lil spark: 23 weeks

 How far along: 23 weeks (WOW)
Total weight gain/loss: weighed this morning 19 pounds, Dr. L said to save her some of my cookies! haha
Maternity clothes: loving that fall is here and breaking out some of my winter maternity clothes
Stretch marks: nope; thank goodness!
Sleep:  same: sleeping with an extra pillow in between my legs and tossing and turning due to my arms falling asleep and now getting to sleep in almost every morning!
Best moment this week: Owen is still kicking and every time it is the best!  I got a little worried at one point and ran for the doppler.  By the time I found his heartbeat I felt a kick and yes it was right on the doppler probe!! Owen must not have liked my intrusion and was reclaiming his space!  Hehehe! It was like we were having a little game. 
Belly button in or out?: still considered an innie, but the middle part is pushing out at the top, looks a lot like both right now.
Craving: still just cold milk and sweets (guess I am going to have to give up some of the sweets)
What I am looking forward to:  24 weeks and VIABILITY! 1 WEEK TO GO!!

Thank you to baby center dot com:
Turn on the radio and sway to the music. With her sense of movement well developed by now, your baby can feel you dance. And now that she's more than 11 inches long and weighs just over a pound (about as much as a large mango), you may be able to see her squirm underneath your clothes. Blood vessels in her lungs are developing to prepare for breathing, and the sounds that your baby's increasingly keen ears pick up are preparing her for entry into the outside world. Loud noises that become familiar now — such as your dog barking or the roar of the vacuum cleaner — probably won't faze her when she hears them outside the womb. 


FYI: Owen does like mommy's singing in the car!

Lil Spark: 22 weeks

This post is a little late, but the picture was taken on the correct day, Chris says I am even bigger now.


How far along: 22 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: will be weighed again on the 22nd.
Maternity clothes: my prepregnancy yoga pants are still a go to favorite for hanging around the house, which I will be doing a lot of these days.
Stretch marks: nope  
Sleep:  sleeping with an extra pillow in between my legs and tossing and turning due to my arms falling asleep and now getting to sleep in almost every morning!
Best moment this week: Owen kicked Daddy!  The look on Chris' face was priceless and was a special moment of joy for us.  Last night he kicked him several more times.  The kicks are getting stronger and one time felt like a pencil eraser jabbing at me; it HAD to be a foot it was so strong!  Seems that 4-5pm is play time for the past few days
Belly button in or out?: still considered an innie, but the middle part is pushing out, looks a lot like both right now.
Craving: still just cold milk and sweets
What I am looking forward to:  24 weeks and VIABILITY! Less than 2 weeks to go!

 check out my yoga pants that have never seen a day of yoga, 

but have spent a loving relationship with our sofa!

Owen is a strong boy!

Yup, you guessed it!  Chris felt the Owen kick last night several times!!!!

Oh, Daddy was smiling so big!! 

For the past couple of nights Chris has jumped from the loveseat to my sofa to try and feel the kicks, but hadn't felt them.  I knew yesterday after a midday chocolate treat that he would be feeling them soon.  It was a special moment in our house.

National Pregnancy/Infant Loss Awareness Day

I am one of the 2,000 faces affected by pregnancy/infant loss everyday. Please go to www.iamtheface.org to show your support and join the movement.

To my friends who have lost babies I am thinking of each of you today.

wow, this is happening

Look what I got in the mail the other day!

Am I really having a baby boy?

There was also this little card:

Jeanna and Chris are expecting a baby boy

we know he would love a bottle, rattle or even a toy.

But we want to make sure he has the brains to go with his looks, 

So we want to fill his shelves with all our favorite books!

Will he love a guitar, book or even a ball?

Little Owen will surely be into it all!
So use this sticker and place it inside the front cover

so Owen will see who's story to discover!

Pick your faorite book from back in the day

fill in your name with a little something to say

Now this book will be Owen's forever 

and he will never forget you, not ever!

Make sure you visit when Owen has come

becaseu only you know how to read this one.

So get ready with all the special voices and looks

becasue he wants YOU to read him this special book.

Here is the little card that will go in the books!  How cute!!!

My sisters wrote the poem together!  So sweet!! They ROCK!!!

This little boy is going to be spoiled!

quick update on my eye

Thank you to those that sent words of encouragement through my blog, text messages and facebook.  It really means a lot to know that yall care. 

I had an additional test done today and basically I have lost some vision in my left eye.  This is what triggered me to realize I needed to get to the Dr.  I can see just fine and if it never returns it won't effect my standard of living.  My Dr is hopeful that the bleed will go away on its own in the next few months and hopeful that the vision will restore itself.  I have a follow up visit where they will look in my eye to see if the bleed is still there, hopefully it will be gone and I will be worry free or they will do the test again and I will know if my eye sight is getting worse (then we will take some action) or better and keep waiting it out. One good bit of info is that my optic nerve is great color and size, he just wants this weird bleed to go away and I will be back to normal. 

We don't know why this happened to my left eye, but he is guessing it is pregnancy related as I haven't fallen or hit my head recently.  This has happened some time between July and October.  I had my annual visit in July and he would have noticed it then if it had been there.

If you think about it keep praying for my eye and the bleed.  

The Nursery Part 4 & ballister project

This weekend went by in a blur with all the things we had planned.  Chris played guitar with Mike at the Iron Gate Winery in Mebane, we had a great time with family and friends.  Then Saturday, we both needed a morning to sleep in....to 9am, ha!  Since when is 9 am sleeping in?!!!!

Saturday ended up being a little crazy getting all the pieces together that we needed for our "big" weekend project.  When we have a free weekend we try to tackle the big TO DO projects.  We are really hitting the list hard and we might actually get them all done before lil spark gets here!  (I hope I didn't jinx myself!).  So, here is where we went:

Here is our Saturday crazy circle of stores:
Home Depot: to see if their prices were better than Lowes, well they didn't even carry what we needed.
Lowes: bought the ballisters and handrail, but then they only had 5 of the metal pieces we needed, so back to HD
Home Depot: who didn't have ANY of the metal pieces!!  But we did remember that we needed black paint, so we got that!  Thankfully, there was this crazy old man who reminded Chris of this wood working supply house.
Hardees: for lunch, the new fresh breaded chicken tenders were ok.  The sweet ice tea was wicked good!
The Wood Place: thankfully they sold the metal pieces in bags of 10 and were IN STOCK
"the Holmes shop" or otherwise known as Chris' Parents house:  they seem to have almost everything for renovation projects.  We borrowed a few tools including a paint sprayer.

It is not 100% secure yet, but from looking at it it looks done!

In case you forgot the old before picture.  Look at those acorn things on top of the newel posts...YUCK!  Can you say: blah brown?  Everything is brown, the drapes, the walls, the mantel, the trim the floors.

How fresh and awesome is this!

If you want to see more details on this project, click here. 

 While Chris was working on painting and building the railings I was sewing.  I finished the valance for the window and then started on this little pillow for my back in the rocking chair. 

Here is the pillow all stuffed and ready to go.  You can't tell, but I sewed snaps on one end so that I can wash the cover if I need to.

I can't stand it, I love it!! I had to get a shot with the crib skirt in the picture!  Target has a light tealish crib sheet that I hope is going to match and Judy might find some of the bright green fabric and if she does she will make some sheets out of that or I might do some gray sheets.  If we don't do those then I will do white, but I am worried about stains and I don't want to have to bleach them a lot.  I did register for a white bumper and a white breathable bumper.