We have hit 23 weeks!

This has been a busy week with seeing Carlton off on his "work trip" and Thanksgiving! The boat left the day before Thanksgiving, so the wives all got together and had a potluck dinner on Thanksgiving! There was so much great food and great company too!

This week the baby is developing his sense of hearing more and is able to hear more of the noises outside the womb. This also means he has more stimuli to respond to, so there has been more movement! All the organs and everything are pretty much where they should be if not yet fully developed. At this point the baby just needs to put on that baby fat!! Right now he would look slightly reddish because the blood vessels under his skin have little insulation. One new development this past week is the baby has developed his taste buds! So now I get to experiment with different foods to see if I get a reaction.

The cute creature for this week is the Chinchilla! The baby is now about 1.25 pounds and still about a foot long. I am sure that will change soon!

Cute and cuddly!

The bump!

Since Carlton had to leave before Thanksgiving, we decided to put up our Christmas tree and the lights on the house so that I wouldn't have to do it by myself. Yesterday, I finished decorating the house with the rest of our Christmas paraphernalia and worked on Christmas cards!! Here are some pics of our Christmas decorations.

Mickey's Christmas Carol bells

Plush Santa

Some bows and garland

Mr. & Mrs. Stockings

The tree!

Mr. & Mrs. Claus salt & pepper shakers

More figurines!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

XOXO
Jen

Now at 22 Weeks!

Brinda Baby is now 22 weeks along and is now the size of an American Guinea Pig!

We have also had our anatomy scan which confirmed that we are having a baby boy! Last month we saw a little nub that we thought were boy parts, but now we definitely know!

Here we are at the anatomy scan

Boy confirmation!

Carlton was able to make it to our appointment, which was great!!







The ultrasound picture showing the boy parts is a bit fuzzy. It definitely helped that the sonographer added an arrow to make it easier to see!

Baby's profile

The baby's profile picture looks like he is blowing bubbles but it's actually his other hand next to his face. He's been in that position in our past ultrasound pictures as well.






So we used the dogs to send out the announcement on Facebook that we are having a boy. For those of you who did not get to see it, here you go!

Their expressions are too funny! We had a hard time getting Bubbles to stay in place and kept having to move her back next to Edge. By the time we took the picture, she thought she was in trouble! LOL


At this point the baby is sleeping quite a bit (about 12-14 hours a day). When he is moving moving around, it is usually when I am sitting or lying down. His inner ear is developing now and his pancreas is creating his own hormones. He is currently about a foot tall and weighs about a pound. His eyes are still developing and currently have no pigment in the iris.

Bumpie photo for this week!

Other than having fewer items of clothing out of my normal wardrobe that I can wear, the only other change I notice is pregnancy brain. It hasn't hit too bad (I don't think) but I had two instances this past week that stood out. I needed to write my phone number down on some paperwork and for the life of me, I could not remember the first three digits! The other instance was when I was baking. We had a mini Thanksgiving with some friends and I wanted to make an Apple Spice Cake for dessert. I was finishing up baking it (just took it out of the oven) when I checked the recipe again to see what needed to be done as it cooled. The recipe calls for powdered sugar to be sprinkled on top as the cake cools down. It was at that point that I realized I hadn't put the apples in the cake batter!! It hadn't even occurred to me before that. Ha!! So I ended up making a second one just to make sure it actually had apples in it.

Yes my bumpie photo is in front of our Christmas tree; you may be thinking its weird that we already have our Christmas tree up and normally I would agree. However, the guys are heading out the day before Thanksgiving and will not be home for the holidays at all. I didn't want to try to put up the tree by myself and Carlton didn't want to miss out on decorating it with me. So we put it up this past weekend along with Christmas lights on the house. I will slowly put out the other Christmas decorations I have over the next few weeks, but those were the two big items that I knew I couldn't do by myself.

