19 weeks
Well, I'm already a week behind, but what a couple of weeks it's been! I'm only one more week away from half way and sometimes, I can't believe I'm already this far along and other times, I can't believe I have half way to go!
The nausea is officially gone and I've been off Diclegis for almost 3 weeks now. The "burst" of energy is still lingering (some) but it doesn't help when you've got so much going on that just the activities are enough to make someone not pregnant exhausted! The bump is in full force and most of my clothes no longer fit, but I am determined to stay in my original clothes and utilize my belly bands as much as I can! You just can't beat a good pair of worn-in jeans, maternity or not!
There are beginning to be more and more similarities between my first pregnancy and this one. The bump is smaller in the mornings and larger in the evenings. I'm already starting to experience Braxton Hicks contractions, even this early on. This time, I know more about how to avoid them, but that doesn't mean I always do what I should (drink more water). P is moving like crazy, just like E did, and most of her movement is at night, just like E's was. I've felt her have the hiccups several times as well, which was one of my favorite things to feel with Emma.
Sleeping (or trying to) is a joke and I anticipate it will only get worse. I now wake up on a regular basis at 3 am and am usually awake for about an hour before finally getting back to sleep. The only time this hasn't happened in the last several weeks was Saturday night, which was a result of being beyond exhausted from spending the entire day in the sun and walking about 5 miles. I've been able to figure out a few other ways to get some comfort when I'm trying to get to sleep. I'm a belly sleeper, and for obvious reasons I can't really do that comfortably any more. I've had to get creative and sleep more with a "side-belly" approach. So far, it's worked ok. If I'm not in that position, I'm constantly fighting the urge to fall asleep on my back! I've never wanted to sleep on my back more than when I'm pregnant!
I'm convinced that one of the best parts of first pregnancies is the constant state of ignorant bliss that you're in. What I wouldn't give to have that again! I have to constantly remind myself to enjoy even the truly miserable parts of being pregnant because this will be my last one; I won't have to experience the morning sickness or pure exhaustion, but I won't get to feel that little peanut turning flips or kicking from inside either. I won't have to wonder every month if this is the month but I won't feel that high of seeing a positive pregnancy test again either. It's a truly bitter sweet experience. I know I'll feel the same way when Penny gets here and we have a do-over of all of the newborn experiences, but like everyone told Rory and me, we'll miss those moments. I've become that person now hoping every first-time mother and father enjoy every moment, even the exhausting ones where you don't know how you're going to make it to the next day without having a complete and utter mental breakdown. Until you experience every moment, you can't explain it.
And now I'm getting all emotional, but that's one thing that I haven't had to endure too much of this pregnancy: my hormones haven't been totally out of whack to the point that I'm not myself. With Emma, I had mood swings like nobody's business! This time, I don't experience those at all, but I do have some emotional moments, mostly during movies or shows, or like the wedding I went to a few weeks ago during the first dance. Another one of those moments happened Sunday. Since Rory and I went on an extended mini-vacay this weekend, Emma stayed with my mom. I knew that I would miss her, but it didn't hit me until we got back and I was watching her run down the sidewalk towards us yelling mama and dada. I about lost it right there getting bags out of the car! I'm going to be such a hot mess when Penny gets here and I see Emma and her interact, even as a toddler and infant. Just get ready people.
