Thursday, May 24, 2012

Pregnancy: Week 17

What a beautiful week! We had the windows open most days and even slept with a cool summery breeze coming through our bedroom window a few nights. I hope this weather stays for the long haul.

This week, Little Bean is about the size of a 5-inch turnip (crown to rump, as they always say)—not so little anymore! The soft cartilage in his/her body is beginning to turn to harder bone and Baby's general proportions are evening out. I've read that LB is going to double in weight over a few weeks and have quite a growth spurt.

I'm thinking this might have been the cause behind my two-day morning sickness stint toward the end of the week. It was a total throwback to my early weeks in the sense that I had absolutely no appetite and food made me want to gag. Lucky for me, it went away after a couple days and ended with a sleepless night of feeling like my uterus was going to burst open. I could tell my stomach was being stretched and that something was happening in there. So exciting to know our little babe is getting big and strong!

I think I'm starting to feel a few little wiggles. My baby emails have always equated those first movements to feeling like gas, and they definitely do, but I'm not always sure when it's a gas bubble, a twitch or the baby. I can't wait to find out what kicks feel like soon!

Earlier in the week we went out to an exciting and fancy dinner with our friends, Dan and Carrie, at a prix fixe restaurant I've been dying to try called Sutra. We always have a great time trying new restaurants together, and this one absolutely did not disappoint. A full post on our fun experience coming up soon. Of course, the night ended with a scoop of Molly Moons, which was conveniently right across the street.



The next morning my mom came and picked me up bright and early to make our way through the West Seattle Garage Sale. I heard about it from our family and friends who live in the area, but didn't realize what an organized and well-produced event this was until I came across the map and list of sales. Holy heck! There were over 250 sales registered, and they were all mapped out with a description of what was at each sale. I'm not much of a garage sale gal, but I knew there had to be a slew of baby gear since we live in such a family-oriented neighborhood. So I highlighted the ones that claimed to be stocked with baby things and planned our route. It ended up being a total blast and the weather couldn't have been any better—sunny and hot.




Yes, that's my mom's finger in both pictures :)


We scored a huge pile of baby clothes—all priced at $1/item—from a few well-stocked sales. My mom and I were both dying that we didn't know the gender since everything was so cheap and in almost brand-new condition, but we did our best to pick through the masses of blue and pink for anything cute and gender-neutral. She even schmoozed a few of the ladies to exchange contact information with me so I can pick through their leftovers in a few weeks once we know the gender. Can't wait! I am definitely a believer in the WSGS and am eagerly anticipating next year.



My favorite little pants!


Oh—I almost forgot. I even ended up with a pile of maternity clothes. The last sale we stopped at was at a swanky house down on beach drive where the couple was downloading all of their (really nice) baby things. She was the same size as me and had four pair of almost brand-new Gap Maternity jeans and a few tops. I walked away with probably close to $400 worth of maternity clothes for $10—praise Jesus! We had to pry ourselves away from this sale and her buckets of uber-stylish baby girl clothes, but you better bet I have her phone number, just in case... However, I did manage to score a like-new Boppy Lounger for $5 and the most adorable baby Puma's for $2, never mind they're both girly. What a way to end the day!



As if all of this thrifty excitement wasn't enough, I got to celebrate my first Mother's Day the next day. I  was feeling a bit off, so I napped through the afternoon while Arthur did house work for his mom. Once he got home, I rolled out of bed and we headed off to a relaxed dinner at my parents house. We celebrated my mom, my mother-in-law, my sister-in-law who is expecting, and me! It was a perfect evening watching the sun set on the upper deck around the fire.

We even had wild fish that my stepdad caught the day before, grilled purple asparagus, a lemon/dill/olive oil salad that I made and a yummy strawberry dessert. The guys started planning the massive treehouse project Papa K is dreaming up for the big tree in their backyard. So far it sounds like the treehouse will have a pulley elevator system and will sit higher than the house so it has it's own view of the water—fancy! My brother-in-law in an architect, mind you.



"Marcella", the tree house tree
Once the weekend was over, it was back to life. We have been trying to set up life insurance for a few weeks now, and are hopefully on the last leg. The insurance companies have nurses coming to our home in a week or so to do physicals and blood draws. It's such a weird and unhappy thing to be constantly talking about, but I'm proud of Arthur's diligence in finding us the best rates and coverage, and making sure that our family is taken care of if anything were to happen to him, or me. I'm ready for this to be over with though. We will unfortunately have to pick it up again soon to plan a will, and I'm equally not looking forward to that.

While Arthur focused on life insurance, I started researching birth doulas this week. I feel way in over my head, but have decided to just go for it and start doing interviews. I reached out to maybe 30 doulas, with about half of them actually getting back to me and now have a few interviews lined up over the coming weeks. I have heard such great things about having a doula present at your birth and am totally sold on the idea, especially since I plan to have a natural, drug-free birth, if possible (more on our birth plan later). Papa K, however, is a bit leery about whether or not this is important enough to spend $600–800 for, which is on the low end of a Seattle birth doula fee from what I've researched. I'm hoping he'll warm up to the idea once we start interviews and he can ask questions. I will do a doula interviewing 101 post once I have a few under my belt.

Have you heard of pets having prenatal/maternal instincts? Our cat, Mia, has started to become incredibly clingy over the past couple weeks and sleeps wedged in between both of us or actually on Arthur's back! I think it might have something to do with the baby. Maybe?



We're off to Whistler now to kick off week 18 and celebrate our one-year anniversary!


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