Baby is the size of a pomegranate (or a carrot, depending on the source).
This is the week we found out that we’re having a baby girl! We also met with the doctor afterwards and got some numbers for you!
Baby girl “weighs” approximately 15oz (range for weight is 12.7-20.8oz at 22 weeks from TheBump.com)
My weight gain: 4-5lbs
Number of times I’ve looked at our ultrasound picture on the fridge: Countless
How I’m Feeling
I’m still feeling great! I had some allergy issues this past week, and I realized that my body isn’t too fond of this summer heat. I’m thankful for AC, and I’m thankful that we got to be at a pool with family for Memorial Day weekend! I had fun in my two-piece, although my stomach kind of looks like a beer belly at times and not a baby belly!
Note to our Baby Girl:
Dear Baby Girl,
You’ve had so many people feel your little kicks and wiggles! Your grandmothers and aunts all got to feel your rolls and tumbles! Thanks for saying “hi” to them! Your daddy and I heard a great sermon in church on Sunday about parenting, and we’re praying that God continues to shape us into the best husband/wife for each other, and into the best parents we can be for you. I know that we’ll make a lot of mistakes, but we pray that God equips you with the grace and forgiveness to look past our mistakes. It’s been so fun for your daddy and I to come up with names for you! I think we’ll keep your name a secret until you’re born, but we’ll see if we can hold our tongues once we make a decision!
Stay snuggly in there,
Mommy and Daddy
We also received these ADROABLE little flip-flop socks from Daniel’s mom!
How summery are those!?!?
I updated our baby registries, did you know that “gender neutral” bibs are almost non-existent!?!? There were a few “nice to have” things that I wanted to include on the registry, but they were either SUPER girly or VERY boyish, so I waited until after we found out what little mini-Coop was before I added them!
What are the Grandparents going to be called?
I’m super curious as to what our parents are going to want to be called! Daniel has a Grammy and a Papa, and a Grandad and a Grandma. I have a Grandma and a Poopaw, and a Granny and a Pawpaw. I think my dad mentioned he wants to be “Poppy”, but I’m not sure about the rest of the family! I’m curious to see what they come up with!
I’m pretty stoked that we’re not having a puppy, an alien or a seahorse. We are indeed having a baby. Our little one has two legs and two arms, a great looking heart, some good looking kidneys and the cutest little nose.
Mini-Coop was wiggling all over the place, the tech would try to snap a picture and then baby would change positions. The ultrasound technician estimated that baby weighs about 15 oz (at 21 weeks)! Almost one pound! It was AMAZING to see baby’s tiny arms, legs and organs. The spine was super weird looking, and we also got to see one of the many punch/kick combos that baby has been delivering to my insides.
But, I know you just want to know if Mini-Coop is a he or a she… so I’ll let this cupcake tell you (Daniel had some GLUTEN FREE cupcakes made by BabyCakes here in Lexington, KY)
(Gluten-free Blackberry Cupcake with a PINK frosting filling!)
It’s a GIRL!!!
I’ll admit, I cried with a mouth full of cupcake. I had thought pretty much the whole time that little Mini-Coop was a boy, so it was a little bit strange to think of the baby as a SHE! We couldn’t be more excited though, but we haven’t thought of very many girl names, so we need to get to work on that pronto!
Little baby girl Cooper, we are so glad that we got to see you today. Seeing your little arms and legs made everything even more real. Your cute button nose will receive hundreds of thousands of kisses, and we can’t wait to actually meet you! Stay nice and cozy in there, and we’re so glad to know that you are OUR little GIRL!
Well friends, this is the 20 week recap and tomorrow comes the big gender reveal! Everything is still going smoothly! Daniel and I took a trip up to Cincinnati this past weekend to go house hunting, and we are happy to say that we’ll have a place to live! We’ll be renting the bottom half of a duplex in the Oakley area. I’m really excited to start exploring our new city. The realtor we were working with showed us tons of great parks and I can’t wait to take some walks there later this summer (and with baby once he or she arrives!It was really surreal to think that the house that we’ll be moving into is the house where our baby will be born. I’m also excited because the baby/guest room will have carpet, so there will be plenty of soft surfaces for playtime! Silas is also super excited about having carpet in the house, he loves to bury his nose as deep as possible in the carpet when we visit family! I’m glad our new place will have hardwood in the front room and in the dining room/kitchen as well. I love hardwood floors!!!
How I’m Feeling
Still doing just fine! I had a little bit of SI joint pain (lower back/hip area) one evening, but I made a rice heating pack and did some stretching and it felt SO much better! I just poured some rice into a cotton sock and tied a knot at the top. Then I microwaved it for 1 minute and put it on my back. Easiest almost-instant heating pad. Besides some very minor aches, I’m still feeling great!
