Bump Found - Week 24

6 MONTHS!!!

Uterus is the size of a SOCCER BALL!  No wonder it looks like I swallowed one!

I’ve discovered what it feels like to be an awkward puppy.  You know, when their body is changing and they are tripping all over themselves?  Yep, that’s me!  I’m a total klutz these days!  AND my hands have turned to butter.  Its really a cruel joke.  Its getting harder and harder to bend over, yet I drop everything so I HAVE to bend over.   What is that about?  And you guys…..I totally ate ish this week!  Luckily it was in the privacy of my own bedroom but still, not cool!   I was in the bathroom getting ready for bed when stinky Albert started his horking noise like he was going to spew.  Rather than staying on the vinyl floor, he starts running towards the bedroom carpet.  Why do animals feel the need to puke on carpet rather than hard floors?!?!  I start to run after him in a bent position trying to grab onto him when all of the sudden I feel gravity set in.  “UH OHHHHHH, I’m going DOWN!!!!”  I shielded my belly and fell onto my knee and shoulder giving myself a nice rug rash.  Carrying extra weight sure makes you hit the ground a lot harder!  AND its that much more difficult to get back up.  My husband said I looked like a beetle stuck on its back.  LOL!!!  Don’t worry, the baby’s okay.  The only thing hurt was my pride, and maybe my knee. 

I had my 6 month check-up this week.  Baby B is right on track with a heart rate of 137.  I’m measuring right on track as well and weighed in exactly at the 20 pound mark.  YIKES!  I also had my glucose and anemia tests at this appointment but the results won’t be in until next week.  Fingers crossed they’re both negative!

Sleep?  She’s definitely taking after her daddy in this department and has become somewhat of a night owl.  Around 2:00 AM she starts kicking like crazy and wakes me up from a dead sleep.  Sometimes she settles down on her own and other times its not until I hike my happy unhappy butt downstairs for a bowl of cereal with strawberries.  Then she’s a happy camper and lets me go back to sleep.

  

Stretch Marks?  None on the belly yet…..

Best moment of the week?  Hearing her heartbeat again and making progress on the nursery!

Movement?  She’s kicking hard enough now that I can see my belly moving.  What a strange thing to see!  She’s also starting to move in ways that tickles…A LOT.  I sometimes find myself laughing out loud and wiggling to get her to stop.

  

Belly button in or out?  Flat as a pancake!  How weird to be able to see the inside of it without even trying.  

Current Mood?  So happy I could burst! 

Bump Found - Week 23

(12/01/12)

Baby Weighs Just Over 1 Pound! 

Well……The lovely side effects of pregnancy just keep giving.  I had my 6 month check-up with my dentist and I have "PIG" aka “Pregnancy Induced Gingivitis”.   Is that really a real thing?  It must be.   I knew my gums were more angry than usual, but gingivitis?!  Hmmphh.   I guess it hasn’t helped that my toothbrush makes me gag so I’ve been seriously lacking in the quality brushing department.  Luckily they said once the baby comes my mouth should get back to normal……

Cravings?  I still can’t get enough cereal and strawberries.   I want strawberry everything!  Strawberry milk, strawberries and waffles, strawberries in my cereal.  Good thing, Special K makes a delicious cereal with the strawberries already in it.  Yum!  My husband has stopped asking me what I want to eat because he usually gets “cereal” or “waffles” on my part, which is followed by an eye roll and a “Gah, again?” on his part.

Queasy or Sick?  Not really, just light-headed, A LOT.  My doctor said I’m experiencing really low blood pressure so I may find myself feeling faint.  So far, its been okay but the baby must have shifted this week because I nearly fainted at work.  That was weird!  I was sitting at my desk, when all of the sudden I got really hot and started feeling funky.  I think the baby was up against an artery because all of the blood rushed out of my face and all I could see was white.  I slinked out of my chair and laid on the floor by my desk.  Boom!  I instantly started feeling better.  I’m sure I looked ridiculous all sprawled out on the office floor.

Current Mood?  I’m SO SO happy! Throw in an occasional irrational cry from hormone overload, but its mostly all smiles these days!

Nursery Progress:   We got the picture rail installed this week!  It still needs to be painted but it looks fantastic.  Its just what I had envisioned and the letters we made will fit nicely on it.  I’ve also been working on the baby’s crib mobile.  I don’t really have a design I’m going off of, just the idea in my head.  Below is one of the owls I made that I’ll be hanging from the mobile.  I’m so excited!!!

Bump Found - Week 22

(Originally written 11/24/12)

Originally I promised pictures every 4 weeks.  Due to the bump's rapid weekly expansion,
get ready for more pictures from here on out. 

