20 WEEKS!

Woooooooooooo! Halfway! Size of a melon, what?! We had our first real visit to Andaluz for a checkup with the new midwife. Josh called and broke up with our old clinic a couple of days ago. I was too shy to tell the the truth of why we were leaving them, but he's good at that stuff.

Apparently when you hit halfway, you can start to feel the baby move, which means, I'm awake, blogging, at 4am on a Sunday. Little jerk has been kicking me all night! I have to be up in 20 minutes anyway to head to the airport to catch a flight to new orleans for Julie's wedding, so I guess it could be worse.

I kind of can't wait for this whole month to be over. Have I said that already? It has just been too stressful, and too much going on. I'm excited to travel to see my family and Josh's family one last time, but then I'm just ready to be settled in at home and start the new year calmly and quietly. Um, isn't that called nesting?

While I was in Texas, Julie, Mom and I went to this store called Baby Earth, which I think we all loved. I did anyway. I'm struggling a bit with Babies R US having he more natural items that I want so I've started a registry there. They even have the car seat we want a bit cheaper, and the cloth diapers too. You can go to Babyearth.com and search our names, or here's a link: http://www.babyearth.com/lists.html?list_alpha=K12L99IUK
They have way cute, gender non-specific baby clothes too! Lots of stripes and solid colors.

I'd better get ready for my trip now. See you all really soon!

Baby Shower Planning

My friend Michelle has generously offered to host a baby shower for us, and she even said there will be no dumb games! yes! We're trying to plan it way in advance so any of our family that would like to come can have lots of time to make traveling plans. So far, we think that Saturday April 2nd seems like a date that will work, sometime in the afternoon, like 3 or 4 pm. We want to have a co-ed shower, so Josh will be there, and our dude friends, and if dads want to come, they can.
We would love to have any and all of you family members join us, but we promise not to be heartbroken if you can't, since you'll probably be coming out again only a month later for baby time. We're happy for whatever time we get to spend with you, and if you'd rather put your resources into visiting when you'll actually get baby face time, it's fine with us! I know we'll need lots of helping hands after the birth.

We sure are getting excited! Last night while we were watching TV, Josh finally got to feel the baby move. He/she was moving a bunch on my right side, and Josh was able to feel some good punches in there. He was so excited that his hand was shaking! It was cute. He also kept going *GASP!* every time he felt it. He's silly.

Things are much better now that he's home. He's leaving again this week, but just for Tuesday night, which is a big relief. All that alone time was too much.

Pity Party!

This has just been one of those weeks. Pregnancy wise, everything is going fine, and I feel pretty good, and I just want to rest and eat and eat and eat. And I want to eat sort of weird things finally, like last night, about an hour after I ate my dinner, I ate an entire can of black eyed peas. Then today, after lunch, I ate a whole can of beets, with balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Sudden canned food cravings?! I dunno.
Regular life though, has been extremely annoying this week. Work is super slow, slower than the usual between holidays slow, and I can't shake feeling really stressed that I'm going to have to lay one or two people off in January. We got a citation and fine from the city this week for our grease trap being more than 25% full, which I didn't even know was a fine-able thing, or that there was even a city inspector for that.

Josh has been out of town all week, and it sounds like he has to leave again next week. Then, my car broke down again, probably because a few months ago I went on and on about how awesome my car is and how it never breaks. Then, $1600 timing chain, and now… the clutch. I haven't even taken it to the shop yet, because I can't handle hearing how much it will cost. It's been pouring rain for 2 days, and isn't supposed to stop for the next 2 weeks, so going outside for exercise, or anything at all, has been pretty much impossible. Katie threw out her back again at work and so I had to go in today on my day off and cover her shift, and we'll see about tomorrow I guess.

And now tonight, my sewing machine broke. Usually I can fix it, but I can't figure it out this time, and I'm right in the middle of making everyone's christmas presents! I was trying to save money by making gifts instead of buying them, and it was going so well, and I'm getting a lot better at sewing and I think the things I was making were cooler than stuff I could buy. I have like 4 projects going at once and none of then are done. I might try to finish up one tonight by hand, and maybe tomorrow I'll take my machine into the shop.

Whew. I feel better now that I wrote it all out. I know it will all be fine, but man, I can't wait for December to be over already.

New midwives in our future?

Today Josh and I went for a consultation and tour at a local birthing center called Andaluz Waterbirth Center. We are really excited about it! We loved the midwife we met, and the facility is gorgeous.  I wish I could steal a photo from their website to put here, but it won't let me. We are thinking that the cost won't be anymore that where we are now, and the standard of care will be much higher and with a more individual and nurturing focus. We have to wait a few days to see what our insurance will cover and figure out costs, but hopefully our next midwife appointment will be there!