I don’t know about Papayas

Watch what you say — baby is now able to hear outside noise from down in the womb. Studies show that baby finds gentle music and your own voice most soothing. Nipples are starting to sprout, and that little face is fully formed. And, baby’s starting to settle into sleep cycles, snoozing about 12 to 14 hours a day. It shouldn’t be hard to figure out when — just pay attention to those kicks as they start and stop.

All my anxiety about not feeling the kiddo was for nothing, I now feel him all the time, and he is a kicker, we even had our first fight, I won cuz I’m bigger, but we’ll see how much longer that lasts. Those kicks are pretty hard sometimes and although they don’t exactly hurt some are quite uncomfortable. Our first fight went like this:

1:30 Am at night. I’m sound asleep

Husib: Kick kick kick at the sides of my belly touching the bed

me: Ignore, still sleeping

Husib- kick kick kick even harder

me: finally awake, and grumpy, so I shift a tiny little bit

Husib: kick kick kick

Me: I pull the mom card and decide I’m going to sleep in that position and he has to just wiggle his way to the other side to get comfy

Score

me-1 /husib- 0. But I think we’ll be having a re match soon. I think he has all sorts of opinions now about how I sleep and what I eat…he is gonna be stubborn. Also, just to mess with him, if I press on one side of my tummy, he kicks against it instead of retreating ( I read somewhere fetus’s are supposed to retreat if you poke the belly, but I dont’ really remember). Anyway, I find him very funny these days and he never lets me forget that he is there, no more pregnancy denial for me. Other than that, I feel like a fat whale, but thats about it.

How far along? 23 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: I checked this morning and its 5lbs since two weeks ago, I’m uber depressed to say the least
Maternity clothes? gave in to the maternity Jeans this morning. It is very comfortable,so I’m glad I gave up my stubborn pride, but feel kinda fat now.
Stretch marks? More worried about VV (Varicose Veins) at the moment. However, doesn’t vv sound cute? makes it less scary.
Sleep: I’ve insomnia lately, not sure how much is pregnancy related or life related.

Best moment this week: being settled in our new place, kicks kicks and more kicks

Movement: All. the . time
Food cravings: Chocolate Donuts, cucumber sandwiches, and I can eat chicken again.yaaaay
Gender:  Boy
Labor Signs: Too early
Pregnancy Symptoms: Everything, this question just depresses me now will answer next week
Belly Button in or out? Its definitely flattening
What I miss: tequila shots
What I am looking forward to: My parents visiting, finally getting the new place all the way set up.
Weekly Wisdom: Don’t fight the maternity wear, it just wants to be your friend and make you feel comfy.
Milestones: Nothing too big this weekend, I guess surviving pregnancy for 23 weeks? Ha ha…also I think unless life throws me  a real curveball, this one is it for me.

Only the Pregnant

A few things over the last few weeks have really confirmed the fact that I’m pregnant. People no longer treat me as a normal human being, now its not necessarily a bad thing, but its a very weird thing. Also I feel like I ‘m experiencing some moments now that has never happened to me before and probably will never happen once the husib is out.

1) Wearing an all maternity outfit to a kegger. It was beyond weird, Maternity skirt- check, maternity top- check, pregnant belly sticking out- check. But I had a plastic beer cup too, full of coke so I looked like a pregnant chick drinking beer.

2) It was said to me  ”You are funnier since you quit drinking”  I’m going to take that as a compliment but now I’m paranoid about my sense of humor.

3) Strangers, Aquaintances feel completely comfortable discussing my body, my stomach and my eating habits and nobody but me finds it weird. I mean, I’m sure when they are pregnant they can eat all they want but do they need to tell me in excruciating detail why i need to drink coke and not diet coke and not worry about gaining weight. Yeah, lets see you not not worry about the giant belly thats suddenly attached to your once nicely curved torse.

4) I’m pregnant, yes there is a child inside me but I’m not that said child. There is no reason for the nurse practictions to refer to it as my tum-tum multiple times.

5) Waking up in the middle of the middle of the night, absolutely starving.

6) Where did the hordes of caffeine police suddenly come from, my mom and my once super laid back husband have now made it their daily mission to find out how much caffeine I’ve had. My mom, I don’t care as much, she has always been a bit obsessive, but J has been giving me the stink eye when I get an iced coffee. But I’m not scared, I give him a pregnant stink eye right back and call him the pregnancy police and go back to enjoying my delicious caffeinated beverage.  As my coworker says, Italian women do not give up their espresso, Japanese women do not give up their sushi and my European friends are shocked that I will not be drinking throughout the entire pregnancy.

I’m sure there’ll be more of these so I might have to do a part II

A big banana

Baby gulps down several ounces of amniotic fluid every day, both for hydration and nutrition and to practice swallowing and digesting. And, these days, those taste buds actually work! Studies show that after birth, babies are most interested in tastes they’ve already experienced through amniotic fluid. Meaning, think about what you want your future child to eat as you prepare your own lunch.

