21 Week Bumpdate

Look at me! Three posts in three days, that's a personal record.
I'm patting myself on the back. :)

How far along? 21 Weeks
Weight Gain: 5ish lbs
How Big is Baby? Banana! Or Carrot! Pick your produce, any produce.
Maternity Clothes? Nothing new. Trying to wear regular dresses to keep cool
Stretch Marks? Nope
Sleep: Pretty good
Best Moment of the Week: It's all been good! I feel like I made major strides on the nursery this week, so hopefully I can keep up the momentum.
Movement: I'm certain she's perfected the back flip
Food Cravings: Not really
Gender: girlgirlgirl
What I Miss: The feeling of sinuses/ears that don't need to be popped all.the.time
What I'm looking forward to: More of this feel-good part of pregnancy
Symptoms: Congestion, growing pains, hot flashes
Emotions: Feelin good!

The Shabby Addict

Okay, I came across this blog and post from Shabby Addict and had to share.
This young family has been separated for about 7 months. The Dad was deployed to Afghanistan when she was 7 months pregnant.. and is now coming home and meeting his baby girl for the first time. Needless to say, I was sitting at my desk bawling my eyes out.

Shabby Addict: Daddy Meets Penny for the First Time

I am thanking Jesus that my husband is not in the military.. but also so thankful for all the dads (and moms!) who put their lives on the line for our freedoms.

Grab a tissue.

Nursery 0.125

Remind me again- who's bright idea was it to paint stripes in the nursery????

Welcome to my workshop/permanent weekend home. If you need me, this is where I'll be. Feel free to send snacks.

Don't let the helpful-looking dog mislead you. He has really been no help whatsoever. What good is having assistant if he can't lift heavy objects or work a paint roller?

Someone's about to get a pink slip with his dinner..

Registration Central

I have officially started Baby Girl's registry!! I have no idea of the time line of when you are supposed to do this, other than that it should be before your shower(s).
I love me some online shopping and basically did 90% of my wedding registries online, so that's where I started here as well.

First up? Tarjay of course.

Here's the catch- I have only added one item at this point. :) Gotta start somewhere, right?? The Domestic Wannabe mentioned and recommended this hooded towel from the Little Seeds organic line at Target and I thought it looked good. Since I have absolutely nothing to base my wish list baby items on, I figure I should start now with a list and add to it as I come across items that other moms recommend that I think will work for us. Honestly, neither hubby or I want a ton of superfluous primary colored gear all over our house. I know that will be inevitable on some levels, but I'd like to just stick to what we need and that's it.
I've already decided we'll need to implement some sort of "one in, one out" rule with toys. I think it's really important to lay down the law with newborns. I've heard they can be wily.

So do you have any fabulous recommendations for me?? I see the bulk of our registry being every size diaper known to man, since they're pretty expensive and canceling our cable subscription is out of the question and there is no way no how I'm doing cloth diapers.

If you have any "must haves," let me know!
Or yeah, okay, if you see something at Target (Katie) that is totally adorable and my child can't live without, toss me a line about that, too and I'll add it to the list!

PS. Happy Birthday, Mom!!

Necessary

My child needs this.

Don't you think? I found it on Etsy sometime last year and saved the image, but can't find it now to buy. Drat! I may have to make my own somehow...
I've also put in a number of special requests for our little one to be born with lots of dark hair, like this cutie pie. We'll see. :)


Baby is definitely a girl!!

We had our 20 week appointment yesterday and got to see her moving and bouncing around all over the place. Sooo cool. My doctor checked her heart and measured her brain and all her other organs and everything looks great and healthy. We're very thankful. He did say she was measuring about 3 days small, but mama is just fine with that, since she's perfect in every way and I would prefer to have her arrive on the smaller side. I'm not hoping to deliver a 9lb baby. Plus she's a girl and should be dainty! :)

Happy Thursday!

20 Week Bumpdate

Halfway, folks! I thought I would start to get serious about my pregnancy stats- you know, for posterity's sake and all that jazz. No promises you'll get a picture every week because that would require me doing more work than typing out my deepest thoughts and feelings, but I'll try.

19 weeks, 5 days

How far along? 20 Weeks
Weight Gain: 3lbs
How Big is Baby? The size of a small cantaloupe. Holy crap!
Maternity Clothes? Just my new favorite jeans!
Stretch Marks? Nope
Sleep: Ehh... pretty good for the most part. Some nights are iffy.
Best Moment of the Week: Getting to see all of my family and have them see the baby (bump)
Movement: Yes! Especially when I'm laying down in bed.
Food Cravings: Nope
Gender: Girl
What I Miss: Ummm... nothing at the moment. Maybe a cold adult beverage every once in a while.
What I'm looking forward to: Seeing her in the ultrasound tomorrow!
Symptoms: Some stretching and growing. I still get really congested and have that ear-popping airplane feeling a lot. Very annoying.
Emotions: Good! I am a little more emotional at times but nothing too bad.
_________________

This past weekend was lots of fun- we went home for a visit to see my family and my brother and his fiance were in town from California, too! We tried on bridesmaid dresses and had a bridal shower for my sister-in-law to be- isn't she adorable??

She's clearly not the pregnant one- no pregnant lady in her right mind would attempt to wear a romper all day long when darting to the bathroom every 15 minutes is just a way of life.

Since they traveled across the country, everyone got them gift cards and she made out like a bandit!

