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!

Z is for Zen

Last one! And I have to say, I'm relieved. Taking a halfway decent picture every single day is NO JOKE. I started off strong and about halfway through I felt like I had lost all my steam and my photos were getting worse instead of better. Some days I definitely put in more effort than others, and it showed.

But I'm so glad I took on the challenge and glad I stuck it out. I definitely learned a few things and got lots of both encouraging and helpful feedback from the class. I knew at the end of it if I had at least gotten one shot that I loved then it would be a win, and I definitely think I did that. If you're curious, here are my favorites:

S is for Sugar
L is for Lucky Strike
C is for Cookies and Milk
T is for Torture
H is for Humiliation
R is for Rain
Q is for Quiet
And of course, B is for Baby

Q is for Quiet

It was so weird this morning to look outside and see so much fog with the sun shining. I decided it would make a nice Q picture for a quiet morning in the cul-de-sac.

One more picture left tomorrow (Z). Then we get to move on to the really fun stuff -- baby talk!

K is for Keyboard

A long day/evening at work, combined with me being down to letters Q, Z, and K had me stressed. Then I realized I had been sitting in front of a K all day! This was an iPhone + Instagram product.

O is for Orchid

These are the orchids Lee gave me for Valentine's Day. I love how the first one almost seems to pop off the picture.