16 weeks and counting.

16 weeks this week. Baby Cute is now the size of an avocado. Mmmmm, avocados.

Lots of exciting changes going on inside of me. I definitely started experiencing round ligament pain this week, and some crazy stomach muscle spasms on Tuesday night. I thought perhaps the round ligament pain was the baby moving, but nope. It's a random, dull ache in my groin (I didn't even think women had a groin... Men have groins, women have, you know, lady parts...). The muscle spasms are something that no one told me about pregnancy. Apparently your stomach muscles separate during pregnancy, and those spasms are just the beginning. So many things to learn about how amazing the human body is.... We did not cover this stuff in AP Biology.

I barfed this morning. A warning to myself and others--do not vigorously brush your tongue with the toothbrush after downing several glasses of water throughout the nighttime and morning hours. It is a recipe for disaster. To settle my stomach, I got literally the ONLY non-diet pop available in my entire building--A wild cherry pepsi. It was delicious, although I DEFINITELY got a caffeine buzz. I hope Baby Cute enjoyed it as much as I did.

I got to see my friend and fellow preggo Heather yesterday for the annual PRSSA banquet. We were representin' the IPR Alumni Association. It was very fun to share preggo stories, see the most adorable bedding she picked out for her Baby Boy and see our old professors. The students were significantly more clothed this year than last, and the program went quickly with far fewer "I love you guys" than last year. It was a nice time, and made me wistful about my college days. But only for a minute.

I miss my family, a lot. Good news is that my sister Melanie is interviewing at MSU next week. I will refrain from extolling the benefits of being a Spartan employee and just say I would be so thrilled if she lived close and I could see her more often. Great news is that Melanie and her hubby Rob are going to stay with Dave and I on Thursday night and possibly into the weekend. The best news is that my parents are purportedly coming for dinner on Thursday night. Hooray!

I am going to see one of my bestest buds Anne and her new house in Grand Rapids tomorrow. Otherwise, very few weekend plans. I work on Sunday and plan on doing the full-on switch of winter to spring clothes. With a little luck and a lot of motivation, I will also get a good box going to take to the plus size consignment store next week. I could use a little mad money.

My secretary is convinced I'm having a boy, so I am embracing the thought. Then I saw this adorable baby boy on the cover of the latest issue of Baby Talk. Oh my, yes. I would like a chubby baby boy in jeans with a very round head. That would be an acceptable form of boy.

Here is Baby Cute's status report:

Baby Center: At 4 1/2 inches long (head to bottom) and 3 1/2 ounces, your baby is about the size of an avocado. In the next three weeks, she'll go through a tremendous growth spurt, though, doubling her weight and adding inches to her length. Her lower limbs are much more developed now. Her head is more erect than it has been, and her eyes have moved toward the front of her head. Your baby's ears are close to their final position, too. Some of her more advanced body systems are working, including her circulatory system and urinary tract. Her heart is now pumping about 25 quarts of blood each day, circulating her total blood volume through her body many times. (By the end of your pregnancy, this will increase to about 190 quarts.) The patterning of her scalp has begun, though her hair isn't recognizable yet. Although closed, her eyes are moving (slowly), and she's even started growing toenails.
Babygaga: Over the past three weeks your astounding growing baby has managed to stretch yet another 2 full inches (totaling about 4.5”) and weighs around 3.5 ounces. That’s pretty serious growth, and with it comes several physical developments! For starters, their head to body ratio is finally starting to even out a bit as the rest of the body is actually growing faster than the head at this point. Finally, your little light bulb is not so top-heavy. Their adorable little limbs have lengthened, almost reaching their normal proportions which they will have at birth. Their eyes are still closed but moving now and if you had an ultrasound, which many doctors recommend you have at about this time, you may even see your little one sucking on a thumb, not to mention the necessary signifier to let you know whether you’ve got a wee lad or lassie.

A soft place to land.

