21 and 22 weeks....catching up again

Yes, it's another two for one deal.  I think this is indicative of the fact that work has been kicking my tail lately - I pretty much come home, make dinner, fall asleep on the couch, go to bed, rinse repeat.  Also, we had the most wonderful holiday of the year thrown in there and all of the requisite preparations (including making a fantastic costume you'll see momentarily).

21 Weeks, in a maternity shirt we found for $3 at the Tot Trade!  I never knew how much I loved consignment stuff until I got pregnant.

22 weeks, 1 day, on Halloween!  In a "maternity" sweater that I'm pretty sure would barely be long enough for me if I didn't have this huge belly.  Fail, zulily.  Thank goodness for a roll-down skirt from Old Navy that I've just started pulling up over the belly rather than rolling down.

Marination Time: 22 weeks, 4 days.  It's FLYING by!  I can't believe I've been pregnant since June. It feels like 5 minutes.

Musings on the Weekly Photo: I feel like we aren't growing by leaps and bounds really, just holding fairly steady. I can tell a little difference, but not huge at this point.  Which is good because I think I would explode otherwise.

This Week's Produce Item:

21 weeks - Baby is the size of a pomegranate.  I feel like these produce items continue to get more and more arbitrary.

22 weeks - Baby is the size of a papaya.  Oookay. And now on to the more realistic sizing.

Realistic Baby-Measuring Item of the Week:

21 weeks - Baby is the size of an 80's fanny pack.  This might be my favorite week yet.

22 weeks - Baby is the size of a baseball mitt.  Almost  a foot long!  Jeez, that puts in perspective.  No wonder I'm so big.  And I still don't understand all these skinny girls at 22 weeks.  Where do you have space to stash a foot-long baby with barely any bump?

Boy or girl: Still a boy...no evidence to suggest otherwise!

Currently Craving: Sweet stuff.  I bought some strawberry and cream cheese Toaster Strudel and I have been eating those jokers as dessert every night.  Mmmmmm.

Currently Avoiding: Not much of anything.  Still don't just love plain ol' chicken breast, steak, or pork chops that I have to cut up myself, but the meat aversion is a lot less intense.

Weight: We were at 147.4 a few days ago.  Blergh.  Not looking forward to seeing the scale jump past 150, which I'm expecting any second now.

Symptoms: Lots of heartburn, yuck.  Taking maybe 4-5 Tums a day to try to stay on top of that.  And having sciatic pain in my lower back/hips/butt, especially my left side.  I wake up and my lower back is so sore!  Also sometimes my back will sort of "catch" when I get up quickly and make me want to say something ugly.  I still generally love being pregnant though, it really is neat.  Can't complain too much.

Belly Button Status: OUT OUT OUT.  So noticeable that if I don't wear two shirts or a sweater, it's totally not possible to conceal under a shirt.  One of my kids even mentioned it the other day.  I said, "Well, don't get pregnant, that's what happens."

Sleep Grade: C+.  Back pain/soreness has been making it tough lately, especially towards morning when I've been lying down longer.

Movement: Usually I don't feel him move unless I'm sitting or lying down (especially after dinner or right when I go to bed).  When I was standing in line to early vote was the first time I felt him while standing - I guess he was excited about his first voting experience.  Lately, I've been feeling him a lot!  I still always feel him below my belly button.  PB also has felt him kick once!  I was lying down after dinner and had him come over and he got to feel a few hard kicks last week!  It was pretty awesome.

Appointments: I went back at 21 weeks and measured exactly 21 centimeters.  I never knew that your centimeters and weeks were supposed to be the same!  Everything was totally normal otherwise - I don't go back until the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

Baby Related Purchases: PB and I went to Babies R Us last Saturday night to play with strollers and look around, which was a lot of fun.  I broke down and registered there too since most of the things I want are online-only from Target and I know people are unlikely to do that or buy from my amazon.com registry.  My mom has been buying ALL KINDS of cute things from zulily and today, I went shopping with her, my grandmother, and PB.  She bought him two cute little gray sleepers with firetrucks all over them (newborn and 9 months).

Highlights of the Week: Halloween!!!!!  You know how I love Halloween.  Mom helped me make a costume, a la Pinterest.  We deconstructed a baby doll from Wal-Mart, cut holes in a maternity shirt, and rubber banded the arms through.  We added some fabric paint and a teeny trick or treat bucket, and TA-DA.  Instant awesome creepy Halloween.

I handed out candy at my parents' house as usual, which was fun.  A lot of kids would say, "Hey, your baby is coming out," much the same way you might tell someone their fly is unzipped.  Some were just mesmerized and staring, and I got a lot of laughs. I saw a few pregnant folks who said, "MAN, I wish I had done that!"  I know it's creepy but come on, how many Halloweens are you going to be pregnant unless you're Michelle Duggar?  I think you have to make the most of it when it comes along.

And of course, I had to include the weenies - they know it as Halloweenie, after all.