23 Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights

 

How Far Along: 23 weeks

*I had a vendor come in yesterday and tell me that I look like I'm due sooner than December. Thanks buddy*

*I meant to post this early last week but got sick. These are weeks 19-21 and I'm even bigger now*

Size of baby: According to babycenter.com the baby is about the size of a large mango.

Turn on the radio and sway to the music. With his sense of movement well developed by now, your baby can feel you dance. And now that he's more than 11 inches long and weighs just over a pound (about as much as a large mango), you may be able to see him squirm underneath your clothes. Blood vessels in his 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 him when he hears them outside the womb

Total Weight Gain/Loss: +10-11 pounds. I started out at 103-105 and now I'm around 114-116 depending on if I weigh myself in the morning or at night.

Maternity Clothes: I got my order from Old Navy and I love all the shirts, they fit great and are super comfy. Hopefully they will last until the end of the pregnancy. Below are pictures of the tops I bought.

 

I also bought some black leggings which I suspect I'll be spending a LOT of time in.

Gender: Team Blue!

Movement: He's quite the mover and shaker in there and his kicks are getting more prominent on the outside as well.

What I miss: My husband, he's leaving today to go fishing for the next 5 days at the beach with his buddies. Something about being pregnant makes me more clingy to him.

Sleep: Better than last week.

Symptoms: backaches and breakouts and the skin on my tummy feeling tighter and tighter

Cravings: Hershey chocolate bars. I had a craving Sunday night and Kristian went out to buy me one and this is what he came home with. He said he wanted to be prepared with all options. haha

Best Moment this week: Getting a healthy heart report at my echo cardiogram ultrasound!

What I am looking forward to: Going shopping this weekend, hoping to find a cute dress for my baby shower in Oct.



Worth Every Penny

So here's the thing, I'm a pretty cheap frugal person by nature. I hate spending a lot of money for things I know I can buy for less elsewhere or for services I know I could do myself. There have been exceptions to this however, for example, when we moved and hired professional movers. BEST. DECISION. Yes we could have moved ourselves but after hiring professionals I will do whatever I need to in the future to afford that luxury when we move again.

With that said when we first started talking a few weeks ago about hiring a cleaning person to come in maybe once a month I was a bit hesitant. It seemed like a waste of money, after all, we could just clean ourselves. Now let me be clear, we DO clean our house. Obviously we do the day to day type of cleaning to keep the house somewhat presentable. The problem is that we've gotten really bad about keeping up with the deep cleaning i.e. mopping, washing windows, dusting those hard to reach spots.  etc.

We moved into the house at the end of February and I got pregnant at the beginning of April and spent most of my first trimester feeling horrible and now I have little pockets of energy that leave as quickly as they come, so for me, trying to keep up with this has been impossible. And even though Kristian is actually REALLY good at that kind of cleaning (I definitely am not) he's typically busy doing more handy-man/physical labor type of projects around the house. Call me crazy but after he replaces all the deck railing single-handedly I feel bad asking him to mop the kitchen floor.

So we decided to bite the bullet and hire someone. We hired the wife of one of the guys Kristian works with and she actually cleans their office as well. It was important we had someone we knew and trusted since they would be cleaning while we weren't home.

Yesterday was her first day and I have to say I was super impressed when I got home. Granted I've never hired a professional to come clean my house so maybe I had low expectations but she went above and beyond and did things we didn't ask or expect her to do. She even cleaned the cat litter box (which we didn't ask her to do)! Kristian said that alone made her worth the money.

Obviously I expected her to do the basics; vacuum, mop, dust etc. but the whole night I kept finding little surprises of things she had cleaned or organized that I didn't anticipate. It was awesome. Below are a few pictures of some of the fun surprises.

She vacuumed our couch! Look at those lines. I didn't even want to sit on the couch when I got home and mess it up.

In Moxie's crate we keep a towel (in case she has an accident) and a soft blanket which are both usually crumpled up and she folded them neatly. I know Moxie was happy.

And by far my favorite surprise, in all of the bathrooms she folded the end of our toilet paper, hotel style. It really is the little things that make me happy!

So even though we ultimately could have done all of this cleaning ourselves it was so nice to have someone come in and get it done for us. It's just getting too hard for me to do it and Kristian doesn't have the time on top of everything else he has to do around the house. It's also nice to have a "clean slate" so to be speak which makes it easier to do our daily cleaning. The plan is to have her come every three weeks. I wish we could afford every two weeks but we just can't right now.

Do you/have you ever had a professional cleaning person?

Heart Matters

This morning I went for another ultrasound for our little man. This time it was a fetal echo cardiogram which we had done because Kristian was born with a heart issue and they wanted to look at the baby's heart a little more closely to make sure he wouldn't have the same/or different problem.

And I'm happy to say that baby boy's heart looked VERY healthy!! They didn't see any issues of concern and everything was measuring and looked normal. I really wasn't very worried since his heart looked great at the anatomy scan but the reassurance from the echo is still amazing to have.

My only disappointment was that I wasn't able to see the rest of him. They immediately zoomed in on the heart and spent the entire time just looking at that, which I figured, however I had hoped maybe they would zoom out at least once and let me have another look at the rest of him. Oh well. The most important thing is that his heart is healthy.

