Week 23!

Baby size: An ear of corn! Crazy!!





How I feel about being pregnant: I'm feeling particularly in love with my little guy today. I woke up this morning thinking about the day we found out I was pregnant and I teared up a little. Words really can't explain how happy I am to be pregnant. <3

What I miss about pre-pregnancy life: Being able to bend over relatively comfortably? Haha. 

Symptoms: Lower back pain. All. The. Time. My midwife says it's from my giganto uterus (seriously the size of a freaking soccer ball this week... WHAT?!) pulling on the ligament attached to my lower spine. Super fun times! I made her tell Shane I needed my exercise ball b/c he doesn't like it being inflated since it's so huge. 

Food Cravings: Ummmm nothing in particular. I AM feeling rather averse to my favorite restaurant right now, which is super weird. 

What I'm most excited about: Painting the nursery! I've been collecting samples and OMG there are SO many shades of blue!! I think we're starting to narrow it down, though. 

Something I've done to prepare for baby: We had an appointment with my midwife today. :) She said everything is going great! I'm up 11lbs since I got pregnant, which is pretty good for 24 weeks. She has actually never said anything at all about my weight. Another reason I heart her. The heartbeat sounded amazing, as usual. She chit-chatted with us a lot about Gestational Diabetes and Braxton Hicks. I have my glucose test next time and I've been having sporadic contractions, which I think kind of freaks my husband out. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for no GD because I love me some carbs! Lol. Overall, all is well with my little pumpkin! <3

Special moment: I just love feeling all his little flips and kicks! It's so precious! The other day he kicked so hard it moved my entire stomach and even Shane could see it. Adorable! :) 

How baby's growing (from BabyCenter):

Your baby's growing steadily, having gained about 4 ounces since last week. That puts him at about 1 1/3 pounds. Since he's almost a foot long (about the size of an ear of corn), he cuts a pretty lean figure at this point, but his body is filling out proportionally and he'll soon start to plump up. His brain is also growing quickly now, and his taste buds are continuing to develop. His lungs are developing "branches" of the respiratory "tree" as well as cells that produce surfactant, a substance that will help his air sacs inflate once he hits the outside world. His skin is still thin and translucent, but that will start to change soon. [[We showed my midwife a pic from the 4D ultrasound and she said he's already looking chubby. OHEMGEE! -_-]]

Me and my Annie! :) 

Roscoe is SUCH a Daddy's boy!

24 Weeks!!

Side view :) 

Tori watching football with Uncle Shane :) 

Week 20-22!

Baby size:  A grapefruit!

It's crazy that just weeks ago he was a little poppy seed... <3



How I feel about being pregnant: I loooooove my bump and getting to feel my little acrobat move and flip and go crazy all the time! It's SO precious!

What I miss about pre-pregnancy life: Smaller boobs? Seriously, if I could go back and talk to Middle School me, I'd be like "Brah, you have NO idea how much worse it could be!" Now that I do... GAH!

Symptoms: Now all I can think about is the boobs. They just WON'T STOP. It's annoying. They better feed baby SO well; that's all I've got to say. I can't really think of any other symptoms. My acne is gross and I pee every three seconds, but that just seems cliche. Haha. I actually felt my darling son kick me in my very full bladder the other morning. SO RUDE! Lol. He's lucky he's so freaking adorable. :) 

Food Cravings: Food. Lots of it. All the time. This week it was Fudruckers and Chipotle. Last week Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. 

What I'm most excited about: Baby's kicking! It's seriously the cutest thing in the entire world! He moves around like crazy. I tell him all the time to enjoy the space while he has it. It's about to be suuuuper cramped quarters. Poor little guy. I can see him kicking sometimes and it's precious. I just sit staring at my stomach half the time. :) 

Something I've done to prepare for baby: We did our Babies R Us registry. It was uber fun to look at all the cute things. We tested out the carseat, and I will basically be sitting in the dash once baby is here, but oh well. :)

Funny moment: We went to Cheddar's the other night with some friends. I had to go to the bathroom (of COURSE). When I got in there a girl was standing there who I thought was an employee but her shirt was pulled up so I was pretty confused. I just went about my business. When I got done washing my hands a different employee helped me with the demon paper towel dispenser, and when I turned around she said "You're pregnant right?" I was like, "Yes!", expecting the next question to be "when's your due date?" or something along those lines. Instead she said "Can you tell my friend it's going to be okay? She just found out she's pregnant and she's freaking out." I turn around and look and it's the same girl I saw earlier. I'm pretty sure she tested in the bathroom and was looking at her stomach when I came in. I was like "Oh pregnancy is amazing! It'll be great!" She just said "no" with this uber deer-in-the-headlights look. I told her I understood it's hard when it's a surprise and wished her luck, then awkwardly ducked out of the bathroom. I'm so not good with out-of-nowhere advice requests from strangers. Also, definitely the most awkward thing that has happened to me this pregnancy. 

