Little Stinker

 This kid is a mover and a shaker and clearly already a ninja. I'm getting kicked like woah! It's fun, though. I like knowing that kiddo is doing well. I can't believe we're already at 23 weeks; time is flying! I've got a lot of reading and planning to do, and Pete and I have to get started on this nursery. Soon. We've had my brother and his girlfriend with us this past week, which has been nice, but they've been in the nursery room so we haven't had a chance to do any of the work there. Our bathroom is almost done, and my brother has done a lot of work in our yard for us. So we're definitely making progress.

How far along?  223 weeks

Total weight gain/measurements: 7 lbs. But really only 2 lbs from my pre-pregnancy weight. Maybe I'll only count from there.

Maternity clothes: Yup. And lots of leggings that aren't but they're comfy anyway. I mean, look at this belly:

I'm feeling HUGE for 23 weeks. This is only gonna get worse.

Stretch marks: So far no movement either way from last week. That one Pete saw is still hanging out on my right hip, but it's not worse and there's nothing new!

Sleep: It's been okay. The dreams are getting weird though. And kind of sad. Apparently, whatever I dreamed about two nights ago had me crying in my sleep, enough so that I woke Pete up.

Best moment this week: My parents and sisters came to visit on Tuesday! I took the day off of work, we went to the beach, and everyone got to feel baby kick! Also, my parents got us our stroller, so we opened that and played with it. It's the Uppababy Vista, and it's super nice.

Miss anything? I can't see my lady bits anymore...bye bye grooming!

Movement: Absolutely! So much movement, in fact, that at my midwife appointment on Wednesday, the midwife couldn't find the heartbeat. I was freaking out, and she started laughing. My reaction was all 'what is wrong with you!?!' and she said "Listen, do you hear that? That's the sound of your baby moving!" She finally did get the heartbeat: a steady 140.

Food cravings: Freeze pops.

Anything making you queasy or sick? Nothing in particular

Gender: We don't know, and we don't plan to find out!

Labor signs: Nope, none of those!

Symptoms: Exhaustion and movement are my top two, closely followed by nausea and hunger. I am a walking conundrum.

Belly button in or out? In, but so close to being out.

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or moody most of the time: Very happy!

Looking forward to: Still getting started on the nursery!

How's this for an actual update?

I am realizing that my weekly updates have been quite slack in actually updating anyone on anything baby related! So I searched and found an update template that a couple other mommy bloggers have used, and I'm going to build my updates off of that from now on. Since today is OFFICIALLY 22 weeks, I figured I would start there.

How far along?  22 weeks

Total weight gain/measurements: 6 lbs. But that's a little misleading I suppose because I lost weight in my first trimester (thanks morning sickness).

Maternity clothes: Definitely. Always, always in maternity clothes. Here's my 20 weeks picture (that wouldn't upload on Monday - so now I owe you both 21 and 22 weeks) and you can see that my regular t-shirts were starting to be a bit tight at 20 weeks. And now I'm bigger. I can still fit into most of my dresses though, so that's nice for work!

I know, I'm cute.

Stretch marks: Well, I thought I was doing okay and that those nasty buggers I had when I was bigger were being held at bay, but hanging out last night on the couch, my husband pointed one of them out to me. It seems that they are not going to be held at bay for much longer...time for belly butter!

Sleep: Yes, I'm sleeping. Mostly well, at that. However, that middle-of-the-night trip to the bathroom is really disrupting. And it's worse now than it has been the past couple of weeks because this is the state of my upstairs bathroom, the one that's closest to me: 

That means that in addition to getting up in the middle of the night to pee, I have to trek downstairs and back upstairs, which gets the blood pumping and, unfortunately, keeps me awake!

Best moment this week: Yesterday morning. I was laying in bed, on my right side, after having snoozed my alarm. I could feel baby moving around a lot and was wondering if I could feel it from the outside. I shifted on to my back, and put my hand where I could feel a spot of pressure, on the upper left of my uterus. And baby kicked! Not a little fluttering of movement, but a very solid kick! And then last night, after Pete pointed out my stretch mark, I could see my belly moving, and Pete put his hand in just the right spot at just the right moment and he got kicked too!

Miss anything? I'm missing liking bacon. I really liked bacon before I got pregnant...

Movement: A ton.

Food cravings: Just food. Like I said on Monday, I'm just always hungry.

Anything making you queasy or sick? Brushing my teeth.

Gender: We don't know, and we don't plan to find out!

Labor signs: Nope, none of those!

Symptoms: Heartburn. Stretch marks (as mentioned above!). Fatigue. Shortness of breath. Back-ache. And this new feeling is starting to take over me...I think it's nesting...that would be why my husband has ripped out my bathroom and why I made this over the weekend:

Belly button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or moody most of the time: Mostly happy. Only grumpy when I'm tired.

Looking forward to: Getting started on the nursery!

Hungry Hungry Hippo

I'm 21 weeks pregnant and I'm so freaking hungry. Like all the time hungry, feed me all the food all the time, hungry!