We bought a glider rocker. And not just any glider rocker. THE Dutalier glider rocker that I have been lusting after since the baby store opened in December 2005. It was one of those things I would never put on our baby registry, because it's much more a gift for me than for the baby. And they're flippin' expensive.

I knew my time at the baby store would pay off, and it did last Thursday when I worked my weekly 6pm-10pm shift. I was taking something to the back room and walked by the furniture clearance area. There was MY chair. My brown chenille, wide-seat, Dutalier grande glider rocker with multi-position recline. They accidentally built an extra one, and it had a few marks on the seat... So it had been marked down. A LOT. I immediately loaded it onto a cart and put it in the back room with my name on it. When I got home, Dave was also kind enough to remind me that we had a $25 off gliders AND ottomans coupon that expired on 4/30/07. I remembered then, receiving the coupon and laughing, "knowing" that we would not be using that coupon because there was "no way" we would be planning for a baby by then. Well, joke's on.... I don't know. But we saved an additional $50, along with my 10% discount AND the ridiculous clearance price on the item. Even the manager was like, "Wow, what a great deal... You saved 50%!" Yes, I am the queen of bargain shoppers.







That's why I've titled this post "A soft place to land." Last week was a rough week. Now I get to go home and sit on my cushy glider and put my feet on the ottoman (with convenient nursing stool included) and pet my belly. The world seems brighter when put into comfortable gliding motion.

Mommy Raccoon has not found her way into the trap on our roof, no matter how loud I yell at her to go to her trap at night when she starts scratching around and her babies start crying. Maybe if I stopped talking to her she would feel more safe to go out and snack on some bait in the trap....

We had a delicious weekend with sunshine pouring into our house and chicken on the grill and fresh vegetables and the sounds of kids playing outside. I made strawberry shortcake, my absolute favorite food in the entire world. I worked on Sunday, but Dave reported that my favorite next-door neighbors did indeed bust out the sprinklers on Sunday afternoon. My college friends Laura and Thai came over for lunch on Saturday. Both of them work in health care (Thai is a medical resident and Laura is in health care administration), so talking about hospitals and the American health care system was very interesting, and relevant while we are talking about choosing a pediatrician and our upcoming labor/delivery experience.


Oh, and for those of you who know how much I love my cat, Runa, you will enjoy this story. I didn't shut the back door on Friday when I went to pick Dave up from work. When we got home, we found Runa puffed up to about twice her normal gargantuan size, in full tri-pod mode, starting at our neighbors' orange cat while he was chillin' on our back deck. Runa is in the dictionary next to the words "scaredy cat" so we were enthralled by her vigour. The orange cat is quite the neighborhood pal, and I've been know to pet him from time to time during his adventures onto our steps and back porch... Runa is clearly not the chair of the local kitty chapter of the welcome wagon. Dave ended up breaking up the stare-down, and we laughed when only after the orange kitty left did Runa hiss. Oh how we love Runa, a.k.a. "goo" or "baduna."





My nausea is very rare now, and my clothes still fit very well, so I look about as "unpregnant" as a pregnant woman can look. My cheeks are rather rosy and Hallmark commercials make me cry (hard) and I drink a ton of water and still crave milk and pickles, but that's about it.

I told you our house was a fertile place to live!

So many updates to share over the past 24 hours, so prepare for a long post. If you're not up for it, here's a quick rundown.

1. The baby is fine. Heartrate at 158 (with the doppler, no ultrasound), I gained 1 pound.

2. David totaled his car. Oh Goody.

3. The noises in our attic were not mice, but rather a mommy raccoon and her babies. I told you our house was fertile--baby-making karma EVERYWHERE, even our attic.

4. We're taking a babymoon.

5. I'm 15 weeks pregnant and I feel good. McDonald's chicken mcnuggets are my friends.

So our appointment with Dr. Tucker went well. She was kind enough to wear her pink crocodile shoes again and we basically just chatted after they weighed me, took my blood pressure, found the heartbeat and I peed in a cup. We won't see Dr. Tucker until after she comes back from maternity leave, so we said our "good lucks" when we left today. I don't know why it was so different, but hearing the heartbeat made both David and I very emotional. The baby was on my left side today. How cool is that?!

