baby bump: 19 weeks

How far along:  19 weeks.

Size of baby:  Mango.  Ehren's favorite fruit.  The best ones are from the Philippines so we definitely have a Filipino mango growing inside of me!

Maternity clothes:  After going to a wedding this weekend and trying to squeeze into a non-maternity dress, I think I'm gonna need to get an LBPD.  Little black pregnant dress. 

Weight gain:  Probably tipping the scales as I've been eating two dinners some nights. 

Stretch marks:  Nope.

Sleep:  What thunderstorm?  I slept through it.  

Exercise:  I do what I can. 

Best moment of the week:  Ehren felt it kick!  It was so exciting.  I can't wait for the kicks to be more frequent and consistent. 

Movement:  Some days a lot, some days hardly any at all.  I've read this is normal.  

Cravings:  Ehren may or may not be at the store getting me Cheetos.  What a man. 

Gender:  Eeeek!  We find out tomorrow.  I'm going to piss my pants with excitement but I can't really do that because I have to have a full bladder for the ultrasound.  

Belly button in or out:  Still out.  

Wedding ring on or off:  On

Anything making you queasy or sick:  Still haven't puked but I definitely make the "I'm about to puke" face when I smell things like Clostridium difficile (look it up).  I had a patient all week with C. diff and it was horrible.  When you work with someone with it, you put on a gown and gloves.  I was getting ready to go in the room and I started putting on a mask in addition to the gown and gloves, the nurse said, "you don't have to wear a mask", and I said, "yes... yes I do". 

What I miss:  Being able to throw together an outfit (like a dress) without worrying if it's going to fit anymore.  I don't want to be one of those pregnant girls who is trying to stay in non-maternity clothes until it gets awkward.   

What I am looking forward to:  Definitely finding out boy or girl!!!

What I am not looking forward to:  Thinking about things like daycare and increased insurance premiums and other real life things that make being an adult not so fun.  

Labor signs:  No.

Symptoms:  Feeling really pudgy towards the end of the day.  Oh well.  

Nursery:  Made some progress on some other projects so we're getting closer to working on the nursery. 

Emotions:  At the wedding last night there was a slide show of the bride and groom when they were very little.  There were pictures of the parents with them when they were infants and toddlers.  With my hand on my belly I couldn't help but think, "I will be at this kid's wedding some day!  I'm not ready for that!"  Maybe I'm thinking too far ahead but it is true.  I also can't wait to find out if we're having a boy or a girl.  It doesn't matter what it is but it does.  Knowing boy/girl will shape my future thoughts and emotions.  

I hope I'll be able to fall asleep tonight.  

Week in review:

It was Halloween this week and maybe Cozy's most favorite holiday.  He was thrilled with all the visitors!  He was just very disappointed that he couldn't play with every single one of them... especially the four-legged ones.  We kept him outside with us most of the time but let him watch from the door later on.  He still seemed to enjoy himself, don't you think?

Cozy practices his disco moves in his sleep.  Too bad he blocks the TV when he does this.

Laugh all you want but this has become my life.  They don't warn you as to how bad it will be when you're pregnant.  

Get your hands off my prunes!

It rained and therefore our tree shat all its leaves on our driveway all at once.  It's kinda pretty… until you think about raking them up.

After a long night of trick or treaters, Cozy got some TLC from dear old dad.  All four legs crossed.  Such a gentleman.

Almost 5 months!

baby bump: 18 weeks

How far along:  18 weeks.

Size of baby:  Sweet potato.  Oooh, sweet potato fries sound really good.  With a burger. 

Maternity clothes:  Loving everything about maternity clothes.  I even wore one of my maternity sweaters to Final Fridays this weekend. 

Weight gain:  Not sure.. maybe 5 pounds? 

Stretch marks:  Nope.

Sleep:  I can sleep through anything.  Except a full bladder. 

Exercise:  I know I keep using this as an excuse, but I'm counting work as my exercise.  If I had a sedentary job where I sat all day and only got up to go to the bathroom, then I would feel really guilty about skipping the gym.  

