Week Nineteen

Week Nineteen of Pregnancy: May 18-25, 2011

Symptoms: Tired, random & unpleasant waves of emotion (ie, suddenly wanting to cry for no apparent reason!)

Despite my whiny symptoms, we've had a pretty good week. Last weekend the weather was nice, so we had our first cookout - Lindsey and her kids came over and we set up a badminton net, plus Aaron took the boys to the store for food and came home with water guns :) So we grilled and played and talked until it got dark. It was extremely relaxing and satisfying. Spending fun time with family makes me not so homesick.

After that, though, the weather's been rather gloomy and cold. I had to wear two jackets to walk to work this morning. Of course, my intolerance to the slightest cool breeze is also to blame, but seriously, it was chilly. I'm hoping this coming weekend is nice, since Aaron has four days off. Maybe we'll finally get to go on that family hike / picnic that I've been daydreaming of, before I get too uncomfortable to hike.

Speaking of uncomfortable, I've started noticing little things that remind me of what it's like to actually have a BIG belly. Like when I walk to work, toward the end I start to get out of breath - that never happened before. And I keep bumping my belly on stuff at work because I'm not used to it sticking out. I know I'll look back on this in 20 weeks or so and be like, "HA! You thought it was big then??"

Now I'm off to peruse the Pottery Barn Kids catalog I got today and torture myself by looking at BOTH the slue and the pink stuff! (Only 8 more days...)

Weeks Seventeen & Eighteen

Week seventeen of pregnancy: May 4 - 11, 2011

Week eighteen of pregnancy: May 11-18, 2011

Symptoms: Tired.

It's been a pretty good two weeks. We're in a good nap routine after work, although it does eat up most of the afternoon. But that's been okay, because it's been col and/or rainy all month so far. I am ready for some hot weather and sunshine! To buy a baby pool and slather on sunscreen, to buy veggies at the farmer's market and to wear comfy shorts and sundresses!

By this point in my pregnancy with Declan, we knew he was a boy - I am beyond ready to find out what we're expecting this time around! I was so much less anxious about it the first time. The pregnancy hardly even seemed real then, we certainly weren't ready to start buying baby gear. It also didn't make so much of a difference the first time around, I don't think. We had nothing, we'd have to buy it anyway, pink or blue.

Baby bean is kicking up a storm in there, mostly in the evening. When I'm relaxing on the couch, I'll feel a flurry of kicks and rolls, but when I put my hand down there to see if they can be felt from the outside, baby stops. What a stinker! I mostly feel the movement very low, although I can feel the top of my uterus right around my belly button. Baby certainly has a lot of room to swim around in there!

My bellybutton is starting to change shape again, which I love. I know some people are self-conscious about their bellybuttons popping out, but I'm borderline obsessed. Bellybutton skin is so weird and soft and squishy! Mine's not sicking out yet, but it's getting shallower and tighter. It never went completely back to normal after Declan, though.

Can't wait for the 19 week update, because that means I'll only have one week left until the ultrasound!

Week Sixteen

Week 16 of pregnancy: April 27 - May 4, 2011

Symptoms: Hungry all the time... big belly... are they connected? Yes.

Not much commentary again this week. Just waiting (not so) patiently for my appointment on Friday.

I've been craving fruit again (I did with Declan, too, so please no one tell me that this means it's a girl!) Strawberries, plums, nectarines... Yum. But I've mostly been settling for apples. Other cravings? Grilled cheese (have had one for breakfast two days in a row), baked potatoes (making those tonight), anything with lemon pepper. Every night I make some kind of veggies, and I always add a healthy dose of lemon pepper to mine. It makes all veggies better!

Declan has been napping so well lately. Always at least an hour, usually two, at a relatively predictable time in the mid-afternoon. I'm hoping against hope that this schedule lasts until the baby is born. It would be nice to have chunk of time in the afternoon with just one child awake, so that I can get some stuff done that's hard to do with a toddler underfoot. I'm not so optimistic as to think that the baby would nap at the same time, but oh, that would be heavenly!

Speaking of getting stuff done, I'm off to finish the dishes and start dinner before the kiddo wakes up.

Just Remembered

Becky and I baked dozens of yummy oatmeal raisin cookies the night before I went to be induced. It was a great distraction, a way to get out of the house (we baked at Sue's), and the nurses got a delicious snack the next morning.

I had totally forgotten about baking cookies.

I want to do it again, but I also don't really want to be induced again, so hopefully I'll be kind of guessing that "this is it!" Maybe every time I have a few good contractions I'll make a batch... and if it turns out not to be labor, I'll eat them.

Mmm.