Week 24

How far along? 24 weeks 2 days

Total weight gain/loss? The scale keeps going up. The oreos we keep on buying are just always so tempting.
Maternity clothes? I feel like I have nothing to wear. I just don't feel big enough for all maternity clothes but none of my regular clothes fit. :/
Stretch marks? No new ones.
Sleep? I have had a lot more energy lately but I usually still need a quick cat nap in order to make it through the day.
Best moment this week? Finally having Kendrick feel the baby move. My friend's hubby suggested we tell him there was a alien in me. I did a variation of it and told him that I had a monster in my tummy and asked if he wanted to feel it kicking. He was very excited to feel it and I loved seeing his face as he felt the baby kick... hopefully by October he will know it is a baby and not a monster.
Miss Anything? We cleaned our carpets and moved everything around. It would have been nice to be able to help Nate a little bit more and not just stand and point where things should go. I was able to help a little with some contraptions we came up with that allowed me to wheel stuff around without lifting anything.
Movement? Crowberry is a mover. I'm guessing he/she will be very similar to Kendrick and move day and night. I'm getting lots of kicks in my bladder and pelvis area. I don't remember this happening with Kendrick so it is a new feeling.
Food cravings? Not that I can remember.
Anything making you queasy or sick? Sugar overload (more about that below)
Have you started to show yet? My tummy sticks out even in a t-shirt so yes I am showing.
Gender? I had another dream that I had a little boy. It probably coordinates with the fact that little boys are all I know. The only difference is that I always dream the boy will be dark haired not blond like Kendrick was. I still don't think it means much though because even when I knew I was having a boy my first pregnancy I would still have dreams where I was having a girl.
Labor Signs? This week has been calm. Less braxton hicks :)
Belly Button in or out? Half and half. The top half is starting to poke out.
Wedding ring on or off? Fits the same.
Happy or Moody most of the time? I have had my moments of being moody. Saturday was especially a moody day where all I wanted to do was cry.
Looking forward to? Reading all the pregnancy books that I keep finding. I have over 10 on my reading list and just need to find time to get to them. I have read a couple already I just want to read more. :)

So I have chosen to go with a Midwife but I did not make my final decision until yesterday. It was quite the roller coaster ride for Nate and I in trying to decide. We are not very decisive people so it was hard for us to make such a big decision. I had a midwife with Kendrick but it was a group of midwives who worked for the hospital I was delivering at.

This time I am going with a birth center and will possibly do a home birth (still haven't decided). It was hard to decide not to deliver in a hospital but Nathan and I feel like this choice is the best for us and if anything changes where I need to go to the hospital we can always transfer. There are many opinions about this and while I feel like I am a very open minded person I would only appreciate positive opinions/comments and not "your crazy" ones. It took us many many many weeks to come to this conclusion and we have considered many different things so we are not going into this blindly.

I toured a couple birth centers and even interviewed a few midwives. I am very pleased with who we ended up with. Both Nate and I feel very very confident in the education, experience, and knowledge that the midwife has. Due to some miscommunication over the weekend we were on the verge of once again switching (boo). It had nothing to do with the midwife but the staff of the birth center. Luckily their HUGE mistake was not taken lightly and I feel like everything was resolved to where I know that it is still the best place for our little family.

I only have a few hours left with my Muchacho before I am gone for what feels like will be forever so I better stop typing now. :)

Shhh

I am going to over post in order to make up for the fact that I will likely not post for the next month while I am gone. So here is a quick and fun story about my little Mister and I.

When I was younger (5-15) I would sneak into my parents room at night and sleep at the foot of their bed. Yes I totally did this until I was at least 15 because if I ever watched a scary movie then it was a great way to get some sleep and not have to be nervous all night. If I was really awesome I would wake up before my parents alarm and then sneak out so that they would have no idea I was even in there. My mom was a super light sleeper so it was rare that they didn't know that I was in there. 

So fast forward to just a few days ago and Kendrick completely snuck into our room and fell asleep in between Nathan and I. I still have no idea when he came in or how he even got up onto our bed. I just woke up and realized that I was snuggling him instead of my hubby. It was so funny. Kendrick has not slept with us even as a newborn. 

I wasn't 100% against co-sleeping but Kendrick just never would sleep with us. Even when he was sick he would snuggle and then sleep so much better in his own bed. Occasionally it was frustrating not to have him sleep in our bed but overall it has worked out and it has been a great thing. I just think it is so funny that he randomly wanted to snuggle in our bed and neither Nathan or I noticed him. 

