Twenty-Two.

How Far Along: 22 weeks (and 2 days, but who's counting?)

Total Weight Gain: 14.4 pounds.  I'm blaming the extra weight gain this week on the fact that I weighed myself on Tuesday morning instead of Monday morning.  It has nothing to do with the fact that this was a holiday weekend and I ate enough food to feed a small village in Africa.  Obv.

Maternity Clothes: For the next few weeks I'm going to make a conscious effort to wear all of my regular clothes, basically just tunic-type tops.  Pretty soon these tops are not going to fit anymore and I'll be confined to my cute, yet very small, maternity wardrobe.  I went to the mall TWICE this weekend (count that - TWICE) and didn't buy a single clothing item.  It's all about progress people.

Sleep: I believe the whole "you don't sleep while you're pregnant to prepare you for baby's arrival" thing is true.  I haven't slept past 7:45am in weeks.  Even on Saturdays and Sundays I'm waking up before 8am.  I think part of this is due to the lack of hangovers in my life - the one plus side of not drinking.  And the other parts are the waking up 3 times a night to pee, and the my-back-hurts-so-bad-I-can't-sleep-anyway situation I'm dealing with.  I'm surprised I don't wake the neighbors in the morning with the crack of my back when I get out of bed.  The noise is rather disgusting.

Gender: I purchased a tutorial on Etsy for how to make bows.  I am obsessed.  I bought my first fabric on Monday at Hobby Lobby and I hope to have one finished by the end of the week.  My goal is for her to have a different bow for every day for like the first 3 months of her life.  And no I'm not exaggerating even a little bit.  I love bows and I don't want my sweet little girl mistaken for a boy, especially since we'll probably be calling her Sam.

Best Moment this Week: Labor Day weekend was pretty stellar in general.  Friday night we said good-bye to Jake's brother and his wife as they head off to NYC.  It was great to see the whole fam.  Saturday we got to see some friends from high school we haven't seen in a while, which is always fun.  And Monday we made a short trip to Lexington to say good-bye to more dear friends who are leaving for DC.  All-in-all I'd say that's a pretty successful weekend despite the nasty nasty rainy weather that invaded Cincinnati!

Movement: She is now the size of a papaya or a spaghetti squash (these people truly are nuts, I'm telling you).  I am pretty sure I can actually feel her moving.  Most of the movements are lower, a few inches below my belly button.  I'm picturing her either kicking her feet against my bladder (thanks) or using my uterus as a punching bag.  The movements are really faint right now, but I'm fairly certain they're no longer gas bubbles or muscle twitches.  As much as I don't want to see any feet or hands moving across my belly from the outside, I'll be excited when Jake can actually feel her moving around.  Like many moms before me have said, it's a wonderfully reassuring sign that she's okay.

Food Cravings: I'm starting to become slightly disappointed that I haven't craved anything crazy yet.  I still just have the urge to eat something, anything, all day every day and I constantly have to fight the urge to stuff my face for 24 hours straight.  Today I set a goal for myself to make it until 2pm before eating my Rice Krispie treat.  Sorry, but that's just plain sad.

Symptoms: No new symptoms this week again.  None of my miserable symptoms that make me want to lay in bed all day and do nothing have gone away, but for now I'll just thank my lucky stars that I'm not dealing with anything new on top of what I'm already dealing with.  I will say that I am in a constant state of "I have to pee" and I can't imagine how terrible this is going to be when this baby is the size of a watermelon instead of the size of a papaya or spaghetti squash.

What I Miss: Because it's been so much nicer outside (until this weekend), I've seen a lot more people out running.  I tried to run for about 45 seconds during one of my walks last week, and it just felt weird.  It's like I could feel the extra weight and my belly just felt bizzare.  We'll just scratch that activity until after she makes her worldly debut.

What I am Looking Forward to: There's nothing too exciting going on over the next few weeks, but as usual I'm looking forward to the weekend.  I'm also anxiously awaiting some cooler weather so I can start wearing sweaters, boots, and scarves and dress this growing belly a little easier.  The Reds game tonight was so wet and humid and completely mizzzz I could hardly stand it.  I made Jake leave after 5 innings, oops.