I tend to spend a lot of time staring at my bare belly b/c I love watching baby kick. The other day, Annie wanted me to draw on her notebook and apparently I didn't react fast enough, so she got jealous and came over and rather aggressively pulled my shirt down. haha. She's still super skeptical about this whole baby in my belly thing. She completely thinks I just don't know how to say belly button correctly. o_O It's adorable!
Special moment: Shane finally got to feel baby move!!! :) It's hard with his giant boy hands to feel, but since baby is becoming a ninja, he finally did. It's so unbelievably precious to watch him with my belly. He talks to Kaden all the time. It makes my heart so happy! He's going to be such a wonderful daddy. <3 

How baby's growing (from BabyCenter):
Turn on the radio and sway to the music. With her sense of movement well developed by now, your baby can feel you dance. And now that she's more than 11 inches long and weighs just over a pound (about the size of a large mango), you may be able to see her squirm underneath your clothes. Blood vessels in her lungs are developing to prepare for breathing, and the sounds that your baby's increasingly keen ears pick up are preparing her for entry into the outside world. Loud noises that become familiar now — such as your dog barking or the roar of the vacuum cleaner — probably won't faze her when she hears them outside the womb. [So hopefully that means baby won't think Roscoe is a terrifying monster... lol]

21 weeks!

22 Weeks and headed out for Aunt MarMar's birthday! Wobble Baby is a LOT more complicated when you're so round. lol

23 weeks! On our way to do the registry :)

How much my belly has grown!! :)

Another growth shot. Crazy what a difference 10 weeks makes!

Gender Reveal!

       So, we went for our appointment on Friday the 16th. We were under the impression we would be having our anatomy ultrasound, but it turned out there was a scheduling error. We met with a new midwife who is interning at my birth center. She was... okay, I guess. She's not my midwife, though. I freaking love my midwife, and I'm not interested in working with anyone else. She said all my measurements are on track and my weight is fine. She took baby's heartbeat and actually told us the rate, which was around 150. My midwife isn't really into numbers and measurements. As long as we're healthy, she's happy. Eventually my midwife came in to make sure I didn't have any other questions. We told her we thought we were supposed to get the ultrasound done and had a party to cancel if that wasn't the case, so she offered to try and figure it out. She said gender determination at 20 weeks isn't really her strong suit, but she'd try. Of course, my little stubborn angel glued his little feet together the whole time, so it didn't yield any results. However, it was the first time we got to see baby's skeleton, which was AMAZING! I'm so amazed at how much baby has grown since we first saw him as a little blip on the screen. :) We were able to schedule our anatomy ultrasound for the following Wednesday.
       Wednesday we went to the imaging center to get the anatomy ultrasound. The tech called me back and had Lisa and Shane wait while she did the measurements and such. She didn't say much, but she didn't say anything was wrong, so I'm going to assume all is well. She did ask me if my parents were the ones in the waiting room, which my husband did NOT appreciate when I told him. :-P When she finished, she let her assistant take over and called Lisa and Shane in. They then tried for like 10 minutes to find the gender and baby was NOT having it. He had his little legs all curled up and wouldn't move for anything. I cried the whole way home. Partly because the party was ruined and mostly because I wouldn't get to know what my precious baby was until possibly my next appointment on September 13th. So very frustrating! Then Lisa called and told me my daddy wanted to schedule a 4D ultrasound so we could try to salvage the party (and all of our sanity). 

      Friday evening we made an appointment at BabySteps4D, which was absolutely fantastic! The lady that owns it is amazing! She apparently was super bored b/c she didn't have a lot of appointments that day, so she did a lot more than she was supposed to. We got their really early and chatted with her while we waited for Shane to get there. She told us some hilarious stories, including a baby that flipped her off 4 ultrasounds in a row. FOUR. Bahaha. Anywho, I told her we didn't want to know out loud and she said she's really bad at not slipping (she made it, though, YAY). It was a super comfy bed with a TV across from it so I could see everything. WAY better than the anatomy ultrasound where I didn't see the screen once. She turned off the TV while she looked for the gender so Lisa and Shane couldn't cheat. It took her all of 2 minutes to find. Apparently baby decided to stop being so uncooperative, which mommy REALLY appreciated. Then she turned on the screen and showed us baby's sweet little face over and over. He kept putting his hands over his head like "leave me alone!",

Exhibit A

which he did in all three ultrasounds, so I think he really hates them. By the end he was just completely over it and turned to face my back. Silly baby! We also got a cute little elephant that plays a recording of baby's heartbeat. I listen to it all the time! <3

Mammaw with the elephant! :)

       Saturday we had the party. It was less than a 24 hour wait and it felt like a week and a half! It was so wonderful to share that moment with all of our friends. I've always wanted to do a gender reveal, so I'm so glad baby finally cooperated. It was perfect! :) 

His little wiener!! SOOO CUTE!!!

IT'S A BOY!!! :))) <3 (Even the room knew!)

The only pic that actually shows my bump! My sweet little love! <3

TEAM BLUE WINS! They knew their nephew was a boy all along. ;)

My wonderful party planner, Aunt Lizzy! :)