Comparison Photos

 Week 21 with Kendrick                                                               Week 21 with Crowberry                                                                                                                   

Kendrick                                                                                               Week 24 Crowberry                                                                                    

                                                          Week 24 pushing out my belly

Week 23

How far along? 23 weeks 4 days

Total weight gain/loss? I'm fairly certain I have gained around 10lbs now. I didn't weigh myself for awhile and then it completely threw me off guard. I like food so I shouldn't have been that surprised.
Maternity clothes? Yup. Just about all of what I wear is turning into maternity. I sometimes wore Nate's sun shirt to go walking in and this week I put it on and my belly was hanging out. It made me a little sad but at least baby is growing right?!
Stretch marks? Old ones still are.
Sleep? Oh Kendrick has been a little early bird. I actually got sick from not getting enough sleep at the beginning of this week and that has me worried for when I have a newborn again. Eek.
Best moment this week? It started a few weeks ago but I love watching my baby move from the outside. It is so fun to see my belly going crazy.
Miss Anything? Having energy.
Movement? Almost anytime I take a break and relax I will feel a lot of movement. I get the most movement at night when Nate is home. I think this baby likes to show off for Daddy.
Food cravings?The 2 things I have craved most this pregnancy from day one have been grape tomatoes and cucumbers. I don't eat them all the time but I keep them on hand just in case. Everything else probably has nothing to do with pregnancy.
Anything making you queasy or sick? No but I have had a lot of heartburn this week. I have to be careful I don't eat anything with white flour (bread, pancakes, bagels, etc) for breakfast or I get heartburn all day.
Have you started to show yet? I can't exactly suck in my belly at this point so I think it is safe to say I look very prego.
Gender? I have been bugging Kendrick a lot asking him if he wants a brother or a sister. He almost always answers sister. I had a dream last night that I was pregnant in and knew that I was having another boy. At this point I think we will be surprised either way. It seems to stay balanced on any guesses we might be making.
Labor Signs? Just my usual braxton hicks. I chose not to get another ultrasound done because I was re-reading my blog from when I was pregnant with Kendrick and I had almost the exact same thing happen with him at about the same week. I have an appt tomorrow so if my midwife still thinks I need to get one I will know then.. but I'm not too worried. They have been sporadic so I don't think it is a big concern anymore.
Belly Button in or out? Half and half. The top half is starting to poke out.
Wedding ring on or off? Fits the same.
Happy or Moody most of the time? Happy... except today was an exception. I was just hormonal and I hate being hormonal.
Looking forward to? Having Kendrick willingly feel the baby kick.

My sciatic nerve has been flaring on and off the last few weeks. Luckily it is only at night but it makes me so worried for when I get bigger. I'm hoping that yoga and walking will keep it in check and it is motivation to keep up with spine exercises. Shooting pain up my back and down my leg is not a pleasant feeling when walking "/

No pictures this week. I feel like they aren't all that accurate anyway. If I take one relatively early in the morning my belly doesn't poke out much but if I take it at night I would probably get a few dropped jaws from how far I can stick it out. So sometimes I'm HUGE and other times I look about the week I am on. Tonight I look huge and just didn't feel like doing the extra work to post a pic. Maybe I'll be motivated next week and possibly take a morning and evening picture from the same day.

Baby Names

We are having the hardest time on a girl name. If we like a name it typically will not last longer than a few days before one or both of us no longer like it. Here is a taste of what our list has looked like so far: (I'm only listing the girl names because we think we have a boy name. We are still looking at boy names but our focus is a girl name so they dominate our name conversations).

Things that we are looking for in a name.
     *Not made up or too weird sounding.
     *Normal spelling and it should be easy to pronounce based on the spelling.
     *No cousin names (Nate made this rule and I'm not fully on board but we are going with it)
     *Attempting to avoid the first letter K names because we don't want people to think we will do that with all of our kids.
     *No unisex names. As long as it does not appear as a unisex name on most baby name apps we can pick it.
     *We must like the nicknames that typically go with the name. We realize that we can't always avoid other people shortening our child's name so we might as well like the names that the name could be shortened to.
     *No last names as the first name. Apparently Kendrick is a common last name and it is not a trend we are going for.

