Author Archives: Chase & Britt
21 weeks!
How far along? 21 weeks (May 16)- past halfway!
Total weight gain: about 10 lbs. Doctor said I am right on track… so I went and had a Mcdonald’s cheeseburger happy meal after our appointment 🙂
Maternity clothes? yes… the pants are so comfortable! Why don’t we wear them all the time?
Stretch marks? None so far!
Sleep: pretty good, except this week I have started to get up twice some nights for the bathroom… I know it has only just begun
Best moment this week: We think we have decided on her name- the process and story behind this has been my favorite this week… We will be sharing the name soon 🙂
Miss Anything? Laying on my back and stomach…
Movement: Feeling it more and more! Sometimes little bitty kicks, sometimes rolling, sometimes it feels like she is swimming in there- love every little movement!
Food cravings: Asian food and chocolate chip cookies
Anything making you queasy or sick:– a traditional lunch dish here- of rice & chicken & yogurt– used to love it…
Gender: girl… we have another ultrasound tomorrow… I am looking forward to confirming this some more
Labor Signs: Nope- way too early for that!
Symptoms: had some leg cramps in the middle of the night- so strange, lower back ache, but overall feeling pretty great, well besides feeling super hott! Which is a blessing.
Belly Button in or out? in, but you can start to see in some shirts that it wants to come out…
Wedding rings on or off? on
Happy or Moody most of the time: Feeling happy these days! Am excited for the what the future holds.
Looking forward to: ending our semester of language school (only 2 1/2 more weeks) and going on our “babymoon” and having some time to plan, shop, and decorate
May 14 – May 20
May 14: the perfect bedtime snack… vanilla ice cream with cinnamon and decaf tea with milk & honey 🙂
May 15: Fish Tacos… my first time to make them & they were super easy & super tasty
May 16: our friend Traci arrived this week! She will be living with us this summer. Welcome to the Middle East friend!
May 17: I have said it before, but Jord has seriously been the best friend to have during my preggo cravings! I said I was wanting cookies with chocolate chips and cinnamon flavor and what does she do- bakes them for me!
May 18: Love this picture of them! (they don’t normally pose with a heart love sign… they were doing a project for Drew’s mom)
May 19: this new dessert I made was a huge hit… put sugar cookie dough in a mini muffin pan, then mix cream cheese, sugar & vanilla together to the frosting and put blueberry (or other fruit- fresh or canned) pie filling on top!
May 20: Happy 5th birthday beautiful girl! We love you kead!
*realized most of these are food pictures… you can tell what we have been up to!
May 6 – May 13
May 6: What a blessing it is to have friends with 3 little girls with adorable clothes! Yey for hand-me-downs!
May 7: Date night… Salmon, salad and brown rice… delicious!
May 8: Chase practicing being a “girl dad”! He is gonna be great at it!
May 9: LuLu Hypermarket= new amazing grocery store in our little town… we are happy campers here friends!
May 10: My new “preggo-momma” shoes! It was decided as we were walking around the mall all day that I needed more comfortable, “safer” shoes for this pregnancy. So Jord went with me and we found these… maybe not something I would normally buy, but I am so glad I did! My back and feet already feel better.
May 11: A day of organizing my closet with clothes I can still wear and rearranging the rest of our house (hope to post pics soon)… sorry for the terrible pic… forgot to take one- so this one was taken late at night.
May 12: Happy 32nd Drew! We are thankful for you!
May 13: First Momma (“to-be”) Day! Chase made me breakfast in bed… love him!
first of many…
…pictures for our sweet little lady McNugget! It’s amazing to me that we can have pictures of our sweet baby already. Can’t wait to take pictures of her on the outside!
our little peanut at 8 weeks 4 days! So tiny
The day we found out “McNugget” is a little lady! 17 weeks 6 days
April 28 – May 5
Internet was cut of again for a few days, but is back up and running and hopefully we got all the problems with it worked out…. we’ll see! Here is what we were up to last week!
April 28: lady mcnugget’s first girly clothes from mom & dad! (dad picked out the rolling stones shirt- I want to put a black tutu shirt with it!)
April 29: Behind the Scenes: Jord and her artist skills at work on our weekly baby bump pics!
April 30: Homemade buffalo wings, fries, ranch and homemade cole slaw with some friends- great meal.great company
May 1: Had a British friend over for tea… he asked if all American have “tea boxes”- I guess this is not a British tea tradition!
May 2: I seriously teared up with my first bite of this PBJ sandwich… we didn’t have great bread here, as in there are no preservatives in the bread so it molds quickly, it is crumbly, mostly just white bread and is not soft at all– which makes for a terrible PBJ sandwich in my opinion. Anyway, I had heard about this fabulous bread from several freinds that can be found here every once and a while, but never found it myself, until Jord shared this goodness with me… I think I have had a PBJ everyday since. Oh how I have missed you!
