24 Weeks

24 weeks is a significant mile marker. We are 3/5 of the way there. The belly is getting bigger and bigger all the time, and she is moving more and more! I can pretty much count on her doing some stretching and kicking a couple times every day. Its wonderfully distracting. When movement starts, all productivity dies cause I just sit there and enjoy it.

Once upon a time, quite a few years ago, I weighed 25lbs more than my pre-pregnant weight. I knew that thanks to Munchkin, I would inevitably regain all those pounds. When I lost all those pounds, I kind of hoped never to see them again; well, most of them are back....

...and I love them.

Oh, and she officially has a blog name: Papillon Rouge
Meaning Red Butterfly.
(We chose it more because of the appropriate initials than the meaning - we are not actually going for a Butterfly theme...)

Blessings

I have finally found a moment to post a quick update. But just a very quick one, cause its time to leave for work.

Things are going well. We have almost entirely left the farm (we are not there, but our stuff still is). We are moved in with my parents. Mon Amour has started, and loves, his new job. I am back in the office, which has been an adventure. The house buying process is coming along swimmingly (I think...I just keep doing what the realtor tells me to do, so who knows).

There is lots left to be done (and so it will be a while longer before blogging officially resumes) but for now, a few pictures and thoughts.

Cute Pink Cupcakes from a work-friend who is also expecting a little girl.

Me at 22 weeks (and some odd days).

At just 22 weeks exactly I finally started really feeling her. She likes to move around a lot while I am at work, which is pretty much the highlight of my day. I can feel her from the outside sometimes, hopefully soon someone else will get to feel her too.

I expected this busy season would be one of much learning, and so far it has been. I have been learning lots of things, about myself, my relationships, and just life in general. The one thing in particular that I have been thinking about a lot lately, is that life is crazy stressful right now, but that is because of all our recent blessings in our life.

Moving is stressful, but we are moving because God gave Mon Amour a new job.

Buying a house is stressful, but God is giving us a house that we love and can afford.

Growing a baby is exhausting, but she is (my favorite) blessing and I love her so much already.

Moving away from friends is frightfully sad, but that is because we have been blessed with such amazing friends!

And the list goes on.

In moments when I am overwhelmed I try and remember that these things are blessings. It doesn't mean they can't stress me out, but it does mean I can't just write them off as unpleasant things to be endured. Life can be stressful and busy for many much worse reasons. Praise God for all these wonderful stresses.

It's a....(for real this time)

GIRL!
(the Doctor said he was very confident...but that if it ends up a boy, we still have to take it home :-)

There she was - with all the right parts, all the right size, moving around like she is supposed to (even though I can't feel her yet...it was weird to see her move and not feel it)

She has cute feet (or in the case of this picture...a cute foot)

And she has my nose! (Mon Amour and I came to this conclusion independently, so it must be true)

She currently weights about 15 ounces. (Which officially (according to my Dr) does NOT account for my extravagant 17 lb weight gain...oh well)
She has a real name...but I may have to work on an official blog name for her...

It's a....

...cantaloupe.

Or at least the size of one they tell me. A cantaloupe seems much bigger than last week's "large heirloom tomato".
20 weeks, 17 pounds.

1/2 way through - and still at the delightful stage of pregnancy where being fat-ish is fun, and time seems to be flying by!

Other fun updates to follow later this week! Stay tuned.

Space for Baby - 19 Weeks

At 19 weeks, my body has decided it would like to make lots of space for baby. In theory, the baby weights about 8 oz and is 6 inches long, which makes up for a very small percentage of the 16 pounds I have gained to date.

There is currently lots of space for baby.

Who knows, maybe all that extra padding is part of the reason I haven't felt him/her kick yet. I think I have felt movement. From time to time I will feel something odd...could be described as bubbles popping, or "flutters"....and I am guessing that is the baby. But I am still anxiously anticipating that first real, undeniable kick.