So when it rains, it pours. I literally JUST had a long conversation with my Dad this week about how we would finagle getting a new car for when Baby Cute arrives. Dave's car is (was) on its last legs, but still running fine and we just put a bunch of money into it (not to mention $50 in gas). We decided to wait it out and save and seriously shop for a babymobile come August/September. That sounded great and fit into our plans.

I should know better than to make plans.

My car is in the shop after my unfortunate ice skating incident, so we're been sharing a car this week. David calls me yesterday and says, "Uh, you're going to have to get a ride home because I got into an accident and my car is DONE." It was a little rainy, Dave was a little distracted, someone stopped a little too fast on Saginaw and Dave skidded and rear-ended a Cavalier, effectively ripping off the grill of his car, smashing his hood and starting a free-flow of anti-freeze onto W. Saginaw in Lansing.

He's fine, I'm done crying about it, and let us all take a moment and thank God for my co-worker Francie. She just happens to keep a beater car in her driveway and was kind enough to take me to her house after work yesterday, give me the keys and tell me to keep it as long as we needed. What an amazing blessing! Now mind you, Francie's "beater" is nicer than a lot of the cars I drove before my Bonneville, so I am not at all put out by a 1999 Ford Explorer with a totally functional radio and 99,000 miles on it. We get my car back today, so all is well. We've decided to just be a one-car family and make it work. Worst-case scenario, Dave takes the bus to work, which is a 3-block walk from our house. Hooray for CATA (the Capital Area Transportation Authority). After we get our baby savings in place, we'll start car-saving instead of debt-paying and work a little of "Joe's Used Car Lot Magic" come end of summer/early fall.

Cute, huh? Oooooooh no!

Ok, on to babies. We heard rustling and some odd animal sounds for the past few weeks, and we were pretty sure it was mice. Most houses built in 1918 have mice, so we didn't feel that special. Well, the sounds got louder, the light in the nursery flickered every once in a while and I pretty much flipped out about it last week. (Pregnancy hormones, I'm sure) So the Critter Control guy came today, checked out our roof and found a spot in our furnace fan where a shoddy patch job with some wire had been pushed in. He poked his head up into our attic, shined his flashlight and BAM--Mommy Raccoon! So several hundred dollars later, there is a trap on our roof and once Mommy is taken care of, he will remove the babies by hand. I'm just glad there is an answer to this and I am not crazy. Hopefully we caught it early enough that there isn't too much raccoon POO in my attic. Ugh. Critter Dude says the rest of our house is sealed very well, and we should have no problems after he puts up a new device over the furnace fan.

Juliette Gordon Low is the founder of the Girl Scouts and one of my heroes. She was not easy on the eyes, but she had sass and tenacity coming out of her ears.

So while we're hemorrhaging money, we figured we would plan the babymoon we are pretty committed to taking before Baby Cute arrives. Dave's only cousin on his Dad's side is Bradley (I giggle because Dave's middle name is Milton and his cousin's name is Bradley. HA!). Bradley manages a fabulous hotel in Charleston called the Planters Inn. My "list of things to do before we have a baby" includes seeing the Juliette Gordon Lowe birthplace in Savannah and wading in the Atlantic Ocean and eating at Paula Deen's restaurant. David talked to Bradley this week and he is THRILLED about us coming to visit. This is great news, as he is also happy to have us stay with him. This makes the trip much more affordable and I already got a great deal on a rental car for Memorial Day weekend. So we're going! Right now it looks like we'll travel on Thursday, May 24, do Charleston Friday/Saturday/Sunday, head to Savannah on Sunday and stay in a lovely hotel downtown, imitate a Southern Belle and Gentleman on Monday, stay with Brad on Monday night and travel home on Tuesday. This eats up three hard-earned vacation days, but I think it will be worth it. It's something to look forward to, and the kind of adventure David and I like to take.

