Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Halfway and Kicking!

We're halfway through this pregnancy - 20 week,s today!  The last 5 weeks or so have really gone fast.  I've definitely felt the baby moving the last two weeks.... Stirrings, gentle nudges.  This weekend, during the evenings when I was reading, I felt a couple real kicks.  Paul had been working nights, and I told him his baby has been pretty active - hopefully he would get to feel him (her) move soon.
Last night, I felt a kick, and Paul put his [cold!] hand on my belly.  Apparently the baby protested it, because he felt him move.  Later, when we were in bed, Paul put his hand on my belly again, and the baby gave him like 5 big kicks in the span of about a minute - the biggest I've felt so far, and the most at once.  I'm happy he got to feel it.
The baby is 10 inches (head to heel) and 10+ ounces.  So tiny, yet 10 inches sounds so big!  (Both boys were just over 20 inches when they were born.)
I am over the food aversions, I think.  Some stuff still just doesn't sound good (noodles), and other stuff has started to give me heartburn (juice) - but I'm actually cooking again.  (Balancing the checkbook and realizing how much we spent going out the last couple months has kind of sealed that!)  I had a violent craving for cheese dip last weekend....  Like, could not think about anything else.  In all the time I was pregnant before with either boy, I've never craved something so much that I made a special trip to town to get it.  This hit me Friday, and I ignored it, tried to shut it up with other food, and finally at 10 PM, sent Paul in to Applebees to get me cheese dip.  He got two orders.  I ate one that night, one the next morning, and that cured it for about a day, but by Sunday night it was back.  Monday morning, I was in town, buying ingredients to make yet more.  I may or may not have eaten an entire batch (1 lb of white cheese, 1/2 cup milk, 7 oz jalepenos - blenderize it.  El Mezcal's recipe.) by myself in 24 hours.  Thankfully, I think I finally shut that craving up.
I'm at the in-between with being tired.  I can get by without a nap, but then I fall asleep ridiculously early (by 8 on the couch last night - out like a log until 11:30 when Jacob woke me up).  But I don't need that much sleep, so I wake up at 5 - but then I'm tired because I woke up so early, which leaves me needing a nap, but since I had a nap, I wake up early........ Vicious circle.
Nathan is pretty excited about the baby.  Jacob still doesn't really get it.  He points to or pats my belly (or just as often, my boob) and says "baby," but that's about as far as it goes.  He does really like the babies at church, and is very gentle with them.  Nathan had decided this baby will be a girl.  We're not finding out, so we were trying to prepare Nathan for the possibility that it could be either.  He was very adamant we were having a girl.  So I said, "Well, what if we had a boy?  Then we'd have three boys at our house like Charlie does [his good buddy from church]."  Well, now he's decided that would be a cool thing, and now he's adamant we're having a boy!  So yesterday, I was having the, "Well, it could be a girl.  God has it planned exactly how he wants it....." conversation with him, and he told me God would be mad if we have a girl.  Oh my....  But I think whenever the baby gets here, he will be so excited about being a big brother, it won't really matter.
Next week we're having a sonogram.  My doctor didn't order one at the hospital, like she is supposed to for 20 weeks - at my last appointment, both of the boys had checkups at the same time with her, so there was a LOT going on in that room....  I'm assuming she forgot.  However, I've already had four sonograms this year (miscarriage, diverticulitis, checking on an ovarian cyst, and then earlier with this baby), so I'm 99% sure my insurance would deny payment - I want to say we had to pay like $500 for the second sonogram with Jacob.  (Our insurance only covers one per pregnancy.)  Maybe it was a God thing, because a nurse that goes to our church contacted me and asked me if I would be a "model" for training on the new sonogram machine at the local pro-life women's center (LifeCare).  I'm really excited about seeing this baby!  So I will have pictures next week.
There's a LOT going on this weekend.... It's our church's annual Bethlehem outreach.  I'm cooking nightly meals for the 100+/- volunteers.  I didn't volunteer to do anything else, but I'm on standby to fill in [non-speaking] parts.  I also signed up to make 16 dozen cookies, and I want to make cinnamon rolls (4 dozen) for one of the meals.......  Yeah, it's going to be crazy the rest of this week. :)

3 comments:

Doug or Janice Rhodes said...

Sooo looking forward to meeting our new grandchild boy or girl. This beby will love his/her big brothers.

Amy Jo said...

I bet it's a girl!!! Either way, so fun!

The Shupaloops said...

So happy for you. Reading this is making me pregnancy hungry! I love more than anything feeling a baby inside me. Good luck with everything coming up, wishing you nothing but the best!