Sugar and Spice

...And everything nice.  That's right, we're having a girl!!  And I can only hope that the previous mantra is true, although, more realistically my daughter will be stubborn, opinionated, and independent.  Anyways, we are very excited to begin planning and buying lots of pink and purple.  Here is her most recent head shot

20 weeks, 2-21-13

Everything that they could measure looked healthy and normal but she gave the sonographer a bit of a hard time will all of her activity.  I was going to post the gender shot but figured she may not appreciate it in years to come, as her girl parts are very obvious.  Overall  I'm feeling...better.  Not wonderful or fantastic, but  better.  I was on my way upstairs to post how it had been 2 1/2 weeks since a "reversal" (as they call it in the competitive eating world) and, alas, my streak ended with a bonus simultaneous nose bleed.  But, I'll take the occasional emesis to the persistent nausea that I had been experiencing.  I have more energy and have been able to eat more (unfortunately the scale isn't reflecting that much),  my skin looks 10 times better, and other things are, uh, moving more regularly.  I'm starting to look more pregnant rather than just fat and have ditched my regular jeans for the more comfy maternity variety, and I don't cry at the nightly human interest stories on the news.  So, yes, overall I am definitely better. 

Along with feeling better comes leaving the house more to participate in social activities again!  A good friend recently had a birthday and arranged for us to do a guided painting class.  It was much fun and even us unartistic folks left with a painting that wasn't half  bad.  Here's mine:

Perhaps the best part was seeing how different they all turned out

It was indeed a good time and I hope to do it again, maybe when my mom visits.

So our  baby may get stuck with some owl art in her nursery, just because she was there too, kicking me most of the time, I might add. 

Happy Super Bowl

Well here we are at Super Bowl Sunday yet again.  To be honest we really don't care too much about the game this year considering both the Packers and the Broncos blew it in the playoffs, sad face.  The Puppy Bowl is fun though!  This year there are hedgehog cheerleaders and hamsters doing the aerial coverage!  Oh, and I'm 18 weeks,

18 weeks

I promise that is a baby bump, I'm not just getting fat, although honestly, that is how it mostly feels.  I have yet to experience the blissful second trimester, which I am now convinced is a myth.  There have been some improvements, I am not ridiculously exhausted all the time and my skin doesn't look like that of a hormonal 15 year old  anymore.  The nausea and vomitting are still a part of everyday life, but, either there is a slight improvement or I am just used to it.  Either way I have a least stopped losing weight and it is now Girl Scout cookie season, and those mostly always sound good!  Food continues to be a source of anxiety as I never know what will sound good from day to day.  Much to my husbands dismay, pregnancy has caused me to trend towards vegetarianism and I often run to the bathroom if he chooses the wrong thing to heat up for dinner; my bloodhound sense of smell is bizarre.  I started feeling the first tiny baby flutters (technically it's called quickening but since I'm not an OB nurse I'll call it whatever I want) which is both weird and wonderful.  A couple more weeks until we find out gender, then I think we can really start planning and preparing.  In the meantime I'll keep hoping that the elusive fantasy land of the second trimester decides to make an appearance.