Best moment of the week:  I felt a huge kick from the outside!  I can still feel where it kicked my middle finger.  I may have screamed when it happened. 

Movement:  More and more all the time.  I feel like it sleeps a lot during the day when I'm walking around.  As soon as I sit to document or eat lunch, I feel little wiggles and kicks.  It's the coolest feeling ever.

Cravings:  What doesn't sound good?

Gender:  I still have no clue really but we had a doctor's appointment this week and we will be finding out gender in 2 weeks!  November 4th to be exact!  I thought I was going to have to wait longer so I was thrilled when we scheduled the appointment.  This will also be the first time we get to actually see the baby.  A lot of my friends have been having ultrasounds from the very beginning and I'll be 19 weeks when I get to see it for the first time.  Hopefully it will keep its legs uncrossed!  

Belly button in or out:  Still out.  

Wedding ring on or off:  On

Anything making you queasy or sick:  Other people's poop.  I work in a hospital.  It's unavoidable. 

What I miss:  Not having to get up to the bathroom 2-3 times a night. 

What I am looking forward to:  Definitely finding out boy or girl!!!

What I am not looking forward to:  Getting bigger... in other places besides my belly.  

Labor signs:  No.

Symptoms:  Just feeling pregnant.  Especially after I eat lunch at work because my belly all of a sudden sticks out way more... and I think my patients notice.  But when you eat an apple, grapes, and a 32 ounces of water, how can it not stick out?!

Nursery:  Nothing done yet but working to get more projects done so we can start on the nursery. 

Emotions:  Like I said last post, March 29th seems like a long ways away.  And I'm sure that it will seem even further away when I get closer to the due date.  It's only temporary so I'm going to make the most of it and remind myself that everyday I'm pregnant, the more the baby is growing and developing.  We got to hear the heartbeat again this week at our appointment (156 bpm again) and it still amazes me that there is a little miracle growing inside of me.  Ahhh. 

Oh my gosh, I'm turning into one of those "mommy bloggers" aren't I?

Week in review:

Hmmm.  I seriously think these are the only pictures I took this week.  If I'm lounging on the couch with my legs in the shape of a "4" and I have something Cozy wants (I think it was an apple) he will put his head through my legs no matter how close together they are.  

It's like I'm giving birth to Cozy's head.  I hope our baby is half as cute as this liver-headed lover. 

baby bump: 17 weeks.

How far along:  17 weeks.

Size of baby:  Onion.  Seriously, there is nothing cute about an onion.  Not even a sweet onion. 

Maternity clothes:  Definitely ordered more maternity shirts from Gap.  I could live in them.  

Weight gain:  Not sure.. maybe 5 pounds? 

Stretch marks:  Nope.

Sleep:  Sleep continues to be something I'm good at. 

Exercise:  Not much of that going on.  Work has been very busy and I'm getting enough exercise there lifting humans, going up and down stairs, and walking all the floors of the hospital.   

Best moment of the week:  Feeling more movement.  And feeling comfortable in my prego skin.  

Movement:  Yes, yes, and yes!  So cool!  I can't wait for Ehren to feel. 

Cravings:  Everything.     

Gender:  I still feel like it's a boy.  Most people at work say girl.  Who knows?   

Belly button in or out:  Still out.  

Wedding ring on or off:  On

Anything making you queasy or sick:  Really, all the things that smelled bad before pregnancy are just worse now.  Like trash, old lettuce, other people's urine.  

What I miss:  I'm getting used to wearing compression hose but I miss not having to put them on every morning.  

What I am looking forward to:  Definitely finding out boy or girl. 

What I am not looking forward to:  Work getting harder.  I'm very active during the day and I just hope I can keep it up.  As long as I take it easy during the evenings (which I am AMAZING at) I think I'll be okay. 

Labor signs:  No.

Symptoms:  Feeling pretty darn good.  But definitely feeling more tired lately - I think it's a combination of work, possibly low hemoglobin, and the fact that the baby will pretty much double in size over the next few weeks.  