Oh Paula Deen, How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

Here are my 15-week updates. Are you still there? Whew! This is a long one.

From Baby Center:
At around 4 inches long, crown to rump, your baby now weighs about 2 1/2 ounces. He's busy inhaling and exhaling amniotic fluid, which will help the air sacs in his lungs develop. Sweat glands are appearing, and although his eyelids are fused shut, he can sense light. If you were to shine a flashlight at your tummy, he'd most likely move away from the beam. If you're scheduled for an ultrasound in the coming weeks (most women have one between 16 and 20 weeks), you may be able to find out whether your baby's a boy or a girl !

About my pregnancy: Why do I feel so much better than I did in my first trimester? The rate of increase in the hormone thought to play a role in pregnancy-related nausea, called beta HCG, starts to taper off somewhere after the tenth week, according to Dr. Gil Gross, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Washington University in St. Louis. As the levels of this pregnancy hormone plateau, nausea generally subsides and you start to feel noticeably better. Additionally, in the first few months of pregnancy, all your hormone levels are skyrocketing, which leaves many women feeling off-kilter and nauseated. Now that you're hitting the second trimester of pregnancy, those hormone levels start to stabilize, allowing you a respite of a few months before third trimester aches and complaints kick in.

From Baby Gaga:
Your nearly four-inch long gymnast is happily mobile inside your womb, and if you're really lucky, you’ll notice a point when your sneezing, coughing or laughing results in a little kick here or a poke there-- although many women don't feel anything until the 17th week or later. Although the poking and kicking isn't very charming during sleeping hours, it’s a good sign as it means your baby is actually reacting to outside events! (Yay! You’ve got yourself one active healthy baby!) Their little elbows and knees are bending more freely this week and their little legs are finally growing longer than their arms and getting them all pumped up for prenatal Richard Simmons. Many of their major organ systems are increasing in capacity—particularly that amazing tiny heart and complex circulation system, which is now pumping about 25 quarts of blood per day, and will increase to a very impressive 200 quarts per day by the end of the pregnancy. As far as hair goes, we’ve got some new scalp patterns beginning to develop on the head, although actual head hair is not yet present.

Baby Cute in the Big City.

We had a lot of fun this weekend in Chicago. Meredith and Jerry's new condo is beautiful, complete with a jacuzzi tub that made me extraordinarily jealous and big city ambiance in the form of a whooshing L-train passing by every so often. Luckily, Mer and Jer have lots of friends (not to mention ones who work out and take stairs like CHAMPS). We got their entire apartment loaded in less than two hours and when we left on Sunday there were maybe a dozen or so boxes still packed. I was amazed (and slightly motivated to begin unpacking my multiples of dozen boxes in the house...).

As much as I am not in control of my own appetite thanks to Baby Cute, it was also a lovely food weekend. We had turkish food on Friday, complete with a tomato salad that still calls my name and yummy chocolate cake with buttercream frosting in honor of Melanie's big 3-0. Saturday, Meredith was kind enough to have fruit and muffins. Delish. Saturday afternoon, who doesn't love pizza? Mmm mmm mmmm. Saturday dinner was ok, but really the nacho appetizer is where it was at. Sunday morning I had the most delicious ham and cheese omlette and perfect hot chocolate. Sunday afternoon, Nate's comment was, "You are SO pregnant." when I picked up a dill pickle, bottle of lemonade and two cheese sticks at a gas station in Benton Harbor. Dude, it was GOOD. And I drank some water in between the pickle and the lemonade!

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention Belly Dancing. Oh yes, belly dancing. Dave and I stayed firmly planted in our chairs, but my baby brother, brother in law Roberto and Melanie all shook their money-makers with the scantily clad women with amazing abdominal muscles. As a side note, I don't think any of them had ever been pregnant. Their abs were amazing.