In other pregnancy news, I am still feeling great. Other than having a growing belly, and continuing acne, I feel very "normal" most of the time. From time to time, I feel really really bloated with gas (sorry, unpleasant, I know) to the point of being painful. But those moments are few a far between, so I really have no complaints.

Oh, and in addition to making my belly grow, all these new found growth hormones have made my nails grow like weeds! I have always been a nail biter, always tried to break the habit, never really succeeded. But, at this point, it doesn't matter, cause my bad habit can't seem to keep up their rate of growth. Its kind of fabulous. I should go buy some nail polish...

Week 17

Week 17 actually ended yesterday. We are now officially 18 weeks along. But I haven't gotten to those pictures yet. So for now - some 17 week belly shots.

We really need to stop taking these right before bedtime when I look (and often feel) like death. I am pretty much always ready to sleep (or eat for that matter), but I hope I don't always have those rather dark cirlces under my eyes. Oh well.

Many thanks to my good friend for loaning me some of her maternity clothes. I am very much enjoying them!

I am still feeling good this week. I think that I may have felt some baby movement this week (I am like 95% sure that is what it was), but no official kicks or anything yet. Perhaps that will happen this coming week.

16 weeks

This was taken at the beginning of week 16. Which we are now pretty much finishing up.
At my appointment this week we learned that Munchkin is bouncing all over the place in there, but I still can't feel him/her. His/her heart rate is going at a wonderful 140 bpm.

I am feeling even better (if that is possible, since I never really felt bad); I am less tired than I was a couple weeks ago, and less ravenously hungry (though still perpetually ready to eat). I am starting to feel like I have an actually baby bump, and am in need of more maternity clothes.

Thus far, very much enjoying this here 2nd trimester

Me and My Nannie

A photo in which I look muchly more pregnant than I actually am.

As of this picture I was almost 15 weeks. But everyone told me I was looking "extra pregnant" that day. But I am not complaining (shocked at how quickly I am gaining wait, yes; complaining, no)

But anyway, I just think it was a lovely picture of my favorite Nannie and myself.

Talented Family

My family is pretty talented in general. As evidenced by some of the items I found around Nannie's house while I was there.

I am pretty sure that this was painted by my grandfather. (someone in the know, correct me if I am wrong on that...if its wasn't him, it was some other very close relative)

I know Grandpop made this. Stained Glass was his specialty. Pretty cool, huh?

Dad made this. He is pretty handy with the woodwork.

However, my favorite thing that they (both Dad and Grandpop) make is this:

Its a duck. With rubber feet.

It is supposed to be on the end of a pole, with a little handle - as demonstrated by this penguin (the lesser known, but equally as adorable model)

You push it along the floor and the rubber feet makes the best little waddling sound you would ever like to hear. I LOVE these. My grandfather had a whole little business making them - it was called Duck Works. Dad mass produced them for a time, making them for craft fairs and such. Hands down the best kids push toy ever. (the sound is much less annoying then those plastic popper things that a lot of kids have, and still just as fun)

If any one (*cough*Dad*coughcough*) happens to be reading this that might want to make one for Munchkin, it would be a very welcome present!

Baby Blanket

Before anyone but Mon Amour and I knew that we were going to have a baby - we went to a craft store to pick out some yarn so that I could crochet the baby a blanket.

Clearly we did not at the time (nor do we yet) know if the baby is a girl or a boy - so we opted for some gender neutral colors. To which we will add some splashes of pink or blue once we find out what he/she is.

Here is what I have so far:

I looked at patterns, but ultimately decided to just make it up as I went along. This makes it quite fun - but circles are not the easiest thing in the world to make up. So the blanket doesn't quite lay flat (due to adding too many stitches one row, and then too few the next, etc). But when is it really going to be laying flat?

Musical Marge

Some of our very good friends visited the other day, and brought over a couple presents for Munchkin!

One of which was this adorable Musical Marge, as we like to call it.

It is a wonderfully soft and adorable stuffed animal that plays a little lullaby when you pull its tail!
Hopefully Munchkin won't think that that is what happens when you pull real Marge's tail.

