Baby Journey - Part 11

Baby Journey -Part 11:  Ups, Downs, and Looking for a House for Baby!

Weeks 29 and 30

29 Weeks

I’ve mentioned before the phrase my father-in-law said at the very beginning of our pregnancy about the 3 stages: “Weary - Cheery - and Dreary.”  In the first trimester I was absolutely weary and felt awful the first 16 weeks. During the majority of the second trimester I really was pretty cheery : )  Genuinely enjoying being pregnant. Felt kinda cute with a baby bump. Loving every minute of feeling and later seeing my little guy moving around in me, and overall I mostly felt pretty good.  Well. I sort of wish Steve had used a number of different adjectives instead of “dreary” for the third trimester, because so far he has been pretty accurate. I don’t think my “dreary” stage is full force yet - but honestly I can definitely feel it sinking in.  As I’m writing this I’m just about done with 30 weeks as tomorrow we reach 31 weeks. So basically 9 more weeks to go - if the little man holds out the whole time. I cannot imagine continuing to get bigger for 9 more weeks. I cannot fathom having more trouble getting out of bed than I already do.  And if you have seen me walking up the stairs or down the hallway at school by the end of the school day -then you probably agree with me that you can’t imagine me waddling and walking much slower than I already do.

I know that it’s going to happen. I know that it’s a good thing it means the baby is continuing to grow and develop and gain weight just like he should (and like I want him to) - just, I hope it’s understandable since this is my first go-round with all of this… that at the point I’m at now, I just cannot grasp how it’s all going to continue to just -grow and certain aspects of already being uncomfortable will get worse.

A cute outfit that my dad picked out : )

About a week ago I had another tiny meltdown. This one was tiny I would say.  Maybe not even a “meltdown” just so much as I was really not feeling well, was exhausted, and already feeling very uncomfortable. Anyway. Cody and I were watching something on TV and I was complaining about how I was feeling.  I was saying these type things about not imagining how I will still get so much bigger and more uncomfortable and suddenly tears just start streaming down my face. I sat there silently crying for a few minutes and then Cody noticed. He was sweet and reassuring and then said that I should definitely write this down to share in my blog. He thought I would find it hilarious later. Well - I am writing it to remember it, but I am not finding it hilarious!  I am pretty much still having the same thoughts and feelings just minus the crying meltdown.

On another note - this past weekend I was sick, and by sick I mean SICK.  I haven’t been that sick either ever - or at least since I was a little kid. Fortunately it didn’t start until the very end of the school day last Friday.  It was the end of the day just about time to pack up and clean up. I had started to not feel well about an hour before and the feeling just kept getting worse. I reached a point where I was about to get sick and couldn’t wait, so I had my suite mate watch my room while I waddled as fast as I could down the hall to the faculty bathroom. In the bathroom (feel free to skip to a less gross portion of this post) I threw up like I haven’t thrown up… maybe ever. Numerous times. I was so loud while vomiting that I thought surely if someone was walking in the hallway they would hear me and think someone was dying. I puked my guts out (did I mentioned that I’m a loud person while throwing up?) and tried my best to quickly clean up the mess because nobody wants to clean that up, especially if it wasn’t your vomit. The reason for the mess was due to my stomach. (Which will only be getting bigger remember? -Although I do NOT want to get sick again, ever, while pregnant like that.) My belly was both in the way and too uncomfortable to bend over to get closer to the toilet while puking, so I was hovering higher than I normally would while throwing up, and unfortunately therefore that created a lot of vomit splash coming back up. I got a little on my shirt. Anyway. I cleaned up as best and quickly as I could. Quick waddled back down the hall thinking I was going to pass out before I made it to my room. Walked into my suitemate’s room and I clearly must have looked as bad as I felt (also I was gone quite a while) because she immediately asked if I was okay. I think I just mumbled that I threw up and needed to go.  She took out my dismissal kids and I grabbed what I needed to leave ASAP.  The whole walk to my car and drive home I was whispering to myself “Please don’t throw up yet” just hoping to make it home. At one point I frantically started looking for anything in my car I could throw up into and decided if I had to my school bag would work (yes filled with papers and all - I was desperate). Fortunately I barely made it home.

