17 Weeks

1. How big is Baby Wade? The size of an onion (5 inches long and 5 ounces).

2. New fun pregnancy symptom: holy heartburn Batman! It's actually more like indigestion. With burping. It's gross. And kind of scary, because at first I was convinced I was about to have a heart attack. I'm still not totally convinced I'm not, because pregnancy is also doing weird things like making my heart race (evidently it's pumping twice the blood as usual) and I get out of breath sometimes after doing the smallest things. Fun times.

3. I'm in a weird limbo period where we're so close to finding out the sex (next week!) that it feels like it doesn't make sense to look at nursery ideas or baby gear or think of names until we know. Which is ok, because things are busy and I don't have time to scour Pinterest anyway.

4. This has nothing to do with my pregnancy, but can we talk about Jessica Simpson for a bit? She was on Ellen recently and I was so shocked by her appearance I had to save it and show it to Lee. (If you missed it, you can take a look here.) I've seen some VERY pregnant women in my life, but homegirl is a big as a house. And she's not having twins, although Ellen is skeptical (by the way, her comment about getting "knocked up by a baller" is about the stupidest thing I've ever heard). I'm concerned. Is this the way most pregnant women look at the very end? Or did she just go crazy with the onion rings and gain 80 lbs instead of 25? I hesitate to be negative towards any pregnant woman (after all I may be eating my words in a few months) but Jessica has put herself out there so much during this pregnancy (and out there and out there) that I don't feel as bad about voicing my opinion.

That's all my tired brain can manage for now, but next week is going to be BIG! And I can't wait to share it all with you!

16 Weeks

1. How far along? 16 weeks

2. How big is baby Wade? The size of an avocado.

3. Highlight of the week: we went for my 16 week appointment today. It was just a check-up (although we did get to hear that sweet heartbeat!) but the important part was that we scheduled our anatomy scan for April 5th. So in two and a half weeks we'll know if this baby is a he or a she! I can hardly contain myself.

5. Maternity clothes update: wearing "maternity" jeans for the first time today. I didn't go full panel though, just "low-rise knit panel." (I never even knew there were different options.) Everyone talks about how much they love maternity jeans, but I'm not crazy about them so far. They all feel like they sit too low and I can't hike them up high enough to feel right. Even the ones I'm wearing today feel like they're falling off and I'm constantly pulling them up. I'd prefer my rigged up rubber banded regular jeans, but they really do feel better when sitting down. I'm hoping when there's an actual belly to hold them up they'll feel better to me.

6. Belly laughs: I had another one of my signature pregnancy laugh/cry hormonal breakdowns this week. Riding home from the beach I was reading Jenny McCarthy's Belly Laughs. There was a funny part that I laughed out loud at, and so I read it to Lee. But I couldn't stop laughing, and before I knew it the tears were flowing. And then I was sobbing. Not in an I'm-sad way but definitely not your basic I'm-laughing-so-hard-that-a-few-tears-have-escaped way. Lee said (for about the 20th time already) "I'm not going to make it through this am I?" Followed by "It wasn't even that funny." And he's right, it wasn't.

7. Daddy freak out of the week: after I finished Jenny's book, Lee and I started talking about labor and delivery and I tried to prepare him for some of the things that might happen, stories I've heard from other women of what their birth was like, etc. He got this terrible look on his face and said "I don't want you to go through that! I don't want to do this! I change my mind!" So yeah, this is going to be fun.

I know this is my third straight week with just a weekly update post. I do have some non-pregnancy related posts in the hopper, I just need to get my act together enough to write and post them. Here's hoping!

15 Weeks

1. How far along? 15 weeks
2. How big is baby Wade? The size of a navel orange.
3. Maternity clothes? Coming sooner rather than later. I've been rubberbanding my jeans, and have been on  the hunt for a maternity pair. I went to Gap last week and although I didn't find jeans, I did buy a skirt and t-shirt on super clearance. Also, I bought TWO bathing suits at Target (well, the mama bought one -- thanks mom!) Do I have any idea if they'll still fit come summer or if I'll even have a desire to get into a bathing suit? No. But they had just been put out at Target and I was afraid they'd get picked over yada, yada.
4. The amount of checklists, PowerPoint decks and spreadsheets I've made this week is absurd. Daycares, baby gear, the list goes on and on. But I can't help it, it's the Producer in me and helps me feel like I have a little bit of control when really I have none.
5. Favorite quote of the week: from my Dad -- "when am I going to know whether to buy it a John Deere green fishing pole or a pink fishing pole? Because either way, it's getting a fishing pole."

And I leave you with this picture and the question: who is the pregnant one around here?

14 Weeks

I'm planning on doing a weekly update of some sort throughout my pregnancy, but I have no idea what shape they'll take yet. I'm definitely not ready to start posting a weekly picture, because there's nothing showing yet. (Although the waistband of my jeans is suddenly uncomfortable and I have a feeling I'll need to be making some maternity purchases sooner than I thought.)

