>18 weeks

>

How far along? 18 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: According to my mom's scale, 10 pounds. But all scales seem to be different so I really don't know. Probably around 8.
Maternity clothes? my dear friend brought me some great shirts and a few pairs of pants on Saturday night. The one I am wearing in the pic is one of those.
Stretch marks? nope
Sleep: my bladder is shrinking. a lot.
Best moment this week: Popping out quite a bit.
Movement: more frequent flutters.
Food cravings: fruit, milk
Gender: B-O-Y...find out for sure in 3 weeks!
Labor Signs: nope
Belly Button in or out? in
What I miss: pants that fit. waiting on my next pay check to get some maternity jeans.
What I am looking forward to: kicks and hiccups!
Weekly Wisdom: Don't ever underestimate how awesome your husband can be while shopping.

So a friend of mine from college whom I have not seen in nearly 3 years came to visit me and B on Saturday night. She brought an arm load of maternity shirts and pants. Her beautiful daughter is 10 months old and it was great to finally meet her and her husband. He and B seemed to really get along well. It was a lovely dinner and I can't wait to do it again.

Friday night B took me shopping for a purse. I have been trying to find a new one for WEEKS and could not find anything I really liked and that was in my price range. I promised once we were done to go to Best Buy to play games. So off to Kohls we headed and there I search for a new purse. B just so happened to be in a very helpful mood and would literally throw purses at me he thought I would like and he liked as well. Surprisingly, every purse he tossed I liked! I would hang onto one for a few minutes and then he would throw another one I liked even more. So as I went through purses, I finally found the one. Actually, B found it. It is a super cute tote bag that is big enough for anything but small enough to carry around comfortably. I also picked out a cute wallet to match. It was fun having B get involved.

I feel like this week my belly has popped over night. I feel beautiful but also feel like nothing I own fits. I am very thankful for the donated clothing, but I really only have on pair of maternity pants for work and am not going to wear those all the time. My bella band is barely working anymore. I cannot zip my jeans up at all and the bella band rids up. So today I had a mini melt down about not having any cute things to wear. I will be buying some new jeans from the Gap after my next pay check. I can't wait!

Yesterday at work a really cute bird made it's way into the building. How, I am not sure. But my coworker is terrified of birds so I volunteered to help our maintenance guy corner the bird. We headed up to the 2nd floor and got the bird trapped in one wing. We opened an empty apartment and the bird flew into the room. Then we waiting. We shut the blinds and opened the patio door and just waiting for the scared bird to fly low enough out the door. This bird was really cute and I felt so bad for it! He was so scared and I know we were just scaring it more even though we were trying to help. After about 10 minutes the bird finally made it out the door. Needless to say, I had fun getting the bird out of the building.

There is not much else to report. I hope everyone had a great weekend!

>A little bit about us.

>I found this on C.s blog Wedded Whims and thought it would be fun! Enjoy!


♥ What are your middle names? Mae and Matthew

♥ How long have you been together? 2.5 years

♥ How long did you know each other before you started dating? a few months, but we did take a film class together a year before that and never spoke to each other.

♥ Who asked whom out? B asked me to go out for coffee which turned into dinner. We count that as our "predate".

♥ Whose siblings do/did you see the most? mine. i wish we saw his more often.

♥ Do you have any children together? our first is cooking as we speak!

♥ What about pets? 2 awesome dogs and a fish. our fish is a beta and her name is bella.

♥ Did you go to the same school? Yes. Best move ever!

♥ Who is the smartest? we are both really smart, but B is more book smart than I am. he is the best memory of anyone i know.

♥ Who is more sensitive? me, duh.

♥ Where do you eat out most as a couple? we have a few great spots in town. most recently we had awesome pizza at old cs.

♥ Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple? we have been to cabo and also took a road trip to MI and OH a few summers back.

♥ Who has the craziest exes? he does, but we've never met and never will

♥ Who has the worst temper? i have a shorter fuse that he does, but he has usually calmed me down before anything gets too crazy

♥ Who does the cooking? I do most of it but he does it sometimes.

