The Magical 12 Week Mark

12 Weeks (three months)

They say that once you reach the 12 week mark, your risk for miscarriage drops to less than 2%, which kind of makes it the magical week, so needless to say, I'm thrilled to be here! I had my 12 week appointment today and got to hear my baby's heart beat. It was such a neat experience! The heart beat was about 160-170 beats per minute, which is nice and strong.

Sadly I didn't get an ultrasound. My OB office doesn't do an ultrasound until 20 weeks, which is still two months away. That's a long time to have to wait to see my baby! (I had an ultrasound at 6 weeks just to make sure everything was okay, but the baby didn't really look anything like a baby at that point, so it's not the same.) So...there's this private ultrasound place near where I live and they'll even tell you the gender starting at 15 weeks, but it'll cost $55. Fortunately, I hung on to most of the money I got for my birthday, so I'll call it a belated birthday present and won't even feel bad for spending some money to see my little one. Plus, that means that I can find out if my baby is a boy or a girl in about two and half weeks! That's not NEARLY as bad as having to wait another two months.

Anyway, here's my three month belly shot (I decided to scrap the "continuous outfit" thing because I now have some maternity clothing and it's much cuter than gray on gray). I'm so excited to actually have a baby bump now! It started sometime last week, but now it's definitely here (I actually had to have my doctor confirm it for me today because I hardly believed it myself). I know a lot of first time moms don't start showing until around five months, but then again, I have a ridiculously short torso so I'm not surprised.

We're Having a Baby!

Yep, that's right. Baby Koch will be due March 19th, and I'm 10 weeks along (or two and half months). I found out I was pregnant while Trevor was on a trip to the Tetons near Yellowstone with the boy scouts, so I had to sit on the secret for three days while I waited for him to come home. It was torture! Since his birthday was a few days after he got home, I decided to give him an early birthday present...

Needless to say, he was more nervous than excited at first, but it's definitely growing on him now. We had our first prenatal visit this past Wednesday and everything is looking good. They tried to listen for the heartbeat, but couldn't find it, so they pulled out a little handheld ultrasound machine (didn't even know they had such things!) and we got to see out little baby with that beautiful flickering heartbeat. I have my twelve week appointment on September 8th, and hopefully they'll do a more thorough ultrasound at that point.

Five weeks (A little over one month)

So, Baby Koch is about the size of a kumquat right now (Trevor thought I was talking gibberish when I said that). His or her arms, legs, feet, and hands are developed as well as all the major organs. Now it's just a matter of getting bigger! As for me, I've been very fortunate. No morning sickness so far, and I'm already almost done with the first trimester! I have been very tired though. In fact, I didn't have work today so I just slept until 11:00am. It was great. I've decided to do a picture each month to document my growing belly. And even though there isn't much of a baby bump yet, I have one for month one and two (the bulge in the picture is mostly my growing uterus (which is now the size of grapefruit!) as well as some bloating, water retention, and all that other fun pregnancy stuff).

*Side note: I am fully aware that gray with gray is just poor fashion sense, but these are the only pants and shirt that I had there were stretchy enough to last all nine months (so that the clothes stays continuous). Also, you see that my hair has grown a little! ;)

Nine weeks (a little over two months)

We will probably get to find out the gender sometime in October, which seems like a looooong time from now. I'm hoping for a little girl, and Trevor's hoping for a little boy, but we'll both be very happy no matter what, as long as he/she is healthy. Trevor's sister, Lisa, is also pregnant right now, and she is two months ahead of me, so she'll be finding out the gender soon. These little cousins are going to be so close! As for other cousins, this baby will have Jaxon (Lisa's 2 year old boy) and Lily (my brother Jake's 5 month old girl).

Well, only 210 days left to go!

Wedding Video Highlights

For those of you who haven't seen it yet, this is the highlight of our wedding video, courtesy of the insanely talented Christopher Koch.


Go check out his company Digital Memorys - He does an incredible job!

I have a job!

