What a difference two weeks makes!

Holy smokin' I am telling you it seems like over night I went from looking bloated to BAM belly. 17 1/2 weeks ladies and gentlemen. I have only gained 3 pounds but I am certain that I have doubled in width. Its impressive.

Registry Poll Update

Okay here are the top items that were recommended by everyone, here, on Facebook, email, etc.

Top Suggestions (In order of mentions):

Duking it out for the top spot:
Ergo Carrier*
Swing
Swaddling Blankets - Brand recommendations: Carter's are thick and big, and Aden & Anais


Sharing the next most amount of love:
Baby Monitor
Bouncy Seat*
Bumbo
Crib Bedding/Sheets - At least 2 sets for quick turn around in the middle of the night
Diaper Bags - At least 2, Backpack style highly recommended
Sleep Sack
Thermometer - Good one such as a forehead scanner
Wipe Warmer

Honorable Mentions:

Baby nail file
Bath seat
Bibs
booties that tie...socks always fall off
bottles (venti air wide nipple...never had booby confusion)
Burp Cloths
Burt's bees or Aveeno Baby Wash
Butt cream
Car Seats- Britax for carseats...marathon for rear/forward up to 65 pounds, and frontier for forward/booster.
Changing Pad system - JJ Cole, add wips container
Changing Table & Mat
Cloth Washrags
Cloth wipes
Convertible Car Seat
Crib

Diaper Pail*
Diaper Warmer
Exersaucer
Fan (for white noise)
Foam mat for bath tub
Glowworm
Gumdrop
Hair Rinsing Bucket
Hooded Towels (can sew a wash cloth onto a big towel)
ibuprofen for kids
Liners (Rice Paper) for solids
Mirror to see baby in back seat of car
Mobile
Music Soother (Fisherprice, plays 18 mins of music)
Nursing Cover
Onesies
Paci
Playmat
Safety Equipment
Sleepers
Snack Cups
Soothie
Teething Tablet

Travel Diaper Changing Pad
Triple Paste
Waterproof Mattress Protectors (2)
Wet Bag*
White Noise Machine




*Are items that I actually already have!  I am impressively on a good roll.

So there you go my friends!  Feel free to add more :)

Is she or isn't she?

The dreaded don't ever say "Congratulations" to a woman unless she tells you she is pregnant first!

It's even harder to know during the early stages when let's face it, you just look bloated, or like me you came into this game an "overachiever".  I mean really, I was trying to get a head start by having my fat stores for breast feeding already in place :)

Admittedly, when you are already a little fluffy particularly being poochalicious in the belly region you hope that someday you might actually look pregnant and not a bigger version of yourself.  But you secretly harbor insecurity and let's face it as women, our weight seems to be popular discourse for public conversation and I have noticed almost more so during pregnancy.  Poor Jessica Simpson!  She was tore up in the media and I thought she was adorable.  Rock on girl friend for not hiding away.  I hope I look half that cute, minus the heels.

But we all can't wait to "show",  to have some physical evidence (other than the gray shade to our face and bags under our eyes from nausea and not sleeping well) of the alien that has taken up residence inside of us.

Needless to say when I got dressed this morning I was excited to look in the mirror and realize that it kind of (look really hard) looks like a baby bump!!!  I am so excited.  So, since everyone has been asking for pics I thought I would share.  I made my friend that was with me at my work meeting take this pic before we went in.  Thanks, Marti!!!

Viola, the baby bump has arrived!  :)

Time to Register?

Well I guess so! A friend of mine who is about 6 weeks ahead of me began registering at 12 weeks and I thought that was crazy, I couldn't even comprehend being pregnant yet, I mean through the fatigue, let alone what we would need for the little sesame seed.  But sure enough it is one of the first questions people are asking. So we are going to venture a go at it heading into week 15.

But FIRST I want to know from all of you...what the heck should we even put on our registery? We have never done this before so I don't have a clue as to what is really useful, versus what is nice, and to the down right epic fail items. I really don't want a registry full of items that we won't use or that others are not interested in getting.

Dogs? Now we could help you out there...but babies? Totally uncharted territory for this very toddler unfriendly, sharp corner, every plug is exposed household.

Here is what I would LOVE for you to do if you don't mind. Leave a comment here, if you can with a link, telling us about the specific item and more importantly what it is used for :)

It takes a village right?

p.s. Some Q&A if it is helpful
We are not going to find out the sex, well at least not until the big day, so suggestions on both sides are great.
I am planning on giving breast feeding a go.
We are looking at Amazon and Baby Depot at Burlington Coat Factory.

Anything else just ask and I will try to answer! Let the suggestions begin!

Cricket... Cricket...

My apologizes to everyone who has visited my page looking for an update to no avail!  I have been so bad, I finally get pregnant and poof drop off the face of the planet.  Well for those of you that have gone through this before you know just how exhausting the first trimester can be.  Seriously, I was not prepared for the fatigue at all.  It totally took my surprise.  There have been loving joking comments such as "Junelle's boring" and "I basically already have a kid, I feed her, burp her, and send her to bed".  It's been bad.

Here is was my typical first trimester schedule:

4:45am... Wake up and hit snooze, crawl out of bed, force myself to shower and get ready for work. Grabbing a rice cake or soda cracker along the way.

7:15am... Get to work, and try not to fall asleep at my computer.  Eat small meals through out the day, keep my garbage can right next to my chair, and when all else fails suck on preggo pops and saltines and pray.

6:00pm... Get home from work, go straight to the bathroom then straight to kitchen and grab anything within edible distance.  The key for me I found was not going too long without eating.  An empty stomach equaled the worst nauseau

7:15pm... After eating dinner, putting on sweats, doing MAYBE one productive thing around the house, fall asleep on the couch and Dayleen has to remind me to shove off to bed.

11:00pm... Get up and pee

1:30am.... Get up and pee, AGAIN

3:00am... Are you kidding me?  How much is too much for a bladder to take?????

4:45am... Do it all over again.

As you can see, there wasn't much time for me to blog, which I admittedly was sad about.  Because I have been looking forward to journaling this adventure with you.  Now that I am feeling a little better and can actually make it to 8:30pm hopefully I will be able to fill you with more musings and insights to my fun and cranky journey.  

One more thing:  My props go out to moms with several kids, I have no idea how you do it but more power to you.  My poor dogs have been neglected.  Certainly the necessities of food, water, and going potty have been met but hardly extra curricular activities.  Thank God the warrior princess is home right now.  But you have all my respect.  It seems crazy that anyone could do this and still have little ones running around.  

Finally for your viewing pleasure here are the pictures from the last ultrasound we had of the sesame seed, the uncooperative little seed that it was being: