20 Weeks

My kids were super excited to work on this week's board, especially when I told them that the baby is now as big as a banana. 

They're such hams 

 

(So it appears I neglected to put a picture of me and my belly in here, so if I can remember sometime today to take a half decent looking picture of myself, I'll throw one up.  My kiddos are way cuter to look at though) 


How far along? 20 Weeks - Halfway There!! (If this blog had background music it would be playing Bon Jovi right now)


Total weight gain/loss: 8 pounds!  Gaining weight finally! Honestly I can't believe it's taken me 20 weeks to gain 8 pounds.  Normally I can put that on in a good weekend of margaritas and fair food (or a week of eating my mom's delicious food).


Maternity clothes? I broke down and bought a maternity swimsuit due to my dilemma last week.  I spent an hour and a half trying on every swimsuit that this store had and finally decided on one that covered my ta ta's up.  The swimsuit isn't horrible but I really just needed it to be covered up around kids.  So besides my gynormous bra and new swimsuit, still rocking my normal clothes.


Stretch marks? Nope.  My husband is loving my soft skin though.

Sleep: Sleeping much better.  Getting my 7-9 hours per night.  Still waking up a couple times to take bathroom breaks though.  My husband and I switched sides on the bed so that my bathroom breaks wouldn't wake him up.  I'm a little stiff in the morning but feeling better.


Best moment this week: I literally woke up on the day that Week 20 started and put my hand on my belly because I thought I felt gas but this "gas" was moving places a bit.  I quickly texted the lady I babysit for (she's my go-to for all my baby symptoms) to make sure that I wasn't dying and to find out if what I was feeling could be the baby moving.  After a detailed conversation, she confirmed that yes, I had felt my little nugget move for the first time!  She said it probably was happening before but this is the first time I was really noticing it.  Gah!  Now I'm feeling my little nugget move all the time....literally all the time!  My favorite thing to do is put my hand on my belly when I'm feeling the baby move from the inside to try and feel it from the outside.  I even had my husband put his hand on my belly while the baby was moving and we both felt the baby move!  This was beyond amazing!  I'm over the moon with excitement now!  Little baby Koch is now on the move!


Miss Anything? eating raw cookie dough, wine, venison, beer....


Movement: O yeah!  And couldn't be more excited about it!  It makes everything so real!


Food cravings: Chipotle and BBQ but I got to have both this past week!  We went to a Blues, Brews, and BBQ festival and I got some yummy BBQ but didn't get to enjoy some brews.  I served as the DD for my husband and some friends.  They know when to take advantage of a good situation when they find it. Rar!    Mainly I just want to shovel food in my face whenever I see it.  4 months of horrible morning sickness has taught me that this is a bad idea.  My stomach is gradually getting bigger so shoveling food in it all at once is probably not a good idea.  Gosh it kills me to eat so slow.  I do enjoy eating all the cheese I can find.  I found this delicious Pecorino Romano at the store that I've been chowin down on.  What I really want is a big hunk of Bree cheese...gooey, yummy Bree cheese with a big glass of a tannic Beaujolais wine.  mmm that sounds sooooo good!  Unfortunately Bree cheese is on the list of cheeses I can't eat while pregnant (tears!!) and obviously so is wine.  I did break down and go to the store and buy some sparkling grape juice to try and compensate, yeah....it didn't work.  But I had to try.


Anything making you queasy or sick: The smell of fish and cigarettes still.  The festival was almost too much to bear with so many stinky and smoky people around me.  Don't get me wrong, I love love loved the smell of all the BBQ smoking but I'm not too fond of the cigarette smoke.


Have you started to show yet: I think I look more fat than pregnant but my loving husband thinks otherwise.  The baby is slowwwwwly creeping up my long torso still making me look like I have a pooch rather than a belly, but it's getting there.  I mean there's definitely something there.  It's not flat.  Can't wait for that big ol' belly though!  The lady helping me try on swimsuits didn't even know I was pregnant.  She thought I was trying them on for a friend.  Ugh!  I'm over 4 1/2 months pregnant.  I would like to look like I have a bun in the oven please!


