Weeks 18-22

18 Weeks (Sunday, March 1)

Size of baby: A sweet potato, 5.6 inches, 6.7 ounces

19 Weeks (Sunday, March 8)

Size of baby: A mango, 6.0 inches, 8.5 ounces

20 Weeks (Sunday, March 15)

Size of baby: A banana, 6.5 inches, 10.2 ounces

21 Weeks (Sunday, March 22)

Size of baby: A pomegranate, 10.5 inches, 12.7 ounces

22 Weeks (Sunday, March 29)

Size of baby: A papaya, 11.8 inches, 15.8 ounces

Baby has developed all five sense: taste, sight, smell, touch, and hearing.  Baby has started manufacturing meconium (gross/cool).  Baby sleeps about 12-14 hours a day.

I felt baby girl kick for the first time on March 17.  We had gone to Jim's intramural basketball game and got home a little bit late.  Shortly after that we headed for bed, and as I was laying there I felt a few strange twitches in my stomach.  I wasn't 100% sure what it was, and I knew Robert had already fallen asleep so I didn't wake him up.  The next morning I googled "twitching muscle spasm in stomach while pregnant."  Novice mom, huh?  Sure enough, there were about a million articles and forums saying that when baby first starts doing noticeable kicks it feels like a muscle spasm or twitch you might have in your leg or something.  My obgyn had said baby's kicks would feel like a butterfly in my stomach.  I don't know about that.  I'm still going with twitch/spasm.  Anyway, ever since then I've noticed that if I'm sitting still or laying down I am bound to feel baby girl moving around.  On Wednesday I called Robert at work at told him I had officially felt baby moving.  When he came home for lunch he was able to feel her, too.  So cool!  Unfortunately, he hasn't been able to feel her since then, but I definitely have.  I'll call him over to feel, but then she stops.  She's an ornery thing!  People keep saying, "Just wait til she's bigger.  The kicking won't be so cute then."  Maybe so, but for now it's a nice reminder that she's still doing her thing and making progress toward making her grand entry into this world.  It's crazy to think that she still doesn't even weigh 1 pound even though we're a couple of weeks past the halfway mark.

Personally, I feel like I'm showing, but I'm definitely not to the point where strangers say anything like, "So when are you due?  Boy or girl?"  If I wear a t-shirt it just looks like I have a pudgy stomach, but if I wear a maternity shirt (I have a couple now) it looks more pronounced.

I've been feeling really good the last week or so.  After the nausea wrapped up around week 13, I still struggled with pretty bad dizziness, but it finally subsided around week 21.  I'm really hoping it's gone forever.  My doctor wasn't concerned about it which is good, but it's still just super annoying.  I guess when you're pregnant your blood supply increases by about 40-50%, and your blood vessels can't always adjust and keep up which leads to dizziness and the feeling of being lightheaded.  As far as blood flow goes, I'm rocking those compression hose whenever I'm out of the house, and dang are they hot.  Imagine wearing Long Johns under your jeans even though it's 70 degrees outside.  That's pretty much what it feels like.

22 weeks down.  18 weeks to go!

Our Second Place

Robert, Mittens, and I have been living in our new townhouse for about six weeks now, and we definitely feel settled.  When we first moved to Missouri we didn't have anywhere to live, so we stayed with my parents for a couple of days, and then we stayed with a couple from the church for about two weeks.  They have a basement that is kind of like it's own apartment, and they took great care of us.  We ended up finding a townhouse that has been a really good fit so far.  It's probably about 1/3 of a mile away from the church where Robert works, so on most days he walks and it takes less than 5 minutes.  Occasionally, he drives and it takes about 30 seconds.  There's a sidewalk along the whole path, so we don't have to walk in the road.  The townhouse is about 500 square feet larger than our old apartment, but somehow we've managed to fill the extra space.  Can you believe it?  The extra space has allowed us to have some "new to us" items including the crib my parents used for Jim and me when we were babies, the rocking chair that Serina gave us, another bedroom set, and my grandparents' piano.

