So, first things first- this last week placed me at 20 weeks pregnant. In fact, today is 20 weeks and 6 days, which means that I am officially over the halfway mark! I've been feeling pretty good this week. My energy level has been up and I actually feel smaller this week than I did last week. Less bloated, I guess.
The proof is in the pictures!
Right? Don't I look way bigger at 19 weeks?? And whiter! But that's just the camera playing tricks. I didn't go tanning, I swear!
But yeah, it's been a pretty good week, so other than a little headache today, I can't really complain!
We got our new bed over the weekend so we set that up and it's so comfy! Our old bed was my old double that my parents bought me when I was like, 12 or something, so we were due for a new one. We got a California King and it is huge! I keep teasing Brian that I can't find him in the middle of the night!
We found this quilt deeply discounted from Bed Bath and Beyond. It's really pretty- pink with some light greens and tans. I never usually go for those colors and I thought they would probably be too girly, but Brian said he really didn't care as long as I liked it. So I steered away from my typical turquoise and went with something new.
Brian genuinely doesn't mind. Neither does Kevin!
I love that face!
And moving on to the fun stuff... setting up the nursery! Here's a quick before tour of the room that we're working with...
That's the doorway into the room on the right and a walk-in closet on the left. Our room is the door straight down the hall. Once that mess is gone, the plan is to put the changing table/dresser/hutch on that wall. Notice the cathedral ceilings... they're like, 14 ridiculous feet tall...
When you walk through the door and turn to your right, this is the wall you face. (Kevin says hello!) We're planning on putting the crib either directly on that wall, or in the left corner at an angle... we'll have to see once we get all of the furniture in there...
If you turn to the left after walking in, you face this wall. (There's a full bath all the right side of the picture.) I want to replace that old rickety turquoise book shelf with a sturdier bookcase, kind of like this one:
Just a little bit wider. And made with love- my dad and I already have some plans in the works to build it ourselves! I'm pretty excited about that! Side note- I love that my parents are so on board with all of my shenanigans. Like, obviously they're excited about a baby in general, but I ask my mom if we can make a quilt together and she wants to, I ask my dad about making a book case together and he wants to... it makes me so happy! I love them!
Anyway, I'm pretty sure this last wall will end up being my favorite...
It's the first wall you see when you walk in the door. It's also the shortest wall in the room, so I feel pretty confident that I can paint it or stencil it or wall paper it without too much risk of falling off a ladder. So not only will I think it's going to be a pretty wall, but I want to make it a reading nook! It has close proximity to the bookcase wall (see the turquoise?). Under the window I want to put this love seat/sleeper sofa from Ikea:
I like it for a couple of reasons... 1st, it would give us a place to sleep guests if anyone wants to come stay with us for a night or two (hint, hint, SIL Melissa!). Second, I've read more than one mom say that they love having a sleeper as opposed to a glider in the nursery for those times that they fall asleep during middle of the night feedings. Third, it will be a good space for me and Brian to sit and hang out with the baby at bed time or in the morning or whenever. I know Brian will want to spend just as much time in there as I do, so we should both be comfortable, right? And last, as the baby starts getting older (heck, probably even before), I want to start a tradition of reading with her, and I can picture the three of us (with Kevin at our feet) curled up under the quilt, grabbing a book of the bookcase, and reading out loud. I actually already ordered some pretty leather bound books that are going to be decorative and hopefully inspire her imagination.
Don't act like you weren't thinking it... :)
Oh, And I also want to hang this chandelier in that area too:
Cute, right? In my head, this is going to be the sweetest little nursery ever, and right now, the reading nook is one of my favorite ideas. Updates to come soon!
I should probably update this blog more often because we have so much going on lately! We've been pretty much making over the house. We added a shelving unit from Ikea to the living room, we got new floors throughout the entire house (wood laminate in the dining room and bedrooms, and carpet in the living room and up the stairs), we just ordered a new bed and picked out some new bedding yesterday for our room in colors that are totally new to us, and then of course- most exciting of all- we're starting to put together the nursery! For example, my mom and I spent over 2 hours at Joann's on Sunday picking out fabric and patterns for a baby quilt. This is what I ended up with:
I've never made a quilt before and the last time she did was like, 15 years ago or something, so this should be a frustrating fun bonding experience for us. I will have to add some pictures of all of that madness soon!
