Halloween

The baby furniture is in! It hasn't actually arrived to our house yet, but it is sitting at Babies R Us in Springfield waiting for us to pick it up. Hopefully Joel will find time this week to run to Springfield and pick up the furniture. I painted the bedroom in the basement last Sunday and Joel and Tim moved the furniture from the baby's room to the basement yesterday afternoon. This morning I helped Joel prime the baby's room and decided to wait until tomorrow or Tuesday to start painting it.

Last night we walked State Street in Jacksonville with the Dyche family. Drake was a monkey, Ryder a werewolf, and Ashton dressed up as....well, who knows what exactly it was! She wore a tutu, afro, big eyelashes, and a grill. Poor Ashton didn't get very much candy because everyone thought she was too old. Drake was very excited and would take off running to the next house and jump in his car when he needed a break! Ryder thought he was pretty cool this year because he wasn't scared, for the first year ever, until I pointed out the guy with the chainsaw across the street and the night was over for him. He just wanted to be done after that! My back started killing me and Joel and I were home by 8 or so. The picture is right before we went home, and by this time almost everyone was "done". Ashton took off half of her outfit because no one gave her candy anyway, and Ryder couldn't see out of his mask so he wore it on top of his head. For some reason, Joel was wearing Ryder's hands and Drake was the only one still going strong!

I'm pretty disappointed with the Trick or Treaters tonight in Chapin. We've only had 3 kids. Last year we had quite a few kids, so I bought a big bowl full of candy and I have a feeling I'll have almost all of it left by the end of the night.

Things I have started to miss/enjoy since becoming pregnant...

Things I have started to miss since becoming pregnant:

1. Sleeping on my stomach. With the size of my belly now, this is pretty much impossible.
2. Sleeping all through the night and waking up without my hips hurting. (See #1). I have always been a stomach/side sleeper and now that I can't sleep on my stomach, I pretty much sleep on my sides throughout the night. I bought a pregnancy body pillow, which has helped a lot, but I still wake up every morning because my hips hurt from the extra weight placed on them. (Thomas and Tanner, I know if you're reading this you'll get a laugh out of the "extra weight" comment. Just so everyone knows, my two lovely brothers replaced my name on Dad's phone. When I call Dad's house it now says "Big-un" instead of "Most Beautiful" that I had programmed in.)
3. The nights when I didn't have to get up one, two....five times to pee in the middle of the night.
4. The nights when I didn't have acid reflux when trying to fall asleep. I didn't even know what heartburn or acid reflux felt like before getting pregnant.
5. When I could wear a "normal" sized bra and could find one that actually fit.
6. Being able to clean the house, paint, or any other manual task for more than an hour at a time without my back killing me.
7. The days when I could go on an all day shopping trip and walk/shop all day without my back and feet hurting and being completely wore out.
8. The times when we would go out to eat and I would leave extra on my plate to take home for leftovers the next day. (That comment was for Jennifer and Jim who both think it's funny how much I eat now!) Joel made the comment the other night on our way home from eating Mexican how we both clean our plates now instead of taking food home with us!
9. CAFFEINE!
10. The days when my belly didn't look like a "man's" as Joel says. I think I'm catching up to Joel on belly hair....well, maybe not quite that bad!

Things I have started to enjoy since becoming pregnant:

1. The unconditional love and bond that is forming with the baby. I wish everyone had the opportunity to experience this.
2. The kicks/punches/somersaults that I feel every couple hours, even if they do freak me out and keep me awake at night.
3. SHOPPING for all the adorable things they have out there for babies.
4. When Joel gets worried if he can't get in touch with me. If I don't answer the phone, he'll continue to call and if I don't answer the phone after 5-10 calls, he'll start calling his sister to find out if she knows where I am. I love the fact that he cares so much for me and the baby and is worried about us!
5. Borrowing a tshirt from Alaina and having her ask me if I need/want a bigger one because I guess she thought my belly was really popping out of the one she gave me!
6. Joel trying to feel the baby kick and when she does seeing the biggest grin on Joel's face.
7. Reading my day-by-day pregnancy book every night before bed. I get to see what the baby is doing on that day and how much she is growing, etc. Joel really likes it too!
8. Going to my doctor's appointments every few weeks and hearing the heartbeat.