Gender: Sooo close to finding out!  I might or might not be shouting it from the top of my lungs next week!  Eeeekkkk!


Labor Signs: No


Belly Button in or out? In.  Dan jokingly asked if my belly button would be connected to the baby's.  I said probably not.  I don't think that's how things work.  We both are convinced that my deep belly button is the telephone to talk to our child.  (Okay...so mainly just me)


Wedding rings on or off? On


Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy Happy Happy.  This second half of pregnancy is starting off much easier and way more enjoyable than the first half.  Thank you God for taking that horrible Morning Sickness away from me.  I pray for all the women who unfortunately have it throughout their entire pregnancy.  Please give them my deepest sympathies....and a milkshake.  I'm only moody when Dan and I play games together and I lose.  We are what you call a family of sore losers.  It's not the rest of our families, just us.  And we really hate losing to each other.  And this past week, Dan and I played a ridiculous game called "Life on the Farm" a few too many times and I lost most of the games.  I didn't take it too well.  So I would make us play again. And then I would lose, again.  Ugh!  This game has nothing to do with skill which makes it so infuriating that I would lose sooo many times in a row!  Okay Jackie, time to move on.


Looking forward to:  Dan and my next baby appointment in a few days!  This is the one where we might or might not be finding out the gender of our nugget!  Eeeekkkk!!  Also stoked for visiting my family this weekend!  Jeez it's been forever and I'm dying to see them!  Plus a good friend of mine is getting married soon and her wedding shower and bachelorette party is this weekend so I get to celebrate that.  Dan and I started packing up our stuff to get ready for our move.  We get the keys to our new place next week and can spend the rest of the month moving into it.  My parents are graciously coming down to help us move next week (I'll actually be gone celebrating my soon to be sister-in-law's bachelorette party that weekend leaving Dan and my parents to move us.  Yeah for getting out of moving!).


Anything Else: Now starts the countdown to my family's annual vacation!  (We actually began the countdown right when we got home from last year's vacation).  We're going to Montana again this year and let me tell you, it's beyond gorgeous up there.  So relaxing (minus the ridiculous hijinks that happen when we're all together...which is all the time).  So the countdown is now under 20 days!


Also: My kiddos thought it would be nice to give Dan some advice on how to be a good dad and each piece of advice was written on a piece of paper and made into a chain.  It was super adorable.  Contrary to what some of the links may say, I had nothing to do with any of the advice.  (My kiddos are just rather perceptive)  Some of these I have no idea what they mean and some are kinda awesome, but none the less, here is the incomplete list of advice from my kiddos to Dan on how to be a good dad:

• Don't ground your kids
• Change all the diapers for the first 3 months (nice advice Aidan!)
• Be nice to Jackie
• Help her by doing chores she would usually do
• Teach the baby Risk (the game) ASAP! (I just taught Aidan that game...he likes it)
• Make it laugh
• Help Jackie make the baby sleep
• Give the baby a piggy back ride
• Give Jackie a back massage (Also fantastic advice!)
• Babies like dogs
• Babies like being tall (???)
• Babies like to laugh
• Get a dog (okay...so maybe I've mentioned to the kids on multiple occasions [everyday] that I would like a dog.  But that just means that they listen to me. Score for Jackie!)
• Give Jackie 30 a day to rest (only 30 minutes?)
• **Don't wear baggy pants (I think this one might be my favorite....because I have no idea what it means or how it relates to being a good dad)
• Be nice
• Have fun
• Feed them (Very good advice Ella.  It is a good idea to feed the kid)
• Give them ice cream (okay...so this one sounds like the kids were trying to get me to give them ice cream.  And they were)
• Vacation
• Be a friend (this little girl is way beyond her years)
• Love them (advice like this makes my heart melt)
• Treat Jackie like a Queen (my kids are just so darn thoughtful)
• ****Teach them about God  (My real favorite)

You can't tell me your heart doesn't melt while reading those.