17 Weeks Pregnant

The Belly:
Half way through this week I felt like I "popped."

Also, check out my sassy super model alter ego shadow striking a pose all on her own.

How does she not have a belly, just a booty? She's got her own agenda!

My belly feels pregnant now.

• Its starting to feel tighter now (pulling the "now-I'm-a-mommy skin" tight again.) Its still sorta soft, but firmer. (So yeah I'm sure no one else cares, and that it sounds creepy. But its something I wondered about-- at what point it would happen.)
• I've I've officially opened a closet door and the fridge into my belly with in the last two days.
• When I squatted down to get J's crumbs off the floor my belly got smashed into my legs by surprise.
• And I'm starting to want to put my hands on it more now, to rub the baby. But then I stop myself because I feel like the baby is still too small to actually feel the rub. (But maybe I'm wrong, and I should just do it.)
• Its getting a little tricky to lay J down in her crib

Physically:

Headaches at the start of the week, they seem to be gone by the second half of the week.

One weird, i-don't-know-if-its-being-pregnant thing: My hair is magically not greasy anymore. Normally I should wash my hair every day, but can kinda hide if I skip one day, but I don't like to. But this week my hair has looked perfect for like 3 days of no washing. Its amazing me!

I've been feeling achey. My hips will hurt me. And my round ligaments are stretching again. Both of these are exaggerated by carrying J around the house. 

And this, I cannot figure out, but the back of my thighs are exhausted like I did some crazy workout (which I've intended to do, but its not happening with all the stuff we have going on right now with getting ready to move -- I plan to get serious with working out once we have moved.) Anyway, so my legs feel like I worked out, but I haven't. Soooo..... I don't know why. My only guess is that I take a long time to stand up when I pick up J, so as to not pull my round ligaments, and so maybe the elongated slow stand movement is a good workout.

Food:

I'm definitely hungry. I figured I wouldn't care if I was hungry while pregnant this time since I feel like I've been hungry since 2009, when you take in to account my last pregnancy, breast feeding and working really hard to lose weight. But you know what, pregnant hungry is different than breast feeding hungry. In some ways initial breast feeding hungry is more overwhelming, but in other ways pregnant hungry is more overwhelming.

This week I got overwhelmed by the hungry because, well for one thing I still just don't really enjoy eating right now. (WERID. Lydia loves eating!) I just don't have a taste for much, and then if I think I do, once I eat it, its just ok at best. (Well ok I have a taste for cookies, but I won't let myself eat those. And who knows if they would even taste that good.)

So at one point this week I was so hungry I was shaking (and mind you, I had eaten like 2 hours ago), so I ate an apple and I spent the entire time complaining to Blake about how I didn't even want to be chewing the apple and how it tasted like grass.

But the other reason I got overwhelmed (and this doesn't sound like it matches up with what I just said, but I'm pregnant so just go with it) is that I was afraid I was not eating healthy enough and worrying that I was going to eat my weight in cake and have a 30 lb baby. (This worrying session was brought on by another I-don't-want-to-be-hungry right now moment.)

The one craving I'm having is chocolate milk. I started making it with just coco powder (you have to dissolve it in a small bit of hotwater before adding the milk, to get the powder to not clump up) and milk because of my "sugar = big baby" fear. It's not anywhere near as good as when you use chocolate syrup, but I enjoy it.

The only other thing I've liked tasting this week is homemade salsa with lime zest and juice in it. I seriously ate it like soup. The lime with the tomato was heaven to my taste buds!


Baby:
I'm starting to think about this alot: I felt J waaaay more frequently and strongly than I do this baby. This surprises me because when this baby was tiny I felt flutters alot. Now that I can feel bigger movements, I only feel them on rare occasions. So I'm confused on if I'm not feeling them, or if baby is in a new mode of operation.
It just makes me wonder all the more who this baby will be.
I'm also surprised at how my thoughts about this baby are so similar to my thoughts I had when I was pregnant the first time. Wondering things like "who will this baby be? Will we get along? Will it be hard to love them?"
And as I think these thoughts, I look over at J and realize how strong a love I had for her the instant I saw her, and how I love her more every day. And then I feel better.

Feeling:
Well I kinda covered that just now.
But I also could talk about our upcoming move.
In about two weeks we are moving out of state. (The whole logistic of the move are confusing, with Blake moving before us, and him coming back for his final defense, and then us all moving officially.)
I had been ok with that, then Sunday I totally freaked out when Blake told someone at church he has one week left here. It set me into "how will we get this done?" panic.
One of the things I was worried about was selling a lot of our belongings before we move, because we are downsizing. So on Monday I posted all our things on Craigslist, and seriously within about 2 hours I had almost everything spoken for.
Experiencing that gave me the burst of confidence I needed to remember that God is taking care of us and working all things together for us.


J:

Trapeze TV watching -- arms on ottoman, feet on sofa, belly in air

(so I think this doesn't count for being a couch potato, if you are getting an ab workout)

I'd like to record some of my favorite things she says.

• She has a leapfrog "Violet" dog that she loves, and she used to call her "Frilet" and some how it evolved into "Freddy" -- it cracks us up hearing her calling for Freddy.
• If I ask her if she wants mommy milk she says "yaaay. molt" (Her word for mommy milk has a "t" at the end, where as her rice milk is "moak" or she just calls it "water")
• She has a plastic cat that moves around and she calls it "Oh Kitty" (she always includes the "oh") and to be honest, "kitty" sounds more like "titty."
• "Thank you" -- she is so good at it. Melts me.
• "Bierdy" "Oh Bierdy 'r you?" (we look out the window and try to see birds)
• Peeze (please) while rubbing her tummy (from her signing)
• No way
• "Nowing" (snowing) She loves snow, in real life or TV
• "mo mo" (more)
• "No mo, all gone" (she just learned no more, and loves to announce when things are gone)
• "Baby" She loves to see baby pictures or babies on TV, and she will call my belly "baby." She will even give baby (my belly) kisses. (cutest thing ever)
• When we go to zip up J's sleep sack she says "nigh toes" and kisses each foot. And in the morning when she wants the sleep sack off she says "morning toes."