Nursery:  We got a rug to put in there.  I love it but I'm on the fence.  It's not a very comfortable rug and I feel like I will want it to be plush to play on.  We'll see.  I've got other places in mind for it around the house.  

Emotions:  I'm starting the 5th month of pregnancy but not even halfway there.  Pregnancy is a looong time.  I can understand why women are so ready for the baby to evacuate once they near the due date.  

Week in review:

This is how Cozy feels about Ehren.  

Cozy and I went on a long walk and he was hunting squirrels.

Had to get a picture of hime with the mums.  I hope no one drove by me, I looked pretty ridiculous trying to get my distracted dog to pose with flowers.  He's wearing a Halti which is like a bridle for a dog so that they don't pull so freaking hard.  I looks like a muzzle but it's not.

Cozy was being awfully quiet on the other side of the couch and then all of a sudden I heard a lot of squeaking.  He decided to do his 7th grade frog (toy) dissection on his own terms.  He ripped out the squeaker and now it's his favorite toy.

We went to the KU football game.  We lost but tailgating was fun!  I got wasted!  Okay, not really.  This is my mother, she's rather wonderful.

Our child will have no choice but to be a Jayhawk fan.  Rock Chalk!

baby bump: 16 weeks

How far along:  16 weeks.

Size of baby:  Avacado..... mmm, I want some guacamole.

Maternity clothes:  I've officially switched over to maternity shirts!  They are incredible and I will be wearing them post baby. I got these from Gap... in almost every color. 

Weight gain:  Not sure. 

Stretch marks:  Nope.

Sleep:  Sleeping very well.  It definitely has not been an issue for me. 

Exercise:  Still same ol', same ol'.  Walking with Cozy and he thinks it's awesome. 

Best moment of the week:  Feeling movement and kicks!  They are very subtle but they make me perk right up.  Of course my first reaction is "oh, gas" but then I realize that there is a little human inside of me moving around and the light bulb appears over my head.  I can't wait for Ehren to be able to feel it!

Movement:  See above. 

Cravings:  Anything in front of my face and anything you mention.    

Gender:  I redid the Drano gender test and it's saying boy now.  I'm so confused.   

Belly button in or out:  It's out.  And sometimes it gets deformed and looks like an eyelid.  So weird. 

Wedding ring on or off:  On

Anything making you queasy or sick:  I cannot stand the smell of hospital food trays - especially the meatloaf or broccoli.  Ugh. 

What I miss:  Not really much.  I'm really enjoying pregnancy right now, especially since I'm actually starting to look pregnant and feel movement.     

What I am looking forward to:  Feeling more movement and finding out boy or girl!

What I am not looking forward to:  Feeling big and uncomfortable.  Hopefully that's still a ways away. 

Labor signs:  No.

Symptoms:  Work has been busy and I've been really tired when I get home from work.  My hemoglobin was borderline at my last appointment so I'm wondering if I'm going to be needing some iron supplements soon.  

Nursery:  Still pretty empty.  I doubt we will start working on it until after Christmas. 

Emotions:  Can't believe I've completed about 4 months of pregnancy.  Crazy!  It's going by faster than I thought but not fast enough.  The end of March seems sooo far away.  However, there is so much to do before the baby gets here I'm okay with it being so far in the future... for now. 

Week in review:

Cozy is such a nice boy that he shares his bed with his dad.  Much like he shares we share our bed with him.

I came home from work one day and I always ask him where a specific toy is.  In this case, I asked, "Cozy?!  Where's your bone?  Go get your bone!" and I turned around to do something else and then looked back at him and was so confused as to why he was just sitting there looking at me.

And then he looked up towards the mantle.  It was then that I realized Ehren had put his bone on the mantle so he wouldn't chew on it all day or choke on a piece while we were gone.  He's thinking, "Hey, prego brain!  I would get my bone but I can't reach it.  I'll just wait for you to notice."  He is too smart sometimes.

