17 weeks

And I've "popped." I'm now starting to look a little less like I've gained some weight, and a little more like I'm actually pregnant. Every muscle in my abdomen hates me at the moment, and sneezing is the worst. I feel like I completely rip out the muscle along my hips every time I do. Babycenter says Stealth Ninja Baby is about the size of a turnip, and I totally believe it. There are times I feel like someone has shoved a rock or something in my belly.

Symptoms are still pretty boring - slightly queasy all the time, crazy dreams, want to sleep a lot, have a cold. Other than that, we're just cruising on, waiting for the ultrasound on Tuesday. Can't wait to see if we're going to have a boy, or add another sparkly princess to the mix!

Book 2/24 - Angelfall by Susan Ee

2) Angelfall by Susan Ee

I have to say, I really really liked it. It's classified as YA Fiction, and it was a really easy read. I tend to like things that deal with the supernatural - angels, demons, etc - so an entire book based on angels coming down to earth was great. I loved the relationship that Penryn and the Angel had, and wasn't sure whether to love or hate the mom. The only part that really got to me were the ones with her little sister. Paige is 7 (the same age as Cadence), and some of the parts with her just broke my heart, because I kept thinking of Cadence. Overall, the book was excellent.

This is the first in a series, and #2 hasn't been published yet, but I will definitely be getting it when it is. This one was only 99¢ on the Kindle, and well worth it.

I gave this one 4 books.

Book 1/24 - The Hunger Games

I've decided to try the book challenge again, and am hoping for 24 books this year. That's only 2 a month, and I'm going to go from Christmas 2011 to Christmas 2012. I'm hoping I can actually do it this year, since last year was a sensational flop!

1) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I had read enough online about this book before actually reading it, that I knew pretty much what would happen. And I must say, I'm glad I did. I would have been a complete mess if I hadn't, and probably would have cried through a lot of it. Between the ages of the main characters, the total disregard of most of the adults, and the crummy (to put it lightly) conditions they had to live in day to day, it definitely pulled at the heartstrings (especially since I'm a pregnant, overly hormonal mom.) It was really good (even if depressing), and I'm eager to read the next two since I haven't read anything online about them yet. I now want to see the movie as well, and am curious as to how much a like they will be. I don't know that I'd rank it up there with my most favorite books ever, but it was definitely a great read.

I have two others I've started, and a at least three more still to start. Next on the list are 11/22/63 by Stephen King (in book form) and Angelfall (on the Kindle app.) The Stephen King one is HUGE (about 850 pages), but I'm already halfway finished. It's awesome, and I think I'm going to be very sad when I'm through with it.

Over all, 4 Books

This is still bizarre to me

I know this is my third time to go through a pregnancy long enough to endure symptoms, but they are still crazy to me. And come February, I will have been either pregnant or nursing for 2 years straight, so that's throwing things off even more. I'm beginning to forget what MY normal is, instead of pregnancy/nursing normal!

The most bizarre to me is the food. It still seems so weird to me that one day something can be perfectly fine, my favorite food ever, then the very next day, just the thought of said food makes me want to make a beeline for the bathroom. That on some days, smells and tastes and textures don't faze me at all, but on others, the act of getting to close to something, or even the idea of putting it in my mouth and actually EATING it, makes me want to gag (and I do, on occasion.) I'm also full of snot (thank you, awesome Mississippi weather!),  and that's definitely not helping with the gagging problem. Thankfully, though, the "puking every time I change a diaper" seems to have slacked up some. It's not gone completely, but is getting better.

So far I haven't had any weird cravings this time. With Cadence it was mac and cheese, chocolate milk and grilled cheese sandwiches. I went through a brief bbq phase, but it was mainly cheese and milk. I think I was needing more calcium. With Amelia it was watermelon. OMG, I ate so much of it that summer, and was going through one to two a week for awhile there. It was like someone laced it with crack! I also had a brief "peach milkshake from Chick-fil-a" craving that ended with me crying in the drive-thru because they had stopped selling them. Not my finest pregnancy moment. This time the closest I've come to a craving is salad. I liked them before, but it's like every salad tastes even better now. It hasn't been an all consuming craving like with the others, but it's the only thing that's come close.