I know there are various lists of standard questions that people use to give an update each week, but I think that might be a little too regimented for me. Some answers wouldn't change much from week to week so that might get boring for you. And I'm surely not updating you every week on how much weight I've gained (although the answer at this point is 0, thankyouverymuch.)

So maybe each week I'll just answer the questions I want to answer, and throw some fun ones in there along the way. And if there's something you want to know, holler. I may or may not tell you, but it doesn't hurt to ask. So here goes.

1. How far along? 14 weeks today, which officially puts me in the second trimester.
2. How big is baby Wade? The size of a lemon, or about 3.5 inches.
3. Annoying symptom of the week: round ligament pain, which is basically my uterus stretching to accommodate this human. Lovely, huh? It hurts, and sometimes is kinda scary.
4. Hormonal moment: There have been more of these than I'd like to admit. My favorite was when I was working on our headboard (post to come soon), tediously nailing nailhead trim in a not-so-straight-line. Lee came in an pointed out some things that weren't great (in a helpful and constructive manner) and I burst into tears. "It's not you, it's the hormones!" I said. To which he declared "I don't think arts & crafts are for pregnant people." And that is why I married him. Because he can make me laugh in the middle of a sob fest.
5. Scariest moment: calling around and getting pricing from local daycares. Holy guacamole -- I think I'm in the wrong business. When I sent the prices to Lee, along with stating that I was going to need some maternity clothes soon, his response was "baby needs to get a job."
6. Pregnancy brain already? Every morning before I leave for work I put Sugar in her kennel. I've been doing it for 3 years now and have never once forgotten. I'm sure you can tell where this is going. We've come home from work twice in the past two weeks to find Sugar chilling on the porch, free as a bird. Oops.

Well, that's it for now. I'm off to bed, where I'll wake up without fail around 3:00 for my required middle-of-the-night bathroom trip.

Ways Our House is Changing Already

I can't yet begin to fathom all the ways our house will change and evolve once baby gets here. It's starting already...

1. Baby pics on the fridge.



2. Nightstand reading material (thanks to some awesome hand-me-downs from Britt).



3. This room will eventually be the nursery.



Fun, huh?! Lots of Craigslisting and purging to be done. Poor Lee is losing his office. Poor Megan has to find a way to fit Lee's junk in her beautifully organized office. (But we did make some good progress this weekend, so that's comforting.)

I'll be sure to keep you updated on all of the house-decor developments as they progress.

Baby Talk

Some basics:

• How far along? 13 weeks and some change (this pic of baby Wade's beautiful mug was taken at 12 weeks).
• I'm at the end of my first trimester/beginning of second, and I have to say I've been feeling pretty good. No true morning sickness, just a bit of "wow that seems really unappetizing right now" and decreased appetite. And now even that is gone. I've been more tired than usual, but overall I really can't complain.
• Of course, our families are ecstatic. My parents will be grandparents for the first time, and Lee's parents will have a new grandchild for the first time in 9 years. (Not to mention how excited both of our sisters are.)
• Yes, we will be finding out the gender. If you know how much of a planner I am, this should be a no-brainer. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen for another month or so.

Some deep stuff:

• In the beginning, I was terrified. Not of being pregnant or becoming a parent, but terrified that something would go wrong. That it would end in sadness. I've never before felt anxiety like that. It was all-consuming and very scary. But somehow I managed to get through and hearing that glorious heartbeat at 8 weeks really helped put my mind at peace. Of course, I still worry and run through all sorts of "what ifs" in my mind, but hopefully the terrible anxiety of those first few weeks is behind me.
• Keeping the secret was so weird. There are lots of pregnant women at work, thus lots of talking about pregnancy and babies and the like. I came thisclose to slipping up several times. And I never knew there was almost this stigma about telling too early. I had lots of moments of "is it too early to tell?" and "will people judge me?" I'm starting to realize that (intentional or not) people can be very judgmental of pregnant women (and pregnant women of each other). What's with that?

And some fun stuff:

• A fun fact: in our announcement picture, Sugar wasn't actually sitting between us. We used a tripod and remote release to take the picture, and there was no way she was going to sit between us and look at the camera with no one behind it. So I took the pic of Lee and I, then took a separate shot of just Sugar and photoshopped her in.
• You might think we'd have some solid choices nailed down by now for baby names. Nope. Not for either gender. All the names I loved growing up that I just KNEW I'd want to name my kid? They all seem stupid now. I throw out names to Lee all the time, and they're usually met with either a "heck no" or "well, I don't hate it." Yet he's yet to throw one single (serious) suggestion into the pot. So yeah, this naming thing should be fun.
• I can finally pin baby things on Pinterest! Hallelujah!

I'm going to try to do a weekly pregnancy check-in, although I don't know what form those will take yet. And I've also got a few non-baby-related posts in the works for you as well. So stay tuned!