13 Week Belly Shot

We have been taking week by week belly shots since week 6. But we always manage to take them in the evening when I look super tired and out of it. And we have been taking them with me in a white shirt, against a white background. We may need to re-think that picture taking strategy.

But at 13 weeks we opted for a light pink shirt (only mildly less camouflage than white) and thought it was about time to mark the belly's progress officially.
Ta da.

That is just about 9lbs of baby related growth (though clearly the baby itself is only a minuscule amount of that 9lbs.). My very kind husband assures me that it doesn't look like 9 lbs. For which I am grateful since I was supposed to gain a max of 5 the first trimester. But what can I say? I work really hard to stay at my pre-baby weight, so once baby came, I abandoned my dieting mindset, and poof, the first 5lbs appeared. Fortunately (sort of) those first 5lbs happened before my first official weigh in at the Dr, so he thinks I have gained 4lbs. Which is exactly what I should have.

Baby's First French Education

For those of you who don't know, Mon Amour majored in French (and Psychology, but for the purposes of this post, that is not important). So he is proficient (not technically fluent, but good enough) in French. As such, we would love to give our child a jump start in the bilingual department. I am not even going to pretend that we will actually succeed in raising a bilingual child, but we can at least teach them a few phrases and pronunciation things or something. Every little bit helps, right?

Anyway, to that end, we have secured the baby it's first French things:

One French "Baby on Board" thing for the car.

This is actually how I told Mon Amour about Munchkin. I pretty much always get out of bed before Mon Amour. So it was a Sunday morning when I tested. I was pretty sure that it was positive (darn those confusing faint lines) so I decided to just go with it. I stashed the test in the car's glove box when I took Marge out. Then while Mon Amour was distracted, I found this little sign, took it out to the car, and put it on the driver's window.

Then I was really anxious to go to church. Mon Amour didn't understand the rush, so we didn't leave any earlier than we needed to. By the time he got Marge in her crate, I was anxiously sitting in the car. He went over to the driver's side, saw the sign, chuckled and opened the door. Then it hit him. "Really?!?" he asked. "Yes," I said confidently, follow quickly by a less confident "I think so" as I reached for the evidence in the glove box.
Needless to say, I was a little distracted at church that day.

Anyway, on to the next item.



I think this was the first thing we bought for Munchkin after we found out about him/her.

It has really fabulous pictures.




These (and the little sign) we got long before Munchkin existed. We got them from a legitimately French department store, while we were in Europe last year.

There are 7 bibs, with the days of the week on them in French.

Baby's First Onesie

I love baby clothes. Its hard to go wrong with things in miniature, so it's hard to go wrong with baby clothes. (I am also a sucker for baby shoes. I know when they are tiny they don't need them. But I love them. )

Baby received his/her first gender neutral onesie from my bosses.

They like to sail. Obviously they will instill in this child a love of sailing.


Isn't it cute?

Baby's First Stuffed Animal

This is also Baby's First Christmas present. Courtesy of my parents.

Isn't it adorable?

It also reminds me of a bit of an aha! baby moment that I had recently. I love those adorable little snow suits that you get for babies - the ones with the ears that makes them look likes little animals. I simply adore babies in animal snow suits. For a brief moment one day I was very sad that we were having a summer baby. No snow suit for this baby I thought to myself. Then I realized that when winter comes, the baby will still be here! And will still need an adorable snow suit.
(and don't worry, it was honestly just a brief moment that it took me to realize this, I am not under any kind of delusion about this baby being a temporary play thing of sorts. I do actually understand that it will be here to stay. And I love that fact.)

Time to go adorable baby snow suit shopping.

Baby's First Book Set

Ok, finally time for some baby related posts.

Since there aren't many pictures of Munchkin yet, and since the pictures of me so far make me look fat but not quite pregnant, we will stick to pictures of Munchkin's stuff. He/she already has quite a few fun items.

