Squishy Baby Face

   Here is the "best" picture from our ultrasound last Thursday when Chip was 20 weeks and 4 days. 

   When it was slow in Teletype this morning I was texting Lindsey a lot and reading "Pregnancy for Dummies" since I have so many questions, mostly about going into labor and things that don't have a definite answer. So I'm just writing them all down so I can remember to answer them myself later on:

• Will I have bleeding when my water breaks? I've read this can be normal and fine, but I might worry that something bad happened.
• Where will I be when my water breaks? I made a note to start carrying a towel and change of clothes in my car after 35 weeks in case it happens while I'm at work. 
• How many hours (or days!) will pass between when I get the first contraction to when Chip is born?
• Will Chip actually be born around the due due date, or a week before or after?

   On the way to Disney a couple weekends ago, I was talking to Michael about all of the pictures I want him to take at the hospital in July. Even though the baby may look gross and slimey right when he or she is born, I told him I still want a picture of that. The first "real life" picture! 

   I told him, "I'll let you know when to get the camera ready. I'll squeeze your hand. 'This is it, Shnooks! This is the last push!!'"

   Then he quickly added, "And the nurses will be like 'Ma'am, you haven't even started crowning yet.'" Man, that made me bust out laughing, and then continue laughing for the next ten minutes. He's so good at that.

   Another funny thing he said (which he used super dry humor with so it actually sounds mean when you read it) was when he saw my stomach getting a little bigger and asked how often I use the expensive stretch mark oil that Tonia recommended. I don't use it that often (maybe 2 or 3x a week) since my stomach isn't getting very big yet. I guess he thinks it is, because he said, "Well, you should use it every day because if you get stretch marks I'll have to look at them forever."

   Here are the other good Disney pictures from Magic Kingdom. We didn't take as many there, but Michael made a silly video of my terrible driving on the Speedway track:

 A little boy playing "Beast" dancing with Belle, and us sharing a pineapple dole whip juice cup (since the super delicious pina colada machine kept messing up and we couldn't get one of those).

 ^^ After riding The Haunted Mansion. It was only a little bit "too creepy". And on the People Mover ride in Tomorrowland (below). We also rode Pirates of the Caribbean and did the Jungle Cruise. We left around 4pm after I suggested we could ride the monorail over to EPCOT for a few hours and then come back to Magic Kingdom for the firework show at 8pm, but Michael didn't want to do that. He ended up sleeping for 12 hours when we got home! He's been having to work extra hours lately since the students at VAMP are having to make up for time they missed in attempt to finish their final projects and graduate on Friday. Then the new group of students start on Monday.

   When we got to Disney that morning I told Michael, "She's excited to be here", since the baby kicked a few times once we drove up to the main entrance to pay for parking, and while on the tram to ride the monorail over. It's hard not to say "she" since both nurses have said that they "think it miiight be" a girl since the boy parts are easier to spot and they haven't seen any of that. We already have crib bedding picked out for a girl from Babies R Us that we both think is cute, but we'll have to keep things generic when we do the registry at Buy Buy Baby on Saturday!

Mr. Right

   I have been wanting to write this post since last Sunday (the 12th) after it happened, but we were busy having fun at Magic Kingdom and then with work and being lazy the last days off I had, then working over the weekend, my blogging has been neglected. It almost didn't get done today, but for some reason I feel more awake than usual tonight. Possibly because I took two walks? One with Alana (3.5 miles) and then one after lunch by myself (2 miles). But the first thing on my To Do list for today was "blog about how wonderful Michael is".

 ^^ My new favorite picture of us ~ on the ferry boat after Disney.

   We had a super great weekend (the 11th and 12th) and I just wanted to take time to write about it so I can share it and always remember it. Michael had to go into work at VAMP that Saturday to help one of the students make up time she missed for one of her practicals, but surprised me by coming home early (around 2:30). I told him that I usually like when he texts me that he's on the way home so I know I have about half an hour to get the house tidied up. That day I had all my bath/hygiene products all over the floor, organizing what I wanted to keep and pitching what was expired, then writing down what I had so I stop buying more. We drove to one of the outlet malls in Lake Buena Vista so he could look for new shoes. We held hands and walked around a lot, but he didn't end up buying anything.

