22 weeks!

To sum up this week: BUSY! Both me and the baby! I finally started feeling more than flutters, and Aubriella has started kicking! I've felt a couple of kicks over the past few weeks, but now it is more consistent. Wednesday she would not stop moving, and it was strong enough to feel with my hand. I LOVE it! Almost any time I bend forward, she kicks me as if to say "You are squishing me!" I hate to admit, but sometimes I "squish" her a little longer so I can feel an extra kick. Somehow every time she is moving a lot, Jose is not with me and hasn't been able to feel her.

Jose and I have had commitments every single night, and I'm starting to feel like I'm running on empty- and we don't even get a break this weekend!

Yesterday our nursery furniture arrived and we stayed up until 11:30 putting the crib together and setting up the bedding. It seemed like a good idea last night, but today I'm tired!

I continue to have an easy pregnancy, but my tailbone and hips have started hurting more. At our last doctors appointment, the midwife told me that I can't be sleeping on my back anymore. I didn't think that was a problem because I'm a side sleeper. Wrong! Jose is taking this doctors advice very seriously and wakes me up several times a night when he finds that I have rolled to my back. I apparently move to my back a lot more than I thought! He's told me that he feels my shoulders when I'm sleeping to make sure I'm on my side! I appreciate his concern, but my sleep has not been so great. I've been propping myself up with a body pillow, but when I decide to switch sides it takes a lot of readjusting. Oh well, small price to pay to make sure the weight of my uterus does not block the flow of blood through my arteries restricting oxygen to baby and me!

Great husband!

I got treated especially nice this morning! I plugged in the iron, and by the time I went back to iron my pants Jose had already done it for me! AND made the bed, AND made breakfast sandwiches, AND packed us a lunch. I'd say I'm pretty lucky!

21 weeks

This week was an exciting and busy week! I continue to feel good, but have noticed I get winded much easier.

The week began with an out of town trip for my Tio Pilo's 80th birthday party! It was a lot of fun to see my extended family, and to see my Tio so happy and excited!

On our way home, my dad and Jose were kind enough to agree to a stop at Destination Maternity. I felt bad that they would be bored while I shopped, but that was farthest from the truth. The store has wisely created a "dad-to-be" section complete with a large TV, snacks, drinks and football! It is the first time they have said to take our time when we are shopping!

This week was also our first official appointment with the midwife! It was a great appointment, and we had fun hearing the baby's heartbeat and getting questions answered.

The biggest news of the week was that Jose's brother Edu surprised Jose with a call asking if he could come up to Santa Maria for the week. He took the bus and stayed with us. Jose was able to take the week off (and work from home) and spend a lot of time with Edu. We both enjoyed having him as a house guest. We were impressed with his willingness to help out and make amazing breakfast!

I don't think I blogged about Aubriella's bedding "being stolen." UPS said they delivered the bedding, but we never got it. The UPS website said it was delivered to our front gate. Um, I'm sorry, since when did we get a front gate?? You must be confused with the neighbors across the street who are the only house with a front gate, and their address happens to be one number off of ours(926 instead of 929), and it looks like they are out of town. Nope, the only thing UPS would consider is that it was stolen. This made me sick, because the thought of someone walking up to our not visible from the street front door, and walking down our walkway with a huge box was scary! The UPS guy came to our house and did not remember being on our porch, but said he doesn't remember every home he goes to. Then he proceeded to show us "proof" that he had delivered to our door by showing us a GPS satellite image that showed our street as the location of his truck at the time of our delivery. We signed the forms agreeing that it had been stolen (we had no other choice) and had been waiting for the investigation to be completed and new bedding (and lamp, pictures, blanket, and curtain) to be reshipped.
Well there is a happy ending. Wouldn't you know it, the neighbor with the front gate and one number off address came over last week with our large box of bedding! He said he had been out of town (we knew it! You can call me nosy, I call myself observant) and came home to find the big box. He said he knew we always enter our house through the garage (he's the nosy one!) and didn't want to leave it on our doorstep, so he waited 4 days until he saw Jose. So our neighborhood is free from thieves, and our beautiful bedding has arrived.

