baby bump: 23 weeks

How far along:  23 weeks.

Size of baby:  Ear of corn… ?   Or grapefruit.

Maternity clothes:  My regular clothes have been pushed to the side in my closet.  

Weight gain:  Well, it was Thanksgiving this week, if that explains anything. 

Stretch marks:  Nope.

Sleep:  Not so good this week as I slept on a blow up mattress that slowly deflated and every time Ehren rolled over or moved I almost got thrown off.  That, and we spent a couple nights at Ehren's parents' house in a full size bed with a full size dog.  We try and get him to sleep on the floor but he just looks at us like, "ha, yea right" and jumps back in bed, scooting us to the side. 

Exercise:  We bought a treadmill off Craigslist this week and I'm pretty excited about it.  It's nothing fancy but it will be nice while the weather is cold (and really hot later in the summer).  In the mornings when Ehren does P90X I'll walk and cheer him on. 

Best moment of the week:  Spending time with family for Thanksgiving.  And eating (pretty much) whatever I wanted without feeling like a complete fatty.. even though I looked 9 months pregnant when I was done eating. 

Oh, and my cousin Jessica had her baby on Thanksgiving evening.  They didn't find out the gender and they kept the name a surprise.  Her name is Harper and she is absolutely adorable.  And the craziest part?  On the McCauley side there are 7 granddaughters and now 2 great granddaughters.  No boys.  What are the odds?  Clearly not 50%!

Movement:  All the time.  I tried to take a nap the other day and she was kicking me so much it took me a while to fall asleep.  And now I can see her moving from the outside which is crazy.  When we were driving back from Meade we were singing (at the top of our lungs) to Miley's CD and she was kicking like crazy.  And don't hate, her album is actually really good.  

Cravings:  I think the multiple Thanksgiving meals satisfied most of my cravings!  And I think I'm actually tired of eating.  I could just eat 5 lbs. of clementines a day and be just fine.  

Gender:  I'm finally getting used to saying she, her, daughter. 

Belly button in or out:  You can see it from a mile away in my maternity shirts.   

Wedding ring on or off:  On.

Anything making you queasy or sick:  Nothing in particular. 

What I miss:  My bed.  I'm about to fix that here pretty soon.  

What I am looking forward to:  Getting nursery furniture that has been ordered!

What I am not looking forward to:  Going back to work after 5 days off. 

Labor signs:  No.

Symptoms:  Lots of kicking.  

Nursery:  Like I said above, nursery furniture has been ordered.  Now we just need to get other projects done so we can officially get started on the nursery.  I'm thinking it will happen early 2014. 

Emotions:  Just getting more and more excited all the time.  I hope I'm doing everything right and hope the things I'm doing wrong aren't going to ruin her little life.  I'm beginning to understand the pressure of being a good mom and it's overwhelming and scary. 

Week in review:

Our loving father agreed to watch all four granddogs while we went up to our grandparent's house.  He gave them each a bone and they were almost gone by the time we left my sister's house. 

And here is where all the shoes collect at my grandma's house.  It's amazing that she's had the same white carpet since they moved in about 18 years ago and it is still spotless despite all of our traffic.  And Kit Kat-eating.  And 14 grandkids and 2 great grandkids. 

My grandma made scalloped cabbage which is my FAVORITE.  I know she kept her pregnant granddaughter in mind while planning the Thanksgiving meal. 

She's laughing because I asked her where the other pan was for everyone else to eat… since that 9x13" dish was just for me.

Rolls!

Green beans picked and canned by my grandmother herself!

I found a heart-shaped potato while peeling twenty-seven pounds lots of potatoes.

Ehren practiced his "father of a daughter" skills and braided my cousin Kacia's hair.  It was entertaining to watch but he actually did a pretty good job.  And Josh is totally judging every cross over.

Yep… still separating the hair into three pieces…..

  
Focused with a furrowed brow and everything. 

Wait, what is this?  Is this my grandmother sitting down on Thanksgiving Day?!  I felt like a National Geographic photographer getting this rare image.

My sister holding my mom.  So sweet.  And do you see how white that carpet is?  

