27 Weeks!

How far along? 27 Weeks - Baby is as big as a Rutabaga (What is a rutabaga?  I feel like it's some veggie that my grandma used to mention that she ate way back in the day...and it was never heard from again. I guess it means the baby is almost 15 inches long.   Yay for a big growing boy!)

Total weight gain/loss: 17 pounds. Still eating well though. 

Maternity clothes? UGH!  When I was home this past weekend, my older sister made it clear to me that it was time for me to get maternity clothes because she refused to zip up a dress for me because my knockers were too big to fit in it.  Talk about a blow to my self esteem.  (all in love though)  So on Sunday, my wonderful husband took me to the store (I wasn't happy about it but I was beyond grateful that he did) to get my first official maternity clothes.  I got two shirts and one pair of jean capris.  Gosh if they weren't so comfy I'd be complaining more.  I just really hate the idea of wearing "maternity" clothes mainly because of the God-awful stretchy belt that accompanies all maternity pants.  It's not cute.  It's definitely not sexy.  I feel like I might as well don a mu-mu instead. The clothes we got aren't hideous but I'm still having a hard time realizing that yes, I should probably start wearing them instead of trying to squeeze my sausage body into my normal clothes.  I did wear the pants this past week and I didn't die.  (They were pretty comfy. ugh!)  I think I'll do better with this whole maternity clothes dilemma once I get a big belly.  Then I'll feel like I deserve to proudly wear the clothes.  Still waiting on the big belly.  I'm starting to enjoy the whole wearing-my-pants-unbuttoned-with-a-pregnancy-wrap-over-them thing.  I am still wearing my sweatpants and many of my husband's old t-shirts (but that's not new).

Stretch marks? Still none...knock on wood

Sleep: Loving sleep!  Not loving the million bathrooms breaks I take.  And I will share an embarrassing moment I had the other night.  I have vivid dreams.  Very vivid.  So vivid that many times I can't tell the difference between my dreams and when I wake up.  Well the other night, I was dreaming that I was having a BM.  Terrified that this might actually be happening in real life, I woke myself up, silently searched my side of the bed (to make sure it really didn't happen), and then took a real bathroom break.  I did NOT want to be that wife and have that awkward conversation with my husband at 2am about why we needed to change sheets.  Thank God it was just a dream.  Terrifying, embarrassing, but still just a dream.  My pregnant lady friends in aqua aerobics told me that dreams like this are actually quite normal.  I'm going to choose to believe that they're telling me the truth and that I'm not crazy.  But other than the weird dream I had, I'm sleeping pretty well.

Best moment this week: Seeing Reiko.  It's been 10 years since I last saw my Japanese sister and I about died when I saw her this past weekend.  She looked exactly the same, sounded the same, and everything about her was the same.  We literally picked up right where we left off.  She is the cutest thing anyone has ever seen.  I still can't believe she chose to come back to visit my crazy family after the year of crazy we put her though.  She's one strong Japanese woman to go through that Jones experience.  She spent 10 days visiting my family and on the last weekend she was here, my dad, my sister and her boyfriend, and Reiko all did a Warrior Dash.  It's a 5K through a muddy obstacle course.  Reiko was convinced she was going to die but she made it through it and became a warrior.  (She probably never wants to come back and visit us again)  Then after that we had an end-of-summer/Going away party for Reiko with many family friends who knew Reiko 10 years ago.  Then on Sunday, we had to take her to the airport and say good-bye again.  She told my parents, "Thank you for choosing me 10 years ago" and how much we meant to her.  You can't not shed a tear when you hear things like that.  I love my Japanese sister Reiko and loved catching up with her.  She loved touching my belly and told me everyday how excited she is to be an aunt to little baby Koch.  My kid is going to be the luckiest kid in the world to have Reiko as his aunt.  I really hope I don't have to wait 10 more years until I get to see her again.  (I hope we didn't scare her off too bad) 

(Now time for a montage of Reiko pictures)

 My sister Jill and my sister Reiko after finishing the Warrior Dash.

I was trying to stay clean.

 My warrior family

 Reiko was pretty excited to have finished the race

 The fam (minus Jenny) saying goodbye to Reiko

 Cute Aunt Reiko feeling Baby Koch kick. I wish she was back already.

(Sorry I caught you on a blink Reiko)

 Baby Koch is a growing!

Mom and Dad with their favorite Japanese daughter.

Miss Anything? Beer...plain and simple.  My family is notorious for spending our evenings on our back porch, drinking beer (or scotch, or wine, or anything else), eating cheese, crackers, chips, salsa, and other hors d'oeuvres till the wee hours of the evening.  I was still able to sit outside, eat my food, and shoot the bull with the fam but I was missing my beer.  And yes, I still wish I could have a Woodchuck right now but that won't happen for a few more months.

