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Week 20  Milestones: Halfway there!!! Baby is now 10oz in weight, although not much bigger in length. At this stage, he or she is sleeping and awake as much as a newborn is. My Journal: This week has been a big week on the "planning for baby" stuff! I think it's because as I started to realize I was almost at the halfway point, it made it feel so close to when the baby would actually be here! It already feels like the first half of my pregnancy has gone by sooooo quickly, so I am worried my second half will go just as fast and I won't be ready! The two biggest "planning for baby" things were getting the "baby gear" plan organized, and of course getting serious with some name selections! With the baby gear, I was picking up our family photos at Sears recently (like maybe a week or two ago) and walked by the Baby Dept., which was having a huge sale. One major item I noticed was their travel system, which rekindled the "To travel-system, or not to travel-system" debate. We stuck with our original decision of just buying a carseat with base since we already have a good solid stroller, but that we may try to borrow a travel system for the first few months if we can. I can see the practicality of them, but there is something that freaks me out a little about being able to "click" your baby in and out of many places without even picking them up (then again, I've never had a new baby and a car before either, so what do I know?). This also got us thinking and planning about "baby gear" in general, and we decided to spend an hour or so at Sears to make some final choices about what brands/styles we wanted for the big items we knew we needed and think about which little ones we needed too. We'd already done some browsing at other stores, but this was a big "make a list" thing, and it went pretty well. We settled on the carseat we wanted (Graco SnugRide V) as well as a swing (Graco 2-speed open top). The only other "big" item we will be getting will be a playyard (which is apparently what they started calling playpens recently to be more PC), and this will be probably our biggest splurge item since it will be where the baby will sleep for the first few months in our room, and also we could really use it for camping next summer, etc. We are getting a really cool one ( Jeep Sahara Limited Play Yard). It has music, vibration, and a change table that goes on top (ideal features for the room-in bassinet we'll be using it as). It also has a canopy, roll down weather screen and locking wheels (perfect for the camping side of things). It feels so nice to have everything all picked out, especially the big items. I don't think we've actually bought anything for this baby yet, but we will be ready to start shopping when the time comes! Another huge area of baby planning has been continuing our search for the perfect name!!! Since my feelings are still very strong about this baby being a boy, we've been concentrating our name search mostly on boys' names or unisex names. We are pretty sure we've settled on a boy's name. It's been on our list for a while, but has slowly grown on us, especially when we talked it over and realized that of all the boys' names on the list, it was a "top choice" for both of us. So if this baby is a boy, we will likely name him Avery. We like the middle name Ryan too, but may choose a different one there. But I find Avery as a first name works really well with the other names in the family (and sounds especially nice with Harmony but is not too similar to Harmony). Harmony is not a huge fan of it and neither are some other family members, but maybe it will grow on them too. My only concern is that it's not a word like all of my other babies' names (Harmony, angel, willow, sienna). But it's been really difficult to find a name that is also a word that sounds good with our last name that goes well with Harmony but that isn't too "out there" or "theme-y". I'm actually surprised how okay I am with the name Avery though - it's really not something I thought I would choose but it's grown on me so much and I like it more and more as I test it out more and more ("Harmony and Avery, time for lunch!", "Avery Ryan, get down from the coffee table!" "Goodnight Avery, sleep tight my baby".) See? Seems to fit right in. ;) Other than being obsessed with baby planning, and wanting to hit the malls, I've been feeling pretty active in general these days. As Harmony would say, I've been "out and about". I did prenatal aquafit on my usual Monday and Wednesday nights of last week, and on Wednesday, went to Dairy Queen with a couple of the girls afterwards (which was yummy and fun, and a great chance to talk about pregnancy related stuff especially since they are due within about a month of me on either side). On Wednesday afternoon, Harmony and I went to visit my friend Aimée's new apartment! She liked her housewarming gifts, and also thinks Avery is a good name choice. Then on Friday, I went out to a restaurant downtown for my friend Stéphanie's birthday - I didn't join in in having any of the wine or going to the bar after, but enjoyed the party just the same. On Saturday, we had Karen and John (and Aili) for dinner, and then on Monday, I went bowling with a bunch of friends including Sarah, Steph, Cindy, and Krissie! I think after this week of activity, I should have a restful week at home! Test Results/Ultrasounds/Appointments: Yay, my appointment is tomorrow