Kenley Marie

Kenley Marie 

April 19,2014  

12:55am 

6lbs 12 oz 

22" 

Random thoughts: Body image, my parents and becoming a mom

The closer I get to my due date the more I think about how I want to raise my kids and what I want to teach them. Even though I'm nearing the end of pregnancy (11 weeks to go) it still doesn't seem completely real most days. Randomly it will hit me that soon ill have a little one of my own and how different it will be from being around my friends kids, I still haven't quite grasped that fully.
During these last few months and weeks especially as my body has changed the most Ive really thought about body image. I expected to grow a belly, and it was weird at first, but not as weird as I thought it would be. I didn't quite expect to feel like everything is growing. I feel like I'm getting big everywhere and its a not my favorite feeling, but at the same time its completely worth it.
The more I think about it I realize how lucky I am, not only for having a little baby growing inside but I'm also pretty lucky to have an awesome family, parents especially.
Thinking back through my life neither of my parents ever made comments like "your thighs are getting big","oh look at that double chin" or "You really shouldn't eat (insert food here) and you really need to exercise more". Healthy eating was encouraged, we didn't snack endlessly on treats, candy and soda. We rarely had soda in our house, besides special occasions. We snacked on fruit and to this day my dad cuts up apples to snack on when we visit.We played outside, took family bike rides and swam on the swim team. We didn't own gaming systems and would spend hours playing whatever sport or games outside over watching TV.
Now, being older and almost having my own little one I really appreciate the positive outlook I gained through having fun while being active and eating pretty healthy.
Of course we had days of treats, eating mac and cheese, sat around watching TV for too long but we were never put down for it. Never had negative words said to us about it. Never had the ideas of going on a diet put into our heads. I cannot remember one time where a negative comment was made about my body or eating habits that came from my parents, and in my opinion that is how it should be. I didn't grow up with my mom complaining she was fat or that she needed to diet and I don't want to be that mom to my kids either. I really hate when I hear a mom complaining she is fat, especially around her kids. Kids look up to their parents, hear and take in all that they do or say. What are you teaching your child by hating on your body? Its even worse when a parent makes negative comments to their children about their weight or body.  I cant imagine having a parent, who has unconditional love for me, basically tell me I'm fat or that I have gained weight. Yes I think its important to want your children to be healthy but there is such a difference to me, between saying something along the lines of "you're gaining weight, why are you eating that?' and doing things like making healthy meals and encouraging good food and activity choices. I'm pretty positive that if I have gained weight Ill know and won't need any one else bringing it up, unless  I reach out to them for advice.
I really hope my children never feel bad or put down about their bodies because of anything I do or say. Kids grow up with enough body image issues and bad influences that I don't want to ever purposefully add to that.

So pretty much thanks mom and dad for teaching me in positive ways how to take care of my body, stay active and never saying negative things dealing with body or eating.It really matters a lot and I hope that ill be able to have the same influence on my kids.Love you!

The second trimester goes slow...

If I didn't have this big belly I wouldnt even know I was pregnant.  I feel normal and nothing really exciting has happened..at least that's how it feels. 

I have my next dr appt in two weeks and then ill be in my third trimester and going to the dr every 2 weeks. Hopefully seeing the dr twice a month will make time go faster. 

We still dont know what we are having and I'm so excited to be surprised in April.  The only time I really want to find out is when I see all the cute baby clothes, its hard to resist buying them.

My main craving is oranges...and I have a major sweet tooth. Cereal, cookies, ice cream...yum!

25 weeks  & snowboarding with the family

22 or 23 weeks...

16,17,18,19,20

Week 16- I still haven't felt any movement from the baby...hopefully I will soon. Im looking forward to it so this all might feel a little more real. Some pants and skirts don't fit comfortably anymore and I've bought some maternity jeans that I love..and they are cute. I've been lucky and also gotten to borrow some maternity clothes from a friend which is nice. I'm counting down the days until my next appt on Nov 26

18-This was the first time I really felt the baby move this week. Its still not consistent but I've felt it move twice now. Some days I don't feel pregnant at all and my stomach is super flat...other days I have a little bump.

20-I feel the baby move pretty regularly now, not every day but enough so I quit worrying, and Kelly even felt it kick. We had our 20 week ultrasound and it was amazing.My due date got moved up 4 days to April 14, not a huge change. It was so fun to get to see something that resembled a baby and kelly was interested in all the medical terms and  new developments. Last time we saw a picture it didn't look like much but this time it was so cool to see it moving around,kicking and turning like crazy. Since we are keeping the gender a surprise the ultrasound tech asked if we wanted the gender on our video and pictures. We both agreed it would be nice to have for the future baby books and stuff but the only downfall is we cant watch the video or look at any pictures since they have the gender on them. Bummer! But I don't regret it at all...I love knowing we are going to have an awesome surprise in 4 months. Its kind of funny how much our decision to not find out affects other people...some people get pretty opinionated about it  but I wouldn't have it any other way. When else in life do you get a surprise like this?

