I'm now at 22 weeks in the pregnancy and I can't decide whether it's flying by or creeping along at a snail's pace. Apparently the baby is looking more like a newborn in there now, complete with lips, eyelids, and eyebrows. He/she is also developing little teeth buds below its gumline. Just keep baking, baby!

Thankfully, no one has touched my stomach without permission yet. At least, not anyone that I don't know well. I have had random people begin to talk to me about being pregnant though and people that I know do seem drawn to touching the belly. So, when someone I don't know asks to touch it (or someone i do know and i'm just not in the mood), how do I say No without being rude...?

At least people have stopped telling me that I don't look pregnant now! :)

I had another one of my bizarre dreams last night. In this one I actually had the baby (it was a boy in the dream). There many strange and amusing things that happened, but my favorite is that at one point the baby turned into a big kitten! :)

I made the mistake of buying a maternity shirt that is dry clean only. I never intentionally buy dry clean only items because I never take things to the cleaners, but sometimes I just don't notice. Naturally, the very first time I wore the shirt, I got a little spot on it. I think my belly brushed against the car or something (imagine that). I took it to the cleaner this morning because I'm afraid that it will be ruined if I try to just wash it (sometimes i take the wash it anyway approach) and they will have to send it to a "specialist" to be cleaned. Nice.

I have all the windows open this afternoon and am shivering in the breeze. 72 degrees sounds a lot warmer than it feels! Well, soon enough it will be so warm outside that I wouldn't even think of opening the windows, so I'll just enjoy it! :)

We tried to trap Cow Kitty last night so that we could have him fixed today, but without success. We didn't even catch a possum! Just before bedtime we had a big storm come out of nowhere, so we had to put the cage up on the porch where a trapped kitty would not get soaked. I don't know if it was the location or if CK was just chilling in a dry place, but no luck. Oh well, we can try again another night.

Baby and I are doing pretty well. It's odd getting used to the way your body changes when you're pregnant. Nothing works quite the same way it used to...

I'm 21 weeks pregnant now. My information says the baby weighs about 12 oz. Isn't that crazy? I'm more than halfway through and the baby doesn't even weigh one pound yet? The baby moves a lot now. Sometimes it's still little fluttering movements, but more often it's full-fledged kicks and nudges. It feels like gymnastics to me! He/she moves a bit throughout the day (like right now), but most of the action is in the evenings and it really gets going right after we go to bed.

It's kind of cool really. Since I'm trying to go to sleep, I'm just laying there still and quiet so I can really enjoy feeling the movement. I know that I might not enjoy it as much once it gets stronger and starts keeping me awake! :) I like trying to imagine what the baby is doing (punching, kicking, flipping, spinning)...

Here are the pictures from our latest ultrasound. I know they are small, but if you click on the image, it should give it to you a bit bigger. The top picture shows a little hand. The middle shows a little foot - so cute! And the bottom is a profile shot. :) 

Okay, I finally posted the ultrasound pictures. I know they aren't very clear, but that's just the way it is with these images. Seeing them in person is clearer and the video is too cool. Hopefully you'll get to see one of the two eventually. :)

We'll be scheduling our follow-up ultrasound for the week of May 16-20 (hopefully). That is the week before our first baby shower and our trip to New York. I hope the baby cooperates this time! This would probably be our last chance before birth to find out. But as long as the scan shows that Baby P is developing normally, we'll be quite happy!

I had to go out and buy some new gym clothes yesterday because I'm rapidly outgrowing my old ones. Apparently the thing for this season is capri workout pants.

Well, we had our ultrasound yesterday which was a very neat - but tiring - experience. We still don't know the gender because the baby decided to keep its legs clamped together the whole time we were looking. Alas. We do know that it looks good and healthy. Right now he/she is measuring normally, but on the small side of normal. So, just to make sure he/she continues to grow normally, we'll be having another ultrasound in 8 weeks. That means another crack and determining the sex. We have a very fun video of the ultrasound and some still shots which I'll scan and post soon.

I am doing very well too. My blood pressure is still great and I've only gained 6 pounds so far. I was having severe round ligament pain this morning, but apparently that's normal.

Just for the record, I don't like that straight-on photo of me. I think it makes my butt look wide. I choose to blame that on the still-slightly-baggy maternity pants.

As for baby and me - we're halfway there now! Apparently the baby is about the size of a large sweet potato, if that means anything to you. It's also developed some kind of greasy coating which is supposed to protect its skin, but sounds gross to me. And the baby is starting to swallow more.

I seriously think I'm starting to get bigger by the day. This is the part of the pregnancy that I was excited about, but it's kind of disturbing now that it's actually happening. It just makes it feel like things are starting to happen much faster! Anyway, our ultrasound is tomorrow, which is very exciting!

This one was just too silly not to include. 

Check out my groovy maternity pants... (sorry for the glare) 

There's the belly. 

Angela at 20 weeks! 

