My Twenty-First Week

Alright, I'm 22 weeks now!

So, the nursery is painted, the crib is assembled, with the bedding in it (so we could see how it all looked), and we bought our dresser and bookshelf this week.  I also ordered us some prints from Etsy for the walls that match our bedding, which is a lambie theme.  We need to buy frames for the pictures.  I'm on the hunt for curtains now and think I've narrowed it down to a couple choices.  I ordered some swatches online so I could see what matches best.  We also got a mirror that will probably go on the wall next to the dresser so we can use it to distract the baby while changing her.  It's coming along!  Here's a sneak peek of the crib, bedding, and walls.  Not the best pictures ever (IPhone!), but you get the idea.  By the way, we obviously know to leave the bumper out for a while when the baby is little, we just wanted to see how it all looked in the crib.

This was the first week I felt like everywhere I went, it was actually obvious that I was pregnant.  A neighbor asked me if I was expecting this week, and I was proud that my tummy was out there enough that he noticed.  I'm also filling in maternity clothes that used to be big on me.  This week purchased a sweater, two pairs of maternity tights, and three more pairs of maternity pants.  I was hoping I could get away with minimal maternity clothing, but I work in a fairly formal office and using safety pins to hold my pants together isn't really working anymore at this point, so it's time to face the fact that I'm going to need more clothing to carry me through to late February.  This is probably isn't the most convenient season to be pregnant and I kind of envy my friends that got away with wearing sundresses all summer.  I have a lot that would have worked for summer.  Winter clothing is tougher!  Oh well, not a big deal.

Another cool thing that happened this week was that I won us a car seat!  I attended one of the Graco/Babies R Us events in my area and won a Graco SnugRide Connect Click 40!  Pretty cool!

The car seat is an infant seat, but designed to adjust so that your child can use it up to the recommended two years of age.  It has eight different settings to accomplish this, getting more upright with each adjustment.  It's sort of the opposite concept of a convertible car seat.  The car seat only works with two strollers since it has the Click Connect technology, so that means we'll end up buying one of those to go with it, and then go from there if we want more/other strollers when the baby is older.  It's probably good that we're forced to buy a specific stroller, because honestly I was thinking of getting like three different strollers and was tearing my hair out a little trying to decide on what to get to with a car seat.  Problem solved.  Also, the stroller seems really lightweight and folds up pretty compact, which were the big concerns for me.  The sport one reminds me a lot of the City Mini, which my brother has.

My appetite has been pretty normal, and I didn't have any morning sickness this week .  Haha, I actually did have a little on the LAST day of the week because of another toothpaste episode, which came after I'd written that update!  I did notice that I was more physically tired this week and had some back pain on days when I was on my feet for long periods of time.  I have a massage credit waiting and it might be time to cash it in soon.  I've also noticed it makes a huge difference if I'm not wearing really comfortable shoes.  I'm thinking it's the extra 9 lbs I have on me now.  Shoes that used to be comfortable to walk in for long periods of time no longer are, so I am having a hard time choosing shoes for daily activities.

We need to get going on our registry.  I think that's next on the agenda once we slow down on the nursery.  I went shopping for a baby present this week and although I recognize most baby necessities at this point, I still can't say that I've totally made all the decisions that need to be made on which things I want for each category.  Which bottles, pacifiers, diaper bag?  Not sure yet...  Must buckle down and make decisions!

Oh, and we are stuck on a name.  I think I mentioned in a previous post that we had a boy's name picked out that we both loved.  Greg has a girl's name that he loves and I really like it too, but I am still not 100% sure about it.  I spent hours this week looking through names, and I can't say that I found many that I'm that crazy about.  Greg doesn't want anything unusual.  I don't want something too popular, but also not too UNpopular either...  Even worse?  Greg hates pretty much everything else but the name he likes.  I'm constantly coming up with lists of possibilities after spending hours pouring through names and he'll glance at my list and shoot everything down.  It's really frustrating.  I'm not sure how we're going to decide on this.  Good thing we still have a while...

How far along? 22 Weeks
Maternity clothes? Mostly maternity, but still some normal tops.
Stretch marks? Nope.
Symptoms: Physical tiredness
Best moment this week: Seeing the crib totally put together with the bedding in it made me happy.
Miss Anything? I was missing running this week after reading a bunch of friends' race recaps.
Movement: Yes, but I'd love more and stronger kicks!
Food cravings: ice cream, grilled cheese, potatoes, and carbs in general.
Anything making you queasy or sick: Toothpaste got me again.  Grrr.
Have you started to show yet: Yes, I think it's finally becoming more obvious.
Gender: Girl
Labor Signs: No, thank god!
Belly Button in or out? In
Mood: Good!
Looking forward to: Working more on the nursery, registering, feeling more movement and kicks.