♥ Who is more social? Me.

♥ Who is the neat-freak? That'd be me again..

♥ Who is more stubborn? we can both be pretty stubborn. like this is no way around us not finding out the sex of the baby. he is very adamant about that.

♥ Who hogs the bed? neither really, but he gets all the covers sometimes

♥ Who wakes up earlier? he does, but i am right behind him

♥ Where was your first date? the 16th street mall in downtown denver.

♥ Who has the bigger family? him! his dad ha 14 brothers and sisters and he has about 52 first cousins on that side of the family alone.

♥ Do you get flowers often? hardly ever, but it is always special when i do.

♥ How do you spend the holidays? usually with family.

♥ Who is more jealous? neither

♥ How long did it take to get serious? within a month we were dropping the L word.

♥ Who eats more? i do! right now anyway.

♥ Who does/did the laundry? me and only. he helps me fold sometimes.

♥ Who’s better with the computer? we are both pretty savvy

♥ Who drives when you are together? usually me if we take my car and him if we take his truck.

>17 weeks

>

Just to compare my growth over the last 10 weeks, I put these two photos side by side. WOW! What a difference. I am so amazed at what my body is doing to house a baby. Wild!

How far along? 17 weeks
Total weight gain/loss:The doc said I have gained a total of 6 pounds, 4 of which were in the last 3 weeks.
Maternity clothes? nothing new
Stretch marks? nope
Sleep: I am thanking my lucky stars that my sleep has been so good lately! B got up in the night last night and I didn't even hear him.
Best moment this week: Heard the heartbeat on Thursday and that is always a great thing to hear!
Movement: not much
Food cravings: fruit, milk
Gender: B-O-Y...find out for sure in 4 weeks!
Labor Signs: nope
Belly Button in or out? in
What I miss: Shopping for hours on end without becoming too exhausted
What I am looking forward to: kicks and hiccups!
Weekly Wisdom: New underwear can make anyone a happy camper.

I did not really have a weekend as I worked both Saturday and Sunday. Today was my first day off in 7 days and it was nice. I slept in, went to an appointment, visited my mom, went shopping for new shorts for B and came home to rest. Then I spent an hour making some awesome enchiladas! I am so proud. I've never made them before and they turned out great! B loved them too, which is always a good sign.

Saturday night we went to a Rockies game and they won! It was really fun, however sitting for that long in those chairs about did me in. I was so achy and uncomfortable. Note to self: don't go to any sporting event pregnant.

I really can't believe I am 17 weeks already. It is going by so fast and in a month I will be half way done! I am just in awe. It is amazing to see my belly expand with such subtly. I can feel the pains once in awhile of my joints and muscles moving around to make room. It is such a miracle. I hope that if you are not a mom yet, that you become one someday. So far this experience has been so fun and interesting. I would do it again. ;)

>Haiku Schmiku

>

Just a quick hello:

Baby's heart did beat.

Hearing that sound made me melt.

Can't wait to meet you.

Okay so that was my attempted at a Haiku and well, it will have to do. The appointment went well. Found out I have some weird cells down there that are not alarming nor are they normal. Doc said to ignore it unless I start feeling otherwise. No bacteria or blood, so that was good news. I think my pelvis is expanding because my low back is giving me HELL right now. OMG. Sciatic down the leg and a dull ache all the way across my back. Sitting and Tylenol are the only things helping. Doc said that was also very normal and just one of those little "joys" that women can do. A joy? Are you serious? Yes, it is awesome that God has created me to birth babies, but seriously?? I could not help but laugh in disbelief. Oh Joy!

B and I are going on a date tonight! He does not know it yet, but we are going to see Inglorious Bastards. It's going to be messy, but I am actually looking forward to seeing it.

Happy Friday and Weekend!

>16 Weeks

>

So it's a few days late, but here is my 16 week post.

