Baby E: Weeks 22 & 23

It has been a busy and eventful two weeks! We had a great visit with Michelle, I had a fabulous birthday, and this pregnancy has made some interesting progress. You know you have a good friend when they can come stay at your house without any expectations of being entertained, aside from working on a 1000 piece puzzle with superheroes on it, and still have a great time. FYI, if you ever decide to take on the challenge of this puzzle, the piece to Wonder Woman’s crotch may be the hardest piece you have to find because it looks stupidly similar to the top of Flash’s boot. If you confuse the two and put the boot piece in the wrong place, HOURS could be wasted trying to find the piece that goes next to it, resulting in unbelievable frustration if you’re the person searching for it (Michelle), and hilarity if you’re not the person searching for it (me). She kept assuring me that I didn’t understand the severity of the situation but she was completely wrong and that’s what made it all the more funny 😆 .

I know it doesn’t look like it but lots of progress was made!

Michelle’s stay was great for socializing the pups..well Sophie anyway. Sansa loves everyone nowadays; except cats outside the window at 2am on the night of a full moon 🙄🙄🙄. It took 3 days but Soph finally gave her kisses and let Michelle pet her, a little bit, when she wanted her to.

On the morning of my birthday Philip made me homemade waffles with homemade buttercream icing and sprinkles. It was delicious and the pic I posted on FB got more likes than my last blog post announcement so I don’t know if that’s more telling about my blog or about my FB friends 🤷🏻‍♀️. We were totally amused by that though and all day I kept calling out to Michelle and Philip what the like count was so we could laugh about it. Michelle enlisted Marsha’s help to organize my birthday party at Azteca that night and I had a great time! I really do have the best friends (and the best brother-in-law and sister-in-law whose efforts I didn’t acknowledge in my last blog for bringing our air mattress back to us 😉😉. Thanks Nate and Carly!) I appreciate them all coming so much! My birthday theme was apparently pineapples, Golden Girls, and Runts..odd but totally fitting. Marsha got my cake custom made by Suzanne Taylor at Witschey’s and it was so awesome! Because we were at a Mexican restaurant I, of course, got sang to and had to wear a sombrero and eat fried ice cream. Philip attempted to put whipped cream on my nose and missed and stabbed me in the eye with it 🙄. The pineapple cake was just one of three: my mother-in-law and father-in-law sent me a gorgeous floral “cake” made of live flowers and Philip got me an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen (my fav!) for my party with my family on Sunday after my birthday. When they came over my nephew Link was sure there was a cake somewhere because “it Kim’s birthday” but he was confused because it wasn’t out. We teased him for awhile but Philip finally let him go to the basement with him to get it out of the freezer down there. Everyone wanted to see the nursery and after they did it was like Kate and Link realized that it is now a “kid’s” room and played in there the whole time they were here 😂. They were never that interested in it when it was my craft room. Unsurprisingly, we found Link in the crib when they had been left in there for a few minutes unsupervised. I have a feeling Kate may have helped put that idea into his head…🤦🏻‍♀️. Anyway, after all that birthday excitement, both of us and the girls were exhausted. They conked out as soon as everyone left on Sunday and I tried to make it but ended up taking a 45 min nap. I really didn’t want to because I had to get up at 5:30 am to drive to Charleston for a meeting on Monday and wanted to be able to sleep that night. I’ve been trying hard not to nap during the day but that just means bedtime is super early. If you text me after 8:30 pm, there’s a 50/50 chance I’ll still be awake and answer. Growing a baby is exhausting. Seriously.  He’s the size of a mango this week, if you’re wondering. If you believe Baby Center anyway. I swear that app is like Facebook and stalks your thoughts. You know how you just *think* about buying something, like say sheets, for example? Like not search for sheets but just think about buying them and then an ad for sheets pops up in your newsfeed?  Well just when I started to wonder when might be a time to start worrying about stretch marks: BOOM! It’s in my 22 week update. Most research claims all the lotions marketed to prevent stretch marks don’t work and your skin elasticity is genetic so that is disappointing news. However, for my sanity I’m going to believe that my years of lotioning religiously will pay off in my favor in the form of minimal skin stretching. Not that stretch marks are anything to be ashamed of; I truly believe they aren’t. I just already have a scar from a surgery on my belly button that I don’t like so I’m just hoping to not have any other marks on my abdomen. 

