I can feel you and a whole lot more! (22 & 23 weeks)

How far long: 22 and 23 weeks

Weight gain: (since pre-preggers) 16 lbs @22 weeks, then 17 lbs @23 weeks (basically July 4th -15th)

Sleep: So maybe this is why I had to postpone posting for 2 weeks is cause I have hardly had ANY consistent good night sleep. This is partially due to the growing discomfort of the growing waistline and the impact gravity has on a belly when laying sideways. Sleeplessness has also increased due to my 13 month old's teeth growing and then the runny nose he caught from daycare. OH EM GEE, that has been rough. I have had some good nights where I can get about 6-6.5 hours but I also have had our bad nights, were I think it may have only been 3-3.5 hours. For many, 3 hours of sleep can be dealt with, and Lord knows I have done that in my not-so-long-ago single days where I'd go out and all I had to worry about was me. But being a new parent to a totting active little boy AND growing a new little one inside at the same time is a whole different ball game.  I think our roughest nights were over the last week (14th and 15th or somehow a combo of those days - memory gets really foggy when you get NO sleep). I was already up until at least past 11:30 PM. Between fighting Henri's superactive hard kicks towards me, protecting him from falling when tossing himself around our bed, transferring Henri by 11PM to his crib and squeezing in any last dishes or last minute chores, I was OVERSPENT. My poor DH came home from work at roughly 1am or just past and little man woke up at 3am and would NOT go back to sleep. Knowing his pregnant wife had to work in the morning and needed ANY sleep, and against everything in his body and without any will, he got up, picked up Henri and went downstairs where Henri went between whining and playing for over 2 hours. At times likes these, I wonder if God sort of guides him down the stairs without tripping or falling because I knew he had nothing left to give. And that is my short story of how my sleep has been lately. It has to get better from here. I will say my navy broken in body pillow has helped level the belly off, and when Henri is in bed with us, I use a small silky throw pillow to try and do the same.

Feelings/Movement: In terms of movement, the fun has begun. I feel baby eggroll move mainly at night, while I am putting Henri down for bed or when I am lounging on the couch catching late night episodes of How I Met Your Mother, Sex and the City and Friends. Baby eggroll also let me know he or she was around  after some good lunch meals, and sometimes after being rocked around in there. (hang over mouth). I have continued to use the palmers cocoa butter after my showers and started routinely putting it on thick before bed. It's a nice belly massage. Emotionally, I have been feeling very needy lately, especially for simple cuddle time w/ the hubby. It's definitely hard to work two different shifts and be the daily parent alone during the week. Don't get me wrong, it definitely has some advantages, such as minimized daycare costs, only needing to prepare meals for 1.5 (though this summer is more like 2.5, since I have my stepson Jack with me), and keeping the"spice" in our marriage. But between seriously exhausting our patience to want to physically be together, juggling schedules and homelife responsibilities over text, instant messanger and email and the miscommunications that it can cause, it all has contributed to my pregnancy hormones of feeling needy and wanting some ME attention. I know it's a phase and I can do the mental gymnastics to get over it, but times like now I just want to throw in the towel and complain.
Food: OK, seriously, wow. I have truly impressed myself. I tried to blame it on the fact that since the week started w/ 4th of July and everyone in this country has hambugers and hotdogs along with their fireworks (ok, not EVERYBODY, but you know what I mean). Well I knew we weren't going to 'que it on our own, so on Sunday the 3rd, Jack, Matt and I picked out which burgers we wanted from whatever fast food place on our way to try and catch the Cumming Fairgrounds fireworks show. Naturally, I picked my beloved Burger KingBurger King Whopper w/ no lettuce, tomato or cheese. By the end of the week, I have had that same burger 5 out o7 days and it was the only thing I seriously loved. That and 1/2 and 1/2 sweet tea from anywhere (Zaxby's, Jim and Nicks, Panda Express, whereever there was sweet tea available). The other thing I had been loving was was steak. Juicy, medium cooked w/ burnt fat trims of steak. Over the span of these 11 days, I fufilled my steak cravings w/ a steak quesadilla from QDOBA, a 14oz of ribeye from Chili's and even carne asada from Uncle Julio's. Add mushrooms or bell peppers and more 1/2 and 1/2 sweet tea, and I'm one happy pregger. On a stranger note, I ate guacamole for the first time and actually LOVED it. On Friday the 9th,  I happily met my friend Elizabeth, who is also expecting in November (with her first!) and we discussed having virgin drinks and apps. Happily accomodating, I ordered some guac which she wanted, and got some chicken quesadillas as well (not knowing if my chicken aversion from last year's pregnancy would come back). I am in the only Californian who doesn't eat avocados, but for whatever reason, Cincos chips w/ their fresh made guac was A-MAZING.
What I miss: At this time, I was truly missing being able to have a regular margarita or just some good cold beer. Not to an unhealthy point, but I miss being social with it. When I met Elizabeth at Cincos, it was definately a lot of fun sipping on a yummy virgin strawberry daquiri. It was GOOD and I felt like a socializing young adult again. I enjoyed my "Happy hour" while Grammy K babysat my LO back home. However, the next night, Matt and I were invited to join a last minute going away dinner for our friends Hester and Paul who were leaving Alpharetta to move to New Jersey in 2 weeks. These friends and their family mean so much to me (and Matt) and we recruited Grammy K to give us a date night out to celebrate a last time w/ our friends (Jack was at a sleepover w/ friend Elias Koehler). Last time for now anyway. We went to Uncle Julio's in Buckhead (yes more Mexican and steak!). Matt was down 3 drinks with the boys and I smiled but with envy at the girlfriends I was with while they drank yummy sangrias, margaritas and shots of 'tron. I used to go clubbing w/ these girls for a good phase of my pre-mommyhood days. Though all of them except one had kids, their kids were at least 5 or older and can easily be left w/ a babysitter for a whole night. This brings me to the other thing I miss. I miss going clubbing w/ Matt and any of our friends we go clubbing with. This is ONE thing we haven't done hardly any of after Henri was born. And now being pregnant with a belly that is actually showingt, it really isn't that cute to go to a club and hang out, unless it was for a specific reason like a bachlorette party and I could be the DD.  We will go clubbing again, just not for awhile.

