Pregnancy Symptom Update

Were to start... well, the good news is that my food aversions are much better. Garlic is still repulsive, but I can eat most anything else without feeling the need to gag or losing my appetite for the next several hours after smelling it. The bad news is that my food aversions are much better, so now I want to eat everything, all the time. I felt the eating frenzy coming on and to avoid ballooning to 800 lbs we have been cooking at home and I have been taking my lunch and snacks. I have learned that if I have food available, I will eat it no matter what it is. However, if there is no food available I will drive to the closest 7-11 and get nachos and a Slurpee or whatever other junk food looks good at that moment. Not so good for the ol figure. (I am eating grapes while I type.)

I am still tired. Not the bone-weary exhaustion of my 1st trimester, but tired none the less. I still go to bed early, but its more in the neighborhood of 9:30 - 10pm instead of 7-8pm. Jay has continued to be an amazingly loving and helpful husband. He's done things in the last 4 months that I never thought I would see. For example, putting up laundry, cooking AND cleaning the dishes all in the same night, making me pudding with cool whip and maraschino cherries(like 10 of them) AFTER cooking and cleaning - I couldn't ask for a better Hubby!

The most unsettling new development is the onset of the weepy's. On our trip to Utah I began to cry. Not because I was really sad, or mad, but because of any reason at all, no matter how silly. My scripture of the moment has become 2 Corinthians 10:5 "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." Because goodness gracious, you should see some of the hormonally driven thoughts that run through my brain. There have been times when I think of something then immediately think "Julie, You are a complete nut." Apparently I am not the only pregnant woman to experience this, and I find that fact amazingly comforting and I am sure my husband does as well.

I'm getting really excited about our doctors appointment coming up when we should find out if we're having a little boy or little girl. I am ready to find out and plan the nursery, register, and all that fun stuff. I'll post pics of Utah this weekend.

Welll.........

We dont know yet... Could be a boy or girl! We'll have to wait till the last week of February. Bummer.

Utah

We came home from Utah last night. It is so beautiful up there with all the mountains and snow, especially compared to flat and ugly DFW. The house we stayed in was a rock star house. It had 5 flippin levels including a Theatre room, a Library, a wine cellar, a game room, 5 bedrooms and 8 bathrooms. I'll post pics soon. I would love to live in that house but I am, alas, not a rock star. Simply someone who sells rock star toilets to people building rock star homes, and that allows me to rent a rock star house for like 4 days a year and pretend.

While the Blackwelders and Williamsons and my hubby skied and snowboarded all day, I took naps, played in the snow and went to the spa. I know, rough life. We cooked at the house most of the time but went to dinner Saturday night at this amazing restaurant called The Mariposa. I took tons of pictures and will post some tonight.

Update - my dr's office was closed on the day of my appointment last week so I am now going on Thursday. I don't know if we'll find the sex out but maybe!!! I also signed up for a breastfeeding class this Saturday. Should be interesting!

16 Weeks = 4 Months!!!

I'm 4 months pregnant! I'm so excited to be this far - almost to the half way mark. I have had some bumps along the road but so far so good. I have placenta previa - you can google it if you are interested in knowing more, I wont bore you here. It usually resolves itself by the end of the pregnancy so that is what we are praying for - so that we don't have to have a c-section. The other little symptoms and delights of pregnancy are a bit different than I expected.

Firstly, I keep waiting for the 2nd trimester blissfulness to kick in. I am convinced that this is a mean fallacy propagated by cruel women who want to give you some hope in your first trimester just to find out that its NOT TRUE. I'm still tired, although slightly less so than the first trimester. To add to the fun of the somewhat lessened fatigue, I now cant sleep. I wake up to go the bathroom 2-5 times a night and then cant go back to sleep so therefore end up more tired. My food aversions are worse than ever and its very hard to think of things that sound good at all to me. Here is a list of things that in general sound disgusting....

Mexican Food
Italian Food
Most meat
Anything with Garlic, Garlic Powder, Garlic Salt, Minced Garlic
Sandwiches
French Fries

This is just the list of the minute... the list of what sounds good is even shorter. Other than the food stuff, I'm also having some sciatic pain in my boo-tay. That makes everything painful but the good news is my prenatal yoga is helping keep the pain down to a minimum. Also - my hormones are still making me a bit crazy. As for just how crazy, you would have to ask my poor hubby. Who by the way has been the picture of patience for these last 4 months.

As for the good stuff, I think I may have felt the baby move. It may have been gas, but I don't think so. It felt like fluttering in my belly. I love being able to see the little guy when I go the doctor! Its getting so big - as you can see above - about 4.5 inches from head to rump. That is huge! I have a bump now, not a very big one but its there. I get so excited (and scared) when I think that in a few short months I'll be a mommy and Jay will be a daddy... And I also keep wondering if someone is suddenly going to realize that I am absolutely not qualified for this and going to insist they move in to supervise this baby or take it away entirely. I know, I know. There are many much less qualified people in the world reproducing like bunnies, but I still am sometimes in awe that you don't have to have some sort of licence or required experience to do this.

Baby Skeletor

Here is our baby, Skeletor. I mentioned before we borrowed that name from a friend who called her baby that at this point. These are 3D sonogram pictures at 13 weeks. The baby had his or her back to us the whole time, so we didn't get to see its little face. On the top on you can see it had its hands over its face and its legs crossed in front of it - you can even see the little foot in the bottom right hand side. Soooo cute.

Christmas Day

We woke up Christmas morning at Nani and Babas and the opening began. I had bought Jay and Baba, and Nani and I matching pajamas. Aren't they cute! Baba and Jay didn't even complain. We got so many nice things - more than we needed! I was especially surprised by my generous gift from Jay, his parents and brother. Its a Canon Digital SLR Rebel camera. I love it so much! These were the last pics I took with my old camera - also a Canon. I am still learning how to use all the settings on my new camera and will be posting some pics from it tomorrow of the ranch.

Are they cute or what!!! (Baba had just given Jay a Ruger .22 handgun. That's how we do in my family.)

Ahem, a little less than glamourous... I was playing Santa, handing out gifts with Lola.

Nani opening a present and Jay looking THRILLED!


Baba liked his cordless drill.

I forgot Lola's treats at home so she's giving me the sad face/evil eye.

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we drove in to Corpus Christi and headed to Granddad and Gramma I-ene's house. Gramma had knee surgery so she finally let me and Mom help out. We cooked an awesome dinner then did our traditional Chinese gift exchange. It was awesome.

Me and Jay - Very full after dinner


Mom and Pop


Pop making fun of how Mom and I pose for pictures.

Granddad and I-ene


Proud Mimi checking out pics of her Grandbaby!