Enough of the gross sick story, right? Wrong. I was home and more sick (like I’ve already stated - are you starting to get the picture?) than I think ever in my life and Cody was out of town for a statistics conference in Florida.  Perfect timing. I started calling and texting my mom.  There was no way I could get through being this sick by myself and especially being pregnant I was scared about getting dehydrated.  I have no clue if it’s true or not, or possible but not likely or not, but I had heard a few stories about being pregnant and getting so dehydrated -from being sick like I was, that it could send you into premature labor.  I called my OBGYN after about 2 hours of vomiting about every 15 minutes. The office was closed but I left the message of a dying person for the on-call doctor. She called back immediately and well I was throwing up so I couldn’t answer. I called again and this time when she called back I was able to answer. She called in a prescription to stop the vomiting. I knew I couldn’t make it to HEB to pick it up and back so fortunately by the time my mom was able to make it out to our house she was able to pick up the prescription on the way.  

I don’t feel the need to continue to explain how the weekend went. I think you get the majority of the picture. Let’s just say my mom stayed with me Friday and Saturday night and the first time I didn’t get sick was Sunday.  Worst. Weekend. Ever.  The first evening and night my mom made numerous calls back to the on-call doctor.  We were also constantly texting my aunt and sister-in-law who are both nurses.  There were a couple points I was really close to wanting to go to the ER for an IV just to be safe about not being dehydrated, but with the medicine and my mom making me continue to drink water and Gatorade whether it came back up or not, we decided I was staying hydrated enough to be okay. I took a half day today (Monday) and that might have been too much.  I slept in a ton and woke up feeling not good but okay in the morning.  If we didn’t have parent conferences starting Tuesday I would have taken a whole day, but I felt like I had to start getting stuff ready for them. By the time I left school I was beyond exhausted and feeling like the half day was way too much.  I am as I write feeling so not well again that if we didn’t have a writing benchmark and the parent conferences tomorrow I would want to take another half (or whole) day.  Hopefully sleep tonight will help me to wake up feeling better.

A man and his dog. They're such a good match and so silly!

Week 31

-- Wow I wrote a lot about that awful weekend being sick! I’m coming back to this now on Saturday. I finally started to really feel better Wednesday and Thursday this week and am now officially back to the usual pregnancy symptoms instead of sick symptoms:  sore back, often being uncomfortable, super slow and now getting tired often again, and I guess it’s not that uncommon that lately I’ve started to get really bad indigestion/heartburn again like I did in the first trimester. How I’m feeling and my mood really depends on the day at the moment. One day I feel like I’m already ready to be done being pregnant and am on the verge of a meltdown; the next day I’m still feeling good and am happy and loving being pregnant and seeing/feeling our little guy moving around. However by the end of the day come nighttime - I am consistently grumpy and ready to get as comfy as possible (haha) in bed asap. Cody has gotten pretty accustom to my new routine bedtime between 8:30 and 9:30 at the latest.

We needed at least a couple more pictures to document Cody during this pregnancy journey. I may have the growing belly but he is also a big part of everything : )

31 Weeks!
As today is now March 1st, it's a little scary to say that next month is baby month!!

Last week we had our first baby prep class!  For a while now I’ve felt like once the end of February came and we had our first class, that from there it would all fly by. Our first class was a breastfeeding class. I’m really glad we went and felt like it was very encouraging and positive.  I think I needed that because as Cody has pointed out, I’ve heard a lot of negative and am sort of expecting an awful experience. And even though it very likely will be a struggle at first and painful, I really think I needed to hear the benefits of it again and that it isn’t always as awful as I might be thinking. Cody went with me -he will be going to all our classes : ) and he felt the same way. He is very on board with doing whatever he can to help breastfeeding be as doable as possible.  