and my ultrasound is later this week! Fingers crossed all is well and baby is healthy!!! Physical: Well, I am still having trouble sleeping, but trying to find ways to stay comfortable even as this belly gets bigger and bigger. I posted on a pregnancy group to ask about what tips other women might have, and went with the suggestion of using a body pillow (I knew Harmony's Pooh Bear body pillow from her "old" room would come in handy somehow). That has helped a lot, although sometimes I find I'm faced with an insomnia not related simply to being comfortable. One night this week, I couldn't sleep until 5am, and even then only found sleep in the family room recliner chair! I had everything from heartburn to hunger to discomfort, and was getting very stressed out about a lot of things in general (even started having bad flashbacks from the more stressful moments of my surprise wedding shower last summer - of all odd things to be worried about!). Mostly, I started getting stressed out about not being able to sleep, especially since I'd said I would babysit my friend's daughter the next day (not possible on only a few hours sleep). I'm glad I don't have too many nights like those! I think if I can make sure to eat a little better (like not having three slices of home-baked bread), get rid of the more stressful things in my life, and make sure not to try to go to bed too early or too late, then maybe I can help make sure I don't have another miserable night like that again. At least two of the reasons I'm not always comfortable are happy ones! Both my belly and the baby are getting soooooo big!!! I've been reading my "week-by-week" info on fetus development, so I know baby is in the middle of a growth spurt, and I'm not surprised that I popped out again too! This time was more sudden though- I'd been saying all day how I felt kind of uncomfortable, just a little achy in the belly, etc. I'd also noticed baby's kicks were getting very noticeable - really strong, and I could really feel them. Then that night, I lay down in bed to put on my body butter, and looked down at my belly button and started laughing! I have an "outtie"! Paul got to check it out too and agreed with me that it did not look like that the night before. One strange thing is that since then, baby's kicks haven't been quite so... let's say "intense". I can still feel him checking in often (yay!) but it doesn't hurt at all or feel quite so dramatic (again, yay!). And I love the fact that my little belly is not so little anymore, because it means my little baby isn't quite so little anymore! It's been kind of nice actually, because I felt like my skin just kept getting tighter and tighter since about 14 weeks, and now it feels like it's bigger but also a little more stretched out so there's more room for everything to settle comfortably. Another interesting physical change is that I can wear my wedding bands again! The cooler weather prompted me to give them a try (since the really hot weather was mostly what was preventing me from wearing them in the first place), and sure enough, they fit again without being uncomfortable. It also made me wonder though if part of the reason I couldn't wear them was because of the progesterone I was taking up until about week 14 - I was retaining a little more water back then, I think. We'll see how they hold up when the weather gets warmer again, but maybe I'll actually be able to keep wearing them a little longer. Weight Gain/Food: Still going between 5-10lbs, depending, but morning pre-breakfast weight is at only at 6 lbs total gain, believe it or not (I hardly can believe that, especially since I know how much I'm eating!). I have indulged a little this week in jelly beans (and a Slushie), but notice baby gets very active afterwards, so maybe I'll try to pace out my sweet-tooth cravings a little bit. Thank goodness I quit caffeine cold turkey before even getting pregnant! Emotional: Sheesh, I am so "duh" with preggo brain sometimes! Last week I did a quick grocery trip with Harmony and got home around 11 am. Then I was chatting with a friend a bit before lunch, and she was asking what we did this morning, so I mentioned that of the places we went, we also did a quick groceries, just the bread/milk/juice routine, etc. I even made a little joke about our mundane little routine, and went on with the conversation. It wasn't until lunchtime when I went to get a glass of milk did I realize that the milk, bread, and juice were still in the trunk of the car!!! So even when I was talking about the groceries, it didn't clue me in as to why I didn't remember bringing them in yet or anything like that. Other than the preggo brain, I'm still feeling a little emotional and sensitive (as usual), but I find as far as pregnancy stereotypes go, I'm really not doing too badly. The only really bad emotional reaction I had was during my night of no sleep, and the morning after it when I was feeling super exhausted. I was too tired to do my usual Sunday-morning routine of singing happy songs in the shower, so I chose some less energetic songs instead. Well, that just made me cry because they were not-so-happy songs! So I think I'll stick with "Blue Skies", "Time After Time", and other jazzy favourites instead of rehashing old musicals like Les Misérables and Miss Saigon. Note to self- add "musicals" in addition to sad movies to the list of things to avoid while pregnant!
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