Baby is the size of: A cantaloupe - around 11 inches, a pound and a half. She can now hear the yaps of Maci. Poor girl.
Symptoms: Pregnancy brain is still hanging on and hunger has crept into the picture as well. I've been super hungry here recently, but I do get full really fast. Smaller meals work better (feeling like your stomach is going to explode isn't the best feeling). Swollen feet and ankles on the days I wear closed in shoes. Some back pain if I sit on the floor too long.
Gender: A sweet little girl! Our gender reveal party here.
Name: Harper Elizabeth. I love that we finally decided and announced. Much more real now. Post here.
Movement: Sometimes I have no clue what she's doing in there with her hands. I rarely felt hand/arm movements until this week. All. day. long. And VERY low. Her kicks are still on my left side, but definitely feel more arm/hand movements in the middle and a little to the right. She was so active all week long, which has definitely been a change.
Nursery: The nursery is painted! The crib, glider & mattress are ordered! We should get them by the beginning of September. We'll get the dresser next. I'm having issues coming up with a vision with bedding, decor, etc. I'm hoping to find something that just speaks to me.
Maternity Clothes: Regular pants seem out of the question. My belly bands lasted about three weeks. I could probably wear them, but who wants to be uncomfortable when you can wear pants that stretch? Not I. Shirts are a mix still. I put on a dress that I thought I could wear cause it was pretty lose back in my pre-preggo days - I looked like I was going to the club. Not second grade.
Sleep: Trips to the bathroom a few times a night. Sleep is pretty good otherwise.
Best Moment This Week: Cody finally feeling the little babe while painting her nursery! It was so sweet and I had been waiting for that moment for so many weeks now. She gave him a couple of good kicks. :)
Missing Anything: My wedding rings... I decided to go ahead and take them off about two weeks ago. I had some pain in one hand and my fingers were a little puffy. I don't want to risk leaving them on and my fingers suddenly decide to become sausages. I felt a little too naked without them, so I bought a cheapie replacement...I had to.
Cravings/Aversions: Just food. I want to eat a lot. Nothing in particular really. Aversions have gone away pretty much.
Health/Exercise: Even though I'm eating a lot, I still try and do it healthy. Not much time for walking little Maci, trying to squeeze it in on the weekends.
Mood: Pretty happy for the most part. A little stressed about nursery plans. I get very tired by Thursday and Friday, so I'm more like a zombie from Walking Dead by then.
Husband: Rocked it out and painted the nursery! Felt little girl move for the first time. Talks to her and rubs my belly pretty often here recently. Good week for daddy!
Looking Forward To: Um, hello. FOOTBALL SEASON. Little girl will be going to her first game on Saturday! Go Dawgs! :)
Baby is the size of: This week she's a little 11 inch grapefruit. One app says the size of a Barbie doll and I think I like that one better. :)
Symptoms: A big fat case of PREGNANCY BRAIN. Not only do I drop everything, forget everything, but now I run into the back of cars. Ugh. I somehow managed to roll into the car in front of me the other day, which resulted in a trip to the hospital because my doctor sends all accidents big or small to the emergency room. Cody reminded me that although it may not seem like a big deal, her life is a big deal, so I'm glad we went just to get it checked out. Aside from being just plain dumb here recently, I've definitely had an increase in round ligament pain. I've noticed that it's getting slowly more difficult to reach down to tie my shoes or paint my nails.
Gender: A pretty little Barbie doll apparently! You can check out our gender reveal party here.
Movement: Where before I was feeling her more at night, I've felt her more during the day this week. She's definitely getting bigger.
Nursery: We bought paint samples last week and we picked one that we liked. Now we just need to buy a gallon paint the room. I've picked out the basic pieces, just need to order them.