   It was funny because now instead of pointing out nice cars, he nods and says, "Look at that. That's a nice stroller! That's the one we should get." I love this phase we are in, how he tells me every day that he is so excited to be a dad and that so many of our conversations lately revolve around baby stuff. I like when he comes up with ideas too. For the baby shower invitations I just got kind of generic but cute ones from Dollar Tree. He was appalled and said we needed to look up invitation ideas on Pinterest and make our own! (However a few days ago I said I was just going to use the cheap ones after he told me that none of his friends like babies so he doesn't even want to invite any of them to the shower we were going to throw at our house in May. That kind of made me sad.)

   Anyway, so then he decided that we should go look at strollers so he could show me the one he wants ~ pictured below. We practiced walking around the store with it and it moved very easily. We also "accidentally" found out that the front wheel can be detached. He found a rocking chair that is super comfortable, and now I want that too ~ the one he is sitting in in the picture. We looked at sets of cribs and dressers. He pointed out which ones he liked, which were nice, and we agreed on the off-white color. We looked at bed sheets and blankets and found ones we think are super cute as well (for a girl), although we can't put them on our registry yet since we still don't know which gender Chip is! We had the Anatomy Scan appointment this past Thursday (the 16th) and that was a 45 minute ultrasound of the technician getting measurements of all the body parts which came out normal. But during that whole time, she still couldn't get a good view of the downstairs area!? Grrr..

    After Babies R Us we went to dinner at Chevy's and it was amazingly delicious as always. I don't remember the free chips and dip being sooo good, but I ate almost two baskets of them! I would say that is my favorite Mexican restaurant, and I'm glad they have one down here. The first time(s) we had been to Chevy's was in California. I took the rice and beans to work the next day. Those were so good too, especially when scooped with sour cream and cheddar flavored Ruffles!
    At one point while we waited for our food, Michael was doing an impression of someone who was stuttering (?) or singing a line of a song where the music made it sound like stuttering, but he was so cute and seemed embarrassed after he did it. I laughed a lot and he asked why, looking even more embarrassed at that point. I said it seemed like a very first or second date thing where the boyfriend is trying to be cool and funny, but ends up saying something that they feel is dumb and automatically think "aw, I hope I didn't just mess it up" or "I hope she still likes me". I love it so much when we have fun and laugh a lot, especially on a date. Maybe part of it is because Michael and I never had a real date until we were already boyfriend and girlfriend. So having those "first date feelings" is very enjoyable like we're making up for it. I guess our first real "date" was going to see HP6 even though it was not one-on-one, but that's when we held hands for the first time. Before that we just hung out a lot at Full Sail and at each other's apartments (and Ryan was almost always there, at my request).

   This picture above was from when Michael felt Chip kicking for the first time! He had the biggest smile on his face- even bigger than in the picture. I think he only felt two or three and then Chip stopped, and he hasn't felt any since then. I think today Chip got hiccups, which was interesting. I read that at 21 weeks (which I am now as of yesterday) the baby can get hiccups and what I felt were less "powerful" than the kicks, and it was happened every five seconds, for about 15 times. Kicks tend to happen every 30 seconds and only for about five times before they stop. The kicks he felt were on Valentine's Day after I got home from work. He surprised me with flowers- red roses and tulips. And speaking of surprises, he got me good again last night. He texted me while I was at work saying that he wanted to discuss how the baby room should be set up since we talked about buying one big piece each month (crib, dresser, padded rocking chair, and stroller/ car seat). Shortly after I got home he said, "Okay, so what I was thinking was..", turned on the light, and he had the crib and dresser set up and decorated already!! It was such a great surprise that I totally was not expecting since he didn't tell me he had ordered them. He also got the mattress and mattress pad/cover that is dust mite and water (pee) proof. I just made sure he put it on our credit card and that his parents didn't pay for all of it. They already help us with so much that we could be -and, I think, should be- paying for ourselves, but they insist. I loved that he put some of the stuffed animals on the shelf and had the blue fox blanket draped over the side of the crib. He doesn't want me posting pictures of it though. He wants our parents to see it in person first, and his family won't be down until August. Hopefully he will let me post some in a month or two when the whole thing is done with framed pictures and birch tree decals on the walls.