How far along? 16 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: I am pretty sure I have gained a total of about 8-9 pounds now. HUGE growth spurt over the last week or so. I will find out for sure today at my apt.
Maternity clothes? I bought new black work pants that I love and no maternity shirts yet. The style right now is shirts with an empire waist so finding cheap, nice work shirts is not hard at all.
Stretch marks? not yet. I have been using a stretch mark cream after showers. feels good...
Sleep: other than my bladder waking me up mid morning, I am sleeping well.
Best moment this week: Felt a jab in my side the other night.
Movement: see above
Food cravings: sugar to the max. fruit.
Gender: thinking it's a boy--go vote in my side bar!
Labor Signs: no, but I had some bad low back pain yesterday. ugg.
Belly Button in or out? still in, but I can now see the inside of it.
What I miss: motivation to get things done. it is getting better, but not the same. also miss boobs that don't hurt.
What I am looking forward to: hearing the heartbeat later today
Weekly Wisdom: A mood swing does not necessarily going from happy to mad/sad in a matter of seconds. It means just being pissed off for no reason at all, even after spending time with the doggies.

As you can see, there is some progress going on in baby town. I am super proud of the weight gain. I know that sounds weird, but gaining weight, even when I was younger, has always been a challenge for me. I was always the tall, skinny girl that people assumed was going through some kind of eating disorder. Being healthy has always been important to me, especially having a friend go through two different eating disorders. Not fun. Tangent, I know. Sorry.

Anyway, lots going on in my head right now. While it is hard for me to make up my mind about finding out the sex of the baby, I know it is what I really want to do, deep down. We will wait with our next child. Other things going on up there are so chaotic I can't get it on paper. Not yet. Some baby related, some not.

Have a great Thursday!
Milestones: The jab in my side, gaining mucho weight.

>Plays and Music

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PLEASE check out my side bar. I have created a poll to see what you're all thinking Baby Mac's sex is. I personally am convinced we have a boy on our hands (or in my belly). But what do I know? There were a few weeks in there where I was super convinced it was a girl. Why? I was babysitting a lot for baby boys and the myth is that if you hold a baby boy and he is content, without actually needing something (like to eat, sleep..whatever) then you're having a girl. If the baby cries and fusses then you are having a boy. Same thing works with a girl. Another thing was the first time we heard the heartbeat it was high, around 160BPM. So then the doc said it can/will get a little slower as baby grows. But how much truth is there to that?? Why do I think it's a boy? Well, have you seen how LOW my belly is? I had no morning sickness, and have very few cravings. Now you make up your mind. Go vote! You only have 4 weeks!

A photo update:

On Thursday night we enjoyed a date night to a playhouse dinner theater to see The Wizard of Oz! It was so amazing! Our seats were perfect, the costumes, acting, and set were perfect eye candy. I could not pull away, even though after 2 hours I was super tired.

Sunday we went to a town fest and saw our favorite band, Northern Way perform. They were great, as always.

I felt a thump last night that had me twitching because it tickled. I think baby was letting me know how much it enjoyed the awesome music. This was baby's 2nd concert and we already have plans to go see Hanson in November. I am sure there will be a few shows between now and then.

Have a great Monday and don't forget to vote!

>Kind Words

>You're all so sweet. I love how encouraging you all are. You lifted my spirits and warmed my heart. Thank you. My anxiety has decreased significantly. I know Baby Mac is just fine, bouncing around in there. I have even felt a bump or two. Only a few more days and I will hear that

gorgeous heartbeat again and feel at ease. Sigh.

The last few days have been pretty good. I will post a few pics tomorrow from the best thing we did all week on Thursday night and well, that is al I am giving you. You'll just have to wait and see what that was. Last night we had a very nice dinner with mom and dad. It was great, just the four of us. Butte was sick all night two nights ago and since we were both working all day on Friday I did not want her to be alone so my parents had her for the night and sure enough she played with the cat and all was well. Spoiled girl. We have our small family back home and are going to try out a new church today. Not because we don't like my regular church, but because B wants to check out the other Catholic church in town. It will be fun.

Happy Sunday!