18 Weeks & Headed to Florida!

Yeehaw! Two days left of work before we head to St. Augustine! I am so ready to get there. I'm not sure if it's the hormones or what, but I have recently been extremely homesick and wishing that we could just move to Florida already. As much as I love my Denver family, I really want to be taken care of!! Parents and siblings and aunts and cousins are soo nice for that. :) I am happy though that I do have such a strong base of friends here that do honestly feel like family. I would hate to leave that.

This is my 18 week belly picture from this morning. It's really getting big! We got a new camera (SPLURGE) so I hope to get some cooler shots than this soon. This is just with my iPhone - I've taken pics every week since week 5 like this. Now that there is actually a belly there, a new camera can capture the growth! We decided to splurge on the camera because it is such a treasure to be able to capture those baby moments in clarity and with creativity. The camera comes with photography classes too, so maybe I'll get a chance to actually learn how to use the thing before the baby comes!!

I was able to get in at Mountain Midwifery for our 24 week appointment! I'm so happy about that. I wish we could have gone sooner, but it is what it is. We still have one more visit with our current doctor which is good, because otherwise it would have been difficult to get an ultrasound to find out the sex! And there's no way we could make it without knowing... I really think the 20 week appointment is going to be amazing. I'm so excited to connect to the little boy or little girl we have growing! I know it would be so exciting to wait until the birth to find out, but we are waayy too ready to know. Plus, it's nice to break up the 40 weeks of pregnancy with some exciting news!

Our 20 week appointment is scheduled for July 13th, 1:00 pm MST. Two weeks and 1 day to go! So crazy! We are so close to the halfway mark. I'm still totally comfortable - able to sleep, still have energy, still exercising, etc! I am relishing in that since I know that the last weeks aren't quite as fun. So for now, we our loving our lives and the little life inside me.

15 Weeks Down, 25 To Go

So here is my 15 week belly pic from this morning, although it doesn't seem to do my belly justice. I think it is twice as big before I go to bed! I am pretty much into maternity clothes, but really I'm still in that awkward stage where I don't look all the way pregnant yet. It's at the point where people may wonder, but would never ask because it could just be a gut. Sometimes I poke it out a little more to try and make it more obvious. :)

I'm feeling pretty good- a little tired from our trip to Santa Fe for Sarah's wedding this weekend (which was beautiful by the way), but overall healthy and happy! Mike and I babysat Inzo for a little while on the night of the wedding so Sarah could let loose, and Inzo was adorable and hilarious. He did not want to go to bed, so he just kept clapping (his new trick) even though his eyes were mostly closed. Mike was such a sweetheart - he hung out with me and Inzo instead of partying it up with the rest of the crew. I gots me a good one. :)

I'm still dealing with insurance drama, but we are trying to get into Mountain Midwifery for the second half of my pregnancy (http://www.mountainmidwifery.com/). We toured the place and fell in love! It just looks so much more inviting than a hospital room - so much more personal and relaxed. Plus, the possibility of c-section is sooo much lower there. I think the c-section rate of their patients is like 2% compared to the national average of about 30%. Oh, and I could even do a water birth there if I wanted!

I'm still trying to determine what kind of childbirth classes to take. So far, it's between the Bradley method and Hypnobirth method. I really am leaning towards Hypnobirthing since I think it will take the anxiety away from the pain and fear. But it's not very common, so I'm still researching. I have a friend Vanessa who just started her first class and is due in July I think, so I'll soon know how she does.

My 16 week appt is June 15th with my current doctor. Then we are off to FL on June 30th for Fun on the Fourth! I'll let you know when we get our 20 week appt scheduled to find out the sex! It will be sometime in mid-July. Mike is really leaning towards a girl now, while I'm still thinking its a boy.

I still have NO idea what kind of cloth diapers, stroller, crib, playpins, swings, etc that I am going to want/need, so any advice in those areas would be great! Sarah is taking me on a little tour at Babies R Us next weekend to let me know what she would have liked so I can get a sense of what works, but it's all pretty overwhelming. I can't even decide what kind of body pillow I want, much less what kind of gadgets and doohickeys I'll need for a child that I don't even know yet!!!