The jeans I’m wearing in the picture below are probably on their way to the storage box, they fit, but they are NOT comfortable. I got a few new shirts at Target this week, just regular v-neck shirts from the WOMEN’S section (not the Juniors or whatever that other section is called). They’re long, they’re soft and they look better than my current (5 year old) t-shirts with pit stains. Little mini-coop is still kick-kick-kicking away. As I type this (on Monday night), kiddo is bumping all around! I’ve had the chance to let a few others feel baby moving around, it’s just too cool not to share! He/she is most active in the mornings around 10 and in the evenings after dinner, but especially around 8pm.
Workouts
Walking still feels great, elliptical not so much, and biking is good on some days. It’s really strange, but my body definitely knows that it doesn’t want to be pushed too hard. Daniel and I visited the hotel gym when we were in Cincy, and I hopped on the elliptical for a bit, but that got uncomfortable (mainly because the machine was too big and it caused my posture to be pretty poor), so then I hopped on the bike, but the higher resistance just made my body say “NO!” It’s not painful or anything, and I’m not like extremely winded when this “NO” happens, but it’s just this weird all-over feeling of “I should take it easy”. So I turn down the resistance and go until my body says stop. Weight lifting still feels great! I’ve dropped weights on a few things, just because the weights I was using just felt too heavy. But I aim to do about 15 reps of each exercise, 3 times through. Biceps, triceps, lats, seated rows and these great resistance band chest stretch/rear fly thingamajigs.
First Pregnant Crying Experience
Daniel and I went to a restaurant called Rock Bottom Brewery in Cincinnati and I was asking the waitress what the “Catch of the Day” was. She said “salmon”, but since there were two other salmon options on the menu (pecan-encrusted and Asian), I asked how this special of the day salmon was cooked. She said (rather shortly) “with olive oil and butter”. I asked if it was just plain, just the oil and butter, and she told me “yes”. Well, when my salmon came out, it had a little mound of breadcrumbs on top. I’ll preface this by saying that I probably should have been more specific about asking if there was any breading on the fish, but she seemed like she didn’t want to answer any more questions, so I didn’t. Anyways, after the waitress had dropped off our food, I nearly started crying. I was mad at her for not telling me about the breadcrumbs, and I had this weird sad feeling that she didn’t tell me the whole truth. But, I sucked it up, brushed off the breadcrumbs, and had a good dinner.
And then at dinner, I started to tell Daniel how I have been starting to feel more connected with the baby. I was just telling him how sad I would be if something were to happen to the baby, and some big fat tears started rolling down my cheeks. I think it’s funny because up until this point, I haven’t really been any more or less emotional than normal, and those two “crying” episodes happened within like 20 minutes of one another. Ahh hormones.
We also had a doctors appointment after our ultrasound, but I’ll just include any nuggets of info from that appointment with the gender reveal See you tomorrow!
Our big ultrasound is just around the corner (on Tuesday!) and I though it would be fun to take a few “gender prediction” tests. We’ve had most people tell us we’re having a boy (but we’ve also always talked about how we’d love to have a little boy, so we may have swayed their votes!) We’ll be happy with a boy or a girl, but I’ve been picturing a little baby who looks just like Daniel’s baby pictures for a while now. Let’s hope baby COOPerates and shows the tech his or her stuff!
Toddler Daniel and Toddler Holly
We actually decided to have the tech write down the gender and put it in an envelope. Daniel has some special reveal planned, and all I know is that it involves cupcakes from BabyCakes (they make GF cupcakes!!!) I’ll try to put up a post on Wednesday with details of the reveal, and hopefully with the gender of our little Mini-Coop!
Most of these quizzes asked if I’m carrying “high” or “low”, and that just made me laugh because unless it’s the end of the day, it doesn’t look like I’m “carrying” anything other than some extra lunch. I guess I’m carrying low though, I feel all of the kicks and punches WAY below my belly button.
Anyways, that was a fun little doo-dad and we’re excited to see our real Mini-Coop on Tuesday!
Baby is the size of a mango! (About about 6.0 inches long and weighing in at about 8.5 ounces)
Time is flying by! I just hit 20 weeks today (5/14/2012), and it’s crazy to think that this pregnancy is half-way through! (This picture is actually the first day of 20 weeks!)
Baby REALLY started moving this week. After I eat a meal, mini-coop does all kinds of flips and kicks. I wish I knew what was kicking me- a leg? An arm? His or her rump? It’s pretty nifty. BUT- I would be lying if I didn’t mention that the little kicks and bumps were kind of annoying at times. For example, it’s not really fun to have baby playing trampoline on your bladder during a car ride. And it’s a little weird to have a little “baby fireworks” show going on inside during class. Most of the time though, it’s really cool to know that there’s really a baby in there!