Ian felt the baby kick this week!  We were having a lazy Saturday morning lying in bed when she started kicking up a storm.  Usually when he puts his hand on my stomach she stops squirming and stays completely still.  I think she’s teasing her daddy.  But this time was different and she was kicking really hard.  We may have a feisty one on our hands.  I’m not sure where she’ll get that attribute from.

He laid his hand on my belly and……. “WHOAAAAA!”  He said.  He moved his hand and there was another strong, thump, thump thump.  “I just felt her again!”  He said.  We both started laughing with joy.  It was like Christmas morning!    

  

We started our registry this week.  My friends had all told me this was an overwhelming process but I was quick to dismiss their claims.  Okay guys.  You were right.  It was so stressful!  Do you know how many different baby bottles there are to choose from?  Or how many baby monitors?  How do you know which one to choose?  And the big items are so expensive that if you choose the wrong one then you’re out $200 bucks.  The worst was the car seats / strollers.  That’s when we called it quits.  We know that we want a 3-wheeled jogging stroller.  I don't jog but I can pretend, right?  And I’d prefer the car seat / stroller combo just to make my life easy, but the only one they carried came in either lime green and grey or purple and black.  I really liked the stroller and car seat itself.  I just hated the colors!  The green and grey one was nice but at least two of my friends have the exact same colored strollers / car seats and I don’t like having the same thing as other people if I can avoid it.  I know, major world problems.  But seriously, it was a lot more stressful than I had imagined it would be….And long.  Like two hours long.  So I finished up online.  That was so much better!  And from the comfort of my home, I was able to see what my husband was scanning when I wasn’t looking.  Busted!  You'll just have to make due with the bottled water we already have. :) 

Below are links to our registries.  They are still a work in progress.  Feel free to check them out and please let me know if there’s a life-changing item I have forgotten.

Baby's R Us Registry

Enter my first/last name and city/state

Amazon.com Registry

Bump Found - Week 21

(Originally written 11/17/12)

Well Chris Brown is back this week.  What is up with that song?!?!    The lyrics are “Don’t wake me up,” so why do I keep waking up at 2:00am with that stupid song stuck in my head?  At least I had a few weeks reprieve.   Sigh. 

Speaking of sleep, I’m not getting much of it these days.  If it isn’t Mr. Brown waking me up, then its some other discomfort or crazy unsettling dream.   For real.  They’ve been pretty scary lately.  Maybe I should stop watching “Criminal Minds” and “I Almost Got Away with It” (SUCH GOOD SHOWS!) until after I give birth.

I think the baby likes country music.  Well, she either likes it or hates it.  I can’t be sure at this point, but every time I turn it on she starts kicking like crazy.  It might be because I have a tendency to sing along but we’ll pretend that’s not the reason she’s kicking.

I’m totally on a peppermint craze right now.  I went on a search for peppermint bark at Costco and they didn’t have it.  They have peppermint bark almost all year long but now that it’s the holiday season….There’s none to be found.   Dah!   A few days later I went to Bi-Mart for my mom and as I was walking through the candy isle, a little old lady stopped me and pointed out that Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark is the best.  That’s just creepy.  How did she know I’ve been on a week long hunt for bark?!?!   She looked like Mrs. Claus, no joke, so maybe……….Just maybe…….

This week is Thanksgiving.  We have a LOT to be thankful for this year!  Great family, friends, health, and especially for the little grasshopper growing rapidly inside my belly and making me itch like mad.  I wanted to make a shirt that had an arrow pointing to my belly that said “This is what I’m thankful for,” but I ran out of time. Oh well. L

Bump Found - Week 20! Half Way There!

Originally written  (11/10/12)

Baby is the size of a Banana!

The "mom cheeks" are starting. Ick. 

This pregnancy is flying by!  The first 14 weeks seemed like time was standing still but once I hit the second trimester milestone its been going by so quickly.   We are now half way done.  In 20 more weeks (or less) she’ll be here!

YEP I said SHE!!!!  We found out this week that we’re having a little girl.  To be honest, we are completely shocked!  Shocked!  Every fiber in my body has screamed that we were having a boy since day one.  And its not like it was wishful thinking either.  Before I even got pregnant, we said that IF we could choose we’d probably choose to have a girl first.  Why?  Because we can agree on more girl names than boy’s.  Haha.  So when the technician said “It’s a girl” both of our mouths dropped to the floor.   I think I asked the technician three different times if she was sure.  She said that the images were very clear and she was certain that we’re having a girl.  We’re both over the moon with joy but how could I have been so wrong?  I guess my motherly intuition needs some fine tuning before she gets here.   Or does it?  I have only bought two baby things for myself prior to becoming pregnant, and guess what?  They were both for a girl!