March is definitely going to fly by I think. We will now be starting a 4 week series on childbirth with a class each Thursday evening throughout the month. We also have all 3 of our showers that I’m excited for : )  Of course there is also Spring Break!! I am VERY ready for a week off to relax, focus on me and baby prep stuff, and possibly not wear pants all day. Pants are really starting to get uncomfortable.  Cody has made funny comments about worrying that he will never see me in pants again at home. My return comment is something about - shouldn’t he enjoy the fact that I’m pant-less? It really should be considered a win-win.

All of the shower invites turn out so adorable!!

First shower invitation being hosted by my sister-in-law and Cody's aunts : )

Second shower is being hosted by my 2nd grade team at school : )

Third shower is being hosted by my mom and two cousins : )

Lastly a small news update: Cody and I are OFFICIALLY looking at houses now!! I am so glad that we are finally actually started for real and are now in a possible position of finding a home (I know it would be crazy quick - but still slightly possible) before the baby arrives. We interviewed two realtors, choose the person we’d like to work with, and are set up to go look at our first batch of houses tomorrow afternoon/evening : )  We have a list of our top choices, based on online pictures and info, from a search our realtor sent us and our TOP house we are actually extremely excited to see tomorrow. We drove by it a couple times today and at least from the pictures and description online we both LOVE it. Hopefully we love what we see in person tomorrow.

The closer we get to all these big events this year, being the baby and house, makes me so aware of how blessed we are.  The Lord has really provided for us and blessed us with SO much. Every morning I’ve been waking up and saying prayers of thanks for everything we have that I’m so grateful for. He has really blessed us in our marriage, with our families and friends, in both mine and Cody’s jobs, with getting pregnant and so far having everything go well and looking like he should be good and healthy, and now the opportunity to purchase our first home soon. God has given us more than we deserve and shown us so much love, grace, and provision. I hope I never stop being thankful for both the big things and little daily things that often get overlooked.

That’s it for now. We’re off to take Callie to the dog park.  She deserves a good run around free time outside and it’s a beautiful day to go sit with my Loves on a bench.

Off to the park we go! 

We LOVE McAllister park : )

Callie is such a cutie! The dog park is one thing that thankfully wears her out!

Baby Journey - Part 10

Baby Journey - Part 10:  Welcome to the Third Trimester!!!

Weeks 26 & 27

Nothing special to report for the last couple of weeks.  I’ve overall still been feeling good.  I’ve had a couple random days of feeling nauseous again and not great, but still the majority of the time I’m enjoying this “cheery” phase : )  I feel like I’ve really gained a lot of weight and my tummy has grown like crazy in the last month again.  Things like squatting down, sitting up from bed, and walking up the stairs at school feel like marathon events now.  I can’t imagine those things as I continue to get bigger! Seriously. I grunt every time I have to bend over for something in class or at home.  At least in class usually a student notices and helps get the item before I have to - or before I’m all the way bending down.  The stairs are a killer!  I literally get winded going up them.  There have been several times I have actually grabbed onto the handrail and tried to help pull myself up with my slow careful steps.  And I’ve definitely reached a point where I am never comfortable in bed any more.  No matter what pillow/how many I use, even though they help, I’m still pretty uncomfortable.  Once I’m settled in bed I do NOT want to have to get up. Except of course I do have to to pee often.  I’m now waking up pretty consistently at least twice a night to use the bathroom. For the longest time it was just once and I thought “One time during the night isn’t bad, I can deal with this.” However now it’s consistently twice (or some nights have a bonus round lol), and I guess I'm expecting it could likely become even more frequent as I get further along still.

