Pregnancy Thoughts - Weeks 21/22

Last week just got away from me, so I didn't get a chance to take a picture or write whats been happening. Which is probably ok, since I don't seem to have too much each week. So I'll try to recap the last two weeks for you.

First off, here's what the bump is looking like:

We got to go in and get our official anatomy scan last week. Baby must have liked all the attention because that child would not settle down! The tech was just laughing the whole time because every time she thought she had a good picture baby would do a little dance for her and just be uncooperative. If baby decided to behave and lay still, the hands where in front of its face so it took a long time to get everything done. I was so glad that we got our unofficial scan done the week before because since that tech wasn't going to be showing the pictures to anyone she could focus on more on showing us the baby and not on measuring every little part.  Overall, baby is doing good and still measuring right on track!

Pregnancy Thoughts:

• Pregnancy First: I've been able to feel Baby move around quite a bit! Makes me happy!!! Whenever I call Bryce over to feel, babe just goes completely still. Its the weirdest thing, but I'm hoping Bryce calming affect will continue when Baby arrives!
• Pregnancy First: I did one of those rock back and forth to get momentum to get out of the chair. I laughed pretty hard when I realized what I just did! Thankfully I don't have to do that all the time, but it definitely takes a little more effort to get standing upright!
• Baby weighs a pound now, and is the size of a spaghetti squash or a papaya. Yeah neither of those are that helpful to me either! Around 11 inches or so.
• I have found out how dangerous Motherhood Maternity sales can be! (buy one get one half off jeans, plus 40% off sale prices - Yes please!!) So because of that, and my sister in law grabbing some great clothes I have a great start at my maternity wardrobe. And I will admit the clothes aren't nearly as bad as I was expecting, so that's been good.
• I have started to enjoy being pregnant. Is that bad of me that it took that long? Its not that it bothered me before, but now I can say that I have been really enjoying it! I feel good most of the time, I got over my dread of getting bigger, and feeling baby moving really helped too.
• We ordered our first piece of baby supplies. The crib will be coming in next week. Now its time to go through and decide which furniture we are keeping and moving around and what we just need to get rid of. Bryce and I were given so much furniture individually before we were married and we easily overfilled our four bedroom house, so it will be nice to go through things again and purge some stuff before we get inundated with baby stuff.

Overall it has been a great couple of weeks. I feel like things are starting to pick up speed and know its only down hill from here. I can't wait to see what the next few weeks/months will bring!

Life - Outside of Baby

Looking over the last month of posts, I noticed that I haven't written anything other than pregnancy news. I guess it isn't that surprising, it is a huge part of our lives right now. Especially being our first everything is just so new and I feel the need to share that all with you. But there have been other things going on so I thought I would do a quick rundown on those fun things.

This past weekend we went over the MN to spend a long weekend with our parents. We got there Friday evening just in time to celebrate my mother in law's birthday with some amazing Chinese food. Saturday we went to a zoo in a neighboring town with Bryce's parents and his sister and her family. It was so fun to see the zoo with the kids. It never fails to make me laugh when they are way more impressed with the everyday ordinary bird that just flew by than the monkeys that are doing all sorts of fun things. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with that day, so I don't have any pictures. Sunday - Tuesday was spent out at my family's lake cabin. Definitely my favorite place on earth! I didn't take many pictures but here is a few of my favorites!

Sitting around visiting with family on Sunday afternoon.

Monday and Tuesday was just my immediately family and was spent like this: lay in the sun, grab some good food, go back on the water, repeat. Perfection!! We couldn't ask for better weather or a quieter time to just enjoy time with each other. 

These are just a few of the fun things we've been able to do this summer, other than dream and talk about Baby's arrival. Throw in some camping, hiking, and enjoying time with friends it has been a pretty good summer. Bryce has moved to daytime hours at work (7:00 am - 5:30 pm Mon- Thurs) and so life feels a little more normal again.

Things we are looking forward to - Tomorrow is the official 20 week ultrasound. I did get a chance to have one done this past weekend at home which was so much fun, and special since my sister, mom, and mother in law got to be there too. We still aren't finding out the gender, but it is just as much fun to see baby moving and shaking! Also I have been inundated with cucumbers from my garden this summer and just picked up a canning set so I get to teach myself how to can pickles in the next few days. Should be an adventure! If I don't write anything about it, it probably didn't go well, but hopefully it will be a success!

Pregnancy Thoughts - Week 20

20 Weeks! It seems so crazy that we're halfway done with this pregnancy. The first month or so after we found out seemed to drag on forever! But once summer got into full swing and so did the energy (well at least more than it was in the first trimester!) the days and weeks started to fly! I know that it will go even faster once we start getting prepared for baby and then the holidays hit.

Pregnancy Thoughts of the Week:

• Pregnancy first: I am wearing my first maternity shirt today. For some reason I had decided that I wanted to make it to 20 weeks before buying/wearing maternity clothes. I ordered a couple of pairs of jeans online this week that I am really looking forward to having!
• I had to laugh because this past week within 24 hours of each other I was told that I am not showing at all, and then the next day that I was getting so big! It cracks me up how different peoples thoughts on how big a person should be at each stage in pregnancy.
• I've taken a slight break from all my baby research. But it is just because I've been researching trip ideas for Bryce and I to have one last trip together as a family of two. I think we finally found a spot that meets all our requirements and should be a blast!
• Wow, I'm having a hard time with coming up with things to say about this week. I suppose that is a good thing. I am so happy that this has been a relatively "boring" pregnancy - meaning no complications or severe sickness or anything.

