20 Weeks, 1 Day cont.

I made Dave take some belly photos tonight to show how big I've gotten over the last week. My belly just seemed to pop out this week! I apologize about the hair- I spent most of the day working on the drapes and it was pulled back to avoid frizzing. Speaking of friz, I seem to be blessed with the pregnant frizzy look. It's starting to get on my nerves.

Fully covered:




















Belly exposed:




















Front view:




















Tada! Here are the finished drapes! I love the colors:















I bought a few clothing articles I couldn't resist last week so Cloonan helped me model them:

20 Weeks, 1 Day

I'm officially over the halfway point so the reality is setting in. Mr. Squirmy continues to prove his presence more and more. This morning his kicks kept jolting me. I mean, they weren't strong kicks or anything (by gosh he's hardly big enough yet) but he seemed to enjoy aiming at areas in my abdomen that have a lot of nerves. Think: the doctor-hitting-knee-with-hammer feeling but inside your abdomen. Yikes it's weird.

I spent the Thanksgiving weekend in Reno with most of my family. I don't think Mr. Squirmy went hungry. I ate so much-- and I felt entitled to it. Our flight was on Thursday at 6 am, which meant I had to be up at 3 am. I was wired until around 9 am and then I crashed. On top of it all, I decided to come down with a cold the day before I left. I felt pretty miserable. I did manage to play some penny slots with my grandma in the hotel casino before passing out at 9:30 pm. It was a whirlwind of a weekend with the fam and I hardly felt I had time to breathe. I got back home yesterday afternoon and then headed off to Ikea for drapery fabric. I'm going to make the drapes for the baby room today via Cory's sewing machine and her sewing expertise. They're red and cream striped with a second red solid. That'll probably end up being my theme. It's clean and streamlined, like I like, without having to dive into the stereotypical blue on blue for boys.

I've also noticed I can feel my pulse just about all the time. When I'm laying on my side, I can feel my blood pounding through my face, head, neck, hips, etc. Or when I'm sitting up and reading, I can see my wrist just pulsing. I even showed it to Dave, who thought it was freakish. However, it sort of makes sense when you think about the fact that my blood production has basically doubled.

My belly seems to be popping out more and more. Particularly, this past week or so. My belly button is even starting to thin out. I wore my biggest non-prego jeans last week for what I believe will be the last time. They kept cutting into my belly and I even resorted to undoing the button when I was sitting at my desk at work. So now I'm down to two pairs of prego jeans, two prego skirts, some elastic waist skirts and yoga pants. Unfortunately, as much as I'd like to, I can't really wear my yoga pants to work. Bummer. Otherwise I seriously would. Everyday.

19 Weeks

Getting close to halfway! My little monkey likes to stand on my bladder these days. On the plus side, I'm not constipated! I chalk it up to being a vegetarian and all the beans and nuts I like to eat.

So...I must admit to my recent netflix afflixion. How does one live before netflix? I signed up a couple weeks ago and found to my excitement that all the baby movies I could want to see are only a mouse click away! In fact, Father of the Bride II came in the mail yesterday. After work yesterday, Scarlet and I mixed up some cupcakes (with blue frosting to celebrate!) and watched the movie together. Expectedly, Dave opted for a boys night out. Father of the Bride II has two babies in one movie!! Can't get better than that. It even makes up for my lack of cable and ability to watch the great "A Baby Story" reality TV shows on lifetime. Because I would if I could ;).

I weighed myself at the gym yesterday and it showed a healthy five pound gain from my weight about 4 weeks ago- bringing me up a total of 13 pounds. This is supposed to be perfectly normal, but it honestly feels more like 23 pounds. None of my old pants and hardly any of my old skirts fit anymore! I'm living in yoga pants at home these days.

