Wednesday, May 23, 2012

twenty-one

The highlight of week twenty-one so far was the wonderful shower/get together that I had with my preschool moms last night!  We all had dinner at my favorite place in Carmel and cake from my favorite bakery and I got to hang out with my favorite moms!!  What could be better?!  Any teacher will tell you that they understand their kiddos better after meeting their parents.  The same is true of my kiddos this year.  It is so obvious why they are all so amazing, they have amazing parents!!

So now we have even more awesomeness for baby us.  And the best part- almost every gift was a wonderful hand-me-down or organic gift!  Our baby will be leaving a tiny footprint on the Earth with it's tiny feet :)  Thanks moms, for supporting our weirdness :D

Other than that, nothing notably cool has been going on.  We're getting pumped about heading to San Diego to celebrate our anniversary this weekend.  Three years of marriage!  It's crazy how it seems like yesterday that we got married, but at the same time, it's like this is how it's always been :)

Today I began (trying) to organize some of the baby stuff in our tiny apartment.  I began by gathering a HUGE box and labeling it "Clothes Jessica can't wear until she's no longer pregnant...and is sick of looking longingly at" and filled it with just that.  It really opened up a lot of space in the closet!!  So that section is being filled up with sweet baby clothes and gifts from friends and fam :)

Here are some pics to illustrate my reasoning for limiting my closet:

I can't help but laugh at my own crazy face in this pic! haha, I took this one before work one morning to send to my mom :)

And a more close-up look.  
I've now gained 11 lbs. since I got preggo.  Someone told me today that I shouldn't worry because my legs still look like toothpicks (uhhh....thanks????), but I'm not too worried.  I figure that's about right for half way.  Anyway, I've got a cantelope (or camelope as one of my all-time fave kiddos would say) in my belly.  :)

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Twenty!!

Week twenty started off with a jolt.  Literally. I was stopped at a redlight on my way to work and was rear-ended.  The car is fine (because Elly, the Element, is a beast), but I was completely freaked out about baby us.  I was super nauseated (I found out later because of the adrenaline) and after the police came and the insurance info was exchanged I drove home and just sat in our parking lot for a minute.  I put my hand on my belly and baby us started to kick.  I couldn't help but smile and cry and start praying.  I thanked God that we were okay and that He showed me once again that I should be trusting Him, as He is in control :)

The weekend just got awesome after that!  I graduated, or so they tell me, on Saturday.  That was another one of God's gifts.  There's no way I could have gotten a two-year graduate degree in one year while working 2-3 jobs AND pregnant if it wasn't by His grace....and John's patience with me losing my mind at times :)  To celebrate we went to San Francisco with our friends and toured Alcatraz before having a wonderful dinner overlooking the city.  If you go to Grandviews, I highly recommend the crab cakes!
Hubz, me and my big ole belly


A super-cool pic John took in our hotel

For Mother's Day my husband surprised me with some TOMS sunglasses!!!  As you may know, I love, LoVe, LOVE TOMS shoes.  The company gives a pair of shoes to those in need when you purchase a pair, they call it one for one.  Well, their sunglasses work in much the same way.  When you get a pair of shades from TOMS they give sight by means of surgeries, glasses, etc. to someone in need in a poor country.  Sadly, I'm one of those people that break sunglasses on a regular basis, so I couldn't justify spending the money (they're not cheap!) on some TOMS.  But Huberoosky did.  He used the money he's been saving from selling off his sports gear he no longer uses and then sneakily had them sent to a friend's house so he could surprise me.  I was pretty shocked, as we had agreed not to get each other Mom and Dad gifts until after the baby came.  You know, that whole "we have a baby and a house to save for" bit. The best part was the way he wrapped it all up :)
My TOMS shades!!
My card, folded into an origami flower.  Can I say coolest Hubz EVER?!


Monday we had our 20 week appointment.  To be honest, we didn't get any great pics.  There's one of his or her foot that is pretty cute if you can figure out what it is.  I found this pic on the internet that just wowed me so I thought I'd share it instead.  This is a baby that was born at 21 weeks and actually made it!! What a miracle!! And look how tiny it's little feet are!!
 For those of you that were anticipating the ultrasound pics so that you could decipher for yourself what the sex is, it wouldn't have done you any good anyway.  Baby us had its knees pulled up to its chin so even the doc doesn't know if we're having a boy or girl yet.  But the good news is she said our baby is perfect!! :)

In other news, the preparation is coming along swimmingly!  Our living room is currently filling up with awesome gifts from friends and family and we've just got the information packet from our diaper service we're planning to use!!  It turns out that not only is using our diaper service going to be way better for the planet, it's going to be cheaper than using disposables too!!  Yaay for a healthier baby, healthier world, and healthier wallet!!  Here's a pic that was included in the packet.  It really hits home!!
You probably can't read the sign, but it says, "2 years worth of disposable diapers 6-10,000 diapers for 1 baby over a diapering period vs. 2 years worth of cloth diapers for 1 baby.  YOU DECIDE!"  It's crazy if you think about it.  Most people these days don't potty train their kids until closer to age 3, so that right side pile would be even bigger!  Of course, the cloth side would stay the same because you only buy them once :)

I often get a lot of "interesting" :) comments from people when talking about my future parenting choices, such as cloth diapers.  For those questioning whether cloth might be right for them here is an awesome post I found about how unhealthy disposables can be for your kiddo http://allaboutclothdiapers.com/why-choose-cloth-diapers-health-reasons/  

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

19

Baby stats this week:
  •  Kicking!!  The baby is kicking like crazy now!!  Hubz has gotten to feel it as well!  So far it seems that baby us loves music and southern food.  At least, this is when we get the most baby action going.  Last night I cooked one of my favorite country meals and baby us did an actual FLIP in my belly!! (It was cool, but kinda hurt!) So let's get some fried potatoes on the table and Elvis in the background.  This is truly a child after my own heart :)
  • Fruit size:  Mango, but only for a couple more days.  Friday, (2 more days) I think we are supposed to hit cantelope status!!!  Right now it's 6 1/2" long and 10 oz!
  • Monday we have our 20 week appointment!  We have the option to find out the sex, although we won't.  (Man, it's tempting sometimes).  However, I am excited to see our kiddo again!
Mommy stats this week:
  • Carpal Tunnel is better!!  This is completely due to the power of prayer!!  Last week I had no issues with my hand/wrist/arm and was able to finish the last of my papers for school!  I did have one incident when I got up in the middle of the night and my whole arm was numb (I had a real time trying to use the bathroom and wash my hands at 2 AM with one numb arm!!) and yesterday the other arm started hurting. Ugh.  But at least I was able to get work done!!  Praise God!
  • Belly- Comments range these days from "Wow, starting to show huh?" to "Teacher Jessica, your belly is getting so BIG and FAT!!!"  (gotta love 4 year-olds).  I still have one pair of yoga pants that fit, so that keeps me happy.
  • Baby stuff!! We've already been getting awesome gifts for the baby delivered from friends and family!  We feel SO thankful and SO blessed!! I don't know about you, but when I first saw the list of stuff you have to buy to have a kid, I wanted to cry!! (I'm pretty sure I did, but we'll blame it on hormones).  Now we have boxes piled up in our tiny living room just waiting to be opened upon the arrival of the future President (that's what I've been calling baby us lately). 
Overall, week 19 has rocked!!  I can't wait to see our baby in week 20 and introduce him or her (or at least introduce my big belly) to our family in week 23, when we get to visit Tennesseee!!