Disney in a Few Days! 18 Weeks!

For the long holiday weekend we got to home to Chattanooga and spend a lot of time with my (Becca's) family.  We also got to visit our friend Kevin and Leslie and their new baby Ella.  She was four days old and Patrick and I got to hold her for around 3 hours.  We also got to talk to Kevin and Leslie about the experience of labor and being in the hospital.  It was good to hear, because I found out for sure from my mom that she had never gone through labor!  That makes me really nervous, just because I know she won't be able to give me any advice and sympathy while I'm in labor.

We're getting ready to go to Disney!  There are so many things to take care of before we go.  We're going to get some work done on our house while we are gone, so we have to make sure that that is taken care of.  We also need to pack, make sure we have all the tickets... there's a lot to take care of.

Our baby is growing apace.  We're so excited that there is only two weeks before we have another ultrasound and hopefully we can find out if we're going to have a little boy or a little girl.  I can't wait to find out and to get bigger!  I want to feel the baby move and to really be big enough to look pregnant.  I'm already uncomfortable, so I might as well look huge!

Our baby is 5.5 inches, about as big as this toy.

We picked out our baby room color and bought the bulk of the furniture!  We are planning on having that room and some others painted, as well as some crown molding and new baseboards put in while we are at Disney.  We are going to pick out our glider rocker this week.  Soon it will be time for baby showers!

Welcome Baby Ella! (17 Weeks)

This morning I work up to a text message telling me our sweet friends Leslie and Kevin Terry just had their baby girl Eleanor Marie!  Leslie has been my pregnancy buddy, both us us checking in with each other.  We're so excited to be able to met her this weekend!  I know I want Patrick to hold a brand new baby since he hasn't before and I know it makes him nervous.  We're going to Chattanooga Wednesday night for the long Thanksgiving weekend and I am so excited to be able to spend all that time with Patrick.

The baby is about 5 ounces and 5 inches long right now and it's getting closer to the day when we get to find out if it's a boy or girl!  Our appointment is on December 14th, which is my niece Lillian's 3rd birthday!

Our baby is a wide as this belt buckle.

 

Apparently, our baby's weight will increase approximately six times over the next four weeks. Crazy, right?  It will be almost 2 pounds!  We'll see how much bigger I get in that time too!

16 Weeks!

Today when I was having my morning crackers, the ones I eat so that I won't get too hungry between getting up and making my cereal (ridiculous but necessary), I think I might have felt the baby for the first time!  Still not totally sure, because it was a little bit too high, but even if it wasn't, I know that's coming very soon!  It felt like gas a little below my belly button, but definitely close to the surface.

Right now the baby is somewhere between four and five inches, average around 4.6 inches, or the size of the diameter of this figurine.

Apparently, I was totally mistaken when I thought the baby couldn't really heard more than the vague sound of voices around it.  Right now the baby can tell both of our voices apart and distinguish music as well.  Crazy!  As soon as Patrick found out the baby could hear him, he started laying his head his head on my belly every night when we get in bed and talking to the baby.  He just told me he plans on doing that every night until the baby is born.

We're getting really excited for all the fun things we have planned the next month and a half!  I, of course, decided to make it even busier by getting a couple lolita events together, for this weekend and December 18th.  There's not too much time before I won't be able to wear any of my pretty clothes anymore, which is really sad.  But I'm excited to have this holiday season!

Third Heartbeat -15 Weeks

Today I had another doctor appointment, the last one before our next ultrasound.  I'm so excited!  35 days until we (hopefully) get to know if we're having a boy or girl!  This appointment and the last one were pretty boring, except for hearing the heartbeat.  This time the nurse found it right away so I didn't get to hear it for long.  It's amazing how much tension leaves my body as soon as I hear that little whump-whump. 

Our little turtle is around four inches.  It was hard to find pictures by searching "four inches" so I stole the picture from the Nickelodeon parent website, which is kind of a hilarious website.
Our baby, the Kit-Kat:

It's even harder to find a good picture of a Kit-Kat too. 



We are going to be so busy the next month and a half!  We're going back to Chattanooga this weekend, then again in a week and a half for Thanksgiving.  The weekend after Thanksgiving is Patrick's company Christmas party and then the next day we go to Disney World for a week!  After we get back from Disney, we have our next doctor appointment, then a week later, it's Christmas!  We're going to Chattanooga for about 5 days and then going to Wilmington, NC to visit the Carpenters for a week.  Whew!

Feeling Pregnant

It's kind of amazing. I haven't gotten bigger, but recently I've embraced my pregnant state wholeheartedly.  I don't know if it's just the way I've been able to talk a bunch of people's ears off about being pregnant.  Winship's death brought so many of my family members together, and we've wanted to reconnect with all of our friends, and we've seen almost all of our Huntsville friends since we got back from Chattanooga.

Unfortunately for me, being in my second trimester doesn't mean all the nausea and tiredness is gone, just the majority of it.  I'm still sleeping long periods of time, but I don't feel as tired when I'm awake.  It's also easier for me to fall asleep, which is a relief.  If last night was any indication, I think it's going to be harder to stay asleep.  I wake up thirsty and having to pee a few times a night, and I know that's just going to increase.  But like I tell all my friends who haven't been pregnant, this isn't fun, but it's TOTALLY worth it.  Especially when you have a husband as wonderful as mine.

Speaking of Patrick, I have to gush about him for a minute.  We've taken a lot of time off this year.  By the end of the year, it will have been around 7 weeks.  That means Patrick has been working extra every day to take as much of that time off as comp time.  The time we want to take off could be tackled at this point using vacation, but Patrick wants to save that for when the baby is born so he doesn't have to work extra during my third trimester and will still be able to take off two weeks when the baby is born.  That's right, he's already the world's best dad.