Our new bedroom suit and bedding

Overall, we really like the space.  It has some upgrades that we aren't used to: granite counter tops, tile floors, two reserved parking spots.  But we still have the normal downsides that come with living in multi-family housing:virtually no yard, no garage, and noises from our neighbors.  Another new thing for me at least is that, other than my three years in the dorm, I've never lived in a place with stairs.  Obviously, part of what makes it a townhouse is that it has two floors.  Let me just tell you, you discover a new aspect of your own laziness when you decide you'd rather have freezing cold feet than have to go up the stairs to get some socks.  I'm afraid that stairs have become a good stacking place for stuff that needs to go upstairs.  We're not the only ones who do this, right?

A cardinal visited our yard during the snow

The living room is all set.  We already had the couch, chair, pillows, curtains, and painting.  We ended up having just the right number of curtains from our old apartment, so we didn't have to buy any new ones.  Robert had a friend paint that canvas for me in college.  We found a flea market in town called Relics and scored the side table, trunk, and lamp.

The Fourth Appointment - Gender Reveal

Friday, March 6 was the big OBGYN visit to find out baby's gender.  The waiting room was more packed than I'd ever seen.  There were about 20 people in there.  Of course, some were husbands or kids, but it was so crowded.  They update a board with estimated waiting times as people check in and out.  I had two appointments - the lab and the doctor.  Thankfully, neither one had a wait time listed which means the wait would be 30 minutes or last, which, if you ask me, is still a wait, but two doctors had a one hour wait time.  One lady walked in, looked at the board, and just dropped her shoulders in disappointment.  We waited about 20 minutes before being called back to the ultrasound lab.  The lady was very nice and said she wouldn't tell us the gender unless she felt 100% confident in her declaration.  She spent the first ten minutes looking at  various parts of the body and taking measurements: femur, skull, heart, kidney, spine, umbilical cord.  It was fascinating, but I was wanted to shout, "Ok, get to the point here.  Boy or girl???"  She had some trouble getting baby V to cooperate.  Her legs were crossed.  So ladylike already!  The tech had me roll over on my left side, and eventually she got the money shot and wrote on the screen, "I'M A GIRL!"  A little tear rolled down my cheek; I was just so happy.  I had just known all along that we'd have a daughter, but it was nice to have it confirmed.  

Isn't she beautiful?  Such long, dainty legs!

After the appointment with the lab we went back out to the waiting room to be called in for our appointment with our doctor.  This appointment was fairly fast.  They measured my stomach and baby's heart rate (160 bpm), and then just asked if I had any questions.  I'm still struggling with round ligament pain, but unfortunately/fortunately that's normal, and you can't really do anything about it (no heating pad on the stomach).  My only other question was about the prevention of varicose veins, and in a few short days I will be the proud owner of super attractive prescription grade graduated compression hose.  Woot woot!  Robert has gotten to experience all sorts of new things with me while I've been pregnant.  Now he can add watching his wife get measured for custom-fitted pantyhose to the list.  I know that aren't super trendy, but it's a small price to pay in order to have healthy veins for the rest of my lift.  Also, I was ready the pamphlet and it's supposed to really help with swollen ankles which is always an issue during pregnancy.  It hasn't happened to me yet, and hopefully it won't have the opportunity to get too bad.  Having good circulation also gives you more energy.  Who doesn't need that?

We're having a daughter!

After hitting up the medical supply store we went to Build A Bear in the mall to make our gender reveal item.  This rabbit will be baby girl's stuffed animal, and it was the perfect way to tell me family that there's going to be a new princess in town.

After FaceTime-ing and calling family that lives out of town, we hit the road to meet up with my parents, brother, sister-in-law, and Pepaw for dinner and a party.  Jim and Taylor were the hosts and did such a lovely job.  We new the gender of course, but nobody else did, so they decorated with pink and blue.

Mom made a poke cake with pink Jello and blue Cool Whip

Dinner was so fun!  I love living close to family again so we can do things like this.  After ate it was time for the big reveal.  We had wrapped up the rabbit and had Mom and Dad open it.  Just about everyone already had their money on girl, so it wasn't a total shock, but everyone was still very excited and happy.  We recapped the appointment and Facetimed Aunt Pam and Uncle Nelson, Memaw, and Aunt Cathy.

I think finding out we're having a daughter has made everything seem even more real.  We no longer have to say him or her, he or she, baby, but instead we can say her, she, our daughter, little girl.  It's just lovely.  I know I can't forget my mom role, but I'm just so excited to have a best friend one day like my mom and me.