Speaking of our mini-vacay, it was just what I needed! Rory made the observation (and it's unfortunately true) that we haven't spent more than one day with each other by ourselves since our honeymoon! We've been on vacations, but there's always other people with us or we're staying with people we know. This was truly just the two of us (except spending the majority of Saturday with our awesome friends, Tim and Amy!) We went to dinner Friday night, just the two of us. We watched tv in the room just the two of us. We walked to Starbucks on Saturday morning just the two of us! It was so nice and brought back memories for me of when it really was just the two of us. No kids, not much to do other than just be next to each other. These days are filled with Disney movies, Youtube kids, lots of "gogurt" and a lot of asking "do you have to teetee". While I wouldn't trade it for anything, it was nice to just be able to sit in silence with each other. It was also nice to talk about a lot of different topics, although they always seemed to end with the kids :)
Friday was a day of randoms in that we planned on leaving that morning to head up to Knoxville, but ended up leaving later because we were buying life insurance...no lie. I had to run an errand by Alfa Insurance to take care of some paperwork on an old policy that my dad had on me and we walked out having purchased life insurance for Rory. Talk about random. It was a good thing to happen because we've talked about needing to do it for a while but never got around to it. To the point of our agent, it's not really something you plan a day to do; you just kind of do it one day. Friday was that day for us. THEN, it was off to Knoxville. We got in about dinner time and drove around trying to find some food and do a little shopping. Since the stadium was going to be checkered, we had to make sure we had the correct color for our section. Just my luck, we were in the orange section. As a clear girl, there are certain colors I tend to stay away from due to the fact of those shades making me even more clear (if that's possible) and orange so happens to be one of those colors. I literally didn't have one orange shirt in my closet so Rory had already made the plan to hit up Alumni Hall at the mall to get me a shirt. I was already pulling a no-no in Knoxville and wearing an Auburn shirt, but another random thing happened and I had someone tell me War Eagle as we're walking into Alumni Hall in Knoxville, TN! She explained that her son had graduated from Auburn so she wanted to show her support. How awesome is that! I was then ready to do some shopping for orange because my weekend was made. While I had every intention and preparation to buy an actual Tennessee shirt that had either the power T or the Tennessee name on it, I was lucky to be able to find just a regular orange shirt that was both flattering on my beach-ball of a belly as well as not too bad on my complexion! Once Rory had picked out a few shirts as well, we were off to find something to eat. Rory's suggestion was that we eat somewhere we don't have in Birmingham, so naturally we ended up at Chuy's ;) You can't argue when baby decides that's where we're going! It was delicious as always!
Saturday morning, I was woken up by Rory with a delicious waffle served in bed! Talk about a great start to the day! I do have to say that Friday night was another one of those nights of waking up a 3 am and not going back to bed for an hour, so it was nice to be able to sleep right up until breakfast time. We got ready to go and made a short walk next door to get some Starbucks (to really start our day) and then we met up with our friends to begin our Saturday game day experience. Even though College Gameday was in Knoxville on Saturday morning, I made it very clear that I was NOT going to be one of the crazies out at 5 am just to stand for a few hours to see Samantha Ponder, Desmond Howard and Lee Corso up close. It was enjoyable enough to get there a little before 11 and tour Volunteer Village and have some delicious lunch before the Vol Walk. Even though it was late September, you couldn't have convinced me it's technically fall. Sunny and 92 is not my idea of a nice fall day. I didn't even think about sunscreen either, so I got a tad red, but it really wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Thankfully, our seats were under the overhang with the sun behind us so once we got in the stadium, there was no more sun! I wish that had meant no more heat either...oh well.
The game was absolutely fantastic! I was a little nervous for Tennessee during the first half since the offense looked like they had no clue what they were doing, but after halftime, and what I can only assume was a butt-chewing of the century, it looked like a completely different team emerged in those gray jerseys. The stadium was a constant roar of fans and an almost constant repeat of Rocky Top from the band. I was very glad that Tennessee came back to win, not just because the ride back home Sunday would have been very long but also because these guys have worked so hard for the last 3 years to regain their competitive edge and they finally have it back! Kudos to Coach Jones for helping the guys find their groove.
I know this has been a long post so I'll quickly wrap it up with an update on everyone's favorite two year old. Emma has mastered this potty training thing and is now only in diapers at night. We'll soon be transitioning to pull ups for that because she's also very adamant about doing everything herself, including trying to put on her own diaper, which you can imagine is a sight to see! She's also started to want to go to the potty herself, meaning pushing me out the door and making me close it until she's finished and yells at me to come in to wipe. She's still using her toddler potty because she's not quite tall enough to climb on the big toilet, even with a stool, but she's not opposed to using a big potty when we're out. I'm now realizing just how much more laundry I have to do, though, with the addition of these tiny panties lol! Not that I'm complaining about getting a small raise for even a short while with no more diapers to buy!
Emma's speech is still going great as well. We can understand more and more words but she's beginning to get more frustrated with us when we can't understand her. She'll repeat the same thing over and over again until we either get it or we have her point it out (I know, that's a bad habit). Most of her words sound like the actual thing but she still has problems using her m's and b's correctly. It's a work in progress.