They call this the "honeymoon trimester" because it's the one where you glow and have a "baby bump" and feel pretty gosh darn good. So far, so good. I have so much more energy and am really enjoying going home in the evenings to tackle one more little project at the house. I am getting antsy about the nursery and want to move furniture and do the floors and buy the crib, but I am doing my best to just CHILL. David is good at keeping me calm.

The sad news is that today Disney introduced a new line of princess wedding gowns. Now there has never been a day in my entire life that I regretted marrying David when I did until today. Today, I found out if we would have waited just 3 years, I would have been able to wear the "official" Cinderella gown. *sigh*

We are interviewing students for summer writing positions and let me just say this--FACEBOOK. Oh my goodness, in 15 minutes I literally could have cancelled all of the interviews and just hired two of them. The rest? I REALLY don't like photos of puking drunk college students, but I REALLY REALLY don't like them when I am pregnant. Stupid college students.

We see our doctor on Thursday and I am very excited about hearing Baby Cute's heartbeat or seeing him/her on another ultrasound. My Grandma Ebig has demanded photos to take to bingo, so cross your fingers for another ultrasound so we can 'represent at Bingo.

Like it's going out of style.

So from milk to water! I still enjoyed two glasses of milk this morning, but this afternoon I am downing water like it is going out of style! I just keep drinking! It's not that I'm "thirsty" or have a dry mouth, but I just want to drink water.

Oh, Baby Cute, you are a quirky little lemon-sized fetus. I know you will be strong-willed like your Mommy, but sometimes I wonder about you.

Apparently I am also semi-psychic. Yesterday was the first day I felt energized and motivated after getting home from work to dig around in the nursery. So I did. It was wonderful! I found my long-lost coupon organizer, empty checkbook registers, our credit cards (they're in a sealed envelope with our original debt amount written on the front), a ton of mortgage paperwork I can probably safely shred, and BABY STUFF. I love working at the baby store. Perhaps one of my favorite things about it is finding the very best deals and rock bottom prices. Every once in a while our apparel goes 30% off the clearance price. So if you buy off-season clothes that were already marked down several times the items are quite reasonable. Here is what I found:

--Halloween clothes! Two "trick or treat" t-shirts and a romper/bib/bootie outfit. All 0/3 months, that is just weird.

--Soft baby girl snowsuit.

--Soft baby girl outfit.

--Two packages of Carter onesies.

--Duckie bathrobe and matching set of washclothes.

--A large amount of baby boy outfits, including an adorable pair of denim overalls, a onesie/short set with digger trucks on it, a "little tiger" romper, a couple of sleepers, a very "preppy" summer outfit with jean shorts and a gingham shirt and a pair of jean shorts with a matching t-shirt that has a turtle on it. So if Baby Cute is a boy, he already has a good start on a wardrobe.

--Two bottles of babywash and two bottles of lotion.

--Various other items like little toys with sunshines on them and the cute gifts we've received so far like an ear thermometer and a duckie blankie.

The Halloween stuff freaked me out the most. Now mind you, several of the items were things I bought thinking they would be great gifts at some point down the road. It is so odd to think that I was actually buying those things for our Baby Cute.

Today I got an email from my friends at Johnson & Johnson. They actually have online instructional videos for how to give your baby a bath. What did we DO before the internet? I think we just stuck them in the kitchen sink and made them smell all sweet and baby like again. Well, along with Johnson and Johnson I also got updates from Babygaga.com and Babycenter.com. Here is the latest.

BabyCenter: Welcome to your second trimester! This is a big milestone because it marks the end of a critical development period. All the basic structures of your baby's body are formed now. Head to bottom, your baby is just 3 1/2 inches long — about the length of a lemon — and weighs about 1 1/2 ounces. She's starting to develop an ultrafine, downy covering of hair all over her body called lanugo . Thanks to brain impulses, her little facial muscles are getting a workout as she squints, frowns, and grimaces. She can grasp now, too, and she may be able to suck her thumb.