26 Weeks at Ryan's wedding in San Diego!

The baby’s movements still make me super happy and joyful : )  I love every time I feel him move around - although honestly sometimes now the movements are getting uncomfortable.  Not often, but occasionally.  I still feel kicks/pushes/punches (something like that) pretty often, but now the movement that I feel the most is just squirming around.  More than the kicking outward feeling, I now usually feel sliding around movement in there as he must often need to change positions or something to get comfortable.  At least that’s how I like to think of it.  I often hold my belly and ask him how he’s doing and if he’s comfy yet : )  Now Cody and I can often see my belly move on the outside too which is weird!! Sometimes the movements are so BIG too.  Just about every evening at some point I end up pointing at my stomach and saying to Cody “That was huge! Did you see that one?!” And normally he didn’t because, well, unlike me he isn’t constantly staring at my stomach. I guess I can’t blame him.  And like I was saying, I guess our little boy has reached a point where he is either big enough, or strong enough, or something -that every now and then a movement kind of hurts, or at the least is pretty uncomfortable.  I’m guessing that might get worse as he gets bigger as well.

27 Weeks!

Favorites and Least Favorites: The 2nd Trimester

Least Favorites:  
I am really missing sleeping on my stomach!  Also fried eggs.  I don’t know why but I’ve really wanted a nice runny fried egg.  Getting winded on the stairs.  Starting to consistently be uncomfortable trying to sleep.  Feeling stressed about the duplex/house situation and not being able to “nest” and prepare like I would be wanting to.

Favorites:  

Still loving sandwiches! Feeling our little guy move : )  Definitely love seeing him move under my belly!  Being big enough that it’s easily known I’m pregnant and no longer questionable.  I kinda like it when Cody says I have a cute pregnant waddle : )

My Loves walking Callie.  She always loves a walk!

Week 28 - THIRD TRIMESTER!!

This week we officially reached the 3rd trimester! Oh my goodness - in some ways I can’t believe it. From things I read online it seems debatable about if the 3rd trimester starts at week 27 or 28, but pretty much everything I saw said at least by 28 weeks was the third. So now it’s official. We are a third of the way done and it’s starting to feel like we are getting closer and closer to the reality of him being born in the not so distant future.  Part of me is already so excited and wanting to meet him and see his little face, and part of me is still so aware that we are SO not ready!  I know we will never magically feel “ready” to overnight become parents. No matter how many books you read, people you talk to, or as much as you can do to become “prepared” - you’ll still never really be completely ready until it happens and you learn and grow in it each day.  But, on the other hand, a very realistic part of me knows that we legitimately are not ready in the physical sense that we still don’t have things organized or set up or prepared in our house.  I’m still standing by my comment that I’ve taken my lack of ability to “nest” and transferred that to my car.  It is still in the best kept condition I’ve ever had it.  I am more than ready though to be able to start doing something to physical get things prepared inside a home - be it our duplex now or a new home in the near future.

This week also I have our next doctor’s appointment and it also will be my gestational diabetes-glucose test.  I am nervous about i! -Not that I think I have it, just I HATE needles and have a seriously difficult time getting my blood drawn.  And of course this is the first appointment Cody is unable to go to.  Not his fault, I understand, work commitments are just that and at the time when we scheduled the appointment we thought he could come.  But now I’m anxious about doing it by myself and following all the guidelines to do the test correctly.  We’ll see how it goes.  It is Friday morning so I’m having to take a half day at work.  (*Now that I'm posting this - the test was yesterday on the 7th and it did go pretty well! First time I did not cry while getting my blood drawn. AND they surprised me with the Whooping Cough/TDAP shot during the visit as well. So I did two brave things without Cody and without tears. I think I'm improving and growing up lol : ) -Just in time!)

Lastly things are officially underway for all of our baby showers which makes me excited!  We are extremely blessed to be having three showers.  One is being hosted by Cody’s aunt and sister for that side of the family and friends.  Another is being hosted by my mom and two cousins for those sides of the family.  And a third is being thrown by my 2nd grade team at school with our faculty.  All the showers will be in March which I think is good timing.  They make me excited and reminded of how blessed we are to have so many people wanting to support and encourage us as we prepare for our first baby. Thank you to all those people hosting showers and the others who wanted to or were willing to help as well.