It's finally starting to cool down some so I hope everyone takes advantage of the less-than-90-degree weather for the next few days!
21 more weeks!
God Bless!
The nausea is officially gone and I've been off Diclegis for almost 3 weeks now. The "burst" of energy is still lingering (some) but it doesn't help when you've got so much going on that just the activities are enough to make someone not pregnant exhausted! The bump is in full force and most of my clothes no longer fit, but I am determined to stay in my original clothes and utilize my belly bands as much as I can! You just can't beat a good pair of worn-in jeans, maternity or not!
There are beginning to be more and more similarities between my first pregnancy and this one. The bump is smaller in the mornings and larger in the evenings. I'm already starting to experience Braxton Hicks contractions, even this early on. This time, I know more about how to avoid them, but that doesn't mean I always do what I should (drink more water). P is moving like crazy, just like E did, and most of her movement is at night, just like E's was. I've felt her have the hiccups several times as well, which was one of my favorite things to feel with Emma.
Sleeping (or trying to) is a joke and I anticipate it will only get worse. I now wake up on a regular basis at 3 am and am usually awake for about an hour before finally getting back to sleep. The only time this hasn't happened in the last several weeks was Saturday night, which was a result of being beyond exhausted from spending the entire day in the sun and walking about 5 miles. I've been able to figure out a few other ways to get some comfort when I'm trying to get to sleep. I'm a belly sleeper, and for obvious reasons I can't really do that comfortably any more. I've had to get creative and sleep more with a "side-belly" approach. So far, it's worked ok. If I'm not in that position, I'm constantly fighting the urge to fall asleep on my back! I've never wanted to sleep on my back more than when I'm pregnant!
I'm convinced that one of the best parts of first pregnancies is the constant state of ignorant bliss that you're in. What I wouldn't give to have that again! I have to constantly remind myself to enjoy even the truly miserable parts of being pregnant because this will be my last one; I won't have to experience the morning sickness or pure exhaustion, but I won't get to feel that little peanut turning flips or kicking from inside either. I won't have to wonder every month if this is the month but I won't feel that high of seeing a positive pregnancy test again either. It's a truly bitter sweet experience. I know I'll feel the same way when Penny gets here and we have a do-over of all of the newborn experiences, but like everyone told Rory and me, we'll miss those moments. I've become that person now hoping every first-time mother and father enjoy every moment, even the exhausting ones where you don't know how you're going to make it to the next day without having a complete and utter mental breakdown. Until you experience every moment, you can't explain it.
And now I'm getting all emotional, but that's one thing that I haven't had to endure too much of this pregnancy: my hormones haven't been totally out of whack to the point that I'm not myself. With Emma, I had mood swings like nobody's business! This time, I don't experience those at all, but I do have some emotional moments, mostly during movies or shows, or like the wedding I went to a few weeks ago during the first dance. Another one of those moments happened Sunday. Since Rory and I went on an extended mini-vacay this weekend, Emma stayed with my mom. I knew that I would miss her, but it didn't hit me until we got back and I was watching her run down the sidewalk towards us yelling mama and dada. I about lost it right there getting bags out of the car! I'm going to be such a hot mess when Penny gets here and I see Emma and her interact, even as a toddler and infant. Just get ready people.