Oh, one other fun pregnancy symptom I've been having- I have literally become an oven to cook this bun. I am typically cold-natured, but lately I'm just on fire. It certainly doesn't help that we've had heat advisories and 100* heat indexes around these parts, or that the A/C in my office doesn't seem to be working properly... I seriously think I've had a few hot flashes. Today at Target, I almost passed out in the paper goods aisle.
That's all I need- to pass out and get black listed by my favorite retail superstore.

Stretchy Pants

Oh Happy Day!

It's like I've been in the desert for 40 years and finally the heavens have opened up and manna is pouring out on me... in the form of MATERNITY PANTS!

Yeah, that's right, I joined the club. Stretchy pants all the way, baby!



I was lucky enough to hear about Forever 21's new maternity line last week, and immediately placed an order for 2 pairs of their jeans at 13 bucks a pop. Can't beat that! I wasn't at all convinced they would fit me or be cute, but thought it was worth a shot.
Well, they arrived last night and I swear a stream of light poured through my window and angels started singing when I pulled them on.. pure bliss.

Hubs thought I was a little nuts as I pranced around the house, pointing out over and over to him how great they looked, checking myself out in every mirror, twisting this way and that to get the best view. Of myself.

But I just couldn't help it, I have not been so happy since.. well, since Saturday, I guess, when I FELT MY CHILD MOVE!

Yes, more great news- my mini me is a wild one and dancing and kicking all around in my tummy! It was the coolest, most weird thing I've ever felt in my life. Even better? I actually saw her kick my tummy out a few times! I couldn't believe it at first, but there was no denying that my belly visibly moved up a few times in the same spot as I felt her kick.

Does it get any better than that??

I thought it was way too soon to hope to see anything on the outside, but I was so excited. So now my new hobby is laying very still and staring intently at my stomach while I bribe my unborn child to move with promises of vacations at the beach and shopping sprees in Chicago. I highly recommend this method.

I hope you all are having as great of a day as me!! And if not, *go get yourself some stretchy pants. I guarantee you won't regret it.

*Unless, of course, you are Ali from The Bachelorette, in which case you and the ABC stylist need to put down the leggings/jeggins/skinny jeans STAT. Sister, those things are doing you no favors, no favors at all.

18 Weeks: Ode to a Belly Dancer

Eeeek! 18 Weeks! We're nearly halfway there baby! :)

Sadly, I still have nadamucho to report on the actual BUMP portion of this update.. I had a slight freakout last week when I apparently lost the 3 pregnancy pounds I thought I had gained. After an initial, involuntary squeal of glee at seeing the scale go down, I realized this was not actually what I was after.. (my how the tables flip when you're growing a child inside of you! And, why on earth can't this happen at any other time of my life, I ask you? Why? WHY??)..
Needless to say, hubby was not happy with me and demanded that I eat a cheeseburger on the spot and gain a solid 10 pounds by August. We like deadlines at our house.

In all honesty, it freaked me out a little bit, too, but let's be frank here. I can retain water like nobody's business and a few fluctuating pounds just doesn't hold the same shock or alarm for me that it once did. I mean, I cut about 4 inches off my hair last night and immediately went down another 2 and a half pounds. WELCOME TO MY WORLD.

Moving on. My little belly has expanded some (I pinky swear!) recently, and it's not at all unlikely for me to walk around the office all day with my pants completely undone. Oh yeah, sure, sometimes I rig em with a hair tie, but some days I just say forget it and let it all hang out. Before you freak out on me, realize that I have only been wearing longer, loose fit tops on these special days, and I'm basically sequestered up in the attic of my office by myself, so no one's been traumatized. Yet.

The proof:
Target dressing room photo op.
Sorry for the bare tummy- it's not really my style, but I looked like a tent otherwise.


About two weeks ago I ordered a prenatal Pilates dvd, because who are we kidding- I'm not getting any more fit or limber laying around in bed all evening. I always imagined myself as this fit pregnant lady, working out throughout the whole thing, in shape and strong. Then I got introduced to a little first trimester action and all thoughts of actual movement flew out the window. I could barely walk at a normal speed. Old ladies were passing me on the way in to QT. Now I can come up with a whole long list of reasons why I would rather just lie around than move my body in anything resembling exercise. Even my teeth-brushing squats have taken a hiatus, and that's saying something.

So here we are, two weeks later and I finally decide to take the plastic off this dvd because I'm tired of the fit pregnant lady on the front cover mocking me and my ice cream. So my Saturday morning started off with some nice stretching and more general movement than I'm recently accustomed to. About 5 minutes in, I'm feeling the burn in my hammies and my soup can dumbbells are making sloshing noises as I gracefully fling my arms through the air. And I must say, I am not too thrilled with the audience I've somehow acquired in the form of my husband and dog, who have nothing better to do but stand in the kitchen eating breakfast and stare wide-eyed at the pregnant gal grunting and contorting in front of the tv. REAL SUPPORTIVE.

I somehow make it through the first 10 minute section, (Yeah, that's right. They're only 10 minutes each. No need to overextend myself.) and over-zealously decided that I can do another segment, goshdarnit! I wisely choose the floor routine, but get shamed again when Miss Ballerina with a Basketball Under Her Shirt sits in a virtual split and folds her entire body in half, reaching for her right foot. My legs look more like a baby v and it's all I can do to tuck my chin to my chest and shoot my toes a dirty look.

All in all, I'm happy with my new "exercise plan." I could only muster one 10 minute section the next day, and I haven't touched the stuff since, but baby steps. I have no doubt that in no time at all I will have the body of a dancer.

Like, maybe a belly dancer.