Halfway There!!!!

Well since tomorrow I am 20 weeks pregnant, I will be officially halfway! We are so so so excited! Time is going so quick! Although we have an ultrasound on Thursday and will find out if we're having a boy or a girl and I'm afraid that the next few days will go extremely slow since we are so excited for that! But everyone keeps asking me how I'm feeling so I figured I might as well put it all up on the blog. I am feeling great! I was sick the first trimester but around the time we came back to Iowa I started feeling better. Thankfully I only threw up once, I was just really nauseous everyday after lunch. And now it is totally good.
I have had to do a little bit of shopping to get some shirts that fit and look better. I still have shirts that I can wear, I just don't want to stretch them out and make it so they look really bad when I wear them post-pregnancy. Definitely cannot wear my regular jeans though. My sister brought me some maternity pants in January which I am SO grateful for. I've gained about 10 lbs. I'm not afraid to share that because I know that all the weight I've gained is for the best reason ever and it doesn't bother me. The only thing I crave is sugar, which was what I was before anyway. I'm a sugar-holic so I REALLY want sugar now. However, I know it's not great to eat tons of sugar when pregnant so I'm trying to not give in every time. Oh, we put a crib on layaway and I am SO excited to get it and set it up in our house. We absolutely LOVE it!!!!!
I have been feeling the baby since I was 14.5 weeks which I guess is super early, especially with the first baby. At first I was only feeling kicks every few days. It felt like little tiny taps inside - SO COOL! Now I feel the baby everyday and not just the kicks or punches but even if the baby is moving around in there. I absolutely love it! Collin was able to feel the baby kick at about 17.5 weeks, now every time he puts his hand there to feel of course the baby stops moving.
I am still wearing my wedding ring, which was a little too big to begin with anyway. I really really hope I can wear it through my whole pregnancy. I never take it off and don't plan to while pregnant so hopefully it keeps working out for me. The baby can now hear what's going on out here, so I have been sure to play piano more often or music playing so the baby learns to love it before ever leaving the womb. Start 'em young! And thankfully it's getting warmer so Collin and I can go on walks. We change up our walk route every time to keep it different. I love going on walks with him though, especially since he's so busy studying for school all the time. It's about half an hour to an hour everyday that I can just talk with him without feeling bad.
I absolutely love being pregnant! We have loved this baby ever since we found out we were pregnant and are so excited for September to get here. I love when Collin goes down by my belly and talks to the baby. It is one of the sweetest things. At times it's a little overwhelming to think of raising one of our Heavenly Father's children, but I am so grateful and feel extremely blessed with the trust He has in us to be parents.

20 Weeks

Delirious Love Messages

So I guess in my delirium in the hospital I really wanted to call and talk to Stefani. . . . A LOT. She saved some of the messages I left her, some at like 6 in the morning, 3 within the last few hours of my last day. She was so mean and wouldn't leave me my cell phone to talk to her (after listening to the messages I can't say that I blame her) so I even resorted to using the silly room phone in the hospital. I guess after the message where I told her I'd be coming home shortly the nurse actually texted her and said, "just to make sure you weren't confused, he will not be coming home soon." Also apparently for next Valentines Day I can get a "sexy gown and pants" I guess they technically are because they show off my best side. . . . the back side. The first several messages I was out of it, but starting at about #5 I was mostly cognizant. 

#1 Hey Stef it’s me, I’m calling from my dad’s phone um you could reach me on either his cell phone or on my cell phone. I’m just trying to get some dinner figured out for tonight and what you wanted to do. Let me know. Thanks, bye.

#2 Hey Stef it’s me.  I’m just calling from one of the room phones here um. I’m probably gonna leave in about ten or fifteen minutes just to go home. So I was planning on you being there sometime around there. If you have any questions feel free to call me back on this number. I don’t know the exact number, but uh just call me back and you’ll be able to get a hold of me. I don’t know where my cell phone is so umm we’re SOL as far as that goes. Thanks I love you bye.

#3 Hey it’s me umm it’s uh 7 o’clock right now and I’m still at the hospital they made me stay here the whole night. So I’m just gonna try and make it home however I can I’m not sure what the best way is gonna be for me to get there umm cuz I don’t know where my keys and stuff are so I might have to track some stuff down. Umm just plan on me coming home and then don’t worry too much about me. Umm we’ll figure it out. Hopefully I can find my cell phone before too long so you can give me a call. Alright love you tons bye.

