Week 16 (9/11-9/17)

This week has started off pretty well, I had a doctor's visit and met with the midwife who was fantastic. She put the little heart rate monitor on and we got to hear the heartbeat and every so often there would be a loud thud and she said those were kicks. Looks like baby is pretty active. I still haven't gained any weight but boy does this body look different. Belly is getting bigger for sure. I haven't been going to the gym this past week only because I've been so exhausted from my erratic sleep schedule. She says I can take Melatonin, Benadryl or  Tylenol PM with no problem. Let's see if this works itself out.

I haven't been craving Mexican food as much but I have been wanting grilled wings and BBQ. My snack of choice is Angie's kettle corn. If you don't know about Angie's- go to Costco and buy that yellow bag, it'll be the best decision you make. The baby is supposed to get to be the size of an avocado this week so that's exciting. Also the midwife said that I should be able to feel the baby move soon. She described it as fluttering but the only feelings I have so far are related to hunger or gas. Not quite the magical pregnancy feelings you'd like to feel but hopefully soon I'll get them.

Chocolate milk... Now, I'm not a big chocolate fan but I can't get enough chocolate milk. I don't make it too dark, at all. It's more like chocolate-light but I haven't had regular milk in so long, we usually drink almond milk, that when I splurged and bought a half gallon of lactose free (I'm not that mean to Hov) fat free milk I didn't hold back.  Sooooo good.

I convinced Hov this past weekend that I needed a few dresses for the belly. At the time I'd say that excuse was about 50% bull... but this week has proved that it was actually necessary. My pants and shorts struggle to button and I've worn a dress every day this week. Not to mention the Tallahassee heat makes it nice to not have to wear pants- better air circulation. The only strange thing is the belly is in this weird in-between state where you can't tell if I'm just fat or pregs, we'll see how long it takes before it becomes an official belly and not just a larger than normal pooch. I sent this picture to my grandmother who asked me if it was all the food I had been eating and not the baby... it's possible... it's possible. Hispanic grandmothers keep it real. I'm going to have a lot of work ahead of me once the baby comes out if that's the case. The only comfort I have is I haven't gained any weight, I've only grown which I guess is a comfort but I also don't know. I could just rapidly be converting muscle to fat which would be no bueno.

 

On Friday Hov and I decided to go to the courthouse and get a marriage license. We are officially Mr. and Mrs. and I am really happy. Really happy. Now, it wasn't what either of us would consider our "official" wedding. That'll happen when we have the whole ceremony/reception with all our family and friends. We tried to shotgun it and plan for before I got big but there was no way with our budget that it would have worked so we decided to postpone the celebrations until after the baby comes. Having said that, it was really important to me that we be a unit before the baby gets here. Not only for medical reasons but I wanted to be an official family, with all our last names matching and not having to constantly correct people when they automatically said husband etc, that and we just wanted to. It was a big risk not telling people we were doing it beforehand. We knew there was a possibility of some feelings getting hurt. Having said that, we didn't tell anyone. We have been getting so many opinions over the last few weeks it's been pretty stressful and we wanted a decision that was ours and ours only with no one else's input that we did because we wanted to. I let my family know after the fact and so did he and I will be looking forward to celebrating officially with them next year once we save enough to have a proper reception. Meanwhile, it was only the clerk lady who did the officiating and us. She snapped a picture after the fact.

I have to say it was still a pretty emotional experience even though it was a very official setting with a perfect stranger standing in front of us. This is something that should have happened a long time ago. I am so blessed and could not be more thankful that my love and I finally got to have our day. It will be even better once we have that day with all our loved ones around us, and we can party after. We both had to go to work after which was sort of a buzz kill but hey- life happens right? At least now if something happens to either of us we can take comfort in knowing that the person making the decisions is the person who knows us the best in this world. Also, if I ever am accused of committing a crime he doesn't have to answer anything which is good to know I suppose.

*As an aside- I have been asked if us wearing pink is any indicator of the gender of the baby. The answer is no, it was pure coincidence. We have no idea what the baby is and we don't want to know until D-Day.

