S/he's active!

At this point, I'm 19 weeks along, so next week I'll be halfway done! Crazy. Over the past few weeks, I've definitely felt movement every day. At first I wasn't sure if that's what it was, but now I'm sure. Little whatever his or her name is has apparently inherited his/her daddy's squirmy genes, and I have a feeling that in another 3 or 4 months, I'll be begging for some calmness in there!

I'm so excited that in 2 weeks we will know whether we are having a boy or girl! Well, let me rephrase that. In 2 weeks, the ultrasound technician and doctor will know if we are having a boy or a girl, and we will know by Christmas. :) Sorry Cindy, if I can hold out, so can you. :)

I attempted to find a picture of a 19-week-old fetus to see what mine would look like, but I couldn't find anything clear. Well, except aborted ones and I don't want to look at that. Nothing exceptionally exciting is even going on in there right now. S/he is basically developed and just growing. I did learn that s/he sleeps and wakes as much as a newborn, and probably already has a favorite position to sleep in. Wow! Don't get any bad habits in there, little one!

OK, OK. Ask and you shall receive...

So here's my belly. It IS a little bigger at night. I asked my doctor about it and she said it has to do with gravity. OK, so does that mean when I'm really big and put on a shirt that fits "snugly" in the morning, it will be too small at night? I guess I'll find out!

Hmmm, my protruding belly makes my head look small...

Oh, yeah--I'm so excited! I ordered 2 long-sleeve maternity t-shirts from oldnavy.com and they arrived today. They fit perfectly and I love them! It's not often that something I order online fits, so gotta love that.

I love our house!

And given everything we've done to it, I should! For the past 3 weekends, we have done lots & lots of chores. We've cleaned out all the junk, switched rooms around, painted 2 rooms, and gotten new carpet. The baby's room is now green, but we don't have a crib or bedding yet. We put most of the baby stuff we acquired in there, just haphazardly. It's very weird to look across the hall and see a green room with baby stuff in it. I keep thinking we've got a long way to go, but I know it will go by faster than I think it will.

It's kind of hard to tell the actual color from this pic...at first I wasn't crazy about it, but I really like it now. There is more contrast between the 2 colors than the picture shows.

What do you think? My plan over the next few months is to paint a few frogs jumping out of the chair rail, just randomly, no pattern. No harm--if they look horrible, we'll just paint over them. Yes? No? As we get it more organized, I'll post a picture of as much of the room as I can get in--this is just to see the wall color.

By the way--this weekend was cleaning weekend. Our house is CLEAN! I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts b/c cleaning will probably be the last thing on my mind come April/May! :)

Boring is good

Yesterday afternoon was my 3rd prenatal appointment, and I have nothing out of the ordinary to report. That's a good thing! My weight is where it should be (quite a surprise to me, since I haven't exactly been watching it), my waist measurement is where it should be, and the baby's heartbeat is normal. Hearing that will never get old. 150 beats per minute, and this time they had no trouble at all finding it.

I get the ultrasound 12/13. THE ultrasound. Boy or girl? We don't know, but we will! The plan is to have them seal it in an envelope and open it Christmas morning, IF we can wait that long. If not, I'll confess. :)

OK, we painted the guest room, we painted the baby's room, and we got new carpet. Phew! It's like a new house! We are still in the process of moving everything back where it goes, but I will post pictures no later than this weekend.

One more week till Thanksgiving!

Was that what I THINK it was???

I have heard/read that most pregnant women first feel baby movement somewhere between 16 and 20 weeks. Some earlier, some later. So at my not-quite-17-week stage, I have not really expected to notice anything yet. However, I can't say I haven't been looking for it. Well, last night, I think I may have felt the baby move! I can't be sure, but it was just a little tapping in the general area where the baby would be. I s'pose it could have been gas...though I have um, had enough of that lately to know the difference. :) So I'm going to assume it was the baby and go with that. I guess the baby likes Chipotle!

Yay, little Avery or whatever he will be named if he is a boy is swimmin' around in there! Practice now, little guy/girl, so you'll be too tired to keep me up at night later. :)

And by the way (and way off the subject), it really annoys me when men carry a bunch of change & keys in their pockets, and it jingles really loudly when they walk. I know they don't carry purses or anything, but there's gotta be a better way...

It's official

I'm fat. Well, I guess the baby has pushed the fat out, so I've got just enough of a pooch to look pudgy, but not pregnant. And just enough that I can no longer button any of my pants, and even some of my shirts! Today I am wearing maternity pants AND a maternity shirt. Although, the shirt is the least maternity-looking maternity shirt I have. Thank you Old Navy. It's weird--at night, I actually am round enough to look pregnant, but in the morning and during the day, not so much. I look like one of those teenage or early 20s girls you see walking around the mall who has a gut & a spare tire but tries to squeeze herself into low-riders and a too-tight t-shirt. They don't look pregnant--just fat. Oh, well. In a month or 2, anyone who may have thought I'm packing on the pounds will see why. :) Maybe by then, I'll be brave enough to post a picture on here...naw, I don't think so.

Now, if I could feel the baby move, I may start to enjoy this pregnancy thing!

The stuff

As promised (to my one regular blog reader), here's a picture of the baby stuff we acquired. It's not even all in the picture, but you get the idea. I still think we got SO lucky with this. Also, I was browsing in the baby section of Marshall's and I just couldn't resist getting the cute baby outfits in the other picture (below)! One of them is one of those sleepers that doesn't open at the bottom...like a wearable sleeping bag. I'm sure there's a name for it, but, well, I have a lot to learn. :) Also, a prayer lamb that a good friend gave me this past weekend. It's so soft and soooooo cute and sweet! It says 'Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep' when you press his tummy.

What's up with this?

OK, so anyone who knows me knows I'm not a particularly emotional person, and I don't get dramatic over little things. So imagine my surprise when I overreacted to something so stupid!Today I was in the mall and I stopped in Motherhood maternity to see if I could find a pair of pants. I was browsing in the store for a good 5 minutes or so, and no one else was in there except the 2 ladies working. Neither of them said a WORD to me, and then a lady walked in and one of them said "Hi, welcome to Motherhood." Then another lady walked in and the employee said the same thing to her. I was thinking 'I'm here, I'm shopping, and I'm standing right next to you. Am I invisible? I'm going to be a mother too.' Now, usually I wouldn't give this a second thought, but I was so bothered by it and my feelings were so hurt that when I got in my car, I actually STARTED CRYING! Yes, crying. Because a retail employee in a store didn't acknowledge me. WHAT????

Oh, please don't let this be the start of these pregnancy hormones I hear so much about. I don't want to cry at the drop of a hat, don't want to lash out at people, and I don't want to forget my own name. Well, only time will tell...

What should we do?

At my next appointment (which is still 2 weeks away), we will have to either get the blood screening test that tests for chromosomal abnormalities, or not get it at all. If it comes back showing a possibility of a problem, I will have to get an amnio, which I really don't want to do. I had decided not to get the test, but after thinking about it, it would be nice to have the reassurance that everything's fine. If they came back and said it shows something weird, I would worry for the rest of the pregnancy. But if it came back great, then great. Still, I'm leaning towards no test. Any opinions?

By the way, I AM going to post a picture of all the baby stuff...just haven't gotten around to it yet. :)