After a couple nights at the Shirley Farm, we headed back for Thanksgiving with our dad.  It started off with biscuits and gravy of course. 

They are totally looking up recipes for Thanksgiving dinner. 

My sister and I made a blueberry pie from scratch as this is our dad's favorite dessert.  Kind of nerve-wracking. 

Katie was in charge of the fine details. 

My dad has always smoked a giant turkey for our big family get togethers.  He's always enjoyed cooking the turkey but he absolutely hates turkey.  He has suggested before to do Calvin Trillin's alternative Thanksgiving dinner idea: spaghetti carbonara.  He says that if Christopher Columbus discovered America then we should have an Italian meal instead of turkey.  My sister and I decided to surprise him with this meal plan.

The week before Thanksgiving when we were all hanging out, dad said "hey, I have an idea, instead of turkey we should do the alt--" and then we abruptly interrupted him saying "no, dad!  We want to try and make a traditional turkey since it's our first Thanksgiving hosting!"  He totally believed us.  He even texted us tips on defrosting a turkey if we bought a frozen one.

So when he came over for Thanksgiving, me, the type A, planner-of-a-daughter said: "So, dad, how do you cook a turkey?"  He looked at me, bewildered, "well, how are you going to cook it?"  I said, shrugging, "I don't know, I haven't thought about that part yet."  His jaw drops.  We wait a second and then say "Just kidding!  We're going to have the alternative Thanksgiving dinner… spaghetti carbonara!"  He was thrilled, surprised, and immediately much more excited about dinner.

The great thing about spaghetti carbonara?  All you do is boil some spaghetti, crisp some bacon, add some wine, mix some eggs with parmesan and pecorino romano, then pour over the hot pasta.  That's it.  It comes together in minutes and way less likely to get screwed up.

The pasta was yummy and the blueberry pie turned out pretty darn well for our first "completely from scratch" pie attempt.  After digesting that giant meal, Ehren and I headed to Meade the next morning with our fur child in tow.  He got so excited that he was going for a ride but he wasn't sure where he was going.  And because of that, it took him until Emporia (an hour and a half away) to finally calm down and lie down in the back seat.

At one point, he rolled down the window when we were going 70mph.  Scared the crap out of us!  Child locks on from now on.

When we were in Meade, we were looking through old pictures.  This may be one of my favorite pictures of Ehren of all time.  I mean, he's in a hotel room, naked, eating McDonald's and holding his a french fry?  I hope our daughter is half as cute as him.

I envision many pictures like this one with Ehren giving the kisses to our daughter.

Ehren's lovely parents before there was an Ehren.  He is truly a product of his parents: looks-wise and personality-wise. 

Benefits of having a doctor in the family and running a small town clinic?  A little doppler session to hear the heartbeat on a Saturday.

Ehren is a man who needs some direction/guidance when it comes to household stuff because sometimes he just doesn't notice things (shower needs to be cleaned, laundry needs switched over, etc). I have no problem with this because if he's asked to do it, he does it.  And he does a damn good job of it.  Like, I was making dinner one time and asked if he would vacuum.  Boy, did he vacuum!  He moved all the furniture out and vacuumed every square inch of the house.  I ask him to clean the shower, because frankly, I don't do showers.  It may have taken him 2 hours to do it, but it was the cleanest shower I've ever seen and if I didn't know we had clear glass shower doors, I would have walked right into them.  I'm a very impatient person and can do things very fast; Ehren is much slower but much more thorough.  I may get frustrated sometimes but when he does a better job than I could ever do, how could I be upset for long?

And you know how people say "you can't change a person"?  I knew I wouldn't be able to change him when I saw this report card from his kindergarten teacher:  

I think I fell more in love with him when I read that note from his teacher.

I end this lengthy Thanksgiving post with this picture of Ava.  This little hot mess is Ehren's parents' dog.  And this picture is a good representation of how I felt after our Thanksgivings that encompassed almost the entire state of Kansas.

Cheers to a long, family-filled, stomach-stuffed weekend.  It does a pregnant lady good.