Monday, October 22, 2012

{week 20}

20 weeks 

Week 20 (Oct 13 – Oct 19)

This baby is officially half-baked!

First of all, I realized this week that I’m actually off by a week, and really this was week 21.  Yes starting on the 13th I was 20 weeks, but technically speaking it was my 21st week being pregnant.  Pregnancy math is just complicated. But I’m too lazy to go back and change it, so we’re just going to go with it. :)  This was an exciting week, though!  On Saturday of course was my It’s A Baby party, which was just FABULOUS!  I had so much fun.  And although it was not a shower, and gifts were not supposed to be given, I got lots of cute things for the little one. :) It really was just a fun afternoon of girl time, and I had such a great time!  Not to mention my BFF is quite the hostess!  Pictures coming soon, I promise.  Sunday I went to a baby shower (and took some photos you can see here), and then had a photo shoot afterwards (which you can see here).  That was also tons of fun…just a baby-filled weekend! Then the week flew buy with more busy days at work, and evenings working on our house.  Thursday was the big day, and our house officially went on the market!!  We have our fingers crossed that it sells soon-ish, although that means we need to get out and find where we want to move to!  Needless to say, nothing but busy times ahead for this family. ;)

Size of baby: banana

Total weight gain/loss:  16 lbs. 

Maternity clothes? Yes, and lots of them.

Stretch marks? Not yet

Sleep: not horrible, but still not great.

Symptoms: nothing really to report!  The headaches have gotten much better, just a little back pain now and iffy sleep.  Otherwise, feeling a-ok!

Best moment this week: my party!  Feeling lots of love by all the women in my life and getting to celebrate the little girl joining our family. ;)  (at a close second, was our house going on the market on Thursday!) 

Movement: yes, I have quite a wiggle worm in there (and once again, kicking me as I type this)!  Matt still hasn’t felt it from the outside yet, but I know it’s coming soon.  I love the little reminders that she’s still growing in there. :)

Food cravings: candy.  Happy Halloween?

Anything making you queasy or sick: nope!

Have you started to show yet: I think it’s pretty obvious now, because more and more people at work are starting to say something to me.  This question is probably getting the boot soon, because there’s really no denying it anymore!

Gender: GIRL!!!!!!

Belly Button in or out? in

Wedding rings on or off? on

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy!

Looking forward to: some family time on Saturday, and hopefully a relatively quiet Sunday to get things done at home.  Also, getting to start looking at places to live!! :)

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

our humble abode

as I’ve mentioned, we have decided to put our house on the market, in hopes of selling it quickly and moving to a home with more space before the little bambino arrives.  crazy? probably.  but hopefully 100% worth it in the end.  {key word: hopefully}

anyway, we’ve done a LOT of work on our house in the past couple of months, so I thought it would be fun to give you a little “before & after”.   the area that has seen the most improvement is the front of the house ~ as you will see in the before picture, we had zero curb appeal.  but one weekend and a little elbow grease, and we {by we I mean Matt} fixed that right up!

so here was the view of the front of our house before:

20121006_153742

{as if I have to point out the flaws…} note the never-painted door, mis-matched window trim, paint-peeling-shutters, dirt-pile of a garden bed…. you get the point.

and after:

20121014_183035

pretty big difference, wouldn’t you say??   Matt did a superb job of fixing this puppy up, I must say.  He and a friend spent an entire Sunday re-painting the entire front, removing the shutters and putting up new trim, painting said new trim, and landscaping that front little garden bed.  I planted the mums, thankyouverymuch. Matt also re-painted our door {brown, after a solid hour in the paint store of me trying to decide what color to choose}, and replaced our porch light and house numbers.  Oh, and he also mowed the grass while he was at it. :)  GO HUSBAND!

and now a few more pictures, just for fun. {by the way, these are just cell phone pictures, so don’t get too excited}

front window and garden bed before:

20121006_153710

and after {with a bonus doggy in the window}

20121014_183114

and the front door {yes, I even purchased a new welcome mat for the occasion}:

 20121006_153722   20121014_183110      

so, now that we’ve spruced up the place, we just have to put it on the market {happening TOMORROW!}, and cross our fingers that someone actually wants to buy it.

20121014_183054

fingers officially crossed.