The Happenings of Month 4

    I still can't decide if I should tell people that I'm 4 months pregnant or 5 months pregnant. If I found out that I was pregnant at the end of October then that was my first month, so February would be Month 5. But considering I have 4 months and 1/2 months left, 9 1/2 months seems like too long. But then I was thinking, if we go by weeks and there are 40 weeks, averaging 4 weeks per month, then it does seem to add up to 10 months. So being that I am halfway through my pregnancy, saying that I am 5 months pregnant sounds right. Plus Kristen (my trainee) and I Googled which weeks count as which month after a girl who was 27 weeks pregnant went into labor at a Wendy's (or at least her friend had called 911 saying her water broke), Google says I would be be in my 5th month; for the 18th to 21st weeks. A few of the months end up lasting five weeks.

     Enough of that pregnancy math though.. Here is some stuff I/we have done recently:
On January 25th I texted Michael asking if he would be interested in going to some food trucks that sounded good in Winter Garden. (I saw the ad that Sana "liked" on Facebook.) When I walked through downtown Winter Garden in October with my cousin Lindsey, they had food trucks and trailers set up for local bands to play. That is where I assumed it would be, but I Googled the addresses and the food trucks were set up in three different neighborhoods. We went to the two areas closest to us and they were in very nice areas. I would love to live there but Michael guessed the houses cost at least $350,000. I hadn't been to a food truck place in almost five years and if you read the last line of that post you'll see why I may have waited so long, ha! This day was better.

  We walked around while he drank his orange ice cream float and I had a few bites of the alfredo mac and cheese before we went for a walk around the neighborhood. Michael talked a lot this night about how he was so stressed out about baby stuff. Mainly about so much of our immediate families coming to visit in August, a month after Chip is born. But I am very excited about it. And more recently he has said that he is stressed that I am putting so much stuff "on the calendar" that has to get done before July: like going to Disney this weekend ~ see, so stressful ;) But we will have more doctor appointments, Valentine's day, Aunt Paula visiting, Miriam's having a birthday party for her 3 year old, signing up and picking out items for the baby registry, the appointment for our taxes, touring the four day cares I found that look good, our anniversary trip in April (he is actually very excited about that because we're going to the mountains again), planning a baby shower at our house in May, and touring the hospital that Chip will be delivered at and fill out all my admission paperwork early.

   Yesterday I walked with Jackie again (Mia's neighbor when she still lived here. *Let's have a moment of silence about that.*) and we walked two loops around Lake Underhill, also walking to Market on South halfway through, which I thought was a fantastic idea on her part! I wore 1.5 pound weights around my wrists on the way there and switched them to my ankles on the way back. We also walked three miles together on January 27th ~ here is a picture from that morning:

   Before that I hadn't seen her since our Halloween party which I barely posted any pictures from (just a couple in my pregnancy announcement post). On January 24th I had walked with Alana, and somehow we went 4.87 miles!! We were both impressed with ourselves. She doesn't like having her picture taken as much anymore, so I took a picture of one of the beautiful Clermont views to remember instead:

  I made it one of my New Years Resolutions halfway through last month to hang out with Jackie and Alana at least once a month, and so far January and February have been a success! I saw Alana on Tuesday when we went to the movies to see La La Land and then I got donuts. Here is a picture of Sasha to make sure she doesn't feel forgotten in all of the baby talk. But she's a super good snuggler and I know she will still sleep in our bed when we have Chip. I'll just have to move her to the middle so I can jump out of bed more easily when I have to get up 5x each night.

