22 Weeks

Weeks along: 22

What's new with baby: Our little boy is the size of a water bottle/papaya. He's sleeping anywhere from 12-14 hours a day and his eyes and lips are more developed.

Maternity Clothes: Yes

Symptoms: Had my first week of some lower back pain, but all around I continue to have an easy pregnancy (which I'm so thankful for)!

Cravings: Just all the sweets. Chocolate. Fruit. You name it. I try to eat healthy at least 2/3 meals of the day with healthy snacks, but I know where I really need to cut back is the sugar.

Workouts: Shooting for at least 3 workouts a week got that in this week. It wasn't much, but did a 3 mile walk/run and 2 more 2ish mile walks. I need to step up the intensity, but with work and home life being really busy I'm counting any activity as a win.

Baby Purchases: We bought the paint for little guy's room, and last weekend we picked out a crib/dresser. My dad is a rock star and is actually painting the nursery for us and installing new closet doors. I'm so lucky to have such supporting parents, and I hope N and I can be half as great as them when our baby is born.

High point of the week: N got to feel the baby kick! The look on Nate's face when he felt it was priceless, and it left us with the biggest grins on our faces :-)

Concerns/Issues: Nothing this week. 

Missing: Feeling a little vain  this week with the numbers on the scale continuing to rise and freaking out a little bit about fitting into my pre-pregnancy clothes after he's born. I know I just need to focus on eating healthy and staying active though, and what happens happens.

Sleep: Has improved! N bought me a snoogle for Christmas, and since my sleep has been so crappy lately he decided to gift it to me early. I was worried it was going to take up the whole bed and be more of a nuisance than anything, but it's actually helped and I don't think N's feel squished at all.

Looking forward to: Seeing the nursery all painted with new closet doors, and really starting to design his room! We also need to register at some point, and I'm looking forward to that too :-)

21 Weeks

Looking more and more pregnant every week! 

Weeks along: 21

What's new with baby: Baby is the size of a baseball cap, bok choy, or a pomegranate - take your pick :-). This week he's working on producing meconium (his first poop) and he's now about 10.5 inches long!

Maternity Clothes: Besides workout clothes and cardigans, pretty much exclusively maternity clothes at this point.

Symptoms: Struggling with sleep, but otherwise feeling great! Little man is more active every day and feeling his kicks are the best :-)

Cravings: Continuing to crave sweets. This week my mother-in-law brought over this cream-filled banana bread and it was out of this world.

Workouts: Decent this week. One 3.5 mile walk with weights, and 2 more 2-2.5 mile walks with some running and weights at the end.

Baby Purchases: N and I took advantage of Black Friday sales and bit the bullet on getting the stroller/car seat combo we wanted. Our baby purchases up to this point have been thrifty, gently-used products, but I really really wanted the UPPAbaby Cruz with the UPPAbaby Mesa car seat. Out of all the strollers we looked at it, it was the most user-friendly and compact while also coming with a lot of optional attachments (plus it had awesome reviews). The only downside? The price. Luckily on Black Friday it was 20% off, and since it's rarely on sale we jumped on it. I never thought I'd be so excited to get a stroller, and having a car seat in our house is starting to make this all feel real :-).

High point of the week: N feeling Baby M after I worked out this weekend. Our little guy has been active enough that N can feel him when he decides to curl up in a ball on one side of my stomach, which he especially likes to do after I've been walking or running.

Concerns/Issues: Now that we're a little more than 4 months out labor and delivery is on my mind more and more along with how we're going to adjust to sleepless nights with a newborn.

Missing: Nothing this week

Sleep: Hasn't gotten any better. A pregnancy pillow might be in the near future....or a new mattress.

Looking forward to: Picking out the nursery furniture! My parents have generously offered to purchase us a crib and dresser so we're heading to KC this weekend to shop around.

20 Weeks

Definitely feeling like I've "popped" this week!

Weeks along: 20

What's new with baby: Baby is now the size of a banana (one of my favorite fruits). At our appointment we found out that he is 11 ounces (49% percentile which is perfect!). He's swallowing amniotic fluid every day which gets him ready to take his first breath - still crazy to think about!

Maternity Clothes: Wearing mostly maternity tops and pants, with the exception of a few shirts that are long enough to still wear.

Symptoms: Feeling great. After a rough couple of weeks, now that the kitchen back splash is done and we know Baby M is officially a mister I've been enjoying this pregnancy more and more.

