A Watched Pot Never Boils

The title of this post is what I think when I look at my belly in anticipation of seeing kicks. I think this baby has quite the personality already. He'll be kicking up a storm, and then as soon as I start looking at my belly or place my hand where he's kicking, he'll quiet right down. The hand thing I get; I like to think the warmth of one of our hands calms him. It's the looking-at-the-belly thing. How can he tell?!?! I swear he knows, though, and thinks it's a game to quit kicking as soon as we're on the lookout. He always starts kicking again as soon as I look away. Funny guy.

21 Weeks

This week has been wonderful! I had a feeling that had we been paying attention the last week or so, we would have seen the baby's kicks from the outside, so we made it a point to stare at my belly for awhile the other night. Our little boy usually has quite the kicking routine at night as soon as I get comfortable in bed, and it didn't take long before we started to see those kicks. It was so amazing, and now we've seen him move every day. Ever since 19 weeks or so, there have been so many new, exciting things going on. It just keeps getting better and better, and I just keep getting mushier and mushier. I am so excited for him to be born and to see him, hold him, and take care of him, but I also know I'm going to miss the time that he's spending inside of me. Starting the moment he's born, we'll have a new slew of anxieties based around keeping him strong, safe, and healthy, and I'll look back on this pregnancy as the time when it was so easy to take care of him.

(Edited to add a new symptom: Thirst! I'm so thirsty all.the.time.)

How far along: 21 weeks, 4 days

Total weight gain: 2, maybe 3 pounds

Maternity clothes: Yes, and I did find a couple tops that aren't too long, so I know they exist. I'm going to hem my too-long shirts this weekend. And maybe make a baby blanket if I find cute material while I'm at the fabric store getting the thread I need to match the shirts.

Stretch marks: No new ones

Sleep: Better than last week, but still meh.

Food cravings: Nothing, really

Labor signs: Nope

Belly button in or out: In, ugh. My belly looks like a capital B from the side.

What I miss: Still wine. Is that bad?

What I’m looking forward to: Picking out paint samples for the nursery this weekend!

Milestone: Seeing the baby move on the outside!

Baby Responses

I've been getting the baby to respond occasionally when I poke and prod my belly for the past couple of weeks, but last night, there was a funny commercial or show or something on (I can't even remember...crazy pregnancy brain...) and Junior poked my belly to the beat of the music. Our little one kicked back twice! It was too funny.

And then I was laughing too hard to feel the baby and I had to pee. The joys of pregnancy. ;)

Symptom Update

I thought I'd share an update on the symptoms and aches and pains I've been having.

Bladder woes. I have always thought I had the smallest bladder possible, but now that's only been confirmed. I get no relief from peeing whatsoever. I go and then feel like my bladder is full all over again. Sometimes I think the water goes right through me.

Indigestion. I had a bout of pretty awful indigestion for a couple of weeks, but that seems to have eased up a bit. As long as I keep my meals small, I feel OK. I only have to take a Tums every once in awhile.

Gagging. This lovely symptom popped up toward the end of the first trimester and has not eased up. I have developed a routine for taking my prenatal vitamins: I can keep them down if I hold a gulp of water in my mouth, pop in the vitamin, and take another gulp of water to swallow it all down. It's not foolproof, but it works most of the time.

Hip pain (aka not sleeping). I had an extremely busy day on Saturday and was on my feet and very active. Once I finally relaxed at the end of the day, my hips and entire pelvis hurt so badly that I got a little scared. All through the night the pain was so bad that I had to walk hunched over and supporting myself and it felt like my joints were going to buckle (and I had to get up a lot that night due to my bladder woes). However, since then, my hip pain hasn't been so bad. Go figure! They still ache and sleeping isn't the most comfortable, but this short little stint has been better than the past couple of weeks. I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts, even if it's just for a short time.

Achy belly. I don't know how to label this one. It seems to happen anytime I'm on my feet for a little while, like during grocery shopping. I get these weird feelings of pulling or like my belly is going to explode. I wonder if this is my ab muscles separating.

20-Week Survey

How far along: 20 weeks, 4 days

Total weight gain: 1 pound (yup, lost the extra pound I gained last week), but maybe all the cookies I ate yesterday will catch up to me next week. It will be totally scary if I suddenly jump up 10 pounds in a week.

Maternity clothes: Yup, and in fact, I want to venture out this weekend to see if I can find some maternity tops that aren't too long.

Stretch marks: No new ones

Sleep: Nonexistent, and I'm cranky and hormonal.

Food cravings: I've had a sweet tooth this week and have given in every.single.day.

Labor signs: Nope (yippee!)

Belly button in or out: In, and I'm still sportin' the two hemispheres, although we both noticed how much things rounded out this week.