Friday, October 12, 2012

{week 19}

 19 weeks

Week 19 (Oct 6 – Oct 12)

We had a busy (and tiring!) weekend and week working around the house.  Saturday I supervised as all of the “extra things” (or as Matt would say: JUNK) got moved into storage, and then Sunday Matt and a friend worked on fixing up the outside of our house pretty much all day long.  I worked inside with more organizing, de-cluttering, re-arranging, all that good stuff.  (I paused for a photo session, which was lots of fun!)  The work continued into the week, and we pretty much spent all of our evenings working on more projects.  I didn’t realize how many little things needed to be done to get our house ready for sale, holy cow!  But we are getting closer to the bottom of the to-do list, so the end is in sight.  Thankfully this weekend should be a little less work-ish and a little more fun-ish.  My “It’s A Baby!” party is Saturday, and Sunday I have a baby shower and another photo session with one cute 9 month-old.  It’s just going to be a baby sort of weekend, and I couldn’t be happier! 

Size of baby: mango

Total weight gain/loss:  16 lbs. 

Maternity clothes? Yep!  I got my order from Old Navy this week, and love pretty much all of it.  Some are a little big in the belly to wear just yet, but they will be perfect for this fall/winter.  Everything is super comfy and super cute though, and at a great price!  Go Old Navy! :)

Stretch marks? Not yet

Sleep: Not getting much of that these days.

Symptoms: Not much to report other than trouble sleeping and having to pee all. the. time.  Feeling lots of movement, but no complaints about that!

Best moment this week: seeing the MAJOR improvement in the front of our house.  It is so cute now!  I think Matt definitely nailed the “curb appeal” concept. 

Movement: yes, and lots of it!  She’s moving around right now, as I type this actually. :)  She’s been very active at night this week…clearly a night owl like her mama.  It’s still cute and fun right now, I’m hoping it stays that way and doesn’t get painful/annoying too soon.

Food cravings: fast food this week.  Maybe just out of laziness but it has just sounded delicious. Along with all of my sweet treats. :)

Anything making you queasy or sick: nope!

Have you started to show yet: Yep.  I definitely feel like the belly is growing, and getting a little more round.  I can still dress strategically to hide it, but I don’t usually have the energy to care. :)

Gender: GIRL!!!!!!

Belly Button in or out? in

Wedding rings on or off? on

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy!

Looking forward to: my party tomorrow!  I can’t wait to see all of the crafty decorations my BFF came up with, and to spend the afternoon with all of my favorite girlies.  I will be sure to take a bazillion pictures to share. :)

Friday, October 5, 2012

{week 18}

 18 weeks

Week 18 (Sep 29 – Oct 5)

This was easily the best, and most memorable week of my pregnancy so far.  On Tuesday, we found out that

WE ARE HAVING A BABY GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not only that, but we got to watch our little darling on the ultrasound screen for a good 30 minutes.  Boy does she move and shake in there!  We saw her sit Indian-style on my bladder, followed by a karate-kick to my gut, and then she decided to just stand on my bladder.  Great to know she has already found how to test her mama…  Really, though, seeing her on that screen was just amazing.  Matt and I both sat in awe as we watched, grins plastered on both of our faces. The ultrasound tech looked our girl up and down and said that she looks completely healthy, had a strong heartbeat of 146, and is definitely a SHE!  Best. Day. Ever.  I could have cared less if the little one was a boy or a girl, just knowing is awesome.  Hello……shopping!!!!  Not to mention, finding out that so far she is healthy and measuring right on track was fantastic. I’m in love. :)

So, yeah…I don’t really even remember what happened the rest of this week, the only thing I can think about is those 30 minutes. 

Size of baby: sweet potato

Total weight gain/loss:  another doctor’s appointment means another look at the scale…  I’m now up a whopping 16 lbs. (yikes!)  BUT!  The doctor confirmed that because I was underweight to begin with, that number is totally ok, and I’m right on track.  (PHEW!) 

Maternity clothes? It has officially happened, I’m wearing maternity clothes.  Well, not at the moment, but more days than not this week at work. :)  I also ordered some more things from Old Navy online (sale + free shipping? yes please!).  I’m not fighting it anymore… this belly is getting harder to stuff into pre-pregnancy clothes.

Stretch marks? Not yet

Sleep: same story.

Symptoms: fewer headaches, and more baby flutters!

Best moment this week: hands down… hearing IT’S A GIRL!

