Big for 16 weeks….

So apparently I am “big for 16 weeks”... I *think* that is a compliment; at least I am taking it as such. I guess I have finally “popped”. 

I went to the family reunion this weekend, and it was exciting seeing my dad and grandparents and having them be exciting about their impending grandchild or great-grandchild.

On another note, on Sunday after the family reunion we went down to Gatlinburg for a few hours and walked around and then I drove the 4 hours home. I don’t know if it was the walking or the riding in the car, but by the time I got home my ankles were pretty swollen. I always thought that that was something that didn’t happen until later in pregnancy. I guess I was wrong. Thankfully after a good night’s sleep with my feet up, they were back to normal. But that means I am not anticipating my business trip to Chicago next week because I will be doing A LOT more walking than I did this weekend. Oh well.

Also, I have also already outgrown the new bras I got when I got pregnant… I guess I should have bought even bigger nursing bras than I did. Oh well again. It means I get to go shopping soon. YAY!!!

I am now feeling the baby move pretty much daily. It is really funny any time Adam lays his hand on my belly to feel it the baby goes crazy moving around. It is cute. He/She really loves their daddy.

How far along? 16 weeks
Total weight gain: -2 lbs. from pre-pregnancy, up 6 from my low point
Maternity clothes? I haven’t bought any yet… but I need to. I am down to just yoga pants and dresses.
Stretch marks? none yet.. . need to start to cocoa butter soon, so I don’t get them. J
Sleep: Sleeping pretty well. I really have to use my pregnancy pillow as I can no longer sleep on my stomach because it hurts, but really with the pillow I still sleep ok on my side.
Best moment this week: Seeing all my family!!!
Miss Anything? Sleeping on my stomach…
Movement: Pretty much daily now… Yay
Food cravings: Really just anything but meat.... Oh and Egg Salad earlier this week!
Anything making you queasy or sick: Being hungry.
Gender: Feeling like it is a boy… but holding out a little hope for a girl
Labor Signs: No!
Symptoms: Daily headaches and cramps
Belly Button in or out? In, but stretching tight
Wedding rings on or off? On…
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy… unless I am watching/talking about anything the least bit sad or touching, and the I am crying…

Forced Growth (and not just my belly)

I will be 14 weeks on Monday. I cannot believe how fast this pregnancy is going by. I definitely have a bit of a belly now, although it really only looks like fat, unless you already know I am pregnant. Although, this week I did have my first person ask me if I was pregnant (granted I was rubbing my stomach and had just eaten, so I was extra big, but still.) It was nice to have someone acknowledge that I was not fat.

I used to wonder why pregnant people were always rubbing and touching their bellies, and that question has now been answered. Because it always hurts. Not a truly "in pain" kind of hurt but it just aches, and feels stretched constantly. Especially after a big meal. It feels like a balloon is slowly being inflated from the inside (which isn’t too far from accurate.)

My big news for the week, is that I am now 80% sure of the gender! Rebekah is impatient and couldn’t handle waiting until August to find out, so she bought me the Intelligender test. It has an 80% accuracy rating and it said BOY!!!

I don’t claim to understand God, but sometimes I feel like I know how he works, and I knew he was going to give me a boy, no matter how much I wanted a girl. I think one of the whole points of parenting is to force you to grow (not just literally), and I am too comfortable with girls (which is why I wanted one). Excluding Robert and Hannah who I was really too young to remember their young infancy, I have “raised” 4 (or more) girls their first year of life, and 0 boys. I am not really sure what to do with a boy baby. I am sure they aren’t THAT much different from girls, but all the boys I have nannied or been around have been over 2 (and those were mostly the quiet indoor type boys).

For whatever reason, I have never really been around boy babies. So I knew I HAD to have a boy. God had to push me out of my comfort zone. Having a child at all is significant growth for Adam. It will be for me too, but ESPECIALLY for a boy. I am a bit out of my element with a boy. I would be too confident with a girl. Not the case with a boy. Rather than me feeling that I have more knowledge it will be a new growing experience for both of us to figure out together, and I am looking forward to that. I am just more scared of my chance of failure with a boy.  I will want an outdoorsy boy, but I am SOO not outdoorsy. Boys are so much more active and I am just not sure what to do with that.  That will all be Adam’s department.

God has been very kind at slowly acclimating me to the idea of a boy (I think I would have panicked if I didn’t have any inclination and just found out at my ultrasound/birth that it was a boy). I have had the feeling since pretty much day one, and then I took the baking soda gender test and it said boy, and now this test. There is still the chance that my ultrasound will tell me different, but I highly doubt it.

It is so funny how I can be so much more scared of one gender over the other. They are both babies who are going to completely disrupt my life. Boys are just a lot scarier.

Despite my fears, in some ways I am glad it’s (probably) a boy. I have not even thought of what I would do for a girl nursery, but I have a picture in my head of what I want for a boy nursery. If only I could find what I want online, but I think I am going to have to make it… but that is a topic for another blog post.

Since I am still not confident enough to buy boy things, but I want to do something for our little boy, I have changed my blog to look a little more masculine... 

Here is my gender test from today:

It's (probably) a boy!