Week 20: (March 9-15)
Me this week-
20 weeks is HALFWAY THERE!!! Halfway pregnant; Halfway 'til our due date; Halfway to meeting Bee... crazy happy emotions this week! :)
I was just getting over the stomach bug at the end of week 19, so luckily I felt much better at the start of week 20. I was just crazy tired and was glad to have taken off another day from work to rest. We also had our 20-week checkup with our OB. We got to hear Bee's heartbeat again (one of the best sounds ever, hands down!) and the Dr. said everything is looking great! My weight gain is great too! I think I've gained just about 10-12 pounds at this point. They suggested/recommended about 25-30 for me total so I'm right on par with that. I'm proud of myself because laying off the extreme McDonald's cravings early on was definitely a good move for me! Plus going to Zumba 1-2x a week (2 if I can make it) has totally helped a lot too! Also I try really hard to stay up on my water intake. It's pretty much all I drink, and I try to stay well hydrated to ward of headaches and cramps or anything else. Occasionally I'll have a glass of juice too, or rarely a soda (but occasionally it's not off limits) and things are going well! :)
I'm still feeling great! The 2nd trimester is super fun so far and I have most of my energy. Sometimes I forget I'm pregnant other than my belly getting bigger. I am SUPER thankful for feeling wonderful!! The tailbone pain acts up every so often (mostly if I don't walk around much during the day or if I'm laying a certain way, but mostly it's been great and is nothing a few stretches and movement can't fix). Oddly enough, though, heartburn started up AFTER leaving the Dr. appt. It stuck around for a good 5 days but (knock on wood) stopped after that. Leg cramps act up occasionally but I find if I stretch before going to bed I'm usually fine.
Crazy thing is it was in the 70s for week 20!! Mid March!! Insane! I sat out on the porch for a bit because it was wayyyy too good to pass up AND I wore capri leggings and flip flops to the Dr. appt. ;) Score to spring making some sneak peek appearances early!
We finally planned to register this week, but I was feeling slightly overwhelmed in the mom department. I/We knew of SOME basic things to register for (don't babies just need diapers, a crib, some blankets/burp cloth, clothes, and some milk? haha Kidding!). I took it to social media and posted this for all the Instagram mamas I follow to help out and give some input. I got TONS of advice on great "must-have" items and, I have to admit, I Googled nearly half of them because I didn't know what half (ok fine, probably more than half) were! Once I did some background research based on their suggestions, things were starting to click and make sense in little bits. (We are STILL gladly taking suggestions/recommendations- share yours below in the comment section or shoot me an email.)
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| STILL taking suggestions!! PLEASE add a comment below with your must-have items!! :) Thanks!!! |
That leads us to registry day- FINALLY!!! We went to the local Babies R Us and went on a marathon shopping spree. Scott was super duper excited to be in control of the little scanner gun and he is a force NOT to be messed with when that bad boy is in his possession. HA ;) It's actually kinda cute how much fun he had. We went a little nuts and had a BLAST in the store. We were back and forth around the store multiple times and went up/down just about every aisle (some more than once). It was exhausting to say the least (my feet hurt and I was hungry by the end of it). After all, we were there just about 3 hours looking at things, reading about things, testing things, racking our confused newbie/rookie brains on things, and just having a blast picking things out for Bee. It was so overwhelming how much everything costs that I had a moment of panic over it all. I kept thinking "I can't even imagine registering for multiples, especially if you have boy(s)/girl(s) multiples. Yikes!
We certainly don't expect everything (or even nearly everything) to be bought but figured it certainly doesn't hurt to shoot for the moon. And we were able to justify this for a few reasons (so I didn't go into more of a panic over having registry guilt)- 1. If nothing else, it serves as a list of things we want/need to buy ourselves later on so we don't forget. If it's not on there, I'll absolutely forget about it. 2. Babies R Us (like most registry places nowadays) offers a discount for us to buy anything leftover on our registry before/after Bee is born. If it's on the registry, automatic discount in the end... if it's not on there, full price. So we added more.
It's actually addicting. Babies R Us has an app that we can easily add items to the registry with, so I'll lay in bed at night or randomly get a new suggestion while talking to mom-friends and we'll look it up and quickly add it to the list.
If you want to check it out for yourselves, here's a handy direct link to our registry wish list. :)
Bee making an appearance :) As I look to the ground sometimes, it's like "Well, hello there!" <3 <3
More 20 week pics... :)
Our local Rita's finally opened (sign of spring around here!!) and I was definitely craving some sweet treats! :) Pineapple gelati with vanilla custard, AND rainbow sprinkles of course! Yum!! (Yes, I'm such a little kid... the simple things in life are where it's at!) :)
Bee this week-
20 weeks means Bee is half baked! I saw this idea on Pinterest and had to do it when we did our weekly grocery store run. ;)
Some fun facts about Baby Bee this week...
- He's now about 6.5 inches long (measuring up to a banana!) and 10.6 ounces
- Bee now has working taste buds and, I believe, he can taste most of what comes his way
- He's been moving around more and more, and I definitely know it's him finally :)
March parent-teacher conferences started up during week 20 and one of my families brought me a gift for Bee!! Totally unexpected and unnecessary but they are super excited for us and wanted to give us a little something. How cute are these?!?!
*Side note~ I've slacked on posting every gift from everyone and I hope no one has taken offense. We've been lucky enough to receive some amazingly adorable gifts from friends and family and they've all been unexpected and sweet!! ALL are equally special and we are so happy to have them all!! One of my work friends got Bee some sweet Mickey gear (!!! :) He will be a Disney baby for SURE!!); My mom sent us a cute nightlight/sound machine of The Very Hungry Caterpillar; and we've gotten some other adorable cards and gifts too. It's all well-loved and super special, even if I don't get around to taking a pic of it. THANK YOU ALL!!