 I'm growing a human yet Ehren Cozy gets all the cuddles.  Rude.

My Christmas list this year so far consists of gift cards to Nebraska Furniture Mart or Home Depot so we can get a deep freeze.  I'm a diva... I know.  (Last year I wanted gift cards to buy a new toilet).  What can I say?  I like big white things that hold shit.  Anyway, I would like to prepare meals for the crockpot and then freeze them.  Ideally, I would like to make a whole bunch while I'm still pregnant so whenever we have this baby, there's less pressure for cooking meals at home.  I get cranky if we don't have meals planned out or if we are scrambling to think of something to eat.  Especially if I'm hungry and tired in the first place... which I hear I will be with a newborn.  So I tried making all the meals for the week on Sunday and then put them in big ziplock bags.

We made butternut squash chowder with kale (it was perfect for fall!)

Cauliflower curry.  It smelled like a fart when it was cooking but it was very good!

And spicy thai chicken stew.  This lasted us three nights and I only used 1/3 of the chicken it called for!

The kitchen was a disaster with a capital D.

But when I realized it was Sunday and I didn't have to cook again until Monday, I was a happy girl.

I also made a new chalkboard drawing for fall and added some decorations I put together from Michael's and TJMaxx.

Oh, and our maple tree decided to be the only tree in the neighborhood to change colors.  It was glowing and this picture doesn't do it justice.

Fall is here and dinner is made for the entire week!  Success.  On to 17 weeks.

baby bump: 15 weeks

How far along:  15 weeks.

Size of baby:  Orange.

Maternity clothes:  The ones I bought from last week are washed and ready to be worn.  I actually wore one shirt to the KU football game.  It was really handy when we ate Chipotle afterwards and my belly could hang out uninhibited. 

Weight gain:  No clue.  Maybe a couple pounds?

Stretch marks:  Nope.

Sleep:  I'm sleeping so hard that I don't remember how many times I got up to pee in the night and I even slept through two nights of male debauchery.. more on that later. 

Exercise:  I still continue to walk with Cozy and we went to the dog park.  However, my SI joint pain limits me and I can't walk very far without looking like I have a corncob stuck up my....  

Best moment of the week:  It was KU's homecoming this weekend so we had a party at our house (with a keg!) and had every bedroom and the basement filled with slightly intoxicated men.  While I obviously didn't really participate in any of the craziness, I really, thoroughly enjoyed hearing stories the next morning over breakfast.  It was choke-on-your food, make milk almost come out of your nose, hilarious.  And the best part?  I felt fan-freaking-tastic.  Rested and sans hangover. 

Movement:  Maybe?  I feel flutters but then again it may be gas. 

Cravings:  Really anything.  I'm not that picky right now.  

Gender:  Most people think it's a girl.  

Belly button in or out:  I'm gonna go ahead and say that it's out.  Not like it will be at 9 months pregnant but it's definitely sticking out. 

Wedding ring on or off:  On

Anything making you queasy or sick:  A kid had a pizza at the KU football game and the smell didn't settle well with me.  Probably because it smelled very greasy. 

What I miss:  Being pain free.  It's crazy to think that less than two weeks ago I was pain free.  Friday night I was on the couch crying (during the party) because it was hurting so bad.  It makes me feel so helpless when my SI is out of place.    

What I am looking forward to:  Wearing maternity shirts and looking pregnant instead of fat. 

What I am not looking forward to:  Honestly, all I think worry about is my SI pain.  If it continues for 25 more weeks I will not be a happy camper.  I think Ehren feels very helpless and he's eager for me to feel better. 

Labor signs:  No.

Symptoms:  I'm still finding that I need at least 30 minutes to lie down and rest every day.  I feel like that's pretty normal.  Especially when we're hosting a full weekend of parties, food, and football. 

Nursery:  I'm glad we haven't started on it because it was occupied this weekend :)

Emotions:  It's been fun to share excitement with our very close, out of town friends.  I'm a happy mama. 