Bringing Home Mittens

As a lot of you know, my parents kindly fostered Mittens from the end of May through mid February as we could no longer have her at our apartment, so when it came time to find a place in MO we knew we had to find a place that loved cats just as much as we do.  We got settled in our townhouse, and a week later we drove up to my parents' house to bring home the princess.  I know Mittens will forever be grateful to her grandparents and is thankful for the time to get to know them so well. ;)  Anyway, bringing her home was traumatic just as we had anticipated.  Thankfully, I was able to pick her up and put her in the carrier just fine.  She sat inside the carrier which was on my lap for the 50 minute drive back to our townhouse.  She was pretty quiet and sat still.  When we got home we unzipped the carrier, but she stayed in it for about 10 minutes before getting out.  Looking back, and as a note for the next time we move, we should have taken her to the bedroom with the door shut first and let her get acclimated in there for 24 hours before releasing her into the whole house.  When you think about it, when an indoor house cat moves to a new home her whole WORLD is changing.  Everything she experiences happens inside of the house, so not to be dramatic (or to be dramatic), it would be like you moving to Mars.  

She spent the first two days sniffing EVERYTHING - every last fiber of carpet, the base boards, our furniture, the walls.  We have one connecting neighbor and she has two cats, so we were kind of wondering if Mittens could smell the other cats, but since she couldn't see them it was throwing her off.  She still sniffs the adjoining wall/base board a lot.  She slept under the bed the first night, and the next day she spent about seven hours straight under the bed without moving a muscle.  It was heartbreaking.  She wasn't eating or drinking, but thankfully, she was using the litter box just fine and never had an accident.  We originally had the litter box on the tile floor in the half bath, but the princess wouldn't dare walk across the freezing tile floor, so the box is now on the carpet in the corner of our bedroom.  Ugh.  It's Mittens world, and we're just living in it.  

After two days she started eating her food at night while we were asleep, so it was progress.  I had been convinced she was going to starve herself to death because she's just that stubborn.  Robert assured me that she would eat once she got hungry enough.  What do you know, he was right.  After three of four days of living here she became much more normal.  She would let us brush and pet her, she started playing with her toys and laser and sprinting up and down the stairs (she's never had stairs before), and she ate and drank in public.  

She doesn't mind when I play the piano, but when Robert play the guitar she runs for the hills.

She finally got brave enough to hop up on the couch.  She has a fear of couches as that's where the nail clipping is done.

She has a tough life.

We've had her for about 15 days now, and she's totally back to normal.  Of course, her normal is still unique.  She has no desire to sit on my lap or let me pick her up, but she shows she cares by sitting in the seat next to me.  She loves sitting on the guest bed and soaking up some rays in the day.  That's also her go to spot at night because she can watch the street lights out the double window.  There's a stray cat that lurks around the parking lot at night, and Mitts watches it to let it know that she rules the hood.  She knows when it's time for Robert and me to go to bed so she'll sit at the top of the stairs and wait for us.  When we start to walk up the stairs she sprints to our room and hops on the bed for her nightly scratching before we hit the hay.  She has a new hiding spot - under the piano.  She can't see us, but we can still see her, so it's pretty funny.  We also got a new side table and put her blanket under it in attempts to reclaim our chair, and she seems to like it.  She took a nap under there for an hour and a half last night.  She still enjoys being mischievous - standing on the piano bench, lurking around the kitchen table and chairs, hoping up on the dresser.  I caught her standing on the toilet seat and drinking from it, so we're making an effort to close the lids now.

This has traditionally been her seat.

She loves our big windows and the fact that she can fit on the wide trim and gaze out at the big world.

One of her many favorite sleeping poses

Seriously, how could this not turn you into a cat lover?

She eats!  She has a requirement that the coat closet be partially open in order to eat.  Good grief!

Finally playing with mousy 

The stairs are the perfect place to run and get exercise.  She also loves hiding from her toys a few steps away and planning a sneak attack.

I know I'm biased, but have you ever seen a more shiny and silky coat.

Yes, I realize I just wrote a long blog post about our cat.  Yeah, I'm a crazy cat lady.  Don't judge. ;)