember tomorrow.

to end on a happy note, one last thing I discovered this week... spaghettios are FABULOUS!

plum

Okay...so we have been a touch busy, and have forgotten to write about how Sprinkle and Amy are doing!

Sprinkle is the working name that we are using to talk about the baby and not say "it," "that thing," or "the alien growing inside my wife"...Sprinkle feels more personal!

Also, we are waiting to announce the name until after the baby is here and in the flesh because there are too many people in our lives that would have good ideas to share with us, after they heard the names that we chose. While we love our friends and family, we feel like our future child should only have us to blame for being named after an American Gladiator.

We have come to the name Sprinkle because we read at one point that it was about that size. Our 2 year old friend Abigail does not approve of this name due to the fact that it is not a "people name." Either way we will continue to use Sprinkle until further notice.

Amy has not been feeling as well the last couple of weeks. She got a bit of a cold after our adventure to California with 162 high school students and has been getting bad headaches off and on. All in all though, she is taking it pretty well. I think that if there were a person growing inside me that was causing me that annoyance, I might just ask it to find a new place to grow. Hopefully, as the peeps at the doctors office have suggested, we are coming upon a time in the pregnancy when Sprinkle will allow Amy to live without pain for a few weeks. I called it "The calm before the storm," and the nurse agreed that was a good name.

We are still a bunch of weeks from finding out if it will be a boy or a girl. I am just praying that it won't be a hermaphrodite, I don't want to have the responsibility of having to choose if the room will be pink or blue... Once we do find out though we will be sure to let you know what color will dominate our house for a while. There are big bets riding on this one! so pick your teams in the poll on the right!

Here is a picture of Amy taken recently at about 12 weeks....

she isn't showing yet I think, she says she hates this picture and felt "huge" when it was taken. I told her she looked as beautiful as ever and there was nothing to be worried about. (I am an AWESOME husband!!) I wasn't even lying! Either way, we will continue posting pictures of Amy as Sprinkle gets bigger. Currently he/she/it is about the size of a plum and quickly moving up the scale to other fruits! Hopefully watermelon is out of the question!

Life goes on at the baby factory! Hope all is well with you.

Baby LOVES to dance!

We got to see the little alien that is growing inside Amy today!

We are calling it sprinkle for the time being...

It is a about an inch long and loves to dance - as you will see on the video!

(it is looped over a bunch of times...in case you find yourself watching to the end and wondering...)

breaking news

BIG NEWS! today, I...

• got out of bed
• put real clothes on
  
• went to church
• went out to lunch with real people
• (took a nap, because i am still pregnant)
• went to the grocery store
• cooked dinner
• cleaned up our bedroom
• and i'm about to do a load of laundry

DO YOU SEE HOW PRODUCTIVE THAT IS??? considering that yesterday, I literally laid in bed all day, until I HAD to get up to go to a junior high event I had planned. I was out of the house for approximately 3 hours, and I had to go to bed immediately upon returning home... at like 9:15. it is ridiculous how tired I get by doing nothing. however, I would like to mention the two other things on my to-do list at all times:

• manufacture human inside my body
• develop placenta to feed said human

so let's just say... I have been a little busy! oh yeah, and besides all that, I spent sunday-thursday last week up at camp with 75 8th grade students. somehow just typing that makes me need another nap! camp was pretty good though. it was absolutely miraculous and God moved in ridiculous ways. I think the tough thing for me was to feel like I couldn't give 100% to the kids. usually on these trips, there is 'youth pastor amy' and 'real person amy'. and real person amy takes a BIG backseat whenever the two clash. but that just really couldn't happen this year. I'm really looking forward to the last -- well, two days -- of the high school summer trip, after we tell the kids. I feel like I'm just not being myself and I can't even tell them why! and it's totally fine and absolutely worth it... it'll just be easier when I don't have to hide it anymore.

this week we're looking forward to the ultrasound on wednesday! we'll actually get to see the little future anderson!

and on that note, I'll leave you to guess what I'm going to do next. :)

6 weeks...a touch belated

So I was supposed to have written on this blog several weeks ago, but with the end of school and the craziness that was all wrapped up in that and finding a job...the blog got put on the back burner....but now I am back...and better than ever...with a fresh year of paychecks promised to me!

Anyway, pregnancy is not really what I would have expected...I am not tired at all, the food aversions really haven't set in, I am losing weight instead of gaining, and I haven't had to stop drinking beer!