Woohoo! After searching for a job all summer, I learned about the job, interviewed, and got hired within two days! The principal said that after I interviewed, he told the other ladies, "Don't let her get away!" :)

So here's the job. I'm a teacher's aide for a fifth grade class and sixth grade class, where I will be working in small groups with kids who need special attention. Now here's the cool part: there's also an opportunity to advance next month and actually become the fifth grade classroom teacher! The job hasn't been posted yet, so I still have to apply and all that jazz, but I'm just ecstatic! After feeling resigned to a job at McDonald's, this is like a dream come true! The school is on a year-round schedule, so I actually begin work next Tuesday!

My Husband...AKA "Mr. Clean"

Hallelujah! My dear husband has been working his tail end off all day to get things organized and put away! So after all that was done, I was able to vacuum, and now our apartment looks AMAZING! Therefore, I must take back what I said in my last post (about us not getting our act together until it was time to move again) because, boy was I wrong! Trevor is unstoppable! The great thing is, now that it's all clean and organized, it doesn't feel nearly as small anymore. We're truly blessed to have such a nice place to live. :)

Callings and Other Things

Well, not much to report from the Koch family. We're just loving life and loving, well, being in love! Trevor and I have both received callings in our new ward. Trevor is the Priest's quorum advisor in the Young Men's, and I'm the second counselor in the Young Women's presidency (aka Beehives teacher). Its great that we both get to work with the youth, and this ward really does have some amazing kids.

Trevor has been riding his bike to work and back everyday for the past two and half weeks, which I still think is amazing (it's 6 miles each way). Because he's riding his bike, I have the car available during the day if I need it. Oh yeah! I finally have my driver's license! I got it about a month ago, and now I can't see why I was so freaked out. I mean, I never underestimate how potentially dangerous a car can be, but I also understand that if you just abide by the laws and use common sense, it's not that difficult. It's been great though, because I've been able to go have lunch with Trevor a few times while he's at work.

We're still working on getting things organized in our home. The problem is, we have more stuff than space, so we just have to get creative. Lately Trevor has been pulling everything out of the second room and trying to put it back in in an organized manner, but right now it looks like a bit of a disaster zone in our living room. But that's just one of the many joys of moving! I'm sure we'll get it all in place just in time to move again. :)

In other news, Trevor's brother, Landon, gets home from his mission in a few weeks, which will be so exciting since I've never met him before. Also, Trevor's sister, Lisa, and her husband and son are going to be coming back to Utah for the summer, so we'll have all the Kochs together! It's going to be great!

Married life!

Well, I guess it's time to update this blog, seeing as Trevor and I are now married! The wedding day was amazing. I'm so grateful for all the hard work that everyone put into making it such a special day, and grateful as well for all of my friends and family that traveled up from Arizona and California to be there for me. I can't imagine a better day...though to be honest, it's a bit of a blur! Mostly I was just floating on a cloud all day with the man of my dreams. (The photographer never had to tell me to smile for the pictures...though she did have to tell us to stop kissing from time to time.)

As great as the wedding day was, however, the honeymoon was probably even better. It was great being able to spend all of that time alone with Trevor, especially since all of the wedding planning stress was gone. For our honeymoon we went on a cruise to Ensenada, Mexico, with another stop in Catalina Island. Neither of us had been on a cruise before, so we were way excited, and now that we've been, we're hooked. Cruises rock! It was great being able to just do whatever we wanted and eat as much and as often as we liked (though we stuffed ourselves a few times). At Catalina we went para-sailing, which was also a first for both of us. We thought it was going to be a rush being that high up in the air, but it was actually really calm. We even managed to lean over and kiss while we were up there, which means we can now say that we've kissed at 600 ft in the air! In Ensenada we went horseback riding through the mountains along the coast, and it was beautiful. Then we got some authentic fish tacos and Trevor encountered a hot sauce that was even hot to him!

But now that we're back from the cruise, things are only getting better. We've been working hard getting our home organized, and doing way more shopping than I've been used to, but it's been fun, too. I love having my own house, and I love making it into a comfortable home for Trevor and I. We also have a great church ward here. The people are really open and friendly, and we've already got plans to have a dinner/game night with two other young couples in our apartment complex. Hopefully we'll all have a good time and we can make it a monthly thing.

Married life is great! We love each other and we love life!