Our dear friends Colby and Doug welcomed their adorable little girl Emery into the world at the very end of January.  We went to visit and meet their new daughter : )  She is precious!

Baby Journey -Part 9

Baby Journey -Part 9:  Nesting - Or The Lack Thereof

22 Weeks

This week was Christmas and another sonogram appointment : )  Since we weren’t able to get a specific picture of some part of the baby’s heart that they needed, we got to go in for a new round of pictures.  Last time the ultrasound technician was explaining how the baby was in difficult positions to get all the pictures needed and she kept having me try to adjust to get him to move.  For this next appointment she suggested I come in with a full bladder and having eaten to see if that helped.  So I had to pee the whole time and got to enjoy breakfast tacos on our drive over.  We did get all the pictures needed this time and our baby boy is still looking good and healthy! -And we now have two sonogram confirmations that he is in fact a boy.

22 weeks sonogram - Isn't his little face and profile cute!!

His tiny foot : ) 

This is a crotch view -sorry!  Those are his thighs and the "proof he is a boy" in between.
Also he was sticking his fist down into the picture as well.

Other than the sonogram there isn’t too much to report.  I am feeling him move a lot more often now which is wonderful.  I had my first feeling of getting nervous by it this week though too.  He had started moving around so much for several days in a row it was almost like I felt him constantly (obviously not really, but seriously a TON throughout the whole day). Then I had a stretch of about two days where I only felt one tiny kick or push each day and it got me so nervous!  Why had he suddenly gone from so much crazy movement to almost none again? No worries though, the movement is back again : )  Just yesterday I felt him way low at the bottom of my stomach area and then instantly after he also moved way up high past my belly button which is the highest I’ve felt him yet.  I feel him a lot more often way down low still and also almost always on the right side of my stomach.  I think I’ve literally still only felt any movement a couple times on the left side.

As I’m writing this I feel like it may be way boring to everyone reading!  I’m just blabbing on and on about how he moves around.  I seriously love it though and I hope I never forget how it feels.  Hopefully writing about it will keep the memories one day from fading.

On a different note I do feel like I’ve gotten a lot bigger in the last couple weeks.  All the way up until 18 weeks I had only gained 6 pounds.  Then within a month at this 22 week appointment I had gained 6 more.  So I’m now at plus 12 pounds - half of which I gained just in the last 4 weeks.  My doctor at least says I’m still doing fine and there are no worries with my weight. I’m assuming I won’t continue to gain 6 pounds each month.  Just about every time Cody sees my stomach now he says it looks bigger each day.  He made a comment the other night that “maybe I should start using that lotion stuff again for all the stretching.”  This afternoon I was getting up off our couch and he came over to help as he said “you’re too big to get up all by yourself.”  Guess it’s not just in my head;  it must actually be starting to get more noticeable.  I’m going to take that to mean our boy is well protected in there and growing big and strong.  Bring on the weight.  (We’ll see how I feel about that in a few more months.)

Testing out the Boba wrap I got for Christmas!
 Yes, I tested it out with a bag of sugar : ) 

I am still excited about cloth diapers that I've written about before.
I ordered a couple cheap off-brand ones from eBay to test out.  

We also got our Pack n Play for Christmas!
 I definitely made Cody open it up and do a test set up.

25 Weeks

I haven't written anything lately because I feel like for the past couple weeks all I would have written about was the baby moving which seems like it would get pretty redundant.  He has started to move SO much more in the last few weeks! He has some time each morning and evening when he gets pretty active on a consistent basis - kind of between 8:00-9:30 both am and pm, but I also feel him often throughout each day now.