Amy is a different story...she is sleeping more than the cats, loving a particular food one day only to gag at the idea of that same food the next, seriously she is sleeping A LOT, some times after I have committed any action that might be perceived as out-of-line...she says things like "you really don't want to anger it!" while pointing at her midsection, and did I mention that she is ALWAYS ASLEEP!?

Really though, through all of the suffering that our little one is already causing her, Amy is taking it really well. I literally think almost every day that it is good that women have the babies, because I am honestly not sure that I would be able to make it through. That is not a joke.

The lizard shaped human being that is growing inside my wife is now the size of a sprinkle that would go on top of a cupcake. We are hoping that the brain is already HUGE and that the heart is beating strong! Coming here in a few of weeks, we are hoping to hear the heart beat! Then we can be sure that it is a human an not a lizard! If it is actually a lizard, then Amy has A LOT of explaining to do.

Look forward to more updates as the weeks role by!

doctor's appointment #1!

I had my first doctor's appointment today! I didn't expect this, but it made it all feel really REAL. not that it wasn't before, but now I am officially on paperwork in my file pregnant! because I went in for a checkup/preconception visit in december, there really wasn't a whole lot to do during this appointment. mostly I just updated all of my paperwork, and filled out all the additional 'you're pregnant!' paperwork, peed in a cup, and got to meet my doctor and ask her all my questions. she is seriously the most laid back person I have ever met, which I forsee being really helpful about 9 months from now.

speaking of that! one thing she did give me was my for reals due date: January 21, 2010. of course, that could still change, and the chances of me delivering on that day are really slim, but for now, that's the target day!

I also got to schedule our first ultrasound and my next appointment. they don't do an ultrasound until at least 7 weeks so that you can actually see something (and hear the heartbeat!!), which I appreciate! if I am remembering correctly, the ultrasound appointment is Wednesday, June 17th and my next appointment with the doctor is Tuesday, June 30th. crazy!

let's see, what questions did I get answered? I asked about travel in July and October, and she said I should be absolutely fine. I asked about exercise restrictions (although I have been WAY too exhausted to go to the gym for all but 2 days since I got the positive test) and I just have to keep everything to a moderate intensity level. she gave me some stuff to read and a gift bag full of samples (good thing I have a whole bottle of infant formula now. I'm sure that will really come in handy in the very near future... or not) -- the coolest thing was that the gift bag was in a real diaper bag! the funniest part of the appointment was after we had already talked about how I'm a youth pastor and how Brian and I met and got married... she said: "it's routine procedure to do an HIV test on pregnant women, so we'll do that whenever we need to do blood work for something else... I assume you're pretty low risk for that?" yeah, that's probably a safe assumption. :)

so things are progressing normally! I usually feel a little icky after having breakfast, and last night we went out to eat and I overate a little bit and felt GROSS, but I haven't puked yet and here's hoping I don't! on that front, if you feel like praying that my morning sickness definitely stays away in June, I would really appreciate it -- I have both Confirmation camp for 4 days and our high school summer trip for 8 days, and it would be really hard/frustrating/not very easy to hide if I have to go throw up every day on those trips. thanks in advance and have a GREAT 3-day weekend!!

things I didn't know about being pregnant, part 1

I DIDN’T KNOW MY TEMPERATURE WOULD RISE TO TWELVE THOUSAND DEGREES.

Apparently the hormones that make for a healthy pregnancy also make me become a furnace. Literally, Brian has hugged me and jumped away for fear of being burned. However,, he is not complaining, because our annual summer what-temperature-do-we-set-the-air-conditioning-at debate and negotiation has been postponed indefinitely… I’M asking HIM to turn it down. Trust me, this has never happened before. In fact, I have always been the girl who is constantly cold. My family used to make fun of me for using a blanket in the summertime. I live in Arizona and I still wear a cardigan almost every day, just in case I get cold. I don’t even know how to handle this new-found heat, because it’s always been a non-issue in my life! Let’s just say… I’m a little less excited about the 100+++ degree summer this year. On a positive note, it has forced me to become resourceful. In our office building, the air conditioning controls are in one office way down the hall from mine. And the air has to travel through about 5 offices before it comes to me, so my office is usually pretty warm. Generally? Not a problem. This year? I feel like I’m melting. But I just found this clip-on fan that I clipped to my keyboard shelf/drawer/thing and it is pointed right at me whenever I’m sitting at my desk. Jesus has had mercy on me, and his mercy came in the form of a 9 dollar clip fan.

This is definitely something I did NOT know about pregnancy before I experienced it—and I’m sure there will be many more fun surprises to come! But I’ll take them all and more – I’m pretty sure the end result will be worth it!