Week 21: (March 16-22)
Well here's some BIG news to share...
We are FINALLY selling our house!!
It's been on the market since January of 2015 so it was a bit of a depressing topic for us. We put it up for sale well before we even embarked on the IVF journey. We finally got dedicated and fully interested buyers in February and things have been running as expected since then. We just wanted to keep it quiet so we didn't jinx anything but we are finally under contract and signed contracts last week. If the buyers happen to back out at this point, we would get some money back, so fingers crossed it's a done deal and just a matter of time now for everything to go through.
It's been a bit of a bittersweet thing for us (probably more me than Scott) but it will be a great move in the end. We plan to move just across the river, which isn't very far, maybe 25-30 mins from here. I work on the other side of the river and most of our friends are over there, too. We are over there at least once a week, not to mention me daily for work. It'll be nice to not have a toll every day and to drive over a mountain 2x a day, killing my car on gas and brakes.
The funny thing is that our buyers came to see the house on Super Bowl weekend. I don't know if you remember me posting back then but I did give somewhat of a hint. It also happened to be our dating anniversary weekend (February 7) and I mentioned that whenever our anniversary fell on a Sunday, we have historically had a good luck weekend. The first being when Scott asked me out. There was probably a 2nd in there somewhere, but also when we saw our current house it was 2/7/10 (also Super Bowl Sunday, ironically) and we placed an offer. When this year rolled up again on a Sunday and we had a few house showing appointments, I just had a good feeling. We've had to drop the price tremendously over the last 13 months from where we hoped to sell it, and it's ending up going for a steal, but we are happy to have it behind us soon so we can move on to bigger and better things.
It's bittersweet in the sense that it's a beautiful house and there's so much I really do love about it. I would sometimes joke about wishing I could pick it up, move it across the river, and just expand the downstairs a teeeeny bit (to add a dining room and play room space). I know we won't get everything we want in a new house but if it's something similar in style to our modern colonial, and closer to our friends and work, I'll be happy.
Me this week-
So as I write this I'm technically still in Week 21, but with only 2 days left, I figured it was still okay to post about this week as well. No sense making you wait for another post. This week has been pretty low key for the most part. School has been busy (finished up parent conferences on Friday) and now it's officially spring break until the day after Easter. We were lucky enough to only use 2 snow days this year so we were able to keep our full spring break AND earn extra days around Memorial Day weekend. I'm happy to be off for the week and will be spending much of it packing up the house. I can't lift a single box but I can pack up all the things!
This week the time change had me affected big time!! I have never been affected by it, at least in a way that's noticeable, but this week I was shot. When I got home from school Friday and sat down, it was hard to get back up. I ended up falling asleep on the recliner at 8:30 and didn't wake up until 11. I typically only sleep about an hour in that chair but I was OUT!! I actually think I only woke up because there was a loud noise. I moved up to bed and then still slept until about 9am! A full 12 hours was obviously much needed and it felt great!
In the past 2 weeks a few coworkers have mentioned how I don't even look 5 months pregnant. Granted, each time I was wearing a loose top that just happened to hide the bump a bit, but I started to realize that I am pretty small for 5 months! Don't get me wrong, I consider myself extremely lucky and I'm loving my little bump but it definitely made me worry at moments this week. I wondered if Bee had stopped growing or if I was too small. He wasn't moving AS much this week but it could be how he's positioned. He is still moving daily and Mama just needs to stop being over-paranoid!
Some Week 21 bump pics :)
These were actually taken the same day (probably within 15 mins of each other).... Let's just say I was having an indecisive clothing day! It happens- LOL!
I don't like showing my bare belly at ALL (the beach/ a pool is the only exception) but I figured I needed to start showing some of these every so often too, to see the progression a little more.
Bee this week-
Our sweet little babe is the size of a pomegranate this week! That's about 10.5 inches & 12.7 ounces.
That's a huge growth spurt in one week!!! But I *THINK* that's because the measurement changes from CRL (crown-to-rump length) to head-to-toe length. I could be wrong but to me, that would explain the sudden huge increase. I'll have to look that one up.
Some more fun facts about Bee, at 21 weeks...
- He is definitely getting a taste of what Mama is eating/drinking now. "Baby swallows a bit of amniotic fluid each day- for nutrition, hydration, and to practice digesting-, so he gets to eat whatever mama does and put those developing taste buds to good use." (What to Expect app)
- Bee spends A LOT of time sleeping
- I tend to feel Bee moving more when sitting (still & compressed). A coworker told me he would be more active as I'm resting, since I've stopped moving. He's probably lulled to sleep when I'm moving around (and talking more, prob. Blah, blah, blah) hehe!
- Kicking around more and more now that he's getting so big!
- Braxton Hicks contractions can start up soon (my uterus might occasionally feel tight as it practices for labor... YUP, definitely started up today and now I know not to worry) :)
- As Daddy is watching March Madness, he keeps daydreaming about being able to watch it with Bee next year. He's already making daddy/baby play-dates to watch the games next year with our guy friends who also have little ones. So cute!
We go back to the Dr. this coming week, during week 22. We meet again with the high risk Dr. so he can do a fetal echocardiogram on Bee. Basically this is a test that they either do when there's a need OR when tagged with IVF. The Dr. sees no reason to see us since everything looks great (again, thanks to male factor infertility) but we joked and said at this point it's a VIP ticket to an additional ultrasound so I'm cool with that. :) We'll get to see our sweet little munchkin again and repeat the anatomy scan before doing the heart scan. We can't wait to hear the heartbeat and see little Bee again soon!
'Til next time!
Stace & Bee
XOXO
#TeamRicci
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