Baby Update: Week 20

Just a pretty standard pregnancy survey that I plan to continue updating week by week...

How far along? 20 weeks, an unbelievable half-way!

Due date: July 22, 2013

Baby size: a mango or small cantaloupe (I follow two trackers and they are never the same & I still haven't figured out if the baby is that size at the beginning or end of the week. So, don't rely on this too much.)

Total weight gain/loss: gain of about 10 lbs or 4.5 kg, since I live outside the States

Maternity clothes: I chill out in workout pants when I am home (although if you read my previous post, you know there is no working out happening). Outside the house I mostly wear a pair of maternity jeans I ordered from Old Navy and asked my terrific in-laws to send to me. I could still wear my other jeans with a hair tie, but the ON jeans are just really comfortable. It's the Rockstar Jeans style and I'd recommend them if you're looking, plus they were only $19. They look great with my boots, which I wear all the time. I like to wear tights and my summer dresses too.

Sleep: In the last week I fell back into a poor sleep routine with long naps in the afternoon that keep me awake until 2am or so. I can't resist the naps. Sleeping is mostly comfortable still, I have a really wonderful body pillow to keep between my knees, but sort of wraps all around me. Poor Kenny. Also, the trick to getting to sleep is radio, but not music, talking. We're alternating between an NPR show called Planet Money and one of our favorite pastors, Allistair Begg. So, baby's developing an extensive knowledge of the economy and hopefully developing a cool Scottish accent like Allistair's. :)

Best moment this week: Kenny felt the baby moving for the first time! He said it was like feeling a bubble pop. And we settled on a couple of names we like a lot (boy name) and love (girl name)!

Movement: I feel the baby most in the evening. It's pretty gentle fluttering and sometimes is a pretty rhythmic pulsing, like a nerve twitching.

Food cravings: Chicken Caesar salad, my mom's yippy-yups (family version of sloppy joe), and Doritos (always Doritos, unfortunate as we can't get them here)

Symptoms: a little discomfort in the hip region, easily tired (2.5 hour limits, it seems), headaches 3 days this week, and gas - ugh.

Gender: We were hoping to find out this week, but our next appointment won't be until week 22. Kenny is passively rooting for a boy and my intuition tells me girl. We aren't so serious about gender preferences, it's just in fun....we're just so blessed and will be thrilled to death to have what we have!

Labor Signs: nope and nope.

Goals for the Week: Trying to stay tuned in to what my body's telling me I need. Working on 3 Nalgenes or 3 liters of water each day to help keep the headaches at bay as well as plenty of protein in my diet. The weather forecast is looking nice, so I want to spend more time out walking.

Feeling toward Pregnancy: I am full of a little extra excitement with feeling the baby so much now. This is finally feeling more real for me! And I like my baby bump, the growing is making it more of a reality too. I'm not a huge fan of the extra attention, people touching my stomach, and people telling me that I can't do something because I am pregnant. Feeling the baby's movements is a pretty sweet experience for Kenny and creates a really beautiful connection between the two of us. Also, I like to imagine that the baby's communicating something to me when I feel it, so loving all this connection happening in our family!

What I miss: Energy. A ton of energy returned with the second trimester, but I miss my energetic, pre-pregnant self. And my vocabulary. Pregnancy combined with language learning has apparently caused me to forget words .

What I am looking forward to: I cannot wait to know if our baby is a son or daughter! We're excited to start calling our child by name and feeling more connected to our little one.

Fears or uncertainties to surrender: I'm super excited to be a mom, but I worry about dropping the ball and not being able to handle motherhood + being a wife + keeping a home + culture and language learning + ministry...yeah. Diffusing the worry with this truth....For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, "Fear not, I will help you." - Isaiah 41:13. That's a comfort and what I can trust in.

Milestones: We made our first baby purchase...31 cloth diapers + inserts! We caught a deal on facebook from an old friend from high school who mentioned she was selling her kids' diapers. I jumped on it and only paid $200 for all of it! That's a pretty great discount and I don't mind that they're second hand at all. My mom worked out the purchase for us, of course, but it was our first purchase nonetheless.

Albanian Culture and Pregnancy Tidbit: When an Albanian learns that you're expecting, they wish you to have a boy. They really favor boys in this culture. I read an article that said that the statistics show that in the last 15 years since they were able to tell gender here, the number of boys born is a significantly higher than girls, comparable to the percentages in India. Of course, only 3.5 million people live here, compared to a gobmillion in India, but still. Of course, it's a consequence of people learning what gender that they're having and sadly choosing to abort if it's a little girl. So it's technically gendercide. Anyway...most Albanian's are pulling for a little mister.