Famous birthday waffle. 

My fabulous friends ❤️❤️❤️

Mimi and Gigi

Gifts! 😃 I had been wanting Runts so badly and couldn’t find them anywhere so Philip ordered a 5lb bag from Amazon and Michelle and Regina got me 6 boxes between the two of them. In total they came in at just under 7 lbs. With 17 weeks to go that amounts to about 6.5 ounces per week. I think I’ll be good for a bit 😜. 

The girls helped me open my presents from Philip. Well mostly Soph, and mostly because she likes to eat paper 🙄. 

Necklace from Philip. And no, Chris, it’s not a hand flipping anyone off 🙄😂😉

My awesome Gold Girls blanket 😍

And cup. That I had to use to drink tea because I still don’t like coffee again yet 😞 next to my birthday meal: taco in a bag in a bowl. Which was amazing and I’m glad I took a pic to memorialize it. That’s the best meal I’ve had in my whole pregnancy and Philip keeps laughing at me for continuing to talk about it 😆. 

I’ve been watching a lot of animal birthing videos lately; not by choice, FB has decided that’s something I like, apparently. So I’ve learned that I’m really grateful that humans don’t give birth like elephants or giraffes. I mean, those poor babies! They fall like 6 feet onto the ground and then the mom just kinda kicks it until it stands up. I mean, she doesn’t have “arms” to pick the poor thing up so she doesn’t have a choice but geez. Could you imagine if baby humans came out of the womb with the ability to walk?😳😳 We at least have time to adjust to the newness of a baby, those mamas gotta chase their babies around days after giving birth!

This baby feels like he’s trying to learn to run. He’s like a 10am/10pm baby. Maybe it’s because I’m usually sitting at my desk at work at 10am and laying down at 10pm and those two times are just when I notice him the most but he’s gone mobile for sure. Philip got to feel him move for the first time the other night. I think the baby did like a roundhouse kick or something but it was so strong and not at all like the flutters I usually feel. He’s growing, which means I’m growing, and I’ve officially reached husband-clothes-wearing territory. Not that I didn’t wear his clothes sometimes before being pregnant but it used to be a choice and now I can’t go to yoga in my own shirts because they’re not long enough to cover my belly when I raise my arms 🤰🏻🙆🏻‍♀️. Speaking of yoga, I forgot to mention last time that my business celebrated it’s one year anniversary earlier this month! It’s been a great side gig and I’ve met some awesome people that I’m so happy to know! I sat with Kate and Link for a bit the other day while Lori picked up Haleigh from track practice and in order to keep them entertained/me entertained I made them hold yoga poses for 10 seconds. I was surprised at how many poses Kate remembered by name. Link made a valiant effort but his little body just couldn’t contort to some of them 🤣. 

Bow

3 leg downward dog 

Half chair..Link’s chair fell over 😂

Bound angle pose

Butterfly

Camel

And Bridge..kinda...lol

Now for the part you’ve been waiting for: the Pupdate!

Yesterday was the 3 year anniversary of Sansa’s adoption 😍. After having Pretzel and Jade for so many years, both boxers with short stubby faces, Sansa’s long nose looked so goofy to us. But she grew into it, thankfully 😜. That crazy tongue is here to stay. 

March 31, 2016 and March 31, 2019

Sunday as soon as everyone went home 😂😴

Lovin on Mom

Cuddlin’ with Dad

Just being a weirdo. 

They are so good at sharing... 😄

Thanks, Soph. She found that out in the yard and brought it in to share 

Aww who couldn’t love this face?! 😍

Or this one?!

I’m not even sure how to caption this 🤷🏻‍♀️

Getting warm after our walk today in the ridiculously cold weather after the teasing warmth of yesterday 😞. 