Week in review:

A lack of energy means going pretty simple for the Homecoming party.  I love that all there is to cocktail meatballs is grape jelly....

And BBQ sauce.  Gates is my favorite.

One of Cozy's many BFFs, Clark, came to the party, too.  (This has now become a tradition for Clark to join in on Homecoming).  They pretty much chased each other and stole each other's toys the whole night.  They made quite the pair.

I made a breakfast strata on Friday night for Saturday morning.  It's actually a recipe for a crock pot and it turned out awesome!  I figured that if the guys were drinking the night before and there was an 11 o'clock game, they will probably need something in their stomachs.  This fed 8 people with very large portions.

The first half of the game was great, the second half... not so much.  We left early.

I got our first diapers in the mail.  Bum Genius is discontinuing some of their colors so they were on sale.  I can't wait for someone to poop in them.

A litte pre-downtown toast.

Ehren was not so eager to get up the next morning.  And a 55 pound puppy on top of him didn't phase him one bit.

I decided the night before that I should probably come up with a breakfast plan.  The guys jokingly said "there better be something in the crock pot when we get home tonight" before they left for downtown.  I decided I would make my dad's biscuits and gravy recipe.  This was my first time going at it solo and it turned out great.

Cozy was hoping for B&G as well.

Everyone sat around the table telling stories from the night before.  It was highly entertaining.

After the smell of hungover  men left, we lounged around until we went to the dog park.  It was so pretty out and the sunset was lovely.  Cozy of course ran 12x as far as we walked.  He was so tired from the weekend of company, a dog friend, and the dog park.  He was ready for the week to start so he could go back to sleeping all day.

Friends, food, and football.  Can a weekend get any better than that? 

Holy crap, I'll be 4 months next week!

baby bump: 14 weeks

(ORIGINALLY WRITTEN SEPTEMBER 29th, 2013)

How far along:  14 weeks.

Size of baby:  Lemon.

Maternity clothes:  They have been purchased!  I did some damage at Gap Maternity and I'm pretty sure I'm going to wear all of these clothes even when I'm not pregnant.  Why didn't someone tell me how comfortable (and how flattering) maternity jeans can be?

Weight gain:  No clue.  Maybe a couple pounds?

Stretch marks:  Nope.

Sleep:  I didn't have to take a nap every day this week!  This is monumental.  I was actually a productive human being in the evenings.  As much as I love napping, it was nice to have energy to get stuff done around the house during the week. 

Exercise:  Walking with Cozy and walking at work.  That's enough for me right now. 

Best moment of the week:  Um, definitely hearing the heartbeat for the first time at our appointment on Monday.  It was so surreal.  I really haven't felt pregnant (besides being hungry and tired, which, let's face it was kind of the norm before I was preggers).  I always wondered what my reaction would be when I heard the heartbeat for the first time - I thought I would cry.  Nope, I just started laughing and immediately looked over to Ehren to see his reaction.  He was watching my reaction and grinning from ear to ear.  It was to nice to have evidence that there is a little human being inside and it finally gave us the go ahead to make it public knowledge.  Which was also waaaay exciting.  


Best reactions at work:

"I thought you were starting to fill out a little bit" - from a male, of course
"I had to ask Mandy if you were pregnant or just ate a large pizza"
"Oh, you're not just getting fat?" - a male doctor; I think he was joking... ?
"I can't wait to see you explode" - female

The other best moment of the week was our first "mother/daughters weekend on the Plaza".  My mom and sister and I went to KC Saturday morning, shopped on the Plaza for maternity clothes and whatever else, ate lunch, ate dinner, stayed in a hotel and then ate breakfast.  Can you tell it was kind of based around food?  It was wonderful to have mother/daughter time.  We plan to do it a minimum of 2 times a year. 

Movement:  Nope but hoping to feel something soon.

Cravings:  My appetite is much better now - and I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. 

Gender:  There's an old wives tale that if the heart rate is high, then it's a girl.  Ours was 156 which is on the higher end, so maybe girl? 