Cravings: Give me alllllll the Thanksgiving foods. Especially pie :-)

Workouts: This one I can't remember...I think it was par for the course with this pregnancy in that I got in a workout 2-3 days out of the week.

Baby Purchases: Baby clothes galore! After the gender reveal on Friday my mom and I made a trip specifically just to buy little man some things. N and I also went to the second hand store by our house and found a new Halo Bassinet that they knocked down to $99. We scooped it up along with a like-new Baby Bjorn carrier, a baby bottle drying rack and a diaper changing organizer. I'm a sucker for a good deal so it was so nice finding like-new baby items at such a great price!

High point of the week: Our gender reveal party with our family and friends, along with the fantastic news that our little guy is measuring along just fine and looks healthy!

Concerns/Issues:  Sleep, oh how I miss you. My belly has reached the point where I can't lay on it, and my doctor told me at my appointment that I should be mostly sleeping on my left side. I've been going to bed early, but I wake up at least 3-4x at night wide awake. I just can't get comfortable.

Missing: Nothing this week

Sleep: See above, It's spotty at best, but I'm sure I'll look back when little man is born and think how silly I was to complain.

Looking forward to: Getting the nursery put together and meeting our boy! It's hard to believe this pregnancy is already halfway over.

19 Weeks

Okay, so I lied, this isn't my 19 week post. Another crazy week at work last week led to me neglecting to write everything down. As much as I could say it was a tough week, it really wasn't so bad because it made time go by so fast. Before we knew it, it was Friday and my 20 week sonogram was here!

(Drum roll please)

And Baby M is a.....

BOY!!!

But the best part of all is that he is measuring along beautifully and everything looks healthy (we declined any screenings/tests so this was especially a sigh of relief!).

It's hard to believe I'm already halfway through this pregnancy and in just 20 weeks we'll be meeting our son. He's going to be the squishiest, cutest, snuggliest baby, and he'll be ours. There's so many things N and I want to teach him/do with him, and I cannot wait.

-A

18 Weeks

Weeks along:18

What's new with baby: Baby is now the size of a sweet potato and is sucking, swallowing and yawning right now.

Maternity Clothes: Have switched to exclusively maternity pants, but still getting away with wearing some regular tops.

Symptoms: Oh man, this is the week where a mixture of exhaustion and frustration (we tackled tiling our kitchen back splash) resulted in my emotions being all over the place. We're almost done with the back splash, and I'm just over it. Hopefully once the kitchen is put back I'll be back to my regular self. We now know that house projects are a definite no-go when N is overworked and I'm pregnant.

Cravings: Mexican food. I've been better this week about not indulging, but I did go out to lunch on Wednesday and had my Mexican fix.

Workouts: Ha, almost nonexistent. We've spent almost every weekend/night working on the kitchen, so that's been my workout. I did squeeze in a 4 mile run and a 2.5 mile walk with some weights this week, but haven't had the time to do much else.

Baby Purchases: We're so close to finding out whether baby M is a boy or a girl (7 days!!!) that I've been trying to hold off, but I did purchase an adorable sock monkey onesie this week.

High point of the week: Taking the night off last night from projects so I could do a little shopping with my mom and pick up some maternity jeans I ordered online.

Concerns/Issues:  This week has just been a bit of a downer. No issues, but I've felt frumpy and fat in maternity clothing, and I've been downright exhausted. Luckily the weekend is coming up, and I'm in love with the jeans I ordered which is making me feel less self conscious.

Missing: My favorite ski resort opened this weekend. This baby is so worth not being able to go, but I can't help but miss it.

Sleep: So-so. Hopefully this isn't the beginning of the end of sleeping through the night!

Looking forward to: Feeling the baby kick more. I *think* I've been able to feel it this week (tiny little flutters) but I'm ready for it to be obvious :-).

15 for 2015

I know I keep saying it, but I seriously don't know how 2015 has flown by so fast! Just 2 months left until 2016 and here's how I'm doing...