Being a big baby. She really is the biggest baby ever. She whined this morning to wake us up because she wanted attention. I had already gotten up an hour or so before and let her potty and fed her so she didn’t need anything else 🙄. 

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Tomorrow we have our 6 month check up with Dr. Carlson (actually not 24 weeks until Wednesday but close enough). Pretty soon we’ll be doing visits every two weeks and he’ll be here before we know it 😳. I’m not sure that I’m ready yet so I’m just taking it one day at a time 😉. 

Baby E: Weeks 20 & 21

We had a great day hanging out together and we’re super excited because we finished painting the nursery! 😃😃😃There may be a few things we add at some point but there’s no pressure to do it, just if we want to. I’m happy to finally be finished so I can start working on the mess that is the basement, aka the landing spot for all the crap that came out of the nursery to begin with 🙄. Maybe I’ll be able to talk the mister into helping me sort it all…maybe not because he’ll want me to throw it away and we all know I can’t do that 🤷🏻‍♀️. He’s been doing so much work around here lately that I had to have a talk with him. I put the disclaimer of “I don’t want you to change anything about this…” “but you’re making me feel like a slacker.” I’m the one who has the personality that is ingrained with the need to always be busy and when growing the baby sucks all the energy out of me, I feel inadequate. However, because he’s the best husband ever, he reminded me that my job is only going to get harder (as my pregnancy progresses and then breast feeding) and it’s a good idea to rest now as much as I can 😊. I told you guys he’s got this laundry routine down and adding cloth diapers will hopefully be a cinch. His turnaround service is fantastic. Like, I wear a pair of jeans on Monday, they go into the hamper at the end of the day, and on Wednesday morning he’s bringing the clean laundry basket up from the basement with them in it. When I was doing laundry, they may have gotten washed on Wednesday and they would’ve stayed in the basket in the basement until I either went down looking for them to wear or the following Saturday when I maybe might have decided to bring them up. They may have gotten put away within the next week. The putting away is still my job but I try to do it in a more timely manner so that he can have the basket back. I finally bought some more maternity clothes so I’m not as reliant on the two pairs I had before. Good news: Old Navy has maternity pants with FRONT pockets!! I was so excited to get them in the mail! Speaking of being excited, I had my 6 month checkup with my PCP this week and I wasn’t pregnant the last time she saw me so that was a surprise. Her nurse is the sweetest person alive and I just love them both. The first thing the nurse had me do is get on the scale and I said, “It’s probably going to be a lot more than the last time I was here…” and she didn’t say anything so I said, “do you all know I’m pregnant?” She SCREAMED 🤣 and gave me a hug and told me she was afraid to ask 😂. They knew that we had tried before and that I was hoping to try again, we talked about it at my last appointment in September. When my PCP walked by when the nurse was getting ready to take my blood pressure, she stopped her and told me to stand up and show her my belly. She was very excited as well. A few seconds later a random man exited one of the exam rooms and told me congratulations, as he couldn’t help but overhear 🤣🤣. It was really awesome to feel the support from them. If anyone is looking for a new doc, I will highly recommend mine to you! What’s sad is that my doc and nurse were MUCH more happy and excited for me than a *certain* family member…..but I’m not bitter. 

As I told you before, I painted the tree and then used my Cricut to make the koalas and leaves. 

Philip drew and painted the giraffe. 

Collaboration. 

Philip drew and painted the lion. 

Philip drew and I painted the elephant. 

Philip drew and I painted the monkey. He drew all the birds and we both worked on painting them. 

Philip has taken on a few other household tasks that have needed done for the past 12 years lately also. We don’t have overhead lighting in our bedrooms or living room (which we absolutely hate) and he installed lights in the baby’s room. Too bad we were never important enough to do it for just ourselves 🤷🏻‍♀️🙄. The drawers in our kitchen are aggravating because the tracks are original, aka old, which means the drawers often come off of them and fall as the drawer slides out. While we didn’t get this one finished yet (it’s more of a pain than we anticipated and requires getting a few boards), one drawer is done and it works fabulously. It’s the silverware drawer so obviously the most used and I marvel at its graceful movement every time I use it. So next on my agenda, after finishing the drawer slides, is a plan to convince him to put up lattice around the bottom of the deck. Sophie LOVES to crawl under it and come out caked with mud. She drives me crazy with her muddy paw prints and the need for an almost daily bath, especially as the weather warms up and the yard thaws. Maybe if I tell him I’m concerned that the baby will crawl under there he’ll get right on it? 🤰🏻🤷🏻‍♀️😉