Just within the week I've started being able to see my belly move sometimes.  It is the neatest thing!  Mostly now when I can see movement it is just like a push upwards kind of making my tummy protrude in a certain spot. However, just a couple times so far I have seem more of a squirmy movement under my skin as well. Just about every evening when I'm home now I love to just lay or sit with my hands on my stomach and lift my shirt a little to see my tummy to wait and feel him move and hope to see the movement as well. I just love it : )

Also this week I have had strangers for the first time comment on my being pregnant.  Obviously lots of family/friends/coworkers say things often, but up until this week I haven't had a complete stranger say anything.  I must have reached a magical size where it is now acceptable and safe for anyone to assume I'm pregnant and to comment because out of nowhere I've now had several people say things this week. Fortunately none of them tried to touch my belly - I am not ready or looking forward to that from strangers especially.

25 week picture

This week at school I was out two days for a training and when I came back my class thought I had maybe had my baby already. Then one of my boys clarified to the class that I couldn't have had my baby because I would have needed at least 3 days for that - not just two.  One of my ESL students wasn't quite understanding that I had NOT had my baby yet, and all morning she kept asking where my baby was and if I had left it at home. I kept pointing at my tummy and saying it was still in my belly and wouldn't be ready until April to be born.

A really sweet moment that I loved this week at school happened with a student I had my first year.  He was/is a super cute and generally sweet kid, but when I had him he was not one of those affectionate students or students who really talked to you or connected. This year everyday he walks home with his younger sister who is now in second grade and she is in my dismissal group.  So each day they have to check out with me before leaving to walk home. Well on Friday I was wearing our school spirit t-shirt, and t-shirts are now quite tight and it kinda looks like i have a bowling ball under my shirt, and this boy comes up to check out with his sister and he kind of pauses, looks at me, and then says "Mrs. Henderson, are you having a baby?" and I answer him yes I am and it's a boy.  And he got this huge smile on his face and exclaimed "Wow, that's awesome, congratulations!" and he hugged me!  And remember this was a non-affectionate kid -which means the whole year I taught him he never hugged me.  It really touched me and was so sweet how he reacted.

On a different note I think I have officially reached a point where I am ready for the "nesting" stage - whatever that exactly means. For a couple weeks now I have been having the thought more and more about wanting to start getting things organized and start the nursery and things like that. I even think I took my "nesting" needs to my car because for the first time in -let's just say a long time, I washed it, cleaned it out, and organized it some. My car hasn't looked this decent in quite a while. (Please don't tell my dad!) But with these feelings I'm starting to get extremely stressed with the whole lack-of-a-nursery and moving situation. I know it can't be helped, it's not ideal, but everything will work out fine in the end. But right now I do not like it. I want to either be setting up a nursery right now here in our duplex or know that we will be moving before the baby comes and I'll be able to set something up in the new house.  I feel like we're not doing anything to get ready for the baby and it's driving me nuts. I had a meltdown on the way to church this morning about it. I thought I could calm down and hold it together as we were driving.  We got there and were walking up and suddenly I had to stop walking and just lost it. Needless to say we turned around and went home. I could probably use some prayers about peace with this transition right now and not knowing if we'll be here in the duplex or a house.  If we most likely will be in the duplex when we have the baby and for the first few months, it will not have a nursery, will be filled with boxes, and well just not what I would have pictured and preferred with the arrival of our first baby. It's really starting to hit me and I need to accept it.

Our wall of baby stuff that has nowhere to go for now.

I'm not actually complaining about all the stuff.  We have already been very blessed by family, friends, and people at our church with tons of hand-me-down clothes and lots of other items as well : )  We are extremely grateful! I have been able to cross off a lot of items from our registries that we have just been given.

Random other notes:

I have now had people comment on the fact that I have started to waddle some. (Thank you Cody and my mom -lol my mom said it very loudly all the way down the bathroom hallway to me at the Cheesecake Factory for my birthday just the other night.)