1. Try 6 new recipes that aren't desserts (and post the review/recipe on here).Almost there! So far this year I've tried zucchini lasagna, baked chicken parm, cheeseburger casserole, bangin' good shrimp, and creamy chicken buttermilk dumplings. The past couple months I've tapered off, but I'm sure by Dec 31st I'll be able to whip up one last recipe so I can officially cross this off my list. 
2. Read 5 new books. Read 10 new books. This might be tough. I finished another book this past month with Leaving Time, but I still have 3 more to go. Any good suggestions out there for books you just couldn't stop reading?
1. Bossypants by Tina Fey
2. Is Everyone Hanging Out With Me? by Mindy Kaling
3. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins (seriously, SO good!)
4. First Frost by Sarah Addison Allen
5. The Vacationers by Emma Staub
6. What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty
7. Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult 
3. Try something that takes me out of my comfort zone. I've been trying to hint to this one all year, but my #1 at the top of this list is definitely adding a new family member to our lil' duo. N and I have a great groove with it just being the two of us for the past decade, so I'm excited (and a touch nervous!) to see how a little one changes our lives. 
1. Having a baby
2. Pushing myself skiing (hello black diamond runs!)
3. Flying 8 (yes, freaking 8) times over the 6 day trip for work to Puerto Rico, Barbados and Trinidad. 
4. Take pictures for at least 4 family functions. Still have one more to go. Hoping to take some pictures this Christmas for sure. 
1. Family Ski Vacation - Colorado
2. Little Brother's Graduation
3. Ashton's first birthday party
5. Hang pictures of family/friends on the walls (this sounds simple, but our home has had nearly bare walls...for almost 2 years). Completed! 
   
6. Send a birthday card in the mail to 3 6 friends/family members. Blech, no progress on this. I need to remind myself to do this...
7. Do an act of kindness. Just paid for a stranger's coffee, but besides that nada. With the holidays coming up I'm sure I can pull this one out. 
8. Visit 3 places I've never been before. Complete!
1. Trinidad
2. Barbados
3. Puerto Rico
4. North Carolina
5. Atlanta
9. Follow a clean eating or whole 30 plan for a week (hopefully longer, but baby steps, right?) Uh yea, so this may be one that has to wait until 2016 to get one. I've been loving my fruits this pregnancy, but I don't know if I could stomach no carbs for a week. 
10. Work back up to running a 5k again, straight through. Completed on the treadmill in July. Will definitely have this back in 2016 for a post partum goal. 
11. Blog at least 24 times. Done! This little blog has been my pregnancy diary, so I've had a lot to write about. 
12. Clean out/organize all of the closets in our house. Eh, this is almost done. We need to scrub through our closet again and the guest bedroom, but the hall, office and baby room's closet have all been cleaned out. 
13. Surprise my husband in some way. Surprised N with tickets to Modest Mouse in September. Also planning a little something for him tonight :)
14. Do a house project.  Painted the house and put on new shutters. We also put up trim in the baby's room. Ideally we would do the entire upstairs, but it's a big undertaking so I'm not sure we'll get to it. We're also looking at replacing our backsplash in the kitchen now. 2 years ago when we remodeled it we made the mistake of putting up a tin backsplash. Now said tin is getting rust spots on it, especially around the sink. I'm tired of looking at it so hopefully that's something we can get done before Thanksgiving. 
15. Go visit a friend that lives in another state. Done! Visited our friends in Atlanta over Labor day weekend. We had a blast visiting the aquarium, going to dinner and just hanging out. 

-A

17 weeks

Weeks along:17

What's new with baby: Baby is now the size of a game controller (or if you're more fruit-analogy inclined, the size of an onion). Baby is putting on some fat this week and cartilage is now turning into bone.

Maternity Clothes: Caved late last week. I've never been a fan of ultra-low rise jeans, but all my mid-rise pants were digging into me every night and I was over being uncomfortable. Since this belly isn't getting any smaller, I walked myself into a Motherhood Maternity and bought myself a couple things.

Symptoms: Definitely had a couple days of some crazy fatigue, but otherwise still loving the 2nd trimester.

Cravings: Cereal.

Workouts: Hiked 4 miles on Sunday, and walked/ran 2 miles Monday and Wednesday. Not terrible, but it's been better in other weeks.

Baby Purchases: Nothing this week. Eventually I know I'll have to put together a registry of some kind, but there's so many options for baby gear it's a bit overwhelming. Meh, it can wait until next week.:-)

High point of the week: Spending a quality day with N on Sunday. We just hiked, went to lunch, relaxed and spent a lot of time talking.

Concerns/Issues:  How I'll handle labor, the first day of daycare and balancing work/life. I try not to let these bubble up too much because I know we'll cross those bridges when we get to them, but it can be overwhelming to think about at times.

Missing: Nothing this week

Sleep: Great! Still having weird dreams though.

Looking forward to: Finding out what we're having! The countdown has begun and we find out what we're having November 20th.