These past weeks have been filled with lots more flutter movements. This morning Soph was snuggled up against me (too close, as usual) in our chair and he was going crazy. I was hoping Philip could feel him move but the baby had settled down by the time he tried holding his hand on my belly so I’m not sure if it’s feel-able from the “outside” yet or not. I’m extremely disappointed that my sweet tooth has returned 🙄. I was hoping this pregnancy had scared it away for good, or even just until delivery, but I’m even dreaming about sweets. The other night I dreamt that I was in some weird carnival type place and I was going from booth to booth trying to find the perfect dessert, specifically something birthday cake flavored. I wasn’t satisfied until I found a ColdStone Creamery and got a birthday cake remix, my fav in real life and apparently my dreams too. I’m still digging the salty food too though and could alternate between a burger and fries and pizza every other day for the rest of my life if I had to. Along with Mexican and Chinese once a week. Speaking of Chinese food, we went to the restaurant in town the other day, a buffet, and someone was HACKING the entire time…PSA: DO NOT GO OUT TO EAT WHEN YOU’RE SICK. Please and thank you. I’ve been so fortunate thus far to not catch anything when everything has been going around. I know when you’re sick you don’t feel like cooking but send someone to get you food and definitely don’t be a selfish asshole and go to a BUFFET, where you risk contaminating everything you touch, aka, everything everyone else is going to touch. Geez. 

We went to our nephew Austin’s birthday party last weekend to help him celebrate turning 8. He’s such a sweet kid and we don’t get to see him nearly as much as we’d like. Everyone is busy and such. Sometimes it’s awkward to go to a kid’s party when you don’t have kids (one’s that are fully baked, anyway) and you wonder if they really care that you’re there when they have all of their friends to play with. That wasn’t the case with him though, he kept coming over to give us hugs and made us feel super glad we went. When the party was over we told him bye and gave him a hug and he started to walk away and then turned around and came back to rub my belly. It was such a sweet gesture and he’s the only one who can get away with it, just sayin’. Really. I want to put an emoji here but I don’t know what emoji represents my serious face. 

I saw my other kids this week, as usual, and we made a cute Easter craft. I sometimes am at a loss for what to do with them, as they’ve come to expect that we’re going to make something or play or game, etc. (which I love), because they differ in age so much. From almost 14 down to 3, I worry that the older ones won’t be interested in doing something that might be appropriate for the younger ones. I appreciate that they almost always humor me, whether they really want to or not, and participate in whatever I bring. I cherish this time with them because I know one day (hopefully not too soon) the older ones will be too cool to craft with Aunt Kim. 

Bunny magnets

So anyway, on to the most important part of my post: the pups. They went to Paw Spa for a much needed bath last week that was a short-lived reprieve from their stink. I think Soph made it one day before her feet were covered in mud. I’m thinking I’ve done enough painting lately that I should paint her brown to match her sister, who’s probably just as dirty as she is but hides it much better. Yesterday marked three years since one of our previous pups, Pretzel, died. She was such a good girl and I miss her all the time. She and Sansa share so many similarities that I often call Sansa Pretzel by mistake. She was the first to make me a Dog Mom and I’ll never forget her. 

I loved the way she would tuck her gowls and show her crooked teeth 😊

Sansa just happened to do the same thing today and Philip got this awesome pic of her. We both died laughing at it 🤣. 

Soph was a really great supervisor while we painted the nursery today. 

However, she wasn’t so helpful this morning when I was trying to finish up a yoga routine I was working on 🙄

Being camera shy while laying on me 🙄

March 2018

March 2019

I have an exciting week ahead, my friend Michelle is coming to stay with us for a few days, my birthday is next week, and we started a 1000 piece puzzle that I’m totally into.. Good times 🤣 It’s past my bedtime. Too bad you can’t stock up on sleep to have energy when you need it later. Like in about 4 1/2 months...