Movement: Little Nugget Koch is getting so much stronger!  It's kinda amazing!  He's just loves kicking and flipping.  Dan and I are so amused by how much he moves my belly around.  Dan said he's kicking to much because he's trying to make more room for my bigger belly to come.  I just wish he would stop using my bladder as a trampoline.  It doesn't matter if I just went to the bathroom, if Little Baby K decides to jump on my bladder, I have to make a quick escape for the bathroom.  I do notice that he is extremely active in the morning, right when I wake up.  I think it's his way of saying, "Time to get up and feed me!  If you don't then I will do flips and kicks until you feel like your bladder is going to explode."  Some sense of humor that kid has.  I do love knowing that he's continually getting bigger.  It only makes me more excited to meet him in just a few short weeks!  Momma and Daddy love you so much little guy!  Please leave my bladder alone for the time being though.  Thank you!

Food cravings: Pasta and ice cream!  I don't feel like I need to explain myself.  I never thought I'd be that girl who would secretly take a spoon to the freezer, dig it into ice cream, guiltily look around to make sure no one is watching/judging, then repeat until I got my fill....but I am.  I found myself doing that a few times this past week and just when I thought I could get away with it, I decided to come clean and admit it.  Hi my name is Jackie, and I'm an ice cream'aholic.  This is where you all say, "Hi Jackie" and accept me for who I am.  It's not a problem though.  I can stop whenever I feel like it...I just don't want to stop right now. 

Anything making you queasy or sick:  Hot dogs seem to gross me out.  I made sure that my kiddos weren't eating those this past week because I did not want to prepare them.  I did get grossed out when I was making sandwiches for my kids this past week and one told me they wanted bologna on their's....ewww!  I made them their sandwich but Thank God I chose to eat a PB&J instead.  Holding that bologna in my hand was not a pleasant experience.  It made me think, "I know weird stuff goes into this piece of "meat" but I should probably not look at the back of the package to find out what it is".  Yuck!

Have you started to show yet:  Dan said my bump is starting to look more rounded like I want! Yeah!  It's still not as big as I would like it to be but it's getting there!

Gender: Boy!

Labor Signs: None.  I hope I don't get those braxton hicks contractions.  The idea of having contractions before little Koch is really ready to come out just scared me.

Symptoms: Rib pain, lower back pain (especially in the morning), leg cramps, the occasional bout of crazy hormones, etc. No heartburn this week (I probably should have with the amount of tomatoes I ingested via pizza, pasta, and salsa).  O yeah...and clumsiness.  I'm dropping stuff like it's my job.  Frustrating because then I have to bend over and pick these things up.  Not fun either!

Belly Button in or out? Dan said he thinks he saw the end of it which means my belly is finally getting big enough that it is stretching and forcing my belly button out!  I hope I don't get an outie but I do want that big belly!

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or Moody most of the time:  I think I might have been overly happy this week.  We registered for baby classes and that makes me ecstatic!  I no longer (at least until the end of writing this post) feel overwhelmed like I did last week but I feel like things are coming together nicely.  My kiddos started school this past week which makes me sad I won't get to see them everyday like I did but it will give me time to finish my school work (from last semester. eek!) and really concentrate on getting baby Koch's room together.  Dan and I sorted through some of the baby clothes we already got which made me about pee myself with joy because I just kept picturing a little Daniel (that's not baby Koch's name but it's easier to picture a baby Daniel than a baby Jackie in baby boy clothes) wearing these cute clothes!  There were only two things that made me sad this past week and one was realizing that baby Koch isn't (most likely) going to be here before Halloween so I won't be able to dress him up in an awesome Halloween costume this year.  Sad!  Yes, I'm going to be that ridiculous mom who dresses her child up in awesomely ridiculous Halloween costumes while they are young enough to not have a say in what they wear. (bahahaha!)  I also mentioned that I got sad when I had to say good-bye to Reiko because it means it'll be a long time (I pray that it's not) until we see her again.  Other than those two things, I'm a pretty happy pregnant person this past week.  YEAH!

Looking forward to: Going to our first baby class at the beginning of week 28!  It's about how to make sure you keep your newborn alive...or something to that extent.  I'm very excited to start classes to prepare us to be parents.  (although I feel as though God has been training me to be a parent the last 10+ years of my life through watching all the kids I have over the years but this is different.  This is my child I have to prepare to be a parent to.  I don't get to hand him over to his parents at the end of the day because well....I am his parent.  So I want to make sure that I'm (We're) preparing ourselves in whatever ways possible to be the best parents to our little man as possible.)  I'm so excited to love on my little man more than he knows.  I'm fully confident that God will prepare Dan and I to be the exact kind of parents he wants us to be.  Thank you in advance God for blessing Dan and me with this amazing bundle of joy.  Can't wait to have a whole gang of Kochs to add to our little family!