Okay, for the bazillions of you who have been asking to see a picture of me pregnant, you only have to wait a *few more days*! The problem up to now has been that I have no photos of my pregnant self. Yes, we own a digital camera, but it's difficult to take pictures of yourself (not counting close-ups of the face) and we never think of it when Doug is home. However, I have put a reminder - in very large letters - on my calendar for Saturday to "TAKE BELLY PHOTOS". So, just be patient!

I undeniably felt the baby moving last night. It felt rather like it was doing the chicken dance in there. It was very strange, but kind of cool. I think Doug is anxious for the movement to be felt from the outside so that he can be part of it. Oh, I've started reading The Chronicles of Narnia out loud to the baby... :)

Well, I'm definitely visibly pregnant now and I've decided to stop squeezing myself into my old clothes. I know that I have a long way to go, but at least you can *tell* that I'm pregnant now! I can feel the extra weight too, especially when I'm working out. And, of course, there's a lot going on inside - Baby's going through important sensory development. Develop away, little brain! :)

Another thing I didn't necessarily know before getting into this was that your body really doesn't appreciate being all stretched out of shape and it rather hurts. By the end of the day yesterday, my lower back was aching and I was having round ligament pain (lower abdomen and sides). It wasn't unbearably painful, but it wasn't exciting. Charlie gave me some snuggle therapy in bed though and that helped!

I had some wacked out dreams last night. They were more like nightmares really. Oddly, the first two had to do with myself, my mom, and my grandfather (and my cats). One had something to do with me seeing a face at the dining room window and freaking out and throwing things at it. I woke up from that one spooked and had to scoot closer to Doug. :)

The second dream took place on a boat and there was water coming in all the windows and I was trying to get all my kitties safe with little help from anyone else. There was a third dream too (which also had my cats in it), but I can't remember much about it. There was a "bad man" and possibly some death. I think maybe it's good that I don't remember the details. Whew, what a night...

Not much going on today. It's another beautiful day in the neighborhood. I only wish you could get Spring in a pollen-free version. Doug and I are both dealing with heads full of... well, snot. But, it's nice to look out the window and see little green buds popping out everywhere and people outside, enjoying the weather. :)

I am now 18 weeks pregnant, for those who have lost count. I don't feel this way every day, but there are many days when I stay hungry a *lot*. In fact, as I say that I realize that I'm hungry again. My big struggle is making myself eat healthy things instead of junk food. I could happily live on Chik-fil-a and Pizza Hut, but that would not be good for my health - or my width. I think I MIGHT be feeling the baby move now. I'm just not sure, but it feels like something is moving in there!

Well, I'm pleased to report that I'm almost back to normal (finally)! I still have a lingering cough that doesn't *sound* good, but I feel MUCH better. I even plan to shower and put on something besides pajamas and actually leave the house today! I'm glad I'm feeling well enough to go grocery shopping because I've developed a serious case of "we don't have any good food in the house" over the past couple of days!

Oh, this is funny - I had a dream last night that I was on America's Next Top Model. I was as pregnant as I am in real life and I was concerned that I was going to get kicked off the show because of it. Tyra Banks was telling me that the judges had wanted to kick me off because they thought I was just "fat", but she told them I was really pregnant. It was a very amusing dream and clearly I think about this show too much.

My apologies to those of you who got all excited when I actually posted a few days in a row last week. This bit of silence is quite forgiveable though - I have been sick for nearly a week! It started with a bit of a cough on Thursday evening and just continued to get worse and worse. I called my OB's office on Monday and they called in some antibiotics for me.

Since I was still getting worse as of this morning, I went to see my GP. Naturally, I started improving a bit almost as soon as the appointment was made - that's just the way it works. And, as expected, he told me that I do have a bit of a contagious infection, but it's largely just my allergies. I didn't really expect anything else, but I was starting to be paranoid that I had pneumonia or something! Oh, and Doug is a very good nurse! :)

Woah! What's this - three days in a row, I'm posting! No way! Well, my life is finally back to normal. 'Normal' being the state it was in before I got pregnant. I'm not sick all the time, I'm not out of town, no one else is in town. No funny business. The house has actually been clean for several days in a row too! :)

I did not participate in Cow Kitty torture after all. -- Oh, a quick aside for those who have no idea who Cow Kitty is. He is a stray who showed up around our house looking hungry last summer and we now feed him daily and he spends 60% of his time sleeping on our back porch. He's quite cute, but not the touchy-feely type. -- I was not comfortable with keeping him in that little trap for over 12 hours, plus our neighbors called and asked for the trap back, so that got me off the hook.

Okay, today I will not let my post be lost...

I'm supposed to take Cow Kitty to have him fixed and vaccinated tomorrow. I'm having it done through Shadow Cats - a feral cat rescue/shelter/spay&neuter group. They will fix him, vaccinate him, and ear notch him (i could live without that, but it's part of the deal) for only $20. The sad part is that I have to trap him overnight and then let him just sit in that little cage until tomorrow morning. Like this whole thing isn't going to be traumatic enough, I have to torture him for several hours first. This makes me so sad that I almost want to back out! :(

Another sad thing - I broke off one of my fingernails and now it's trying to get ingrown. It's quite painful. Naughty fingernail!