I must really have gotten noticeably bigger recently and have "popped" some. (Thank you again Cody and also my dad and brother Aaron who said "Whoa!" when he saw me for my birthday -and I guess all the strangers for the first time that commented this week.)

My only current complaint:  back pain!  Oh man.  My back is sometimes super stiff and sore feeling, but that's not even my real complaint. After sitting or laying sometimes when I get up, I have a really intense sharp pain feeling in my thigh and lower back.  I don't know if that's as normal as the soreness or not, but it gets so bad that I limp around and don't even want to walk or put any pressure on my leg/back for several minutes.  It's awful.

Our next appointment is this coming Wednesday on my birthday!  After that I will start going in every 2 weeks.

Today, according to our Target registry, we are 99 days away from our due date!! Down to double digits! Also I calculated (part of the stress with the whole nesting thing) that IF our baby boy is early around 35-36 weeks, then that is only about 9 weeks away!  -Which definitely does not seem like that far off to be ready.  Hopefully he makes it full term to at least 37, and then I know he could go all the way to 40 or even later (gulp). BUT when I realized that realistically he could be here in less than 10 weeks something hit me and it just does not seem that far away.  99 days.  Whenever it is though it will be amazing to meet our little guy whether we are "ready" or not  : )

Baby Journey -Part 8

Baby Journey -Part 8:  Movement and Growing!

(So this first part was still from week 18 at the end of the week... but it hadn't happened yet before I put up the last post.)

Week 18 -Continued

Last night I felt the baby kick for the first real time!  I have been wondering if I've been feeling something every now and then for the past week or two about, but it was faint and I was never really sure.  Well last night I don't know what else it would have been except the baby!  I was all ready to go to sleep laying in bed.  Lately I've been falling asleep with my hand on my belly just in case I might feel something, and yesterday I did!  Oh man, that first feeling was super strong too!  Not only did I feel it completely for sure but I wondered if our little guy was going to try and burst out.  I couldn't believe how big and strong of a feeling it was.  He must have tried to stick his whole leg out the side of my stomach!  I kept my hand there and then felt another movement and then I yelled for Cody.  He was in the kitchen doing dishes (as the usual these days I was in bed pretty early).  It took a couple yells for him to hear me and come in the room.  I felt the baby move four times before he got there and I was worried it'd be over, but it wasn't.  I showed Cody where to put his hand and told him what all I'd just felt and sure enough Cody felt the baby too about three or four times.  He kept saying "You're not doing that?"  And I responded with something like "No, it's definitely not me.  It's the baby for sure this time."  We were so excited and it was so fun for us to both feel it and be so confident for the first time in what we were feeling. It's been an exciting week!  Finding out the gender, sharing the gender with our families, and now feeling the baby for the first real time : )   Well today is Thanksgiving and I was taking a mini-break from cooking and baking to write this.  Back to the kitchen for a bit more before getting ready to go to the Hendersons for the day.  Tomorrow we go to my parents and all my brothers are in town which is awesome.  Also my brother, Ryan, recently got engaged to a girl named Cassi which is super exciting!  We have only met her a couple times briefly so I'm really looking forward to seeing them tomorrow and hopefully getting to know her a bit better.  It's crazy to think that by the time our baby is born, he will not only have one Aunt Kari but also a brand new Aunt Cassi.  And I'm beyond excited to see my brothers as uncles!  I think they are super cute when they interact with other babies/young kids.  I think they will be great uncles.  Now I do have to get back to the kitchen.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Fun Saturday morning we spent walking around the Pearl Brewery and Farmer's Market.

Thank you to our friends Evie and Cory for a box of baby boy clothes to borrow when he arrives!

