Week 24

week: twenty four

fruit size of baby: cantaloupe 

cravings: colby jack cheese on crackers, salad, french fries, pizza and every meal has to end with a christmas cookie, starbursts, or something sweet. basically any and all food again as baby goes through a growth spurt.

aversions: the smell of andrew's deodorant. 

weight gain: 14 lbs

exercise: i've been walking every day on my morning and afternoon breaks at work. 

sleep: its been a lot better than it was. i haven't even been waking up as much to use the bathroom at night.

belly: getting bigger and tighter. i basically have no belly button now. no stretch marks yet.

clothes: maternity clothes are all i wear except a few longer shirts here and there that are a size bigger than i would usually wear and leggings.

movement: our child is a mover! sometimes i wonder if she ever sleeps. she moves all day and if i wake up at night i feel her moving then too.

gender: we are having a baby girl! we broke the stokes streak of boys! we cannot wait to meet her!

names: since we know it's a girl now, we have started to make a list of girl names we are both ok with. my favorite names are drew's least favorite and his favorite names are my least favorite. But, we have a small list forming!

worries: staying healthy during cold and flu season. 

what i love: feeling the babe's movements all day. knowing she's a girl and praying specifically for her.

what i am looking forward to: christmas, my birthday, registering for baby girl.

milestones: drew and others feeling baby move, finding out the gender

best moment of the week: revealing the gender of our babe to friends and family. it was a lot of fun to see everyone's reactions!

amusing comments from the general public: while taking a walk and texting on my break at work a random man walking by says, "you shouldn't text while pregnant your doctor wouldn't like that!" 

baby mama drama: a lady in the lunch room at work asked me when i'm due. i told her april and she replied, "oh my gosh that's so far away and you're already that big!? - thanks lady because it's not like i feel like  a whale or anything as it is.

Baby S is a....

Andrew and I are so excited to announce that we are having a...

GIRL!

We could not be more excited to be bringing the first Stokes girl into the world in 63 years. We have broken the Stokes "boy curse"! 

It was so much fun to gather family and close friends to announce the sex of Baby S. We passed out pink and blue balloons to everyone - their color choice was their guess on what Baby S was. On the count of three we had everyone blow up their balloons. Only the pink balloons blew up/stayed inflated announcing to everyone that we are expecting a little girl! Everyone was so shocked and excited for us. Here are a few more pictures of the night:

Showing off their guesses

Andrew's family and my dad next to me

Baby S' great grandma Neetsy - Andrew's grandma

Grandpa Dave - my dad
 

My bestie Kelsey and baby girl's future prom date

I set up a table where people could see my old wives tales and guess the gender, date baby will be born, and how much baby will weigh and measure.

Here are some of the guesses:

So excited for Baby S to meet all these lovely ladies!

Week 22

week: twenty two

fruit size of baby: spaghetti squash

cravings: cheddar chex mix has been my go to. i also started doing my green smoothies again 

aversions: blood when i cook meat or if i crack an egg and there's blood in it. makes me gag until i almost puke.

weight gain: 13 lbs

exercise: i've been walking every day on my morning and afternoon breaks at work. sometimes at night drew and i will walk the halls of our apartment too.

sleep: its been better than it was. still waking up at least once a night to use the bathroom

belly: getting bigger. i basically have no belly button now. no stretch marks yet.

clothes: maternity clothes are all i wear except a few longer shirts here and there that are a size bigger than i would usually wear.

movement: our child is a mover! sometimes i wonder if it ever sleeps. it moves all day and has even woken me up at night. movements are definitely getting stronger

gender: will find out on Dec 12th! we cannot wait!

names: pretty confident in two boy names, girl names we have a couple ideas, but can't really agree on.

worries: staying healthy during cold and flu season.

what i love: feeling the babe's movements all day.

what i am looking forward to: finding out the gender, gender reveal, holiday parties, christmas

milestones: getting better sleep at night again

best moment of the week: the night we decorated for christmas i didn't sleep very well. i ended up going out to the living room and laying on the couch by the christmas tree soaking in the meaning of the holiday season while feeling babe kick wildly inside me. it was a sweet moment.

amusing comments from the general public: not really any comments, but people have started to touch my stomach. i am definitely looking more pregnant lately. can't wait for others to feel baby kick.

baby mama drama: they took away the "expecting mothers" parking spaces at my job… not a happy mama!