 Noteworthy Items:

-We have begun painting the changing table.  Once it's reassembled and we've got the contact paper on the shelves, I'll post a picture in the nursery.  I think it's going to work just fine.  Once again - free is always better!

-This ribbon wreath is becoming a big pain in my arse.  I went to Hancock's one day last week to buy another spool of ribbon to do the big bow, and all of their Offray ribbon was 30% off.  REALLY?!?!  Then, I went to Michael's on Saturday with my mom, and all of their ribbon was BOGO.  Never again will I buy ribbon in bulk when it's not on sale.  I know it's sounds crazy, but I really don't think I've ever seen ribbon on sale in any of these stores, and I am so annoyed with myself for basically wasting $15-20 on ribbon.  Oh well, I guess she's worth it.  Additionally, I bought the wood block to paint and write her name on to hang in the middle of the wreath.  I had it painted and wrote her name and it actually looked awesome.  Once I hung the block in the middle of the wreath, I decided the paint was too neon.  I proceeded to paint over it with a lighter pink, and I've now tried 4 times to get her name back on it the way it looked before and nothing looks good enough.  I'm so annoyed with it I'm about to just leave the wreath hanging on the wall with no name!  Once it's completed to my satisfaction, I'll share a picture with the rest of the world.  For now, I'm keeping it to myself.

-Callie went back to the vet today.  She is still limping like a little gimpy pup, but the vet doesn't really know what's wrong with her.  They x-rayed her fyoot (my dog has a Russian accent and yes that is how she pronounces the word "foot") again and are supposed to call us with results from an orthopedic specialist tomorrow.  Prayers for my little muffin.

-I feel that this week my belly finally kind of popped out and I actually look prego instead of like I have been overeating (which I have been, but that's beside the point).  But now that I look at my belly bump pictures from the last several weeks, I don't really think it looks any different!  So weird!  Once I do finally pop I know it will only be a matter of time before I feel like a heifer with a belly the size of Texas. 

-Mi madre has informed me that she did not get stretch marks while she was pregnant.  This is me praying to the pregnancy gods that I received my mom's non-stretch mark and non-weird dark line down my belly genes - sorry but that line just totally creeps me out.  Fingers crossed!

-"They" say Samantha will come out of my belly enjoying the foods that I eat while I'm pregnant.  I guess her favorite food groups will be cheese and carbs.  Please see helmet o' nachos I shared with Jake for dinner tonight:

That is a helmet that would fit on an actual human being's head, not the little bitty ones they give you with soft-serve ice cream in them.  Sidenote: Sam may also end up enjoying pizza, Chipotle, Graeter's ice cream, Subway breakfast, and Skyline chili.  I guess she'll be a good born and bred Cincinnatian!

-The diaper debate: I think we have settled on attempting cloth diapers.  I've done a lot of research and talked to some people who have used cloth, and Jake and I have decided that it's worth a shot.  Yes, we actually did have a conversation about it.  Jake did contribute.  And of course I did a cost analysis, hello - who do you think I am?  There is a service in Cincinnati called Good Natured Baby that will deliver diapers to your door every week and pick up your dirty ones.  I definitely am not cut out to be washing cloth diapers myself, but in my opinion, diapers are gross no matter how you cut it.  That being said, I'm thinking: what does it matter if they are made of cotton or some sort of manufactured material?  I'm not going to be one of those people that is strictly against using disposables while Sam's being babysat, while we're on vacation, or if we're out running errands all day, but based on what I've read, if there is a possibility of cutting down on diaper rash, potty training earlier, and reducing the amount of diapers I'm contributing to a landfill on a daily basis, then I think we might as well give it the old college try.  Again - fingers crossed that this works out!

-I also think we have pretty much completed our registry.  It seems early to have them completely figured out, but we've covered all of the big items that we can think of.  Now we're going to need to figure out a place in our house to put all of this stuff once she gets here!  Yikes!