Babygaga: Welcome to trimester two! Your beautiful baby is covered in downy hair known as lanugo and really starting to move around. You've got a while before you'll be feeling it, but they're in full motion anyway. Watch out for trimester two symptoms there's plenty of not-so-fun stuff like back pain, swelling fingers and feet from water retention, and plenty of good-old fashioned fatigue.

Here is the 14 week odd image from Baby Center...

Got calcium?

So I work often with dairy farmers, dairy researchers, dairy Extension agents, etc. I am even responsible for the Michigan Dairy Ambassador youth program. Dairy peeps are good peeps, I like 'em. Lately, I like them even more thanks to Baby Cute's love of dairy products.

My Mom used to tell me that she knew she was pregnant when she started craving milk. I have very few, if any, memories of my Mom drinking milk. Setting the table as a kid, I only got 5 glasses out because my Mom never had anything to drink with dinner. So when she finally did crave milk, she was pretty sure there was another little Ebig growing inside.

Well, I already know Baby Cute is growing inside of me. I can feel it (again, it's the weirdest and coolest thing I've ever felt) and we have a pic of our little alien. Until this week, I wanted nothing to do with milk. I could do the occassional cheese or yogurt, but ugh--milk made me nauseous. Now, I want milk. I want to drink large glasses of ice cold milk. Instead of juice in the morning, I've been filling up my coffee mug with milk. Baby Cute wanted a McDonald's hashbrown for breakfast this morning and they have these delicious little bottles of milk! I already had my mug full of milk, but I got the little one anyway and just enjoyed it with an afternoon cookie.

My theory is that Baby Cute is growing bones this week. I should be able to feel the flutters (can you tell I'm excited about this... I think I've mentioned it almost every post) in another few weeks, so Baby Cute is just getting stronger bones to kick and punch me with. I am ok with this.

I am also reviewing research proposals for the animal initiative half of my job. There are several dairy-related proposals. I hope at the meeting on Friday my bias toward the dairy industry does not show. I will refrain from wearing my "When I grow up I want to be a dairy farmer" T-shirt.

A milestone.... Sort of.

Today marks another official pregnancy milestone--my first day wearing preggo pants. My pants just don't fit like I want them to. I have some bigger pants than others, but my closet was devoid of them this morning. So here I sit, rather comfortably, in my new black linen drawstring pants. The waist is rolled three times and the drawstring is virtually useless, but dang, they are comfy.



Thanks to MomCarolyn, David and I took our first trip to the local Motherhood Maternity store yesterday after work. Dave and Carolyn brought all three of us presents--preggo tops for me, a sports book for David and a book and toy for Baby Cute. Thanks to my ebay savvy, I have several preggo tops already. And my regular tops are fitting fine. What I am in need of, however, is pants. So off we went to Motherhood. They have a small, but decent supply of plus sizes. They are shoved in the back behind the sale racks of skinny girl clothes, but I tried to just see past that and be glad I could try things on.


They had not a single pair of khaki/brown pants in my size, but the black linen pants felt wonderful and I also picked out a couple of nursing bras that were on super sale and a top on super clearance that is a little more breathable and summery. Here it is, I'll spare you the bra pictures.



Easter weekend was wonderful. Good food, lots of laughter, hugs from my Mom and sister and Grandmas. It's all good for my soul. Oh, and I almost forgot another milestone. A person has officially touched my belly as if it were not mine. Mind you, that person is Grandma Ebig (who I don't rank high on the list of tactful people I know), but she did pet my stomach and tell me I had a little belly already. I refrained from saying--"Uh, Grandma? I already had a pretty BIG belly before I got pregnant..."--It was sweet and funny regardless. It was a good taste of what is to come when random strangers may feel the need to touch me without my permission.


Tonight I am having dinner with my friend Jessica who is just about a week or so away from her due date. I am VERY excited about seeing her and picking her brain and seeing her "sea life" nursery. Tomorrow I work at the baby store, Thursday is a new Grey's Anatomy and Friday we are off to Chicago to celebrate Melanie's 30th birthday and Meredith and Jerry's first home.