Ok, so I'm done whining about my packing on the pounds. I know I can start working them off again in five months or so. And really, 13 pounds is completely fine at this stage. Overall, I've been feeling great. I have much more energy these days and can stay up late again. Last night, Dave and I were up until about 1 watching Hero episodes on netflix instant (I love netflix). I do seem to have less energy and enthusiasm about going out at night or much in general. Dave and I think it's the 'nesting' syndrome.

Oh! Dave also mentioned that his mom and step-father may be able to give us a crib from their furniture store! I'm so excited! It's supposed to be really nice. It'll be such a nice help to get that taken care of. I've been a little stressed over the sheer amount of items we are in need of: stroller, car seat, bedding, diapers, breast pumps, blankets, bottles, bassinet, etc etc etc. We haven't even started getting things organized! The baby room is still a storage room of boxes at the moment. I must admit, I've been a bit of a procrastinator. My friend, Michelle, recently had a baby boy (named Talon). When I told her we found out we were having a boy, she offered to give me Talon's old clothes! That'll be such a help!

Below are my 19 week photos. I don't think there's too much of a change from last week. I do look rounder from the front though...

18 Weeks, 4 Days

We had our big ultrasound and the verdict is.....

A Boy!!!

Here's my little man showing off the goods:
















Dave was pretty proud of his little exhibitionist.

And a picture of his cute legs crossed. This little guy was moving and squirming all over the place!















Stubborn, like his mom, he was not about to show us his cute profile so we got his frontal alien-like face the entire time. It was really cute and a bit creepy at the same time.















That is...until after a bunch of prodding, shaking, turning, and poking, the ultrasound technician finally got him to turn from his side so we got the cute profile picture if only for an instant.















He was pretty comfy with his back to us-- although he had no trouble showing off the goods plenty of times. We also got to see him stretching his legs up to his head and suck on his thumb. Yes, I've got me a thumb sucker....and I was hoping to avoid all that.

Well, Dave and I are stoked and even a bit surprised. Everyone insisted we were having a girl. Trish (Dave's sister) was absolutely convinced we were having a girl. A few friends at my office wouldn't even accept the possibility of me having a boy. And Dave's work is known to produce baby girls, with very few baby boys. Against all odds, we are having a boy.

Dave is so excited, he's even starting making up songs on the fly about his new son. He's still getting used to using the phrase "my son" and has been constantly repeating it since the appointment. I find it all very cute.

Now we can finally get down to naming him and fixing up his room. Project!!!!

18 Weeks

So I got my official congratulatory letter from PSU of my acceptance into the Masters of Public Administration program. Please note that I applied right before I found out I was pregnant. Being as stubborn as I am, I know I can't back out now. I'm setting myself up for one class Winter term, skip Spring and then return again in the Fall. I know I'm crazy but grad school will open a lot of doors for me.

Dave turned the big 2-7 this last week. We went hiking at Multnomah Falls and chowed on homemade chocolate chip cookies. It was nice to actually have an entire day off together.
















On the pregnancy side of things, I think I'm much nicer now. I'm still a little grumpy at night but that just may be me normally ;). At least I'm not tearing down tree branches and breaking things anymore. I have a lot more energy and even managed to stay up until 2 am last night!! Of course I only stayed out until 11, then went home to ball my eyes out to a less-than-great film (Miss Conception) and read my book. But I did stay up! I think it's a new record.

Anyway, I'm really only writing this to procrastinate on laundry and cleaning, so without further adieu....18 week belly pictures:

17 Weeks, 2 Days

I've been a little hyper lately. Last night, I couldn't stop moving and bouncing. I had had one delicious orange cream soda and suddenly I was like a kid with ADD. What is with these insane sugar highs I get??? I need to be a little more cautious, perhaps. Doesn't help that the little parasite seems to make me want sugar all the time. My little Scapegoat.

