18 weeks

Why doesn't anyone ever warn you of the cramping? The only time I was told you could experience cramping was if it was accompanied by blood and that most likely meant you were miscarrying. No one warned me that it's COMPLETELY NORMAL to experience cramping all throughout, and that it's just stretching of the stomach muscles and ligaments as your tummy is growing to accomodate baby. I experience this about once every 2-3 weeks, for the better part of a day. (I'm not gonna lie, it's pretty miserable.) Although I felt it pretty much ALL day this past Thursday, Friday AND Monday. I guess baby had a growth spurt. Not to worry, there was no blood.

Next week, Wednesday to be exact, we find out if Baby C is a boy or a girl!! FINALLY! I just can't handle not doing anything about it anymore. Just sitting back and doing nothing is driving me nuts. I can't wait to find out.

It's strange how my belly looks so much smaller from the side than it does from the front. Not so flattering...at least not in pictures. But I don't care :)))

17 weeks

I had another OB check up this week. Everything is still good; with momma and baby. We heard the heartbeat, but couldn't get an acutal count of it because baby was so active, it wouldn't be still long enough to get one to read! Is this a sign of things to come? eeee.

My doctor is apparently going to be picky about my weight. I've gained a total of 8 pounds in 17 weeks. He says this is where I should be. BUT, I took a significant jump in the last 4 weeks so I need to watch what I eat going forward so as not to gain too much. "I don't want to see you go into a downward spiral," he says. "You should be sure to eat lots of salad and veggies, while staying away from too many fruits, juices and sugar." I wanted to knock his fool head off. Are you kidding?! That's ALL I want to eat! Granted, I do HAPPEN to eat salads quite often. And drink a lot of water. But still, I don't want to hear that. Esp. since the nurse just got done telling my urine came back good (again) and my BP was good (again). I know he has my best interest at heart, but sheesh, cut me SOME slack!

Some tidbits:
The appointment we've all been waiting for is just around the corner; November 2!!

Trey's dad has agreed to build all of our nursery furniture! This makes me soooo excited! :))

and now for my 17 week pic:

16 weeks

I'm at 16 weeks now. So far everything is still pretty uneventful. I've not had any nausea still. {still a good thing} I'm thinking I'm probably in the clear for this. My energy is starting to come back; however, I tend to use it up as soon as I get it, putting me right back to exhausted :/ I HAVE had a few bloody noses, which is apparently pretty common in pregnancy, especially early on.

My craving so far has been milk. I don't like white milk, so I don't drink it plain; but I'll have it with cereal, or lately...chocolate milk -- and lots of it. What? It's good for me and baby, you say? Well, yes it is. But, I'm a stone former. So, it's not THAT good for me. I have to be careful with this. It can be very bad in my case. I REALLY don't want kidney stones again. So, of course, this would be my craving. UGH. I guess it could be worse. I'm trying to also drink plenty of water. I just tend to get the desire to drink LOTS of water right before bed. Oh bother.

OH, I almost forgot!! -- I've been starting to feel movement this past week. Come to realize it's the same stuff I've been feeling since I was about 10 weeks along. It's just becoming a lot more frequent. I knew when I first starting to {very} randomly feel it that it was stuff I had never felt before, but I wasn't ready to say it was Baby. Now I know that's what it was (and is). I guess I knew my body better than I thought. But Tuesday night I was lying on the couch watching TV with my hand resting on my belly and I felt a movement that was so strong that I felt (and saw out of my peripheal vision) my hand move. It was just the one time, but it was incredible!

Here are some pictures of 16 weeks. I finally got some good ones!!
Trey took this one last night; I guess "the bump" actually looks smaller in it because of the angle?:


I took these earlier in the week:

14 weeks

I'm already sucking at updating.

Last week we went in for a check up. Baby had a heart rate of 148. All was great. My doctor said I'm an A student and my weight is perfect and that he has nothing to complain about. {Let's just hope my weight stays perfect.}

I'm still not having any sickness or nausea, which is great, but I'm still exhausted. Just when I think my energy might be coming back, I feel tired again. I guess that's just baby trying to grow. I don't try to fight it. :)

We go back for our next checkup on 10/20 (Dad's birthday) and then {hopefully} very soon after that we find out gender!

As you can see, a slight bump is beginning to show:


**If only I could fire Trey from taking the photos. He never gives me a heads up. No 1-2-3, no "say cheese"; nothing. Boo.

Family of Three!

Well, we just announced to the family that we're becoming a family of three! Baby Crawford is due 3/23.

We had a BBQ on Saturday, 9/12 to let everyone know. Trey and I were counting on the disguise of a post-Labor day celebration. The family came over expecting an anniversary celebration. We didn't even THINK to use that excuse! HA. Either way, Everyone was clueless. I had our ultrasound photos "scrapped" into picture frames and set up with the food, so that as the family arrived, they could see them. The reactions were great! Dad just couldn't comprehend that that baby was in my tummy. He was convinced it was ME as a baby. Mom was in shock. Mimi and PawPaw couldn't make it as PawPaw wasn't feeling well, so I had to make a phone call to them. Mimi screamed into the receiver. They both just asked a million questions. And Leslie made the comment that she was ready to be an "Oma" again. All in all, it was a success!!

scrapped, framed ultrasound photos used at the BBQ:

7 weeks; for comparison to the below 12 weeks...(I really am excited, but Trey doesn't tell me when he's taking the picture, so I just have no warning :/ )

12 weeks:

and more will come as we grow!

Slithery un-friends

When we got home yesterday (Saturday), we were lounging on the couch and catching up on DVR'ed shows. The cat (Boy) was outside and I'd just let little Zoe outside. Both were hanging around in the same place near the deck and the back of the house. This is rather unusual. I thought I'd better go check out what they could be looking at/messing with. When I went out there, something smelled a little off, but little Zoe had rolled in something over at Grammy's while there during our fishing trip this weekend, (I call that "putting on perfume") so I didn't REALLY think much of it, other than "gosh, that's REALLY pungent if I can STILL smell it and I'm not even that close to you - you MAY need a bath." Then I see Boy kinda lunge forward again, ears perked, so I looked up and sure enough, BIG snake. Copperhead. I ran in the house and told Trey so he could get his pistol (.22 with ratshot). He came back out and I grabbed the animals. He shot it. He said it definitely smelled like snake around there. I guess I didn't realize that snakes had a smell. But now I know to "sniff" for that as well.

I'm normally intrigued by snakes, but I hafta admit, this time when I saw that one, my heart skipped a beat. I guess the fact that my babies were so close by, staring it in the eyes and within striking distance, kinda had me on edge.

Fishin' in Looooosiana!

My father in law, Bill, took us fishin' this past weekend in Louisiana. It was a AND Saturday, but there was so much rain that it made the water cloudy so the fish couldn't see the bait. We just came home on Saturday morning and will end up going back sometime later this summer or early fall most likely. Nonetheless, we had a good time and caught a lot of fish.

Apparently I'm not a great fisher-woman, or don't have the patience or something (imagine that) because I just don't catch a whole lot of fish (all speckled trout), but I did catch the biggest fish!!

Here are some pictures.

We really ARE wading several miles out in the bay. There were porpoises everywhere!