  Michael has a new favorite restaurant: San Jose's which we had passed by two hundred times in the past two years. We went because they sent us a coupon in the mail and I suppose Michael likes their taco salad better than the other place that used to be one of his favorites (Azteca). I got the chicken quesadilla last time and that was really good. But if I am ever craving flautas, Chevy's is the place to go!! Here is a picture of us before going out to eat last week ~ my first real bump picture, without having to hold the top and bottom of my stomach to prove there is a baby in there!

   Strangely I don't look pregnant at all in the morning, although I'm fine with it because then hopefully it won't take that long to "get my body back". I also haven't gained any weight since the beginning of January, while still eating pizza and donuts and bagels. *Oh oh it's magic, you know.* Perhaps that is also because of the extra walking I have been doing to count my steps or miles. I was 119 the two times I weighed myself this week, but according to this pregnancy calculator, I am still within a healthy weight right now (I'll be 20 weeks tomorrow!!) for my height.

   A few days ago I made this handmade journal:

   It's probably the most "scrapbooking" I have done in a while, but I had a spark of creativity and had to run with it. Each page (which I ripped out of another journal) has the next week on it, from 19 weeks to 42 weeks, in case Chip wants to stay extra warm and cozy in there in July. Plus pages to write down a list of things to bring to the hospital, and all of the pictures I want Michael to take on the Canon while I'm in labor. I love looking at all those sweet pictures on Pinterest and somehow they all look so much more wonderful edited in black and white.

Other notes:
   I have not been taking naps for a while (except on the days I work I will usually sleep in my car for 20 minutes on our longer break, but I usually always do that any time I'm on day shift just because I wake up around 4:30am). I had two very detailed dreams on Friday morning and this morning. I tend to have these dreams after I am woken up by Michael getting ready for work. So once I go back to sleep from 6:30am to 8:30am, they get weird. I don't remember having dreams during the night. One was about bad stuff from work.. but luckily I had a nice one about Michael after that. This morning it was a weird one that I don't even know how to describe (we were being forced to do a bunch of challenges in elaborate costumes?) involving a few characters from The 100. My go-to for lunches at home have been consisting of chicken nuggets and garlic bread the past few weeks. Partly because it is cheap and partly because it sounds good!

My Treasure

   Yesterday morning before work (at 5:27am) I felt the first kicks!! About fifteen or twenty of them until 5:40 when I left for work. I am certain they are kicks because they were in the low uterus area compared to my stomach where it seemed like I felt the "bubbles" every once in a while. I also felt a few on the way to work, a few at work, and light ones when I laid down after I got home. It was so good to feel those, especially after crying again over the weekend, worrying that I was taking "too much" medicine because I got round two of the sinus cold (stuffy/runny nose and coughing). Although one of my doctors -and the Internet- said Sudaphed and Robitussen are safe to take during pregnancy, I have no way of knowing if Chip is being affected by it. I didn't take very much and Michael got mad at me for not taking medicine even when I was coughing so hard that it literally made me throw up on Sunday night. I ended up going home sick from work mid-morning that day because of coughing so hard that I couldn't stop gagging. My trainee (Kristen) was probably worried I was going to throw up on her! Luckily that didn't happen until I was home.

   Luckily by Monday I was about 90% over the cold and have been "basically fine" all week. I was exactly 19 weeks in the pictures above. ^^ Yesterday morning while driving to work, the song "Afraid" by Tenth Avenue North came on when I plugged in my phone (it automatically plays in alphabetical order).