May 3: Jord and I went to my old neighbors, husbands, cousins, wife’s wedding (yes, you don’t have to know the bride or groom here to be invited to the wedding… they love for anyone and everyone to come!). It was fun getting all dressed up, people watching (they great way dressed up here for weddings) and the best part was the photographer showed up late, so they asked Jord to step in as photographer for an hour! She did a great job!
May 4: Spent the day in Sohar at a friends house, this is the only pic I got before my camera died… such pretty flowers!
May 5: I threw a small birthday party for my local friend… this chocolate cake was a success!
Sugar & Spice…
and everything nice! Yup, we are gonna have a little GIRL!! We are so so excited! What a blessing she will be to our little family. We couldn’t love her more. We have not decided on a name yet… we have 3 we love but can’t decide on one… not sure if we will know till we see her sweet face.
How far along? 18 weeks (on Wednesday, April 25)
Total weight gain: 7 lbs.
Maternity clothes? a little more this week, but I am in between everything… maternity pants are too big and regular pants are getting too small!
Stretch marks? None so far!
Sleep: loving 30 minute naps when I can get them
Best moment this week: I was laying down for a nap on May 1st and I could feel baby girl move on the outside so I called Chase in the room and he put his hand on my belly and a few minutes later she moved for him! We looked at each other, giggled, and then I teared up! Such a sweet moment. He hasn’t felt her sense, but it was great!
Miss Anything? the cooler weather (I know that has nothing to do with pregnancy, but I am already so hot and sweaty and in the strangest places.. ha sorry if that was TMI)
Movement: a little more than before… so sweet- I can definitely understand now when moms say that they miss that feeling once they have had their children… it is nothing like I have ever felt before
Food cravings: same stuff, but before I posted this Jord was telling me about a peach cobbler she had made and I couldn’t stop thinking about it till I had a piece! It was delicious!
Anything making you queasy or sick: Arab food still… and the smell of Chase’s cinnamon hazelnut coffee…same, however, I was able to eat Syrian food this week and it actually tasted really good!
Gender: a GIRL! We got a 90% that she is a girl from the ultrasound tech… so we are going with it 🙂 Oh, funny story: We asked if we could get a picture showing she is a girl and they lady wouldn’t give it to us because she said she would so embarrassed of the picture when she gets older! We are going to try and still get one at our next ultrasound 😉
Labor Signs: Nope- way too early for that!
Symptoms: hungry… bloated at night…
Belly Button in or out? in (I have a feeling it will become an outie… we will see)
Wedding rings on or off? on
Happy or Moody most of the time: have been moody the past few days, but super super thankful and happy about our sweet girl
Looking forward to: decorating the nursery!! My mom coming to see us in about 21 weeks!
Above are pictures of the day we found out about our little ballerina! We went to the mall and had some celebration food (Chase had a cheeseburger & I had Papa Jonn’s Pizza- of course), then walked around the mall & bought sweet pea some new girly clothes and me some maternity clothes. When we got home we told the Remkes by letting the girls open a bag with the new clothes in it so they could figure out what we are having! They were excited (well, Kead was a little sad at first, cuz she was really hoping for a brother – maybe next time…) Then we got to tell Grammie, Nanny, and Papa about their new little grand-daughter on Skype! Chase sat down to talk to them with a flower headband on his head (pictured above) to tell them! It was great! Oh and our Chinese friends from school made us dumplings for us to enjoy and to celebrate- they are so sweet & the dumplings were delicious! We also sent the pic to her aunts, uncles, Granddad & Jaju to tell them the news! She loves you all already!
The next day I brought “pink” cupcakes with white frosting to tell our Arabic teachers at school what we are having… they were so excited about it and had a great time with this little “American game”!
We feel blessed to be the parents of our little girl and can’t wait to give her sweet kisses in about 21 weeks (give or take)!
Oh Arabic…
why do you have to be so difficult sometimes?
I will give you one example, today in class we were using the word for something that you must do, but you don’t want to do, we were using the word in sentences about our life, about previous jobs we have had, about how students feel, etc… well instead I said the word for “passing gas” (yup thats right the word: fart) instead! I didn’t do this only once, but maybe 3 times! And the best part was we had one of the male teachers for class! Oh good times… mind you, the words are very similar, 2 letters are just switched around… but obviously the meanings are oh so different! There are many words like this in Arabic. Oh how I love being a language student sometimes!… especially when preggo, seems my brain gets even more mixed up!! I have been told my many friends who have gone before me in this whole pregnant thing, by my doctor & read it books that your memory and brain isn’t quite as sharp when you are expecting. I am discovering more and more that this is true! Somedays in class I feel like I can’t even speak Arabic anymore or remember anything!! (granted this happens when you aren’t pregnant as well…so maybe I just now get an excuse for it!)… anyone else out there ever learned a language or studied anything while preggo? Any advice?
April 22- April 27
April 22: Went to a party with some local friends (21 girls all gathered in a room for a dance party & dinner outside after- so fun even though I was not allowed to dance since I am “with child”)… they love their shoes here!