And lastly, Happy Birthday to my dear husband Bryce! You have made life more fun and amazing than I could imagine! Love You!

Pregnancy Thoughts - Week 19

I had to quickly post something for this week, because before I know it next week will be here and then we'll be at 20 weeks - HALF WAY THERE!! Oh does that make me happy!

Anyways, here a look at baby's/stomach growth for the week:

Thoughts for the week:

• I went to the doctor the other day and everything is still looking good. It was so reassuring to hear that little heartbeat going a mile a minute. I didn't have any reason to worry, but since I haven't felt Baby move yet it is just nice to hear that concrete evidence that Baby is still thriving.
• I got nailed with a cold this week, not fun. Well actually not sure if it is a cold or just regular pregnancy stuffed upness that just makes you feel miserable. 
• I really need to go buy some maternity clothes. So far I've been able to make all my regular clothes work with the help of rubber bands, Bella Bands, and shhhh don't tell anyone but I have gone out in public with just not zipping up my pants - thank goodness for long tank-tops!
• I cannot wait to feel Baby move. When I'm sitting on the couch sometimes I think I might have felt something, but don't let myself get too excited since I'm not sure and would feel really silly to get all sentimental over just muscles stretching out! 
• I bought myself a wonderful present the other day. Meet my new friend:

 Sorry for the dark picture. But this is my friend Snoogle (that's the real name of it, I didn't just name it that!) I have been having such a hard time sleeping the last couple of weeks and have heard great things about pregnancy pillows and decided to get one. This one happened to be a Target deal of the day so marked way down and free shipping - yes please! It does take up quite a bit of the bed, but so far Bryce hasn't said that I've taken over the whole thing so I think its pretty good. It is wonderful at just keeping me in one spot for longer periods of time. Before I would flip over every 30 minutes or so and was just so restless all night. I'm definitely not sleeping straight through the night but at least sleep much more soundly now!

So that is how I sleep at night, and when I was taking that picture Bentley decided that he wanted to show you how he gets comfortable at night. Every night he tucks himself into his little "fort" He has always done this, and I find it adorable!

I think that is all for this week. Seems kind of boring but this is kind of the boring part of pregnancy. Not a whole lot going on and I haven't started buying/painting/assembling so I am just enjoying resting and the quiet of life!

Pregnancy Thoughts - Week 18

Well we've made it to 18 weeks and they have been a few months of ups and downs and thinking I have this pregnancy thing down then it all switches again and all sorts of fun things. I wanted to be able to write out my thoughts, what I'm looking forward to/not looking forward to and other details so I have a journal of this time. I am already looking forward to looking back on all this and shaking my head going, "Oh Bethany, if you only knew..." Interestingly that is one of my biggest pet peeves so far in this pregnancy. People ask me how I'm doing and when I respond honestly they always say, well just you wait it only gets worse. Ok fine, I'm sure it does but this is what I'm going through right now and that is what you asked about so why not be helpful or just say I'm sorry about that. - Stepping off my soap box now-

So on to other thoughts that don't bug me so much

• Lil' B is the size of a baked potato this week.
• I have found that I can make my stomach go into weird shapes by bending a little and that makes me laugh and a little more ok with having a belly.
• Baby is finally allowing me to eat again. From about weeks 13-17 baby really wanted to have a say about what and when I ate. It was so frustrating! I have always had a love/hate relationship with food for this pregnancy. That is all I've thought about for the last 4 months but baby just doesn't have the same obsession with it.
• I love researching/planning for baby stuff. When Bryce comes home from work I usually have something for him to look at and give his opinion on. (Although its usually "Well if that's what you want" We'll see if that attitude keeps up when it comes to actually purchasing them!) Lately I've been dreaming up nursery colors. I don't want to do a theme, but would like a color palate picked out soon so we can keep an eye out for things when we go shopping down the road.
• I miss sleep.
• I am surprisingly not super bugged by not knowing the gender of the baby. That may change during the ultrasound in a couple weeks, but so far I'm very ok with it. I am more looking forward to the "It's a ..." announcement when we get to meet this little baked potato.
• Pregnancy first for the week - I dropped some food and it landed on top of my stomach. I guess baby finally decided he wanted some food. (Yes I do refer to the baby as a he, always have no real reason its just easier)

Here's what Baby and I are looking like this week.

And here is what Bryce is looking like these weeks. He decided that he wanted his picture taken showing off his "picture taking boots"  (He had just bought them to wear in Minot to help with the flood clean up and was wearing them to see if they were comfortable enough when I asked him to take a picture for me) Another side note - these are taken in what is the office and will be turned into the nursery. We are not planning on painting the walls, so if anyone has ideas for some accent colors let me know!

Well the adventure continues, we'll see what there is to report next week