Baby is kicking a LOT, which is nice and very comforting. I have my next appointment next week, and I'm very much excited to hear baby's heartbeat again.

I don't really have much else to update on. Baby is growing, I am growing, and I have the appetite to prove it!

A Week Late and Likely a Few Dollars Short

It's been an interesting two weeks and that has a lot to do with how all of a sudden I feel like my temperature is up and everything I do, even waking up, is making me exhausted.

Here's last weeks bumpdate shot.

So my most recent symptoms include swelling, often from too much standing, exhaustion, as previously mentioned, and lots and lots of kicking! Tonight was the first time Pete felt the baby, and it was quite magical for the both of us! Tears in my eyes kind of magical! I can't believe there's really a tiny human inside of that tummy of mine, even though as I'm typing this I'm 20 and one half weeks. Which is more than halfway, so I really should believe this by now.

Another thing that has been going on for me recently is that I joined Rodan + Fields and now sell their wonderful skincare. Checkout these results!

And look who endorses these products! One of my all time favorite people in the world, Ellen Degeneres!

Check out my website at https://keighleyjohnson.myrandf.com/ if you're interested in any of the products!

18 Weeks and Definitely Growing!

Today was our 18 weeks anatomy scan and good golly! There's a baby inside of me! It's felt pretty real for a couple weeks now, but I totally had a 'fast forward to the future' moment this afternoon in that exam room. I could see my baby squirming around, throwing his/her hands in the air, legs cross-cross-applesauce sitting square on my bladder, and it was so surreal!

Good news: baby is 100% normal!

Bad news: we still don't know the sex. And you know what? That's fine with us because we've decided we don't want to know! There aren't many real surprises in the world, but this? This is something everyone can guess at but nobody can know until the end, when baby is well and truly cooked and ready to make his/her grand appearance.

Here's what I looked like at 18 weeks:

And here is what baby looked like:

And this:

And I totally saw this:

That's all for today! See you next week!

BONUS!

Here's the announcement we posted on FB, as well as the growing bump!

All credit for this goes to the hubs! It was his adorable idea!

Taken this evening. I am a rose.

Other bump pictures can be found here!

17 Week Movement! and more reveals...

Before I wasn't sure, but I am SO sure now that I am feeling tiny baby movements! It's weird to describe: kinda ticklish, a little flippy, like someone is making pancakes, and mostly comforting! It's nice to know, when I can't see or hear what's going on inside me, that everything seems to be okay.

So in an effort to wrap up the family telling, here's how we told my siblings:
We were in VA visiting for my brother's college graduation (eek!), and we were all together kinda camping in a cabin, mostly because all the hotels were booked. It was the night before my brother's graduation (please note: I was NOT trying to steal any thunder...people keep getting mad at me for that. I was just WAY too obviously emotional and excited!) and we were all sitting outside having pizza for dinner. I kind of casually brought up Christmas vacation for 2014 and invited my brother and sisters to come up to RI. My sister (I honestly don't remember which one, but my mom has it on video somewhere) asked 'why?' 'Because I'm sure you'll want to meet your new niece or nephew!' Little did I know, my brother had been too focused on his girlfriend to hear what I had said, and I was sobbing by now, and my sisters were looking at me like I had two heads (in the happiest way possible) so I had to ugly-crying repeat myself. I don't think the three of them have ever squeezed me tighter. The best/worst reaction to a pregnancy announcement of all time? My sister Aileen: 'So there's a baby under all that fat??' Thank, sis.

How we told Pete's siblings:
We happened to be going to NH to visit Pete's parents/babysit for our nephews the weekend after we got back from VA. This was great because it meant that my parents didn't have to keep the secret from Pete's parents for too long. We told them as described in previous post...first of Pete's sisters to find out was his eldest sister, Amy. We were with her boys, babysitting, while she was at a Kentucky Derby party. When she got back, Pete just laid it out for her: 'We're having a baby!' As she's 13 years older than Pete, she immediately cried and hugged her baby brother and was all emotional and such. It was super sweet and had me in tears too! We told our BIL and nephews. It's fun to tell kids about new babies because you never know what kind of reaction you're gonna get. From the boys, we got 'Okay' and 'Where is it?' Cute! We then went straight from one sister's house to the others, because one couldn't know for too long without the other knowing. Andrea, who has our two nieces, was just having a chill night at home with our BIL, Scott, and the girls. She was telling us about how she had been going through all the baby stuff the girls had grown out of and was gonna pass it on to her friend who was having a girl. Pete just said, very naturally in the conversation, 'Well don't give it all away!' She looked at us for a second, and Pete added 'We don't know what we're having yet!' More tears, more baby brother hugs, and some very happy in-laws!

I wish we had videotaped all these, I really do, but as I said last week things get too exciting and spur of the moment. Plus, a camera or phone pointed at someone's face will often give you away! Also, we told way too many friends to tell all those reveals. Needless to say, it was a ton of fun, and I was super relieved to hear that everyone was excited for us! Yay! I'll be back next week following an anatomy ultrasound, where we will check-up on baby's growth and NOT find out the gender!