Week 21

Week 21

After much ado, here is a bump pic for your viewing pleasure

This was taken day one of 21 weeks, and I swear in the 5 days that have passed since then, it has grown even more. 

WHAT’S NEW
Macaroni is on the move!  Although I had felt the ole butterbean making a few nudges here and there over the past couple weeks, this week it’s a different story. 

My daily rhythm is to go non-stop, balls to the wall, then I finally hit the wall and crash for the night (typical me: it’s either 0 or 100%).   These days, I am crashing earlier than usual in that I call it quits and finally sit down for first time around 8:30~9pm. As soon as a do, macaroni jumps for joy.  Literally.  It moves for a good solid hour (feeling movement every 15~30 seconds within that hour).

For those of you who have been pregnant, you know the feeling.  There are no words to describe it. (Although sweet for now, soon to be painful as it runs out of room and is kicking at my ribs!).  Nonetheless, no matter how bad of a day I’ve had, I smile (and more times than none will giggle out loud) with every move I feel. 

To add to the excitement, Michael got to feel it for himself for the first time!   As well as sweet Lilly.  She and Pepper actually took a few breaks from each other this past weekend for her to feel my belly!

Side note: that Lilly and Pepper....friends for life, let me tell ya. I mean, just look at this sweetness. Pepper was so tired she literally couldn't hold her own head up. Hahaha. 

Great Danes truly are gentle giants!  

GROWING MACHINE

This week, the baby should be the size of a large banana and should weigh 11 ounces. Should  is the operative word here, as you can recall from my week 18 update, it was already weighing 10 ounces at that time, so who knows how big it is now!   

DEVELOPMENTS

It’s been practicing swallowing and digestion (via amniotic fluid) for the past couple weeks now and it’s taste buds are officially up and running!  I am consciously trying to make my diet more expansive than it already is – exposing the little booger to as many tastes as possible.  Hope it liked the salmon we had last night, because I sure did!

It also has eyebrows and eyelids now.  Those will come in handy for sure!!!

Other than that, it supposedly sleeps for about 12-14 hours a day. I wonder what the heck it’s doing the rest of the time in there (my mind instantly goes to scenes from the movie, Look Who’s Talking!).

HOW AM I FEELING?

Physically - pretty fantastic. I’ve had a good string of really good workouts lately. You know how sometimes you work out and you just kinda make it through the work out, then other days you feel like Rocky climbing to the top of the steps in his training to fight Apollo?  The latter is the kind I’ve been having lately and to me, there’s hardly anything that compares to that feeling!   This is something that brings me great pride. I put a ton of work into organizing my pregnancy workout plan (weeks of work in fact!) and I am thoroughly enjoying executing that plan!  Geaux me!

Emotionally – different story.  I have been more and more worried about the whole giving birth process. Those of you who know me well, know that I am a person who likes to prep for things wayyyy in advance. So in my true fashion I am trying to emotionally prep as much as possible for the all too many things than can happen. Doing this puts me at ease - so thanks to all of you mommies out there who have given me advice. Chats with good friends (thanks Anne Neal!) make me feel all the more confident about the situation. 

In addition to that,  I am soooo over all of the house deco stuff. I mean, geez ‘ems. We put it off for 3 whole years and here we are at crunch time wanting to throw in the towel. What’s that a sign of? Dislike, that’s what.  And ya know Michael agrees! I’m telling you, neither of us can stand all of this crap. Not my forte to say the very least. I suppose this is how some people feel about cooking and baking.  Of all the friends we have across various professions, by golly, we need one in interior design because this girl needs help. I hate every bit of it – spending the money, making the decisions, coordinate the people to do their jobs and get the stuff done they say they’re gonna get done!, wasting so much time on it, etc, etc. etc. Oh why can’t I just win an HGTV makeover contest?!   Regardless, progress is being made. My next post will feature an update on that.

Until then....HAPPY WEEKEND!!!