Even though there are things I miss now that I'm pregnant, I wouldn't change it for anything. Last night I was showing Joel pictures out of my pregnancy book of how the baby looks at 10, 13, 18, and 24 weeks and how much they change. She is really looking like an actual little baby now according to the pictures in the book.

I woke up with my first leg cramps a couple nights ago. It was in my calf and I was able to get it to go away pretty fast. I'm not looking forward to having any more of those for a while!

I started painting the bedroom in the basement Sunday and finished it yesterday. I'm hoping Joel will get the bedroom furniture moved out of Ainsley's bedroom and into the bedroom in the basement in the next few days. I have talked Joel into priming Ainsley's bedroom for me and then hopefully I can get it painted this weekend.

Last night around 4 (or early this morning, however you want to look at it) I heard a siren going off and it just kept going. I didn't really think twice about it until it started to get annoying and I couldn't fall back asleep. I finally rolled over and asked Joel if it was the tornado siren and he said he didn't think so, but it had been going off FOREVER! It shut off a little while after that. The wind was really blowing and I couldn't fall back asleep so I decided to come into my office and check the weather. Sure enough, it had been the tornado siren and we were under a tornado warning! I yelled into Joel and he came in to look at said that we would have been dead because we both ignored the siren and just wanted it to go off. The warning was only for another 10-15 minutes because we had laid in bed for the first 20 or so minutes of the warning listening to the siren and not worrying about it. Joel didn't want to go to the basement then, so we ended up staying in our bed. At least now we know what the tornado siren sounds like and we both agreed that next time we need to get up and go to the basement, especially when the baby gets here!

23 Weeks and Jamie's Bridal Shower

It's hard to believe that I'm 23 weeks already. I showed Joel my belly picture from 19 weeks and told him that I didn't think I had grown that much and he said I look much different.

I've started to notice a schedule with the baby. She is usually most active at night right before bed. She's kicking or punching me pretty good as I type this. The times I notice her the most are at night and from 9-11 in the mornings. She is occasionally active in the afternoons, but I've noticed that is usually when I talk on the phone and I think she hears my voice.

Jamie's bridal shower was this morning and turned out really well. A lot of people made it out and she got a lot of nice things. Hopefully she can find somewhere to put it all! I forgot my camera at home, so I don't have any pictures.

I'm hoping to start painting the bedroom in the basement this week and moving the spare bedroom furniture down after it's painted. Next will be getting Ainsley's bedroom painted. Her furniture should be here in the next week or so! I stopped by Mom's this afternoon and she showed me her closet, which was getting full of stuff for Ainsley. I have a feeling she is going to be spoiled rotten and not want for anything!

We're still talking about middle names and haven't come up with anything yet. Hopefully we'll figure something out in the next month or so.

We have a kicker!

While laying in bed last night reading, I looked over at Joel and told him that the baby was really kicking and had been for a while. I've said this to him many times over the last month or so and he just kind of looks at me in awe, wondering if I'm really feeling her kick. About three weeks ago he put his hand on my belly after I told him she was kicking and I just kind of laughed and said there's no way you can feel her yet, and no matter how much he pushed on my belly (which wasn't much because he's scared he'll hurt her) he couldn't feel her. Last night was different.

I looked over at Joel (who didn't want to be bothered while reading some book about war) and said, "I wonder when we'll be able to feel her from the outside kicking". I then leisurely put my hand on my belly to see and sure enough within a few seconds, I felt it on my hand at the same time I felt it in my belly. It REALLY weirded me out. I started crying because I was so freaked out, yet excited at the same time. At this point, Joel really thought I was nuts (I've been very emotional this week for some reason). I made him put his hand there and it didn't take her long to give him a good kick either. As soon as she kicked he pulled his hand away from my belly as if he'd been shocked. I just looked over at him and he had a smirk on his face. He didn't know what to say. I was so excited that I couldn't fall asleep at that point, and it didn't help that she was wide awake and kicking like crazy until after 11. It took me forever to fall asleep last night and this morning she is wide awake with me kicking like crazy again. I'm not for sure if I'll ever get used to these kicks, punches, or whatever they are, and even if I am a little weirded out by them I still love them and can't wait for the next!

IT'S A GIRL!!!

