Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle

Phew!

I warned you I'd be busy, and I guess I was right. I was a couple days late taking this week's bump photo, and here I am basically three days away from the NEXT photo, writing my actual post. It's been a busy week and weekend!

Here's the pic for this week: (more specifically, for week 19)

Credit for my lumpy shirt and the armpit shot goes to Jeff. He tried to "style" me at 12:45 am after we came home from Assignment Night on Friday. Needless to say, he wasn't completely sober. He at least did a good job of taking a steady photo.

So here's this not-so-little bump, getting bigger and bigger. I'm starting to feel like its "too big" and then I remember that I'm almost five months pregnant and nearing the halfway point. That just seems crazy. Sometimes it's bigger than others, but for the most part, it sticks out like this. Baby bumps...they're so random.

Another random thing: people's fascination with it. I'll be clear here in saying I don't mind when people (that I know) touch it, I just don't really understand why they want to. Peanut still isn't very big (although growing more and more each week), so basically what they're feeling on the other side of a firm belly is my insides (read: GUTS!!!!!). Its also strange because, as I've said before, your body changes so fast that it can be hard to wrap your head around what you look like. People ask me if they can touch my belly, and it's almost as though I've forgotten there's anything there to touch.

Oh! Right! Because there's a baby in there!

Got it.

I don't mind, although thankfully everyone who has touched it thus far has been a friend of mine. I don't know what I'll do or how I'll react when/if a stranger just reaches out and touches me. That's just odd. I'm not stroking your arm, weirdo, quit touching my very-much-still-attached-to-my-body baby bump.

I'm anticipating at least one of these when I make the flight home to Oregon. The bump will be larger and I'll be travelling alone, this feels like a scenario that screams "YOUNG PREGNANT WOMAN ALONE - PLEASE TOUCH MY BABY BUMP!!"

Ugh. I really hope that doesn't happen.

In other and perhaps much more exciting news, I believe I have now identified what it feels like when Peanut is moving, and have felt him/her on and off since Friday morning. Its a strange sensation, movement inside your body totally independent of you, but also a relief. I was starting to imagine the worst-case-scenarios. Jeff was quite excited, but I think it'll become even more real for him when he can feel Peanut in there moving and shaking.

I've got another pretty busy week coming up, and am hosting a baby shower Saturday for my dear friend Tiffany and her daughter-to-be. Prep for that alone will probably occupy most of my time. I'll work on being better about taking my bump pic on time (and posting it on time), but expect a no makeup, frumpy outfit, frizzy-haired mess. That's my standard day-to-day look, haha.

Until next time, my friends!!



COUNTDOWN TO THE GENDER SONO: 7 days, 21 hours, 35 minutes

Happy Friday!

This week I took advantage of an existing outing to take my weekly bump photo. My no-makeup face is not my favorite, and I was already dressed yesterday, so we took our weekly pic. My good friend Tiffany revealed the gender of her baby yesterday, and my guess was baby boy, so I wore blue. I was wrong (as I have been with every gender prediction of an ENJJPT baby) but oh well. So excited she's having a baby girl!! Excited to spoil her with all things pink and sparkly!

Anyway, here's this week's pic:

I feel like this thing keeps getting bigger and bigger!

Probably because it does, duh.

In the last couple of days I've felt quite of bit of soreness and stretching, I think Peanut must be going through a growth spurt. According to my all-knowing pregnancy app, Peanut is about the size of a sweet potato, but I bet I'll like Peanut waaaaay more than I like sweet potatoes...bleh.

Weighing in at about seven ounces, Peanut is rapidly approaching half of a pound. I can't believe that pretty soon I'll be able to track his or her weight in pounds! This little thing grows so quickly!

It'll sure be nice when I can just refer to Peanut as a "he" or a "she" instead of having to use both each time I reference it. 

Talking with Tiffany yesterday about her daughter has me all excited to find out what Peanut will be. I haven't done a very good job of keeping my mouth shut about what I'm hoping for, especially since I shared my registry story. I'm either setting myself up to look totally psychic, or to be the laughing stock of my friends. You won't be too hard on me, right?

We're down to 17 days until we find out! Can't tell you how I'll wait that long, except that I have quite a bit to accomplish between now and then. In the next 17 days I have plans to help my little sister move into her first out-of-town/state/west coast apartment on her own, elbow teenage girls out of the way at opening night of the DIVERGENT movie, attend one baby shower, and throw another. Plus we find out on my mom's birthday; I should probably send her a card or something, haha.

I imagine the next two weeks and three days will pass pretty quickly, but I still wake up excited every day to find out. I've been explaining to Jeff how much I think knowing it's gender will change the way we think about Peanut. We'll be able to start imagining our son or daughter; the activities they'll do, the things they'll like, the people they'll become. So much fun.

Still haven't felt Peanut moving around in there, I don't think. On Wednesday night I felt something that I can really only describe as a tiny elbow sliding down the inside of my belly, but it hasn't happened again, so I don't know for sure. It did feel kind of "fluttery," which is the word all the books use to describe those first few movements, but again, still not enough data to make a conclusion. Let's hope I get more feelings soon!

I watched my friend Jill's son kicking away at her belly from the outside the other day, and it just looks so neat. I'm excited to feel that kind of thing, and to have an idea of what Peanut is doing in there. Dancing? Sleeping? Practicing aerobics? Who knows.

That's probably about it for this week. Hopefully I'll have a chance to write another post soon when I can confirm these strange feelings inside my belly.

Until then, happy Friday!

COUNTDOWN TO THE GENDER SONO: 17 days, 00 hours, 21 minutes