Baby E: Weeks 18 & 19

There’s nothing like pregnancy to get your husband to do all the projects you’ve been wanting him to do around the house! I had no idea having a baby could motivate him like that or I would’ve pretended to be pregnant a long time ago! (I’m kidding, of course.) As I’ve mentioned before, our house is older and we have slowly been updating it through the years. One of things I hate the most about it are the cabinets in the kitchen and bathroom. The previous owners had an unusual taste in color scheme and it clashes very much with ours. Because we’re about to have a baby, which equates to needing money and have significantly less of it, we decided to go ahead and do a small update, which was to replace the bathroom counter top and sink. I wish we could do the kitchen but that is for another time *sigh*. Philip always does this fun thing of saying “we” anytime something around this house gets done, even if only one part of “we” (*ahem* me) has done it and I’m now using his trick. I had no part in the bathroom update, other than to go shopping and make choices. That’s a pretty good gig. Ok, actually I did help him guide the drainpipe down into the plumbing underneath the sink and that required me to get on the floor and bend over, which is becoming harder these days, so I deserve some credit for that. *We* also installed a sprayer on the side of our toilet that will be used to spray the baby’s cloth diapers, a gross but helpful task. 

Guess I didn’t take these pictures at quite the same angle. Oops. Anyway, black counter top, white sink and non crusty faucet with one handle that will make hand washing easier after rinsing baby poop 💩 🤮. 

We’ve been working on the nursery mural and yes, I actually helped with this one. He also painted the closet doors and re-hung them. They really brought the look of the room together. We’re not quite done with the mural but here’s a sneak peak of our safari theme baby room: 

**Disclaimer: those animals won’t be in his crib once he’s born. There’s just in there now for safe keeping from the Sophie monster. The ABC’s of safe sleep say that a child is always safest sleeping A) Alone in a crib or bassinet in the same room as parents, B) on their Back (if they roll over that’s fine but shouldn’t be placed in any other position), and C) in an empty Crib with a firm mattress, free from bumper pads, pillows, stuffed animals, loose bedding, and other toys. 

Back to the artwork, Philip painted the giraffe and I painted the tree. The koalas and leaves were made on my Cricut out of vinyl because I decided to work smarter, not harder. We’re not finished yet, a few other animals are in the making. However, once this is finished, I think his room will be semi-complete until after the baby shower, when we’ll have more stuff to find a home for. We created our registry today so I think we’ve done well with our timeline. Lots of time to prepare and also relax. 

If you have seen me, you’ll have noticed that my belly is certainly becoming a focal point on my body so I wanted to get some more maternity clothes and went to the mall yesterday while Philip was busy painting. I wish there was a store with only maternity clothes and I wouldn’t have to find the smallest section of clothes in every department store and hope that they have something I like and that it fits. Also, why are there no front pockets in maternity jeans? Why? Someone tell me. Do pregnant women not need to carry stuff? I don’t get it. We’ve come a long way and started adding pockets to dresses, why can’t maternity jeans have them? Someone needs to get on that. 