Movement: more and more every day.  And so far, I love it.  I know it will get to a point where it is either painful or annoying…or both…but for now it’s fantastic.  Usually sometime around 2:00 every afternoon I get a little reminder that she’s still wiggling around in there.  Definitely brightens up my work day :)

Food cravings: still just sweets.

Anything making you queasy or sick: nope!

Have you started to show yet: I think I somehow look less pregnant in this week’s picture than I did last week…not sure what that’s all about.  Either way, though, I think we have definitely moved into “showing” territory.  Still waiting for the nice round belly though!

Gender: GIRL!!!!!!

Belly Button in or out? in

Wedding rings on or off? on

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy!

Looking forward to: getting our house on the market!  this weekend and this week we are finishing the last bit of preparations, and then this bad boy will officially be for sale!

 

And, just for good measure… the first pictures of our baby girl:

 baby-girl-1

baby-girl-2

and yes, the next one is a picture of her butt.  with an arrow pointing to her crotch.  just in case that wasn’t clear :)

baby-girl-butt

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

{week 17}

so yeah, this post is a little late.  I wrote it during week 17, I just didn’t get the picture edited and the post up in time.

 17 weeks

(um, woah.  so the belly…it has popped apparently?)

Week 17 (Sep 22 – Sep 28)

Exciting things to report this week… I’ve started to feel the baby move!  The first couple times, I wasn’t entirely sure what I was feeling, but as I’ve started feeling it more, I’m pretty confident.  It’s unlike anything I’ve ever felt before, so what else can it be?!  Aside from that, it was a pretty run-of-the mill week.  Saturday was “Strutt with your Mutt”, an annual charity walk put on by our local animal shelter, Wayside Waifs. Daisy had fun getting a walk in a new area, and seeing a bazillion other dogs.  Later that day I went to a brunch at Matt’s customer’s house, and got to hear all about how much they love him and his work. :)  The rest of the week was pretty typical… and then Friday night Jess and I had girls’ night and went to see Ben Folds Five.  We had a blast – I didn’t even miss the fact that I couldn’t drink, guess that’s what happens with best friends. :)

Size of baby: onion

Total weight gain/loss:  9lbs.  I’m still not getting back on the scale until I go to the doctor again.

Maternity clothes? I finally caved and wore one of the maternity dresses I got at the consignment sale a while back. In this week’s picture, even!  I thought it was the dress making my belly look bigger the day I wore it, but looking at the picture…maybe it’s more than just the dress. ha.

Stretch marks? Not yet

Sleep: no changes…a lot of waking up and hitting the bathroom.  I did buy the infamous pregnancy pillow (technically called a Snoogle – who names these things?!).  I wasn’t paying the $60+ retail price, so I was able to buy a slightly used one for just $15.  How’s that for a bargain!  I haven’t used it yet (and I think Matt is afraid of the thing), but I know it will come in handy soon.

Symptoms: still just headaches, and now a few flutters of movement!  Definitely the coolest symptom to date.  It feels like there are little bubbles in my belly popping, or a little fish swimming around.  WEIRD.  But cool. :)

Best moment this week: Girls night!  It was kind of like we were in high school all over again (although we were just a tad more responsible…).  We laughed and laughed, and it was just a fun night all around. :)

Movement: yes!!  The first flutter that I was (mostly) sure was the baby was on Tuesday while I was at work (after a false alarm the night before…).  I instantly texted Matt, and just waited to feel it again.  I felt it more and more each day, and Matt joked that our Pizza Roll was just turning over to finish cooking :)

Food cravings: anything sweet!

Anything making you queasy or sick: nope!

Have you started to show yet: Well, I guess I have to finally say yes.  Someone at work actually asked me if I was expecting this week.  Now, I think it was pretty brave of her to ask, but I guess I will take that as a sign that it’s becoming more obvious. :)  It still isn’t the round baby belly I’m imagining, but there is definitely something there, and apparently people are noticing!

Gender prediction: I am still going back and forth almost daily on my prediction, but most people think girl.  We will see on Tuesday! TUESDAY TUESDAY TUESDAY!!!!!  I can’t wait :)

Belly Button in or out? in

Wedding rings on or off? on

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy!

Looking forward to: FINDING OUT IF THIS PIZZA ROLL IS A BOY OR A GIRL!!!!

Time to start shopping...

Baby G...is a SHE!!