Ok, this is where my nesting instinct has led me:
Oh yes, the boxes in the garage, they will be labeled. In various fonts. And then, perhaps I will stack them alphabetically. I haven’t decided about that last part yet.
You can make fun of me if you like. Believe me, Dave mocked the label maker plenty when I first bought it. Then he decided it would be a good idea to label all of the cables on the surround-sound system/home network in his office, so he can actually find what he’s looking for when he needs to go un-hook or re-hook something. Which he does all the time. Because he’s a guy.
So, ha! The label maker shall eventually be loved by all. Except Teenie, who clearly expresses her disdain for it in that photo. (Although honestly, as much as I love her, I admit that “disdain” is sort of her default setting. Not with me, of course. She’s all cuddles and purrs with me. The rest of the world? Not so much.)
Moving on: I have no idea why my father seems to be such a recurrent topic on my blog lately, but here he is again. The other day, we were having a conversation and he asked me if I was showing more now than in the last photo he saw of me. (I sent him that picture of me when I was 12 weeks pregnant. Six weeks ago.) I was like, “Um, gee. What do you think?”
But since my dad doesn’t have much of an imagination, he asked me to take more pictures. So I did. And here, we have the belly at 18 weeks.
Before you judge me, remember that I have a very short torso.
Although even considering that, I figure that at my current rate of expansion, by Christmas the circumference of my waist will be approximately the same as my height. Terrifying.
Also noteworthy: yesterday morning I was lying in bed during that decadent eight-minute stretch before the snooze alarm goes off. Unlike most mornings, I was actually awake during this little snooze-break. Dave and I were talking about feeling the baby move; people keep asking me if I’ve felt it kick yet, and it bothers me that I always have to say no. As if I’m going to get graded on the progress of my pregnancy or something. (No kicks before the 20-week mark: C-minus!) The problem is, what with all of the other “tummy issues” that I have on a regular basis (which we won’t discuss here), I really wasn’t sure if I had felt it move yet or not. I was waiting for some really obvious sign. Like, I don’t know, the outline of a footprint on my stomach.
I told Dave that the night before, as I was trying to fall asleep, I felt some fluttering that felt a bit more front-and-center than my usual tummy stuff, and I thought that might have been the baby moving. But I wasn’t sure.
Dave got up and went downstairs to turn the kettle on. (Those Brits love their tea, dontcha know.) I stayed in bed, lying on my side, with one hand sort of on top of my stomach. As soon as Dave left the room, I felt something bump my hand. I’m almost positive it was a foot. It shocked me so much that I yanked my hand away, and it took me a few seconds to recover to even realize that, “Hey! That was it!” So that was pretty cool.
Of course, I’ve been totally unable to re-create it ever since. It’s not like I can teach the baby to kick on demand. Yet.
YAY a kick! Here’s my sure-fire recipe for getting kicked: Squash the baby. Sounds wierd, but it works. At your stage, you can do this most easily by lying on your stomach. At my stage, lying on my stomach is like putting the letter D face-down. It doesn’t balance (and it doesn’t feel right, either). But for you it should still be fine for a couple more weeks.
Your belly looks FABULOUS. You’re not massive, you’re precious!
It’s funny, I’ve always slept on my stomach, and although I’ve started to get used to falling asleep on my side, I keep waking up on my stomach. I suppose it’s just an old habit. But now it wakes me up because, oof, that is so not comfy anymore. I don’t know if the baby feels squashed or not, but I sure do.
Still, I’ll give it a try the next time I experiment with this whole kicking-on-demand thing. 🙂
Poke your stomach. 🙂 I used to poke Gaby when she was quiet for a while and I needed to do kick counts. Something with a lot of sugar (like a soda or orange juice) also did the trick, too. I remember drinking soda right before my 20-week u/s so I could get her to move a lot, so we’d be able to see her parts.
And woman? That is a tiny, adorable belly.