Mall Wars

First and foremost, I'd like to wish my friend, (and fellow momma-to-be) Ashley, a very happy 30th birthday!  When did we get so old??  :)  For your viewing pleasure...a couple of pics from the past.

 In Denver for my Deb ball -- 2000  (Yes, that's Mollie with her back to the camera)

Graduation Day -- 2000

Now, on to my rant...I'm not sure when it happened, but sometime over the course of the last several years, I've developed a serious distaste for shopping.  Anytime I decide that I'm even remotely in the mood to shop, I end up reminding myself why it hate it.  Even online shopping is miserable because I end up not liking what I order.  Having said all that, it was officially time to buy maternity pants, I've been way too uncomfortable in old pants with the Be Band.  On Saturday, Ryan and I headed to A Pea in the Pod with gift cards from Christmas in hand (thanks, Mom and Lynn.)  Holy Hell, do I need to get into the maternity clothes business!!!  I spent twice as much on a pair of jeans and work pants that will last me 6 more months than I EVER do on regular clothes.  $70 for a shirt that's rouched on the sides?  Really?  After spending a small fortune there, we also headed to Motherhood Maternity that was significantly more affordable, but the clothes didn't fit nearly as well.  Dammit.  C'est la vie, I suppose.

After our mall adventure on Saturday, we attended a friend's surprise 30th birthday party where I was able to show off my new stretchy top jeans and grossly over priced shirt. :)

This picture is bad of everyone but me, but whatever, it's my blog. :)  Mandy (birthday girl) thought we were doing a silly faces picture.

Love this of Lindsay and Ryan growing pregnant bellies with me.  (No, Lindsay is not pregnant, she can just make herself look like she is.)

In other news, that probably isn't interesting to anyone but me, after 14 years, I finally took out my belly button ring.  My stomach looks so naked, it's too weird.  But, let's face it, I'm pregnant and probably too old to have a belly ring anymore anyway.  I was surprisingly nostalgic about it.  Meghan  (Oleson) Schleyer and I got them together on my 16th birthday, so I kind of feel like a piece of my youth is gone now.

After my last post about the flutter, I didn't feel anything for days.  I started to think I'd made it up after all, but two nights ago, the Mini-Muffin was fluttering in full force!  I love it.  I hope that it continues with that kind of gusto.

6 more days till the "Big" Ultrasound!!  Can't wait.

Thanks for indulging me!

First Flutter

Why is it that dreams are so much more bizarre while you're pregnant??  Turns out all of the pregnancy "cliches" are true.  Who knew?

Last night I was in the midst of one of my usual crazy dreams, when all of sudden the dream changed to me beginning contractions in a parking lot.  In the dream, I was very aware that it's way too early to have contractions, and somewhere in my subconscious I knew that I was feeling something new and foreign in my belly.  I woke up almost immediately to feel the first flutter -- a perfect little *tap tap tap* on my left side.  This, of course, happened at 4:30 in the morning, and I was so excited that I spent the next hour and half hoping it would happen again.  It didn't.

We had a doctor's appointment last Wednesday and she asked me if I'd felt anything yet.  When I told her I didn't think so, but I wasn't really sure what I was expecting to feel, she told me "I'd know."  Turns out, she's right.  It was awesome, I just wish that I'd been more awake.

The big ultrasound is 2 weeks from today!!

Determined to make this happen

I keep telling myself that I'm going to make this work.  A very close friend of mine, who is also expecting, is my inspiration.  I love reading her blog, although it simply reminds me that I haven't even sent out an email asking anyone to read mine yet. :)

So, here we go again.  I'm 16 weeks and 3 days today.  My belly is continuing to rapidly expand.  Pants no longer zip up.  I'm surviving thus far using the Bella Band that my mom got me for Christmas.  It's essentially Spanx that fit over pants...very sexy.  The baby is now the size of an avocado, and I'm getting serious uterus growing pains -- also known as round ligament pain (I've recently found out.)

I haven't had any crazy cravings lately, although when something sounds good, I tend to obsess about it until I get it.  Having said that, I'm constantly starving.  Literally every 3 hours, I'm ravenous.  I'm definitely more emotional than usual, crying at anything even remotely sentimental.  I had my first hormonal emotional breakdown the other day because Ryan told me he didn't think our (yet to be planned) Babymoon would happen.  Side note -- it will.  :)

We have another doctor's appointment tomorrow afternoon, and in just a few short weeks we'll find out (confirm) the sex of the baby.

Here is a belly pic progression:

Week 4 (2 days after we found out)

Week 12 (for some reason I show less on my left side)

Week 14

Week 16