Maternity Clothes: About half and half. My belly bands are helping me wear pre-pregnancy pants a little longer. Not the most comfortable, but it works for now. My shirts are about half and half also. A lot of tops I've bought are loose enough with cuts in the side so there's a ton of room to grow. I don't know why more jeans aren't built like maternity jeans. Who needs zippers and buttons when stretchy sides and full panel tops are where it's at.
Sleep: Sleeping great thanks to my early wake-up calls. Some potty breaks, but some nights I'm sleeping through.
Best Moment This Week: Cody and I battled the storms on Wednesday night to register at Target! It was a lot of fun thinking about her using all those fun baby gadgets!
Missing Anything: At this point I can make it 16 more weeks without a sandwich.
Cravings/Aversions: Still no cravings or aversions. Don't ask what I want to eat, cause I have no idea.
Health/Exercise: Eating pretty well. Weight gain is right on track so far. Took Maci on a walk, which she loved and I loved too.
Mood: Pretty pooped by the end of the week - tears definitely come more easily by then. Pretty happy for the most part. Definitely happy with how school is going so far.
Husband: I definitely think we're going to have a little daddy's girl on our hands. He's already so proud of her and talks about taking her everywhere he goes once she gets here. He's had a few conversations with my belly this week also. :)
Looking Forward To: Working on the nursery in the upcoming weeks!
Picking a name for a boy was going to be no problem at all.
We were certain we were going to have a boy and the name was already taken care of. If we had a girl, we had names we liked, but nothing set in stone. Once we realized we were going to be blessed with pretty little ribbons and bows, we were beyond shocked and a little unsure of what her name would be.
The middle name was already set. We were going to use my middle name, which is also my grandmother's middle name. The name has been in the family for generations. It's pretty classic, but beautiful.
We had a few first names in consideration, but wasn't too fond of the popularity of one. (Not that the name we picked isn't popular or isn't going to be popular) But I don't want to know four other little girls with the same name. I adore the name, but I'm just weird like that.
Then came pouring in the opinions. No opinions were meant to be hurtful and none were even hateful. They liked the names we chose. But for some reason, I would get a little irritated when somebody said they liked one more than the other. Because what if we picked the other one. Then I would know you liked the other one more. And I know. I shouldn't care about others opinions, and I really was going to name my sweet baby girl whatever I wanted. But the names were still a little stained in the back of my mind.
I decided after talking with Cody several times about my concerns that I wanted to start completely fresh. Find a name we weren't even considering at all. Not tell anybody until it was final. We searched. Threw around names. And searched some more. But nothing felt like the right fit.
On a trip to Pottery Barn Kids over the summer, I wanted to look at the cribs. After deciding that I don't want to pay an extra car payment for a crib, we took a walk around the store looking at all the precious little girl bedroom decorations. If you know Pottery Barn Kids pretty well, you know that they name a lot of their bedding or furniture. I noticed Cody looking at bedding, when I walked up to him to admire the pieces with him.
He read the name on the packaging, and told me he really liked the name.
Completely shocked that he even liked that name, I put the first name and middle name together and said it out loud.
It sounded beautiful.
It wasn't a name I ever thought about picking, nor did I think my husband would even like it. But it worked and we spent a few more weeks making sure it was the one.
After sharing the name with our family and some friends, we both really have come to love the name we picked. It feels perfect for us and perfect for her.
So without anymore delay and finally announcing it to the world, we will be welcoming our sweet little...
*Thank you for all your sweet blog comments on my last few posts. I promise I read them all and they all make my heart so happy. I love reading what you have to say, and I completely am blaming the busy season of back to school on not many comments back. Eventually, I'll work my way back a blogging routine! :)
How far along: 22 weeks
Due Date: December 17, 2015
Baby is the size of: Sweet little girl is as big as a spaghetti squash - around 8 inches. She finally reached the full pound mark. Grow baby grow!
