Sorry Mom

I forgot to take a belly photo yesterday.

It was kind of a hectic day...Adam and I finally went to Babies R Us to finish registering, and then I finally had a photo shoot! It'd been too long since I'd done any shooting, and I had a great engagement session.

Anyway...I will take one today and post it ASAP! :)

Branson Babymoon

I'd never been to Branson before. It was...interesting, for sure. I thought it'd at least be a somewhat normal town, but nope! Tourist Capital, USA. Lights, signs, billboards, food, and TRAFFIC. So we did Branson Adam-and-Gina-style and probably skipped out on the things most people go for. But we had a great time! Which is what counts.

We left Sunday afternoon and after we hit Aurora, MO, our GPS took us some funky way that ended up being very cool. Very scenic, lots of hills. We got to our hotel, which was a Lodge around 7pm and checked in. It seemed dead. No one was anywhere, not in the hotel, not on the roads. We realized we'd come in the off-season. Plus, it was a Sunday night, probably not a big night for all the crazies.

We headed out to find a restaurant and, unbeknownst to us, went the wrong direction. We found one non-chain restaurant, so that was where we ate. It was BBQ and also very dead. Our food wasn't fantastic, but we got some really good blackberry cobbler for dessert. After dinner, we went back to the hotel and I put on my maternity swimsuit for the first time (what fun that was). Adam's face said it all when he saw me in it. Beached whale maybe? We went to the hot tub and since preggos aren't allowed in hot tubs, I just put my legs in. We don't need documentation of the maternity swimsuit, so here's our hotel room. Looks a little 80s, but it was actually pretty nice. It even had a jacuzzi tub that I used but the jets were placed in strange places that weren't conducive to a back massage. :(

The next morning, we slept in a little, but the little guy isn't letting me sleep in a ton these days. He needed a restroom and FOOD. I soon discovered that our hotel did NOT have breakfast. GASP! I was cranky. We quickly showered and headed out to find breakfast. After Adam's first restaurant choice - Dockers, was closed, we found another little dive that had a buffet. Mmmm...french toast.

Our next stop was the Titanic Museum. We went on a 90-minute self-guided tour with headsets that had audio clips about different things. It was very interesting and very sad. The museum was located inside a building built to look like the ship, in half-scale. So we got to use the Grand Staircase! We touched an iceberg, and felt what 28 degree water is like...you could time how long you could keep your hand in it, and I didn't last long. It was crazy to learn all about what happened with the sinking and the timeline of how it all took place. Also crazy to see items that were recovered from the ship. Didn't realize we were about to get run over in this photo...

Next up was the Hollywood Wax Museum. We had...a little too much fun here. When you first go inside, they make you stand in this scene that looks like you're being crushed in the grip of King Kong and they take your picture. The guy taking the pictures kept trying to get people to scream out loud, like they were really being taken by King Kong. Everyone was too cool to actually do it. Everyone except my husband. On the count of 3, he screamed at the top of his lungs and even made a few people in the line jump. Way to go. We didn't buy the photo though. But we got lots of others!

 

 

After all that crazy fun, it was time for a late lunch. We went to McFarlain's, a restaurant that advertised sweet potato fries. I'm a sweet potato fry NUT. I could probably eat them every day. They were amazing.

Next we went to see the Alps, an IMAX movie. It was really cool, it was a documentary about a guy who was determined to climb the Eiger mountain because his dad had died trying to do that 40 years earlier. There were lots of crazy shots from the top of the mountain and flying over it. Sweet.

My baby (I like being able to blame everything on him) needed a nap after all that, so we headed back to the hotel and I slept awhile, while Adam enjoyed cable tv (which we don't have at home). We made another trip to the hot tub and got in the pool too. The pool was very heated, the perfect temperature, and felt great on my aches and pains.

After we changed and got ready, we headed out to find pizza. That was what I wanted. We found pizza, but it was not good. Think Cici's but about 10 times worse, inside an arcade, mini golf course, and kiddie play area. GROSS. Oh well, it was pizza.

 

Then we headed back to the IMAX theater to see the new Matt Damon movie, Green Zone on the giant screen. Sounds like a good plan, right? BAD idea. If you haven't seen this, it's filmed as if the guy holding the camera is just walking around, not stabilized on anything. Which might be okay on a regular screen. But on this giant screen, and for a person like me who gets motion sickness relatively easily, this was not a good combo. I got so nauseous and sweaty, I kept having to look away. As soon as I'd look back, it would start all over again. Since we were in the middle of a row of people, I didn't want to make a scene of leaving, so I laid my head back, closed my eyes, and took a nap. One of the advantages to being pregnant: being able to fall asleep almost anywhere. I got a pretty good nap in, and Adam woke me up when it was over. 

We left Tuesday morning to head back and had a pretty uneventful trip home. Which was good! I love road trips, and I had a heating pad going for my aching back, so we were set. When we got home, I picked up the puppies from Adam's parents (thanks for dog-sitting), and Axl has been glued to my side ever since. He's such a big fat mama's boy, but I like it, so it's okay. :)

One more thing checked off the pre-baby checklist...and I'm nearing the third trimester. Weird!!

Weight...Ugh

I'm going to be brutally honest: I'm totally struggling with the whole weight gaining thing. I've heard such a wide variety as to what's "normal" to gain when you're pregnant, but every time I get on the scale, the number blows me away. I've heard people say 'wait til the end...you'll be gaining a pound a week!' but I feel like I'm already doing that! Maybe more! I'm not eating crazily, but I'm not watching calories either.