Even though I was at work all day after the nuptuals (other than lunch) I have felt so calm and at peace. I know this may not have been the ideal decision for our family since they weren't there with us but I know in my heart this was the decision that was best for us. On Saturday we will have a little gathering but not necessarily as a celebration for us, we will have a BBQ in Hovik's honor since he will be moving down to Miami next weekend. I plan on cooking everything Friday night since the house turns into an inferno when the oven is on during the day and we are going to have quite a few people over. Pulled pork and wings are the stars on the menu with a nod to my mother with my attempt at copying her broccoli cheese casserole. I bought two boxes of crackers in case anyone is wondering since we all know that is the best part. Since I can't drink, we don't really drink that often anyway and we are trying to lighten things up for when we move, I have decided that instead of purchasing beer for everyone I will attempt to make the funkiest of hunch punches ever with as many things I have in my hutch as possible. This includes (but is not limited to) peach schnapps, everclear, and blue curacao. I'm not sure how it'll go but we'll see. We do have a couple extra rooms and some couches for those people who don't need to be driving. Safety is #1.

The BBQ was a lot of fun. It was great to gather with our friends and what made it even more special is our good friends Brooke & Aaron Druliner and Brittany Sexton surprised us with the most amazing cake and flowers. I was so surprised but then not surprised because Brooke is probably the most DIY creative person I know. The cake was GORGEOUS, I absolutely loved it and not to mention it was delicious too. It was perfect with the white, purple and green. Those were the original colors we had picked out and I still love them. Purple is my color. The hydrangeas on top were amazing and the orchids just set it off so nicely. There were more hydrangeas on each cupcake and it really looked like it was totally professional. She is amazingly talented. I loved the rustic buttercream. It kind of turned the going away BBQ into a BBQ/wedding mini post celebration. It was very casual but there was plenty of wine flowing and tons of food.

 Brooke, myself and Brittany posing with the gorgeous cake. I didn't want to cut into it, it was so pretty.

 Hov and I with the masterpiece before we cut into it.

 Cutting into it, don't mind Katrina in the background.

 The sweetest kiss of my life.

We did do a little cake cutting which was the only wedding-ish celebratory thing we have done. It was pretty special to share that with our friends up here. All the food we made in disposable tins and all the plates/cups/cutlery was disposable too. Best decision ever. Cleaning up took literally five minutes. No waking up to a kitchen full of dirty dishes. Everyone wanted to know about the details of the move which is understandable but we probably just should have made a powerpoint or an official announcement or something because Hov was a bit of a broken record with it all.

The next few days will be spent cleaning out the garage, taking things to goodwill and getting Hov ready for the move next Saturday. He will be moving in with his dad so at least he'll feel comfortable where he's staying. I really hope this job ends up being all that he wants it to be, it breaks my heart to think that he could end up hating it and then be stuck there. We'll see, he starts on the 23rd.

The one negative thing I have found is my patience and tolerance for things has gone down the drain. Things bother me more than normal and getting annoyed takes next to nothing. I have to constantly check in with someone to see if my reaction would be considered "normal" or "hormonal", things have been leaning more towards hormonal lately but I can't help it. This is especially true when it comes to people's opinions about my life/the baby/our nuptials. If you are not an active member in my life, you get no opinion... even if you are, your opinion will be solicited if desired. I don't care if my decisions make you mad/happy/sad, especially if you are practically a stranger to me- I didn't make them for you, I made them for me. I think it's beyond irritating (and hilarious) that people who haven't even made an attempt to contact me in years, much less since finding out I'm pregnant/married, feel like they get to have an opinion about things. Hov tells me to just let it go and it doesn't matter, I know he's right but it still annoys me to no end. UGH! Ok, end of rant.

Final picture of the week: Baby is the size of an avocado, notice in the picture I totally disregarded the second "a" in that word making it "avocdo". I have no idea what happened. I think this is the first piece of concrete evidence indicating that pregnancy brain is starting to creep in. This week the baby developed more of its inner ear allowing it to start hearing our voices which is very exciting.