Oh  and Kelly felt him kick this week too

From now on ive decided to refer to the baby as He, better than calling the baby it. Kelly hopes for a boy so for now thats what we will pretend it is.

April 2014

 Well, we are having a baby!!It was some what unexpected...but we are super excited.

I found out in August, the same day as my sisters wedding reception.

I didnt want to take away from my sisters big day so I didn't even tell Kelly until 2 days later. I had Hersh's help in telling him... 

she loves me

if you cant tell

 12-ish weeks..the first picture I took. I don't think I really looked too different and I definitely didn't look any different with my shirt covering my stomach. I wasn't really sick at all, just tired and nauseous mostly at night.

 13 weeks-Still felt the same. I had a hard time sleeping at night and would wake up feeling sick. Im still pretty lucky I only felt really sick at night so that it didn't affect my work.I cant imagine feeling sick like that all day at work.
I dont crave too much but LOVE lemonade and orange juice. I also hate all meat and the smell of eggs. Yuck.

 14 weeks-right before we went to Oregon and had a wonderful vacation. This is when I started to notice a little bump.

 15 weeks-I had two clients at work say they thought they noticed a bump and asked if I was pregnant. Kind of shocked me since I don't think its that noticeable. Especially with the looser, comfy clothes ive been wearing and loving...but I guess it is?!

 This week I have my 16 week appt and the Dr. (I love my doctor) did an ultrasound. It was nice to finally have Kelly able to come to an appointment and see our little baby. I sent this picture to my family and drew on it so they could better understand what they were looking at. At my next appointment we will have the anatomy scan and get to see a more clear picture and have a longer look at everything. Lets hope this month goes fast.

Oregon and some other stuff

For Kelly's fall break we were able to go to Seaside, OR with his family and stay in their beach house. Usually October is pretty cold there with lots of rain so I was looking forward to cuddling up in big sweaters and comfy clothes. Lucky for us the weather was beautiful and pretty hot which was great.

 Hershal Loved the beach

We did a lot of walking and playing on the beach. Most mornings Kelly went crabbing with his brother, Dad and cousins. It wasn't a successful year for crabbing...

 One of the days we had Kelly's youngest sister take some pictures for us  so we can have some nice pictures besides our wedding and engagement pictures. We of course ending up doing it on the windiest day but they still turned out really good.

Having a little vacation was really nice since we didn't get to do too much in the summer. Kelly's school schedule is really intense and were both trying to work a lot and save money for our baby due in April.

Older

About a month ago Kelly asked me to take the weekend of my birthday off so we could go some where. He told me nothing else and I loved it. I love surprises.

The morning of my birthday he woke me up early before he headed to school and I walked down stairs to a room full of presents and things for the weekend.

A tent, a 2 person sleeping bag ( which ive wanted forever) some 5.10 hiking shoes, a cannondale hybrid mountain bike and a bosu ball.

He told me we were going to Moab for the weekend to try out all my new stuff and that afternoon we headed out.

My brother  suggested camping at Kens Lake a little south of Moab and it was great.

 There was a waterfall right by the camp ground which was nice because it was hot.The first night we stopped at a store to pick up a few things we forgot and then went to set up camp. It took us a little bit to figure out the tent, tents can be so frustrating the first time you set them up.
Then Kelly explored the area up by the waterfall and found a goat playing in the water.He related the goat to this

picture the goat doing this

 Then we headed into town to eat at a pizza place for dinner suggested by locals. It was SO good.

The next day we headed to a bike trail suggested by a local as an easier ride and it was horrible. Deep sand that I couldnt even ride in.

 We walked about a mile before deciding to turn around. We then tried out the bar  M trail and we were having a lot of fun until 1/2 mile in Kelly got a flat tire. 

He was not happy.

 By that time  I  really just thought it was funny since our day was not going as planned. We walked back, drove to a bike store to get his bike fixed and then decided to play in the water by our camp. First we tried sliding in the rocks right by our camp.

fail.

Then we collected rocks to dam off the water and make a pool. It reminded me of being little and doing this with my siblings.

We then went up to the bigger waterfall and hiked around.

 Found  the goat. Then played in the waterfall. It was a really fun day.

The next day we drove to Dead Horse State Park to try out their mountain bike trails.

They were so fun and the perfect level for meThere were some hard parts that I had to walk but it was great and the views were amazing. It was probably the highlight of our trip.