Symptoms: Sore feet!!! Normally starts right in the early afternoon (now that I'm back at work), which makes for a really wonderful day. It doesn't really matter what shoes I wear, they just ache if I'm walking or standing a lot. Round ligament pain - definitely more difficult to twist and turn. Lovely little acne bumps on my face. Complete exhaustion this past week due to our first week back at school with kiddos and waking up at 4:45am daily. I'm even more emotional and can cry at anything due to the mixture of hormones and just plain tiredness.
Gender: A sweet little babe. You can check out our gender reveal party here.
Name: I've been spreading the word to friends and family. I'm planning on sharing sometime this week on the blog!
Movement: So much movement! Definitely a little night owl with all her kicks, punches and wiggles in the evening. A lot more movement felt on the outside. I even have a few videos of kicks! They're my favorite. :)
Nursery: Definitely made major progress this week with picking things out. I'm terrible at making decisions, which is why nothing has been done so far. But with seventeen weeks left, it's kinda time make some nursery magic happen! We'll be ordering the crib this week, and hopefully the dresser on Saturday. We're registering on Wednesday, so we decided to go ahead and pick a paint color at Home Depot while we're over in the area!
Maternity Clothes: I ordered some more tops from Old Navy last week, which arrived this weeked. I should be set for the next few weeks. I bought five tops, originally $96, but with a coupon code and some rewards cash brought it down to $44. #pregnancywin
Sleep: Still can't get enough of it. Going to bed at a decent time helps, but I'm pretty sure when you wake up before 5am, you're going to be tired regardless. Better get used to it, right?
Best Moment This Week: We had a doctor's appointment last Tuesday so we could check how I'm measuring belly wise and to listen to little babe's heartbeat. She was wiggling so much, it was hard to hear it really well, but it was around 153 which is perfect and so good to hear! (Next appointment is my glucose test in September)
Missing Anything: I mean sandwiches would be nice, but at this point I've gotten used to missing out on it. I do miss having normal feet now. Ones that don't hurt all. the. time.
Cravings/Aversions: Not so much. No ice cream and pickles type cravings here.
Health/Exercise: I would like to walk Maci in the evenings once I get back to a routine with my school schedule. Eating wise it wasn't the best this week. I pretty much ate what I could at school since time is limited. And dinner was quick and easy this week.
Mood: Pretty happy with how the first week of school went. I'm hoping this honeymoon stage with my new kids lasts a pretty good while. Excited to get going with registering and the nursery! Can't wait to meet my sweet little girl in December!
Husband: Ready to feel our little babe move. And anxiously wanting to paint the nursery so we can start picturing what life will be like in just a few short weeks! So sweetly rubbed my feet a couple nights - I wouldn't mind it some more this week, darling. ;)
Looking Forward To: Registering this week and purchasing the big nursery items!
I've wanted to share our living room progress for awhile now!
But then July came around and that meant more attention towards beginning of the school year prepping. But finally, I found a little bit of time to squeeze this little post out and share what's been going on in our home.
We bought our house back in January | posts here & here | but I honestly didn't put much thought or effort into decorating for the first six months. With our gender reveal party back at the beginning of July, I wanted to kinda make it seem like we actually live here and make our house feel a little more cozy.
Really the only "decorating" of the living room we did before summer was buy new couches and tables back in February. We purchased them from Ashley Furniture and they completely changed the feel of the room. The room is pretty big with tall ceilings, so the bulky furniture fits in there nicely, and fills the space really well.
My mom totally rocked it out one weekend and painted our living room for us over the summer, and I couldn't be happier with the color we chose. Anything was better than that icky builder's paint, and the newly grey walls make the room so warm and welcoming.
I definitely splurged a little on our couch pillows. Target has a great way of making your original idea of simple/easy decorating into a much more elaborate scheme - hence the 500 pillows that are now completely necessary.
We didn't make many changes, but the ones we did make totally changed the feel of the room. It's definitely one of my favorite rooms in the house now. We still have a few things to do to get the room completely "finished" but for now, I'll continue loving the progress we've made!