April 23: This sweet girl turned 2 last week! Can’t believe we knew her before she was one!
April 24: 1 of 4 numbers I got while I waited to see our doctor & get an ultrasound… they have the number system down pretty good at our hospital
April 23: It’s a GIRL cupcakes! (more details & pics on this later…sorry if you are just now reading that we are having a girl… announced in on facebook last week, but not here yet) I made these for our Arabic language teachers for them to find out what we are having… they were so excited about it- first time anyone has done this for them!
April 26: Back stage before my sweet ballerinas performed their recital for a room full of proud parents!
April 27: Babies everywhere! Went to a friend’s baby boy shower this weekend. So fun to do something very American… apparently no one else in the world, but us throws baby showers.
April 14- April 21
am a little behind on blogging- seems like we have had a super busy couple of weeks & lots of internet problems! Trying to catch up! Enjoy…
April 14: We bought a few flowers to plant in our “hosh” (yard in Arabic). Amazing what a little color will do for the soul 🙂 Just hoping we can keep them alive in the heat of the summer!
April 15: Yes, that is a DISHWASHER! Chase surprised me with it a few weeks ago- what a sweetheart! You have no idea how much this blesses me… oh how I have missed having one of these! I will be even more thankful for it when I will want to just be holding our baby girl & not washing dishes 🙂
April 16: my staple take-out here… Chicken wrap with this creamy cheese stuff and a strawberry/mango smoothie… pretty much all I want to eat if I don’t cook.
April 17: Dress rehearsal for my sweet ballerinas!
April 18: Aren’t our boys handsome? (esp the one on the right?!- only a little bias) they were headed out for a local wedding
April 19: Sleepover with these sweet girls! We have promised them a sleepover at our house since Christmas- finally we were able to deliver while Drew & Jord enjoyed a night in Dubai!
April 20: A quick trip to Dubai to pick up a group studying language this week.
April 21: making recital hairpieces… brings back memories… can’t wait to do this for my little girl one day!
boy or girl?!?
That’s right tomorrow we find out if we are having a boy or girl!! That is if our wee one corporates 🙂 So “insha-alla” (if God wills), as they say out here, I will be telling you if my belly is making “sugar and spice & everything nice” or “frogs and snails and puppy dog tails”! We are so excited, but more importantly we are excited to hear a healthy heartbeat and see how much our peanut has grown in 10 weeks since our last ultrasound. Join us in prayer for this!
How far along? 17 weeks
Total weight gain: not exactly sure… maybe 7 or 8? or less? I will find out at doc tomorrow
Maternity clothes? Not much- some xs shirts… this week was the first week one of my regular pairs of pants had to be unbuttoned- waiting patiently for the belly band mom sent me in the mail… maternity jeans are still too big.
Stretch marks? None so far!
Sleep: pretty good still… been going to bed later… I need to get back on my 10:30 bedtime schedule 🙂 Getting up maybe twice for the bathroom the last few days.
Best moment this week: Sitting in Fusha (formal Arabic class) and feeling little flutters/kicks from the babe saying “good morning” mom! Such a great feeling!! What a miracle God is creating inside of me… I am amazed everyday that there is something.alive.inside.of.me!
Miss Anything? Dancing… I went to a local party last night and was told several times to sit down during the “dance party” since I am pregnant… woman don’t do much activity here when they are expecting…. even though I am no where near as good at dancing the way the girls do here, its still fun to join! Also, missing Dion’s! … ah green chile, ham pizza with and ranch salad with greek dressing… sounds divine!
Movement: Still feeling little flutters throughout the day… esp when I am still still or laying on my belly- won’t be able to do that much longer
Food cravings: must I say Dion’s again… 🙂
Anything making you queasy or sick: Arab food still… and the smell of Chase’s cinnamon hazelnut coffee…
Gender: tomorrow we will know!! I was thinking earlier today of how good God is to not let us choose what the gender of our babies is… think about it, this is one of the only decisions in life that we have absolutely no control over, I believe God is sovereign over all things, but in life I still try and take things over for myself & make my own decisions about things, but this I can’t even if I tried! And the best part is God knows exactly what it is now and exactly what is best for Chase & I. He gets to decide that & not me- so thankful and amazed!
Labor Signs: Nope- way too early for that!
Symptoms: feel sore… from my growing belly, emotional- I am a crier, but haven’t cried as much as I thought I would so far this pregnancy (well let me take that back… I mean at like random stuff like commercials and pictures and such) until this week… feel a lot more hungry- all.the.time!
Belly Button in or out? in
Wedding rings on or off? on
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy with some moodiness mixed in 🙂
Looking forward to: finding out gender tomorrow, wearing/buying maternity clothes (I know that might sound crazy & I will get sick of them after a while)
*side note on my little niece or nephew- my sister had a great appointment last week and heard a healthy strong heartbeat! Praise Him from which all blessings flow! Thanks for your prayers… keep them coming!