I had my 21 week sonogram Monday afternoon. Joel took the day off to go, and we both were so excited! The sonogram technician said she was going to check everything with the baby, and she wasn't kidding. I told her we definately wanted to know the sex, but it was the very last thing she got to. She measured all the bones, head, stomach, heart and everything else that you could possibly think of. The baby was laying with her butt up and head face down, so we were able to get a good view between the legs. There was no mistaking that it's a girl. I couldn't believe it when she told me. I've been waiting so long for a baby and then to find out what it is. It feels so different knowing that it's a girl instead of just a baby growing in my belly. We can now say "she" when referring to the baby instead of "the baby" or "that kid" (Joel said that was the one I said all the time). Below is the picture showing it's a girl!

The sonogram went pretty good except that she wouldn't show us her face. She was laying flat on her face and wouldn't move. The sonogram tech tried for a good 10-15 minutes to try to get her to move to no avail. She even tried an internal sonogram and that didn't work either. We got her to roll just a little bit at one point, which was long enough for the tech to get the readings on the face, etc. Joel said that she's already shy like me and was embarrassed because she knew people wanted to take her picture and were looking at her. I still laugh about that comment. When I was little, I would hide behind Mom and Dad's legs and under the table at my birthday parties. I was so shy!!! Below is a good picture of her spine and then one of her face. You can really see her eye sockets in the second picture and her arms and legs.

The sonogram tech said that a doctor (not my regular doctor) would be in to check things out. The doctor came in and looked at the baby's measurements and told us that she is only in the 12th percentile. They want her to be at least in the 50th percentile. She measured 20 weeks 4 days and I was 21 weeks 1 day. The doctor said that they aren't too worried about it right now, but they want me to have another sonogram around 28 weeks to make sure that she is following the same growth pattern. I'm glad we get another sonogram since we didn't get any good pictures of her face on Monday. I'm not for sure when we got the picture below. It may have been with the internal sonogram and it's upside down.

I get to do my glucose test at my next appointment. Everyone says how awful it is, but I don't think it will be too bad. I just have to drink this bottle of stuff they gave me an hour before my appointment and they'll draw blood. I'm sure the stuff tastes awful, but I'll be glad to have that test past me.

After our appointment on Monday we went to Babies R Us and registered. It took a couple hours and we both were overwhelmed and didn't really know what we needed and the differences between everything. We ordered the baby furniture that afternoon and it should be here within the next month. I'm going to order the bedding in the next few days and once it comes in, I'll be able to pick the paint color and start painting! I can't wait to actually get started on her room.

Her name is going to be Ainsley, and we haven't decided on the middle name. I can't believe we're over halfway there already. These next four months are going to go by so fast between getting her room ready, the holidays, baby showers, travel, bridal shower, and getting ready for Thomas and Jamie's wedding. I know she is going to be here before I know it and can't wait!

Half way there

I can't believe I'm 20 weeks already. The excitement for the upcoming Monday is almost too much to bear. We have four days left until we find out what the baby is. I have noticed in the last few weeks how Joel is really getting worried and protective of me and the baby. I knew all along that he would be a great dad, but I never dreamed it would be this early!

People are starting to notice my belly more and more. While I was waiting for our Chinese food to get done last night, I went into Fashion Bug. The sales lady started telling me about the jeans that were on special this week and she was half way through it when she saw my belly. It was pretty funny. She almost stopped, but decided to go on and explain how they are $19.99 this week. At the end, I just laughed and said I didn't think I would be needing them right now. She agreed and walked away. I didn't hear another word from her.

Last weekend Alaina and I went to Chicago for a few days (I want to point out that Joel didn't want me to go...refer to the above paragrah how he is getting protective of me and the baby) to shop and just have some girl time away. It was so nice! I think I gave her some insight on quite a few things, but one that really sticks out (because of my Fashion Bug incident last night) was the salespeople in the stores up there. In some stores, we would have three or four seperate people asking us what we were looking for, how we were, etc. Alaina would respond to each one while I would ignore them and keep walking. She finally said after the second or third store, "You just ignore them, don't you." I laughed and said, of course. I hope she learned that it's ok (in my mind, anyway) to ignore them and keep on walking. It will save her so much time while shopping!

I don't really have anything new to report on the baby. Some days I will feel it moving quite a bit and others not at all. I haven't felt it for a couple days now. We're planning on ordering the baby furniture and bedding next week after we find out the sex. Hopefully we can start on the baby's room in November and get the spare bedroom moved down to the basement. I'll be sure to let everyone know how much Joel complains throughout that process. I know he won't be thinking of the baby then, only the fact that it is making him work and spend time away from the tv.