If our baby looks anything like either of us, here is what he/she will look like.

















I am most likely going to have a baby with curly, reddish hair...just like his/her Dad. :)

CTS

It seems that I have carpal tunnel syndrome. What I thought was just normal pregnancy circulation issues has turned into something much worse. Sadly, this means I can't do as much work. I know that may seem like sarcasm...I mean, who wouldn't want to just sit around with a valid reason not to work? But honestly, I was looking forward to working on these projects. There is only so much sitting around I can do without going crazy...

Our Mostly Empty Nursery

We got our changing table yesterday! Pete and I put it together last night, and here it is. As you can see, it is just about the only thing in the nursery so far...

These little feet are our baby's feet. This was from our 20 week ultrasound. My sister Kristin is certain that since those little legs are crossed that it's a girl.

By: Pete Hoffman

Poor Puppies

I know they are dogs, but anyone who knows me knows that I treat our dogs like babies. And today I got to experience what it (sort of) would be like to have two sick babies. BOTH of our dogs have kennel cough. That means that every two seconds one of them starts hacking and coughing and (sometimes) throwing up. NOT fun. The worst thing is that when it happens they race over to me and look up at me like "help me!" or "aren't you going to do anything?" It is heartbreaking! All I can do is pet them and tell them that everything is going to be okay.

I took them both to the vet (which was a spectacle in itself), and now they both have medicine. It's days like today when I can't help but wonder what it would have been like to ALSO be carrying around an infant...

Our Changing Table

We ordered our changing table! The style sort of matches our crib, so it should be really cute. I can't wait to see everything in the nursery! The crib should be here any day, and the changing table should be here within a week. I am SO excited to start organizing everything!

I Think I Can Feel It!

It seems like a pretty big coincidence, but since my last appointment, I feel like I have been feeling the baby. This makes me think that, as Nancy said, I have probably been feeling it all along. All of those times I wasn't sure if I was feeling the baby, I probably was. The feeling has changed though, whatever it is. :) I used to only feel little bubbles or flutters moving around, and now it feels more like little kicks.

When Pete and I were driving last Friday, I started to feel these little feelings, so I had him put his hand on my belly to see if he could feel them, and he did! You should have seen his face! He pulled away really quickly and seemed weirded out and grossed out and amazed all at the same time. But, any of those weird feelings must have passed quickly for him, because now all he wants to do is feel my belly.

Sometimes, even when I'm not feeling anything, he will put his hand on my belly and wiggle it around or poke at it to try to "wake the baby up" so he can feel it kick. So far, his methods haven't worked, but we'll see. We read in a book that you can teach the baby to play games with you when it's in there, so I think Pete is going to try to make that happen. Like, you can tap on the belly once, and the baby will kick once, and then tap twice, and it will kick twice. Things like that. :)

Memory Loss

I obviously read a lot about pregnancy. I feel like I am always looking at my books or searching for something online. I had read that when you are pregnant you sometimes have a bad short-term memory, but I thought that was one symptom I didn't have.

Then, last night Pete and I were sitting around watching a movie, and I was going to bring something into the kitchen. Pete asked me to grab the jar of M&Ms. I came back from the kitchen with no M&Ms. He asked if I had brought them, and I said that I had forgotten, so I went back into the kitchen to get them. A couple minutes later, I came back...without the M&Ms. Pete was like "where are the M&Ms" and I was like "you have to be kidding me...I forgot them again!" So, I went back to the kitchen while Pete chanted "M&Ms, M&Ms, M&Ms, M&Ms" while I was walking so that I wouldn't forget.

I guess I have that symptom too.

And, for the record, yes, Pete offered to just get up and get them himself. :)

20-Week Appointment

We are back from our appointment! Everything went really well. They measured pretty much everything on and in the baby, and everything looked great. Based on the measurements, the baby is STILL due on exactly October 23rd, which means that the baby is growing at exactly the rate it should be.

It was really fun to have such a long ultrasound (even though I was required to have a full bladder for most of it, which made it pretty uncomfortable) because we got to watch the baby for such a long time. We got to see it moving around, kicking its feet, opening its mouth, reaching its arms up by its head, etc.

We did get some pictures (I will make Pete post them later), but we didn't get any really good 3-D ones of the face because the baby was all curled up against the uterus wall for the entire time. But, they did take a nice 3-D picture of the baby's cute little legs and feet. :)

The funniest thing about the whole day was that in the middle of the ultrasound Pete leaned over and said "should we just find out the gender?" Can you believe that? After everything he has said and how completely set on NOT knowing he was, he was the one who tried to give in and find out! I was shocked! But, I was the one who stayed strong and reminded him that he might regret finding out, so we ended up sticking to the plan and NOT finding out.

Shopping Therapy

I have always loved shopping, but there is something extra fun about shopping for your unborn baby. It is even more therapeutic than shopping for yourself! Even just buying one small thing can make my whole day. And, when I can't go shopping, it is almost as therapeutic to just go into the nursery and look at all of the little things we've bought. I have to admit that I go into the nursery a few times a day just to look around and feel happy.

The cutest thing is that Pete is the same way. One day, when he came home from a particularly stressful day at work, the first thing he said to me was "let's go look at baby stuff." And, on top of that, he has admitted that he sometimes just goes into the nursery to just look at the stuff too.

So anyway, on the weekends we are here, Pete and I try to look at/shop for baby stuff at least once, and this past weekend, we bought a really cute hooded baby towel. Since my sister, Linda, always had the hooded baby towels that had the animal heads on the hooded part, I knew that that's what I needed to get. So, we found one that is yellow and soft and the hooded part has a duck on it. It is pretty much the cutest thing I have ever seen. :)

I Can't Sleep!

It is very hard to sleep when you are pregnant. I can't even imagine how hard it's going to be to sleep when I am 8 months pregnant if it is already hard! I basically flip from side to side every half hour, and when I wake up my hips really hurt. On top of that, I woke up the other morning with a horrible side ache. I, of course, thought something was horribly wrong, but after researching it on the internet and confirming it with my doctor, I now know it was round ligament pain. And finally, just for the record, my feet are killing me...probably because they are not used to carrying around such a large amount of weight. :)

Despite all of these aches and pains, I have to say that I absolutely love being pregnant. I feel really happy when I look down and see my fat belly, and I cannot wait to get to my appointment tomorrow to see the little baby!