Week 19 – Easter and the Calm Before the Storm

Easter Nails

Puppy Pillow

Happy Easter

This past Sunday was Easter.  As usual, we went to church in the morning and then went to my Uncle Paul’s house for a family party in the afternoon.  I wonder how our holidays will be divvied up when our little one comes.  Since it’s just us traveling, though it’s sometimes exhausting, it really isn’t too complicated.  We’ve split up the holidays between my family and Trevor’s pretty evenly.  Easter and Mother’s Day we stay here with my family, since we travel to Trevor’s in April & twice in June for a couple of birthday parties and for Father’s Day.  Thanksgiving is usually here with my family because his family doesn’t always have a big get together.  However, we’ll see them all in October now for another birthday party, so that’s now evened out.  And Christmas has always been easy as both families celebrate on different days. 

Again, I wonder how that is going to change when we start to do our own family traditions.  I only have 2 cousins on my side that are married or have children, and every year we see them dramatically less often.  On Trevor’s side, only a couple of cousins have children but a lot of them are now married and things are quite different from when I first started going to his family’s functions.  I know traveling with kids is harder but combining that with juggling in-laws & the family that you’ve created makes it all the more difficult.  I’m curious to see how the next few years alter the traditions I’ve followed my whole life.

BK this week is 6 inches long, around 7 ounces big, and is the size of a large mango.  It is around this time that they can start to hear sounds from within your own body (they say “hear sounds” but it’s really “feeling vibrations”) – the heart beating, blood swishing, lungs filling, food digesting, and the tenor of your voice, especially if it’s lower-pitched.  Also this week, BK’s body coated in what’s called vernix caseosa; a greasy protective coating that protects the skin from amniotic fluid.  It will shed closer to delivery, though if born a little early, it may still have some.  I’ve been pretty good this week and really have been good for the most part since the sciatic pain subsided a few weeks ago.  The nausea from being in the car is also getting a little better too.  I think I felt the baby moving again.  It feels the same as it did 2 weeks ago when I thought I felt it the first time.  Unfortunately, it’s still too subtle for Trevor to feel anything yet.  He’s pretty anxious to experience those first movements for himself. 

I titled this entry “The Calm Before the Storm” because there really isn’t anything for us to do this week but wait for time to pass.  Next week is our 20 week ultrasound.  We don’t have room to pack and pile up boxes, so that has to wait until our closing date is nearer.  Ah, just looking at this to-do list for next couple of weeks is exhausting.  If only it were possible to stock-pile hours of sleep.

Trevor’s Note:  I really do have to admit that I’m jealous that Ashley can feel the baby and I can’t.  I know this will sound weird but I’ve never felt a baby kick in the womb before.  It’s not that I really wanted to wait; I just never had a really good opportunity before.  But now that my baby will be the first one, I’m really looking forward to it.

Week 16 – Happy St Paddy’s Day!

St. Paddy's Nails

High Fives for St. Paddy's

Earlier this week I had my 16 week OB appointment.  We got to hear the heartbeat and received the order to get the 2^nd trimester blood work done.  BK is still around 4 ½ inches long but is now 4 ounces big.  It’s back muscles are stronger allowing it to straighten out more.  BK’s eyes are working now and are able to perceive light through the eyelids.  It is also more sensitive to touch and can respond by squirming if the belly is poked. 

16 Weeks

It’s been nice enough to be outside so Bailey and I have been taking a lot of walks this week.  I can’t wait for spring temps…I am so over winter already.  I’ve even begun spring cleaning or really I’d call it move-out-cleaning.  As you can see from the picture above I’ve gone from looking like I ate a little too much to looking like I let myself go, haha.  I guess 7 lbs mostly all in the front will do that.  My pants no longer allow me to sit down without really cutting into my stomach.  I spent many hours on Friday going to THREE different malls trying to find maternity yoga pants.  Yes, I said three.  And it was completely ridiculous.  The first two malls had zero maternity stores. 

I can vividly remember when I wasn’t pregnant seeing those stores all the time.  Now that I need them…they’ve all disappeared?  Awesome.  The third mall only had one maternity store.  Unfortunately, all they had were leggings.  Not quite the same thing.  I despise the look people are trying to pull off when they wear leggings as pants (as in without a long enough shirt to cover their butt).  That is not a good look for anyone; I don’t care how in shape you are.  Even the department stores only had a few racks and most of it was $100 maternity jeans (how crazy is that!?) and shirts.  I found some maternity yoga pants in both Macy’s and Target but they were so short they didn’t even clear my ankles.  I guess people taller than 5 feet don’t get pregnant anymore. 

For funsies I went into Victoria’s Secret, even though I knew all of their pants were covered in rhinestones and had the word “PINK” written across the backsides.  The clothing gods must have felt sorry for me by then because I managed to find two pairs of yoga pants!  One of them even came without rhinestones…I didn’t even know that was possible.  They must have had a rhinestone shortage the week those were made.  The other of course did have the offensive little sparkles but PINK was written very small and my shirts would cover it.  I hope they’ll fit longer than a couple of months because I do not want to repeat that day anytime soon.

Today I had a baby shower to go to for a college friend, Katie.  Trevor came with so that Travis would have someone to hang out with while Sara and I were at the shower.  I am so not looking forward to having to register for my own showers in a couple of months.  There is so much crap babies need and all of it is quite expensive so a shower is a must unless you are super rich.  However, researching brands and sifting through the way over-crowded baby market just makes me want to take a nap.  When registering for our wedding, I knew which things on the “Must Register For” lists that stores and magazines pushed were going to be completely useless.  Baby registries though…no frickin’ clue what you’ll actually use all the time, what you’ll use for about 5 seconds before they outgrow it, and what they’re trying to push onto new parents by making you think you need it.  Yep, definitely not looking forward to figuring all this out ;)