I hope you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving!! Carlton wishes you all a Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!!
XOXOXO

21 Weeks! It's all downhill from here! (Maybe)

I have passed the halfway point in my pregnancy, so the rest should be easy, right?! Ha! We will see. The number of clothing items I can still wear is dwindling quickly as the belly grows. Luckily my friend Winnie was kind enough to give me a couple items from her maternity stash!
I know you have read my previous rants about items that are not available on island, so you know we are limited here. I had no idea how limited the selection of maternity wear was until I needed it! Kmart, supposedly the largest one in the world here, does not have a maternity section. Macy's, the only "real" department store we have here, does not have a maternity section. There are no maternity specialty stores. The only places I have found actual maternity clothes are at the Exchange on the Navy Base and at the Air Force Base. The selection at the Navy Base Exchange was pitiful.....about four different pairs of shorts, eight different tops, and a few dresses. Luckily I happened to be up near the Air Force base today and their maternity section is about triple what the Navy has! Thankfully I was able to buy several items there! I have also ordered some items from Old Navy (thankfully they ship here) and I just discovered that Motherhood Maternity also ships here in case I need more items! YAY!
So here is the cute creature that is about the same size as the baby this week...the Least Weasel!

Isn't it cute?

21 week baby bump!

This past week the baby has gotten to be about 3/4 of a pound and about 10.5 inches long. I have been feeling more movement and usually about 20 minutes after I have eaten. The baby now has its own bone marrow, has developed eyebrows, and can achieve REM sleep so probably dreaming at this point! I know I have had some funky dreams!

Other "exciting" things going on here, I am getting my stove/oven replaced tomorrow! I have already started my holiday baking and over the past couple of weeks I had noticed that the oven was getting warmer than it should. I had batches of cookies that were getting over-baked! I had to reduce the temperature and time for them to come out okay. I had maintenance come out last week and when the guy tested the temperature, it would jump to about 380 and then drop to about 340 when the temperature was set to 350. According to him, that was normal!! I explained to him the difficulties I have had with my baking and he put in for the unit to be replaced! Hopefully the one they bring on Monday will work better.....we will see!

Hope you are all doing great!!!
XOXO
Jen

Halfway there!

On Saturday, I hit 20 weeks into my pregnancy! So according to my pregnancy app, the baby went from being the size of a four toed hedgehog to an axolotl (Mexican salamander). Instead of using fruit comparisons, I decided to go with cute and unusual creatures!

4 toed hedgehog....cute!

Axolotl - not as cute but still smiling!

So changes that have occurred over the past week include: hairs now sprouting from the baby's head, his/her lips have developed, the skin is thickening and developing more layers and now the baby should be about 10 inches long.

I have felt more movement when I am sitting still or laying down. Definitely feels weird! I keep picturing the scene from Alien when the creature pops out of the person's abdomen!

Edge decided to sit in on this one!

Here is my baby bump picture for this week. Still not a whole lot to see although I have definitely become limited in what I can wear. Many of my shorts and pants are too tight now to button! Unfortunately the selection of maternity wear here is seriously lacking. The Kmart (supposedly the largest in the world) does not even have a maternity section! The NEX on base does have a maternity section but it is very small, maybe four different pairs of shorts and about 8 different tops. I have been told the Macy's on island has a decent selection but I haven't made the trip up there yet.


So far I am still feeling good. Some days if I take a longer walk with the dogs in the morning or I do a more intense workout, I might get tired and need to take a nap. So I do! Other than that, my morning sickness is pretty much gone. I've had cravings for milk (I haven't been a milk drinker for years!) and I really like pickled/salty stuff. Dill pickles and pickled okra are especially tasty!!


Other than the regular daily activities, this past Friday evening I had a craft night with some of the other ladies from the Topeka! We had all purchased wooden signs cut into submarines and spent the evening painting them. It was a lot of fun!! Here are a couple pictures:

Our new sign!

Everyone did an awesome job on theirs!

That's all I have for this week!! Hope you're all doing great!!

XOXO
Jen