His/her very first present was from his/her great-grandmother, who apparently has been stockpiling funstuff, just waiting for a baby announcement. So this present came the day after we made the big announcement to family.

Baby's First Book Set

Dick and Jane board books.
This child shall be raised on the classics.

Baby Update

We interrupt our regularly scheduled blogging to give you a quick update on Munchkin.

At our 13 week check up this morning, I got to hear Munchkin's heartbeat - 140 healthy beats per minute.

Hello, healthy baby!
And, Hello, 2nd trimester!

Notes about the 1st trimester:
I am still surprised that I got to be one of those fortunate people with no significant morning sickness.
Maternity pants are a wonderful thing.
Pregnancy is a wonderful excuse for all kinds of lovely things (sleeping in late, eating too much, being picky about what you eat, etc) and I may have abused this excuse. :-)


Things I am looking forward about the 2nd trimester:
Being able to start blaming at least some of this weight gain on the baby and not just the fact that I have become totally lazy about how much I eat.

Feeling the baby move. I am told (and believe) that it gets annoying round about 30-some-odd weeks, but for now, bring on the annoying kicking. I can't wait!

Finding out if Munchkin is a he or a she.


And now back to our regularly scheduled blogging (which will include more baby details eventually, I promise)

Happy New Year!

What better way to start off 2010 then with some cute pictures of Marge. (Enjoy it while it lasts Marge, as much as you are currently still my baby, in another 6 1/2 months, you will likely be demoted to a distant second favorite child. Sorry. It was bound to happen)

Marge had a bit of a rough holiday season. We left her for 10 days, and over the course of those 10 days she ended up staying with 3 different people. Marge is usually a easy going dog who loves all things and all people, but I think we managed to stress her out with all the changes.

When we saw her again for the first time at my parents house, she was a bit glum.

Even with being allowed to sit on the sofa she managed to be sad looking.

Poor Marge.

I think she is the cutest when she is sad.

Anyway, it is crazy to think that (Lord willing) we will start off 2011 with pictures of a 5 month old baby, rather than this little fluffy faced one.
Happy New Year to you all!

Food Preferences

I think that the word "craving" would be too strong a word; however Munchkin has made me quite particular about what foods I do and do not want to eat. No food is neutral any more. I either would really love to eat it, or just won't bother eating it at all.

I have not decided if this is a legitimate symptom, or simply me embracing my lazy side, using Munchkin as an excuse. Who knows.

Here are a few things that, thanks to Munchkin, I have very much enjoyed.

Don't worry, it doesn't have that much caffeine. And I don't have it that often.

Edit: Mon Amour thought that it was important that I point out that when I tasted this chai for the first time a couple weeks ago, I full expected to enjoy it moderately, and casually sip it while I worked. However, I took one sip, and it tasted so good, that I had to push aside work for a few minutes and just savor the tea. For all I know, someone could have called me during that time and I don't think I would have even heard the phone ring. It was the best thing I think I have ever tasted. (Since then I have enjoyed it, but managed to keep my head on straight while eating it.)

Single handedly ate a whole box in 3 days. At least my cholesterol should be in good shape.



Bring on the dairy. The creamy, whole milk kind. Or pretty much anything dairy for that matter.


There are also some things that, thanks to Munchkin, I do not enjoy very much:

Yup. It seems I have a moderate to strong aversion to all those vegetables that are good for Munchkin. My determination to eat healthy for Munchkin's sake was short lived. I still try, but honestly, broccoli, cucumbers, carrots, etc are just not something I can get real excited about right now.

Blog-Changing Announcement

Or rather life changing I suppose.

I would like to introduce our little Munchkin!

Yup, it's true. There is a real live little baby growing inside me, and making me all kinds of hungry (and happy!).

Munchkin is currently a little bigger than a grape, and looks mostly like a little blob. But Munchkin is healthy and growing, and we love him/her already!

Munchkin should make his/her grand appearance sometime mid July.
In the mean time, you can probably expect less cow posts and more baby posts in the future. It's going to be fun times!