So much to celebrate!

A step back.

We interrupt this blog post to tell a very silly joke from my co-worker:

Q: Did you hear that Comerica Park is not selling beer or pop anymore?

A: Yeah, they lost their opener.

HA HA HA HA HA




Anyway, I forgot to update my tickers and things when Dr. Tucker changed my due date. Oops. So, today is not a day for my weekly update. Instead, I've taken a step back and am STILL 13 weeks. Roar. Please see last Friday's post for our current development.

Considering how much I feel Baby Cute's growth, I have a feeling our little jumbo shrimp is going to catch up pretty quickly.

For your blog-loving enjoyment, I've also added new tickers to the bottom of this fabulous blog o' mine. They are from babygaga.com and I put both the "development" and "humor" versions of the ticker down there. It's fun stuff. The original one I had got all artistic and reflective. BORING. I want to know what Baby Cute is doing today.

I am so excited for this weekend! My sister Meredith is already home and my in-laws are leaving in about 3 hours to head south to Lansing. It will be so great to see everyone. If any of ya'll are lucky, I'll let you feel my uterus. You know you want to!

I got to have lunch today with my best friend at work, Beth. It was fun, therapeutic and delicious. Also, the secretary in the animal science department asked if the rumor that I was expecting is true. When I confirmed, she asked to be invited to the shower. If you know who I am talking about, I was as shocked as you were that she wants to celebrate Baby Cute.... I guess babies bring out the best in people!

I am going to buy some diapers at the Baby Store this evening. Random people open packages of diapers in the store and take one or two. I'm sure they felt it desperately necessary to steal because they had a blowout or whatever, but could you just BUY instead of stealing? Anyway, we mark those opened packages WAY down AND you can still use coupons... So I snagged myself some size 3's and a package of hangers missing one that is marked from $3 to $0.90. Every little bit helps I guess.

Happy Easter!

The case of the disappearing waist.

Baby Cute is busy making room in my pelvis. It is the oddest thing I've ever felt, and perhaps the coolest too. I feel "full" and like things are moving around and stretching in there. I'm 14 weeks today... That seems like a lot. Six weeks away from the halfway point. And perhaps just a couple weeks away from being able to feel Baby Cute's "flutters." I can't wait!

Today I feel like Baby Cute is a boy. I had a dream last night about David taking care of the baby and David kept calling him his "little buddy." I got all teary thinking about that this morning and told Dave that we should have a boy so he could have a "little buddy." His response was "well, either way I'm going to have a little buddy." Sorry if that's cheesy to all of you, but it's just about the cutest thing I can think of. My husband is going to be a great father.

I'm finding that my clothes don't fit like they used to. My waist appears to be disappearing. I was hoping I would be above this whole "maternity clothes" thing for a while yet because of my weight, but alas no. It's like a lot of women talk about... Your clothes don't fit, but neither do the maternity clothes. So really, I am most comfortable in something with an elastic waistband. Oh so fashionable. I really can't get home quickly enough from work to put on my pink warm up pants or pajama bottoms. It just feels SO much better.

Yesterday was a great day in that I finally got Baby Bargains, the book I've been anxiously waiting for. It is awesome! I love a good deal, and the book rates all popular baby products on safety, quality and value. It has already made me think twice about a few items I thought I was set on, so it's already worth my hard-earned gift certificate. The baby store gets just average reviews, but then again, the places that get glowing reviews also have $1,000 cribs and $400 bedding sets. No, thanks!

I ordered a couple of catalogs online, taking the authors' advice to get inspiration from the expensive places, not products. See? More smart tips!

Several projects are calling my name this afternoon, tapping me on the shoulder and reminding me that the week is almost over and there is still a lot to be accomplished. My belly is full of pizza again, so back to work for me!

SpaghettiO's and Pickles Don't Mix Well.

So yesterday I felt like someone ran over my dog. Nothing truly wrong, just this grief-like sadness that I couldn't kick. This is apparently one more thing we can blame on hormones. When I recounted the story to my co-workers, they had nothing but understanding, similar stories to share. So that makes me feel better.