What I miss: Wine and being able to do whatever exercise I feel like (one of my favorite workouts was impossible to do last night with my growing belly in the way).

What I’m looking forward to: Starting to get the nursery pulled together.

Milestone: The baby is starting to respond when I poke my belly. It's a neat little game, but Junior hates when I do it. He thinks I'm bothering the baby. I think I'm simply helping develop his reflexes.

Holy Crap

I'm halfway through this pregnancy already, and time continues to fly by. Only 20 more weeks until my due date, but what's more, only 17 weeks until I'm considered full term. Eek! Am I the only one who feels like that's right around the corner?!?

We picked up a crib mattress over the weekend. We scored quite the deal and it fits the crib perfectly. I went through a bit of mattress panic a week or so ago because I spent so much time researching and reading reviews and finally deciding on one mattress in particular, but then realized it didn't have the right dimensions for our crib. (Doh!) I went back to the drawing board and think I'm even happier with the one we bought. It feels so great to have it here and airing out. I hope it's comfy for our little boy.

We ordered a low dresser, which will also server as a changing table, from JCPenney yesterday (major sale and free shipping--woohoo!). I can't wait for it to arrive! We already have the crib, mattress, a rocker, and side table, so the dresser will complete the furniture necessities for the nursery. Wow. It's coming together! We have plans to add a toy box and bookcase or some sort of cubbie storage, but those are smaller things that will fall into place as we decorate the room.

Speaking of decorating the room, that's proving harder than we originally thought. We're not finding many options we both like. We've talked about installing a chair rail, but that's a new-to-us project. I'm sure we can handle it, but we just have to decide if we're really willing to do the work given some of the other house projects we have lined up. I'd like to sew a crib skirt and curtains instead of buying a full bedding set, so I'm on the hunt for crib sheets and coordinating fabric. Once we're settled on that, we'll try to agree on paint colors, which will bring with it the usual indecisiveness and my husband's use of "that's just not the right hue" and "let's get a couple more samples." ;)

P.S. Babycenter.com says the baby is the size of a cantaloupe. Um, wow.

Edit: Oops, Babycenter says he's the size of a banana. The Bump says cantaloupe. Again, um, wow, except at the fact that those are two very different fruits and I do not in any way consider a banana and cantaloupe to be similar in size, shape, weight, etc. Why are these fruit comparisons so weird? If we're going to think of our baby as a fruit or object or whatever, I think the sources should all at least get their acts together and agree on a set comparison.

Second Milestone of the Week

I was just wondering yesterday how long it'd be before Junior could feel the baby move, and it happened last night! I thought I had been feeling outside movements the past two or three nights, but all activity came to a screeching halt once Junior's hand was on my belly. I was just about to go to sleep last night when the baby started kicking up a storm. Junior felt a really strong kick and then a couple other small ones. This week has been full of exciting events. The emotions we're feeling are indescribable.

Survey Time

So lots of baby bloggers include this survey at various times during their pregnancy. It hadn't really occurred to me to ever do this, but why not?

How far along: 19 weeks, 3 days

Total weight gain: 2 pounds

Maternity clothes: Definitely need maternity pants, but I can still get away with regular tops. The maternity tops are oh-so-comfy, but the ones I have are way too long right now.

Stretch marks: No new ones, although I did pick up some cocoa butter last night, if for no other reason than to make my husband rub it on my belly every night. ;)

Sleep: Totally awful. I have to get up to pee 5,000 times a night (of course, I've always been that way, pregnant or not) and my hips hurt like crazy. Whichever hip I'm sleeping on burns, but I've never slept well on my back and I definitely need a pillow propped under my knees because otherwise my belly feels pulled.

Food cravings: Um, no. More like nothing-ever-sounds-good-so-it's-hard-to-eat. Although I've had a little bit more of a sweet tooth and milk is seriously delicious, but I can't say I must have any of those things.

Labor signs: None, and it shall stay that way for quite awhile, thankyouverymuch, baby.

Belly button in or out: In, and I'm still feeling very much two-hemispherey.

What I miss: Wine

What I’m looking forward to: Junior feeling the baby move and my belly popping out.

Milestone: The healthy results of the anatomy scan and finding out we're having a boy!

It's a Boy!

My mother's intuition was right all along. Junior was so sure it was a girl; he even got in my head these past couple of weeks and I walked into the ultrasound not knowing for sure what I thought.

The ultrasound went great. Everything is accounted for and looks perfect. Baby Z was curled up into a ball most of the time, which made determining the sex difficult. The tech was even unsure at first because the umbilical cord was in the way. By the end, though, she told us she's 95-99% certain it's a boy. The doctor even said you can't get much better odds than that. We saw him yawn and wave his hand.

Ahhhh...so amazing!