When the world shakes / Feel my heart race
When the voices start again / Oh, the panic's creeping in
Who will I listen to / Fear never told the truth

I don't wanna be afraid / I don't wanna be afraid anymore
Not like before, oh / I'm safe in Your love, oh Lord

Forever be alive / With Your Kingdom, death will die

So I'll wait on You tonight / Worries only wasted time

This world cannot take my treasure / This world doesn't own my tears
My hope is alive in Heaven / I will not give into despair

   I started crying, but it was more of a happy crying, listening to these words I needed to hear as I felt like the kicks were Chip (and God) reassuring me that everything was fine and that Chip is still safe and healthy. But that's why I love getting ultrasounds done so much. Getting to see Chip growing and moving around. It was so interesting last month when they did two ultrasounds in one appointment because the first one Chip's head was on the right, then 20 minutes later, he/she had completely flipped and the head was on the left. I told the nurse it was so weird that I couldn't feel it, but she said is because Chip is still so small. Even at 19 weeks (this week) Chip is barely over half of a pound!!

Pregnancy Twins

   Phew, I just got back from a 2 and 1/2 mile walk and I. AM. PUMPED!! That was the first "long" walk I had been on since the beginning of October when I was walking to lose weight before I got pregnant to get my "pre-pregnancy weight" down that way my 9 month weight would hopefully be five pounds less. We'll find out. Last I checked (on January 18th) I weighed 120 and I kind of don't want to weigh myself again until the day I go into labor, but I always look at the scale at the doctor's office even though that's always about 5 pounds heavier than our scale (but I have clothes and shoes on when I weigh myself there). Anyway, I feel super good after walking today and towards the end I noticed that if I sucked my abs in just a smidge, my breathing got lighter and I stood up straight.. hm.. so hopefully I can stick with this on all of my days off (although it's always more fun walking with a pal! Thank you Alana and Jackie!) like I said I would back in October, bragging to everyone that I would be super healthy during my pregnancy and eat salads every day. Ha, I've eaten maybe five? And they've all been from Panera. But hopefully the bragging I have done more recently about getting back to 105 by Christmas will really happen. That may be easier though since I'll have 5 1/2 months to lose the baby weight and then a little bit extra! #HotMommyDiaries

   Anyway, last weekend I went up to Gainesville, mainly for baby Helena's baptism, but the day before (Saturday) my pregnancy twin Lindsey came over and we took some cute pictures together. Funny how we are both 18 weeks now and still don't really look pregnant. We took a few pictures where we didn't have our hands around our stomachs (not pictured) and they just looked like regular friend photos. Mommy says I probably won't get that big anyway. But I've still got 5 months to go! Today is exactly 5 months until Chip's due date on July 2nd!

   Helena's baptism on Sunday was really nice too. I won't go into further detail about why we had to wait for two hours after church for the ceremony to begin.. but we did. It was interesting to see a different priest perform the baptism since it seemed a lot more detailed than last July when Peyton got baptized. I liked the one last week better. Helena's Godmother is one of Jacquie's friends from college, Amanda, and her fiance Matt is in the guy in the second picture next to her. I'm Peyton's Godmother but I sure don't remember getting my own special blessing like Amanda did. All of the pictures on this post are from my phone. Obviously the ones above were edited (via Instagram), but the ones below were not.

 Also during that weekend my mom and I ran to Ross and Burlington, as we usually do, and we got to play a fun game called "Do you think this is cute?" (Baby clothes version.) Apparently I am very picky because out of the two long rows of outfits, I maybe said yes to about seven of them. Mommy was very disappointed that I did not like all of the stuff she thought was cute, haha. I bought Chip another gender neutral pajama outfit (a pack with 4 long sleeve shirts) and also a gender specific outfit (it comes with a hat, shirt, footie pants, and onesie) going off of what the sonogram nurse "thiiinks it miiight be", but I'm keeping the receipt in case she was wrong. Since Alana asked a few days ago I wonder when we need to start our baby registry. I assume we'll do that sometime next month since my first baby shower will be in April! We've also got a cabin reserved for a week that month to celebrate our anniversary early. I figured I could hike more at 6 months than 7, although Michael texted me today checking that I wouldn't be "bed ridden" at that point! Oh my goodness..