That afternoon I teased Jose and Edu that if they wanted a bonding project they could paint Aubriella's room. Within 15 minutes we were at Home Depot buying paint! I can't wait for the furniture to arrive and we can really get working on making it beautiful!

Half way there!

We have hit the milestone I've been waiting for! 20 weeks= half way there! Since the beginning of the pregnancy, for some reason I've just been thinking that I can't wait to be able to say I was 20 weeks. Maybe because that is when you for sure find out the baby's sex (even though we cheated and went extra early). So now that the big milestone has hit (and pretty quickly I might add), I get to set my sights on the end!

This past week went well. I have started getting pretty bad tail bone pain by the end of the day. I'm trying to get up and walk around more at work to take the pressure off. It isn't pleasant, but definitely not unbearable. Still, I feel great and love being pregnant!

A big change this week was that we switched doctors. Since the beginning I haven't loved the OB I choose. We would wait 30-45 minutes to be called, and the visit would last 5 minutes! She was really quiet and I never felt like we could ask questions. We switched to the midwives at Creating Harmony, and after our first consultation we made our decision. The midwife Lisa gave us so much info, and in that one appointment she spent more time with us than all our past visits combined! I'm really excited for this change and excited that the midwives are on board with my desire to attempt to have a natural birth.

This week I also sent our deposit in for our Bradley birthing classes. We will be doing 12 weeks of classes! Yikes!

Jose beat me to posting, but I am really excited that I felt a kick last night! I was starting to doubt if I knew what flutters really felt like, but yesterday before Ladies Night Out (more about that later!) I felt definite taps. Then as Jose explains a much stronger kick! Yeah!

I got kicked in the head!

Last night we were lying in bed and I had my head on Marlene's stomach. I was talking to Aubriella and all of a sudden Marlene says, "Did you feel that!? She just kicked you!" I was pretty bummed that I didn't feel it, but very excited that she responded to my voice! I can't wait to be able to feel her little kicks and punches! Marlene has been able to feel little "flutters" here and there for a couple weeks now, but has been doubting that it was really Aubrie that she was feeling. She thought "maybe it's just gas." But after the roundhouse kick to the head last night, she is positive that it is our little princess she has been feeling!

19 weeks!

I can't believe how often it seems I am writing these weekly updates. I am so grateful that it feels we are moving through this pregnancy at a fast pace. This next week will put us at 1/2 way there!

The biggest thing to report is that my stomach has grown! Just wait until I post the weekly picture so you can see the change! I've had a lot of people tell me this week that they can really tell now that there is a baby in there.

I have felt great this week aside from a couple of nights of leg cramps. NOT FUN! Ask Jose sometime what it is like to have his wife sit up straight in bed and start yelling, "It hurts! It hurts! Ow Ow OWWW!" He now knows that is code for "I have a leg cramp" but the first time it happened I think it shook him up a bit.

Also happening this week, for the first time after dinner my stomach felt sooo big and up under my ribs. I could not sit up straight, and my stomach felt so tight. I got this moment of realization that this is just the beginning. It will only be getting bigger, tighter, and much more uncomfortable. That made me a little nervous.

Monday is our next doctors visit. I'm not entirely pleased with our doctor, so on Monday we are also having a consultation with the midwives and I'm really excited about that. Hopefully it will be confirmation that we should switch doctors (who am I kidding, I've already made my decision).

I still feel light little flutters from Aubriella moving. I was hoping they would start happening more frequently and stronger, but I'm patient waiting for our little girl to grow. I hear that after awhile the kicks and punches get uncomfortable, so I should be grateful for the light taps for now.

18 weeks

As of last Friday I am 4 1/2 months! So exciting! The 18th week was by far my favorite week! Exactly at 17 weeks (technically the first day of the 18th week) I thought I felt Aubriella move, but wasn't sure if it was just stomach gas. It took a few days until I was positive I felt her, but even still sometimes I am confused.

Obviously the other highlight of the week was having our "big ultrasound" and seeing a healthy little girl.

Both those two huge milestones in one week! And to top it off, I am feeling great even though my stomach seemed to have doubled in size this week!