We didn’t want to have a big party to reveal the gender but rather just a few of our closest friends and family to share the news with.  I wish more of my family could have attended but that’s the trouble with living in different cities/states.  Regardless, it was a fun time and my husband came up with a very clever way to share the news.   That’s right.  I said my husband came up with it.  He’s so creative!   Shhh, don’t tell him I told.
 
*I did learn an important lesson though.  It doesn’t matter if you have a small get together or a large party.  The prep work and clean-up for either one takes the same amount of time.  Who knew!?!

It wouldn't be a Bachtel event if it wasn't pouring down rain, would it?!?!

Bump Found - Week 19

(Originally written 11/03/12)

Cravings?  Oh. My. Gosh.  Waffles with strawberries and whipped cream!  They’re the best!  On Sunday I had it for breakfast and then again for dinner and then again for breakfast on Monday.  And now just thinking about it, I may have figured out what’s for dinner tonight.  Yum!

Movement ?  The baby is moving like crazy!  To the point where I jump every once in a while because its such a strong sensation and it catches me off guard.  I wish it would happen constantly.  It brightens my day with every little poke.

  

Showing?  I would say so!  My belly button is getting shallow…..And wide….And gross.  I hate the way belly buttons look all stretched out through shirts.  Seriously?  My belly button is NOT the size of a tennis ball so why does it look that way through my shirts?  The other day I filled my belly button with toilet paper and covered it with tape but it was an epic fail, and not to mention kind of uncomfortable.   So that lasted about 5 minutes.  Why is there not such a product to solve this issue?  I’m going to invent a belly button blocker.   You heard it here first folks!  

Stretch marks?  So……I’ve been a huge slacker about getting lotion to rub on my belly until this week.  I figured it was mostly about genetics so I wasn’t in any rush to purchase a product that may or may not help and would just make me greasy.  Now I completely regret it.  It was a very somber day yesterday when I noticed my first stretch mark.  Its very little but I think it has a friend sprouting up right next to it.  Sigh……..

Sleep ?  The past two weeks, sleep is not my friend.  I’ve always been a back sleeper.  Now I’ve been told that I’m big enough, I should attempt to start sleeping on my side.  When I try to sleep on my left side I get indigestion.  When I sleep on my right side, my hip falls asleep.  Hmmmph. This could be a very long 4ish months.   

Looking forward to?  Our gender appointment!  Its on Friday, 11/9.  I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bump Found - Week 18

(Originally written 10/27/12)  Almost caught up!


We made huge strides on the nursery this week! I designed and cut out stencils for all 26 letters of the alphabet.  To my disappointment, due to the noise, and the dust, and the general un-safeness of using power tools while pregnant, I was banned from the actual cutting process.  I hate asking people for help.  I’m actually quite terrible at it.  If there were a metal for stubborn independentness, I would take gold for sure.  Alas, I realized I can’t do everything so I asked my husband if he would mind cutting out at least 5 letters per week until the project was complete.  After about two hours he comes inside with a huge stack of letters.  “All done!”  He says.  They look amazing!!!  He’s a rockstar! Now I just have to paint them.  Maybe I’ll continue my progress of asking for help and have a painting party?  Who’s in?

Cravings?  COFFEE!!!  I can’t get enough of it.  And I don’t mind if its decaf.  I don’t even want the caffeine.  I just want the coffee flavor and the warmness.  Mmmmm.  I also had a weird prego craving.  I wanted Macaroni & Cheese with a side of Dill Pickle.  It was delicious!  It gave me wicked indigestion though so I don’t know if there will be a sequel. 

Showing?  I finally had someone ask when my due date was!  Hooray!!!  Then a few days later I had my first run-in with a belly toucher.  It was okay, since I knew her.  Secretly, it made me giddy!  I really don’t mind if people touch my stomach.  At least not people I know.  I’m not sure how I’ll feel when a stranger touches me.  But for now, its exciting because that means I actually LOOK pregnant rather than people wondering if I’ve dipped into the cookie jar a few too many times....Which I have.  But that's not the point.

I’m still on the hunt for some cute and comfortable flats.  My hips hurt so badly after just one hour of shopping that I finally broke down and went to the orthopedic shoe store…..And bought……….Dansko’s.  It wasn’t without some protest.  First I tried the clog-style.  I looked in the mirror and saw a garden gnome staring back at me so I quickly put those back in the box where they belonged.  I DID find some cuter more tolerable Mary-Jane style ones so I tried those and I must admit, they were pretty dang comfy.  I get why people like Dansko’s.  I just don’t know if I can do it.  They ended up going home with me but I’m not sure if they’ll stay there.  Stay tuned…….