Pregnancy Quiz 20 weeks

How far along: 20 weeks and 2 days

Sleep: Pretty darn terrible. Honestly, my sleep has been terrible since about 16 weeks. My hips hurt and I toss and turn all night. 

Weight Gain/Loss: Up 7 pounds. I had lost about 5 in the first trimester so not much net gain yet.

Belly button in or out: In, but noticeably more shallow. 

Movement: I felt the first movements around 18 weeks, but I wasn't convinced that they were the baby. Now I know for sure. Some days I get kicked a lot all day and some days she is quieter and only kicks now and then.

Size of Baby: About 6.5 inches and 10.6 oz. 

Pregnancy Symptoms: I'm still pretty tired all the time. I pee a lot. 

Maternity clothes: Yes, tops and bottoms.

Gender: Baby girl!

Labor Signs: None! Stay that way for a long time!

Food Cravings: I don't have a lot of particular cravings, but I am hungry all the time which is nice because I hardly ate anything during the first trimester. Last week I was craving cucumbers. Baby girl, on the other hand, loves nothing more than fry sauce. 

What I miss: Not much. I do miss my weekend glasses of wine with dinner. 

What I am looking forward to: Christmas and viability day (which is January 3rd).

Weekly Wisdom: One day at a time. 

Best moment this week: Seeing baby girl at my anatomy scan on Friday.

Milestones: I'm half baked!

Girl

The old wive's tales and the poll were correct. Two ultrasounds have shown us our baby girl!

Boy or Girl?

I haven't posted anything about my pregnancy on here yet, but here is the first of hopefully many baby related posts! 

Am I a boy or a girl?



We will be finding out soon, but before we do I wanted to play around with some old wive's tales.

1. Chinese gender chart (adjusted for lunar age) = Girl
2. Wedding ring test = Girl
3. Heart rate = Girl
4. Baking soda test = Girl
5. Carrying low = Boy
6. Face breakouts = Girl
7. Less morning sickness = Boy

Dreams are tricky. I have had more dreams about a boy, but the old wive's tale says that you will dream the opposite sex.

A small poll I did came out with:
7 for girl
3 for boy

We'll see!

Kitten profiles

All of the kittens are growing up and developing their own looks and personalities. There are three orange/white and three brown/white. We had thought there were three girls and three boys, but have since discovered there are four boys and two girls.

Here is Blaze. Blaze is a boy and he loves to wrestle with his siblings:



Here is Mogget. Mogget is the name of a cat in a book series that I love. The book Mogget is all white with green eyes, but this little guy is close. He is the noisiest of the bunch:



Here is Freckle. She is one of the girls. She likes catnip!



Here is Ostara. She is the other girl and the smallest of the bunch. Even though she is small, she is the most adventurous. She is always the first one out to play.



Here is Hershey. He was the first one to get a name because his little nose looks just like a Hershey kiss. He is very sweet and likes to curl up by your feet.



Here is Sucrose. We thought he was a girl and named him Sugar. When it turned out he was a boy, David joked that his name was Sucrose...and it has stuck so far. This guy is so sweet. He is by far the biggest of the bunch and he is the happiest cat I have ever seen. He loves his siblings, especially Hershey.

Easter egg challenge

A few weeks ago, I thought of a fun Easter tradition that Joe and I could have. It's called the Easter egg challenge. We've never done baskets or gifts for each other, but I really like having a few husband/wife holiday traditions and I'm excited to start this one. Here are the rules:

Each year, each of us gives the other an Easter gift.

Whatever it is must fit into an egg (like the plastic ones they sell this time of year). It doesn't matter what size the egg is.

The egg can contain candy only if it is candy that wouldn't be purchased at the grocery store on any regular day.

The egg must be hidden to be found on Easter. It is up to the hider to decide how complicated the hunt will be. (Examples, hot/cold will work, one easy clue will work, a complicated series of clues will work).

It was fun, and kind of challenging to find something that Joe would like that would fit into a little plastic egg. I can't wait to find my egg tomorrow!

Their eyes are opening!

The kittens have just started opening their eyes. They are a fierce little group that will hiss at you if you try to look at them for too long. Their little hisses are tiny and funny. Some of them are starting to get some color. 3 have pink ears and 3 have black ears and one of them is getting some brown on his/her back. Mama kitty (who has been renamed Molly) is a good mom. Sometimes she will move them around, but we read that this is pretty normal. All the kittens are fat and happy.

Kittens!

The number one top item on my non-essential bucket list was always to be involved in the birthing of kittens. I never thought it would happen because with the kitten overpopulation issue, it is much more responsible to get your cats fixed before they can kitten it up. So, when I heard about Sweetie and her kittens, I got really excited. This cat was going to have kittens and I was going to see them.

On March 21st at about 10:30 pm, I got a phone call. Sometime that evening, Sweetie had crawled into her box and given birth to 5 kittens. I was sad that I wasn't going to see them on their birthday, so we decided to go over to see them even though it was so late. Right as we got there, Sweetie had one more kitten (6 in total. Twice what we had expected). We watched her cut the umbilical cord. All of the babies were tiny and white and soggy and hungry. I got a few pictures, but they are all pretty dark because I didn't want to use flash.


Kittens at a few hours/minutes old.