In the meantime, I'm rounding out week 19 and entering week 20- the halfway mark! I'm noticing now that my stomach is finally starting to pop a little bit. I'm still not totally thrilled about it getting bigger, but it's starting to look more pregnant and less beer belly. So that's good.
The latest update from The Bump says the baby is the size of a cantaloupe at week 20. That seems huge to me! Especially since she's only halfway baked! The cool thing about her getting bigger is that I'm finally starting to feel her. I've been "feeling" her for a couple of weeks, but wasn't sure until this weekend.
Some people say it feels like gas bubbles or butterflies or tickling from inside. The most close comparison to what I've felt is the gas. Not like, farty gas though. Just like digestion, I guess. You know how you'll be sitting in class or in a theater or somewhere extremely quite and then all of a sudden your stomach starts to growl and everyone hears it? Well you know that little movement you feel right before that deep growl? Well it's a movement like that that I have been feeling.
Of course, I like to eat, so I didn't know that it wasn't my stomach growling... until recently when she started getting bigger. Like, now I can definitely tell it's her moving because it's starting to feel stronger.
The other day, I felt her so I put my hand on my belly right away and after a couple of seconds, I felt her bump again! That's been the only time I've felt it externally. Every time I start to feel her, I call Brian over, but he hasn't been able to feel her yet, so I think most of what I'm feeling is all internal. My little baby canteloupe!
Do you want to see something scary??
At our ultrasound last week, we could see her doing so many cute things like touching her face, sucking her thumb, kicking her legs. And then the technician pointed out that she yawned. The tech caught a picture of it and printed it out for us. Our baby went from this sweet little thing:
To this yawning beast:
That's frightening, right? Every time I look at this picture, she reminds me of a t-rex, or an alligator, or this scene from Beetlejuice:
Do you remember when Geena Davis makes that face to scare Winona Ryder?? Yikes! :)
No, I can already tell she's going to be beautiful by her cute little button nose and I can't wait to meet her!
So I was thinking about it today and I realized that I never actually wrote about how the rest of Valentine's Day went... and that wouldn't be right because it was the BEST Valentine's Day in the history of Valentine's Days!
So we found out that Buzz is a girl around 9:30 in the morning. Like, I said in my last post, Brian made that discovery by accident because the original plan was to have the ultrasound tech write the gender down, we were going to keep it folded up, and then open it with all of the parents at dinner. Brian felt horrible about accidentally noticing the gender on the screen, but I was thrilled. It would have been the longest day knowing that the answer is right there, but I couldn't check it for like, 9 hours! It was an extremely exciting morning to say the least!
But then I had to go back to work. Boo.
Actually, the work day wasn't that bad because I missed about half of it, and my students all knew what I was doing that morning, so they were all excited to find out. Of course, Kyle think I should name her Kylie, Jonathan came up with Jonathina... the kids are goofy, but they're full of questions and actually pretty helpful for 9th graders, so I told them I will accept any and all suggestions for names. I think they like being involved. :)
Brian didn't have to work, so he picked me up and brought me home to a nice, clean house that smelled fantastic. And wouldn't you know it, the smell was coming from a huge bouquet of flowers filled with roses and daisies in my favorite color!
They are so pretty and I love looking at them and smelling them! He also got me the sweetest card, some chocolate covered almonds, and an hour long pregnancy massage. It's like he knows me or something!
I made him a card...
On a funny side note- I obviously made the card before Valentine's Day, but the colors I used are exactly the colors I wanted to use for a nursery if we were having a girl. So I've already been in touch with my mom about helping me make a quilt that looks as similar to the card as I can get it... updates to follow!
I kind of splurged on Brian's gift this year. I got him a tool chest that's pretty much identical to this one:
Clearly, it cost more than a box of chocolates, but it's something we needed and Brian deserves the chance to make the garage more of a "dad" space now, right?