How I’m Feeling
Knock on wood, but this pregnancy has been pretty easy! Aside from a few aches and pains on certain days, I feel GREAT! I’ve stopped running, my SI joint really starts to hurt after a few minutes. Using the elliptical feels a little weird on some days too, so that might be the next thing to “go”.
My appetite is about normal, but when I eat something every 2 hours, I feel best.
We traveled to Indianapolis (for the second time this spring!) to see our friends Jake and Katy get married. It was wonderful catching up with old friends and enjoying an absolutely beautiful wedding!
Workouts
I also started summer class this week, French. French is HARD, but I just want to get as many classes out of the way before our little mini-coop makes his or her entrance to the world. It’s REALLY nice to have a different schedule, because I have at least 2 afternoons per week totally open. I’ve gotten in some good weights workouts, but it’s funny to see my weight lbs dropping (10lb bicep curls are just TOO heavy!) I’m doing a lot of walking. Because my class runs 5 days per week, that pretty much guarantees that I get in 5 40 minute walks each week (it’s about 20 minutes from our house to campus). I’d like to take Silas on a few more walks each week (since he can’t come to class), but we’ve enjoyed going to the dog parks in the warm springtime evenings!
In other news, Daniel is enjoying being finished with school, he’s working part time at Starbucks for a few months until his real job starts! He’s been so helpful with getting everything ready- he’s got a to-do list a mile long! We’re pretty thankful to have a little more time together than normal, and we’re both looking forward to a different pace of life when we’re up in Cincinnati.
Well, nothing else to report. We find out the sex of baby Coop next week (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and I’ll be back with a reveal and a 20 week recap!
Well, our due date changed a little bit, Mini-Coop is now due to make his/her appearance on September 30th (instead of on the 28th). Can you believe this marks the beginning of the 5th month?!?
How I’m Feeling
Still doing super! I had one day where I didn’t feel so great, but work has been pretty busy for the past two weeks, and I didn’t sleep well at all the night before. Just goes to show how important sleep is! This was our finals week, so our schedules were a little bit weird, but we’re done with the Spring 2012 semester!!! Yippee! And Daniel is done with his undergrad! I’m married to a UK Graduate!
I’m taking classes this summer, and those start on Monday. I’m looking forward to my “summer schedule” of class and work, I have a few days with a large chunk of time in the afternoon, so I’m hoping to get into a more regular exercise routine! And I’ll have time before classes in the mornings, so Silas and I may try to get in some regular morning walks (I know he would LOVE that!)
Silas also got a haircut this week- this pup is pretty miserable when the temp soars over 80 degrees, so we decided to shave him down. He looks so cute!!! (And Ashley pointed out that he looks kind of like he did when he was a pup!)
We had a doctors appointment this week, and everything looks great! Baby Coop’s heart is beating at 140 bpm (compared to 153bpm 4 weeks ago and 167bpm 8 weeks ago)! My appointments are so quick and painless- urine sample, weight, blood pressure, any questions? All done. Next visit, we’ll finally get a belly measurement, so there will be one more step added to visits. I know I should enjoy it while I can, I hear the 3rd trimester visits can get rather… invasive. Our big ultrasound will be on May 22nd or 23rd, and we couldn’t be more excited!!! Not only are we excited to find out if little Mini-Coop is a he or a she, but we’re looking forward to seeing little fingers and toes and all other little baby parts.
Pregnancy Stats
Weight Gained: 2lbs Pants that don’t fit: 2 pair Bathroom trips at night: down to 1 or 2, THANK GOODNESS! Number of salads consumed this week: 5 # of naps desired vs. # of naps taken: 3 vs. 1 (we need to work on that ratio…)
Oh… and because I think pregnancy weeks/months are confusing, here’s a handy dandy chart!
I should be finishing up studying for my history exam, but I needed a breather. Here are some funny e-mails my dad forwarded me from my grandpa! (If you missed it, here is part 1 of “Things my Grandpa Says“)
“New Invention”
My new invention is brown toilet paper that smells like roses and contains nit. phors. and potash. watch for it in your local stores !
K.A. M.R. M.T.
all came see gran. ma. Much discussion and excitement. C.Ann wants picture of my rooster painting. Am mailing it Wednesday. Adobe reader wants to install ” updates ” Should I let them ?
(Initials are my siblings initials, except I like how my sister, Catherine, is referred to as K.A. and C. Ann).
Just two little nuggets of wisdom and enjoyment for your Thursday!
See you tomorrow!