Belly button in or out:  It puffs out after dinner. 

Wedding ring on or off:  On

Anything making you queasy or sick:  Strong smells at work.  Which happen frequently.

What I miss:  Not having to put on compression hose every morning.  

What I am looking forward to:  Everything.  Everything just seems more exciting and real now that we've heard the heartbeat.  

What I am not looking forward to:  I've started having severe (and I mean 9/10 pain and this is coming from a PT) sacroiliac joint pain.  When you're pregnant, you release chemicals that loosen your joints to prepare for labor.  I have loose joints to begin with so this is to the extreme.  I feel like I have Tourrettes because I will randomly yell out the first cuss word that comes to mind.  I feel like someone suddenly stabs me in the back.  I'm having trouble walking, driving, sitting, standing, bending, lifting, everything.  I'm just praying this doesn't continue the whole pregnancy because ain't nobody got time for that.  Good thing I have excellent resources at work (PTs who specialize in pregos) and have an SI belt coming in the mail (which will literally hold my pelvis together).  Aaaaand I'm done venting. 

Labor signs:  No.

Symptoms:  SI joint pain.  I now have much more sympathy for my patients. 

Nursery:  I got an accessory while we were shopping on the Plaza this weekend.  Eeek!

Emotions:  Fearful of how debilitating this back pain is.  Hoping it won't affect my job as a PT.  Ugh. 

Week in review:

(First of all, this was like the best week ever which explains why there are so many pictures.  I don't hate it.)

To celebrate our doctor's appointment and the healthy heartbeat, we went out to lunch at Merchant's Pub + Plates in downtown Lawrence.  It's a new restaurant that replaced one of our favorite restaurants where we celebrated anniversaries, birthdays, choir concerts, and "just because" occasions.  The weather was perfect and we ate outside. 

Oh, hey there, baby daddy.  I'm sure glad our baby has your chromosomes.

Pregnancy glow or just so pale that light reflects off my face no matter what?

I know pictures of food is kind of annoying but it was soooo good.  Kale Caesar salad, Merchant burger and sweet potato donuts?  The baby was happy.  (By the way, we got the donuts on the house because our food took a while to come out. I would definitely order them again).

We went to "Blue Dandelion" which is a baby/kids store downtown so that we could get our baby fix.  Ehren is pretty excited about baby-wearing and he had to try on this carrier.  Then of course he pulls out his phone, checks the stock market/ESPN and says, "babies are easy". 

Cozy will always be our first child so we had to include him in the baby news.  You can see that he's already missing being the only child.

 I was reading our book for book club "Cutting for Stone" and I just happened to read this paragraph shortly after we put our little announcement on the old Facebook.  Referring to pregnancy, "A woman is never more a woman than in this state".

Friday night we went to the Free State homecoming game with Laura, one of my friends since kindergarten.  She's now a teacher at FS which is still crazy to me.

First baby accessory for the nursery!  Found it at Anthropologie.

My grandpa Mac ran a Skelly station way back in the day and this is still one of my favorite parts of the Plaza.  It always makes me think of him and the stories he had at the filling station.

We went to Pryde's which is an "all things cooking" store.  It was a cluttered heaven.

Anybody need a cake stand?

I had to take a picture of this butcher block because it was from a grocery store on the street where I lived in PT school.  Twenty-sixth and Holmes... probably one of the most dangerous intersections in KC.

Had to stop at Starbs and get a pumpkin spice latte.  Half-caff for me, please.

Parking was limited and hard to find Saturday night but it ended up being a blessing as we had to park on the top of the parking garage and got to see this amazing sunset.

We ate at McCormick & Smick's for dinner and Katie and mom thought it would be hilarious to cheers their wine and laugh in my face.  I had a sip.  It was heavenly.

Had to get the "chocolate bag" which has been voted the best dessert in KC for many years.

Then we ate breakfast at the Classic Cup, also voted best breakfast in KC.  This is me trying to smile through my excruciating back pain.

Now I'm hungry.  Again.