Speaking of, my belly seems to be growing overnight. Literally, not figuratively. The night before last I kept rolling around and I'd feel this tumor-like thing in my stomach appearing to get larger over the night. I love sleeping on my back. Love it. And now it supposedly cuts off my circulation to sleep on my back. I did learn a cheat position where I sleep on my side but my head and neck are facing up or I angle myself using Dave as a big prego pillow. Thinking of prego pillows, I've considered investing in one. I've been tossing and turning a lot and my sleep is getting interrupted by more than my screaming bladder. I only know it'll all get worse. Woe is me.

I had a dream that I lost 7 pounds and then I kept flying around in an orchestra booth you sit at at the opera. It was pretty awesome and a bit scary I managed to get the "falling feeling" while sleeping! And I think people were trying to kill me but that's pretty common in my dreams these days.

On Saturday, I took a nice long stroll down to Hawthorne (about 2 miles there and back for me). The weather was gorgeous. It had been off and on raining all day but I managed to hit a sunny break. The leaves covered the sidewalks in their brilliant yellows, oranges, and reds. I love Oregon this time of year. It's beyond beautiful!

On my way home, I was passing The Yoga Studio that sits only about 10 blocks from my house. I was thinking to myself - 'wouldn't it be great if they had a prenatal yoga class I could try out?' as I walked by. I saw a flier with a woman in a yoga position as I was passing and it took a moment before it dawned on me that the woman on the flier had a big...round...belly! I stopped and turned around to look. Sure enough, the flier posted a brand new prenatal class on Sundays that started last week.

So....I checked out that prenatal yoga class yesterday as a drop-in. The class wasn't nearly as intense as my usual yoga classes but I got some benefit from it and I feel like I have a better understanding of the pregnant body. However, It was a little hoky- she had us chant at the end. I can deal with that though. The positions and stretches were fairly intense. We did a lot of squatting and I will soon enough have killer-thighs and prego abs for child-bearing.

I also invested in my first pair of prego pants! I found them at Ross for $7. They are super comfortable and slimming. Why aren't all pants made like these?? Seriously. Once you go prego-pants, you never go back. They do, on the otherhand, make me look even pregnanter. If that's possible.

16 Weeks, 5 Days

Belly Photos!!!






























Well the bump is growing! It's kind of cute, I think.

I had my 16 week OB appointment on Friday and got to schedule "The" ultrasound for the 19th. If the little grapefruit behaves, we'll get to see its hoo-ha to determine what sex it is. I'm excited but not overly anxious. The weeks seem to be going by so fast now that I have a feeling the appointment will be upon us in no time.

I ended up with a mild cold over Halloween so I elected to stay in with Dave and watch "Cannibal the Musical" and eat black beans and rice. We did, however, end up at a party the next night when I was a bit more energetic. Dave and I both raced to Goodwill for last minute costumes and paraded around with Cory as Gresham-ites. For those of you outside the Portland area, people from Gresham to us city folk are like people from Shelbyville to the Springfield residents (channeling the Simpsons here in case you weren't following me). To add to the effect, I topped my costume off with a "Pink for Palin" sign that read, "Make more war and babies" and "I heart Alaskan drilling."
















In this photo, I was trying to go for that annoying-lady-you-are-crammed-next-to-on-the-bus look. My chin doesn't really stick like that....I hope.

I think my costume just may have done the trick to sway the vote-- for OBAMANATION is upon us!!!! Dave and I chowed on pizza at my Dad's while we sat glued to the television on Tuesday night. To add cherries to my cream soda of an election night, Merkley gained the Senate seat over the Republican incumbent, Smith, bumping the Democrat hold in the Senate up another notch. It's exciting to think my kid is going to be born under the first non- old & white guy president.

Last night, my band played a show at Dante's. The sound was awesome! I had a great time but was pretty much done-in by the end of the night. Lucky for me, most of Dante's is non-smoking! So I didn't have to worry about being around all those cancer-sticks. It was kind of fun to play to dancing drunk people. I really do enjoy the dancing drunk people. They went nuts at the end!

On Stage:
















And...here are some of the dancing drunk people (notice baby bump in the background ;))....