Eighteen

How Far Along: 18 weeks

Size of Peanut: Sweet potato.

Total Weight Gain: Unknown.  Hehe.  I find it amusing to go back and look to see what my weight gain was last time around, and last time I gained 2 pounds in between week 17 and 18.  I blamed it on ice cream binges.  Old habits die hard.  Pass the Graeter's.

Maternity Clothes: All set unless my ice cream consumption continues to hinge out of control.  At the end of my last pregnancy I was a stuffed sausage in the pants I had bought halfway through but refused to buy a new pair for the last month just because my ass grew so much.  This time I had some very generous friends loan me some pants that are a size larger than I am currently wearing.  So I have my fingers crossed that I don't have to use them, but also am thankful that if I do, I won't have to buy them.


Exercise: I'm adding this to my weekly updates to keep myself accountable.  Although I do sometimes consider chasing after Sam, holding her for extended periods of time, and generally keeping my house in order (have you ever let an almost 3 year old loose in a room full of toys for 1 minute?  It's like a damn tornado went through) "exercise", I really only count something as exercise if I put on a sports bra and break a sweat on purpose.  Last week I worked out twice.  I am beyond fortunate to have a gym at my office that offers amazing classes at lunchtime so I can get a good sweat in during the workday without taking any time away from my family at home.  As I mentioned last week, I'm getting my ass handed to me by the 60 year old women in my class, but at least I'm there.  Two days a week is my current goal - stay active so I don't get too out of shape - but don't get mad at myself if I just don't feel like doing more than that.

Sleep: This continues to be laughable.  I would love nothing more than to take a Tylenol PM and sleep for 8 hours without waking up.  Last night Sam came into our room at 12:45 for GOD KNOWS WHAT REASON and I was woefully awake until about 3am.  Needless to say I will be on a fairly steady drip of caffeine all day today.  Sorry, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.  Thankfully in a few weeks I should be on a new mattress.  Woohoo!

Best Moment(s) this week: This is quite possibly my most favorite moment of my whole life to date. I've had a lot of great moments - marrying Jake and seeing Sam for the first time are clearly tops of the list, but this was so special.  Last week we had all come home from work/babysitter and were getting dinner ready.  The weather has been totally crazy around here so it's a toss up whether I'll be freezing cold or sweating hot in my house (in fact last night in my waking period around 2am I went downstairs and flipped my thermostat from heat to AC).  This particular day, I was burning up.  I took my sweater off and when I did, you could really see my bump coming through my tank top.  Jake said outloud to me and Sam "Mommy is pregnant!  Mommy is beautiful when she's pregnant.  Mommy is beautiful all the time, but she is especially beautiful when she is pregnant."  *blush blush* Sam was sitting on a bar stool next to the kitchen counter "helping" with dinner and she looked at me with the most innocent eyes and said "Mommy, he loves you."  Her little face, so innocent and matter-of-fact, hit me straight in the heart with such overwhelming joy and love.  I instantly cried/laughed/couldn't breathe.  My mom has always told me "you chose him first", and I am a firm believer that a marriage needs to come first when you are parenting.  I think it's so important that a child is raised in a loving home where both parents respect each other and show love to one another every day.  Because at the end of the day, don't we all just want to feel loved?  If there's one thing I want for Sam in life, I want her to feel loved by people she loves.  If I fail at everything else in life and parenting, at least Sam knows that Mommy and Daddy love each other.  I hope and pray every day that we are setting an example for her of what a loving marriage is.  That was definitely a moment I will never, ever forget.

Gender: We are on a two week countdown now.  I just asked Jake this week if he was going to be okay if this baby is another girl.  I'm not convinced that this will be our last baby, but I'm also not convinced that I want to go through this again.  A lot depends on how my delivery and recovery end up going and how well I handle the stress excitement of having two kids.  Mostly though, my reason for asking him was because just because we decide to have another baby, doesn't mean it's guaranteed to be a BOY.  If we're going to have another baby it needs to be because we want another baby, not because we want a baby boy.  I guess we will have to wait and see!!

Movement: I have definitely been feeling some movement this week.  Just little rolls and punches and kicks.  There is no pattern to it and it doesn't seem to be at any specific time during the day or after I eat certain food, but there is definitely some life going on in there!

Food Cravings: So this is weird, but I'm pretty sure coffee has been making me feel more groggy lately.  A few days last week I had my morning cup and I just wanted to lay on the couch and sleep right afterward.  I was planning on spending this pregnancy drinking one cup of coffee and laying off the crack  coke zero, but it's been the only thing that will pick me up in the morning anymore. At least it has less caffeine in it?  Oh and also, I love cookie dough.  I tried to make an eggless single serving cookie dough bowl the other day, and quite frankly it tasted awful.  I thought "F it" and made a real batch of cookie dough so I could enjoy a few bites before I baked them and proceeded to eat about 4 cookies a day until they were gone.

Symptoms:  These headaches just won't go away.  I'm fighting one right now as I type this.  I have really been trying to lay off the Tylenol but most of the time it gets to a point where I just can't take it anymore and I can't function without taking the edge off.  WHY does pregnancy have to SUCK so BAD!?!?

What I Miss: We went to Rio Grande last Friday, and I wanted nothing more than to down an entire pitcher of margaritas right then and there.  I settled for a few drinks of Jake's jumbo and had tingling legs within about 3 minutes.  Woopsie.

What I am Looking Forward to: My sister is actually going to have her baby.  I am so, so, so, so excited!

Callie update:
No real update on my sweet babe this week.  She is not eating regularly and still looks really sad.  I may have to remove this from my blog because it's just a weekly reminder on top of the daily reminder that she is not doing well.

Sam Tidbits: 

-So the alarm clock...it works about 85% of the time.  The most hilarious part about it though is that Sam usually wakes up around 6:45am and wants to play or talk or put on "makeups".  I tell her to go back into her room until her light turns green and she usually does.  Then Jake and I proceed to lay in bed until 7:15 when the light turns green.  Sam then slowly opens our door like a creep and stands there holding the alarm clock right under her face so her face lights up in a green glow.  It's so creepy and also so hysterical.

-Trick-or-treating and turning back the clocks should be interesting this weekend.  Stay tuned for an update next week on how much candy my almost 3 year old can eat in one sitting :) and also how early she wakes up on Sunday morning...wahhhhh :(