And then I struggle with the fact that I'm being selfish. Gaining weight is good for the baby, so I shouldn't be so superficial about it. It's just such a hard feeling to get rid of when you've been viewing weight gain as a bad thing for the past 10 years!

Help me out here...if you've been pregnant, please leave me a comment to let me know how much weight you've gained. I've heard from women who've gained 15 pounds and women who've gained 50. What about you?

And yes! We're back from the babymoon. It was great. Lots of photos to come, hopefully sometime tomorrow.

24 Weeks

How far along? 24 weeks
Weight gain: I don't want to talk about it.
Baby is the size of a(n): Ear of corn, foot-long hot dog
Food cravings/aversions: Loving oatmeal for breakfast lately. I don't know that I've really had any actual cravings. Maybe Dr. Pepper. But I always crave that. I've been eating a lot of salad for lunch, and I might be developing an aversion to that.
Sleeping: Not a fun time. I got sick this week, which has made it even worse because I couldn't breathe through my nose and had a really sore throat. Plus hip pain and back pain...I finally took some Tylenol PM one night, which helped, but I hate that medicated-drowsy feeling.
Milestones: I've been looking forward to this week for a long time! FINALLY, at 24 weeks...if baby was (God forbid) born now, there's a chance he'd be able to survive in the real world. It'd be a lot of hospital time, but this gives me some peace of mind even so!
Weird things I read online: His eyes and ears are fully developed, so he now has a sense of equilibrium and knows if he's upside down or right-side up. Though, he's running out of flipping room in there, so he'll probably just have to be content with kicking me (which he's doing a lot of). He weighs 1 1/3 pounds and will gain half a pound in the next week!
Interesting things that happened this past week/anticdotes: We had the super cool sonogram. I still haven't been able to play the video because the DVD we got won't work on a Mac. So Adam will have to mess with it on his school computer. I'm also having some near-constant back pain, so the heating pad has become my new best friend. But on the awesome side, I've seen my belly move on its own quite a few times. One night, Adam came in the house to find me sitting on the couch staring at my moving belly. He came over and poked Bentley and then Bentley poked him back!

Our Little Movie Star

One of our close friends, Ryan, does echo cardiograms for a living. At his office, they also have sonogram machines, and so he offered to do one for us after hours. We headed over to his office last night and got to see little Bentley! (That's his stage name until we can tell you all his real name.)

Ryan took several photos and even recorded parts of the sonogram so we can see him moving around. I'm pretty sure he was sleeping most of the time because he didn't move nearly as much as he did at the 18-week sono. We caught him sucking his thumb, curling up and stretching out, and flexing his little bicep for us. That was hilarious. The weirdest part was seeing him kick me on the screen, and feeling it in my belly at the same time.

We saw the umbilical cord which I think Bentley was playing with, and it looked like intestines all curled up...kinda gross. Adam even got to sonogram me for awhile, but he just kept trying to poke the little guy with the wand to wake him up. :) The photos aren't super clear, but here are a few anyway. Thanks so much Ryan! And thanks for coming along Melinda!

His amazingly handsome profile. And I think that thing in front of his face is the umbilical cord, not an arm.

Here's another cute little profile shot with his top lip sticking out. I love that!

And here's a shot of him flexing for us. His arm is on the left and his leg is on the right - his back is to us.

Saturday Excitement

Nikia and Sam's little boy Isaiah had his first birthday party!

And Ryan and Kelsi got engaged and we attended their engagement party right after he proposed!

23 Weeks

I can't tell you how much I wanted to Liquify (make skinnier - for all you Photoshop illiterates) my fat arm. But for the sake of keepin it real, I didn't. Hmph.


How far along? 23 weeks
Weight gain: 15 pounds. Ish. I had a giant weight gain this month and it's freaking me out. Salads for lunch from here on out...
Baby is the size of a(n): Papaya, still. One website said he's the length of a Harry Potter book...yessss!
Food cravings/aversions: Eating a lot of cereal, and drinking a lot of grape juice. Pizza always sounds good. And I've been giving in to my craving for Dr Pepper from Sonic - the styrofoam cup, the awesome ice...mmmmm. Don't judge.
Sleeping: Tossing and turning a lot. This belly needs support when I'm laying down. Had a crazy dream last night about photographing a wedding and my camera battery dying during the middle of the processional. Ugh! There was another dream that his nursery was being decorated in purple checkerboard and frogs.
Milestones: I don't think there were any. Movement is becoming more definite. Sometimes instead of just poking me, it's like he'll kick his foot out and hold it there. It's weird. My belly was measuring ahead at my appointment this week, and according to our sonogram from last month, baby would be due June 29 instead of July 3 (my official due date). I'm hoping for a June baby!
Weird things I read online: He can suck his thumb (and not just put it in his mouth like he had been). His skin is developing faster than his fat, so he has old man saggy skin. :)
Interesting things that happened this past week/anticdotes: I got nothin. This was an anti-climatic week. Which is probably good. :) Stay in there, happy and healthy, little boy! Well, here's something, though it's not baby related. We went to see Wolfman this past weekend with some friends and it was HORRIBLE. Don't go see it. On my top 10 worst movies ever list.