Just as a side note, spaghetti'O's, pickles and chocolate pudding do NOT mix well, even if eaten one at a time. This is a lesson learned.

Perhaps my favorite part of my downer day yesterday was squirming around in bed and complaining to Dave that "it feels like something is growing inside of me!" His response was "Oh my God, do you think your heart is pumping blood through your arteries and veins? Or that your lungs are taking in oxygen?!" It made me laugh because I was being the master of the obvious, but let me tell you, Baby Cute is doing some weird gymnastics in there. I can't explain the feeling. It doesn't "hurt" per se, but it sure is odd and uncomfortable. I can't help but think that once I can feel Baby Cute moving around and kicking my intestines it will take on a different kind of joy and meaning. Right now, I just feel bloated. This is what Baby Cute should be looking like... A much more proportional head and ears moving to a more normal location...

Damn, pregnancy is glamorous, isn't it? :) The adventure continues.

Because I know I'm tired of looking at all text in my blog, I thought I would post some photos of this most adorable nursery that I found today while looking at someone's Nest profile. Her theme was "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and ours will be "You Are My Sunshine," but the general color scheme and the look of the room was so beautiful. We'll also have white furniture and yellow walls (but not that bright) and brownish floors. Oh, and if anyone knows where to find a large, sun-shaped rug--give me a shout.

Enjoy the photos, and have a great day. The sun really did come out tomorrow.

Do brunettes have more fun?

So I discovered this weekend after a few random comments from people that my hair is a different color. Not crazily different, but I have lost almost all of the dirty blonde and am now a definite brunette. This is NOT something I had anticipated, but then again what parts of pregnancy have I been prepared for?

I'm still on soft foods, but McDonald's hotcakes and sausage fit into that description and that's what Baby wants, so it's what Baby gets. David was also kind enough to call my mother for a recipe to make one of my fave comfort foods-tator tot casserole. Like my Mom says, if you can put a whole bunch of stuff together and coat it in butter/gravy/cheese/other notgoodforyou ingredients, you are an excellent comfort-food cook. Mmm, random mixture of hamburger, green beans, cheese, cream of mushroom soup and tator tots.... Delish.

I was also pleased to discover from my friends at BabyCenter.com that having a runny nose and being sniffly is another random pregnancy symptom. Basically, you can blame almost any pregnancy symptom on hormones. So, hormones are making my nose run. Mystery solved.

We got to hang out with Dave's friends this weekend in Alma. It was very fun. Alma is only about 45 minutes away from our new house, so it was a very comfortable drive and totally worth the trip to have Main Street Pizza and great conversation. Plus, it was David's first opportunity to take advantage of his built-in designated driver, yours truly. Lucky him. Matt and Leigh also have a new HDTV, so we marveled at individual strands of hair and grass on the sports channels and tolerated Matt's "with HD/without HD" demonstrations for each new guest that arrived.

Petey and Corbie brought us an adorable selection of ducky things including a blankie, onesie and sleeper. The duckies are all fuzzy and adorable--and how could they resist getting "Big Duck's" baby duck items. :)

As we drove home on Saturday night, Dave and I had an interesting talk. You see, while we weren't paying attention, Dave's friends' babies turned into kids. Like, regular, fun, playful, often mischevious kids. We can remember "debriefing" after each couple's wedding, talking about what we wanted at our own celebration. Well, we found ourselves "debriefing" again on the way home, but this time about parenting styles. Of the four couples we got to hang out with, each has a different parenting style. It will be interesting to watch how our own style develops as Baby Cute grows up.

Otherwise, the weekend was low-key. I worked on Saturday until 3 and all day Sunday. Friday I putzed around town, doing a long tour of Value City and eating mashed potatoes for dinner. Nothing new and exciting to report otherwise!

I am really looking forward to this weekend. I miss my family and love when we get together--it makes me feel alive, loved and happy.