Assuming we don't run into any issues between now and delivery I'm not scheduled for anymore ultrasounds. This could obviously change depending on how he continues to grow (big or small) and if I start to run late. Because of this we have considered going to an elective ultrasound facility around the 30-32 week mark to do a 3D ultra sound just for fun but we'll have to see where our finances stand at that point. It's not something we need but I would love to get a little peek at his face before he gets here. I can't wait to see which features he gets from each of us.

LLP

I'm finally starting to feel better! Woot Woot. And just in time to spend my entire weekend in my house (where I've spent all week) due to that bitch named Irene that is gunning for us. An Earthquake and Hurricane in the same week. Mother Nature is not a fan of us East Coasters right now.

On a happier note I wanted to give you all a heads up about a fabulous deal being offered from an even more fabulous person. My girl Kristen who is the brains/beauty/talent behind Little Laws Prints- custom stationery, invitations, party decor, and prints- has a great deal going on this weekend.  15% off now through Sunday on all stationery including custom orders. Blog friends take 10% off all orders with the coupon code "blogger" at checkout.

I've gotten a few of Kristen's products and they are top notch. And she is very kindly designing the invites and other party goodies for my upcoming baby shower. It's all a surprise but I know it's going to kick ass and can't wait to see what she comes up with.

So for you East Coasters especially who will probably be locked inside most of the weekend, have some fun shopping on LLP's site.

22 Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights

How Far Along: 22 weeks

No picture this week. I've been sick all week and the last thing I need is a picture of myself right now.

Size of baby: According to babycenter.com the baby is about the length of a spaghetti squash (whatever the hell that is)

At 11 inches (the length of a spaghetti squash) and almost 1 pound, your baby is starting to look like a miniature newborn. His lips, eyelids, and eyebrows are becoming more distinct, and he's even developing tiny tooth buds beneath his gums. His eyes have formed, but his irises (the colored part of the eye) still lack pigment. If you could see inside your womb, you'd be able to spot the fine hair (lanugo) that covers his body and the deep wrinkles on his skin, which he'll sport until he adds a padding of fat to fill them in. Inside his belly, his pancreas — essential for the production of some important hormones — is developing steadily.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: +9 pounds. I went to the doctor's again today because of my cold/rash and they weighed me and I noticed I weighed less than last week, I guess due to being sick all week and not having much of an appetite.

Maternity Clothes: I finally broke down and ordered some maternity tops from Old Navy last week. They haven't arrived yet. At least I'm a small again in maternity wear.

Gender: Team Blue!

Movement: He's been moving a lot more and I can feel him pretty well on the outside. Feeling him move has been comforting all week since I've been sick and worried about how it's affecting him.

What I miss: being able to breathe through my nose...damn cold!

Sleep: Terrible this week but due to my massive head cold rather than the pregnancy. I feel like a zombie.

Symptoms: No real pregnancy symptoms, too busy feeling horrible from my head cold.

Cravings: liquids, not really hungry but very thirsty.

 

Best Moment this week: Going to the doctor today and hearing the heartbeat and getting reassurance that the funk I've had all week doesn't seem to have affected the baby.

What I am looking forward to: Seeing the little guy on my next ultrasound on Monday.



The Yucks

So I briefly mentioned yesterday that I was home sick, well I'm still home sick again today. Over the weekend Kristian came down with a really nasty head cold which he then lovingly passed on to me. Starting Monday night I felt like a truck had hit me. Massive nasal/head congestion, sneezing, coughing you name it. Of course I'm not allowed to take any of the medicine we had in the house so I spent the entire night on Monday on the couch watching HGTV because I couldn't breathe through my nose and therefore couldn't sleep. I think I got about an hour of sleep total that night.

I called the doctor yesterday and was told I'm allowed to take Tylenol Cold, Sudafed, Robitussin and nasal spray (but only for like two days). So I bought some Tylenol Cold and nasal spray, the nasal spray seemed to be the only thing that really gave me any relief and thanks to taking it before bed last night I actually slept until around 4am when I woke up again unable to breathe and couldn't go back to sleep. We also did a Neti Pot last night for the first time ever. That thing is weird and didn't seem to help me much.

My plan was to go into work for a couple hours today to get some stuff done and come home, well when I was in the shower I noticed I had a rash on my chest/stomach/back. It doesn't itch or hurt but it freaked me out, obviously I'm having a reaction to something. I called the doc again and was told to take some Benedryl, rest and if it doesn't get better by this afternoon they'll make an appointment for me to come in tomorrow. So now I'm at home, in bed, checking work emails and trying my best to breathe through my nose.

Being sick sucks. Being sick in the summer when it's actually beautiful outside really sucks and being sick when you're pregnant and can't really take much really REALLY sucks. Hopefully I get some relief soon and the little man is doing better in there than I am.

Holy 5.9!!

Just experienced my very first Earthquake here in Northern VA. Apparently it's clocked in at 5.9 and was felt up to NY and down to NC.

I'm home sick from work today so I was laying on the couch and I felt shaking, at first I thought maybe someone was drilling outside but when it didn't stop I ran and stood in a doorway since that's what they do on t.v. It felt like it lasted forever but I think it was only about 20 seconds. I then went outside where all the neighbors were congregating, freaking out.

Fortunately there doesn't seem to be much damage except for a broken porcelain angel that fell off a shelf. And after 15 minutes of trying to get through on my cell to check on Kristian he texted me that he was okay and actually didn't feel anything while driving.

Very scary and I hope not something I ever have to live through again hence why I won't be moving out to Cali anytime soon!

Did any of you feel the quake??