Anyway, we had an ultrasound this week. It would have been next week at 20 weeks but my doctor asked if I wanted to have a blood test done that would check for increased risk of neural tube defects. However, she also said that they are almost always detectable on ultrasound so I decided to do the ultrasound first and then have the blood work if there was a problem. She said the blood work has to be done by 20 weeks, thus the need to have the ultrasound done prior to that. Thankfully the ultrasound showed nothing of concern other than a low-lying placenta, which she still said is not concerning at the moment. I will have to have another ultrasound, though, closer to my due date to see whether or not it has shifted and then we will discuss it further from there. I specifically asked about continuing yoga and she assured me there was no reason not to. This was my first ultrasound in the radiology department and I am mad at any modern mother who has had this done and knows that it makes you super nauseous and hot from lying on your back for too long and didn’t tell me. This was not a comfortable experience. First of all, they tell you to come with a full bladder and that alone was about to kill me. When she called my name and told Philip he had to wait and she would retrieve him in about 30-45 minutes I was thinking, “I will drown in my own urine in that amount of time!” As she started the procedure, she looked around a bit and asked if I would be able to empty my bladder a bit, to which I responded, “I would LOVE to empty my bladder a bit!” So she showed me to the restroom and told me to count to 20 and try not to pee it all out. When we got back to the room she said that was much better and said the baby had been squished before because my bladder was so full. Having lost his freedom for a short amount of time must have made him super excitable because the tech said that he was moving all over the place and she had a hard time targeting some of his parts. She said my placenta is in front of him so I that’s why I can’t feel most of his movements in that area but I feel lots of flutters to the sides. Anyway, I had been just laying there for about 5 minutes when I broke out in a sweat and started feeling like having eaten lunch right before my appointment was not a good idea. I was hoping it would pass because I didn’t know that this was a normal side effect of lying too flat, but when I couldn’t take it anymore I started fanning myself and she told me to roll over to my left side. She said that’s normal and explained about how lying on your back puts all the weight of the baby and placenta on the main artery to your heart and that’s what makes you feel sick. I knew that you weren’t supposed to lay flat on your back during pregnancy but up until this point it hadn’t bothered me. She told me to stay on my side until I felt better (it passed quickly) and then roll back over when I could. She warned me to go ahead and roll over when I felt nauseous again and to not wait until the last minute because it will make me throw up. Great. 

I told her when we started that we already knew the sex but were hoping to see it anyway but I didn’t tell her what it was. She asked me later if they had told me it was a boy and when I said yes, she said, “it still is.” I was very relieved *. She had Philip come in once we finally made it through her whole process and me having to roll over about 5 times. She showed us his face, foot, hands, and penis, in case there was any doubt. When we were finished she told me I could go pee again but I told her I had an appointment upstairs with the doctor and she would want me to pee then so she told me she would get me a cup. So I got to carry around my pee for about 25 minutes. As soon as the nurse came to get me I told her I had brought her some pee. I’m sure that made her day 😂😜. The doctor said everything looks good and we will see her again in a month!

His spine is the white part. 

In other news, I planted some seeds this week and I’m super excited for garden season! I’m trying to be smart this year and plant a few seeds every few weeks so that everything won’t come in at once and I won’t be bombarded with produce that will likely get wasted because no one can eat 12 heads of lettuce in one week. I just planted earlier this week and already have a few sprouts! I check them every morning and it never gets old seeing a new one and noticing the progress one makes over night 😍. 

Aside from helping with the garden, Philip is gonna have another task to tend to once the weather clears up: that stupid wind storm last week murdered the canopy over the hot tub on our deck 😡😭. Granted, it had been passed to us from his mom, who experienced several wind storms herself and had replaced the canopy a few times already. Some of the frame was literally held together with duct tape and love so it’s not surprising that it didn’t last through 50 mph winds 🤷🏻‍♀️. We’re thinking of building instead of buying a new one (I used my fun word again *we’re* because we all know I won’t be of much assistance in a few months 😉). Whichever way we go, I’ll just be happy to have a need for it as that means it is warm and sunny! 

Before I end this week’s post I, of course, need to update you on the goings on of the pups, which isn’t much aside from tracking in mud, stealing people’s seats when they get up to pee, and being entirely too cute for their own good. 

See how sweet they are? That’s because they’re sleeping 😉. Soph is holding Sansa’s paw to make sure she doesn’t try to leave her 😂

This photo was about 2 seconds too late to show the real Sophie, the one who holds Sansa down and bites her face. Look at the innocent “I wasn’t doing anything, Mom” face 🙄. 

This is what seat stealing looks like 🙄. 

I...don’t even know about this dog sometimes 🤷🏻‍♀️. She’s sleeping, somehow, even though that can’t be comfortable on her head. 

Anyway, this momma is hungry so I’m finishing up so I can eat some cereal🥣. Thanks for coming along on our journey! We look forward to finishing the mural soon and sharing our completed nursery with everyone! 💙