Nate: Carina
Mel: Kalina
Nate has a cousin named Kalina and so my name got vetoed. To me Kalina is WAY prettier than Carina so his name got vetoed. We still bring these names up on a weekly basis because both of us are hoping the other one will change their mind... This battle has been going on for years and neither one of us has budged. :(

Names Nathan likes:
Nicole: I told him that the nicknames would very likely be Cole and Nicki and because he was not okay with that it is out.
Andrea: I don't like how it is too close to the boy version Andre.
Probably a bunch more that I just can't remember because I vetoed them too fast or didn't somewhat like them enough to remember them.

Names we both like:
Kyrene, Kyra, Kyrina: We liked all the variations of this name until I text it to my mom who was unsure how to pronounce it... they are out.
Sabrina: This one comes and goes for various reasons
Jamie: Loved it for about 2 days but shortly after learned it was unisex. Boo!
Audrey: Mean bullies could possibly use odd as part of a nickname.

Names Melanie likes:
Jesslynn, Katherine, Kara, Rebecca (except I like only Rebecca and no nicknames): Mostly Nate just doesn't like these names. Kara is to simple/short apparently and I thought that was a funny reason.

So ya this is just a taste of our baby name process. There are so many many more that we talk about but these are the names that get brought up despite our reasons for not liking them or being vetoed already. If any readers have baby name ideas we welcome all suggestions :)

Week 22

How far along? 22 weeks 2 days

Total weight gain/loss? My midwife is totally not worried about weight gain until the 3rd trimester. It isn't to say I won't gain weight but I don't have to make it my focus until later in pregnancy :)
Maternity clothes? Shirts! I really don't want to stretch any of mine out and my chest and tummy are big enough now that I am worried I will.
Stretch marks? Aquaphor and water are my friends to hopefully prevent them.
Sleep? Zzz. I love the new schedule our family is on. We go to bed early and then wake up with the sun and go on a walk. Nate joins us on the days he works and sleeps in a little on his days off. It is seriously perfect! I still takes naps but not everyday or as long.
Best moment this week? A Conversation with Kendrick that went something like this:
Me: Kendrick are you so excited to be getting either a brother or sister?
Kendrick: Ya Sister!
Me: What should we name your sister?
Kendrick: A police car. wheow woo (police car sounds)
Miss Anything? Not feeling/ looking bloated all the time.
Movement? So the midwife was right about the baby's placenta position. My placenta this time around is toward my back which is why I can feel so much more movement. The baby is also big enough now that when I get braxton hicks you can sometime feel the limbs of the baby stuck in one spot of where it tightens.
Food cravings? Fruit. I bought a bunch that was on sale so now it is always tempting me from the fridge.
Anything making you queasy or sick? Gardetto's garlic rye chips.
Have you started to show yet? Yup yup. Some outfits I look chubby in and others I look very prego.
Gender? During my ultrasound I saw a view that looked just like a little boy. It was from up above looking down and very easily could have just been the umbilical cord. I also saw a view that looked just like a girl but was from down below and could have just not been the full view of the private parts. So basically we still don't know. I didn't look when they actually were checking the gender. Both views were just when they were checking general anatomy. Nate chose to stay home with Kendrick while I went because he didn't want to chance accidentally finding out.
Labor Signs? On Sunday I had braxton hicks that were 2-4 min apart for several hours. They weren't painful in any way but it did seem odd to have them that regular. I have a choice to get another ultrasound done to see if my cervix is changing at all with the braxton hicks. I'm not worried that it is changing because the tightening is not painful and Kendrick didn't come very early even though I had braxton hicks with him. The ultrasound will show if my body is attempting preterm labor so I'm thinking I will end up getting it just so I can go on vacation worry free. I'm still debating but I have one scheduled for tomorrow so most likely I'll be getting it done.
Belly Button in or out? In but I can force it out which means I am WAY bigger this time around because I'm pretty sure I couldn't do that for several more weeks with Kendrick.
Wedding ring on or off? On and if it gets tight I just drink more water.
Happy or Moody most of the time? Happy! I have had charlie horses that started last week and they do not make me very happy. Oddly enough I was eating about 2 bananas a day. The trick that helped the most was sticking just my calves in the hot tub at our community pool. It took probably 10 minutes for my legs to stop cramping but I haven't had near as many since that day.
Looking forward to? Utah and Washington. I'm super anxious about it because it means that I will be leaving my muchacho for 3 weeks which is a ridiculously long time! However I love the thought of being 28 weeks when I come back to AZ. It just seems like once I go on vacation I will come home and have only 2 months left until Crowberry comes.

Week 22 from my phone. Still terrible at posing.