We went back the next day to help my mom change out the bedding in the box. The idea was that Joe would hold 3 and I would hold 3 while my mom changed the blanket. Well, momma kitty didn't like this idea. As soon as I picked up the first kitten, it started to cry. Sweetie came right over to me, picked up the kitten by its scruff, and took it back into the box. It was so cute. After that, Joe had to pick them up quickly and held 1 while I had the other 5 in my lap, and the box got cleaned. Sweetie is such a good mom. The babies are all healthy and white and fluffy. They will need mom for several weeks.

Meet Sweetie

Several months ago this kitty showed up near my dad's work. We think she was dropped off because she is calm and tame. My dad started feeding her, but as she got fatter it became apparent that she was pregnant. She went to the vet where an ultrasound showed about 3 kittens growing. We spent a few days cleaning out my old bedroom at my parent's house and moved Sweetie in so she could have her kittens somewhere safe. My mom set up a box and food and Sweetie settled right in. She really is one of the sweetest cats I have ever known.


Kittens! If you put your hand on her tummy, you could feel kitten kicks.

St. Patrick's Day

We had a really fun St. Patrick's Day. Joe had to get up early to take the mpre, but I slept in and then found some terrible leprechaun horror movies on syfy to watch. Joe got back from his test and we had lunch and then started cooking. I started making Irish soda bread which is something I've never made before. Once the bread was done, we started our "Irish Stew." It was beef, potatoes, carrots, onions, green beans, and rosemary. I put Irish music on Pandora and Joe and I danced around the kitchen while we cooked. When dinner was almost ready, Joe made me a sour apple martini. I wanted something festive for the holiday, but I hate beer so I decided a green martini was the way to go (Joe had a Guinness.) Everything was fantastic. The stew was yummy and the bread was awesome. That recipe is definitely a keeper.


Green shirt, green drink


Big pot of hot stew


Joe helping Bo dance an Irish jig

Progress

Total P90X workouts: 3/6. We did A LOT of work on our house though and also went swimming.

Total weight lost: 2 pounds (8 to go!)

P90X

I want to try to do these every Monday as weekly progress updates. Joe and I are doing P90X to try to look awesome for our cruise. We are in our third week. Joe has been awesome! I've been doing o.k. I can't finish some of the routines. You are supposed to do intense workouts for an hour a day, 6 days a week, which is just a little too much for me. Right now, I am disappointed in the program, but I'm going to give it a few more weeks.

Starting weight: Secret!

Workouts last week: 4/6. (For me).

Total weight lost: 1 pound :(

House in the winter

Over President's Day weekend, Joe and I headed up to our house. It was a busy, busy weekend of painting and putting together our bedroom. It's not done yet. We are adding a chair and a small bookcase and a few other things, but it is starting to feel more complete.

We had picked out a paint color and even bought a sample of it, but when we opened the big cans, it looked slightly different. The color ended up being slightly lighter than the sample had been, more of a caramel latte than the coffee color we had picked, but we really like it. It makes the room warm.

Here are a couple of before pictures. It is not possible to get a picture of the whole room because of the way it is arranged:



The walls were the same color as the closet doors and the trim:



Here is my attempt of showing the new paint color:



Curtains- Both of them will be tied back with these tassels, but somehow we only bought one hook so we'll fix that next time:



Headboard, bedspread, and picture. We're not sure if that table will stay there or not (the bedspread looks a little funny because it is a queen on a full. We'll get a queen someday though!):



Picture close up:



Snowy winter house:

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day this year was wonderfully lovely. It started out with french toast and sausage for breakfast. After breakfast, Joe and I exchanged gifts. Joe got me a beautiful watch- a Bulova with diamonds and hearts and an awesome "skeleton" part that shows the inside of the watch working. And, it doesn't use a battery so I can't break it with my weird electricity. I got Joe a video game he had been wanting. Joe came home from school with roses and we both got chocolates.

For dinner, we headed to Thaifoon at Gateway. Traffic was terrible and it took us 40 minutes to make a 10 minute drive. Luckily, we had called in earlier and they saved a table for us so we were able to get right in. They had a drink special for Valentine's Day that was vodka, strawberries, and ginger. It was so yummy. (I had to get 2!) We had some appetizers and excellent entrees and creme brulee for dessert. Creme brulee is my very favorite. We watched a movie when we got home. I love Valentine's Day.


gifts


dressed for dinner


my watch :)

Go fast!

Graduation Trip

I posted a while ago that Joe and I were planning a Mexican cruise to celebrate both of our May graduations. Now that we're both into our last semesters, I have been spending a lot of time planning our vacation. This trip is going to be big- 10 days, which will make it my longest vacation so far. The plan is to leave early on a Friday morning and drive all the way to California. We will sleep and spend the whole next day in.......Disneyland! Disneyland was a later addition to the trip, but since we are driving and will be in the area, we decided Disneyland would make the trip even better. I haven't been there since I was 9 and I'm really excited to go with Joe.

The next day, we'll board our cruise! We'll spend time exploring the ship, eating, and lounging by the pool. They always have a "deck party" and special drink while the cruise leaves port. We haven't 100% decided on excursions, but we'll probably do a snorkel one in Cabo and do a sunset horseback ride/bbq in Puerto Vallarta.

And then we'll come home and move. It's going to be a busy few weeks!

Swimming!

A few days after Christmas, Joe and I met my mom, Ethan, Jessica, and James at an awesome swimming pool. Ethan suggested that we bring one of the waterproof cameras that we got on Black Friday. It was a great idea because we got to test out the camera before our cruise in May and it was a lot of fun taking pictures at the pool. I have a whole bunch, but here are a few of my favorites:










I couldn't open my eyes because of my contacts