#4 Hey honey it’s me. Umm just trying to get a hold of you so we can get things figured out for the day. Umm I don’t know how you’re gonna reach me because you have my cell phone, but the room number that I’m in I think is 8015858608 let me repeat that back for you 8015858608. Umm you might be able to reach me here throughout the day. I’m not sure if they have any meetings planned for me or not. Umm also make sure you pack some church clothes or something for me to wear today. Cuz otherwise I’ll be in my sexy gown and pants. So umm if you have any questions try and give me a call back, I don’t know if I’ll be here but umm. I love you tons and I’ll see you today.

#5 I just wanted to leave you a message telling you I love you. So I love you tons. Bye.

#6 I just love you so so much. I just want to talk to you so so much right now. Even just call and leave you a message whether you answer it or not. And then you can listen to it whenever you want to. And then you can just have to get that cute little smile on your face. I just love you tons and can’t imagine life without you. You’re the best, and you’re the best wife ever. I love you so so much. I’m so grateful for all your help and all your support and all that you do to help me. You’re the best for me, I love you tons. Bye.

#7 Hi honey, I just wanted to call and tell you that I love you so much. I’ve just been thinking a lot about you all night and all morning and just how awesome you are. You’ve been doing such a good job with all this. You’re such a strong woman and just holding you head upright and bearing all the burdens that will come.  You’re just doing a great job. I love you so much, and I can’t imagine living without you and what kind of a life it would be without an awesome woman like you. You’re just the best and I love you so much. I hope you have a good day and I can’t wait to see you again. Love Collin.

#8 Hi Stefani, uh my name is Collin Cragun. I just umm wanted to leave you a message just letting you know that I think you’re so attractive and I just can’t stop thinking about you all the time and. I really think I’ll ask you to check out because I just really can’t stop thinking about you. I think you’re so gorgeous and you’re so talented. The way you play the piano and violin and everything else.I don’t know how you do it because you’re just SO awesome and so beautiful, and you have such a good smile, and you’re always happy and nice and friendly and I don’t know how you do it. You’re just so awesome. You’re the awesomest. I just wanted to call and leave you a message telling you that I’m like 100% in love with you and I can’t imagine a life without you and you’re just the best there is and I love you so much. Oooaahhh and I’m yawning now, but I just love you so much and I want you to know that. I hope you realize that, and I hope you had a good dentist trip. Love you tons, bye.

#9 Hey Stef, I just wanted to be able to hear you with your pretty numb voice. But um you’re mom just texted me and said you just got your mouth numbed. Umm I just got done walking around with one of the PT’s and was talking with him a little bit about being home. So it’s looking like I’ll probably get out today. I still haven’t heard like 100% official word but they’re all kind of talking about it like it’s gonna happen so. He was asking about my home situation and where I’ll be staying uahhh. I told him I’d be well taken care of by a cute little girl who just adores me and wants to be on my lap all day long. Umm everything is going good it’s still kinda hard walking around but I can do it and force myself to do it. I just miss you and I’m ready to be home and hang out with you and do fun stuff and not just be here in a hospital. I keep falling asleep and just getting so bored because I have nothing to do right now. But I hope everything is going good for you at the dentist and I hope they do a good job. I love you tons and I just miss talking with you. Umm call me back so I can hear your numb voice a little bit if possible. Love you, bye.

The day I FINALLY got out of the hospital!!

Stefani had half her mouth numb from dental work.

Our New Car

Thankfully we were finally able to get a new car. It took much longer than expected for our Insurance to finally send us a check, be we got it about the middle of March I believe. We then kept our eye open for cars. Driving Collin to and from school was getting very old, even though it's only about a 5 min drive, if that. I was just definitely not loving waking up at 7 everyday when I didn't have to. Anyway we were looking online at dealerships to find a car. We were buying Used so it's a little harder to find good cars that way. The week before conference we finally found two to go look at. One was a 2005 Toyota Corolla with low miles and the other was a 2010 Honda Civic. Before we went to look at them I was leaning more towards the Civic since that's what we had before and loved it and also it was newer than the Corolla. We went to look at the Corolla first and I was very surprised. It drove really well, looked nice inside, and had less dings than our old Civic when we first bought it. It didn't look "old" like I thought it would. We then looked at the Civic and were immediately turned off by it. It had leather seats, which neither of us like leather seats. Plus we both think they would get trashed and ripped from kids. We also found out it had been in an accident and we did not want a car with history like that. After praying about it and feeling great about the Corolla we bought it. We love it!!! Although we realized after we got it home that the dealership cleaning people did not clean it very well. An old lady had it before us and there was makeup all over the steering wheel, mirror, driver side door, and the stereo. I cleaned it up and looks so much better. We are definitely grateful to have 2 cars again and to have found it so quickly! We weren't in a rush but wanted a second car before the baby came.

And I totally love the color!!!