Pregnancy has been prett okay this week. I feel fat and useless during this move. When J and I got all our stuff, other than 2 big pieces of furniture, I helped move everything else. THis round, its all J by himself. I also think the veins on my legs are looking ugly which makes me think I might get varicose veins, this made me cry last night. Super! Otherwise, Husib is definitely making his presence known by kicking all the time. He is becoming more real everyday and I have been having a lot of husib dreams. He is always a toddler or a child in them but not a baby. Also seriously, this week husib is a 3/4 lb banana, I have never seen a banana that big in my entire life.

How far along? 21 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: I don’t know, I haven’t looked, but I’m pretty sure I’m up by like +5, I have the appetite of 3 teenage boys these days.
Maternity clothes? Ordered some maternity clothes when Gap and Old Navy were having a sale, including some jeans, but they haven’t arrived yet.
Stretch marks? No new ones but I could be in denial. My new fear is varicose veins
Sleep: I’m getting more used to the waking up in the middle of hte night and my body pillow still rocks! Getting more used to the insomnia too

Best moment this week: Moving to our new place, not directly pregnancy related but we are moving b/c of husib

Movement: All. the . time
Food cravings: Sour Gummi Lifesavers, ice cream, otherwise it changes all the time
Gender:  Boy
Labor Signs: Too early
Pregnancy Symptoms: A giant belly! movement, peeing more and more. I feel like freaking pregnancy cliche, I got heartburn the other day, and my belly is rock hard. Also, I get tired super easy
Belly Button in or out? Its definitely flattening
What I miss: beer and not feeling useless
What I am looking forward to: Being done with moving in. moving sucks, I’ll be happy once we are all the way in the new place and all set up
Weekly Wisdom: Do not move during your pregnancy, it can be done, but its not fun. Also invest in tums, i had never taken tums before in my life, but I bought a industrial size bottle this week
Milestones: Moving into our new place!

New Townhouse

The Day after my birthday J and I signed a lease on a new townhouse and started moving in immediately. We were in a two bedroom before but a very small 900 sq feet one. The new place is older than our apt and the carpet and decor is a bit dated ( ummm….wallpaper in the kitchen, orange carpet, Yikes) but its 1500 sq feet and huge with a very nice deck and in a great neighborhood. Thursday night after we got our keys, J and I celebrated with my birthday icecream cake and excitedly making plans for the new house and on friday we started moving our stuff in. As of right now, all our rooms except for our bedroom and heavy furniture is in the new place and this saturday some of the guys from J’s lab will help us move our bed, futon, loveseat into the new place. Here are some pics of the new place. It looks very transitional b/c some the rooms have our books and crap moved in already, but I think they will make for good before and after pics once we have it all set up nicely.

Layla in the new house. She is still not super sure about it, but this was her first visit. Thats the kitchen floor, isn’t it hideous? There’s a few patches that are worn and  our landlord said , they dont’ even make that pattern anymore, ha ha

View from the entrywayinto the living room

View of the Kitchen . It is actually really sunny and big and other than the flooring, I love it

The living room is a mess but J’s working on it

You can see our fireplace in the living room from the dining area

THats the master bedroom with the ugly carpet

This room will be the nursery/guest room, its almost identical to the master bedroom. Also, there’s layla’s tail

Layla enjoying our nice new deck

The backyard

We have these planter boxes, so maybe I’ll attempt a garden.

Birthday Belly

My birthday was last week and I’m a slacker so I had to wait this long to finally post about it! But I had a very good excuse, I got in a fender bender, had to spend hours at the DMV and sign a lease on a new place and start packing and moving, so all in all its been a very very busy few days for me. So here’s a whole lot of posts in a row, just how I like it!

For my birthday this year, I had a very bittersweet day. Next time this year, I will have a teeny tiny baby boy who will be in my life, so this was the last birthday that was just me and J. I went to work in the morning and took the afternoon off to go to the DMV and my insurance office to deal with the paperwork from my fender bender the day before. I finally made it home by 4:30 super tired and took a quick nap. J came  home shortly after and surprised me with a very funny card and some lovely roses and then it was time to go to dinner. I wanted the dinner to be the highlight of my day, but it ended up being the highlight of the year! We went to Elaine’s on Franklin Street. It has consistently been one of the best restaurants in the area for a few years and I was really excited to try it. I wore a new maxi dress for the occassion, since they seem to be all the rage and it seemed like a good prego option. So I got all prettified and J took some pics and then we went to our fab dinner! I ordered the foie gras with a black cherry tart for an appetizer, a virgin cosmo for a cocktail, and Pan Fried Halibut with Blue Crab salad and corn succotash and I finished it all off with a warm chocolate cake with vanilla bean icecream. J got flounder ceviche and a Bison NY Strip Steak and his hearts fill of Mint Juleps. We took nearly 3 hours to get through dinner and it was wonderful, chatting and talking about all the new changes in our life. When we got home J had another surprise for me, instead of my yearly cupcakes he had been listening to my requests and got me an Ice Cream Cake! We decided to save it and celebrate with it next day in our new house.