22 Week Update!!

Christmas Break is FINALLY here for me!  I NEVER thought this time would arrive, but it has...and I am so thrilled to rest and relax with just myself and our sweet little man...who coincidentally, has been very active lately!  He's a growing, growing, growing baby boy and B and I are literally counting down the days until we get to see or hear him again at our next appointment (2 weeks from Thursday...January 5th!).  

How far along: 22 weeks

Size of our little Jackrabbit:  a papaya!

Maternity clothes: I wore normal clothes all week!  However, I am still feeling like quite the heifer.  

Sleep: Sleeping very, very well!  Really, I have had zero issues with this (knock on wood, but yes, it's true!).  I keep waiting on the bottom to drop out on this, but as of now, I'm enjoying my worry-free sleep sessions and moving on with my days!

Symptoms: Heartburn...it just will NOT quit...and it's TERRIBLE!  It usually comes on in the afternoons and evenings and then when I wake up, it's MUCH better.  B says I should be taking Zantac everyday instead of just sporadically when I feel the burn, but I am apprehensive about taking ANYTHING except my Prenatal vitamin.  I just don't want anything disrupting or hurting our sweet baby in here!

Mood: I've definitely been more moody here recently.  I just feel that people and things are 'irking' me more than usual.  I really HATE to admit this because I do not want to seem ungrateful for this amazingly precious gift that we've been given...but gahhhh, these hormones are raging at times!  Thus, I'm terrible sorry if I've thrown a hateful comment your way...or just been a Negative Nancy.  Please know, it is not my intention! 

In the beginning weeks, I could be on my hands and knees puking, but was still happy as a clam.  Now, I struggle to not go off at times on people.  I haven't though...well, except for a few choice peeps...but in all fairness, hormones/ pregnant or not, most had it coming and if they didn't, I was apologizing within seconds.  Anyway, like I've said over the past couple of posts, we have so much going on in our work life and have been put through so, so, sooooo much over the past couple of weeks, that I think I'm simply crumbling under the pressure...which is why I was sooooo looking forward to this break starting; it's literally been like a wave of fresh air and I feel like I can breathe again!  New beginnings are headed our way and I feel so blessed to have the 2 amazing women I do as my teammates.  We have persevered through this situation and have come out better and stronger..even if we've been working ourselves to the bone!

Best moment this week: Did you know it's my Winter Break?!?  Bahahahahahaha!!!  Second, Beth and Kody came over last week for dinner and a movie, but on Saturday, she called and said she had something to bring to me.  I was like, "huh?!?  You're crazy!"  They showed up with THIS...

isn't she THE BEST?!?  Does she know me or what?!?  Precious!!!

Also, we are LOVING receiving your fabulous Christmas cards!!!  Thank you, everyone...they truly have me so excited to check the mail everyday!  Yesterday, we got 3 and I about peed my pants I was so excited!

And finally, we have one of the most amazing women working in our school cafeteria.  My teammate, Page, has her granddaughter in class.  Her granddaughter calls her, "Nanny" so we do too and we have absolutely fallen head over heels in love with her...she is the sweetest, most thoughtful...and FUN woman!  Anyway, the feeling seems to be reciprocated with us and yesterday, she brought us lunch up to school because she knew we'd be there working with our new teammate and preparing him for his first days when we return back to school in January.  Isn't that the sweetest?  She even left the mayonnaise off of anything and sent it in a separate storage container so I would't have to see it...and also sent Ale-8s.  Well, that is the key to my heart right there!  Bahahahahaha, but seriously, I was just so touched by her kindness, thoughtfulness, and willingness to be so generous with her love!  She is just the best and it made my entire week!

Movement: He's been kicking up a STORM this week and just talking about it brings me to tears.  I just feel so grateful and so blessed to have this sweet baby and I have been waiting, and waiting, and waiting to have this special feeling between us that only a mother and child can experience and it's finally happening. This may sound corny, but it has just been so, so magical...what a precious blessing!  People keep telling me that it will wear on me and I'll start to get annoyed with it...but I just cannot see that happening.  I have waited a long, long time to feel these (he is behind my placenta, which acts as a pillow, so the doctor told me that it'd be much later for me to feel him) and I just love, love, loooooove his tiny jabs!!  Now, onto his Daddy feeling them....

Food cravings/aversions: I've been less nauseas this week, but there hasn't been too much I've been craving...at all.  I have still been wanting lunch meat and Jimmy John's

What I miss/What I am looking forward to: Christmas is THIS WEEK and I am so excited about time with mi familia!  I miss having Christmas as a little girl with my parents, and the innocence that coincided with a belief in Santa Claus, but now, as an adult...and as a soon to be mommy, I am thrilled to be starting traditions with my own little family and entwining them with the traditions of Christmases past.  Jack sure is one loved little boy!

Milestones:  At 10.5 to 11.8 inches, Jack can weigh almost a pound, or a little over by now!  Yay, for a growing boy!  He's got more developed eyes and lips and is looking more like a newborn now as well.  Jack is actually looking more like a small doll with his shape and size.  So precious!  His lips, eyelids, and eyebrows are becoming more distinct, and tiny tooth buds are developing beneath the gums.  His eyes have formed, but the irises still lack pigment,  Jack's also a tired little bear in there as he is sleeping 12-14 hours a day.  His skin is reddish in color because of the developing blood vessels underneath

Belly button in or out: in still, but getting very stretched!  I am having daily freak outs about all my scars stretching too.  With all the scars and the coinciding stretching of them, my stomach looks like a crazy battle took place there...apparently, it was...I mean, with all those surgeries, I guess it was a battle zone!  HA!

Have a tremendous week!

Thanks for reading...I love you!

-A