Looking forward to: My little eggroll rolling around with his/her big brother Zay on our new carpet! With the Independence day free installation sale, and a 10% coupon, we ended up picking out and purchasing good brand, new stainmaster carpet for our family room in cash. Man that felt good! One more major house project accomplished. It's a beautiful tan, with an awesome pad and technology that suppose to absorb dog and cooking odors and smells (which is perfect since our family room is next to the kitchen). Am I seriously getting gushy (including all inuendos) over carpet? YES! But moreso, I am looking forward to having a CLEAN place for my two under two to play on.

Random thought: My other friend Bridgit, is also expecting her 2nd one, and also in November with just a few days of me. We were pregnant together last year, and by this fall, we will both have two under two. Yes, I am surrounding myself w/ expectant moms as much as I can :) She sent me this link:

-- snip--

“What To Expect When You’re Expecting,” a new movie to star Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Lopez, will be filming in Atlanta soon.
The movie centers around five couples who are going to be first-time parents.
As you’d, ahem, expect, the project needs a lot of extras who are in the family way, as well as babies with star potential. An open casting call will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. this Saturday at Hotel Midtown, 125 10th St.
“We need a lot of pregnant women,” casting director Christopher Gray told us. And no, ladies in a preggo suit don’t count. “We want the real deal.”

--snip--

Heck yeah, sure we'll drop in! Her and I already had a playdate scheduled for the weekend, we just decided this would be where we would take our little boys. We met at her house, loaded up the extra car seat, the strollers and diaper bags packed w/ snacking essentials for mom and baby and headed to Hotel Midtown. We got there at 10:20 and the line was ALREADY LONG. Thank God we weren't in the heat, as it was breezy for the hour we were outside. Basically, we got in line w/ all these other moms, expectant moms and babies and were eventually  divided into groups to take a profile picture of ourselves and our babies and attach it to an info contact sheet. By the time we took our pictures, it was 1pm, so we spent about 3 hours there. I have never seen so many strollers, diaper bags, and totting youngsters in one place at one time. It was stroller derby! You can easily tell the first-time expectant moms with their changing facial expressions of excitement for baby when they see a happy smily cute and cuddly one and the anxiety of watching some moms struggle with their fussy or crying babies. Henri acted somewhere in between. The worst was when he took some baby girl's bag of cheerios and spilled it on the ground. I was so embarrassed and I thought to myself, what if this baby girl was picky and it was the ONLY thing she had all morning long? Grrrreat. I quickly offered up my mini bag of froot loops I had brought for Henri. Luckily she took it, was happy and her mom wasn't worried at all. Oye! Once it was our turn to take a picture, I held Henri in my arms and he snapped the Henri  who gave him one of his serious looks. The photog showed me the viewfinder and said "Wow, now that is a model look for a magazine!".  I was all giddy inside! Then he took my picture for the "Expectant Mom" and I keep Henri in my arms, who was now hamming it up for the camera. The photog snapped 3 shots of me, including a side profile to see the size of the belly. The experience was fun and it was fun to hang out w/ my pregger friend Brigit and playdate Evan.

Say What? On Monday the 5th, our baby photographer Debbie Koehler (digital memories by dk) posted Henri's 1-year session on my facebook. Well as part of that session, she snapped a mini baby bump session while Henri and Jack were asleep from the drive to the location. I got so many wonderful compliments on the baby bump photos (at which I was 20 weeks along).

Compared to Henri: At this time last pregnancy around, I had hoped for a baby boy. This was mainly because I was so insecure on what Jack thought of his Dad and I having a baby. He already had two other siblings from his mom, both girls. In regards to new siblings, his mom and stepdad paved the way for us and broke the ice, so to speak, but now the pressure was on me to have a baby boy. And even though I wanted that, I didn't know if that would help my insecurity, because I started having thoughts on what Jack would think about NOT being the only boy. No longer being just Daddy and Son. Well this time around, I have no pressured feelings on having either gender. I am just content knowing we have a second one on the way and I just continue praying for the health of baby eggroll and my health.
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