As of tomorrow I'll be 17 weeks, and so far things are pretty boring. I'm between sizes in clothes - can't wear a lot of my regular jeans because they feel too tight, but the maternity jeans I have are still slightly too big. My stomach isn't *quite* big enough yet to keep them up, and in most of my clothes you can't tell I'm pregnant. I look like I've put on a few pounds, but that's about it. I still haven't really felt movement - a few flutters here and there, but nothing like with the other two. "Ninja baby" really seems to fit this one, because there are lots of times that I forget that I'm even pregnant. I hope it starts moving a little more soon, though, because the girls both moved a ton. I'm going to be a nervous wreck if I'm not getting punched all the time! Heartburn hasn't started yet (even though I'm sure it will within the next few weeks), I'm still slightly queasy a lot of the time, and I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that the hormonal headaches don't make an appearance any time soon. I go Tuesday for my 18 week appointment, and we will do an ultrasound then. Cadence is going with me, and we hope to be able to tell what the sex is. I can't wait!

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! It was fun, but way too short, and I got spoiled getting to take a nap almost every day I was off. When 2pm hit today, I was really wishing for a place to sleep. Cadence loved that she got a basketball goal, and ended up with tons of art stuff, pretty jewelry, sparkly headbands, and new clothes for Emily. Amelia got some new bath toys, a little people castle (which she adores) and jeep, a stroller for her dolls and lots of other random toys that she seems very excited about. Overall, I think they were both very happy with their loot, and have another Christmas with my dad and stepmom this weekend.

I racked up as well. From my mom I got a ton of purple baking supplies, a purple northface jacket with a mixer charm attached, new books, lots of pretty jewelry and Les Miserables on dvd. My sisters got me some awesome boots and a cool sticker for the back of my laptop. Cadence got me a purple brownie maker, and Mike got me some new running shoes, an awesome laptop bag, and Stephen King’s new book 11/22/63. For him, my mom and I went in together and got him tickets to go see Stan Lee in New Orleans at the end of January. He is so excited, and we should officially be buying the tickets at the end of this week!

We also cemented that Amelia has a milk intolerance. We are currently having to stay away from any dairy - no milk, cheese, yogurt, or anything that has those in them. That was loads of fun at Christmas when it meant no lemon icebox pie, rotel dip, poppyseed chicken or mac and cheese. I feel so bad that there are so many good foods she can’t have, but the vomiting, diarrhea, gas pain and stomach cramps just aren’t worth it. We’ve been told to take her off all milk for now, and that hopefully as she gets older we’ll be able to reintroduce it.

Now to what I know you all want to see: Pictures! There are a ton, but it was a very good Christmas! I hope everyone has a wonderful 2012!

My mixer from my mom :)

Awesome laptop bag!

BATH TOYS!!!!

Slowly adjusting

It's been a few days, so now we're slowly starting to adjust to the idea of not only am I pregnant, but we're going to have another little one 19 months younger than Amelia, we need to figure out a car situation, and something's gonna hafta give as far as rooms are concerned! We've had quite a few practical discussions over the weekend, and think we at least have a plan in place for most of it.

I've also discovered that there were a lot of little things, but no major, glaring red flags. If I had stopped long enough to put the pieces together, I'm sure I would have figured it out much sooner than 14 weeks, but hey, who has time for anything with a 7 year old and 1 year old at Christmas?? I'm still not showing, which is so bizarre to me since it was getting obvious by this point with Amelia, and beyond obvious with Cadence, and still have on regular clothes. I went back and looked, and I've gained a little more weight than I had at this point with A, but not much. I'm also slightly queasy all the time. I thought it was the stomach bug from hell that we've been cursed with, but seems it was something else! But if this means no headaches like the last two times, I'll deal with the queasiness!

So much change in such a short amount of time. I can't think about it too much, though, or it becomes a little overwhelming!

Here comes Santa Claus!

Cadence loved him (no surprise there!), but Amelia wasn't so sure what to think of that crazy man I was handing her off to. She didn't cry, but I love the look she's giving me!

Well that's not what I expected

I went in for my yearly check up yesterday, and found out that not only am I pregnant, I'm 14 weeks pregnant!

A pregnancy test was done as part of the normal procedure, and the nurse came back telling me that I was, indeed, knocked up. I didn't believe her, she insisted, then felt of my stomach and said since she really couldn't feel my uterus, I probably wasn't that far along. She said she'd do my physical first, then we'd do a vaginal ultrasound to see if we could find a heartbeat and see how far along I was. Well, when she did the ultrasound, this is what we saw:



Not a blob, not a little butterbean baby, a real live actual baby! With fingers and toes and everything! The nurse and I both just stared at the screen, and I think she was as shocked as I was. My official due date is June 8, and I go back on Dec 20 (about a week and a half) for my first actual OB appoint.

Wow. Another baby!