Week 19

I LOVE feeling the baby move!  I think that alone has quickly gotten me over and forgetting the fact that I felt so awful for so long.  I still don’t feel him move a lot and not even daily yet, but whenever I do it is just instant joy. I always fall asleep with my hand on my stomach in case I might slightly feel something.  Most of the time the movements are still faint enough that I can feel it more externally than internally.  I guess that will change as he keeps growing and the movements become stronger. Cody loves feeling it too.  Anytime we’re right next to each other and I feel something I show him where to put his hand to feel it.  Almost every single time he feels something he still asks “Are you sure that’s not you? You didn’t just do that?”  Normally I feel him when I’m laying down and towards the evening/night once I’m home on the couch or in bed.  Today was the first time I felt him move while I was out and about during the day : )  Cody and I had gotten breakfast tacos and were driving around looking at possible houses for sale and I felt something and sort of ignored it since I have only felt him at night/while laying so far, but after I felt a second movement I realized it was the little guy : )  It made me instantly happy.

The other day Cody and I were talking about random baby/how our lives will soon change type stuff and he asked “So you’re really ready to have a baby in your arms?” (Or something close to that.) And he went to a small basket where we are keeping random baby stuff from our families so far and he brought over a cute little onesie.  He sort of laid it across my arms and I almost instantly teared up and started crying.  (Happy cry.) Cody thought it was super sweet and cute.  Part of me just wanted to keep holding the onesie and part of me felt silly and crazy and emotional. I guess that goes with the territory right now.

Also this week I had my kids in class comment for the first time about my belly.  (I told them I was pregnant at 16 weeks.)  I was walking around the room while they were working and one of my girls stuck out her arm and pointed straight at my stomach and said “Mrs. Henderson, your belly is starting to get big!  You know -from the baby.”  Later that day during after school tutoring, I often sit on the carpet with the kids in a circle.  Well I was trying to sit down with them and I guess it looked like I was having some trouble, because one of my boys goes “Mrs. Henderson maybe you should sit in a chair.  I think you’re squishing your baby.” So I did because he was right, a chair was much more comfortable.

And of course I have already gotten the dreaded question “Where do babies come from?” -Except this boy in my class specifically asked “How does the baby come out of your body?” And I froze for a second - just long enough for another student to solve the mystery by answering him very matter-of-factly “It comes from the mom’s belly of course.”  I laughed and quickly tried to distract the conversation by starting our calendar time.

My Cody and our Callie lounging around.

Half way at 20 weeks!!

20 week half way belly pic!

Week 21

My absolute new favorite thing in the world is feeling our little boy move inside me.  I seriously cannot express all the emotions I get when I feel him moving around.  I'm feeling him more often now - not all the time but occasionally throughout the day.  I still feel him the most at night when I'm laying down, but I'm enjoying feeling him more and more just as I'm doing whatever during the day.  I cannot help myself but to want to just stop whatever I'm doing and put my hand on my belly and focus on the feeling.  Once I feel him one time I just want it to keep happening over and over.  It's amazing and I love it so much.  It already makes me sad in a way knowing that I won't always be able to feel him like this.  Can I somehow have him in my arms come April and still feel little sweet movements in me?  I guess there is a solution to that dilemma... feeling new little arms and legs moving around : )   But that is getting WAY crazy ahead of ourselves! We're still growing the first guy.

Last week was the halfway point which blows my mind.  It is exciting and a little scary to think we're half way there.  Part of me feels ready and anxious like I just want to hurry up and meet him and hold him, and another part of me is quietly thinking "Oh my gosh... we're about to have a baby... what on earth do we do to "prepare" to be parents?!" Because really Cody and I are openly and honestly clueless!  We've accepted this will be a learn-on-the-job type situation for a lot of things and that as long as we don't drop him on his head, most mistakes we make will be okay in the end.  Fortunately we do have several friends either with new little babies in their lives right now or are pregnant and due a bit before us.  So we can watch from the outside and gather information as others go through each phase before us.  Sounds like a plan to me.  It'll be our turn before we know it.

Christmas get together with our church small group.

We love our friends : )

21 Week Picture