Speaking of our mini-vacay, it was just what I needed! Rory made the observation (and it's unfortunately true) that we haven't spent more than one day with each other by ourselves since our honeymoon! We've been on vacations, but there's always other people with us or we're staying with people we know. This was truly just the two of us (except spending the majority of Saturday with our awesome friends, Tim and Amy!) We went to dinner Friday night, just the two of us. We watched tv in the room just the two of us. We walked to Starbucks on Saturday morning just the two of us! It was so nice and brought back memories for me of when it really was just the two of us. No kids, not much to do other than just be next to each other. These days are filled with Disney movies, Youtube kids, lots of "gogurt" and a lot of asking "do you have to teetee". While I wouldn't trade it for anything, it was nice to just be able to sit in silence with each other. It was also nice to talk about a lot of different topics, although they always seemed to end with the kids :)
Friday was a day of randoms in that we planned on leaving that morning to head up to Knoxville, but ended up leaving later because we were buying life insurance...no lie. I had to run an errand by Alfa Insurance to take care of some paperwork on an old policy that my dad had on me and we walked out having purchased life insurance for Rory. Talk about random. It was a good thing to happen because we've talked about needing to do it for a while but never got around to it. To the point of our agent, it's not really something you plan a day to do; you just kind of do it one day. Friday was that day for us. THEN, it was off to Knoxville. We got in about dinner time and drove around trying to find some food and do a little shopping. Since the stadium was going to be checkered, we had to make sure we had the correct color for our section. Just my luck, we were in the orange section. As a clear girl, there are certain colors I tend to stay away from due to the fact of those shades making me even more clear (if that's possible) and orange so happens to be one of those colors. I literally didn't have one orange shirt in my closet so Rory had already made the plan to hit up Alumni Hall at the mall to get me a shirt. I was already pulling a no-no in Knoxville and wearing an Auburn shirt, but another random thing happened and I had someone tell me War Eagle as we're walking into Alumni Hall in Knoxville, TN! She explained that her son had graduated from Auburn so she wanted to show her support. How awesome is that! I was then ready to do some shopping for orange because my weekend was made. While I had every intention and preparation to buy an actual Tennessee shirt that had either the power T or the Tennessee name on it, I was lucky to be able to find just a regular orange shirt that was both flattering on my beach-ball of a belly as well as not too bad on my complexion! Once Rory had picked out a few shirts as well, we were off to find something to eat. Rory's suggestion was that we eat somewhere we don't have in Birmingham, so naturally we ended up at Chuy's ;) You can't argue when baby decides that's where we're going! It was delicious as always!
Saturday morning, I was woken up by Rory with a delicious waffle served in bed! Talk about a great start to the day! I do have to say that Friday night was another one of those nights of waking up a 3 am and not going back to bed for an hour, so it was nice to be able to sleep right up until breakfast time. We got ready to go and made a short walk next door to get some Starbucks (to really start our day) and then we met up with our friends to begin our Saturday game day experience. Even though College Gameday was in Knoxville on Saturday morning, I made it very clear that I was NOT going to be one of the crazies out at 5 am just to stand for a few hours to see Samantha Ponder, Desmond Howard and Lee Corso up close. It was enjoyable enough to get there a little before 11 and tour Volunteer Village and have some delicious lunch before the Vol Walk. Even though it was late September, you couldn't have convinced me it's technically fall. Sunny and 92 is not my idea of a nice fall day. I didn't even think about sunscreen either, so I got a tad red, but it really wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Thankfully, our seats were under the overhang with the sun behind us so once we got in the stadium, there was no more sun! I wish that had meant no more heat either...oh well.
The game was absolutely fantastic! I was a little nervous for Tennessee during the first half since the offense looked like they had no clue what they were doing, but after halftime, and what I can only assume was a butt-chewing of the century, it looked like a completely different team emerged in those gray jerseys. The stadium was a constant roar of fans and an almost constant repeat of Rocky Top from the band. I was very glad that Tennessee came back to win, not just because the ride back home Sunday would have been very long but also because these guys have worked so hard for the last 3 years to regain their competitive edge and they finally have it back! Kudos to Coach Jones for helping the guys find their groove.
I know this has been a long post so I'll quickly wrap it up with an update on everyone's favorite two year old. Emma has mastered this potty training thing and is now only in diapers at night. We'll soon be transitioning to pull ups for that because she's also very adamant about doing everything herself, including trying to put on her own diaper, which you can imagine is a sight to see! She's also started to want to go to the potty herself, meaning pushing me out the door and making me close it until she's finished and yells at me to come in to wipe. She's still using her toddler potty because she's not quite tall enough to climb on the big toilet, even with a stool, but she's not opposed to using a big potty when we're out. I'm now realizing just how much more laundry I have to do, though, with the addition of these tiny panties lol! Not that I'm complaining about getting a small raise for even a short while with no more diapers to buy!
Emma's speech is still going great as well. We can understand more and more words but she's beginning to get more frustrated with us when we can't understand her. She'll repeat the same thing over and over again until we either get it or we have her point it out (I know, that's a bad habit). Most of her words sound like the actual thing but she still has problems using her m's and b's correctly. It's a work in progress.
It's finally starting to cool down some so I hope everyone takes advantage of the less-than-90-degree weather for the next few days!
21 more weeks!
God Bless!
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