And the excitement of the day wasn't over yet. The parents came over around 5:30-6 for dinner. Brian and I made lasagna, salad, and garlic bread. My day was so hectic that I didn't get a chance to eat much throughout the day and I was so hungry. But I couldn't wait to share the news, so we spilled the beans before we even started eating.
I forgot to take pictures of it, but I put the print outs from the ultrasound that said "Hi!!! I'm a girl!!!" into an envelope for each of the parents so that they would have something to open.
Once they opened it and read it, they were all so thrilled! And then we ate some awesome Italian food, followed by some awesome red velvet cake and good conversation with the people we love most. Truly the best day we could ask for!
We had our 18 week ultra sound yesterday morning! When I was offered the chance to schedule this appointment on Valentine's Day, I jumped at the opportunity because what could be more romantic than discovering the gender of your baby and sharing in that excitement together? (Well, besides making the baby itself... sorry, mom!)
Anyway, Brian and I made this grand plan that we would have the ultra sound done in the morning and then have a triple valentine's date with our parents where we would all find out the gender together. We told the ultra sound tech our plan- she loved it and was very careful about having us look away when she was in gender-specific areas. She even printed us out pictures with the gender written on it for us to open later.
The ultra sound went well- everything appears normal. The baby measured about 10 ounces. We got to see it suck it's thumb, yawn, do some back flips, and kick it's little legs- kind of amazing, considering I still can't really feel any of it!
Well at the end of the appointment, Brian accidentally looked at the screen and saw the gender result- unbeknownst to me. Once we left the room, he admitted that he saw it. He felt bad but I was excited because I wanted to know so badly, so I was like, "Tell me! It's a girl, right?"
And wouldn't you know it...
Needless to say, we were both pretty psyched about that! Now I can't stop thinking about names and nursery ideas and little baby dresses...
It's helped to take my mind of of my ever-growing stomach. Speaking of which, here is the latest photographic update of that disaster:
It's definitely not as bad as it could be. I've gained 8 pounds. I just don't feel like I look pregnant. I want to pop a little so I have a clearly defined pregnant belly. Right now I think I look like a more fluffier version of my regular self... like I drank too much beer on Super Bowl Sunday. That's kind of how I feel too- bloated and full and a little sluggish. I will say this though- my energy seems to be coming back a little bit. For example, it's almost 9:00 pm and I'm still awake. That hasn't happened in quite some time.
I'm still a little frustrated because like I said, I still don't really feel pregnant. I've been feeling like I'm just me, gaining weight and looking fatter than ever. I'm still going to the gym almost every morning, but let's face it, working out is getting more difficult- I can't lift my legs as high as I used to be able to in class, I'm practically kneeing myself in the stomach in spin class every time one of my legs comes up to pedal, and I'm very aware of my heart rate now, so I try to tone it down instead of pushing myself when I feel like it's getting too high. Weird because I ALWAYS push myself. My whole life has always revolved around sports and fitness (helll-lo, athlete, coach, PE teacher) and so this is a very odd transition for me.
And like I've said before, I'm not a skinny person by nature. Though I've never really gone on a strict diet, I've always had to work at maintaining weight and I gain weight very easily. So to be gaining weight and not being to do anything about it is kind of freaking me out. I know I'm supposed to be gaining weight and I am actually slightly below the recommended weight gain allowance for my size, but I'm not comfortable with it yet. Here's a side by side from when I starting taking pictures of my belly at week 7 back in November to this last weekend at Week 18:
See how it's just looking kind of like a chubby gut? And to think I didn't like how big I looked before! :)
Okay, I'm done ranting. For now, anyway! I apologize if I sound ungrateful, because I promise, I'm not at all. I have had a fairly easy pregnancy so far and I cannot stress how much I have appreciated that. I'm just still trying to wrap my head around this new figure and the extra weight around my middle! The important thing is, I'm healthy, my baby girl is healthy, and Brian loves both of us. He's the best- he tells me I'm beautiful every day, and that means the world to me.
